Read the May 16 meeting.

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Thank you.

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Thank you.

Thank you.

さささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささ Thank you.

Let's get started.

Thank you.

Thank you.

さささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささ

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Let's get started.

Thank you.

Thank you.

You

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

You

さささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささ

Let's get started.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Here we go.

David Penaloza

There's an agenda in here for 1974.

Jessie Lopez

Madam Clerk, please start the meeting.

Jessie Lopez

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

Jennifer L. Hall

Council Member Becerra?

Phil Bacerra

Here.

Jennifer L. Hall

Council Member Penaloza?

David Penaloza

Present.

Jennifer L. Hall

Council Member Phan? Here. Council Member Vasquez? Present. Mayor Mesquita? Present. Five members present in the chamber.

Jessie Lopez

Madam Clerk, are there any additions or deletions to the closed session agenda? There are none. Do any council members need to announce their abstentions on the closed session items? Nope. Moving forward. Do we have any speakers for closed session?

Jennifer L. Hall

We do not. And there were no emails.

Jessie Lopez

We will now recess to the portion of the meeting and consider the items on closed session. Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

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Thank you.

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Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Let's get started.

Let's get started.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

さささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささ

Thank you.

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さささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささ

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Let's get started.

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Thank you.

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さささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささ

さささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささ

Thank you.

さささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささ

Thank you.

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Let's get started.

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Let's get started.

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Let's get started.

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Let's get started.

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さささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささ

Thank you.

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さささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささ

Thank you.

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I love you.

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さささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささ Thank you.

さささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささ

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ささささささ

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Thank you.

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Let's get started.

Let's get started.

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Let's get started.

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Thank you.

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Let's get started.

Thank you.

piano plays softly

Thank you.

Thank you.

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Thank you.

ささ ささ

さささ Thank you.

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さささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささ

Thank you.

Thank you.

さささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささささ

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Let's get started. Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Phil Bacerra

Recording in progress

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Jessie Lopez

Clerk, please start the meeting.

Jennifer L. Hall

Yes, Mayor, please go ahead.

Jessie Lopez

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

Jennifer L. Hall

Council Member Becerra.

Jessie Lopez

Here.

Jennifer L. Hall

Council Member Hernandez? Present. Council Member Penaloza? Present. Council Member Fan? Here. Council Member Vasquez?

Benjamin Vazquez

Present.

Jennifer L. Hall

Mayor Pro Tem Lopez? Here. Mayor Mesquah?

Benjamin Vazquez

Present.

Jennifer L. Hall

Okay, seven members present. And Mayor, if you could just go back and ask for the report out of closed session to finalize that. I'm sorry. The report out of closed session? Yes. That was just needed to get done before we went into the open meeting.

Jennifer L. Hall

Madam City Attorney, do you have anything to report out of closed session?

Sonia R. Carvalho

We did have a closed session discussion this evening, but we do not have any reportable action.

Jessie Lopez

Great, thank you. Let's proceed to the Pledge of Allegiance.

Jessie Lopez

Mr. Mike Garcia, can you lead us in the Pledge of Allegiance, please?

Place your hand over heart. Begin after me. Ready? Begin. 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.

Jessie Lopez

Thank you, Mr. Garcia. For the words of inspiration at this time, Pastor DeLeon.

Good evening, honorable mayor, council members. Before I proceed, I'd just like to say thank you on behalf of the Templo Cavade community for being with us. Last week, it was an honor to host you, and we'd like to confer to you that our house is your house. Let us pray. Father, we're so grateful that we are able to come together as people of good intent, as people who love our incredible community, Santana. So Father, we're reminded of a group of individuals that guarded the gate listed in First Chronicles, and they said that as a group, they were brought together under discernment.

So we pray that tonight's meeting and that everything is going to happen would follow that methodology of discernment, discerning the heart of the people, discerning the needs of our community, discerning the best decision processes and methodologies that could come out of this hallowed hell. And Father, we pray for your discernment that can only come from you, that is worthy of all application and every way that we can see it. So we pray your blessing over this meeting. In your name we pray. Amen. Thank you. Thank you very much.

Jennifer L. Hall

Madam Clerk, are there any additions or deletions to the City Council agenda? There are none. Could I make the announcement to the Zoom attendees about public comments?

I'm sorry?

Jennifer L. Hall

May I make the announcement to the Zoom attendees about public comments? For anyone on the teleconference or Zoom to request to speak during public comments on agenda or non-agenda items within the City's jurisdiction, please dial star 9 from your phone or click the button labeled raised hand from zoom at this time thank you thank you so much

Jessie Lopez

ceremonial presentations first one is by mayor pro tem lopez and council member fan

Jessie LopezItem 1

i'm sorry really quick before we before we do that i apologize i'm gonna regarding a consent calendar item number 28 city manager let me turn the floor over to you please I'm sorry city attorney okay there's three women in the

Sonia R. CarvalhoItem 1

house mayor council members there was a request to address the council for any additions or deletions on the city council agenda you have item number 28 on your city council agenda these are resolutions regarding exemption of eligible properties under certain statutes I'm very confident in the city of Santa Ana and its support of housing and affordable housing but based on some information that we received I'd like to have the opportunity to review some letters and correspondence so I'm recommending that you pull this item for discussion this evening and that we reschedule it at a later

Jessie LopezItem 1

date. Perfect thank you very much it'll be rescheduled for a later date and we'll meet with the city manager put it back on if needed. Thank you very much city attorney. All right let's

David PenalozaItem 1

go ahead with the presentation please. Madam Mayor's point of clarification do we have a set date for when that would be rescheduled?

David PenalozaItem 1

And it doesn't require a vote, right?

Sonia R. CarvalhoItem 1

No, we had some correspondence and based on the state agency that would like to have a conversation. I spoke with them this evening and confirmed with them that I will have a conversation with them and then I'll work with staff to see that it comes back before you on the agenda.

Jessie LopezItem 1

So I didn't put a date on it for that reason because there's multiple letters that she needs to review and then make phone calls and have meetings with other staff.

Phil BacerraItem 1

Mayor, if I may ask, can we go ahead and agendize it for the next meeting and then if you need time to go ahead and punt it. I'd like to go ahead and ask for that.

Jessie LopezItem 1

If you want it in June, then if we can do it for June 16, please, because June 6, we're going to have, I believe, the homeless item and report, and it's going to be quite lengthy. You go to June 16th?

Jennifer L. HallItem 1

It would be June 20th, Mayor.

Phil BacerraItem 1

June 6th. I'd be okay with June 6th, and then just deferring to staff to see if they want to punt it to the June 16th meeting.

David PenalozaItem 1

I'd be okay with the June 6th meeting, just because the homeless updates 10, 15 minutes.

Jessie LopezItem 1

Well, then we're going to need to take a vote. Okay. Because we have two council members there. So I'm sorry, can you come back to the weekend vote, please? I thought it was going to be a really simple process because there's a lot of letters to go through and responses from our city attorney. So your motion is to June 6th or yours was? Are you making a motion? I'm making a motion. I'm going to do an amendment for June 16th. I second June 16th.

Jennifer L. HallItem 1

Just for clarification, The second meeting in June is June 20th.

Jessie LopezItem 1

Okay, thank you, June 20th. So you second mine, but let's take their vote first. So yours is June 6th.

We have to vote on yours because you're a sub-motion. Okay, so I'm sorry. You get me all confused.

Jessie LopezItem 1

Thank you, Councilman Vasquez. All those in favor of June 20th, please vote. Can you do a roll call?

Jennifer L. HallItem 1

Yes, Mayor. Council member, so to continue item number 28 until the June 20th meeting. Councilmember Becerra? No. Councilmember Hernandez? Yes.

Jennifer L. HallItem 1

Councilmember Penaloza? No. Councilmember Fan? Yes. Councilmember Vasquez? Yes. Mayor Pro Tem Lopez? Yes. Mayor Mesquia? Yes. The vote is five ayes, two nays. Nays by Councilmembers Becerra and Penaloza item number 28 continued to the meeting of June 20th.

Jessie LopezItem 1

»» Perfect. Thank you. Let's go to the presentation.

Jessie LopezItem 1

And yes, I'm positive this time. I apologize. No, you do not. You can't talk anymore.

David PenalozaItem 1

»» Staff has a month to read a couple letters.

Jessie LopezItem 1

»» Turn the mics off on them, please. All right. Thank you.

Jessie LopezItem 1

So the presentation is for the Santa Ana Public Works Agency. So all of you come on up apparently. Nabil and his crew.

Hi. Oh, here, here.

Come on down. Come on down. Come on down.

Okay, good evening everyone. We are here recognizing Public Works for Public Works National Works Week. And most of you, to some extent or the other, have engaged or exchanged some sort of dialogue with our team, especially if you use a MySanaana app, you know how excellent our team is in addressing some of those concerns within 24 hours. And so tonight we are going to be presenting a proclamation to recognize the city's public works agency during National Public Works Week, which is May 21st through May 27th.

And this year marks the 53rd annual National Public Works Week sponsored by the American Public Works Association and the Canadian Public Works Association. and the Public Works is held annually to recognize all of the professionals that you see up here but all the professionals that you don't see up here and all of the work that they do and sustaining our infrastructure and the key contributions that they make every day to the city of Sanana and to the quality of your life and so this theme this year is connecting the world through Public Works and our city's Public Work teams they're always ready

to serve the Sanana community when I've you know texted the bill at 8 a.m. or at 10 p.m. even on Saturdays the team has always been very responsive and I also want to say that a lot of our staff they live in the city of Sanana so they are wholeheartedly committed committed to seeing the city improve and to addressing all the needs that you email us that you text us about that you tag us on and so they're a very nimble team they're a very resilient team and they have you know so many abilities to pick themselves up and off the ground after all the challenges that they have encounter and so our agency they help

keep our cities they help keep our city beautiful they keep our streets clean they keep our parks clean as well and safe and so whether it is repairing a roadway repair maintaining traffic signals or streetlights water and sewer solid waste collection recycling graffiti pothole repairs or capital improvements it takes an entire team to make all of those projects come to life and be completed with a good quality work and so we want to thank the department all of the folks that I personally have met that I haven't met I know I got to meet some of you when we went on the Deemer plant tour and so it

was really great to hear from our staff how much they love to do this job and why they do this job and again part of it is because some folks live here and part of it is because this is their passion this is what they like to do and so they are superheroes in our eyes they do every there's nothing that I have not emailed them about that they have not been able to take care of and so Councilmember Phan please help us close out this recognition. Awesome so we love

Thai Viet PhanItem 1

all of our departments we love all of our staff but I may be a little bit jealous to choose my favorite child of all of them and it's because I serve on the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California. As many of you know California is going through a years-long drought but we have this incredible team our water department within Public Works because Santa Ana is one of the few cities in Orange County with our own water department. We have water specialists, water engineers, people who will respond to ensure that the water that comes out of our pipes are clean, are safe, and even when you hear stories

Thai Viet PhanItem 1

about PFAS contamination or whether we have enough water to go around or how many, you know, how much do the water rates go up. This is our team, Cesar, Armando, and used to be Rudy but he got a raise so now he's in charge of roads, but our water department, we'll count you still, our water department really ensures that you know when you turn on that tap there's clean water. When you need to take a shower there's water pressure and when you need to go to an event or whatever I make sure there's a water station and guess what Santa Ana has one of the best tasting water in the country. This is from an international

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yes water tasting competition and this past year the only other agency that beat the city of Santa Ana is the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California and guess what we pump our water from them too and so I wanted to make sure well Mary Potem and I wanted to make sure we gave a specific shout out to our water department because at the end of the day water is life and we have to make sure that we have a fantastic team like everyone here to keep that flowing keep it clean and really make sure you conserve so please give them a

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round of applause and Nabil Nabil came up our director of public works came up in the water space and he knows the big guns because he's friends with Adele Haskalio who is the general manager of metropolitan water districts so you know we get the good stuff because of this guy right here

thank you mayor Potem Lopez and councilmember fan for the Public Works week proclamation the Public Works Agency in the city have over 250 hard-working employees ranging from maintenance workers to operators to engineers technician technicians and administrative staff they all are committed to providing the city the best service to all of its residents every day around the year round I am very proud of our team and like to thank the council our executive team for the support and all city employees for the

support and for our agency thank you very much may we please invite down the

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council and the mayor did say that we also have the orange county water district which ensures that the water that we pump is also good so shout out to her she serves on that board

Thank you. Thank you.

Phil BacerraItem 1

if i could have mr mark mclaughlin come forward

Phil BacerraItem 2

so tonight i wanted to take the opportunity to recognize one of our city's longer serving commissioners and that is mr mark mcloughlin so mark began his service on the get over here on the HRC, the Historic Resources Commission, back in 2014. Mark was later appointed to the Planning Commission in 2016, where I actually had the opportunity to serve with him for two years. When I was elected to the Council in 2019, I brought Mark back onto the Planning Commission, made sure he stayed there. And during Mark's tenure on the Planning Commission, he served as Chair and Vice

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Chair, as well as taking part in many important land use decisions and projects. Now one particular project of citywide importance that I was very happy to see him there and this is part of the reason why I wanted to make sure that he continued to serve on our planning commission was he was actually there at the very beginning of the general plan update. So when we talk about the general plan update and how long it took, Mark was actually there pretty close to the beginning of that that effort and so it was very important to have that experience and knowledge

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there and Mark definitely delivered. Seven years later he was able to steer through with the help of his colleagues on the commission but as chair of the commission because you were chair at that point right so as chair he was able to get that through and get to the council and we now have ourselves our first general plan update in decades so thank you for that mark so now even though we're recognizing him for his contributions to our community as a commissioner i wanted to highlight how mark was already serving our commit our excuse me our community long before he was appointed to

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a city commission so previously mark served as the president of the floral Park neighborhood Association and chair of the historic designation committee which I believe was it this year we got the designation yep mark was also elected to represent trustee area 5 on the Rancho Santiago Community College district back in November of 2008 then in 2012 he was serving as the board's vice president and today Mark is still very active with the Santa Ana Chamber of Commerce where he serves on the Chamber's executive board of directors as well as their government affairs council where he's been a strong

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advocate for workforce development and career technical training programs including high school Inc which is over at Santa Ana Valley High School yeah we appreciate you mark well there you go one thing though that mark and I have in comment and I don't know where she's at tonight but as I say is that we both have strong wives that support us and I would say that we can't talk about Mark of course sorry Mark without talking about Janelle and Janelle actually I mean we really couldn't talk about her because there you go right but but also just recently Mark and Janelle were both recognized by the

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Santa Ana Chamber and given their Difference Makers Persons of the Year Award so the City of Santa Ana we encourage and celebrate residents who become involved in their community and contribute to making Santa Ana a better place so tonight mark as a token of our appreciation from the City of Santa Ana I want to present you with this tile on behalf of all of us and thank you for all your service

everything you get my whole resume so surprising to have what college I went to

anyway first of all I'd like to thank mayor of Mesquah the council and Phil for this award and recognition I really appreciate it I also want to thank Christine Ridge and her staff because as you see over the years I've participated in many different areas and I've always had the help and support of the staff throughout the city not just in one area or another but throughout the city I also want to thank men who did a great job of helping me understand more about planning than I ever thought I could ever understand and his staff was a

great staff and as Phil pointed out the general plan was something that for 40 years we hadn't updated the general plan and now oh closer to the microphone Thanks. Sorry. And now here we are with a new general plan and what's interesting and what's good to see is you can look at the fruits of that plan with the construction that's going on in the city and you can see it's not just apartments, it's not just housing, it's a lot of different types of building that's going on. Which brings to me the fact that at the end of the day it's economic development and workforce development and I think those are the

key things that i see coming out of what we've been doing right now with the construction and with work that we're doing throughout the city i thank everybody for your support i thank again christine for her team for their support and i also would like to thank john funk who kept me out of jail a few times when it came when it came to making decisions on legalities of the of what we do just the land you stuff mark that's it i know i know that's it is but thank you again thanks for this recognition i appreciate that all right thank you

Jessie LopezItem 2

all right councilman vasquez please presenting to the national bike month may of 2023

Jessie LopezItem 2

Senate on active streets.

Jessie LopezItem 2

Come on up, Senate. Come on up.

Jessie LopezItem 2

Yeah, can we fix the screen, please? It should be. There you go. Thank you.

How are you doing? How are you doing?

Benjamin VazquezItem 2

Today the City of Santa Ana presents a proclamation to Santa Ana Active Streets. to recognize May as National Bike Month. Established in 1956, National Bike Month is an opportunity to draw attention to the many benefits of bicycling and to encourage people to give bike biking a try. During the celebration of bikes and the people who ride them Santa Ana and cities across the nation are called upon to get as many people riding as possible. Experiencing the numerous benefits of cycling can help to inspire people to embrace this healthy environmentally friendly and enjoyable mode of transportation. This week from May 15th

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to the 21st is Bike to Work Week and Friday May 19th is Bike to Work Day. Santa Ana Active Streets will be hosting a family cycling bike ride on Saturday May 27th at 9.30 a.m. at Adams Park. Participants will ride as a group on either a two-mile or a four-mile road trip route guided by captains and practicing safe riding throughout the city of Sanana. All month long support your local bike shop, the Bicycle Tree. I like I love going to the Bicycle Tree. Good, nice for the shout out. They're on 72 West 17th Street, Unit C. It is only bicycle cooperative space in all of Orange County. At the shop you can buy

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used and new bikes and bike parts, utilize their tools, volunteer, build community, and learn how to fix your own bicycle. You'll be fixing your own bicycle by the way, they're not gonna fix it for you. They'll train you. That's the best part about it. So I had to learn how to fix my bike. If you want to ride with the group on a weekly basis, meet up with SoCal Clunkers. Mondays at 714 at 1301 South Bristol Street. This group bike rides started riding during the pandemic and these cyclists have kept up riding since. They're quite a sight to see. They used to come down my street. If you can't do any of these things,

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just go on a bike ride and go for a ride. Ride on your block, ride on the new bike lanes, ride on Santa Ana Riverbed, keep your car at home, and use your bike to do simple errands. If you feel it's unsafe to ride in your area, call up on Public Works Department and call us the elected officials to let us know your concerns so we can help make it possible to ride a bike in your city. Santa Ana Active Streets, on behalf of the Mayor and Council, thank you for all that you do to keep our cyclists safe.

I don't know, can we just hold it?

Hi everybody, my name is Christopher Forden. I'm the project director of Santa Ana Active Streets. It's always a great honor to be the second time.

Last year we received this proclamation for National Bike Month, and it's great to be back again. So I just wanted to, we're going to be in the back, so if folks want more information about our bike ride, Please, we'll be back for a few minutes in the back if folks want more information about that. We always want to make sure that these rides are family friendly. So we've had folks from really young ages to come out on these rides, families, friends, and really any kind of, based on your ability, we try to make sure it's comfortable and you feel safe to actually ride on the street.

So that's going to be on January, May 27th. And then also we have, if folks also, so that's the other thing with bike month, every month is bike month in our opinion. And so we have a lot of other activities that are coming up to practice how to be a bicyclist. We're actually going to be hosting a wrench and ride in partnership with the Bicycle Tree, where we'll actually be offering bike education for youth ages 13 to 18 and you will build a bike in eight weeks and keep the bike at the end of it.

So it's a great way to both learn how to build a bike but then also learn how to actually get access to kind of a resource that is a bicycle which helps get you from place to place. And especially with our youth in the city who actually either skateboard or bike, it's a necessary form of transportation. And lastly, just want to encourage folks to get on your bike, experience it. oh yeah and actually because also the bike ride it's going to be going in Adams Park so it's going to be going through Ward 1 and Ward 4. So Ty and Phil if you can come out to the ride we appreciate

it. But it's always a different vantage point to be able to see your city on bike. You get to see the trees from a different place. It's to actually be able to ride an hour on the Santa Ana River Trail to the beach. It really opens up your whole entire world. And it also makes you think how we can actually live life. And so we want to make sure that we're getting on our bikes. And if it doesn't feel safe, again, ask your elected officials also to make your streets safer so you can actually get around the way you want to. I'll let Dorian.

Hello. So come meet us. Come hang out with us. come learn what we're all about because there's a lot to what we do we have a youth club at san anna high school we meet once a week we have a club advisor there who's in the spanish department so we're opening up the dialogue with the youth about how can we make our streets safer you know what's your experience walking or biking or taking the bus to and from your locations shout out to the to the seniors who graduated who are going to graduate Elizabeth and Jesus and also we have we understand that the bicycle world can feel a little

intimidating to some people it's a very white cis heteronormative space so at the bicycle tree every third Tuesday of the month we have something called twig so it's for trans women intersex and gender non-conforming plus folks to come and learn how to work on a bicycle the shop is closed except for that demographic they're actually meeting tonight from six to eight so there's a lot that we do and there's a lot that is promoted on instagram or social media and what is not but another shout out to traffic engineering there's

folks there who help us a lot with reserving spaces to host activities so shout out to zed Mauricio, Azadeh, Ruben, who really help us to use spaces in the city. So thank you.

Jessie LopezItem 2

Thank you. Final presentation by Councilmember Penelosa, please.

David PenalozaItem 2

Thank you Madam Mayor. If I could have our representatives of the Santa Police Department please join me, Assistant Chief Rodriguez and anyone else who would want to join us actually. I mean, I'll defer to you, see which ones you think should come up. So, good evening, everybody. I'm very happy to be here tonight. It was over 60 years ago, back in 1962, that Congress and one of my faves, President John F. Kennedy, designated May 15th as Peace Officers Memorial Day and the week in which May 15th falls as National Police Week.

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This is an opportunity to voice our appreciation for all those currently serving on the front lines of the battle against crime. These observances also remind us of the ongoing need to be vigilant against all forms of crime, especially acts of extreme violence and terrorism. There are more than 800,000 law enforcement officers serving in communities across the United States, including the 354 dedicated sworn law enforcement officers of the Santa Ana Police Department. Since the first recorded death in 1786, there are currently 23,785 law enforcement officers in the

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United States that have made the ultimate sacrifice and have been killed in the line of duty. In the 153-year history of the Santa Ana Police Department, we recognize four fallen officers that died in the line of duty. Officer Edwin Jensen, end of watch March 3rd, 1931. Officer Nelson Sasser, end of watch June 4th, 1969. Officer Dan Hell, end of watch November 12th, 1977. Sergeant John Aguilar, end of watch June 30th, 1998. And most recently, Riverside County Sheriff's Deputy Brett Harris, who just this week was killed

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in the line of duty on May 13, 2023. We, the city of Santa Ana, do hereby recognize May 14th through May 20th as National Police Week and thank the Santa Ana Police Department for their service to our community. I also want to highlight that I want to thank Council Member Becerra for going up to Sacramento last week to represent the Santa Ana Police Department in our city at the 45th California Peace Officers Memorial Ceremony. So thank you for that. Aside from the Santa Ana Police Department, I also wanted to call out and recognize the other various police departments that operate within our city that in one way, shape, or

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form help to contribute to our safety and our community, which is the OC Sheriff's Department and the Santa Ana California Highway Patrol, and last but not least, the Santa Ana School Police Department. And I was very, I made it a point to recognize the Santa Ana School Police because it is my understanding that they have a police department within the school district that help keep our schools and community safe and also help facilitate with our police department any issue that might arise within our schools. And I know that from what I hear they wanted to have be recognized officially at their school board

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meeting but their superintendent between the school board just didn't want to agendize it or recognize it so that's why it was important for me to make sure that we recognize our police department and all the other police departments that operate within our city and thank you for your service so now i would like to turn it over to our assistant chief rodriguez and our other officers to see if you guys would like to say a couple words thank you council member penalosa and

Thank you mayor and the entire city council for recognizing the importance of National Police Week and For your continued support for our police department. I also want to Invite everyone to take a moment to recognize and reflect on all the officers men brave men and women who made the ultimate sacrifice serving our local communities but also to thank the current officers who currently still serve right now with dedication and courage to our community. So on behalf of Chief Valentin and the men and women of the Santa Police Department, thank you again and I received

this proclamation on their behalf. Thank you. Thank you Assistant Chief and if my

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colleagues would want to join me down here for a picture that'd be whoever wants to join us please come down down.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you. Thank you.

.

Jessie LopezItem 3

Madam City Manager, we had one presentation tonight. I believe we were going to.

So as we discuss, we will skip the homeless presentation tonight and bring back the more robust one for the first meeting in June. That's correct.

Jessie LopezItem 5

We had asked for the report, so we'll have it in June. Perfect. Thank you so very much. I appreciate that. Okay. This is 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. But we will now hear from members of the public that are on the conference call or Zoom followed by those physically present in the Council Chamber. Madam Clerk, do you have anyone wanting to speak on conference call or Zoom?

Jennifer L. HallItem 5

Yes, Mayor. And before unmuting those callers, I'd like to report the following summary of emails provided as of today. We did receive a total of 33 emails which were distributed to Council and posted online. 23 were on non-agenda topics. One on item 9, the rental registry fee study. one on item 27 the water supply assessment for the Cabrillo Town Center project seven on item 28 which was the item that was continued for the resolutions related to Assembly Bill 2011 and Senate Bill 6 and one on item 32 related to ceremonial street naming caller on zoom yes

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and the speaking time for today's public comments will be two minutes caller on zoom Carl Benninger please select your microphone icon to unmute from your device and proceed with your comment

good evening mayor and council and thank you uh thank you jennifer um what i've done i'd like to talk a couple quick items number one as you're still mauling through the budget please don't forget cert i found out that cities like orange and mission vehicle also have very active cert CERT program. And then I've stated in the past, of the five major cities in the county, only Santa Ana is the only one without an active CERT program. So we would need the funds in order to buy the radios, to do the things that we need to do to start building an active CERT program, which helps not only through emergencies,

but during other items like the Honeybeach Parade, they use their CERT to help through that parade process. So there are other things that can be done with CERT. So we ask for your help on it. Also switching hats, Comlink, our next Comlink meeting is on May 25th, 7 o'clock in the police community's room talking about the quality of life in Santa Ana. And then the event that we're really excited about is on June 22nd, our annual awards night. And we'll be recognizing Santa Ana heroes in our neighborhoods and also most beautiful yards. And to date, we have the largest amount

of heroes nominated. Over 21 of our fellow citizens have been nominated. And we have over 20 20 yards that have been nominated also. So I hope to see everybody on June 22nd. This will be at the Santa Ana College, Philip Halls, starting at 6 o'clock. Thank you. Good evening.

Jennifer L. HallItem 5

Next caller on Zoom, Henry Abraham. I'm sorry, Henny Abraham.

Thank you so much. Good evening, Madam Mayor and members of the council. So my name is Henny Abraham, and unfortunately I wasn't able to attend in person, but a group of my Iranian friends are there tonight. We have been urging you to pass a resolution condemning the government of Iran that is killing its people and chemically poisoning its young girls students as young as six years old since the beginning of this year. And it is extremely unfortunate for myself, who is an immigrant who moves here at the age of 14.

When I look at your council's makeup and I see that most of you are from a minority background, that you understand the devastation that it is caused by not being able to live in a free country when you're not given your liberty or your basic human rights. Yet your sister cities of Irvine, Costa Mesa, Tustin, Westminster have already passed this resolution.

And here we are, city of Santa Ana, that has one of the most diverse and most amount of minorities out of the 34 cities in Orange County. And you guys are lagging. It is very disheartening. This is extremely important for the Iranian community. Orange County is the second largest Iranian population in all of United States. We are extremely involved in the community, business owners, voters. So please go ahead and agendize this resolution like the other 17 cities have done in Orange County since October of last year.

If you need a copy of it, I'll be more than happy to provide it to you. I am the original author of this resolution. I wrote it back in October, and I'll be more than happy to help you with the language if need be. Ms. Abraham, your time is up. Thank you so much.

Jennifer L. HallItem 5

Mayor, that concludes the Zoom speakers.

Jessie LopezItem 5

Thank you very much. First speaker present, Nico Armenta, followed by Evelyn Armenta. Can you come up and wait so that you don't... We can have you waiting, please. Nico Armenta, followed by Evelyn Armenta.

Good evening, Council members.

My name is Nico Armenta. I'm the owner and founder and president of Tianguis Farmers Market, Tianguis Market Foundation and Tianguis Market.

Tianguis Farmers Market came about during the pandemic when I witnessed so many micro and small businesses for shut down due to COVID-19. Immediately I jumped into action to help community thinking back of all the times of my father that would tell me all about the native Tianguis and how much it helped his community and his great experiences. I achieved bringing it back and getting it certified by the state of California in 2020 and the launch was super successful. The community was so successful that later on we turned it and converted it into a successful nonprofit active here in Santa Ana. It was brought

downtown area by the help of Vicente Sarmiento and council members and the end of doing that it was such an impactful positive thing for the community because it revived the downtown district not not only does is this the only farmers market in Santa Ana but it's also a cultural hub for the latino community unfortunately on march 5th 2023 we hosted a beautiful aztec new year's event that was filled with educational purpose but sadly four days later our permits were pulled

by santa ana parks recreational reason beings that we had unauthorized loader low rider cars however that was uh discluded because we were able to prove that they were added into the site map and now we're dealing with so much oppression we're dealing with back and forth excuses of why we can't operate we've missed total of three operating and we're the only certified farmers market in Santa Ana please help us please we demand just for us to continue to operate for the public thank you guys and I thought it was three minutes Evelyn?

Hello, board members. My name is Evelyn Armenta, and I am the secretary for Tianguis Market Foundation, and one of the organizers for Tianguis Farmers Market that should be operating every Sunday, and so here we are. I'm going to go straight into it and not sugarcoat anything. We are demanding that Tiangui's market operates every Sunday without interruption or excuses from Santa Ana PD, Beverly Martin, or Santa Ana Recreational Parks. All documents, permits, and fees are up to date except for one, and Beverly Martin knows of it, as she needs to do a correction on her end.

I am very disgusted as how some of the staff works for the city and how some are trying to get rid of us. But I am here to say that you are not getting rid of us as there is a thing called farmer's rights. As mentioned by Nicaragamenta, not only are we a certified farmer's market, but we are a cultural farmer's market that you won't find elsewhere. If anything, Santa Ana should feel lucky and blessed to have us here. We bring so much business, fun, and entertainment to downtown Santa Ana. As if you were to walk down there right now, it is a ghost town. And it is not because of us. Jeesh, I wish, wow, I'm shaking.

Jeesh, I wish we could assemble seven days a week to bring life into this city. But instead, there's a little someone going around saying we don't belong in downtown Santa Ana. But why not? We do bring so much business to Santa Ana, and I make sure of it. We help all vendors get their California seller's permit, Santa Ana business license, and health permits if needed. We do that. Can you name another farmer's market that is doing what we do? Another event, maybe? and I and we do it at no charge nothing and that's not to mention grants we hope so many micro businesses apply for $2,500 grants and they have

all received the funds we are an asset for the community and not a burden or a waste of space we are for the people and for the com for the community so I Ma'am, your time is up. Thank you very much.

Jessie LopezItem 5

Jose Garcia.

Jessie LopezItem 5

Jose Garcia followed by Norma Morales. Jose Garcia followed by Norma Morales.

Jessie LopezItem 5

No Jose Garcia? OK, thank you. Norma Morales followed by Melissa Ramirez.

Hi, my name is Norma Morales and I'm a part of Tengiz Market. I'm a single mom with the kids.

Science, science.

Tengiz Market brings people to downtown Santa Ana to benefit surrounding stores. Tengiz Market is a vital place for Latino culture and traditions and has been in existence for centuries. Tianguis Market is an active nonprofit that has helped many vendors to get educated with proper permits and help us hence on. We demand resolution.

Resolution plan that will be effective immediately. Otherwise this will be clearly a discrimination to the native Latino community in Santa Ana. Let Tianghi's farmers market assemble without interruption of essential business. Santa Ana Park and Essential Event Department has done enough damage. Provide restrooms used without charge because Santa Ana 4th Street is a public park and they're charging us.

I'm a single mom and I work pretty hard. I'm not asking for nothing free. This is a right to have open this place for us. We work for it. We work. We provide our kids with this Tianguis market. We help others, and we help grow up our own business. My kids are learning to be independent doing this, and we're getting stopped by the city. Thank you.

Jessie LopezItem 5

Thank you.

Jessie LopezItem 5

Melissa Ramirez followed by Eric Yang.

Jessie LopezItem 5

Mr. Ramirez, if you can bring the mic down a little bit, so bring the mic down so you can talk directly into it. There you go.

Hi.

Tianguis Marque is an active nonprofit that has helped many vendors get educated with proper permits and help us on hand. Tianguis Farmers Market has changed my life for the better. I feel welcomed and at peace with my native culture and customs. Tianguis Market can't be displaced. It's precious to us. It represents our culture and identity. We demand a resolution plan that will be effective immediately. Otherwise, this will be clearly a discrimination to a native Latino community in Santa Ana. provide restrooms usage to the public every time.

Tianguis Market, Farmers Market, assembles at no cost since Calle Cuatro is a public restroom.

The people that go to the restrooms, they always complain to Tianguis, but the people that work, it's not fair that Tianguis has to pay for a public restroom. if the if the anguys if the people that were the work to clean the restrooms they don't do it people yeah and dear people in the City Council Santana what is your act of kindness towards the anguys market thank you and yeah

Yeah, Tianguis is a very amazing place to be at and it helps me a lot to learn about working at a business. So yeah, thank you. Thank you very much.

Jessie LopezItem 5

Eric Yang followed by Trisha Hernandez. Eric Yang followed by Trisha Hernandez.

Good evening, council members. We demand a resolution plan that will be effective immediately. Otherwise, this will clearly be a discrimination.

Jessie LopezItem 5

I'm so sorry. Can you speak into the, can you start the clock over for him, please? And can you get close to the mic? Sorry. Thank you.

All we ask is let the Anguiz Farmer's Market assemble there on 4th Street without any interruptions or essential businesses, Santa Ana Parks and Special Events Department has done enough damage.

They charge a lot for providing the free restrooms and stuff like that. I grew up here in Santa Ana. One of our products that we created here in Santa Ana is one of the mini water tower replicas. you know and if you displace the anguies is displacing my business allowing me to grow to move forward with this and i would love to see this grow and as you can all see like this is how it looks like thank you thank you

Jessie LopezItem 5

Thank you.

Jessie LopezItem 5

Tricia Hernandez.

Hi everybody, very nice to talk to you, especially to our dear mayor.

I run the page for Incopoli, that is my business. I did this mini water tower for my husband, Eric Hernandez, that he just came to spoke earlier on. And I did it because he's been wanting one of this ever since I met him. I cannot look at you in the face and tell you that I can see myself in you because I was not raised here. I was born in Orange. I was raised in Mexico because that's what my parents said.

I built a living for me. I'm an English teacher in Mexico, but my whole life I live in Mexico. When I moved here, you know what shocked me? The love that the people of Santa Ana have for their city. Hats, shirts, whatever they can put on the logo of the Santa Ana, they put it on. Our first chance to put this this item out there and actually to help us and educate me a little bit of business because my background is not from here, was these guys right here. That's why

we're here because we want to keep participating. I want to keep this is my it's my link to the city. This is how I became integrated. That's how I found Tianguis. That it's very, very cultural for me. It's something that it's very important for me because it brings me close to my roots that are Mexican. I might have been born here but I was raised as a Mexican so I'm an outsider in my own country and in my own city. So what I want is support for

them. Ma'am, your time is up. Thank you. I appreciate it. Thank you. Marcia Martinez,

Jessie LopezItem 5

Amarisi Martinez.

Jessie LopezItem 5

Followed by Giselle Villamy. If you can come up and wait behind, please.

Buenas tardes. Mi nombre es María Eugenia Martínez. Estoy aquí porque quiero pedirle a la ciudad de Santana, perdón porque mi idioma es español, soy de nacionalidad mexicana, estoy un poquito ronca, acabo de fallecer mi mamá.

And I'm here because the Tianguis for me has been a product of my work. I'm very sick and they gave me the opportunity to give me a space there. And I depend on this place. I need to take into account that many people like us want to continue with our roots and have a space where we work.

We have fulfilled all the rules that we have imposed the city of Santa Ana and we want to continue there. If you don't allow me, I humildly say that these people have been a blessing because they have not been lucrative, they have never been abusive, they have been supportive, they have been supported, they have helped us, they have helped us, they have helped us, they have helped us, they have helped us to continue our business. and they have given us the opportunity to be there.

If you give us the opportunity to continue there, I would like to ask you to support him, please. Thank you. I'm not very expressive, I'm in a very big pain. My mom has fallen, but I'm here to support him because he's very integral. Thank you. Gracias.

Good evening. My name is Maria Eugenia Martinez, and I'm here to ask the city of Santa Ana for your support. Sorry for speaking Spanish. I'm originally from Mexico. Sorry that I'm like this, but my mom has just passed away. My mom just died. So I'm here to support the Tianguis market, and they have supported me. They have provided a space for me, and I'm here to support them. And they gave me the opportunity to have a space there. And please consider supporting us.

We like this place because it's a place where we can express our roots and know our roots. and we have met all the requirements. They provided a space for me to work and we have met all the requirements that were provider given by the city of Santa Ana and I'm asking you humbly to help us and to help them continue because they have been a blessing to us. They have not profited from us. They supported us.

They helped us, I don't know how to explain it, but to continue with our business there. And they gave us an opportunity to be there. And please support us. And I'm here. Thank you for listening. Even though it's painful because my mom just died, I'm here to support them.

Jessie LopezItem 5

Thank you. Go ahead. You can speak into the mic, please.

Over here?

Jessie LopezItem 5

Yes. Thank you.

Can you get close? Oh, Jose.

Like my mother just said, my grandmother passed away. Most of us rely on gangues. I don't have a job. I stay home and help my mom. So we have our own place there. I'm usually the one that helps out with everything. I just don't think it's fair how we've been getting treated. It's so ridiculous how the prices have increased and how most of us sometimes don't make enough to give out. We are a lot.

I'm going to cry. It's okay. Just relax. You got a little bit of a minute. so sad how we're up to our permits and thanks to them we got our grant and thanks to that to that we were able to get our own van and then we're there every Sunday there's hasn't been one Sunday that we're not there being with them supporting them so it's just so sad how we're getting basically kicked out of our own place and not being able to be with family because that's what the angi is they're just family

Jessie LopezItem 5

I just think that's it we can't respond sorry I wish we could but we can't

Jessie LopezItem 5

Thank you.

Jessie LopezItem 5

Joseph Badia, but I'm sure I'm pronouncing it right. Badia? I apologize if I said that wrong. I'm sorry?

He left.

Jessie LopezItem 5

He left. Thank you. Sue Pollock? Sue Pollock?

Jessie LopezItem 5

Bahad Mahfi?

Jessie LopezItem 5

Please speak into the microphone so we can hear you, sir.

Thank you, Mayor and member of the City Council for this opportunity. My name is Farhad Mafi. As a business owner in Irvine, I do a lot of business with high tech companies in Santa Ana. I'm here to ask for your support for condemning the barbaric Islamic Republic of Iran and also passing the proposed resolution that we have emailed you. We would appreciate it if you would add this resolution to your agenda and vote on it in the next meeting. We will keep on coming until we have your full support. For everyone's information, because of the outstanding

grassroot movement, 17 cities in Orange County have already passed this resolution. and several cities in San Fernando Valley and LA counties as well as Sacramento have already passed this resolution too. So this is not a brand new thing. So your support for this resolution would be very much in line with the rest of the Orange County and other cities. So thank you in advance for your consideration and we will definitely follow up with you and we hope that that we see this as part of your agenda for the next meeting. Thank you.

Jessie LopezItem 5

Thank you. Lupe Lopez followed by Mona Siddharth.

Mayor, if I have copies for each one of you guys, do I give it to the clerk? Thank you.

Thank you.

Jessie LopezItem 5

You have two minutes.

Okay, thank you. Mayor Valeria Mezqua and members of the Santana City Council, about a month ago, my name is Lupe Lopez and about a month ago after reaching out to Council Member Jonathan Hernandez, is, I reached out to him by phone calls and emails and sending him these messages made by Commissioner Nellie Legaspi that she has violated and harassed and discriminated against me as under the Santana Code of Ethics and Conducts. I've requested for a meeting and there's been no meeting to be set up. that's why I'm here today to shed light that as Commissioner Legaspi her violation of the

Sanita Code of Conducts. Last year you know I attended Suavecito grand opening and I was there just to support as a businesswoman and she began telling Carlos Muñiz that Lupe is not native and derogatory terminology about me in public and she was there on behalf of Commissioner Jonathan Hernandez and I just want to see that you know I'm here dressed in my native regalia and as we see the post-it note and in blue it says um how dare she referring to me where northern cloth she had no right back in the day we should take that costume that that she wears away from her so I'm

afraid that if I go to your indigenous people's day event in um Santana is this going to be stripped away from me from Commissioner Legaspi because I'm native and this is what I choose and nobody should be stripped of their outfits. Also, I just want to say, my time is running up. I just want to say one thing is that I asked respectfully the Santana City Council members to evaluate, investigate, and take immediate action as to Commissioner's violation of the Santana Code of Conduct of Ethics. Two, do not exclude me and members of our organizations of our

Orange County Native community from Indigenous Peoples Day. I tried to be involved last year, they said Ms. Lopez be involved in 2023. I'm here to be a service. I'm an ally. I'm here to make it a successful event this year as it was poor attendance last year thank you mayor

Jessie LopezItem 5

and city council thank you mona sejahat followed by fernando delgado please come up and wait here

to speak next good evening thank you mayor and council members this is mona An alarming report reveals the Islamic Republic brutal bio-warfare against children of Iran, with numerous elementary, middle, high school, and university schools being deliberately and continuously targeted by suspected poisoning. According to Amnesty International, as on April 14th, the official number of girls attacked is 13,000. That's 13,000 too many.

13,000 humans, we are talking about the humans.

We don't know how many in last month because no access to internet for the people in Iran. The pesticide they are using is a weak nerve agent. It has caused deaths in the short term. Long term, we don't know how this will affect our daughters. The use of such toxic chemical compounds by the Islamic Republic of Iran to carry out their heinous acts, including contaminating soil and water sources, has earned them notorious repetition for their atrocities against children.

If this is not called a crime against humanity, then what is it? We must neither forgive nor forget such atrocities or those who witness such crimes yet continue to support the oppressive regime.

It is time to act and we hope that governments worldwide will unite to assist the Iranian freedom seekers in overthrowing and collapsing this corrupt regime and establishing peace and

Jessie LopezItem 5

stability in the Middle East. Thank you. Fernando Delgado followed by Tanaz. I apologize if I said that wrong. Please wait. Tanaz behind Fernando Delgado. Thank you. Good evening, Council. First of all,

I want to be clear that I'm not here representing any organization. I'm solely here as a resident of Ward 3. And I'm here to call out the cowardice that is driving this council towards yet another embarrassment for the city. And I'm talking about the wasteful recall against my ward representative, Mayor Pro Tem Jesse Lopez. Recently, paid canvassers came to my neighborhood knocking on doors and spreading lies about Mayor Pro Tem Lopez. They told my neighbors that Lopez was anti-police. What they meant to say was that she, along with the council majority here, stood up to

Jerry Serrano and the Police Officers Association by opposing an irresponsible $25 million budget increase for SAPD in their contract negotiations with the city. So it makes sense that the POA is spearheading this recall. The canvassers also said that Lopez supported an ordinance that encouraged landlords to raise rents by 15%. What they meant to say was that she, along with the council majority, voted to enact an historic rent control ordinance to protect renters in our city. And again, the greedy landlords from the Apartments Association are also spearheading this recall.

Now this recall is not only based on shameless lies, but it's also a waste of taxpayer money. As representatives of the city, you have a fiduciary responsibility to protect our taxpayer dollars. A single recall costs taxpayers $500,000. That's $500,000 that's not going to youth programs, that's not going to park renovations, it's not going to street repair. Phil, you love sidewalks, that's money that could be going to sidewalks. Instead it's going to this wasteful recall. Now council members Hernandez, Vasquez, and Fan have all voiced their opposition to these

recall efforts but Council members Becerra and Panalosa and Mayor Mescua you've stayed silent on this issue and you've pushed back Mayor Mescua on accusations that you are some POA puppet and I really don't want to believe that I sincerely don't but when you stay silent as this recall circus gets pushed along in our city it's hard for residents to say otherwise so I urge you to take that leadership and show your integrity as a leader of the city and stand up to what's happening here. Now when Cecilia Iglesias was recalled by POA back in 2019 she said my story is a microcosm of what reformers across the state and the county face

as they attempt to rein in police unions, which are largely responsible for systemic police violence-making headlines.

Jennifer L. HallItem 5

Sir, your time is up.

I really hate that you guys cut it down to two minutes, because I have a lot to say. Thank you. I'm sure people here have a lot more to say.

Jessie LopezItem 5

Your time is up, sir. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

Jessie LopezItem 5

Followed by Yosef Badia.

Good evening, council members. So I came to the last city council meeting on May 2nd, and I asked you guys to agendize a resolution condemning the Islamic Republic of Iran for the human rights violations. I am very disheartened that you have not done so in a timely manner at this meeting's agenda, but I remain hopeful that we're going to get this deal closed at the next agenda. So, you know, really the purpose of you passing a resolution condemning the Islamic Republic of Iran, it's symbolic, right? It's providing a beacon of hope to those who are facing unimaginable

pain, pain that I'm sure you've never experienced, I hope you will never experience, people just being shot on the streets for not even partaking in mass demonstrations, just for being on the streets, as was the case with a young 10-year-old boy who got shot, and his father had to rush his son's dead body home and hide it on a bucket of ice because if they took the dead bodies, the dead body to the hospital, the police would raid it and steal the corpse, which is an unfortunate thing that they do. But, you know, passing a resolution, it's also very significant

because, A, you know, you're acknowledging that you're fully aware of what's happening inside Iran. It's devastating. The Western media, it's not really covering it. But you're saying that you're fully aware it has been brought to your attention and you're gonna take action so you know by doing so you're condemning the impunity enjoyed by the Islamic Republic of Iran the Islamic Republic regime for the killing the raping the torturing mass executing and blinding of tens and hundreds of thousands of people you know this is the same regime that mass executed 30,000

in the past week and executed just 60 people and you know it sounds like I'm saying it nonchalantly but you know it's it's very devastating so please let's get this done at the

Jessie LopezItem 5

next city council meeting we'll be back thank you yasaf yasaf buddy followed by mitra musali yes

good evening uh honorable mayor and councilman uh my name is yusuf baddie When I came to America, I landed in Cincinnati and I said, my name is Yousef. And they said, what, yourself? I said, I'm not yourself. It took me a long time, you know, that I became a, learned the language and then I became an immigrant, became, got labor certification, work permit and green card and eventually I pledge my allegiance to the flag of the United States. We are talking about the atrocities of the Iranian government.

Everybody knows about that. The major newspapers have written about it. New York Times has covered it. The Los Angeles Times has covered it. Washington Post is covering it. We have news media covering it. We're dealing with the despotic government and the corruption there and so on. and the right of women is supported. 65% of the college graduates in Iran are women. And these women only land 25% of the jobs, if there is any job opening. And the rest of it goes to men. So this suppression is happening, and then we have the issue of hijab,

and also the things that my colleagues are saying here, if we go, if we express it in Iran, Once we step out of this room, they will be escorted by the secret police. And they take us to the political prisoners, among 300,000 political prisoners we have there now. In the Shah's regime, we had 3,000 political prisoners, not to count 30,000 people that were massacred there, you know, in their political prison. And also they were sent into mass graves. Now the reason that I'm here is that...

Jessie LopezItem 5

Sir, your time is up.

Give me one minute and I'll finish if you would allow me.

Jessie LopezItem 5

Your time is up, sir. Thank you. Next is Mitra Mosali. Thank you.

I'll send you an email.

Jessie LopezItem 5

Thank you. Please do.

Good evening, Mayor and the 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 on May 30th. I'll give you a quick summary for you and the audience in this room on how the Iran revolution started back 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 took off their hijabs and out their hair and adopted a rallying cry of women's life freedom. 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.

We understand that it is not the city's position to condemn other nations and your role is to take care of people of Santa Ana. This is not a conflict of nations. This is a humanitarian issue where people are not given their rights. You can stand with your community members and show your support even if this is just a symbolic resolution. By doing this, you send a message to our federal government that action needs to be taken. You teach your community that you can do more. Thank you.

Jessie LopezItem 5

Dale Helwick.

Jessie LopezItem 5

Dale Helwick. Elizabeth Hansberg.

Jessie LopezItem 5

Followed by Marianne Musali.

Good evening, members of the City Council. My name is Elizabeth Hansberg with People for Housing. Most of the folks that were here to speak on Item 28 have gone home. I am still here. So I hope that you will hear me. Please don't do this. There are times when groups that don't see things the same way finally do see things the same way. the equity groups in Orange County I mean yeah especially Santa Ana to my knowledge are opposed to this exemption from SB6 and AB 2011 the Carpenters Union was here to tell you please don't do this you've gotten a letter from Bonta's office you've gotten a letter from Californians

for Home Ownership which is the Realtors Association there are lots of people I sent a letter there are a lot of people who really don't like this idea but we can't even figure out why you're doing it because all of the you know benefits that would come to the community like the provision of affordable housing and and um you know prevailing wage those items are already in your policies so it's not like you're getting anything out of this right and the people that might you know so there's it's not coming from from certainly not coming from labor you know

the developers are losing their streamlined you know express version of uh review and entitlements So it's not coming from them. It's not coming from the landowners. So we can't figure out where this is coming from, but it's a really bad idea. Lots of people are opposed to it, even people who sometimes don't always agree with each other. So please don't do this. And we would love to know where this idea came from because it really boggles the mind. So I'm still here because I care. So please don't do this. Thank you.

Jessie LopezItem 5

Thank you. Marianne Masali.

Jessie LopezItem 5

Followed by Sheha Tarabi.

Hello, Mayor and the City Council members. My name is Maryam Saleh, and I do want to thank you guys for listening to us to the gruesome human rights violations that this Islamic Republic is happening right now, and all the violations are happening right now as we speak. This is not a story that history has happened. This is happening right now. For the last eight months, we all have been trying to be the voice of the voiceless for the people of Iran. We have been using all our resources to shine a light on the atrocity of this regime

and to make Iranian people's demands be heard. All they want to be heard of and to achieve is their basic human right, freedom. Besides contacting the city council members every day with calling, emailing, we're asking for support and condemning the Islamic Republic regime. We are also involved with a bill which has been introduced to the House of Representatives on January 27th of this year. This bill is called MASA Act. It's HR 589.

It's named after Mahsa Amini, who was killed by this regime on September 16, 2022, because of not having her covering of her hair in the right way. This bill was introduced in 2022 and then reintroduced by Representative Jim Banks of Indiana. The bill's text reads, to impose sanctions on the supreme leader of Iran and the president of Iran and their respective offices for human rights abuses and support of terrorism globally. When this bill passes... Ma'am, your time is up.

We're asking...

Jessie LopezItem 5

Ma'am, your time is up, ma'am. Thank you.

We're just asking you to put this on your agenda next...

Jessie LopezItem 5

To Robbie, please. We have to be respectful of the time, please. Thank you guys. Sahayla Tarabi followed by Bulmara Vincenti.

Hello Mayor and all members, Council members, yeah, for having this opportunity again. Everyone talk a lot about how they are, this regime are doing systematically all those criminal acts that have happened in the world. I am coming here to add one thing to show you we shouldn't underestimate them. They are here. They are investing. They have sent their children. And I say to you one of those things that happened this week, six days ago, in May 11, 2023,

Iran has taken to become the president of the social council of the human rights of this organization. Can you believe that? All of you are fighting for freedom, for human rights. And then this regime now is the president of this United Nation who can work for all of us. So it shows, can you guess how it would have happened? Just because they have their own mafia, they have their own connection. So it is really, really matter, even if it is symbolic.

And now as my friends says, this area, Mahsa Act, we wanted to take next action. So many people, activists politically are working and engaged and involved to this bill, Mahsa Act. And now 118 people are voting and it is bipartisan. It's not just for one party, bipartisan. More than 50 Democrats and most of them are Republican, doesn't matter. But we wanted to pass it. We need this resolution. Please help all this community.

We are active people and people who improve.

Jessie LopezItem 5

Thank you, ma'am.

Jessie LopezItem 5

Bumaro Vincente.

Jessie LopezItem 5

He left? Okay. Alfredo Hernandez.

Jessie LopezItem 5

After Alfredo is Nelly Gillespie.

Yeah. I'm going to do it in Spanish, okay? Hola. Mi nombre es Alfredo. La razón por la que he venido aquí es porque me gustaría... me gustaría que mi comunidad hispana tuviera acceso dental. Hoy en día la economía está muy crítica para todos y las personas, muchas personas tienen que elegir entre tener seguridad o llevar un plato de comida a la casa. Yo trabajo con el doctor Charles Zahiri y estamos preparando abrir una oficina, oficina dental para la comunidad hispana y para las personas de bajos recursos, because in the future for them it is in the same way, as I mentioned, and I have seen it.

Now, how can we contribute to our community a... It is a difficult election in this moment of need. To help people to get their smile is something that will remind them all the time. With this, our community dental community will benefit many people, because we have a medical care, for them, for the services of dental, that has models like people and volunteers to provide a range of services of health, vocal and dental to all residents with the goal of helping the Hispanic people

and people with low resources. That's why I ask my voice to be heard to be able to carry this together and also help the community, as well as the people with low resources and so help them also.

también gracias good evening my name is Alfredo and I'm here because I'd like to help my Hispanic community I have access to dental care times are hard the economy is hard and sometimes people have to choose between having insurance and bringing food to their table so I'm here I'm going to get together with Dr. Charles A.T. to open a dental office and to make it easy for people to get this support and to pay back. How can you pay back to the community? It's going to be great when people

can have, people have great needs and they can have a great smile that's going to last for the rest of their lives. So this community clinic is going to help the community. We'll have models for volunteer doctors who offer different kinds of health, including dental health, and we're going to be serving low-income people. So please, thank you for listening, and we'd like to support the community, the low-income people in our community. Thank you. Thank you. Nellie Gillaspie, please. Good evening, Councilmembers. Madam Mayor, I am Nellie Legaspie, your personnel commissioner and chairwoman, appointed by Councilman Hernandez,

representing Ward 5, living in Ward 3. I will not respond to the claims that were made earlier, the comments. I'm here to talk about Indigenous Peoples Day. I'm going to read from the proclamation from the President. Since time immemorial, American Indians, Alaskan Natives, and Native Hawaiians have built vibrant and diverse cultures, safeguarding land, language, spirit, knowledge, and tradition across the generations. On Indigenous Peoples Day, our nation celebrates the invaluable contributions and resilience of Indigenous people,

recognizing their inherent sovereignty and commits to honoring the federal government trust and treaty obligations in tribal nations. I'm here to encourage that we keep going on with Indigenous Peoples Day this year, October 7th. Our new partnership is with the City of Santa Ana's Community College with the College District. district. As you know, one of our commissioners on our personnel commission is the president of the college district. So we have a great support system going on there. Now, although Indigenous People's Day from the President's Office is about First Nations Native Americans,

because we're in California and this is a very diverse state and our city of Santa Ana is very diverse as well, the motive with Councilman Hernandez and myself was to make it all inclusive, to include all indigenous people and give everyone an opportunity to show their skills, their food, and their talents. And we welcome that in a good way. And I would like to see that happen this year. And I promise you as my commitment to you as your commissioner representing the city that I will continue to connect myself in a good way, always knowing that I'm representing the city of Santa Ana and my councilman Hernandez. Thank you so much.

Good evening.

Jessie LopezItem 5

Thank you.

Danny Vega, followed by Cesar Cuvarubias, please.

Hello, Mayor and City Council. The only time I'll probably agree with Mr. DeGaldo, two minutes is not enough. My name is Danny Vega, resident of Ward 3. I first want to thank the Mayor for the Mayor's Prayer Breakfast. It was a really great event, and I really want to thank you for speaking up for the faith-based community, and I look forward to more of these events and I don't mind if my tax dollars goes towards that. In regards to the budget I wasn't here last time so I do want to voice my opinion. I am in supportive of the PAL program, more park rangers, more code enforcement. And a note on public safety. Libraries are great

and this is the second time that has been insinuated that having more libraries is going to be safer for us. It's ironic because we cite the Forbes site because we made it on the 13th safest cities with a population of over 300,000. You know who didn't make it there? Anaheim, the city that we're always, we seem to envy for having all these libraries. So something's not adding up. Maybe we shouldn't be following Anaheim's lead there. there. This is why I am not in support of funds being taken away from the police. And

if I were to sum up what every resident has said in regards to public safety and the police department, I would say that the message is loud and clear. Fully fund it and hold them accountable would be a great way to summarize that. So if you are in support of fully funding, but then ignore the keeping them accountable, you're only listening to one side. If you're saying let's defund the police and then hold them accountable, you're only listening to one side. And I just want to say that for the record. And lastly, the ice skating rink, yeah, get rid of it.

1.7 million dollars, now that can go to other programs, like more libraries. Thank you.

Jessie LopezItem 5

Thank you. Yalda Kamabi, I'm so sorry, I'm sure I'm saying it right. And Canon Taj, I think they laugh.

Jessie LopezItem 5

Ralph Salazar.

Jessie LopezItem 5

I'm sorry?

Jessie LopezItem 5

No, I didn't say Maribel. Ralph Salazar.

Jessie LopezItem 5

No problem, sir. Take your time.

I move slow. My apologies.

Jessie LopezItem 5

Not a problem. No, no, no need to apologize.

Good evening, council members. Good evening, mayor. My name is Ralph Derek Salazar. I'm an elder with Juan Adelman, Missy Indians, Hatchiman Nation, 84A. I'm here today because there is an issue that I don't know if you guys are aware of. It's called pretend Indians. These are individuals that self-proclaim that they are Native American, but they're not. Okay? They are not. Because if you are Native Americans, which I am proud to say, I don't have a problem doing this.

Pulling out my identification card, saying that I am Native American, and no pretend Indian can do that. And that's what you just witnessed this evening. Pretend Indians attacking an individual. That's not right. It's not fair. And I know this firsthand because I was filed an assault charge against me for calling this individual, you're not Native American.

She took me to court along with my chairperson. The judge told her it's freedom of speech. I have the right to tell her that. I have the right to say non-Native Americans. So I am asking you as council members, if any person that claims to be Native American asks for the documentation to show the proof, because I'm proud to be Native American. And if they tell you it's disrespectful, that's because they are not being honest and telling you the truth that they are Native Americans.

And there will be individuals who say that because they cannot show the proper documentation that they are Native American. I thank you, and I'm a very proud Native American today. I was born and raised in Santa Ana. I went to Lowell Elementary later in Santa Ana, Jr. High. I thank you.

Jessie LopezItem 5

Thank you. Yalda Kamyab, again I apologize, followed by Kanan Taj Sadaji, and the last one is Nanabah.

Jessie LopezItem 5

Nanabah? All right, that ends public comments. I'm so sorry, I didn't see you get up, I apologize.

Hello, my name is . I'm here about your commissioner, Nellia Legraspy, and it's heartbreaking to know that she's breaking the code of conduct and ethics. and for her to say she's going to strip someone from her native regalia is degrading and could bring fear to other native people including myself. If she's going to do that to Lupe because she's wearing Northern style outfit does that mean she's going to strip me from my jingle dress because I'm not Ojibwe? Indigenous women shouldn't bring other women down. How are you going to want to include all people in your indigenous peoples day but tell others

if they're not, if they're native or not? Did you visit their ancestors or something or what? Counsel if you can tell your commissioner to follow her codes as a commissioner and be a leader. Natives need to be helping natives, not harassing or degrading them. Nellie, have you ever been to the res? Native leaders are not worrying about this stuff. They're worrying about the communities, missing and murdered indigenous people, drug and alcohol abuse, and other issues like domestic violence and better education, just like the Council of Santa Ana is. My teaching

is that we don't question people if they're native or not. My dad, just like that guy Ralph, he pulled out a status card. Mine's expired. Does that mean I'm not native no more because my shit's expired sorry my dad doesn't have a tribal ID everyone else he's native we don't question these kinds of things so yeah so Nellie Indian Indian native the native savage is savage chill out thank

Jessie LopezItem 6

you all right we're gonna go to the consent calendar now item 6 through 27 If the council will allow me first, I'd like to pull up item 7 to appoint Keith Carpenter, nominated by Councilmember Pham as award representative to the Police Oversight Commission. Does anybody have any comments or questions regarding that? Second. Great. Let's prepare to vote, please.

Jessie LopezItem 6

Madam Clerk, can you do a roll call? It's not popping up.

Jennifer L. HallItem 6

Yes, Mayor, for item number seven, moved by Councilmember Penaloza, seconded by Councilmember Becerra to appoint Keith Carpenter to the Police Oversight Commission. Councilmember Becerra?

Phil BacerraItem 6

Yes.

Jennifer L. HallItem 6

Councilmember Hernandez?

Valerie AmezcuaItem 6

I would like to make a sub-motion to have this appointment be scheduled for a later meeting. I would like to meet with the candidate who is looking to be appointed. It's a regular practice that I would have, regardless of who's appointing anybody on this council here. So I'll put a sub-motion on to continue this item so that Keith Carpenter can meet with members of the council.

Jessie LopezItem 6

Councilman Fenn.

Thai Viet PhanItem 6

Thank you, Councilmember Hernandez. I understand that. However, I specifically, when I interviewed Commissioner Carpenter, or nominee Carpenter, I ask that he receive everybody's contact to reach out to you to give that opportunity at least two weeks in advance. And so I was very cognizant of that request by the council. And given that that was an early request, I hope that we can approve him tonight.

Phil BacerraItem 6

Mayor. Yes, Councilman Bessari. Thank you, Councilmember Pham, for saying that and doing that because I had the opportunity to actually chat with the nominee and I'm very happy that we had that conversation. So thank you for reaching out to us and thank you for taking the time to speak with us. So I believe this entire council had that opportunity. So I have no problem approving his nomination this evening.

Jessie LopezItem 6

I know he reached out to me as well and I spoke to him. So we have one no, one yes. I'm not a no. We have a motion, sub motion.

Jennifer L. HallItem 6

We have a sub motion, but I haven't heard a second to that sub motion yet. So if there's no second, the motion would fail.

Jessie LopezItem 6

It appears there's no second.

Jennifer L. HallItem 6

Let me go back to the underlying motion from Council Member Penaloza, seconded by Mayor Pro Tem Becerra to approve the nomination. I have Council Member Becerra's vote as a yes. Council Member Hernandez?

Valerie AmezcuaItem 6

Yes.

Jennifer L. HallItem 6

Council Member Penaloza?

Valerie AmezcuaItem 6

Yes.

David PenalozaItem 6

Yes.

Jennifer L. HallItem 6

Council Member Fan? Yes. Council Member Vasquez?

Benjamin VazquezItem 6

Yes.

Jennifer L. HallItem 6

Mayor Pro Tem Lopez? Yes. Mayor Mesquah?

Jessie LopezItem 6

Yes.

Jennifer L. HallItem 6

If the vote is seven ayes, no nays, nomination is approved. If Mr. Carpenter is here.

Do I get to vote?

Jennifer L. HallItem 6

Oh, you didn't vote? You did at the beginning, didn't you?

Phil BacerraItem 6

No.

I'm sorry.

Jennifer L. HallItem 6

Council Member Becerra?

Phil BacerraItem 6

I'd like to say yes.

Jessie LopezItem 6

My apologies. Mr. Carpenter, can you please come up so we can swear you in, sir? Thank you.

Thank you.

I will bear truth I will bear true faith and allegiance to the Constitution of the United States and to the Constitution of the State of California and I take this obligation freely without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion and I will well and faithfully discharge

The duty is upon which I'm about to enter.

Jessie LopezItem 6

Welcome Mr. Carpenter, welcome.

Thank you.

Jessie LopezItem 6

Thank you. All right. Thank you. Congratulations.

Jessie LopezItem 6

Okay, consent calendar items number 6 through 27 are before us. Council members, please announce any items that you'll be abstaining from due to conflict or any further requests. pull an item, please let me know. Council Member Phan has a statement from item 12 and 27. Are there any other abstentions?

Thai Viet PhanItem 6

May I just personally make that statement? I think that's a duty. And so I will have to recuse from item 12 and 27 as City Ventures and Fairfield Residential Holdings are, I believe, clients of my employer, Rattan and Tucker. And so if those are pulled, I will leave the room while they're being discussed. Thank you.

Jessie LopezItem 6

Thank you. Do I have any items that any council members want to pull? Mayor Mesquite.

Phil BacerraItem 6

Yes, Councilman Becerra. I'd like to go ahead and pull items 9, 16, and 25. 9, 16, and 25. Any other

Jessie LopezItem 6

items? Any other council members? Okay, can I get a motion and a second to approve the remainder of consent calendar so moved i'll second please cast your votes members of the council okay

Jennifer L. HallItem 6

um a motion to approve the consent calendar with the exception of item seven already approved items 9 16 and 25 pulled for separate consideration councilmember becerra yes councilmember hernandez yes councilmember penalosa yes councilmember fan yes councilmember vasquez Mayor Pro Tem Lopez? Mayor Mesquah? Yes. The vote is 7 ayes, no nays with a noted recusal by Council Member Fan on items 12 and 27. Motion carries. Great, thank you. Item 9, Council Member Becerra, please.

Phil BacerraItem 6

Thank you, Mayor Mesquah. Item 9 is the receive and file of the rental registry fee study. and you know so on this item so the council's receiving this and after we receive or hopefully if they receive and file it staff's going to return to the council with the new rental registry fee of a hundred dollars per unit right because the recommendation is to look at option one and that would be incorporated into our upcoming fiscal year miscellaneous fee schedule so that hundred dollar per unit fee if every single apartment in the city actually

Phil BacerraItem 8

had a fee paid for it so 100% participation would be 3.245 million dollars and that would go to fund 14.4 full-time city employees so in option two though it says that now again this is not what's being recommended but it it says that the cost for a capital improvement petition, so that would be if somebody, if a landlord wants to make an improvement on their property but they aren't able to afford it because of the limits on raising rents, they would have to file a petition with staff

Phil BacerraItem 8

and that would end up costing that person $13,442, or at least that's what was estimated. And in this receive and file report, it says that they estimate that there would be only four capital improvement petitions submitted and processed in a year so only four 32 000 units in the city of san jana and you know because the condition of all of our units here are just brand new so there would only probably be four petitions submitted so that and on top of that so again we are asking or we're expecting through this report

Phil BacerraItem 8

that with 100% participation, we would have this 3.245 million, and that's going to fund the 14 new employees. So I guess one question I have, Madam City Manager, are you aware, do we have 100% participation in paying business license fees?

We do audit efforts to try to ensure that we capture 100%, but no, I can't attest that we have 100%.

Phil BacerraItem 8

So the expectation, if we were to build a budget, saying that we're going to have 100% participation in paying for business licenses. That would probably be unreasonable, correct?

I think it's a reasonable expectation because it would be the law.

Phil BacerraItem 8

Reasonable to expect, but would you base a budget on it?

It's a hypothetical question. I'm not quite sure how to answer that.

Phil BacerraItem 8

That's fine. My point is that we've got a study before us that is expecting 100% participation in order to fund 14 new employees. We really expect that? every time something related to this issue comes before us, the math gets fuzzier and fuzzier. So I can't support this. I wouldn't even support receiving and filing this. I'm sorry, just because this is not a reasonable conclusion with this report. I would ask the staff and the consultants to have the fortitude to tell this council when the numbers don't add up, because they don't. What you have before us tonight, I appreciate the effort and work that

Phil BacerraItem 8

you did. I appreciate that you tried to make a comparison to other cities, but to say that you expect every single unit to be, have a fee accounted for in order to fund what I would consider a boondoggle is just not realistic. So, Madam Mayor, I will not be supporting this. In fact, I won't even support receiving and filing this. So, I don't know. I normally we wouldn't make a motion for this, but I would actually like to make a motion that we not receive and file this because of the unrealistic information in this report.

Jessie LopezItem 8

Okay, thank you. Is there a second?

Valerie AmezcuaItem 8

I'll second it. I'll make a sub-motion to move the item for option one.

Thai Viet PhanItem 8

I'll second that.

Thai Viet PhanItem 8

Apologies just for clarification. This is just to receive, there's no option necessary just to receive and file the report. Okay, thank you.

Jessie LopezItem 8

I have a question, Madam City Attorney.

Jessie LopezItem 8

So hearing Councilman Becerra, so how, I mean, you had a great question, right, about the business license, and I know we've had conversation about automating the business process to make it more successful, faster. I mean, people wait a long time to get a business license here, and it's very difficult. They say, I'm just repeating what the community tells me, right, and the business community. And I think Councilman Penelosa has asked to streamline it, get it online, and I really

Jessie LopezItem 8

appreciate the staff that, when I met with them, they were able to share with me that they were able to get this online very quickly, right? So it can be done online for 32,000 units, but not, how do we do that, but we can't do it for our businesses?

So the item before you is a receiving file regarding the rental registry. I certainly would look forward to a discussion if you want to learn about what we are doing to improve all of our systems, not just business license, but dog license. Right. We actually will be presenting some of that information. and we did in your last budget presentation.

Jessie LopezItem 8

So no, and I remember that, and I hear what you're saying, but I think my question is more, so this is all going to be automated from what I was told during my presentation.

Correct.

Jessie LopezItem 8

Online, they can just...

We do have the consultants that did the study when they received a file report that are in the audience. If you'd like them to answer any questions on how they envision the automation of that, we certainly can bring them forward for you.

Jessie LopezItem 8

So there's a motion already on here to approve it and a motion to approve it and a sub-motion to not approve it. The other way around. So the reason I ask that is because if we have a consultant that was able to get this online so quickly, I guess my concern, and we can talk about it, but I want to be very public about my concern. how long ago did you ask for automation for business license and to get things through quicker so and we haven't done that yet so I'm just I just want to share my concerns because the this is great that it's hot we have a consultant

that did understand but mayor I can't ask our IT director to come out and

Jessie LopezItem 8

discuss that with you it's got it before you want to be very public on one both of them okay one was moved very quickly and one has been moving like molasses

I don't believe the rental registry is up and running yet. So if you did want to ask questions about how long it will take to do that, we do have the consultants in the room.

Jessie LopezItem 8

Okay, so let's have that question.

How long will it take? So I will ask Judson, the housing division manager, to, I don't know if he wants to answer the question or if you want to call up some of your consultants.

Thank you very much, Mayor. We started the process in January to implement the new recommendation that will be supporting this ordinance. And by July 1st, with support of the mayor and city council, we do expect the fee to be operational and streamlined for landlords to be able to pay that fee very quickly over the portal.

Jessie LopezItem 8

So they'll be able to pay online?

Yes.

Jessie LopezItem 8

Everything will be done online?

Yes. Yes.

Jessie LopezItem 8

So thank you, Justin. And again, my concern is we were able to move very quickly with this, but there's been other things that we have not been able to move, especially like the business license, which is really important. So, okay, there's a sub motion, and there was a second.

Jennifer L. HallItem 8

Yes, Mayor, you do have three speakers.

Jessie LopezItem 8

I can't see the speakers on here.

Jennifer L. HallItem 8

Okay, the first one is Mayor Pro Tem Lopez.

Jessie LopezItem 8

Perfect, thank you. Go ahead. I can't, just so you guys know, I can't see you on here, so Jennifer's going to call your name because I can't. Mine's not working.

Thank you.

Yeah, so I want to thank staff for the work in getting this study to us and presenting us the options. It's very transparent. It's very easy to read. All you have to do is read the staff report. and it even gives you the breakdown of what would be required per month which is four dollars and seventeen cents which is really really low and so I want to thank staff for doing this work for presenting us with this information which again is here publicly available for folks to read on their own and I

encourage people to do that and I'm excited for this program to be established so that all parties involved can can be part of the program and so with that I did second the sub motion thank you

David PenalozaItem 9

councilmember Penaliza thank you madam city clerk and thank you madam mayor I just wanted to I didn't think I'd be mentioning to us presidents tonight but there was another U.S. president that said that the nine most terrifying words in the English language are, I'm from the government and I'm here to help. And I look at this, and from my understanding, Madam City Manager, is that this is going to cost the taxpayers.

David PenalozaItem 9

And I say taxpayers because at the end of the day, our tenants and our landlords or apartment owners are taxpaying people here in the city. You could call them taxpayers, you could call them tenants or landlords, but at the end of the day, it's going to cost $3.2 million to help the city try to make sure that rents aren't raised. Is that my understanding?

Yes, to provide the tenants renters protections. That's the purpose of it, yes.

David PenalozaItem 9

So it's going to cost renters $1.6 million a year, and it's going to cost the landlords another $1.6 million a year.

That's if the landlord chooses to pass on 50% of the fee to the tenants.

David PenalozaItem 9

If they choose to pass on, so they have the option not to pass it on?

That is my understanding, and I'll bring a housing division manager up if you have any more detailed questions.

David PenalozaItem 9

So is it an option that's presented to landlords to say you could pass on 50% of the cost?

Yes, thank you, Councilmember Penaloza. It is an option for landlords to pass on the cost to their tenants. The landlord may pass through the fee, the rental registry fee, to their tenant.

David PenalozaItem 9

Which will most likely happen. I don't see any landlord saying, yeah, we'll take on the full cost. I mean, I just don't see that happening. Do you see that happening, Judson?

I can't speak on behalf of landlords, but I think they would be most likely inclined to do so.

David PenalozaItem 9

Okay. I just wanted to, like Council Member Sarah voiced my opposition to this, because there has been nothing from initially, this has essentially been law almost two years now, And again, we put the cart before the horse. We made this law. We passed this ordinance. I shouldn't say we, but a majority of the city council passed this ordinance without really knowing how much this was going to cost, what the tenants were going to have to pay, what the landlord was going to pay, the amount of staff that it was going to take. But it was passed. So there really hasn't been anything transparent about this whole process.

David PenalozaItem 9

from my just going jogging my memory just wanted to make sure that that was you know said publicly because that that is the truth so 3.2 million dollars

correct Judson yes thank you thank you very much councilmember Penelosa the the rent stabilization fee would would generate approximately 3.2 million dollars as outlined in the in the fee study those fees would go to pay for for the staff the the administration and operation of the of the ordinance the fee that we're recommending is is based directly off of the administrative structure needed to effectively implement the

David PenalozaItem 9

city of san anna's ordinance okay thank you judson that's that's it madam city manager madam mayor

Jessie LopezItem 9

Councillor Fenn.

Thai Viet PhanItem 9

You can see me now.

Jessie LopezItem 9

I can.

Thai Viet PhanItem 9

Fantastic. Thank you so much for calling on me. And thank you so much to CDA, staff, RSG, and our consultant for bringing this forward. I've read the report thoroughly, and I'm just really appreciative of all the hard work. I do want to make a couple of clarifications. While I do understand a president did say that the government is here to help you, there's a scary thing. I grew up on government benefits. I grew up on welfare. I grew up on section 8. I got Pell grants to go to college and that is why I'm here in front of you today to be the first Vietnamese American council member in the city of

Thai Viet PhanItem 9

Santa Ana. So no, I thought the government coming to help me and my family of refugees was a good thing and I'm glad to pay it back and to pay it forward. The second thing I'd like to say is I think Maricela you did really quick math, right? Mayor Pro Tem Lopez mentioned that $50 a year per tenant is $4.17 a month. And Marisela, dividing it by 30, that makes $0.04 a day for a tenant. Why? Because we have landlords who know today that they are in violation of this ordinance and refuse to comply because they know

Thai Viet PhanItem 9

that tenants do not have the money, ability, or access to legal counsel to fight for their rights. For four cents a day, the City of Santa Ana can protect its tenants, its seniors, and mobile home parks from unfair and illegal rent increases and unjust evictions. For four cents a day, the City of Santa Ana can ensure that our residents don't end up on the street. For four cents a day, the City of Santa Ana can ensure that our residents don't have to move to Riverside or Moreno Valley or somewhere else to live because they cannot afford to live in the community where they grew up or where their parents still live.

Thai Viet PhanItem 9

So I think that that is a worthwhile four cents a day for any tenant who lives in the city of Santa Ana and on top of that yeah, landlords don't have to pass on the $50 a year. They can choose to pay that if they want but they're not required to because part of the comments that this council majority made was to ensure that we were as fair as possible and kept the rates as low as possible. I also want to maybe it's RSG or a consultant to talk about why how did we come up with the four you know petitions for capital improvement petitions a year. Did we just get that number out of nowhere?

Yeah actually I can answer that. Councilmember. So our team discussed the, we, let me answer that, sorry. We analyzed other cities annual reports to gather information about the average number of petitions received compared to the number of units covered by their ordinances to come up with the best estimate of how many petitions we may receive per year. Utilizing technical support from RSG and a contracted hearing officer, Steph has the flexibility within the first year to handle petitions in excess of the estimated number of petitions that were estimating the four petitions.

The ordinance requires the board to revisit. No, I'm sorry. Does that answer your question regarding the petitions?

Thai Viet PhanItem 9

Yeah. So you did an analysis based on other cities. Yes. And for those, for the city of Santa Ana, I believe you increased it given the number of units we have in the city, correct?

Yes.

Thai Viet PhanItem 9

Okay, and then the other question I had was relating to the fee itself. I know when one of my colleagues brought up the $100 fee, I was like, well, I didn't want to just pull that number out of nowhere. And I believe in my meetings with you, staff was just as surprised in actually doing the calculations that you got to $100. You didn't work backwards from $100. Is that correct?

That's correct, Councilmember Fan. we actually developed a comprehensive work plan that's in Appendix E of your Rental Registry Fee Study, describing the administrative structure necessary to support the delivery of efficient and effective program services to landlords and tenants. The work plan included an extensive analysis of the City's ordinance and the administrative structure needed, based specifically on what is needed to effectively administer the ordinance. Utilizing the administrative needs outlined in the work plan,

and the fee study determined that the rent stabilization program's annual cost is approximately $3.24 million, and it would include 14.4 full-time equivalent city employees, plus contractual support for hearings, appeals, mediation services, education and outreach, on-call translation services, mediation services, and technology.

We also want to note that the fee that is being recommended is based directly off of the administrative structure needed to effectively implement the city's ordinance. There are several jurisdictions with ordinances across the state that are similar in nature. However, every city's fees are different based on their specific needs, based on their staffing levels, expenses for technology and consultants. And, for example, the city of Santa Monica has approximately 26 staff members, but their budget contains an entire division dedicated to public information as well as program dedicated

IT staff to maintain their database which was created and it continues to be managed in-house. By utilizing the guiding principles approved by City Council last September in the assessment of the administrative structure needed to implement the ordinance, the City is able to keep program costs lower in comparison to other jurisdictions. The program has been designed to reduce duplication, maximize efficiency, and reduce any unnecessary work that would increase the fee upon tenants and landlords. The program utilizes a hybrid of consultants in the hearings and mediation unit and a portion of the legal unit.

Program also builds upon existing services in the community development agency, code enforcement department and the city attorney's office. RCS, our consultants, have been in business for over 43 years developing user fees and impact fees and they have conducted hundreds of comprehensive studies throughout the state. They've also worked on three rental registry fee projects including Beverly Hills, Santa Anna and Bell Gardens. So in terms of arriving at the fee of $100 per unit, staff conducted significant due diligence as you can see in the rental registry fee state.

Thai Viet PhanItem 9

Thank you. And just one last question so that our residents are aware. This $100 fee split between a landlord and a tenant divided for 12 months, right, would pay not just for the registry and the rent board, it will pay for staffing as well as the review of any petitions, which if it was not covered under this comprehensive fee would have to be paid for by an individual tenant or landlord, which could be cost prohibitive. So in this case, my understanding is that the fee was meant to ensure everybody has access to city services. Is that correct?

That's exactly correct. And we understand the concern about the pass-through to tenants. It is optional, but it would only result in an additional cost of $4.17 per month to be paid by the tenant. If we look at the alternative of if the tenants weren't being served by this ordinance and weren't paying that fee, fee. Let's say, for example, that the average rent for one bedroom apartment is $2,000 a

month. Under the rent stabilization ordinance, the tenant's rent could increase by up to 3% or $60 per month, right? Without our ordinance, under state law, the tenant's rent could increase by up to 10% or $200 a month. So under our proposed rental registry fee, a tenant would pay $4.17 per month for our comprehensive services associated with the ordinance, which keeps their rents stable and predictable. These services include voluntary mediation, the ability to submit a petition for violation of the ordinance by the landlord, and the support of legal staff or enforcement when property owners fail to comply with the ordinance.

In that alternative scenario, the addition of $4.17 per month would be highly preferred by a tenant compared to the alternative of a rent increase of up to $200 per month or an ordinance with no administrative support or enforcement.

Thai Viet PhanItem 9

Thank you. And thank you for all of your work. I appreciate it. You've answered all my questions.

Phil BacerraItem 9

Councilman Becerra. Thank you, Mayor Mesquab. Judson, so in your guys' analysis, when you looked at other cities, do you know if they, those other cities, did they charge for the capital improvement petitions?

Thank you, Councilmember Becerra. Let me actually call up Tara to answer that question for us while I try and look for the information as well.

Good evening. So when we presented the long-term implementation plan I'm forgetting the exact date but a while back and we had done a survey of all the jurisdictions there are seven different jurisdictions and they each do it a little bit differently some have it all inclusive and some have it separated out where you're paying for the petitions separately so it's all determined in the fee study so similar to the fee study presented by and prepared by RCES those city councils basically looked at the similar options as you all and determine which one they wanted to utilize. But there isn't a one-size-fits-all approach.

It's just dependent on what city council approves.

Phil BacerraItem 9

So different cities, different approaches. Yep. Perfect. Okay. And then, so I guess, Judson, a question for you would be, so assuming, again, that you're not going to get 100% compliance, you're not going to get 100% pay, one of the things that the folks that supported this ordinance kept promising was that it would recover its own costs, right? that it would not be a burden on the general fund. In other words, that it would be self-sufficient. And so what I'm wondering is when you don't get 100% compliance full-time employees and we've got, you know, all the other consultants and everything that you need on board

Phil BacerraItem 9

to have this proceed, I guess my question for you is how soon will it be before you come back to us to increase the fee beyond the $100?

Okay. Thank you. There's a couple parts of that question that I want to address. So first is that the ordinance will be fully self-sufficient. It will operate under full cost recovery with no impact to the city's general fund.

Second is that when the fee becomes effective, property owners are going to be expected to pay the fee in a timely manner. I understand you asked earlier about the business license fee. but under the city's rent stabilization ordinance, failure to complete the rental unit registration will result in the following. First, owners will be unable to advertise for rent, demand, or accept for rent for a rental unit. Second, owners will be unable to evict any tenant from a rental unit. Third, no rent increases shall take effect for any rental unit unless the landlord has accurately completed the rental unit registration.

Fourth, no petition, application, claim, or request shall take effect for any rental unit unless the landlord has accurately completed the rental unit registration. We've reached out to other jurisdictions to better understand best practices related to compliance with the rental registry and to understand how they conducted outreach and education. We've developed a robust plan for reaching out to every landlord in Santa Ana.

Again, we also considered the risks and scenarios of not collecting the full amount of fees. But our responsibility will be to ensure that this is fully cost recoverable, that we don't go over budget, and that this program is fully self-sufficient based on the fees that are

Phil BacerraItem 9

generated. Well, and Judson, I appreciate that, but you didn't answer my question. So at what point, because we all know that you're not going to get full cost recovery from, or you're not going to realize the dollar amount in this study. You're not going to get 100%. So when you don't get that, and you guys are at a point where, you know, you've got 14 full-time employees, you've got all these consultants. My question for you is at what point is it that you come back to the council to say $100 is obviously not enough. We're going to have to probably look at fees that more

Phil BacerraItem 9

realistically are applied to, you know, whoever's willing to be compliant, 50%, 60%, 70%. Because as some of my colleagues have already mentioned, there are landlords that obviously are not respecting what was adopted, right? And this thing was adopted at 3.30 in the morning a couple years ago. The landlords know about it, but they're not all following it. So that's already an indicator that this is not going to have 100% compliance. So I guess what I'm saying is looking at this study, seeing that the dollar amount in here is meant to pay for certain things.

Phil BacerraItem 9

I guess I'm just wondering, is it going to be within six months or a year that we would expect to see something come back to us that says we need to increase this fee above $100?

Yeah, thank you very much, Councilmember. So first, to answer your question most directly, so the proper management and administration of this new rent stabilization division will ensure that we don't hire staff and we don't incur costs that we can't pay for. That's something that would put our city in a bind and would put us at risk of incurring costs that would have to be covered by the general fund. To give you a parallel in terms of how I manage our housing division, there are absolutely no expenses whatsoever that are paid by our general fund that go to our housing division.

That's because every single program that I manage is fully self-sufficient. I never rely on the general fund for any expenses. But the second thing is that one of the responsibilities of the rental housing board is to review and assess yearly that a sufficient number of staff are employed. So say for example that we are very, very conservative in our estimates and we don't hire a sufficient number of staff. Well the board will ensure that a sufficient number of staff are employed to administer of the ordinance as may be necessary to perform its functions efficiently in order to fulfill

the purpose of the ordinance while maintaining the goal of remaining cost neutral. And staff will also prepare annual financial reports summarizing budgeted expenses, actual expenses, revenue, and reserves. So the board will be responsible if an increase or a decrease in the rent-to-rental registry fee is required, the board will be responsible for that fiscal oversight to recommend that to city council.

Phil BacerraItem 9

Okay. And Judson, I just want to say, given what you've done with our housing program, I have faith that you'll manage the program. I guess what my concern is, is not with your particular management style. It's the fact that we have a study in front of us that says $100 based on every single unit paying into the $100, 14.4 of new full-time employees. and you're saying a certain phrase, the sufficient amount of staff, as in you need a certain amount of staff to be able to sufficiently manage what this ordinance is asking for you to do. And so I feel like you're kind of caught between a rock and a hard place, right? Because, you know,

Phil BacerraItem 9

you are, and I believe you will, make sure that this is not a burden on the general fund, right? Because you're not going to dip into the general fund, so you're going to ensure that we have full cost recovery, but at some point when this is not fully realizing what was intended by those that supported this, at some point, I just, I don't think this is really a question for you, Judson, just at some point the board, as you mentioned, is going to have to come back to you and then eventually something will come to us. I just want to make sure that everybody understands.

Phil BacerraItem 9

While it says $100, I do not believe for one second that will be truly the cost. I think it will go up in order to either fully realize the vision of those that supported this ordinance or we're going to see a very, you know, ineffective unit that is trying to manage this ordinance but won't be able to. So, you know, this is what I was talking about earlier where we need to be clear with ourselves. We need to be truthful. And the truthful fact is that $100, even though everybody up here, in fact, it was said at a couple meetings, oh, you know, about

Phil BacerraItem 9

$100 would be okay. And then, you know, you can only pass on 50%. So it's only $50. And as we heard the commercial earlier, you know, it's only four cents a day when it's really 14 cents. Got it. It's 14. Correct. 14 cents. But that 14 cents is not the true cost. It's probably going to go up. That's the harsh reality. It's probably going to go up. In order to effectively manage this program, you're probably going to end up needing to charge more. So I just want to make sure that everybody understands that the commercial that was presented tonight is not being truthful. So thank you.

Phil BacerraItem 9

Could you clarify that?

Thai Viet PhanItem 9

Oh yeah, I just misspoke and said four instead of 14. So for everyone who has been recording, just put 14 on there. But yes, that was a mistake. And thank you for thinking it was good enough to be a commercial.

Jessie LopezItem 9

So thank you, Judson, and to your staff. I really appreciate it. I was not here when this was put in place, and I would never conduct a vote at 3.30 in the morning. By midnight, everybody's tired, ready to go home. There's just, nobody should be taking votes at 3.30 in the morning.

Jessie LopezItem 9

I want our community to be treated right, and I worked very hard for many years for that. And we did talk about, and I appreciate your staff meeting with me, and you meeting with me, and being totally honest about the cost. And we also have the discussion about what if they don't pay? Who pays, right? I think everybody up here has great points. The 14 cents or Councilman Becerra's concern about if they don't pay, what do we do? How do you manage that?

Jessie LopezItem 9

And we couldn't get an answer of do people pay a business license? Does everybody? We can't get that. Does everybody pay their dog license? can't probably I probably would get I don't know I mean we don't know so I'm not gonna support this not because I don't think that you Judson would oversee it and your staff and do a good job like you do with everything that you do here in the city with your staff and Mike thank you because he does a great job with his staff but I'm more concerned about I I can sit up here and say I have

Jessie LopezItem 9

$50 and then as Councilman Becerra said, then a year from now we come back and we say it's going to go up to $200, which means it goes up to $100 for the renter. And I would have a problem, a serious issue with that because people need that money to live and $50 is a lot of money. And like Councilman Fang, I grew up on government assistance. $50 to my grandmother was a lot of money. It was a whole heck of a lot of money.

Jessie LopezItem 9

So when you grow up like that, you understand that $50 is, that could be a whole week of feeding your kids.

Jessie LopezItem 9

So I don't want the cost to go to those that live in the apartments at all. So if there's a way, we can find a way to do that. And I don't want this to also touch the general fund. and they can't say anymore. And I do read everything. So if somebody said, you know, read your stuff, I read everything. And I meet with the staff and I ask a lot of questions, probably too many, and I bug them and I ask a lot of questions.

Jessie LopezItem 9

So, but I would just say that I don't want our community having to pay for this. And I wasn't here again. I want to make that very clear when this was voted on. And I would have walked out if I was because I do not make decisions at 3.30 in the morning. um and hopefully while we're all sitting here now we will not be here till 3 30 in the morning unless it's an emergency and we are in a crisis so with that i am not going to support the item so let's move forward and vote roll call please are you gonna is it working all right mines

Jennifer L. HallItem 9

this is for the sub motion by councilmember hernandez seconded by mayor pro tem lopez to receive and file the rental registry fee study.

Jessie LopezItem 9

Mayor Proton, is there status waiting? Did you want to speak? I did. It didn't light up. I apologize. Jennifer didn't tell me, not that I'm blaming Jennifer, but did you want to speak before?

Yeah, I did, but I also did click yes, so I don't know if it's not registering. Yeah, mine's not working either. But I just wanted to quickly, you know, say that I strongly disagree with the statement that there's been nothing transparent about this process I think it's fine if people don't like this policy but it does not mean that the council or our staff has not been transparent in fact I know you were recently at Conlink with you know neighborhood leaders people that live in this city talking about this policy it's been two years you know I know Councilmember fan hosted a Q&A about this

So we've been in our different neighborhoods addressing questions and concerns regarding the RSO. And every step has been brought forward publicly to this council and made available for the public to engage via YouTube, Facebook, whatever means people choose to do so. And so to me, you know, $4 a month to make sure that somebody is able to be guided through the legal process, that is a bargain.

And, you know, even though this policy was established in 2021, we know, our staff knows, so many of us get emails, text messages, calls about bad actors. even though we have so many great ones in the city, they are being drowned out purposely by the people choosing to not be responsible to their tenants. You know, I was just in Marbury Park the other day, and I was approached only to be asked what the family's options were, because they've been renting a home, the landlord approached them and said, hey, your rent is going to go up $600 because I want to rent out the garage. What do they do? What would you do?

You know, recently, three meetings ago, we had a family here sitting up at the front, and they looked very normal. I never would have thought that they would come here and say, we paid our rent, and still we were kicked out. What do we do? What is the role of government in that? And so, you know, I think that there are thousands, hundreds of stories out there like that that we're not even aware of. But if there is any hope, if there's any support that we as a local government can provide, I think that is our responsibility.

And, you know, while there are so many insinuations about what this policy and how this policy is going to impact your cost of living, you know, those same people are okay with you being subjected to a 10% rent increase as opposed to a 3% rent increase. So you do the math. So thank you.

Jennifer L. HallItem 9

All right, let's vote.

Jennifer L. HallItem 9

Council Member Becerra.

Phil BacerraItem 9

Actually, I voted on my device.

Jennifer L. HallItem 9

Okay. Mayor Omescua, if you could voice your vote, if it's not working.

Jessie LopezItem 9

This is on the sub motion, correct?

Jennifer L. HallItem 9

Correct.

Jennifer L. HallItem 9

The vote is four ayes, three nays. Nays by Mayor Mescua and Council Members Becerra and Penaloza. Motion carries to receive and file.

Jessie LopezItem 9

Thank you. Item 16, Council Member Becerra.

Phil BacerraItem 9

Thank you, Mayor Mescua. I hope this one is much quicker. So this is the first amendment to agreements with a couple of our consultants that staff uses for on-call affordable housing, financial, analytical, and advisory services. I am okay with most of the folks that are part of this item. During the discussions on the amendments to the Housing Opportunity Ordinance, or the WHO, I found Kaiser Marston's in-lieu fee analysis failed to take into account several factors that impacted housing construction,

Phil BacerraItem 9

which I think gave the council a false impression of where the fee should land. given how the ordinance so far has failed at $15 a foot, Kaiser Marston thought that $17 a foot would be a great idea. Actually, it was $17 and some change, so it was a little higher. So with that, I would ask my colleagues that we move forward with the First Amendments, execute for the consultant agreements with only David Paul Rosen Associates and RSG. That's my motion.

Jessie LopezItem 9

I'll second. Okay.

Jessie LopezItem 9

If you want to speak, please push the button so I know you want to speak.

Jessie LopezItem 9

No speakers, let's prepare to vote.

Jennifer L. HallItem 9

Motion by Councilmember Becerra, seconded by Mayor Mesquilla to approve item 16 with the exception of Keeser, Marston & Associates, Inc.

Jennifer L. HallItem 9

the vote is four eyes two nays nays by mayor pro tem lopez council member vasquez and noted absence by Councilmember Hernandez. Motion carries.

Jessie LopezItem 9

All right. Next one is 25. I'm looking for my page. I apologize. 25. Councilmember Becerra.

Phil BacerraItem 9

Thank you, Madam Mayor. I also hope this one's quick. Madam City Manager, I'm going to be asking Director Saba a couple questions. This one is for a project that's within my ward. This is the San Lorenzo Sewage Lift Station. we are approving an appropriation adjustment and agreement with Butier Engineering. So this project started back in 2018, correct, Director Saba?

That's correct.

Phil BacerraItem 9

And so the original contractor defaulted, so there was obviously some delays, but I think you and your team picked it up as much as you could to get this thing going. But so back in August of 2021, this council approved an amendment to add $500,000 to that original agreement for the construction engineering services. The original agreement and the amendment expired. And so here we are today, five years later. So the two questions I have for you, Director Saba, are when's this project going to be done? And are we going to need to appropriate any more funds to get it?

We won't need to appropriate additional funds. the sewer enterprise will be able to pay for the additional construction management for Buteer. And to answer your question about the completion of the project, I have our construction weekly report just this morning, and it indicates that by July or into July, we should be done with the entire project. We are currently doing equipment testing, pressure testing, and we just completed the final tie-in on Bristol for the trunks who are coming or going to the sanitation district.

So most of the street work has been finished. Now we are on site doing testing and pressure testing and equipment testing, like I mentioned, and next we would be abandoning the old pump station.

Phil BacerraItem 9

Fantastic. So that's just in time for Saddleback to kick off their new stadium over there. So that's good news. Thank you for that. And with that, I'll go ahead and move the item.

David PenalozaItem 9

I'll second.

Phil BacerraItem 9

There are no speakers. Let's vote.

Jessie LopezItem 9

I'm sorry.

Thai Viet PhanItem 9

Oh, I just said I had to live through the Segerstrom being one lane each way. It was hard to get to the Taco Bell.

Jessie LopezItem 9

No sidebar conversations. Destructing.

David PenalozaItem 9

For that Mexican pizza, huh? Yes.

Jessie LopezItem 9

All right. No Mexican pizza. Let's go.

Jennifer L. HallItem 9

The vote is six ayes, no nays, with a recorded absence by Councilmember Hernandez. Motion carries.

Jessie LopezItem 9

All right, that's the end of the consent calendar. We're going to go to the business calendar. Item number 29 is agreement for school crossing guard services. Madam city manager, may please have staff report.

Yes, we do have a brief presentation for this item and Executive Director Nabil Saba will be providing it.

We will load it up if you just give us a second, please.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 9

Madam Clerk, just wanted to record my vote as a yes. My apologies, I stepped out.

Jennifer L. HallItem 9

Thank you. Note that for the record. for item 25 as well as for the previous item or just the final item

Jennifer L. HallItem 9

i'm sorry we had you absent for two items so just confirming yes on both of them yes okay thank you

good evening mayor mayor potem member of the city council I have a brief presentation for you on the crossing guard program

um just a highlight of the program itself that when fully funded we have 55 crossing guards 40 serving four schools in three districts the state and federal warrants qualifies the program for elementary aged school students and the program does cover summer school or does not cover summer school thank you crossing guard agreement that's in front of you today is a three-year contract with two year

to one-year extensions covering starting on fiscal year 2023 24 contract with the amount of 1.5 million annual cost escalation of four to six percent

continue we continued okay crossing guard agreement we will continue to outreach to the school district for more cost-sharing in the mid-year as you may see in your staff report we would seek mid-year adjustment for additional fund to cover the entire program I'm open for any questions that you may have

Jessie LopezItem 9

all right anybody pushing the button to speak I don't see any so I am not going to support this item, not because I don't support crossing guards. I think they're very important for our community and our schools. Bill, you said three school districts. I know one is Garden Grove Unified, I believe, or Santa Ana. What are the three school districts? I believe they are Tustin, Santa Ana, and Garden Grove. Okay. So I don't have an issue with Tustin Unified or Garden Grove

Jessie LopezItem 9

Unified and Madam City Manager I'll share all that with you later. I'm not going to support it for a couple reasons. The school district's budget is three times the city's budget. Right now it's about 1.1 billion. They will tell you its majority of it is one-time fund. I sat there for eight years. I know that budget very well. I see those numbers in my head to this day. I can and I have all the information at home still and I'm gonna keep it they'll say they have a 42 million dollar structural deficit I mean how much is our budget for Santa

Jessie LopezItem 9

Ana 42 million dollars is a lot of money to us so you're asking for approval of seven up to seven million for five years correct that's correct so if Santa Ana Unified which I sent an email I think that city manager you've tried to have a conversation with them and they are the majority they're the bulk they would be the bulk of up to almost $7 million. And they have refused to reply. Nobody's engaging, which is pretty normal. And so they just agreed on Tuesday. I want people to hear me at home.

Jessie LopezItem 9

They just approved on Tuesday to pay a board member that already receives a stipend of almost $10,000 a year to be a board member. So now they have proved to pay her 20 days of work, for her to call in sick or call out of work for 20 days. And Santa Ana Unified is going to pay that money back to her employer, which is the county department of education. So there's a lot of questions around that I have, and I hope the parents are going to get together and deal with it through legal

Jessie LopezItem 9

council. So if she makes about $50 an hour, add that up. Comes out to a good chunk of change. On top of that, they approved retro pay for her. So that's almost $5,000. So this person, this board member knew the responsibility of running for office, just like we all do sitting up here. And I can tell you that when I worked, I used hundreds of hours of sick time and vacation time to go to board meetings and go to masters of governance and go to schools and go to graduations and go to all these things. So the priorities are different at Santa Unified.

Jessie LopezItem 9

They all have their own personal agendas, and I can say that because I stopped there, so I don't care what anybody up here in the diocesan. If you want to discuss it, we can discuss it. Let's look at all the money that's being spent from there. They've had budget meetings, parents asked for more security, they don't get it. Parents ask for more police officers, they're not getting them. They ask how many city manager, they asked you what, how often does our police department respond? Santa Ana PD is at our schools probably, I can bet you after that report comes out, on a daily basis they respond to everything.

Jessie LopezItem 9

Because there's not enough police officers at Santa Ana Unified. There used to be 35.

Jessie LopezItem 9

And I'm probably quoting, I think there's 18 now, maybe 19. they don't have money to pay for counselors they don't have money to pay for extra social workers they have money to pay for certain things so when it comes to the safety of our children that has not been a priority for them but yet the city our budget again is smaller and what parents need to do is they need to organize and go to the school district and say split the baby pay half It is your responsibility. That's our money. That's our taxpayer money. So, and I say that because it's my money.

Jessie LopezItem 9

Anybody who lives in Santa Ana, we're paying for every single one of those board members that sit up there, just like everybody pays for all of us that sit up here. Every taxpayer that lives in the city of Santa Ana pays our stipend. And every taxpayer pays a stipend of every board member. So now, not only is this board member getting a stipend, but she's also getting 20 days off of work until 2026. They approved this until the year 2026. So their priorities, in my opinion, are wrong. If our children are a priority, then let's show it. Paying half of the crossing guards, let's show it.

Jessie LopezItem 9

And years ago when I first got on the board, because I was new and I didn't understand it, I'd be like, why? Why do? They let them pay. The city's always paid. And then as I got more experience and started understanding budgets and looking, I'm like, oh, wait a minute. So now as I sit here, and the icing on the cake for me was if you can pay a board member, which I don't even know if it's legal, I hope again that parents contact legal counsel, their own legal counsel, and deal with it that way. Because if you can pay a board member an additional stipend, they're actually paying her. She's an employee. To me, she's an employee.

Jessie LopezItem 9

She's working for the school district. So why would I approve up to $7 million for crossing guards? Garden Grove, don't have a problem with it. Tustin Unified, don't have a problem with it. Because they're not paying for their board members a stipend, an additional stipend. I'm sure there are people up here that have jobs that call in sick and use their vacation time or their own sick time because if a council member came up and said oh I'd like you to pay my employer I would be like no way you ran for office you understood what you were getting into

Jessie LopezItem 9

at least you should have set what can we do as a city with seven million dollars can you imagine the parks and the programs and the youth center that we can open up can you imagine what we can do with seven million dollars so i'm not going to support this item um and i will not until they come to the table and say let's agree and to disagree but we'll help pay because yes the city is liable but so are they so god forbid something happens but they're liable just as we are and they have deeper pockets than we do right when people sue what do they sue they sue deep pockets and And their pockets are far deeper than ours.

Jessie LopezItem 9

And so, again, parents that are watching at home, I am not, this is not about me not supporting safety for our children. If you know me, you know this is a priority for me. Safety, police, having social workers, counselors, mental health therapists, enough teachers, summer school programs, Engage 360 program during the summer. There's a lot of things they could be having. But paying a board member a stipend on top of what she's already had. They're not even paying her a stipend. They're paying her for 20 days to be off work or her own job.

Jessie LopezItem 9

So to me, she's an employee of the district, and you can't be a board member and be an employee. So we have a problem. So I am not supporting this item, and I'd like a motion. I am motioning that, that I do not support this item whatsoever. Councilman Panalosa.

David PenalozaItem 9

Thank you, Madam Mayor, for those comments. And thank you, Madam City Manager and your staff, Executive Director Nabil Saba, for the presentation. You know, the reason why I have an issue with this, Madam City Manager, is because I wholeheartedly believe that there should be a shared responsibility between the Santa Ana Unified School District and the city. Over the last month alone, we've seen the corrupt school board approve everything from an annual ELKS membership for school board member Alfonso Alvarez, who you can find sitting at the bar drinking by himself a number of times a week, to approving, as the mayor mentioned,

David PenalozaItem 9

to pay the employer of an elected school board member, Katie Brazor Aceves, I'll say her name, to have an allotted bank of paid time off so that she can perform school board work. I have been elected here for five years and I haven't really gone on a vacation from at all from work because every time that I come to a city function or city event I use my PTO as an elected member should. So I see the school board just throwing money away in numerous

David PenalozaItem 9

different areas throughout and just wasting it. I know that every budget cycle and I'm sure we'll see them in June we have dozens of kids from our city come in here with their broken band instruments with their broken sports equipment asking pleading with us that if we could help them pay for their new band equipment for their new sports equipment when the school district should be paying for these things but what happens they rely on the city, they rely on non-profits, they rely on the

David PenalozaItem 9

fireworks stands to be able to generate revenue to pay for this equipment. A elected school board with a billion dollar budget should be able to find half of this, I'm not asking for the entire payment, but half of the seven million dollars to be able to pay for these crossing guards. So

David PenalozaItem 9

I cannot support this as it is. It is that the amount of things that we could do with the seven million dollars is, I mean, everything that we've seen in the presentation slides and the budget slides that we've seen over the last couple of months of all the unfunded upgrades that our parks need, our stadium, we could fund this. but we can't because the school district decides to throw money away i don't know if the superintendent attendant is asleep at the wheel or the attorneys over there are asleep at the wheel but i hope that the district attorney is listening the attorney general is listening because we have a school

David PenalozaItem 9

district that's throwing money in the trash miss spending it and nobody's batting an eye so So I cannot support this item, and I will second Mayor Mesqua's motion.

Jessie LopezItem 9

It appears there are no other comments. I have my hand. Okay, there's hands. I don't see any. I apologize. I don't see hands. Can you call them out? Because they're not showing on mine. Thank you.

Jennifer L. HallItem 9

Council Member Becerra.

Phil BacerraItem 9

Thank you. Thank you. Director Saba, we hear about the idea of splitting the cost. Help me understand. For the city of Garden Grove, my understanding is they split the cost with Garden Grove Unified when it comes to campuses, GGUSD campuses in Garden Grove, correct? Or there's some sort of split.

There is no split. We pay for both Garden Grove and...

Phil BacerraItem 9

No, no, no. I'm saying for the city of Garden Grove, not the city of San Yana.

I don't know what Garden Grove is doing, honestly.

Phil BacerraItem 9

Okay, so we don't know what they're doing. Okay, so then I was going to ask, as far as San Yana Unified, then obviously they're not splitting any council.

They're not splitting anything with us.

Phil BacerraItem 9

Okay. I'm not going to repeat everything my colleagues said. I have just as much discussed over what some of the shenanigans going on over at the San Yana Unified School Board, and it pains me because I want our children to be safe. You know, for $7 million, Director Sava, you know, because I've asked on behalf of my constituents, for speed bumps. And we've seen the LA City Council, they're moving forward with installing speed bumps near the campuses to slow down traffic. I don't think that's a completely parallel acceptable alternative, but it is something.

Phil BacerraItem 9

That, to me, is where a city investing in safety around a campus makes sense. It's safety not only for the campus, but for the neighbors surrounding that campus. When it comes to the crossing guards, this is something where there should be a split. And the fact that, as my colleagues have already pointed out, the spending habits of the folks over at the school board, at the Santa Ana school board, I, too, will not be supporting this item as proposed. Thank you.

Jessie LopezItem 9

It looks like I got it now. Thank you. I have to refresh it every time. I apologize. Councilman Hernandez.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 9

Thank you, Mayor Mesquah. I want to thank my colleagues for the dialogue, although I disagree because I am a member of the Santa Ana City Council. And I'm not going to spend my time talking about what electeds from different bodies are doing because I don't represent that body. I represent Santa Ana. I also want to further let the voters know there are no learning curves. When you're new here or whether you're tenured, your job is expected that you get it done and that you are judicious and that you know what is being presented.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 9

I don't agree with St. Ann Unified's decision to not fund the crossing guards, but I'm not going to chastise them. Voters voted for me so that I can be the leader that they need me to be. If San An Unified is not being a leader in protecting children, that's why I believe I am the only one up here that has a child under the age of 18 that is enrolled in San An Unified schools. This is not a political ploy, nor is this a subject that I take lightly. We need to take a look at the fact that we're the largest city with youth in Orange County. And we are a city that has been riddled with pedestrian safety issues.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 9

We have children that were murdered because of reckless drivers on Santa Ana Boulevard in Pacific at the former Carver Elementary. These are issues that the city needs to be a leader in. If we have a school board that is not doing their job, that's why voters elected us here, so that we can do the job of protecting children. Let's take, for instance, Los Angeles, one of the largest cities in the country. The city's crossing guard program is administered by LADOT. Los Angeles Department of Transportation's Parking Enforcement and Traffic Control Division, with the support of district engineers from the city.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 9

This allows the crossing guards to have valuable engineering and education resources so that they can enhance safety for students, so that specifically those who are walking, those who are cycling, have the safety they need in school zones. I don't agree with Santa Ana Unified's irresponsible decision to not fund this, but I also don't agree with my colleagues stepping aside and putting our children in harm's way because we are a city that is struggling with pedestrian and cyclist safety. the responsible and judicious thing for us to do is to do what the voters need

Valerie AmezcuaItem 9

us to do, protect their children. In my district there is Willard Intermediate, there is Lydia Romero Cruz, there is Fremont Elementary, there is John Adams. I want to let parents and families know I am not going to tell you to call school board. I'll do that for you. Better yet, I will vote and I'll put a sub-motion to move this item and fund it because children deserve to be invested in. I'll make a sub motion to move the item and approve it I second that motion mayor

Pro Tem Lopez yes thank you mayor I will be supporting this item tonight and like the rest of my colleagues I hope that this can be a shared responsibility one day but we're not there yet and so there's just no way no way ever that I would say let the kids you know cross Fairhaven or cross any other major Street without having guidance. We are discussing another issue in the city, which is, you know, Santa Ana residents speeding through our neighborhoods. And so God forbid something were to happen, my belief is that this city would be liable or could be liable for that.

I've said it before in the past when this item has come forward, you know, I think it can be a very traumatic experience to get hit by a car. My little brother was run over when he was little. and there's just lasting impacts in life. And so this, and Councilmember Hernandez is right. We experienced a high amount of pedestrian death in the city, of pedestrians, of cyclists being hit. And so, you know, I think if this is truly about the safety of our kids, we need to move forward, whether we personally like this or not.

We need to work with the district to establish some sort of program where, as I've said before, we can recruit parents, we can recruit people that are retired, that have the time, that want to volunteer, so that this dollar amount can come down. But I do want to echo that we here at the dais, we need to prioritize our kids. we need to stop this fighting that I'm hearing because the school district is not our enemy they need to be a community partner they are a community partner and to be trying to put families and you know pin them against a council

pin them against the district that is not productive that will achieve nothing in this city you know and we can talk about all kinds of stuff it's easy to sit up here and say this agency is misusing tax dollars well we're on the record saying that tax taxpayers of the city of Santa Ana should subsidize private security for council members that is a fact we all voted on that so we should not be throwing stones to other agencies because we also have things that we've discussed here for whatever reason that other agencies can critique us on and so you know i am going to be supporting the sub motion i am i don't want to

see any accidents happen and i definitely don't want to see this infighting um come at the cost of our kids lives and their safety great thank you ben that councilman vasquez please um

Benjamin VazquezItem 9

let's just be clear we all get a stipend up here we get a stipend we get health We get benefits here in the city, all of us, each member, the mayor. We have an assistant. The mayor has a lovely assistant. She's amazing. $60,000 a year. I get an assistant. We all get assistants to do the work. But we are going to pass this today. We're not going to play chicken with the lives of children. None of you had had a child die on the street as they're coming to your class. and we're not going to play this game we're going to build a relationship with Senate Unified we're going to learn how to work like an adult how to be

Benjamin VazquezItem 9

professionals and how to ask the ask so we're gonna we're gonna take the vote and we're gonna pass this children will not be hurt we have that one of the highest pedestrian death rates in in the state thank you

Thai Viet PhanItem 9

Councilmember Phan. Thank you, Mayor. You all know that I raised this alarm a couple years ago. I noticed at that time it was about $5 million and now the amount has ballooned to $7 million because of additional requests from schools, from parents, and things like that. I guess my question for you, Madam City Manager, is the school district, or at least let me back up, Santa Ana Unified School District is not interested in working with us. We've been working on this issue for two years. We've raised this concern with them multiple times. Is that

correct? We have discussed it a number of times, but most recently I actually did have a productive conversation with the superintendent, and we're going to explore volunteer opportunities. Okay,

Thai Viet PhanItem 9

and you know part of this is the cost, right? We have young people who came and said why don't we have a teen center when we looked at potentially prohibiting fireworks in the city it was you know sports programs cheerleading after-school programs from the school district saying they had to sell fireworks to afford to play sports and have extracurriculars my question for you is is this something that you know I would like to see what we can do as a city to obtain funding to help pay for something like this there's a lot of programs we work with the school we

Thai Viet PhanItem 9

don't charge them for is that correct I'm trying to think of you know whether there's anything creative we can do you know whether it's use of our police officers different fields other MOUs parking is there any you know have we

discussed that you have a committee that is working through the joint use agreement so the joint use agreements they cover many amenities it's more of a shared use and establishing who has the time to use what rather than a fee process and we did get the school district to stop charging our neighborhood associations to utilize their facilities right I guess my

Thai Viet PhanItem 9

question is you know are we getting I'm open to this idea because you're right I don't want to see any kids not have crossing guards or folks assisting them to cross the street. I was driving on McFadden in Fairview, and, you know, folks in that corner drive very fast. There are two arterials, and it's very scary because these are all kids just waiting on the corner. But I guess I'm trying to figure out, is there a way that if the school district is not going to come on board and pay for half of their fair share of these crossing guards in the district, whether there are other ways for the city to charge the school district for

Thai Viet PhanItem 9

services that we provide or to get rid of this joint use where we can charge them so that we actually have funding to help pay for something like this.

Staff certainly could take a look at that and prepare a listing of

Thai Viet PhanItem 9

opportunities such as that. Thank you and so I see that these agreements are not effective until July 1st would it be possible to get some options to come back at the second meeting in June, which is June 20th.

Options as to what?

Thai Viet PhanItem 9

Ideas as to funding, you know, ability to charge the school district for, you know, use of our city facilities and other things to help offset the cost if they are unwilling to pay for half of the cost of the crossing guards.

We certainly can identify those opportunities. I don't think that in June we would have any agreements reached on any of those areas. Right, right.

Thai Viet PhanItem 9

So I guess that would be my sub-sub motion. I'd like to see those options come back to us and for us to dig into that and see what we can do. Obviously, there are other school districts and other places in the country where they do utilize volunteers, and maybe we'll have updated numbers based on volunteer agreements and things like that by then. So that would be my sub-sub motion to continue this item until June 20th for staff to bring back some ideas and thoughts regarding volunteer updating us regarding volunteers and other items thank you

Jessie LopezItem 9

we have more than one substitute yeah there's one yes I made a motion then there's a sub motion now there's a sub but another sub motion so we're not done with comments yet so Jennifer you got that there was one motion and yes the first motion by mayor Mesquita seconded by councilmember

Jennifer L. HallItem 9

Penaliza to not approve the agreements first substitute motion by councilmember Hernandez seconded by Councilmember Vasquez to approve the agreements as presented and the second substitute motion by Councilmember Fan seconded by Councilmember Penaloza to continue the item to June 20th and for staff to return with options for offsetting costs. Okay we're not done with comments.

Phil BacerraItem 9

Thank you. Councilmember Becerra. Thank You Mayor Mesquite. So I hear my colleagues up here talking about how we you know we can't play with the lives or the safety of the lives of our children. I 1,000% agree. But there are so many worthwhile causes out there that impact our city. We just financially can't take them all on. We can't. I mean, I know in my ward, we've got flood control channels that the county controls. We can't adequately police them. We need the county to help us. We can't just take it over because the county won't do it, right? We can't just take over responsibilities of other agencies and jurisdictions

Phil BacerraItem 9

just because they won't do it, and it impacts our residents. We can't. We've all up here talked about trying to be fiscally responsible. We have to. We have to be. We don't have the resources to fund every jurisdiction's deficiencies. SAUSD, not to keep piling on them, but when you look at security on their campuses, they have, what, less than 20 SAUSD police officers. I mean, we do not have enough police officers in Santa Ana and are we now going to take over policing the school district campuses?

Phil BacerraItem 9

Now already our police do get called in to handle incidents inside campuses but a lot of the the issue just even on prevention on keeping the bad guys out they don't have enough and they're not willing to invest in it and this item of course today is just another item that they're not willing to invest in and I you know I gotta tell you I appreciate the passion of some of the folks up here on this dais, but the passion should be directed at the folks at the school board who are failing our children by not paying their fair share of this. You know, we talk about needing

Phil BacerraItem 9

to be a good community partner. Well, partner means we have somebody else to partner with, right? It's not a solo act. It's not a solo responsibility. It's not a solo burden. It's for a partnership. That means somebody else has to partner with us. And what you've heard tonight is that they are not willing to partner with us. I appreciate the discussion up here tonight and Council Member Phan's motion to see what other ways we can recover the costs from an unwilling partner over at the Santa Ana Unified because they're not truly partnering with us. So

Phil BacerraItem 9

at the end of the day, we do need partners. We can't be the sole provider, the sole resource and wonder of all things to all people in the city of san yana we are trying to do our best to provide

Benjamin VazquezItem 9

municipal services but we need partners thank you councilmember vasquez yes we have been paying for cross cards because the kids are on our streets they're coming on our sidewalks they're walking home they're walking to school they're walking to hopefully someday more libraries that's our job We're working on the streets. That's what we do. The school is within the school area, and they're responsible for the children there. So when we're talking about our responsibility, this is our responsibility. Get kids home safe.

Benjamin VazquezItem 9

Make sure they get home safe, each one of them. So this is not—and I hope we can build relationships. I'm not going to agree with Councilmember Fan on your proposal because kind of like twisting an arm to form a relationship is not a way to go about it. But I think we could get there. I think there's a, we can eventually get to a point where we're going to be happy with working with them and despite building relationships. And we're going to have other relationships that we're going to need them for. and this would just put a bad taste in the mouth and put a step back so I'm not going to be

Valerie AmezcuaItem 9

supporting the motion. Thank you. Councilman Hernandez? Yes, thank you Mayor Mesquite. I just wanted to piggyback on some of the comments that were made up here because as somebody who grew up right near Fremont Elementary as some of you know I know we have a brother here who grew up in the neighborhood as well but at Mondo's Corner Store right by Fremont Elementary we had a crossing guard for over 25 years and I personally got to know that crossing guard from the point before kindergarten to the point where I finished high school and became a father. That crossing guard

Valerie AmezcuaItem 9

still served my community, same exact one, and that is the type of safety that families need. That is how we build a bridge. Council Member Vasquez is right. The properties are owned by the City of Santa Ana that our residents are walking on. The sidewalks are maintained by Public Works and although I don't agree with Santa Ana Unified's irresponsible and reckless decision to not fund this, I am going to do what is needed to take care of children in our village. I'm a parent who became a parent at the age of 17 and sometimes when you're a parent at that age, not always are both parents able to reciprocate what a child needs.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 9

So I had to step up. So stepping up is pretty easy for me at this dais as many of you know because I've had to handle my business. So if our school board is not going to handle our business, we will. That's why I ran for office. I didn't like what Juan Villegas was doing up here, so I made sure our people had a stronger voice. And we do. So if our school board isn't doing their job, let's show them a reflection of how much this council loves and supports children. And I say this as the only parent with a child enrolled in Santa Ana Unified in our district

Valerie AmezcuaItem 9

here. Invest in children. That is the most responsible and safe thing that we can do. The fact that we are debating whether children are safer with or without is moronic because this is a necessity that children deserve. Director Nabil Saba, I have a question.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 9

If the council decided to not move forward with this today, how would this impact children and their commute.

Come the next school year in August, we will not have any crossing guards assisting the students crossing along or joining schools where there is crossing guards right now.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 9

So that is potentially thousands of students at the height of the summer walking without crossing guards. In August. In August. That's an irresponsible and reckless decision. and as a parent, I am going to protect families and children. I do know that I have a sub-motion on the floor, and again, I stand with that. Council Member Fenn, I will not be supporting your sub-sub-motion.

Jessie LopezItem 9

Thank you, Council Member Hernandez. So I appreciate the healthy dialogue up here. And, you know, protecting children, and I've been doing it a long time. And so when we talk about children getting hit by cars, Yep, seen it up close and personal. It doesn't look like the movies. When they get hit and one shoe's over here and one shoe's over here and brain matter. Brain matter doesn't look like it is on TV. I've seen it up close and personal. So I believe it's very important to take care of our children. Again, I've been doing it a long time.

Jessie LopezItem 9

We have a joint city and school district committee. I don't I haven't heard one report and I've been here for almost five months City manager I asked three meetings four meetings ago for an update I haven't received one yet so I don't know what the discussions are and I don't have time to go to those meetings and I shouldn't have to it should be reported back to us I would hope like all the Planning Commission we get notes other things this is not just about it is about protecting our children let me correct

Jessie LopezItem 9

myself it's very important but we don't have the funds to say well we're going to keep paying up to seven million dollars and we can excuse them and you got the city has excused them for years to say they don't have to pay they don't have to pay it's never come up no i don't want children get hit by cars heck no no i do not and i may not have a child because my children are grown but I have lots of nieces and nephews in the school district because I picked them up because I have that ability to do so. Whether it's at Henninger or Santa Ana or Santiago or wherever I have Saddleback, I go pick them up when I can.

Jessie LopezItem 9

And I see them walking all day long. GRIP used to be at Santa Ana Unified. And they trained parents how to be crossing guards for free for 15 years. for 15 years they were Santa Ana Unified for free and then because they asked to pay for one staff member because the Board of Supervisors gave them direction to ask for that and the school district did not agree to that they left because they felt so disrespected and they're now at Garden Grove Unified Garden Grove Unified smart picked them all up so now they're working with all their parents

Jessie LopezItem 9

teaching them how to be crossing guards for one for the cost of one staff member so this is not about that we don't want to protect children and so again like some of you up here i have a lot of family here so this is no and i've seen the kids i've seen how fast people drive i would love to put that seven million dollars to speed bumps all over the city and cameras catching the guys that racing up and down. I get a call this weekend multiple back from Memorial Park regarding cars racing, police responding down to Memorial Park. I mean there's so many priorities about

Jessie LopezItem 9

safety in our city. Seven million dollars imagine how you want to keep the kids safe. How many programs of PAL can we have for seven million dollars? How many youth programs can we have how many youth centers can we open up this isn't about the I wholeheartedly want to keep our children safe I wholeheartedly 100% but they have to pay half nobody's asking them to pay the full seven million because they'll say they don't have it so I'm going to support councilmember fans a

Jessie LopezItem 9

sub motion to the sub motion because between now and June 20th you said city manager I hope you can have a very hearty conversation with the superintendent because I'm not sure that there's four votes up here to pass this and seven million dollars is a lot of money and if the joint use committee wants to take it on and bring it back that's great they have until June 20th and

Jessie LopezItem 9

let's be honest you're right we all get we all get stipends up here and we all get that you know you guys thank you for graciously approving allocation of one staff member or three staff member five staff member however you want to use your funding and as far as security I'm that person that the city paid me back $1,000 for my protection because I received a death threat. So my family was placed in danger. So if you're going to call it, just say the name. I don't have a problem saying the mayor received $1,000. She paid out of her pocket. And I continue to pay for protection for myself

Jessie LopezItem 9

out of my own pocket. And I haven't asked the city to reimburse me because I have people following me. Let's talk about safety for a minute. I have lots of things going on since I've become the mayor. So, yes, I'm the one that the city paid $1,000 for my safety and the safety of my family. And I take safety very serious. And you don't want to come in my house unannounced. Let's just say that. So, children, if they were a priority to Santa Ana Unified, they would be hiring more police officers, more mental health because suicide's so high, but the rates are incredible.

Jessie LopezItem 9

They'd be addressing the sexual abuse that goes on in Santa Unified. They'd be addressing the domestic violence. And I appreciate Councilman Hernandez sharing. He's a teen parent. I'm a product of a teen parent. My mom was 14 years old. Believe me, I understand. I understand it very clearly. So this is not about all of those things. This is about we all need to do our part. The city and the school district need to do their part. We'll do ours, they'll do theirs. And if we come to the conclusion, city manager, that we're going to do a volunteer program that's not going to cost us $7 million, I'll support it.

Jessie LopezItem 9

But then, like Councilman Phan, how do we, how do, if we end up paying, how do we get reimbursed? You know how we get reimbursed? We charge them every time a police officer steps onto our campus at their rate. Let's do that. because that's what they use the most, is they use our police officers, who we need out on the streets. So if we charge them every time one of our police officers assisted them in a call, whether it's a fight, a gun on campus, a district security officer being assaulted by students,

Jessie LopezItem 9

a student being beat up so bad that there's concussion and they're in the hospital, and I can go on and on and on. I know where all the bones are hidden. So I'm simply just saying that I want to protect the children, but at what cost? That the city's going to bear it all when they don't hesitate to give a board member an additional pay, stipend? Yeah, I take the stipend. None of us up here get rich, at least I know I don't off of this. So, I'm not going to support any motion other than Councilmember Fanns that we bring it back June 20th.

Jessie LopezItem 9

And please bring back the cost of if two police officers from San MPD respond to a school site to assist and they're there two hours, what is that? Then they have to write a report. Then they submit a petition to the DA's office if they arrest a student. Or then they have to go back to the station or to one of the Roosevelt Walker, for example, and write a report there. How many hours is that? And then when they go back to the station and have to share that information, how many hours are our officers spending, as I want them to, to assist Santa Ana Unified to protect our families, protect our children, our parents, our staff,

Jessie LopezItem 9

the staff at Santa Ana Unified, the kids, but how much money is it costing us? We assist them with graduation. How much is that? So we're going to dig deep into, like council members, fans recommending, into how much, how much are we giving them away, giving them for free? When we as a city, we can, fine, let's take it on. And it's going to be our program and we're going to do it our way, the way that the staff and you bring to us to say this is the best way to do it. And the most cost efficient at the same time, keeping our children safe. So with that, let's take a vote.

Jessie LopezItem 9

And this is for moved by Councilmember Fan, seconded by Councilmember Penalosa.

Sonia R. CarvalhoItem 9

To continue the item?

Jessie LopezItem 9

To continue the item until June 20th.

David PenalozaItem 9

And that staff comes back with options to offset the cost. Yes.

Jessie LopezItem 9

I figured they knew. I assumed you knew.

Jennifer L. HallItem 9

You're clear with direction, city manager?

Jessie LopezItem 9

Okay, thank you very much.

Jennifer L. HallItem 9

The vote is five ayes, two nays. Nays by council members Hernandez and Vasquez. Motion carries to continue the item to June 20th with staff options. Great, thank you.

Jessie LopezItem 9

All right, let's go to item 30 at this time. First reading of the ordinance amending the Sunshine Ordinance. Madam city manager, is there a staff report?

Yes, mayor, we have a short presentation on this one, and it's the introduction of some amendments that was requested by the Council and Executive Director Min Tai will be giving that presentation.

Jessie LopezItem 9

Great, thank you.

Good evening Mayor and member of the Council. So the action before you tonight.

Okay. Apologize for that little technical difficulty. So the action before you tonight is to conduct a first reading of ordinance number 2023-01, amending the Sunshine Ordinance of the Santa Ana Municipal Code as relates to compliance with meeting requirements, noticing, language interpretation, meeting format, the content as well and increasing transparency of information and material regarding Sunshine meeting. The Sunshine Ordinance is a set of measures aimed at increasing

transparency and early communication with the community to involve the community in the development decision-making process. It was first adopted in 2012 and amended in 2021 to increase the number of meeting from one to two and also to increase the notice radius for projects from 500 feet to a thousand feet the council in fall of 2022 provided direction staff to look at ways we can further enhance the community transparency aspect of the sunshine ordinance because of the recent update to the

general plan and the number of project and development interests in the community as a result of that we also conducted a workshop with the council to hear the council direction on the various policies and objectives of the changes you would like to achieve on April 18th the changes that were we going over tonight are aimed at addressing and meeting those objectives as directed by the City Council so how does the ordinance currently work the currently the sunshine ordinance as I would refer to sunshine projects are applicable to

the city sponsor development projects residential development with projects that is 25 units or more non-residential projects with 10,000 square feet of building or more that are not character exempt from sequel and development project requiring zone change general plan amendment or I'm sorry or specific amendment the sunshine ordinance does not apply to smaller projects that are so discretionary such as conditional use permit to establish uses for church school or ABC licenses or project requiring minor adjustments such as

exception and variances so these are what I would call non sunshine applicable

projects. In terms of the proposed changes in the areas that I stated earlier, currently as relates to compliance, the existing regulations finds that if a project applicant is not in compliance with the Sunshine Ordinance, what it does is that it only delays their processing of the application. This is problematic as under state law we are subject to the Permit Streamlining Act and we don't legally determine the project to be incomplete while the delay in time in processing under our ordinance is applicable, we may be in violation of the

Permit Streamlining Act. So the proposal is to update the session of the ordinance to define and deem that if the applicant is not in compliance that it is they have an incomplete application and this would allow us to be in compliance with state permit streamlining act

the existing noticing requirement for currently for both sunshine ordinance projects as well as non-sunshine ordinance project is a thousand feet and that includes the property owners and tenants The council have asked us to look at how do we increase the radius so that it would provide additional noticing to our residents within a project development site without impacting the smaller project. So the proposal is to expand for sunshine related projects the noticing radius to 2,000

feet from a subject property located in Santa Ana but revised the community meeting for Sunshine Project noticing radius outside of the city meaning that for property located outside of our city borders to 300 feet to be consistent with state law continuing on the noticing requirement changes we would update the ordinance to make a distinguish or to distinguish between the noticing radius for a community meeting of a Sunshine Ordnance requirement and a public hearing for non-Sunshine projects. This will allow us to create the two distinctions, therefore allowing

us to address and apply the different radius as is proposed in the next bullet point, which is for public hearing that a non-Sunshine Ordnance related, the notices to remain at a thousand feet and outside of the city again to be consistent with state law to be at 300 feet and this would achieve the council's goal of applying this on a sliding scale basis in terms of meeting language interpretation the council desires that we provide as many language as possible for interpretation services during this meeting as our community is very diverse right now the only requirement is for

provided in English with additional language to be at the request. The changes is being proposed here is that at the minimum Spanish language has to be required and additional language must be provided as it is requested by the community or by the city for every Sunshine meeting. And continuing the meeting format, currently we don't have meeting format defined and and what we have found is that our community, when attending these meetings, have certain expectation of the format of the meeting, the type of information that we'll receive at the meeting, so that

there is consistency in expectation as we try to increase transparency in understanding the purpose of this meeting. So with that, the proposed changes would require a minimum of one single presentation detailing the components of a project development with a complete project description. With this minimum one single presentation format, the applicant can continue to also use other format, but this component must be included as part of the meeting.

The applicant shall also provide information for the contacts so that anyone who's interested in additional information may be able to reach and call outside of the meeting format. The applicant shall also allocate sufficient time for attendees to pose questions and provide input so that it's just a common time where everybody can hear the same questions potentially and also provide input.

The applicant shall also live stream the meeting so that it allows for anyone who is unable to attend the meeting at least to be able to see what's going on and hear what's going on and would be able to provide input through something right into the city staff on the project but at least they will be able to hear and see what's going on

additionally the applicant will need to provide the city with a video and auto recording of the presentation that's and subsequent questions to any discussion the applicant will need to provide for a summary of the first meeting to anyone who's attending the second meeting essentially allowing the the attendance of the second meeting to understand what went on the first meeting how did they address the question that was posed by the community and any changes or no changes that were made to the project to address those changes so that the attendance and the community can understand how the project

was or the development project and its progress Additionally, the applicant will also need to provide detailed minutes of the meeting to provide the city, provide it to the city so that we can post it on the city's website.

As relates to information material, the existing ordinance does not provide regulation pertaining to failure to provide the required information. The proposal, the applicant will need to provide the city a copy of the presentation material and video, all recording of the meeting again for the posting on the website. And if there is a lack of compliance for this, the application would be deemed incomplete as part of the process.

In summary, the amendments in our opinion is addressing the council's desire for transparency, making sure that it allows for community input early on without impacting the smaller project and really apply it to major development that would be occurring in the future. And the amendment, in our opinion, will minimize impacts to our community and our current development process. This project is exempt from CEQA based on the fact that it will not be resulting in indirectly a foreseeable physical change to the environment.

The last recommendation tonight is again for the Council to conduct a first reading in and adopt the ordinance amending section 2-153 of the Santa Municipal Code. That concludes my report. I'll be happy to answer any questions.

Jessie LopezItem 9

Thank you so very much.

Phil BacerraItem 9

Let me start with Councilmember Becerra, please. Thank you, Mayor Mesquita. First of all, Min, thank you for taking all of our input and putting it together in this ordinance. I think you've captured 99.9% of what we were asking for. What I'm going to ask my colleagues to do, and I'm just going to jump right in to make an emotion, just keep it simple and easy. There were three small revisions I'd like to make. They're nothing substantive. They won't change what you have put before us. Again, Min, you and your staff did a great job. But the three revisions that I'm going to ask for from my colleagues, actually, I'll

Phil BacerraItem 9

start, sorry, I'm going to ask one quick question. That is, Min, in 2-153C3, it references development project website. Is that referring to a website that is hosted by the project applicant, or is that the city's project website?

The city's project website.

Phil BacerraItem 9

Okay. And the reason I'm asking that is because later on in the ordinance, a couple of other subsections, you do mention the words cities project web page. And so when I saw development project website, I was a little unclear what that meant, and I didn't want to leave any ambiguity out there. So the three revisions I'm going to ask. So I guess my motion will be to approve staff's recommended ordinance changes or amendments with the following three revisions.

Phil BacerraItem 9

First would be in 2-153 to state City's project webpage as it does in subsections G5 and H, just for consistency. I would like to add to the end of the last sentence in section 2-153 to read, and the information per subsection F is provided to the city. I just want to make it clear what you need in order to proceed with deeming the resubmittal complete.

Phil BacerraItem 9

And then in 2-153G1, I'd like to remove the words at minimum so that it reads, give a single presentation. The intention there, as you stated very well in your presentation, Director Tai, is to make sure that there's one presentation. everybody's focused on that and all the attendees are receiving the same information from the same source so I just wanted to take out that those two words because I thought it left a little ambiguous so my motion is to approve

Thai Viet PhanItem 9

with those three revisions councilmember Fenn thank you I just had a couple quick questions for the so I do remember actually mayor Potem Lopez had brought up the 2,000 foot radius before when this was originally brought back. And I think for me at the time, I wasn't supportive of that only because it seemed quite far. And there's a lot of mailing, especially because we include tenants and property owners. It's not just property owners. I want to make that very clear to residents. I think a lot of folks misunderstand. We do notify tenants also.

Thai Viet PhanItem 9

My question is for the applicability of the 2,000 foot radius. I am very supportive of that, especially for our bigger projects, but 25 units seem really small. Those tend to be smaller developers.

Thai Viet PhanItem 9

How did we come up with a 25 unit number?

That number was in the original ordinance back when it was first adopted, so I don't exactly have a history on the number 25 units but I believe that it may be something that the council determined the time to be appropriate yeah cuz um

Thai Viet PhanItem 9

you know I can see how at the time 25 units 500 feet I mean 500 feet is you know from here to there and then a thousand I can see that too but 2,000 feet you can look at a lot of mailing for in multiple languages right potentially and I don't know I guess I guess I would like maybe see that number amended to go higher only for the 2,000 feet I don't know if that is something that putting you on the spot if that would be recommended or do you see a problem with that kind of amendment?

We did take a look at how the radius would impact in terms of project application, understanding the council didn't want to have this impact smaller projects. We felt that the council and the current council as well is very interested in making sure that our community is well informed. A 25-unit project is a small-sized project. However, it's enough to where it could potentially have impact outside of the property that at least residents in the area should know. So that's how we want to minimize it.

But if the council feels that we want to increase the distance, it could consider something that is in the 7,500-unit range. so that they apply to more of the larger rental products, whereas the smaller projects tends to be more of the for sale products?

Thai Viet PhanItem 9

I mean, the distinction between for sale and rental is not my issue. It's just more of, you know, if you're looking at a 25-unit project, it's typically not some, you know, international or national conglomerate coming to develop, right? We sometimes do have a lot of small mom-and-pop developers. But I think just based on what you said about potential traffic impacts and whatnot, or just impacts, I think I'll just leave it at that. My second question is relating to the availability of Spanish translation for presentations. I think that's a really fantastic idea. We should always have that.

Thai Viet PhanItem 9

I guess my request is that in areas that are heavily Vietnamese American, we're looking at the west side, the southwest side. You know, folks like my mom, when she gets a, she actually gets these notices quite a lot, actually, around where she lives in when it's not in Vietnamese or, you know, if there's not a Vietnamese available, she just doesn't know what it is. So I guess that would be my one amendment that we look at areas that are heavily Vietnamese American or where Vietnamese is spoken, that we have that option or at least that that is a requirement for development projects in that area.

So right now the way, as I mentioned, the ordinance is worded is that either the residents can request additional interpretation or the staff can also request additional interpretation. So based on your direction, what we could do is look at the different areas in our city that has higher population of different language and be able to make that request as we deem fit. I think that option is open now to the staff.

Thai Viet PhanItem 9

with the current ordinance and that makes me feel comfortable i think then i will then heavily rely on staff to make sure we do make those appropriate requests and i imagine you can probably come up with a map pretty quickly thank you oh and with that i would

Jessie LopezItem 9

second councilmember serra's motion i don't see any other speakers but you do i'm sorry that's okay jennifer do you

Jessie LopezItem 9

You push the button. Yeah. You should, too? Go ahead. I'm sorry.

No, you're fine. You're fine. So thank you for working with all of the council members to bring these changes. I am excited because some of these are what we proposed in 2021 and unfortunately didn't move forward. And I think the related project really highlighted the gaps in the Sunshine Ordinance, as I understand it. but I wanted to ask are we are we striking how many for the minimum requirement of forums that we are asking for no it's still a minimum of at least two meetings a minimum of two meetings well it requires two meetings let me

put it that way that's what I want clarification is it a minimum or are we requiring two meetings we require two meetings okay thank you for that so other than that I'm gonna be supportive I don't have any other concerns thank you

Jessie LopezItem 9

you show any other speakers I do not okay great and there was a motion and

Jennifer L. HallItem 9

then a second keep ready vote please a motion by councilmember Becerra seconded by Councilmember Fan to put the ordinance for first reading with three revisions. Revisions to sections 2.153 C3, 2.153 B, and 2.153 G1.

Jessie LopezItem 9

Great. Thank you.

Jennifer L. HallItem 9

And the vote is six ayes, no nays, with an absence by Councilmember Hernandez. Motion carries.

Jessie LopezItem 9

Okay. Okay, Council Member Fenn, go ahead. You had some corrections. You wanted me.

Thai Viet PhanItem 9

Thank you. Madam City Attorney, I wanted to bring this to you. I was wondering if we can do a motion for reconsideration on item 16. I supported the item. I do believe that Council Member Becerra's concerns with one of the vendors is a valid concern and that's why I supported it. But I am also aware, or I was wondering if we can approve that agreement, but because I understand that they do a lot of closings and grant applications and whatnot for our CDA.

Thai Viet PhanItem 9

And so I would like to move for a motion for reconsideration and then direct staff to not allow Kaiser-Marsen to provide analysis relating to policy considerations.

Sonia R. CarvalhoItem 9

So Mayor, as the chair, if you have a motion for reconsideration, it's a two-step process. We would need a motion and a second just to reopen item number 16. And then there could be a motion as if the first one was never taken and a conversation. So if the chair will entertain that, it looks like we do have a motion on the floor for reconsideration.

Jessie LopezItem 9

Yes, I will entertain it. There's a motion. Is there a second?

Sonia R. CarvalhoItem 9

I'll second.

Jessie LopezItem 16

Second.

Phil BacerraItem 16

Are there any questions? Yes. Mayor. Madam City Attorney. Ernie, so are we able, for what Council Member Fan is asking for, can we, because it's an amendment to an agreement, so it's an existing agreement. The amendment seems to be more about extension rather than changing the substance of the agreement. So what she's proposing, I think, kind of deviates and does something else.

Sonia R. CarvalhoItem 16

Yeah. So because it's a two-step process, before we would get into a conversation about the substance, you would just need to vote on whether you even want to reconsider it.

Jessie LopezItem 16

Right. We're going to vote first, and then we can have a conversation.

Jessie LopezItem 16

Let's prepare to vote, please.

Jennifer L. HallItem 16

Motion by Council Member Phan, seconded by Mayor Pro Tem Lopez to reconsider item number 16.

Jennifer L. HallItem 16

Vote is six ayes, one nay, nay by Council Member Penaloza. Motion carries.

Jessie LopezItem 16

Okay, now get into discussion.

Sonia R. CarvalhoItem 16

And then so you make a motion as to what you would want to do, and then we can talk about the propriety of that. Go ahead, Councilman.

Thai Viet PhanItem 16

So the motion is, again, I think your concerns were well founded. I understand we want to make sure that whoever we contract with, that we all up here trust in their analysis and their work. However, it seems that Kaiser Marston at this time are not providing analysis or advice relating to policy. it seems like it was a one-off issue, which was the particular issue that you had brought up, but that they're really focused on helping CDA with closing affordable housing deals, other projects, applying for grants, and that kind of work, which I think is far, you know,

Thai Viet PhanItem 16

different from the particular item that they had assisted on that raised concerns for you. And so I would like to see that we approve item 16 with the caveat that because this is an amendment with the agreement for on-call services, that we do not call Kaiser Marston Associates for financial analysis relating to policy items for the remainder of the term of the agreement.

Phil BacerraItem 16

Mayor, I would support her motion, but I want to make sure that the city attorney weighs in for my question. With this substantive change to the actual agreement versus extending the term of it, Is that something we can do?

Sonia R. CarvalhoItem 16

Yes. In each of our professional services agreements, they provide that the city may propose amendments. The first amendment is before you, so you would be making an additional amendment to the scope of services.

Phil BacerraItem 16

Just that particular vendor?

Sonia R. CarvalhoItem 16

Just for that vendor, we would amend the scope of services before it's signed by the city clerk's office and the city manager to reflect that you are cutting out just the policy type of work and doing more of the compliance work.

Phil BacerraItem 16

Okay. And with that, thank you, Madam City Attorney. I'll go ahead and I'll be supporting the motion. Thank you.

Jessie LopezItem 16

Any other comments? If not, let's prepare to vote.

Jennifer L. HallItem 16

Mayor Pro Tem Lopez has to speak. Oh, no, that's okay. Okay. Thank you.

Jessie LopezItem 16

I'm sorry. It's not showing here.

Thai Viet PhanItem 16

The motion. Mayor Pro Tem, you didn't want to speak? It's all right.

Jessie LopezItem 16

Okay.

Thai Viet PhanItem 16

It was seconded by Caldera Becerra. Oh.

Jessie LopezItem 16

Yeah, no, it was second by Mayor Pro Tem.

Jessie LopezItem 16

Okay, let's vote.

Jennifer L. HallItem 16

So the motion by Council Member Fann, seconded by Mayor Pro Tem Lopez, to approve the item as amended to replace the scope of services for the Keeser-Marston contract to not allow for financial analysis related to policy-related items.

Jennifer L. HallItem 16

And the vote is 7 ayes, no nays, motion carries.

Jessie LopezItem 16

Thank you. Okay, item 31. First reading of an ordinance amending the city manager's contracting authority. May we have staff report, please?

Yes. Thank you. Good evening, Mayor and Council members. Public Works has proposed an ordinance to increase internal contracting authority for Public Works projects and change orders. The proposal also includes my request to increase the informal and formal bid thresholds to keep pace with the higher cost of acquiring goods and services The bid thresholds were last updated in 2012. Executive Director of Public Works Nabil Saba has prepared a brief presentation for you.

Good evening, Mayor, Mayor Portem, Member of the City Council. I have a brief presentation for you on the ordinance amending contract authority.

Proposed ordinance amendment updates the bidding thresholds for all procurements to keep pace with the increasing cost of goods and services. It increases the city manager's contracting authority for public works contracts and it aligns the local vendor minimum threshold with bidding thresholds and allows for more flexibility on contracting with local vendors. Bidding thresholds are being proposed for informal bidding to be increased from $5,000 to $15,000.

For formal bidding, the increase from $25,000 to $50,000. For city managers contracting contracting authority, we're proposing for public works contracts to be increased from $250,000 to $750,000. For public works emergency contracts, we're proposing an increase from $100,000 to $750,000 for, again, emergency work. And we're also proposing a change order authority from 10% or 50,000 up to to be increased to 20% for change orders and

that concludes my presentation I'm open for any questions are there any

Jessie LopezItem 31

questions at this time yes council member family madam city attorney please stop

Thai Viet PhanItem 31

me if this is outside the scope I am very supportive of this project I think that there were some concerns in the past when something similar came forward when it wasn't and this one is more tailored to public works items so thank you I understand you know their in cost increase labor increase all those things madam city attorney am I you know able to ask that staff as a part of this approval also you know I do know we get a an agenda item that says what contracts the city city manager approves is there a public portal or anywhere that folks

Thai Viet PhanItem 31

can easily see what types of contracts or what vendor is being approved under this. There have been a lot of concerns with different agencies in which, you know, surprise, someone signing a million dollar contract or whatever it is and residents don't find out until much later. Is that possible to do?

Yes. The quarterly report of contracts does have a detailed report with all of those vendors and that we do have a check register on the city's website. We also have all the contracts available from the city's website. So it is easy for people to find this information.

Thai Viet PhanItem 31

Okay, because I've never found it before. Usually you have to do like a PRA request or something. And so maybe just as a part of our continued work and staff's continued work with transparency, let's promote that and let them know that, you know, the City of Santa Ana is not approving any contracts and backroom deals. These are all public, and we're increasing this amount to ensure efficiency and to make sure that we trust our staff time, not because anything is happening behind closed doors. And so with that, I would move to approve.

Phil BacerraItem 31

I'll second. Actually, I don't know why it's not showing on here. Apologize. Go ahead. So your motion is to approve as is?

Thai Viet PhanItem 31

Yes, and just encourage direct staff, encourage staff to highlight the fact that we have these items online and make it accessible to residents.

Phil BacerraItem 31

So you're okay with the $750,000 threshold?

Thai Viet PhanItem 31

Yes.

Phil BacerraItem 31

I think one of my favorite staff responses ever in the history of being up here was when Director Saba, the last time this item came before us, very coolly said, well, I can use a million dollar threshold. And given the amount of work and the cost of the work that Director Saba and his team deals with, I completely respect that. I am looking at the comparison from the other cities. I would actually like to make a sub-motion to increase it up to 500,000 instead of the 750. In looking at the comparison in the chart, in the staff report, we would be more in line with three of the four cities if we did that.

Phil BacerraItem 31

So my motion would be to go up to $500,000 for the public works contracts. And then for transparency, what I would like to do is add a new subsection C to 2-748 to require that all contracts approved by the city manager are posted on the city's website. And that the website allows for users to search for certain words, phrases, and dollar amounts. I know that there are some cities here in Orange County that just post the city manager signed contracts online. I want to make sure that we can actually search and so that people have a more efficient way

Phil BacerraItem 31

to find something if they're looking for something when it comes to that. But that would be my sub motion at this point.

Jessie LopezItem 31

And I will, is there any other speakers? I don't see. Mayor Pro Tem. Mayor Pro Tem. Go ahead. I'll wait until you're done.

Yeah, thank you. I'm so sorry. Did I hear you correctly that you want to increase public work contract to $500,000? Right now. Because it's being proposed at $750,000.

Phil BacerraItem 31

Right, so I want to bring it to $500,000. You want to bring it down.

Sorry, yes.

So I'm not supportive of bringing it down because with inflation and how backed up production lines are, supply and demand, I really think that this is going to be productive for the department. And I do wholeheartedly trust the department. I don't think you're going to put us in a weird predicament or misuse dollars. So I'm fine with the transparency part, but I'm also fine with the current dollar amounts that are being proposed by staff.

Jessie LopezItem 31

Are there any other comments?

Jessie LopezItem 31

Okay, so I'm going to support the 500,000. I'm not going to die on the sword. I don't think Council Member Becerra will either, but I won't speak for you. My thing is transparency. So in looking at other cities, there's only one city that puts them out there where it says signed by, approved by, city badger on their website, and that's San Clemente.

Jessie LopezItem 31

there's an actual site you can go look as you all know so we do post it but it's not easy to find as the other as my peers appeared indicated excuse me as the council members had indicated so for me it's very important to be transparent so it's not a trust issue it's not any of that and the bill does a phenomenal job it's just about if i'm a community member and i want to see what has been approved by the city manager then I could just click on it it's easy to find it's right there pops up and it says you know approved by city manager

Jessie LopezItem 31

here are the contracts I'm supportive of that I it's very important that our community has that ability to do that without submitting the PRA and saying you know we're gonna wait three weeks to get that back or three months the other Another issue is that a lot of times people will say, well, who signed for that? Or where did that come from? Or I'll have to send an email out as the mayor up here and be like, where did this come from? So quarterly reports to me, and I'm just asking for me, and I don't know if the council wants it, but I know you do a quarterly report.

Jessie LopezItem 31

If you can send them monthly, especially now that she'll be having the ability to sign for $750,000. No, it's not millions of dollars, but I need to feel that I'm fiscally responsible, and I am the fiscal watchdog. We all are up here, and it's not about a lack of trust. She does a great job. However, if there's a question, I need to be able to answer that. When was it signed? Why was it signed? Who signed it? And I get a lot of that, like, who authorized that and I'll say well the city manager well who gave her authorization well she can do certain things and then we start talking about

Jessie LopezItem 31

being a charter city and things of that nature but I think for just transparency purposes for the community it's really important that it be put on our website it's easy to find like I said I don't know if you you know put it a different color but I do appreciate the fact that it is on there already it's just not identified is signed by the city manager so I'm sure our IT department can make it easier red button flashing or something I don't know signed by city manager so I'm gonna support the sub motion the councilmember Bacera Jennifer do you see any other people who want to speak any council members okay so let's

Jennifer L. HallItem 31

vote on the sub motion please so the sub motion by councilmember Bacera seconded by Mayor Mesquah to increase the authority for public works contracts up to $500,000. Decrease it. Decrease from $750,000 to $500,000. Yes. And then to add a new subsection 2.748C to have all contracts signed by the city manager posted on the website with search capabilities.

Jessie LopezItem 31

Yes. Let's prepare to vote.

Jennifer L. HallItem 31

The vote is four ayes, three nays. Nays by Mayor Pro Tem Lopez and Council Members Hernandez and Vasquez. Motion carries.

Jessie LopezItem 31

Thank you. Let's go to the next item.

Jessie LopezItem 31

Item 32. Thank you. First reading of an ordinance related to ceremonial street naming.

Jessie LopezItem 31

I'll wait until she comes back.

Jessie LopezItem 32

She's back, yay. All right. Madam City Manager, may we have the staff report, please?

We do, and we also have a short presentation for you that our Executive Director of Public Works will be providing.

Jessie LopezItem 32

Thank you.

good evening again ceremonial street naming ordinance amending section ix of chapter 33 three of the Santa Ana Municipal Code.

Some background. On August 2nd of 2022, City Council adopted an ordinance number NS3024 to recognize outstanding individuals or events that have made significant impact on the community through a commemorative and honorary naming of streets and intersections. On January 17, 2023, City Council directed staff to amend the ordinance. On March 7, 2023, City Council directed staff to bring this item back. Proposed ordinance amendments.

It limits the number of city blocks to a maximum of two contiguous blocks on a single street that can be designated to recognize individuals or events. It limits the number of citywide streets to one street that can be designated to recognize individuals or events. It also limits the number of sign toppers to two total sign toppers that shall be installed on either end of the section of street designated for the commemorative or honorary street naming.

This is a depiction of where the sign would be on a single block option, and on a two city block option, the signs would be at the opposite corners on the two block, like shown on the exhibit.

A recommended action is to approve first reading of an ordinance amending Article IX of Chapter 33 of the municipal code relating to the ceremonial naming of streets. That concludes my presentation. I'm open for any questions.

Are there any questions from the council members?

Valerie AmezcuaItem 32

Yes. Thank you for your presentation, Director Nabil. What type of direction are you looking for from us today?

The emitting of the ordinance would limit the number of signs per section or per block to two maximum and what we're asking of you is to approve the amendment first read for that ordinance okay and that would limit it

Valerie AmezcuaItem 32

to two yes okay with that being said and I know there's been a lot of dialogue the first ceremonial street toppers was to celebrate a resident named Helen ship who founded the Orange County Black History Parade so those street toppers are existing along the lanes of the very first Black History Parade. Given everything that we've discussed today, I'm okay with what is being presented, Director Nabil. I'll be making a motion to move the item with staff's recommendation.

Is there a second?

Phil BacerraItem 32

I'll go ahead and second.

Thank you. Any other questions or comments?

I don't see any. Jennifer, do you have? No? Okay. No speakers.

Jennifer L. HallItem 32

Let me just get the vote ready for you.

Jennifer L. HallItem 32

Council member Hernandez? Yes. For your vote? Yes.

Okay.

Jennifer L. HallItem 32

Thank you. Vote of six ayes, no nays, with a temporary absence by Mayor Omescua. Motion carries. Ordinance for first reading.

Thank you. That is going to be the end of our business calendar. We will be moving on to Councilmember requested items. Councilmember Fann.

Thai Viet PhanItem 32

Thank you, Madam City Clerk. And so this item was brought forth because Mayor Amesco and I was at an event, and one of our employees was wearing a fantastic pin, and we go, well, what is that? You know, and it turns out Madam City Manager was there. We had a lot of folks, Mary Pro Tem was there, and it was actually the Garden Grove Unified School District

Thai Viet PhanItem 33

Administrators Community Dinner, and it was really fantastic. But we noticed this pin, and we asked what it was about, and we discovered that it was a Years of Service commemorative pin. And we asked what happened to it. It was removed at some point. It just got discontinued, and I guess we'd like to just bring it back. I think it's a very, very, very small token to just commemorate. and say thanks to folks who've committed to work at city hall or with the city and and if we don't do it i'll find a way to pay for it myself and so i hope that our council

Thai Viet PhanItem 33

can support this item as well as a policy to recognize many of our employees who've been with the city for many decades thank you thank you councilmember fan councilmember hernandez

Valerie AmezcuaItem 33

yes thank you councilmember fan and mayor mesqua fully supportive of this item i'd love to see

Phil BacerraItem 33

staff bring this back to us. Any other comments? Mayor Pro Tem, I just want to express my support as well.

David PenalozaItem 33

Thank you Mayor Pro Tem Lopez and I want to thank Mayor Amesqua and Council Member Fan for agendizing this item. When I first read this I was like yeah this is easy and simple. I'm not sure why we haven't done it or apparently we did at one point but this is something that I'd like to see. So 100% supportive. I've seen this policy come back to have a formal recognizing, recognition policy for staff. I know that Ron Ono, who's now retired, was here for 50 plus years and I see a plaque outside that has his name as a memorial for his years of service. But it'd be nice if we formally

David PenalozaItem 33

recognize these employees with pins and whatever other neat things we can come

up with so thank you for that thank you the mayor has returned so i will be handing over the

Benjamin VazquezItem 33

ceremonial responsibilities back to her i too want to support this it's great to make sure we celebrate the folks that work for us and work long term and give them a you know a time and the light as we may say so thank you for bringing this forward and let's move forward

Jessie LopezItem 33

all right let's prepare to vote it's just a direction item i'm sorry it's just direction i missed that one apologize okay we are on item which one was that 31 33. all right we're on item 33 Now let's go to the next one.

You're ready for the Housing Authority, Mayor.

Jessie LopezItem 33

I'm trying to catch up here. All right. We're now recessing the City Council meeting convening the Housing Authority.

Jessie LopezItem 33

I hereby call the Housing Authority Special Meeting to order. Madam Clerk, please conduct a roll call.

Jennifer L. HallItem 33

Authority Member Becerra?

Jessie LopezItem 33

Here.

Jennifer L. HallItem 33

Authority Member Hernandez? Present. Authority Member Penaloza? Present. Authority Member Fan? Here. Authority member Vasquez? Present. Vice chair Lopez? Here. Chair Mesquah?

Jessie LopezItem 33

Present.

Jennifer L. HallItem 33

The record show all seven members present.

Jessie LopezItem 33

Are there any additions or deletions to the housing authority agenda?

Jessie LopezItem 33

There are none. Great, thank you. Madam secretary, do we have any speakers for items within the housing authority agenda? We do not. Consent calendar items one and two are before us. Does any authority member wish to make a motion and a second?

Valerie AmezcuaItem 33

I'll move the item.

Thai Viet PhanItem 33

So I, sorry, I think you don't see my request. Go ahead.

Jessie LopezItem 33

No, I apologize.

Thai Viet PhanItem 33

I wanted to make the motion consistent with our previous motion on item 16 under the city council agenda, which is to move to approve the agreements for all three contractors, but specifically to amend the Kaiser-Marsen Associates, Inc. contract to exclude their work on any policy, you know, financial analysis for policy.

Phil BacerraItem 33

And I'll second that as well.

Thai Viet PhanItem 33

Perfect. Anybody wanting to speak?

Jessie LopezItem 33

Let's prepare to vote.

Jennifer L. HallItem 33

Vote of seven ayes, no nays. Motion carries.