Read the May 2 meeting.

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Valerie Amezcua

Madam Clerk, please start the meeting. Yes, Mayor, go ahead, please. I hereby call the 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 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 a roll call.

Jennifer L. Hall

Council Member Becerra?

David Penaloza

Here.

Jennifer L. Hall

Council Member Penaloza?

David Penaloza

Present.

Sonia R. Carvalho

Council Member Fan? Here. Council Member Vasquez? Present. Mayor Pro Tem Lopez? Here. Mayor Mesquilla? Here. Six members present. Great. Thank you so much. Madam Clerk, are there any additions or deletions to the closed session agenda? Yes, the City Attorney has an announcement to make. Great. Thank you. City Attorney? Mayor and Council Members, on occasion under the Brown Act, we come to you and ask you to add an item. We usually refer to these as late breaking items. Under the law, we can ask you to add an item. If the item came up after the posting of the agenda,

Sonia R. Carvalho

as in this case it did. We posted our agenda on Tuesday and this item came up on Thursday. And then whether there's a need to take an immediate action. We believe there is a need to take immediate action to preserve our position in this case. So we would ask you to add as a matter of existing litigation the case of City of Santa Ana versus Dyer 18 LLC. We will provide all the pertinent information to the clerk so it can be listed in the minutes. You would need to take this action. We need a motion to add, a second, and we need five of you to vote to add the item. I'll move that we add it. I'll move that we add it.

Valerie Amezcua

I'll move. I'll make a motion. I'll move that we add it. No second?

Thai Viet Phan

No. Because it is the Dyer 18 LLC, I'm sorry, I did not know about this item. I believe that they are a client of my employer, Rattan and Tucker, so I will recuse myself for this vote and any other discussion in closed session relating to it. I will leave the Dias for that. Thank you.

David Penaloza

I'll second Council Member Becerra's motion to add it.

Valerie Amezcua

Great. Thank you. Please cast your votes at this time. City Clerk, will you do a roll call, please?

Jennifer L. Hall

Yes. Council Member Becerra?

Phil Bacerra

Yes.

Jennifer L. Hall

Council Member Penaloza?

Valerie Amezcua

Yes.

Jennifer L. Hall

Council Member Vasquez? Yes. Mayor Pro Tem Lopez? Yes. Mayor Mescilla? Yes. Okay. Vote is five ayes. Noted recusal by Council Member Fan and an absence by Council Member Hernandez. Motion carries. Item is added to the closed session agenda.

Valerie Amezcua

And thank you for recording the council member tie. So closed session we discussed that. She'll need to recuse yourself. Madam Clerk, do we have any speakers for closed session items?

Jennifer L. Hall

We do not.

Valerie Amezcua

Great. Thank you. We'll now recess this portion of the meeting to consider the items on closed session. Thank you.

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Valerie Amezcua

Thank you. I hereby call the regular open 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 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 roll call.

Jennifer L. Hall

Councilmember Becerra?

Phil Bacerra

Here.

Jennifer L. Hall

Councilmember Hernandez? Councilmember Penaloza?

David Penaloza

Present.

Jennifer L. Hall

Councilmember Pham? Here. Councilmember Vasquez?

David Penaloza

Present.

Jennifer L. Hall

Mayor Pro Tem Lopez? Here. Mayor Emescua? Present. Six members present in the chamber. Thank you so much. Madam Clerk, before we receive the Pledge of Allegiance, please make an announcement. Yes, for those members of the public joining us on Zoom, to request to speak during public comments on the agenda or non-agenda items within the city's jurisdiction, please dial star 9 from your phone or click the button labeled raise hand from zoom at this time thank you thank

Valerie Amezcua

you very much the first item on the agenda is the pledge of allegiance will be followed by the words of inspiration offered by cherry lie so you all please stand in pledge of allegiance i see mr carl benninger would you like to lead us in the pledge of allegiance sir you want to come up to

the mic please. Hands to your heart, follow me. 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 with liberty and justice for all. Thank you.

Valerie Amezcua

Words of inspiration, please share it. Thank you.

Mayor and members of the City Council, my name is Cherry Lai. I'm a volunteer with the Tzu-ji Buddhist Foundation Orange County Service Center. Today I would like to share with you one of Tzu-ji's main teachings, which is great love knows no boundaries. When we think of love, we often think of the kind of love that's very personal, like the love between a mother and a child, between friends or partners in life. But love is so much more than that. Love is a force that can connect people from all walks of life, and it knows no bounds. In 1966, our master, Zhen Yan, was inspired to establish the Buddhist Tzu-Zi Foundation

when she saw a woman who was unable to receive medical treatment due to a lack of funds. This touched the Venerable Master's heart and inspired her to adopt the principle of when others are hurt, we feel their pain. When others are suffering, we feel their sorrow, which led to the practice of great love knows no boundaries.

Why do we humans need to have class distinctions? Why do we humans need to discriminate based on the color of one's skin? Why can't we see people as human beings and humans only and not for the labels that society might place on them? It is true that we are all different in one way or another. It is also true that we all have different directions and purposes in life. However, this does not mean that great love is unattainable. Master Zhenyan teaches us that with courage, determination, intention, gratitude, and wisdom, we can have universal love for all sentient beings. We can have the love

the reach across cultural, racial, and socioeconomic divides to connect us with people from all kinds of backgrounds. Of course, it is without a doubt that loving someone who's different from us can be challenging at times. We might not always understand their experiences or perspective, and we may even find ourselves feeling uncomfortable or uncertain. However, if we can push past these initial barriers and allow ourselves to truly connect with the other person, great love is not impossible. Love does not, love does have the power to change the world. When we love without boundaries, we create a more

accepting and compassionate society. We become more willing to give happiness to others while alleviating their sufferings. When we become more understanding of others, our horizon broadens. We become more and more unwilling to judge someone based on their differences, but instead to embrace them for who they are. This This means for us to treat everyone with kindness and respect, no matter where they come from or what they believe in. Therefore, let us open our hearts and minds in cultivating the great love that knows no boundaries that transcends race, gender, religion, or any other differences that we might have,

and see the world through a lens of universal acceptance, loving kindness, and compassion. Let us join our hands and our hearts in creating a world where love truly knows no boundary. Thank you.

Valerie Amezcua

Thank you so very much.

Valerie Amezcua

Thank you.

Jennifer L. Hall

Madam Clerk, are there any additions or deletions to the City Council agenda? Yes, Mayor, just two clarifications. One is an update to the second presentation to declare May 2023 clarifying as Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month. and then as well the removal of the AB1234 disclosure as the city did not pay for Mayor Pro Tem Lopez's attendance at the Nileo Policy Institute.

Valerie Amezcua

Great, thank you. At this point, let's do the recognitions, please. Mayor, I messed with myself, yeah. Mayor Pro Tem Lopez, Councilman Becerra, and Santa Ana Boys Youth Basketball Teams, the Miners, the Wildcats, and their Bruins. Come on up, come on up, come on up, come on up.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 1

Y'all come on up, we'll figure this out space-wise.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 1

The Miners, the Wildcats, and the Bruins.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Phil BacerraItem 1

All right.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 1

I get to go first. I get to go first. Division A, the minors. Raise your hands up. I want to see who you all are.

Yay!

Valerie AmezcuaItem 1

Let's give a round of applause, everybody. Let's give a round of applause.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 1

They are 12 to 14 years old. There's Eli Delgado. Where are you? You got to raise your hand. All right. There's Ezekiel Alcazar. All right. Felix Alcazar. Are you brothers? You're just a taller one, huh? All right. There's Giancarlos Durantes. Yes? It's not here. Mario Gonzalez. Okay. Julien Partida. No? Andrew Barroso, did I say that wrong? All right. Jacob De La Cruz. All right, Jacob's here. Yay!

Valerie AmezcuaItem 1

How about Xavier Ortega? Yes, all right. And Jaden Navarrete. All right. They are coached by Jose Delgado and Juan Alcazar. Raise your hand. All right. These young men won the Santa Ana Division A Championship. They went undefeated in the 2023 boys' youth basketball season, and they took first place in the Southern California Municipal Athletic Federation Orange County Tournament of League Champions. And they advanced to the regional, I'm going to do the alphabet soup,

Valerie AmezcuaItem 1

SCMAF Federation Tournament and took first place. Congratulations. Yeah, let's give her a round of applause. They played their hearts out knowing they're representing our city. That's very important that you're representing Santa Ana. I just want to say it's very, very important.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 1

And you know, this is what we strive for with our young people in our Santa Ana Parks and Recs. It's very important. And so we are happy. I'm recognizing you guys are going to recognize the other two. So I'm recognizing, but all of you. But it's so important because Santa Ana Parks and Rec, they do a great job. They do a great job. So thank you, Huck, for all your staff, you know, and thank you to everybody. So one of you, I'm going to let the other two, I'm going to let Councilman Becerra go and Mayor Pro Tempile, please. And then we'll call the coaches up. One of you can speak and one of the young men. How's that? All right.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 1

It's all yours. Thank you. Thank you.

Jessie LopezItem 1

Hi, and if this is your first time in the chamber, welcome. We're really happy to have you. And before I begin the recognitions, I just want to thank Gay Olivos because, yes, because they emailed us to let us know about the championship. And so if it wasn't for your email, we probably wouldn't be aware. So thank you so much. Yes, thank you. Thank you. And so I'm going to be recognizing Division B, the Wildcats, and the league is 10 to 12 years old.

Jessie LopezItem 1

So Christopher Wizar, Mateo Alcazar, Lazarus Alcazar, Bradley Gomi Perez, David Colmenero, Nathan Lucano, Aidan Vasquez, Michael Hildreth, Adam Olivos Rivera.

Jessie LopezItem 1

Where's Adam?

Jessie LopezItem 1

And then Emmanuel Sanchez. And the team is coached by Juan Alcazar and Rafael Huizar. And they won the Sanana Division B championship. And they went undefeated in the 2023 boys youth basketball season. And they took first place in the SEMA F Orange County Tournament League of Champions. And they advanced to the regional federation tournament and took first place. So please give them a round of applause.

Jessie LopezItem 1

And so once again, thank you so much to Team Mom, Gay Olivos for her outstanding commitment to our youth, for making sure that the council is aware of their wonderful achievement, and thanks so much to our Parks and Rec staff. This is really what the council wants to see, more youth-involved programs being led by our Parks and Rec department. So congratulations to everyone.

Phil BacerraItem 1

so we always like to say that the future is bright right so tonight i get to recognize the eight to ten year olds in division c the bruins right yeah so who we who do we have tonight we have alex sacedo all right there's alex uh julian velasquez there you are uh levy franquez all right levy Dorian Flores. All right. Alejandro Vargas. Is Alejandro? Alden Arcos. All right. Don't tell me. Sebastian? Sebastian Hernandez. And then we got Abel Valdez. Close.

Phil BacerraItem 1

Where's Abel? There's Abel. And then we got Nathan Rivas. There's Nathan. And Matthew Hildreth. There's Matthew. So this team was coached by John Salcedo and Heli Guerrero. there he is so this team finished sixth seed in the 2023 boys youth basketball season they won the Santa Ana Division C championship and then they took first place in the SCMAF Orange County Tournament of League of Champions they advanced to the regional SCMAF Federation Tournament and won the consolation bracket so I want to say congratulations not just to all the teams but but especially the Bruins on what you accomplished this year.

Phil BacerraItem 1

So let's give them a round of applause.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 1

Okay, so you all got your certificates? Great. Thank you. But I want to call up this young man who's got the medals on. I believe all the young boys received a medal, correct? Come on up and show everybody.

Show everybody what you got. Look at that. Isn't that beautiful? All right.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 1

And then somebody has a trophy back there. You want to come up and show the trophy? Come on up.

This is a big deal.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 1

Hold it up high.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 1

Congratulations. Okay, two coaches. Pick or draw strong. Oh, you have another one. Come on up. Come on up.

Come on up. Come on up.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 1

Hold it up high. Hold it up high.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 1

Okay, anybody else have a medal on? I see one back there. No medal. Oh, and he's got a trophy. Come on up. Come on up. He's sitting back there all cool, like, don't look at me. All right, come on up. You got to show everybody. Hold it up high.

Good job.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 1

All right, so let me have the coaches, if two of you want to speak.

I'll keep it short. I'll keep it short. All right, well, my name is Juan Alcazar. I'm the coach. Thank you, thank you. I'm the assistant coach to the A team, the Miners, and I'm the head coach for the B team, the Wildcats. I just want to say it's an honor. I know they said earlier the future is looking very bright, and I'm just honored and privileged to be able to coach these young men, well, young boys becoming young men, and the city of Santa Ana is looking really good in the future.

so okay my name is Gail Levox and I just love Santa Ana and I'm very proud of the boys here because I'm a product of Parks and Rec I'm a product of Parks and Rec for the city of Santa Ana and I'm 62 years old so that can tell you how much I've been at Parks and Rec but I love these kids they went out into uncharted territories we were representing our city and our county and they just endured and they stayed together. They played as one. They were so proud to be part of Santa Ana. And here among us, you might have our future mayors, council members, right? NBA first set. Here you go. Who knows? So, there you go,

the President of the United States. So, we want to encourage all of our youth to stick with Parks and Recreation. You couldn't be in a better team than within Santa Ana. And you're right. Kudos to the staff, especially Valerie out there. I mean, America. She's awesome. So thank you everybody for recognizing our team mayor. Thank you so much All right, we're gonna try to take a picture

Valerie AmezcuaItem 1

Council members the other ones want to join us

David PenalozaItem 1

Yeah

Valerie AmezcuaItem 1

We're gonna go up there. We'll leave the young men down here, okay

Benjamin VazquezItem 1

What are you eating? Who's the shark guy? I'm like, how big they are?

What?

Phil BacerraItem 1

They're all taller than me. We'll say everything. We'll say everything.

We'll say everything. There are kids like really bigger than this.

Benjamin VazquezItem 1

How old are you guys?

I just took 15. I'm an eight-meter, the rest are six.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 1

Okay, you guys, I'll look forward. Here we go. Hold the trophies up. I gotta stand on my timidus.

Make sure we can see you. Okay.

All right, look right here.

and

all right look here now please

Okay, everybody on three cheer one two three

Thank you.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 1

All righty. This is the best part of the meeting, right, before we get down to business.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 1

Okay, second presentation will be made by Councilmember Farron.

Thai Viet PhanItem 2

I like to file a complaint.

Thai Viet PhanItem 2

I should never have to go after so many adorable children. It's really unfair. I just want to put it out there, okay? Madam Mayor.

David PenalozaItem 2

I can go stand next to you if you want, Councilman Irfan.

Thai Viet PhanItem 2

Okay. but you can't make up for the cuteness i'm sorry

Thai Viet PhanItem 2

hi everyone as everyone's milling out after that excitement today i am working with staff in the city council we are proclaiming may as asian american pacific islander heritage month so today we're going to recognize the history culture and achievements of asian americans and Pacific Islanders in the city of Santa Ana. Accepting this proclamation is Asian Americans Advancing Justice Southern California. So why don't you come up here. So today we have a Joseph Navalis, managing attorney with the OC

Thai Viet PhanItem 2

Immigration and Citizenship Unit, as well as Valentina Chan, a legal advocate for the Housing Preservation Unit. We are missing two folks. Andrew G, who's the managing director of the OC regional office for advancing justice SoCal and John Kim managing director of client services for AJ SoCal they both been very involved but their kids got them sick so you know I don't even need the speaking points because Asian American Pacific Islander Heritage Month is something truly important to me and to many of us here in the city it's an

Thai Viet PhanItem 2

opportunity to recognize folks and our you know contributions to our community here in the city of Santa Ana which for a very long time was very much overlooked AJ SoCal is an integral part of that and making sure that the city of Santa Ana recognizes honors and brings services to Asian Americans in the city in fact in In 2018, I believe, AJ SoCal was part of a lawsuit against the city of Santa Ana to settle a California Voting Rights Act lawsuit to ensure that Asian Americans in this city had a voice and had an opportunity to elect a representative of their choice.

Thai Viet PhanItem 2

And as the first Vietnamese American council member in this city, it is something that's near and dear to my heart because I was one of those residents who grew up in the west who felt like we never belonged in the city of Santa Ana. So I do think that that is a really integral part and I follow in the footsteps of our first Asian American council member who was elected in the 70s and our second Asian American council member here Phil Becerra elected in 2019. So a little bit about AJ SoCal. AJ SoCal was actually founded in 1983 as a Asian Pacific

Thai Viet PhanItem 2

American Legal Center, APOC, and that's actually how I knew them. APOC was an organization I interned with and volunteered with as a young law student to work on immigration clinics to help low-income immigrants get their N-400 forms submitted and get their visa, excuse me, their citizenship here in the United States, just like my mom and I did when I was 16. AJ SoCal focuses on the most vulnerable members of the API community, while also building a strong voice for civil rights and equity. AJ SoCal's been working in Santa Ana for

Thai Viet PhanItem 2

years. In fact, its most prolific period was in 2016 to 2022 where they served over 5,200 individuals in the county. And most recently, Valentina was there. They worked with our Ward 1 team here in the city of Santa Ana to hold not one but two free legal clinics at New Hope Library serving Santa Ana residents who did not have the money to seek legal advice and counsel covering issues such as immigration housing and family law and so with that I'd like to on behalf of the city of Santa Ana present you both with a proclamation declaring May as Asian American Pacific Islander Heritage Month and if you'd like to say

a couple words thank you councilmember fan thank you everyone for having us and And thank you as well for this wonderful proclamation for recognizing Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month. It's so important to recognize, you know, folks in this community, the Asian American and Pacific Islander folks in this community who play such an important role in the fabric of the city of Santa Ana. And you know, being a former resident of Santa Ana and being employed in Santa Ana before as well you know I've come to work with a lot of members of the city of Santa

Ana and the constituents here and once again we'd like to thank you so much for for this proclamation and I believe Valentina has a couple words as well

good evening everyone thank you again for this proclamation and for inviting AJ SoCal my name is Valentina and I am a legal advocate for the housing preservation team and prior to this role I actually got in touch with councilmember Phan and I asked her like hey what can I do in Orange County to give back to the community right and she gave me a lot of resources got me very motivated actually and now I'm here with AJ SoCal and actually one of my first outreach events was the free legal clinic that councilmember Phan hosted where I got to talk one-on-one with people about their experiences their

situation any issues that they're experiencing and I got to help them like on the spot and I think that's just so cool and that things like that should keep on continuing to happen so that we can get more accessible and inclusive support for the community

Valerie AmezcuaItem 2

Okay, congratulations. Thank you. Thank you very much.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 2

All right.

Sonia R. CarvalhoItem 2

Madam City Attorney, do you have anything to report out at closed session? Thank you, Mayor, members of the council and members of our public. We do have one reportable item on our meeting from closed session this evening. Prior to going into closed session, the city council was asked to please add an item to their agenda. Under the Brown Act, they are able to do that if they can make a finding that the item arose after the posting of the agenda and there was a need to take immediate action. Those findings were made and it was voted to go ahead and add the item.

Sonia R. CarvalhoItem 2

So an item was added under existing litigation, and that information can be obtained directly from the clerk. That's all the reportable action that I have.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 2

Great. Thank you very much. This is the time of the meeting for the City Council to receive comments from the public on agenda and non-agenda items. Pursuant to the Brown Act, the City Council may not enter into discussion at this time. We will now hear from the members of the public that are physically present in the Council Chambers, and then hear from those that are on Zoom. Madam City Clerk, can we start with the Zoom calls, please?

Jennifer L. HallItem 2

Yes, Mayor. There are four callers on Zoom. The first caller, Mitra M. If you could please unmute it, announce your name, ward, or neighborhood that you reside in within the city of Santa Ana for the record. Please dial star six from your phone or select the microphone icon to unmute from your device and proceed with your comment.

Jennifer L. HallItem 2

Caller in Zoom, Mitra.

Jennifer L. HallItem 2

La persona en Zoom con el nombre Mitra, por favor,

Jennifer L. HallItem 2

Next speaker on Zoom, Sonia Young-Ruiz.

Can you hear me? Yes, ma'am. Okay, thank you. Good evening. my name is Sonia Young-Ruiz. I'm a resident at Riverview.

I want to begin thanking Madam Mayor Mamescua for taking initiative and attending our neighborhood meeting. Thank you. Thank you, Mayor Pro Tem Lopez for attending our neighborhood meetings as well. I want to address the issue regarding the city's not commitment in renewing the lease for Riverview Golf Course in 2026.

As a neighborhood, we feel these conversations and decisions should be transparent and that our neighborhood should be considered because it directly impacts us. As you know, now we learned of this through an article on the Voice of OC. Once we began inquiring, the information we have received has been inconsistent and conflicting from various sources, which naturally can cause the community to distrust our elected officials. We understand the lease does not expire until 2026, but let's be honest, 2026 is around the corner.

Concerns. I also want to point out that the residents of Riverview would really like more attention paid to our current Riverview Park. We need better lighting, the sand to be replaced with padding that is sustainable or suitable for children. The current sand is disgusting. We need the fencing repaired throughout. We need cracks in the basketball courts repaired. The nets changed out because they are torn. We need our park monitored, our grass cared for, our restrooms to be extended.

We are due to please help us take care of the park we currently have in our neighborhood so that we can actually utilize it instead of having to go to other parks in different cities. We want the park to be taken care of. Thank you.

Jennifer L. HallItem 2

Thank you. Next Zoom caller, Paul Sariego.

Jennifer L. HallItem 2

Please dial star six or select the microphone icon.

I believe I'm here.

Jennifer L. HallItem 2

Yes, go ahead.

All right. I am an owner and resident of Riverview as well.

I understand that there are people that are upset about the possibility of a regional park being installed as opposed to the golf course.

How do we as a community keep tabs on the situation? Because I actually would like to see a regional park. I would like to be one of those that would help and maybe come up with ideas on how to use the space. And I am looking for information as to how to do that. I have contacted one council member already, so I will await a response. But other than that, I just wanted to put in a positive note for what is going on possibly in the riverbed. Thank you very much.

Jennifer L. HallItem 2

Thank you. Caller with the phone number ending in 6340. Please dial star six or unmute yourself.

Hello, good evening, Mayor and Council members. My name is Irma Haraghi. I'm from Wilshire Square in the South Main Corridor. I would like you to support item 30 so we could have more time for review and community input into the permits requested by Hector's Morisco. So I am calling in support of extending the time for input from the community since we got had very little. I just had two or three days notice. Thank you very much. One last time Mitra M on zoom.

Jennifer L. HallItem 2

yes can you hear me yes go ahead please

i'm sorry would you give me a second um

thank you good evening members of the city council thank you for your time i'd like to ask you to please itemize the resolution to condemn the regime of Iran at your next City Council meeting and join the 17 cities in Orange County who have already passed this resolution. We have emailed all of you the detail of the resolution and I'd like to give you some quick summary on and how the Iran revolution started in September 2022.

Per Forbes article, one of the most powerful women in 2022 died unaware of her impact on the world. On September 13, 22-year-old Mahsa Amini was arrested by Iran's morality police for improperly wearing her hijab. and according to her family and local media, severely beaten. She died three days later while still in police custody. After reports of the horrific incident emerged, protests erupted across Iran.

They were led by women who tore off their hijabs, cut their hair, and adopted a rallying cry of women's life freedom. Mahsa Amini is now a global symbol for freedom, not just in Iran. Your Honor, Orange County is the home to the second largest Iranian population in the United States, and it is extremely important that the Iranian community knows that their elected officials are standing in support and solidarity with them.

Please join other cities in Orange County to bring forward this bipartisan resolution in support of humanity. Thank you in advance for your consideration on our request.

Jennifer L. HallItem 2

Thank you, Mayor. That was the four Zoom speakers. In terms of emails, we did receive 18 on non-agenda items, 17 related to Orange County Commissioner James Mai and one related to the downtown merchants, and four, emails related to item number 30, which is the call-up of a planning commission decision related to a property on McFadden Avenue.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 2

Thank you very much. Let's do public comments here in the chambers. John Hanna, please.

Thank you, Madam Mayor, council members and staff. John Hanna from the Southwest Mountain States Regional Council of Carpenters and there's some carpenters here tonight if you guys could stand up and yeah they're their interest night number 26 we appreciate the support they had on the first reading and hope will be the same for the second reading and we really appreciate Santa Ana being a leader in this Santa Ana was the first city to have this in Orange County and now you're setting a stronger model.

Three billion dollars is stolen from workers by various schemes including cash pay, including shorting the checks, including illegal deductions. But what's most important is that you're making a stand here on an easy way that will not involve a lot of staff time but will help the private sector enforce the laws and will give you a clue as to who's doing business in your city and it'll hopefully increase the business license tax of people who are doing business in the city and now we'll have a way of making sure that they are are paying it

but I want to thank you for your attention to this this city has made a commitment that it's not only going to fight crime in the streets but crime in the suites. And this is important in terms of equity, that people understand that everybody is going to be held accountable to the rules. So thank you for that lesson that you give all of us.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 2

Thank you. Fahad Mahfi?

Dear Mayor and City Council members, thank you very much for this opportunity. I really appreciate it.

As an Iranian-American business owner in Orange County that I do a lot of business in Santa Ana, I'm here to ask you to please add the resolution condemning the barbaric criminal the regional Islamic regime of Iran to the agenda and also vote on that, you know, and also support us in passing it. It was pretty interesting tonight, you know, I saw a lot of kids, you know, tonight coming to this wonderful event here to be recognized. For your information, during the last four months in my country, in Iran, Islamic Republic

is actually gassing high school kids in schools in Iran. And we're actually experiencing Iran's Auschwitz, you know, as we're speaking right now. Thousands and thousands of kids are being gassed and are being sent to the hospital. Some of them have died, and some of them end up with permanent problems for the rest of their life, and so on. So when I see these kids, and I see across the globe how the government is actually dealing with individuals. Now, your action, when you may consider it as just symbolic, but for a lot of people in Iran, when they see that basically officials in other countries

are actually condemning this sort of a behavior, that is a very important thing for them and to gain more power to be able to stand up and fight for their freedom and fight and continue the revolution that they started since six months ago. So we would be really grateful if you would consider helping us in that matter, and Iranian community has been a big part of the Santa Ana, and we do a lot of business here, we live here, and so on, and we really need your support to seriously consider this. So that would be a great help for us. Thank you very much for your time and your consideration. Thank you. Thank you.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 2

I apologize if I say that wrong.

Good evening, Mrs. Mayor and council members. My name is Tanos. So today, all these young young kids and athletes were recognized for their outstanding achievements, and it was so beautiful to see the smiles on your faces, their faces and yours. But unfortunately, kids all across my home country are continuously being poisoned. I'm here today to kindly ask you all to adopt and pass a resolution condemning the Islamic Republic of Iran. So as you're aware, after the killing of Ms. Massa Amini on September 16th, the Islamic Republic of Iran's regime forces have been eliminating all forms of political

opposition from peaceful protesters. Let me give you some insight. They're firing live ammunition, purposefully targeting the eyes, head, and genitals. They're physically and psychologically torturing prisoners they've captured within the past five months by raping them, physically and psychologically torturing them, burning them, impairing their vision, dislocating and breaking their bones and poisoning school children. In the past five months, more than 5,000 have been killed in the cities of Balochistan and Kurdistan, over 700 more all across Iran, thousands have been

wounded, 20,000 imprisoned, and 12 have been executed without any due process. Just think about it. In Iran, if you get imprisoned in as little as 30 days, you could be sentenced to death and that you will be executed. This is all being done by the same regime that held 52 Americans hostage, mass-executed 30,000 Iranians in the notorious 1988 executions, killed 1,500 in 2019, shot down a commercial flight in 2020 that carried 176 passengers. Also one that funds designated terrorist groups all throughout the Middle East,

supplies drones to Russia to kill innocent Ukrainians, and threatens us Americans by means of death threats, attempts to kidnap and kill. And that was like the case with Ms. Massey-Alinejad and many others. So please adopt and pass a resolution condemning the Islamic Republic of Iran. By doing so, you're keeping this movement alive, you're raising awareness, and you're making a contribution and helping free 80 million people from their criminal government. and you'll also be standing alongside 17 cities in Orange County that have already condemned this brutal child-killing regime.

I just wanted to end my remarks by saying that Iranians in Iran are sacrificing their life for regime change, a regime change that will benefit our life here in the U.S. And the least we can do here in Santa Ana is to support their movement by passing a resolution. Thank you.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 2

Thank you. Martha Molina?

Good evening, Madam Mayor and council members. We're basically here to publicly acknowledge you, Mayor Omezcua, for spending the time to really learn and give us a voice in the whole issue about the Riverview golf course in the park. You know, we appreciate the opportunity to be able to have a discussion and, you know, be able to learn more about all of that whole issue. You taking the time to come to our meeting, you know, you asked to come and it was very short notice. So, that time was just, you know, we really are grateful for your intervention and all of that.

and representing us with other elected officials in the county and Congress. And also to our Mayor Pro Tem, Jesse Lopez, for the same, spending all this time, you know, reaching out to the other elected officials and really representing our neighborhood. And so we look forward to continue the partnership with you in working to, you know, whatever is best for our neighborhood. So I just want to publicly acknowledge you for that. And I'm here with our President, Elsie Robles, who is shyer than I am. So, but she is here and we're representing the neighborhood association. Thank you so much.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 2

Thank you. Elena Flores, please.

Hi, I'm going to give my comment in Spanish first, because I know we have a lot of our community members listening in, and then I'll give it in English or is there a translator? Okay.

So, we want to have a space and time to share our experiences and explain why we don't think it's a good idea to extend this permission. So, thank you for your understanding and I hope you give us the space to talk about this topic. Thank you.

Good evening to all. My name is Leonel Flores. I'm from Madison Park here speaking on item number 30, asking for a public hearing. There was not enough time given to us to make comments and to issue this alcohol permit or license. and we need to have enough input. We did not have enough input from the community, so we need to have this. Thank you for listening to us, and we would like to have this time and space for us to explain our situation, and thank you.

Thank you for this, and thank you for listening, and thank you for the opportunity to speak. Thank you.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 2

Thank you. Fatima Karami.

Good evening, Mayor and all the members. By the way, this is the first time I'm giving a speech in 17 cities of Orange County for Iran resolution.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 2

Can you pull your mic down just a little bit and talk into it?

Is that okay? Anyway, I'm here following up with my friends about the problem that is going on with Iran and innocent Iranian people who are getting tortured, raped, and prison for freedom of speech. We are fortunate to live here and have that opportunity to stand up and just give our opinion, which unfortunately in Iran people are not able to do it. And it's been 30 years I live here, and I'm very grateful. But as you know, innocent kids, they are getting gas poisoned.

They are getting tortured. They are getting executed and end up in prison just because they're talking about their opinion. They're against the government who are torturing them all the time. So anyway, I'm kindly asking you please to put the resolution in your next agenda and condemn Jim Huria Vicious. I'm calling Vicious Jim Huria Slami in your next agenda, please. Thank you so much. Thank you. Hosea Rea.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 2

If you can be ready to speak after Hosea Rea is Shohali Tarabi. Please.

Good evening, Mayor Mesqua, Mayor Proterm Lopez, and our representative, City Council Member Peñalosa, and the entire City Council. and I'm Jose Rea, a resident of Santa Ana for 40 years. The last 24 I have lived in Madison Park. I'm here to express my opposition to the upgraded alcohol license to Mariscos Hectors at 1208 East McFarland Avenue, approved by the Planning Commission. This upgrade will allow the sale of hard liquor. Right now, they are only allowed to sell beer and wine.

The restaurant is located in the heart of Meany Street, also known as Cornerstone Village. Marisco's Hector's back wall is shared with the condominium complex. Kennedy Elementary is next to the condominiums. The average income for Meany Street neighborhood is $28,000 per year, and the families there pay over $20,000 a year in rent. I don't think they can afford to eat at Marisco sector often. It is common knowledge that the establishment has a question of reputation in the area.

It is definitely not a family restaurant, and it is difficult to pinpoint what benefits it brings to the area, if any. Mayor Amesqua, you have made safety one of your priorities. In that light, I suggest that you bring permanent police presence in Minneapolis Street to make the area safer.

More alcohol in this place means more drunk drivers in our neighborhoods, more fights in the parking lot, and more crime in the area. Bring the public hearing to Kennedy Elementary to hear the real story of Mariscos Hector's in the neighborhoods. Engage the community. Safety is also a priority for us. Thank you.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 2

Thank you very much. Shoheila Tarabi.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 2

Next is Fabiola Garduna, if you can come down and wait closer.

Hello, Mayor and all members of City Council. My name is Suheila Torabi and I am honored to be here as an Iranian and American citizen, to be here and to be the voice of people who have been in a big jail of the big country of Iran, where the extremities Islamic Republican regime are doing all kinds of criminal acts in Iran and all over the world. It's not, you know, any doubt about that. Everyone knows a lot

of things on the media. We know we are not living in the pleasant world. Everyone knows. But we know we should fight for the right things. Human rights, women's rights, civil rights. You know, we all of fighting. Our past generation are fighting for this and now we are over again. At this time that we are talking so many, we are talking together and we are here and so many children, young children were here and you know clapping our hands for them for establishing everything that they like that. Now so

many people, girls, have been attacking by kind of the chemical gas. These These chemicals can suffer them in many ways. You don't know, on their brains, lungs, bloods, even in their abilities to born new and healthy babies. They are using the pesticide chemical and this is not clear and the media is just stopped to talk about and go to the details, what are they doing? It's not just one school, two schools, three schools, so many schools and they are going to the hospital and there is not any evidence what happened for them over there.

It is, you know, yes, I am here to say as a citizen of the United States, we shouldn't underestimate the power of the religion in Iran when they are making the criminal network across the world like the mafia and they have their own ideology like Nazi but using the religion is on their own is not Islamic the tool for their devil acts fighting for the human rights all responsibilities we want to we please we please want to add the resolution to condemn Islamic Republic Iran to your

agenda for your support all of us do you know thank you again all members of the City Council. I appreciate for listening. Thank you. Fabiola Guarduno. Fabiola Guarduno.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 2

Okay. Giselle Yanez, please.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 2

No? Giselle Yanez. Okay. We're done. We're going to move on now. We're going to go to the consent calendar at this time items number three through 26 are before us council members please announce any items that you'll be abstaining from due to conflict and if there are any requests to pull an item from the consent calendar for further discussion and i'll call on you right now to do that um councilman vasquez i have none yes go ahead i have none to pull oh you have no i'm so sorry I thought you said I have one mayor Pro Tem Lopez yes 9 and 24 please 9 and 24 correct

David PenalozaItem 2

councilman Penalosa no items mayor I just have a brief comment on 14 let me know when the proper

Johnathan Ryan HernandezItem 2

avenue to make that thank you councilman Hernandez thank you madam mayor I just had a quick comment on item 17 and item 18 and item 24.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 2

Quick comment 17, 18 and 24.

Phil BacerraItem 2

Yes.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 2

Councilman Becerra.

Phil BacerraItem 2

I would like to go ahead and pull item 7.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 2

Thank you. Councilman Tai. Than, I'm sorry. I do that all the time.

Thai Viet PhanItem 2

Nothing to pull off. Just a quick comment on 26.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 2

I'm going to just make a comment on item 12. and I'm going to partially, hopefully partially just abstain from item 20. Oh, I don't even need to discuss that yet. Okay. All right. Let's get on here. Do I have a motion and a second to approve the remainder? So moved. Thank you. Second. Second. Thank you, Councilman Becerra. Let's vote.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 2

Let's see if it works today. All right.

Jennifer L. HallItem 2

The vote is 7 ayes, no nays. Motion carries for the consent calendar with the exceptions of items 9 and 24.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 2

Okay. At this time we're going to swear in the two members that are here for the oath of office. Nadine Said and Carl Bettinger, please. You can come up.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 2

Thank you. Thank you.

I, Carl Benninger. I, Nadine Saeed.

Jennifer L. HallItem 2

Do solemnly swear.

Do solemnly swear.

Jennifer L. HallItem 2

That I will support and defend.

That I will support and defend.

Jennifer L. HallItem 2

The Constitution of the United States.

The Constitution of the United States. And the Constitution.

Jennifer L. HallItem 2

And the Constitution of the State of California. Against all enemies. Against all enemies. Foreign and domestic.

Foreign and domestic. that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the Constitution of the United States and the Constitution of the State of California,

Jennifer L. HallItem 2

that I take this obligation freely without any mental reservation

or purpose of evasion,

that I will well and faithfully discharge the duties upon which I'm about to enter. Thank you. Thank you so much.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 2

Congratulations.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 2

Okay.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 2

The items that were pulled, I hear we have just comments, no presentations for any of them. Is that correct? No council members. Perfect. Let's go to item number seven.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 2

I believe that was you, Mayor Patel.

No. Mayor, Council Member Lucera.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 2

I apologize. Councilman Pesera, please.

Phil BacerraItem 2

Thank you, Mayor Mesquah. Last year at this time, there were 76 applications for first-time homebuyers down payment assistance that were sent out. Only four applications were returned to the city and only two of those four applications were approved. So I'm happy to say that this year, 123 applications for first-time homebuyers down payment assistance were sent out. 17 of those applications were returned to the city, and 11 of those 17 applications were approved. So I wanted to thank Judson and his team because it's clear you heard us. We want to see more applications come in for first-time homebuyer down payment assistance.

Phil BacerraItem 3

You know, I want to also, not only have you guys been doing more to get the word out and get these applications in, one thing I'd like to ask you guys at some point is, you know, when it comes down to the proactiveness, what you're doing, you're doing the workshops. In fact, I think you had a couple of workshops just this month. But you know, at least in my ward, I would say if you're down to do it, I'd say let's go knock on some doors on some apartments. We have a lot of apartment buildings, at least in Ward 4. I know throughout the city, but selfishly I'm going to say Ward 4, in that we have a

Phil BacerraItem 3

lot of folks that should be elevating into homeownership. And I think that this program is an excellent opportunity to do that. So Judson, hopefully we'll collaborate and we'll hopefully knock on some doors and see if we can get some more folks interested in applying. I want to shift right now to page seven of the report, where it says that zero dollars in inclusionary housing in lieu fees were received in fiscal year 2022-2023 through the current affordable housing opportunity and creation ordinance. Now also on page 7, it states that

Phil BacerraItem 3

in fiscal year 2021-2022, 6,933,320 in inclusionary housing in lieu fees were received. Now the current affordable housing opportunity and creation ordinance was adopted in April of 2022. So Judson, if you could, for one mind, or Madison manager, if you can have Judson come up. What I'd like to know is how much of that $6,933,000 was received under the current Affordable Housing Opportunity and Creation Ordinance?

Thank you very much, Councilmember Becerra. There have been no in-lieu fees received since the adoption of the amended Inclusionary Housing Ordinance.

Phil BacerraItem 3

So under the WHO, we had it, but not under the current ordinance?

Yes, sir.

Phil BacerraItem 3

Okay, thank you for that. You know, in October of 2015, the WHO and LUE fees were set at $15 a square foot, and no developers at that time were pulling any building permits because they weren't going to pay $15 a square foot. And $0 at that time were going into the inclusionary housing fund. That meant $0 going towards down payment assistance. That meant $0 going towards rehabilitation of existing affordable housing units. Now, in September of 2020, under the previous Housing Opportunity Ordinance, or what was then known as the WHO, the in-lieu fees were reduced to $5 a square foot.

Phil BacerraItem 3

So from September of 2020 to April of 2022, at the $5 per square foot rate, the city received $9.1 million in WHO in-lieu fees. Is that correct, Judson? Okay, thank you. And so that's $9.1 million that went to down payment assistance that went to rehabbing existing affordable units. Now the 2020 revisions to the WHO accomplished exactly what we had intended at that time as this council, which was to kickstart building homes during the pandemic and a very severely impacted economy.

Phil BacerraItem 3

and also to generate revenue for the inclusionary housing fund, something that the current AHOCO has failed to do. So for those keeping score, that's 19 months under the previous WHO, $9.1 million received in WHO in lieu fees, while 12 months under the current AHOCO, $0 received. So those are my comments, Mayor. With that, I'll go ahead and move that we receive and file this.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 3

Thank you. I just have a couple of comments here. So thank you for the home ownership down payment assistance program. I'm a huge fan as many of you know that I've had conversations with the city manager and we've talked about this. So I just want to make sure. So what I'm seeing here is that 11 applications were approved. Is that correct?

Yes, thank you. Thank you, Mayor. That is correct.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 3

So 123 inquiries and only 11 were approved?

123 applications sent out and 11 were approved. As we describe in the next paragraph, due to the stringent program guidelines for eligibility, it is very difficult for families to qualify. and a lot of families have difficulty saving up their own earnest funds to purchase a home as well. So it's a difficult process to purchase a home.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 3

Yeah, I read this a couple times. This is one of my priorities is putting people in homes, right? And I know you guys are doing a wonderful job, and so thank you. And I know you're doing presentations, and I really appreciate it. But, yes, there's a lot of paperwork and a lot of guidelines. I know people have asked for different presentations or classes. Is there a way that we can reach out to the community? I think Councilman Becerra just said knocking on apartment doors. I know you had, Councilman Phan, you had a workshop of some sort. Can we set another workshop in Spanish, English and Vietnamese, give it enough notice, send

Valerie AmezcuaItem 3

something out? Maybe the city manager can send something out. I mean, there's, we have the funds, and I know you've done some of it, and I read this whole thing, like I said, multiple times, but is there a way that we can do that again?

Yes, absolutely. We are more than willing to do as much marketing as possible to try and expand this program as much as possible, and it's a yes to and. If you tell us the location, we will be there. If you give us the opportunity, we will be there. We want to expand this program as much as possible to as many eligible families as possible.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 3

So, Madam City Manager, is there a way we can do some marketing, some extra marketing with this?

Certainly, Mayor. We can do that. And Judson has done a great job, and he has given programs in multiple languages.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 3

Right. No, and I just said that. And you have. And I think I made that very clear. You've done a great job. So thank you. But we can always do more. because people work different hours, different days. Some are home on the weekends, some are not. And so I just want to say if there's some PR that we can do, that's the one thing the community is always asking. You know, when downtown Santa Ana comes in and they say, we want more PR. Other people will say, other businesses throughout the city, South Main Street. It's the same thing with housing. You know, people just want to know how, and they need assistance with the paperwork.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 3

And so thank you for, I know you put on a workshop, and so thank you. and I just want to make it I want to help our community I think we have responsibility to help them get through that paperwork if we can whatever is within our legal realm that we can do that so and you've done a great job so thank you for 11 that's great let's get 123 so thank you very much I appreciate it the final comment I have on this thank you is that and then I'll turn it over over here on this side is that Madam City Manager we used to have a program that you would graduate from Santa Ana High Santa

Valerie AmezcuaItem 3

Unified School District you would go off and get your college degree and you would come back to Santa Ana and then there was assistance to purchase a home if you were Santa Ana Unified graduate college graduate and then you'd come back to Santa Ana I know you had sent out an email but your email was a little different than what I think I was asking for it's very clear the program was and and Mr. Garcia is very aware of this program.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 3

Santa Unified graduate, you can add Garden Grove that's on Santa border limits. I'm not giving direction, I'm just saying, could we please get a report on this and how we can maybe look into this. You get a college degree, you graduate, and then you come back and we help you purchase a home. That is one of the most difficult things to do for some of our families, and it is very expensive in the city. So I just wanna put that out there with you.

So we have that in place and you probably didn't get a chance to look at it. You inquired about that in our agenda review and we did send you an email detailing the program.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 3

So I got the email. But Mr. Garcia and I have met and I was not told that it was in place. So I just want to make sure it's the same program. Maybe Mr. Garcia can answer because I know we've had multiple conversations about this. This program was not in place when I first was elected. So if it is, great. I think it's wonderful. But I just, can you send clear, like, clear email?

Do you want to talk about the information you sent?

So the program, it is in place. It's in a different format than it was previously. It's been in place for a year and a half now. So when it was originally adopted back in 97, I believe it was, it was operated a little bit differently. and we can explore changing it up and seeing if we can make it a little more. The difference was that you didn't have to actually graduate from a Santa Ana high school. You just had to have attended a Santa Ana high school, graduated with a bachelor's degree, and then the program gave you a shorter time frame for the loan forgiveness.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 3

And so where are we today?

So the program exists. it's it's still structured as a loan forgiveness program um i don't believe we've issued any uh down payment assistance uh for the students yeah no we have not so and that's why i'm bringing it

Valerie AmezcuaItem 7

up so um maybe we could do some pr for that program as well because i absolutely there are many people who live in our city who graduated high school went off got a college degree and have come back into our city and we have funding to assist them to purchase a home so um that is wherever however you want to wherever you want to put it or rename it that's great but i just want to make sure that's something that we can put out there for the public so that they're aware so that they can purchase a

Benjamin VazquezItem 7

home so councilman vasquez yes thank you uh mary muskoff for like the need for pr the need for getting message down you guys have are doing great work but we'd like to get the word out and we like the community to know about it and I'm gonna ask again last meeting I asked if we could have a liaison for the school district to interact with the face the health office that we have at every school just because they get so much information out and we have people there and if you want to get a high percentage of the population the students are there and we

Benjamin VazquezItem 7

have get information out through the schools it would be great just to just to get it as much as we can because every I've visited many I visited with you with the work center and I was very impressed and and then Parks and Rec does a great job and hot now housing so I would like to see all the information in our students hands and our families hands thank you thank you there any other

Jessie LopezItem 7

comments yes thank you so I just want to thank our staff for all the work that that you do for the work that goes unpublished for the work that isn't discussed here I think sometimes it can feel like it doesn't go recognized but I think all of us do recognize the work that you do and we just want to thank you for that but I was reading the housing report which I think everyone should read and it lets us know that for the past three years consecutively

Jessie LopezItem 7

Santa Ana ranks as the third highest city in Orange County having the highest number of evictions so that is impacting negatively all Santa Ana residents and so we also know that last year and I think early in March this year we saw the eviction notices the highest and also rent increases and so I think you know to their point it's important to get that information out I know we requested infographics so thank you for getting those together and in however we can share them widely with residents I think that's going to be helpful for

Jessie LopezItem 7

everyone to be informed to have factual information to know the processes in place and you know people reach out they'll text I always forward those messages to staff and I know it's difficult when you're reading a text message at 8 a.m. or 10 p.m. about I'm a mom I have kids I have seven days to get out I don't know what to do and so that's why you know I thank you for the work that you do to the point of homeownership I early this year if I'm not mistaken the state had released the dream for all California program and I have millions of dollars and it just it left quickly so I know that they might

Jessie LopezItem 7

be doing a second round and so I would like the city to release that information near our channels as soon as it's open because that is another opportunity for residents to apply for homeownership funds from the state of California and there's only a number of licensed agents that work in Orange County so I think that's also important information for folks to know because I think part of the difficulty of being a homeowner and we've talked about this before with Judson, specifically with their program, is the banking aspect of it and banks not being able to give loans or they decide who they can and who they will or not.

Jessie LopezItem 7

So, I think we still have a lot of work to do on that front. But overall, thank you for the work that you do and thank you for the report.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 7

Thank you. Councilman Penelosa.

David PenalozaItem 7

Thank you, Mayor Mesquia. Thank you, Madam City Manager and your staff for this report, and especially Judson, because I know how hard that department works for this. Madam City Manager, the question I have for you and your staff, not so much a question, but more a comment in regards to the homeownership and first-time homebuyer program. When I was kind of listening to the comments, I'm liking the idea of trying to help out and prioritizing Santa Ana residents that come back after graduating college. But I know that in the times that we live in, not everybody goes to college.

David PenalozaItem 7

We have a lot of people serving in our military that come back. We have a lot of professionals in our city that have grown up and are raised here and still live here that are professionals. And I started thinking there are so many groups. It's like, well, what about military veterans? What about SIUSD graduates? What about G? So I guess I just focus on San Antonio residents that continue to live here and, you know, being good residents and investing in our city would be the best route to go, in my opinion. That's it. Thank you, Mayor.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 7

Yes, go ahead.

Thai Viet PhanItem 7

Thank you, Mayor. Well, maybe you can stay there. This program is something that I'm super passionate about. I've held a workshop with mortgage brokers, realtors, others who are experienced in this down payment assistance program both in Vietnamese and in Spanish and we're actually currently planning another one in Spanish and English for June specifically because I know how difficult it is as a recent homebuyer in 2019 figure what is a mortgage broker how do you get your credit score high enough to get a loan and all of those other questions and I

Thai Viet PhanItem 7

I think that one of the big hurdles that I've been hearing from residents is just the fact that if you're in that income bracket, you just might not have that nest egg just yet to have the 3% that is required as part of the down payment assistance, even though we are going to give you up to $120,000. I imagine that some of these applicants who are not approved yet can get approved within the next six months and whatnot as we work with them to get them there. I think that, please correct me if I'm wrong, but we actually expanded this program so that

Thai Viet PhanItem 7

it would be more inclusive of anyone who is interested in buying a home in Santa Ana up to $120,000. So it includes, you know, actually when I did my free legal clinic, some of the nonprofit attorneys who don't make, you know, hundreds of thousands of dollars but really want to live in Santa Ana, they would qualify for this program. and bringing in some of that as well as like you said high school graduates and whatnot veterans we get or my husband got a VA loan so we get zero down but they would still be able to get potentially assistance with this too I

Thai Viet PhanItem 7

think for me one of the things I would like to see is that many of the workshops other than the ones that I've personally hosted have been on zoom and and that's just really difficult because a lot of the residents that I've spoken to really We need that one-on-one interaction with staff and other community partners that we can trust or that they can trust who have had experience doing this. And so I do encourage us to do in-person types of workshops because, you know, it might take a few touches before they're comfortable enough to submit because it is a daunting process. So thank you for everything.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 7

Thank you for the comments. Thank you very much.

Johnathan Ryan HernandezItem 7

Thank you, Mayor Mesquit.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 7

I see you raise your hand. Go ahead. Did you have comments?

Johnathan Ryan HernandezItem 7

I thought you called my name.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 7

Go ahead.

Johnathan Ryan HernandezItem 7

I just wanted to thank staff for the work that they do. Judson, my office works very closely with you, and I just want to say on behalf of Residence Award 5, I want to thank you and your staff. Thank you, sir.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 7

Any other comments? So I've asked the City Clerk to put a device here that has all your names, and you'll be able to push a button when you want to speak because otherwise I go like this all night and I know I miss you guys so I apologize we're gonna we're gonna get that little device here right city manager so I can see people who want to who want to speak.

David PenalozaItem 7

Mayor I think you mean the city clerk?

Valerie AmezcuaItem 7

You know the city clerk I talked to her about it but it's also going to be a discussion with the city manager. So I'll tell you about it later. All right let's go. Okay we're done with item eight.

Jennifer L. HallItem 7

Item seven Mayor we have a motion by Councilmember Becerra and seconded by by council member Hernandez.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 7

Is prepared to vote?

Jennifer L. HallItem 7

The vote is seven ayes, no nays, motion carries.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 7

Gonna go to item eight now, please. If it's item nine. Actually somebody pulled eight, did somebody pull eight? I have eight down here. You have nine? You pulled eight or you pulled nine? Mayor Pro Tem Lopez?

Jessie LopezItem 7

Yes, 4-9, correct.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 7

Go ahead.

Jessie LopezItem 7

Okay, thank you. So I don't have an issue with the report. I think it's good. I read it last night, and I reread it this morning because I was trying, you know when you read something and you're like, did I miss something? So I actually encourage everyone to read the report, and I want to thank all the boards for being involved in their hard work. I didn't realize that we have a workforce for the county. but that's really important for us to know and so you know I think some of the some of the the core issues here are but the county's unemployment rate is hovering around 8% which is better than 2020

Jessie LopezItem 9

which was doubled in that it shows the industries that have clearly bounced back and the industries that are still trailing and it shows still that the ongoing pandemic has harmed you know low-income laborers the most and those are our residents and I think that's why I went back to read the report because Latinos make 46% of people who make $15 an hour or less and so they you know folks continue to be underrepresented in high-paying jobs and that's what got my gears turning a little bit when it came to the Workforce Development Board for the city

Jessie LopezItem 9

of Santa Ana. And so going through the report, I didn't see anything in here, and city manager, please guide me in the right direction. But in terms of the Inflation Reduction Act that can work with the workforce boards, I didn't see any mention, any concrete policies, and I don't know if our local workforce board is going to come back and hand us something regarding the vision that they have, which is here in tandem with Anaheim and the County of Orange, but how they're going to be working with state legislators, the federal government,

Jessie LopezItem 9

the transportation agency, all these agencies that are currently having a say in how the IRA money is going to be spent. And I pulled this item because my concern is I haven't heard anything yet, and the core of the concern is if we're not advocating for a residence intentionally are we going to see any of that federal money excellent question

council member or mayor pro time I'm sorry I don't believe we have anything in the works that we were going to prepare for that but we certainly can we can identify all the different sources including the inflation Reduction Act and set forth ways that we are attempting to receive funding that will further enhance the workforce.

Jessie LopezItem 9

Yeah, thank you. And I will ask again if I can meet with the federal lobbyists, because we should really be hearing from them. This is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, all the billions of dollars, and how can the city partner with community colleges, with their school district, because to one of the points I was made earlier, not everybody wants to go to college, yet we can support people that can have a good paying job, that is going to have access to a 401 , healthcare, PTO, all the things that sometimes you take for granted when you have them.

Jessie LopezItem 9

And so I just want to leave our staff and the residents with when one of our community members that is part of that 46% moves out of that bracket into a job that has a good paying wage that has health care, PTO, all those other things, that is a win for our community. That is one family that is not on the verge of homelessness. That is one family that is not going to go through the eviction process. And when we have communities that are healthy and thriving jobs, we all win. So yes, please, I would like to see a report. I want a meeting with our federal lobbyists about how the IRA impacts our city.

And I would suggest that we can set that meeting up for you, but we should include the manager from our workforce development. So that would make it a more robust conversation for you.

Jessie LopezItem 9

Thank you. With that, I'll move the item.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 9

I'll second. Great. Let's prepare to vote.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 9

vote is seven ayes no nays motion carries great thank you i just have a comment on item 12. i really want to thank city manager all the staff and hawk all of your staff as well this playground will have an area where our needs our children with special needs can now play right alongside with other children and I think that is so important you know the many years that I sat on the school board our special needs children was always a priority to me and they

Valerie AmezcuaItem 12

still are and so I hope that maybe we can find some funding to have it at all of our parks I know it's a wish but because you know the Kiwanis has a park here in Santa Ana for our special needs children and I I tend to go to those events and they have a picnic and whatnot for them and there's nothing like seeing our children with special needs being able to be on the playgrounds and so I just wanted to say thank you and I'm looking forward to other parks having these type of playgrounds I was at the Boys and Girls Club on Saturday and I saw what Kaboom

Valerie AmezcuaItem 12

was able to do there at the Boys and Girls Club Santa Ana so if there are other parks in the works I think we'd all love to hear about it if there is Hockey or somebody Madam City Manager are there other parks we have in the works

I'm trying not to get out of a seat we have several brand new parks in the works that are coming in line and you will hear about those in our budget workshop we don't currently have any other universally accessible ones in the works right

Valerie AmezcuaItem 12

and that was my question i know that the council had approved parks before i came on board which is wonderful but it's the playgrounds for our special needs children so maybe we can look at that in the budget as we move forward so um again there's nothing like having our children out there playing so thank you that's my comment on that item i'll make a motion second Do we need a motion even though I just wanted a comment?

Jennifer L. HallItem 12

No, Mayor. My understanding was you didn't pull it for a separate vote just for a comment.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 12

So it was approved already. Perfect. Great. Thank you. Okay. Item 14 was a comment by Councilman Panoloso.

David PenalozaItem 12

Thank you, Mayor Amesqua. I just wanted to thank staff for item 14 and see what kind of a, and just Madam City Manager, if you could assure that there are multiple businesses, about a dozen businesses that will be affected. I want to make sure that we do the proper outreach to talk about timeline, any potential business interruption that might go on. I've seen these water main projects throughout the city, and they take a long time for right reasons, and it's a huge undertaking. So I want to make sure that we do the proper outreach to businesses there.

David PenalozaItem 14

And I know this entire corridor, happy to see all the industrial improvement happening. in years and years of neglect. Just today we had a water main break in Madison Park, and I know that our water services division is out there now fixing that. So I'm happy with that, but just want to make sure that these improvements continue throughout the city and that we do that proper outreach.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 14

Will do.

David PenalozaItem 14

Thank you.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 14

Thank you. Councilman Hernandez, you had comments on item 17?

Johnathan Ryan HernandezItem 17

Yes, thank you, Madam Mayor. I just wanted to say that there is going to be a park coming to the Weller community Today, item 17, we approved an item which will provide an agreement with David Evans and associate for $410,000 for the landscape architectural design for a new park at 10th Street in Flower. This is an exciting new addition to a historic community in the Willard neighborhood. And we're just excited that the Santa Ana City Council was able to bring an amenity that the residents have been asking for for decades.

Johnathan Ryan HernandezItem 17

So just wanted to thank my colleagues and take this opportunity to tell the residents we have a park come into Willard Item 18. I just wanted to Thank my colleagues Specifically I wanted to thank councilmember Penaloza. This is in his district I have a lot of friends and family who grew up close to the mini street area as well as the standard and McFadden area and Item 18 will be bringing a park Design and construction support services to standard McFadden Park this is an area of the community that desperately has been in need of more park services so happy to see that coming to your district councilmember and item

Johnathan Ryan HernandezItem 18

24 is the last item I just wanted to comment on I'm very excited about seeing new amenities come to the parks at Madison Park as well as Angels Community Park today we accepted the donation of science technology engineering and and mathematics STEM-focused amenities at Madison Park and Angels Park. This is an exciting new opportunity for children to combine play and learning, and I know that this will be fruitful for many families. Thank you, Mayor Mesquo. That concludes my comments.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 18

Let me go back to item 18, Councilman Penelosa.

David PenalozaItem 18

Actually, Mayor, I just wanted to thank Councilmember Hernandez. I was trying to wave you down for 17, but I just want people to realize that 17 is a was so close to being something else, and it was Council Member Hernandez's leadership that because of him, we're getting a park in this very dense area of the city that hasn't had this green space and has been needing this green space for years. So likewise, thank you, Council Member Hernandez, for that.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 18

Great, thank you. Mayor Procham Lopez on item 24.

Jessie LopezItem 24

Sure, thank you, Mayor Mosqua. Well, first, I just want to thank our partners at UCI, Dr. Andres Bustamante's team, Dr. Rodrigo Rodriguez, who sits on the Santa Ana Unified School Board, they have been working on this project for many, many years. And I was fortunate enough to be looped in in 2021 and participate in Siali Sessions in 2022. And tonight to be able to see this on the council, it's really exciting and I feel really proud. and the purpose is very intentional from the location of the project to the outreach that happened with the moms in the area to all the data that was

Jessie LopezItem 24

collected and compounded by UCI and you know Dr. Bustamante and his research team are partnering with SIELE as we call Sanana Early Learning Initiative and they're really their focus is to co-design a series of installations in public urban spaces to encourage the engagement in formal STEM learning which is really important and so the goal of the partnership is to infuse public spaces in Santa Ana for example bus stops parks grocery source with playful and engaging in formal STEM learning opportunities thereby

Jessie LopezItem 24

leveraging everyday routines such as grocery shopping or waiting for the bus to promote science in math learning and caregiver child interactions. And so this is a project that has been years and years in the making and I want to thank our partners at UCI, I want to thank the school board, and I want to thank our city staff for making this MOU happen and finally bringing it to the city. So thank you for your work and again thanks to everyone that was involved.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 24

Thank you. Madam City Manager, I just would like to make a comment. And I know you and I discussed this item regarding Saley and UCI and school districts. So just for a historical perspective, we said I unified also started off with one or two playgrounds and then it expanded to other playgrounds, which ended up costing the school district money. So I just want to make sure I understand this is at a no cost to us, but I'd like to make sure I see HAWC going zero. And I'm appreciative of the work as long as that zero stays zero because it started out zero as well, and it's no longer zero.

So this is for two parks, and it's valued at about $249,000, and we have no obligations whatsoever beyond that, no cost obligations.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 24

Great, thank you. I just want to be on record that we zero, and in the future, zero. So, great. Thank you very much.

Jennifer L. HallItem 24

Mayor, that was pulled for separate discussion, so we need a motion.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 24

We'll take a motion.

Jennifer L. HallItem 24

Yes. I'll move item.

David PenalozaItem 24

I'll second. Madam City Clerk.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 24

Let's prepare to vote.

Jennifer L. HallItem 24

vote is seven ayes no nays motion carries

Valerie AmezcuaItem 24

if my council indulge me i'd like to bring up item 30 i know that's an item that people are waiting for and then we'll go back so um that's okay with everybody Absolutely. Okay. Let's go to item 30, please. Mayor, city manager.

So with this one, your item 30, which is the council member discussion item, is that the one you wanted to move to?

Valerie AmezcuaItem 24

Council member Penelousis, please, item.

David PenalozaItem 24

Perfect. Thank you, mayor. And this shouldn't really be a long discussion. It's basically, I agendized this to request to call up the Planning Commission item, CUP number 2023-09, request to upgrade the existing type 41 on sale of alcohol beverage control, license to a type 47 at a business located at Tovo A East McFadden. And I basically agendized this because a couple of the residents along Madison Park and Minnie Street have reached out to me about the they don't feel that there was enough community input

David PenalozaItem 24

or enough notice given um at least that they didn't weren't aware of so they just wanted to have another public hearing uh so that they have their opportunity to give provide input to us uh as a city so that's why it's here basically my ask is let's have another uh public hearing so that the residents could have a say

David PenalozaItem 24

I'll move to support it.

Johnathan Ryan HernandezItem 24

Same. Happy to support, Councilmember.

David PenalozaItem 24

So I'll second Councilmember. Thank you for that. I'll second Councilmember Becerra's motion to have another public hearing. Perfect. And just so I understand, Madam City Attorney, this will come back to the City Council, correct? Yes, it will. Is it automatic at the next Council meeting or is it, do we have a

date or so we would have to follow the requirements for conducting a public hearing and we actually do need you to take a vote on this item right okay

Valerie AmezcuaItem 24

we're gonna vote right now so I was waiting for him I was just asking for

David PenalozaItem 24

for date purposes do we know when this would so the municipal code does require

Sonia R. CarvalhoItem 24

the planning staff and the city clerk to notice this item in the same manner in which the item was first noticed before the Planning Commission so I don't know whether any of those publication deadlines would become an issue and we You will be provided, we will do it as soon as possible in complying with those requirements in municipal code. So the next part of it is staff will prepare a report. You'll get sent all the Planning Commission materials. The applicant will be given an opportunity and you'll be having a full-blown hearing.

Do we have a rough estimate of a timeline?

Certainly we do. We could have it for you in the first meeting in June.

David PenalozaItem 24

That works just as long as the community gets an opportunity to provide input.

And that will allow us sufficient time to ensure that public is notified.

David PenalozaItem 24

Sounds good.

Great. Thank you very much.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 24

All right. Let's move over to.

Jennifer L. HallItem 24

If you could take the vote, please.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 24

Oh, I'm so sorry. Let's prepare to vote. Trying to get through the meeting. I apologize.

Jennifer L. HallItem 24

The vote is seven ayes, no nays. Motion carries to set the item for public hearing before the council.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 24

All right. We're going to go to item number 27. and public hearing. Before hearing the public hearing number, item 27, Madam Clerk, please provide instructions to the public who'd like to make a comment on this public hearing item only.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 24

Before item number 27, I will be reaccusing myself because one of the CDBG requests is my church, so therefore I will be recusing myself and then I'd like to vote Mayor Pro Tem you can take over at this point I'll leave the room but I would like to come back if they if you all agree to vote on the other items it's just the one item that I cannot vote on with neutral ground and I believe they're

Valerie AmezcuaItem 27

in here so I'll leave it to you Mayor Pro Tem and I'll step out sure thank you members of the public

Jennifer L. HallItem 27

joining us by way of Zoom or conference call who would like to make a comment for public hearing item 27 only, please dial star 9 from your phone or select raise hand from Zoom now.

Jessie LopezItem 27

So prior to beginning item number 27,

Jessie LopezItem 27

does anyone want to make a motion to separate out the item the mayor has a conflict on? I'll move.

Benjamin VazquezItem 27

I second.

Jessie LopezItem 27

Okay, great.

Jennifer L. HallItem 27

Roll call, please.

Jennifer L. HallItem 27

Council Member Mezzera? To separate the items?

Phil BacerraItem 27

Yes.

Jennifer L. HallItem 27

Council Member Hernandez?

Phil BacerraItem 27

Yes.

Jennifer L. HallItem 27

Council Member Penelosa?

David PenalozaItem 27

Yes.

Jennifer L. HallItem 27

Council Member Phan? Yes. Council Member Vasquez?

Benjamin VazquezItem 27

Yes.

Jennifer L. HallItem 27

Mayor Pro Temp-Lopez? Yes. Okay. The vote is six ayes, no nays with the recorded recusal from Mayor Omescule. Item is bifurcated.

Sonia R. CarvalhoItem 27

And may I ask Mayor Pro Temp if we know how many speakers we have and whether we have any speakers that want to speak to that first item. but my recommendation would be that you take all the public comment on this item and then you act on that one item alone unless you know there's a finite number of speakers you want to take them you can do that I'm happy to accept your

Jessie LopezItem 27

recommendation to the attorney we have Carl Benninger for item 27 okay Dale Helwig? Mr. Helwig?

I think I was supposed to be on 28. Sorry about that.

Jessie LopezItem 27

Okay. 22 you saw?

28.

Jessie LopezItem 27

Okay. Does the council have any feedback for staff on item 27?

Johnathan Ryan HernandezItem 27

I just had one comment, Mayor Pro Tem. I just wanted to thank our staff. This is the... We have had many budget workshops and I just want to thank our staff. Madam City Manager, this is a very impressive document that shares a wide variety of different perspectives most importantly each of them are important to the residents so i just want to inform residents of ward 5 and that there's going to be a lot of amazing work coming to our district number one cdbg today we have logan park which is now in councilmember becerra's i'm sorry councilmember

Johnathan Ryan HernandezItem 27

penaloza's district but logan and chepa park would have a master plan design which would completely help beautify that center number two is campesino park would provide a cool pavement treatment number three is I want to thank our staff because I see $800,000 in additional homebuyer assistance funds fully supportive of that number four Casa de Familia is an organization in Ward 5 cap OC we have the Southwest Community Center in Ward 5 we have mom's Orange County in Ward 5 we have the summer night lights program at El Salvador Park we have octac bringing services to the Willard neighborhood. We have Public Law Center.

Johnathan Ryan HernandezItem 27

We have Taller San Jose Hope Builders and Wise Place. So 12 organizations in Ward 5 that will be receiving CDBG funding. Community investment looks like this. Thank you, staff.

Jessie LopezItem 27

Thank you, Councilmember. Councilmember Sera, I do see your hand, but I want to open the public hearing, and there are no cards, so we're going to close the public hearing. And a friendly reminder that we are on item 27, which is the annual action plan for the community development block grants. Thank you. Councilmember Bussara.

Phil BacerraItem 27

Thank you, Mayor Pro Tem. I just wanted to thank staff and also our Community Development Commission for all their work and all their recommendations that went into bringing this item before us today. So thank you. That's my comments.

Sonia R. CarvalhoItem 27

Okay. I just wanted to ask, were you going to bifurcate the matter and just speak to the one item? I think it was mutual ground. Was that the correct item? Yes, we said yes. Okay, so if you're going to bifurcate, you would just take that item and you would vote on that item alone. And then if you care to do that, you could then have the mayor return to vote on the remaining recipients.

Jessie LopezItem 27

Okay, perfect. Does anybody have any issues with the item we separated?

Thai Viet PhanItem 27

I think we already voted on that, so I move to approve the allocation to mutual ground.

Benjamin VazquezItem 27

I second.

Jessie LopezItem 27

Okay, so roll call please. Yes.

Jennifer L. HallItem 27

Actually opened the electronic voting.

Thai Viet PhanItem 27

Oh, it was moved by Fan, seconded by Vasquez. I apologize.

Jennifer L. HallItem 27

Let me get rid of that.

Jennifer L. HallItem 27

We'll do a roll call vote.

Jennifer L. HallItem 27

a motion by Council Member Fan, seconded by Council Member Vasquez and it was to approve I'm sorry, the higher to approve allocations in neutral ground Council Member Becerra

Phil BacerraItem 27

yes

Jennifer L. HallItem 27

Council Member Hernandez yes Council Member Penaloza

David PenalozaItem 27

yes

Jennifer L. HallItem 27

Council Member Fan yes

Jennifer L. HallItem 27

Mayor Pro Temp-Lopez yes Okay, motion carries 6-0, the noted recusal by Mayor Omescule.

Jennifer L. HallItem 27

We can move on to the remainder part of the public hearing. The other items.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 27

Mayor Pro Tem, you want to close out the public hearing?

Jessie LopezItem 27

Sure, thank you, Mayor. We're going to open up the public hearing for the remainder of the items. I don't see any speaker cards, so we will close the public hearing. I will hand it over to the Mayor.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 27

Great, thank you very much. we're gonna go to the work-study session at this time item number 28 please I'll make a motion to move the item and I'll go ahead second I left the room I apologize no no no you're good now oh go ahead I thought you all completed that so so we

Johnathan Ryan HernandezItem 27

have a motion and I'll make a second council member your motion yes I'll make a motion to the item I'll second it

Phil BacerraItem 27

You'll have to give it up.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 27

See what happens when I leave the room? You made a motion. I can't even.

Jessie LopezItem 27

Mayor Brunton has got it. Oh, thanks. Now, I do have a question for staff, because I read in the staff report that four of the nonprofits rejected the, what did I just read? Yes, declined their CDBG awards.

Jessie LopezItem 27

do you know why and why are we refilling granting?

It has to do with the paperwork that's involved in documentation for CDBG funds.

Okay. What we often hear is that the amount of accounting that goes into some of the awards they would have to bring on somebody. and there's a lot of documentation.

Jessie LopezItem 27

Okay. So that money, the total amount, I'm assuming the city just kept the money?

That's right.

Jessie LopezItem 27

And so are those same four non-profits now coming back and saying we want the money, as I understand it?

Judson, they did not go back, correct, David? No.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 27

No, no, no.

Let me bring up David, who...

Valerie AmezcuaItem 27

That would not be the right answer.

David Flores who is our CDBG administrator.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 27

I have a couple questions from the council members up here as well. So go ahead.

Good evening Mayor, council members. So those forest organizations decided that they were going to move forward this coming year because they couldn't fulfill their performance requirements. And because all the paperwork involved with CDBG program was too extensive for them and they didn't have the capacity to complete them.

Jessie LopezItem 27

Okay. Thank you for that. Those points are going to all be on my questions.

Thai Viet PhanItem 27

Council Member Van. Oh, you should stay there. David, right? Yes. Hi. So I believe the question was what happened to the money that was not allocated to the four who later rejected it. I believe this we reallocated to other organizations that did receive CDBG grants, correct?

So for this fiscal year, since those four organizations were not able to complete their performance, those funds get transferred into our unappropriate account for CDBG, and they're going to be reallocated for capital improvement projects for next fiscal year. So what we decided to do, because we have two-year contracts for public services, so for the second year, we're going to reallocate those funds that were awarded to the four to those three organizations in the staff report.

Thai Viet PhanItem 27

Okay, got it. And when it comes to housing, it says we have $800,000. It's a single family housing rehabilitation program and home buyer down payment assistance loan program citywide. It looks like that's one sentence, but that's two separate programs, correct?

Correct, but they fall under the housing category.

Thai Viet PhanItem 27

Right. And my question is how much of it is actually going to the rehabilitation program and how much to down payment assistance?

It's $500,000 is going to the housing rehab program with Habitat for Humanity and the remainder will go for down payment assistance.

Thai Viet PhanItem 27

Okay, so it's, so the reason why I ask is I've had a lot of actually seniors reach out asking for assistance to rehab their homes, right, they may have bought it in the 70s or 60s or earlier. And I know we have a program in place, but if it's solely for Habitat for Humanity or something else like that, then, you know, it's not going to benefit many other residents who may otherwise apply on their own. And so that's why I just had some clarification. and maybe we can talk separately about what to do about that kind of program.

Sure. So if I could, well.

Thai Viet PhanItem 27

Yeah, no, go ahead.

So Habitat for Humanity is our vendor that does all the rehab work. So all the residents, as long as they're low income, are able to apply for the program, and then we funnel the services or the rehab through Habitat for Humanity. But all residents are eligible for this program.

Thai Viet PhanItem 27

Got it. Okay. So that's really helpful and good for me to understand because my residents don't know that. And so I think maybe we can work on promoting some of that too because for Habitat for Humanity, would it apply also to maybe mobile homes?

That's correct, yes.

Thai Viet PhanItem 27

So we have a lot of senior mobile home parks and whatnot, and I think this would be really ideal to reach out to them directly and to provide that assistance because it is hard to get a loan to fix up your mobile home specifically. Thank you.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 27

Councilman Becerra, did you?

Valerie AmezcuaItem 27

So I want to just, I'll turn it, I'll give it to you in just one second. So I think Council Member Phan said something again about PR. So I think we hear that a lot throughout the night. So mobile home parks, you know, special PR with them, mail piece. I know we do, you know, the COSAs that you sent out. But not everybody has, you know, emails, especially the seniors. So it would be great. Again, snail mail works beautifully. We could send something out. it is truly about reaching our community and the PRP so Mayor Pro Tem Lopez

Jessie LopezItem 27

thank you mayor just um for some of the countywide organizations that I see on the list do they provide information to the Commission to the department as to how many Santa Ana residents are enrolled only because I see some of the numbers that are not necessarily Santa Ana based orgs are a little higher than than those orgs that are Santa Ana based.

Are you referring to the public service portion of the staff report?

Jessie LopezItem 27

Some of the organizations in your chart under public service organizations.

Yeah, so all of those public service agencies have to service Santa Ana residents. The programs-

Jessie LopezItem 27

Right, but is it just one, or do we require a percentage or a set number of Santa Ana residents to be enrolled in the program?

100% Santa Ana residents. So, for example, if the Delhi Center, whatever service they're providing for the community, they have to enroll 100% of Santa Ana residents into the program.

So, Mayor Pro Tem, I believe your question has to do with that's part of the evaluation criteria on determining the amount of money to be awarded based on how many program participants or how many they can serve.

Jessie LopezItem 27

And I'm not so much concerned with Santa Ana organizations based out of the city, but some of the ones that are countywide that I see on this list.

Jessie LopezItem 27

So if they have a program, how do you, or what is the determination factor as to how many Santa Ana kids need to be enrolled in one of their initiatives?

That's a great question. So when we release our NOFA, they have to tell us, depending on their funding, so it has to be connected, right? So they give us their performance measures or how many Santa Ana residents are going to fund with the month that we're going to award them or the month that they're requesting.

Jessie LopezItem 27

Okay. So it could be, you know, out of 20 kids, it could be six. Right? It could be.

So if we're funding them for 20 kids, they have to enroll 20 Santa Ana kids. Oh, okay.

Jessie LopezItem 27

That was what I was looking for. Okay. Thank you. You're welcome.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 27

It just took a little bit to get there, huh? So if we had 100 kids, then it's 100 Santa kids.

That's correct.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 27

All right, great. Thank you. No other questions? All right, let's move on. Now we can vote.

Jennifer L. HallItem 27

Vote.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 27

Please.

Jennifer L. HallItem 27

A motion by Council Member Becerra seconded by Council Member Becerra to approve the remainder of public hearing item number 27. I'm noting for the record there was one email that was received related to this public hearing and distributed.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 27

Thank you.

Jennifer L. HallItem 27

The vote is seven ayes, no nays. Motion carries. Item 28, please.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 27

Item 28 is a work study session regarding the fiscal year 23-24 budget. Madam City Manager, may you please have your report.

All right, honorable Mayor, Mayor Pro Tem and Council Members. So this is our budget workshop and staff has been very busy since you gave us the early budget direction And I think you'll be pleased with the presentation tonight We're going to delve into and give you a little more information on what we gleaned from the community on that Ask that they have for budget we also have attempted to synthesize all of the requests and The direction that you did provide us at the last meeting and so hopefully We're getting closer to getting ready to prepare a draft budget for you

I will turn it over to Executive Director of Finance, Kat Down, to walk you through the presentation for this workshop.

Thank you, and good evening, Mayor and Council members. So during this workshop, I will provide follow-up information for the early direction that you provided on April 18th to us. This is an opportunity for you to provide further direction before you receive your detailed draft documents for next fiscal year and conduct your dedicated workshop on May 11th.

Tonight we will cover public input from community engagement, a short discussion on fees, program spending information, proposed capital spending, and next steps.

First let's look at the results of community engagement.

Staff attended seven community budget meetings covering all wards. Although there were only 71 participants at these meetings, through our online tools, we had more than 1,000 engagements with the public.

During the seven community budget meetings, the most common input from the 71 participants included acquire parkland and enhance park maintenance and safety, add more libraries and services for youth and seniors, enhance cultural and arts programming, prioritize youth services including teen spaces, and expand the PAL program and increase funding for safety. In addition to the community budget meetings staff set up budget booths at citywide events this year. We offered online simulation and prioritization tools and an online survey.

The vast majority of our public input came from the online offerings.

Top weighted categories from the online tools included write-ins for environmental justice initiatives, more parks and street maintenance, intervention and prevention programs, additional homeless services, youth recreation, and code enforcement.

Recurring feedback topics are presented in this pie chart with parks and infrastructure being the most popular. Common suggestions included expand and enhance parks, increase roadway maintenance, fulfill environmental justice commitments, expand and enhance crime reduction programs, and provide more youth programs and facilities.

From 926 responses received via the online survey, the top two budget priorities were invest in homelessness reduction and crime reduction.

Also from the survey responses, the lowest two priorities were attract more visitors to increase tax revenue and expand the library system.

As part of the survey, we asked how important it is to focus on improving sidewalks, reducing traffic congestion, and enhancing street lighting. The results are presented here. 74% to 84% of respondents indicated that these were important or very important.

We also asked how important it is to focus on reducing police response times, investing in other police services such as PAL, civilian ride-alongs, and the homeless response team, and improving animal control services. The results are presented here with important or very important responses ranging from 58% to 82%.

And we asked how important it is to focus on enhancing park programming and enhancing library programming. Enhancing park programming received important or very important responses totaling 75%. An Enhancing Library Program received important or very important responses totaling 64%.

Next, a quick discussion of the proposed fee increase.

As noted during the early budget direction presentation, we propose a 4.1% fee increase for next fiscal year. Fees are designed to recover the city's cost for providing direct services to individuals. The proposed increase is based on negotiated increases with the city's labor groups plus normal step increases. The actual CPI increase for calendar year 2022 was 5.56%. If we forego the proposed fee increase, we will need to reduce our revenue estimates by approximately $1 million and the corresponding proposed spending budget to rebalance it.

Next, I would like to walk through program spending.

As reported during the early budget direction presentation, we do have a sizable general fund balance available for spending. Our draft budget includes notable one-time spending proposals for the third and Broadway loan, backfilling gas tax revenue lost to preserve roadway maintenance, an allocation for potential special elections, another subsidy for free and price-reduced downtown parking, climate action plan consulting, vehicle and equipment replacements, and another one-time allocation for the Winter Village.

We do not expect our recurring revenue to increase much for next fiscal year so the amounts we added to the recurring budget were minimal. Notable items include additional funding for crossing guards. There'll be more on that later in the presentation. Contract increases for inmate services, including food and medical. A small ongoing allocation for deferred maintenance on city-owned fire stations. A short list of workforce changes. Contract increases for parking enforcement. And fuel cost increases.

This is a summary of the draft general fund budget. It includes recurring and one-time spending in line with public input and Council's early direction on April 18th. After we receive direction this evening, your detailed draft documents should be available by the end of this week. week. Remaining amounts available include $133,000 of recurring money and $861,000 of one-time money based on current revenue estimates.

This is a quick summary of our proposed Measure X spending plan. The spending plan of $93.6 million exceeds the estimated revenue of $88.6 million. We do this in case we are able to increase our Measure X revenue estimate at a later date. Measure X is general fund revenue. Therefore, this spending plan represents a portion of the general fund spending whether it is paid for by Measure X or other general fund revenue. For next fiscal year, the draft budget includes more pothole repair, more roadway striping

and signage, a new traffic signal at Segerstrom and Spruce, and a backfill to cover the gas tax revenue loss to maintain the existing level of roadway maintenance. The next slides address spending priorities in the budget based on your early direction.

Including the draft budget, this is a five-year trend of library spending. library spending has nearly doubled since fiscal year 1920. Keep in mind that our revenue has not doubled over that same time period. Revenue has only increased by 23% during that same five-year period.

There is a five-year trend of parks and recreation spending, which has more than doubled since fiscal year 1920.

Park maintenance has also seen some significant increases. Overall the spending is increasing by more than 60% since fiscal year 1920.

Code enforcement staffing has increased by nearly 70% over six years. On a previous slide I showed a recurring budget addition of $140,000 for workforce changes. The addition of a code enforcement supervisor is one of the primary drivers of that number.

During the early budget direction discussion, we heard a request for senior meal services. The City provides these senior meal services and food distribution at the Southwest and Santa Ana Senior Centers.

We also heard a desire for teen excursions. The city provides two teen excursions per month via the programs listed on this slide. The Parks and Recreation Department has a goal to double the number of teens participating in these programs.

The city does provide support for boxing, wrestling, and MMA activities. This includes ongoing programs at four different locations.

After-school programs are provided by the school districts and the city. This map shows the after-school programs available in the city, which enables us to see service gaps in the southwest sector of the city. PAL provides athletic programs, like the Lady Bugs that you recognized on April 18, as well as fitness and arts programs serving almost 2,500 youth. PAL also has after-school programs at two locations, with two more locations in the works.

In addition, the city has used some of its federally funded Revive program to partner with local nonprofits for after-school programs. programs. This is all of course in addition to various park and library programs such as teen time and the other sports active team sports activities that you recognize tonight as well.

During early budget direction we heard a desire to expand the land available for the Discovery Cube to use. We do have an MOU with the Discovery Cube to pursue grants for an outdoor science park on city-owned property.

The draft budget includes funding for city events. This includes funding contributions for local groups to host Juneteenth and Indigenous Peoples Day events. The 30-day Winter Village event was initiated with federal funding for healthy outdoor activities for the public. The draft budget includes another one-time allocation of $900,000 for the Winter Village while we continue to assess program efficacy for ongoing funding with general fund money. Although we have not yet included it in the draft

budget, the library does have the ability to provide a beat-making program. It would be a series of courses that teach sampling, chopping, and manipulating sounds with professional software. The library would contract with a local musician or DJ to provide equipment and software and instruction with a potential cost of roughly $5,000. City Council can direct us to include this in the draft budget.

If the City Council directs us to double the Board's and Commission's stipend, the related spending would increase by $27,000 spread across multiple departments. Due to the immaterial amount, we would ask departments to absorb the increase within existing budget allocations.

We wanted to provide some clarity regarding animal control services. The City contracts with the County for animal care and impound services. The annual cost of $2.65 million is part of the general fund budget. The City also employs two animal service officers who provide emergency response, take strays and owner-released animals to the county impound, respond to calls for animal cruelty, bites, and home checks, investigate barking dog complaints, and issue citations.

Between the two full-time employees, we have roughly 3,600 productive staff hours each year to cover more than 27 square miles. This is an average of 11 staff hours per month per square mile, which means our animal service officers have a lot of ground to cover. OC Animal Allies offers a discount voucher program to low-income families for spay and neuter services. On their website, OC Animal Care provides a list of low-cost clinics providing spay and and neuter services. The cost for these services range from $480 to $650.

OC Animal Allies has trapped, spayed, or neutered, and released over 1,300 feral cats. Although we have not yet included it in the draft budget, the City Council could direct us to use a portion of the waste hauler donation to make a contribution to OC Animal Allies, a local nonprofit, to increase activity in Santa Ana.

Next up, a discussion of the police department vacancies. So this is a summary of the police department vacancy rate compared to other cities. Now first, the summary indicates that Santa Ana's ratio of one sworn manager to 20 sworn officers is lower than the average of one sworn manager to 15 sworn officers across all these cities. The summary also shows the Santa Ana vacancy rate at 7.8%, which is close to the average of 8%.

Keeping those vacancy rates in mind, staff recommends increasing the officer or hiring bonus to a range of $20,000 to $50,000 to be funded by vacancy savings. These hiring bonuses would ramp down as vacancies are filled. We propose to revisit the potential addition of funded officers at midyear considering any updated estimates of recurring revenue at that time. The police department is looking into the potential cost of installing cameras at intersections with repeated street racing. So a proposal may be forthcoming to the City Council.

The current year budget for crossing guards is $1.1 million. The draft budget includes an addition of $200,000 for a total of $1.3 million. To maintain the current service level of 55 crossing guards, the new contract for consideration on your May 16th agenda will need 1.5 million dollars of funding for now I understand the mayor and staff will continue to seek contributions from school districts we may need to revisit funding for the new contract at mid-year the city has multiple gang

prevention programs which are outlined on this slide the Parks and Recreation Department works with Neutral Ground for the Friday Night Lights program. Roughly half of the MET Division budget is dedicated to the gang unit. The Police Department also receives a small grant for gang prevention activities, and they have multiple youth programs that support gang prevention. If the City Council wishes to expand gang prevention programs, we have identified two options for funding. We could partially reduce the discretionary city event spending plan, or we could use

a portion of the waste hauler donation to make a contribution to local nonprofits who support gang prevention.

Staff plans to return to Council for approval of a spending plan for the opioid settlement money. Our initial receipt is $1.1 million. dollars. Based upon early direction from Council and the program spending restrictions and priorities, the spending plan will likely include the activities listed on this slide. Next I would like to cover the proposed capital spending for next fiscal year. We have three notable additions to the CIP using general fund money. As mentioned previously, there is a backlog of

deferred maintenance at city-owned fire stations. The draft budget includes $1.2 million to address issues at various stations. We propose to add a traffic signal to the intersection at Seegerstrom and Spruce, as well as rehabbing Westminster Avenue from Harbor to New Hope. The draft budget includes the following allocations to fix streets totaling $25.5 million from both restricted resources and general fund money. Although we have allocations in the draft budget for other roadway projects as well, these are the amounts listed to fix pavement.

We have multiple park improvement projects in process. The draft budget includes allocations for cool pavement treatment at the Madison and Campesino parking lots, as well as funding for Logan Chepes Park Master's Design. New parks in the planning stages include the Dog Park at Centennial, Tenth and Flower, Standard and McFadden, Passive Parkland using the Bristol and Warner property remnants, and Mountain View and First.

Other notable additions to the draft CIP budget using restricted money include protected bike lanes on Bristol, bikeways on Orange, protected bike lanes on Warner, an ADA accessible restroom at PAL, and a new parking lot at the main library. This is a map of projects included in the draft budget. As you can see, there are funded projects for every area of the city. We also have a summary of the proposed $37 million draft CIP budget here, with the lion's share of that going to street improvements, including that $25.5 million

I showed earlier to fix pavement. Now we've covered projects included in the draft budget but we still have some capital requests that are not yet funded. Although we have included funding for a new traffic signal at Segerstrom and Spruce, there are requested improvements for at least three other intersections that remain unfunded. The City Council could direct staff to use a portion of the 861,000 remaining available general fund balance to fund one or more of one more of these projects.

During the early budget discussion, there was interest to improve Civic Center Drive. Early estimates to improve the streets around the Civic Center are listed here. However, no funding source has been identified.

Another unfunded project is the addition of event flooring and seats at the stadium. Early estimates of cost may total $3.5 million, yet no funding source has been identified.

During early direction, we heard an interest in opening up the water tower to the public. The first step would be a feasibility and seismic study, which may cost approximately $150,000 to determine the safety for the public. Council could direct staff to include the study in the draft budget using a portion of the $861,000 remaining available general fund balance or a reduction of the discretionary city event budget.

After we receive your direction tonight, the next steps include a dedicated workshop on May 11th. If an additional workshop is needed, it would be included on your May 16th regular agenda. We expect to release the detailed draft documents by the end of the week in preparation for your May 11th workshop. Your public hearing is currently scheduled for June 6th with adoption planned for June 20th. That concludes my prepared presentation and staff is ready to answer your questions and take additional direction.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 28

Thank you so very much for the wonderful presentation. We all really appreciate it. But before we do Council comments, we have two public hearing requests to speak. I'm going to have them come up and speak. One is Carl Bettinger and the other one is Dale Helvig. So please, three minutes. I'm sitting quick.

Thank you, Mayor, and good evening, Council. I first of all want to thank Mark Garcia and Justin Brown for coming to Comlink and explaining the rent ordinance. They did an excellent job. I appreciate that. and they created a lot of questions and answered a lot of questions and after they explained their situation i told mike on the way home that night all i could hear the song this time you gave me a mountain and they're climbing that mountain they'll be ready to present to you i'm here really in my head as comlink president we've had a cert program in the city we had it for a long

time and then it went away when the fire department went away and we presently right now are training folks but we're not retaining them and so what the comic is is willing to do or wants to do is we want to become bringing that group together we want a cert program as effective as it is in Anaheim I in the beach cities around us so my big ass for a budget this year is $250,000 be dedicated to cert so we can buy the equipment we need to do in the neighborhood repair the repeater that's on this building but doesn't respond to anything and get radios so that if there

is an emergency the neighborhoods could respond back to the fire department police department let them know the status of what's going on as you all know it's not a question of if it's a question of when we'll have a major disaster to where we're gonna need a system they'll be able to communicate and how sad if Santa Ana is the only city that cannot do that thank you thank

Valerie AmezcuaItem 28

you

Good evening, Mayor, Council members, and City staff. It was good to see all the discussion tonight on parks. I think it's really refreshing to see the park going in at 10th and Flower, the Thornton Park improvements, and as you know, Park Santiago is getting really close to opening up again. It's been closed for a couple of years. I saw the sod in a couple weeks ago, and I'm looking forward to the announcement for the ribbon-cutting ceremony to open up the park again. So I really appreciate all the work that the city is doing to make that happen.

The reason I'm here is I'm hoping the city can find in their budget, you know, I know you mentioned that there's an MOU for expansion just north of Discovery Center, And I'd like to see Discovery Center expanded even further.

What I'm hoping for is the city can collaborate with the Discovery Science Center, can work with Senator Umberg, Congressman Correa, and Assembly Member Valencia, and get together and see if we can make that happen. And I know the Discovery Science Center would really like to expand even more than what they presently have with the MOU. And it's a beautiful place to go to. If you've ever been up there during Bubble Fest and some of the other events, it's packed.

And I'm sure that they can provide more exhibits with more space. So I'm hoping you guys can find money to make that happen with all of our elected officials in the state and federal government as well. Thank you.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 28

Thank you very much. So I know everybody probably up here has comments. So let me start one way. Councilman Vasquez, do you have any comments?

Benjamin VazquezItem 28

Yes, thank you, Mayor. I just want to say when we talk about crime reduction or gang reduction interventions,

Benjamin VazquezItem 28

that's done in any youth program. That's why POW works so well. But it works well in the schools. It works well in the parks and parks and rec in our community centers. It works well with the Boy Scouts. Any work where an adult is working with the youth and showing them positive attitude is going to work. That is crime reduction. So the more we invest in youth, including libraries, teen centers, digital libraries, that is crime reduction in Santa Ana. We need to nurture this young city. We need to make sure that our budget and our work shows that, that we're here to make sure

Benjamin VazquezItem 28

that we build the character of our community through love and compassion. When we invest in youth, we are saying that we are moving forward with a way of fighting crime that is done at home, that is done with love, that is building human beings that are caring. So investing in youth, investing in us and families is what's going to fight crime and reduce gang violence in Santa Ana. This has worked and it's been proven over and over again.

Benjamin VazquezItem 28

So the more I, when we hear those words of crime reduction, I want to hear the solution is investment. It's preventative medicine. It's not reactionary. It's what we do to make sure we stay healthy. We have health. We build healthy families. We build healthy youth. So the more we invest in them, the more we get back and reduce in crime. Thank you.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 28

Thank you very much. Any other comments?

Johnathan Ryan HernandezItem 28

Yes, thank you, Mayor Mesquith. Just wanted to thank our city staff and Catherine Downs for putting together such a robust and comprehensive presentation. I'm going to keep my comments very concise but thorough. So first and foremost, it makes me happy to see that the common community concerns are for us to acquire more land for park creation and expansion regular park maintenance and enhancing park safety I just wanted to say that I echo though the sentiments of our constituents I wanted to be on the record that I support seeing more additional park space I know that Riverview is something

Johnathan Ryan HernandezItem 28

that was recently brought before us on the council I am supportive of seeing additional open space. When it comes to additional libraries, more senior and youth programs, I am supportive of seeing a teen center. I know our Library Services Director Brian Sternberg recently introduced at Garfield and El Salvador Community Center a teen learning center. I would love to see a community center in a park-poor community be brought up. I think it would be an innovative approach for our library where we haven't seen that before. having a teen center that is devoted to you know young adults and has everything

Johnathan Ryan HernandezItem 28

that they need to help them throughout you know middle school high school college I think that teen center would be a very successful model for Orange County moving forward parks is the most popular recurring feedback topic so at 17% I am echoing the sentiments of our residents I just wanted to put that out there. The fiscal year top budget priorities were investing in homelessness reduction programs. I'm supportive of that. I'm supportive of investing in crime reduction programs that are focused on community-based solutions. So what that looks like to me is expanding

Johnathan Ryan HernandezItem 28

those community-based options is going to be having more senior breakfast programs in neighborhoods like Willard, like Santa Anita, and like Articia Pilar in Ward 5. We're very fortunate to have senior mill service centers at the Southwest Senior Center and at the Santa Ana Senior Center. And although there are two in our city, there is certainly a need for more. The Jerome community would be a perfect location given its multi-generational neighborhood and formerly had the Corbin Center for many decades off of Raitt and McFadden.

Johnathan Ryan HernandezItem 28

So it would be a great destination to bring a senior breakfast program there. And perhaps we look at public-private partnerships, maybe looking at some vacant commercial space in a neighborhood and our city formulating an agreement with a private property owner. And maybe that can be the destination where we have a senior breakfast program. The idea that I have is to be able to provide breakfast services at a housed location that is open early in the morning and is serving families through the early afternoon.

Johnathan Ryan HernandezItem 28

When it comes to teen excursions, I have seen firsthand the good work that our Parks and Rec Department is doing with teen excursions. They're immensely popular. The only thing I would love to see is more local excursions to amenities such as Knott's Berry Farm, Disneyland, Soak City, you know, Boomers, things like that I think would be a big hit and I would like to see a Catalina trip added to the excursion trip. I think that would be fantastic. I want to touch on the next area, the support for boxing, wrestling, and MMA. The TKO Boxing Club uses city property at Jerome at no cost.

Johnathan Ryan HernandezItem 28

It says that striking technique fundamentals from PD, Police Department at PAL plus 12 week MMA. If I can ask our chief of police what the credentials are of the instructors that are providing boxing instructing instructions or mixed martial arts. I want to make sure we're teaching our people good technique. I might have to go in there myself,

sir yes i'll be there so we have uh officers that are trained um in the art uh that conduct the the training and instruction um they're not doing anything you know beyond um hand contact and that um and that's that's really it uh you and anyone else can come and and uh take take a tour when they're actually doing it. And, you know, you can give us your opinion because I know you have a background.

Johnathan Ryan HernandezItem 28

Absolutely. So I had the pleasure of visiting the Powell Center. They have wonderful equipment. They had very good resources. I just want to make sure that if we are providing striking techniques, there are experts in our community that perhaps we can outsource through Powell. Bringing in a boxing coach from maybe TKO, partnering with them could be fruitful. maybe partnering with Gracie Baja Brazilian Jiu Jitsu in Santa Ana. There are some local black belts who grew up in our city. So maybe formulating some of those agreements I think would be helpful for this 12-week MMA program. I would love to bring in some friends of mine.

Johnathan Ryan HernandezItem 28

There's a lot of Olympians that are in our community who are wrestlers. So I just wanted to extend an olive branch, Chief. Please reach out to my office. I'd love to connect you guys to some world champions, bring them down there, and add to that program. because I think that this is a value to the community. And furthermore, the idea that I have, Chief, is for us to embrace mixed martial arts as a city, perhaps it's bringing in some high-level athletes from Santa Ana to visit these youth, and perhaps it opens the doors down the line to have... Back in the day, there used to be boxing clubs that police departments used to run.

Johnathan Ryan HernandezItem 28

Maybe it's introducing a PAL boxing club and having this focus center for mixed martial arts and boxing. I just wanted to be on the record that I'm supportive of that because I think we'd have a far higher attendance rate. So if that's something that you guys are interested in, I'd like to see it done. If there is an interest from our department there, I want to make it on the record that I support Parks and Rec utilizing the recreational centers and integrating wrestling rooms. So covering them from every single wall with mats, having mats on the ground that don't move.

Johnathan Ryan HernandezItem 28

So that way we can incorporate wrestling as part of parks and recreation, hosting grappling tournaments, et cetera. So I just wanted to say, Chief, supportive of the boxing, wrestling, and MMA, let me know how I can help. I'd be happy to connect some dots.

Thank you.

Johnathan Ryan HernandezItem 28

Thank you, sir. Next up, I wanted to touch on after-school programs. I'm happy to see that the city is currently partnering with local nonprofits. I just want to encourage us to continue that. I am also very supportive of the Discovery Cube request to utilize the creek. I think that would be a great use of public land. And for the proposed city events budget, I wanted to talk about my support for it. I'm happy that we have a cannabis festival. This is going to be something that is going to generate a lot of money for our city, and I think it puts us ahead of our competition in Orange County, because there are neighboring

Johnathan Ryan HernandezItem 28

cities that are legalizing as well but santa anna is the first so we want to be at the at the forefront of being leaders here the the only area there are two areas i wanted to talk about the fiestas reimagined i want to echo the sentiments of my constituents who have requested that this fiestas patrias be brought back to downtown santa anna with a parade i'm fully supportive of that and would like to see staff bring us that. The last area I wanted to talk about is, well, the last one will be Juneteenth. The Juneteenth event I see was decreased from 75,000 down to 36,800. I have to speak on the facts.

Johnathan Ryan HernandezItem 28

So I was one of three elected officials at this dais who was present at that festival. And I can tell you that festival did not have 800 people. I was there from the minute it started to the minute it ended. Anybody who has attended a festival knows that I am there from start to finish. And the reason why this Juneteenth Festival should not and cannot be decreased is because Santa Ana is a historically, you know, a city that embraces its black history. So I want to talk about that as to why we should not and cannot decrease that amount. Helen Shipp was the founder of the Orange County Black History Parade in 1980.

Johnathan Ryan HernandezItem 28

She was a resident of Santa Ana. Warren Bussey is home to the oldest African-American that lived in Orange County who lived up to 108 years old and passed away last year, Mr. Warren Bussey. Mr. Warren Bussey was also the first black business owner in all of Orange County. Santa Ana was the first city to hire a black police officer in Orange County in Harlan Lambert. In addition to that Santa Ana is the home to the oldest black church in Orange County in Second Baptist and it is home to the Orange County Heritage Council which is the oldest black organization that we have in our city that is doing work with the

Johnathan Ryan HernandezItem 28

city to host the Juneteenth Festival so this to me sends the opposite message that we we as cities in Orange County want to send which is why I would like to ask staff to keep it at the amount that we funded it, which is $75,000, and to bring us back an adjustment that reflects that.

Johnathan Ryan HernandezItem 28

The beat making I am supportive of, I would like to make a recommendation that we hire local musicians to teach those classes. And I ask my colleagues to please indulge with me. I am going to take my time here because these are public dollars and people elected me to make sure I made good use of their money. and so we want to make sure that we hire local musicians there's a gentleman named Demar who is a specialist at making beats and I'm sure that he'd be somebody that would be great to talk to I would also like to touch on the animal control services I am fully supportive of us using a portion of the 183,500 waste

Johnathan Ryan HernandezItem 28

dollar donation to contribute to the OC animal allies to increase the Santa trap and release activity I know myself and councilmember Peña Loza are both advocates for animals they are very much part of the family in Santa Ana so we want to protect them and get them access to good care I want to address the police department vacancy rate I am supportive of filling this vacancy but I want to do it responsibly the reason why we are having problems filling these vacancies isn't because people aren't interested we have a $10,000 incentive to hire but we are currently experiencing very very difficult

Johnathan Ryan HernandezItem 28

challenges when it comes to the culture of policing many of you are aware as to where we've had shortcomings and I think that ultimately we could put all the money in front of this if we want but we will still have an issue of culture we have to address it let's look at all the factors there are very public there are very public disputes between our department and officers I think in order for us to address having a healthy department and looking at the vacancy rate we have to talk about culture my office remains committed to that conversation the community safety initiatives

Johnathan Ryan HernandezItem 28

i am not supportive of increasing the range of 20 000 to 50 000 to higher officers until we address culture i am supportive of cameras at intersections with repeated street racing and furthermore i would like to support the community safety initiatives by including funding for police officer vehicles so that we have cameras that can protect them and engage in more transparent practices so we have cameras positioned on dash cams to protect ourselves from litigation and lawsuits I know the city of Santa Ana struggled with many related to accidents having dash cams can protect us also

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having rearview cameras that are recording the passenger seats the rear view passenger seats of police vehicles that would be fully comprehensive transparency from the ground to the vehicle that is how we build community trust let's invest in it and supportive of crossing guards city efforts for gang prevention I'm happy to see neutral ground I would like us to utilize funds from the Met 2.9 50% of that is going to the Met the Met team is a team that has publicly had a lot of scrutiny even from some of our own officers so I would like to see some of those funds be allocated toward gang

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prevention efforts I think that when we invest in those efforts we can only build relationships after-school programs supportive of everything that is being proposed and then the last area I'm going to touch on is improving our parks I'm happy to see these parks having new restrooms I have echoed over the last year we need to improve and replace the restrooms at El Salvador Park director Hock Scott has mentioned that is something that will be in the pipeline I want to be on the record there and then the Civic Center drive improvements the County of Orange recently improved their county buildings which are here off of

Johnathan Ryan HernandezItem 28

Civic Center however from flower moving forward toward Maine Civic Center looks beautiful but from flower towards Fairview we are desperately in need of repairs so I am asking for our city staff to include funding so that we can repair Civic Center Avenue from Bristol to Raitt, Raitt Street from Civic Center to Washington, and then perhaps asking our city staff to indulge OCTA in sharing the cost in repairing Fifth Street from Fairview to Raitt since that is where the streetcar construction exists. That concludes my comments. Thank

Valerie AmezcuaItem 28

you. Thank you. Any other comments from Councilmembers? I have some, but if you

Thai Viet PhanItem 28

would like councilman go ahead I figure since staff is looking for direction I'll kind of attempt to go in order okay so first great I was at one of the community budget meetings so I'm really glad that we got some responses online and that it's consistent with what this council's been working on especially with the parks master plan parks open space and those kinds of services you You know, I think that the first item I do want to talk about is parks because Ward 1 has been so lucky, actually, in the last two and a half years since I've been on this council

Thai Viet PhanItem 28

to have access to ARPA funding to completely redo Santa Anita Park, which is one of our oldest parks. A former council member, Natalie La Mendoza, talked about how she learned how to swim there as a child, and they've been asking for a new community center, a new field for a very long time and we're finally doing that so I just want to thank staff for prioritizing that and investing our money our ARPA funding to purchase more park more park space I want to state for the record that the discussion we had relating to Riverview Park and the MOE excuse me the resolution was merely

Thai Viet PhanItem 28

consistent with our parks master plan and our general plan to pursue funding for potential opportunity to obtain park space. I believe that we have to, as a city and as demanded by our residents and our constituents, continue to pursue that type of free money that the state is willing to give us, state, federal, other agencies willing to provide to us to obtain open space. This council and residents have spoken time and time again about how we need more park space, but we're built out. There's not a lot of empty land and when opportunities come up, we have to

Thai Viet PhanItem 28

seize it if we can. And the only way we can do that is in two ways. One, through eminent domain, which is not something that we all love. And two, is when there is property up for sale, we have to find free money in order to obtain that if we can. I can tell you that cities like Anaheim and Orange are excited they're excited to have these opportunities and I think that we need to pursue it so I want to just reiterate our pursuit of grant funding and taking every possible step to engage the community and pursue dollars for open space I believe that staff the community this council and our

Thai Viet PhanItem 28

partners are able to work to create programming to improve maintenance as we have been in the last two and a half years to ensure all of these open space areas are brought up to snuff but in order to do that we have to have open space areas to invest in in the first place so that's the first thing and I wanted to reiterate that the second issue is going to questions that staff had relating to the proposed fee increase I'm supported supportive of that but I know we'll have a larger discussion once that comes through.

Thai Viet PhanItem 28

Okay so teen excursions I just wanted to ask about this a little bit it seems like a really fantastic kind of opportunities for our young residents I am definitely jealous because I don't think they were around and I don't know how I can volunteer to maybe be you know one of the adults or something but I guess I'm trying to figure out are we working with any of our school districts to to help provide these services or what's the cost for them because you know I think them here and I were talking about how SA USD has a 1.1 billion dollar budget and we're providing a lot of after-school programming

Thai Viet PhanItem 28

and additional programming. Do we have any of that relationship?

So our teen excursions tend to be we find licensed and bonded and insured companies, and then we pay the way for our Santa Ana teens to go on them. The major cost of the teen excursion does have to do with the appropriate insurance coverage and licensing. As you can imagine, you're taking teens out and about somewhere. the school district I can't I'm not aware of programs that they actually have but I wouldn't necessarily know that but I don't believe we've ever partnered with SA USD for teen excursions we have not yeah or GG USD I mean I guess my

Thai Viet PhanItem 28

point is just more of it feels like we're subsidizing something that some of the school districts should also be doing because I know that field trips and other types of enrichment programs have been cut over the years and I just want to put it out there because we are looking at ways to be cost-effective while not cutting programs as much as possible. Specific to, well going back to the after school programs, I'm not sure if this map is comprehensive but it really looks sad because representing the west side on this map there are only

Thai Viet PhanItem 28

three dots so three programs specific to Ward 1 that's 55,000 residents with only three after-school programs I don't have the exact numbers for those under 18 but you can see how it's there's really a dearth there and maybe because it doesn't cover non-SAUSD area just kind of based on the way the map looks but I am excited for the Santa Anita location and the revitalization and the work between public works planning parks as well as PD. I know that the residents are very, very excited to have not just the park, but also to bring up the PAL program there.

Thai Viet PhanItem 28

There are a lot of issues in that corner, and I just wanted to reiterate that whatever we can do to bring it up to snuff and get it running would be fantastic.

Discovery Cube, my question, because the resident, we did have a comment about that.

Thai Viet PhanItem 28

So it doesn't seem like there's a request specifically for Discovery Cube because with the city's MOU, they're going out to get funding. Is that correct? We're not subsidizing anything.

We're not subsidizing it. We merely have a memorandum of understanding with them since it's our property and that we're highly supportive of their expansion northward and look forward to partnering with them and hoping they can be successful at procuring the funds.

Thai Viet PhanItem 28

Right. So, you know, we're going to continue to do that, but I just wanted to make sure that wasn't like a budget allocation or anything like that. Regarding the events budget, I want to say that I've heard my colleagues so far speak loud and clear as to the concerns for all of these items. But I do, I guess when I saw the list of the cost per attendance, per attendee, it was extremely concerning because what we're looking at is a structural deficit over time and that we are trying to do as much as possible with a limited, a small pie, right?

Thai Viet PhanItem 28

And so with that, I am supportive of staff's recommendation for the proposed city budget events. I'm particularly excited that we are really investing in the events that have drawn tons of residents. I mean, Chicano Heritage Festival was literally bursting at the seams. So I'm really excited that we're increasing that. Similarly, with Mid-Autumn, again, bursting at the seams, there was almost no space left at Rosita Park and really excited to see the Cannabis Festival there because not only will it be an event for the public, but I actually think it will help generate revenue for us.

Thai Viet PhanItem 28

And I hope that we can work with our nonprofits, those who have been, you know, holding events and really maybe assisting them in finding another creative way to fund those events. And specifically, that's with Indigenous Peoples Day as well as Juneteenth. I know we have invested in Juneteenth for this year at the higher amount, and I look forward to attending.

Thai Viet PhanItem 28

And so I just wanted to reiterate my support for the proposed budget.

Thai Viet PhanItem 28

Oh, boards and commission, I'm supportive of doubling that. Is there a way to also add the Measure X oversight committee? They only meet four times a year.

So I'm going to have to ask were they created by resolution or municipal code? Yes, there is a way to add the stipend for them.

Thai Viet PhanItem 28

Okay. I mean, it's only four times a year and I do know they do a lot of work. So if it's not too much, I think adding that wouldn't be much of an issue. For animal control services, I understand we've gotten a lot of comments about this and I think it's a difficult one for me because trap, spay, and neuter is something we should do and I think we're already doing, but providing additional funding, I don't know where we can get the cost to do that because we already spent a little over $2.5 million with animal care. So I guess I wanna say I'm not supportive

Thai Viet PhanItem 28

of providing additional funds for that.

Thai Viet PhanItem 28

Oh, and for community safety initiatives on page 34, I am supportive of increasing the range from 20 to 50, about, to be funded by the vacancies. I know that the military is actively doing something similar because my cousin just joined the Navy, and he really wanted, you know, some of that additional bonus. And that was one reason why he decided to join when he did. So I hope that that would help us recruit and close those vacancies. Crossing Guards. As you know, it is not my favorite item on this agenda.

Thai Viet PhanItem 28

I guess I would like, I know we have an ad hoc committee for crossing guards, but what can we do with the 1.1 billion dollars that SAUSD has, and I imagine Garden Grove Unified School District has a similar budget or thereabouts, to get them to play fair, to get them to come to the table and support the students who are walking to their schools who need safe, you know, safe routes to school.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 28

City Manager, can I interject really quick? I just want to let you know that I did send out an email of the Board President and to the Superintendent to meet and discuss it. I have zero response. So I'm hoping the City Manager could be a little bit more successful, but I'm not getting any response.

Thai Viet PhanItem 28

Well, I guess then maybe the common is to our residents and to the parents and to the families. I believe that Commissioner Vega created a new community group for parents with students at SAUSD to demand that the school districts support and participate and partner with the city of Santa Ana to provide safe crossing guards because I would like to see us use those savings from the crossing guards to further traffic safety. They have been so many hit and runs in this city. There have been so many pedestrian fatalities. There have been so many incidences of, because we have such large thoroughfares and so many

Thai Viet PhanItem 28

walkers, right, so many pedestrians. And we're trying to invest in that, but we can't do it alone. So I really hope that our school districts are listening and our parents are listening and demand that in that $1.1 billion budget that they can allocate half a million, right, $500,000 to help with the school crossing guards and with the opioid settlement spending I am supportive of the naloxone purchases because it's something we are already purchasing and providing for our officers for their safety to ensure that they're not experiencing overdoses when responding

Thai Viet PhanItem 28

to certain crises and drug crises I also want to support training and resources or first responders related to opioids,

Thai Viet PhanItem 28

because that means ensuring that they're not escalating situations also and wanting to make sure that, you know, when we're talking about good policing, we can do that and we can provide further training and sensitivity, et cetera, for that. And then, okay, CIP. Yes to Westminster Avenue Rehab. Harvard to New Hope, I have to say that because it is Ward 1. And regarding the, sorry about that. Okay, regarding to the unfunded capital requests, what can we do or is this something that we can pursue federal funding for with the infrastructure bill and whatnot?

For some of them may qualify, but what we will continue to do and what we've always done with them we have a long list of capital improvement projects and zero funding staff will continue to seek out every grant opportunity whether it's IAF or otherwise we also have the possibility of hoping that the economy the softening that we're seeing which is driving down our revenue projections that maybe it could recover quicker which then would be good news for you at a mid-year you could reevaluate some of these items that were unable to fund at

Thai Viet PhanItem 28

this time. Thank you because you know I know I see here Euclid Street I get so many emails and complaints about it is a really kind of an old thoroughfare there but I just wanted to say that these traffic signal modifications are going to increase traffic safety right that's again part of this conversation about pedestrians versus vehicles and the stadium event flooring I'm supportive of it as a revenue generator but there has to be some type of you know public partner private public partnership or something sponsorships maybe but if I don't know if I support it just as an outright expenditure in the budget given

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what I saw earlier as to our one-time expenditures.

Thai Viet PhanItem 28

Similarly with the water tower, it sounds like a super awesome idea, but I am really worried about people going up there, and so I just wanted to put it out there. Thank you. That's it.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 28

Thank you. All right. No other comments? No other comments?

Johnathan Ryan HernandezItem 28

Okay, so I'm going to just... Just have a closing comment, Mayor Miskwa?

Valerie AmezcuaItem 28

Nobody else in the side? You have a comment? Oh, well, you didn't say yes. I'm sorry.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 28

Go ahead.

Jessie LopezItem 28

So let me start from the top. So I'm definitely a yes to the waste hauler donation for gang prevention. I think part of that money can be used for that. Specifically, if you're talking about like summer night lights or expanding summer nightlights because it's such a popular event here in the city. But most importantly, what I want staff to take away from my public comment and the residents is that we need to implement a Measure X sunset plan this year. I don't think it can wait. I don't think it should wait.

Jessie LopezItem 28

that drop off that we saw two weeks ago is very very concerning to me it should be concerning to everyone and I believe that it will probably come sooner and Kat you you probably have more on this I don't know because we don't bring in a lot of money as we're just discussing and so due to the lower growth projections that we see that we've heard from you we don't have we have a flat property rate We're not Irvine. We're not expanding in that same capacity or that same pace. That really, really worries me. And so I think it would be beneficial for everyone at this dais.

Jessie LopezItem 28

It would be beneficial for our department heads and for the residents during the next budget meeting to hear about what that plan is going to be. I know that maybe some details are not fully fleshed out, but we need to know. because it's a very, very huge concern for me. So I'm just going to go down the wish list. These are the things that I'm supportive of or want to see more and come back with the budget. So very supportive. There's no formal request for expanding the Discovery Science Center, but I am very supportive of that. When we met with Joe last year, we let him know that we want to be good partners.

Jessie LopezItem 28

We want to see the expansion. Part of the MOU that we approved was very intentional. It has language about making sure that they can work with water agencies moving forward because my vision for the area is to have water in the creek year round. And granted, we have to go to the neighborhoods and we have to ask them for their input. But visiting the creek after it rains, it is one of the most beautiful sites here locally and it is free. and I don't think most residents realize that they have that in their backyard and so I you know I grew up visiting the creek I used to ditch school and go there

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with my friends so there's just so much history there and I always think about how we can make it better and I walk my dog and the trail and I am really proud of the work that we've done in the past few years there there's a noticeable difference and I say that not lightly I am my biggest critic and so I want to staff for all the work that you've done because it is a huge difference so I want to also see some sort of designated fund for you know residents are saying that they want traffic congestion to be addressed a designated fund for traffic roundabouts I know they're not popular and I think ultimately will end up being

Jessie LopezItem 28

well we'll end up being like that American City that has a roundabout in every intersection because their residents won't stop speeding and their residents won't stop running these stop signs and so if you don't want to see those things please abide by the traffic safety rules that currently exist but right now that is the biggest request that we receive that our office gets that I send in public works it is how do we prevent parents that are speeding in the morning dragging their kids to school that people that are speeding back home and so if we can you know find a pot of money maybe with a Build Back

Jessie LopezItem 28

Better or IRA reaching out to federal state partners to specifically adjust address roundabouts in the city I think that would be very very helpful and you know May is bike month and so I think about the role of the city and how we help to educate our residents how are we promoting public transportation because that also helps reduce cars congestion you waiting 30 seconds longer I like to turn to make a left so I think all of those things we we should talk about and we should help educate Sanano residents and I would like to know if there's a

Jessie LopezItem 28

specific line item for workforce development in the current budget do you

know well certainly as a component of our work for our center that we run in the city you have an entire division dedicated to that okay so and you'll see that when we do the draft budget document you'll see it by line item and you'll be able to see the amounts that are invested in that program okay

Jessie LopezItem 28

perfect yeah I am looking forward to the document it's thousands of pages but it really helps me connect all the dots so for the past I think two years staff has also heard about ski parks that's something that I want to see we have land you know we've identified some sites for staff and so we want to see you know is there any progress that is going to be moving forward especially you know for some of the the corners of parks that are going unused and one of the issues that came up I was with four Park I think a month ago and they want to know if the city can invest with with the PD department if they can currently

Jessie LopezItem 28

invest and you know adding cameras to some of these prominent intersections the focus is to really crack down on people that are driving recklessly that are behind the wheel knowingly doing things that they know they shouldn't be doing which is why they're doing it at 2 a.m. and then leaving speeding off so So that is a request that has come through. I support the Teen Excursion Program. I always get positive feedback, not just from the kids, but from the young adults that participate. I think the whale watching one was a big success. I saw it everywhere. And I think, I personally don't think

Jessie LopezItem 28

that we're subsidizing for the school district or school districts. I think we have to be able to realize that they're gonna do things we can do things how do we work together how do we have a healthy respectful relationship I don't think we're gonna agree on everything but just because they're students does not mean that they're not our responsibility they are our constituents and they grow up to be you know community members of the city of Santa Ana and we always I always always hear from residents what happened to the education first model and to me that is

Jessie LopezItem 28

part of it that you know investing in youth having city sponsored events having parks lead youth youth events is part of the education model here in Sanana the many parents have grown up and always ask what happened to this program what happened to that and I always I always you know let them know well it's part of the changes that have happened over the year in the city um and I think you know speaking to the teen excursion program the trail you know it doesn't have to be a fancy event take into the trail most people don't even know that that it's that is accessible

Jessie LopezItem 28

to them we have a nature center you know make it an educational component of the excursion I think that's going to be really beneficial for everyone involved so with the parks sticking with parks I want to see you know we have these fitness centers throughout the entire city that were free to the city correct

Jessie LopezItem 28

Anyway, fine. So anyways, we have these fitness centers, and they are not programmed. And one of the things that we did at Cabrillo Park when we opened it was we hosted a Zumba class. And people loved it and continued to this day to ask, to ask, when can the city help program? You know, when can we work with risk management? So if there's a contractor that a resident is putting their hand up and saying, hey, I would like to do that for free. Can we expedite those contracts so that these specific areas of our cities are being programmed?

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I think it's great if a resident, you know, says, hey, I want to volunteer because I do it and I love to do it. And why not? So those things we've talked about in the past and I want to see them move forward.

Jessie LopezItem 28

Kat or city manager, can you explain to me what are the fees that you are saying that should be raised in the PowerPoint presentation?

Kat Kerlin- These are fees for direct services to individuals. So things like a permit. They're not general benefit to the entire community. It's where someone walks into City Hall and requests a specific service that is only going to benefit them.

Jessie LopezItem 28

that's what fees are for. Okay thank you for that. And can you remind me I lost the page how what's the percentage or dollar amount that we're increasing? 4.1 is our proposal. 4.1 okay I'm assuming the budget will have a schedule right yeah okay thank you. So I'm also very supportive of FIESA Patrias being in downtown Santa Ana, but, you know, I've learned that we should check in with folks to see if they're fine with that. I think people are used to the parade route, are used to being in the specific location that they participated in the long term.

Jessie LopezItem 28

I'm not completely, you know, married to the idea, but I am supportive of it coming back to the original location with the parade route. Again, if the parade route is too expensive, I can go without that as well. Also very supportive of maintaining Juneteenth at the original amount. I was there. I participated. I know other members of this council were there. It was a great partnership with different organizations and labor organizations that pitched in. And so it was a lot of fun. So part of the wish list is also to remodel or find funding for Santiago Park restrooms.

Jessie LopezItem 28

Mr. Dale, Mr. Helwig let me know that the restrooms there, the kids have been, you know, they've been in bad condition. I know that the Gas House project is renovating one set, but it is a long stretch. And so if we could focus on the second set of bathrooms, I think that would be great. and not just for that specific location but I've said this you know many times before the parks master plan lets us know that some of the parks in War III are older and need care specifically our bathrooms you know so I know funding is

Jessie LopezItem 28

is hard it's going to be hard to come by or to to find a specific source but I I think any time that we can revamp basketball courts, revamp bathrooms, or adding shading area to playgrounds, because during the summer it's really hard and the kids and the parents refrain from utilizing them, I think that's always going to be an added benefit, and people are always going to be really happy to see those improvements.

Jessie LopezItem 28

Lastly, for my first round, I don't know if there's going to be a second round, but I'm going to advocate for the environmental commitments that we've made to our residents. The hills sliding in South Orange County are not just happening because the hills are old. They're deteriorating because of all the environmental impacts, and that is impacting your rail service. The unprecedented rains we have seen this year, those are deteriorating our streets. We've seen more potholes on 17th Street, and that is part of the unprecedented level of rain that we are not prepared for.

Jessie LopezItem 28

We passed a resolution, and I want to know from staff during the upcoming budget meeting what items in that resolution staff is going to be working on that are not going to be 10 million dollars but I know we're working on the climate action plan there are other items in there especially with the IRA money that the government can help subsidize you know we are going to experience hotter summers residents recently actually last week approached me about splash pads in the parks and that is because not every resident can afford an AC unit specifically the residents that live in apartments and they're they're looking for other ways

Jessie LopezItem 28

to stay cool in the heat and so you know there's there's a lot that I can go on and on about but I'm but I'm not I like the one our tower idea thank you councilmember Pinalosa for that but I do have general concerns about that and the plan and how it would work out but in general you know any idea that is gonna to bring in money as we just are learning we need, I think I'm willing to consider. So thank you.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 28

Perfect.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 28

So Councilmember Sarah.

Phil BacerraItem 28

Thank you, Madam Mayor. First of all, staff, thank you for the presentation. Rather than reread the budget back to you and tell you whether I like it or don't like it, I like the majority of it. I think you've figured out how to continue to provide excellent public services in spite of some shortfalls coming down the pipeline. I will say, though, I do wish that we were continuing our streak of funding eight additional police officers because we increased that authorized amount up to 400, but it is important to fill those vacancies.

Phil BacerraItem 28

So I definitely want to see us revisit the eight additional officers at the mid-year, at the very least. And also, I would like the budget to reflect for two patrol officers specifically assigned to downtown, especially given some of the incidences that have been happening as of late, and two patrol officers specifically assigned to the South Bristol Corridor. One thing that we need to do is make sure that folks feel safe in the areas that are generating income and revenue for the city and south bristol is second only behind the auto mall i want to thank

Phil BacerraItem 28

staff for the traffic signal at spruce and segerstrom and i also want to thank all the advocates over in republic homes that signal is not purely my advocacy or the staff's recommendation that was a lot of work from republic home so thank you to all of you who continued to push for that signal The left turn signals that you mentioned, MacArthur at Flower, Segestrom at Flower, and Segestrom at Rate. I'd like staff to bring back statistics as far as traffic incidences and what kind of accidents and, God forbid, if there have been any fatalities at these intersections.

Phil BacerraItem 28

Because I think it's important that we understand what it is that we're funding. This isn't just simple red, yellow, green light infrastructure. This is life-saving infrastructure. And so those signals, they have left turn pockets on all four sides, but they only have actual left turn signals for two of the four approaches. So I'd like to see stats on those intersections. We talk about cameras. One place that I would really like to see them, and I know that some residents in the South Coast neighborhood would love to see them, and that is along the Alton Bike Trail between Bristol and Orange Avenue. That whole stretch along there,

Phil BacerraItem 28

we have so many school children going to and from school between Saddleback High School and Sagerstrom High School. We need to make sure that that area is safe. That's a long stretch, at least just between Bristol and Flower when you go along that bike trail. So I want to make sure that we're looking at cameras along there. One thing I want to put out there, and I know this is not an immediate item, but just something to kind of build in for parks, and that is to make sure that we maintain a portion of Eugene Grissette Park for a dog park

Phil BacerraItem 28

because whether anybody likes it or knows it now, if you go there at certain times, it's a dog park. That's what it's being used for, and that's a great thing because, you know, I think for right now we have a lot of dogs in our city, and they need to get out somewhere and run, and that's an excellent place. I know there's plans to put some other amenities in the park, and I'm looking forward to the design, but I just want to make sure that Dog Park is incorporated into that design. And so just some items that talk about generating revenue, because I think it's important that as we're starting to see the ARPA money dry up

Phil BacerraItem 28

and we're starting to really have to look at how we generate revenue. So one thing that was brought up before was the additional seats at the north end of the Santa Ana Bowl. I want to make sure that that's at least the feasibility or whatever we can do to advance that, because I think being able to attract CIS soccer and football championship games would be an amazing thing for our city not only just for people to come see what a wonderful city we have but also I think the revenue that we can generate from that and of course last but certainly not least I definitely want to

Phil BacerraItem 28

put my full support behind the observation deck on our city's iconic water tower not only is an idea that I think is unique and interesting but I I think it's something that we can actually generate some money off of. And so I'm looking forward to seeing what that study looks like. And I think that, you know, I welcome any ideas that my colleagues or the public has when it comes to ways that we can promote our city in a positive way while generating revenue. Because I think that that's something we have to look at. You know, everybody's a great spender. Everybody can tell you, if I won the lottery, this is what I would buy.

Phil BacerraItem 28

But buying a lottery ticket is not a sound investment strategy. And so what we need to start looking at is while we're sitting here telling staff all the things we want to spend money on, we also need to look at ways that we can actually generate revenue. One thing I would like to see maybe down the road, and this is something I've talked to the city manager about, is looking at ways to really kind of augment our economic development team and try to look at ways that we can really kind of bring that out. because I think that there's been, you know, we have some great staff and they do some great work,

Phil BacerraItem 28

but we see these expansions and all these programs that are doling out resources, but we need to also think about generating resources. I mean, that's the thinking that we have about spending, spending, spending is how we got into the mess where we had to, well, not we, the previous councils had to put Measure X on the ballot. And so, you know, one thing I hope to see at some point is something that not only or as we start to approach the sunset, I hope at some point in time we proactively look at reducing Measure X. And if we do that, that means we're going to have to tighten our belts and be very fiscally responsible.

Phil BacerraItem 28

So I want to again thank you staff for some of the items that you put forward to us tonight because I think that again with what you have to work with, I think you've done a great job in satisfying what really this city, this city council, the city government is supposed to be and that is to provide excellent and efficient public services. So thank you, staff. And those are my comments, Mayor.

Johnathan Ryan HernandezItem 28

Absolutely. Thank you, Mayor Mesqua.

Johnathan Ryan HernandezItem 28

Thank you, Mayor Mesqua. I'll be very brief. I just wanted to.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 28

No, no, no, hold on, Councilman Hernandez. Let me let them speak first. Absolutely. Because you've already spoken. Thank you. Councilman Panalosa.

David PenalozaItem 28

Thank you, Mayor. I wasn't going to speak, but I was looking over my notes and figured I had to just firstly thank you, staff. I know it's very hard to come up with a budget that is reflective of not only the community needs but also the seven of us up here and the many demands that we all have. And I'll throw all of us under the bus, including myself, because we do have very unique requests and you guys try very hard to make it reflective. So I appreciate that because it is. At the end of the day, the budget as a whole is reflective of our priorities. So thank you.

David PenalozaItem 28

I love the trends that I'm seeing with regards to parks maintenance and park expansions and street repairs and city infrastructure and all that good stuff. I also want to just applaud that we're continuing in that direction of funding.

David PenalozaItem 28

I want to just flat out just say that the things that I'm not supportive of in this budget, which aren't many, it's the additional $200,000 in crossing guards. I think that if we're going to have a partnership and a working relationship with the school district, it's easy. Let's split the bill. I mean, we'll pay half, they pay half. That's what would be the way to work together.

David PenalozaItem 28

Also, for future park expansions, I've been a very big advocate of expanding parks and creating more open space in the city. But one that I am not supportive of is seeing the Bristol and Warner remnants turn into park space at this time. I'm not sure how Councilmember Becerra feels about this because we share that Bristol and Warner corridor. but I could just ask staff if you've seen what goes on on the Bristol and and Bristol open space between First and Wilshire the amount of drug use and loitering that we just can't seem to control I don't know why but we can't

David PenalozaItem 28

control it I would hate to have that in people's backyards on Bristol and Warner and it will come just the reasons why the Riverview residents don't want a big regional park in their backyard is because we do not have the ability to maintain and upkeep these additional open spaces. So something along Bristol that won't be used by our community, but drug users and loitering is a problem for me. So not supportive of that. I do want to see the funding reverted to Juneteenth, back to what it was. I was there along with Councilmember Hernandez and Mayor Potem Lopez, and it was a big turnout. It was more than 800 people for sure.

David PenalozaItem 28

I saw it with my own eyes and think that it's something that we could continue to promote.

David PenalozaItem 28

However, I know that we need to get the money from somewhere. And I unfortunately did not have the opportunity to visit the Winter Village this past winter because of the weather. Every time I try to go, it rained. And I know that for a million and plus dollars of what we're spending, I don't think it's appropriate for us to continue. As much as I love the Winter Village and the idea of it, I think that's an area where we need to really, really look at and try to see if that is, you know, a responsible spending that we're doing.

David PenalozaItem 28

Because of the amount of days that we had to unfortunately close because of the weather, it's only going to get wetter. I mean, winters are going to get colder and wetter here. or so, that is something that I would not be supportive of seeing. Maybe if we start phasing out, I don't know why it's doubling almost as it was last year. But that is my comment with that. And maybe use some of that money to fund these other events that are more popular and we've been seeing throughout the city. Happy to see the Mid-Autumn Festival funding the Chicano Heritage Festival. Again, Councilman Hernandez, thank you for that.

David PenalozaItem 28

Again, bursting at the seams, those two events should be, have their funding replenished to what they were, or if not doubled to what they, I know Mid-Autumn Festival was a very small budget, that one we should double. I'm not supportive of continuing to fund Indigenous Peoples Day as well as the Winter Village, because same thing, the, there just wasn't a turnout and it was a lot of money spent for a very, very small group of people, and I think that those dollars would be better used if we plug them into Juneteenth, Mid-Autumn Festival,

David PenalozaItem 28

and whatever other events that we have listed. The 5K run, I think that if I look at all the runs and marathons that go on throughout the city or county, and they charge a lot of money, and I love that ours is free, but there's many resident people from across the Southern California that have participated in our 5k if we were to charge a nominal fee to any resident that's not in our zip codes in Santa Ana five ten you know ten dollars not asking for much but just enough to if we got 5,000 people that paid ten bucks I

David PenalozaItem 28

mean that's fifty thousand dollars that we could use to help fund this event and And so I think that as we move forward with it, continue to make it free for Santa Ana residents as much as we can. But if they plug in the zip code from HB or Anaheim or Newport, wherever, charge them five bucks, ten bucks maybe. They will pay it. I mean, people pay hundreds of dollars for these marathons throughout the region, and it's getting more and more popular. So I think that that's something that we need to look at in order to be able to have those resources there for that 5K run. Also, just generating revenue, the zoo.

David PenalozaItem 28

For years and years, I've been working with the city manager about selling alcohol at the zoo. I know that that won't fund the entirety of it, but the zoo needs to be able to generate revenue. And if we're selling, if we have a contractor in there that is selling beer and we have some kind of profit sharing, that could help fund the maintenance and just the funding that the zoo requires to operate. Operating expenses is what I'm going for with that. And Mayor Pro Tem Lopez mentioned the splash pads a couple years ago. We approved like half a dozen splash pads.

David PenalozaItem 28

I haven't seen any, I don't see any conversation of any potential splash bats coming online anytime soon. So I would like an update for that at a future date. And that is it. Mayor, just again, Bristol and Warner remnants, please no parks on that area. I mean, let's try to find something creative that we don't have a business here. I know Dutch Bros is a great coffee shop that is, Fountain Valley is getting two. I mean let's call Dutch Bros and see if they would bring up bring a coffee shop along those those parcels and last one with the animal control services

David PenalozaItem 28

Madam City Manager the question I have we spend 2.65 million 2.6 million with the County of Orange and how much money is the money that we provide for our two animal control officers, how much is that?

Probably around $200,000.

David PenalozaItem 28

Okay. Yeah, I know it's very minimal, but the reason I ask is because a couple months ago, one of our former animal control officers from when we had a more robust animal control department, who's a Santa Ana resident, reached out to me. And he now works at the Mission Viejo Animal Shelter that is 100% city-run and operated. They invited me out for a tour, and I toured it. And I think their operating budget, if I recall, is $3.1 million for the year. And it is one of the most immaculate animal shelters that I've ever seen.

David PenalozaItem 28

I know that it would require a huge startup cost to build a facility, but for their budget to only be $3 million in the amount of services they offer, so I would highly encourage our staff to go out there to Mission Viejo and check out their facilities and see how we could duplicate that, because they offer a lot of the services that these different nonprofits are asking for, and it's only costing them $3 million, give or take, in Mission Viejo. So the fact that we're spending about the same money, and we're not really getting much from the county, is a problem. So if we could continue to look at that as we move forward,

David PenalozaItem 28

I would appreciate that. And I saw that we keep mentioning $183,000 in waste hauler donations. I know we have a contractual obligation with them to provide 200 grand. I would hope that we reach out to Republic Service, and in good faith, they provide the full 200 grand. And given that their service has also been subpar, it's the least they can do. So I would hope that we work into getting that additional 17 grand. That's it. Thank you, Mayor.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 28

Thank you. Councilman Vasquez.

Benjamin VazquezItem 28

Thank you so much. Really quick, back again. I also want to talk about the events, just because they seem to me, somebody who's organized events for the last 15 years, they seem very expensive. and maybe some of these events can be taken on by community groups where we support them. I've said before the Noche de Altares costs 70,000, and 70,000 people show up. That's a dollar a person, which is way more benefit. It pays for basically by itself. I know Fieses Patres was a moneymaker at one time,

Benjamin VazquezItem 28

so maybe we can have somebody take that on and do it where we do have vendors on site, and it's making money again.

Benjamin VazquezItem 28

So I don't really want to get rid of any of this stuff, and the Cannabis Festival also can be a moneymaker. I hope that it would be a moneymaker and pay for it, at least pay for itself. at the end of the day where we have people coming in and do all that work. Other than that, I think everything is great. We keep talking about the school district paying for crosswalk. They are in the city, just like we have police officers. They pay for police officers at the school site. They don't use our

Benjamin VazquezItem 28

police officers so they're doing their part. We could trade and they could take on the crosswalkers and we could do the police work but they do support the city by having their own police department and having those funds. Other than that, I mean, I've been so impressed by the staff and the group and the work that's being done across the city and this budget so far looks up looks good and I appreciate it those are my words

Valerie AmezcuaItem 28

thank you thank you councilman Hanna Hernandez when you're done then I'm

Johnathan Ryan HernandezItem 28

gonna speak and I'm gonna close it out thank you mayor mesqua I'll keep my comments very concise just wanted to echo the cannabis festival director Hawks got very supportive I believe that this is an event that will help us generate revenue for the city so I would like us to explore sharing these the costs of this festival with the operators I think that this is something that they would be interested in so perhaps creating sponsorship opportunities for local Santa Ana operators can help us you know split that cost or you know maybe they come in and meet us halfway so in addition to that I know that this

Johnathan Ryan HernandezItem 28

is a festival that will allow for consumption and sales as well so I'm hoping that this is an event that your staff can give us a projection of what you guys are anticipating to profit from the Cannabis Festival. I do think this will be one of the most, one of the most, one of the best ways to generate revenue for us as a city. The second area I just want to touch on is, again, the Civic Center drive improvements. Civic Center is a big part of the city of Santa Ana's DNA. Without the city of Santa Ana, there is no Orange County the county as I mentioned invested in beautifying

Johnathan Ryan HernandezItem 28

Civic Center but there is a dire need for Civic Center Avenue to be repaired from Bristol to rate so again I would like to indulge staff to bring us back and to work with my office and identifying funding I'd be happy to meet with you in doing that and the last area I want to touch on because I hear a consensus one from all of my colleagues that they want our city to start generating more revenue. I too echo the sentiment from Councilmember Vasquez. The best way for us to keep costs down are to partner with the experts, the people who are already putting on the events. Heritage Council with the

Johnathan Ryan HernandezItem 28

Juneteenth, Neutral Ground with Chicano Heritage Festival, these are the partners that made these events what they were. And furthermore, I think ways that we can generate revenue, you had thousands of people at the Mid-Autumn festival yet thousands of people at Juneteenth and Chicano heritage festival the city of Santa Ana's parks and rec department should create more branding opportunities selling merchandise such as t-shirts tote bags things of that sort there will be people who would happily purchase that and that's a revenue that goes right back to our city and we can create that branding in-house with

Johnathan Ryan HernandezItem 28

partnered community you know companies like you know neutral ground project kinship suavecito so that it has that Santa Ana branding and then part of how I believe we can generate revenue for the city moving forward regularly every single weekend is we need to support Parks and Rec in securing stadium event flooring our stadium right now is limited as to who we can host so what is unfunded right now is an estimated cost of eight hundred and eighty thousand for our Santa Ana Stadium that is the cost for flooring there's a forty thousand dollar

Johnathan Ryan HernandezItem 28

budget as well for a forklift to move it and six hundred thousand for a storage building this would help us generate revenue we're a city that is not utilizing one of the best resources we have in the county we have local athletes like Alexis Rocha who is one of the best fighters in the world who will be fighting Terrence Crawford for a world title he's his mandatory title challenge. That fight could be hosted here in Santa Ana at the stadium, but we're not able to generate revenue if we don't have the proper materials to cover that. And I see John Ramirez,

Johnathan Ryan HernandezItem 28

our neighbor here, who's a big fan. And I'm sure that our residents who would come out in large numbers to support Alexis Rocha fighting in his backyard. We also have, I mean, a lot of amazing sports that can be housed at this event, I mean, at the stadium. So I would like to see staff work with my office to help identify where we can find funding because again if we per if we make this purchase for parks and rec we'll be having a very different conversation next year about how much revenue revenue they were able to

Phil BacerraItem 28

generate that concludes my comments mayor I might just respond to council members comment I respond to his comment about now Bristol Warner just real quick yeah I agree I don't want to see what's going on North Avenger McFadden happening this side on Bristol so but that and then the only other thing I'll say is that I think with the Winter Village I want to thank staff for all the sponsorships that you got Hawk and Christine because I think we can continue that and one thing actually I'm glad that councilmember pillows are brought up was the rain element and I know that you guys are creative and we

Phil BacerraItem 28

can figure out a way to get more mileage out of the Winter Village because I I know when Councilmember Hernandez and I first brought it up, I mean, what an amazing event and what it has been and what it's grown to, so I just want to voice my support for it. And that is it, thank you.

Phil BacerraItem 28

There you go, all right. See, you heard support for that in the budget. There we go, thanks.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 28

All right, okay. So I've only been sitting here for four months. And who's counting, right? So what I look at, it's my style. the vision of Santa Ana, the dynamic center of Orange County which is acclaimed for our investment in youth, safe and healthy community, neighborhood pride, thriving economic climate, enriched and diverse culture, quality government services. Our mission is to deliver efficient public services in partnership with our community which ensures public safety, a prosperous economic environment,

Valerie AmezcuaItem 28

opportunities for our youth and a high quality of life for our residents. So let me start with that and I know you all know it like the back of your hand, but I just wanted to share because it's very important. First thing that I, and I thank the staff, oh my gosh, beautiful, I'm going to take it home, I'm going to look at it again and again and again because I have a lot of questions and I'm going to meet with Christine or Kat, you alone, figure this out because I don't I want to take up two hours up here. 71 people participated in the community budget meetings.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 28

And total engagements were only 1,050 people. And there's over 300,000 people, I'm gonna say almost close to 400,000 people who live in the city. And so those are the little things that I catch, right? So many people who live in the city, but only 1,000 people responded. And so that immediately catches my eye. The other thing that catches my eye is that says, what are the top two budget priorities? And the top two, the thousand people that answered, were invest in homelessness reduction programs and invest in crime reduction programs.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 28

Okay, so then I'm gonna go, what are the lowest two budget priorities? Very interesting. The two lowest were, if I read this correctly, attract more visitors to Santa Ana to collect more sales and hotel taxes, expand and improve the city library system, which I thought was very interesting. So I'd like to talk to you, and I don't want to do it up here, okay? So then I'm just going to give you a few things that I want to talk about. Let's start with the fee increases. My family's been here a very long time. It's very challenging to do business in this city, and I know we're getting better, and I appreciate that.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 28

But when you say fee increases, and I think your answer to Councilman Penelosa, and you don't need to answer me. I just want to let you know what I want to talk about. You said fees that benefit others, not necessarily. So you're talking like business fees, possibly. So I want to talk about that because it's a lot of work to open a business in the city of Santa Ana. And so if we had like other cities have where everything's automated, it's super easy, and staff are able to send emails and push that button and put that application in, then I would say, yeah, I'm all supportive of that.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 28

But because we're still in those back ages where everything's not on paper, I have a really hard time asking people to pay more money. And I was here last Friday when the office was closed working. And I can't tell you as I was walking in and out how many people were coming up trying to do business. I'm actually asking for the business planning area. And I had to tell them the site was closed. So I do want to talk about that. So here's a couple things that are questions I have since I'm new. I watched the council meeting when TKO, which by the way is a great program,

Valerie AmezcuaItem 28

was allowed to, they're allowed to use the Jerome Center at no cost, correct?

Valerie AmezcuaItem 28

So Christine, if we can meet later and you can explain to me how this came about, because they are a wonderful program. But we also have baseball teams and football teams and we have a lot of youth programs in our city that have to pay to use our parks. And so because it rained so much this year, I think baseball, for example, Little League, because some of my family plays, they lost like five weeks and they still had to pay. And so the question they posed to me is, why does one organization get to use Jerome's center for free and the rest of us are paying? And it's

Valerie AmezcuaItem 28

a great question. And I wasn't sitting up here, so I don't know the answer to give them other than if I was a parent, I would bring my whole baseball team here and say to you that this is really unfair. And I would bring all of the Monarch Football League, little league, football little guys and their parents and say to you, this is wrong. I pay to use park space in the city that I live in, but yet one organization gets it for free. So I do wanna talk about that so that I can answer that question. And I think we should all, and maybe the other council members have the answer to that question, but I do not.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 28

And I do support expansion of the Discovery Cube. As you know, I'm a board member there, and that is a wonderful organization. And every time I walk into that place, talk about generating revenue, it's full of people. So if we can expand them or help them expand, you know, whether it's the creek or another empty property or whatever we need to do, I'm all about expanding the Discovery Cube. I'm not going to touch on the budget events because it's getting late, but I will just say that I think Fiestas Reimagined. And is that Fiesta Patrias? Okay, so we're going to call it Fiesta Patrias, right?

Valerie AmezcuaItem 28

We're not going to call it Fiestas Reimagined, because that takes away, for me personally, the history of Fiesta Patrias. And that's the culture that we have in this city, is Fiesta Patrias. That is who we are in Santa Ana. We're not Fiestas Reimagined. I don't even know what that means. I believe that was an internal working term. It was an internal what? I'm sorry?

An internal working term. Because we had to kind of recreate it as a result of the streetcar construction and COVID and everything. So we certainly will refer to what it's known as.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 28

Yes, just patricks. And the streetcar can be diverted, according to OCT, when I spoke to them, so we can still have it downtown. So the Cannabis Festival, I was not here also when you guys were discussing this and approving all of this. So I just have some questions regarding the cannabis or some concerns. The Cannabis Festival, yes, we're going to be the first to ever have one. Yay, that's great. However, I have some concerns about children being present at this festival. What about safety and security? Are they going to secure the areas where they're going to be using cannabis?

Valerie AmezcuaItem 28

I have, and maybe this is a conversation I can have with the chief and with you later, but how are we going to do this? because I'm sure it's going to generate revenue. That's great. But what else is it going to generate? And I do have some concerns because there will be children present. You're not going to tell me parents are going to leave their kids at home? Are you going to make it mandatory? Please explain this to me because I'm really concerned.

Well, so the once-a-year city-hosted cannabis event That was a part of the code changes that we made. That was an addition that we added in. But I would envision it, and we're just barely in the preliminary planning stages of it, that it's similar to a cannabis store. Children are not allowed in a cannabis store. They would not be allowed in this event. Right.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 28

So you're going to make it an adult-only event, and that will be enforced. Okay. I just want to make sure. Similar to a beer garden. Yeah, no. I just want to make sure because it just makes me a little nervous to have a cannabis event here in our city. And I don't know how our parents are going to respond to that. So, you know, beat making and working with other organizations, I'm all okay with that. I would just say that just like I used to say at the school district, if you're going to let people around our children,

Valerie AmezcuaItem 28

I am sure and I hope you're doing background checks on them and that we're not allowing sex offenders or any type of people that have those type of history near our kids and they have the proper insurance. Because if something happens, we are liable. So I just want to mention that. Crossing guards, I do not support. I think I'm not going to beat this one up. If we could split the baby, I'm happy with that. Split it in half. It's time that they pay for at least half. How long has the city been paying for crossing guards? We've been having this discussion for a long time.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 28

And when we talk about Santa PD and Santa School Police, Santa School Police is only what, I think 18, 19 officers. And Santa Ana Police Department is responding every day to assist them. Unless I am wrong, but I see them out assisting them all the time. And when schools call or parents call to say traffic is awful, Santa Ana PD sending an officer down there because Santa Ana Unified School Police Department does not have enough officers and they only have one motor officer, Officer Limon, who's the only one motor officer so he can't be at all the schools. So Santa Ana PD does do quite a bit for Santa Ana Unified.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 28

So goodness gracious, if you want to generate revenue, let's build Santa Ana Unified. I'm not saying to do it. I'm just saying know the Santa Ana Police Department responds daily to Santa Ana Unified. And so, and you'll see them in our classrooms, you'll see them giving presentations. So it's a great relationship that Santa Ana PD has with Santa Ana School Police, but yeah, we give a lot to them and so they should be able to pay for half, at least half the crossing guards. and city manager, I'll leave that to you to reach out to the superintendent because I'm sure he'll respond to you.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 28

So I'm going to close with this because I could be here all night and I'd rather have a conversation with CAD or the chief or other people. We do need to look at our code enforcement. We ask them to do a lot. And I hope that we will be having that discussion about hiring additional code enforcement officers because I know that when I go out into the community, People are like, look at that house, look at this, look at that, can you send code enforcement? I get those calls almost on a daily basis. If it's not, send a police officer, send code enforcement or they ask for Nabil personally.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 28

Nabil is famous, okay, so I want you to know that. So, and they like him. But so code enforcement to me is very important. And then like I said, I have some other things. And Dale, thank you for talking about the CERT program because I think city manager, you and I had a discussion about the CERT program and you were talking about bringing it back possibly and how we were going to do that, so I'd love to hear more about that. You know, when we talk about organizations and working with groups and selling swag and whatnot, there's so many. I mean, when I went to the Chicano Festival, you can buy a classic Vato t-shirt

Valerie AmezcuaItem 28

from an organization that made classic Vato shirts. You could buy the Chicano Heritage shirts, where I thought the city was receiving that funding. I have no idea where that funding went, and apparently you don't either. But if we're selling swag that is city swag, then that should be coming to the city. And so I just would want to be really clear that that is what we do if we do sell swag, that it comes to us. If there's other organizations that we're going to work with to sell their merchandise, that hopefully there's an agreement between the city and that organization. So this is where I'm going to stop on this one last item.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 28

So again, let me go to the, and seniors are so important. There's so many things that are important, but Mayor Pro Tem brought it up, and she's brought it up before, and it's been brought up here a couple times. Measure X is going to sunset, and yes, what is the plan? I'd like to see that. I think we have a May 11th budget meeting coming up. If you can, on that day, that would be great to start even with an initial plan to show us or if you have something already ready to go, May 11th, it would be great. But I want to just remind everybody, and this is why I'm going to stop with this item.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 28

Again, only 1,050 people engaged in this budget issue. Back to the discussion of PR, getting out there, knocking on doors, taking a survey. I mean there's a lot of ways to do it. Councilman Vassas talks about the faith staff. I'm very familiar with how they work as part of the creation of the faith staff and the wellness centers and we knocked on doors and we did a survey of what the city needed. We literally knocked on doors before we opened the first wellness center and so it takes a lot of work and I'm not asking you guys

Valerie AmezcuaItem 28

to knock on doors but there has to be more PR because when we're talking about the budget for our whole city, whether it's the north end, east end, south end, south end, wherever, a thousand people, it just, it's kind of like, makes me, it makes me sad that only a thousand people engaged in our city's budget discussion. And what are the top two with those 1,050 people? Where were the top two budget priorities? Top two. Invest in homelessness reduction programs and invest in crime reduction programs. I'm going to tattoo it to my forehead because those are the two priorities that those 1,050 people talked about.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 28

So city efforts for gang prevention. I always call, I just like to call it intervention because I don't like to use that word gang because I don't like to glorify gangs. So I just like to call it community intervention. New to Ground, great program. Project Kinship, great program. There's a lot of really good programs out there.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 28

Increase in youth program, yep, I'm all for that. Dedicated police department resources, PAL programs throughout the city would be beautiful because it will keep our kids off the streets. Idle time is the devil's time and we know that crime with juveniles, Chief correct me if I'm wrong, is 2 to 6 p.m. Highest rate of crime activity between juveniles. So where are they going to be? PAL centers, after school centers, programs, recreation centers. So that's where I would like us to look when we're talking about prevention of our youth getting involved in any kind of negative activity.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 28

And so I see here there's the Burn Justice Assistance Grant. So did we apply for that and receive it? And so that money, that 88K, where did that money go to?

Chief, is that you? Yeah, Chief, do you know answer to the Mayor's question?

Valerie AmezcuaItem 28

Yeah, you don't need to give me the log, just really quick. I know, no, no, no, I want you to answer.

It's primarily overtime. Okay, so you've used it for overtime. Some gang awareness presentations as well.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 28

So like when you go to our schools?

Schools, neighborhoods, apartment complexes, wherever they'll listen to us.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 28

Okay, so it's for your gang prevention, gang intervention, gang educational programs. telling parents about drugs, fentanyl use, all that good stuff? Yes. Okay, good. And I don't mean good stuff like that, but that's what you use the 88K for. Correct. So, but, and primarily overtime because you're calling in officers to do that?

It's primarily used for gang overtime, gang suppression overtime.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 28

Gang suppression overtime. Okay, thank you. That's what I wanted to know. And so what I'm seeing here is dedicated police department services, the Pell program, GRIP program with the DA's office, junior officer program. I mean those are great programs. So I will just remind the community and my peers up here that only 1,000 people responded. And the top two issues are homelessness reduction and crime reduction. And I am so grateful for all the work that the council did before I took the seat with

Valerie AmezcuaItem 28

the parks and there's so many beautiful things happening in our city but for example meeting with Riverview neighbors they're afraid of things that other people are afraid of in this city we can have all the parks in the world but if if they're full of criminal activity or homeless people or they're not cleaned or they don't have good bathrooms and there's no security then why are people going to want to use them. And so our money is not unlimited. We have this much to spend. And so I would hope as we move forward in all of this that we be, and I know they all

Valerie AmezcuaItem 28

are, but that we're very mindful of what our vision is and the quality of life for our residents. You know, festivals are great, you know, but, and I'm not saying I'm not supportive of them. What I'm saying is that we really need to focus on what is good quality of life. And yes, parks are wonderful, but are we keeping our people safe in parks? Are we keeping criminal element out of them? Are we cleaning up our neighborhoods? Are we fixing our lights, roundabouts? I like them. Other people don't, but I want them lit up like, you know, so they can see them a mile away so they're not crashing. Some community members don't want them

Valerie AmezcuaItem 28

because they can't get their RV out. But, you know, it's, you know, you can't please everybody. But the council has done a great job before I came on as mayor. And there's some wonderful things that are happening. But please, I want us all to be very mindful that Measure X is going to sunset. And if we put it out there to terminate and change our tax, I would wholeheartedly agree with it. Because personally, I think we pay too much. And we get very little in return. And that's what I hear from the residents. And so, thank you to the staff who did this wonderful budget presentation.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 28

This is my first time with the city. But I'm laser focused on the quality of life for our residents. and so which is indicated here again public safety and homelessness and our youth they are our future but there we need to understand that there's so many different we have such a diverse community that we just can't focus in one area and it can't just be parks and recs for this group and only for you know latino families we have a very you know councilman fan talks about her ward very diverse community and I want to make sure that we are addressing all of that diversity

Valerie AmezcuaItem 28

in our city. We have a park across the street from the Discovery Cube that yeah when is it going to open, when's it going to be done, it's beautiful, we should be using it, is it going to be safe, is it going to have security, more security, bathrooms new, I mean so there's some things we need to take care of and the The bank account is not, we did not win lotto from what I can read in the budget, and we don't have a billion dollar budget, right? We don't. So I wish we did. So I would just say with that item is that I look forward to the May 11th meeting

Valerie AmezcuaItem 28

where we'll see the plan, where we're heading, and how we are going to continue you to be fiscally responsible with the money that we have for the community so that in two years we're not having a different conversation. So I'm very mindful of being fiscally responsible and I'm supportive of increasing the incentive to hire police officers on a temporary basis until we hire even if it's just the eight that Councilman Becerra was talking about and then we we take a look mid-year, do we need to continue to do that?

Valerie AmezcuaItem 28

Because it is very important that we hire more police officers and that we're attracting them the best of the best, because that's what Santa Ana PD used to be, the best of the best. And so we want them to come work here for us. So with that, I'm gonna close out this item. And we are going to move on to item, do we need to, City Manager, do you need anything else from us? nope we'll synthesize this and be ready for the 11th and thank you for listening to all of us i know all the staff it's a lot to take in and we really appreciate it and so um i'm gonna move on

Valerie AmezcuaItem 28

we're good you guys are all good up here all right let's move on item number 29 that was my item and there was i'm gonna in the interest of time and because there was some conversation that took place city manager and city attorney in closed session. I'm just going to say that I had placed this on the agenda. I'm going to go to item 29. I placed this on the agenda asking the city manager and the city attorney to make a public report on the homeless agreements that the city has and to advise the council on the city's plans to continue homeless funding, cleanups, and shelter services.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 29

Because again, this is an issue that's going to cost us money if we continue the way we're heading, which is a good way. Because the city is currently resolving litigation related to its homeless shelter, I'd like to postpone this discussion of this item. However, I would like staff to send us, entire council and mayor, information on how much money the city has spent to date on the link, the payments to the city of Fullerton for homeless shelter space and the Carnegie Shelter. Also now that the 60 plus one shelter bed requirement in the original agreement has expired we will need to

Valerie AmezcuaItem 29

know what the city's plans are for making sure there is always enough shelter beds to continue our enforcement efforts. So I look forward to staff sharing this information with all members of the council as soon as possible. So City Manager can I ask you for a timeline for that? I know we're in THE MIDDLE OF BUDGET AS WELL.

IF YOU COULD PROVIDE US 30 DAYS, THAT WOULD BE APPRECIATED.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 29

OH, YEAH. I CAN GIVE YOU 30 DAYS. PERFECT. ALL RIGHT. WE GOT 30 DAYS ON THAT ITEM. SO IS THERE ANY, NO OTHER QUESTIONS ON THIS ITEM?

David PenalozaItem 29

JUST WANTED TO VOICE MY SUPPORT OF SEEING THIS ADDITIONAL INFORMATION.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 29

GREAT. THANK YOU. Okay, let's move on to, were you going to say something? I apologize. All right, item 30 we covered. Let's see, now we're going to convene to the Housing Authority Meeting. We'll now recess the City Council Meeting and convene the Housing Authority Meeting. I hereby call the Housing Authority Meeting to order. Madam City Clerk, conduct the roll call.

Jennifer L. HallItem 29

Authority Member Becerra?

Phil BacerraItem 29

Here.

Jennifer L. HallItem 29

Authority member Hernandez? Authority member Penaloza?

David PenalozaItem 29

Present.

Jennifer L. HallItem 29

Authority member Fan? Here. Authority member Vasquez?

Benjamin VazquezItem 29

Present.

Jennifer L. HallItem 29

Vice Chairperson Lopez? Chair Omescuwa?

Valerie AmezcuaItem 29

Present.

Jennifer L. HallItem 29

Five members present at the moment? Authority member Hernandez? Thank you. Thank you.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 29

Madam Clerk, are there any additions or deletions to the housing authority agenda? There are not. There's no reports. Okay. Do we have any speakers for any items?

Jennifer L. HallItem 29

We do not.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 29

Okay. Consent calendar, let's see. Consent calendar items one and two. Does any authority member wish to make a motion to second?

Johnathan Ryan HernandezItem 29

I'll make a motion to move the items.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 29

Thank you. Is there a second?

Phil BacerraItem 29

I'll second.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 29

Perfect. Let's cast our votes and move on.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 29

Do you need to do roll call?

Jennifer L. HallItem 29

No. Authority member Penaliza.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 29

All right.

Jennifer L. HallItem 29

The vote is six ayes, no nays. It's an absence by Vice Chair Lopez. Motion carries.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 29

Items one and two, the excused absences in the quarterly report. City manager, anything?

Valerie AmezcuaItem 29

No presentations for the housing authority. Great. Thank you. All right. No, nothing with the Housing Authority. City Manager, do you have any announcements?

I do just have a couple. Honorable Mayor and Council Members, our very own Public Works Agency has been selected as award recipients of the American Society of Civil Engineers Orange County Branch for 2022 Outstanding Historical Renovation Project Award, and that was for the Library Children Patio Play Area. And they also received an award for Outstanding Transportation Project Award, and that was for the Civic Center bike boulevards and safe routes to school enhancements for Sepulveda project. The engineering teams for these projects are going to be recognized with these incredible

honors with dinner, an awards dinner on Thursday, May 4th at the Richard Nixon Library in Yorba Linda. So a big congratulations to our city engineering teams. And the final item is the Orange County Marathon is coming back to town. Maybe Councilmember Bissera was going to mention that as well. This is hosted by the San Diego Credit Union. It involves about 23,000 individuals participating, and part of the run does go through our city. So I just want to make sure everybody's aware that on this coming weekend, the 6th and the 7th, there will be temporary road closures along MacArthur, Rate, Alton, and Segerstrom, and Greenville.

We will post all of that information of those closures on our city's website. And that's it.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 29

Great, thank you. Let's start with Councilmember comments. Councilmember Vasquez, please.

Benjamin VazquezItem 29

Yeah, first I want to give everybody a thank you for today. It was a great meeting. Yesterday, it was May 1st, and it was International Workers' Day, and we celebrated it at El Centro Cultural de Mexico, we exchanged cultural dances with Vietnamese community where they came with drums, drummers and their dragons and we have Alepho Clotico and there was a union called Nuestras Manos made up of domestic workers that made a beautiful dance portraying the hard work of Afro-Latina women dance.

Benjamin VazquezItem 29

It was just amazing, and I really appreciate the efforts of El Centro to bring workers together on May 1st, as they've done for so many years. So thank you, El Centro Cultural de Mexico. That's all I have. Thank you.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 29

Thank you.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 29

Councilman Hernandez?

Johnathan Ryan HernandezItem 29

Thank you, Mayor Mesquita. I just want to thank our city staff and residents who participated in today's dialogue. Thank you, and we look forward to seeing you at future meetings.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 29

Thank you. Councilman Fan, member Fan?

Thai Viet PhanItem 29

First, I'd like to say thank you to all of our nonprofit partners and volunteers, including a couple of my commissioners and the Ward 1 team for working with me and to bring our Spanish legal clinic, our Spanish English legal clinic. Everything we do in Ward 1 has to be done in both Vietnamese and Spanish, and of course English is always available and in both clinics we helped about 60 community members with free legal services on immigration housing and family law and I look forward to working with other partners to bring other topic areas that can support our residents because I know how expensive it is to get legal legal

Thai Viet PhanItem 29

support and especially if you're just you know either you know you're not making enough to really afford your own attorney and so that's something that I'm going to be looking into with my team to really bring those services to our residents. I also want to mention that April 30th that just passed was Black April, also known as the Fall of Saigon. And that's something that is really deeply ingrained and important in the Vietnamese American community and the reason why we have Little Saigon and the Vietnamese diaspora. I myself am named Thai Viet Phan because I'm Vietnamese, but I was born near a refugee camp in Thailand.

Thai Viet PhanItem 29

And this naming convention is actually very common for children of refugees or refugees born abroad. In fact, Stanton Vice Mayor Hong Alice Van is named Hong because she was born in a refugee camp in Hong Kong. And so I just wanted to honor, commemorate, and thank those who sacrificed. and fought for freedom and look forward to working with our community and everyone here to help revitalize the history of Little Saigon which started right here in Santa Ana. And finally, I want to wish everyone an amazing, fantastic, super awesome Mother's Day on Sunday the 14th,

Thai Viet PhanItem 29

especially to my cousin Ng, who just gave birth a few days ago, and to a baby boy named Kevin. Have a great night, everyone.

Phil BacerraItem 29

Congratulations. Councilman Becerra. Thank you, Madam Mayor. City Manager beat me to the punch on one, which is the marathon, so that'll be coming through Ward 4 this Sunday. and then on Saturday May 6th at 10 a.m. over at the George Upton All Access Park over at Carl Thornton Park I'll be hosting my monthly community office hours as I do every first Saturday of the month and that's all I have so it's good to get out of here a little quote-unquote early tonight so good night everybody. A little early.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 29

Councilman Palos.

David PenalozaItem 29

Thank you Madam Mayor. Just wanted to also mention that the OC Marathon charges for the 5k $55. And with that said, happy Mother's Day to all the mothers out there and all the mothers here in our council chambers. I know our three direct appointees are all moms and our mayor. So happy Mother's Day to you guys, or ladies. With that said, good night.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 29

Thank you, Councilman Hummelis. Appreciate it. So I just want to say I had a community walk this Saturday in Wilshire Square area. and thank you to Nabil and Hawk and the police department and Daniel for being out there again the bill is a very popular man he led the walk he was right in the front so and now I've got I'm getting calls that other neighborhoods want them with police Nabil and Hawk and Daniel so we will be scheduling some more community walks and it's great to be out there with the community and hear from them and just see them and just talk about what's going on in their

Valerie AmezcuaItem 29

community and addressing some of their issues so thank you to the staff that were with me I really appreciate it the victims Memorial I attended here across the street and it was really wonderful and I encourage you all to attend if you can next year you know we paid respect to the victims parents were there is very emotional, very important for our representation from Santa Ana and I was honored to be there representing our city. I went on a fire ride-along. If you have not been out with the fire department, I encourage you to go. Fire

Valerie AmezcuaItem 29

department gave me a great ride-along, answered all my questions. They were wonderful, professional, and first call right off the bat was at Orange County Jail, inside the jail, deep inside the jail, in the women's mod, with a fentanyl overdose. Right? Jail, drugs, streets, drugs, and so Fire Department did a spectacular job, as did the Orange County Sheriff's Department, and so I would recommend to the council members, if you have not been out with them, please go

Valerie AmezcuaItem 29

out we have wonderful men and women in our fire department who do amazing work and then I also was able to attend with Councilman Penelosa the best and bravest award and also Andrew was there representing Councilman Becerra and so there are some great things that are going on in our city and our community and it's always great to be out there with my peers representing Santa Ana and with some of the staff. And congratulations to the staff that are going to be getting awarded, the civil engineers. I think that's the water, part of the water, correct?

Valerie AmezcuaItem 29

City Manager, is it the water civil engineers? The other engineers. Well, I can tell you the water engineers are amazing too because I'm on the water board and they're amazing too. So I need to go down and meet all the engineers that we have. So with that, we're going to have the next meeting on May 11th, which is a budget meeting. So I encourage the community to please come out, and that's at 4 p.m. And then the next city council meeting is on May 16th at a regular time. And happy Mother's Day to all the mothers that are out there, whether you are an adopted mom, a stepmom, a mom, a bonus mom, or you're just somebody's mama.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 29

So happy Mother's Day. So thank you. This meeting is adjourned.

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Thank you.