Read the April 18 meeting.

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Recording in progress.

Jennifer L. HallItem 1

Madam Clerk, please start the meeting. Yes, Mayor, the meeting has begun recording.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 1

I hereby call the special closed session meeting to order. This meeting is taking place with in-person attendance and by teleconference via Zoom. The public may access the meeting via the San Ana YouTube channel or the city's website. Please bear with us as the technology may disrupt the flow of the meeting. Madam Kirk, please conduct the roll call.

Jennifer L. HallItem 1

Councilmember Penaloza.

David PenalozaItem 1

Present.

Jennifer L. HallItem 1

Council Member Fan?

Here.

Jennifer L. HallItem 1

Council Member Vasquez?

Benjamin VazquezItem 1

Present.

Jennifer L. HallItem 1

Mayor Pro Tem Lopez? Here. Mayor Emescuwa? Present. So we have five members present.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 1

Great, thank you. Madam Kirk, are there any additions or deletions to the closed session agenda? There are none.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 1

Do any council members need to announce their abstentions on closed session items?

Valerie AmezcuaItem 1

I don't see any. Perfect. Okay. Okay, do we have any speakers for the closed session items?

Jennifer L. HallItem 1

Madam Clerk? There are no speakers, but we did receive one email related to closed session item number three, the evaluation of the city manager that has been published online.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 1

Perfect, thank you. We'll now recess this portion of the meeting to consider the items list on the closed session agenda. Thank you.

Recording stopped.

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Transcribed by ESO, translated by —

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Recording in progress.

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Valerie AmezcuaItem 3

I hereby call the regular open meeting to order.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 3

Good evening everybody. Thank you for waiting patiently. This meeting is taking place with in-person attendance and by teleconference via Zoom. The public may access the meeting via the Santa Ana YouTube channel or the city's website. Please bear with us as the technology may disrupt the flow of the meeting. Madam Clerk, please conduct the roll call.

Jennifer L. HallItem 3

Councilmember Becerra?

Valerie AmezcuaItem 3

Here.

Jennifer L. HallItem 3

Councilmember Hernandez?

David PenalozaItem 3

Here.

Jennifer L. HallItem 3

Councilmember Penaloza?

David PenalozaItem 3

Present.

Jennifer L. HallItem 3

Councilmember Fan? Here. Councilmember Vasquez?

Benjamin VazquezItem 3

Present.

Jennifer L. HallItem 3

Mayor Pro Tem Lopez? Here. Mayor Emescoe? Present. All seven members are present. Madam Kirk, before we proceed to the Pledge of Allegiance, please make any announcements. Yes, Mayor. For the public to request to speak during public comments on agenda or non-agenda items within the city's jurisdiction, if you are on the Zoom call, please dial star 9 from your phone or click the button labeled Raise Hand from Zoom at this time.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 3

At this time, I'd like to call up Jeffrey Katz to lead us in the Pledge of Allegiance, followed by words of inspiration to be offered by Juan Plasencia. Would you all please stand?

I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America, and to the republic for which it stands, one nation, under God, indivisible, for liberty and justice for all.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 3

Thank you, Mr. Katz.

Good evening, Honorable Mayor, Mayor Pro Tem Lopez, and esteemed council members. My name is Juan Placencia, I am also known as JP, an immigration outreach coordinator with the LGBTQ center of Orange County. But more importantly, I stand before you today as a proud resident of the city of Santa Ana and as someone who was raised in the east side neighborhood, navigating the challenges of growing up in a community bordering two warring gangs. This upbringing shaped me into an active agent of change, committed to fighting for all vulnerable communities and through creating and advocating for meaningful legislation.

As an undocumented immigrant and gay individual, I represent the intersectionality of identities that face unique challenges in our society, but I am not alone. Beside me there are countless LGBTQ plus constituents, advocates, leaders, and allies who are in solidarity with me today embodying the spirit of the LGBTQ plus community and offering these words of inspiration. In order to inspire, we must first reflect on where the work is needed and where we need to move forward. As of 2023, it is kind of unfortunate to mention that there is 954 bills across 46 states aiming to block drag performers, LGBTQ plus folks,

and these attacks derive and are directed at trans individuals from receiving basic health care, education, legal recognition, and the right to publicly exist. Despite that surge in anti-drag, anti-LGBTQ, and anti-trans legislation sweeping the country, I find solace in the fact that Santa Ana has been progressing as a beacon of inclusivity. Here we have an ordinance that affirms the LGBTQ plus community by way of a pride flag raising ceremony in which we've already identified to bring a resource fair component to empower folks with the resources that they need to be successful. As we shift from acceptance to

liberation, we see the life-saving effects of such an ordinance and we cannot be complacent. So when I get asked, why is this important to me as a gay man and an immigrant, I don't get to clock out of my identity after my 9 to 5 job. My identity and its intersectionality have been politicized and used as a bargaining chip in many elections. This year, 2023, tonight, we can start to be more active and intentional about our support. support. That support is crucial in the face of regressive policies like the one just passed in Huntington Beach that seeks to, in intent, ban the pride flag from being flown on government flagpoles.

Huntington Beach City Council willfully decided not to represent their LGBTQ constituents, but here as representatives of marginalized communities, we owe it to prioritize representation and services to those who desperately need it. Tonight, as we gather in this chamber, I urge you to remember the profound significance of this space. It is not just a physical room, but a safe haven where all voices are heard and respected. It is an inclusive sanctuary where diversity thrives and differences are celebrated. It is an affirming environment that encourages self-expression and authenticity.

It is a reflective oasis that invites us to pause, introspect, and grow. Here in this chamber, we do have the opportunity to embrace values articulated by Anthony Van Brown, a visionary advocate for love and acceptance. He reminds us that the true richness, beauty, and depths of love can only be fully experienced in a climate of complete openness, honesty, and vulnerability. And so it's in this space that we can shed our facades, let go of our defenses, and reveal our true sleeves without fear or rejection. So I ask this council as we approach these meetings here tonight to approach deliberations

in this chamber with an unwavering commitment to openness, to be willing to listen to genuine curiosity and to understand perspectives that differ from their own, and engage in constructive dialogue. I ask that you cultivate a culture of honesty in this chamber as you will need to be courageous in speaking your truths even when they're unpopular or uncomfortable. I wish you the integrity to admit when we are mistaken and learn from it. Strive for continuous improvement while remaining transparent in your intentions and actions. Build trust through accountability and authenticity.

Finally, I ask you council members to embrace vulnerability in this chamber. Being vulnerable encourages authentic, meaningful discussions, promoting a true culture where individuals in the dais and those in the community feel safe to express their thoughts, feelings, and uncertainties. We recognize that vulnerability is not a weakness, but a strength that fosters empathy, connection, and growth. So by embodying those qualities of openness, honesty, and vulnerability in a City Council meeting, City Council members are more likely to cultivate an environment conducive to

effective decision-making, collaboration, problem-solving, and mutual respect. Just as love can flourish in an environment of openness, honesty, and vulnerability, so too can a council function at its best when their love for this city is translated into those qualities leading to better outcomes for our residents. So thank you so much for the space you have created here today for meaningful representation of the LGBTQ plus folks in our community. Together we will continue to make Santa Ana city that uplifts and empowers all of its residents regardless of their sexual orientation, gender identity, immigration status, or any other

characteristic that makes them otherwise humans together we will make a better santana of and a good place for all thank you and have a productive night thank you all right thank you very much

Jennifer L. HallItem 3

madam clerk are there any additions or deletions to the city council agenda Yes, Mayor. There were two changes posted on the agenda revision. One is the update of the recipient for the Workers Memorial Day proclamation to the Southern California Coalition for Occupational Safety and Health. And the second was the movement of item 21 from the consent calendar to the business calendar, which is the first reading of an ordinance amending municipal code section 8-6 pertaining to license requirements. Great. Thank you very much. At this time,

Valerie AmezcuaItem 3

we're going to do presentations and I'm going to move them around a little bit because I see we have some young people here and you might have homework to go home and do or maybe dinner I don't know so I just thought I'd we'd call you at first so if we can have council members Becerra and Penelosa please and your recognitions for the Santa Ana Pal activity ladybug champions

Valerie AmezcuaItem 3

All the ladybugs, can you come up? All the ladybugs, come on up ladybugs.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 3

Come on up ladybugs.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 3

Come on up, come on up. Scroll all the way down, move all the way down. Sweetie, come on down this way. Come down this way. Come on down. You guys got lots of fans out there. So parents,

Valerie AmezcuaItem 3

parents, if you'd like to take a picture, if you can come to the front and just bend down a little bit. I'm probably going to get in trouble for saying this, but we want you to be able to take a picture. So if you want to come up a little bit and bend, like kind of squat down in the front, You can. All right, it's on you.

David PenalozaItem 3

Thank you, Mayor. So, good evening, everybody. I'm honored to stand here with Council Member Becerra to recognize the Santa Ana PAL Girls Softball Champions, the Lady Bugs. The Santa Ana Police Athletic and Activity League currently serves about 2,500 Santa Ana youth through a variety of programs, including an arts program that includes the popular cartoon 9-1-1 program and piano lessons, on-campus fitness programming, and their athletic programming. Within the Santa Ana PALS athletic programming they offer soccer, mixed martial arts, wins running program, baseball, and softball. The

David PenalozaItem 3

successful PALS softball program has taught our young ladies that great game of softball which contains some valuable life lessons our kids can learn. Also, the PALS softball program creates and enhances positive relationships between between our police, the Santa Unified School District, and the entire Santa Ana community.

Phil BacerraItem 3

Thank you, Councilmember Penaloza. You know, the original team in the Santa Ana Pal Battle of the Garden Girls Softball League was the Lady Bugs. So the league has currently grown to six teams with each team representing different elementary schools within Santa Ana Unified School District. So you have the Lady Bugs, the Bumblebees, the centipedes dragonflies grasshoppers and 2024 we'll have the addition of the hummingbirds joining the garden but tonight is about the ladybugs the ladybugs who just happened to play their home games at carl thornton park in ward four started their season practices in october

Phil BacerraItem 3

of 2022 and completed 12 practices preparing for their 2023 campaign so the ladybugs went undefeated going 6-0, undefeated. The Battle of the Garden series drew over 500 spectators for the season, breathing a buzz of excitement into Madison Park over in Councilman Penaloza's ward, ward 6, and in Thornton Park and Adams Park in ward 4. My council aide, Andrew Linares, and I, we actually got to watch the Ladybugs win the championship at Carl Thornton Park.

Phil BacerraItem 3

So tonight, we are here to celebrate and congratulate the Santa Ana Ladybugs on their exceptional athletic performance and their accomplishments. And we also want to congratulate, usually I would say officer, but tonight, Coach Gonzalez. Thank you, Coach.

Phil BacerraItem 3

And all of the Ladybug coaches. and thank them for their time and their contributions to the city's youth. But before we let these girls run, I want to give them some certificates to recognize their accomplishments on behalf of the city of Santa Ana.

Phil BacerraItem 3

So let's call each one up. Let's see. Sophia Gonzalez. Sophia.

Phil BacerraItem 3

Christy Santos.

Phil BacerraItem 3

Sofia Gallegos.

Phil BacerraItem 3

Few people like Sofia in the house, huh? Blanca Gonzalez. There you go, Blanca. And then we have Melanie Echegarria.

That's close. There you go.

Phil BacerraItem 3

Then we have Diana Juarez.

Phil BacerraItem 3

And then we have Sofia Bernal.

Phil BacerraItem 3

And my favorite, number 25, Isabella Lopez. There you go.

Phil BacerraItem 3

And then number nine, Carmen Fuentes.

Phil BacerraItem 3

And then Alexa Santos.

Phil BacerraItem 3

And then as I mentioned earlier, our head coach, Jose Gonzalez.

Sophia and Melanie, right? Because they're doing it together. Sophia, you guys are going to help. Come on up. Oh, okay. Go ahead. Batter up. Hi, my name is Sophia Gallegos, and I just wanted to say that I am really thankful for PAL because it has shown me new strategies that I have never heard of. I am also thankful for the Santa Ana Police because they protect our school and our communities. It is such a blessing to be in PAL and in Ladybug's softball team. If it weren't for PAL, I would have never been in softball or have never achieved higher grades in school.

Softball also teaches us other things like sportsmanship and being cooperative with one to other. I love PAL. It is one of my favorite places to go. I love PAL, and I would love to see it expand in more locations so other kids can experience PAL the way that I do.

Phil BacerraItem 3

Sophia and Melanie. All right, Sophia and Melanie.

Hi, my name is Sophia Gonzalez. And my name is Melanie. We are grateful for PAL because they made this amazing softball league, and without them, we would have never even knew about softball or joined a softball team. It has showed us how to currently play softball and good sportmanship. It is such an amazing program that we will love endlessly. It also helps a lot of students with their school work and shows us good role models. PAL has many other sport programs but softball was the best decision for us. We also are very thankful for Santa Ana Police Department for protecting us at school and PAL.

We are the future of Santa Ana.

We didn't finish.

We didn't finish.

Good job, ladies.

Phil BacerraItem 3

I thought they ended that speech pretty well, right? They are the future of Santa Ana.

David PenalozaItem 3

Alright, one last thing. You guys got to fill this up with Cocoa Puffs for Lucky Charms. and eat out of it and post a video just like the hockey teams do with their Stanley Cup.

Phil BacerraItem 3

What's up if my colleagues want to come down?

Yeah, please. Come on down.

Thanks again. Come on, Coach. Thank you again for this recognition to the mayor, all the city council members, for the continuous support for the Santa Ana Unified School District. Thank you, Coach Freshour, for all your help. And more importantly, to all the parents, thank you for taking these girls to other practices, being there and helping me at any time I needed help. Really, I think one of them said it best. They are the future, and we should be investing in them. And through the sport, they're going to learn many valuable life lessons. On behalf of the Ladybugs, we wanted to present the city with a picture and a uniform

so that you guys can proudly display it. Thank you.

yes

there was one in ward four this was ward four's trophy right

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 3

Thank you. That was beautiful.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 3

We already tried to make your own decision.

All right, here you go.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 3

Next up, we're going to have Mayor Pro Tem Lopez, Councilman Vasquez, a proclamation please, presented to the Southern California Coalition for Occupation, Safety, and Health.

Jessie LopezItem 3

Good evening, folks.

Jessie LopezItem 3

So Councilmember Vasquez and I are presenting a proclamation declaring April 28, 2023 as Workers' Memorial Day. And we are going to be, so if we can get the folks from CalLash to come up here, that would be great.

Yeah.

Thank you.

Jessie LopezItem 3

All right, so this proclamation is going to be presented to Southern California for occupational safety and health, and Sylvia Hernandez will be accepting this tonight. And so in support of domestic workers and day laborers, this year the city of Santa Declares April 28th, 2023 at Workers Memorial Day and encourages residents, workers, community and faith-based organizations to help us raise awareness and recognize the importance of advancing safe and healthy workplaces. Accepting this proclamation, as I said, is Silvia Hernandez from the Southern Coalition

Jessie LopezItem 3

of Occupational Safety and Health, as well as many family members and friends and colleagues of people who have passed away due to preventable workplace hazards and the origins of Workers Memorial Day coincides with the 1970 passage of the Occupational and Safety Health Act and the creation of the Occupational Safety and Health Administration also known as OSHA on April 28th 1971 and OSHA the OSHA Act states that every worker has the right to work to a workplace that is free from recognized

Jessie LopezItem 3

hazards that are causing or are likely to cause death or serious physical harm. And a report in June of 2020 from UCLA Labor and Occupational Safety and Health Program found that 85% of domestic workers surveyed experience muscular injuries that are associated with chronic pain many respondents 94% are who are Latino and Asian reported continuing to work through their injuries for fear of job or financial loss and such injuries could be prevented by appropriate health and safety guidance and subsequent enforcement councilmember

Benjamin VazquezItem 3

currently soca clash is advocating for proposed legislation senate bill 686 that would expand the workplace safety regulations for domestic workers such as housekeepers, nannies, day laborers and home care employees. The workplaces are in private homes but just like any other worker who shows up to work they too deserve protections while they're on the job. This legislation would ensure these employees have the same legal rights as other workers to protect equipment, health and safety training and protections from retaliation for advocating for their own

Benjamin VazquezItem 3

workplace safety. You can support this effort by contacting your legislator and vocalizing your support. We need our representatives to enact recommendations on SB 321, advisory committee to protect the health and safety of domestic workers and day laborers. Thank you to SoCalCash and our allies for their continued efforts for advocating for health, for safe, healthy, and secure jobs for all workers. Here to receive these proclamations Israel Maldonado, Raimundo

Benjamin VazquezItem 3

Castrejón, Edna Cruz, Jorge González, Mica Poncheco, Julian Posadas, the organizer, and for the Maintenance Cooperation Trust, Guilda Santa Cruz, Eloy Santa Cruz, Marlene Herrera, Beatriz Guillén, and Vianney Ramirez.

Jessie LopezItem 3

And if you're wondering besides how you can support Santa Ana residents that are going through this fight right now, there is an ongoing campaign. So I'm going to call one of the organizers from Kingspan to talk to you very shortly about what that is.

Buenas noches a todos. Mi nombre es Israel Maldonado. I am a working at Kingspan and I have two years organizing the union. With my colleagues, the struggle has been long, with high and low moments. But we still continue on because what we deserve is just and dignified. Y todos los trabajadores merecen tener un trabajo libre de riesgos a nuestra salud y las de nuestras familias.

Agradecemos a todo el apoyo y esperemos verlos en la vigilia del 28 de abril. Muchas gracias.

My name is Julian Posadas. I'm going to translate for Israel. My name is Israel Maldonado. I am a Kingspan worker. I have been organizing the union with my colleagues for two years. Our fight has been long and has had high and low moments, but we still go ahead because what we deserve is fair and dignified. All workers deserve to have a job that is free of risk to our health and that of our families. We appreciate all the support and hope to see you on the vigil that we have planned on April 28th. And just to give you a quick background on the Kingspan campaign, Kingspan is in our backyard. It's in the Del High neighborhood. It's a

company that's a global company. Workers there, 74 workers have been organizing the union. It's been a long fight. It's been two years. They have gained so much but at the same time have not been recognized as a union. Mr. Israel very humbly will not say this but he actually stopped production for two hours just because management disrespected their work saying that the assembly line work is one of the lowest paid workers in the area and they should just accept it. And so they decided to confront the boss and say this is unacceptable. Aside from that, the health conditions are obviously really bad.

They conducted their own air quality monitoring almost two years ago. And the discoveries were so extreme that a scientist from UC Irvine pretty much stated that the air quality inside was was detrimental to their health and so for these reasons they continue to organize so thank you so much for the ongoing support council members and me

Jessie LopezItem 3

so we also have from the domestic workers um which are not just your neighbors but they make up the workforce of a lot of people that live in the city of sanana and and for the county of orange And we have Juviela Charco, Hortensia Barrios, Rosario Martinez, Iris Zuniga, Aida Perez, Adelaida Mateo. And from the factory assembly workers, we have Olin Hernandez, Ansel Martin, Luis Donali Hernandez. And from Accord, we have Fernando Delgado, Mariana Angeles. And from Solkotl Kosh, we have Eddie Sanchez, Ayan Ortega, and Sylvia Hernandez. And you'll hear from Mariana.

Buenas noches. Mi nombre es Mariana. I'm originating from Mexico and I've been a domestic worker for more than 16 years. During all that time I also dedicated to care of children, because my salary as domestic worker was not enough to provide the basic needs to my three children, which at that time were little. In this work I had several experiences like a robbery, sexual assault, exposure to chemicals without the adequate equipment and muscles muscles, and the repetition of movement that I still have. Like many of my colleagues who are dedicated to the same office, I don't have a fixed income, or paid for illness, or medical care,

all of us should work 24-7, because a day that we don't work, is a day that we don't receive income. One of my experiences that I still remember with pain, is that while I helped other children llevándolos al parque, leyendo los cuentos, acompañándolos a la escuela. Los míos no tenían nada de eso, porque no podía pagar a alguien a que hiciera el mismo trabajo que yo hacía con los hijos ajenos. Para el tiempo que yo llegaba a casa, ya estaba sin energía. Este día en que estamos visibilizando a los trabajadores de diferentes industrias,

me siento afortunada de contar mi historia y de saber que actualmente estamos abogando por la Ley SB 686 que brindará protección a las miles de trabajadoras domésticas de California. Apoyen la SB 686 porque los trabajadores todos merecemos lugares de trabajo seguros y saludables.

Mariana, we are very proud of Mariana Angeles. She has been a domestic worker, but mostly she learned how to become an organizer. And now she is part of OCOR, one of the leaders in SoCal COSH, the activist network here in Orange County. We work with domestic workers too, with Nuestras Manos, and she is part of them, and some of them are part of the Nuestras Manos, some of them are not in the organization,

some of them are from Domestic Workers Coalition, an organization for all the state of California, we have in that coalition also 14 organizations. And she's very, very sad when she was working, she couldn't take care of her children, But now she's organizing to fix that and have this bill passed so we can have protections at work and she can be at home safe. Thank you.

Hi everyone, Eddie Sanchez with SoCalCOSH. We're an organization founded on the principle that workplace injuries, illnesses, and deaths are preventable. And we just want to say thank you to Mayor Pro Tem Lopez, Councilman Vasquez for having us here today to present this proclamation. We want folks to understand that every 101 minutes, every 101 minutes, a worker dies on the job. So we are far from addressing the issues of workplace health and safety. According to statistics that were released by the Bureau of Labor Statistics, there was a 9% increase in workplace fatalities.

So things are not getting better for workers, they're becoming more challenging for workers, especially as we're coming across new machinery, new technology in the workplace, new viruses and new challenges. So having this proclamation made today is really meaningful for us, especially for those folks who are still going through our workplace health and safety challenges. So just wanted to give you a sincere thank you. And I'd like to give them a round of applause for just having us here today. Thank you.

Jessie LopezItem 3

Again, there are many ways that you can help your neighbors, Sanano residents. You can get in contact with your state legislators and ask them to support the bill that Councilmember Vasquez mentioned. You can also join one of the local campaigns like the Kings Band Campaign to make sure that the people that live in the Delhi neighborhood have a clean and safe workplace to go so that they can in turn support their families. So thank you and have a good night.

Thank you.

so

Valerie AmezcuaItem 3

Council member Penalosa, please.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 3

Council member Penalosa will be recognizing Santa Ana Police Department's 2023 Distinguished Service Medal recipient, Detective Joshua Espadas, and Uniformed Officer of the Year, Officer Dominic Dominguez. Those officers can join us please.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 3

I apologize if I said the name wrong. Thank you, Madam Mayor. This is recognizing

David PenalozaItem 3

Santa Ana Police Department's Detective Joshua Espadas and Officer Dominic Dominguez. if you guys could please join me up here

David PenalozaItem 3

gentlemen how you doing

Phil BacerraItem 3

all right great so today we get to recognize the distinguished service medal award winner so councilmember Paloza Mayor Mesquite myself we had the opportunity to go to the Santa Ana Police's annual awards ceremony and wow did we hear some amazing stories of heroes and so for us to bring any of the folks here tonight it was really a difficult choice but we settled on the two that again I just these are amazing stories so first is our Distinguished Service Medal award winner which is awarded to employees who distinguish themselves through a display of bravery and heroism in circumstances which are above or beyond the

Phil BacerraItem 3

normal demands of duty. So Officer Espadas, Espadas, excuse me, was awarded this medal for a situation that occurred in 2020. On Sunday, March 1st, 2020, he responded to a report of a man with a gun inside Immaculate Heart of Mary Church. It was reported that the man with the gun was going to shoot a woman and two children. Officer Espadas displayed bravery and acted heroically in his efforts to safeguard the lives of all the congregants trapped inside with that gunman. He showed tremendous composure in quickly evolving life-threatening critical incident and his extraordinary actions

Phil BacerraItem 3

undoubtedly saved the lives of several citizens that day in that church.

David PenalozaItem 3

Thank you, Council Member Basara. And just to add to that, my tia was actually parking her car about to walk into the Immaculate Heart of Mary Church when that incident happened. So thank you. Thank you for your heroic service there. The next award goes to our Uniformed Officer of the Year. And our Uniformed Officer of the Year is one of the Santa Ana Police Department's highest honors. The 2022 Uniformed Officer of the Year was awarded to Officer Dominic Dominguez, The uniformed patrol officer is the public face of the department. They are the ones who come to your house if you call 911.

David PenalozaItem 3

They are the ones who wave to you as they drive down the street in a police car. They are the ones who are on patrol day in and day out, 24 hours a day. As such, they are the ones who can daily reaffirm public trust and confidence in the dedication and competence of the department. During 2022, Officer Dominguez was instrumental in removing guns off the streets, which directly correlates to preventing other violent crimes. Officer Dominguez's precision, intelligence, and proactive police work were essential to accomplishing the mission of eradicating violent crime and promoting Operation Community First.

David PenalozaItem 3

Today we recognize these two officers for receiving these awards and thank them for their bravery and their outstanding contributions to public safety. With with that said, as Councilmember Becerra mentioned, at last month's award ceremony there were dozens of police officers that got many recognitions and I wish we could recognize all of them tonight here today but we'd be here for hours more than we already are so that's not possible so we chose these two fine gentlemen to share that recognition for us. I want to thank you guys as well as as Chief Valentin for leading this department and making sure that we have good officers

David PenalozaItem 3

like you guys that are out there patrolling our neighborhood. So thank you so much. On behalf of the mayor and city council.

Mayor, do you want to join us for pictures?

David PenalozaItem 3

Thank you guys. Thank you.

Thank you.

Thai Viet PhanItem 3

Hi, good evening. There's still a bunch of you left. Oh my gosh. May I please call up Boat People SOS Center for Community Advancement? Hi everyone. Thai Fan here. So I'll go ahead and start as they walk up here. Some of you may know on April 30th 1975 the nation of South Vietnam fell to communist forces which marking the fall of Saigon and the beginning of one of the largest mass exoduses in modern history yes this was a very

Thai Viet PhanItem 3

tragic event for the Vietnamese people but the fall of Saigon also ushered in the beginning of the Vietnamese American community since the first years of that mass exodus the community has come together annually to commemorate what is collectively called Black April or Thang Tui Ding. Between 1975 and 1995 more than three million people would leave Vietnam in search of a better life or in flight from persecution and the majority would settle here in the United States particularly in this area in Southern California known as Little Saigon. That

Thai Viet PhanItem 3

includes me and my parents. Little Saigon is a marker of our resilience, our past, and in many ways our hope for the future. With over 200,000 residents, Orange County's Little Saigon is the largest concentration of Vietnamese people outside of Vietnam, 30,000 of whom, according to the 2021 American Community Survey live in Santa Ana. Both People SOS was created by a group of Vietnamese refugee advocates in the 1980s precisely in response to that exodus which was a humanitarian crisis that has seen families separated, death

Thai Viet PhanItem 3

and tragedies on the high seas and the languishing of many in refugee camps from Malaysia to Hong Kong, Thailand where I was born, and the Philippines. Boat People SOS was built in pursuit of empowering Vietnamese refugees, Boat People as well as, excuse me, empowering Vietnamese refugees who are also known as Boat People, and that's what the American media calls them, in pursuit of liberty and dignity. So today Boat People SOS continues the mission upon which they were founded. They provide those with immigrant and refugee backgrounds the services

Thai Viet PhanItem 3

they need to succeed and thrive such as immigration assistance and offering health-related resources. Boat People SOS remembers Black April not only as a tragedy but also as a historical movement of empowerment in which Vietnamese refugees have come together to build a new community here as Vietnamese Americans. So today the city of Santa Ana proudly proclaims April 30th 2023 as Black April and presents this proclamation that staff is about to hand me to vote people SOS. Would you like to say a few words?

Thank you Councilmember Fan, Mayor, Madam Mayor and Madam Mayor Potem and council members and city staff for this proclamation declaring April 30th as Black April as a first-generation American-born daughter of Vietnamese immigrants is an honor to receive this proclamation everyone at both people SOS and the Vietnamese community appreciates the city of Santa Ana and your continuous support for the Vietnamese community thank you

Thank you.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 1

All right, I'm the last one, I promise. Let me have Selena Mendez join me, please.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 1

She's got a whole fan club. Don't you look beautiful? Thank you. How are you, sweetie? Good, how are you?

Valerie AmezcuaItem 1

So I'm honored to be standing next to Selena. Come on over here.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 1

When I met Selena, I met her at a Boys and Girls Club event at the Balboa Bay Club, right? The Women of Greatness. The Women of Greatness. So, Selena is a young woman of greatness. Selena Mendez was born and raised in Santa Ana, currently attending Nova Academy High School. Selena has always been involved in her school's campus as the ASB president, and she helped start over five clubs. Wow, I'm impressed. She hosted Nova's first community open event, El Dia de los Muertos Festival, and focused on highlighting the importance of cultural identity within the Santa Ana community.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 1

Selena was recognized as the Youth of the Year for Orange County. Let's give a round of applause.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 1

The Boys and Girls Club of America's signature effort to foster a new generation of leaders. And someday she's going to be sitting back here. You'll be the mayor. Youth of the Year is a comprehensive leadership development program, which includes a state-level competition in Sacramento. Selena can participate in this competition, and she not only proudly represented Orange County, but also her city, Santa Ana. Selena is this year's class valedictorian. Congratulations. She's maintained a 4.6 GPA all four years of high school. All four years.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 1

And she has been a part of the dual enrollment program, gaining over 30-plus college credits. Good for you. She's been accepted to UC Berkeley, UCI, UC Santa Barbara. I'm not done. Chapman, Concordia, Cal State Fullerton, Cal Poly Pomona, Cal State Long Beach, and Cal State Dominguez Hills.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 1

Maybe you'll tell us which one you're going to go to, right? Selena, you're an impressive young woman with a very bright future ahead of you. Santa Ana is extremely proud of you. On behalf of the city of Santa Ana, we wish you the very best in your future. As the mayor and as a woman from Santa Ana, I wish you the best. And if there's ever anything I could do for you, you know you can reach out. So congratulations. So I'm going to let you speak.

Thank you so much.

Good evening everyone. I'd first like to thank the Boys and Girls Clubs of Central Orange Coast for giving me this opportunity to represent the youth around me as this year's Orange County's Youth of the Year. I am a representation of how Latinos in this community are striving towards accomplishing amazing things every day. Opportunities that are given are ones that should never take for granted. I took the opportunity that was given to me and because of that I am able to use my platform to advocate for communities like mine.

Being born and raised in Santa Ana has contributed to my personal identity and has immersed me in my cultural and heritage. I never would have thought that opportunities like these would have been possible for people like me, but they are. And I'm here to tell all of you that all the things that you want to accomplish are possible as long as you put in the hard work and effort towards accomplishing that. Lastly, as something my mom always tells me, a seguir adelante y ser fuerte, to keep on going and stay strong. So thank you so much to the City Council for this recognition. It means the world to me.

Remember to take all the opportunities and never let them go. Thank you. Thank you so much. Thank you so much.

Phil BacerraItem 1

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 1

All right, let's go.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 1

I'm going to switch things around, Madam City Manager, only because we have a lot of public comments. And so if you don't mind, Can we do Zoom first, please?

Jennifer L. HallItem 1

Yes, Mayor. For public comments, before unmuting callers, I'd like to report the following summary of emails provided as of today. So we did receive 16 emails. Seven were on non-agenda topics. One related to item 9, the Police Oversight Commission appointment. Five related to item 22, early direction for the 2023-2024 budget cycle. and three related to item 24, the opposition to Assembly Bill 742. Speakers on the queue may provide their comments on agenda or non-agenda items within the city's jurisdiction. When unmuted, please announce your name, ward, or neighborhood that you reside in within the city of Santa Ana for the record.

Jennifer L. HallItem 1

The time limit for public comments tonight will be two minutes.

Jennifer L. HallItem 1

Caller whose phone number ends with the last three numbers, 274. please dial star six from your phone or select the microphone icon to unmute from your device and proceed with your comments.

Hello, my name is Lucy Solorzano. Tonight I'm speaking as a parent from Godinez High School. I am respectfully asking the mayor and the city council to direct the parks and recreation department to schedule a community meeting at Godina's high school auditorium so that parents and staff and students can obtain information and provide their input or concerns about the new dog park development. it last year i attended one of the first community dog park meetings and made the same request of

the staff and city council member penalosa that day i followed up with the staff member is about gomez to schedule a meeting but unfortunately i was met with excuses by my school's administration and a meeting was not scheduled our school recently assigned a community liaison and i have asked her to reach out to the city in hopes a meeting can be scheduled however i fear that my administration again will not allow it to happen therefore i come and request

madam mayor and the city council that you please direct your staff to schedule a meeting on campus grounds and invite parents students staff to participate the goldenas high school community is the second largest stakeholder and direct neighbor to the dog park it amazes me that such a meeting has not already taken place as a parent and a long-standing community member i will not stand by and let the city disenfranchise the goldenas community i recall another government agency the orange county board of supervisors ignoring our community when building their fifth

county shelter in santa ana on yale street yale street is about three blocks from godina's high school they too did not want to host a meeting and they too said our school community wouldn't be

Jennifer L. HallItem 1

impacted next speaker is david boll

Good evening, this is David Ball. I live in Ward 3 and I am calling in to support the item number 24, which opposes AB 742. I feel that the city's already down 30 officers. This would further impact the safety of our community. So that's all tonight. I just wanted to call in and say I support item 24. Thank you.

Jennifer L. HallItem 1

next speaker lisa

hello can you hear me yes go ahead hello city council members my name is lisa i'm the community organizer at VietRise and I will be speaking on behalf of VietRise tonight. VietRise condemns the usage of red fading tactics by Santa Ana City Council member Phil Becerra. The council member exploited the traumas of the Vietnam War during the March 21st and April 4th city council meetings to keep a former school teacher and community activist from being appointed to the city's police oversight commission. As an organization advancing social justice and building power with

working-class Vietnamese and immigrant communities in OC. We know all too well the damaging and life-altering effects of red-baiting tactics used by local politicians to attack their opponents. Politicians shroud their political motives under the guise of care and concern for the traumas of the Vietnamese people. Their care often does not extend beyond seeing the community as a tool to further their political goal. They fail to acknowledge or care about the nuances of Vietnamese lived experiences unless it suits their political agenda. Council member Phil Becerra disingenuously

attempts to show his care for the Vietnamese community by showcasing the picture of Colonel Dewey Waddle being captured by a Vietnamese woman during the Vietnam War in order to prove the bias of a nominee and to stop their appointment to the police oversight commission. However, he incorrectly called the Vietnamese woman in the picture a Viet Cong. If the council member took even five minutes to Google search the image, he would quickly realize his mistake. The image he referred to was captured approximately 40 miles from Hanoi, making the woman a member

of the North Vietnamese Army, not a Viet Cong, which is commonly used to describe members of the National Liberation Front who operated in South Vietnam during the war. The council member's oversight on the term reveals his own bias, his disregard for the nuanced lived experiences of the Vietnamese community, and his motive to use the Vietnamese traumas as a tool for his skewed political agenda. This attempt at red beating and exploiting Vietnamese traumas to win political brownie points is an all too common occurrence. During the 2022 general election, the editor-in-chief of Mubi Daily News. Ma'am, your time is up.

Thank you so much.

Jennifer L. HallItem 1

That's all? Yes, that concludes the Zoom speakers.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 1

Perfect. All right, we're going to do in person. Madam Clerk, two minutes, please. first one is Johanna Lopez

good evening mayor of Mesquah and council members I'm sorry we can't hear you can you is it on are we on there you go perfect good evening again mayor and council members my name is johanna lopez i am the mother of brandon anthony lopez who was killed on september 28 2021 by anaheim pd within our jurisdiction here in san anna here with my family and supporters to make a comment about the april 4th 2023 article published in knock la

this article is entitled callous prank at san anna police department revealing culture of harassment This article doesn't even begin to touch on the bias, misconduct, and lack of both moral and ethical respect within the SAPD. Are we wrong to interpret that the Santa Ana Police Department thought that Brandon's death was satirical, amusing, funny at best?

We don't think this is amusing in any way, as this article clearly defines that several SAPD officers played an integral part in Brandon's death. The digital footprint of these bulletins are even more intriguing, as these bulletins were produced on city property. That's problematic. That's problematic for my family. That should be problematic for the residents of Santa Ana.

The mission statement of Santa Ana PD to deliver public safety services to our community with the utmost professionalism and integrity is laughable. Since Brandon's death, we have seen an increase of police shootings within Santa Ana, and cases seem to be on the rise of misconduct. As residents of this culturally and ethically diverse city, we all should be very concerned about this ugly culture that permeates throughout this department.

Chief Valentin, this is all happening under your direction. Your leadership is clearly not held in high regard. Please resign.

And I pray to God that all you up there listen to what you were saying. That's right. Yeah. Thank you, sir. You look around like you guys don't give a shit.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 1

Sir, you have to, we got to, we beg calm, please. Thank you. Thank you.

No, I just hope you listen to her.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 1

We heard her, sir. Promise you we heard her. We heard her. Thank you.

Please do something about it.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 1

Thank you, sir. Thank you very much.

Because that was my son.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 1

Sir, I understand that, sir. And I apologize. I hope you do. And my condolences to you and your family. So I would, we can talk afterwards offline. I don't need to talk to you. okay then we need to just stop now so i can continue please thank you michael myers please

Valerie AmezcuaItem 1

after mark michael myers martha molina will follow michael myers thank you

good evening mayor council members my name is michael myers and i reside in laguna beach and I'm going to take the next minute and 54 seconds and try to help out with the housing crisis and the escalating vacancy factors for office space. I want to zoom in real quick on an area between, on Civic Center between, let's say, Flower and Bristol. It's deemed SD20, and SD20 was written 40 years ago. and 40 years ago I'm assuming that there wasn't a housing crisis and there probably was not enough

office space so SD20 makes all those homes there designated as office space and non-residential which is a bit of a roadblock considering what the situation is now where we have escalating vacancy factors in the office buildings and and not enough housing so I know recently there was a a very large skyscraper here in Santa Ana that was converted into residential from commercial space. And that is just a huge undertaking to take.

I'm suggesting that we take a look at what's referred to as work-live living space in which they work and live in the same location. And you're going to be hearing a lot about this in the future. and there is an article written about it it's called sustainablecitycode.org it's a very short article and it really just lays it out what they're looking at and how this would work and I think it would be great for the city of Santa Ana people that live and work in the same location use public transportation they spend their dollars locally here and so yeah I think we need to

revisit SD20 and take a look at live workspaces thank you so much thank you sir perfect time

Valerie AmezcuaItem 1

Martha Molina

Valerie AmezcuaItem 1

followed by Pietra Gao I apologize if I said that wrong good evening honorable mayor and council

members my name is Martha Molina and I'm secretary for the Riverview neighborhood association I have enjoyed being a homeowner in Riverview and being involved. When I purchased my home I found we had a neighborhood association and was immediately impressed by the board. All committed hard-working women investing their efforts to maintain good quality of life in Riverview. I always respected how they would query neighbors about concerns in order to develop the associations meeting agenda. We've worked together for many years. Our association is well known to

the city and we appreciate our mayor pro tem jesse lopez's work on behalf of our neighborhood from the day she was elected we are very hard working engaged board consistent with consistent meetings and activities that benefit our neighbors i'm here today to share experience from the last two weeks we learned about a potential regional park to replace the golf course reach riverview golf course and we learned about that through an article in the paper in the voice of OC. I'm sure that you all would not appreciate finding out about something like that in your neighborhood in the paper.

And so we have spent our time meeting trying to get information. We've met with Congressman Correa. We've met with the Office of County Supervisor Vicente Sarmiento and still cannot get a copy of a resolution. We heard perhaps the resolution is coming May 2nd, and we haven't heard anything. So, Honorable Mayor, we really appreciate you immediately responding to us, willing to meet with us, given the fact that there's a regional park that's being planned, and also that Mayor Pro Tem will be joining us as well. And so, you know, it is a regional park. We don't know who's going to operate it.

We're very concerned about traffic security, and our current park is not well maintained. there had been efforts to do it but the basketball hoop is you know ripped and so is the fence and so we're very concerned about maintaining a regional

Valerie AmezcuaItem 1

park in Riverview thank you so much thank you Pietra Gao again I apologize I apologize if I say that wrong.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 1

No. Only once, twice. Irma Hadagui.

Good evening, Mayor and Council Members. Two minutes. I'll try to be real fast on number one. I want to support the opposition to for item 24 the more Options our police officers have to serve the public and especially not in lethal ways the better opportunities we have so the outcome is Positive or it comes out better at both ends That's number one number two. I was looking at the mission statement And it came to mind that the first thing on the mission statement is safety. So I applaud you for the PAL program. Look at the success. And hopefully we can build on other programs like that.

The other item right after that is a prosperous economic development. That's what one of the focuses, the second item on the mission statement for our city. We need to develop our businesses. The more our businesses thrive and grow, the less paperwork and red tape to allow businesses to come into the city, the more employment opportunity there is for our residents, the better the cost of living that could be able to afford if we have better companies that pay higher.

if you are partnering with our colleges for training and internships and in high paying blue collar and white collar if we can do that to really have a very thriving city yes we have a heart for housing and all of these other programs but the bottom line is we need good paying jobs so if focusing a little bit more on economic development very we would have a stronger city thank you very much and appreciate

Valerie AmezcuaItem 1

all your work thank you next up is boris greasley followed by danny vega

Good evening, Mayor and City Council Members. Boris Gressley with the Carpenters Contractors Cooperation Committee speaking on agenda 21 or item 21 in the agenda. Just wanted to thank staff for the tremendous work that they've done within these amendments and hopefully get the council support. Thank you.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 1

Thank you very much. Danny Vega, please.

Good evening, Mayor and Council. My name is Danny Vega, resident of Ward 3. I am here to speak on two issues. First, I want to show my support for item 24, the resolution to oppose Assembly Bill 742. I understand the good intent of the bill. However, like other crime bills passed in California, I fear this one will have unintended consequences. Taking away a non-lethal option would mean that police will have to resort to using their gun more, which we all agree we want to avoid at all costs.

The second thing that I wanted to talk about was I wanted to express my deep disappointment in our police department. The bullet flyer, which supposedly was a prank, which supposedly was a prank on a police officer and passed around in the department, makes light on the death of Brandon Lopez. Regardless of how you feel about the circumstances on that night, no one, especially police officers, should make light of a police-involved shooting that led to the death of a civilian.

It is unprofessional, and it shows a lack of empathy for Brandon Lopez's family who do not deserve this.

I am excited to be part of the police commission because the ultimate goal of that commission is to improve public trust in our department. This completely undermines that goal. I tell my daughters that police officers are like heroes. because when you are in trouble, you call the police and they come and help you.

This is not heroic behavior. This is what bullies do.

And heroes are also not perfect. And I know our department isn't perfect. But we can and should do better. Do the right thing and apologize to the family of Brandon Lopez. and I hope that this kind of behavior doesn't happen again. Thank you.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 1

Thank you. Your time is up.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 1

John Hanna, followed by Kristen Grimaldo.

Good evening, Madam Mayor, City Council members, I'm Adam's city manager. John Hanna with the Southwest Mountain States Regional Council of Carpenters. And I just want to say that on March 7th, we heard a loud message from this council that you were concerned about transparency and wanted to make sure that we knew who was doing business in this city, at least in the construction area. And I think we've made the case in the past about wage theft. This is normal tax time, although we've got an extension this year.

And I think that there's almost $900 million that we lose in this state from tax fraud. And a lot of it occurs right there on the construction site. So what this ordinance will do, this modification, it'll tell us a little bit about who the bad actors are. And I think it's pretty self-descriptive. But what I wanted to do is to say, with all the problems that you have to deal with as a council,

and how you deal with them, and how you interact with staff, this is a model, really, of how this should happen. The council gave their direction. The city manager had her staff, and I dealt with Min Tai, and we talked about it. They had a lot of questions. We explained a lot of things and assured them of things that really would not happen if these changes were made. There was a suggestion for a modification. We agreed to that.

It's minor, but what we're really trying to say is this is the way you make, the best way to make policy, where there's a good interaction, where there's honesty, and we want to thank the staff, we want to thank the council, and we hope you support this.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 1

Thank you. Christian Grimaldo.

Good evening. Hello, my name is Christian Grimaldo, and I am a homeless college student. Due to being evacuated out of my apartment with my family within 24 hours, my family has been in huge distress. With no aid from our landlord, three other tenants have now since been homeless. Two tenants have children that are currently attending school. One tenant specifically has children with autism. Since then, the last past 12 days, the landlord has only offered us our own money back, which is our own deposit, one month of rent that we just paid a week ago.

Even after all this, my father, who is the manager of these apartments, still comes to work talking to contractors, engineers, and doing what needs to be done at the apartments despite after being left homeless. could you please help us please talk to our landlord and pay for our real out relocations until the apartments are ready to read until the apartments are ready to return I want to continue attending college and continue supporting my community who disparate who desperately need help I will never forget this moment in my life thank you

Jessie LopezItem 1

city manager is there somebody here from the housing division that can speak to

Valerie AmezcuaItem 1

the family I'm sorry I was just speaking to the I know but I was asking to say something so if you want to raise your hand to speak up thank you so what I've asked the clerk to do is to get the information city manager I've asked the clerk to get this information so that we can share with you and then we'll move forward okay thank you very much let's move on to the next speaker Sarah our Arpaio, followed by Sylvia Ramos.

and the Division of Vivienda. The last week, we arrived at our organization families, like Chris, who were removed from their apartment, because there was an inspection by the Department of Códigos of Santa Ana, declaring four houses inhabitables and they asked the families to leave in 24 hours. At the beginning, the owner rent four hotels for the families, but only for seven days. The families were assassinated in a single quarter, nine members in a single quarto of motel, ignoring that there are families with children with conditions and special needs.

She is offering to return the money of a month of rent and $600 of her own property, violating the rights of the inquilinos and evitating their responsibility, because these departments have reached these conditions for lack of maintenance and structural care. The families in this moment are in condition of street. Can they put on the feet, please, the families?

Until today, they have to go to the hotel. They have no where to go the hotel, but they couldn't get to the shelter, because they work and they can't get to the hour that they ask. This happens with the families of Santa Ana. It's important, as Latino Home Access, we've given the resources we've been able to, but we need more support for these families, today, not sleeping in the street. Gracias, buenas noches.

Good evening. I am from the housing program in Latino Health Access and I'm bringing you the case of the young man who just spoke and this happens every day. And I want to thank Councilman Hernandez, Code Enforcement, Community Development and the Housing Departments. And we have these families in crisis, and they were removed because the city did an inspection, code enforcement did an inspection, and they declared four units uninhabitable, and the families were told to leave within 24 hours.

And they gave them seven days of motels, but they put several families in very cramped conditions, and they just returned them their rent and $600 of their deposit, and they have grave needs. This violates the rights, and this was the responsibility of lack of maintenance and uninhabitable conditions. Now, these homeless, the people who stood up are the families that are in these conditions, and the motel was paid only up until today. And right now the families work,

so they could not arrive to the shelter on time. So right now they are homeless. Latino Health Access has some resources, but we need more support for these families who as of right now are going to be sleeping on the street. Please help.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 1

Thank you. Sylvia Ramos.

Thank you.

I want to thank the members involved in this special, Jonathan Hernandez and the staff of the city, Marisela Márquez and Michael Garcia. Thank you.

Reglas y leyes de estado que los manda cubrir los gastos de reubicación, ya que esto no es responsabilidad de los inquilinos. Ellos pagaron puntualmente su renta el día 1 de abril. Ustedes como autoridad en Santa Ana con la vivienda les pedimos que sean los encargados y que pidan rendimiento de cuentas a los dueños and stop the abuse and abuse for families, so that families don't get rid of them and stay in the street. Thank you. We are...

Good evening, City Council. I'm the Mayor. My name is Silvia Ramos and I live in Santa Ana, 9-2-7-0-1. And I represent the Tenants Union. and I want to thank Councilman Hernandez and the staff, Marisela Marquez and Michael Garcia, for their help. It's not fair that these families have to suffer and be hungry and be out in the cold. They paid their rent, and they are now living or they're facing dangerous conditions. So please follow up with this case tonight. The landlords are not following the rules.

They need to cover the relocation costs for the families, as the law says. And these tenants pay their rents as of April 1st. And the City of Santa Ana needs to make these landlords accountable. And they need to pay for the abuse that they have inflicted onto these families who are now on the street. Thank you.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 1

Thank you. Marcela Prado.

Thank you.

I thank you for the opportunity to express the terrible situation in which we are still looking at all the commerciants of the 4th Streetcar. This devastation in which we are found due to the construction of the streetcar. This construction continues affecting the most of the streetcar. The most of the streetcar is accessible, but the downtown streets are still in construction. And we keep hearing the complaints of the clients of not being able to access our businesses. We need support, we need to promote in social networks and in every possible way. We need to give the patriots of return. We need support.

We are suffering the consequences of a construction that allowed our community to consume our products. You, as authority, have offered a construction permit without the necessary study to avoid this disaster. We are grateful to the grant that we have distributed, but the help was only momentane. We are asking that we help keep our lives of survival. We are asking what just, just about our businesses, our services, our families. You have caused this disaster, you have to do it. And I would like to ask in the name of my colleagues,

Those commerciantes, we support them to inform the grant that we have offered by the city and the supervisor Katrina Foley. We would like to see if we can see if we can use any remanent and use it in events and in this way, to promote the business. We would like to accept more claims of the grant, because we have the money we have paid for the affected, only from the 4th Street Street. Tampoco se le otorga a negocios nuevos. Repito, lo peleamos para todos los afectados de la calle.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 1

Gracias, señora.

Que se ha distribuido también el dinero de forma como se fue afectado al principio. Gracias, señora.

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Gracias.

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Lilia Salazar. I'm sorry, I apologize.

Go ahead. Good evening, Mayor, City Councilmembers. My name is Marcela Prado, and here you've seen me before. I am a business owner from 4th Street, and I want to update you on the terrible situation that we still have on 4th Street. Because of the construction of the streetcar, all our businesses have been affected, and even though the street is finished, the streets around the construction are still in progress, and our clients still tell us that they cannot come to visit our businesses. so please help us promote our businesses, help us promote on social media. We want Fiestas Patrias back to bring customers.

We are suffering the consequences because our clients have been scared away or run away from us. You did this, you authorized this, and you did not create a study to see how we would be affected. We want to thank you for the money that you have provided, but it was only a temporary solution. We just want something that is fair for our families so we can support our families. And you made this happen, so you need to fix it now. We ask to tell us what the grants we received by the city, by Katrina Foley.

And we ask to have some events, maybe use any remaining funds to have events so that we can help our businesses and don't use this money to help any new businesses.

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Thank you. Lilia Salazar.

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Lilia Salazar.

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Fernando Delgado.

Benjamin VazquezItem 1

Good evening, counsel.

Last time I was here, I was asked to make my case for why I should serve on the Police Oversight Commission against allegations that I was too biased to serve on this commission. Today, I want the council here to check their own biases and answer to a series of incidents that I've recently learned about involving our police department and answer what you plan to do to hold these officers accountable. So I don't have a lot of time. Y'all cut it down to two minutes. I'll try and be quick. The first is the bulletin that was mentioned by the mother of Brandon Lopez, Joanna Lopez, as well as Police Oversight Commissioner Danny Vega.

This bulletin, not only does it make light of the murder of Brandon Lopez, but the contents of this bulletin accused a SAPD officer of lying about Brandon Lopez being armed, which ultimately led to the lethal force that was used to kill him the day that he was shot. So I want to know what the council is doing to investigate this bulletin, and if there's anything being done to investigate the accusations made in this bulletin. Secondly, Knock LA, if anyone wants to learn about any of these that I'm mentioning by the way, look up Knock LA, Santa Ana, you'll see all these stories.

You can also go to my Instagram page, Fernando de Veras, you'll hear all about this. Secondly, I want to talk about the major enforcement team, which is alleged to have gang-like activity. If you want to know about police gangs, you can Google LASD gangs, see the kind of behavior that they get up to, and then know that that kind of behavior is infiltrating our department here in the city. This is a tattoo that is alleged to be worn by members of the Met team. That's a skull with an ace in the military. This represents first kill. So ask yourself why they got that there.

Their slogan that they operate under says, let them hate so long as they fear. I don't want an officer patrolling my neighborhood operating under this mindset. Not only that, you can find this article as well, where they detail that there was accusations of sexual assault on a child, a 15-year-old girl, by one of the Met members off-duty. Another incident. Recently a man was arrested in front of his home, falsely accused of breaking into cars. He reported that he had a broken wrist and they did not listen to him, and it resulted in further injuries. The officers let him go once they made the mistake, but the damage was already done.

And I want to know, there were a lot of officers who were present that day. why did no one step in so again please check your biases and answer what do you plan to do to hold the officers accountable for this kind of conduct thank you for your time thank you marie cofinko

Valerie AmezcuaItem 1

Thank you.

Thank you.

Good evening, Mayor and Council Members. My name is Marie Kofinkl. I am the aunt of Furman Vincent Valenzuela, Jr. And I'm here to support Brandon Lopez and to talk about the murder of my nephew.

On July 2, 2016, three Anaheim police officers choked my nephew to death. My nephew didn't commit a crime, and he was not a gang member, and he did not have a weapon. He was murdered, and he was unarmed when he was murdered. He was out doing his laundry when the Anaheim police officers confronted him. I'm here today to tell you that during the civil trial for my nephew, from Invincent Valenzuela, Anaheim police officers lied about my nephew's cause of death.

The three officers testify under oath my nephew died as a result of a drug use. This is what the officers said. Dr. Beno Mala, a well-known doctor, testified that my nephew's death, per the autopsy report, was due to the lack of oxygen to his brain, not of drug use. In fact, all the drug tests came back, they were inconclusive. They tried to dehumanize my nephew by saying his death was related to drugs because they had no other excuse as to why they murdered him. The jurors heard and they saw the evidence of the truth. As a result of their continued lies, the

jurors awarded my nephew's children 13.2 million dollars. Anaheim police are not afraid to say anything to cover their corrupt brutal behavior under oath. Thank

Valerie AmezcuaItem 1

you. Thank you. Karash Karimi. Karash Karimi.

Good evening. My name is Kourosh. I'm here tonight to oppose item number 24. I think that the city council should heed the voice of the people. We've had community members come here tonight and talk about the misconduct of the police, the terror that they commit, the oppression that they commit every single day. All throughout this country, and definitely in Santa Ana, we cannot give police more instruments to use violence against our community members. They are not here to uphold the peace. They are here to do the exact opposite. They commit violence.

They kill people, and they have full immunity to do so. If we're serious about serving the people, then we would support the California Assembly Bill that bans the use of attack dogs. if we're serious about serving our community we would demand justice for brandon lopez justice yes justice for all those who've been slain by police terror and this is a step forward so please do the right thing thank you thank you walter ayala walter ayala

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Walter Ayella

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Jose Armendariz please

Hello everyone My name is Jose Mendariz. As of now, I'm not supposed to be here. I was sentenced to 90 years to life when I was 16 years old. I was thrown in jail, spent 16 years of my life there. Today I'm here because in support of Mr. Delgado and opposing your guys' block of his being able to be a part of the oversight committee with the police department. it. Some of the things that I've seen and witnessed behind bars, you guys will never see because the media will never show it to you guys, will never be covered. I'm fully

aware of the phrase that offended people so much. I wish there was that much offense to the shit that we go through where we're at. Because, and I understand, the phrase is divisive, right, amongst many people. But it's actually quite popular amongst both people on the left and the right. It's not a reflection, the phrase is not, it's not directly to attack a specific person, a specific department, or anybody. The phrase goes to the frustration that we have as a community that we continue to live these kind of things.

Let me be clear, I spent 16 years of my life for a crime that I did not commit. All right? So if you can say, oh, well, you did it, you deserve to be there, I deserve to be there. But I'm not bitter, I'm not angry, but I do want people like Mr. Delgado to be able to uplift our voices because all he's doing is saying how we feel. He's showing our frustrations, and I know a lot of you guys here, and you guys know my story, you guys know what's up with me, like, I'm not about anti-cop anything I'm like but if you're gonna do your job do it right and I want people like mr. Delgado to be able to oversee individuals like this because he's

uplifting our voices and when you when you silence him you're basically telling people like me that our voice doesn't matter

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thank you sir Thank you. Thank you. Gaurav Karan.

Hi, I'm Gaurav Karan. I'm here both to support Fernando and call out the nonsense that happened with preventing him from being on the commission. I think that if you have a police oversight community that was fought for 60 years by this community, then you're going to have to welcome voices that are critical of the police on there. If you think you can do better, which is things that have heard the police departments themselves say, then you have to be open to criticism. I think red baiting, all the things that were brought up by folks from Viet Ries are completely true.

I think you took two social media posts and you derailed a long-term effort by this community. And just as political advice, I don't think going against the community will be the smart move for you. I also want to highlight some of the incidents that I've witnessed myself. I do a lot of outreach with unhoused folks, particularly in Santiago Parks and other parts of Santa Ana. and I can tell you that in two years, I've rarely seen cops show up in any form that would be as heroes or to help.

Their modus operandi is to harass and dispel and remove them from the situation without ever having any resources available. As you know, beds are never available to people when they need them. there are people exiting the programs because of harassment that they face at Illumination Foundation and other shelters and I'd like to have more conversation around that with some of the council members soon thank you thank

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you Fernandad Solario I apologize if I pronounce it wrong Fernandad

Hi, good evening, Mayor, members of City Council. Two weeks ago, I was here with three SEIU UHW members who shared their stories working in the hospital, specifically South Coast Global, and their desire to see a living wage. SAU UHW has been pushing for a minimum $25 minimum wage for healthcare workers.

And I will continue to bring my members here. I have one member here, Sonia Hernandez, and she will speak and share her story as a healthcare worker. Thank you very much.

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Thank you, sir. Anna León, followed by Maria Reyes.

that no permitan que nos remuevan nuestros anuncios y displays que tenemos enfrente de nuestros negocios, que promocionan a nuestros negocios. Hace dos semanas llegó un trabajador de la ciudad pidiéndonos que removiéramos nuestros signs y displays que tenemos enfrente de nuestros negocios. Los signs y displays que tenemos enfrente de nuestros negocios son para que vean nuestros clientes de más que todavía estamos abiertos.

No es justo ni es posible que después de tanta construcción y tanto daño que hicieron con nuestros negocios, con la construcción, que no nos ha dejado sin clientes, nos podamos promocionar para atraer más clientes. Muchos piensan que la mayoría de nuestros negocios en la calle 4 han cerrado. Entonces les pido que por favor nos dejen promocionarnos para no tener que cerrar nuestros negocios. Gracias. Gracias.

María. Good evening, members of the City Council. My name is Ana María León, and I have a business on 4th Street and a store, and I'm here to ask you to please allow us to keep our signs and displays in front of our businesses. We have been asked to remove them, but our businesses, we need them to promote our businesses. Two weeks ago, somebody from the city, staff from the city came to ask us to remove our signs and displays, but we used our signs and displays to let our clients know that we are still in business. It's not fair that after we went through all this construction, all the damage done to our businesses,

We lost our clients, and our clients can't find us. We used these signs to tell our clients that we are still in business. So we're asking you to let us keep our signs and displays in front of our businesses.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 1

Thank you. Señora?

Buenas tardes, buenas noches, señora alcaldesa, señores de concejales. Mi nombre es María Pérez. Mi negocio es Chevitas Youth en la calle 4. Les comunico con profunda tristeza que el sábado 22 de abril, Chevitas cierra sus puertas. Mes muy duro, Chevitas cierra sus puertas. La ilusión con que comencé mi negocio, que con mucho trabajo y sacrificio, I said, but it's impossible and difficult to run against the current.

The authorities that offered permission to pass the train did not contemplate the economic disaster that caused the businesses. We are in the street 4 and in these moments we are a economic disaster caused by the construction of the train.

Yes, we helped, but put your hand in the heart and think if your help was just right, what caused the economic disaster was the most injustice for the business of the 4th Street. This is not just right. Thank you.

Good evening, members of the Council, Mayor Manuel Maria Perez. And I'm a business owner of Chavitas Juice on 4th Street. And I'm sad to say that on Saturday, April 22nd, Chavitas Juice will close. It's too hard for me to tell you this. It's very hard. Chavitas Juice will be closing. It's too hard. It's extremely difficult to keep this business, to be swimming against the currents of what's happening. You authorized the construction, but you did not foresee what would happen to our businesses, the damage that would be done to our businesses.

My business is now an economic disaster due to the streetcar construction. What you did give us did help, but have you stopped to consider if your help was fair, was enough help? And there's injustice in all of this for many of the businesses on 4th Street. It's not fair.

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Carolyn McCarty, followed by Maribel Gomez.

Hi. I'm one of the Riverview neighborhood. This is my first time doing this. Okay. And I heard about them not renewing the lease. I went to my first meeting, and they were told that they were going to go ahead and renew the golf course lease, but now we're being told it's going to become a regional park. and before that happens I hope the city will consider some other options for instance student housing I know that area is also owned by the county as well as the federal government owns part of that golf course and I know Katrina

Foley of the Orange County supervisors had considered some student housing and and county facilities. So I was just hoping that that's something, that it just won't become a regional park that will go ahead and look at possible other ideas because I think student housing could also help the businesses in the area, of course, cut down on the traffic because people wouldn't need cars. When the streetcar finishes, they'd have a direct route to the downtown area. I just think it would be much more beneficial than a regional park, which would take resources from the city.

So I hope that we have a chance to talk about it before anything's done. And that's it.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 1

Thank you, ma'am.

Thank you.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 1

Maribel Gomez.

Buenas noches, señora alcaldesa y miembros del concilio. High the unjust distribution of money that belongs to the street 4, who were affected by the construction of the train. So you heard it in a moment, I knew that this company was going to do their business. There are several people who were affected and are receiving new, who are opening new businesses.

No estamos de acuerdo que se les dé del dinero, que todavía nosotros no lo hemos recibido, que viene del senador Tan Amber. Fuimos, somos y seremos todavía hasta el momento muy afectados por la construcción, que todavía no ha terminado. Pregunta, ¿de dónde viene la orden de retirar los anuncios y los displays de afuera de los negocios de la calle 4?

Lo extraño es que sólo en algunos negocios, a propósito, se quitan los anuncios que tenemos fuera de los negocios. ¿Qué pasa con los restaurantes? Creo que somos todos iguales y por lo tanto todos pagamos taxis en mayor o menor cantidad. but we are many years old, I have 40 years old, I'm Aris Burris Salón, of the 4th Street Street. So, that's one of my questions, ladies. I believe in the transparency of the United States, and I believe in you, Ms. Alcaldesa,

because she is a woman, because she knows and feels what we are women. And to all the members that are here, I ask you to touch your heart and please, please, sleep in peace. Don't be afraid. Thank you very much.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 1

Thank you, señora. Lakeisha Grant Gant.

Good evening, Mayor and City Council members. And it's not unfair what's happening with the money distribution to the businesses on 4th Street who have been affected by the construction of the streetcar. and I didn't know what the lady just mentioned, that her business was going to close. Many businesses are closing. We have been affected, but the problem is that some businesses that were not affected are getting money. These are new businesses, so that is not fair.

They're getting the money that we did not receive from Senator Tom Umberg. So we were affected by the construction and we are affected in our businesses. I have a question for you. Who ordered the removal of the displays and signs in front of our businesses? It's very strange that it only happens in some of the businesses. So what about the restaurants? We're all the same. We all pay our taxes, more or less. And I've been there in my business, Iris Beauty Salon, for over 40 years. And I have another question for you. I believe in transparency in the United States.

I believe in you, Mayor, because you are a woman as well. You understand this. So I ask all of you that you touch your hearts so that you can sleep well tonight and give us the help that we need.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 1

Thank you. Lakeisha Gant.

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Lakeisha.

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Sonia Hernandez.

Good evening.

I think that what they are paying is very little. They were paying $15 and from November to here, they were paying $18. But it's a hospital and we are imposing a lot of diseases. But I ask you to help you to help you at least $25. Because as we all know, everything is very expensive.

The gas has been a lot of money, the basic canasta is not enough for daily support. Por eso les pido de que por favor los puedan ayudar para que siquiera los paguen a 25 dólares. Gracias. Gracias, señora.

Good evening. My name is Sonia Hernandez, and I work in a hospital in Santa Ana since 1909. and I am asking you to help us because we do not make enough money. I used to make $15 an hour and since last November I'm making $18 an hour. But in the hospital we're exposed to many illnesses. So I ask you to please help us raise our minimum wage to $25 an hour. And everything is becoming so expensive with gas and the basic foods and staples. and it's not enough to support ourselves. So we're asking you to help us

raise the minimum wage to $25 an hour. Thank you.

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Valentin Martinez. Valentín Martínez.

in mind the situation we are facing due to the permission offered to the construction of Octa. It is very difficult for us to survive this disaster. And the annuces and mercancenaries are a way to promote our businesses, especially for the second floor. We are here asking to allow us to announce this way. We are waiting to avoid obstruising the steps as the construction did. A time we promised the directors in each block and never happened. It's a good time to ask you to consider them. Thank you.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 1

Thank you.

Good evening, members of the council. My name is Valentin Martinez, owner of Linda Bridle and Ford Street. Thank you for allowing me to speak. And I'm asking, advocating for against the removal of the signs in front of our businesses on 4th Street. Please, this was done, you did allow signs for the construction. You did allow the permit, permission for OCTA to build that streetcar. And now it's making it hard for us to survive. The signs are a way for us to promote our businesses, and especially for businesses on the second floor.

So I'm asking you to allow these signs, and we'll make sure that they do not obstruct the passageway as the signs from the construction did. So we want to thank you. You also offered to have directories, business directories, on every corner, every street, every corner, and you have not done so, so that might help too. Thank you.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 1

Thank you. Jose Garay?

and causing accidents. We want to take care of our old people who walk with stairs and avoid the risk of falling, breaking some bone. And not only them, but only those who walk there, we have caused the injuries in our legs, the children with their bikes and some scooters. This is my request to help us to control the roots of the banquetas. Thank you.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 1

Good evening. Thank you.

Good evening. My name is Jose Garay. I'm a resident of Santa Ana, specifically from Cypress Street, which is named after the trees that are there on Cypress Street. But the problem is that the trees are breaking up or lifting up the sidewalk, and it's a very dangerous situation. Our elderly people are walking around and they are in danger of falling and breaking bones or worse. and our kids are falling under scooters and bicycles, etc. So please, I'm asking you to fix the sidewalks on our streets. Thank you.

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Thank you. Juliet Castro.

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Followed by Martin Ocampo.

Muy buenas noches, una vez mayor y city manager. I ask you to please, please, that they are acting, that they distribute the money that belongs to us, the workers of the 4th. We just need to ask ourselves, we just need to ask, because we need to ask. We don't want to happen to my friend. The 4th, especially my business, has been affected for more than a year. In front of my business, I have no to have to go to my clients, What is happening? My clients. I've lost clients. My gente has not come. I'm a stylist. I have my beauty salon. I work every day.

And I ask them, please, whatever they belong to us, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please,

They robbed a very good amount last year for us. And that's what's going on. As members of you, all united, talk and discuss everything we need. We are asking for help.

After the COVID-19, we have two years of suffering. Other two years, because the train is not built yet. All the streets of the surrounding area are closed. On the other side, the street 4, which are more than 10, which made a house extra, are also hurting the streets of my clients. I have clients who come from other cities. We are Latinx Latinx. My Latinx community, my clients, are Latinx. I have no other type of clients who come to help me.

Nosotros Latinos no vamos a estar metiéndonos otro tipo de tienda. Compréndanos y ayúdenos. Gracias.

Gracias.

Good evening, Mayor and City Manager. I'm asking you to stop acting and help us. Give us the money that is to help us on our businesses. Do not deny us this help. And we don't want for our business to happen, for the ladies going to happen. We don't want to have to close our businesses. And we have been affected for over, the 4th Street businesses have been affected for over a year. I've lost clients. I have a beauty salon. And I work every single day. City manager, do your job. My job is to make money for me to survive. And if you can't do your job, you need to let others come and do your job.

The money that you give us is not enough. So you are here to talk about our needs and satisfy our needs. So I'm here to ask for help. And after COVID, we had two years of struggling. And now two years after, because of the construction, we're still suffering. And also the parking. You put something on the parking, on 10 parking spaces, like a shelter or something. And we are Latinos, and our businesses are for Latinos. Our clients are Latinos. So please help us.

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Martín Ocampo.

Buenas noches, Mayor y miembros del Concilio. Mi nombre es Martín Ocampo. Tengo un negocio ubicado en la calle 4, que es un restaurante. Me da mucha tristeza enterarme de esta noticia of that a working company that I know for a long time has to sell their business.

We started a dream together, almost at the same time, invirtiendo the few resources that we had to take adelante our business and it was not just that this work of the train has to sell their business. I do my condolences to her and if we can help her, I'm available.

posteriormente les do gracias la oportunidad y les pido por favor que nos regresen lo que son las fiestas de la calle 4 que nos ayudan a revivir lo que es el donton de santana

en que también dejen de hostigar a los compañeros que con sus negocios que tienen el signo afuera es la única forma que ellos tienen para anunciarse también les hago mención no se me hace justo We have just noticed that the section where we have more Latin businesses, we have no one of them have a box of garbage. If you go to the Ford Street, the Ford Market, they have four boxes of garbage, and in the bus to Broadway, we have no one. We have to ask them to help with garbage garbage, and we only tell the person who is going to put it, but there is no one.

We also ask them a little bit more of security. Últimamente, están llegando bastantes personas sin hogar y llegan en forma violenta. Se meten al restaurant, se meten a los negocios y no les importa agarrar lo que ellos quieren. Por favor, se los pido de corazón que nos ayuden a promover nuestros negocios y no sean, este, veamos más casos como el de mi compañera Cevitas. Muchas gracias. Gracias, señor.

lose her business. And my condolences to her, and if there's anything I can do to help you, I'm open to it. I'm asking you to bring the fiestas back to 4th Street to revive downtown Santa Ana. And for you not to be bothering the businesses that have their signs outside, the signs are meant to advertise their business. It's not fair that in the Latino areas of businesses, there are not enough trash cans. There are no trash cans. Where the food is, there's plenty of trash cans, but then on Bush and Broadway, there are none to be found.

They tell us that they're going to put them there, but there's no timeline to put the trash cans there. Also, we're asking for security there. there's an influx of homeless people who are becoming violent they come into our restaurants and they come into our businesses and take stuff so please help us also to promote our businesses we don't want our business to close like

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covites thank you very much thank you to all the public speakers at this time madam city manager is your presentation tonight thank you mayor it's our monthly

homeless presentation and Ken Gaminski is going to provide the presentation and he's going to be covering three areas that you did express an interest in earlier so I will turn it over to Ken who is the manager of everything homeless. Great thank you.

Good evening Mayor and Council. This is going to be a quick homeless services update.

Next slide. the data the go ahead go ahead the data dashboard can be found on the homeless services web page like the dashboard of a car our homeless services data dashboard provides a quick view into what is happening under the hood regarding homeless services within our city take us to the dashboard

and I say that this can be a fast presentation because I would encourage everyone on the council to go to this site and review all the different data that is available that is updated monthly The first page provides a quick overview of the point in time counts and how our city has fared with the number of reported homeless individuals over time. Also of interest is the understanding that Santa Ana has the highest number of permanent supportive housing units. That's countywide.

44% decrease in sheltered and unsheltered homeless populations in Santa Ana since 2019. 17% of the unsheltered and sheltered homeless populations are residing in Santa Ana still. 41% of the unsheltered population in Orange County have substance abuse issues, and 29% of our unsheltered population in Orange County still have mental health issues. Page 2. A review of page 2 provides an overview of types of housing opportunities within our city, such as permanent supportive housing, shelter beds, and tenant-based vouchers.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 6

I'm sorry, Ken, can I ask you, are those far?

Valerie AmezcuaItem 6

It's not in, okay, I just want to, I don't have it, so my computer has one.

Oh, I'm sorry, ma'am. So, no, so these are from the actual Santa Ana webpage itself, okay? So by going to page two, you'll be able to see all the different investments that the city has made into our different housing opportunities and vouchers. Subsequently, on page three, we provide an update on the census information at our navigation center. It shows comparative data month to month. as council was interested previously how we were faring month to month.

We've added that so that now at a glance, council as well as anyone in our community can see that on 3-16-2023, we had 157 people in our shelter. As of 4-16-2023, we're down to 150. We also go through the various different demographics with a specific care paid to where our families, number of parents and children are as it relates to residing at our navigation center.

The fourth page shows both last year's and the most current outreach and engagement efforts for CityNet for this year. So on the left, you'll see what last year's data looked like, and then you'll see the most recent week of CityNet activity within the city. This is updated every week so that you can see whether or not the areas that you're concerned about are having calls for service placed to CityNet or city apps placed for their responses.

The fifth page is a heat map. And if you can zoom in a little bit, Assistant City Manager, sir.

These are app requests on a city-wide level.

The lighter the color, meaning yellow, the more yellow the color, the more hot that hot spot is. And then we move down to reds and purples. Now, through that, we get an opportunity to see where, over time, we see the most calls for service, requests for service, via the My Santa Ana app. However, if you also click on the lower right-hand button, you click there, you will see that you can actually also see just homeless services by numbers. So you click the top. Yep, click that. And you'll see various different numbers

that are occurring throughout the city over time.

Now just click the arrows again.

There you go.

This is just an example of the information that you have and that our community does have at its fingertips as it pertains to where the city's resources regarding homelessness are occurring.

the sixth page of the data dashboard reflects an unduplicated number of individuals entered into what is referred to as HMIS the homeless management information system this information is provided to the county via the homeless HMIS system. It is then put into the larger HMIS system and comes out via reports from 211. This is their standard report that we have tweaked to meet the needs of what we believe are council members questions and we encourage you all to go to it look at it

let us know if there are any things that are not in there that we might be able to have 211 add so that your needs will be met. Next page.

We've also discussed over time the intersection between narcotics and homelessness. As homelessness continues to grow in California and tops the list for the state with the largest homeless population, as of 2022, 30% of the nation's homeless resided in California, including half of all unsheltered individuals despite making up less than 12 percent of the total population. The 2022 point in time count for Orange County showed that 41 percent of the unsheltered population on our city streets has substance abuse problems. The link between

homelessness and substance abuse isn't new. When most people picture the homeless of America they They usually conjure images of a middle-aged man, complete with a brown paper bag, concealing a cheap bottle of booze. Yet 40% of our homeless population in the US is comprised of people under the age of 18. And many of them abuse opioids like fentanyl. Many homeless people find themselves in their current situation due to that addiction.

Concurrently, people who are homeless might turn to drugs or alcohol while living on the streets as a form of self-medication.

In California, the homeless population has seen a visual explosion in drug problems since the pandemic began. Back in 2020, the drug overdose rate in California jumped by 20%. Fentanyl, the synthetic opioid making its way west, accounted for 36% of those deaths. and many of those deaths were among adolescents. So to answer the question, what is an opioid? Opioids are a broad group of pain-relieving drugs that work by interacting with opioid receptors in the human body. When opioid medications travel through your body

and attach to opioid receptors in your brain cells, the cells release signals that muffle your perceptions of pain and boost your feelings of pleasure. At lower doses, opioids may make you feel sleepy, but higher doses can slow your breathing, heart rate, and cause death. In 2021, there were 8,908 opioid-related drug overdose deaths in the state of California. In comparison, there were 2,203 murders in California during that same time period.

thus opioid overdoses cause more deaths four times more deaths than murders within our state

according to the new county report more homeless people in orange county are dying each year and accidental drug overdoses involving fentanyl are the leading reason why in 2012 the centers for Disease Control and Prevention recorded 1,615 overdose deaths in the U.S., all of those linked to fentanyl. By 2021, the number of deaths due to synthetic opioids, primarily fentanyl, was more than 71,000. In 2021, 36% of the deaths of all homeless people in the county were directly linked to fentanyl. That was an additional 8% that were linked to overdoses involving other drugs.

Most recently, the Homeless Outreach Team, or COLT, has been working on addressing some of the narcotics issues that we see.

Here you'll see that over the course of the last several, over last year, they took 37.20 grams of fentanyl, 188 grams of fentanyl, 32 grams of heroin, 3,160 grams of marijuana, 711 grams of methamphetamine. Just today, our homeless outreach team working on what were referred to as warrant sweeps, as they evaluated different hotspots and arrested individuals for warrants. They arrested 19 people. Four of those people were in possession of narcotics, and a single person was arrested for possession for sales of narcotics within that homeless community.

The last thing we'd like to talk about very quickly today is Care Court.

Care Court should be coming to California within the next two years. Orange County has been selected as one of the locations to begin care court in the to keep this brief

civil liberties unions have already become involved in discussing whether or not care court will move forward and what it will look like so we're all rather hesitant to say when we actually believe it will come to the county but i think everybody involved in homelessness is waiting with bated breath to see whether or not this might be the answer to some of our mental health issues that we see on a daily basis understanding that you guys have already been here a long time if you have any questions or concerns please feel free to contact me at any time and i will answer your questions thank you are there any questions from the council

Valerie AmezcuaItem 6

ken i want to thank you because it's very important i know that community members are watching at home because I've heard from many constituents and I know there is a site they can go to on the city but they do appreciate the information and so do I and thank you for all the work you and your team do thank you

Valerie AmezcuaItem 7

alrighty at this time we're going to go to the consent calendar items 7 through 20 every four hours council members please announce any items you will be abstaining from due to a conflict there any requests to pull an item from the consent calendar for further discussion councilman Vasquez mayor pro tem Lopez 20 please 20 councilman Becerra I'm sorry panelosa no items may councilmember time then no council member Sarah then councilman Hernandez

Johnathan Ryan HernandezItem 7

Yes, item 9.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 7

I'm sorry?

Johnathan Ryan HernandezItem 7

Item 9.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 7

9, thank you. No abstentions? May I have a motion to approve the remainder of the consent calendar, please? So moved.

Johnathan Ryan HernandezItem 7

I'll second.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 7

Thank you. Let's prepare to vote. And my machine does not work.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 7

So Jennifer, we may have to do a roll call. Mine doesn't work at all. Oh, well, maybe it does. Let's try it.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 7

Let's see if it does.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 7

Did it work?

Jennifer L. HallItem 7

If you could vote your vote, Mayor Emeskua?

Valerie AmezcuaItem 7

I'm a yes.

Jennifer L. HallItem 7

And Councilmember Phan?

Thai Viet PhanItem 7

It worked for me, yes.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 7

motion carries with seven yes votes thank you okay let's go to item number nine please

Johnathan Ryan HernandezItem 7

thank you mayor mesqua i want to thank my colleagues and members of the public for participating in today's council meeting. And I would also like to thank my colleagues for bringing this item forward. I want to start by congratulating the nominee, Nadine Saeed. If you are here, congratulations. I wanted to pull this item because I am not ready to make a vote today. I would like to ask my colleagues to bring this item back at a later date. I do have some questions that I would like to ask the candidate respectfully this is not the platform to do so so I would like to respectfully

Johnathan Ryan HernandezItem 7

schedule some time to meet with that candidate to ask questions pertaining to this Commission as well as learn about their qualifications so I will put a motion on the floor to move the item I second I'll go ahead and sub motion to

David PenalozaItem 7

approve the candidate oh I'll second the the council members her motion but before do that madam i think believe item nine was pulled yes was seven pulled as well no it was nine and 20. yeah that's so um so can so because so we voted on seven already yes we did yeah so nine

Jennifer L. HallItem 8

council member pentaloza item number seven was excused absences i just clicked on something

David PenalozaItem 8

I will still second Councilmember Becerra's motion.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 8

Are you okay?

David PenalozaItem 8

I'm good.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 8

Okay. So you're the second on item number nine?

David PenalozaItem 8

Yes, Councilmember Becerra's motion for the amendment. Okay, great.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 8

All right. So there's an amended motion on the floor. We're going to vote. All right, let's do that, please.

Jennifer L. HallItem 8

It's a sub-motion by Councilmember Becerra, seconded. by Council Member Penaloza to approve the nomination of Nadine Syed by Council Member Becerra to the Police Oversight Commission.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 8

Yes, and I can't vote on my device.

Jennifer L. HallItem 8

Go ahead and do a roll call then. Thank you.

Jennifer L. HallItem 8

Council Member Becerra?

Phil BacerraItem 8

Yes. Yes.

Jennifer L. HallItem 8

Council member Hernandez?

David PenalozaItem 8

No.

Jennifer L. HallItem 8

Council member Penaloza?

David PenalozaItem 8

Yes.

Jennifer L. HallItem 8

Council member Fan?

Thai Viet PhanItem 8

Out of fairness, no.

Jennifer L. HallItem 8

Council member Vasquez?

Benjamin VazquezItem 8

No.

Jennifer L. HallItem 8

Mayor Pro Tem Lopez? No. Mayor Emescoa?

Valerie AmezcuaItem 8

Yes.

Jennifer L. HallItem 8

Motion fails. Three yes votes by Mayor Emescoa, Council members Becerra and Penaloza. The nomination is not approved at this time. We can go back to the first motion to continue the item. Would that be to the next meeting, Council Member Hernandez?

Johnathan Ryan HernandezItem 8

Yes, please. I would be happy to have this item come back at the next meeting. My office will reach out to the candidate to schedule time to meet. At the end of the day, we welcome people with different perspectives, but my office wants to do due diligence and respectfully meeting with the candidate, and we congratulate them on their nomination.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 8

That's fine. I think, Madam City Manager, we should have a discussion to place us on the agenda as to how we're going to move forward with nominations. What I don't want to get into is because what happened at the last meeting, now everybody that makes a motion for a commissioner that they go through this whole interview process we've never done that before at least that I know of I mean I just arrived here but historically like I shared with you back in 2008 I was I was a commissioner back in 2007 and 5 so I just want to be sure

Valerie AmezcuaItem 8

if everybody's okay we need to find a way so that we're not doing it here on the dais possibly or if we are going to do it here in the dais that that's something that we talk about as um as a group so i'll leave it up to you how you want to do this but we should talk about this so because i don't know what's going to happen the next time maybe councilman vasquez or myself or another council member brings up a person to be appointed to a commission and then we have to do this interview process and i'm not disagreeing with councilman hernandez i just would like a process in place.

Certainly. I'll work with the city clerk and we'll try to streamline it, but I believe Council Member Hernandez's request was just to have some time so he could meet with the individual in private, not do a session in the open.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 8

No, and I heard him say that. I just want to make sure that we have something in place so that if the next commissioner that comes up, we don't keep doing this.

Johnathan Ryan HernandezItem 8

Yes, thank you, Mayor Masqua. And I fully concur. My goal is to meet with the candidate in a very timely manner. Given that there is an alignment and this is a qualified, great candidate, I will look forward to supporting them. But to be transparent, every appointment that comes on this commission, you can assure that my office will engage in transparency. So I want to be transparent with my colleagues. Every appointment that comes on this commission, I will respectfully do that. So if you are looking to a point, please engage in transparency.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 8

So what I'm hearing you say is that every recommendation for the Police Oversight Commission, you would like to meet with them personally.

Johnathan Ryan HernandezItem 8

Yes.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 8

And that is why I'm saying maybe there's a process that we can have instead of taking up, maybe just not you, maybe there's other members who want to meet with them too. I don't know. So we could talk about that. Yes, Councilman Becerra. No, and thank you, Mayor Mesquil. That's exactly it.

Phil BacerraItem 8

If we're going to go ahead and pull each nomination and then want to interview them, I think we should try to do it in a way that we all get that fair share to do it, make sure that we have the time. In fact, maybe it's probably better to circulate the nomination among the council, work through our aides to set up the meetings, and go ahead and go from there.

Certainly, sir, and I will work on that. I was just mentioning, I believe you still have a motion before you?

Valerie AmezcuaItem 8

Yes, we do have a motion. I just wanted to see if we could get something done.

Phil BacerraItem 8

We can still have discussion on the motion. That's just, again, just to make sure that we, if we're going to go that way going forward, that's great. But let's just, rather than keep doing it hodgepodge, let's just try to make it a consistent path going forward.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 8

And we can talk about it afterwards. Does that work for you?

Certainly. And I like this suggestion from Council Member Becerra about circulating the names to you well in advance, but that would also entail you providing us the names well in advance in order to do that.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 8

I support that as well. Perfect. Okay. Great. So, I'm sorry. Just really quick.

David PenalozaItem 8

I just, I don't mind interviewing any other candidates that come forward. I think that's fine. But I just also, along those same lines, is let's be proactive. The agenda was posted a week ago, so we have seven days to reach out to the candidate, vet them, whoever they are, but I don't mind the interviews for any candidate coming forward

Valerie AmezcuaItem 8

whatsoever. So that's my comment. Thank you, Mayor. Any other comments? Just a closing comment?

Thai Viet PhanItem 8

I just want to say that I am fully in support of Ms. Saeed. I know that she is an attorney who has done a lot of work in the minority community and was a woman of the year nominated and awarded by Senator Umberg. However, I voted yes on Councilmember Hernandez's sub-motion to give him the opportunity and a fair chance to meet with his candidate. Thank you. Councilman Hernandez?

Johnathan Ryan HernandezItem 8

Yes, and I just wanted to mention that, you know, I would have liked the opportunity to meet with the candidate, but seven days is not a sufficient amount of time to schedule. So the appropriate area to address and make these comments is here at the dais. So I appreciate the opportunity and ready to take a vote.

Jennifer L. HallItem 8

All right. I think the vote was already done. No, Mayor. We do still need to vote on the original motion. Go ahead. Moved by Council Member Hernandez, seconded by Council Member Vasquez to continue the appointment until the next meeting, which is May 2nd. Council Member Becerra.

Phil BacerraItem 8

My device is working. Are we not voting?

Valerie AmezcuaItem 8

Mine is not. That's why it has to be a roll call. I pushed you and it doesn't work. So, Madam Clerk, I'll be yes.

Jennifer L. HallItem 8

Yes. Okay, thank you. Council Member Hernandez?

Phil BacerraItem 8

Yes.

Jennifer L. HallItem 8

Council Member Penaloza?

David PenalozaItem 8

Yes.

Jennifer L. HallItem 8

Council Member Fan? Yes. Council Member Vasquez?

Valerie AmezcuaItem 8

Yes.

Jennifer L. HallItem 8

Mayor Pro Tem Lopez? Yes. Mayor Mescua?

Valerie AmezcuaItem 8

Yes.

Jennifer L. HallItem 8

Okay. Motion carries, 7-0. Item is continued to May 2nd. Perfect. Thank you.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 8

Item 20, please.

Jessie LopezItem 8

Thank you. I don't have an issue with the item, so I'm going to move it forward. However, because of the changes that are going to be implemented to the solar panel process. May I approach them? I'm sorry. Can you speak in your mind? I can't really hear you. Sure. So because of the changes that are going to be implemented to the solar panel process, I wanted to ask if we could push out that information to our residents so that they're aware that they can take advantage of the current system in place before the changes at the state level happen. Thank you. I'll move the item. I'll second.

Jennifer L. HallItem 8

Yes Mayor, motion by Mayor Pro Tem Lopez, seconded by Councilmember Penaloza to approve item number 20. Councilmember Becerra? Yes. Councilmember Hernandez? Yes. Councilmember Penaloza? Yes. Councilmember Fan? Yes. Councilmember Provesquez? Yes. Mayor Pro Tem Lopez? Yes. Mayor Mescola? Yes. Vote of seven ayes, no nays. Motion carries. Great. Let's head on to the business calendar at this time.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 8

Item number 21 is the first reading of an ordinance amending section 8.6 of the Municipal Code. Madam City Manager, may we please have a staff report. So we don't have a presentation for this

item. As you just said, you stated what it is, but we do have our planning director available if you have any questions for him. I don't have any

Valerie AmezcuaItem 8

questions. Does anybody have any questions? Let's prepare to vote.

David PenalozaItem 8

I have none. I'll make a motion to approve item 21. I'll second.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 8

Seconded. Let's prepare to vote please. Motion

Jennifer L. HallItem 8

by Council Member Penaloza, seconded by Council Member Pham to approve the first reading of an ordinance to amend section 8.6 of the Santa Ana Municipal code pertaining to license requirements of contractors and subcontractors to include the collection and disclosure of information regarding pending or prior enforcement actions for any state or federal labor violations. Councilmember Becerra?

Phil BacerraItem 8

Yes.

Jennifer L. HallItem 8

Councilmember Hernandez?

Phil BacerraItem 8

Yes.

Jennifer L. HallItem 8

Councilmember Penaloza?

Phil BacerraItem 8

Yes.

Jennifer L. HallItem 8

Councilmember Fan? Yes. Councilmember Vasquez? Yes. Mayor Pro Tem Lopez? Yes. Mayor Mescilla?

Valerie AmezcuaItem 8

Yes.

Jennifer L. HallItem 8

The vote is seven ayes, no nays. Motion carries. Ordinance goes to first reading and publication.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 8

Perfect. Thank you. Item number 22, early direction for fiscal year, a 23-24 budget cycle. Madam City Manager.

So on this one, Mayor, we do have a presentation for you. So even though this is the first time we're coming before you to discuss the budget for 23-24, staff in all departments and primarily within the finance department have been very busy working behind the scenes to start the process to prepare the proposed budget as well as also engaging the community. So our finance director, Kat Downs, is going to walk through. There is no action items associated with this. However, we are looking for input on a few key areas.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 8

Madam City Manager, may I ask a question since I can't say I'm new anymore, right? But from the budget cycle, I know we're going to have a budget meeting. I saw it on the calendar. So we're going to start here, have the budget meeting. There will be multiple budget meetings, correct?

There will be, and we do have a slide that has the process and the schedule of those for you.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 8

And maybe it's on here. I apologize if it is. The input from the community will be included in all of this.

It is, and we do have that to share with you tonight. Perfect. Thank you.

Thank you, Mayor and Council Members.

So the staff has been working on the budget for several months now, but this is your official kickoff for the budget process for fiscal year 23-24.

This is an overview of the City Council's annual budget cycle. tonight's meeting is the four o'clock position on the graphic which is your a chance to offer early direction to us tonight we're providing you with an early look at the 2324 budget and we seek your direction on several matters there are no formal City Council actions requested this evening but the direction that you will provide will help us wrap up the city manager's proposed budget for next fiscal year.

This year we increased outreach yet again to gather public input. We have an online survey and the budget engagement simulation tools. In addition to neighborhood meetings in every ward, our budget staff attended multiple city events and virtual forums.

To date, we've received nearly 1,100 responses, which is 300 more than when this presentation was published, so that 796 up at the top of the slide has grown significantly. The trending themes are listed here, which include investing in homelessness reduction, investing in crime reduction, improving city parks, improving streets and traffic, and investing in libraries.

The Measure X Citizens Oversight Committee prepared budget recommendations for the City Council as part of their annual work program. The recommendations are to favor one-time spending for Measure X revenue, consider programs to use community-based professionals versus sworn officers to respond to nonviolent police calls, explore establishing a Measure X system. Sunset Stabilization Fund, prepare a long-term plan for Measure X rate reduction, shift Measure X revenue to fixing streets, and increase sales tax compliance for mobile food vendors

through registration and education efforts.

Our estimate of general fund revenue for fiscal year 2324 is $399.8 million. Now this is only a half a million or a tenth of a percent increase from fiscal year 2223. This estimate is subject to change over the next couple of months as we receive more updated information. Sales tax, including both Bradley Burns and Measure X, is 40% of general fund budget. We have found that sales activity is plateauing and have used the most likely scenario from our sales tax consultant. Due to higher interest rates, we are not seeing many properties change ownership.

Normally change in ownership and the reassessed value of parcels gives our property tax revenue a boost. This year, we expect the property tax revenue increase to be closer to the maximum 2% growth imposed by Proposition 13. To date, we have received only two months of cannabis tax returns since the new rates became effective on January 1. For now, we are assuming an $8 million reduction in revenue. With your May budget reports, we will have to tighten up our estimate with only three months of data. The business license voter ballot measure was designed to be revenue neutral.

So far, that looks to be the case, so we are assuming no change in revenue. With more data, we may be able to update that revenue estimate.

Next month, we also plan to propose a 4.1% fee increase based upon the expected increase of employee compensation. Now, this includes labor negotiations, increases to the cost of existing benefits, and normal employee step increases. The remainder of our general fund revenues may increase by about 3.8% overall.

As part of the budget process, we calculate a baseline budget. You might call this the status quo budget because it is based on current service levels and known increases to our existing costs. We start with the current year budget and remove one-time items. Then we add full funding for items added during the current year with only partial funding. So a common example of that is addition of new employee positions approved throughout the year. We factor in the employee compensation increases and adjust for actual required debt payments. We maintain the same pension debt budget, so after we make the required bond payments

and CalPERS payments, the remainder of that budget would be transferred to the Pension Stabilization Fund to pay for future spikes in pension debt. I'll touch more on that concept later in the presentation. Finally, we update our overhead allocations and factor in the contract increases for both fire and ambulance services. The cost of fire service is expected to increase 4.5% for the next fiscal year.

Our estimated baseline budget is $397.3 million. The proposed budget will be higher due to increasing service levels and costs that were not factored into the baseline. So an example of this is $200,000 for annual licensing for the City's new land management system used by both Public Works and Planning and Building. The City Manager's proposed budget will also include some one-time spending recommendations.

This is our updated 10-year outlook for the General Fund. It includes this baseline budget calculated for Year 1, which is Fiscal Year 23-24 in this case. It includes future debt payoff, the Measure X rate decrease in 2029, CPI increases for both revenue and expenditures for years 2 through 10, and our contribution to the OC streetcar operations beginning in year 2, which is fiscal year 24-25. This outlook does not include the potential impact of future recession, new services,

or potential new revenue from development. This updated outlook reflects our latest estimates of little to no revenue growth for fiscal year 23-24. If the revenue outlook improves, that 2029 budget gap when the Measure X rate decreases, that gap will shrink.

I noted previously that the proposed budget would include some one-time spending recommendations. The funding for these items is the spendable general fund balance. Our estimated general fund balance is $101.5 million at June 30 of this year. However, the City Council's reserve policy requires us to keep 18% of annual revenue in reserve. Therefore, the spendable portion of the general fund balance is estimated to be $29.5 million.

As reported with mid-year, the proposed 23-24 budget will include the City's $13 million contractual requirement to provide a loan to the 3rd and Broadway development. At mid-year, we also reported a gas tax revenue decrease and Council approved a $2.5 million general fund backfill to preserve right-of-way maintenance service levels. For fiscal year 23-24, we expect the gas tax revenue shortfall will be closer to $700,000. This is information provided by the League of California City's Fiscal Policy Advisor.

The City may expect to spend $1 million for two special elections related to recall. The cost of a Climate Action Plan may be about $750,000. And there is a need for another general fund subsidy to the downtown parking enterprise due to free parking and reduced rates. In addition to these items, the City Manager will recommend other one-time spending of the estimated remaining $12.2 million available.

City event spending is highly discretionary, so we wanted to provide you with the actual spending for the most recent event along with estimated attendance. For the Winter Village event, the amount presented here is NET of ticket sales.

I must note a last minute correction we received from Parks and Recreation. Actually, I have a couple of them. There was a vendor invoice attributed to both Juneteenth and Fourth of July, but it did include spending for other items as well. Therefore, the slide you see displayed is updated from the one that you received in your agenda packet.

I will also note that the 5K-10K event this weekend is expected to have more than 2,700 participants, which is a significant increase from last year, and I have a correction on that as well. The estimated attendance for last year was approximately 1,600 people, which would result in a cost per participant of $37.47. So it would be helpful to get any City Council direction for event spending, especially considering that general fund revenue is expected to be fairly flat, yet the city does have cost increases in other areas.

The Unfunded Employee Pension Liability Cost Reduction Policy states that the City Council will consider additional discretionary payments towards the pension debt during each annual budget process. As noted previously, our baseline budget includes the same level of pension debt funding as we've had for the last two years. So the question before you tonight that you can provide direction on is, should we include any additional discretionary payments from the $12.2 million of one-time money noted on a previous slide?

At this time, we believe the existing level of pension debt funding is sufficient, and we are not making any staff recommendations to add more.

This is a quick reminder of the overall pension debt strategy approved by City Council. The red line is our existing level of pension debt funding. The yellow bars are required payments to CalPERS, and the gray bars are required bond payments. Staff expects to continue transferring the difference between required payments and the budget to the pension debt stabilization fund so we can afford to make higher payments in future years. Keep in mind that this outlook will change for future years once CalPERS factors in the

6.1% investment loss from FY21-22 and actual investment performance for this year. Through December, CalPERS investment performance is fairly flat, meaning no significant gain or loss on the portfolio. However, the CalPERS numbers presented in this chart assume a 6.8% rate of return on their investments.

As I mentioned previously, based on only two months of data, we are assuming an $8 million cannabis tax revenue reduction. If that assumption holds, then the Cannabis Public Benefit Fund will be upside down by more than $700,000. And the fund balance available for one-time spending would be reduced to less than half a million. We plan to continue to fine-tune this draft budget as we obtain more cannabis tax data. And of course, we welcome any direction from City Council for the Cannabis Public Benefit Fund.

We wanted to give you a heads-up that your 23-24 proposed budget will include the new rent stabilization program, program. This will be accounted for in a separate restricted money fund to be paid for with a new fee. By June, community development staff will bring forward detailed recommendations for the new program. The 2324 proposed budget may also include spending related to the $9 million grant from the state for modernization of the Civic Center. Most of the money will be used for acquisition of the state building at 28 Civic Center Plaza and related costs.

Receipt of the funding will also enable us to fulfill Senator Umberg's request to provide $1.5 million of direct assistance to downtown businesses.

To date, we have received $1.1 million of restricted money from opioid legal settlements. The priority spending restrictions are listed on this slide and include medication, treatment, and prevention activities. Of course, we welcome City Council direction if there is spending preferences in that list of eligible costs.

The next steps in the budget process are listed here. Both of your regular meetings in May will include budget work sessions, May 2nd and 16th. We have also identified May 11th as the date for an optional dedicated workshop. And so of course we would like to hear from City Council if they'd like us to continue to hold May 11th for that special meeting.

That concludes my prepared presentation. We're happy to answer any questions and take direction from the City Council for any spending program, including those not presented this evening. Your direction tonight will help us wrap up the proposed budget for 23-24.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 20

All right. So if you'd like to speak, please let me know. Don't just shout out. So let's, I'll work my way. Councilman Vasquez, comments? Thank you. I can come back to you.

Benjamin VazquezItem 20

Okay.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 20

Anybody want to speak first? Any comments? No? Council members Penelosa?

David PenalozaItem 20

Thank you, Mayor. Thank you, Kat and Christine, and everybody, actually, all of the staff, especially finance. You guys have all been working overtime to get this information put together for us. I've been to a couple of your budget meetings, so I appreciate the thoroughness that you've had at those meetings. One of the, just a couple things that I want to highlight is that I am happy to say that I'm in full agreement with the initial public input that you received. It brings back that emphasis on the core responsibilities of

David PenalozaItem 20

our city. Investing in crime reduction programs, library investments, street maintenance, traffic improvements, improving city parks, and addressing the homeless crisis that has plagued our city for decades. So I'm happy to see that these things are highlighted and that we're paying attention to the residents of the city because this is what I hear every single day is fix our streets, fix our parks, address the homeless issue and library investments, which I'm happy that we're doing. We still got a long ways to go, but I'm happy that these things are in this PowerPoint presentation

David PenalozaItem 20

so that the public understands that we are listening and we are addressing these numerous issues. A couple minor things that I just want to throw out there now that I would like to see as we move forward through this budget process, and I'm hoping that my colleagues would agree, is a couple minor things, particular to our board and commissions at the city. I know I've mentioned this to the city manager before, they currently receive a $50 stipend. I would like to see that doubled to make that $100. It's been $50 for a very long time, and I know that as with the inflation and how tough times are getting, I would hope that we,

David PenalozaItem 20

you know, it's becoming harder and harder for people to want to, it's still, even though it's a 50 bucks stipend or $100, whatever it would be, it's still a volunteer. I don't consider that a pay, and I don't think anyone out there would be doing this for, you know, 50 bucks. I mean, it's not worth the time for, I hear a lot of people wanting to participate, but they see the time commitment. A lot of these meetings go on for hours, and it's getting harder for people to put that time together. So I'd like to see that doubled.

David PenalozaItem 20

like I said 50 to 100 bucks what what we currently offer I would also like to start having that conversation I brought it up before about spay and neutering in our city and I think it could it's when I'm thinking of how can we fund a a program like this to be able to provide low cost vaccination and neutering, reimbursements, whether it's on their dog licensing program or through other ways is, you know, thinking of how often we get these calls for cats

David PenalozaItem 20

and the amount of emails I get regarding, you know, cats that are living on the streets and populating like no other and the code enforcement problem that they're causing, we spend a lot of resources trying to address this issue. We spend a lot of money with the county and their animal control contract that we have with them. I think if we were to start addressing the root cause of this, which is spay and neutering, which a lot of our residents cannot afford, it's pricey. I neutered my dog five years ago, and that was like $400.

David PenalozaItem 20

So I know it can get pricey when you're looking at these things. So I want to see how we could have that conversation of having that in our budget and be able, obviously not for everybody, but if they're, you know, for low-income residents, whoever can qualify, we would try to help and find the way that we could help with that. The other questions I have is with this opioid settlement presentation that you guys showed us. very troubling and I want to make sure that the public sees this proposed settlement with with the opioid by moving forward with this I can guarantee

David PenalozaItem 20

you that homelessness in the city will increase by us taking advantage of the settlement you know we're getting yes 11 million dollars that sounds amazing but we're restricted in what we could use it. And we have to now with these monies, provide these services that are going to bring more homeless to our city and serve as a magnet. One of the things listed on here, and I don't know if Madam City Manager, if you want to address it or not, is one of the bullet points is syringe service programs. We have an ordinance that prohibits the needle exchange programs in our city.

David PenalozaItem 20

And I brought that forward three, four years ago because we saw what a program like that was doing to our libraries, our playgrounds, our parks. And we were seeing hundreds of used syringes littered throughout the city because there was no control over how these needles were being distributed in our community. and now we are you're asking us here one of the options to be able to spend this money is syringe service programs can you help me city manager what exactly

does that mean certainly a council member we're not recommending any of these this is the list what's allowable for those funds so we're just trying to educate you on what you can use the money for we're not saying you should use the money on one or more of these bullets but this is the restrictions that the funds do come with.

David PenalozaItem 20

Okay. I know that, and Madam City Attorney, please throw something at me if I start teetering towards that Brown Act closed session violation, but I know that in the initial memo, one of the options, am I allowed to say one of the options that was?

Jennifer L. HallItem 20

Yeah, to the extent that you're talking about eligible funding, that's not a violation of closed session.

David PenalozaItem 20

One of the options that was listed in the official memo was homelessness, I believe homeless shelters were included as part of that, what we could use, but I don't see that listed on here. So is there a reason why that was omitted?

This list is what, these are the priority action items. So there are more eligible costs, but these are the ones that the settlement terms give priority to. That's all.

David PenalozaItem 20

Okay, so when this comes before us again, when we continue to have this dialogue, I want to make sure that all possible ways where we could spend this money is made public and so that we all know exactly what we could and how much wiggle room we have to spend this money because I would hate to say, yes, send us this money, but now we're stuck offering these services that we've been fighting so hard to control in this city. Because, not because they're bad services or they're bad programs, I want to make sure that the public understands that we're also dealing with the County of Orange

David PenalozaItem 20

and the other 33 plus cities that for, not all of them, I should say 27, that, mainly South County, that have refused for years to provide any of these types of services to the shared responsibility that we all carry. So what happens? Santa Ana, Anaheim, Garden Grove become the only cities in the county that say, hey, Costa Mesa, we'll help. We'll do our share. And that creates this magnet to Central County of all the region's homeless people coming to our cities for services.

David PenalozaItem 20

And we shouldn't carry that burden. And I know we've all said that before, so I want to make sure that that is included. Mayor, that is it for now. There are a couple other staffing issues that I have pertaining to downtown, so I want to make sure that we have this dialogue if we move forward. But for now, that's it. Thank you, Mayor.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 20

Great, thank you. Any other comments?

Valerie AmezcuaItem 20

Councilman Vasquez.

Benjamin VazquezItem 20

Thank you. Thank you, Mayor. I'm looking at the public input, and I'm really happy to see library investments in there. I'm an educator, and I like to see libraries, especially in the area of Ward 2, or accessible to the ward, where children in that area that's really concentrated part of the city, and the needs for library. I mean, we don't all have options or family that goes to college, but I know the students in this area, the young people, are in need of libraries and needing books. I have collected, help, I didn't collect, I didn't do it.

Benjamin VazquezItem 20

Some of my students collected 2,000 books for many libraries from across the city. They're called Libraries for Santana, and they want, Not only do they help the many libraries, they're also wanting more libraries in Santa Ana. And I have all these books in my class, and I'm all kids. Who wants a free book? And they go and pick up books, and they're reading. So books aren't, it's not a thing of the past. Kids are actually picking up, kids that go to Valley High School in Santa Ana love their books. And I love the investment in crime reduction. and it's more gang prevention programs and I would appreciate that we could look like

Benjamin VazquezItem 20

to a group like Kinship that does good work. The Fundy After School programs, the PAL program, the Little Girls were amazing but I'm also, again, looking at something cost effective and I don't know the cost of the PAL program but as long as they're all good, if it's cost effective, I'm good with it. I know I was looking at the city events and I know Noche de Altarez costs $1 per person as opposed to the cost that we have here for like up to $100 a cost per person. There's events that the community puts on that we may be able to support as well.

Benjamin VazquezItem 20

The investment and homeless reduction program, we are all, I think the whole council wants to see some help where we could incorporate housing with the workforce unit and making sure we get people back on their feet when we can help them. And also, as mentioned, with the drug use as well. City parks is always an added bonus to Santana. We need more green spaces, so I would greatly appreciate more green parks.

Benjamin VazquezItem 20

and that's uh oh also we can have do we have a city liaison to the school district just because of the resources that we have and the great work that you do in the city if those resources are connected to the school and the face i mean ms amuesqua opened up face health centers and and has one center at every school and she's a community organizer at the school and if we could connect somebody to them to get us all the resources that we have here to get to them would be great because the the school district

Benjamin VazquezItem 20

should be a partner of ours and we should be well connected and funneling the resources to there especially through that program that we have at

Valerie AmezcuaItem 20

Sinai Unified. Thank you. Thank you Councilman Vasquez. Anybody else? Councilman Hernandez.

Johnathan Ryan HernandezItem 20

Thank you, Mayor Mesquo. Thank you, Catherine Downs, for the presentation. It's always a good day when we're having a conversation about investing in our community. So, I want to thank my colleague, Councilmember Peñalosa. Many of our residents have reached out to my office, residents in Ward 5, and they share concerns about properties that have large amounts of cats that are living in and around the premises, and they don't have owners, and that's heartbreaking. These are beautiful animals.

Johnathan Ryan HernandezItem 20

So I am supportive of seeing us fund a trap and release program for animals. I know that's something that we used to fund back in the day. I also am supportive of us funding and providing vouchers for families to get their pets vaccinated and neutered or spayed. I know that is a program that we formerly had here in Santa Ana. I'm supportive of that. As we talk about the growing demand of services, I want to thank our library director, Brian Sternberg, for his out-of-the-box thinking. And Brian recently at Garfield opened our first teen center.

Johnathan Ryan HernandezItem 20

He shortly then after brought the Teen Center to El Salvador Park and this exciting collaborative collaboration that combines parks and open space and libraries and STEM and reading that helps us re-envision how do we serve our communities and combine libraries and community centers so I would actually like to see us allocate funding to create a youth center that would be modeled after what Mr. Brian Sternberg has created in the teen center but I would imagine an entire center that is devoted to young people I would also like to see more senior centers throughout our city I'm very fortunate

Johnathan Ryan HernandezItem 20

that in Ward 5 we have a senior center but there is a growing demand for seniors Santa Ana is a multi-generational community where people who own homes here very few very rarely do they sell them so it's important that we prepare ourselves for the future something that I have been hearing in my district is seniors have advocated to see more breakfast programs breakfast programs that are not just on wheels but breakfast programs that have a home so I would propose to see it would have been great to see a collaboration a a public-private partnership between entities that are in the neighborhood.

Johnathan Ryan HernandezItem 20

But if we can, I think a shift would be utilizing some of our community centers as some breakfast programs for seniors and families. Furthermore, I would like to support the community's demands to fund Fiestas Patrias. I know we already have it on our budget. I'd like to support their demands to bring it back to downtown Santa Ana. I have also met with merchants in downtown Santa Ana who have shared that the Noche de Altares event is an event that is important to the thread of Santa Ana. There are residents and businesses, and this is one of those events where I had people on every single side tell me,

Johnathan Ryan HernandezItem 20

this event needs to stay in downtown Santa Ana. And more importantly, they wanted El Centro Cultural to be the organization that is spearheading it. They were the founders of the Noche de Altares event, so I support the community's demands to see it in downtown. I also want to place emphasis on our public works department. I would like to see funding for public works. Director Nabil Saba has done a tremendous job, not only ensuring that our streets are paved, our sidewalks are clean, but now he's in charge of maintaining parks. So having robust funding there is an essential service.

Johnathan Ryan HernandezItem 20

Some streets that are going to require attention in Ward 5 are going to be Wight Street between Civic Center and Washington. Fifth Street between Wight and Fairview. The streetcar impacted residents in Articia Pilar. Much of the attention came to the downtown Sanana area. but residents who live by La Placita Cinco are impacted by construction and debris and so this is a street that desperately needs to be repaved it's the only one that hasn't been fixed so it would be important for us to get that done maybe that's a conversation that we include octa in

Johnathan Ryan HernandezItem 20

perhaps that could be an area of opportunity for collaboration I also want to highlight civic center we have our city hall this is the center of Orange County we need to fix civic center from Bristol all the way down to flower that street is badly cracked it presents a lot of mobility issues for drivers and it is the center of the county if there's a street that should be a shining example of what Santa Ana looks like it's got to be civic center or as many residents back in the day knew it guy 8 I also want to place an emphasis on on investing in

Johnathan Ryan HernandezItem 20

youth we are the youngest city in Orange County per capita age 13 to 24 last year youth reached out to us here at the City Council asking for us to fund the Catalina trip that we used to fund it's important that we support youth and meet them where they're at I would like to see the City Council fund the Catalina youth excursion trip and bring it back that would be monumental I would like to see our parks and recreation department see the largest increase that they've ever had this department has made leaps and bounds in our neighborhoods they are preventing crime by proactively keeping our parks lit and providing programming

Johnathan Ryan HernandezItem 20

more than I've ever seen so we have a director for the first time that is very grassroots and believes in funding these activities so we need to keep them busy let's get them more funding for teen excursions last year kids went to Knott's Berry farm kids went to San Diego Zoo this is how our dollars should be working if we want to keep our streets safe give kids places where they can be kids I also want to further the comments and the advocacy from Councilmember Vasquez to see more library funding Brian Sternberg is a blessing to our city we need to get that man as much funding for his department as possible

Johnathan Ryan HernandezItem 20

so I know that we have and kudos to councilmember Penalosa for Delhi you know being the host to the library let's get that organization some funding let's get the funding over to our library director to make sure that Delhi is equipped and well-funded I want to make sure that I also touch base on parks and recreation and thinking out of the box I would like to see our parks and recreation department elaborate their their partnerships with community a good example would be our parks and recreation department is

Johnathan Ryan HernandezItem 20

uniquely tasked to address intervention and prevention very much they are one of the most effective leaders of it in our community. I think it would be transformative for Parks and Rec in our community centers to partner with nonprofit organizations that do address violence, domestic violence, sexual violence, and crime and gang violence. To partner with nonprofits like Project Kinship, Underground Grit, Neutral Ground, and to have a community interventionist at our community centers and a community health worker. Two different areas of focus, one being health,

Johnathan Ryan HernandezItem 20

one committed to addressing issues, the other being a community health worker that focuses on violence intervention, case management. These are nonprofits that are already working in our community. What a beautiful bridge that we can build. So I would like to see funding so that we can get that done. This completes my first round of comments. Thank you.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 20

Thank you. Any other comments? Yes, Council Member Fenn.

Thai Viet PhanItem 20

Thank you, Mayor. Great job with the staff. I know I sent you several emails as I normally do. I do want to say that I was at one of the public input kind of workshops and that was really wonderful and showing residents how to use the tools. I look forward to seeing even more responses. I also want to say that with these top five areas that residents want us to focus on, we're actually focusing on. Yeah, I see Madam City Manager nodding her head and it's because it's true. We talk about investing in homeless reduction programs. We, I believe, spend more money than any

Thai Viet PhanItem 20

other city as we heard with Mr. Gominski who said we have more wraparound services affordable housing projects to support those who are homeless more than any other city in the county and we continue to do our job in that space city parks you know first bullet city should acquire vacant lots properties to expand existing parks and create new parks and dog parks i believe right we have items that were on neural property negotiation we had a congress member who has dedicated his policies and work to helping the city expand our parks and public open space,

Thai Viet PhanItem 20

which is, I think, monumental because at the end of the day, we talk pretty much every meeting about how we're so park poor and there's nowhere else to grow or get more open space. And this is an opportunity for us to get open space. And I look forward to working with all of our legislators for that as well as property parks maintenance we are getting new restrooms I'm just really excited about that so I want to support those priorities similarly with the crime reduction programs we are we have voted to expand pal I do agree that we have more crime prevention programs but I do know many are in the

Thai Viet PhanItem 20

pipeline including our graffiti arts program and other work for funding after school and educational programs for youth I recently spoke at Los Amigos High School which is in the garden of Unified School District and most of their students are from Santa Ana and I would like for us not only to work with Santa Ana Unified School District which has a 1 billion dollar budget that's B like you know Austin Powers which is pretty much you know almost three times the size of our general fund budget and so I would like to see that they continue to expand those after-school programs rather than

Thai Viet PhanItem 20

have after-school programs have to sell fireworks to fund student activities. I support continued street maintenance. I know that we've allocated additional funding for potholes, the rain, and so just with that I also want to say thanks to staff. I'm seeing those additional clean streets trash cans. I urge our residents to use them more often more frequently and I look forward to them getting emptied out more often but it is really nice to see them as we're walking and libraries I know we just you know approved another 439,000 for another

Thai Viet PhanItem 20

bookmobile we are expanding new are we're investing in New Hope library and others so just great job overall y'all as to some of the other items I also want to talk about the opioid program because I was looking that so the items that you have listed for the opioid settlement are items that are given priority but I believe that under the settlement provisions we can also prioritize populations that are mostly affected by this so I think that might be where my colleague might have mentioned homelessness and whatnot

Thai Viet PhanItem 20

because they are more affected by these programs. Of this list, I do understand my colleagues' concern. However, we are already doing these services, but we are using our general fund dollars. And so if we are going to get free money, I'm not going to say no to that. And I'd like for us to focus on opioid treatment programs.

Thai Viet PhanItem 20

Fun fact, those treatment programs do not have to be in Santa Ana. If the treatment program is in L.A., If it's in Rancho Palos Verdes, if it's in Riverside, folks can be sent there with this money to get treatment for drug addiction, opioid addiction. I think that would be a wonderful use of it. Our officers are trained to use naloxone to prevent harm to them as well as anyone that they encounter who might be overdosing on opioids. Right, it is very expensive, and we have to have that. It is a dangerous situation out there and they have to have that in case it is needed

Thai Viet PhanItem 20

and we being able to use or pay for that is also going to increase public safety. And then finally, we can use this for treatment of those who are incarcerated. And it is, it's a sad state that the largest drug treatment program in America is prison.

Thai Viet PhanItem 20

And that just makes it really sad. And so I would like to see us help those in our jails get access to these treatments because they are already there. As to comments that my colleagues made with the event spending, I fully am in support of Council Member Hernandez's support. And I just want to reiterate, it was my first time last year and it was amazing. I felt like I was at a concert and it was just really cool to see that community, our community

Thai Viet PhanItem 20

come together and our neighbors come together and I would love to see that in downtown. I would love to see us continue to invest in that because it does draw so many people. I mean, 60,000 is bigger than many cities in the County of Orange. I also want to see us further invest in Chicano heritage. I had the opportunity to learn more about that last year and attend the event and I think 6,000 was a small number because I expect this year to probably be one and a half to two times even more. So I'd like for us to invest in that. I would also like to

Thai Viet PhanItem 20

invest and continue to invest in the Mid-Autumn Festival for our first time, the first ever Asian American Heritage event sponsored by the city. I was so impressed by our relationship with our community members, especially AACSC, who really partnered with us and brought in a lot of free entertainment, or at least nominal cost

Thai Viet PhanItem 20

entertainment, and I would like to see it bigger. I think one of the things I was most proud of is I think that we were expecting 1,500 people, maybe 1,000, and we had over three times that. But I do have concerns, and I would like to hear from my colleagues. You know, some of these costs are very high per head, and I want to see how we can work better with the community. Maybe it is going to be more advantageous for us to just support an event that is already happening or find some way to fund an event that is already being done by the community.

Thai Viet PhanItem 20

So, for example, Indigenous Peoples Day, I was here last year for a portion of the event, and I completely understand the need to celebrate Indigenous people here in the city. But also, we're looking at the costs. How do we spend money in a way that is going to benefit as many people as possible and educate as many people as possible? And, you know, I would like to really look at that. similarly I think our Juneteenth event was just something that I think our council was very proud of to have and I know this year is on the way but I again

Thai Viet PhanItem 20

just looking at the costs and in comparison to many of the other events those are my two items that I'd like to see how do we maybe it's just funding a third party OC Heritage Cal or something where maybe that might be easier to do and more cost effective for the city overall and I think those are my comments for now thank you appreciate it thank you any other comments

Phil BacerraItem 20

thank you madam mayor well I just want to say thank you to staff for continuing to do what our mission says and every time we begin these discussions about the budget i read it out loud because i think it's important for us for us all to keep this in mind to deliver efficient public services in partnership with our community which ensures public safety a prosperous economic environment opportunities for our youth and a high quality of life for our residents so i appreciate the continued investment in our streets and our sidewalks um since we're all kind of talking about all these items we'd like to see money spent on i

Phil BacerraItem 20

I guess I'll jump in and say, well, for Ward 4, I'd like to see some improvements on traffic signals. I know not the sexiest item to request, but there are two, no, I'm sorry, three intersections where we desperately need some left turn signals. And I'm sure PD can verify that as they're constantly there having to clean up accidents. That would be Flower and Segerstrom, Flower and MacArthur, and Raitt and Segerstrom. Also, I know that I would not be able to live it down if I didn't mention the traffic signal over there at Segertstrom Avenue or Republic Homes.

Phil BacerraItem 20

That is something that is absolutely being demanded of me. So I would be remiss not to mention that. And then also, too, when we talk about policing, and I will say this, if we have to go through it with a fine-tooth comb to make it happen, then so be it but we need to start with community specific police staffing we need that so i'm i'm going to say that when we look at the budget i'm going to be looking to see how that's allocated so just keep that in mind but i can go on for another hour talking about all the wonderful things that i would like all the wish lists you know it's like we're on a reality show you know

Phil BacerraItem 20

if you had a million dollars how would you spend it or or in this case 600 million dollars right But the reality is, as you showed in some of those projections, we're seeing a potential fee increase. So what you showed on there was a potential 4.1% fee increase. What I'd like to see is how we can mitigate that by controlling our spending. Again, that's not fun. I mean, it sounds way more fun to talk about new parks and new this and new that. But the reality is we probably should tighten our belts because we're going to have to tighten them even more as we start to see the sunset of Measure X and other things.

Phil BacerraItem 20

So I hate to be Debbie Downer, but that's just the reality we need to face. It can't all be cutting ribbons on new things. Sometimes we need to just be good fiscal stewards. So cannabis tax rates, I, along with the council, supported reducing them. I'm looking forward to seeing what the projections show as far as where those rates will go. But if they need to be increased, so be it. Again, not something popular to say, but I'm very proud of the fact that we were trying to be one of the most competitive, if not the beacon for when it came to being cannabis friendly with our establishments, our sales here in Santa Ana.

Phil BacerraItem 20

But at the same time, we need to provide these essential services for our residents. And so I'll be looking at the projections that staff provides when it comes to that. I want to thank Council Member Penaloza for bringing up the opioid settlement spending. And yes, thankfully, we do have an ordinance on the books that prohibits any sort of injection sites here or any sort of needle distributions here in Santa Ana. So with that spending, I do want to be very cautious so that we don't attract more than what others are doing.

Phil BacerraItem 20

In fact, what I would ask staff to do as a follow-up on that item is I'd like to know for other cities, because from what I was told was that there are other Orange County cities that have accepted this settlement money, so I'd like to know how they're spending it as well. And then, not to be a complete Debbie Downer, but I'll end it on a positive note, which is, you know, one thing that we should be talking about up here, in addition to how we're going to spend money, is how we can grow revenue. And one thing I would like to do, and this may seem pie in the sky, but I'm going to call it an observation deck in the sky,

Phil BacerraItem 20

and that is, I would like to look at putting an observation deck around our iconic water tower. You know, I'm very proud of the fact that when, yes, Nabil, I said that, and when we were looking at digital billboards to litter that thing, that would have been, I'm sorry Nabil, it just would have been a terrible idea to have those digital billboards up there. But we have such a beautiful city and I would just like to know, again, I would like staff to look at how much that could cost and I would look at that to see how that could be a revenue generator. I think it's something that would be a positive beacon

Phil BacerraItem 20

for the city. And I think it's something to at least look into what the investment cost is. I know that we talked about some one-time funds. Let's see if we can make that a reality. I think that would be an amazing, amazing feature for our city. Something that I think people would come from all around and spend their money here in Santa Ana. So with that, those are my comments right now. Thank you, Madam Mayor. Thank you.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 20

It's almost 11 o'clock. We're going to go back into closed session. Any final comments? And then I'll close out. Yeah, one too. Go ahead, Mayor.

Jessie LopezItem 20

So, well, thanks to South for all the work that you've done. I think in the future I would like to see, and this is like way in the future, maybe surveys that don't necessarily have pre formulated responses so the community can really tell folks or all or choices I should say what they what they want and a my comments are gonna be super high level because I want to see the numbers that come back next month I don't feel great about our position now and I don't know that it's going to get any better unfortunately I remember in

Jessie LopezItem 20

2021 when I looked at the updated 10-year outlook I don't recall the gap being this this it wasn't right so this is not a good position fiscally for us and so that really worries me and sure every single member of this council and I would want to discuss maybe offline with staff what are the options that we can begin to discuss or implement or give to our community to decide on because this is not sustainable and we're in the red for so many years and that's a conversation that

Jessie LopezItem 20

our residents need to be a part of and that they need to be aware of.

Jessie LopezItem 20

I wanted to know from the general fund, you know, it's really unfortunate that we have to you know account one million dollars for for really for a for a vengeful political effort that is happening that is being imposed on our residents and I really hope that folks here pay attention to that because that's a million dollars that is not going to go into our parks into renovating our bathrooms and to renovating our sidewalks potholes all the things that you hear up here that you're hearing up here talk about right that's a million dollars that is being taken away from our community and so i hope that that

Jessie LopezItem 20

changes but if it doesn't then that's something that the taxpayers of the city are going to have to pay for unfortunately the other issue i wanted to address was i wanted to get more information on the current contract that we have with the county in terms of animal control or neutering services because if we have if we're paying them if we're giving them money I want to understand what is it that we're getting in return how is it that Santa Ana res how many Santa Ana residents have taken advantage of that service and and how do we make sure that people understand that that is

Jessie LopezItem 20

something we're already paying for how would that be different than us you know paying for a neutering service and I believe that the current service now

falls under PD is that correct no mayor pro tem it's under the planning and planning department and our contract is kind of a shared we do certain aspects of it and then we do contract with the county more for just the sheltering

Jessie LopezItem 20

services oh just a shelter okay and how can you confirm how many employees are

with planning total number for the department or yeah for animal control

to oh just in animal control yeah that we have in our city I believe it's just a handful but let me get the right number for you too okay and then can you send

Jessie LopezItem 20

me information on how many calls you receive because I was Fisher Park Residence Express a staff knows in their community budget that the note that they know that there's only two employees and that they there was an incident and it took two days for them to get support because I think it may default to PD an officer showed up there was an incident with like coyotes and babies on a premise and so they're really they have asked me to ask my peers and staff to consider you know expanding that that service and making sure that we hire

Jessie LopezItem 20

more folks because we had a really huge coyote issue in our area and we have a cat issue as well and so we just want to make sure that when people are calling there's somebody that can assist them then in there that is aware of the laws that we don't our residents are having to call state agencies like the wild like wild fish I probably said that wrong but you know what I mean

Jessie LopezItem 20

yes thank you also on the opioid settlement you know I when I think about this and when I hear people talk about the opioid crisis I think about you know people's lives and the reason why politicians are talking about this now or passing resolutions or whatnot it's because people are losing their lives parents are losing their kids and kids are losing their parents to addiction and so for me these are options these are possibilities these are choices and

Jessie LopezItem 20

And if we can be given money to invest in preventative programs, that would be great. It doesn't mean that it has to be for one or the other. But for me, the framing here is how do we help save people's lives? Because people are dying from this addiction. And as Ken said, the majority of people are very young. And so that is an issue that if we do not, if we are not proactive on, we are only going to see increase in property crime. We are only going to see an increase in homelessness because we always hear it, right?

Jessie LopezItem 20

The majority of people in our city that are here that are service resistant are because they're dependent on substance abuse. So to me, it is not an option to say no thank you to more than a million dollars. we have to solve a problem and say okay we're gonna have this money how do we use it for good how do we use it how do we invest it and in solutions that are data driven and that are going to give us positive results so that's that on

Jessie LopezItem 20

on the opioid payment but again very high level I'm gonna be more comfortable going into details or making ask of staff in May once we actually understand what the budget number is going to look like because it is my understanding that it may be lowered because of the applicants that are in the cannabis pipeline now that are trying to comply with our social equity plan. So again, thank you for the information and we'll see what it looks like in May.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 20

Thank you. Any final comments and then I'll close out. Go ahead, Councilman Hernandez.

Johnathan Ryan HernandezItem 20

Thank you, Mayor Mesquah. My final comments I wanted to just touch on once before I touch on the opioid settlement. I wanted to advocate and inform my colleagues that the Santa Ana Stadium is a staple here in Santa Ana. However, we do not have the proper equipment in-house in our city. We do not own equipment to be able to host a boxing match or a concert, which could generate revenue regularly for us. It is costly for us to find the materials to cover the surface.

Johnathan Ryan HernandezItem 20

So I would like to indulge my colleagues here to fund the cover so that we can have live sporting events, live concerts, and generate revenue at the Santa Ana Stadium. I know that we have a lot of other people who I'm sure would love to use it. This would be a great generator for the city. So I would like to see us include some dialogue with our Parks and Rec Director, Hawk Scott, to see what that figure looks like and bring it back to the council, and then we can all discuss. I would also like to see funding allocated for Birch Park. Birch Park is in downtown.

Johnathan Ryan HernandezItem 20

Many families who live in that area have felt for many years uncomfortable going to that park due to the lack of investment that we have seen. We do have a senior center which is thriving, but when it comes to children and younger families, it's not a place that has been frequented. So I would like to see a significant investment in Birch Park. I know that the city of Santa Ana owns the carousel that used to formerly be at the Yost Theater. I would love to see the carousel be brought back to Birch Park.

Johnathan Ryan HernandezItem 20

That would be something that kids would love, and it is a staple in Santa Ana. It's legendary. There's a book about it, too. Shout out to Libromobile. But that carousel would be historic. I also would like to support the seniors that are there. I would love to see us install similar to Central Park tables for chess where you can sit and two people can engage in a game of chess. That would be the only park that has that amenity. It is a park that is frequented by older people. So I talked to seniors in my district and they said, hey, we would like to play chess there. We would love to do it outdoors.

Johnathan Ryan HernandezItem 20

So what a great start. Number two is I did have the pleasure of meeting with our Parks and Rec Director and introducing him to the Magic, Inc. organization, which is in the downtown neighborhood, and they operate at the Angels Park, which is off of Flower Street. For the last 13 years, the Magic, Inc. organization has hosted the Santa Ana Family Day Festival. It is a day where they provide over 15 jumpers to kids. They provide warm food, free backpacks, haircuts, and resources. This is an event that is not put on by the city.

Johnathan Ryan HernandezItem 20

It is hosted at Angels Park. I would like to ask my colleagues that this should be an event that we fund. Angels Park is owned by San An Unified, but it is maintained by our Parks and Rec. So this would be a great event that has already been part of the thread of that community. For us to fund it just means that Santa Ana is investing in children and families. Number three is I want to see more funding in sports programming for Parks and Rec. I would like to see a diversity in sports. This is the first time I have seen adult programming, so I'd like to see more adult programming

Johnathan Ryan HernandezItem 20

for families to be able to play kickball, softball, et cetera. But I would like to see some diversity in sports programming. I would like to see us expand and have more boxing centers. I would like to see us expand into wrestling. We are a community that has had many Olympians. Jesse Ruiz is an Olympian from Santa Ana Valley who represented us in the 2012 London Olympic Games. and he's a product of Santa Ana Valley. His name was Jesse Ruiz and he was the only heavyweight wrestler representing us at the Olympics. And he was the last Olympian to represent us. So there are Olympians in our backyard who wrestled and medaled

Johnathan Ryan HernandezItem 20

who would love to make themselves available to help our youth. We have Gilbert Melendez, 12-time mixed martial arts world champion who fought in the sport of MMA. And he's a product of Santa Ana High School. He went to the Bay Area for college. I would love to see some mixed martial arts programs here. Tito Ortiz is also a world championship fighter. Politics aside, his roots are here in Santa Ana. So Santa Ana is a place that produces champions. We need to see more diversity in sports programming. And I also want to advocate for more arts funding. I would like to see arts funding be brought back to the council.

Johnathan Ryan HernandezItem 20

We recently invested in the mural restoration program as well as the Graffiti Arts program, and there seems to be a buzz there. I would like to see that expanded into seeing more beat-making programs that include the elements of hip-hop. I know that Parks and Rec currently has a beat-making class, so perhaps expanding that into different community centers based off of the demographic. If there's a need that says, hey, we want it here at ours, bring it to the council. I'm sure the community would love to see that. And the last thing I'm touching on is the opioid crisis.

Johnathan Ryan HernandezItem 20

Each of us here are equally concerned about what is happening in our backyard. And there are people who are losing their life. And we need to have an evidence-based strategy with how we roll out our money that we will be receiving for the opioid settlements. So I would like to state that I am supportive of an evidence-based strategy for preventing opioid overdoses. That is why I am going to support that our city purchase naloxone or similar products.

Johnathan Ryan HernandezItem 20

Having a targeted naloxone distribution, naloxone is a non-addictive, life-saving drug that reverses the effects of an opioid overdose when it's administered in time. Targeted Noxalone distribution programs can help us train and it can equip individuals who are most likely to encounter or witness an overdose. Effective ways for us to roll out an evidence-based strategy would be for us to provide Noxalone distribution in treatment centers and as well as in criminal justice settings, jails that are throughout the county.

Johnathan Ryan HernandezItem 20

I would also like to see that in organizations that are providing reentry services like Project Kinship, Underground Grit, Neutral Ground. I also am supportive of treatment for pregnant and postpartum women. I see that that is included here. I am also supportive of the Warm Handoff and Recovery Programs. Those are programs that help with reentry. Organizations like Neutral Ground and Project Kinship are in their backyard and they do great work.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 20

Councilman Hernandez, are you almost done?

Johnathan Ryan HernandezItem 20

Yes, Mayor Mesquah. Thank you. This is an important and passionate subject.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 20

I know, we're just going to be, we're going to have lots of conversations.

Johnathan Ryan HernandezItem 20

I understand. But this is a subject that I have to treat with the attention it deserves. I hope that you guys bear with me here. I also want to support the treatment for those incarcerated. We are a community that is impacted by recidivism. It is one of the leading contributions to homelessness in Orange County. So we need to have treatment for those who are formerly incarcerated or justice impacted. And then lastly, prevention programs. That concludes my comments, Mayor. Thank you.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 20

Thank you very much. Quickly, two seconds, because then I'm done.

Phil BacerraItem 20

Significantly less than my predecessor. I just actually want to echo his support for improvements to the Santa Ana Stadium. I think that by doing that, that would actually help us generate revenue. by adding more seats on the north side of the stadium, we could host more CIF championship games. I think it just opens up the possibilities for that venue. We're surprisingly a large venue, but we're just outside that range to where we could be even more attractive on a regional level. So I'd like to see a little bit investment in there. And Mayor Mascot, that is it. I have a question. This is, I'm sorry?

Valerie AmezcuaItem 20

I hungry. One question.

Benjamin VazquezItem 20

Okay. So thank you. And then that's it. I appreciate it. Okay, go ahead. Was the survey given out in Spanish and Vietnamese? You took my thunder. Oh, sorry. Let her ask you. Go ahead. No, go ahead.

Benjamin VazquezItem 20

Oh, perfect. Thank you very much. Can you email me the links to those? Thank you.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 20

All right. So similar to what Councilman Vasquez says, I don't want just the link. I actually want to see the data that you received. I'm sure most of my colleagues up here would also like to see it. It says you had 796 responses. So if you can put that in the email, I'd love to see that, please. So I'm going to be kind of brief because I know we're going to have lots of budget meetings. And this is my first time. and it's a little different at the school district when you're dealing with a billion dollar budget compared to our budget, right? And so, but there are some things here that I'm very concerned about.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 20

I'm very glad that Mayor Pro Tem Lopez brought up the updated 10-year outlook, because we do have to keep that in mind as we're asking for all these things and all these events and parks, and we do need things and I represent the entire city I don't just represent an area but we do need to be very mindful of that and so I'm hoping that my colleagues up here will be very mindful of the 10-year outlook because today it looks great two years from now it may not five years from now it may not and

Valerie AmezcuaItem 20

some of you city manager you've been doing this quite some time and and And Catherine, I don't know how long, but probably you know, it kind of goes up, but all of a sudden it dips hard. And then we're sitting up here having a special meeting talking about how are we going to deal with these financial issues. And I've had to do that at the school district, whether it was layoffs or other things, it's not a comfortable feeling. So I do like the input from the public, more gang prevention programs, expansion of PAL. As you know, I'm full support of that.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 20

So regarding the after school programs and the educational programs for the youth, I just really want to quickly say, please work with Santa Unified and Garden Grove Unified School District. I don't know the budget of Garner Grove Unified, but we should not be on the hook to have after-school programs that the school district already has. They have Engage 360, and they've expanded it, and so they can afford it, and therefore we should be asking them to expand their after-school programs so that we can use our funds for other areas like fixing our streets and potholes and whatnot. I think that's really important.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 20

And I'm also going to be looking at requesting additional police officers for our city since we do need, I think the last count was 33 of them. But not just for the 33 positions, but increasing the incentive that we're offering. Because other cities, as we've talked about, are offering anywhere from $75,000 to $20,000 to housing options. You know, some are offering, you know, apartments for them to stay in so they don't have to drive home all the way to Victorville when they're working here in Santa Ana.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 20

They can sleep for a little bit and it's safe to drive after you've been off shift for a little while. So there's a way to get creative and think out of the box. And so I know City Manager has sent an email about a plan on how we can recruit more officers and how we can increase our incentive for that. Because we can't compete with people who are offering, you know, $50,000, $60,000 to come work for them. We just can't compete with that. I also think it's very important that we hire additional code enforcement officers because they're small and mighty, and they do a lot.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 20

and they kind of just stay in the background and really don't make a lot of noise, but they're very important to our city. I know I used them a lot when I was working. We'd go into a house and we needed them and they would come rolling out, two or three of them, sometimes more. And then we have the issues now where they're working with the county because I don't think it's our responsibility to address the food vendors. We assist the county. That's key here. We assist the county with the taco pop-ups or whatever other food vendor the county is dealing with.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 20

And that's costing our city overtime. And I haven't even asked. I'm sure there's a lot of overtime. And so not that they don't want to work, but it's just that we don't want to overwork them so much where they burn out. And so I think it's very important to look at code enforcement as well as additional police officers. I'm very supportive of gang prevention programs. I think that's very important. There were some things that were mentioned up here, and I'm not gonna go through my whole list because I know we're gonna have multiple meetings, but city manager, I also want to look at the expansion of the Discovery Cube.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 20

That is something that I think is very important. It's a wonderful place in our city, and there's some properties around that maybe we can look at to expand the Discovery Cube. It may cost a little bit of money, but I'm sure you can get creative and figure out how to do that, hopefully. Crossing guards. They cost us about $6 million for the very few that we have. And again, I would say please go. I reached out, as we had talked about, to the superintendent and the board president. I never got a response back. And so the city pays $6 million for a handful of crossing guards.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 20

I mean, how many do we have? Does anybody know the exact number?