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0:00Read the June 6 meeting.
1,453 merged speaker turns. Unidentified speech is hidden by default; timestamps open the public recording.
Transcript
Thank you.
0:38Thank you.
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1:30Let's go.
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5:04so
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5:39This is John testing on a patio. Can you hear me?
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Yes, we can hear you.
6:00I can hear you as well. And am I coming through clearly?
6:02Very.
6:06Okay, can I ask you to please try a few of the other mics?
6:07Testing, one, two, three, testing.
6:18I can hear you. Norma, can you try the council member seats, please?
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Testing.
6:29I can hear you. Thank you, council member.
6:31Testing. Testing. Oh, I can hear you. Testing, there you go. I got this one.
6:34Testing.
6:44Sounds good.
6:46Testing Norma's mic.
6:47Sounds good.
6:49Testing presentations probably turned off.
6:54Sounds good.
6:57Testing.
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7:01Testing.
7:02Sounds good.
7:04Testing.
7:07Sounds good. All right. Thank you very much.
7:10Thank you.
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10:36Let's go.
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11:45Thank you.
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14:07Transcription by CastingWords
15:01Thank you.
15:10Let's get started.
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18:33License License License License License License License License License License License License License Thank you.
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20:45Thank you.
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21:52I love you.
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23:25License
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27:29Thank you.
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35:53Let's get started.
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36:58Thank you.
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Madam Clerk, please start the meeting. Yes, Mayor, go ahead. I hereby call the Santa Ana City Council 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 a roll call.
38:30Council Member Penaloza? Present. Council Member Fan? Here. Council Member Vasquez? Present. Mayor Pro Tem Lopez? Here. Mayor Mesquah? Present. Record show five
38:58members present in the chamber. 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 closed session items? Yes. Yes. I'd like
39:10
to announce my abstention for the first item on closed session item one relating to Dyer 18 LLC as they are a client of my employer, Brittan and Tucker, even though I've never worked on their items. And so I will not be in the room while that item is being discussed. Thank you. Great. Thank you very much. Madam Clerk, do we have any speakers for closed session?
39:28Madam Mayor, we do not have any in-person speakers or any emails, but at this time, we're going to confirm the Zoom participants if any of them are here for closed session comments. If you are here for closed session comments, please raise your hand now.
39:51Okay, we do have two. This is for the closed session items only. You'll have an opportunity to raise your hand for regular council comments once we hit that part of the agenda. So yes, Mayor, we do have three speakers related to closed session. Linda L. in SCAL.
40:07You've confirmed that it's closed session.
40:29Based on their listening to my request. Linda L. in SoCal, please unmute yourself and proceed with your comments on the closed session agenda items only.
40:33Hi, my name is Linda, and I'm here to show my support today for TNR in the city of Santa Ana.
40:46The closed session items is an existing litigation and a labor negotiation item. The time for those types of comments will be later during the regular open session of the meeting.
40:58Miguel Moreno, you have a comment on the closed session agenda items. You may unmute.
41:11debbie hamel on the closed session agenda items
41:28yeah hello can you hear me yes mr moreno hi i'm here and i in support for a neutral ground boxing
41:35This is not for, that's not a closed session item.
41:44Okay. Debbie Hamill, for closed session items only, existing litigation related to Dyer, 18 LLC, or labor negotiations with the Santa Ana Police Officers Association. Those are the only comments at this time. Any other comments will be heard during the regular open session of the meeting or during the relevant public hearing?
41:47I'd like to be called later. I'm not for these first part.
42:06Okay, thank you. Mayor, then there are no comments.
42:10Thank you. We'll now recess this portion of the meeting to consider the items listed on the closed session agenda. Thank you.
42:14License License License License License License License License License License License License License License License License License License License License License License License License License License License License session please raise your hand now.
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46:13License License License License License License License License License License License Thank you.
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49:30License License License License License License License License License License License License License License License License License License License License License License License License License License License License License License License License License License License License License License License License License License License License License License License License License License License License License License License License License License License License License License License License License License License License License License License License License License License License License License License License License License License License License License License License License License License License License License License License License License License License License License License License License License License License License License License Lic
50:09Thank you.
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55:01Let's go.
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58:58Let's go.
59:28Let's go.
59:57Let's go.
1:00:28License License License License License License License License License License License License License License License License License License License License License License License License License License License License License License License License License License License License License License License License License License License License License License License License License License License License License License License License License License License License License License License License License License License License License License License License License License License License License License License License License License License License License License License License License License License License License License License License License License License License License License License License License License License License License License License Lic
1:01:18Thank you.
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1:05:58Let's get started.
1:06:56Thank you.
1:07:03I love you
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1:16:56Recording in progress
1:17:37Thank you. We'd like to call this meeting to order. We have a full house tonight, so if you have empty seats, please make some room for those if they want to sit, please.
1:18:24Tonight, it's going to be special. We have the Boy Scouts that are going to lead us in Pledge of Allegiance in a few minutes, but it's nice to have the Boy Scouts here. We should all give them a round of applause.
1:18:38At this time, I hereby reconvene the Santa Ana City Council meeting to order. This meeting is taking place with in-person attendance 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. Council Member Hernandez?
1:18:55
Present.
1:19:19Council Member Penaloza?
1:19:20Present.
1:19:22Council Member Fan? Here. Council Member Vasquez?
1:19:23Present.
1:19:27Mayor Pro Tem Lopez? Here. Mayor Mesqua?
1:19:28Present.
1:19:30The record shows six members present. Madam Clerk, before we proceed to the Pledge of Allegiance, please make any announcements. Yes, Mayor. For members of the public on 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 Raise Hand from Zoom at this time. This does not include separate public comment periods that will be held later for the budget, the zoning ordinance amendment, the Moriscos-Hectors conditional use permit, and the housing annual plan.
1:19:31Those will have separate public comment periods during their public hearings. If you wish to speak, please hold your comments until those time frames. Thank you.
1:20:02Thank you. The first item on the agenda is the Pledge of Allegiance being led by Boy Scout Troop 132. Would you all please stand?
1:20:11Yes.
1:20:21There they go.
1:20:38Coligo, attention.
1:20:49Coligo, forward march.
1:20:53Solar Guard, halt.
1:21:13Solar Guard, please present the colors.
1:21:17Salute, it's not in uniform, place your right hand over your heart. Ready, begin.
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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.
1:21:35Two.
1:21:47Quarter Guards, please post the colors.
1:21:50Quarter Guards, forward march!
1:21:54That was very wonderful. Thank you, gentlemen from the Boy Scout Troop. We really appreciate you coming out. What an honor it is to have you tonight. At this time, I'd like to call up Pastor Matt Doan from Calvary Church of San Diego. Anna for words of inspiration. Pastor, if you'd like to come to the podium, please.
1:22:23Yes, thank you, Mayor. Good evening, Mayor, City Council, City staff, and my fellow Santa Anna residents. My name is Matt Doan. I'm one of the outreach pastors at Calvary Church in Ward number three. And this month marks 21 years that I've lived in Ward three. So I'm excited to be a resident of this wonderful city. I wanted to share a verse from Romans chapter 15, verse two. It's in the New Testament of the Bible. And it's pretty simple. It just says this. It says, each of us should build up our neighbors for their good. Each of us should build
1:22:40up our neighbors for their good. And it's such an encouragement to me to think of that passage of, okay, my goal in life is not just to build up my own self, but it's to build up my neighbors and to build them up for what? To build them up, to encourage them for their good. In our family, we have four kids, my wife and I, and occasionally at the dinner table, there's a disagreement about something and everyone is passionate and has their opinions and ideas. And we have this saying in our family, we say, okay, let's take a step back. We all want the same thing. We just have different
1:23:14opinions of how to get there. And so I think that's even true of us in the city, right? We all want the same thing. We want to build up our neighbors. We want the best, the good for our city. Sometimes we have different opinions and ideas of how to get there, but I think it's great to be able to step back and realize, okay, the common thing we have is we want the best for each other. We want to have good for our neighbors. So I want to encourage us with that, and I'm going to pray in my God's name, Jesus Christ, and invite you guys if you'd like to join me. So let's pray.
1:23:47Heavenly Father, I thank you for this evening that we can gather together as city officials and leaders and residents. And God, we can look not just for our own good, but the good of our neighbor. And so God, may that truly happen tonight. May we build up, encourage one another. God, thank you that ultimately we all want the same thing, to help one another. And so God, give wisdom to our council, give wisdom and grace to each of our speakers. We pray this in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen. Thank you, everybody.
1:24:20Madam Clerk, are there any additions or deletions to the City Council agenda at this time?
1:25:04Just a notation that an updated agenda was posted on May 31st to standardize the print PDF and HTML versions of the agenda and also to note that the approval of the budget will require five affirmative votes.
1:25:09Great, thank you. At this time, we're going to do the first presentation by Mayor Pro Tem Lopez, Moms Demand Action.
1:25:22
Good afternoon, everyone. We are here presenting a proclamation in recognition for National Gun Violence Awareness Day, which happened last Friday. And Monsumat Action will be accepting this proc tonight. So this proclamation declares Friday, June 2, 2023 as the first Friday in June to be National Gun Violence Awareness Day. Gun violence, as many as you know, is a national public epidemic that exacts a substantial toll on the United States society and our families.
1:26:21And it includes in a range of violence from homicides to attempted suicide to suicides and unintentional death and injury. And we are accompanied, as I said, by Momsomant Action, which was founded by Shannon Watts, a mom of five, after the tragic Sandy Hook incident. And they utilize evidence-based strategies to raise awareness about the impacts of gun violence. And their advocacy efforts have played a significant role in passing gun safety legislation at both the state and the federal level.
1:26:55And through their collective role, their voice, they ensure that policymakers prioritize the safety of our communities. And they provide education on responsible gun ownership, support survivors of gun violence, which I think so many other local jurisdictions need to work on, and promote safe storage practices to prevent accidental shootings and suicides. And as you'll recall, the majority of this council has supported promotion of safe storage ordinances. And gun violence prevention is not a partisan issue, it is a matter of public safety and human lives.
1:27:30And Moms Demand Action brings people from diverse backgrounds together transcending political boundaries to create a united front against gun violence. And so their nonpartisan approach emphasizes the common goal of protecting families and communities. And support for gun violence prevention measures is widely supported by Americans. According to multiple surveys, a significant majority of Americans, including those that own guns include gun owners supporting background checks closing loopholes and implementing other measures that would help prevent gun violence and so our
1:28:07moms amplify this collective voice and channel it into actionable change and you can help them also by contacting your congressperson your people that represent you at the state level and at the local level and we're recognizing moms again because it is really crucial that we support organizations and get involved with organizations like mom demand action that work tirelessly to advocate for the ending of gun violence in our communities and so we want to thank our fearless moms for all that they do in our community and making sure that all members of our society are protected and so we just thank you for
1:28:49your contributions to not Sanana, Orange County, California, but to the state and to the country and your commitment to educating us all on gun violence. And so the city of Sanana proudly proclaims June 2nd, 2023 as National Gun Violence Awareness Day and we present this proclamation to Moms Demand Action for their work, promoting efforts to prevent the tragic effects of gun violence and to honor and value human lives. and we have lit the water tower orange in honor of those who have lost their lives and those who have survived and so with me our local residents and I'll ask
1:29:30Patricia to share a couple words thank you so much councilmember good evening
1:30:09my name is Patricia bow I'm a volunteer leader with Orange County moms demand action for gun sense in America America's largest grassroots organization working to end gun violence. We have more than 10 million supporters nationwide. I'd like to thank Councilmember Lopez and the entire Santa Ana City Council for declaring June 2nd as National Gun Violence Awareness Day. This helps raise awareness about America's gun violence epidemic and with more awareness we hope comes more action. The first weekend in June is known as Wear Orange and it is dedicated to honoring the lives of people in the United States impacted by
1:30:14gun violence and elevating the voices of those demanding an end to gun violence. Orange, also the color of gun safety, symbolizes the value of each person's life and we wear it to honor those killed or wounded by gun violence. We wear orange to call for an end to America's gun violence epidemic. The tragic fact is more than 120 people every single day are shot and killed in America. More than twice that number are shot and wounded every single day in America. Not to mention the countless numbers of people who are forever traumatized as a witness
1:30:54to gun violence or as a loved one of someone who's been shot. And most of these daily tragedies never make the headlines especially when we're talking about gun violence in black and brown communities. We've all heard about the terrible mass shootings in Uvalde in El Paso Texas, in Buffalo New York and closer to home here in California in Half Moon Bay, Seal Beach, Orange, Laguna Woods. And while these highly visible tragedies gained a lot of attention, Latinx and black people in the United States are dying from gun violence every day and at rates disproportionate to their white peers. More than half of
1:31:34Americans have either been directly impacted by gun violence or know someone who has been. And horrifically, tragically, preventably, guns are the leading cause of death for children and teenagers in America. More than car accidents, more than accidental poisoning, more than cancer, it is guns that are killing our nation's children. We also know that hate crimes are on the rise. The vast majority of hate crimes are directed against communities of color, religious minorities, and LGBTQ plus people. This violence comes as these communities have been the subject of targeted attacks in the media, at events, and in government.
1:32:14Hatred, when armed, is deadly. But as incidents of gun violence have grown, so too has the movement to stop it. Moms Demand Action volunteers continue to educate, raise awareness, organize, advocate, and rally for safer communities. Together we can build a future free from gun violence. So again, thank you to Councilmember Lopez and the City of Santa Ana for helping to raise awareness about this uniquely American epidemic. Together we will remember the millions of lives taken or forever changed by gun violence and we demand action in their honor. And we're also joined tonight by the Peace and Justice Law Center here in Santa Ana and
1:32:53they do a lot of work to stop the cycle of violence with people on the ground doing the hard work in our courthouses and in our communities. Thank you very much.
1:33:33THANK YOU. THANK YOU. SO THIS PROCLAMATION IS FOR YOU.
1:33:51THANK YOU SO MUCH.
1:33:56THANK YOU.
1:34:15Councilmember Fan, you're up.
1:34:15National Immigrant Heritage Month.
1:34:19Thank you.
1:34:30Hi, good evening everyone. And incidentally, I also wear orange today.
1:34:36welcome I am here to declare the city of Santa Ana is here to declare June 2023 as National Immigrant Heritage Month some of you may not know but I am a refugee I was born near a Thai refugee camp three weeks after my mom and my dad fled Vietnam and we went to the Philippines and came to Santa Ana when I was about one and a half. Last year I actually think we had three immigrants on this dais and this year it might just be me now. However,
1:34:44this council, this room, this city, and this country are built by descendants of immigrants except for our Native American brothers and sisters. I'll make that clear but it is very important that we celebrate this I think that for many of us growing up as immigrants and children of immigrants it was actually a bit shameful or it was something that you were afraid to share that you didn't want other people to know about because you wanted to fit in because you wanted to speak English because you want to be a part of this American melting pot and
1:35:19that meant that you have to look the right way speak the right way and act a certain way and I'm here to say that here in Santa Ana we support all people of color all people of different national ethnic and origins and so we want to share this proclamation with Yamao so welcome thank you and so Yamao is an online literary magazine that began in 2006 and we actually met at a budget meeting that you participated in and the organization is a non-profit that started in 2016
1:35:57and strives to share or serve a wide-ranging community of immigrants and refugees with online daily of publications with a facebook page youtube channel as well as publishing hundreds of translated fictional and non-fictional works by authors from many different cultural historical and racial backgrounds. And so today the city of Santa Ana declares June 2023 as National Immigrant Heritage Month and we encourage everyone in this room to learn something new about the communities where you live, the communities where
1:36:38you are neighbors to, and let's make sure that we live and treat each other with dignity and respect and if you'd like to say a few words thank you Councilwoman
1:37:16Tai Viet Phan and the city of Santa Ana and the community here actually we've been around for a while and we publish an online edition of literary translation and directions and so forth on English to Vietnamese and vice versa Sure. We also feature mostly everyone who's known, who writes in the Spanish language, Loca, Marquez, you know, artwork by Carlo and so on and so on.
1:37:30And this is a rare opportunity for me to be here, and I hope that in the future we also who can have more joint efforts in terms of having works, writing of poetry or exhibition photography, that kind of nature, you know, for both Vietnamese and Hispanic artists and writers. And that is something that we're hoping to do more with the local riders here,
1:38:08with the help and support from everyone and also from the city council and also from the city of Santa Ana. So again, thank you very much and we hope to hear from you guys soon
1:38:50for our joint efforts together of having something to, we know about each other's creative efforts. Thank you again.
1:39:06Thank you.
1:39:44Thank you. At this time, Madam City Attorney, do you have anything to report out of closed session?
1:39:48
Mayor, Council members and members of our public, we did have two closed session items this evening. The City Council does not have any reportable action from those discussions.
1:39:54Great, thank you.
1:40:03This is the time of the meeting for the City Council to receive comments from the public on agenda and non-agenda items. Pursuant to the Brown Act, the City Council may not enter into discussion at this time. We will hear from members of those who are on Zoom and those that are physically present in the Council Chambers. Madam Clerk, can we start with those who are on Zoom, please?
1:40:06Yes, Mayor, and before unmuting the colors on Zoom, I'll make a summary of the emails that were received. We did receive seven comments on non-agenda items, two comments on item 51, the proposed community workforce agreement. Those were distributed to council and posted online for public access.
1:40:30Speakers on the queue may provide their comments on agenda or non-agenda items within the city's jurisdiction. If you are speaking on any of the four public hearings, we do ask that you hold your comments until the public hearings are commenced. When unmuted, please announce your name, ward or neighborhood that you reside in within the city of Santa Ana for the record.
1:40:47the first speaker linda l in socal please dial star six from your phone or select the microphone icon to unmute from your device and proceed with your comment hi good evening my name is linda
1:41:08from the city of santa anna and i am speaking tonight in support of the proposal on your budget regarding TNR. TNR is the right thing for the health and welfare of the citizens of Santa Ana and the cats of Santa Ana. Just to give you some statistics, one cat gives birth three times a year to about five to seven kittens. That's a total of 15 to 21 kittens in one year. By fixing one, we can prevent those 15 to 21 kittens from ending up at the oc shelter where the city is charged for
1:41:20the impound housing food and medical care which is a lot more than what it would cost to fix one cat we have an opportunity to hold a weekly uh mobile vet and that would be a wonderful option or a local vet that could take four to five neighborhood pets per day. Thank you for your time and listening.
1:42:01Next speaker, Debbie Hamill, please unmute. Proceed with your comment.
1:42:34Hi, I am also here to encourage the city to please put in a spay neuter program, either low cost or no cost to the residents of Santa Ana. myself and one other independent TNR person who lives in Santa Ana since 2020 March of 2020 we have fixed 450 cats at a cost of $43,000 to ourselves this you know and we've lost since 2020 most of the vets who would do this for us we are now forced to go to LA County or Riverside County when we trap a kitty in order to get it fixed at something that we can afford.
1:42:40There's literally no low cost in Orange County. And this is why communities are not fixing their cats. They're out roaming. They're breeding. As that woman said, one cat can produce 15. But what she didn't say was those 15 then go on to produce another 15, and it multiplies. In one year's time, one cat and her offspring can produce 1,000 cats. We are getting to look like a third world country in Santa Ana with the amount of kitties we have roaming around. And it's become the people who do TNR's responsibility or it's become our burden to take care of this for the city. We need some help.
1:43:20We need some choices of where we can get kitties fixed at a reasonable cost or low cost or no cost. So do the residents. Please, please pass that in the budget. Thank you.
1:43:56Anne Gildersleeve, please unmute and proceed with your comment.
1:44:09hi thank you for considering this i have been trapping in the city of santa anna for the last four to five years i started in a business community that was industrial and later moved into more residential areas within santa anna it started with a call from a resident that there were kittens dying in a yard next door so my rescue partner and i went out and tried to save them but unfortunately help came too late for these kittens it was deplorable conditions um it was
1:44:15not really the fault of the resident who lived in the home because these really weren't his pets they were just kittens that came into his yard with the mother and this is an all too familiar
1:44:51So I began fixing the cats in both the neighborhood, the residential neighborhood, and the business communities. And everyone is so grateful to me for doing this. The residents in these communities feel helpless. They can't afford to get their own pets fixed. They're on waiting lists for getting like a $25 certificate at a local home. cost vet. So they're waiting months and months and months just to get their cats fixed. Meanwhile, there are so many community cats in their neighborhoods and they, once a cat reaches
1:45:1010 to 12 weeks, and if it hasn't been touched by a human, it pretty much is feral and you won't be able to turn it. And so these cats can't really be picked up or caught and fixed. And so it then requires trapping them and it requires people that know how to do that and who are able to find the services. I will say that in the beginning, I was using the Orange County Animal Care, and when that stopped, the progress drastically was reduced. It's taken me almost those four to five years to get things in this one industrial community that is about three blocks to get it
1:45:46really under control. But I do get comments from the business owners now who say they can really see the difference that I am making and this is with me getting three cats a few times a month and at this point I have to in the beginning I was paying for this out of pocket but I can't continue doing that and so I've had to go to other counties where they do offer these free services or low cost services because there's nothing in Orange County for that but my main focus has been in Santa Ana because the need is the greatest there.
1:46:26I've also noticed in the communities there that a lot of the residents let their cats roam outside. I think other communities have brought their cats inside mainly because of coyotes.
1:47:03Ma'am, your time is up.
1:47:18Next speaker, Adrian Hernandez, please unmute and proceed with your comment.
1:47:22I just want to make sure that it's Adrian Henderson, not Hernandez.
1:47:30Henderson, yes, I apologize.
1:47:34Okay, no problem. I trap in all cities and I found that Santa Ana is one of the most dense populations of stray and feral cats out of all the cities that I trap in. I just want to come on and express my gratitude to all those that are trapping and spending all their hard earned money on TNR. I would like the city to please include in the budget a TNR program and to also do whatever it is that you can to advocate for the OC Animal Care Shelter to be opened to the public, as well as implementing the TNR program there as well, which will help out with the city budget a lot.
1:47:36Not only am I an advocate and volunteer in the TNR community, I am also a property manager. And I represent about four to five different property owners in Santa Ana that all have multiple properties each that I am constantly at. And I'm constantly being seen how much we really do need TNR just at specific colonies that are being fed. um and I I greatly appreciate all of you guys putting the time and effort into this um um
1:48:18basically uh need that we have for the city and I please urge you to vote for putting that budget that money in the budget 14 on thank you
1:48:55Sylvia Hernandez please unmute and proceed with your comment
1:49:08Ms. Hernandez?
1:49:22Caller ending in 079.
1:49:27Please unmute dial star six from your phone.
1:49:37Hi, my name is Deanna Shapiro, and I'm with Second Chance Pet Adoptions, and I've been doing cat rescue for the last 22 years. Second Chance gets more requests for help with cats from residents of Santa Ana than any other city in Orange County. From June of 2021 through April of 2023, we paid $15,846 to spay or neuter 159 cats from Santa Ana residents or community cats that were trapped in Santa Ana as part of our Trap Neuter Return Program.
1:49:41Unfortunately, due to lack of donations and financial support, we had to stop both programs in April. And at that time, we were paying to help trappers with three active community cat colonies in Santa Ana who were bringing six to ten cats a week for spay or neuter. Now, each of those colonies still had about 30 cats needing to be spayed or neutered when our program ended. So I'm sure those cats are still out there. With the average Orange County spay price of $350 a cat, most pet owners can't afford to spay or neuter their pets, which has accelerated the cat population crisis in Santa Ana.
1:50:18Also, it takes two to four months to get appointments for spades and neuters in Orange County. I am urging you to start and fund a weekly trap neuter return program for the cats in Santa Ana and also to start a low-cost spay or neuter program for your residents. Those two programs are desperately needed to humanely decrease the cat population in Santa Ana and rescues and trappers need the help as well. Thank you.
1:50:59Meredith Kirby, please unmute and proceed with your comment.
1:51:39Hello, can you hear me?
1:51:47Yes, please go ahead.
1:51:49Hi, my name is Meredith Kirby. I am not a resident of Santa Ana, but i am on the board of oc community cats we are a non-profit in north orange county and central orange county and our specialty is helping the community with their community cats and with trap neuter return for those of you who don't know what tnr means it's trap neuter return so So I can tell you that we have been receiving help requests. We get them from all over the county. I would say we probably average 8 to 10 each day.
1:51:51And probably three or four of those are from Santa Ana. Unfortunately, we do not have enough people to go out and help with every help request, but we do what we can. years ago there was a trap neuter return program in Santa Ana I do not remember the organization that had it that it has been gone for a while and then we had a program through OC Animal Care and it was a great benefit for the cats of Orange County and in Santa Ana because people could bring cat bear and get it fixed and vaccinated and it would be returned to where it was trapped
1:52:32at the beginning of covid oc animal care has continued that program and they have not brought it back so this has put a tremendous burden on individuals some of whom have already spoken to tonight and the non-profits everything is getting pushed on onto the us non-profits are volunteer run we operate on donations okay second chance has already you know mentioned that they cannot continue their program because of lack of funding we cannot manage it either because of lack
1:53:14of funding and lack of resources so um there are people here tonight that are working on trying to get something together with a mobile vet that can service the people of santa anna and their animals this is a people problem okay this is cats can't help it they're instinctual So this is a people problem, people letting their pets out, unfixed, people moving away, people can't afford to get their cats vet care. And cats are much, much more mobile than dogs. Cats can climb.
1:53:54They're more mobile than dogs, so they tend to get around more and they tend to breed more. I encourage the city of Santa Ana to please consider putting in their budget funds to help with a trap neuter return program. And in addition, I think. Ma'am, your time is up.
1:54:33Next speaker, Lorena Bursiaga, please unmute and proceed with your comment.
1:54:55Good afternoon. I don't know if you can hear me. Yes, go ahead. I am also requesting that you help us with the trap neuter as an independent trapper and as a rescuer. I'm with the rescue and we're constantly getting bombarded with kittens. As a matter of fact, I'm waiting for a mommy with eight kittens that was dumped at the railroad tracks because people cannot afford to fix their animals. We just need help. So, job for us, for the animals. Thank you, appreciate it.
1:55:03That's all I have to say. Sylvia Hernandez, please unmute and proceed with your comment.
1:55:36Ms. Hernandez?
1:55:47Mayor, that concludes the Zoom speakers that were in the queue by 6 p.m.
1:55:51That concludes the Zoom calls. At this time, we are going to move forward with the cards of people that are present. I'm gonna call up two names at a time. Please come up and just stand, give each other some space. Please speak into the microphone so we can all hear you. First person is Kathy Green, please, followed by Ernesto Medrano.
1:55:57Good afternoon, or good evening, mayor and city council. I am Kathy Green. Thank you for welcoming me to say a few words about my candidacy for president of the Association of California Water Agencies. I'm here to ask for your support. Thank you for your past support for my vice president candidacy two years ago. I've had the privilege of serving as vice president of aqua since 2021 and i will continue to work on behalf of aqua members
1:56:26statewide of all sizes and types serving ag rural and urban areas i'm dedicated to listening to members i plan to advance the momentum i have built as aqua vp on key initiatives including advocating for state accountability on water infrastructure investments and policy issues spearheading the aqua council of past presidents to mentor our new aqua members and ensure they are aware of and maximizing the benefits of
1:57:04membership including advocacy and outreach and third to further aqua's economical, efficient and effective member services and support through support of sound fiscal, HR, managerial and administrative practices. I've been an active member of ACWA for over a decade, garnering numerous connections with state and federal officials and water industry leaders through serving as ACWA Vice President and through my prior work as Chair and Vice Chair of Region 10,
1:57:40as well as serving on various ACWA committees. As ACWA President, I've added three initiatives I would like to include. Reexamining ACWA dues to ensure equity for all members, strengthening the Association's ability to attract, develop, and retain top industry talent, and third, improving non-dews revenues for ACWA to relieve the upward pressure on dues. More info on my background and experience is in your packet. I welcome you to contact me at any time, and I'm happy to answer any questions.
1:58:21Thank you again for your time and attention. Thank you.
1:59:02Will you construction workers and allies please stand?
1:59:12Good evening, Madam Mayor, members of the City Council, Executive Staff, Public and Sisters, Brothers and Sisters. I'm here to speak on item 51, which is the renewal of the Community Workforce Agreement. We engaged in negotiations with city staff over the last several months when you directed the staff to renegotiate the agreement based on the expired agreement. I regret to inform you that we unfortunately were unable to reach a mutually agreed upon tentative agreement. Tonight's staff will be aiming for you to approve their unilaterally proposed CWA draft agreement.
1:59:17We are respectfully requesting that you reject their proposed draft and amend with our proposed language in the chart provided to you and the letter that was submitted to you the letter sent to you have both draft agreements the city staff and building trades recommended version for your comparison also in the letter that includes other cities that have the threshold amounts and as you could see the standard threshold for the multi-pring trade amounts vary anywhere from 125 000 to 750 000. our chart shows that our proposals within the range that we propose in all of our agreements
1:59:50The city staff proposal of 2.5 million dollars and 1 million dollars shall limit significantly the number of hours that we can work with local residents and veterans. Those are the folks that we dispatch out of our hiring halls. We also reject the inflation indexing proposed by the city staff. None of our agreements have this language and it is not necessary. So again, we respectfully urge you to amend staff's agreement by replacing it with our language, which is $750,000 for prime multi-trade contracts and $100,000 for specialty trade and delete the language indexes for inflation. Thank you.
2:00:25Kenny Williams followed by Doug Magione.
2:01:13Please come up and line up, please.
2:01:18City Council, Madam Mayor and staff, I'm Kenny Williams from the Communication Workers of America. We represent AT&T, Verizon, and Frontier employees here in Orange County. I also am and the president of the Orange County Labor Federation, representing 276,000 workers and 97 unions. We strongly recommend that the City Council reject staff's recommendation for the Community Workforce Agreement. It is kind of perplexing to us because this will create less high-paying and union jobs than it would create good-paying and high-wage jobs.
2:01:29It will keep people working in Santa Ana. The residents, your constituents, will keep them working as opposed to sending them out of Santa Ana to work. When they live and work in Santa Ana, they spend their money here in Santa Ana. Many of these folks are here in this room. It's good for residents. It's good for families. They have apprenticeship programs where they can make a living wage job without college debt. I don't know how many parents in here got college debt, but I sure do, and I can tell you. and my daughter does too, it is a blessing to be able to make a living without being way, way in debt.
2:02:10I urge you to reject the staff's recommendation and to replace it with the building trade's recommendation to protect the workers and to protect the families that want to live and work here in Santana.
2:02:46Hold on one second, Mr. Mangione. Stay right there, please. I'd like Tony Flores to line up next so that we can go through the cards, please. So if you're present, please line up behind Mr. Mangione. Go ahead.
2:03:13Hi. Madam Mayor, Council, my name is Doug Mangione. I'm here speaking on behalf of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers. We represent 2,400 skilled and trained electricians right here in Orange County. Our organization was started in 1928 right here in the great city of Santa Ana and our apprenticeship is still located in a brand new building in the city of Santa Ana. We urge you to reject the staff's recommendations and urge you to support the building trades version and recommendations. We want, as Kenny eloquently said, our apprentices, we want to work in all the different jobs, not just the big jobs.
2:03:26They need to get they need to get training everywhere and this is going to limit the amount of apprentices We're going to spend by by limiting the type of jobs that they're going to work on so again I'll be brief. Please reject the staff's Recommendations that go with the building trades. Thank you very much
2:04:07after mr. Flores is hot thing a one Nally I'm sorry if I pronounce it wrong it's local four three three followed by Lindsay go ahead mr. Flores good evening
2:04:34mayor a mesquite and fellow city council members my name is Tony Flores representative with the Office of Assemblymember Avellino Valencia who represents the 60th Assembly District here in Central Orange County and at this time I will be reading a letter of support on item 51 on the city agenda and it has also been submitted to our city's clerk
2:04:48dear madam mayor Amesqua mayor pro temp Lopez and city councilmembers I write in support of the Los Angeles and Orange County's building and construction trades councils community workforce agreement with the city of Santa Ana CWA provides employment opportunities for local residents to gain access to skilled jobs and pay prevailing wages when local resident is employed in their community they are able to reinvest their local in their local economy and decrease traffic
2:05:15congestion on highways thus leading to an improved quality of life for these reasons above I encourage the support of the building trades renewed recommended agreement in service assemblymember Avellino Valencia thank you so much
2:05:51hello good evening mayor and city council members you know Kenny hit it on the head. You know, when we spend time in our community helping to build our community, you know, we spend money in our community, you know. I like what the pastor was talking about, agreements and disagreements at the dinner table. Man, I wish I had that, but usually when I get off work, by that time everybody's asleep because I work out of town. So, you know, it's definitely hard to make it to baseball games and basketball games. I got a 12-year-old and a two-year-old and a wife at home that watches them.
2:06:14Which is why we're asking for you guys to reject the city staff recommendation and replace it with the building trades recommended proposal. Just so we're able to spend time with our families and build a future with our families. I mean, that's what I call the American dream and I want to be a part of that so bad. So thank you so much for your time.
2:06:48Lindsay, can you give me one second, please? After Lindsay is David Suarez followed by Brian Germain. Go ahead, Lindsay.
2:07:17Good evening. My name is Lindsay. I'm a Santa Ana resident here on behalf of the Ironworkers Union Local 433. I'm representing my union and also my sisters, too.
2:07:24I'm here for the CWA OC Building Trade Proposal. I'm a first-generation Mexican-American from my family. I started this trade as a fabricator, pipe pitter, to now a power union iron worker. I work in different states, cities, just like my brothers and sisters. I would like for this proposal to pass and would love nothing more to give back to my home, my community, Santa Ana.
2:07:36By building and making the city grow, and I also see people from the trade right here with their kids and just like my brother said earlier you know what more would we like to be part of this and have our community grow not just that but I also come from the background from my dad he's a union worker too and as a small kid my dad you know we would pass by buildings any buildings and he would be like hey you know what I built that and I would love for them to have the same thing with their family and instead of driving two hours or different states we would like to be closer with their family and friends and as a resident I
2:08:03would like to see our community grow union being built and having more time with their family like I said and that's all I gotta say thank you
2:08:42David Suarez followed by Brian Germain thank you my name is David Suarez I'm in
2:09:01Ward 3. My wife Martha and I purchased our home at Morrison Park in 2018. We did so because we love the architecture in Santa Ana. We're actually from Florida. The home we purchased already had a guest quarter, so we planned on using that for our out-of-town relatives to visit us and to use it as a short-term rental to supplement our retirement. At the time, the income we made from it paid for our $12,000 property tax bill. We're now retired and actually live in the guest quarters during part of the year, and we rent the remainder of the home to families that are visiting Disney during the remainder of the year.
2:09:08Those families rent homes like ours because they don't want to stay in a hotel. It doesn't fit their needs. If they don't stay in a home in Santa Ana like ours, they would stay in Orange or Anaheim or Placentia or any other places that have regulations for short-term rentals. This income helps us maintain and even update our home. For instance, we recently were awarded the most beautiful yard award in Morrison Park, and this year it helped us put a new roof in our home. However, last month we received a cease and desist letter from the Santa Ana Planning Commission,
2:09:47which we believe is illegal as the city is acting contrary to well-established case law. It's ignoring the political process to actually pass a law through this city council to regulate home sharing. The city's planning commission's approach is opposite to what has now been repeatedly found in the courts across the entire country, which is that home sharing is a type of residential use that is permissible. If we are unable to share our home to traveling families, as the planning commission is demanding that we don't, we would not have the financial means to properly care for our 1950s home.
2:10:24So we're asking the City Council to please put regulation in place that allows short-term rentals that bring a benefit to the community without imposing an all-out ban on it. This would allow the Planning Commission to properly enforce written regulation that addresses the city government's wishes on short-term rentals. So thank you so much for hearing me out.
2:11:06Thank you.
2:11:33Good evening. My name is Brian Germain. I'm a resident of Santa Ana in Ward 3 and I come to you tonight as a representative of my local union of Sheep Metal Workers Local 105. I come in support of the building LA OC Building Trades Council proposal. It supports our community and it allows me to get out there and support our community as well as we include residents into a program a pathway a career pathway that That doesn't just mean us who are already in it, but it includes many of those who are
2:11:48looking to get into a career path such as the one that the Building Trades Council proposes. So with support of the Building Trades and my other local union representatives that are here, I ask for you to extend your support and deny the staff proposal and go with the LAOC Building Trades proposal. Thank you. have a good night
2:12:26Luis Aleman followed by John Hanna
2:12:56good afternoon madam mayor my member pro temp my name is Luis Aleman I'm a proud resident of Ward 3 here in the city of Santana and I'm also like our president Kenny Williams speaking on behalf of the Orange County Labor Federation encouraging you to support the community workforce agreement with proposed language from the LLC building trades. Santana is a city renowned for progress for supporting working-class families and the current proposal by staff disrespects that progress and we want to make sure that in a city like Santana where we have two schools that feed kids directly to that apprenticeship
2:13:05program pipeline, we make sure those kids have a good pass to the middle class without any college debt, well if you agree with the city staff proposal you are kneecapping the future workers and future homeowners of Santana with that language. And so we strongly encourage you to support the language of the LALCO building trades, approve the community workforce agreement, make sure Santana keeps moving in the right direction, and make sure that we can keep saying that Santana is a worker-proud city. Thank you.
2:13:38Madam Mayor, council members, city staff, like all the carpenters in the building, stand up please. But you can sit down now because you've been working all day.
2:14:16I just want to join this amen chorus. I think the carpenters are in support of Ernesto Medrano's in the LA Orange County Building Trades proposal. I respect the staff for trying to maybe get a good bargain. Sometimes there's frustration in negotiations and the response is just to throw down the the low ball offer because they couldn't reach the agreement that they thought was effective. But I think we're kind of looking at this the wrong way.
2:14:32I think I go back to 2004 and when I was then with Rancho Santiago Community College District, as I still am, And Ron Miller and Ernesto Medrano had successfully negotiated with the County of Orange a community workforce agreement for the county. Rancho Santiago was the second public entity that entered into that. And when we entered into that, the staff wasn't there to try to minimize the participation of those in the agreement.
2:15:10The staff was there and the board members gave the direction. Let's try and make it as inclusive as possible with the people who are paid a living wage, with the people who have health insurance, so we're not subsidizing those companies that don't provide health insurance. The people who have a pension, so we're not subsidizing companies who don't pay their workers a pension. Let's try to do that. but the other thing we did is we wanted to make sure there was a strong local hire and you know we kind of went at it with ernesto and ron but we reached an agreement the second
2:15:49time we had one in 2000 after the 2012 election and that's what the city really should be doing let's not try to minimize the participation here let's try and encourage the city the school district the college district to work and with the la orange county building trades and the carpenters to get more young people who live in santa anna involved in an occupation where they can afford to buy a home in the city that they were raised in please support the proposal that ernesto of the honors proposed.
2:16:29Tony Trinidad, followed by Carolyn Reyes, followed by Not the Alvarado. Please come up and line up so that we can have you go one right after the other. Tony the Trinidad, Carolyn Reyes, and Not the Alvarado. Thank you.
2:17:12Good evening, Mayor and Council members. My name is Tony D. Trinidad with the Painters and Allied Trades, District Council 36. We represent painters, drywall finishers, floor layers, and glass installers in the finishing construction industry. And we're here to speak on item 51. We strongly urge the City Council to reject the staff recommendation, CWA, and adopt the changes proposed by the Orange County Building Trades Council. This agreement doesn't just create jobs in the city. It supports careers and education opportunities for the city's residents.
2:17:33What better way to offer a career path by making sure that subcontractors have the ability to mentor and train someone? With the staff's recommendations, the city will be getting what it pays for by attracting cheap bids without state-sponsored joint labor management requirements and less quality of work with no real or effective training for the next generation. This is an opportunity for the city of Santa Ana to prioritize the needs of its constituents, and that is why we stand with the Orange County Building Trades proposed CWA agreement and hope you will do too. Thank you.
2:18:00Boozhoo, Anin. My name is Carolyn Brean Reyes, Indigenous Cause. I am a citizen of the Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa Indians in Spirit Lake, Dakota. I am an enrolled card-carrying tribal member, which I was more than happy to show you. I have lived in Orange County for 50 years and worked as a legal secretary for over 30 years. I am 74 years young. I'm here today to speak loud and clear that Nellie Legaspi is an enrolled member of the Ogualla Lakota and is Chiricahua Apache. I'm here to tell you that Ms. Legaspi is an honorable human being, and I am proud to call her my friend.
2:18:41Ms. Legaspi is an American Indian and represents herself in a good and honorable way. On another note, I come before you today to bring to your attention and to expose ethnic frauds, pretending to be American Indian people or tribes when they are not. These people are referred to as pretendians who falsely represent themselves as American Indians at every opportunity like what is happening here before you at this Santa Ana City Council meeting. Pretendians posing as American Indian nations who falsely represent American Indian cultures,
2:19:23histories, and spiritual practices falsely claim American Indian identity as individuals for profit or fame. A pretendian is a person pretending to be an American Indian and clearly is not. What distinguishes us from pretend Indians is that we have to prove, show, who our descendants are in order to be enrolled. We are the only culture that has to prove our ethnic ethnicity. We are protected by the Dawes Act. I can document my American Indian lineage as far back as the 1800s. This pretend Indian represented herself in my Chippewa traditional regalia, wearing a jingle
2:20:02dress which is sacred to my Chippewa people and is used for healing ceremonies. She was wearing this jingle dress and speaking on my Chippewa people's behalf about its cultural meaning and being paid for it. I told this pretendient that what she was doing was wrong and that this was cultural misappropriation. Our jingle dresses are not for sale and not to be worn for her monetary gain. She consequently had several of her pretendians confront me and insult me. This pretendian has repeatedly represented herself as an American Indian and she is not. If you need to vet these pretendians just ask
2:20:44them for proper identification which lists the tribal affiliation and number. Then you write to that tribal office confirm that it is authentic. That's how you keep pretendians from representing themselves to you as authentic American Indians. Miigwetch.
2:21:23Nati Alvarado.
2:21:46You're not Nati.
2:21:50Hello everybody. Hello. First of all I want to thank City Manager Rich, Mayor of Mesquite. Can you, I'm sorry, can you give us your name first? You're speaking on behalf of Nati? Yes, I'll go ahead. for not the bottom my name is Lizzie Gutierrez council members pro tem Lopez fan Vasquez Bacera Hernandez and Penalosa thank you for the opportunity to speak today my name is Lizzie Gutierrez I'm the CFO for neutral ground I am speaking on behalf of the executive director of neutral ground not the Alvarado he cannot be present tonight as he is currently in Sacramento at the state capital receiving an award for nonprofit of the
2:21:52year. Tonight we want to talk about renewal or revive funding. They have funded tour programs, Nutri-Ground Boxing Club and YBP. Revive funding was received for 22 to 23 for programs, Nutri-Ground Boxing Club and YBP. Revive funds end this month. If possible, I, Natia Alvarado, would like to request continuation of funding for these programs as they have proven very beneficial to our community or youth and families the following are details of these programs youth violence prevention is a program committed to intervening in the lives of youth and young adults who are at risk for contact with the justice
2:22:30system and to reducing recidivism for those who have already become juvenile justice involved this program consists of services such as intensive case management violence and gang prevention mentoring restore practices and mediation services, among others. The YVP program is offered on a continual basis and will continue taking referrals into the summer months as the neutral ground transitions into summer programming, summer school and summer night lights. The neutral ground boxing club program meets Monday, Thursdays and Saturdays each week. Many youth and families stay for an extra hour to finish up their exercise session.
2:23:09Neutral ground boxing maintains a steady attendance of 30 to 40 youth and families for most sessions and it's a free program to the community. Neutral Ground Boxing Club is a program that consists of boxing training as well as engaged in social emotional healing through sessions for historic circles at the end of the training each session. I, Lizzie, have also had the opportunity to do the field work and can testify of the impact we have had in our community. Personally, I work with the youth that changed the story thanks to our programs. The work we do in the community has been led by the example
2:23:44of Nati Avarado who has given us the example to always do it from the heart. I close by saying we are thankful to be part of this community and be given the opportunity to change the story for many youth. Thank you.
2:24:19Next up is Dale Helvick followed by Fernando Delgado. Please come and line up, please. After Fernando Delgado, it's Tina Davidson.
2:24:36Dale Helwig, Ward 3. Good evening, Mayor, Mayor Pro Tem, City Council and staff.
2:24:52May 29th, we reflected on Memorial Day, the people that lost their lives in war. June 14th is Flag Day coming up. July 4th, we all know about that. But what I think we've forgotten, and I noticed in the paper this morning, that's why I'm here today, is 79 years ago today was the bloodiest day in US history for the military. Over 2,500 people lost their lives on D-Day. Over 10,000 people lost their lives altogether. And I think it's about time we reflect on what they've done and what
2:24:59they're doing for us today. They've allowed us to stand up here, present our issues in an open forum with respect and dignity and I think we owe them a debt of gratitude. So I just wanted to say thank you for all those people. Thank you.
2:25:37After Fernando is Tina Davidson.
2:26:07Thank you. Hello, counsel. So first off, solidarity with the union workers who are here. I hope you listened to their proposal. Anything less would be a spit in the face of local workers here in the city of Santana. I wasn't sure if I wanted to come to speak today, but I received a phone call on my drive here from a resident. She's a trans woman, and she called to notify me that a friend of hers had been assaulted. And she wasn't sure who to call because in the past, when they have called the police, they often victim blame and they'll say well what were you doing what led to the
2:26:10assault some of the some of the members in her in her group have actually been assaulted themselves by law enforcement so they really weren't sure who to call but they know they need help so if anyone here from the city can talk to me afterwards and so I can offer some resources because that you know it's Pride Month and I'm getting the call from a trans woman saying I don't know who to call when I'm assaulted so that's just something I wanted to throw out there and also while I'm here and I love that there's a crowd here I heard a lot of people here from Ward 3, I want to just remind everybody that the landlords at the
2:26:43apartment association and the police officer association under the leadership of the crooked president Jerry Serrano are still going out in my ward and promoting lies about Mayor Pro Tem Lopez in an attempt to have her recalled from the council so that they can flip it in their favor. And if you live in Ward 3, again anyone who's here, please know that if they're knocking on your doors they're lying to you. They're paid outside canvassers who are given a script. Many of them don't even know the script. When I talk to some of these canvassers, the ones who live in Santana, they're fucking
2:27:12heartbroken when they find out that they've been collecting signatures to serve the needs of a crooked POA president who's just trying to get his bag and the landlords who are just trying to get rid of the rent control ordinance so they can continue to raise rents on tenants here in the city. so everyone who's from Ward 3 please pay attention to that and if you are available to help out please help out because they got lots of money but we got people power. Secondly, or not secondly, I got a few things sorry. I just want to just bring attention there's a coalition of young people who showed up today and
2:27:43they're here to talk about some of the priorities that they have for themselves and I really hope that you guys take heed to what they have to say because number one most if not all of them grew up in the city they know what the city needs and they're going to be the ones to inherit the city from you so it's important to hear what they want as a priority and implement that and i also did want to mention i saw that there was a candidate for the police commission who was nominated today for those who don't know i was blocked from the commission because of perceived bias this nominee herself served for i'm not sure
2:28:18how many years what i saw was about four years a volunteer with the police department she actually received an award for volunteerism and I'm sure she's a very nice lady but I don't know if that's the kind of person you want to hold police accountable when
2:28:51they're fucking up so mr. Delgado you can't use that language of children here
2:29:02please sorry thank you this is how I talk all right that's all thank you very much
2:29:06I want to apologize to those that are here with their children that language is not
2:29:18appropriate please do you know good evening distinguished council members and mayor I'm this go off thank you so much for taking good care of our city but the city is really going under some wonderful changes my name is Tina Davidson I'm the president of the Santa Ana Historical Preservation Society we very proudly maintain and show the Dr. Willella Howe Waffle House, which we love. We are an all volunteer society. Nobody gets paid. We do it from the heart because it's really, really important.
2:29:22This house is 134 years old and it was built by Santa Ana's first lady doctor. Now back then she couldn't get a job in the city hospital because she was a girl. So she built her examined treatment room into that house and this her story is absolutely amazing. I'm here asking, you just gave us money for the fence, our security fence, we can now sleep at night and it is really nice looking. We love it. Thank you so much. But I was here two weeks ago asking for money for a painter.
2:30:02We have the paint donated by Bear Paint. Thank you, Bear Paint. But we need someone to apply it. It's very, very important that we keep this house alive. Everyone seems to know the Waffle House. They just shortened it to that name.
2:30:44We need to keep it down, please, so that she can finish her comments.
2:31:04Thank you. We really do need to keep this house beautiful because of all the rain that we've had, big round patches of paint are popping off the house. And we can't have that. It has to be here for us to learn from. So we are right in the triangle of wonderful renovations. the YMCA building, the Smith-Tuttle Mortuary building, which is now going to be a kickin' crab, okay, the courthouse, and the Howe Waffle House. If we don't look good, people will not want to come here.
2:31:08We won't attract new members. People don't want to be associated with an ugly structure. they're attracted by a beautiful place, some place that they really want to come and volunteer with. So I do ask you please to fund a painter. I will take care of it. You trusted me with the fence and it's gorgeous. Trust me with the paint. It's going to be beautiful. I thank you very much for your time today. Dr. Willella, of course, her first husband, Dr. Alvin Howe, was also Santa Ana's second mayor. Though it's important, thank you so much.
2:31:49Ricardo, followed by Laura Morfin, Morfin followed by Derek Smith. Ricardo, Laura Morfin, Derek Smith. You can please come on up. Line up please. We can speak.
2:32:33Ricardo. Is Ricardo here?
2:32:52Laura? Followed by Derek?
2:32:57Okay, no Ricardo.
2:33:03Good evening, Mayor Emesqua and City Council members. My name is Laura Morfine and I'm with the Santa Yago Springs Homeowners Association. Councilman Becerra and Mayor Mezcua, we need your help. Homeless individuals are living underneath the FO2 garden channel located on Reed Street off of Edinger and Occidental. This channel is located nearby several schools and is next to the Santa Yago Springs community. We are constantly dealing with transients, trespassing, causing damage and theft. We also have to contend with graffiti and illegal dumping in this section of the channel because it is completely exposed. This has become
2:33:20an environmental issue because debris causes water to remain stagnant and it becomes a breeding ground for mosquitoes. The stench is overwhelming in the summertime. This is when the bike trail along the channel is utilized the most. I have been in communication with our city manager, our Public Works Director, and Councilman Becerra since March regarding the need to install safety fencing, and I keep being referred back to the county. It's extremely frustrating. After much research and communication with the county's director of operations, I learned
2:34:00that on September 25th, 2012, the county and the city of Santa Ana entered into an agreement allowing the city to construct and maintain the bikeway slash pedestrian trail. I have provided you with a portion of this agreement and have marked the pertinent information along with some photos and a couple of the packets. I understand that the county manages the channels, the inside of the channels, but not the partition where the city has the agreement with them. Totally different, two different things in this agreement the city acknowledges in so many words
2:34:34that the purpose of the agreement is to protect the safety health and welfare of the public recreation improvements include landscaping and frenzing right now there are many overgrown weeds and even a mattress that you can't see in the photo because of the overgrown weeds it also states that the city shall maintain the premises so as to assure that pollutants do not enter the facility or the channel. In closing, right now the city is behaving just like the school district on the issue of crossing guards, both pointing their fingers at each other. The city needs to improve their communication with the county to
2:35:10resolve this matter and perhaps funding for this improvement project can come from the 1.4 million utilized for the once a year winter village event. I look forward to working with you to develop a plan of action to develop to resolve this ongoing issue thank you very much for your time good night mayor
2:35:49
before we continue Nabil could you speak with Laura to help her address the
2:36:12issue thank you so you can do that outside there because people are going to speak to me so after Derek is Roger Chavez followed by Nellie Legaspi if you
2:36:17can please line up and be ready. Go ahead, Derek. Thank you. Good evening, Mayor, Mayor Pro Tem, City Council, City Staff. My name is Derek Smith. I'm the Political Director for UFCW Local 324, representing 22,000 retail workers in LA and Orange County. On behalf of my union, I want to express our unequivocal support for the Council approval of the Community Workforce Agreement proposal, provided that the Council adopts the LA Orange County Building Trades a proposal to lower the prime trade multi-trade threshold at 750,000 and the prime specialty
2:36:28threshold at 100,000. This council has been nothing short of heroic on issues affecting our membership for the last few years. It's on top of my list of cities that I can consistently count on to prioritize the welfare of workers but also to accept the responsibility to be a county leader and pushing the standards for working families it occurs to me the sensibility doesn't come from a liberal or progressive notion of wanting to do good but it comes from a pragmatic notion of wanting to do what's right for this residents of Santa Ana a hundred and
2:37:02or 1,500 members of ours live in this city, which is more than any other city in the county. And I can't speak authoritatively about the number of construction workers in Santa Ana, but I suspect it's similar. Lowering the threshold from the staff recommendation does not simply result in more union jobs, but it results in better access for Santa Ana residents to have access to these union jobs. The husbands or wives of grocery workers who are construction workers who are going to benefit by this improved policy. That's both progressive and pragmatic.
2:37:41Tonight, we urge you to continue to lead the county and pass a community workforce agreement that we can all be proud of and one that benefits the residents of Santa Ana. Thank you.
2:38:18hello my name is Roger Chavez and I was born and raised here in the water wonderful city of Santa Ana and I'm here to represent neutral ground boxing club which is located at the life center church which is a Christian church and I'm here in support of it I love taking my children there My kids love going when I have time to go there. And it's a free organization to where everybody here can show up, and they'll train you for free even as well as their kids. Praise God for that, right? Where's a place where all that can go down with boxing training, knowing everything's expensive these days. So I'm here. I'm all for that. So I pray.
2:38:38I hope for more funding to get sent that way and more support from you guys to represent this wonderful city that I was born and raised in. Thank you very much. God bless. Yeah. Good job.
2:39:10Nally, followed by Heidi Lucero, followed by Louie Medina.
2:39:24Good evening, Madam Mayor, City Council members who are still here. To the residents of Santa Ana, the city staff, and all my union brothers and sisters, Tuska. Here tonight I'm talking about Indigenous Peoples Day. Yes, I'm going to sound like a broken record again. The day is not about one person. It's not about me, it's not about anybody else. It's about the community. First Nations people and Indigenous people are all welcome. And I hope to see all our brothers and sisters there from the unions as well as the residents of Santa Ana. The event is planned to be special.
2:39:31It's planned to be a big hug from not just your city, your council members, but myself and those who work with me. I have been attacked for other reasons, which is not important. What's important is my goal for that day. We welcome everybody to participate, to everyone to come out in a good way. We are not there to seek trouble or problems. We're there to make our city look good. On Friday, I was a guest at the Native American, uh, uh, City, Business Commerce, I can't talk tonight, uh, commission for, um, businesses, for small businesses that are Native American with Southern California Edison Gas Company.
2:40:05and we were able to get two sponsors that want to come out, Southern California Edison and a local business that runs a zoot shoot shop in Fullerton. They want to help sponsor the event. So my purpose there was not about me. It was about getting support for us. And so I'm inviting all our businesses in Santa Ana to come out and have a vendor booth, be a part of it so we can boost them up. The performers that we have, I can't speak about yet as much as I'd like to, but I promise you it's going to be amazing. And it's to lift them up as well. And it's to lift my council members, all of you up, so that we can show how about a great
2:40:41city we have in Santa Ana. Anyone that knows me knows I believe in this community. Anybody that knows me from the unions when I was organizing knows if I believe in something, I'm going to advocate for it. I'm going to represent it in the best way I possibly can. And that is my commitment to you as your personnel commissioner and chairwoman. For the community that doesn't know, personnel commission oversees the hearings for the city staff and police officers when they have discipline or termination. We are looked upon to do what's right for the community as a whole and protect the community
2:41:13and make sure that the officers and the employees' rights are protected as well. That's what we're about. And the staff knows me very well. They know what an advocate I am for doing the right thing. So my commitment for Indigenous Peoples Day is to make sure our city shines bright. We will be in the football field at Santa Ana College. We have full support from the college district board as well as the president. I was able to be a guest at the graduation on Friday, and that was such a privilege to be there amongst Supervisor Sarmiento and other representatives from other cities.
2:41:42And that capacity, how I conduct myself is what people see of our city. So I'm always committed to make sure that I do it in a good way. And I promise you Indigenous Peoples Day is going to be bigger than last year. We're not going to let nothing get in our way because we're going to be seeking out to the population of the community college. Thank you. Good night.
2:42:11Heidi Lucero and Louie Medina.
2:42:34My name is Heidi Lucero, and I am the duly elected tribal chairwoman for the Juan Ano Band of Mission Indians at Hashemun Nation, the indigenous people of Orange County. I've come here tonight to address a couple of issues that are concerning my tribe, the Native American community in Orange County, and myself. First and foremost, I represent the only Wananyo Band of Mission Indians Ahasemun Nation with just over 2,000 members that are proven lineal descendants.
2:42:41Second is the tribe is open to working with any and all entities that come in a good way and show respect to the tribe and its members, especially within our tribal territory of Orange County. The tribe is currently working with Commissioner Legaspe on several initiatives within the city and in Orange County and making history with the initiatives that we're working on, including Indigenous Peoples Day, the Land Back Initiative, Land Acknowledgements, Title VI Indian Education, and more. And last Friday, we gave the Land Acknowledgement and Ceremonial Prayer for
2:43:17Santa Ana College their commencement at Angel Stadium that was history lastly I would like to address last meetings addressed by Lupe Lopez Lupe Lopez is creating havoc within not only my tribe but with many Native Americans in Southern California in fact she not she's not Native American at all, and she doesn't represent my tribe like she does, like she says she does. She continues to harass tribal members, elders, and higher education officials. She has even gone as
2:43:55far as filing a restraining order against me and a fellow tribal member that is a Santa Ana resident. We ask that you take caution when and if you work with her, as she doesn't seek to make the world a better place for the next seven generations. She seeks to elevate herself and that is not the Native way. Thank you.
2:44:32Louie Medina. Good evening mayor and council. My name is Louie Medina. I live in Ward 5. I've been a long resident of born and raised in Santa Ana. My family is Mexican-American, been here since the Mexican Revolution came over here. Also my other side of the family, I'm a Hashiman, a Wainanyu band of Michigan Indians, and we've been here for thousands of years. I'm also a tribal monitor with the AB 52 and also with SB 18 for tribal monitoring. I'm here today on behalf of
2:44:58Nelly Legaspi, my people, my family, my tribe. And the reason why I'm here is it's sad that someone like Nelly, who's a friend, a mentor, and family to me really, has been attacked so bad. And I've been witness to this literally since 2021. That individual, Lupe Lopez, that was here last week she told me at a tribal gathering in 2021 she goes you know Nellie Legaspi I said yes you need to be careful because she's going down and you're gonna sink in that boat and you know
2:45:36what I did not realize what that meant today and it's sad because she has infiltrated local government proclaiming she's Native American and anybody who knows who she is knows that she's not I knew her family my family knew her family and she is from here her family's from Mexico her grandparents are from Mexico and she came in here wearing regalia from another person's tribe totally disrespectful but the harassment has been going on for a long time last year for indigenous people's day Nellie I was also on part of the staff with that with the helper it was
2:46:14attacked all the time constantly attacked and her character or whatnot and I had to step out of it because it was just so nerve-wracking and you can always tell someone's intentions they always give it away and when she was here last what was the last words that she said you should have us doing indigenous people's day I could do a better job what does that tell you she's not Native American We don't walk that way. We're not the experts of anything. We're humble people. We work together. You know, our people have been through enough.
2:46:55My family's been through enough and survived here to sit here and go through someone like Lupe Lopez and what she's been doing. I've had to take my children out of school because of this woman. So she doesn't know where my kids go to school. Recently, because of me working with Nellie Legaspi, using CPS as a tool. And it's getting out of hand. She's attacked my tribal chair. She's attacked my cousin, who's also chair as well, on the other tribe. And it needs to stop. You guys need to vet these people. You need to vet them. Thank you.
2:47:31Gumaro Vincente and Miss Cameron, followed by Jessica Coghill.
2:48:11Wilmaro Vincente, Ms. Cameron, followed by Jessica Coghill.
2:48:19You can hold on one second. Ms. Cameron will be after him and Jessica Coghill after that. Go ahead.
2:48:35Hello, Mayor and Council. My name is Mulmalo Boomer Vicente. I'm the political and policy director for CHISPA and also a lifelong resident of Santana. I'm here to speak on item six regarding a nominee to the city's police oversight commission. We have significant concerns about Evangeline's appointment to this commission as it will undermine its independence and ability to impartially hear cases. Her extensive years of recent volunteer work with the Santa Ana Police Department gives rise to potential bias and conflicts of interest, making her more keen to a de facto employee.
2:48:43It is likely she has formed close relationships within the department, which could compromise her objectivity when evaluating cases. The ordinance language itself asserts that commissioners must benefit the commission's ability to carry out its duties and responsibilities and build trust with the community. The police oversight commission will be rendered ineffective if Santana residents can't trust it to accomplish its duties. Evangeline Garoski's appointment is cause for distrust of the Commission. We need commissioners who can reasonably carry out the mission of the oversight ordinance faithfully and without bias.
2:49:14And while the ordinance itself creates limits on the number of formal law enforcement officers who can be appointed to the commission, the appointment of a long-time volunteer within the department undermines the spirits and goals of the ordinance, which is to create an independent body that does away with the practice of friends, investigating friends, during investigations into officers misconduct. This council recently rejected Councilmember Hernandez's first commissioner appointment due to perceived bias based on social media posts and clearly creating a president that says not all views towards our system of policing
2:49:46are welcome in Santana. We can disagree about that decision all that we want, but as a result of the president you yourself created, we call on you to apply it evenly across the board and truly questioned potential commissioners' biases on both sides of the spectrum. I recently wrote an op-ed published on the OC Registure about my experience serving on Berkeley's Police Oversight Commission. My time on this commission taught me that people who have experienced police violence must have seats at the table when holding police accountable.
2:50:20I served alongside people of many backgrounds, including veterans, attorneys, and even the co-founder of Berkeley Copwatch. It was our diverse voices that instilled trust with the community and gave the commission its power and legitimacy. I urge the commission to carefully reconsider Evangeline's nomination and appoint commissioners who can ensure the independence and fairness of the Police Oversight Commission. Thank you and happy pride.
2:50:50Ms. Cameron, followed by Jessica Coghill.
2:51:21Good evening. I'm Adam Mayer and City Council members. My name is Mrs. Cameron and this is my very first time ever at a Santa Ana City Council meeting. I think it's interesting that Council Member Ty Viet Phan was talking earlier about hate and hatred, ethnic or racist based, racial based hatred. I do want to preface my public comment by saying that when I refer to the Housing Authority, which I will be doing multiple times throughout the course of my speech, I'm referring to the County of Orange, OSHA, the Housing Authority, not this one.
2:51:28Where to start? Well, I guess I could begin by extrapolating on Council Member Taviyat Svon's comments about hate and hate crimes, but one thing is worth noting is that it is not always necessarily native-born Americans or white folk doing the hating. In this case, we have a Vietnamese-American, Vietnamese-born, his name is James Mai, J-A-M-E-S, last name Mai, M-A-I. He's appointed by the Honorable Doug Chafee, the 4th District Supervisor, who represents
2:52:11Brayer, Fullerton, parts of Anaheim, and Buena Park, to the OC Housing Authority Commission. James Mai was on Instagram bragging that he had committed a hate crime. He was rocking these posts saying that he had vandalized a Hindu owned Indian restaurant. And by the way, I'm also an immigrant. I was adopted from India. I'm not, I'm personally a Christian, but I am of Hindu heritage. I reported James My, the FBI did an extensive investigation and it was revealed that it was a hoax on his
2:52:50part that he had not actually done the things he said he did, which is he claimed that he, in retaliation against this imaginary proprietor for not getting a refund, he says he took a bucket of cow's blood, dumped it all over the entryway, and also through the head of a decapitated cow outside the doorway.
2:53:28You can Google James, my hate crime Cerritos. I could not make any of this up if you paid me to. I'm just basically here to raise awareness of what's on the OC Housing Commission and what is on the OC Housing Commission is not anything good. you can send an email to Julia.Bidwell at OCCR.OCgov.com. Thank you, ladies and gentlemen. I appreciate you. Thank you.
2:53:53All right.
2:54:28Jessica Cavill.
2:54:29Someone left their purse up here. That would be ma'am.
2:54:35I don't speak in front of people well. I come here tonight to speak up for my sister, friend, and fellow AIM coach. She's the AIM director and Santa Ana commissioner, my dear friend, Nellianne Maya Turtleheart-Legaspe. My name is Jessica Coghill, and I am Cherikawa and European descent.
2:54:45I am the co-director of the American Indian Movement Orange County chapter.
2:55:10Independent. Nellie says we're independent. I say we're rogue.
2:55:18Sometimes we disagree, but you know, we make it work. She leads by setting a good traditional example, and I'm a little more rough around the edges. I say the things that she won't say, or can't say, in the 10 years that we've been sisters. I think I've heard her cuss maybe twice. Either way, we walked the red road together. I want to read to you a little part of our mission statement when we started AMOC. And it's, we pledge to serve our community
2:55:23with honor, wisdom, humility, perseverance, respect, love, sacrifice, truth, compassion, bravery, fortitude, and with generosity in our hearts. By the guidance of our elders, in a good way that honors ourselves, our people, the seventh generations before us and the seven generations after us, and the American Indian Movement. This is how we walk through life. It's not just something that we made up, it's how we walk through life. We started this chapter in 2019 because we had a vision of not only helping
2:56:01our houseless, our MMIW families, the survivors of domestic violence, and the children so they can learn their history, but also bringing our culture and our heritage alive once again in Orange County.
2:56:42Bust my police.
2:56:59In fact, Nellie herself is a survivor of domestic violence. As we convene here tonight, the man who tried to murder her is at large and wanted by the authorities in Orange County. But she does not let that stop her. She's here and she's out and standing behind me, having my back, as she does everybody in this county, in this state, in this city. You know, it's amazing.
2:57:02Little did we know, when we started this chapter, it would lead to lateral violence and acts of lateral violence via cancel culture.
2:57:32from certain people that were speaking against her a couple weeks ago.
2:57:48Ma'am, your time is up. Thank you.
2:57:52Thank you very much. This concludes public speakers. I'm going to start the meeting right now with the items that are on the agenda. HOWEVER, THE MEN AND WOMEN THAT HAVE TO GO TO WORK AT 3 OR 4 O'CLOCK IN THE MORNING OR 2.30 IN THE MORNING ARE ON OUR BUSINESS CALENDAR AND THEY'RE ITEM NUMBER 51. SO WE'RE GOING TO MOVE THAT. I HAVE THE ABILITY AS THE CHAIRPERSON TO MOVE THAT TO THE FRONT SO THEY CAN GO HOME. AND SO AT THIS POINT I'D LIKE TO BRING UP ITEM 51, CITY MANAGER. Is there a staff report? And then once you're done with that,
2:58:00I'll be making a recommendation going from there.
2:58:42And certainly, honorable mayor and city council members, we do have a brief presentation on the matter that will be given by our executive director of public works, Nabil Sava.
2:58:45Can we ask to keep the doors closed because there's noise and we want to be able to hear, please?
2:58:59So before you do the presentation, Nabil, thank you so much for preparing this. I'd like to ask any of the council members up here, do you need to see the presentation?
2:59:09No.
2:59:18Does anybody need to see the presentation?
2:59:19If you do, can you raise your hand? So I guess that's a no. Nobody's saying anything. All right. Thank you, Nabil, for being ready to give the presentation. I'm going to make a motion here. So I appreciate all the work the staff have done. put this together in presentation. I appreciate everything that goes into this. I want to, item 2.2.1, the city has it down as $2,500,000. I'd like to change that to $750,000. Item 2.2.2, city has it down, a recommendation of $1,000,000.
2:59:23dollars I'd like to make the change to a hundred thousand dollars and that is my motion. I'll second your motion Mayor. Councilman Hernandez your seconding. I'll second your motion. Thank you let's prepare to vote if there are no comments do we have comments? Actually I do Mayor. Councilman Becerra.
3:00:04Thank you Mayor and I'm glad you made that motion I appreciate first of all all the trades carpenters coming in this evening thank you. What I want to add possibly if the mayor would accept this as a friendly amendment is the fact that we're talking about spending public money to build public projects and to make sure that those public projects are quality projects and to make sure that they're done with union labor because they are skilled in trade. But we also fund affordable housing projects. Don't we want those to be built with the same quality labor?
3:00:20Don't we want the construction jobs involved with those projects that city money goes towards to also include our brothers and sisters in union labor? So what I would ask Madam Mayor is if we can also insert as one of the, what would it be, it would be a, what do I call it, section 2.2 as project work covered by this agreement for any affordable housing projects that receive city funds.
3:00:52So you want to add just as that language in there and you're good with the amounts? Correct. Okay. So can I get a second?
3:01:17I'm okay with that. You're okay with that? Absolutely.
3:01:26Okay. Any other comments?
3:01:28yes mayor Pro Temm city manager can you please clarify if the HO ordinance that we have in the books covers any of that that was just mentioned certainly so
3:01:29under the the recent update and the WHO ordinance for any affordable housing developer that comes to our city to build housing they have the option of paying a higher who fee or should they engage in skilled labor and the trades they get a discount in the amount of the inclusionary fee that they would pay as part of the project. So it is covered.
3:01:40Mayor, if I may ask? Don't you mean that's market rate housing projects that would pay the WHO fee and would be required to skilled train?
3:02:01I'm sorry, you're correct. The full amount of the WHO fee if they have no affordable in the development.
3:02:11So in other words, the affordable projects aren't subject to those provisions in the WHO?
3:02:18Correct. Thank you. That is correct. So there was a sub motion, there was a second by Councilman Hernandez. Are there any other comments? Let's prepare to vote. You have a comment? Go ahead. So if you guys can push the button, so all night long we're going to push the button so I know who wants to speak. You have three minutes, three rounds. So push the button so I don't have to look back and forth, please. Thank you. Yeah, it should be working. I really appreciate it. Thank you.
3:02:22It doesn't let you once there's a motion on the screen. Well, you have to go back.
3:02:52Yeah, you just go back. So we'll fix it after this one. Go ahead, Councillor McEwen. Got it.
3:02:56Thank you. First of all, thank you to everyone who came out.
3:03:00Obviously, this is a very important issue.
3:03:04Oh, this is a very important issue for everyone, I think, in this room, staff, the community, our workers. One thing I did want to raise is I definitely think that, you know, the public policy behind PLAs are something that many of us up here, I think all of us up here support. We want not only to have well-paid workers, but we want them to have good working conditions, good benefits, etc. And I think in a policy that expands beyond just the city of Santa Ana to support other cities and other municipalities that support good paying union jobs.
3:03:06The one amendment I would like to request, looking at the list of cities that were shared with us by Mr. Medrano, Buena Park, West Hollywood, I think Irvine, which is considering an upcoming community workforce agreement at its next council meeting, is that the current draft is for a 10-year agreement for $750,000.
3:03:47I think that there are valid reasons to request a $750,000 PLA, but I would like to see us to be consistent, if possible, with some of our other neighboring cities that were shared that also have PLAs with the building trades to be at a five-year PLA. So that way we can all come back to the table and see where we're at in five years because $750,000 in 2023 is very different, I think, from what $750,000 will be in 2028. That's my request and whether you're willing to put that as a friendly amendment.
3:04:17Thank you. I'm not, but I'm going to let Councilman Hernandez go ahead. You want me to speak?
3:04:55Yes. Thank you, Madam Mayor. I just want to thank my colleagues and our mayor for the motion. And the reason why is because I wouldn't be sitting up here if it wasn't for labor. If it wasn't for labor unions, I would not be a multi-generational Chicano. And I share that because labor to me is the reason why my family is in Santa Ana. We didn't end up in Santana by design, I mean by accident, it was by design. My grandfather and my mom's side of the family is the Lopez family. Jose Lopez was a carpenter. My cousin Brandon's father, Tony Lopez, was a 43-year-plus member of the Carpenters Union
3:04:59on the Prieto side of my family, and Enrique Prieto was a 46-year member of Labor's Local 652. So I want to send a message to workers in Santana and Orange County today. We have a seat at the table, and it is because of Labor, Santa Ana is a multi-generational Chicano community. This vote today to make sure that we have a CWA that works for workers ensures that your children you're raising today have a seat at the table 20 years from now. So I want to thank my colleagues for being brave and putting workers first.
3:05:37Council Member Penelosa.
3:06:09Thank you, Mayor Amesco. I just wanted to also thank all the people who came out to speak tonight
3:06:16in advocating for us to deny the staff's recommendation that is proposed before us. I know that we've been working on this for over a year to have something before us, but we could mutually agree upon. So I just wanted to thank you for this, and I will be supporting the mayor's motion.
3:06:24Thank you. Mayor Bertan, Councilman Vasquez.
3:06:42Just like Councilman Hernandez, I do come from a labor family. Thank you to labor's trade unions. My dad was, and we were able to be educated. We had four now union members strong in my family who are part of the OC Labor Federation. And I think this is a great move to support not only my dad and support the work that he did, but the fathers now that we have in the audience and the work that they do.
3:06:47Mayor Pro Tem. Thank you, Mayor. Again, we just want to thank everybody that came out here. we understand and recognize that some of you have to wake up at 4 a.m. to be at your site locations and you work in some of the most dangerous conditions and so thank you for being here it is almost 8 p.m. and so we're happy to support this because it means to us that we would support you specifically if you live in the city of santana we've always tried to prioritize our sanano family So thank you.
3:07:19So I'm sorry, we're done now.
3:07:51Sorry. One thing I did.
3:07:55You do this all the time.
3:07:56I know I do. No, I didn't want to push the button, but I tried. But one thing I didn't think we covered was in regards to the California Construction Cost Index item. And so with that, I would actually like to, instead of having that annually adjust for the inflation through that CCCI, I would actually like to recommend that we replace that language and have annual reports be brought back to the council instead so that we can monitor the progress of the CWA. That's my final amendment.
3:07:57So $750,000, $100,000, and you want annual reports? And the affordable housing. Can I get a second?
3:08:29Second, madam.
3:08:34Yes. Great, thank you. Nobody else is speaking now. Okay. So I'm going to just speak very briefly. so I want to thank everybody that came out tonight to speak we had this when I was sitting on the Santa Ana Unified School Board took a long time to get it till I became a school board member and then we made it happen and so yes thank you and so I was an OCA member and I consider myself still an OCA member for 30 years. So I am proud to say that for 30 years, OCA. To me, you're not a special interest group.
3:08:35To me, you are the men and women, and I love seeing the women. Bravo to you. The men and women who get up every day super early, get on the road, miss those family baseball games, miss those family dinners miss things because you're driving two to four hours to go to work in the morning two to four hours to come home in the evening and that was the reason why we did it Santa Ana unified was because we wanted to make sure that you were home with your families and the last contract when I was sitting there the last CWA had for ten years and so I happily support ten years and I'm glad
3:09:16we'll do an annual review as Councilman Becerra is requesting once we vote but I And I want to thank you because your children are going to drive by. I think somebody said it earlier. Your children are going to drive by and say, my dad built that. My mom built that. My great grandpa built that. Whatever it may be. And so thank you for coming out tonight. I know it's late. And you guys, when you come out in numbers, you come out. And that's because you're family. You're family to each other. And I really appreciate that. And again, to me, you know, some people will say you're a special interest group.
3:09:57They like to use that word because it's a sexy word of the month. You're not a special interest group. What you are is family. You're family. So thank you for being here tonight, and let's vote.
3:10:33You should be able to vote, counsel, please. Yes. A motion by Mayor Emescuwa, seconded by Council Member Hernandez, to approve as amended with amendments to section 2.2.1 to $750,000, section 2.2.2 to $100,000, including affordable housing projects with city funds and annual reports to the council related
3:10:50to the CCCI. And an annual report. Annual report. No, and not using the CCI and instead having the
3:11:11annual reports not using CDI and have the annual reports got it yes got it and
3:11:18the vote is seven eyes no nays motion carries great thank you
3:11:27you all may go home now unless you'd like to stay thank you for your service the The whole room's gonna clear out now, watch.
3:11:32They wanna get you home to your families.
3:11:49All right, let's move on now.
3:11:55Let's give them a few minutes to clear.
3:11:59Are we ready? I'm sorry. Oh, okay.
3:12:07It's okay.
3:12:11If you're standing, there are now seats available, please.
3:12:14Okay, at this time we'll be doing the consent calendar. At this time, items 3 through 49. Let me see, or 50. Yeah, items 3 through 50. Three minutes, three rounds each. You don't have to take the three rounds. If you want to speak, please push the button to speak.
3:12:26Yes, we're on the consent calendar at this time. Are there any items that we want to pull at this time? I'll start with Councilman Hernandez.
3:12:50Councilmember Becerra. Nope. Councilmember Fan. Yes, I'd like to pull item 10, please. Item 10. Councilman Vasquez. Mayor Pro Tem Lopez. Councilman Penelosa.
3:13:03Thank you, Mayor. I also wanted to pull item 10 and item 25. 25.
3:13:20Any abstentions?
3:13:28You want to make a comment on 46?
3:13:32Comment. I'll be making comments on 42, 43, and 47 at this time.
3:13:37So can we already, can we make a, get a motion to approve the remaining items, items 3 through 49 at this time?
3:13:53Madam Mayor.
3:13:59Oh, I'm sorry, you missed it.
3:14:00Apologies. What items were pulled? My apologies.
3:14:01Items 10, 25, 42, 43 with a comment, 46 with a comment, and 47 with a comment, Congressman Hernandez.
3:14:04All right. All good. I would like to pull item six please.
3:14:15You want to pull item six?
3:14:19Yes.
3:14:21Okay, so the remaining items, can I get a motion to approve?
3:14:22I'll make a motion to approve.
3:14:26I'll second.
3:14:27Any comments, none?
3:14:31Mayor, just a clarification, you said items one through 49, it's actually one through 50.
3:14:32One through 50, thank you for correcting me, I really appreciate it. So we're pulling 6, 10, 25, 42, 43, 46, and 47 for comments only.
3:14:37You made a motion?
3:14:50Yes. Yes.
3:14:51I'll second. Let's vote.
3:14:54A motion to approve the consent calendar with the items noted by the mayor as pulled separately. That is correct. 6, 10, 25. Yes. You got them all? 6, 10, 25, and then comments on 42, 43, 46, and 47.
3:14:58That's correct.
3:15:14Let's vote.
3:15:15The vote is seven ayes, no nays. Motion carries.
3:15:20Perfect, thank you. Let's go to item six, please. Councilman Hernandez.
3:15:23Thank you, Madam Mayor. I just wanted to take this opportunity to thank my colleagues for the dialogues that we have here. I know many of us have very different opinions, whether it be professional or our personal experiences, all of which are extremely valuable. The Police Oversight Commission is a commission that is extremely important to all of our residents, whether it be because of your own lived experiences with law enforcement or whether it be your own professional experiences as somebody who once worked in law enforcement. This commission is
3:15:27comprised of very different opinions that we welcome. The commission also is comprised of having one police officer on the commission and so it is something that we respect and we honor and we welcome space for in the city of Santa Ana the conversation of bias is a very important one to us here and it's one that I take seriously and I chose to pull this item so that I can have an opportunity to meet with with the appointment from my colleague councilmember Penaloza like I mentioned I welcome very different opinions here but the topic of bias is one that we unanimously agreed was important to us.
3:15:59And so with respect to the appointment, I would like to delay this item so that some of my colleagues have an opportunity to meet with the candidate. I think that the candidate is a great individual. We had an appointment scheduled for Friday, but unfortunately we were unable to meet. And so I would like to have that opportunity to meet this candidate. And it's an opportunity that I offer to every single one of the members that are looking to be appointed here and so I would like to indulge on my colleagues if they could entertain us delaying this item so that members of our council have a chance to meet with the appointee.
3:16:36Thank you. Do I second? Are you seconding that? Second please, yes. Okay. Mayor, I would like to
3:17:14make a sub motion to approve item six. I know that the appointee had scheduled a phone call with Councilmember Hernandez on Friday and from what I understand she was ghosted basically so I know that she reached out to all my colleagues so I would like to move forward with the record with the approval please I'm gonna second that
3:17:23motion and I'm gonna add that you know I am I'm supporting all these items five six seven and eight on item five that recommendation Amalia Mejia she did reach out to me through an email. I responded. I responded back again saying, here's my number, please call. Never had an opportunity to speak to her. I don't know her personally. I know what I see on social media. I know, you know, she ran for office here. That's great, wonderful. And I'm not not opposed to her being on the commission, even though I did not have an opportunity to speak to
3:17:46her and I wanted to so I spoke to one of my colleagues sitting up here who said yeah I spoke to her and so we had a slight discussion because I was going to pull that item and I didn't because I think we're all really busy and you know we all want to interview them or talk to them after the first chance where we said you know we don't agree on one particular person and so I would just hate to keep going through this um so you know i support councilman panalosa your sub motion
3:18:24i think we just need to move on at this point so if they did reach out to you and i don't know if people missed it but i know i asked um commissioner that we want to swear in tonight to call me i did not get a call maybe i missed it i don't know but um i didn't speak to her and i'm supporting heard tonight so um let's is that i'm seconding your motion so let's do this
3:19:01a substitute motion to appoint evangeline garansky to the police oversight commission as the word six representative by council member panaloza seconded by mayor misqua
3:19:31And the vote is four ayes, three nays. Nays by Mayor Pro Temo Lopez, Council Members Hernandez and Vasquez. Motion carries.
3:19:55Great, thank you. Can we ask those commissioners to come up to be sworn in, please? Amalia Mejia, Evangeline Garowski, Martha Rivera, and Mark McLaughlin. Congratulations.
3:20:03Thank you.
3:20:43Thank you.
3:20:54that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States and the Constitution of the State of California against all enemies, foreign and domestic, that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the Constitution of the United States and the Constitution of the State of California that I take this obligation freely without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion that I will well and faithfully discharge the duties upon which I'm about to enter.
3:21:20Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Nice to meet you too. Thank you.
3:22:00Thank you. Mark, I'm ready. Thank you. You have a good picture.
3:22:09You know how to do this.
3:22:14You know how to do this. Yeah.
3:22:17Hold on, dude. Hold on.
3:22:30No.
3:22:33Okay, no. Okay, yeah, okay, do it, do it, do it. I'm doing it there.
3:22:36Okay. No, that's fine. One more. One more. One more. One, two, three. Alright.
3:22:40Alright. Thank you.
3:22:59Congratulations.
3:23:03I'm going to go ahead and read this and please stay after me. I, Steve Yimé.
3:23:27I am Ali Mejia.
3:23:33Do solemnly swear. That I will support and defend. The Constitution of the United States. And the Constitution of the State of California. Against all enemies, foreign and domestic.
3:23:35That I will bear faith and allegiance. To the Constitution of the United States of America.
3:23:53and the Constitution of the State of California,
3:24:01and that I take this obligation freely,
3:24:06without any mental reservations,
3:24:10or purpose of evasion, that I will well and faithfully discharge the duties upon which I am about to enter. Congratulations and welcome to the Resort of Motion.
3:24:14Thank you.
3:24:29All right, congratulations to the new appointed members. Now let's go to item 10, please.
3:24:49Council member Farron. Thank you so much, Mayor. This is, I guess, a little bit in between Madam City Manager. I'll direct my questions to you and you can defer. So, one, I'm supportive of accepting the unclaimed monies. I know that this happens in every public agency. Sometimes it's, a $2 refund that no one claims and things like that, and over time it just accumulates. And the one thing I did want to bring up though is that previously, and I don't know the process, whether I should bring this also under the budget item
3:24:57to clarify, but it was my previous understanding that the City Council or the 2022 City Council approved funding for a Little Saigon sign, the one that was run into some people believe purposefully and that we had allocated funding for it but in speaking to staff and our team it seemed that it was not specifically allocated for the Little Saigon sign and that we require $80,000 to replace it something that the previous city councils had promised to replace and never did and so with this $84,000 I would like to accept the
3:25:37unclaimed money and allocate it specifically for the Little Saigon sign that we have I think repeatedly believed and committed to replacing and building. So what would you recommend to be the process for that? Can I just make the motion to approve unclaimed money and then allocate it for specifically that
3:26:15purpose? I would recommend two different options. You could approve the recognition of unclaimed funds and ask staff in part of your motion ask staff to return and appropriate it at a later date or you could just approve the recognition of the unclaimed monies and then during the budget public hearing appropriate the 84,000 for the purposes of a little Saigon sign.
3:26:36So I will do I'll take the second option because this is something that's long overdue it was hit in 2012 I believe or 2015 and previous city councils had committed to rebuilding it and have not and we thought we had done it so I'd like to correct that error and make sure that we take care of it as soon as possible thank you and with that I would move to approve item 10 thank you I
3:27:00second Councilman Hanolosa thank you madam mayor and thank you Councilmember Fan for pulling this item. Madam City Manager, I pulled it because I noticed that the lion's share of the unclean monies in the amount of $44,000 and change was from the library. And I guess my question is, where specifically was that money generated from within the library?
3:27:25And my second, well, I guess if somebody, if you want to answer that question first, because I know that in the notice it wasn't listed where it was generated from.
3:27:52I'm sorry, sir, I don't believe we have the details behind the unclaimed revenues. They could be from any one of the city departments.
3:28:02Well, in the exhibit that was attached to the staff report in the newspaper listing, the notice, it broke down the total amount towards the bottom and $44,171.06 was specifically from the library. So we don't, do we know?
3:28:11I could certainly ask our library director to talk about the reasons why people maybe would have a refund check or require a deposit because that would be the two items that would generate this.
3:28:28If one of you can come up, please. Thank you.
3:28:46Thank you for the question, Council Member Penelosa. I do believe we are looking into that currently. It has to do with actually some grant monies from years past, prior to my arrival here. And tracking it back, it looks like all the monies were expended, but there appears to be, it looks like some kind of error in the accounting because we expended all the grant monies. But on the books, it looked like the dollars remained. So we're still trying to figure out where and how that happened. But we are exploring that.
3:28:52Okay. Yeah. Thank you for that, Brian. Yeah. And did you want to add something to that, Madam Senior Manager?
3:29:28No, that certainly could be true if it was uncashed checks for an old project.
3:29:36Yeah, these are projects from several years, I think, at least five or more years ago. It is my understanding that all the money was expended from these grants. It just, for whatever reason, we're trying to figure out exactly where the accounting era was. But we don't have any of those monies anymore from those old grants.
3:29:41So this could have been checks that the city wrote to somebody and weren't cash that came from your department?
3:30:05No, it's my understanding that these were all grant monies that were received as part of grants.
3:30:10Okay. Mm-hmm. Now, I just want to make sure that down the line, because they were grants, we're not, you know, somebody doesn't flag it, you know, at the state or federal level, whoever gives us these grants and says, hey, library, you didn't, you know, you misspent these funds. Is that something that could happen?
3:30:17Agree, council member. Let us do the background on it and identify exactly what the funding is from.
3:30:35And we certainly can send an email to explain. I appreciate that. Thank you so much. And I just wanted, initially my ask, I mean, you all know that I've been championing our library since the day I got here. You know, thanks to you, city manager and your leadership, we have a library department once again with its own executive director. That was one of the first things we did. And we have the bookmobiles coming online. We have a third library coming down in Delhi neighborhood in my ward that I've been advocating for.
3:30:41So I guess my initial request was going to be that those 44,000 and change go back to the library to purchase books or additional robotic systems, whatever we need, or even another teen excursion. But I am, so that was gonna be my initial request, but I am happy to support Councilmember Fan's request to use those monies for that purpose because we have she is right it's been like two three years that we've been discussing and talking about rebuilding this this little Saigon signage and so it would monument whatever it's called but it would be important that we do that so I guess I would be
3:31:09happy to support councilmember fans motion and if we could get some clarity on what it where exactly those funds came from I'd appreciate it I just hate for the state or the feds to one day flag it from us. So thank you. Will do. Thank you.
3:31:47There was a motion. There was a second. Let's prepare to vote.
3:32:02A motion by Council Member Fan, seconded by Council Member Vasquez to approve item 10, the recognition of $84,582.90 of revenue.
3:32:07Everybody voted?
3:32:23I was waiting.
3:32:24Would you like to voice your vote, Council Member Penaliza?
3:32:27My vote is a yes.
3:32:30The vote is 7 ayes, no nays. Motion carries.
3:32:34Thank you. Again, I'm going to dance a little bit. I hope nobody minds because I know there are families here that want to go home and don't want to sit here all night with us even though we appreciate that you're here. So I'm going to switch over to the public hearing.
3:32:38If you all bear with me. And we're going to go to item 54 at this time.
3:32:59I know we have other things to finish, but I want to finish this first. Because that way they can go home.
3:33:06Item 52, Mayor.
3:33:11I'm sorry, 54, Marisco's Hector ABC license.
3:33:12And I believe, Madam Clerk, please provide instructions to the public. Anybody who would like to make comment on this item only. Item 54 only.
3:33:19If there are public comments for item 54 only. And I thank my colleagues for letting me move around. It's in the interest of our families that are here.
3:33:32Yes, Mayor. So at this time, the mayor is calling public hearing item 54 first, which is a city council de novo review of planning commission decision regarding conditional use permit number 2023-09, Morrist Coast Hector ABC license. If you are on the Zoom call or conference call and you would like to make a comment for public hearing item 54 only, please dial star 9 from your phone or select raise hand from Zoom now. If you have previously raised your hand for a different public hearing, please lower your hand and you will have the opportunity to re-raise it at the appropriate time thank you
3:33:42are there anybody is there anybody um
3:34:17mayor there's one on zoom and we do have some cards go ahead and pass me the cards please
3:34:25mayor um did you want to hear the staff presentation first
3:34:34Yeah, I'd like to hear the public comments first, and then we'll do the presentation, and then I'm going to have applicant Maria Sebold come up. Go ahead.
3:34:38Typically, the first speaker is the applicant. You want to hear from? Okay.
3:34:51Maria Sebold, please come up.
3:34:58Obviously, I'm not Maria Siebel.
3:35:11I was going to say, sir, you're not Maria. Well, you could be. I'm sorry. You could be. No, I don't mean it like that. I mean, you know.
3:35:12I'm not going to touch that.
3:35:19I want to be politically correct.
3:35:20I'm not going to go anywhere near that. I don't care.
3:35:24Madam Mayor, members of the Council, good evening. My name is Arthur Newton. I'm the legal counsel for Marisa Goes Hector's Sports Grill, and for Maria Siebold, who is also here, the applicant for this conditional use permit. Ms. Siebold has owned and operated four restaurant facilities, each with an ABC license in the city of Santa Ana for over 20 years, all of which have been operated in an exemplary fashion.
3:35:28and history has shown that there's been no detrimental or adverse or negative impact upon the neighborhoods in which they're located or the city of Santa Ana as a whole.
3:35:57The staff report that you've been given largely mirrors that which was given to the Planning Commission in preparation for its April 24th meeting, and I would add upon which the Planning Commission unanimously approved this conditional use permit application. Staff appears to have conducted what I consider to be a very careful and detailed evaluation of the various aspects of the application, including reviewing the surrounding area and contacting representatives of the surrounding communities. Specifically, it appears that on March 14th and March 15th, representatives of the Cornerstone
3:36:08Village Development and Madison Park were contacted and all gave positive feedback. On May 9th and May 10th, presumably in anticipation of this hearing, representatives of Pacific Park, Cornerstone Village and Madison Park were again contacted largely with positive feedback there was some concerns regarding noise however staff thought they were minor in nature and had been mitigated by the report and did not in any way alter their recommendation for approval for further information on the contacts and the responses I would invite your attention to page 7 of your
3:36:48staff report there was some discussion at the planning commission regarding the hours of operation. Currently, Sports Grill operates from 8 a.m. to 10 p.m. Sunday through Thursday, 8 a.m. to midnight on Friday and Saturday. The applicant had requested a closure time of midnight, seven days a week. After some discussions, staff agreed to allow the
3:37:28current hours of operation to continue, subject to a six-month review at that time, when the later closure could be addressed.
3:37:59Finally, there's one factor that the staff inadvertently, and even I, overlooked that I think is very salient here. The 47 license that you're discussing tonight currently is in existence in this neighborhood and owned by this applicant and has been for the last six years. I would refer you to her restaurant known as El Corral located at 1701 East McFadden Avenue. It's been operated there without any negative impact to the city since 2017.
3:38:16However, due to the restrictions from COVID-19, many restaurants had to resort to outside dining or takeout. The site plan at that location didn't allow for that.
3:38:52Obviously, it had some adverse financial impact. Ms. Siebold attempted to weather the storm, if you will. However, a few months ago, it was decided that that operation would cease. All that's happening here is through this application, she's seeking to move the 47 license from 1701 East McFadden to 1208 East McFadden. We're basically moving the license six blocks down the street, the very same street, McFadden Avenue.
3:39:09Based on the information and evidence before you, I think the appropriate and equitable course of action for you to take is to approve or affirm the decision of the Planning Commission and at their April 24th meeting, subject to the terms and conditions therein which the applicant is in full agreement with.
3:39:42I would request some brief time to respond after public comments in form of rebuttal if necessary. And other than that, I'm available to answer your questions.
3:40:06Thank you. You'll be able to have a rebuttal. We're going to do public comments, then any comments from the council, and then you'll be able to if you'd like to come up.
3:40:15Very well.
3:40:23Okay. Can I please ask the public when we have speakers if you cannot be having conversations? Because we can hear you all the way up here. please we'd really appreciate it I'm gonna call you three people at a time please come up and line up and I'm sorry would you like the zoom comment first we have one one yeah go ahead with the one and then we'll go Nicole Olivas Jenkins
3:40:25please unmute and make your comments okay yes go ahead I just really wanted to basically show and demonstrate, speak on my support of, you know, Mariscos, a restaurant. I've been going there for years, and I love to be able to take some of my perspective and establish clients there. I'm not sure. It would be nice to be able to enjoy, you know, a margarita or, you know, other drinks. I think currently right now it's really just limited to beer and wine but the impact I don't think would be negative at all and if anything it's something
3:40:48that would benefit the area certainly this business and its continued growth and as a small business holder myself it would it would certainly make a difference as well particularly given the rapport I have with the you know the people that work there and also with my clients as well and for that reason I just really wanted to voice my support to grant the the additional on the license, that's all. Thank you.
3:41:29And then Mayor, noting for the record that there were nine emails submitted on this item that were distributed and posted online.
3:41:55Thank you very much. So I'm gonna call three up at a time, please. First one, Jose Rea, Manuel Granados, and Leonel Flores, please. You have three minutes.
3:42:01Jose Rea, Manuel Granados, and Leonel Flores. Three minutes each, please.
3:42:13Good evening, Mayor, City Council. My name is José Rea, a resident of Santa Ana for 40 years. The last 24 I lived in Madison Park. We had other committee members. Unfortunately, we lost half of the group. So, .
3:42:35And we are here to express our position to the upgrade alcohol license to Mariscos Hector at 1208 East McFarren Avenue, approved by the Planning Commission and the city staff. This upgrade would allow the sale of hard liquor. Right now, they're only allowed to sell beer and wine. The restaurant is located in the heart of Minnie Street, also known as Cornerstone Village, and across the street from Madison Park and Pacific Park. The average Madison income for the median income for the Minnie Street neighborhood is $28,000 per year, and the families there pay over $20,000 in rent.
3:42:55This is an economically depressed area ridden with crime. The proposed use will be detrimental to the health, safety, and general welfare of the residents in the area. The number of existing permits already exceeds the seven allowed. We have nine.
3:43:37This report is shamelessly biased against the community. It is fueled with inaccurate information. right here this we read it several times and it hurts our community the police analysis sites 38 calls seven results for report reports taken since January 2020 the reports were assaults in burglary car burglary in the parking lot of the restaurant so in May I pulled the data from May and we have 12 incidents of disturbing the police the peace and
3:43:58drug in public from the 1200 is my friend the community outreach this map exhibit to be zoning in an area view it includes three neighborhoods Minnie Street Madison Park and Pacific Park the report does not include our community opposition of the project so if the the March 13 14 15 whatever days aware does not reflect our opinions mayor mesqua you have made safety issues a priority in that light I suggest you bring personal police presence in
3:44:39ministry to make this area better more alcohol in this place means more drunk drivers in our neighborhood more fights in the parking lot and more crime in the area. Thank you.
3:45:19Manuel Granados.
3:45:36Hello, City Council and everybody here with us tonight. My name is Manuel Granados. I was born and raised here in Santa Ana. I'm 17 now, so 17 years of my life have been spent here in this city. And half of those have been in the Madison Park neighborhood. I wasn't born there and I don't live there, but it seems like I spent most of my life there. And as a community, I've seen just how disadvantaged it is. A lot of homelessness, a lot of violence. This is not a neighborhood in our city where we need more alcohol, especially hard alcohol.
3:45:41Things like tequila and rum, we do not need these hard alcohols in such a disadvantaged neighborhood.
3:46:18There is no reason for a family establishment, as Mariscos Hector claims to be, to serve hard alcohol.
3:46:27I've read up on the ABC license, and children are allowed under the general alcohol selling in a restaurant. children are allowed there but I just I don't see a reason why a place like Hector's which is incredibly close to two different elementary schools and a high school which the high school is farther away but still it is in incredibly close proximity to Madison and I believe it was Kennedy we don't need a place selling hard liquor there it's an area of it's a neighborhood area
3:46:39and next to two elementary schools. There's no reason for alcohol to be there. And I hope the approval to upgrade the license is rejected. Thank you.
3:47:20Thank you. Leonel Flores.
3:47:34Good afternoon, everyone. My name is Leonel Flores. Thank you for giving us the time to speak to y'all today about this issue. as Jose mentioned earlier we feel like the community's voice was not taken into consideration part of it also being within the report they mentioned that they spoke to four leaders from the three neighborhoods mentioned one of them is actually here today because there was parts of her opinion that were omitted she expressed that she was not in support of this license and it was not included in the report. The report says the general, what was it,
3:47:41the general sentiment was positive but she's actually here because she's against the permit. So how is that positive sentiment about this license? The other person being the president of our neighborhood association who could not be here today who told them that our community is opposed to this and again that was also admitted. That's two out of the four leaders saying negative comments that we do not want this so how is this a general positive view of these permits when already two out of the four people that they spoke to have
3:48:20objections to this license hopefully everyone was able to review my email that i sent out with you know lots of information if you go to their instagram they're already currently promoting tequila beverages with hard liquor which they are not supposed to be doing so they are violating their license we're not asking you to shut them down you know we're just asking you don't approve the license but they're already doing this if you go to their Instagram right now you could probably see it and I attach that link in the email aside from that they're asking to move this license
3:48:57closer to a school, like their lawyer just mentioned, the license belongs to another business further away, and they're trying to bring it to this business that's less than 300 feet from an elementary school.
3:49:34That doesn't make sense to us. If you look it up on Google, it's promoted as a bar, a cantina. They claim to be family-friendly, but typically bars and cantinas are not family-friendly. And, you know, if they are family-friendly, are they going to be serving to minors? I know you all have this in your mind right now, the Gulichi Town incident that just happened that was very tragic. We don't want that in our neighborhood. And I also highlighted, you know, Main Street is not far away. There is a protected bike lane that's going to be built right along that restaurant on standard.
3:49:48So, you know, adding this harder alcohol is just going to be another burden on our community. I guess the last thing I just wanted to highlight, there's a liquor store literally right next door to it and there's a 7-eleven that sells alcohol right in front of it all within the same shopping mall so why are we gonna add more alcohol if there's already more than is needed in the community so thank you Sarai Gutierrez
3:50:22Sarai Gutierrez followed by Felix Ben Benthies
3:50:48hello everybody thank you for ma'am can you speak into the mic please hi everyone My name is Sarai. I just want to say thank you for allowing this opportunity to come and speak to you. As my Jose mentioned and Leonel mentioned, that there are a lot of residents today that weren't able to voice their concerns about this license with Marisco's Hector. They've already had negative experiences in the neighborhood with the alcohol already there. And they feel that if you allow this license to continue, this bad experience will continue happening in that neighborhood.
3:50:56We had a bunch of residents and moms in the area go out and talk to all the community members in that area. And we had over 100 petitions talking about how they don't want this license to be in the neighborhood. I've also emailed you the list of people who've signed the petition with their signatures and address so you can see how close they are to Mariscos, Hectors, and Grill. and so we really want you to listen to the community and make sure that you don't approve this license thank you
3:51:30Felix Ventes Felix followed by Adriana Estrada
3:52:05Felix, are you Felix?
3:52:23No, no, puedo hablar en español, señor.
3:52:26It's good, the restaurant has good security and everything. I feel good with my children. I've never had any problems. The music doesn't affect us. We never have music at the 10. They're always calm, the restaurant. That's why we're going to eat there, because it's safe.
3:52:41Thank you.
3:53:05I live across the street from Marisco sector. I never had any problems. When I was a kid, my dad used to take us there to eat at the restaurant. There's good security. I don't see any problems there. The music is not a problem. It's not loud after 10 p.m. It's quiet, and it's safe to eat there.
3:53:08Thank you. Go ahead.
3:53:29Hi, my name is Adriana Estrada. I am a practicing attorney for the city, well, actually residing in the city and doing business in the city of Santa Ana. I first of all like to thank everybody for their, sorry, I don't have my glasses on, for their tireless dedication and service to our city. But most importantly, I'd like to express my gratitude to Marisco Sectors for sponsoring our schools, local youth soccer leagues, amongst others in times of need when needed, always with no hesitation. In addition, a standard quality of Mariscal Hector's is their dedication to fostering
3:53:33a positive and inclusive work environment to its commitment to growth and well-being of its over 65 employees, with the vast majority of them residing in our city of Santa Ana. When I was 12 years old, my parents actually took me to Hector's for the first time thereafter. after they made it a habit of taking us there at least once a week. And 30 plus years later, I continue with that tradition, taking my kids to Mariscos Hector's. And not only my kids, Mariscos Hector's has also become a place where I conduct my business meetings with clients from all over the state,
3:54:10not only the states, but also international clients from all over the world, I should say. Nonetheless, knowing we can visit any of their four locations now throughout Santa Ana and the City of Orange, be able to enjoy not only great food and amazing cocktail drinks, though what's most important, a safe environment for my kids, my family, my business partners, is priceless. Their dedication to ensuring a safe dining experience for families is truly commendable. It is great to know that my contribution as a client to Marisco Sectors reflects in sponsorships and employment opportunities for our community.
3:54:48I am truly inspired by their generosity. In closing, let us remember that the decisions we make today will shape the future of our city for generations to come. Let us be bold, visionary, and steadfast in our pursuit of a better tomorrow. Thank you and may we embark on this journey of giving back to our community together and enhance towards a brighter future for us and generations to come. Thank you.
3:55:29Cynthia Romero followed by Richard Wayad. I apologize if I said that wrong. Cynthia Romero.
3:55:56Richard.
3:56:09I believe you said Richard Wynne. When yes, thank you. My name is Richard when I'm also a immigrant and came over here in 1979 and I'm here to support my friend Maria Sebaugh and her restaurant Marisco Hector and
3:56:10Come with great passion for me to see that an immigrant Selected came here in Santa Ana and decided to stay here and open her business here She worked as a waitress in Marisco and Maria and she loved what she does and she loved to keep the people employed in the city and the owner saw that and when the owner no longer want to run and operate Marisco Hector gave it to Maria because she realized that Maria loved the people that she served and loved the people that worked for her and I have a chance to be with her in her four different restaurants and see all
3:56:26the employee that really enjoy working there and I see all the employees saying that she's such a great employer and I hear Artis Union working on Agenda 51 talking about union and support and I go I don't see any union for people that are working in restaurants but what we do need is good employers that do want to help people do want to employ them at a good rate and and we need those kind of business owner and we need to attract those kind of people to come here and I myself as an immigrant that became a lawyer when my dad and my whole family saying you can be a nobody, you should not even go to law school, and I made it.
3:56:59So I wanted to express that, that seeing that is living an American dream, especially one that learned, followed the law, and all her restaurants, including the one that was had the dispute with the Madison people in the past on South Main Street also got their liquor license and there's no problem, no issue there at all. So any councilman and member and mayor and mayor pro tem, we want to look at the actual history of it and not any emotion and look at the whole thing and balancing. Because what we really want to encourage is an environment that the American dream could happen, people can come and grow.
3:57:34And today I was able to hear from a couple of employees who say that not only that, but Ms. Seaball encouraged her staff to go ahead and start their own business and do other business in Santa Ana. and help the people and help give back the benefit to the resident living here. I understand the concerns that some of the other members of the community say, but we have to remember, if we don't get Maria Morisco Hector to continue after its 40 years being there in a different name, it's going to go out of business, cannot compete with other residents. And what do we do? We detabulate that community, and we don't want to do that.
3:58:13With all that, I'm here to support her. I ask that we all do the right decision. by making it a prosperous area for everyone to live in. Thank you.
3:58:51Thank you. Enrique Mendoza, followed by Doña Siano. I'm so sorry. Valenzuela? Valencia? I am terrible. I apologize. Enrique?
3:58:59Yes, hello. Good evening. My name is Enrique Mendoza. I work in the city of Santa Ana since 1995. I currently live in Mission Viejo and I take my family to Marisco sectors, she has three or four restaurants, Maria.
3:59:14My son and I have been there since my son was five years old, he's 18 now. And also when I asked support from Maria to help the El Toro High School basketball team without hesitation she donated $250. My son didn't make the team, but she was able to support a high school out of the area. I'm here to ask for your support for a Latino entrepreneur and business owner. We should stick together and help each other. Thank you.
3:59:34Thank you.
4:00:15I'm going to call Dona Siano.
4:00:18problems in total tempo que estaba ahí. Durante 40 años que he estado yo ahí nunca he visto mayores problemas en ese negocio. Y por eso estamos aquí para apoyar el negocio. Yo lo considero un lugar seguro para familias. Eso es todo.
4:00:48Gracias.
4:01:08My name is Donaciano Balbuena and I'm resident of Santa Ana. I worked at Mariscos Hector. I'm a cook. I worked there for 10 years and in total for 40 years, and I consider it a safe place for families. I haven't seen any issues in 40 years at that business, and that is why I'm here, to support the business. It's a safe place for
4:01:12families. That's all. Thank you. Rosalinda Aguilar, followed by Carol Cardoza.
4:01:36Thank you.
4:01:46Thank you.
4:02:16Thank you.
4:02:53Mexicanos somos muy trabajadores y siento que nos merecemos la oportunidad. Gracias. Gracias.
4:03:16Carol Cardoza.
4:03:25Good evening. My name is Rosalinda Aguilar and I'm a resident of Santa Ana for over 10 years and I'm thankful for Elizabeth, the owner, she hired me and I understand the concerns of the neighbors, but please understand the owner trains us a lot, trains us frequently on ABC license procedures. If people are drinking and drunk, we do deny the servicing or serving them, and we get a lot of training. It's a great opportunity to have a license. It's a great
4:03:27opportunity because during COVID, you know, things went down a lot. But this license will bring more clients. It's a great opportunity. And as employees, we're concerned because there's lots of competition out there. So it would be a great light for all of us if you would approve the license. It's not fair to deny the license. As Latinos, we are hardworking and we'd appreciate this great opportunity.
4:04:04My name is Karel Cardoso. I have 20 years living here in Santa Ana. I have 9 years working for Marisco Sector. And the only thing I want to say is that we are here to see if we can give us the license. because I have to keep my family.
4:04:31The place is safe. Also, as my colleague said, the patronage, she knows how to know when to stop, and not to send people to a certain point, that they don't get angry or do they do wrong. So, we are trained to know where to stop with people. and I believe it's a safe place and it also affects because sometimes the clients come asking for another type of food, right? So, what happens is that the clientele is going to be a lot of food, so that's why I keep my family.
4:04:57I don't consider it a dangerous place, or anything like that. That would be all.
4:05:40Gracias.
4:05:50My name is Mardel Cardoso. I'm a 20-year-old resident of Santa Ana, and I worked at Marisco Sector for nine years. And I'm here to say, for you to please ask us, ask you to give us the license. This is my way to support my family. I consider it a safe place. As the other, my friend said, the owner trains us on how not to sell to some people who are drinking too much, and we make sure that they don't leave too drunk. And we are trained on how to stop serving. It's a safe place, I consider it a safe place.
4:05:54Some clients might come and want a different kind of life, but that's not there. So we're losing clients, our clientele is going down, and this is how I support my family. So we're here to ask you to support this license.
4:06:34Alejandro Carrera, followed by Jose Tarifa.
4:06:51Alejandro, followed by Jose Tarifa, if you can come down, please.
4:06:58Cabrera. Yo trabajo para Marisco Sector, tengo 10 años trabajando ahí. Más aparte, pues aquí tengo 20 años, trabajé con el otro restaurante también ahí mismo, ahí con otros dueños. Y pues es un lugar tranquilo para que la familia vaya a comer, o sea, yo no veo que haya problemas, así algo grande, pues luego en el tiempo que estoy trabajando ahí. Y pues yo dependo ahí del trabajo, pues también para mis hijos, ¿verdad? Y yo quisiera yo que les dieran la licencia.
4:07:14Gracias.
4:07:45Good evening. My name is Alejandro Cabrera. I worked at Mariscos Hector for 10 years and 20 years at the other restaurant. It's a quiet family place and I haven't seen any big issues there. Again, this is also my job and how I can support my children. I'm asking that you approve the license. Thank you.
4:07:50Jose?
4:08:11Good evening, Mayor and City Council members. My name is Jose Treifa. I'm the Director of Operations for Barisco Zector. I want to take the time to talk and mention some important facts about the restaurant and the importance for us as a business to transition from a 41 license to a 47. One of the important ones is that it allows us to compete with other restaurants. There is a lot of competition in that area and at this present moment we get affected because we're not able to provide variety of drinks like other restaurants that have the same size
4:08:12and the same food as we serve. The other fact for us is the income revenue.
4:08:51Transitioning from a 41 to a 47 license, it allows us to create more revenue, therefore bring more employees and also still employ the employees that we currently have.
4:09:02One important fact is that 80% of our employees are Sanana residents. Just like Maria, she not only does business here in Sanana, but she also lives in Sanana. Thank you so much.
4:09:18Thank you.
4:09:31Blas Perez, Blas Perez, Gustavo Urea.
4:09:34Sorry. Hello, good evening council members. My name is Blas Perez. I was born and raised here in Santa Ana. I have been an employee at Hector's for over five years. I really enjoy working at Hector's it's a good place to work in a family restaurant I used to go to school here too I graduated from Chavez continuation school have a lot of friends who go there and they go with their parents we
4:09:45We just had Mother's Day, you know, Father's Day is coming up. I only see nothing but friends and with their family coming in. So it is a family restaurant.
4:10:21And my Aunt Maria, her restaurant never hesitates giving back to the community. donations for new books for schools, food for school events, sponsoring local school teams, giving candies at her restaurants on Halloween. You know, it's a lot safer for our community as well.
4:10:37She's a really hardworking woman. She has a good relationship with her employees. She goes out her way to help them financially as well when they're having problems at home, when their family members are sick. I really don't remember the last time my aunt had a break. She's always trying to grow, so this would really help. and I mean the environment, the community as well, giving more jobs out.
4:11:05And Hector's has nothing but clients, good clients coming in. You know, we have the police men, paramedics, firemen, and teachers who routinely eat here and they never absorb any problems. So I'm asking that Marisco Sector and McFadden be granted their liquor license so we can compete with newer restaurants and stay in the business for years.
4:11:46Thank you. Gustavo?
4:12:19Hi.
4:12:23Nice to see you. Nice to talk to you again. Nice to talk to everybody. Mr. Becerra, everybody. My name is Gustavo Rhea. I'm a teacher at Chavez Caldwell High School. Blas was my student and graduated from me. I've been there for 19 years now and I've been a client for Hector's since 1991. And I brought my mom and I brought my dad in there on Father's Day. And my dad has passed, but my mom also brought them and they picked Hector's to go there. That was her choice. So about seven, eight years ago, we started back to the community program and I started
4:12:25knocking on restaurants to collect money for scholarships for my kids. They go to continuation school and their opportunities are a little bit different. They were getting scholarships, 50, 100. So my goal was to get scholarships that were higher than that. And so Hector was the only one that provided those scholarships for our kids. And it was Maria that did that and I went and I talked to her I called her Maria I need to talk to you and we sat down and she she accepted it let's do that so we started it in
4:13:04like 2017 two scholarships 150 and 350 for students are going to sat now and then we continue only that and then we shifted a little bit and we asked for donations for events food can you provide us with food and she said yeah so we started it with burritos for our bible studies program we have a bible studies program during lunch with mrs spark you probably know her and so she said hey gustavo can we do that and i asked and we got 37 burritos that day every one of the kids ate and they were really happy and then from that
4:13:44we started growing into more events. Every year we celebrate our attendance, perfect attendance, and we celebrate it with with a ceremony, a certificate, and a meal. That meal comes from Hector's. Okay, we also celebrate passing all the classes. We had four different celebrations a year. The other one is honor, honor students. Okay, in the last one last year where there were 60 students in the honor roll. 60 plates were donated to us from Hector's that day. And we have a project, we're talking about it already for the next year, and we are planning to ask Hector's to repeat that
4:14:23donation for us, for the students. My experience, especially the last one, it was heartbreaking because the students really, really enjoy their food. Some of them even took some of the place that was left as home. And it was just, I mean, if you were there, you would break down and cry, period. And that was only done because of Hector's. And so our-
4:15:05Your time is up, sir. Thank you.
4:15:33Well, okay. Thank you. I had a certificate-
4:15:35Richard Garcia?
4:15:39Okay.
4:15:40I'm sorry, your time is up. Thank you.
4:15:42Richard Garcia? Thank you.
4:15:46Hi, thank you for having me here.
4:16:00We're here for the fact that I'm here in support of Hector's Marisco, but at the same time I've been a community person here for over 30 years. So my concern is very much on the situation with the community as much as I'm trying to assist Hector's Mariscos so they could get the license. Here's one thing that we already started in the situation.
4:16:04We have a 7-Eleven in the corner, as everybody knows. I've already filed a complaint with the corporation. Do you have the complaint case number here regarding their alcohol serving? And on a continued basis, they continue drinking around the area. And also on top of that, we're going to have a meeting with, it's usually called the Stater Brothers parking lot, well now it's called Ranchos. So we're right now going to have a meeting with the parking lot landlord. so the property landlord so we could start monitoring the area and start
4:16:32getting the homeless out of there people drinking there so that way everybody can enjoy the restaurant so and like I said before I'm pretty much involved with this on both sides so I'm here to just say please allow them to do that and I'm gonna do everything in my power to so families can enjoy the
4:17:14restaurant okay thank you okay okay thank you that is the end of public comments the applicant has a rebuttal opportunity and then comments from the council members can you please turn your phones off or the music please and again when people are talking if we
4:17:35cannot have conversation. Thank you. Thank you again. I don't think this is working. How about now? Okay. In listening to the comments, I'll concentrate on the negative comments. Obviously, I noted most of them came from Madison Park. They were citing crime statistics which fly in the face of the staff report. The police department had no reservations whatsoever. It almost got to the point where where they were impugning the credibility and integrity of the staff itself, which I did not find to be appropriate.
4:17:57There was a comment that children are allowed. They are allowed because it's a food establishment and the primary business is the selling of food. Alcohol is a small percentage of it.
4:18:36Other comments were, hey, our voice was not taken into consideration or we didn't hear. the law requires notice by posting publication and the like these folks have had two bites of the apple the first for the planning commission and the second for this meeting tonight for them to now say well we didn't get a chance to get involved i find that rather far-fetched and
4:18:51And finally, there was an indication that, hey, that we're selling tequila. It's agave wine. It's not considered tequila. It's perfectly permissible with a 41 license. I believe staff contacted us today, and we provided them with further documentation.
4:19:17It's wine. You could sit there with an ABC enforcement officer sitting right next to you with a bottle right in front of you and they wouldn't bat an eyelash it's perfectly permissible and beyond that i think the uh the record is clear i think the appropriate course of action is to allow the license to go forward and to agree with the planning commission and its findings subject to the conditions cited therein thank you thank you sir at this time if the council members would
4:19:37like to speak please push your button
4:20:06I don't see, I see Mayor Pro Tem, this is for the CWA. Okay, let me start over here. Councilman Vasquez, any comments?
4:20:10Councilman Hernandez, any comments? Councilman Becerra, any comments?
4:20:21Yes, Mayor, thank you. So first of all, I wanted to thank everybody that came out tonight to speak on this item. I think the study theme tonight is that our community, hardworking community, is very busy, and for you to take the time out to come and address the council is definitely appreciated, so thank you for coming out.
4:20:28So one thing I'm just going to say, I'm disappointed in our Planning Commission in regards to their decision on this item. In looking at the police stats, here's something that's just very unfortunate in our community. So if I was to be in another city and say, there is a restaurant that serves alcohol that has numerous batteries, batteries, not assaults, batteries, narcotics, persons with deadly weapons. I mean, that alone would bring people out with pitchforks and saying, shut it down, right? But for whatever reason, our threshold is, well,
4:20:49I mean, they've got numerous disturbances for music, But I mean, come on. I mean, they've only got one person with a deadly weapon, so that's okay, right? No, it's not okay. It's not okay. The thing about granting a CUP for additional alcohol service is you're rewarding somebody. You're saying, hey, you were serving beer and wine, and you did a good job. You ran a clean business. You didn't serve to minors. You didn't have additional superfluous calls for service, right? So you would reward them.
4:21:29What I found very interesting in this one is that we have restaurants around this particular place that don't even begin to do alcohol service until 10 a.m. or 11 a.m. And here we're going to grant 8 a.m. Now, looking at these police stats, over the last three years, there have been almost 15 disturbances, calls for service to this location. So when I look at these crime stats, that's fine. PD has their opinion, they say it's not so bad, but I hear the community and I look at them and I go, you guys are saying it's bad, you're there, you're living right around the corner from this place,
4:22:00so you know more than anybody whether it's good or bad, whether it's impacting your quality of life. And so listening to you again, I appreciate you coming out, I appreciate you letting us know what you're dealing with day in and day out. When I look at all this, you know, it just, it blows me away that not only would the planning commission agree to give this additional privilege to this restaurant, but would then extend the hours. That just flies in the face of logic. One thing I want to also express support for, and I believe Lionel, you said this, in that, you know, the notification
4:22:39of the neighborhoods. So one thing that I don't like seeing from the planning commission, this is something when I was on the planning commission, is just that we don't do adequate notification of the neighborhoods, and I think that's something, Director Tai, that we need to discuss at future council meetings, because just calling one person in a neighborhood, that's a weak straw poll when it comes to trying to really understand what's going on. Now, granted, we do noticing for the public hearings, right, and a lot of times they're ignored, but-Your time's up, Councilman Becerra. Long story short, Director Tai,
4:23:15let's address that in the future. Thank you, Mayor. You can come back to you.
4:23:48Councilman Tai? Fan? Excuse me.
4:23:50Thank you. Can I ask, this is the time for me to ask the police chief some questions? Is that okay?
4:23:52When you ask a question, he'll stop talking.
4:23:58I mean, the timer will stop.
4:24:00Okay. Chief, will you? I have some questions about the stats.
4:24:02Okay. So, it does, I'm reading the report and it does say that there were calls to the area, A total of 38 service cars to the project site's vicinity since January 2021. Seven of them were reports taken in. I think I'm just trying to understand the discrepancy because it seems like the report is saying that it's the general parking or the plaza or maybe not the exact business. Can you respond to that?
4:24:07Yes. Thank you, Mayor, City Council, and everyone present and watching. I think what occurred here is there was data that was provided to the physical address, specific address, and, you know, 1208 East McFadden, right, in this case. So in looking at beyond that immediate area, because unless a call for service is pinpointed to that address and you only run that address, it's not going to be included in any data analysis, right?
4:24:37So the 100 block is important to look at, maybe one or 200 block going east, west, north, south. And so when you look at that, it's substantially more volume of calls for service, the different types of calls for service, and then the observation activity that occurs by officers working proactive patrol in that area.
4:25:14Okay. And so I guess I'm just trying to understand if the area is in the 20% threshold established by the state for high crime. And we're saying that within the 100 block around the project site, we're getting a lot of calls. I guess I'm trying to figure out how we view the ability to have hard liquor, you know, is being mitigated from getting more increased calls. I know that, at least my understanding is this project itself hasn't ever gotten a call. Is that correct?
4:25:41No, there's actually calls for service to the actual physical address.
4:26:21Okay, so there are. Okay, sorry, I think that's where I'm confused because the way I'm reading the staff report. Okay, so what is the police department's justification then to say, well, even though it's in the 20% threshold and we're getting calls for service in that area, that is still okay to advise the hard liquor license?
4:26:25Yeah, so frankly, from my perspective, this should have been looked at a bit broader. And really the only way to truly understand the nexus to the address is to look at each and every incident. So, for example, if you look at two years, May 1st, 2021 to May 31, 2023, there's 3,508 total incidents. That's very different than 12 or 13. But in order to make a finite determination, if there's a nexus to the address, you have to look at each and every incident. And frankly, I don't know that staff had that time.
4:26:47I don't know when the Planning Commission met, when they made the request, when the information was submitted to them. I don't have those details.
4:27:27Thank you. And that's also 1,200 calls to go through, so I get it. But that was important for me to understand. And also for the record, the applicant did request to meet with me, and I did meet with them this morning just to get information. Obviously, did not make any decisions, did not indicate any decision or anything like that, but I did want to state that for the record. And then also, has this project ever had any code enforcement issues? maybe this is for code enforcement team or minti relating to because I know there were allegations
4:27:34that they were selling tequila or drinks that had hard liquor but they also stated that it was um agave wine we have none okay um okay I think that's all my questions for now thank you chief if you can
4:28:09hold on one second please I don't see any other hands uh no no I just have one question I want to make sure I heard you correctly on the number of calls for service. Could you give me that number again?
4:28:25And looking at the two years, May 21 to May 23, 3,508 total incidents. It's important to know what area we looked at to come up with that number. And so it's the 800 to 1100 block of East McFadden, the 1000 to 1300 South block of Standard, the 1000 to 1100 south block of many the 1100 east block of oxford 800 to 1100 east hardwood and then finally 800 to 1100 east normandy so essentially you know two blocks or so around
4:28:36that location and of those 3 3500 incidents 813 of those were generated by police officers and then 2,245 calls for service total.
4:29:17Thank you. I wish the staff would have asked you to really pinpoint how many calls because I don't believe they did ask you that. So thank you for those numbers because I would have liked to know exactly the numbers in that area where the restaurant is. And I don't need to know, but I just want to say thank you for the numbers. I appreciate it. That's all I have. So there are no other questions from the council member? I think I... Oh, I see. Okay, I'm sorry, I apologize. Mayor Potem-Lopez?
4:29:31Oh, yeah, thank you.
4:30:03And her hand is the only one up, so I don't see anybody else's hand up to speak.
4:30:04My question was for the chief.
4:30:08Well, for Min and Chief Valentin, because I know the police department made a recommendation to approve and also our staff our department and so I just want to hear from both of you what informed that recommendation because I see the conditions of approval in the PowerPoint I think some of them can be revised I'm listening to the concerns of the residents and so I'm trying to figure out is there a happy medium or are we going to always whenever there's an incident with a business whether it's in
4:30:18downtown or outskirts if this is going to be the process in place so to address
4:30:58the question on how we view the crime statistics and what we request it's our standard practice when we do receive an application for a conditional use current relate to abc that that gets directed to the police department for their analysis and review and we get a recommendation back based on their review in this case the application came in in early february of this year and that's when staff requests the report we we certainly don't profess to understand to be the master of the data what we do is we request a report request information
4:31:07and a recommendation from the police department. In this case, based on the analysis that was concluded by the police department, the recommendation was for positive approval of the CUP with the operational standards in the code as well as conditions. the police department believe that those mitigations were adequate to address the application in this case.
4:31:47So to further answer in terms of how we analyze the application for the CUP beyond the crime status, what we look at is the operations of the existing business in relation to the application. the concept of conditional use permit is that a use could potentially be compatible in the area if there hasn't been any evidence that's shown of impact. Also conditions are placed on such an application so that it could potentially or it could prevent potential issues that may come up
4:32:21that we as staff foresee. Further, the CEP process has the protection of potential review, regardless of whether or not there's a condition for review, is that if the city staff, police department, or we hear from the neighborhood that there are issues stemming from the business, staff has the ability under the conditional use permit to call the conditional use permit for review by the Klan Commission to address any potential impacts that arise from an approval.
4:32:59So PD's analysis and not your specific analysis, but the department's analysis didn't find any harmful impacts when the recommendation was made?
4:33:33It was not found any documented impacts that would substantiate or would substantiate a denial of the conditional use permit so based on that conditions were imposed to anticipate any potential impact and address it in that fashion understood thank you and then
4:33:45chief can you confirm there's a substation across the street right mini street the apartments there
4:34:06there used to be I don't know if there's an actual physical operating storefront anymore there used to be years ago yeah okay yeah okay so I appreciate the
4:34:16analysis I appreciate that I went through the Planning Commission I am listening to the residents and I know that MPNA has done a lot of work in the area probably more than anyone up here has in terms of educating your residents making sure that they're organized, making sure that they're aware of the options that you'll have. And so, you know, I want to thank you all for coming a second time in a role. And I hope that moving forward there can be, I don't know, necessarily a better process in place, but something that would catch this beforehand. So thank you all.
4:34:28Chief, if you want to hold on, I'm going to have another question for you. Councilman Panellosa?
4:35:08Thank you, Madam Mayor. Thank you, and thank you mainly to the applicant who is here tonight and to the residents of MPNA, the Madison Park Neighborhood Association for coming out tonight to speak, and everyone else that did on both sides. I guess it's important to, in listening to some of the comments that have been made, it's important to realize that these crime statistics, whether they're very minimal or or a lot when you look at the greater radius surrounding the restaurant. It's important to remember that residents in this area don't necessarily call the police when it comes to noise or disturbances and whatnot.
4:35:12I know that myself, a sitting council member, there's been 10 times in the last month where there's music and loud noises going on till two, three in the morning. And you know what, I just suck it up. I'm like, you know what, people are celebrating graduations or they're having their parties. I know I could easily send a text message to the watch commander and say, hey, can you send somebody out? But I don't. I mean, even I don't like doing that when it comes to something like noise. So I could see how residents in this area are some maybe fearful of calling the police for whatever reason.
4:35:54They don't want to be involved and they just don't do it. So that could also be why we see minimal cause to this particular establishment when it comes to noise or whatnot. The question I had, and maybe the city manager, and thank you, Chief, I don't have any questions for you. But Madam City Manager, do you know, and I don't know if you want to bring your staff up, but do you know how many licenses are in the census tract?
4:36:31currently? There are currently nine licenses in the census track. Nine within
4:37:03like the this would be Standard Avenue? It's in proximity of Standard Avenue so
4:37:11it's within census track number 74403. Okay and I believe I heard and I
4:37:18What was your name, sir, that spoke? Yeah.
4:37:27Arthur.
4:37:31Arthur. I believe I heard Arthur mention that El Corral Bar is also owned by the applicant.
4:37:32That El Corral Bar, El Corral, is also owned by the applicant?
4:37:45That is correct.
4:37:49Okay.
4:37:50I guess, so, thank you for that. So I guess in looking over the different factors that are being presented here and trying to see if we could come with a compromise within the neighborhood and the bar, I was also sent videos, multiple videos, of the establishment El Corral Bar that had been taken over the last three to six months of the bartenders and the women that worked there dancing on the pool tables, removing their clothing.
4:37:53So if you have a question for him, I'll have him come up. Otherwise, we're not going to carry a conversation.
4:38:34If you click, if whoever has Snapchat and you go to the heat map index and click on El Corral Bar, you'll see.
4:38:39Excuse me, as a point of order, you cannot speak. It's the time for our council members. If the board, if the council were to decide to allow a few moments of response, that's up to you. No, so. It's the council members' discussion.
4:38:48Thank you. Thank you very much, city attorney. So you had your chance at a rebuttal, public comments were made. Now the council members ask if you have a specific question, Councilman Penelosa, please ask them to come up to answer your question.
4:39:01So would you like to come up to answer, is El Corral Bar owned by the applicant? And then remember we have three minutes.
4:39:17Three minutes each council member.
4:39:24El Corral Bar that you're referring to is not owned by Maria. No, he's confused because the name is with a liquor license when we purchased it but the El Corral has multiple locations the specific one has been shut down the one that Maria owned with that license so which address was that uh I think there is El Corral there's several ones I don't know which one well the one that the one at McFadden is completely shut down for two years after we never opened after COVID okay yeah well thank you
4:39:26for that clarification. No problem. But yeah, so he.
4:40:03Jennifer, we're going to start the clock. Councilman Panellis, it's three minutes and then we're going to go from there. Thank you.
4:40:07So those are the only comments I have. I know the time's up if somebody else wants to speak, but I will like a second round.
4:40:13You got it. Councilman Becerra. Thank you, Madam Mayor.
4:40:20So this is really kind of going back to the police stats. So when you look at the staff report, it says, let's see, since January 1st, 2020, 38 calls, seven resulted in reports taken in. The reports were in results of assaults occurring on the commercial center site. One was a car burglary. I mean, I'm not saying that's good, but that doesn't give you the full picture.
4:40:26When you look at the actual stats that after following up with staff and asking for a little more detail, I end up getting a little one-sheeter that talks about 11 disturbance calls, four trespassing, one narcotics, one person with deadly weapon. Now, as a planning commissioner, that would be helpful to know because if I'm going to make, if I want to approve this CUP, I'd want to know what conditions I need to make or to apply to the approval.
4:40:54And so when I see 11 disturbances for music and I'm really hell bent on trying to approve this application, then I would want to apply conditions that would mitigate those disturbance calls. But when I get something generic that says, yep, calls are made, cops came out, wrote some reports, done, why would I try to mitigate music disturbances? There's no reason to because I wouldn't know. So what I would ask staff to do going forward with the Planning Commission and the City Council is to provide at least this one sheet detail that gives a little bit more idea of what kind of calls for service these businesses are receiving.
4:41:26because I think what would help is just so that we know what kind of conditions, whether it's the Commission or the Council, what we should be applying to any of these approvals. That's it. Thank you, Mayor.
4:42:06Thank you. Councilman, panelists, please.
4:42:19Thank you, Madam Mayor. So, Executive Director Tai, you mentioned that there was already nine liquor licenses currently in the census tract, right?
4:42:22That's correct.
4:42:33Okay. Okay. So with that, thank you for that information. I would like to move to deny the conditional use permit 2023-09 due to the finding that the proposed use will not provide a service that will contribute to the general well-being of the surrounding community. The census tract currently has nine licenses as stated by our executive director of planning and building and is currently categorized as over-concentrated with the nine existing ABC licenses in the track. This CUP would take an already over-concentrated area and further intensify it.
4:42:34It's also important to remember that over the last decade, as we've been discussing the general plan, we've been talking about the environmental injustices that exist not only in the environmental injustice corridor, but specifically in this particular neighborhood. Cornerstone Village, Minnie Street, Madison Park, and that whole standard corridor. So with the environmental injustices, we want to remember that they're not just limited to air and soil contamination, but also include the effects that come from potentially increasing
4:43:11or intensifying these liquor licenses in an already saturated area that could add to the effect of additional drunk drivers on the street till not just 10 p.m. but now midnight and and seven days a week and noise complaints into the late night and additional potential crime statistics that come with people having too much to drink in this area so those are my reasons madam mayor so I would move to
4:43:47deny the permit. I'll second it. I'll second it. Let's prepare to vote. Real quick, Madam
4:44:18Mayor. I don't see your hand. Is there, sorry, I just real quick, are we, are there, are we going to make any findings in regards to denying? We're denying it. Yeah, but we have to make a finding to deny, right, Councilman? Yeah. I think he explained himself quite well.
4:44:26Is that the finding? Okay. Yeah, basically that it's not providing any general well-being. Yes, he explained it very well.
4:44:41I second it and let's prepare to vote.
4:44:47Madam Clerk?
4:45:10Yes. Yes, the vote is seven ayes, no nays to deny conditional use permit 2023-09 with the findings as stated by Council Member Penaloza that it will not provide the general well-being to the surrounding community.
4:45:11I'm sorry, we couldn't hear you. Can you repeat that, please?
4:45:26Yes, the vote was by Council Member Penaloza, seconded by Mayor Mesquita to deny conditional use permit number 2023-09 with the findings that the proposed use would not provide a source of general well-being to the surrounding community.
4:45:29Thank you. We're going to go back to consent at this time. And we're going to go to item 25, Councilman Penelosa.
4:45:43Thank you, Madam Mayor. The reason why I pulled item 25 is the project cost analysis for the restrooms.
4:45:50If you can exit quietly, please thank you.
4:45:59Project, where's my, yeah, item number 25, Madam City Manager, and the public listening and to my colleagues is to approve the change order and revise project cost analysis for an existing construction contract with iBuild Spectrum, the total project delivery cost of $1,740,000 for Campesino Park, Memorial Park, and Madison Park restrooms. Reason why I pulled this Madam City Manager, you know, just to...
4:46:04Can you hold on one second and then we're going to let everybody exit the room because we can't really hear you.
4:46:34You ready? Good? All right, let's go. Thank you.
4:46:48I first mainly want to say that it's unfortunate that we must even have this conversation, just so that the public is aware of who's here listening. The construction sites were vandalized, resulting in a loss to not only the contractor, but to our residents. Back in December we had to increase this contract by over $100,000 due to the vandalism, and now we're asking to transfer about $30,000-some from the Construction Administration to contingency to perform vandalism-related repairs. So the question I have, Madam City Manager, is do the contractors that we usually award
4:46:52these contracts to, do they usually have or carry insurance that can cover these losses when stuff like this occurs?
4:47:27The vandalism took place in pulling cabling and wires that we currently had. So the contractor would not have an insurance policy over our infrastructure that we had in place. It is important to note that we did not go higher on the project you approved in December 2022, the 1.740. What we are doing is just transferring 33,000 from admin and inspection to the construction to get it done. So we haven't increased the overall project cost. This one, I am researching because I'm not even sure that we needed council approval on this one since we did not increase the overall project cost.
4:47:37Yeah, I thought about that too. I was thinking, I was like, why is this even before us given that it's under your signing authority? So I guess the other question I have is just for moving forward as we have because we're very excited to announce that we are having many projects throughout the city and these vandalism instances are going to continue to occur. So I mean we have security patrol in our parks, we have 24-7 security so I think and we should also look into these contractors that we're awarding these contracts to making sure that their sites are secured overnight
4:48:19when they're performing these jobs because I hate to say it but looking at the state and and how crime just keeps increasing everywhere and nobody seems to bat an eye unfortunately these things are going to continue to happen when it comes to our construction sites throughout the city and I would hate to keep coming back and it's an unfortunate thing because we it's the people are stealing from our residents and and this is money that we keep I know we're not increasing it now. So I guess the general question, I'll move to approve the item, but can we just try to
4:48:58add language to these awarding of contracts and that could add language where we could secure these sites when they're happening or give priority to our staff that this is a priority?
4:49:33Absolutely. And Councilmember, we do. Public Works works very closely with the contractors to ensure that they are securing the site once they are active on the site. But unfortunately, we still do experience some vandalism. But we will take that into consideration, and particularly if we have construction projects that are happening in areas where it's been prone to vandalism, to see if we can't do more to stop it prior to it happening.
4:49:45Because not that I'm accusing this particular contractor of doing something, but I could see how a contractor down the line will see, hey, the city council just easily increased the contract because there was vandalism and they could stage vandalism, which I know is a crime and I would hope that that is addressed, but we just got to have a better process when these things come up. Those are my comments. Mayor, thank you. Thank you, colleagues.
4:50:11No, Councilman Penelope, so those are great comments. This weekend, there was garage sale time and Santa Ana Unified School Police located property that belonged to the school district and they were selling it at the garage sales and so it does happen so thank you for bringing that up
4:50:36Councilmember Fan thank you mayor thank you for pulling this item this is why we can't have nice things people and it's really frustrating because when director Scott first started one of the first emails I got from him was we have to allocate more money because somebody went to a park and pulled out all the copper wire from all of our lighting and we have to spend tons of taxpayer dollars that we just allocated to fix this issue because residents don't feel safe using parks because it's not lit but because of this vandalism it's so frustrating because we all want the same thing
4:50:56but we keep facing this issue and I guess maybe it's just a comment to our city manager because we did approve Lion security. We do have managers who can under the contract be armed. They are not currently. But whether it's bringing back the issue of park rangers just overnight or dealing increasing patrols by our security around areas where there are there is open construction.
4:51:34we have to safeguard the investments that we're trying to make for our residents and it's really frustrating for this to happen again and I know this is not the first time I think we had other issues before and so I just want to come back we are wasting money because people are stealing from you from residents and all it's doing is hurting all of us so So with that, I would like to approve and support this item, but I would like to see staff also come back with some options for what we can do policy-wise to address at least
4:52:09the open construction areas where we're actively working to ensure we don't continue to have this problem. Thank you.
4:52:46Thank you. I don't see any other hands raised. There was a motion. Council and panelists, did you make that motion?
4:52:55I did. and a second by myself.
4:53:01Second by Councilman Hernandez. Let's prepare to vote, please.
4:53:03A motion by Councilmember Penaloza, seconded by Councilmember Hernandez to approve item 25, the change order and revised project cost analysis with I build Spectrum, Inc. And the vote is seven ayes, no nays. Motion carries.
4:53:09Thank you. I'm going to do item 42 and 43 together.
4:53:23So I just have a comment. I want to thank all of the staff that work for our city that are represented by SEIU and also by the SAMA here. You know, the city has great employees, and I'm glad that we are able to have this on the agenda tonight and to always recognize our employees for the job that they do, and they do a good job. So it took us a little while to get here, but I want to thank the council. And now we're here and voting on it. And thank you to all of the city staff and all the positions that you have to keep our city moving every single day.
4:53:32So with that, I'd like to move item 42 and 43. Oh, I already moved. I just made a comment. Thank you. Yes, thank you. Okay, any other comments?
4:54:14Okay, item 47.
4:54:28Item 47 is the resolution to support the Iranian-American community in condemning the violence there. We put this on here because they had come several times and they've been to other cities. And I'm glad, thank you, City Manager, for putting this on there for the request because because we want to support them and show that support by having it here with us, making it public that we support them. And so thank you to my colleagues for making this happen. And that's what I have for those items. And then 46, I think Councilman Dan, you had a comment?
4:54:33Yes, Ms. Kathy Green had to leave, but I did want to just say that for those of you who don't know, the Association of California Water Agencies is an incredibly important lobbying arm for state water agencies to help support laws that help our water agencies bring funding grants, including to the city of Santa Ana. And Kathy Green is someone I know who not only has been dedicated to water and water issues, she's here from Orange County, she supports Santa Ana, and she's a woman in a world where there are not a lot of women making
4:55:09policies on water. I think she's not only going to be a wonderful president for ACWA, I think she's going to be help be a champion for Santa Ana and so I hope that we I appreciate all of my colleagues for supporting her and I look forward to calling her Madam President. Thank you.
4:55:45Councilmember Becerra. Thank you Mayor Mesquah. I'm happy to support Kathy Green. When she was mayor of Huntington Beach, she also served on the OCTA board. And while there, she was truly a friend for Santa Ana. So when other representatives on the board were looking to make transit cuts that would direly impact our residents, Kathy stuck her neck out there for our city. So I just, I'm happy to support Kathy. I know that when Kathy left the Huntington Beach City Council, she really, pun intended, dove into the water world. and she really, really has been present, been active, and so, again, she's a friend of Santa Ana,
4:56:05and I'm happy to support her as well. Thank you.
4:56:43Councilman Panelaide.
4:56:45Thank you, Madam Mayor. I just wanted to also voice my support for Ms. Green. I know that when she was first recommended a couple years ago, I was a month or two into the council. I had no idea who she was, so I just wasn't comfortable making that recommendation too. So I voted no at the time, but happy to vote yes now. So thank you.
4:56:47Thank you. I'm also happy to support her. I sit on the water board for her, and she's a great mentor, and she does a wonderful job representing us and is very supportive of the city of Santa Ana. So with that, let's move on. If there are no other comments, we took care of the consent calendar with item 51. Yeah. All right, public hearing, item 52. Before the public hearing, item 52, Madam Clerk, please provide instructions to the public who would like to make comment on this public hearing item only. Go ahead.
4:57:07Members of the public joining us by way of Zoom or conference call who would like to make a comment for public hearing item 52 related to the budget only, please dial star nine from your phone or select the raised hand from Zoom now. Thank you.
4:57:44Do we have any cards to speak?
4:57:58All right, let's take care of this. Let's do public comments and then Madam City Manager, you have the staff report? We do have a presentation for you, Mayor. Let me do this first. Or do you want to do them after?
4:58:17Your decision, sometimes when we do the presentation it does answer some of the comments. Thanks, Kevin.
4:58:30All right, let's do them after. Go ahead.
4:58:34Okay. So, honorable Mayor and Council members, this is the public hearing to consider all the necessary steps to approve the fiscal year 23-24 budget, which begins on July 1st. Both the community input and your majority direction for the priorities have been incorporated in the proposed budget. The details of the proposed budget was made available on May 6th. Of important note is our proposed budget is balanced for ongoing expenses and the general fund reserve requirements have been met. We have a presentation to provide an overview followed with brief individual presentations from each department executive.
4:58:36I respectfully request you save your questions until the end of the presentation as all executives will still be available for specific questions at that time. and I will now turn it over to our Executive Director of Finance. Great, thank you.
4:59:14Thank you, and good evening, Mayor and Council members. Leading up to this evening's public hearing, you've held three budget work sessions in April and May, and we've had many public engagements over the last few months.
4:59:28This public hearing presentation will cover City Council and community priorities, an overview of the proposed 2324 budget and brief presentations from each department head the recommended action this evening is to introduce the ordinance for the 2324 budget with adoption planned for June 20 in addition to the budget ordinance there are a number of other items for City Council to consider this includes the annual investment next I will quickly cover an overview of the proposed budget.
4:59:43The proposed 23-24 citywide budget is $764 million. More than half of that is the general fund and the remainder is for restricted money sources such as grants and the water and sewer enterprise operations.
5:00:20The general fund is the primary operating fund of the city and accounts for unrestricted revenue such as property tax and sales tax. We expect to receive approximately $400.9 million in revenue.
5:00:38The proposed budget for general fund spending is $413.9 million, including $29.4 million of one-time spending from the available general fund balance while continuing to maintain the 18% reserve. curve.
5:00:54Approximately half of the budget is for public safety, including police, fire, and ambulance services. Next, I will highlight the spending priorities.
5:01:12I'm pleased to say we had nearly 1,800 public engagements during this budget process, a 203% increase from the prior year. Our staff is already brainstorming ways to increase public engagement even more next year. The recurring themes we heard from public engagement includes public safety, homelessness reduction, infrastructure, and parks. We have listed the proposed budget amounts for each category to demonstrate the importance of these spending priorities in the budget.
5:01:25As discussed in your budget workshops, we expect revenue to remain fairly flat this year, meaning no significant increases. With that said, I would like to highlight the additions we were able to make to the proposed budget this year, much of it from one-time spending. Community intervention programs in the police and parks and rec departments. More than $9 million for capital investments from the general fund, including roadway and safety improvements, heavy equipment, and public safety, public facility improvements, and funding for a climate action plan.
5:01:58The proposed budget also includes restricted funding for the new rent stabilization program, opioid remediation, park improvements, and $27.6 million of street repairs. The department presentations are next with the city manager covering the proposed city council and city manager budgets.
5:02:35»» So thank you Director Downs. And as mentioned, tonight's first budget presentation is yours. So I'll briefly talk about the org chart and the budget of your department. So organizationally, our Santa Ana residents are at the very top. The voting residents elect an at-large mayor and by district council members, creating a seven-member City Council. The City Council as a body is responsible for all matters of policy determinations for our city. The City Council also oversees three charter officers who serve at the will and pleasure of the City Council, that being the City Attorney, the City Manager, and the City
5:02:58Clerk. The proposed City Council budget for fiscal year 23-24 is approximately $1.02 million. It is entirely funded by the general fund and represents only 0.1% of the citywide budget and only 0.2% of all general fund expenditures. The city council budget includes funding for activities and initiatives such as legislative affairs, contracted city council aides, special event sponsorships, special recognitions, miscellaneous supplies, and the elected official stipends. And now onto the City Manager's Office Department budget.
5:03:34The City Manager's Office works hand in hand to provide the City Council support services and constituent services and also supports me and my role of overseeing the day-to-day operations of the city. The City Manager's Office is composed of three divisions, Operations, Communications, and Administrative Support. The Operations group consists of myself, my Assistant City Manager, Steven Mendoza, and a team of analysts, all who empower through to help me implement your very important policy decisions and work together to improve service delivery.
5:04:12The communications group is evolving and is working cross-departmentally to build capacity throughout the organization to enhance our community engagement. And finally, the administrative support group consists of your executive assistants who provide tailored support to each of you to keep you on track and make sure you have everything you need to succeed in your role as a council member. year. The proposed city manager's office budget for fiscal year 23-24 is approximately $3.6 million with the majority $3.1 million funded by the general fund. The remaining
5:04:45funding comes from special revenue funds, grants and restricted funds. Our department's budget is less than 1% both of the citywide budget and of the total general fund expenditures. staff from this department had a very busy year some just some of the highlights on the screen include partnering with community-based organizations on food distributions to support vulnerable community members expanded our digital communications reach by issuing several press release publishing PSA's and increasing our followers on city social media under the leadership of the City Council the staff worked with the City Attorney's Office
5:05:16and the City Clerk's Office on modernizing the city charter, and we carried out a community-focused engagement initiative to prepare an ordinance to establish the city's first police oversight commission. Some of the goals of the office for the upcoming year include conducting a study to better identify opportunities to improve communications and engagements with the community, continue our efforts to make in-person services easier. You may have already noticed that we have a centralized staff welcome and information desk here at City Hall. We want to work with departments on administering council subcommittees and lastly launching
5:05:55a cross departmental ledge affairs group to leverage our priorities and advocacy opportunities. Next I will turn it over to your City Attorney.
5:06:35Thank you City Manager Ridge. Mayor and Council members and members of the public, the City Attorney's Office is organized into various sub-practice groups, and we currently have 15 employees, including nine in-house attorneys. The attorneys are currently working within the transactional group, a general counsel group that includes our litigation practice, and we also have a full-time attorney assigned as the police legal advisor. Based on the council's adoption of new laws and policies, the city attorney's office will now grow to provide a rent stabilization enforcement unit,
5:06:45which is being developed, and we will also house a support position for the Police Oversight Commission. The City Attorney's Office is one of the departments that works on nearly every agenda item that you see every two weeks on your agenda. The office also supports the various city commissions. We staff all Planning Commission and Historic Resource Commission meetings, and we attend all other commission meetings as requested. Next slide, please. The City Attorney's Office represents about 0.6% of the citywide budget with $4.4 million. Our money comes from the general fund and also from special revenue funds. Next slide.
5:07:19I'm going to provide a very brief highlight of our work and our goals, actually highlights and goals. Highlights from this past year, we've been especially busy. We responded to over 1,400 requests for legal services as of April 30th. Requests for legal services come from each of the departments through an electronic form, and this does not keep track of those requests that we receive in the hallways, here at city council meetings, or other requests from staff. We also defended in-house 57 litigation matters, which is about double the amount of matters that we have represented the city on in the past,
5:07:58and we also managed an additional 28 litigation matters that are assigned to outside legal counsel. We have initiated nuisance abatement litigation regarding several residential properties. We continue to work very closely and hand in hand with the Code Enforcement Division. We have also provided legal advice regarding ARPA funding and processed a multitude of ARPA funded agreements. In terms of our goals, next slide, for this fiscal year, we will continue to provide well-reasoned and thoughtful legal support and advice to the City Council, all of the City Departments and many city boards and commissions.
5:08:35We will assist with all necessary legal advice and counsel regarding the upcoming general municipal election, as well as any questions regarding the recall election. Continue to aggressively defend the city and its employees in all lawsuits. We are working actively with staff now to initiate nuisance abatement actions, inspection and abatement warrants, and to utilize other legal procedures where appropriate and necessary. and again we will continue to support council driven initiatives and projects and so with that I'd like to hand this over to our city clerk Jennifer Hall for
5:09:10her presentation thank you good evening mayor and city council I'm pleased to present the proposed budget for the city clerk's office for fiscal year 2023-24 the mission of the city clerk's office is to facilitate the legislative policymaking process accurately record and validate the proceedings of the city council provide for timely and thorough access to public records conduct the city's election as required by the Charter and State Elections Code and carry out state mandated responsibilities. To carry out this mission, the work of the City Clerk's Office is divided into five main
5:09:45categories, administration, legislative, elections, records management, and boards and commissions. This work is accomplished by seven full-time staff members, two part-time staff members, and coordination with liaisons in each of the other city agencies. The proposed department budget for next year is $2.4 million funded by less than 1% of the general fund and comprising less than a half a percent of the overall city budget.
5:10:16I'd like to acknowledge the hard work of the staff of the City Clerk's Office over the past year in these highlights where they conducted the 2022 general municipal election consisting of the mayoral seat, three by district council member seats and two ballot measures including filing the voter approved charter amendments with the Secretary of State and codifying the changes in the charter and municipal code, provided access to city records via over 2,000 submitted requests, increased transparency of government actions through processing contracts
5:10:43and agreements and digitizing records and making them available online, and ensured compliance with California's Fair Political Practices Commission's regulations. For the upcoming fiscal year, the City Clerk's Office has the following planned initiatives. Complete and finalize the review of citywide records retention schedule to include all updated legislative mandates and to use as a basis for implementing records management month next April and a citywide records destruction in accordance with policy and best practices implement municipal code chapter 2 article 11
5:11:11for the lobbyist registration program including launching an electronic filing system streamline procedures and processes through revised or new policies and trainings for internal staff and citywide and provide a new service to the community of notary public service for their own personal and business needs and now i'll turn over the presentation to community development executive
5:11:42director mike garcia mayor and city council thank you the community development department is proud to assist residents and businesses improve their quality of life by providing housing economic development and employment services the community development agency consists of five different divisions a new one being rent stabilization and will comprise 72 employees this coming fiscal year and we're happy to provide assistance to four different appointed boards that are advisory to the city council three we have been providing arts and culture community development commission
5:12:01the workforce development board and this coming fiscal year we'll be happy to be working on the rent stabilization board appointments from the City Council next slide the community development agencies budget is approximately a hundred and twenty eight million dollars that is non general fund and so the majority of our funding comes from grants from the state federal government as well as enterprise funds and other restricted funds and a lot of that is also coming in to help out with homeless liaison work we help coordinate a lot of grants that come in for homeless services
5:12:41and coordinate with multiple departments throughout this the city
5:13:22a few highlights we wanted to pull out this year and a lot of our focus as a department is working with residents and businesses and we're happy that we're able to help provide relief during covet in the amount of 4.2 million dollars in business grants for downtown businesses 1,509 vehicle incentive rebates to residents. 17,000 residents received Visa stimulus gift cards. 200 residents participated in our summer youth employment program through the work center. We had 12 residents that graduated from our family self-sufficiency program.
5:13:28We're very proud of that program as well as our 25 foster youth who received housing vouchers through the Foster Youth Initiative Program, through HUD, as well as 407 primitive supportive housing units that are in process for development right now. The goals that we have coming up this fiscal year will not only be to work on a civic center campus modernization that's going to start with the acquisition of building number 28, which is immediately adjacent to City Hall on the southwest of City Hall.
5:14:07We're going to be working on a planning effort with multiple departments, and we're going to be starting off with Public Works, and it's going to be a multi-year planning effort to look at a needs assessment, a funding plan, and a master plan for working on a modernization of Civic Center campus. We are going to continue to work on our navigation center, the city shelter, which is located on Carnegie across the 55 freeway. We're going to be establishing our rental stabilization board. And then we're also, another highlight I wanted to pull out is that very soon we're
5:14:47going to be issuing an RFP for affordable ownership opportunities. and we're hoping we get a good response from that and we will keep you informed as that proceeds. I'd also like to introduce now Jason Motzik, our Executive Director of Human Resources.
5:15:27Good evening, Mayor and City Council. Through strategic partnerships, the Human Resources Department takes a leadership role by recruiting and developing a talented workforce, ensuring a safe and healthy work environment and delivering highly responsive professional expertise and services using innovative and transparent approaches with professional integrity the human resources staff provides services across five different divisions administration operation which consists of benefits and recruitment employee relations risk management and organizational development training and in dutchin we support the personnel board
5:15:49The Human Resources Department proposed budget is 7% of the citywide budget, of which only 1% is of the general fund. The remaining 6% is inclusive internal services funds existing of employee benefits and risk management insurance and liability funds.
5:16:31Our highlights for the last fiscal year include implementation of an organizational development and training program, including the rollout of a supervisory academy, succession planning training, and performance management training across the city. Council Chambers ADA compliance and implementation of a new security card system throughout the city hall, and completion of multiple labor negotiations. And I'm proud to announce that with Council's approval of the agreement with SAMA tonight, I believe we became the first known public agency in Orange County to provide employer-paid parental leave.
5:16:52And I'd like to say thank you to the leadership of SAMA for partnering in that endeavor. Our goals for the upcoming fiscal year include continued enrichment of our citywide training and development program, streamlining processes and implementing efficiencies through technology, continued enhancement of our citywide benefit programs and our security and safety projects citywide, and creation of and or revisions to citywide regulations and policies. With that, I'll turn it over to Jack Shula, Information Technology.
5:17:32Good evening. The Information Technology Department serves all of the city departments. Our mission is to provide innovative, fiscally responsible, and secure technology solutions, services, and infrastructure that empower city departments to deliver quality services. The department is made up of five different sections. The admin section conducts procurement, invoice processing, budgeting, and payroll services. The Applications Division supports city enterprise systems such as the financial system and the HR payroll system,
5:18:13as well as specialty systems such as the utility billing system, permitting systems, and tax systems. The Infrastructure Division supports the city's data centers, servers, networks, and phone system. The GIS division supports the GIS system, maintains GIS data layers, supports the asset system and the City MySantaana mobile app. And finally the technical support section provides end user support and deploys new computers, laptops and cell phones.
5:18:50The proposed fiscal year 24 budget for the technology department is less than 2% of the citywide budget and is $13.1 million, of which $1.2 million are for one-time projects. It's 100% internal service funded.
5:19:30Some of the highlights of the IT department were that we completed the salary matrix migration project with the payroll team to eliminate the salary matrix. We completed the business tax system modifications to handle city council approved rate changes that supported a tax holiday and support cannabis rate changes. We completed a mandatory HR payroll and financial systems upgrades that were mandated by the vendors. And we implemented a hyper-converged infrastructure to replace outdated servers.
5:19:49some of the goals for the upcoming year include implementing enhanced cyber security protection to begin the upgrade of the citywide wireless equipment conduct system server migrations to migrate outdated operating systems to newer versions and to complete an ERP system selection along with the finance and HR departments I will now turn it over to library director Brian Sternberg.
5:20:27Good evening, honorable Mayor and members of City Council. The Library Services Agency's mission is to respond to our community's informational, educational, and personal interest needs using books, materials, technology, and professional expertise. The library consists of five divisions, including administration, adult services, youth services, which serves children through eighth grade, young adult services, which services teens, and tech and support services, which administers the library's technology, patron accounts, and tech-related programs. The library has 37 full-time employees and 56 part-time employees.
5:21:05the library services fiscal year 2324 budget is 8.4 million which is comprised of 7.4 million in general fund funding and approximately 1 million in cannabis funding the library's budget makes up one percent of the overall citywide budget the library has been busy and productive this year our accomplishments include completion of significant design milestones for several of the library's innovative new community learning spaces these new and renovated facilities are essential in providing service levels equivalent to other neighboring orange county cities
5:21:44we executed a 10-year lease with two five-year extension options with the delhi community center that will bring a first ever public library to santa ana that is south of mcfadden avenue this project is currently in design. We greatly expanded our program offerings to youth, including two new Teen Time locations at El Salvador and Garfield Community Centers. With as many as 50 programs for youth each month, the Santa Ana Public Library offers activities that include 3D animation, photography, toy design, tabletop game nights, anime and manga and
5:22:20and other types of book discussions, life skills and programs for teens, screenings of popular movies, special summer performances including magic, puppet, and comedy shows for kids, and much, much more. Many of these programs are listed in our Cultura magazine and online on the city's website. Finally, our Dia de los Ninos event celebrates reading and children while serving several thousand kids each year. Dia is the library's signature annual event. We also expanded public service hours by adding what equates to one full day each week. The library is now open 104 hours every week.
5:22:57This is more than it has been in the last 15 years. And finally, we continue to expand our Library of Things collection. This collection thinks outside of the box regarding the type of materials patrons can check out from our library. As a result, we not only have traditional items like books and magazines, but also unique items such as blood pressure monitoring kits that are checked out to patrons in a special partnership with the American Heart Association. This partnership is a first for Orange County Public Libraries. And now moving on to our goals.
5:23:36Much of next fiscal year will be focused on completing many of our capital improvement projects. This will include starting construction to completely restore and renovate our historic main library. We will also begin construction on the city's first ever outdoor public library that will provide a self-service library space at Jerome Park with on-site programs and activities delivered by our library staff. staff. We will also be completing construction of the New Hope Library renovation project that will transform our branch library on the western part of the city into a state-of-the-art
5:24:10facility equipped with an innovation center providing STEM-related activities and programs for all ages.
5:24:46In addition, we will complete construction of a new branch within the Delhi Community Center. This new library will provide continuity of services to the community during the main library's construction closure and afterwards as a branch in the southern part of the city. And finally, we will complete a custom build for a larger second knowledge mobile that will offer library programs and services in areas of the city where we have no physical locations. Services will be geared toward residents of all ages, but there will be a special emphasis on serving our youth.
5:24:55And now I would like to turn it over to Hawk Scott with the Parks, Recreation, Community Services Agency.
5:25:30Hi, Honorable Mayor, Mayor Pro Temp, Council Members, Members of the Public and fellow co-workers. And a very pleasant good evening to you. I'm here to talk about the Santa Ana Parks, Recreation and Community Service Agency. We currently sit at 2% of the overall citywide budget. Our funding sources include general fund, grants, and special revenues. Special revenues include the cannabis public's benefit, fees, donations, and the capital outlife fund. We are broken down into three divisions.
5:25:41Recreation and community services, which houses our athletics, aquatics, community engagement, health and wellness, youth and teens, community education, seniors, and special event sections. The Santa Ana Zoo houses our animal care, education, and operations section. Additionally, the Friends of the Santa Ana Zoo Organization, which is a nonprofit 501 C3 manages our membership concessions, gift shop, rides, and fundraising for the zoo. We also have our county administration. And last but not least, our parks, maintenance, and planning team is over with our friends at the Public Works Agency, who we work hand in hand with.
5:26:09Fully staffed, we are a team of 284 with 63 full-time and 221 part-time. Currently, we have 14 vacancies that are in the process of being filled. The agency loves to highlight our great staff and recognizes their hard work and dedication to the community through the full-time and part-time Employee of the Month program for both Parks and Recreation as well as the zoo. We also highlight a volunteer both quarterly. Our two missions, first with Santa Ana Parks and Recreation Community Services, to create opportunities to learn, live, and explore in Santa Ana every day.
5:26:49We deliver a variety of community services that focus on making lives and communities better. The core building blocks essential to our services are access to nature, outdoor spaces to play and exercise, facilities for self-directed and organized recreation, and providing positive alternatives for youth, adults, and seniors. Our activities are safe spaces, incurring social connections, human development, and lifelong learning. And for our other mission with the Santa Ana Zoo, through fun, adventure, and learning, empower the community to save wildlife and wild spaces.
5:27:21The future looks promising and we are committed to providing exceptional services, facilities, and programs to the residents and visitors to our city. We also currently have two commissions and a subcommittee. The Parks, Recreation, and Community Service Commission, which will be adding two seniors to the commission in the coming months. The first reading will be coming to our council next meeting. We also have our Youth Commission and finally our Joint School Collaboration City Council Subcommittee.
5:27:55Some of the highlights for the year. 14 citywide Purdue special events and numerous neighborhood focused community events. Currently we have over 50 members on a community collaborative which meets monthly. Organizations such as WIC, Habitat for Humanity, Victory Outreach, just to name a few, attend to create a space for service-driven organizations to gather, communicate, and partner in an effort to better meet the needs of our community. The plan, design, and publication of our new magazine, Kultura, a community connection guide which is distributed three times a year to highlight all the great things happening
5:28:23in Santa Ana Parks and Recreation, the Santa Ana Zoo, and with our friends over at the Santa Ana Library. Year One, Volume Three is currently out. Just to note, we actually passed out about 200 of those magazines tonight, so we're really excited to see everyone reading them. The reintroduction of our city managed and run aquatics program which is currently offering swim lessons and open swims community. Our adult sports leagues returned with kickball which is currently in playoffs. Sign-ups for adult basketball are currently underway with more sports to come in the near future for adults. The expansion of our
5:28:57youth, teen, and senior program at all our centers with events, sports, music, and activities as well as doubling our youth, teen, and senior excursions to local areas and surrounding destinations. Our collaborative partnership with Santa Ana PD brought the POW program to Roosevelt Walker. A POW program is also in the works at the Santa Anita once the community center is complete. We also have partnered with our library to open up two teen centers, one at Garfield and another at El Salvador. The completion of our newest park to the family, Ed Carruthers, opens up this July.
5:29:30The installation of our new Lay's replay mini pitch at Cesar Camposino and a directed at basketball court overlay through BJ's restaurant and Project Backport at Patrola Park. Our annual zoo fundraising event, Zufari, raised over $120,000 returns this year with the theme Through the Looking Grass. In addition, we'll be bringing a new fundraising event that I will talk about in our goals. We also opened up a new butterfly exhibit called Flight. Working with the Prentiss family, we have eliminated the 50 monkey deed minimum to allow for a better quality of life for animals while keeping the monkeys as our key element of the zoo.
5:30:03This pays the way for development of the primate forest and supporting the inclusion of additional species of animals at the zoo. We were also awarded a contract to add two additional primate habitats to the Giant River Otter project which is currently in construction and to be completed in the coming months. We also participated in releasing the Santa Ana Zoo born and raised mountain yellow legged frog which is a fairly endangered species. And finally some of our goals for the year. We will continue to work to add and develop new and upcoming park sites
5:30:43such as Standard McFadden, Tenth and Flower and First and Mountain View to name a few. We will continue to work to add and renovate park amenities, affiliates, amenities and facilities at Santa Anita, Memorial, Santiago and Sasser, just to name a few. Splash pads at Madison and Thornton Park are also on the way. The renaming of Marbury Street and Elk Lane to Zoo Lane from I-5 to Chestnut, continuing to find opportunities to acquire open space for parks, community centers and sports fields. A new event coming to the Santa Ana Zoo is our brew at the zoo on July 28th, adding a second fundraising event for Santa Ana Zoo.
5:31:18We will also be finalizing our AZA accreditation with the Association of Zoos and Aquariums at our Santa Ana Zoo. Our community engagement team has been developing sponsorship and partnership decks to attract community and corporate sponsors and partners. And last but not least, we will continue to see grant and outside funding opportunities to support high quality recreational programs and services. This year, our focus will be finding additional funding sources for the expansion of our youth services and programming. At this time, I'd like to turn over to Executive Director Min.
5:31:57Thank you, Director Scott. Good evening, Mayor, Mayor Pro Tem, and the City Council. The planning and building agency objective is to provide a safe, attractive, and business-friendly community through implementing the state, local construction code, as well as planning and regulating future land uses. Our staff support our community with high-quality development and responsive quality of life improvement services across three divisions, including building, planning, and code, as well as one internal division providing administrative services. PBA is supported by 103 full-time employees and 15 part-time positions.
5:32:35Our department also provides staff support to the planning as well as historic resources commissions.
5:33:15For the upcoming fiscal year, the department project expenditure is estimated at 3% of the citywide budget, approximately $26.5 million, and is predominantly funded by the general fund generated from users fees.
5:33:22Some of the highlights I want to share with you is that our hardworking staff accomplished a number of significant milestones this fiscal year in carrying out the vision of the community. Some of these significant highlights include adoption and certification of the six cycle housing element, which was only one of seven at the time when it was adopted. We updated the zoning code to strengthen the city's ability to address critical land use, environmental justice and health and safety concerns we achieve 100 removal of commercialized non-permitted sidewalk foot vendors i'm sorry food vendors in the city within a 60-day period
5:33:38we address council directed policies relating to cannabis digital billboards and post covet outdoor dining and we facilitate the formation of the neighborhood initiative environmental services section and hiring a new principal planner to lead this section.
5:34:14Some of our goals for the next year, our goal is to focus on four core fundamental aspects and they include moving forward with implementing the general plan's vision and initiating the comprehensive update of the zoning code, working closely with other city departments to improve private property condition and address public nuisances, land use and EJ related concerns, Advancing and Delivering New Online Permit and Development Services, and finally, Streamline Encounter and Development Services. So the next section of the presentation will be provided by Police Chief David Valentin.
5:34:32Madam Clerk, can you start my three minutes?
5:35:20Did I say 30? Three minutes. You know what I'm talking about. Madam Mayor, City Council, City Manager, everyone present. and at home. I'm David Valentin, Chief of Police. I will be presenting the Police Department. The mission of the San Antonio Police Department is to provide effective police services with integrity, respect, compassion, while fostering strong partnerships with the community we serve. We help facilitate the Public Safety and Homelessness Committee, along with CDA, alternating throughout the year. We have, next slide, please.
5:35:28We have 640 full-time employees, 83 part-time employees, and we're broken up into five bureaus. First is my office, Office of the Chief. Second is Field Operations. Third is Investigations. Fourth is Administration, and then the Jail Bureau. You'll note that Field Operations has, in fact, the bulk of our personnel assigned frontline policing those are all uniform services provided throughout the city investigations conducts all criminal investigations and assessments of
5:36:07intelligence and follow-up with various task forces the administration bureau is in charge of recruitment hiring and processing of promotional events and and also workman's comp Our jail bureau is a direct supervision platform that provides professional custodial services to the people that are in custody. Next slide. Our budget is 18% of the total city budget, 35% of which is of the general fund.
5:36:47The total operating budget is $157 million, and there are special revenues, grants, and other restricted monies that are included in that amount. Some of the highlights of the hardworking men and women of the police department. First and foremost is really a metric that all police departments are measured up against, and that is response times. And you'll note a continued decrease in priority one response calls for service. And in addition to that, priority two through five have also reduced. In the case of priority one, which is your 911 call emergency service, by 20%.
5:37:23Second is crime reduction. Actively solving investigations and removed guns off the streets. 77% of homicides were solved in 2022. and we successfully recovered 557 firearms during the gun buyback program, which equated to a 74% increase over the previous year. We also established a liaison program for all of you as council members, and that is a senior lead officer who is assigned to the mayor and each council member to provide logistical support for pre-planned events.
5:38:05And then our top accomplishment and continued is recruitment. We enhanced our social media presence. We have established full-time recruiters, doubled that unit to ensure that we have a large imprint across the geographical area. We also held the first women's hiring expo, first in Orange County, several agencies in Orange County, and as far as the Los Angeles Police Department have followed that effort. We also committed to the 30 by 30 initiative.
5:38:47And what that is, is an initiative to hire 30% of our sworn officers to be female officers. That effort is supported by the International Association of Chiefs of Police. Again, first in Orange County to commit to that initiative. Next slide. Some of the goals for next year, again, at the very top mission critical, is recruitment, is to fill all vacancies. We've discussed this before in policing across the country. This is a challenge. And so we want to make sure that we put in all the effort to recruit the right folks that we need for our community.
5:39:24I recently I'd like to share with you that I extended a job offer to a police officer recruit who has a lawful permanent residency but is not a U.S. citizen. Those were changes in the law on state and federal hiring guidelines and so this young man is actually a U.S. Marine currently serving the country and passed all of the exams and he'll be going to the police academy and you'll see him as a Santa Ana police officer. PAL we want to continue our community engagement along with Parks and Rec as
5:40:06our partner to establish an additional PAL Center. We recently had our third student from the original Powell Center on West McFadden attend and graduated from Harvard. Just a tremendous accomplishment. Wrote a very nice letter back to the police department thanking us for the imprint that we had on his on his formation and education and the such. Policing strategy we will continue our focus on community-based and traditional policing efforts and we will
5:40:44also continue to support the renewal call for action in support of 21st century policing. This was first established nine years ago. There is a call to once again focus on those pillars. The pillars are very briefly, first is building trust and legitimacy, second is policy and oversight, third is technology and social media, fourth is community policing and crime reduction five is training and education and six is officer safety and wellness and then finally we are looking to establish a new rehabilitation program along with our partners in the library
5:41:20department with a book of the month club collaboration with our carnegie navigation center where inmates and then also folks that are being released from custody are able to receive a referral and receive that support. And then with that I am going to introduce our fine fire chief. Sir.
5:42:00Good evening Mayor and Honorable Counsel. My name is Jim Henry. I'm the area division chief for the fire services here. I want to start off with the The mission of the Orange County Fire Authority is to provide the service to the changing needs of the community by providing exceptional emergency and support services which pledge a commitment to preserving the quality of life for our residents and guests. the city of Santa Ana is one of 23 cities at the Orange County Fire Authority serves in a response area that covers over 587 square miles and a population that totals 1.9 million this is accomplished with 78 fire stations
5:42:30and approximately 350 personnel on duty a day of that 49 served the city of Santa Ana OCFA provides service for the most talented motivated diverse workforce in the state and the Orange County prides itself on being in an all-risk public safety service and agency that services the regional needs. Santa Ana is serviced by 10 fire stations, which include 9 fire pumpers and 3 ladder trucks. All 14 of these companies serve the City of Santa Ana or paramedic units. Last year, the Orange County Fire Authority responded to over 162,000 calls for service, with over 30,000 calls of service that came from the city.
5:43:04so the Orange County Fire Authority's service to the city is broken up in the four sections as you can see the majority of personnel operate in the operation section these men and women work tirelessly in our community responding to all types of emergencies as well as community outreach and other programs our community risk reduction assists with fire prevention activities educating the public, public outreach, as well as plan check, and work hand in hand with our planning and building. Our community education specialist provides outreach in a number of ways, not
5:43:46only through social media, but also with community outreach programs, as well as school demonstrations and other programs. And lastly, our administration position provides administration to oversee the operations.
5:44:22So, our budget. Our budget breaks up 6%. The Orange County Fire Authority's budget out of the $51.7 million is actually $49 million. The other $5.6 million includes our services for ambulance and billing. The majority of that money comes out of our general revenue.
5:44:39Some highlights. as I spoke earlier the Orange County Fire Authority responded to over 30,000 calls of service which nearly accounts for 20% of the calls of service in the county we had 112 community outreach events and just to note that that's 40 percent more community outreach events than any of all of the OCFA cities that we service this includes like I said drowning prevention community outreach career fairs and other items. Our call volume has consistently gone up 10% for the last five years. And the biggest reason for that that we're seeing is we're continuing to see more density
5:45:01and as well as mixed use occupancies being built. In the future, we will need to address this with additional resources to continue to meet that need. Since July of 2022, we've replaced a lot of several other projects with our capital improvements, which included replacing three roofs in our aging fire stations, adding security fencing around stations 75 and 79, as well as abating asbestos in our stations. And I want to thank the council for finding the monies for those capital improvement projects. Lastly, I want to focus on our cadet program. I think our cadet program at our station 75 is one of the best cadet programs out there.
5:45:39Last year, one of our cadets was awarded the Brian Dinkins Memorial Scholarship Fund for his contributions to OCFA, the cadet program in the city of Santa Ana. I also want to talk about that our cadet program has the most female cadets that participated in our annual girls empowerment camp.
5:46:18This is a breakdown in the budget that you see up there is an estimated 3.9 percent. It's broken down in the different areas, work and comp, health and wellness, commodities, services and supplies, and our personnel costs. our calls for service include a majority is rescue and ems as well as fire and other incidents like hazardous materials technical rescues and other combined alarm systems and then i just wanted to show you that graph there that you can see where our call volume is continuing to go up with one small spike in 2020 obviously with covid we saw responses go down for a brief period
5:46:36lastly our goals our goals are to continue to increase our social media presence with the city as well as the community we must continue to find ways to engage our youth we're increasing contact with the public and non-emergency ways we're expanding our community outreach programs like coffee and donuts with our firefighters neighborhood meetings open houses and this helps us provide education to reduce the impacts of fire drowning and other public safety issues with our community. We're emphasizing in greater involvement our career fairs and recruitment
5:47:17and we'll continue to educate our youth about careers in the fire service including non-firefighter positions such as education, fire prevention, dispatch and mechanics. We're going to continue to work with our station and facility capital improvement processes and look at ways to review the lifespan of our fire stations. We have several fire stations that are over 50 years old and we're going to have to look at ways to improve that in the future. Lastly, we'll continue to partner with our city, county, state, and federal agencies to continue to collaborate with coordination and communication
5:47:49to reduce the impacts of emergency response, including working with law enforcement and our law partners here with our CERT program to outreach in our community.
5:48:20And with that, I will turn it over to Nabil Saba, our Public Works Director. Thank you. I think that was three minutes.
5:48:32Thank you, Captain Henry. Good evening, Mayor, Mayor Pro Tem, member of the City Council. The Public Works Agency provides public infrastructure and core municipal service to enhance the quality of life for residents, businesses, and visitors, and makes San Ana a more desirable place to live, work, invest in, and visit. The agency is responsible for the following, among many other things. public streets traffic management street sweeping city fleet train station solid waste graffiti removal right-of-way trees and landscaping city buildings water facilities from storm drain system
5:48:42sewer facilities and parks and open space maintenance we also work for with neighborhood associations for auto-resolve parking and traffic issues and with developers to ensure the that development standard of the city are met organization the agency is divided into five divisions they are administrative engineering parks fleet and facilities maintenance and water we have 319 positions and one residence commission which is the environmental transportation Advisory Commission ETAC.
5:49:24Our budget is about $260 million for next year, with funding sources that ranges from general fund to enterprise funds and from grants to capital funds. For road improvements and maintenance, funding comes from the following sources. I wanted just to add that for your background. and on road maintenance we the funding comes from the gas tax general fund measure M fair share measure M competitive programs trench cut fees permits and solid waste next please our highlights for next year we implemented
5:50:04an enhanced security service at the parks and city facilities we transitioned to a new solid waste service provider Republic services and implemented clean city initiatives we repaired over 1200 locations of sidewalks and 13 neighborhoods in all six council words totaling about 2.2 million dollar project we managed over 50 construction projects over 140 million dollar investment in public infrastructure we also approved eight 1 800
5:50:46development plans and issued over 1,200 permits for developers and utilities. Next, please. Our goals are to improve pedestrian mobility and roadway conditions for motorists, to continue to implement and improve technology to manage the water distribution system for the delivery of safe drinking water, and to increase the security measures by installing video surveillance cameras at city parks and other city facilities and also to continue the delivery of
5:51:23our 37 million capital improvement program i would like to also add that our goals is to complete the residential parking district study and we'll start or commission a street lights master plan study and continue to implement the street safety improvements that were identified in the safe route to schools. Now I'd like to turn it over to Director Catherine Downs. Thank you. Thanks, Nabil. So I will be wrapping up the staff presentation with my department.
5:52:01Finance collects the city's revenues, pays the bills, and safeguards public funds through good internal controls. We are responsible for financial reporting, treasury and investments, audit and budget activities. We serve other departments as well as the public. Finance is organized into four sections accounting, administration and budget office, administrative services which includes payroll, purchasing, mail and reproduction, and treasury and customer service including our first floor counter operations such as utility
5:52:39billing, tax and license, and cash sharing. We also provide staff support for the Measure X Citizens Oversight Committee. To manage the city's purse and provide services, we only use 1% of the city's budget. We're funded by the general fund and restricted monies that we help administer. Using cost allocation methods, we do charge other restricted funds for our services. This past year, we completed a couple very long-term goals. Our staff prepared and implemented the voter-approved ballot measure to improve business license tax equity and provide a tax holiday.
5:53:14We successfully transitioned away from the antiquated salary matrix and moved to bi-weekly payroll. We earned awards for our public documents, the budget, and the annual audited financial statements. Our staff implemented a new financial reporting standard that required review of every city contract with a lease component. There are many. And they will do it again this next year for subscription-based IT contracts. And we completed audits for some of our tax revenue sources. For the coming year, we have some ambitious plans to modernize and improve efficiency in support of the city's strategic goals.
5:53:53The go-live for the new dog license software is just around the corner. Although we currently take online payments for recreation, water bills, business license, dog license, permits, and parking citations, our staff has been working with permit counter and zoo staff to improve payment processing. It's a top priority to acquire new business license software this year. And we are assisting with the procurement of a new ERP system for financials, human resources and payroll. That concludes the staff presentation and we are ready to answer your questions.
5:54:32Great. Thank you so very much.
5:55:12If the Council does not mind, I'm going to do public comments because we've had people here waiting. We have four on Zoom. Jennifer.
5:55:16Yes, Mayor. If Romina Yamashiro could please unmute and provide your comments.
5:55:26Hi, good evening, everyone. My name is Romina and I am a resident small business owner and your local unknowingly persistent animal advocate. I am here today to speak on behalf of the
5:55:36pardon us hold on I'm fixing the technical audio issue
5:55:55if you could can you hear me yes we can hear you now okay did you hear any of what I said um just your initial name if you'd like to start over okay all right so my name is Romina resident
5:56:01small business owner and your local annoyingly persistent animal advocate. I am here today to speak in behalf of thousands of animals, thousands of neighborhood cats living on the streets of Santa Ana. First, I would like to express my sincere appreciation and gratitude to council members Peñalosa, Hernandez, Vasquez, and Fan. Your ongoing support and understanding is greatly appreciate it. It demonstrates your compassion and dedication to the well-being of all city residents. During the previous budget meeting, the four of you expressed willingness to consider allocating funds for a
5:56:15community cats, spay and neuter program, also known as TNR. I'm here to kindly ask that $225,000 be set aside for this program. This is less than one tenth of what Santa Ana pays the County Animal Shelter for their contracting services of intaking and sheltering animals. This funding will support a weekly mobile spay neuter clinic capable of fixing approximately 25 to 30 feral community cats per event. Such clinic would significantly reduce the number of free-roaming cats in our city streets. Not only does this provide a humane solution to the cat overpopulation issue,
5:56:54but it also yields substantial savings for our city. Research has shown that a robust TNR program can result in 30% or greater decline in the number of cats entering the animal shelters. The fewer cats going into the shelter, the less we will have to pay them. Today, I respectfully ask Mayor Amescoa, Mayor Pro Tem Jesse Lopez, and Council Member Becerra to please consider supporting this initiative. The benefits are evident. By sterilizing a single cat, we prevent the need and expenses associated with the intake, sheltering, food, and medical care of potentially 15 offsprings in just one year for that one cat.
5:57:35Allocating funds for a TNR program is an investment. In the long run, the long run saves money, enhances our community, and fosters a more compassionate Santa Ana, where every life, regardless of size, is respected. Thank you for your time and I look forward to working with you establishing a TNR program for the residents of the city of Santa Ana. Thank you.
5:58:15Alexis Hernandez, please unmute and proceed with your comment.
5:58:40Hello, Honorable Mayor and Council. I'm Lexi Hernandez, a climate justice organizer with Climate Action Campaign, a local climate policy nonprofit working to stop the climate crisis. recently Santana has taken many steps to address environmental injustice and climate impacts such as through the 50 plus environmental policies adopted in the general plan the neighborhood initiatives and most recently with the proposed budget for an update to the climate action plan in tonight's budget and this is all because the community has shown up time and time
5:58:47again to ask that you address injustice and create a safe and healthy community a part of having a truly resilient community also means that residents need spaces and programs that allow them to thrive youth are among the most impacted by climate change and pollution since many schools are located in the most polluted areas of santana for example according to the cal enviro epa century high school and residents nearby experienced 94 more pollution than any other california community additionally youth are more at risk to pollution related health complications such as asthma. When there's pollution in the air, soil,
5:59:15and many existing buildings, where are you supposed to go? If we want to address climate in Santana, we need to allocate funding for it as soon as possible. A major sector of this is funding for our climate action plan, which you have, but also in the meantime, funding on-the-ground programs like youth centers. The budget reflects the values of the city, and I hope the city council tonight shows that you value youth in addressing climate and ensuring that there's no more environmental justice in communities such as through having more community programs like more
5:59:51youth centers thank you sylvia hernandez please unmute and make your comments thank you um good
6:00:21night i am sylvia hernandez um thanks to mayor valerie and the city council members I live in bar two in the inside Santana neighborhood. I am a member of the Esperanza Tenants Union. We advocate for the rights and the solution to the needs of all of us as tenants. There is an urgent need to compile a list of vacant city lots and vacant building units in our city and create a public registry. So our city government can use and invest in building affordable housing on those loads
6:00:37and to provide vacant units in those buildings that are now partially occupied. But so the lack of housing that all families have been facing for several years is resolved once and for all. The city must invest to create healthy communities where we live, work and have our children studying and where we can have our children safe in long periods like summer enjoying sports and cultural activities all in one place the community centers that are close to our homes currently not all of
6:01:18our neighborhoods cover all of our needs ensuring that every family in santana has a safe and healthy place will have a positive impact in other social and economic components in a few years the city can recover its investments and the families will remain thrive and continue contributing to the economy of this city with greater purchasing power families invest we work hard to fulfill our dreams we hope to meet to meet with each each one of you to work for a legacy for more prosperous life for the
6:01:57next generations set a date and time we have sent emails to all of you and we all need from each one of you is to sit in a meeting with us share your ideas and fulfill your commitment to the communities that you represent and we are part of thank you good night
6:02:36Victor Mendez, please unmute and provide your comments.
6:02:59Can you hear me okay?
6:03:06Yes, go ahead, please.
6:03:08When I start beginning, please start the clock. Thank you. I just have to set up my speaker. Okay. So I'm a little late to the game, but I'm going to throw some things out. Maybe you'll talk about them. I think they're pretty valuable or important, and they're certainly important for enough to be for me to wait two hours to get to say this that said on the vehicle incentive program just kudos kudos kudos to those who created that um my recommendation is that you expand it to 750 to 500. it's extraordinarily cost effective you look at numbers that are presented tonight about 1500
6:03:10vehicles at 500 apiece uh that's about 750 000 you probably created about three million dollars with the sales tax revenue in that program, plus other revenue from state fees, sales taxes for vehicle maintenance, and of course, jobs. So perhaps we can look at that, do something for the residents and keep these vehicle purchases in Santa Ana because the economic effect was way beyond the sales tax. But again, just kudos for a great program. I quoted that program in the Wall Street Journal and it was the main reason why I bought my new vehicle at Subaru here in Santa Ana.
6:03:44Secondly, the debt stabilization fund contribution for 2023 to 2024, at least last time I read it, has doubled from $7 million to $14 million. Repeat, doubled. I don't know why or why it needs to go up that high. It seems like the monthly payments or the annual payments as they may be are being paid out of another fund. And I guess what has happened to that fund since last year when a contribution went to $7 million? That's a lot of money that gets cut right off the top and the residents have to really pay for it. Council member Fan asked today kind of rhetorically, why are we doing this to ourselves?
6:04:22Well, the question I asked, why is the council doing this to our residents and why is the staff recommended it? I really truly hope you'll take this into consideration. I want to commend you though for a very good budget, a very responsive budget. I do hope the bookmobiles not only go to the youth, but our senior citizens are homebound. We do read too, and we do enjoy reading our books in our leisure time. Thank you and have a good night.
6:05:01Mayor, that concludes the speakers on Zoom and noting for the record that we did receive 14 email comments related to the budget, which were distributed and posted.
6:05:29Thank you very much. All right, let's do public comments, please. Eva Barrios followed by Salika Diaz.
6:05:38Good evening Madam Mayor and Council Members. Nice to see you all again. Yes.
6:06:05I appreciate the opportunity to address you to seek support for parents of murdered children's unsolved homicides. So I begin by sharing these local headlines. Family of teen fatally shot pleads for help finding her killer. Victoria Barrios was struck by gunfire just after midnight. Paramedics declared her deceased on scene at 12.12 AM. I share those headlines often because of the impact that I feel that they make on every person, but even more so every parent. Sadly, we see or hear those headlines way too often, and I am sure that each time we
6:06:12think, wow, I can't even imagine, you think and hope that it would never pertain to anyone that you love, much less your child. For me, those headlines are how my community, our local news outlets, and social media learned of who my baby was. Again, my name is Eva Barrios, and my daughter, Victoria Barrios, was only 18 years old when and she was the unintended victim of a drive-by shooting here in Santa Ana on Pine and Hickory on August 30, 2019, and her case remains unsolved. Nearly four years ago, that incident happened just blocks from this very location, yes, in your backyard.
6:06:46I appreciate—sorry, I ask that you create a reward fund to help the many families who are enduring the same tragic loss that my family and I are, to draw awareness to our stories and to have the cowards responsible for their death taken off of our streets. Like many, I appreciate that our city is working on making it more aesthetically pleasing. We want that, but there is so much more to be done. This great city where both my grandparents, like so many others, planted their roots and decided to raise their families, while I'm certain never
6:07:23even fathoming the thought that their great-granddaughter would be killed here. So I ask that all of you all of you helped to make this a place where all want to come and shop and be safe and to enjoy the culture that we have to offer. Most importantly to show those who commit these crimes know that the city's residents will not tolerate it and think that they care. To bury your child is not in our human nature. It is not and should not ever be acceptable an acceptable life event but to endure the loss and not be able to find or face those responsible make it so much more
6:07:57unbearable. So let's be a trendsetter. Let's be the first city to match the San Ani PD's $50,000 reward which is not city funded. Let's get those murderers who weren't out to kill my daughter Victoria but they were out to kill off of our streets and prevent any further headlines from being published. Please help to advocate for the voices of those who have been forever silenced. Thank you.
6:08:32I wouldn't say good night because we've been here too long. So my name is Celica Diaz. I live in the Pacific Park neighborhood. It's War II. And I want to let you know that I attended a budget meeting at the Roosevelt Walker Community Center. And some of the suggestions that I made along with other residents, and I am going to make today also is to please, please allocate funding for the library. Also for more teen spaces, give more funding to parks and recreations, teen spaces or teen centers as you may call it. I would like to see more teen spaces and teen centers throughout all the community
6:09:07centers that we have in Santa Ana. But I'd also like to suggest that in those same centers, please have a room for the library so the kids that go to the center can also check out books and take them home and additional to that I would like to see more power programs throughout the city and today I'm actually here because I want to read an email that I sent to councilmember Vasquez I send you an email back in my May 4th and I'm still waiting for another response since I didn't get a response I decided to come and read the email to you it says councilmember Vasquez I am happy to hear you will be attending the Pacific Park
6:09:45neighborhood meeting on May 9th at the Roosevelt Walker Community Center. I hear you support more libraries in our city to give Sarana youth a space to learn and grow. I too wish to see more libraries in our city. Unfortunately our neighborhood has a history with gang activity and we need to invest in Sarana youth to give them more opportunities to succeed. When the Roosevelt Walker Community Center first opened back in June 2018. I was there, Mayor was there. It featured the
6:10:23city's first e-library where users had access to e-books, magazines, e-audiobooks and access to the digital world but for some unknown reason it was removed from the center. I send you a link of the Sarana Unified School District news release talking about the opening of the Roosevelt Walker Community Center and all the programs and services available at the e-library. I would like to work together with you to bring the e-library back to the Roosevelt Walker Community Center and see if there's an opportunity to bring the Teen Time Center 2 to the center,
6:10:58just like the one at El Salvador, Calpher Community Center. Let me know when you have time to answer my email or let me know when we can meet. And we can talk and you can help us in these much needed services. Thank you.
6:11:39James Stapleton and Vanessa Serta please.
6:11:56Good evening, Madam Mayor and council members. My name is Mr. Stapleton. I'm the founder of Magic, Inc., Academy of the Arts here in Santa Ana. And Magic is maximizing artistic growth in the community. What we do besides our after school program, we teach kids how to read and write music for free, with all local families. We've been doing this about 13, 14 years now here in Santa Ana. We also do a festival every year, a Somalte festival for all minorities to come together
6:12:17and work together and get to know each other on a positive note. And what we was asking if Congress or Councilman can come together and help support our next event or our events in the future as far as uniting the community and the works that we do for Santa Ana. Thank you.
6:12:58Thank you, sir. Vanessa Serta.
6:13:22Followed by Jade Lynn Verdeen, please.
6:13:28Good evening, City Council member, and good evening, Mayor. I'm here to support the children and the youth that are here for the program that they want in the community. And I also want to applaud the kids that are still here that have to attend school tomorrow. And they've been pushed back for this item, which is okay. but yeah once again I want to let them know about the youth centers that are much needed in our community here in Santa Ana Ward 2 such as other locations such as Neutral Grounds is an amazing program that could be distributed in
6:13:31other places such as Project Kinship could be the need is great I also know that PAL Center is in the works in other places. Me and the community would like to take a tour of these places and see what it also entails because maybe that's where it lacks. There is this connection between the community and those programs that are not appealing to our communities that have been affected by police officers and we are open to that. We just want to advocate for our youth and want them to be successful and be the future leaders
6:14:13sitting in these chairs and these tables and hopefully one day my daughter can not just be a mayor but make it all the way to the state and to become Congress and if so even become president one day and advocate for the people that live in the communities that are not watered into as much as they should be. Thank you.
6:14:54Jatelyn Verdeen. Good evening, Mayor and City Council members. My name is Jatelyn Verdeen.
6:15:18I'm a Santa Ann resident and I'm here regarding the agenda 52. I believe that the city should be responsible for the youth centers. It should help us youth when coming back home. A place for us to go study. A place for us to have classes like businesses, courses, leaderships, dance classes, and etc. A place for us youth to connect with each other, talk about our thoughts, and talk about how we feel. And just a safer place for us youth.
6:15:28And also a place where the youth gender should be is the abandoned Cypress Fire Station. And I would also like to mention, Valerie, I think you sincerely need to apologize to me and my sister, but more to my sister. Thank you. Thank you. Camilla Gousman followed by Mia Verdin.
6:16:09Good evening Mayor and City Council members. I am Jay Lee Verdeen and I have been a Santa Ana resident almost my whole life. I'm here to talk about agenda item 52. As a youth resident of Santa Ana, I believe that you should have money invested in them so that me, my family, and my friends, and community members can have somewhere to go after school, and that is local. There are many spaces in the city, such as the abandoned Cypress fire station. As a result, I just wanted to say that I did not appreciate Valerie. Our mayor said about my last public comment, My mom did not write my speech last time. I wrote it on my own.
6:16:52Thank you, and have a good night.
6:17:34Thank you. Thank you. Camilla Guzman followed by Mia Verdon.
6:17:38Camilla, are you Camilla? Camilla Guzman followed by Mia Verdon.
6:17:46Good evening, Council. My name is Camilla Guzman and I'm speaking tonight as a Santa Ana resident of Ward 4, urging you to invest in our city's youth spaces in light of this new fiscal year. Also, I'd like to preface that the following statements are not only on my behalf and that of the Santanero project, but also of my peers who drafted valuable comments but had to retire in the past four hours. I also speak on behalf of my dear mom, who was patient enough and understanding to wait for me outside in the parking lot for two hours. Our city is one of the youngest in Orange County, with 25% of our residents being under
6:17:56the age of 18, according to the U.S. Census. While the existing youth centers in our city have done tremendous work for the community, they are not evenly distributed. This matter is particularly relevant to me as a resident of Ward 4 who lives on the outskirts of the city, where the nearest youth center is the Nicholas Academic Center at Valley High School in Ward 2. Even then, this center is exclusive of youth who are not official members of the program,
6:18:29are not official members of the program and does not include recreational amenities like a gymnasium, computer lab, or dance studio, unlike other local centers. In addition to centers being more proportionally spread out, they should also include the young adult demographic that find themselves excluded from these centers as soon as they turn 18. As they pursue higher education and seek employment, they too need the support that youth centers offer. We've seen time and time again that when our youth don't feel understood or supported,
6:19:00they can resort to substance abuse, gang affiliation, or otherwise dangerous activities that can compromise their futures. When so many of our residents are young people, it is not only the school district's responsibility to ensure residents have youth spaces and programming, but the city's as well. considering how much the city chooses to questionably invest more in the Santa Ana Police Department than other services surely most of these funds can be allocated to the personal development and well-being of local youth with this I implore you council to take my thoughts into serious consideration and
6:19:27see this idea of safe nurturing city funded youth spaces through thank you Thank you. Lucia Gonzalez.
6:19:57Lucia.
6:20:06Good evening, Mayor and City Council. My name is Mia Verdeen, born and raised in the city of Santana, and I'm a Ward 3 resident. Before I start, I want to note that I find it very interesting that Mayor Mesquah is more concerned with children hearing an F-bomb rather than being concerned that because you're dancing around on the agenda, you're keeping the actual youth who were here earlier, way later in the council chambers than they should be. They have school tomorrow by the way. That's on you. Let me preface this by showing you what I see on your agenda. On the second page listed under
6:20:09vision, the first thing that is listed is investment in youth. I would like the dais to keep this sentiment in mind while they decide on allocating funds during this fiscal year. As chairperson at the youth commission for two years now, quite frankly, it is very disappointing that the city does not have a single youth center that is funded entirely by the city. We have a teen hub at the Salgado Center, but there's only one hub that is only open for a few hours of the day and only for ages 13 to 17. Don't get me wrong, I highly appreciate the work that Parks and Rec does.
6:20:41As a commissioner, I see firsthand the arduous work that is put into creating community programming, but the shortcomings from the city are not on their shoulders, especially because they are only receiving a $1.6 million increase in the proposed budget. This is a slap in the face considering they are only receiving half of what the proposed increased amount that the police department would be receiving, which already has $142 million to work with, versus our parks and rec only has $17 million to work with. It falls on the City Council to continue to invest more thoroughly in youth investment,
6:21:11whether it be through more investment in library or parks and rec. This also means investing more in existing youth programs, such as the youth excursion program. They are doing a great job, so they deserve funding that reflects that. In addition, what the youth want is a youth center. If y'all can afford to give $4 million more to the police department, which already occupies 32% of our budget and has $142 million, y'all can definitely spare way more than $100,000 more in youth investment. When so many of our residents are young, it's not only the district's responsibility to ensure that students have youth programming.
6:21:44Madam Mayor, you served on the school board for many years, you know that resources are limited. So, now that you're on the city side, do your part to invest in our community. Our youth, including those who are no longer students, need a city-funded space dedicated to them. Let me make this very clear. Do not misconstrue my words. We want a youth center, not a PAL center. We don't, when we say we want a PAL center, we do not mean we want a PAL center. The police department is already receiving enough funding as it is. Give it to the youth. 25% of the residents that you represent needs aren't fully being met do your part
6:22:20the money is there so use it to take care of your youth fund our futures
6:22:55Selena Olivares followed by Miranda Carmen Gomez Luna a couple names on here
6:23:02good evening City Council members my name is Lucia Gonzalez and I'm a from the Eastside neighborhood. As someone who has lived in Santana my whole life, I am here today to advocate for the establishment of a city-funded youth center through the 2023-2024 budget, preferably at the abandoned Cypress Fire Station. The proposed budget allocates 35% of the city's general fund for the police department and only 7% for public libraries, the community development agency, and Parks and Rec and community services combined. Youth centers are a public safety issue. That should not be misconstrued to mean
6:23:14that we want more PAL centers or more COPs. I mean that youth need a safe and inclusive space to come together, that youth centers give young people a positive space to go to, where they can learn about college, career readiness, and most importantly, meet and socialize with other peers their age in a safe space when they have literally nowhere else to go. I question whether some of you actually care about public safety because you seem much more preoccupied with getting endorsements and campaign money from the police officer association rather than working towards community-based solutions that actually keep us safe.
6:23:48Various City Council members on the dais right now have made the argument that the Santa Ana Unified School District, or SAUSD, should be fully or partially responsible for providing youth spaces. This argument deflects the City's sole responsibility to ensure youth have safe spaces, especially given that 77% of the district budget goes to school employee salaries and benefits. The district budget ensures that students have smaller class sizes and are adequately supported in school, while this city's current proportion of funds going to SAPD only serves to further criminalize young people.
6:24:21According to a 2017 report by OC Resilience titled The Status of Youth Investment in Santa Ana, Santa Ana spends $143 per youth on positive youth development, while it spends $12,722 to arrest 1,500 youth. Your approval of this budget will show that you only believe us to be future criminals. We deserve a lot better. We deserve an actual city-funded youth center, not just a small teen space within a library or community center.
6:24:55Thank you. Maria Carmen Gomez Luna.
6:25:25Good evening, City Council. My name is Celina Olivares. I just wanted to mention that when I looked at this budget, I couldn't help but wonder if you guys were planning to serve more criminals or youth in the city this year. I was born and raised in Santa Ana. I was raised by a single mom who I'm so proud of. She did the work to find resources all over the city when she could, and she was very proud to have us in fundamental schools. But she was never able to afford sports or anything in Santa Ana. I remember we were always in Testa in Costa Mesa, and she, to this day, reminds me I didn't have resources in Santa Ana.
6:25:35Nobody wanted to help a single mom, and that sad to me. What's it called?
6:26:07I remember it stressed my mom out. She find resources, sorry, I got off track. But my point is that the childhood and youth experience is a universal experience. I think we all sit here today, we all know how we felt as a child. And we all know that as a youth, we have a lot of things that aren't being met. And that's why I'm here today to represent the youth that aren't. Youth are facing gang violence, unstable living conditions, and lack accessible educational support in Santana. This is not true for youth in surrounding cities who do have youth centers and coincidentally a smaller police budget.
6:26:16I'd like to remind Council that our community is 25% of kids under 18 years old and they were affected by the pandemic. Their mental health and as a tutor in Santa Ana, their reading levels are so low. The new Boys and Girls Club is a testament to how effective a youth center can be for a committee, but the youth still need support from the city. It's long overdue and the youth aren't going away. As cliche as it sounds, the youth are the future. I remember hearing that at 15. My classmates are now doctors, applying to be doctors, they're nurses, we are the future. We will continue to be the future whether you like it or not.
6:26:48And we have needs and we do demand them to be met. and today we are demanding that you consider a youth budget a youth center in our budget because there is no youth center and that's kind of ridiculous to me I'm like almost 30 years and yeah I don't remember ever being invited to a youth center in Santa Ana thank you thank you
6:27:26John Ramirez followed by Elias Casales
6:27:42Good evening. Can you hear me? Good evening, Madam Mayor, council members and city staff. My name is John Ramirez and I'm a resident of War II and I've lived in this city my whole life. I'm speaking tonight in favor of the city setting aside money and the budget to open up more PAL centers in our city. We've seen the community show up in droves to speak in support of the PAL program at the council meeting already. more residents are vastly in favor of the PAL program than those who oppose it. In addition to providing a safe space for kids to gather for activities and
6:27:55participate in sports programs, this also provides a positive bridge between our police department and the community. And Officer Holcomb, who heads the PAL program, is doing an amazing job as is the entire staff who works with him. So it is my hope you all see to funding PAL and open up more of these centers across our city. Also I would like the city to set aside funds for a TNR trap neuter release program for feral cats. There are already people out there committed to doing the hard work in TNR using free time and paying out of their own pocket or they are forced to go to other city that do offer a TNR program. I've heard
6:28:25there's already a mobile clinic willing to help out once a week so that they just need the funding. So please consider funding a TNR program for a city to help lower the strays that end up in the OC Animal Shelter. Lastly, I want to thank Councilman Penelosa for proclaiming the week of May 14th as National Police Week, as I was definitely needed, so thank you Councilman Penelosa, I appreciate that. And thank you to all the council members who called out the Santa Unified School District to start shouldering the cost of the Crossing Guard Program. You all know who you are.
6:29:03Hopefully some progress in those discussions has been made between the city and the school district. Thank you, Madam Mayor, council members, city staff, and all police and fire personnel present tonight. Y'all have a great night and stay safe. Thank you. Yuri Lara.
6:29:35Good evening. Mayor Valeria Mesquan, everybody here.
6:29:56I want to start by saying that my name is Yuri Lara and I am a mother here in the city of Santana. I am a long-term resident. I've been living here my entire life with the exception of seven years when I went off to college. I'm also a local educator. I'm a teacher. I've been a classroom teacher for eight years and doing community education as well prior to that. I can't stress enough and studies, educational studies do back me up when I say that it is essential for for
6:30:02youth to thrive. It is essential that they have programs and spaces, actual buildings, in order for them to be able to share a safe space so that they can study, so that they can be collective in creating programs, in creating events that are youth-centered. There is no one youth center or building dedicated to only the youth here in the city of Santana. It's great that you want to start implementing youth centers to already existing community centers, but again, these would be shared spaces.
6:30:39The city of Anaheim has two youth centers that are fully devoted just to the youth with full-on basketball courts, dance studios. And this is what the youth need, right? Infrastructure that is for them, about them, and run by them. I remember graduating from UC Berkeley and coming back to my city. and I wanted to do youth organizing and was told that I couldn't do it I couldn't get paid I couldn't develop a career in youth development because there was nothing like that in my city so you know I had to explore other options I
6:31:15came back to education I'm speaking in support of the youth that are here present they are brave they're courageous they're intelligent they're speaking for their future and I'm also speaking for the future of my own children who are at home at home sleeping right now. They're five and seven years old. This is directly going to affect us. I also want to share that 22 years ago I was a youth commissioner in this city for this city and it's so sad that very little has changed. You need to do more. I know that the city council
6:31:57didn't create this issue of defunding the youth and same story right lots of funding going to the police department and you know all these other agencies but you need to do better for our youth and for our future again same old story 22 years later same old story okay we're voters we're ready to mobilize we're residents we're voters we're ready to mobilize we're residents
6:32:33hato cortez
6:33:05hada
6:33:10followed by siri ramos
6:33:13Good evening, members of the council. I'm here to speak on the budget. My name is Jairo Cortez. I'm a resident of Ward 5, and I'm the executive director at CHISPA. I remember, you know, I've been coming to these meetings since I was like 18, 17, 18, like not much older than the folks that are here. So I do remember, you know, Pulido constantly making students and young people wait till like very late at night to bring up their items for them to be able to comment. And so, you know, I think like that being said, you know, I think like it sucks.
6:33:26It's been a common practice, I think, you know, like in silencing young people's voices. and it's also weirdly like a rite of passage, right, like for young leaders, because these folks like are leaders in our city. And, you know, I think like in commenting on like this city budget, I know it's been a long process. We've met with like most of like the council, and so for all of y'all that we want a chance to meet, like thank you and thank you for your time. I just wanted to speak on two things. I wanted to speak on the Police Oversight Commission. Last year, this council, you know, took a unanimous decision
6:34:06after nearly 60 years since the community had been asking for the creation of Police Oversight Commission to establish it. And it really showed how far the conversation has gone.
6:34:42Even five years earlier, we couldn't even get a meeting to talk about it. And to go from that to go to a unanimous vote to approve it was great. And it shows a sign of progress. And so that being said, at last year's budget, this council also made the decision to fund the Oversight Commission even before the ordinance itself was adopted, because there was that commitment towards oversight. Now, we've had a long process of making appointments. We still haven't hired a director of oversight. And so a lot of that funding hasn't been spent.
6:34:55And so just like with that, we continue to encourage you to carry over that funding to make sure that as this commission finishes its appointments, hires its staff, that there is secure funding to make sure that the Oversight Commission works for the residents of Santa Ana to bring transparency and accountability. And so yeah, definitely encouraging you all and asking you all to carry over that funding that you all approved last year, which was the right decision. I think also like not to belabor the point, right, like we want to show support to the
6:35:33folks, to like the young people that are here, the folks from the Santanero Project, and they're asked like for a youth center. I think like Santana has like two senior centers. Being one of the youngest cities, it's about time that we do create space for young people. I think like there is nothing like a physical space because we are in dire need of it, and so are young people. Thank you.
6:36:05Isuri Ramos.
6:36:33Good evening, Mayor and Council. My name is Isuri Ramos. I am here to speak on behalf of CHISPA, where I serve as Deputy Director. So you heard my colleagues speak on a few of our budget recommendations, and I'd like to focus on the other two. So one of those being that we have requested that the city allocate $200,000 to provide four $50,000 grants to community-based organizations. And I just want to make it clear that CHISPA is not seeking any of this funding, but we're advocating for this because we know that there is a high need for services, for direct services to some of the city's underserved populations.
6:36:43So that includes the LGBT community, re-entry services for system impacted young people, and mental health resources. And this would be an expansion of last year's $150,000 allocation. We have also requested that the city expand its current youth employment opportunities to undocumented youth. So while the city has many great opportunities in various city departments and in community organizations through work center partnerships, unfortunately none of these are available to undocumented youth without DACA. So I want to say that again. While there are many great
6:37:21opportunities and youth with DACA can access them, undocumented youth that do not have DACA aren't able to access any of these opportunities. So we're asking that the city launch a pilot program to employ youth that don't have DACA. The city has been the leader in expanding opportunities for undocumented people. In 2021, Mayor Pro Tem Lopez led the effort to allow undocumented residents to serve on all city commissions. We're now asking that you make your employment opportunities available to undocumented youth that do not that do not have DACA status. We strongly believe that these
6:37:54recommendations will improve the quality of life for your residents. And beyond that I also just want to add that while I was sitting here I was really excited because I saw that the agenda was being shifted around a little bit to give members of our community the opportunity to speak a little bit earlier. So we saw that members from Union Labor were able to speak earlier. We also saw that members from the Madison neighborhood were able to speak earlier. And I was hoping that some of the residents that are still here would have been able to speak earlier too. I think that sometimes there's a perception that those of us
6:38:30that are here are all paid staff and while some of us are, not everybody is. So there are a lot of older adults and adults in the here still here that wish to speak that also have to go to work tomorrow but are waiting for their chance and we also have a lot of young people that will have to go to school tomorrow so I would just like to ask that as we prioritize residents that we're prioritizing many of those in the same way thank you Angel Sanchez
6:39:04Angel Sanchez, followed by Martina Pantalone.
6:39:35Esperanza Unión de Infilinos, esta es la segunda vez que me presento aquí pidiéndoles un apoyo para tener...
6:40:04Well, I'm going to repeat. I'm going to talk about the point 52. One of the current problems that the community faces is the need for assistance to rent. As inquilino, we continue to have atras of rent rent. This is due to the pandemic. I was a survivor of the pandemic. I was here two years, I was here, asking for me to get rid of.
6:40:23So, through CARES, they helped me solve the problem I had. So, I'm here to ask that, please, they can put funds to support the community for the rentals.
6:40:57They're talking about the budget, they're talking about the money, so they don't talk about what we need as community of Santaneros, It's a support for the community that sometimes no has to pay the rent. The problem is very big and they keep the problems from the pandemic.
6:41:18And I would like to ask personally if you could put funds to support the community. Thank you.
6:41:51Thank you.
6:42:06Just a question. I have to leave my bike in the library. I hope the police will not be careful, because it will be the fifth bike I lost to come here. Thank you.
6:42:08Good evening, Mayor, City Council Members. My name is Angel Sánchez,
6:42:28representing Esperanza Unidos Inquilinos, a tenants organization. It's my second time coming here to ask for your support. I'm coming to speak on item 52. It's a current issue that we need rental assistance. There are many tenants who are behind in rent and have been sold due to the pandemic. And two years ago, I came here and asked for help so that I would not be evicted. and I was helped. I was helped. So I'm here to ask you to provide some money to support people who are behind in the rent payments. You are here, you're talking about budgets, but you are not
6:42:35speaking about what the community needs. We need support for people who do not have money for rent. It's a huge issue still lingering from the pandemic, and I'm asking you to put some money towards supporting people from the community. Thank you. And I came in my bike, put it there next to the library, and I hope that it's still there because it's the fifth bike I've lost while coming to these meetings. Martina Pantaleon.
6:43:15tener más talleres educativos sobre cómo comprar una vivienda ya que más de la mitad de los residentes de santana somos inquilinos y nos gustaría permanecer en esta ciudad y no tener que salir a otros condados o estados y si pudieran ser en español se los agradeceríamos mucho gracias gracias
6:44:16Good evening, Mayor Mesco and City Council members. My name is Martina Pantaleon, and I live here in Santa Ana from Esperanza Unión for Inquilinos, for Tenants Group. I'm here to speak about item 52, this issue regarding tenants and the lack of housing. We would like to ask for more education, educational workshops on how to buy, purchase housing. we see that over 50% of Santa Ana residents are tenants and we would like to have workshops on how to own our home and preferably in Spanish thank you
6:44:41Elizabeth Elizabeth?
6:45:22Elizabeth? Elizabeth? Elizabeth? Elizabeth? Elizabeth? Elizabeth?
6:45:23Elizabeth?
6:45:27Hello, good evening. My name's Elizabeth. I'm here to speak on agenda item 52. I'm a current resident of Ward 6, but a former resident of Ward 2 of 15 years. I'll mention why I bring that up. I am here because I am in absolute support of a youth center and children and community services being prioritized that I know will do wonders for youth and families. I would also like to bring up that the historic Cypress fire station is the perfect space to use for a youth center. I know that area would greatly benefit from a youth center. I do want to clarify that I am not in support of the PAL program or any police involvement
6:45:33in this project. I know I'm not the only one who has expressed this today and I know we've come up for to express our Sentiment against having police involvement in community work. I do want to share some history about a significant time when I lived in Ward 2 Once upon a time, I don't know if y'all remember, but there was a school that Existed in Ward 2 known as Margaret S. Grant Elementary School I had the opportunity to attend there from kinder to third grade until the school board decided to close it down. I remember the mothers and families who fought and protested against this decision.
6:46:13It was an important school to that community, but according to the school district and the Santa Ana Unified School District trustees, trustees then they closed it down because they were trying to trim a 15.6 million
6:46:53like debt from the budget and they used students low scores and the size of the locations as justifications ultimately it was insulting and a disservice to a lot of those families people who grew up in that neighborhood know firsthand what it's like to be underserved and criminalized a community made up of immigrant families and children that deserve better i hope you really consider what the youth came out and said and I hope you invest in youth affordable housing mental health services and you priority prioritize those programs over continuously funding and increasing police budget thank you
6:47:09thank you Maria Barboza
6:47:51Good evening, Ms. Alcaldes and members of the Council. My name is Maria Alejandra Barbosa and I am here to talk about the number 52. As a member of Esperanza Unión de Inquilinos. To be in the court with the dynamic of power between a proprietor represented by a good and a person who defend their rights only with their voice, is atent against the equality. They have increased the unemployment rate of indiscriminating. For this reason, we need to dedicate a fund to represent the inquilinos so that both compare in equality conditions. In this way, we honor the democracy,
6:48:07whose base is justice imparted with equality. Defender al inquilino es cuidar la salud mental de la familia. Tener un techo es un derecho y perder la vivienda sería, entre muchas cosas, también ir en contra del derecho internacional del niño a tener un techo seguro.
6:48:50Gracias.
6:49:11Silvia Ramos.
6:49:15Good evening, Mayor, members, City Council members. My name is Maria Alejandra Barbosa, and I'm here to speak on item 52. I'm from Esperanza Unidos Inquilinos, and when you go to a court for an eviction, the landlord has a representative, a lawyer, and tenants are usually not represented. So evictions are at an alarming rate going up, and we need to designate some money to have representation for tenants. This is just an issue of justice, and we need to have this.
6:49:19When you defend tenants, this causes good mental health for the family. Having a roof over your head is a right for people and for the international right of children to feel safe under a roof. It's an international right.
6:49:55Thank you. Okay, at this time, we're going to close public comments here.
6:50:14We're going to start with council member comments. Please hit the button if you want to speak.
6:50:21Are there any comments or questions by the council? I don't see anybody.
6:50:36Yes, Madam Mayor.
6:50:39Did you push it?
6:50:41Yes, I did.
6:50:42I don't have it on mine.
6:50:43Councilman Hernandez.
6:50:57Thank you, Mayor Mesquilla. I'll keep my comments very brief since it is 11.29. I do have a little one to get home to. I want to advocate for, and this is the third time I've done this at the dais, I do not see restrooms for El Salvador Park included in the parks and recreation budget. Director Hock-Scott, could you give us some clarification if that's included, sir? I know residents from Artisa Pilat and Ward 5 have been very patient, and I have gotten a confirmation on a number of different occasions that this is something that would be allocated. So just to have it on the record.
6:50:58Yeah, it's not in a budget, but there are plans. We're getting RFP to put out for bid for those restrooms, as well as the concession stands there at El Salvador Park. Wonderful. So there will be an RFP coming our way? That was, Nabil?
6:51:37Yes, there is. We were talking about it about a week or two ago.
6:51:50Yes, sir.
6:51:54Outstanding news. Thank you, Director Hawkscott. I also want to advocate for a teen center. That was something that I asked for during the budget process, all the way back at the beginning. It is important to residents in my district. It's important to young people across the city as evidenced by the advocacy and we are a young city and we have two senior centers so I know having a teen center would be a big hit with young people. The teen center at El Salvador Park is well attended and families have you know gracefully enrolled their children into being beneficiaries of that program.
6:51:54I also want to advocate for the Little Saigon sign. I know that that's something that we all value and is important to the Council. The Francisco Torres marker is something that we asked for. I don't see it included in the budget. I would like for Juneteenth to stay the same. There were four of us here that advocated for it. myself, Council Member Vasquez, Council Member Lopez, as well as, and I want to thank my colleague, Council Member Peña Loza, for standing with leaders in the black community. He was present last year. He saw the attendance and the music and the speakers.
6:52:34So I want to thank my colleague because, you know, his character really shined through supporting this event. And so I also want to echo the importance of bringing Fiestas Patrias down to downtown Santa Ana off of 4th Street. I want to advocate for the demands from the community to see re-entry intervention and prevention funding and I think a good partnership is Parks and Rec. If we can utilize Parks and Recreational Centers to house community organizations like nonprofit Project Kinship that can help us do family wraparound services, it can help us do case management, can help us decrease crime.
6:53:12And two additional items, last but not least, are the Family Day Festival, which is led by Magic Inc. It is held annually at Angels Park in Ward 5 for 13 years now. So this is a festival that is important to my office. I would like to see funding from there. Perhaps we take it from the little Winter Village. And then lastly, cameras inside police cars at the dash cam and cameras at the rear view passenger seats of police vehicles to protect us from litigation to engage in the most transparent practices possible we can take that from the Little Winter Village if we cut that in half I think that gives us a sufficient amount of
6:53:52funding for all of the areas that I asked for thank you thank you Councilman
6:54:30Vasquez three minutes please thank you mayor I initially want to come in and
6:54:35say let's let's support the SAE program and because I love that program thank Thank you so much. But we also have to support our undocumented youth. Like when the speakers ask if we can have non-Ducca youth get jobs in the summer, if we can figure out a way to create a program. Right now Orange County has the highest rate for folks facing deportation. And if you see what this does to families when one of the income bearers is taken away and what it does to the youth in high school. And for them to have a way to support and help their family through the city would be great.
6:54:42I also would like to see a teen center. And it's the youth coming and saying this is what we want. This is what we need. We need a teen center that's defined not by me, not by the council or the staff, defined by teens. and how do we support them in exactly listening to them and giving them what they need. So we really are in need of a teen center in Santa Ana to help the youth to make sure they are properly nurtured and become what they want, not what an adult wants them to be. Not what an adult wants them to be.
6:55:22I also agree I want to support Juneteenth as well as Noche de Altares. right Noche de la Tarde has been a long-standing event here it's all ran by volunteers they don't get paid they do the work they make our city look good
6:55:59including with what Councilmember Hernandez said about fiestas patrias we do need the parade that is the only part of fiestas patrias that we have community involvement that's the one part that's the heart of the of the event an inclusion I will agree with Councilmember Hernandez we should we need cameras in our police cars thank you I don't see any other hands to speak so I
6:56:18would like to make a motion to approve the budget mayor I have a click the
6:56:44button oh I'm sorry you're not your name's not on here so let me Councilman Fanny just put yours on as I was speaking go ahead so I made a motion and then you could go ahead and speak. There's a motion on the floor. And then you want to speak as well. Yes. It's not working, Jennifer.
6:56:48Thank you. So I guess I just want to cover a couple things to get some things answered. So first, just to bring back to item 10, I think, for unclaimed money, the $84,000. Again, I think it may have been some confusion from the last budget cycle because I think I and maybe some of my colleagues who are here thought we did specifically budget for that item. And so the $84,000 from the unclaimed money can go to that, and I think we can make that work since it was a commitment that we've made before from previous councils. So I would like to add that to the budget or adjust that.
6:57:11So are you amending the mayor's motion on approving the budget, approving it with the appropriation of 84,000 specifically for the Little Saigon site.
6:57:52I have additional comments, and so without a second, maybe we can do the comments first and then come back to your motion?
6:58:00Yeah, we can do that. I'm sure as soon as I said it, your name popped up. So we can just come back to that, because Mayor Pro Tem Lopez wants to speak. Councilman Panel Lo Sedans, he didn't push his button though, so.
6:58:07Point of clarification on Mayor, and just the Council Member Fan's point, I thought we did that in item 10 to appropriate it. Oh, okay. My bad.
6:58:22Yes, yes. So for clarification, the $84,000 that we received as part of unclaims money in item 10, I'm asking that for this budget, we allocate it specifically to rebuild the Little Saigon sign that was, we believe, intentionally destroyed in Little Saigon area. Let's do it. The second issue is I know we had asked, or I believe Director Mottick had mentioned safety upgrades in City Hall. We're really appreciative of that. I just want to confirm that the key card access is on every floor, or is it only on the 8th floor and the 4th floor?
6:58:35I'm not sure if they've completed it all, but the intent was to roll it out on every floor.
6:59:17Okay, do we have a timeline for that?
6:59:22From Human Resources or Public Works? Every floor. Every floor, is it completed yet? Oh, it has been completed, so it's completed.
6:59:26Oh, I'm getting shaking heads.
6:59:35So our Executive Director of Public Works is saying it is completed.
6:59:38It is completed on every floor.
6:59:43Okay. All right, I'm getting shaking heads from the city attorney, so I'm trying to just make
6:59:45sure that that's so why don't we get clarification set of yeah let's just go
6:59:52in addition to the doors on each floor we now have rearranged the entrance and we have a welcome and information desk and everybody is routed that way and you cannot get on the elevator without using your key card to get to the
6:59:58multiple floors and we did have a training a safety training that a few of us did attend and yes I think you missed that yeah but it was a great training
7:00:11Thank you. The other item I wanted to actually ask about is maybe Madam City Attorney, I might be throwing this out to you, but I know that a couple of speakers have advocated for, as well as some of my colleagues, funding jobs, payments for undocumented youth who do not have DACA status or any other status in America. I'm quite concerned that that That is in fact just straight out illegal because we would be a business or an employer who is paying money to someone who does not have the legal authority to work in the United States. Madam City Manager, or Madam, somebody please answer that.
7:00:20I would defer to the City Attorney on that. We certainly could do unpaid internships for use without documentation.
7:01:00Madam City Attorney, can you give us some clarification please?
7:01:10It is my understanding that we would not be able to employ, and employ means to have an arrangement or a contract or a situation with someone where they provided their time and services to us in exchange for a paycheck.
7:01:13Who has no legal ability to work in the United States, including, for example, people who, so, you know, if they have DACA, they have some type of status. If they are an asylee who has been given an ability to work by a court pending any type of hearing, they have status of some sort.
7:01:26Yes, but if there is absolutely no status, no documentation, it's my understanding that it would be illegal to employ them.
7:01:48Thank you. I wanted to make that very clear because this council has made comments before that we want to support our undocumented community here in Santa Ana, but we also, as employers, need to make sure that we follow federal law. The other question I had might be for Director Scott. This is in regard to the numerous comments we've had relating to the youth programs. Will you please, you had a lot of experience in El Paso and Brownsville, but can you please describe to us the different type of youth programming we have in the city? I know that, for example, Salvador, excuse me, Salgado is open late and available to students.
7:01:55So your three minutes are up, so go ahead and finish, and then he's got to answer, and then we're going to move on to the next member, and you can come back.
7:02:36Okay. So like I said, we do have a number of youth programming at a bunch of our centers, you know, spread out throughout the day, and a lot of our centers are open up until 8 or 9 p.m. We also have expanded our teen excursion programs as well and doubling it. We are working on something right now that will expand the youth programming, and we will hopefully be coming to you guys to announce that very soon. So there are a lot of opportunities out there, and there's also ways to possibly create a teen center with maybe possibly vacant buildings down the road that we've been looking at. So we are working on this. We have heard youth.
7:02:41I said I have talked to Mia a number of times during our youth commission. So these are things we are working on, seeing what we can do to expand our programming. And as I did say in our budget, youth and teens is a priority to expand.
7:03:15Okay, we'll come back. Do you want to do it again? You can push the button.
7:03:27Mayor Patel Lopez?
7:03:33Yes, I actually wanted to make a suggestion to this council if we could unbundle the recommended action and take them one by one.
7:03:36Does anybody have an issue with that?
7:03:47So when you unbundle it, you want to take every single...
7:03:50Yeah, so recommended item one, two, three, four, and five.
7:03:54Make a motion. I made a motion and I didn't get a second, so you can make a motion.
7:03:58So I'll make a motion to unbundle the recommended action items recommended by staff and go through each one individually.
7:04:07I second. Can you explain why you'd like to do that?
7:04:23Yeah, so there are five items under the recommended actions. I'm asking, instead of making a motion to approve all of them at once, can we go through each one? It shouldn't take too long. That's just my preference.
7:04:27Okay. Well, is there a second? So when we had a gender review, did you ask for that? Or you thought about it just tonight?
7:04:45What was that?
7:04:56You didn't think about during an agenda review to separate them, but you want to do it tonight.
7:04:56Oh, no. Well, when I did my agenda review, the agenda was already released and set, so there was no way for me to change the city manager's agenda. I'm just saying we can discuss each item separately instead of one big motion to approve five different items.
7:05:02Did you get a second?
7:05:18Yes. So you can take the roll call.
7:05:20Let's vote on it.
7:05:23Point of clarification, what was the motion? Sorry, I was stepped up.
7:05:26So we have five recommended action items, and instead of voting on all of them at the same time with one motion, my motion is asking if we can separate each one of them.
7:05:30And I'm just, excuse me, so what's the, just so I understand why?
7:05:45Well, I have questions about the resolution to affect certain changes, new classifications. I have questions about the scheduled miscellaneous fees. I don't have questions on number four, and then I don't have questions of five. So for me, it's just easier if we pull them apart.
7:05:51Okay. Thank you.
7:06:15Yeah.
7:06:17But you have questions and you're asking to approve or deny them individually. But if you have questions, why not pose the questions?
7:06:18No, I'm saying not to approve or, well, yes. That way we can all ask questions regarding that specific item instead of having only three minutes to ask questions about all five items.
7:06:26So you can go, the three minutes, you can go three times. It's not just one time. So there's already, I mean, that's what I want to make sure everybody understands. It's three minutes, three times.
7:06:39It's just hard when we're abruptly cut off.
7:06:50Well, it's because we're not going to sit here until 2 or 3 o'clock in the morning. We shouldn't be making decisions at that time. So I don't have a problem with it. I just want to, I think if you guys are all clear on it, you have questions on it, you've got a second. So you can just take a vote and see if everybody wants to do that.
7:06:53I'm happy to give up my time. my other rounds for you. No, we don't do that.
7:07:10So, all right. I would like to make a sub-motion to postpone this discussion for a later meeting. It's 11.46 p.m. right now, and I know our residents are probably just as vested, and we don't clearly have a consensus on this dais, so I'll make a motion to bring this item back at a later council meeting.
7:07:16I do have a point of order. Point of order.
7:07:40Go ahead, Councilman.
7:07:41Madam City Attorney, under our charter as approved in the 2022 elections, don't we have to have a first reading and a second reading, both at regularly scheduled meetings?
7:07:42Yes, we do. You do. Your charter requires it. So then the question is, well, what if we don't? And that question has come up before. I can tell you under the leadership of our current city manager, we've always met our deadline. There have been in years past where we didn't meet that deadline. and so the rule was if we didn't meet that deadline that you could only engage in expenditures that were under the previous budget but I would
7:07:51And it puts the city in a very sticky situation, is that correct Sonia?
7:08:14Yes, I mean you should you should comply with your charter and have that if you were to choose a date that could still accommodate that you know I'd have to look at the timing if you had a special meeting or if you postpone this till tomorrow something like that you could probably still remain in compliance.
7:08:18So, Councilman Hernandez, I would support you only if we can call a special meeting right away so that we are, and the only item on the agenda would be the budget.
7:08:32I fully support that.
7:08:44And then if you want it broken down, I'm fine with that. We're going to vote on that, I guess.
7:08:46And Mayor, legally you wouldn't have to call a special meeting under the Brown Act. You could adjourn this one item to a specific date and time.
7:08:52Which will be like next week.
7:08:59It in effect operates like a special meeting, but it isn't because you're adjourning the specific item.
7:09:01So that way we're not sitting here until 2 in the morning.
7:09:06I'm not going to do that. The only way I would support it is if we close the public hearing and not go through the same thing again. Correct. So it would be only isolated to council deliberation and hopefully a decision.
7:09:09Yes, and that's the reason if you were to continue the item to a date and time specific, you would not have to take public comment on the item. No public comment. Nor would you have to have general public comment on that issue.
7:09:19That's correct. If you're okay with that?
7:09:29Absolutely.
7:09:31Anybody not okay with that? Actually, I'm not. We've had three separate council meetings on the budget. We've had agenda reviews with our city manager, and at this point we're still acting like this is the first draft of the budget. You know what I'd like? I'd like this, I'd like that. We've given the input at three separate public occasions and our individual times with Kathryn and Christine. So to now sit here and say we need more time? I mean, is there really anything that lingering at this point? I think staff has done an amazing job taking community input and seven council members'
7:09:32input and putting it into a balanced budget that's before us to vote on tonight.
7:10:05And I agree with you. I agree with you, but I also want to give everybody an opportunity, right? And so if you're going to ask to break it down, then we're going to be here for another three rounds of three minutes. So we already had two rounds over here, two here, because we're keeping track. Jennifer is keeping track. So we only have one more round of three minutes for everybody. And that's it. And then we're going to vote. So either we do that way or we're just going to do a special or not a special meeting. We come back next week, vote on the budget, have our questions answered.
7:10:09Because you made a comment that you did a gender review and it was already posted.
7:10:40Yeah, but I think we're making an assumption that it's going to take forever. And I don't think that it's going to.
7:10:44Well, but it does. Mayor Ameswa?
7:10:50Yes. I could just promise right now that I just have one comment. I haven't spoken at all on the budget, but I just want to say one thing and that's it. And I don't mind breaking up the five items. I won't speak on them.
7:10:51No, I'm not saying you can't speak on them.
7:11:02But may I, I haven't commented on any of this. Can I comment?
7:11:04So she hasn't either. She's got two more opportunities to speak. So there's a bunch of people who want to speak. Yeah. So, okay. So you made a motion. Yes. Let's just go ahead, Mayor Patel Lopez. We're not going to stay here for very much longer. Go ahead, Mayor Patel Lopez.
7:11:09Go ahead.
7:11:31Go ahead. You have your question.
7:11:32Oh, we're not going to take the roll call for the votes? It was the second.
7:11:33There was no second. We made a motion if there was no second. That's why it died. But if there was a second, then you could take a vote. To break it down?
7:11:36For the sub-motion or the motion?
7:11:43Councilman Hernandez made a motion.
7:11:47Yes, I made a motion to...
7:11:48I seconded your motion.
7:11:50I seconded only if we're coming back just for the budget and not for public comments.
7:11:51My apologies. If there was a second, then there should be a vote.
7:11:58Just to approve the budget and go through it. We will have questions, but there will be no public comments. And that meeting will be next week. If not by the end of the...
7:12:02You would have to determine the date and time of that meeting tonight.
7:12:16Yeah, we are going to determine it tonight. So can we vote on that please?
7:12:18No, but can we talk about what night we're looking at at all? Because some of us have meetings and other commitments scheduled two days in advance.
7:12:22Well then we're going to go through tonight, but I'm not going to sit here until 3 in the morning.
7:12:29Madam Mayor, I'll make a suggestion for Tuesday the 13th.
7:12:32We have to adjourn to a date, correct Madam City Attorney?
7:12:40Okay.
7:12:45And I can't do that. Madam City Attorney, what date are you looking at?
7:12:46I'm just whatever date you it's your it's your meeting so you have to decide
7:12:49what a madam city manager what do you have yes so I would propose either the 13th which is a Tuesday or the 14th which is a Wednesday I have work
7:12:54commitments on both days Friday I proposed Friday the 16th that can work or this Friday the 9th. I can do both Fridays.
7:13:09I can do Friday this 9th.
7:13:20The 9th works as well for me.
7:13:22The Friday the 9th, this week.
7:13:23I'm good with that.
7:13:24Friday the 9th, yes. Okay, so Friday, this Friday, 4.30 p.m.
7:13:26You can do it, but I will not be present.
7:13:33You're going to be on vacation, but staff will be here. Staff will be here.
7:13:35I'm not sure if everybody will be here. City Hall is closed this Friday.
7:13:38Friday we're going to do it the 9th, and it's not for public comments. It is just to approve the budget.
7:13:41And just so that you also know, City Hall is closed.
7:13:48So people can't come in for a special meeting? I don't know. I just wanted to make sure that's the manager and her team,
7:13:52but I wanted to remind you.
7:13:58Why can't they come in? We could open it up on a closed day. Yeah, there's no reason.
7:13:59No, I really am strongly adamant. We should not be forcing our staff to come in on a Friday that they have off. We're acting like going through each item is going to take hours. We don't know that.
7:14:08Let's do the following Friday. So can we, point of order, can we, I don't think we should continue. I would be happy to break down your, but.
7:14:19So let me do this. Okay, we're going to stop because I'm the chair. He made a motion. I second.
7:14:28Okay. That's it. Call the vote.
7:14:33So we're going to vote on it and we're going to set it up since you guys are closed on the 9th, following Friday is the 16th and that's it. AND THAT'S THE VOTE. THAT'S IT. SO LET'S VOTE RIGHT NOW. THE MOTION IS COUNCILMAN HERNANDEZ?
7:14:35YES. MEETING POSTPONED UNTIL 16TH OF JUNE AND FOCUSED ONE ITEM WOULD BE THE BUDGET. AND NO PUBLIC COMMENTS. NO PUBLIC COMMENTS, NO PUBLIC HEARING.
7:14:50THAT'S CORRECT. AND IF YOU HAVE ANY QUESTION, AND I SECOND IT FOR THE 16TH, 4.30 PM.
7:14:59AND I'M SORRY, LET ME FINISH. DON'T DO SIDE BY COMMENTS. I'M TRYING TO DO SOMETHING RIGHT NOW. So we're going to do it at 4.30 p.m. We're four. Is everybody good with four?
7:15:08No, I can't do four.
7:15:184.30 p.m. One item. That's it. So we're going to close it out tonight. And if you have questions, as council, you need to meet with the city manager. And I know, because you're going on vacation. So somebody will be covering for you. I believe it's Mr. Mendoza. Assistant City Manager or the Finance Director. Great. Thank you. Assistant City Manager Mendoza and the department heads that will be here can answer questions. And on the 16th we'll be back just for this item. Madam City Attorney.
7:15:19Yes. So we make it technically legal. The motion would be to adjourn this item, number 52, to Friday the 16th at 4.30. And then notice that that would have to be posted within 24 hours on our board. And then if there was a second to that, you could vote.
7:15:53And I was the second. And then I would recommend that as we vote, if it passes, hopefully, all the council members meet and get their questions answered.
7:16:09Mayor Mescilla, if I may, please. And just for clarification from the city attorney as well. If you were to introduce the ordinance on that date to comply with our publication requirements and are able to adopt that ordinance, would not be able to come forward on June 20th.
7:16:19What?
7:16:39We have to publish at least three days prior to the adoption of the ordinance, and you have to have, I believe it's actually six days between the introduction and the adoption.
7:16:41Friday, Saturday, Sunday, Monday. I believe it would comply with your five-day requirements, so you cannot have a second reading any sooner than five days.
7:16:51Date law is five. We just do it tonight. We're going to check the charter.
7:17:03Jonathan, you OK? We're going to give it a shot tonight. So I'm going to make a motion that we're not going to go past one hour. Anything over that, then we're done. Do we have to vote on this motion? Madam State Attorney? Are you abandoning the motion? Well, no. What dates are you giving us?
7:17:08We're looking right now. So if you, my understanding under state law law ordinance is five days. You do have five days between Friday and Tuesday. The clerk is also verifying that. I'm not familiar with her publication rules, so I'll let her comment on that. And we're checking the charter right now.
7:17:25So our city charter is different from state law. It is actually the sixth day, so you would have to, if you were going to do this, you would have to have that meeting at least on the 15th. Does that still give us enough time, Ms. City Clerk?
7:17:50So it needs to be introduced. We need to have six days thereafter. Also within the Charter, Section 416 requires that ordinances have to be passed for publication of title, and at least those six days have to go, and that the title has to be published no later than the third day immediately preceding the date of its adoption. If it's not adopted until the evening of Friday, we likely cannot get it published until Wednesday.
7:18:06So then Thursday the 8th, is that a good day for everybody?
7:18:38No.
7:18:42No.
7:18:43Can we just have the discussion tonight?
7:18:44Yeah, we're going to abandon the motion then, Councilman Hernandez, and then we're going to stay for only until midnight. At midnight, I'm going to get up and walk out, so I'm just letting you know.
7:18:46That's fine. We'll only need five.
7:18:55No, it's not midnight.
7:18:57Midnight's in three minutes.
7:18:59Okay. Sorry. I can't do without my glasses. One o'clock in the morning, I'm getting up and walking out.
7:19:01I would have been done with my questions by now.
7:19:07It doesn't matter. You should have been prepared. We come in here being prepared. Be prepared.
7:19:08Mayor, I don't think that's what the mayor is referring to.
7:19:14So let's go ahead. Mayor, if I may speak, I don't know if this will assist in or not, but I just want to say that we have synthesized all of the community input received to date we have also listened to you at the past three meetings and whenever four of you agreed on the item we implemented it within the budget so right now there is no more money left to spread around so I'm not sure why we're continuing to talk about things that we want at this stage in the game and I agree with you
7:19:17madam city manager so let's go through the list that we have because what we're find is we have no money left to spread around it's kind of like when you have a mortgage and a home and bills and a savings you only have a certain amount of money so um we didn't win the lottery so let me go back to the list then so we're going to abandon councilman hernandez if that works because apparently we can't we can't set it on a date yeah yeah i i tried i
7:19:52residents reached out to me i just want to let you guys know um unfortunately we are not going to be able to postpone this, but the conversation will continue. I'll be here until about 1230, and I'll unfortunately have to walk out at that point as well.
7:20:18Okay. Mayor Patel Lopez, go ahead. Three minutes.
7:20:32Thank you. So we're not voting on any of the motions on the floor. I just want to be clear.
7:20:36Yeah, there's still a motion on the floor to take the five items separately, so I'll second it if it hasn't been seconded.
7:20:39She has questions, and we're not voting on them separately. She wants to ask questions, so just ask questions. I don't know why we need a motion to take them separately. Just ask your questions. Here we go. Can you ask your questions?
7:20:47Yes. Can you guys stop interrupting me? Thank you. Okay. So on item three with the miscellaneous fees, Hawk, I think these questions are going to be directed towards you.
7:21:01So I just want to hear the dollar amount of the proposed fee that is being proposed for park facilities deposit because it only gives me the percentage.
7:21:24Say again?
7:21:33So it says there's an existing fee, $100 to $500 is the range, and then a proposed fee, 20% of RL permit costs, over $500. So I'm trying to figure out what the dollar amount is that you're proposing.
7:21:34It would depend on the permit and the site. What is that?
7:21:49can you repeat again because I can barely hear is there a new fee increase for the park facilities
7:21:57no I don't I don't believe so
7:22:04no so you the council approved at the previous budget hearing to adjust miscellaneous fees by
7:22:124.1 percent okay so those are reflected here yes okay so hypothetically if I wanted to say I don't want the school age camp program to go up for kids is
7:22:20that still viable I would defer to director Hawk if it has to be subsidized
7:22:35as he have funding in his budget to do so we'd have to take a look into that
7:22:43Okay. If I wanted to say I don't want the Sioux admission fee to go up for Santa Ana residents, but I'm fine with they going up for non-residents, is that liable?
7:22:48It would be the same response to determine what the coverage of the costs are to the extent we're subsidizing.
7:22:58Okay, thank you. And then for the Centennial parking structure, a new fee is being proposed, about $1,800 per event. has staff talked about maybe not passing that that feed down to people having events at the park that are applying but really to the user that way you know and doesn't make it harder for community who have events at Centennial yeah I mean that is it is possible so right now when
7:23:04you do an event and you use the centennial parking structure yes how is it structured it's a joint so
7:23:37it is a joint use facility so we have to work with the school district and sometimes there are some costs related to it to getting it cleaned and picked up after yeah i'm not opposed to the fee
7:23:43i'm just saying instead of having the applicant pay for it i think a better motto would be for the user each person using the parking structure to pay per car because I think one of the concerns that I continue to hear from community members applying for permit is how much the fee has gone up and so if we attach a $2,000 fee on top of the current fees that we have now I think that would make it a little bit
7:23:53harder for people okay I mean we could look into maybe possibly creating a parking structure maybe having a ticketed thing because right now again we just open up the gate and people can park in there because I don't think we would want people to be holding cash when we're doing it if we wanted to charge for the parking structure if I'm correct. Okay and then
7:24:21And then I had a question about, so in terms of the budget, I wanted to, I have a question, city attorney. It's okay.
7:24:42Stop the thought pushing later, Mama. Thank you.
7:25:05Laura?
7:25:16Laura?
7:25:19I just had a clarifying question, city attorney. in regards to the ask of allowing or supporting or looking ways of supporting undocumented teenagers in the city, young folks, if I'm not mistaken, the UC system recently came out to say that they would be employing undocumented people. Correct.
7:25:32As we've done before, I'd have to look at it. My understanding of employment laws is that there has to be some authorization to work. And there are various ways. There are different laws that would authorize people to work. I think Councilmember Phan mentioned some of them, if they're here temporarily, but we could look at that.
7:25:54Yeah, I totally understand that. I would not ask you to not or to violate federal law, but can you track that on behalf of this council? Because I would be very interested in seeing how the UC system, one of the major employers in California, figures out a way to support undocumented folks. Again, I don't know if they're going to be able to figure out a way or not, but I think keeping an eye on that would be helpful for us.
7:26:13We will. And it could be that there are lots of grants and programs to allow undocumented individuals to attend schools. And there could be some work-study programs under those federal grants that allow it. But we will definitely take a look and see what options there are for a city to employ undocumented teenagers. Is that specifically what you're asking about? Teenagers? Okay.
7:26:36Yeah, young folks. And do you know if federal law prohibits contracting with undocumented folks?
7:26:57I, again, have to look at it. We would have to issue like a 1099. That's the right document, right? So we'd have to look and see if a public agency is legally authorized to issue a 1099 for an independent contractor.
7:27:08So independent contractors can be employed by 1099s.
7:27:22Well, they received 1099s as evidence of the fact that the public agency has paid them money for tax purposes. Okay, got it.
7:27:27To clarify too, the UC, they're moving towards it. They haven't implemented it yet. They have a working group that's exploring it to determine if they can do it, and they hope to have a decision by the end of November.
7:27:36Okay, so they have time. Okay, thank you.
7:27:48Mayor, if I could make an announcement, please, before Councilmember Becerra made his comments. Sure. Councilmember Hernandez needed to leave at this time, but he would like to invoke his use of the Just Cause provision under AB 2449 and participate in the remainder of the meeting via Zoom. So he will be logging in in that manner.
7:27:51Okay, Councilor Brissette. Thank you, Madam Mayor. First of all, thank you, staff, for, again, putting this budget together. I just have some questions at this point. Is our city not charging for fireworks stamp permits? because on page 12 of the detailed budget, we're anticipating collecting zero this year?
7:28:11The answer is no, and I would just need to look at it to see why it's reflected that way. But we are still collecting fees for the permit.
7:28:39We are collecting fees for the permit. The answer is no, I just need to look at the document to see why it's reflected that way.
7:28:50It is included in the schedule of fees.
7:28:57Yes, but we're showing that we're going to collect zero in revenue from that. So we can have it in the schedule of fees, but we're not showing any collection of it.
7:29:00I'll take a review.
7:29:10Okay. Thank you. And then in regards to in the PD budget, it says PD service enhancement. I know that I've been very adamant about having dedicated officers to both downtown and South Bristol. So I just want to clarify, is the PD service enhancement item, is that for the direct allocation for downtown and South Bristol?
7:29:12I will defer to the chief of police on that one.
7:29:38So downtown has four officers dedicated full-time downtown. So that's already in place. In terms of South End, South Bristol, we have district policing that's assigned. And so that's how we staff.
7:29:50That's not what I'm asking for. So what I've been asking for, and every meeting that we've talked about the budget, I want officers dedicated to an area of town that generates a second highest sales tax in the entire city. Number one is the Auto Mall, and number two is South Bristol. And I appreciate what PD has done to improve that area, but we need to have dedicated officers down there. I've been adamant about it, and I wanna see it in the budget as a dedicated line item. So that's why I'm asking, is that what this is in PD service enhancement?
7:30:10So I'm going to defer to the city manager on direction, because if we assign officers to South Bristol, every one of you is going to request permanently assigned officers to whatever district for whatever priority and reason, right? So I will have a conversation with the city manager.
7:30:37So, Councilmember, if I recall the conversation, you did ask that. There wasn't four, the majority that supported that. The police chief was speaking and he said that he has directed patrol that he assigns in areas where they're doing a concerted effort and he made a commitment to do that like he's doing on First Street to Bristol Street.
7:30:56So for the record then, you did not hear four votes on this council to actually dedicate officers to an area that generates a second highest sales tax in the entire city? We can check our spreadsheet. No, that's fine. If you didn't, that's fine. But I just want to be clear, for the record, here we have an opportunity to protect the high sales tax generating area, and there's no commitment to that. So when everybody starts talking about fiscal responsibility and we've got to grow revenue, here's a chance to protect revenue that we have, and there isn't a commitment to it. That's just what clarity. Is that what we're saying?
7:31:17Not exactly, sir. We did make a commitment that the chief can assign directed patrol to emphasize on the area similar to what he's been doing on First Street.
7:31:50I don't want what's happening on First Street to happen on South Bristol. Let's be clear. We don't want that. Or we're not going to have tax revenue coming into the city. So we want a different setup down there. So I guess the answer then is then this PD service enhancement is not for South Bristol.
7:32:00No, there wasn't.
7:32:19Then what is the service enhancement then?
7:32:21So that's measure X, is that right? Special revenue to enhance services across the city.
7:32:23Okay. So just generically to add more officers or add more services?
7:32:31Correct.
7:32:35Okay. So that's fine. Thank you. And then under animal services, we have $246,000 allocated and $33,000 allocated for miscellaneous expenses. I just want to know. So every time my constituents call animal services, they get a voicemail. So when there's some issue, they get a voicemail. 246,000 plus 33,000, I'd hope there'd at least be one person with a cell phone where the number could be routed to that person. Can I get that commitment, Director Tai?
7:32:36We currently have a staff of two officers and one admin person for the animal services for our city. There are times when we do not have staff that would be able to accommodate all the hours. So our system is set up so that there are messaging services that a person can leave a voicemail and we would respond to them within the next business day if not sooner.
7:33:09So what I'm asking for though, I get what you just told me, but what I'm asking for is can we get something where it gets routed to a live body? So someone's got a cell phone, right? It's the animal services cell phone, and it's on a person, whoever that person is. Can we get a commitment that it is attached to somebody so that they can get a live answer?
7:33:40Well, I like to say yes, because simply we want to provide the best service. But I think the way that we are staffed now, I don't think it's feasible.
7:33:57Okay, so because this is happening during the middle of the day. We're talking like 11 a.m. on a Monday. And I would hope that, you know, with these two staff folks, that they would be able to answer. And again, we don't want them stuck in an office. We want them, you know, taking calls.
7:34:06They are out in the fields, but, and they're also actively working, either picking up data animals, working with the city residents on addressing issues. So what I can commit to is that it will be responded in a timely manner, but to have a live person answer the call with the current staffing situation, it is, it, I can commit, but it would not be something that we would be able to successfully be able to follow up on.
7:34:20Okay, that's fine. Thank you. And then, let me see if I have... Oh, Director Tai, you may want to stay up there for this one. So the proposed dangerous and abandoned building fee, you're proposing to make it cost recovery, which is great, versus the current fee. would cost recovery be more than the current fee typically?
7:34:49The cost recovery is based on our cost, estimated cost, to address the case and the amount of time that staff is dedicated to...
7:35:12But what I'm asking though is that by putting this in here, I just want to clarify that this proposal for it to be cost recovery means that the previous fiscal year fee was not enough to recover costs. So this would be an increase, correct?
7:35:26Right.
7:35:41No, no, good. Because if you are the owner of a dangerous and abandoned building, I want you to be charged an arm and a leg. So yes, I'm glad to see this. Thank you.
7:35:42And I'm glad that we're recovering our costs. We're going to go on to the next person and we'll come back to you for a few minutes.
7:35:50No, actually, I'm done. Thank you. Oh, thank you.
7:35:54Okay, great.
7:35:57Councilmember Vasquez.
7:36:00Thank you. I have two questions. Just on the oversight funding, we set aside a million dollars. Is that rolling over?
7:36:02Absolutely. We'll do the carryovers in September. So we still have that level of funding for the Police Oversight Commission.
7:36:11Thank you. And I saw that on PAL, we had spent $550,000 last year, and we have budgeted $600,000 this year. Is that a one-time fee, or is that a recurring amount?
7:36:18Is that what it's costing us every year?
7:36:33I believe it's because of the expansion of the PAL program that the associated expenditures would be going up with the opening of the satellite Roosevelt Walker and, okay. It's a one-time. Okay.
7:36:36Thank you.
7:36:51Councilman Penelosa.
7:36:55Thank you, Mayor, and thank you, staff, for your work on all of this. I know it's hard, especially dealing with us. But the only question I had is, I couldn't find exactly where it was reflected that the commission stipends were increasing from $50 to $100. I just want to make sure that that is in here.
7:36:57It is, and we presented it at the meeting in May. We said that we could increase all the stipends from $50 to $100, but that you didn't need a budget line for it because the departments that oversee the commission could absorb it.
7:37:18And measure X is getting a stipend as well, correct?
7:37:33Yes. So you will see us come back to you because to implement that, there are some resolutions that we need to do.
7:37:35Which is fine with me. And the other question I had is just more of a comment, not necessarily a question on the budget, but thank you to all the executive team for your work, by the way. Happy with all of it. The youth workforce, I know that oftentimes I notice that we try to push our youth that want to work and intern in the city towards parks and rec and the library. And I've heard from many of them that just because they're youth doesn't mean they just want to be in the parks and in the library. I'd love for us to start having those serious
7:37:41conversations within our city attorney's office or city clerk's office, the police department, in IT, public works planning to be able to really, no thing on Brian and Hawk, you guys, your departments are awesome, but our youth, you know, deserve a chance to be able to explore careers in other departments. So I'll leave it at that, not necessarily a budget question, but just more of informational. But with that, I will happily make a motion to approve the recommended action number one.
7:38:16Well, we haven't taken the vote on Mayor Pro Tem's request, but I will move to approve item one on the staff report. But I think we have to have her question first, right?
7:38:48She asked her questions, didn't she?
7:39:05Did you ask all your questions? No, I didn't. So we have more questions to go through?
7:39:07On the general fund reconciliation page, can you just clarify for me the installation of cameras? Is that for the PD cars or is that for the traffic cameras we had discussed?
7:39:11We set aside the amount for cameras. We didn't specify what to use, which specifically, because we did have requests for some other mounted cameras in addition to those in the backseat of the police cars.
7:39:22Okay. So $100,000 would cover? Let's just say you choose to only do police cars. $100,000 would cover that?
7:39:37We haven't received quotes at all, but I would venture to guess $100,000 would not cover all of our fleet of black and whites.
7:39:47So then that would leave no money for traffic cams?
7:39:54If you wanted to do like a pilot program with a police car, you could probably get a pilot program in there, and then you could also get another type of a security camera.
7:39:58And then for city events, can you clarify if Winter Village is or isn't under that list?
7:40:07Winter Village is funded as a part of the proposed budget at $1.4 million, but the direction that we did receive from you is to try to reduce the expense of it by either shortening the duration of the event or seeking greater sponsors or actually charging non-residents a higher amount.
7:40:13I remember, and I don't know if there was four, but I remember the direction being just get rid of like use that pot to fund the other services
7:40:32we we have a spreadsheet that we were keeping of when there was four and that question came up and we went back to it and looked at it and there was not four to do away with it I see okay and then
7:40:40for the animal services being added to the additions of the upcoming budget can you just state for the record what those are so our residents can hear are you talking
7:40:54about a trap and neuter program I don't know it doesn't say it just says waste hauler donation animal services so that is as requested 75,000 to go towards both maybe a discounted program to our residents for them to spare neuter their pets but then also as well to a trap a TNR program okay and that's for santa ana residents oh yeah it would only be for feral cats within our city or santa ana residents got it okay thank you
7:41:06do you have any other questions on your other items you because there's i believe two more you wanted to break them up do you have any other questions You're completely done? Yes. Okay, perfect. Okay. There was a motion? Is there a motion?
7:41:45Well, we have Mayor Pro Tem's motion. You still want to break them up, correct?
7:42:00That's what I just said. She said no.
7:42:04Oh, okay. Then...
7:42:06That's why we don't do it because you didn't pay attention here. All right. I'm going to make a motion to pass the budget, pass this item, or did you already do it?
7:42:07I made a motion to...
7:42:16And did I get a second?
7:42:17Well, I only had said recommendation one, but I'll make a motion to... to move all of the items? That's correct. Under 52. All right. Did Council Member Fan do it?
7:42:18No, no, no.
7:42:28No, but I did ask for the specific allocation of the unclaimed monies, the 84,000, to the Little Saigon sign.
7:42:29Happy to accept that amendment as part of the motion.
7:42:35I'll second that. Perfect. Before we vote, City Manager, I'm just gonna say, I'll meet with Assistant City Manager Mendoza
7:42:37and the Police Department, because I have multiple questions, similar to what Councilman Becerra had, like what is service enhancement. I wanna know exactly what service enhancement is. I'm looking at the overtime. So I have a lot of questions. I don't wanna ask him here, and I didn't meet with him prior to this meeting, so I don't wanna take up the time here. And I do have other questions, but I'll meet with the department heads. So let's vote, please.
7:42:47A motion by Councilmember Penaloza, seconded by Councilmember Becerra to approve public hearing item number 52 for the budget with the added appropriation of the funds from item 10 for the Little Saigon sign replacement.
7:43:16Is Councilman Hernandez on yet? He is not on the line yet, no.
7:43:38Mayor Pro Tem. Can you... Oh, sorry.
7:43:42The vote is six ayes, no nays, with a noted absence from Councilmember Hernandez. Motion carries. Ordinance is introduced for first reading and publication.
7:43:52Perfect. We're going to hear item 53. Madam Clerk, please provide instructions to the public who would like to make a comment on this public hearing item only.
7:44:00If there are any members of the public on Zoom or the conference call who would like to make a comment for public hearing item 53 only, which is the zoning ordinance amendment, please dial star 9 from your phone or select raised hand from Zoom now.
7:44:09And there's no request to speak here, correct?
7:44:23Madam Clerk, no?
7:44:29Yes, correct. We did not receive any cards. I see no raised hands in Zoom, and we did not receive any emails for this public hearing, item 53.
7:44:31Any council members have any questions?
7:44:38I have no questions, Madam Mayor, but I'll happily move the item.
7:44:40I'll second.
7:44:44I have a question, actually, real quick.
7:44:45Go ahead, Councillor Neusser.
7:44:47Thank you. Director Tai, great job on all of these. Just one question. In the proposed section 41-650.5 under suspension of conditional use permits, subsection 1 states that the director of planning may immediately suspend the CUP variance, minor exception, et cetera, for violation of this code observed by a city official that are not corrected within 10 days to the satisfaction of the executive director. Then in subsection four of the same section, you say if there's a failure to abate and correct the observed violation within 90 days of suspension, the city may elect to commence revocation proceedings.
7:44:49Within 10 days of not correcting the problem, and then you have an additional 80 days before the possible beginning of revocation. Is there a reason why we have that much time? Because this is a may, not a shall, would it be a negative impact if we gave the director of planning and building the ability to begin revocation within 30 days rather than 80 additional days?
7:45:30Can you help me point to the page?
7:45:54So it would be proposed section 41-650.5.
7:45:5741K.
7:46:04So you see in subsection 1C you have it where the director of planning, I'm sorry, you have to correct the issue within 10 days upon the issue being seen by the city. Then in subsection 4, you have it where within 90 days you can then begin revocation proceedings.
7:46:05So this, what it allows the intent of this is to also include a cumulative period during a one-year period. So what it does is that it's not only every single incident, but also if the business us have a recurring violation for the same violation in a cumulative of 90 days, we would also have the ability to address the revocation process as well.
7:46:27No, no. And again, because it's a May, what I'm asking for is could we shorten that? Not to say that you have to do it within 30 days. I'm just saying you could do it in 30 days, but if you need to accumulate more time, then of course you would do it in 90 days or 120 days. But I'm saying can we reduce this time to enable you and your staff to have the ability on the more serious, egregious offenses that you could possibly initiate revocation?
7:46:52The way we structured it, we believe it's the best way for us to legally withstand the test of question as to the process of seizure and due process as well as timing.
7:47:18Okay. So that's fine then. So that's my only question. I'll go ahead and support the motion on the table.
7:47:29Great. Thank you.
7:47:35vote.
7:47:44VOTE IS 6 AYES, NO NAYS, NOTED ABSENCE BY COUNCILMEMBER HERNANDEZ. MOTION CARRIES. ORDINANCE INTRODUCED FOR FIRST READING.
7:47:46GREAT. WE'RE GOING TO GO TO THE HOUSING AUTHORITY AT THIS TIME. WE'RE GOING TO RECESS CITY COUNCIL MEANING TO THE HOUSING AUTHORITY.
7:47:53I HEREBY CALL THE HOUSING AUTHORITY MEANING TO ORDER MADAM SECRETARY PLEASE TO PLEASE please conduct the roll call. Authority member Becerra? Here.
7:48:02Authority member Penaloza?
7:48:11Here.
7:48:12Authority member Fan? Here. Authority member Vasquez?
7:48:13Present.
7:48:18Vice chair Lopez? Here. Chair Meswa? Present. Six members present.
7:48:19Madam secretary, are there any additions or deletions to the housing authority agenda? There are none. It looks like there is one item here. Do we have any speakers?
7:48:24for the Housing Authority?
7:48:36There are no public speakers, Mayor. All right, let's go to consent calendar, items one and two. Does any authority member wish to make a motion and a second, please?
7:48:40Motion to approve.
7:48:49I'll second. There are no comments. Let's prepare to vote.
7:48:51VOTE OF 6 AYES, NO NAYS WITH A NOTED ABSENCE BY COUNCIL MEMBER, AUTHORITY MEMBER HERNANDEZ. MOTION CARRIES.
7:49:08OKAY. THE NEXT ONE IS BEFORE HEARING PUBLIC ITEM NUMBER 3, MADAM SECRETARY PLEASE PROVIDE INSTRUCTIONS TO THE PUBLIC. WOULD LIKE TO MAKE A COMMENT ON THIS ITEM ONLY.
7:49:16IF THERE ARE ANY MEMBERS ON THE ZOOM CALL THAT WOULD LIKE TO SPEAK ON HOUSING AUTHORITY Public Hearing Item Number 3, the Annual Action Plan. Please dial star 9 from your phone or select raise hand from Zoom now.
7:49:25Mayor, I'm seeing no Zoom hands. We do not have any cards for this public hearing and we did not receive any emails.
7:49:41Perfect. Are there any questions or comments by any of the members?
7:49:49Great. Let's prepare to vote. Mayor, we need a motion.
7:49:56I'll make a motion to approve, Mayor.
7:50:00I'll second.
7:50:03Mayor, it appears the system just froze. I'll do a roll call vote, please. Thank you. Authority Member Becerra? Yes. Authority Member Penaloza?
7:50:11Yes.
7:50:19Authority Member Fan? Yes. Authority Member Vasquez? Yes. Vice Chair Lopez? Yes. Chair Mesquah?
7:50:20Yes.
7:50:27Vote as six ayes, no nays, with a noted absence by authority member Hernandez. Motion carries.
7:50:27All right, the Housing Authority meeting is now adjourned. Let's reconvene to the City Council meeting. City Manager, do you have any announcements, please?
7:50:32Yes, Mayor, just one. I wanted to let you all know that I did attend the Orange County Board of Supervisors meeting today as the agenda had a new contract for the Mental Health Association of Orange County at their Santa Ana location. I did provide public comment, and I did hand physical copies of the letter that you had sent to the board members. My public comment was in opposition to the contract due to the experience our community has endured as a result of the public nuisances created by that operator. I also advise the board that we are involved in litigation with the trial starting tomorrow.
7:50:39The board did not approve the longer-term agreement, but the board did approve a six-month agreement and promise to revisit it after the outcome of our litigation.
7:51:15Thank you.
7:51:27Sir, Councilman Vasquez, comments, please.
7:51:29Thank you. Once again, I want to congratulate all the new graduates. I was at graduation all last week. I had so much fun, and I appreciate the invitation. Also, thank you for inviting me, Councilman Lopez, to the pride flag raising. It was a great event, and I hope to be part of it again next year. About the budget, the really one sad part about this budget on a line item, we have $1 million set aside for a recall election, and we should all be opposing it. Every council member should be opposing this unjust recall.
7:51:32and it's a shame that we could have a million dollars for a teen site but instead we have a million dollars for a recall election so I'm really sad on a happier note I can't wait till tomorrow when we take on the Juans and the Juanas and move on to the championship in the kickball league and see you out there Huck bring it
7:52:11thank you mayor pro temp lopez
7:52:39um yes happy father's day to all the dads in our community and especially happy father's day to my dad and congratulations to all the seniors that graduated from our local school district i had a really great time sharing that special moment with you and your families and have a good night thank Thank you.
7:52:44Thank you. Councilmember Penelosa, please.
7:53:05Thank you, Madam Mayor. Just wanted to also give a shout out to Mayor Pro Tem Lopez for hosting the flag raising ceremony last week here at City Hall, seeing what the county did today, what Huntington Beach is doing, what our neighboring cities are doing that hate the divisiveness that exists out there. Just wanted to applaud your efforts for that. So thank you for that. And with that, that's it. Mayor, good night.
7:53:09Councilmember Becerra? Thank you, Madam Mayor. This Saturday, I'll be hosting my monthly community office hours at George Upton Park over at Carl Thornton Park at Saturday, 10 a.m. I wanted to express my congratulations to Segerstrom High School alum Zoe Allora-Velez on her graduation and commissioning from the United States Naval Academy. You definitely make Ward 4 and our city proud. And I also wanted to congratulate Alexis Rodriguez-Mejia, who's an alumni from the Santa Ana PAL program for graduating from Harvard University. We talk about youth programs
7:53:33and we talk about trying to get kids into these great opportunities and here's a very shining example of that. So with that good night everybody. Thank you.
7:54:08Councilmember Fan. Thank you. I can't even remember what my comments were from May 16th but I do want to just give a shout out again to Santanita, our Parks Department public works for the groundbreaking ceremony for the community center. We did some digging and the Santa Anita Neighborhood Association has been fighting for that community center since I think at least 2015. And so we're very excited for that to be moving forward. I also want to state that today, June 7th, at 5.30, I will be hosting or the Ward 1 team will be hosting another My First Home Down Payment Assistance Program workshop.
7:54:20The Spanish portion will be at 530 and the English portion will be at 7 and it will be at New Hope Library. Have a good night everyone. Thank you. I just want to
7:55:01say I'm gonna have a mayor's walk this Saturday. We'll be meeting on the corner of 20th and Spurgeon. I'm very excited to have the community there along with Police Department, Public Works, Daniel, Avital and some other people joining, two council members joining me there that morning to walk with the community they love Nabil but he won't be with us this time so but his staff will be so I also want to thank the fire department we had coffee and donuts with fire great turnout and we had kids sign up for the cadet program that they have so it's really really wonderful city manager I want to thank you for attending the
7:55:11Board of Supervisors meeting today I want the Dalhi community and those around to know that they are and I'm going to let them know that they're opening it up for six months again it's been open but now they're going to open it at a larger scale when when I want to know the ins and outs because I'm going to meet with that community down there so that they can contact the Board of Supervisors and let them know that we do not want that in our city and so before I joined this council I believe I watched the video where all the council members talked about
7:55:46it and very adamant about not wanting it open in the city and that matter being taken care of so i will be addressing that and you know a council member vasquez brought up the recall you know that that is not going to be a million dollars i believe it's just one person not two so i don't want to give out bad numbers if it is going to be a million dollar city manager can you let us know the exact amount compared to one council member if it was a recall if there is a recall of one and not two because it is i do not believe it's a million dollars for one because there's 26 000
7:56:20voters i think in that ward only um we could the city clerk could give that to you but as an estimate
7:56:55it would be half and i'd also like information um and maybe the rest of the council wants as well as what are the future locations for cannabis locations for stores, for businesses that are opening? Because I know that when we talk about special interest groups, they're sending out mail pieces for the recall, being paid for by cannabis and one of the unions. And so, again, I get called, you know, people talk about me being, you know, paid by special interest, but yet cannabis is paying for mail pieces regarding the recall. So I want to know where these locations are because whatever ward they're going to,
7:57:01the community needs to know that we are going to open because I hear they want to open one on First Street. So I want to know all the next locations of the cannabis because I don't believe all of our community wants cannabis because we have plenty already.
7:57:42There is a cap on the number that exists, but we can get you that information.
7:57:58So great. And thank you. Happy Father's Day to everybody. Memorial Day was beautiful. We all celebrate. A few of us were at different locations. I was at Floral Park and at Fairhaven. It was wonderful to celebrate with our community. And the reason that we have the freedom that we have to sit up here and do what we do is because the men and women that served for us died for us and currently serve for us for our country. So thank you. THE NEXT MEETING IS ON JUNE 20TH. CORRECT? I'M GOOD. ALL RIGHT, JUNE 20TH. THANK YOU. MEETING IS ADJOURNED.
7:58:02License License License License License License Thank you.
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