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0:01Read the July 18 meeting.
1,369 merged speaker turns. Unidentified speech is hidden by default; timestamps open the public recording.
Transcript
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1:18Thank you.
1:20We'll be right back.
2:18We'll be right back.
2:32.
2:56Hey, this is John. Can you hear me?
3:04
I can hear you, John.
3:07Well, you sound clear as well. Can you try a few mics, including some of the council members mics, please?
3:10Public speaking, Mike, presentations.
3:18Sounds good.
3:22Assistant city manager.
3:26Sounds good.
3:28Testing one, two testing.
3:38Sounds good.
3:40
Testing one, two. Yeah, go ahead.
3:44Sounds good.
3:47This is your conscious speaking.
3:49Thank you council members.
3:55Did that not sound good?
3:56I never thought it would have such a pleasant voice.
4:00Mayor's mic speaking, Mayor's mic.
4:04Sounds good. Thank you very much, Jennifer.
4:07Thank you.
4:20Thank you.
4:46Thank you.
5:20Thank you.
5:46Thank you.
6:19Thank you.
6:46Thank you.
7:20Thank you.
7:53Thank you.
8:21Thank you.
8:47Thank you.
9:24Thank you.
9:47Thank you.
10:18Thank you.
10:51Thank you.
11:20Thank you.
11:48Thank you.
12:18Thank you.
12:48Thank you.
13:18Thank you.
13:51Thank you.
14:18Thank you.
14:50We'll be right back.
15:27Thank you.
15:51Thank you.
16:21Thank you.
16:51Thank you.
17:19Thank you.
17:51Thank you.
18:22Thank you.
18:52pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil
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19:35pencil
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19:51Thank you.
20:22pencil pencil
20:54pencil pencil pencil pencil
21:02Thank you.
21:17Thank you.
21:42Thank you.
22:07Thank you.
22:35Thank you.
23:10Thank you.
23:38Thank you.
24:11I'll see you next time. Thank you.
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26:10pencil
26:30Thank you.
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27:09I'll see you next time.
27:56We'll be right back.
28:09Thank you.
28:36Thank you.
28:59Thank you.
29:27I love you.
29:56Thank you.
30:26Thank you.
31:00Thank you.
31:27Thank you.
32:00Thank you.
32:28Thank you.
32:58Thank you.
33:31Thank you.
33:59Thank you.
34:29
Mayor, go ahead. Thank you. I hear by call the Santa Ana Council meeting to order. This meeting is taking place with in-person attendance and by teleconference via Zoom. The public may access the meeting via the Santa Ana YouTube channel or the city's website. Please bear with us as the technology may disrupt the flow of the meeting. Madam Clerk, please conduct the roll call.
35:05Council Member Becerra?
35:29
Here.
35:30Council Member Hernandez? Council Member Penaloza?
35:31
Present.
35:35Council Member Fan? Here. Council Member Vasquez? Present. Mayor Pro Temo Lopez? Mayor Mesqua? Present. Record show five members present.
35:36You have a quorum. Thank you. Madam Clerk, are there any additions or deletions to the closed session agenda?
35:45Yes, Mayor, the City Attorney has an announcement.
35:50
Mayor and Council Members, we are asking for your consideration of adding two closed session items to your agenda this evening as late breaking items under the Brown Act. To add these items, you must make two findings. The first is there is a need to take, to discuss this immediately and that the need came up after the posting of the agenda. For the first matter, we would ask that you add a conference with legal counsel regarding anticipated litigation. It would be one case, and this is related to the July 17, 2023 letter from the California Attorney General's Office concerning the urgency ordinance related to AB2011 exemptions.
35:54The city received a letter from the California Attorney General's Office yesterday after the posting of the agenda, and there is a need to take immediate action as you have related ordinances on your agenda tonight. For the second matter, we ask that you add a conference with legal counsel concerning existing administrative matter. This is the Santa Ana Police Officers Association versus the City of Santa Ana seeking injunctive relief. It's under an unfair practice charge and the number will be provided to the City Clerk's Office. The City was served with this unfair practice charge on Friday, July 14th after the posting
36:30of the agenda and the City must file its response by tomorrow. So that we ask that you make the findings as requested and add these two items based on a four-fifths vote of the Council.
37:01I'll move to add those two items based on the findings the City Attorney just announced
37:12I'll second. I'll second. Go ahead. I apologize.
37:16I'll second. Let's vote.
37:18Councilmember Becerra?
37:22Yes.
37:23Councilmember Penaloza?
37:25Yes.
37:27Councilmember Fan? Yes. Councilmember Vasquez? Yes. Mayor Mesquah? Yes. Motion carries with 5-0 vote. Items are added to the closed session agenda.
37:28Thank you. Do any council members need to announce or abstentions on any closed session items? No. Madam Kirk, do we have any speakers for closed session?
37:38We do not have any cards for in-person speakers. We have one possible speaker on the Zoom call. Let me confirm with them. David Ball, is your comment on a closed session agenda item? If so, you can unmute now.
37:49Okay.
38:10HEARING NO RESPONSE FROM MR. BALL, WE'LL ASSUME HIS COMMENT IS FOR THE OPEN SESSION OF THE MEETING.
38:12GREAT. THANK YOU. WE'LL NOW RECESS BACK TO CLOSED SESSION. THANK YOU VERY MUCH.
38:18Thank you.
38:41Thank you.
39:17We'll be right back.
39:46Thank you.
40:12Thank you.
40:41Thank you.
41:12Thank you.
41:43Thank you.
42:12Thank you.
42:41Thank you.
43:11pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil
43:50so
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44:57so
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45:24Thank you.
45:40Thank you.
46:14Thank you.
46:40Thank you.
47:06Thank you.
47:44Thank you.
48:11Thank you.
48:37Thank you.
49:08Thank you.
49:37Thank you.
50:11Thank you.
50:36I'll see you next time
51:36I'll see you next time.
52:06pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil
52:14pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil
52:44Thank you.
53:05Thank you.
53:37pencil pencil
54:17pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil Thank you.
54:24Thank you.
54:56Thank you.
55:29pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil
56:07Thank you.
56:27Thank you.
56:56Thank you.
57:30Thank you.
58:01Thank you.
58:28pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil
59:04Thank you.
59:34Thank you.
1:00:35Thank you.
1:01:01Thank you.
1:01:28Thank you.
1:02:01Thank you.
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1:03:02Thank you.
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1:04:59Thank you.
1:05:30Thank you.
1:06:04Thank you.
1:06:30Thank you.
1:06:57Thank you.
1:07:37Thank you.
1:08:01pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil
1:08:36Thank you.
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1:09:36Thank you.
1:09:57pencil
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1:10:51Thank you.
1:10:57Thank you.
1:11:27Thank you.
1:11:52Thank you.
1:12:32Thank you.
1:12:59Thank you.
1:13:29Thank you.
1:13:57Thank you.
1:14:29Oh, oh, oh, oh
1:14:53pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil
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1:15:38I'll see you next time.
1:16:13pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil
1:16:24pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil
1:16:50Thank you.
1:17:17Thank you.
1:17:43Thank you.
1:18:13Thank you.
1:18:44Thank you.
1:19:14I'll see you next time.
1:20:12I'll see you next time. Thank you.
1:20:42Thank you.
1:21:16Thank you.
1:21:44Thank you.
1:22:19We'll be right back.
1:22:55pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil
1:23:16Thank you.
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1:27:44Thank you.
1:28:12Thank you.
1:28:43Thank you.
1:29:14Thank you.
1:29:46Thank you.
1:30:14Thank you.
1:30:48We'll be right back.
1:31:42pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil
1:31:49Thank you.
1:32:16Thank you.
1:32:48Thank you.
1:33:13Thank you.
1:33:47Thank you.
1:34:14Thank you.
1:34:42Thank you.
1:35:18We'll be right back.
1:36:11Thank you.
1:36:14Thank you.
1:36:46pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil
1:37:16Thank you.
1:37:44We'll be right back.
1:38:20We'll be right back.
1:39:05I'll see you next time.
1:39:20pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil
1:39:43Recording in progress.
1:40:28pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil
1:40:43Thank you.
1:41:09Thank you.
1:41:44Thank you.
1:42:07Thank you.
1:42:37Thank you.
1:43:07We'll see you next time.
1:43:47Thank you.
1:44:08Thank you.
1:44:41Thank you.
1:45:06Thank you.
1:45:38Thank you.
1:46:08Thank you.
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1:48:09Thank you.
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1:49:10Thank you.
1:49:38Thank you.
1:50:07Thank you.
1:50:45We'll be right back.
1:51:16Thank you.
1:51:36I'm sorry.
1:52:06Thank you.
1:52:37Thank you.
1:53:07Thank you.
1:53:42Thank you.
1:54:08Thank you.
1:54:37Thank you.
1:55:10pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil
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1:56:09Thank you.
1:56:36Thank you.
1:57:12Thank you.
1:57:42Thank you.
1:58:10We'll be right back.
1:58:45Thank you.
1:59:09Thank you.
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2:00:06Thank you.
2:00:38pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil
2:01:13pencil pencil pencil pencil Thank you.
2:01:29pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil
2:02:11pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil Thank you.
2:02:22I'll see you next time.
2:03:27I'll see you next time.
2:03:57pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil
2:04:06Thank you.
2:04:34Thank you.
2:05:03Thank you.
2:05:35I hereby reconvene the Santa Ana City Council meeting to order. This meeting is taking place with in-person attendance and by teleconference via Zoom. The public may access the meeting via the Santa Ana YouTube channel or the city's website. Please bear with us as the technology may disrupt the flow of the meeting. Madam Clerk, please conduct roll call.
2:05:36Councilmember Becerra. Here. Councilmember Hernandez.
2:05:57Here.
2:06:01Councilmember Penaloza.
2:06:02Present.
2:06:03Councilmember Fan. Here. Councilmember Vasquez.
2:06:04
Present.
2:06:07Mayor Pro Tem Lopez. Mayor Mesquah. Present. The record shows six members present in the chamber.
2:06:08Great, thank you. Madam Clerk, before we proceed to the Pledge of Allegiance, please make an announcement.
2:06:15Yes, Mayor, thank you. For members of the public on Zoom or teleconference, to request to speak during public comments on agenda or non-agenda items, with the exception of public hearing item 38, which will have a separate public comment period later, or other items within the city's jurisdiction, you must dial star nine from your phone or click the button labeled raise hand from Zoom now in order to be in the speaker queue. Thank you.
2:06:21Thank you very much. First item on the agenda is the Pledge of Allegiance. Councilman Penelosa, please.
2:06:46Thank you, Madam Mayor. If you could all please join me in rising, facing our flag, and putting your right hand over your heart, and follow along. 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.
2:06:52Thank you very much, Councilman Penelizzo. We're going to have words of inspiration by Reverend Durrell Durley from Brown Temple. Reverend Durley?
2:07:15Thank you, sir, for joining us.
2:07:29Yes, sir, welcome. You may be seated. Amen. Because these are words of inspiration. It's not the prayer. Okay, amen. To the Mayor, Valerie Ameskla, her staff, city officials, city council members, state and local representatives, and to all of the faith community, I'm honored for this opportunity to offer these words of inspiration. There are times where certain noises should cause one to become immovable. Not all sounds have the same effect. Not all sounds are restrictive hampering, cramping, or limiting.
2:07:31Some sounds offer a command from authority. Go to your room, go to get out of the car, put your hands up. Not all sounds have the same effect. Not all sounds are restrictive, hampering, cramping, or limiting. Some sounds should demand attention and an expected outcome. At the sound of ambulance, an expected outcome is for the driver to stop or to pull over. At the sound of a whistle, an unexpected outcome is for a player to stop. Not all sounds have the same effect or the same reactions.
2:08:11As there are plans to move forward, we also hear sounds from those who agree and also from those who disagree. But since we have made it this far, we cannot allow the unfounded fears generated by unfamiliar scenarios to stop or limit us where we become immobile. My two sons went to and graduated from Central Methodist University in a small Missouri town named Fayette. On one occasion, me and my wife drove there to attend one of their football games. We were offered and accepted the invitation to spend a night at a historical presidential house located on the campus.
2:08:48Due to the arrival time, they left the light on for us. We retrieved the key at the predetermined location, and yes, it was an old skeleton-type key. But it worked, and we entered the two-story historical building. I keep saying historical because I don't want to say old. Amen. We noticed that there was no bedroom downstairs, so we had to take the stairs up. Each step on the run impregnated the air with eerie sounds that Hitchcock himself would pay premium wages for. At the sound of each creek of the stairs, every scene from every scary movie danced
2:09:30through my head, but since we had made it this far from California to Missouri, we did not allow the unfounded fears generated by the unfamiliar sounds to stop or limit us to where we had become immobile. Once we made it to the top of the stairs and relaxed, we thought that dealing with those unfamiliar sounds or unfamiliarity was over. We became immobile at the sight of the hallway that looked like it was the set from The Shining. I was looking for the twin girls on their tricycles.
2:10:09But since we have made it that far, we did not allow the unfounded fears generated by unfamiliar scenarios to stop or limit us to where we became immobile. Have no fear of sudden disaster or the ruin that overtakes the wicked so to you city council don't allow unfounded fears generated by unfamiliar scenarios to stop or to limit you to where you become immobile since you have made it this far in 2023 carry on and keep on keeping on may god bless you amen Thank you so much.
2:10:45Thank you, Reverend, very much. Madam Clerk, are there any additions or deletions to the City Council agenda?
2:11:33Mayor, just one minor clarification to item 10, which is an appointment to the ETAC, the Environmental Transportation Advisory Commission. The agenda does read that it's for a partial term expiring December 8, 2026, and it should read full term expiring December 8, 2026. Otherwise, the action is the same.
2:11:41Great. Thank you very much.
2:12:02At this time, we're going to go to presentations, and I have the very first presentation. Thank you.
2:12:06Can I have Colleen Daddario up here from the Elks Lodge? And I believe Jack is here.
2:12:31Is Officer Jack here? Where's our wonderful canine?
2:12:41Thank you for coming. It's nice to see you.
2:12:53He's having dinner.
2:13:03Might be hair and makeup. Right?
2:13:05I don't know.
2:13:09They look pretty good, don't they?
2:13:10Okay, see Robert, you're holding. and Rodriguez-Shaholden is up here.
2:13:13All right.
2:13:18Thank you. It is my pleasure. Lisa is so sorry. She couldn't. Give her my hand. She had a moment. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. He's dancing.
2:13:29Here they come. These are our canine officers. Please come on up and join us. Let's give them a round of applause, please.
2:13:44Hello, sir.
2:13:56Come on down. Come on down. How are you?
2:13:58Come on down, gentlemen.
2:14:02Oh, look at that. Hello. Hello. Hello. Hello. Nice to see you.
2:14:05Hello. Come on down. Y'all get to come on down. Come on down. Go down this way. Go down this way. He's the special one, right? Yep.
2:14:11Nice to see you.
2:14:26Hi, how are you?
2:14:28He's the special one.
2:14:29Thank you very much.
2:14:31So all these officers are very special, but he is truly the special one up here. So thank you Colleen for joining us and for representing the Alks Lodge. And you asked why are these officers up here? Santa Ana has been home to the Alks Lodge 794 and I'm a member. Yes she is. Member. Councilman Becerra is a member. Councilman Penalosa I believe is a member. There's many of us in here that are members. We're trying to get everybody else to join too. The Alks Lodge 794 has been in Santa Ana for 119 years. They have a very strong community service presence in Santa Ana, contributing to civic
2:14:34engagement, charity, educational scholarships, and community service for residents. But what people do not know is they generously donate ballistic stab-proof vests for a member of our K-9 unit, and that is Jack. As you can see, Jack's vest. I don't know if you all can see it. And I believe we're working on a second vest. Yes, number two is on the way. for another Jack, but I think, I don't know the dog's name. What's his name?
2:15:14What's the new dog's name? Wick.
2:15:41Wick. Ooh, like John Wick? Okay, all right.
2:15:42We also paid for his training.
2:15:46Not only is Wick going to have a bulletproof vest, but the Elks has paid for his training as well. So Jack's very nice vest that will save him when needed was graciously donated by the Elks Lodge. Jack has been a Santa Ana PD canine for approximately six months. He's a baby. How old is he? He's three. Oh, that's not a baby. The vest provides an extra layer of protection to Jack in the event of a violent criminal attempt to hurt him. Nationwide in 2023, approximately 20 dogs have been killed by gunfire alone. That vest is going to save Jack if ever needed.
2:15:48And thank you very much to the Alex Lodge. Join me, please, in thanking Alex Lodge 794 for continuing their commitment of charity and community service. And the reason I'm doing this is not only because I'm an Alex member, but I take pride in being an Alex member because of the work that we all do at the Lodge, giving back to the community and protecting our canines when they're working to serve all of us is very, very important. So I want to present to you this certificate of recognition on behalf of the City of Santa Ana to Santa Ana Alex Lodge 794. And I'd like you to say a few words and then Jack's going to come up and speak.
2:16:29I just want you all to know that I was thrilled to be asked to be here today. I'm honored to be able to receive this recognition on behalf of our lodge. And I want you all to know that it is our honor to serve the community of Santa Ana, which we have been for so many years and will have been in so many years in the future, too. Thank you very much.
2:17:14So, I'm going to turn it over to you.
2:17:38On behalf of the K-9U, we just want to say thank you for all the help. Unfortunately, these guys, it takes a lot on and off duty for us to take care of them. It takes a lot of care. We're constantly making sure that they're healthy and deployable, so we appreciate it. Thank you. It's a pleasure.
2:17:42Thank you again. Let's take a photo, and if the council members would like to join me, please feel free to come down.
2:18:02Oh my gosh, how are you? Can I get by the donkey?
2:18:09Thank you. Oh. Actually, but you don't like one.
2:18:14No, it's Jack.
2:18:19It's Bella.
2:18:21Oh, I'm good. I don't want to get him.
2:18:22Okay. Okay. We're going to take this really quick because he's excited.
2:18:27Yeah.
2:18:33Yeah. Yeah.
2:18:35
One for me, please, right here. One for me, get a little closer, please.
2:18:43Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.
2:18:46Six. Nice.
2:18:49Thank you all very much for your service. Thank you.
2:19:03Thank you.
2:19:30Okay, that's the fun part of being up here, right? Okay, second presentation by Mayor Pro Tem Lopez, please. And we'd like to recognize Adriana Martinez, Alicia Rojas for outstanding contributions to the community. Mayor Pro Tem.
2:19:53Hi, good evening everyone. tonight we are going to be recognizing Adriana Martinez and Alicia Rojas for their contributions to not just our city but really arts and culture here in the city of Santa Ana the county and the state and we're gonna begin with Adriana Martinez and who's really currently being showcased at the Grand Central Arts Center also known as the GCAC here in Santa Ana in downtown and And both of them are featured artists, actually, and have received funding from community engagements and other local nonprofits to showcase their storytelling and their talents.
2:20:35And Adriana was born in Colima, Mexico, and uses her art as a method to highlight her community. And she's a proud alumni at Cal State Fullerton with a bachelor's in studio art and has earned her teaching credential from Cal State Long Beach. Go Beach. And Adriana also established the Sketchbook Club in order to promote creativity and supply the community with free art supplies. So please check it out and support in any capacity that you may have. Alicia was born in Colombia and her work contributes to the historical memory of the collective and facilitates place making specifically with communities of color.
2:21:14She is currently an artist in residence at the Grand Central Arts Center funded through grant by the Andy Warhol Foundation and if you did any academic work within fashion design or art then you know that that's a very big deal and Alisa is also the director and co-founder of the Sanana Community Artists Coalition and was a founding member of the city of Sanana Art Steering Committee and the Community Artists Coalition is a very welcoming space they work with students they they work with young kids and they help with mural restoration so if you're interested in getting involved please check out the coalition I've been very
2:21:52fortunate enough to help with the mural restoration here in downtown and it was a really great experience so please join me in congratulating both of these artists for their accomplishments and contributions to the community support the Grand Central Arts Center where which we are very fortunate to have here in our backyard and get involved with the art scene in the city of Sanana I I will also pass it over to Adriana to share some of her work and the art that is being currently showcased here.
2:22:32Yeah, go ahead. Hello everybody.
2:23:03Thank you all. I just want to say thank you so much to the city, which has really contributed to me as a person, as an artistic person, my creativity. I'm very passionate and invested into the community. Our community deserves an investment. We need help with mental health. We can't just be criminalizing people. We need to invest in our communities. And I feel like I'm a good example of what happens when we are invested in. And that's how I feel. I'm just a representation of a little of that. Thank you again.
2:23:11So I'll hand it over to Alicia. And Alicia, this is for you.
2:23:50This is for you. Oh, yeah, perfect. Thank you. Good evening, buenas noches. Thank you so much for this honor. It's been many years of a lot of work. I see a lot of familiar faces here. I'm greatly honored for receiving this award. Right now I'd like to invite everybody, actually. we have our newest mural restoration. So the coalition is actually a community mural group. We focus on public art that actually has community engagement and where the community is involved in the process from concept to production. We've created over eight murals around the city. Right now we are focusing on the restoration of a 50-year-old mural
2:23:55by Sergio Ocadiz at Fremont Elementary. We'll be having that unveiling with the fabulous team of the Santa Anauna School District Arts, Robin is right here. We'll be having that unveiling on August 18th at Fremont, so you're all invited. And I also like to announce that I am extremely honored. I am one of the 18 artists statewide who won a fellowship through the Creative Corps through the California Arts Council. This is a one-year fellowship. It's a $60 million initiative that the state of California is pushing. My project is to uplift the voices of the promotoras
2:24:37of Latino health access and highlight all the amazing work that they did through the pandemic. So we'll be creating public art with them and creating mural mapping and oral histories. Something very important that we need to do is acknowledge these promotoras, not as medical professionals, but as American heroes and first responders, asserting them and the place that they should be. So thank you so much for the recognition, and thank you for Mayor Pro Tem, Jesse, for always supporting the arts, and all the council members here. We had another budget increase this year, so thank you so much for that.
2:25:16And I hope that it keeps increasing, because for the size of our city, it still could be more and there's a lot more programs that we could do as soon as the art grants and more funding is available for artists the work in the community so thank you so much
2:25:57Thank you.
2:26:46Next up, Councilmember Becerra.
2:26:52Councilmember Becerra. Oh, wait a minute. I'm sorry. It's Councilman Panalosa. They have Becerra here.
2:26:58It's okay. It was not me.
2:27:11What did you say to me?
2:27:20If I could please have the Ingardia Brothers Produce Inc. and Coke, please come up and join me up here. Sam Ingardia, CEO Joe Ingardia, Jr. and Chief Operating Officer Cody Ingardia, stockholder. Who's here? Just two.
2:27:30How are you guys doing? Welcome. Welcome, welcome, welcome. How are you, sir?
2:27:56Very well, thank you all.
2:28:02Nice to meet you. I'm David.
2:28:03David, thank you for the invitation.
2:28:06Of course, happy to have you guys here. And in Guardia, right?
2:28:08In Guardia.
2:28:11In Guardia Bros Producing is celebrating 50 years in business, being a Southern California wholesale distributor. They specialize in wholesale and deliver to commercial business sites, providing fresh produce, seafood, grocery items, and dairy and frozen goods. On June 16th, 1973, brothers Joe and Sam in Guardia opened their retail establishment, and their philosophy was to take care of their customers and give them quality service at a fair price. Santa Ana is home to Guardia Brothers' 63,000 square foot distribution facility
2:28:13located at 700 South Hathaway Street where they house their fleet of over 75 trucks. Engardia Bros takes pride in many ways. They have committed to being a green company, specifically their solar energy efficient warehouse and zero landfill on all their trash, meaning all their solid waste is sent to a refusant energy facility. When possible they like to buy from local growers. Every Wednesday their farmer's market buyers head to the Santa Monica farmer's market to hand pick items from some of the finest growers right here in California.
2:28:55Please join me in congratulating Engardia Bros on their 50-year anniversary in business. Congratulations.
2:29:31And if you could please give us a few words if you'd like. Okay.
2:29:42I didn't expect that. Either one. I thought it was just going to be a plaque. thank you goodbye well we want to thank we want to thank the city of Santa Ana it's been a wonderful home the Engardia brothers my brother and I started the business unfortunately on May 16th one month before 50th anniversary my brother Joe senior passed then of course the way it was arranged his son became my partner now and it's been a wonderful 50 years. Santa Ana, not just that one
2:29:47building we have which is 65,000 square feet but we also have two additional buildings within just one is across the street which we're trying to build. Eventually the city of Santa Ana will be nice enough to stamp it and we can start with the construction. We're not here for that tonight. But anyway Is that you? All right.
2:30:27Anyway, thank you very much. It's an honor to receive this. And I can't say more about the city of Santa Ana. It's been great for us. We have never had a layoff in 50 years of business. Even during COVID, we didn't let one person go. we kept everyone with the same wages, same benefits, same everything. That is, I believe, strong. It's a family business, a strong family, and our first employee that started with us 50 years ago is still with us. And it's great. Thank you, thank you, thank you.
2:30:53How many employees? 250, full-time. It's fantastic. Thank you.
2:31:35Thank you. Thank you very much. Thank you again.
2:32:00Council member Fan.
2:32:09okay y'all know who you are you should start walking up here hi good evening everyone last but definitely not least today Today, I and the City Council will first like to invite Silvestres Basilio Chamu, Eric Castellan, Timothy Pagano, and Monique Leon up here with us into the well. So today we are going to recognize our parks and recreation employees who have gone above and beyond the call of duty of service of all the things that you can talk about a public
2:32:28employee doing because last month at the Juneteenth Festival right our staff you see them they set up the booths they set up the tents they make sure everybody shows up on time but I'm going to share a couple stories with you Sylvester and Eric right this is their story Juneteenth was held at Centennial Park that's in my ward, this is our wonderful park, and the two gentlemen stepped up in a time of need when a citizen fainted on his way back to his car and was down for a few minutes.
2:33:07I can tell you I would panic, except our staff, Eric and Sylvester, spotted him and immediately rushed over to assist. They stayed with him and offered him a bottle of water and then offered him a ride to his car in their city vehicle. They stayed with him until he recovered and was well enough to drive home. To me that is going above and beyond for our residents, for our community, and to ensure that everybody who visits the city of Santa Ana and our events are having amazing, have an
2:33:44amazing time. So another story. Timothy and Monique, so they also stepped up in a time of crisis to work as a team to render first aid to a citizen who is having a medical emergency. Again I watch a lot of Grey's Anatomy. I do not do medical assistance and so with their calm demeanor, communications, and skill sets of first aid procedures and protocols. I think many of us took CPR classes, first aid, again, Grey's Anatomy, right? But they were actually
2:34:18able to use their experience, the expertise, and put it into practice, render first aid until Orange County Fire and Rescue arrived on the scene and took over. The citizen was later released from care and made a full recovery. I just want to say that, you know, when faced with some of these crises, it's really easy to say it's not my job it's somebody else's job let's call first aid let's call my manager let's call PD let's call fire let's call EMT but our staff didn't they didn't think about how is this gonna reflect on me what if I screw up they took action they ran into a situation that they knew somebody needed
2:34:56help and they made sure that person had the help they needed and I'm just so grateful and so thankful for all of you and for all of our parks and rec staff out there who ensure that every single big event we have here in the city goes off without a hitch and that we have them time and time again so with that I will pass out the certificates and if any of you would like to say a few words I'm sure our residents here would love to hear from you
2:35:38thank you council member fan and to the members of the council mayor
2:36:10you know this is completely unexpected i think all of us can say that thank you so much and unnecessary from the standpoint that it's not that we're not grateful for the recognition but this is what we sign up to do and as parks and recreation professionals you know again you said it best you know we saw a situation where we could assist and we acted and we would do that for any citizen here within the city of santa anna and beyond so we're just thankful and thank you for the recognition
2:36:18it's hard to follow okay well can we invite our council members down for a vote
2:36:52i mean i'll take all the credit right with all me Thank you.
2:37:00Thank you.
2:37:40All righty. Thank you very much. There's one staff presentation tonight, Madam City Manager.
2:38:27Thank you, Honorable Mayor. Tonight we're doing a routine homeless update for you. We do have a short PowerPoint presentation and it will be presented by Ken Gaminski.
2:38:34He even put a tie on for us.
2:38:50Only the best, Madam Mayor.
2:38:54Daniel, ready? Good evening, Honorable Mayor and members of the City Council.
2:39:01Daniel's going to be helping me tonight with the PowerPoint presentation. Tonight's homeless update will share information about the impact the city of Santa Ana has made on homelessness, where to find detailed information about homeless services, an overview of the statewide study on homelessness, and how to get help if you or someone you know is experiencing homelessness or if homelessness is affecting your quality of life.
2:39:09How we're addressing homelessness within the city of Santa Ana.
2:39:37While there are challenging issues ahead, Santa Ana has made notable progress in creating an infrastructure to address our homeless issues. Two of these items include SMART, those are the outreach teams that connect with people on the streets and offer services and referrals. And then we have our Homeless Navigation Center, where guests begin working on their housing plan and addressing their individual issues. The My Santa Ana app continues to provide an opportunity for residents and businesses to contact the City for assistance.
2:39:43This past year, the City received over 6,000 reports of encampments and over 1,800 reports for homeless outreach. By the way, all those encampments were cleared. The City offers guidance for businesses, commercial property owners, and residents who have concerns regarding issues of unwanted persons or criminal activity on their property. The City also works with outside entities such as Southern California Edison, Caltrans, CHP, the Orange County Sheriff, Orange County Public Works, and the Army Corps of Engineers to keep property safe and secure.
2:40:19You can look at this next slide and see that in addition to direct outreach and services, the City also uses a strategy that incorporates corrective actions to address homelessness. These include encampment cleanups, often provided by our Colt team, citations, arrests when inappropriate, and code enforcement citations and fines. Recently we branded the Colt trailers to bring up awareness to the teams working daily in the field addressing homeless encampments. For quite some time people would see the yellow trailer followed or led by police units and
2:41:02they were unaware of what it was. Now we feel like by branding the trailers and the police cars we're at least in a position to show the residents how active Colt is all throughout the city. Next. Permanent supportive housing and how effective the city has been. Santa Ana has invested more in permanent supportive housing for people experiencing homelessness than any other city in Orange County. The city has developed 267 units of permanent supportive housing
2:41:43over the last five years and has over 200 units in the pipeline. This will push our total amount of permanent supportive housing within this city to 488 units. Prior to the state of California launching Project Home Key to convert motels into permanent supportive housing, the city had already completed two motel conversion programs and had broken ground on a third. Last month, two ground breakings and one grand opening took place in Santa Ana. Wise Place is an adaptive reuse
2:42:20and new construction project that will provide 48 permanent supportive housing units and one manager's unit. FX Residences is a new construction project for an affordable multifamily apartment complex consisting of 16 units of permanent supportive housing and one manager's unit. The grand opening of Legacy Square showcased a new construction affordable multifamily apartment complex that consists of 92 units of rental housing and one manager's unit. All units are affordable to households earning
2:42:58less than 60% of the area median income, or AMI for short, of which 33 units are set aside for permanent supportive housing. On tonight's agenda is consideration of an intergenerational affordable housing development for 10 units, including eight units for transitional aged youth, TAE, experiencing homelessness, two three-bedroom units structured as shared housing for seniors experiencing homelessness, and one on-site property manager. Next. The statewide study of people experiencing homelessness.
2:43:39Researchers from the University of California at San Francisco recently released the largest representative study of homelessness in the U.S. in nearly 30 years. The study entitled the statewide study of people experiencing homelessness surveyed 3,200 individuals and conducted in-depth interviews of 365 adults across the state between October 2021 and November of 2022. The full report can be found on our website at santa-anna.org slash homeless. Here are some of the key findings of the report.
2:44:25Loss of income was the main reason those surveyed stated that they became homeless, with only 18% of all of those people working. The homeless population is aging, with 47% of all adults experiencing homelessness now being 50 or older. Most individuals surveyed were from California, had experienced physical violence, and or had been incarcerated. 66% of the participants reported current mental health symptoms, but only 18% had received mental health counseling or medications.
2:45:06This study provides insight on the demographics of homelessness across the state and points to where sustained efforts and investments most needed by the homeless should go so the problem can be solved. Next.
2:45:49Taking a look at our webpage, next.
2:46:05You'll see that we've broken down our rubbed presence into four different areas. Those include the homeless services website, our data dashboard, grant funding, and how to get help. As we move to the data dashboard, you can scroll down the page and you'll see an interactive information that is up to date. It will talk about point in time count numbers.
2:46:12Permanent supportive housing. If you or any of our residents want to know where we are with permanent supportive housing, it clearly shows our 267 completed units and our 221 units that are in progress. It also talks about the city's commitment to shelter beds at 625. And it also talks about tenant-based housing vouchers, over 536 issued through the Housing Authority for FY22 and FY23. Next.
2:46:56If you look at the Santa Ana Navigation Center slide, it will show you where people who have left the Santa Ana Navigation Center have gone. Shared housing, different opportunities for rapid rehousing, renting unsubsidized units. But not only do we give you percentages, but when you slide and hover over the top, it'll tell you exactly how many people were involved in each one of those different pieces of that pie.
2:47:34Looking again at the right, at the upper top, you see a daily census. If you ever have a question as to how many people are currently in Carnegie, we take the daily count and compare it to where we were last year. You'll see that last year we had 120, 102 people. This year we're at 166. That's because we had just opened the center last year, and now we're hovering at about 150 to 160. You can see the number of families, parents, children, pets, and referrals to date.
2:48:04You'll also see by looking at the historical census how our numbers continue to rise. Next.
2:48:40Smart outreach is also pointed out here.
2:48:51Individuals interested in shelter services are referred to the site through several referral options.
2:49:00Smart is our city's street outreach team contracted through CityNet. Smart provides trauma-informed care services to address homelessness within the city. Reports into the My Santa Ana app and the community call line go directly to teams in the field, diverting calls that don't require a public safety response. For example, for the week of July 10th through the 16th, SMART responded to 165 individuals who were contacted on the streets, 245 calls they were dispatched on, and they managed to remove 39 people from the streets through any number of various avenues.
2:49:08Next.
2:49:51This is a heat map that shows overall the service requests for both Colt and Smart throughout the city. You'll see that the hotter the area, the brighter the yellow. And you'll see that Bristol, up along 17th Street and Main, and on the far east end of the city along Main Street, all hotspots. that we continue to respond to based on calls for service to both teams. Next.
2:49:57Should you have any questions on demographics? This is what's referred to the HMIS data, Homeless Management Information System data. It comes directly from county resources and can be cut, diced, and sliced however you would like to see it. But in particular, it talks about people with disabilities, special populations, but all of this is available for you and our population to review anytime they want. Next.
2:50:30Additionally, we'd like to bring up grant funding. When you look at homeless services, and an example is the HHAP grant, you can see that The money goes for strategic homeless planning, delivery of permanent housing, navigation center operations, outreach and coordination. But aside from the percentages that are set for each of the different grant opportunities, it also, when you hover over a specific chunk, it will give you the exact dollar amount that the city has allocated for those grants for each individual program.
2:51:06Next. Where to get help? And again, all of this information is on our Homeless Services webpage. Information about the smart team, how to contact them by phone. Hours of operation. The Santa Ana Homeless Hotline, where we here at City Hall answer the phone. The City of Santa Ana email regarding homelessness, which is endinghomelessness at santa-ana.org. The 24-hour countywide assistance number of 211. Code enforcement issues can be reported.
2:51:45Then there are specific contact numbers for our favorite people to call and complain about, Union Pacific and the county.
2:52:24All of this information is presented to you and our residents in an effort to not only be transparent but offer the information people may need when they're operating throughout their daily lives. I thank you for your time. I'll be here tomorrow. Should anybody have any questions or concerns, please feel free to reach out to me, and I will answer any questions that you have.
2:52:37Are there any questions? I have a comment just to read out. Councilman Vasquez, I don't know if this is working. I'm city clerk. Is this working tonight? Oh. It should be, yes.
2:53:02Okay, let's give it a shot. Mine never does, but let's try it again. Councilman Vasquez, go ahead. Thank you. Great presentation. Thank you for all the work that you showed. What I would like to see is a comparison of the work that we do in St. Ana compared to cities our size, just so we know where we're at and what are the best practices as well.
2:53:12Like Anaheim, Riverside, Irvine, Garden Grove, Corona. And also these 300,000 about our size, just so we see where we stack up and how we could do better or how great we're doing. I don't know. I have a comparison. I would like to see where somebody might be doing better. Hey, we could do that or we're doing our part. Yeah.
2:53:36So are you interested in housing or outreach and engagement numbers? Or which types of information would you be interested in the comparisons of, sir? I would like the outreach and bringing people in from the streets and just making sure we're
2:53:57recovering our basis on that. Okay.
2:54:13We'll do that.
2:54:15Thank you.
2:54:16Any other questions? Councilman Hernandez.
2:54:17
Thank you, Mayor Mesquah. Thank you for the presentation, sir. My question is in response to concerns that residents are having in the community surrounding public inebriation, public intoxication. What is your guys' response to that?
2:54:20So out of homeless services, we have a smart team that if they respond out and they find somebody who is inebriated or under the influence of narcotics to a point that they may be a danger to themselves or others, they'll contact law enforcement. As far as the Colt team, if the Colt team, who are law enforcement officers, comes into contact with individuals, as you've described, they take law enforcement matters and will deal with the problem, whether it's transporting the person to a hospital or arresting them and having them sober.
2:54:41Okay, so, but the Quality of Life team is prepared to respond to calls related to public intoxication?
2:55:21The Quality of Life team is prepared to respond to homeless-related issues, specifically encampments, is what their main issue is. I think what you're talking about is as you drive around and you see somebody who may be inebriated on the curb or whatever, that is not what Colt is designed to do. And I would believe that that's a specific law enforcement matter, not necessarily a homeless matter.
2:55:31I am going to respectfully disagree with you, sir, because alcoholism is a part of the coping that comes with experiencing homelessness. It is directly correlated with living on the street. Oftentimes, you're going to see nine out of ten people who are experiencing homelessness will have some sort of a coping mechanism, which leads to the criminality aspect of breaking the law, public inebriation. So, sir, this is connected to homelessness. So, in this case here, how are we assessing these cases where you have an individual experiencing homelessness that is also inebriated? How are we able to help them?
2:55:59So if our officers come into contact with a person who is inebriated and they contact them and find out that that person is homeless and isn't requesting services, then we're in a position to provide them services after they sober.
2:56:40but we don't find very many people that are willing to take us down that road with them.
2:57:00I appreciate your response, sir. This is just helping me get a better understanding of what services do we presently offer in the city of Santa Ana. You give a very good presentation that I feel overlaps with the area of our focus in this dialogue that we're having. public intoxication and so that is an area where I do feel that we have a gap here I would respectfully like to see madam city manager if we can in the next presentation consider how are we may be partnering with different agencies so that when we do come across an encampment where there is let's say
2:57:10people that are using you know alcohol or utilizing substances in a public setting, not only is the quality of life team, you know, able to respond in whatever ways they can, but if there's anybody that does need additional assistance, we do have a, you know, a partnership with different organizations or entities that can respond, because I wouldn't want police to be the sole response. That's not fair for them. They're not experts in social work. It's not fair to our department that officers are having to respond to that, and it takes away resources from tier one police calls.
2:57:46In the way you're speaking about that, I am in complete agreement with you. Yes, sir. If Colt or SMART goes out, contacts a homeless individual, and they are desirous of services, some of the services that they may be desirous of could be shelter, detox or rehab may also be services that are provided. we specifically as a city do not have detox services however we do have through smart and through cult and through county connections do have the ability to help people get into those
2:58:22types of programs and those are the types of services that your smart team or your cult team
2:59:00works through okay thank you sir no no additional questions at this moment mayor thank you
2:59:06Any other comments before we report?
2:59:12Okay. Thank you so much. I'm going to share something if you want to stay. I'm sorry. Go ahead.
2:59:15You can go, but I'm in the queue. Go ahead. Thank you, Mayor. So I'm pleasantly surprised to see that we're covering the statewide report, but I think it's a very smart choice. So thank you for including it in the report, because I don't think that enough people know that the report even exists. And I really encourage all of you in the chamber, all of you watching at home to read it and to reread it so that you can really digest and process the information because as Ken said this is the largest study done in many many years and it covers places from the top of the state
2:59:20all the way to the bottom of the state and some of the things that the report highlights is as you saw on the screen that the largest group of people facing homelessness are our seniors because many of them are on fixed income. In fact, we were at a Movies in the Park event last week and we had a daughter that came to our tenant and said, my mom only gets about $1,500 a month but her rent is over that. So what are we going to do? What is the role of the city? And so of course whenever we get those complaints, whenever we get those emails, we forward them to our housing division. But I think it's very, very important to
2:59:53keep in mind when we're having conversations or when it's very easy to point fingers that a very vulnerable population is at the core of this issue. The second I think important statistic to highlight is that one of the minority groups of rapidly facing homelessness is the Latino community. It is the Latino population. We are talking directly about our residents facing this issue and the the number one reason that the report states of why people are facing this issue, why people are in this crisis, why we're all impacted by this
3:00:32systematic issue is because of people's loss of income. And when they talk to folks they report that if you know their households had maybe 300 to 500 dollars more they would not be in the streets. They would not be unhoused or unstable or they would not be having to pull their kids from one school district to the other. Because, again, we're all aware of everybody that's picketing and fighting for better wages and living conditions because a lot of wages have not kept up with inflation. And our residents are not immune to that issue.
3:01:12The other statistic that I think is important to highlight is the cycle of incarceration and homelessness and then the subsequent issues that come after that because it is fueling a vicious cycle in terms of prolonging the issue of people staying in the streets. Most of you probably know that when somebody goes to jail it stays on your record. It's very difficult for you to get employment, it's very difficult for you to apply for housing, especially subsidized housing.
3:01:54It's a cycle of maybe perhaps in many circumstances unintended consequences. We always talk about that, right, in the role of policy. What is the unintended consequence that you are all going to suffer if policy doesn't move in one direction or the next? So I think that's also really important to discuss and to highlight. And one of the other issues is, I think, specifically in the local context. We just celebrated the opening of Legacy Square, which is here in Santa Ana, in affordable housing development.
3:02:27But more than 5,000 people applied to have an opportunity at accessing one unit. you know and currently more than 4,500 people are on the waiting list so that really speaks to the need that exists in our city in our county in our state in our nation to build affordable housing I am happy that we have done that but there is a need out there that is being unfulfilled and if we don't move in a different direction if we don't do more we are only going to continue to suffer because that's the conundrum here.
3:03:08We are all impacted by this issue to one extent or the other. And so I really, really, really encourage our staff, housing staff, the city manager, Ken, Quality of Life team, the council, to read this report, as I said, and to read the solvable solutions that are detailed in the report because I do believe that homelessness is a solvable issue. As it has been said here on the dais, it is a housing issue. And we can invest in preventative measures like financial assistance, like legal assistance, tenant protections, and other resources, mental health.
3:03:47There's an array of policy decisions that many local governments can make. And so again, thank you for including the report. I encourage everyone to read it, to share it. we are going to share it as an educational piece because I think it's very important and we're happy to take any questions or concerns that you may have but thank you for including it and in the homelessness report Ken yes ma'am
3:04:28thank you Ken thank you very much for the report and I know that since I've been sitting up here I asked for this and I really appreciate I think the council and the public need to hear all the work that is being done I want to give a quick update the city manager and I we've been working with Sacramento representatives Senator Umberg and Assemblymember Valencia due to the lack of complete information and an undercount in the census of 2020 Santa Ana's accounted population has gotten to a level where some funding from the state has come under risk at the same time the population in Irvine has risen
3:04:54to the level where they are now eligible for some of the funding that we have received in the years past kind of interesting right but the city worked with Senator Umberg and Assemblyman Valencia, and thank you City Manager for the many meetings we had with both of them, to make sure $5 million that we received to address homelessness was saved in this year's state budget. So we were potentially on the line where we could have lost the $5 million in funding this year, but working with our state legislators over the last few months, we were able to save that funding from evaporating in the state budget.
3:05:27So we would like to thank our partners, Senator Umberg and Assemblymember Valencia for what working on this issue and grateful to city staff for flagging this and working together to protect this funding because we all know that Santa Ana has been the leader in the county on the homelessness issue but because of a poorly taken federal census we were in a position where we were going to lose five million dollars in funding and our cities were going to other cities were going to get our funding so at this time from Senator Umberg and Assemblymember Valencia we will be receiving five million dollars and I'm sure the council
3:06:00and I will be hearing from the city manager and working with you and how we will be using that five million dollars it is not necessarily to house people but it could be for services there's a lot of things that we have to talk about but I wanted to add it to your presentation because I think it's very important to thank assemblymember Valencia and Senator Umberg for working hard to get us that five million dollars so I just wanted to add that to your
3:06:39presentation so thank you thank you so much for your efforts ma'am thank you ken
3:07:03we're looking for all the dollars that we can here all right madam city attorney do you have
3:07:15anything to report out of closed session thank you mayor members of the council members of the public we do have several closed session reports this evening earlier this evening prior to going into closed session, the City Council did add two items to the agenda. One was an item regarding anticipated litigation, one case related to letters that the City had received from the California Attorney General's Office, as well as an unfair practice charge filed with PERP. The details of those were provided to the City Clerk, and the Council added those items to the agenda. With regard to items that were on the existing agenda, under number
3:07:20Number one, conference with legal counsel, the City Council, each of these by unanimous vote approved a settlement in item A in the amount of $95,000, approved a settlement with respect to item B in the amount of $375,000, and with respect to item C, approved a settlement of $125,000. And that's all the reportable action that we have.
3:07:54Thank you, Madam Student Attorney. Before we turn to public comments, we have two items that I'm going to read and the other one the city clerk will address due to questions and emails that most of us or all of us have received. I'm going to cover this one. This is regarding the crossing guards. At a previous city council meeting, we discussed whether the city or the school district has legal obligations to provide crossing guards near schools. We had a follow-up meeting with the staff, the city manager, and the city attorney. We wanted to clarify a point for the public, our colleagues, and the school districts.
3:08:19The Santa Ana Municipal Code does not require the City of Santa Ana to provide crossing guards. Section 36-121 says that adult crossing guards for street crossings by elementary school children on their way to or from school shall normally be provided by the city if certain specific conditions are met. Our Public Works Department is reviewing the location of crossing guards to determine whether the current locations meet the Muni code requirements. Based on this review, Section 36-126 of the Municipal Code may come into play.
3:08:55This section states that in the event a location does not meet the standards set forth in Section 36-121 and the appropriate Board of Education within whose jurisdiction this intersection is, and that is whether it's Santa Ana, Garden Grove, Orange, Tustin, fills up special circumstances, warrant the placement of an adult crossing guard at this location to protect the children crossing to and from their elementary school. The Board may place an adult crossing guard at this intersection at its own expense. We will continue to review the placement of crossing guards to ensure that we provide a safe environment
3:09:31for all pedestrians throughout the city and to ensure that the school district does its share to protect its students on the way to and from school. And that was just to clarify the last conversation we had at the last meeting after meeting with our city attorneys. The next item before public comments is, Madam Clerk, can you please provide a brief update on the recall due to the numerous phone calls and emails that we have been receiving?
3:10:12Yes, Mayor, thank you. So Mayor, Council Members and members of the public, on June 12th, signed petitions seeking the recall of Mayor Pro Tem Lopez were submitted to my office. Following a prima facie review, the petitions were submitted to the Orange County Registrar of Voters to conduct the signature verification process. The Registrar of Voters has completed that process and determined that the required number of valid signatures were affixed to the petition. In accordance with the Brown Act and Elections Code, the certificate as to verification
3:10:40of signatures and the certificate of sufficiency will be agendized for your acceptance on August 1st. There have been some questions as to why this was not presented at tonight's meeting. The next regular meeting that allows for compliance with the Brown Act and proper noticing of council action and consideration is August 1st. As part of that agenda item, besides accepting those certificates. There will also be resolutions for your consideration to call and give notice of the special election, setting the date of the election, which must be held within 88 to 125 days,
3:11:07requesting the county to assist with the conduct of the election, and setting regulations for an officer statement to be included in the voter information guide. The cost to verify the signatures on the petition was $22,936.40, and initial estimated costs to conduct the election range from $230,940 to $255,272. And this concludes my update.
3:11:37Thank you, Madam City Clerk. Appreciate that information. We're going to go to public comments. This is the time of the meeting for the City Council to receive comments from the public on agenda and non-agenda items. Pursuant to the Brown Act, the City Council may not enter into discussion at this time. Speakers will have three minutes for their comments. Pursuant to resolution number 2013-019, speakers are requested to refrain from profan language, racial epitaphs, and libis or slanderous statements that disturb the decorum of the meeting. We will now hear from the members of the public.
3:12:02Well, we're going to hear from Zoom first that are on our Zoom, followed by those physically present in the chamber. Madam Clerk, can you have Zoom calls first, please?
3:12:40Yes, Mayor. And prior to going to the Zoom calls, I'd like to report out the summary of emails provided as of today at 3 p.m., which have been scanned into Laserfish and uploaded to PrimeGov, distributed to the Council. We received seven comments on non-agenda items, two comments on item number five, the homeless update, one comment on item number 14, homeless housing assistance, one comment on item 18, the Washington Well Improvements Project, five comments on item 27, the intent to vacate a portion of public right-of-way, one comment on item 31, the police hiring bonus. Four comments on item 34, the second reading of an ordinance
3:12:48to exempt certain parcels from state laws. And for item number 39, the police implementation of intoxication detention, we received 77 comments of the item, of which 75 were in support and two expressed concerns. So for the first speaker on Zoom, David Ball, if you would please unmute yourself and make your comment.
3:13:23Mr. Ball.
3:13:54Hello, Mayor and Council. My name is Bulmado Bulmer-Vicente. I am the Policy and Political Director for Chispa and a lifelong resident of Santana. I'm here to speak on item 31 and 39. Hiring bonuses for police officers will not determine crime or improve public safety. More police in our communities won't create safer streets. numerous studies conducted over the course of many decades have proven that rather than the council passing this feel-good policy our city should be prioritizing investments that have proven to address the root causes of crime such as our parks libraries and investing in our youth
3:13:57these investments have nearly doubled in recent years thanks to the previous council significantly enhancing the quality of life in in our neighborhoods this year forbes recognized our the city as one of the safest in the country, which is a result of our community central investments. Increasing police budgets and adopting tough on crime policies like item 39 are not the solution to approve our community safety. We are deeply concerned about the approach to address public intoxication through detention. How does this policy truly enhance public safety? Does it effectively address the root causes of intoxication related crime?
3:14:33Treating this as a public health issue rather than criminal offense will better benefit our community. Instead of detaining individuals from intoxication, we should focus on allocating resources to rehabilitation programs and services. Our city should be proactive, not reactive to these issues. Our community deserves compassionate care, not confinement. And we deserve thoughtful policy that addresses safety at the root, not heavy handed reactionary policy that has been proven ineffective time and time again. Thank you.
3:15:10Zoom ID Delilah Snell. Please unmute.
3:15:45Hello.
3:15:54Yes, please proceed with your comment. Hi, my name is Delilah Snell. I'm the owner of Alton Valley Market.
3:15:56Yesterday, three trucks pummeled a construction zone on
3:16:04I think I did. Can you hear me now?
3:16:15I'm sorry we're having some feedback? three tracks
3:16:30three packs pummeled a construction zone
3:16:38a construction zone i guess i have to give you a minute or
3:16:44i just want to have my three minutes i i wish i could be there
3:16:51okay can you please mute your youtube feed
3:16:58I'm getting out back. i think i'm doing this wrong sorry i've never done this on zoom and i'm sorry about that i can call back and come in and i'm sorry for not being on this i will put my earphones on i'm so sorry oh my gosh really very sick um we'll we we'll go to the next speaker and we can come to you ma'am okay thank you i'm here i'm here can you hear me yes we can hear you
3:17:24three trucks came into downtown and plowed through a contract construction zone
3:17:57this endangered multiple this could have endangered multiple people
3:18:06okay thank you of course
3:18:13Next speaker, John Ramirez.
3:18:25Hello, can you hear me?
3:18:33Yes, please proceed.
3:18:34Good evening. My name is John Ramirez and I've been a resident here in Santa Ana for 40 plus years and I'm currently residing in Ward 2. I'm calling in tonight in support of item 39 to direct the city manager to have Santa Ana police operation. officers consistently detain anyone found to be intoxicated or under the influence of drugs alcohol or other controlled substance while on public property throughout our city supporting this item is just common sense and i feel doesn't really need any explaining explanation but for those that still need to be made to understand this item relates to two issues that the residents
3:18:36in the city feel are the most important issues facing our city the homeless crisis and public safety residents and their children are tired of having to witness people laying out by 7-eleven stores or public bunch public bus benches intoxicated or under the influence of drugs with some of those people even going so far as to harass innocent bystanders many times growing up in the city i've had to witness people some of them have naked either urinate on themselves carelessly and just drugs in full public view and some have even wandered into the street full of putting themselves in danger, all because they were highly intoxicated
3:19:12or under the influence of drugs or alcohol. These people should not be on the street and should be detained by our officers and taken to jail as is state law. It is for their own safety and before they are released, they will be provided information on available substance abuse programs so they can hopefully get the help they so desperately need.
3:19:51This item also works with the goal of staffing in the Santa Ana jail with medical staff to give these detained people medical treatment there on the spot, which would minimize having to use hospital emergency rooms. Lastly, when possible, this item also works to ensure those individuals detained and upon their release, be provided transportation to their homes if they are not from Santa Ana. So as I said, this is just common sense to vote in support of this. I really don't see why any of you would be against this.
3:20:12So please do the right thing for these individuals and just as or more importantly, do the right thing for the residents and the people in the city which you were elected to serve and vote yes for this item. I also want to say to Councilman Becerra, thank you very much for bringing this item forward. And thank you in advance to all council members who support this item. Thank you, Mayor, City Council and City Staff. And thank you to all fire and police personnel present tonight. You all have a good evening and stay safe.
3:20:41next speaker martha m please unmute good evening um mayor and city council members uh i am with the riverview neighborhood association and we joined the other neighborhoods in ward 3 to support item 39 uh introduced by uh councilman phil becerra uh we too believe that this is another tool that's already on the books um to assist our police department uh in curbing homelessness i want to really congratulate um ken uh and all the staff that you know doing all the
3:21:15wonderful work that you're doing um but part of the other part of this is also i've always said that we need to look at where these folks are coming from and and help them return back to where they came from uh you know we certainly have uh demonstrated that we're willing to take our fair share uh and we're willing to help out uh by all the numbers that you see i'm just so so great to have all the data and and um that you shared again um but again i think we're taking our fair share uh of homeless um really showing leadership in that area so now it's time to um really um you
3:21:54use the laws that we have on the book so thank you councilman Becerra for your motion thank you so much
3:22:31next speaker on zoom pocha pena
3:22:40hi can you hear me yes please go ahead thanks good evening mayor city council and staff This is Sandra Pena Sarmiento, also known as Pocha Pena, and I'm addressing you as a co-leader of the Pacific Park Neighborhood Association on the non-agenda item of the historic Cypress Fire Station in Ward 2.
3:22:46I've been speaking with our residents for the past months and the overwhelming consensus is that there is a huge need for a new community space in Pacific Park that's open evenings, weekends, and accessible to our youth and their families. Our only community center, Roosevelt Walker, is booked to capacity most days and it's difficult to reserve a space even for our neighborhood association committee meetings.
3:23:11I have been informed by staff that Roosevelt Walker is not available for student study sessions, project development or use by residents without booking three months in advance. a $300 deposit and a $116 an hour rental fee. This creates a severe barrier to use by the vast majority of Pacific Park residents, many of whom are immigrants and working class families. To address this serious inequity, our residents have fought to have the Cypress Fire Station
3:23:44restored to community use. We were told by council members and staff that our residents would have an opportunity to meet and talk about potential uses. To facilitate that dialogue, we have begun gathering surveys from attendees of our public meetings and events on the east side. You all have been sent the first group of Cyprus fire station surveys. Please note that out of the nine surveys, seven are from Pacific Park residents.
3:24:25The rankings. Digital Library and Technology Center, seven in support. Santa Ana Library History Room Archive, five in support. Santa Ana USAUSD Social Justice Center, seven in support. Santa Ana Arts and Culture Commission Library, three in support. Artist residency space, four in support. Write-in suggestions, senior center, computer classes for adults. Also remember that many youth came to address city council advocating for a youth center at the old Cypress Firehouse.
3:25:01Many of these youth were from the east side. Our survey will be posted in Spanish, English and Vietnamese at friends of Cypress fire station. Mr. Manto, your time is up. Let's work together to set things right and ensure equity for our residents.
3:25:40Next speaker, Victor Mendez, please unmute. Make your comments.
3:25:59Hi, can you hear me?
3:26:10Yes, please go ahead.
3:26:11Sure, give me just one second. I'm surprised. um okay thank you victor med is war three uh very quickly i'd like to thank council member fam for acknowledging those uh park employees who assisted me a few weeks ago i was that resident that needed that help i was just recovering from surgery that weekend and i guess i pushed it a little bit and i just like to put a word out to all our other residents said please hydrate yourself keep out of the sun there's no need to exert yourself if something does happen it's good you know we have you know employees out there that can help but by all means try to avoid that experience and thank
3:26:13you council member fan for uh that acknowledgement of those employees i wish i had known about it i would have loved to been there myself and thank them personally um on this issue of this public inebriation it's something i've always spoken about uh on numerous occasions and written to the council and i'm glad to see some action now being kind of taken uh just a few weeks ago i was accosted i guess by a drunken individual in my in my driveway who was inebriated on malt liquor he proceeded to try to assault me with that half bottle liquor that was filled i called the police
3:26:49the police were tied up and never really responded um the situation resolved itself but having faced danger personally by an intoxicated individual and witnessed the prevalence of people that are simply drug-induced, I think we have to do something about this. But I can tell you one thing. The police response doesn't necessarily work all that clear unless they know they see the problem and pull a person over. Typically, Orange County Fire Authority will be the first response to somebody like that and do a health check. And more often than not, they're going to
3:27:24let him go that's been my experience over numerous calls regarding this type of situation the fire department will come out they'll check on the person and if it's okay they just take off the police never come up and do anything about it so that needs to kind of be discussed and work through uh but i think something that needs to be done in this case uh and how it gets coordinated between the pd and ocfa and removing inebriated people from our streets and making the place safer for the community is a good thing let's do it intelligently and of course humanely and with
3:27:58respect to this is a very large social problem so thank you for this uh i look forward to hearing this discussion uh and it's also good to hear that the recall election is not a million dollars as we've i've been told and been promulgated in these flyers it's 300 000. granted it's a little bit of money but the way the city spends money sometimes i don't think it's a big deal uh but certainly not a million dollars let's keep our facts thank you very much and have a good night
3:28:30and a great evening next speaker i'm sorry next speaker victor paion please unmute
3:28:56hello can you hear me yes please go ahead all right dear mayor council and city manager i'm writing to keep you informed of the ongoing suppression of community input regarding the Cypress fire station issue and to place this latest incident from the July 11th, 2023 in the public record because we see it as part of a larger pattern of suppression and disenfranchisement. I'm writing to put on record the fact that the community discussion regarding the Cypress fire station was once again shut down at the July 11th Pacific Park neighborhood association by pro-pal
3:29:06goons. I call them goons because of the tactics of lies and violence they used at the meeting, which I will describe herein. The Cypress fire station architectural update was on the agenda for the july 11th meeting and a pro pal man demanded that the discussion of the issue be ended after the first question in the community and barely 15 minutes into the meeting his outburst was followed by a lie from another pal uh proponent that neighbor association leader co-leader co uh sandra penance who did not live in pacific park when i stood up to chastise the second man
3:29:35for lying to the community at the meeting first man stood up to challenge me in a fighting stance the potential for violence from this man was so palpable that he had to be restrained by his friend To make it worse, the violent man was standing right next to one of our youth committee members, and his behavior frightened her. Sadly, city staff ended the discussion after the first question due to the chaos caused by the two propel agitators when the majority of the attendees were in favor of continuing discussion.
3:30:03It would be another lie to consider that Pacific Park residents had any real input into the city's architectural presentation. The fire station issue is not closed as the council never voted on its use. The city manager confirmed that this was a fact the last time the Cypress fire station was on the agenda. We will not be silenced or intimidated by a small cabal of propel agitators who lie and threaten violence to attack and disenfranchise our community. We continue to request community input meetings that have not only denied us for more than two years, but are also being shut down by propel agitators at every step.
3:30:25I included you in an email I sent to Margarita Macedonio on July 12th, chronicling the incident, as well as pointing out Pacific Park Neighborhood Association leader, co-leader Celica Diaz's complicity in this disturbing behavior to prevent and squash community input around the Cypress fire station issue. I've worked successfully with the city on numerous community issues and look forward to an open and equitable resolution to the fire station issue. I'm submitting this for the public record. Please do not hesitate to contact me if you have any questions.
3:30:53And since I have a little time, I also want to say just how disheartened I am at the recall effort. The $300,000 is a lot of money, especially because it's basically to disenfranchise our democracy, which we voted. And I see that item four on your closed session agenda was a lawsuit with Jerry Serrano and the city. And that was not discussed today. But I just want all the residents to know that Jerry Soprano there and his cabal are also trying to thwart our democracy. And I stand against the recall and urge you all to vote no on it. Thank you.
3:31:21Next speaker, Jeanette Sanchez, please unmute.
3:31:57Jeanette Sanchez.
3:32:08Can you hear me? Yes, go ahead, please. Okay, yes.
3:32:12Good afternoon, mayor and the council. I wish I would have been there tonight, but I'm under the weather. So excuse me if you guys can't really understand what I'm saying. We're just here tonight with my colleagues, again, demanding on what was promised to us. The city manager promised to follow up on the Fiestas Patrias if it could be done in the downtown this year. We still have not received a response. Jonathan Hernandez, you claim to be about culture. And Latinos, you just talk, talk, talk, but no action.
3:32:17We need your support and we need of the council. stop throwing the ball at each other and playing with their lives we need more promotion we need more money invested in the downtown for customers can come and enjoy um the downtown um and please don't come with poor excuses that the fiestas cannot be in downtown because of construction and it's dangerous uh it wasn't dangerous for the oc pride parade it hasn't been dangerous for other
3:32:56events you know just just the city has killed our business the city has done so many things just just own up to what you guys have done just let us work and let's work together we've been fighting for over a year and we're not going to stop we're not going to stand down so please listen to us
3:33:29thank you very much have a good night next speaker kelly kraus lee please unmute
3:33:53hi this is kelly kraus lee i live near um the santa anna jail so i'm calling about the detain detaining um i'm about detaining inebriated people my biggest concern is just the impact that i'll have on our neighborhood as these people are all then who have an increase in people being detained at the jail and then released right into our neighborhood potentially late at night and we've had a lot of issues lately um an increase in issues i have to say from various individuals late at night trying to we've had multiple break-in attempts and and so
3:34:05if this council decides to pursue this route i'd like to see a way that we can mitigate impacts on our neighborhood um so that then now we're not bearing the brunt of um cleaning up the other streets and then in this city. Thank you. Mayor, that concludes the Zoom comments.
3:34:36Thank you. Council member Pham, if you can please take the first one, translate that one for me,
3:34:56please. Thank you. We're calling back Thuỷ Lương.
3:35:00Thank you.
3:35:12I am a citizen of Santa Ana for 20 years. I have two houses here. This is the first time I was able to participate in my own.
3:35:36First, I heard that the city of Santa Ana is here. The city of Santa Ana is here. The city of Santa Ana is here. We need one of the most, one of the most, one of the most, one of the most. The city of Santa Ana is here. I can hear and use the word. But I want my family to be here in Santa City we want Santana to be able to connect.
3:35:47The second is that I was very old for 100 years in Santa Ana. When I bought this house, I had four doors to pay for many money, and all the money was only 20.000. And now I'm in a gấp đường when there were many xe-dures around, I am very hard to do when I work. So now, if the car is in my house, I will not be able to do the difficult part of my house. And I will also be able to do the job.
3:36:19And third, there is a lot of work. There is a lot of work. There was a lot of work in my house.
3:36:56And when we pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil pencil
3:37:06Hello, I am a resident of Santa Ana for 20 years. Tonight is my first time attending this meeting to express my concern. First, I heard that the city of Santa Ana is going to recall councilwoman Thai Viet Phan. Dear sir and madam, as a lot of Vietnamese people live in Santa Ana, our community needs at least one Vietnamese councilman to represent us. I hope the city of Santa Ana takes it into consideration.
3:37:51My house is located in an old town area, it's for about 100 years. I have a house, I want to prepare or operate outside my house, but the process goes through very strict and complicated. For example, I wanted to fix my four windows, I had to go to the city back and forth so many times the city to do the paperwork. Finally I got approved, but it's got me like almost $20,000. My house is located in the corner of the street, no fence. The city required that I have to have a fence around my house.
3:38:29I also wanted to, but the process, once again, is very complicated. At where I live, there was a lot of car racing on the street at night. if I don't have a fence, I afraid one day they will run into my house. I need to have at least someone to represent our Vietnamese community in the city of Santa Ana. That way we can communicate it more easily. During the holiday, people lit the firework, a lot of firework. I don't know if it's legally or illegally firework, but one of the houses burned down.
3:39:11And I would like to have the city of Santa Ana to reduce some tax, poverty tax, so make the community live more comfortable. And also on the wall, they have a lot of graffiti also. Thank you for listening, my concern. I hope that my concern is take it into consideration.
3:39:52Thank you. Michelle Cisneros, please.
3:40:20Good evening, Madam Mayor and City Council. Today I will be delivering a memorandum put forth by the City of Santa Ana Personnel Board. I'll be delivering it verbatim so I can not misrepresent their efforts. The memo reads as follows. The intent of this memo is to inform the City Council of the responsibilities of the City of Santa Ana Personnel Board and how board appointments may affect its execution of those responsibilities. The City of Santa Ana Personnel Board is established by the City of Santa Ana Charter and Municipal Code. One of the board's principal duties is to provide a final administrative review of disciplinary
3:40:27matters involving permanent employees of the City of Santa Ana who have been demoted, suspended, dismissed or dismissed slash terminated from employment. The Board's Appellate review is a full evidentiary hearing wherein the board applies its independent judgment into the law, facts and arguments presented in each case. The Personnel Board consists of seven members appointed by the City council. Like other boards and commissions, the term of the board member is the same as their appointing council member. Upon election, a council member appoints a board member
3:41:08and may reappoint a current board member whose term has expired, subject to term limits specified in the municipal code. The board's rules require that a majority of those same board members hear and deliberate on all of the same issues in an appeal. Therefore, if a board member misses a portion of a disciplinary hearing, they are not allowed to continue with the hearing. Likewise, if a new board member joins the personnel board while a hearing is in process, they may not participate in the current proceedings. Further, a majority of quorum must be maintained among the board members for a hearing to properly conclude.
3:41:44If a quorum is not met, the case must begin anew with at least four board members. Appeals, hearings are lengthy and costly to the city and to the employees slash appellant. The board wishes to avoid not meeting a quorum and restart a case if possible. Timely appointments assist any meeting of a quorum. In front of you, you should see a sample timeline of an appeal to the personnel board. The duration of individual hearings vary on average. hearings take a minimum 20 to 25 calendar days to conclude however the average case takes six to ten months these proceedings include pre-hearing
3:42:18procedures the evidentiary hearing the board deliberation and decisions proceedings hearings are conducted in the evening and require a coordination of many schedules due to the large number of individuals involved including the employee appellant the representatives the city representatives city staff the the seven board members, board counsel, witnesses, and a court reporter. That concludes the reading. Thank you.
3:42:59Thank you. Manuel Pineda.
3:43:26Thank you very much. My name is Manuel Michael Pineda. I like to sit there and address the council, all the members, the board. This took place in 2016 here in Santa Ana. And I also like all the residents, you know, what took place in Santa Ana.
3:43:44With the Orange County Sheriff's Department.
3:44:04Since 2016, withholding authorization release forms to my wife's wrongful cremation, taking her from the coroner's office to LA.
3:44:12Case number 16-0034-S, as in Stephanie, G, as in Gabriel.
3:44:24Took her to a Rischner mortuary license number FD 869.
3:44:36Since 2016.
3:44:48She just gave it to me about a few weeks ago.
3:44:52It's all bad. Paperwork's no good. names all different. Three death certificates written. I haven't even got the other one.
3:45:00Yeah. Really ugly.
3:45:12Hopefully you guys step up and take action.
3:45:17It's not closed. It's a cold case.
3:45:24Took her from that corner's office to LA and he asked me, you're going to sue us?
3:45:29Bad, bad choice in decision they made. Now they have to become a product of it.
3:45:39I'm sure you guys will do your job and figure out what happened.
3:45:46I've got to go to Montebello. Sergeant Adams is waiting for me over there to go figure out what happened. Where's your body at?
3:45:53Orange County is still holding documents. I want to know who paid for everything.
3:46:05They didn't give it to me. The authorization release form that they didn't have in the office. They had to get it from Rushner. She had to send it to them. And they went and added Pineda to the authorization release forms because it had her name Bonnie Myers. All the paperwork differs. under that case number. Nobody should go through this.
3:46:12What I went through.
3:46:39Balls on your court, Mayor. Have a good one.
3:46:46Your time is up.
3:46:48Thank you. Call in Gawinski.
3:46:52Good evening, Mayor Mesquah, Pro Tem Mayor Lopez and council members. First, thank you for your service and leadership for our wonderful and diverse city of Santa Ana. My name is Colin Garonsky. I was born, raised, and am a longtime resident of Santa Ana. Today I'm here on behalf of many of the residents of Fairbridge Square neighborhood. We the neighbors of Wright and Clemson Streets respectfully ask the city's assistance in stopping the owners at 2718 North Wright, 1609 and 1610 Clemson from running illegal Airbnb businesses. Until recently we have always had a quiet and peaceful neighborhood. However here are some main reasons we
3:47:15request that these airbnbs be closed as soon as possible number one the owners are encouraging many strangers to come into the neighborhood which affects the safety of the residents and the children that live there we also have late night noise from parties that have kept residents up at night when they needed to sleep to go to school or work in the next morning and we've tried to call the police on this our streets are now full of cars daily renters cleaning crews and this encourages more traffic and limits parking for the residents and their family members,
3:47:57especially on holidays. We've seen men coming in, and later then groups of women are dropped off from vans and walk into the house, in and out. One of the Airbnbs has a video camera that feels like it's watching the whole neighborhood. We've heard it say, you are being recorded. Warnings that are announced to people walking on the sidewalk and in the street and even if you're on your own property and this makes all of us feel very uncomfortable the owners of their properties and the property managers have not been truthful with the neighbors and the owners are aware of
3:48:28what they are doing we have been documenting all the daily events including the property owners supervising some of their daily activities according to the san anna municipal code short-term rentals must be for 30 days or more these owners do not have the proper licenses and should not be granted one for a business that's not zoned for strs less than 30 days the city of santa anna also needs to be aware that they must treat each of these three properties equally and work to shut them all down they must have the renters for 30 days or more or sell their property we'd like to I want to thank the following people,
3:49:04Supervisor, Mr. Jerry Navarro, Code Enforcement Officer, Tony Calvallo, and Mayor Pro Tem, Jesse Lopez, for their leadership, professionalism, guidance, and support. We ask the City Council for continued support in shutting these illegal businesses down as soon as possible. Just as other cities have, please collaborate together to put stricter, more concrete codes that stop Airbnb's from being in our family neighborhoods. Thank you for your time.
3:49:41Thank you, sir. You'll be meeting with code enforcement. I'll go over here, please, outside. Thank you.
3:50:13Linda Keeve. I apologize if I say that right, incorrectly. Linda Keeve.
3:50:26Good evening, Mayor and members of the Santa Ana Council. It's Linda Kavine, but don't feel bad. Nobody can ever pronounce it. It's my married name. I should have probably kept my maiden name.
3:50:42I live in Fairbridge Square where Colin lives, and I'm a neighbor there. And I and my husband have lived there for 33 years. We've raised our two children there. and as he said it's always been a really nice middle-class very diverse neighborhood where our children you know were felt safe to play in the cul-de-sac but things have really changed with these three R&B's that have literally appeared in the last few months and he mentioned a lot of the concerns and I'm here to support him and support all our neighbors who couldn't be here tonight and we just ask of the council to you know consider what it's like if you have
3:50:55children they can't sleep now because there's partying we've had people smoking pot on the sidewalk you know lots of problems with traffic there's even been vandalism of my neighbor's property because they complain to the police about them so it's really become a problem and we don't feel safe in our own neighborhoods anymore and as you know you can only have short-term rentals for 30 days or more and these obviously are not 30 days so we would like to ask your consideration to see what you can do to stop this happening we know it's spreading throughout the city we're not the only community that
3:51:36is concerned thank you and enjoy the rest of the evening thank you very much Dale Halbick
3:52:14Dale Helwig, Ward 3, good evening Mayor, City Council members, City staff. First off, I'd like to thank the City for revising the MySanAna app. It was refreshing to submit something and not get a closed response. I actually got active, working, and a response back of what they're going to do. So good improvement. It's good to know that the city is listening. The other thing I'd like to say, Public Works did a great job on Santa Clara improvements. They added left turn arrows with yield on green, repaved it, got a bike path in there. It looks great.
3:52:32Appreciate the work that they've done on that. The other thing that is more concerning to me is item 34, the ordinance for preserving Santa Ana is how I look at it. I hope that, like the first reading, it gets the approval of the second reading to keep the general plan intact, keep our housing element intact, and preserving the city of Santa Ana. I think it's very important that we pass that ordinance tonight.
3:53:14The last item I'd like to bring up is item 39, Phil Becerra's issue on intoxication, public intoxication. I think the fact that there's over 85 letters that were submitted in support of this issue brings to light that a vast majority of the 330,000 residents of Santa Ana are tired of what's going on and so it's not going to cure everything but it's a step in the right direction and we can't just keep on doing the same status quo of what we've been doing we need to start taking positive action to get these
3:53:47people off the streets the help they need and do what's compassionate for them as well. I do have one more item. It would be nice to know how many thousand dollar fines were issued on July 4th. You know, the fireworks were, I thought, you know, we were sitting outside and it was under control and then all of a sudden it was just a steady rumble for a couple hours. So hopefully it had an effect. Thank you very much. Thank you. Lorena Vidari.
3:54:28I'll just say Lorena.
3:55:05Hi, good evening. I'm Lorena. I'm from Ward 4, but I was raised in Ward 3 and I work in Ward 3 along with my mom. So one of the two line items that I want to talk about is item 39 and item number 32. First, I want to say it saddens me to see all the people down the street intoxicated. Just Sunday, driving home, getting off the freeway, there were two residents or two individuals that were shooting up. And ironically today, before I came to the meeting, I went and got dinner at Chick-fil-A.
3:55:14As I'm driving to Chick-fil-A, I saw a gentleman who could clearly look like he was drunk, and I looked over and he's drinking a beer walking down Bristol. So what we're doing right now doesn't seem to be working, so I fully support item number 39. I think taking them in, having them sober up, and giving them the opportunity to get help is more humane than actually having to go around them on a sidewalk or having to walk over them. So I'm glad to see that that was brought to the councils for approval. Also, on line item number 32,
3:55:54the city of San Enes should not be given the right to determine what the best decision is for our residents. I really would like to see our council people and our residents here be able to make those decisions, so I'm in full support of line item number 32. That was it. Good evening.
3:56:33Thank you. Sue Pollack.
3:56:53Sue Pollock followed by Fred Smallers.
3:56:59Good evening, everyone.
3:57:04Could you please bring the mic down so we can hear you? Oh, I keep doing that.
3:57:06Good evening, everyone. You know, I'm listening to these comments tonight, and they're so pertinent to a missing piece of the puzzle. Maybe I'm going to present to you tonight. So here it goes. Okay. Fullerton, Garden Grove, Fountain Valley, Westminster, Costa Mesa, Mission Viejo, data point, Newport, San Clemente, LA, and states far away. I've been asking homeless where they come from for quite some time and the above is what they tell me. I've heard other cities find minor charges to get them off their streets, take them to the county jail, and then most of these homeless get released
3:57:09quickly on our streets. We get stuck with the poor souls and the mentally ill from other cities to take care of for as well as the criminally intent people recently I was told that cities are ubered they uber in the homeless to a nonprofit shelter near Maine and Dyer and then these people migrate everywhere from that point and we see them on Dyer and Maine and at the 55 freeway where they set up mini camps near convenience stores and elsewhere it's endless no matter what the police do. Colt gets approximately 30 calls a day. In a nearby large city, maybe
3:57:47about three. We have six to seven Colt officers spread out over the entire city. Ten hours per day, four days on, with assist from other non-Colt officers overlapping on some days. To keep up, we need to increase our Colt force. And I suggest create a special unit that sends people brought to our city back to where they came from when released from jail. And then send the bills to these cities whether they like it or not. Send a message. Last year I asked a homeless, very dirty, poor soul, how did he get to South Coast Metro?
3:58:26He said police picked him up in a bleep city, I won't say, drove him to South Coast Metro and told him to get out, and there he was. No money, no food, no anything. I did report this. Every week, Santa Ana streets have fresh faces. Our Santa Ana shelters only serve Santa Ana residents. So where do these people go? Where do they end up? So they end up nowhere except they stay on our streets and around and around we go. And then that's what we're seeing on our streets now. I want to say to the public, stop voting for the same politicians in Sacramento who don't
3:59:05give a rat's tail about us and who tie the hands of our police. I don't know if any of you are even aware of this, but did you know there are five legislators recently voted against putting child traffickers in prison for life? You know, I really worry about our code officers because we can't afford to lose even one. and you know they're superheroes to me and I want to say Chief Valentine I know you're working really hard on this public I'm sorry your time is up and I want to thank you for all of that time's up ma'am thank you have a good evening
3:59:45Fred smaller smaller you have in front of you a sheet that I've asked the clerk to distribute. I'm Fred Smaller, professor of political science in the City of Orange at Chapman University. I think you'd agree that it's very important for us to get serious about the climate. It's obvious across the world and here in Orange County with coastal erosion and wildfires and you name it. I was fortunate to receive a five million dollar grant to put on something called the Orange County Sustainability Decathlon,
4:00:21which will be held October 5th through the 15th in the Costa Mesa Fairgrounds. Now, I've spoken to the Santa Ana School District because one of the things that we're using that grant money for is to encourage K-12 teachers to bring their students to the fairgrounds. We are also giving them money to do the types of things that they think will engage the students. Now my wife is a retired Santa Ana school teacher from Willard, so she was she approves this message and she said look
4:01:00don't tell them what to do just provide them the money and let them do all the different things that they did. So what I'm asking you to do I think it's obvious that climate change is here and we know that our local governments, particularly the three most important and largest cities in Santa Ana, in Orange County, have to step up. I want this thing to come back every two years. But the state, after they gave me the generous five million, said, well, we better see local government buy-in before you come to us. And I couldn't disagree.
4:01:41so I've gone to every single school board and all of the city councils and I hope I've that you can make contribution where will that money go believe it or not it'll go to school buses you wouldn't believe the biggest barrier to getting the kids there are the school buses the price of the school buses have gone right through the roof so I could just make this request if you I'm sure I hope you have some friends on the Santa Ana School Board of Trustees and the superintendent, talk to them and say this guy came by asking us for money and take a look at the website ocsd23.com.
4:02:20The other side of this, and I'll be very brief, is I'd like to make Orange County the sustainability capital of the world. I happen to agree with part of Ronald Reagan's statement that the best social program is a full-time job, but in my view, it's the best social program is a well-paying full-time job of people building solar panels and windmills. We are the only one of 58 counties to get this grant.
4:03:02Mr. Smoller, your time is up.
4:03:31And we should take advantage of it.
4:03:32Thank you, sir. Thank you. Danny Vega, followed by Salika Diaz.
4:03:33Good evening, Mayor and Councilmembers. Good evening. My name is Danny Vega, resident of Ward 3. I'm part of the Casa de Santiago Neighborhood Association leadership and I'm here in full support of Councilmember Phil Becerra's item 39, addressing public intoxication. I first want to start off by saying that I'm really proud of my city for stepping up and addressing the homeless crisis in a compassionate way. You guys just heard the monthly homeless report and all the things that we do for them. However, the homeless crisis continues to get
4:03:48worse every day. I drive down Bristol every day as part of my commute, and it's starting to look like Skid Row. I see people openly using drugs every day, and what's worse, I'm starting to see young women being part of those groups. That really bothers me as a father of three girls.
4:04:24now I've heard that being poor isn't a crime I hear this all the time from certain council members nobody is saying that nobody is saying that police should go out there and arrest the homeless for not breaking any crimes nobody's saying that we shouldn't criminalize folks I don't know what that means and we can't arrest our way out of a problem well you know what doing nothing has got us nowhere and the problem is getting worse and people are diving deeper into their addictions and you know what whether you're rich or poor the law applies to you no matter what
4:04:43or I've also heard the real solution is more housing affordable housing for all and actually that sounds great are you planning on housing every single individual because I guarantee you that we're gonna get a thousand thousands and thousands of more people how are we gonna pay for that what's the plan I haven't heard one so unless you have a plan on how to pay for that when our budget is already spread thin it's nothing but a political slogan that means absolutely nothing police
4:05:20response times may suffer well if they do I hope the chief comes back and ask us what he needs to maintain those response times and I promise you the community will be behind you and besides we have a council member who shared an article saying that Santa Ana is one of the safest city in the country so we should have plenty of staff to handle some of the lower priority calls so I urge the council to vote yes on this item it's time to put Santa Ana families first Thank you. Thank you.
4:05:55Good evening. My name is Celica Diaz and I live in the Pacific Park neighborhood. And I am here today because I want to thank Parks and Rec staff for the wonderful job they're doing along with library staff too. I am very happy to see all the different events that they've been putting together and the more events that they put together is there's an increase in participation and so I'm very happy to see everything that they're doing. Also I'm here again to ask you to please consider opening up more teen time spaces in all community centers and reconsider reopening the digital library at the Roosevelt Walker Community
4:06:39Center. Also, I also support item number 39 and I also fully support bringing Fiestas Patrias to the downtown. Thank you.
4:07:16Thank you. Anna Padilla followed by Claudia Abornaccio. I know I get it wrong. sorry I apologize it's Claudio sorry I put good evening mayor city council you
4:07:27know me I'm an appodilla I'm a resident of the city and a business owner in the downtown area when people think about Santa Ana they think about the amazing food the arts the events that take place in this city I know that the people in this room will fondly remember new events like the Tamal festival and they also hold dearly the recurring events like Fiestas Patrias. As our community grows I want to make sure to clarify that I understand that change must happen. But today I'm here as an owner of two businesses in the downtown to ask why does this change has to come to the cost of
4:07:50no longer trusting our city leadership. Over the last couple of months, downtown Santa Ana merchants have reached out to communicate with with many of you on this dais and with city staff. During this conversation we were provided with clear understanding that Fiestas Patras will be moving back to the downtown area, that it will not be hosted in Flower Street. Yet, when Fiestas Patras were announced this year is back on flower. The reality is that Fiestas Patras in downtown holds not only the nostalgia of roaming 4th Street with
4:08:29families, it is also an economic boost that this area desperately needs. Since the construction of the streetcar, one in five businesses have shut down in downtown, many of them being there for decades. What economic benefit does host fiestas patras in flower hold. You have taken the experience of many individuals that have been walking on first street with their families and celebrating our own culture away and broke it once again. You have broken by deceiving your merchants. You have broken by not supporting the businesses of this community. That has been the backbone of this city. I am disappointed of
4:09:05the lack of partnership, the lack of transparency, and overall the lack of support that this city has continuously demonstrated to our downtown businesses. As a resident, I am saddened that my child would not get to experience these celebrations that have been here for generations. The trust that I have gone into this city has been broken. Thank you.
4:09:46Good evening, I'm Claudio Boroncini. I'm a resident of Flower Park and today I want to talk about item 39. Even though I am in support of the proposal, I would like to focus a little bit on the program that offers transportation to soon to be released inmates and expand the program not only to those who fall into jail but also to those who interact with the police force, the smart and cold teams, shelters, and county jail. At the end of the day, there is no reason to wait for somebody to break the law to have this service offered.
4:10:17Lastly, I would like to not limit the homeless, not from Santa Ana, but offer transportation within the city as well. Otherwise, we'll have a concentration of homeless around the jail vicinity, which is actually my vicinity, and I don't like that. Thank you very much.
4:10:54Thank you. Samuel Sanchez followed by Sean McHoney.
4:11:13Samuel Sanchez.
4:11:26Sean McHoney.
4:11:35I'm sorry.
4:11:40I'm sorry, Sean. I don't know if you're going to start dancing or something.
4:11:44Good evening, Mayor, Council Members, City Manager. I'm glad tonight actually you were talking about the homelessness.
4:11:51You mentioned that the major part of homelessness is losing income. And unfortunately we have lost all of our incomes, our businesses. And that's why we are here tonight, we are asking for help. I don't know how do you think we can survive with having no business.
4:12:02Not only is it disappointing, it is heartbreaking to see that despite of too many times that we have reached out to you to help us to bring back our customers, Latino families, and rebuild our community and our businesses, your priorities are still spending $6 million on a flood reduction project in a city that is not in a flood zone and rarely even get rain. And again, close our streets, take away our parkings, and basically stop any customers coming into our businesses. You have rejected to spend a few dollars to put music and flowers on the street to beautify it,
4:12:29or putting ads targeting our Latino neighbors, but you have six million dollars for flood reduction. This is really genius. I really wouldn't be surprised next time before you help us with what is needed, you buy a few snow-plying trucks and park them right in front of our businesses. Why do you still call it downtown? Ghost Town is more appropriate, and it definitely serves your purpose and plan to get rid of us. Please at least have courage to tell us you don't want us here, and you want us gone.
4:13:10These are all intentional. You know it, we know it. Let's be honest. When was the last time that you came to Ghost Town? Of course, not for shopping. We know we are not your style, but for a walk around and visit. Our dear council members, that ghost town is part of your district. When was the last time you reached out to us to help us and ask about our needs? I hope you know who and where we are. Can anyone here tell me why the event that we all rejected
4:13:51STILL COMES TO OUR STREETS AND TAKES AWAY THREE DAYS OF OUR BUSINESSES, BUT YOU REFUSE BRING OUR FAMILY-ORIENTED EVENTS THAT WE ARE ASKING FOR. AT THE END, THAT TOWN HALL THAT YOU ARE GOING TO HAVE IT NEXT WEEK OR SO, THAT TOWN HALL SHOW HAS NOTHING TO DO WITH US. YOU KNOW WHO WE ARE AND WHERE WE ARE AND WHAT WE NEED AND ASKING FOR.
4:14:28I'M SORRY, YOUR TIME IS UP.
4:14:56IF YOU WANT TO HELP US, IT'S TIME TO SHOW UP AND REACH US. SHAN, YOUR TIME IS UP. THANK YOU. THANK YOU SO MUCH.
4:14:58FREEDA RAMARES, FOLLOWED BY MARIBEL GOMEZ.
4:15:06FREEDA RAMARES.
4:15:12FOLLOWED BY MARIBEL GOMEZ.
4:15:18All right, dear city council members and Mayor Valeria Mesquah, my name is Frida Ramirez and I am from Ward 6. I'm here to speak about agenda item number 39 and number 14 and its relation to the growing homeless crisis in Santa Ana. As all of the residents of Santa Ana have been seeing the number of homeless increase in the area, we have grown desperate to get some sort of action on the matter. I believe that homelessness doesn't just stem from lack of shelters and lack of affordable housing. And while that is a reason why homelessness has been increasing, it is not the sole reason.
4:15:28As one of our fellow neighbors have pointed out, homelessness can stem from mental health issues, substance abuse issues, and other related issues. This is why enacting and passing agenda item number 39 is extremely important to the community and the battle against homelessness in the area while Santa Ana has the most beds and shelters in all of Orange County, we still have the most amount of homeless in the area. In fact, as of May 10th of 2022, there are about 508 unsheltered homeless in all of Santa Ana. And we can only assume that this number has grown since.
4:16:00For those that are skeptical on agenda item number 39, it doesn't just have an effective solution on removing people who are illegally partaking in public drug activity, but it also offers rehabilitative services once they are released from jail and will even attempt to take people back to their homes if they aren't from Santa Ana. This is a perfect way of keeping law enforcement accountable and keeping the homeless accountable as well. It seems as if the problem has just gotten so much worse and lifelong residents even feel the need to travel to different
4:16:31cities just to spend a day at the park. And besides agenda item number 39, I also want to speak about agenda item number 14. I believe that the two million being spent on affordable housing for homeless transitional youth and elderly homeless is a great idea on spending money and preventative measures it's a perfect way of allocating funds but I do think that um there should be some more money that's shifted on adding not being focused on adding resources for shelters the resources that have been provided for the homeless in the past have been great but they haven't been working
4:16:58as efficiently as they used to and I believe that if the money being spent shifts more towards outreach and coordination, strategic homeless planning and permanent housing and less on shelters there might be some more direction on how to curb the amount of unsheltered homeless in Zanahana. There needs to be resources that caters to most homeless in the area and I feel like agenda item number 39 does a great job at attacking public drug use and substance abuse issues and in addition agenda item number 14 does an effective job at using HHP funds in providing
4:17:29permanent housing for the homeless which is a crucial step in removing homeless off the streets. nonetheless funds should not be focused on providing more resources for the homeless thank you councilmember Phil Becerra for bringing up such an important issue to the agenda and thank you mayor for all of the amazing work that you have been doing for the city and listening to all of us I know and believe that you would genuinely try to do what's best for us so thank you for that God bless you all and have a nice night
4:17:57Maribel Gómez.
4:18:27Queremos las fiestas patrias de regreso como se nos había prometido. Necesitamos eventos donde también nosotros seamos incluidos, si no nada más sea una parte de la calle 4, ya que somos todos parte de lo mismo. Insistimos en el parking que cuando vienen vendedores de afuera, que ni siquiera son de la ciudad de Santana, invaden todo lo que es el parking. Por lo tanto, nosotros tenemos muchos problemas con los pocos clientes que tenemos. our businesses have been damaged not 100% but 1000% and please consider because of that we live
4:18:51those are the ingreses of all, no only is the payment of the rent it is the payment of everything that we need to survive as we already heard with the problem of the ladies or ladies we are passing very difficult times
4:19:31This we we we we we we we we we we we we we we we we we we we we we we we we we
4:19:50we we we we we we we we we we we we we we Vamos adelante, nuestra cultura y la calle 4. Muchas gracias.
4:20:07Good evening, all mayor and city council members. My name is Maribel Gomez from Maribel's Beauty Salon. I'm here with my friends from 4th Street. And we're asking for several things. Number one, no more closures, street closures. These are affecting our business. These are affecting our income. and this is a very important issue. We want Fiestas Patrias back. We want more events where we are included, not excluded and not just part of 4th Street but include all of us. Another issue is parking. When vendors are coming from
4:20:23outside of Santa Ana they invade the parking and we don't have parking for our own customers and our businesses have been damaged and have been damaged not a hundred percent but a thousand percent from our businesses we derive our livelihood to pay not only our rent but our basic needs and whatever we need to survive as somebody mentioned before homelessness is a big issue because we are living in hard times and mayor we need an answer today not tomorrow so please work
4:21:01work with us and we need to have something we need for Latinos to service our culture and to have a 4th Street as our home.
4:21:35Lupe Rincon followed by Marcella Prado.
4:21:52Hi, my name is Lupe Rincon. I was raised in the city of Orange, but I live here for the last 20 years. I'm here to ask to please vote yes on number 39, please city manager. I ask for Santa Ana Police Department to consistently detain any individuals who are under the influence of drugs or alcohol. transport them to jail for processing who knows maybe is an individual who has been reporting missing and has been under the influence and we could find
4:22:08them if an officer does detain them we are tired of seeing them on public sidewalks or even in traffic sometimes half naked I don't want this to be our normal. We deserve better for ourselves and for our children. City Council, please, I urge you to vote yes on this item tonight. Thank you. Good night.
4:22:47Good evening, Mayor and Council members. My name is Marcela Prado. I'm a business owner on 4th Street and thank you for the opportunity to express my feelings about everything we have been through with the construction in 4th Street. It was either for planning or purposely done to bring merchants to bankruptcy. We need your help. We demand as responsible managers you help promote the business in social media so that the community knows that we are still standing. We We demand that you fulfill your promise to return Fiestas Patrias to the street.
4:23:22If other events that do not help us are allowed, there is no excuse not to be celebrated here as promised. Demand OCTA to end much street closing around and do not close the streets anymore during the day for city projects that can be done during the night. Just for you to save money is not fair for us. We need your support, we need help, and we need the remaining money from the grants to be distributed equally. We are suffering. It's been a year and a half. Please save downtown, save our culture, save our business. Mayor, city manager, we
4:24:00need Fiestas Patrias back. It will be a great opportunity for businesses to promote and to let the community know that we're still there. Please, we need Fiesta's Patriots back.
4:24:41Lisa Tran followed by Chris S. I'm assuming Chris Schmidt.
4:24:55I hope I can read my notes.
4:25:30Good evening, Madam Mayor, council members, and city staff. My name is Lisa Tran. I'm a fourth generation Santa Ana resident. some of you may be thinking of voting against agenda item 39. You may be thinking, I don't want to criminalize drug addiction or alcoholism. Look around our state and see where this thinking has gotten us. The criminal and inhumane act is doing nothing about these suffering souls on our streets. Sometimes being arrested is the best thing for a person who is caught in the grips
4:25:35of drug addiction or alcoholism. For many of these individuals, sobriety only happens when they are incarcerated. This may be the chance for them to get help. Sometimes being arrested is the best thing for a person who is a victim of human sex trafficking. Many drug-addicted individuals, men and women, are at great risk of being sexually assaulted. Some prostitute themselves to support their habit. Sometimes being arrested is the best thing for a person who is a teenage runaway with families desperately looking for them. As you are aware, many of
4:26:13our homeless residents living on the streets of santa anna are struggling with drug addiction for many of these individuals being arrested may be the one thing that helps them get on the right path thank you thank you chris good evening mayor city council members city manager i'm here today on item 39 to show support and ask for your support. I'm not here, I don't think this should be a punitive measure to hurt people. I'm here to give some real world examples of things that happened to me here in Santa Ana.
4:26:55So I have two not good stories, one really good story. A friend of mine saw a homeless male in the parking lot of the 7-Eleven at Pacific and Warner. He had an open wound. She called me. We reached out to city staff Judson Brown from the housing department. And Judson was able to get him into the courtyard shelter that was in downtown. The courtyard shelter has rules. This gentleman had a substance abuse issue with alcohol. Councilmember Hernandez, you mentioned what do we do with that? Well, you have rules. You can't have alcohol there. So he didn't want to stay. So he left and went back.
4:27:37and a few months later he died behind the dry cleaner at Pacific and Warner. But somebody tried to help him. He went in, went back, he died. The second story, my dad still lives here. I visit him every week. When I drive down Fairview and I get to Ettinger, there's a bus stop in front of the Taco Bell. I look over, I see an elderly gentleman. I take a picture reported on the city app. A few days later i get an update no resolution next week i visit my dad take a picture city app third week
4:28:12take picture city app no resolution the fourth week is when everything changed i'm driving down fairview i see a bunch of cop cars yellow caution tape bus shelter is gone next day i read in the orange county register a man waiting at a bus stop was killed in a hit and run collision just before 5 p.m sunday sunday officials said several onlookers called 9-1-1-1 to report the collision in the area of the 1500 block of south fairview three times somebody from the city went out to that gentleman and he did not take services i believe the gentleman in this article was that
4:28:48man if the police if the city manager had directed police officers he probably wouldn't have been on the street that day he'd still still be alive today my last is the good one councilmember Becerra knows this Parker Bristol and Alton I would go get gas at 5 a.m. Parker was there Parker how you doing good you want anything can you buy me Doritos sure I reached out to the county health department they sent teams Santa Ana Police Department did eventually councilmember Becerra stepped in got the police to go out there take them into their custody get a medical
4:29:29care get them long-term housing because the police stepped up and did the right thing that is an example of how this should be used I'm not here to cause harm to people we need to get people off the streets so they don't die so they don't die on our streets please support this item thank you
4:30:06Elba Back, followed by David Ball. Elba Back, followed by David Ball.
4:30:28Thank you.
4:30:58Tenemos los otros dos botes, el de reciclaje orgánicos y reciclaje de papel o aluminio, pero no tenemos el bote de la basura. No lo hemos tenido por un año y en mayo, este mayo, finalmente recogieron el bote viejo que teníamos, todo roto, que pertenecía a Waste Management. For 20 years we never had problems with the other company.
4:31:25The payment was always $36 for the services, and now the service is $250 every month. and it has been up to 395.31 for excessive charges, for a long time to pay, but it also doesn't make it correct that we have to pay when we don't collect the garbage.
4:32:03And the church only is open for two hours and a half, certain days in the week, nobody lives there, no we have gas line, no there is kitchen, and we would like to ask if they can create a adjustable tax for small organizations like churches, which are not lucrative and that only use the place for two hours and a half, a certain day of the week.
4:32:32Please, if you can work on a list of prices, because the Republic company says that it's the city that is responsible for that when we have asked them to help. As I say, we need help, we don't have a box of garbage, and the charges are very excessive. If you can reconsider a list of prices, please. Thank you very much. Gracias.
4:33:08Good evening Mayor and distinguished City Council members and City staff. My name is Alba Bach. I've been a member for over 20 years, a member of a small Christian church on Fifth Street.
4:33:38The reason I'm here is because I've been having this issue for over a year. The new trash waste company has not given us a trash cart. We do have the organics cart and the recycling cart, but not the trash cart, and this has been for over a year. This past May, they did come by and pick up the old trash cart from waste management. and with the previous company for over 20 years, we have not had any issues with the old company. And now we used to pay about $36 a month.
4:33:53Now for the church, we pay about $250 per month, and now that has been increased to about $395.31 because of other late charges and other fees. And it's not right. I don't think that it's right that we have to pay for something that we have not received. We have not received trash pickup. So the church is not used all the time, of course. We only use it about two, two and a half hours, a few times a week. We don't have any kitchen or any gas, something like that. So we need your help with maybe creating some
4:34:32adjustable rates for small organizations such as churches and some other non-profits that only use their venue about two and a half hours a couple times per week. The Republic Services Representative, when we went to them, they said that it's you, that the city can make those adjustments, the rate adjustments, that they cannot do that. So we're asking you for your help. We do not have a card for the trash cart for over a year, and the price has gone up significantly.
4:35:09Thank you. So, David, I think, yes, thank you.
4:35:43Good evening, council members, mayor. My name is David Ball. I'm a resident of Ward 3. And today I want to shift the focus of item 39 to compassion. Living next to Santiago Park and visiting a daily, I've personally witnessed the distressing sight of individuals high on drugs, slumped over near death in the park and around Santa Ana. And it's time for us to confront the harsh reality that turning a blind eye to their suffering is nothing short of a death sentence.
4:35:51I personally have lost friends and family to drugs, so I know what's at stake. we must recognize that taking a firm stance, even considering the option of jail, can be a pathway to help and redemption for these individuals. By supporting Councilman Phil Becerra's proposal and initiate a dialogue, we have the potential to extend a lifeline to those caught in the depths of addiction. Rather than solely viewing jail as a punitive measure, we should understand that its potential
4:36:29as a critical intervention point, a chance for individuals to break free from the destructive cycle of drug abuse. Detaining those who violate state laws related to drug abuse can provide them with a momentary respite from their dangerous path. It is essential to understand that in the context incarceration can be an act of compassion, a means to forcibly interrupt the destructive patterns that have consumed the lives of our fellow human beings. By temporarily removing them from their harmful environments, we offer them the opportunity to reflect and find a new path.
4:37:09Furthermore jail can serve as a gateway to help the so desperately in need. By providing them with the information on available substance abuse treatment services during their time in jail, we give them a glimmer of hope, a chance to embark on a journey of rehabilitation, recovery, and a brighter future. Choosing complacency, turning a blind eye to the suffering of drug abusers or substance abusers in our community is neither compassionate nor responsible. Embracing a program that includes the option of jail signifies our acknowledgement of the
4:37:55urgency of the situation and our commitment to tangible steps toward their rescue. We cannot afford to remain inactive. We must not stand idly by as our fellow residents succumb to the devastating consequences of addiction. It is our duty to be courageous, to demonstrate compassion, and to implement measures that offer a genuine lifeline to those in desperate need. So, I support 39.
4:38:35Thank you. Zola Lubin. Zola.
4:39:06Good afternoon. My name is Soyla Lubin and I'm a mother of four living in Ward 2. I just wanted to come in here and kind of talk about the summer splash camp. I know that a lot of people don't come up here and talk about mom and kids stuff, but I wanted to tell everybody that my two kids are very happy. I don't know how we didn't know about programs like this or why we didn't decide to do it but we are as a family very happy that we're there for the public if you don't know it's a summer camp they swim Mondays and Wednesdays free swim lesson swims and then they have lesson swims through the entire
4:39:21week except for Fridays they have excursions and all for a very very very low price so if you are not in it go and search it because it's a great program for parents I also wanted to talk to you guys about that I'm here to support item 39 I know it's a difficult topic and I know that there's no perfect answer but what we are doing now is not working. So I think that we have to take first steps
4:40:01and then reassess and take some more steps and then reassess until we find the perfect medium where we can all be happy and we can kind of make sure that we are together finding the answer. So thank you for your time and thank you Thank you for having me.
4:40:37Thank you.
4:40:58That concludes public comments at this time. We're going to go to the consent calendar items, number 6 through 35 are before us. Council members, please announce any items you want. You'll be abstaining from due to conflict. And if there are any requests to pull an item from the consent calendar for further discussion, let me know. I'll start on this. Councilman Vasquez, are there any items?
4:41:0213 please mayor Pro Tem Lopez I will not be pulling any items but I do have a comment on 31 and I'll proceed with my comment now so I would like to see you City Manager in collaboration with the chief of police raise the bar I see the 10k for people with a bachelor's but I really would like to see that be applied to folks with a master's degree because this is not your typical everyday job and so I think it's important that we raise the bar as I said and so I think it's also important to note that our officers are paid extremely well some of
4:41:24them make close to half a million dollars we're at the top percent of the market and so for those credible reasons I believe that you know the bar should be raised a little bit more so thank you no no no so hold on either you're
4:42:06gonna pull it you can pull it and then we can have comments that's how we do it comment later so do you want to pull it no comment well I'm gonna pull it because you've opened it up mayor Pro Tem opened it up for a comment so we're gonna pull 31 okay mayor councilman Penalosa no items mayor Councilman Hernandez?
4:42:21Yes. I just had a comment on item 14 and 16.
4:42:42Can you wait then until we get there, please?
4:42:46Yes. And then I do see you pulled item 31. I did want to pull that item.
4:42:48Perfect. Thank you.
4:42:53Councilman Becerra? Thank you, Mayor. I'd like to pull items 14 and 18.
4:42:55Thank you.
4:43:03Councilmember Gefan?
4:43:04Thank you, Mayor. I'd just like to register recusal for item number 14. as the Illumination Foundation is a client of my law firm and employer and so out of an abundance of caution I will recuse myself and I'd like to register a no vote for a number 34 thank you. A no on 34. Great thank you I'll be pulling 13, 14, and 31.
4:43:05All right let's get started. I'll move to approve the rest. I'll second. Perfect let's Are you all prepared to vote?
4:43:30And the vote is seven ayes, no nays to approve the consent calendar with the exception of the pulled items.
4:43:53so because i do move things around and i have that ability to do that and there's many people here waiting for council member becerra's item number 39 mayor can we do the oaths of office for the board and commission members yes after i'm done here okay anyway so we're going to go from the oath of office uh madam clerk to 39 and then we'll go back to the consent mayor point of order
4:44:0234, was that pulled? Oh, it was pulled.
4:44:2634 was not pulled. Did you want it pulled?
4:44:30No, I did not. I just wanted to make sure it was registered. It was a no vote. Yes. Thank you, Council Member Fan.
4:44:32A registered no vote by Council Member Fan on item number 34.
4:44:37Okay. So, Councilman, so we're going to do the oath.
4:44:40We also have Council Member Vasquez.
4:44:51Council Member Vasquez, you have a member as well.
4:44:53Member Becerra's appointed members, please come forward. Lorena Viduri, Robin McNair, Winston Covington, and Veronese Bellinas. We'll do the other members.
4:44:56Okay, perfect. Thank you.
4:45:05The whole, everybody in the room is coming up here for you.
4:45:12Hi, how are you?
4:45:23I would be helping you do solemnly swear that I would 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
4:45:33obligation freely without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion, that I will well and faithfully discharge the duties upon which I'm about to enter. Thank you.
4:46:06Thank you. Thank you at this time, Councilman Vasquez.
4:47:07Council member Vasquez's appointed member, Adalia Rios Pacheco. Please come forward.
4:47:13Thank you.
4:47:53I'm Idalia Rios. I solemnly swear that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States, the Constitution of the State of California against all enemies, foreign and domestic.
4:48:06That I will bear through 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,
4:48:30that I will fail and faithfully discharge the duties upon which I'm about to enter.
4:48:53Council member Hernandez's appointee, Michael Chu.
4:49:38I'm happy to do the own.
4:50:06Do solemnly swear.
4:50:17Do solemnly swear.
4:50:18That 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.
4:50:20that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the Constitution of the United States and the Constitution of the State of California
4:50:35that I take this obligation freely without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion and that I will well and faithfully discharge The duties upon which I am about to enter. Congratulations. Thank you. Thank you and welcome to Measure X. Awesome. Thanks.
4:50:49Great, thank you. At this time we're going to go to item 39, discuss and consider directing the city manager to have the Santa Ana Police Department immediately implement an intoxication, detention and service offering policy. Councilmember Becerra, I'll turn this over to you. And then after you're done, if there are other council members who have comments, we'll take the comments and then we'll give direction to the city manager. Thank you, Madam Mayor.
4:51:36So I'd like to begin this item with a story. So about a year and a half ago, I was hosting my monthly community office hours. And before I went, I went to go get some coffee over at Starbucks for the folks that attend. So I went to the Starbucks, excuse me, over on Bristol MacArthur. After picking it up, I went out through the shopping center onto Alton, and I'm about to turn onto Bristol. And I see a gentleman passed out that's over on the little green space there by the bike trail entrance. And he's not moving. And unfortunately, because we've seen so many of these folks, I called PD hoping that they,
4:52:03because I was on my way to the meeting, that they could dispatch paramedics, fire somebody to help them, but not thinking what ultimately happened. Because then Chief Valentin texted me about a half hour later to say, hey, I saw that you called dispatch about 9.55, and that person that you called on was deceased. That person was dead. That person was sitting there, laying there dead.
4:52:42And what's troubling to me is that just last weekend, my wife and I are going to breakfast, and we're going down South Main Street, and I see a gentleman who's on his back, unresponsive. and my wife's a nurse and so we're both sitting there and you know I'm gonna look to the expert I was like honey what do you think do you think do you think unfortunately the worst and I went back to that moment that I had experienced about a year and a half ago and we both sat there we couldn't tell and thankfully I called PD PD you know assistant chief Rodriguez thank you we got
4:53:09folks out there and he later informed me that that gentleman didn't die but I was damn near certain that he was dead. And that's a terrible feeling to have, to look out there and see folks that are under this sort of situation where they're in these dire straits. And I don't want to keep going through this. I don't want our families who are telling us that they experience this daily. I don't want them or their children to keep experiencing this. I, like many in our city, watch our Santa Ana police respond to calls about these folks. And what do they do?
4:53:44They go up and they shoo them along. Because why? The calling party asked for something to be done. And unfortunately, what happens? They shoo them along. They shoo them along just far enough along to where they're not in the sight of the calling party. and I personally witnessed this last Sunday when I was walking my dog along MacArthur. I saw one person being shooed away from one bus stop and as the black and white left, what happened? The person went to another bus stop and then just passed out. And then later on that morning, I was in my car going westbound of MacArthur and I looked into
4:54:24Bowman Coral Park and I saw black and white addressing a homeless person that it was clear they were waking him up from. I hope it was just sleep, but I'm pretty sure it wasn't because about a half hour later, that same person was back in the exact same spot at Bumble Coral Park, except this time with the glass pipe in his hand smoking. Okay, you can only imagine what's in that. Now, we could sit here and talk about doubling investments in parks, which I would be all willing to do but i don't care how many improvements hawk makes in our parks the reality that if any
4:55:00of us are listening to our residents we know a lot of people won't go to our parks because of this issue because they're facing folks that are acting erratic that scared them that make them feel unsafe we could talk about building housing we can talk about all these things but when people talk about the housing first model it doesn't solve the fact that these folks have some very serious issues that they're facing. And one thing that we can't continue to do in the city, pay the highest sales tax in Orange County and not have some of the safest, most beautiful parks, have some of the
4:55:36most amazing amenities. We need to take action. We deserve beautiful parks. We deserve to be able to walk down our sidewalks. When I first got on this council, we didn't have a dedicated revenue new stream for for sidewalks. I pushed for that and I'm so thankful that many of my colleagues up here joined me in that. But what for what? We can't walk on them if people are passed out on them and the response is well let's send somebody out and let's see while they're passed out or in the state we'll offer them services and see what happens. Is that really fair to them to those folks that
4:56:11are out there. So that's why tonight I brought this item forward. Existing state law already allows police to detain individuals who are in a public place, who are under the influence of intoxicating drugs or other controlled substances, especially if they're in a condition that they're unsafe to themselves and unsafe to others, to our families, our residents, our neighbors, our children, and if they're obstructing the sidewalks, if they're obstructing parks, other paths of travel, any public spaces. I'm also proposing that we have our city manager have our police officers consistently detain
4:56:48any individuals within Santa Ana who violate existing state laws that are related to public intoxication and transport them to the Santa Ana jail for processing. And prior to release of those individuals, they are provided with information on available substance abuse treatment services. CityNet, no matter what stats you're hearing out there, they're not able to handle what we're facing. I can tell you right now, South Bristol is like the Ellis Island for fentanyl. Folks are coming in daily. You heard some of the speakers tonight that said they don't recognize who's coming in. Why? Because they're coming in from all over.
4:57:29However, they're coming here and they know that they can not only obtain drugs, but they can use them uninterrupted. Now one thing I'm also proposing, because I'm very sensitive of the fact that I do not want to diminish the efficiency of our patrol staff. So one thing that I want to make sure so that our police don't get caught up in emergency rooms dealing with these folks, I'm asking for staff to modify who we have at the jail to make sure we have the appropriate medical staff, whether that's a nurse practitioner or whoever they see fit that will make sure that our officers aren't constantly going to the ER
4:58:07to deal with the folks that I'm hoping we'll be able to help and address. And finally, what I'm also proposing is that upon release or as we're about to release them, that we proactively offer folks a way home to be reunited with family. And I know some folks tonight talked about whether they're in Santa Ana. That would be great if we can reunite them in Santa Ana. But if we can, if they are from out of state, which many folks are, you know, you heard some of the folks tonight talk about how they interact with some of the homeless when they're not completely intoxicated and they tell you that they're not locally from here.
4:58:42So hopefully that would be something we would be able to do as well. So as the city clerk announced tonight, there were 77 folks that took the time to write emails and express their opinions on this. I want to thank each and every one of them, even the two that didn't support this item. Because they took time out. their busy lives because this issue is so important that they can't just sit idly by. And when I looked at those who had emailed us, I can very confidently and comfortably say, I didn't recognize a lot of the names. But that shows you how important this issue is. This isn't just a small circle of people banging a drum.
4:59:17This is folks from throughout the city, from all the wards, from all the neighborhoods. This is not one targeted demographic. This is not one targeted neighborhood. Excuse me. So the status quo is no longer acceptable. And trying to punt it on a solution that is not something that will address the immediate issue in front of us today. We can start building housing tonight. It's not going to solve the issue of folks passed out in front of our sidewalks, our parks, our schools. We need to do something. I do want to read one email. And it was the email that I thought, of all the emails that I received, that we all received,
4:59:53that stuck out to me. It was a gentleman, his name was Mr. Prez. He said, I'm a husband, father, and a local church leader here in Santa Ana, where we believe that as parents, we have a sacred duty to rear our children in love and righteousness, to provide for their physical and spiritual needs. Allowing rampant drug use and individuals passing out in public areas has had a detrimental impact on our beloved city. It not only compromises the quality of life for residents but also poses a significant risk to public health and safety. The proposal to instruct the city manager to have the police department to teen
5:00:34individuals who violate state laws related to drug abuse and transport them to the Santa Ana jail for processing is a proactive step towards addressing this issue. Furthermore I appreciate the provision in the proposal that emphasizes the importance of offering information on available substance abuse treatment services to individuals before their release. This approach demonstrates a commitment to not only deterring drug abuse but also providing an opportunity for those struggling with substance addiction to seek the help that they need. I believe it is crucial for our community to support this proposal
5:01:11and encourage its swift implementation by taking a strong stance against drug abuse. We can work together to create a safer, healthier, and more vibrant Santa Ana for all residents. I couldn't agree with Mr. Perez more. So let's take this proactive step towards addressing this issue so that we can create that safer, healthier, and more vibrant Santa Ana that our residents are asking for. Thank you, Madam Mayor.
5:01:45Thank you. Any comments from any of the council members?
5:02:11Councilman Penelosa.
5:02:16Thank you, Mayor. I just wanted to thank Councilmember Becerra for agendizing this item. It's definitely something that we must address, and I agree with everything that he has said tonight.
5:02:18I'd like to just let city staff know that when, I mean, we all drive down these streets. Any street in the city, you pick it. The problem is there. Last night, St. Gertrude in Maine, 7-Eleven, I sent that picture to you, both the city manager and assistant city manager. there are at least half a dozen people openly smoking and injecting themselves with God knows what in this parking lot. And that's not isolated to just St. Gertrude and Maine, not just 7-Eleven parking lots, but Bristol Street, Harbor, Standard, Maine, First, East First. I mean, you name it,
5:02:33every street in our city, we see it. And we definitely need to do something about this. And what I don't want to see is us bringing forward an ordinance that just, you know, just for the headline or the, have it not be enforced. I know we brought forward an ordinance to enforce bike shops out on our streets. I don't think we ever do enforce illegal bike shops on our streets. We have an overnight ordinance parking, anti-ordinance for RV parking. We don't, I don't think we enforce it.
5:03:08There already is laws on the books that it makes it illegal for open alcohol consumption out in the open. And I bet you if you drive down any one of the streets that I named, you will see people out there drinking. I've reported it numerous times, St. Andrew and Flower, along the liquor store, along that there's always people that are openly drinking for, not homeless, just people that are getting out of work, drinking out on the street in public. And so there definitely needs to be our priorities realigned. I'd like the police department and city staff to read the room. This is a priority.
5:03:50It is for me. and I know it is for many of my colleagues up here and for many of the residents that live in this city that don't have the time to come and speak. I know last summer I hosted a park cleanup at Memorial Park. City Manager Ridge, Assistant City Manager Mendoza, you were both with me, and when we walked into the restroom at Memorial Park, there was a man on the toilet with his pants at his ankles and a needle in his arm passed out. Two years ago, I went on a ride along with then Deputy Chief Gaminski. First street, there's a woman with her pants halfway up her thighs
5:04:31and she's walking in pain. When the officer asked her why is she walking like that, she said, I can't put my pants up because of all the scabs on her thighs from all the drug use that she, all the scars and the open wounds that she has from drug use. This is a problem. This is an epidemic and it's not just a coping mechanism. This is drug addiction. A lot of these people are on our streets because they have a drug addiction and we need to do something about it. We need to help them, not just incarcerate them and walk away from them. We need to help them and so
5:05:14if it means working with the county working with the state on how we could address this we we need to start tapping into those resources because it is a problem that's not going away and it's affecting our families what's the point of putting new restrooms at Memorial Park or Madison Park if our public can't use them what's the point of opening new parks if our residents can't take their kids to it what's the point of installing these new beautiful bus benches when there's people passed out ODing on every single bench in the city.
5:05:55All of these things that we want to do, we want to invest in our libraries, we want to invest in our parks, but even now the public is saying, no, no more parks. We had multiple neighborhoods come in and say that they don't want another park in our city because they know they won't be able to use it. So thank you Councilmember Becerra. Thank you residents that came out and spoke tonight. I'm looking forward to see what we could come up with and bring back to staff, bring back to us. But I want to see the police department prioritize enforcing this
5:06:33and moving forward. Thank you. Thank you Councilman Paneloza. Any other comments? Councilman Vasquez.
5:07:09Thank you. I do appreciate what Councilmember Bersetta is trying to do, but this program already exists. Other cities use it, they bring people to jail, they leave Santa Ana. Only we're doing it to ourselves now. So we're going to lock folks up and we're going to release them to Santa Ana.
5:07:19That's what's going to happen. If we have some kind of transportation program, let's get them at the county jail and move them out of moving back to where they came from moving back to the city that they were taken up already it's some it's gonna be very expensive to have an ER room if somebody needs as somebody needs to instead of use sorry sorry sorry but you did say instead of having the police officer wait in an ER room we should have a nurse in the jail so I'm thinking if a person needs ER we might need a you're asking for ER room that's going to be very expensive. There's other
5:07:39priorities that we do have on police and there's heavy priorities. I know that calling on this one thing and focusing and putting light on it, that should be our priority, but there's also theft, assault, break-in, sex crimes, violent crimes, traffic accidents. There's priorities. We could, it'd be better if we would list all the different crimes and then we could prioritize instead of just focus on one and saying this is a main issue in Santa Ana when we have many other issues and incarceration has never proven to be has been proven to be detrimental to the growth and prosperity of our community members if it's just not
5:08:20a homeless person if it's a young kid or if it's anybody or families or folks that might not be on their best day get taken in at house parties, walking away from my house parties, downtown Santa Ana. Those might be issues that are consequences of a good idea gone bad, especially for people of color. So I can't support this.
5:08:59Thank you. Councilman Hernandez.
5:09:27Yes, thank you, Mayor Mesquois. I want to thank my colleagues for the dialogue that we're having today because this is a very important conversation and there isn't a one-size-fits-all solution. I'm going to lean on my professional experiences separate from my role as a policymaker here. Before I was a policymaker, I worked in the field of re-entry here in the County of Orange. I have professional lived experience working directly with people experiencing homelessness. I was a case manager that was frequenting the shelter here in downtown Santa Ana.
5:09:30Not only did I help with people who were leaving either juvenile hall, jail, or prison, I found and studies will show you the leading cause of homelessness is recidivism. Locking people up is the fastest way to exasperate the homelessness crisis that we are all experiencing. I am not saying this to scare you. I am saying this because as a paid and trained and qualified professional, I was tasked with having to help people navigate homelessness. I am not speaking from a place of fear. I am not trying to instill fear into my neighbors.
5:10:08First, I am telling you professionally, the experts are going to tell you, this is not going to solve homelessness. The reason why is because the language that was brought forth by my colleague today doesn't mention homelessness on the document at all. It mentions public intoxication. So let's talk about some of the comments that were made here today because they were rooted in ignorance.
5:10:49Addiction absolutely is tied to coping. What you will find when you look at people experiencing homelessness, and again, I am speaking from a place of experience, is that many individuals first find themselves homeless before they ever find themselves diving into alcoholism or substance abuse disorders. The addiction rate is much higher within the homelessness population in the U.S. So much so that there are actual, you know, studies on chronic public inebriation.
5:11:13The general, you know, consensus when we look at an issue like this is that this is a one-size-fits-all, you know, solution that is being proposed today. And unfortunately, it's not going to be that simple. Because people who are charged with public drunkenness, it's typically you're going to see, little to no time incarcerated. You would see somebody maybe not even spend a full night in a jail. And they're released at one in the morning, six in the morning. Where do you think they're going to end up? In the center of Santa Ana, walking into Washington Square neighborhood,
5:11:49walking into Articia Pilar, walking into Flower Park neighborhood, all of which is in the center of the city where there is a large issue of people experiencing homelessness. This would actually create a much larger issue for families that live in Ward 5. And so it's important that we acknowledge that the proposition we're making today, it is not going to address the underlying mental illnesses that many of these folks have that are unaddressed. It is not going to address the trauma that placed them in a position where homelessness was a solution for them at one point, where that was the best idea.
5:12:25And so I want to share with my colleagues that here in the state of California, we have seen cities attempt to have a solution that looked very similar to this. And in most of these cases, criminalizing homelessness, not only does it not make it go away, but it's expensive and in most cases illegal. In the most recent example, the U.S. Supreme Court allowed to stand a lower court decision finding that it's unconstitutional to criminalize conduct that is an unavoidable consequence of being homeless. Many cities have actually attempted to do what we're talking about today,
5:13:05and the U.S. Supreme Court found on many cases it was unconstitutional to detain somebody because of their status. Now, many people living on the street do have a distrust with police because of past negative experiences. mandating that police are the only solution is not respectful to law enforcement either. If we are going to truly value our public servants, let's let them shine in the areas where they can and making sure that those tier one, tier two, tier three calls are prioritized. And let us strengthen our quality of life team. Let us strengthen bringing in mental health clinicians.
5:13:45And let us strengthen bringing in, you know, social workers. so that that is the focus because that is the people that have the backgrounds that should be the primary contact for this issue. This isn't fair to people experiencing homelessness, to our residents, or to law enforcement to place them in a position where they lack the skills and training to be able to address a very complex issue. And I don't want our taxpayers to think that this is going to be a solution that is going to get rid of people sleeping on public property. Because not everybody who is, is going to be putting a needle in their arm or drinking
5:14:25a beer in the back of an alley. Some people are just looking to have some shelter for the night and they'll sleep under a tree. I don't condone it, but I understand it. But I'm also not going to sit here and lie to you and pretend like this is going to meet that you're never going to see a person experiencing homelessness in your city. That's just not the case. And our police, multiple, I mean, cities are clear examples that police officers also are saying this is not our job. This isn't a core responsibility of police. And so because of that, I would not support this.
5:15:06But Councilmember Becerra, if you'd be inclined to include clinicians and social workers as part of your strategy and with outreach, I would feel more inclined to support that.
5:15:41Thank you. Council Member Fan.
5:15:53Thank you, Mayor. First, thank you, Council Member Becerra, as well as the public for commenting on this item. I do have a few clarifying. So, well, I do have, in order for me to have the discussion, right, I do have a few clarifying questions
5:15:56to determine whether I support or don't support the item. Because a couple things, the provisions that are, I guess reference in the memo are related to intoxication in public spaces. So just to clarify, this item wouldn't change if someone is say drunk at the 7-Eleven on Main in their parking lot. Is that correct? I guess I don't know who I'm talking to or asking questions for.
5:16:12So we can't really ask the city staff questions. I think that was a conversation we had, city manager.
5:16:45Yeah, it's really for you to discuss and dialogue and then provide direction to me.
5:16:49Okay.
5:16:54So maybe Councilman Becerra can answer what he was trying to get.
5:16:54I guess that was a little bit of a legal question, but...
5:16:58I do want to remind the Council, and it is going on, remember that these items under Councilmember requested items are not the opportunity to debate in detail the item itself. It is whether you just concur with your colleague that you would like the item to be returned to you. That's correct. And when it comes back to you, that's when any necessary staff work would be done.
5:17:01Otherwise we sometimes allow you to give some direction to staff and if that's what you do. But a council member requested item is just to discuss and consider giving direction to the city manager. It's not the time to iron out all of the fine details because you don't have the benefit of the staff analysis before you.
5:17:25Thank you city attorney. So what I was going to do is let them all speak and then look at the city manager and say, does she understand? she direction and she'll come back with a plan and so that way we know what is
5:17:42happening so thank you so then I guess what I would like to see is research from staff as to what is even feasible every day we get emails about significant events that occur in our city it's usually priority one calls and you know those a lot of those issues are what I think we do need to put our resources into right robberies assault child molestation so I want to make sure that whatever we do regarding this item that we do not take away from that I know a
5:17:54one member of the public talked about investing more in PD in order to address these types of issues we are one of the items on the agenda today was to increase funding for bonuses to though that we can hire more police officers and I'm fully supportive ensuring that we expand our force so that they can be responsive as much as possible the other thing I would like to see staff do is see if it's possible to expand our contractors or sitting or some other
5:18:34group that can actually respond to this because my biggest concern is an officer going out checking or keeps doing it and then we get into a conversation like what would they had in New York with stop-and-frisk or I mean who's I've slept on a park bench I slept in a park bench in public but I'm not gonna be the one that someone comes up to and say hey are you drunk what's going on let me do a test on you because I don't fit the profile so I just want to make sure that whatever it is that we do we don't veer into that world and but also I think the nurse practitioner idea is a great idea but I also want to see information as to
5:19:05how feasible that would be given the types of individuals who may be picked up so for example you know in college towns Isla Vista Santa Barbara you know when they have big events for college students they'll put someone in a dry tank right and it's you know eight hours four hours 24 hours whatever it is so that they can sober up and leave my question is if we were picking up somebody who needs medical care, how does that actually work? I know that when we go to ER, if they are severely hurt, the officer has to go to the ER, they wait around for a few hours, it takes our patrol officers off the street.
5:19:44So that is something that I am concerned about, and so whether we can use other individuals other than our PD to deal with that specific issue. The other, I do like the idea of offering transportation to folks who are booked, excuse me, who are released from jail back to their home city. I think that's a great idea. I know we already do that in many cases or we offer it, so that would be great. And of course, providing information, substance abuse treatment services should be consistent across the board at all times. I don't think that's a problem.
5:20:23The other issue that I have a question about, or I'd like to learn more from staff, is how we would process them in the Santa Ana jail and what that actually means. So if a person is say intoxicated blocking the sidewalk say on Gunther we are very familiar with that and they are picked up by a police officer well I guess there's two questions one would they first be cited who then shows up to court maybe misses their hearing there's a bench warrant that comes out then next time if they're found to be cited again the warrant gets run they get arrested goes to the jail then one of our city attorneys then spends half the day going
5:20:58to CJ1 which is the jail inside the OC men's jail if you don't know to do their arraignment and then they get time served because they're probably there for a couple days before the attorney can go and do the arraignment and then it's just a cycle it's a cycle I think the mayor's like I know I'm familiar with that okay Okay, yeah, it's like if you know about how that works because of realignment and some other laws, typically if someone's picked up on a very, quote, small violation and they go to jail, it's time served if they plea out. So I guess my question is I'd like to also see what the impacts of costs would be
5:21:39to our city attorney's office. If someone is booked and goes to jail, would they be cited or how does that work? How would that affect our legal team?
5:22:17So I guess with that, I would like to see more information as to what this could look like and how we can find ways to, I think, feasibly implement a program to, you know, get people resources as we have and expand it while also making sure that, you know, people need to understand that you cannot block the sidewalk whether or not you are intoxicated or not. You know, we made the same argument with folks who say those illegal street vendors who are blocking the sidewalk because it's an ADA issue. All of those different things I'd like to see more information. Thank you.
5:22:28Perfect. Thank you. We're gonna have Mayor Pro Tem and then I'm gonna speak and then we're gonna close it and give direction at that time. Go ahead.
5:23:07Okay, thank you. Let's see. So on the issue of addressing public intoxication and open drug use, I agree with everyone. I think that we have to do more in all aspects. You know, because we all live here, none of us are immune to this issue. We see it almost on a daily basis, unfortunately. And I think, you know, I agree, more has to be done on all fronts. And, you know, I heard public comment, like David, like so many others that live near North Santa Ana, and if you're familiar with the area,
5:23:14then you know how much we've struggled with the city of Orange, all the efforts that I've emailed the city manager about and saying, can we have some sort of open line of communication? Can we actually even reached out to them proactively, their police department, to do a park clean up with us so that they could understand that these issues should not just be pushed and pushed and pushed to our city so there are many things that have happened there are many things that will continue to happen all of that to say that a lot of these you know instances are really disturbing
5:23:55for residents to see especially for folks like Park Santiago Fisher Park that are so close to this issue and experience it every single day and not just those two neighborhoods, but really all across Ward 3. And that's really unfortunate because I am so privileged and so blessed to live in a beautiful community where I can sleep with my bedroom window open, where I can leave my kitchen window open, where I can leave my car door unlocked, where I've left my sunroof open and nothing has happened.
5:24:34And I want that for every single resident that lives in the city, because a fundamental belief that I have is that all of you should feel safe in your homes and in public spaces. And so, you know, I think that there are a lot of processes that we don't fully understand the way that this is written. For example, if a police officer does pick up somebody laying down on the street that they perceive to be intoxicated or under the influence of some sort of substance, my understanding
5:25:12is that they would spend quite an amount of time with that individual. And I know that from a nurse's perspective because my sister is a nurse, and so I've the stories of officers having to wait in a in a medical room for maybe five hours really whenever they're discharged and so I would like whatever report comes back to address that how is the department going to work with that and you know I also believe as I said at the my opening comments that all options must be explored and that includes care of people so when this proposal
5:25:52comes back city manager a police include how Santa Ana residents are gonna be provided with emergency housing vouchers of rehabilitation services mental health services and mandated transportation for people that are not residents you know I do not support the current language of it being a possibility it should be mandated we are in current litigation with the county it should be consistent all the way across. Another thing is that on top of those tangible pathways I
5:26:30want the report to come back to detail to this council proactively how staff, how what propositions you have as to how we are going to activate these hot spots because that is one of the issues of why we see this issue continue to grow in some of these spaces like the creek and that is why I've been advocate for programming our public spaces since 21 since I've sat here I've said I've given you know so many ideas that unfortunately have not moved forward but that is one of the issues we must make use of our public spaces and I you know
5:27:07I've talked about on East first converting motels that has also not received support from the dais and you know this is one of the reasons why my office consistently leads park cleanups why we partner with other organizations why we host office hours in public spaces why I walk the parks why I utilize them it's important for me to understand what is actually happening in these in these areas but I think that the report should also you know when I mentioned specifically what ideas should come back one of the ideas that I'm proposing is
5:27:49to have kiosk at these areas and I would like to see in terms of care how what type of medical procedures we're going to establish to assist residents because the end goal here should not be that we're taking an individual putting them in jail and they're gonna come back and end up at the exact same spot that doesn't solve anything. So how are we helping people transition into a better, healthier, more sustainable lifestyle here in the city? And so I also want to see, you know, at a certain point,
5:28:26I think that ODs, the inability to feed oneself or to clothe oneself is going to take a lot of work and I agree that nothing is gonna happen overnight, but I do agree that you know centering this as a medical issue should be helpful especially working with the county and and I want to see all of those options included in the report essentially I'm asking for a robust medical plan that includes social workers mental health professionals and individuals trained and de-escalation to respond because imagine approaching
5:29:04somebody that is on a methamphetamine, right? How you cannot predict how somebody is going to respond. And so I think one of the concerns is safety all around for anyone involved in that situation. I also would like the report to detail how the city plans to work with the current organizations that have been doing this work day in and day out in our city, because I think that they may have a lot of valuable information to share with the council or with staff really since you folks are going to be implementing this plan. Another
5:29:45bullet point that I want you to detail in the report is how is this going to potentially impact undocumented people entering the criminal justice system because that is going to negatively impact any pathway that they may have in wanting to seek their citizenship. And so again, as we've heard time and time from members of the public, from council members here, this is nothing new really. This is state law. This is municipal code. And I think that this is part of the reason why the state of affairs in the city of Sanana is what it is.
5:30:23we're having to give a directive about enforcing what already exists using the tools that already exist So thank you for your time
5:31:04Okay, I'm gonna make some comments and then I'm gonna turn it over to Councilman Becerra to close this out Then we're gonna move on we'll give some direction to the city manager and we're gonna move on So I sit up here with a completely different lens because for 30 years I worked for the Orange County Probation Department work juveniles, adult drug offenders, sex crimes, domestic violence, organized crime, work the gang unit, work the tri-agency gang enforcement task force. So when I ran for mayor, the big thing was quality of life. So story, Polly's pies, we all go eat there. We all do. I see so many people there.
5:31:16Two weeks ago, a woman and her husband come in for dinner. She goes into the bathroom. They wait a little while. She doesn't come out. Staff goes in to check on the bathroom. She's on the floor with a needle in her arm. They did not call police. They helped the husband carry her out and take her out of the restaurant. They didn't want to call police because they didn't want, didn't want the attention and they didn't want people to leave Polly's restaurant because they have suffered enough financially because of the Motown next to them and all the issues that are going on. I've had to call the fire department because I see a guy
5:31:54on the sidewalk. I don't know if he's alive or dead. I get out of my car. I keep a distance. I call. On Saturday before last, I get out of my car in front of farmers and merchants. I speak to a homeless gentleman. Police roll up. They take him in because he has a warrant. He was not well. He has a warrant for his arrest. So, I'm not going to speak for Councilman Becerra, but I do support this item. I have always been a fan of restorative justice. led it, been involved, I don't care what anybody says or anybody thinks up here. I've been involved with it for many, many years, probably longer than anybody sitting up here.
5:32:29So, restorative, very familiar with it. However, the city of Santa Ana, I went from the Irvine spectrum, got off on 17th Street in the freeway, and that's where I ran to that gentleman on Farmers and Merchants Bank. And I saw a unit speaking to him. And I thought, oh, they're going to get off their car and do something. Well, they didn't. They left. I'm sure maybe they got another call. I don't know. But then when I stopped and got off my car and made contact with this gentleman, and I kept my distance because I know they can be assaulted because they're probably on meth or drugs or not well or mental, lots of things.
5:33:09I called the watch commander. They sent out the Colt team. They came. They handled it. Gentleman had a warrant for his arrest. So I think what Councilman Becerra is asking is that we need to respond to our constituents that voted for us to sit up here. And we need to give our police the ability with direction from the city manager to really step in and do their job. And we're not asking them to be social workers because when somebody's laying on the street, they call the fire department. Fire department comes out. They check them. And then police do whatever they have to do. When they come in contact with a homeless
5:33:43person on the street, many of them have warrants from probation and parole. So they work very closely with probation and parole. But I will tell you that the probation department has a whole unit that works on the warrants because there's so many people out there with warrants and many of them are sex offenders. And let's not even talk about parole. So they're dangerous. So we talked about nurses. So when you arrest a person and you take them to county jail, they have to pass medical. If they don't pass medical, the officer has to take them to the hospital, because I've done it many times, and you sit there and wait with
5:34:25them. And if you have to wait a long time, you hopefully somebody will come and relieve you. Well Santa Ana, the city of Santa Ana, has a jail. And we have nurses in the jail, and we have a contract with nurses. So we do not need to take them to county jail, we can take them to our city jail, we can expand the contract that we have with the nurses that work in our city jail, and so we can clear them at our city jail and keep them. There's a lot of different ways we can do this. I am not saying sentence and sentence them to prison for 30 years. I'm just saying we need to do something about what is happening on our streets, whether
5:35:02they're defecating in front of our families, having sex in the park. I got a picture from family that's at Morrison Park. They take their children. We had just finished the playground and what do they have? A homeless gentleman asleep on the very nice comfortable playground. So children left. I take a walk with some constituents in Santiago Park. We're looking at the construction happening. What do we see? A gentleman had just finished shooting up something. So I call Santa Ana PD. They come out. They take him in. And from what I got from this, from Councilmember Becerra's item is that we need to be proactive.
5:35:40We see our officers just drive by, not because they don't want to do the job, but because maybe they haven't been given the direction to do it. And maybe they don't understand or they haven't heard clear, very clear from this group of policymakers that, hey, we want you to stop and make contact with that person that is standing on the corner in front of Norm, screaming at everybody that's driving by. Hey, we want you to make contact with that person that is having sex in front of kids on 2nd and McClay. Hey, we want you to make contact down 1st Street
5:36:19because I call the watch commander's office on a regular basis. Down, because on 1st Street, you see them all there. They're slammed back. I'm sorry. They're shooting up heroin or meth or fentanyl or whatever they're shooting up. They're all there. It's plain as day. Plain as day. So if you're comfortable with that, that is great. But I can guarantee you the majority of people in this city are tired. They're not feeling safe. When I walked to this city, that is what I heard. Public safety, quality of life.
5:36:58So somebody said earlier, I think it was Councilman in Penalosa. Parks are great. And I just had this conversation with the city manager multiple times. Love parks. Parks are great. But our families are not going to use them if they're not safe there. So I don't want to invest any more money in parks. I don't. Why? Nobody goes into the bathroom. If you go in the bathroom, there's something happening in there, whether there's prostitution going on, whether there's drug use, whether they're sleeping in there. People are afraid. And so it's time for us to do something. So we can sit up here and say, yes, city manager, I want to plan.
5:37:39Yes, I do too. But we also can say, you know, city manager, I think you got the direction that we want to plan of how are police going to address these issues. They're going to make arrests. And because a lot of people they are going to come in contact with, I can guarantee you are going to have warrants. Whether they're from parole or probation, they're going to have warrants. And maybe they're not violent felons. That's great, but we're going to book them into the city jail, not the county jail. Santa Ana has a jail. So let's think about just not how it's about social workers. Yes, it is. We need counseling, no doubt.
5:38:16The city manager can reach out to Project Kinship. She can reach out to other agencies with it when she comes back to us with a plan saying, because actually we took a tour of Project Kinship. And we asked them, meet them at the door and take them to our shelter. We welcome you to do that. And so Ken Gaminski has met with Project Kinship because Project Kinship waits outside the door of the jail, makes contact with somebody when they're released from county, says, how can we help you? We want to get you into a program. Most of the time they say, no, thank you. We don't want a program. We'd rather be on the streets.
5:38:54So you get 10 of them, 10 homeless people. You're going to get three on a good day that are going to go into the shelter or a program. The rest of them do not want to follow rules, want to use drugs, want to have sex, do not want to have a curfew, do not want to get a job, have severe mental health issues. So can we address all those things? No. Can the police do it? No. But right now, we have a problem in the city. When I drive to Irvine, it's pretty, it's nice. I go to Orange, and by the way, I am in contact with the Mayor of Orange, the Mayor of Anaheim, the Mayor of Irvine. I'm meeting with all of them. We're having discussions
5:39:29about how we can do this. Orange is opening a navigation center. It's going to take about two years. So we don't, they don't have the ability right now. But I can tell you that you go into certain cities, you see their officers stopping, making contact with them no matter what, moving them along or arresting them. And our officers need to know that they've received direction from our city manager because of the council and the mayor sitting up here saying, that is what we want. We want you to make contact with them. We want you to see if they have a warrant. We want you to see if they need to be arrested.
5:40:09If they do, they go to our jail. And my goodness, maybe we could find a grant or funding from the Congress or Senator and have a program in our own jail that's going to address their mental health issues. It's going to address their drug addiction issues. We can get very creative. So there's a lot of things that we can do. But I'm not going to sit here and ignore all of the public comments, ignore our community that's saying enough is enough. What are we going to do? Pretty soon we're going to look like Los Angeles. It's going to be the norm. If you're okay with that, take them to your home. Open your door to them.
5:40:44Let them live with you if you're okay with it. Because I'm not okay with it. I'm not okay with it. And no matter where you live in the city, people that spoke tonight or sending emails, they don't just live in Ward 3 or 4 or 5. They live everywhere in the city. Everywhere in this city people complain about the problem. And nobody knows the answer. This is a problem throughout the entire country. We know that. But there are cities that are doing things. They're thinking out of the box. And that's what we need to do here in Santa Ana. And we can sit here and say, well, guess what? Nurses, it's going to take a long time.
5:41:22It takes up time, time. Guess, you know what? City of Santa Ana has a contract with nurses. They're already in our jail. It's beautiful. We extend the contract. We bring nurses in. So when they go through booking at the city jail, it doesn't take six hours. Do I believe in offering them services? Sure as heck I do with the right programs. Not the programs that are going to say, I'm going to help you, but they're really not helping them. Because we already have those programs in place. So I do support this item. Whether they're high, whether they're drunk, whether they're prostituting,
5:42:03whether they're human trafficking, whether they're defecating, they're walking down the street naked, in decent exposure, police need to stop and make contact with them. Are we short officers? Yes, we are. We definitely are. And we just had some promotions. We had two commanders promoted, four sergeants, two corporals. so that takes some people off the streets. So we need to work three times as hard to recruit new officers or get some good laterals over here. We also need to work with Lion Security so that they can take care of our parks. I think there was a discussion about arming them and I need to,
5:42:37Mayor, City Manager, please put that in your plan. Are they armed? Are they not armed? I hear they are, I hear they're not, I hear there's a discussion. I've only been sitting here six months. But I will tell you that we must do something. Otherwise, our constituents, I hope you are here every meeting talking about that you hold us accountable as your council members and the mayor to say, what are you doing for me? And Council Member Sarah is right. We have the highest tax rate in the county. And what are we paying for? To live in the worst city? We're the county seat. What are we paying for?
5:43:17So restorative justice, all about it. Mental health services, all about it. I support it. Is it available? Yes. We need to be working with the county. We need to be working with the state. We need to be working with the federal government. We definitely should be calling on the county to say, hey, let's get some CalOptimo money. Hey, let's work with B-Well. Hey, let's do it. I would love to. Absolutely love to. And I've asked the city manager, I'd like to meet with CalOptima. I want to work with them. I want to work with B-WOW. How do we get their vans in our city? What does it cost? Let's do it.
5:43:58How do we get a medical van so that, as Chris Smith talked about, they're not dying on our streets? Let's think out of the box and stop sitting here like we're afraid because we're racially profiling or we're marginalized. No. You can look at LA. Look at LA. Look at San Diego. The mayor in San Diego, he put up tents. He solved his homeless problem. Guess what? He has to have them down by December because he's out of compliance. How many millions of dollars did he spend doing that?
5:44:35So I hope we come back with a great plan. I support this because I can go on and on and on about how you can meet people when they walk out of the jail and say, here's what we're offering you. Here's how we do it. We have a parole office on Main and 17th. There's a parole office right there. Have we as a city met with them and talked to them? How many parolees are in our city? Where are your homes? Where are your sober living homes? Where are you housing your sex offenders? Where are you housing your most violent offenders? Do you know where your offenders are? Probation at 909 North Main. Do you know where your probationers are?
5:45:08Do you know where your sex offenders are? The prison realignment, the guys that are getting out of Palacan Bay or the sex offenders that have been in there 20 years, do you know where they are? No, they're around our parks and our children and our families. And I can say that up here because I worked it and I lived it for 30 years. So I support this and I'm glad Councilman Becerra brought this because it is not just about putting everybody in jail. It's about maybe they need 48 hours to detox and get sober. And as you're walking out that door, Project Kinship or whoever, Be Well,
5:45:46whoever is standing there waiting to meet with them and saying, let me offer services to you. And some of the council will sit up here and say, oh yeah, she's whatever, she's this, she's that. When you've walked in my shoes, then you can say whatever you want. But I can tell you right now, sometimes jail saves people. sometimes it saves them, saves them from themselves. So with that, Councilman Becerra, I am going to support this, and I think the city manager, hopefully she has an understanding, and I'll leave it. I think Councilman Becerra, I mean, Penelosa supported it. You're supporting it. I'm supporting it.
5:46:23So go ahead and finish off, and I think Councilmember Phat is supporting it.
5:47:02Yes? that's fine but well first of all thank you thank you mayor mesquen thank you uh councilman paloza for your clear direction on this item i mean i'm pretty sure city manager could see where we were at um so what frustrates me about what i've heard from some of my other colleagues tonight was either you ignored what i said or what i wrote down or you're deliberately trying to confuse the issue. It was one or the other. So for instance, I'm not asking for an ER, and I said very clearly in the memo that we
5:47:09need to improve the medical staff in the jail so that our officers aren't tied up with the folks that they're detaining. The idea, in case you didn't hear it, I'll say it again, was to improve efficiency. Just one more time, improve efficiency. Now add more time that they're off the beat. Improve efficiency. Okay?
5:47:44Are you responding to me?
5:48:07I'm looking that direction. If you feel guilty, then maybe I am. But I'm actually looking at Council Member Vasquez.
5:48:09I'm going to ask for quorum here.
5:48:14We're not going to engage that way. So let's make comments.
5:48:16Yes, please speak respectfully to the colleagues.
5:48:19I have it. I have it. That's my job.
5:48:21Okay. So, and then this issue that until we address all crime, let's not address any of it. I mean, that was amazing. As far as house parties or someone coming out of an establishment in downtown, that's not what this is for. Unless you walk out onto a sidewalk and decide to pass out, and then people can't get around you on the sidewalk, then maybe this would be something that would address that issue. And as far as whether it would go to the middle of the city, I was reading emails today from folks from Flower Park, Washington Square. There are folks, as I've said already, and the mayor just said, there are folks from
5:48:23all over Santa Ana that are concerned about this issue. This is not isolated to one geographic area. And they keep, we keep hearing this, it's not going to solve homelessness. This is not targeting homeless period. These are folks that are publicly intoxicated, that are blocking our sidewalks, that are in our parks. Whether they have a home or not does not excuse them from following intoxication laws. Whether you have a home or not, whether you have a car or If you don't have a car, does that mean you can break the law or you can't break the law? No.
5:48:59What we're saying very specifically is this is about public intoxication and whether our PD can enforce it. There's no plan to bring back. There's no ordinance. There's no resolution. It's very clear. Do you support asking our city manager to direct our PD to enforce existing state law? It's a question. Do you? Yes or no? Now, if you have a question that you want follow-up maybe on something about economics of it or something, that's fair. But tonight, the question is, do you support this yes or no? If you don't feel there's enough information here and you want to say no, tell the residents that.
5:49:33Tell all the folks that took the time to write in and come into this meeting, tell them no, you do not support this. But be clear. Don't dance around it. Be clear. Okay? And as far as one of the other items that was brought up was trying to force transportation. You can't force it. That's called kidnapping. That's a whole other crime, and I'm sure PD doesn't want to address that. Okay? Right now, you can't force these folks to get in a bus and go somewhere else. That's not what this is about. This is simply making sure that they don't continue to feel comfortable using drugs in our parks,
5:50:13in front of our residents, in front of our shopping centers. that's what this is about. This is disrupting what they're already doing. So I'm really frustrated when I hear either again, you're ignoring what I've said, or you're deliberately trying to make this something that it wasn't. So tonight, I'm gonna wrap up real quick. Can we wrap it up please? So tonight, what you're hearing up here is more sympathy for the folks that are passed out in our parks and on our sidewalks. That's what you're hearing up here. You're not hearing sympathy for the residents, Nobody up here is trying to solve the problems
5:50:49that our residents are facing. Everybody is more concerned about the addicts that are coming into Santa Ana and passing out on our sidewalks, our parks, our bus benches. That's what you heard tonight. That was the priority of some of the folks up here. And so, Madam Mayor, I'll close out with this. I would like to, because I'll just say for myself and City Manager Ridge, you can correct me if I'm wrong. I feel like you have three-
5:51:25We're not questioning any of this now.
5:51:47No, no, I'm not questioning, just simply, you had three people up here that I believe you know support this. And so I would ask my colleagues who weren't clearly opposed to it, because I believe I heard Council Member Hernandez and Council Member Vasquez opposed to it. So Council Member Lopez and Council Member Fan, do you support this, yes or no?
5:51:49So let me take it from here, okay? Thank you. We're done. So I'm going to go down the line so that we can get clear direction. So I think we had four. So, Mayor, I believe I have majority direction to move forward. Yes, we do have the four. So thank you very much. This conversation is over. We're going to move on.
5:52:05I do have a question.
5:52:24This item's over. So we're going to move on, please. Thank you. All right. Let's go to item 13.
5:52:26And that was pulled, I think, I believe I pulled that item. Am I the only one who pulled that item?
5:52:36Council Member Vasquez pulled it as well. Council Member Vasquez. Council Member Vasquez.
5:52:43Yes, I'd just like to see a timeline of when we would start the hiring process, when we would get the RFP out, when it would be closed, when the Commission would meet for the first time, just so the public knows what's happening and taking those steps.
5:52:48Excellent request. And we certainly can. We had brought a timeline before, but since it's been some time, to do an updated one probably would be useful for all of us.
5:53:04Thank you. Are there any other questions? No other questions from the Council members? So, City Manager, Madam City Manager, thank you for this item.
5:53:12So, we will be putting out an RFP, is that correct? If it hasn't gone out already, it will be going out shortly. And that would be to procure the services of an independent oversight director.
5:53:24For an oversight director? Correct. And will there be additional staff for that oversight director?
5:53:35Yes. Yes, as part of the June budget package, we did create a management analyst classification and the funding for it, so that will be the primary person that will work for that independent oversight director.
5:53:41And at this time, who is going to review the RFPs that come in? Will it be you, the city attorney?
5:53:53The city attorney, the city clerk, and the city manager's office have all been working cross-departmental on this one, but my office is taking the lead on the RFP. If it's something that council's interested in seeing, we certainly can send it to you.
5:54:01Yeah, I'd like to see it. And I also think it's important that I'm not asking for them to give input, but maybe AC Rodriguez can take a look at it as well. And I'm not asking for the police to give input, but AC Rodriguez or, you know, I don't know where the, I know the chief's out of town right now. So, and I believe AC Rodriguez is acting chief. Is that correct? Assistant chief. This is but he's acting right now, right? Yes. Okay. So just so we want we can get it out if we get it out tomorrow So that somebody with that level of expertise and also look at it And if we can do that as as well
5:54:14So I just want to be clear and I'm similar to Councilman Vasquez So we're putting out the RP. Let's say tomorrow
5:54:53So where what are you seeing? So part of the it's a little bit of a chicken and an egg thing The actual commission and the municipal code allows for the commission to make a recommendation to the full council on their independent oversight director. And as Sonia had pointed out earlier, the independent oversight director is a contractor directly for the city council. So upon the proposals that are received for the RFP, it will go to the commission for them to make a recommendation to you as to which one they would like to see as the director, and you have the final decision, of course.
5:55:00And where will that director be housed? What department within the city?
5:55:39The direction that we received from council in January was that you selected to go with a contractor model. So I don't believe that is an individual that will have a maintain an office and be Monday through Friday 8 to 5 we certainly would be able to find private working space for the contractor for their convenience and the admin position where would they be
5:55:43that will be housed in the city attorney's office madam city attorney
5:56:01be in your office yes due to the confidential nature of the documents and the information that that person would be handling we think it's appropriate to keep it there since we have the ability to safeguard that information in the
5:56:05office already perfect and it looks like we have all the we're just missing one Commissioner from Mayor Pro Tem Lopez at this time okay perfect I have no further questions does anybody else have any questions so I move to approve this item
5:56:17second I'm sorry oh I totally supportive just a clarification because a staff report does mention it when the Commission excuse me the Police Oversight Commission makes the recommendation we as a council would still have the ability to interview three candidates. Okay. Thank you.
5:56:31So it was moved by, I approved it, I mean I moved it. You seconded it? I'll second.
5:56:50I had a second from Council Member Vasquez. I'm sorry? I heard a second by Council Member Vasquez.
5:56:57Okay, perfect. I'm looking over here. All right, let's vote please.
5:57:02Councilmember Van?
5:57:16Aye.
5:57:19The vote is 7 ayes, no nays. Motion carries. The report is accepted. Item 14, any comments?
5:57:21Yes.
5:57:29I'm sorry? Yes, she's recused.
5:57:31Item 14, anybody on this side?
5:57:37I had a comment for it.
5:57:39Yeah. Councilman Hernandez?
5:57:40Yes. Thank you, Mayor Mesquah. I just wanted to inform the public that item 14, today we approved a budget reallocation and awarded a construction contract to Onyx Paving Company in the amount of, forgive me, wrong item. I wanted to share with our community members, apologies, that was the wrong item.
5:57:42Are you on item 14, which is the Illumination Foundation item? Yes, yes.
5:58:04Just wanted to inform residents here in Ward 5 that there is going to be an exciting proposed project that will be coming to our neighborhood in Santa Anita. The proposed project includes 11 units comprised of two one-bedroom units, seven two-bedroom units and two two-bedroom units, an ADU and a preschool. Illumination Foundation's intergenerational campus will provide housing for homeless seniors and transitional age youth with young children and preferential entry at the preschool for the young children to create a mutually supportive community. Very happy to see that there are resources being allocated to communities
5:58:08that are desperately in need and I just want to thank our staff for putting this on the agenda and I am very happy that we supported this today. Thank you.
5:58:47Councilmember Becerra. Thank you Mayor Mesquite. Well this item will not if it does pass will not pass with unanimous support I will not be supporting it illumination foundation with all due respect was a part of the ten improvements at the Carnegie shelter that did not go so well insanity is defined by doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result and engaging illumination foundation and something that I believe is outside their expertise would be foolish and so I can't in good conscience go ahead and support this with them being the ones that are developing this if they were
5:58:55running it after it was constructed and fully improved I would support it but I won't be supporting this item in the fact that they obviously did not do the best job when it came to our own shelter here in Santa Ana so I won't be supporting them on this item thank you
5:59:35So I'm at this point I am not supporting it but I believe it's going to come back so here's my questions that I have I did not have the experience you do with Illumination Foundation when they were developing the homeless shelter but I have some concerns I think it's a great concept great concept you have two one bedrooms, six two bedrooms, one two-bedroom unit for the manager, which I don't understand why the manager needs a two-bedroom, and then you only have two bedrooms for seniors. I mean, two apartments for seniors.
5:59:55So it's really not for homeless seniors. It's only two units, and I understand we want them to engage with younger people. You know, I understand all of that. Now, in my opinion, because the largest population of unhoused is seniors, and if we can change the numbers up a little bit and maybe give them a couple more units and take some away from the TAE, and instead of having six for them, maybe you do, you know, four and four.
6:00:37I understand the 30% AMI and 50%, but this is about for seniors. And it says one unit will be reserved for an onsite manager. Again, I do not know why an onsite manager would need a two bedroom unless they're going to house them with their family. And if that's the case, I would like to know.
6:01:13So they said in the information here, I read it and wrote all over it, and I'm not going to go into a lot of detail, that they're going to have meetings with the community. Yes, it is in Santa Anita. It's on Buley Street. And we need to make contact with the community and see that, and ask them and meet with them to say, do you want this in your neighborhood? because Santa Anita neighborhood has been through a lot. And why are we going to put it on Biuli in Santa Anita when there are other areas that can, it can be placed in other areas of our city.
6:01:40Also, finally, it says the flyers will be produced in both English and Spanish. They also need to be produced in Vietnamese. So I will ask for that as well. Then they're going to have a preschool partnering with Head Start. So Head Start has many, many, I can't use the word many enough, requirements. And a lot of families are not eligible for Head Start because of the requirements. Even Santa Ana Unified moved away from using Head Start because it was such a challenge.
6:02:20So there are nonprofits and there are other agencies and other groups that can work with them around the preschool. Matter of fact, the city, we can do it ourselves and charge a small amount, if not for free, depending on the income level of the families that are there. And there would be a little piece to generate revenue if we had our own preschool. Because I think, Madam City Manager, when we were talking, you said we have a preschool. A nonprofit runs. Right. So it would be great to have a nonprofit run this one as well instead of Head Start that, yes, will give funding to the Illumination Foundation,
6:03:00but it comes with a whole bunch of requirements. And you've got to jump through a lot of red tape to get approved. So I'm not going to support this item tonight. and hopefully it will come back cleaner and better and with a lot more information. Yes, you were going to say something? Oh, so I know anybody else want to make comments? Councilman Penelosa.
6:03:41Thank you, Mayor. And I had a couple of questions for staff just regarding the staff report. In page three under developer background, we talk extensively about the developer's background and summary in operating shelters and rehabilitation and conversion and design of facility operations as well. And we also highlight Illumination Foundation's resume in operating the city's navigation center which they're doing a nice work over there. Illumination Foundation also
6:04:07developed and completed Fullerton's navigation center, Riverside Navigation Center, and emergency shelters in the cities of Stanton and Anaheim.
6:04:44Why would we fail to mention the fiasco that Illumination Foundation caused us at our navigation center when they were first asked to construct the shelter that is now our city shelter. We leave that out of their resume in the staff report. We talk about Furlerton, we talk about Riverside, but we don't talk about Illumination Foundation's history in constructing the shelter here. In the next paragraph it says Illumination Foundation is a fiscally responsible organization. Let me remind staff that at the groundbreaking ceremony for the navigation center, they
6:04:59had a very nice selection of wine and very numerous chefs cooking food for the people in attendance. So to me, if you're building a shelter for homeless people and we're gonna say that they're financially responsible and then they come to us saying, hey, this is too expensive to build, we can't do it, we give up halfway through the project, why would we even try to consider awarding another contract to them and leave that information out?
6:05:40Well, Council Member, I would tend to disagree with you a little bit on your generalized statements of them. Illumination Foundation is a very respected nonprofit that has done a lot for permanent supportive housing, and that's what this project is. They have a great track record in that area. I do agree with you. They were over their head when they were trying to turn an industrial building into an emergency shelter for 200 people. But they do have an exceptional track record, and they're also a nonprofit that has a great track record at bringing benefactors in and receiving dollars
6:06:20so that they can continue to do programs like this.
6:06:55Right, and Illumination Foundation is a great service provider. That's always, that's never been a question. They are a very good service provider. Big fan of the Children's Resource Center that they used to have here in Santa Ana. I volunteered there for a couple of years, and I know that they are doing a great job providing service at our current shelter. However, this is, is this not construction and design of another?
6:06:59So it's an existing residential unit building that they're going to be doing interior remodeling.
6:07:25Which was the same scenario that we had at the Carnegie Shelter.
6:07:32Converting an industrial building into residential units is significantly different than taking an existing residential unit and remodeling the units.
6:07:37But it's still the same general concept of you're taking an existing facility to remodel or rehab, whatever you want to call it, to house individuals. And I just don't see why we would go down the same path again with,
6:07:47was there a reason why we left out the Carnegie history from the staff report?
6:08:06I would have to defer to our Executive Director of Community Development, Mike Garcia.
6:08:10THANK YOU, MADAM STAGE MANAGING.
6:08:17HELLO, MR. GARCIA. JUDSON, HOW ARE YOU?
6:08:21EVENING. WE ARE BOTH HERE. JUDSON HAS A LOT MORE HISTORY ON THIS, BUT, YOU KNOW, IT IS AN EXISTING SPACE THAT WAS UTILIZED AS A CONVENT. THE REHABILITATION IS SIGNIFICANTLY DIFFERENT THAN DOING TENANT IMPROVEMENTS TO CREATE CONGREGATE HOUSING, which essentially is what happened at the Carnegie Shelter.
6:08:24Thank you. And to build upon that point, there's a key difference here in terms of the tenant improvements at the emergency shelter and the development of this project. First and foremost is that this commitment, tonight's commitment, would expire after two years if the developer doesn't secure all their other remaining financing to develop this project. So there's no coming back to City Council asking for additional funds for this project. This is one-time $2 million request, eight project-based vouchers to make this project possible.
6:08:51There's not the additional liability of the tenant improvements and the development of the emergency shelter. A clear very key difference between these two.
6:09:23Thank you, Judson.
6:09:33Any other questions?
6:09:35Yes, Madam Mayor.
6:09:37Any questions on this end? No? Okay. Yeah. Go ahead.
6:09:38City manager, can you just walk us through what this item is intended to do, and if it does not pass, what it will mean? Okay, certainly.
6:09:43So what is before you tonight is to consider approval of a pre-commitment of a little over $2 million in HAP money and eight project-based vouchers. So this is the city committing to illumination for this level, Illumination Foundation and now Illumination Foundation. I don't know what their gap is, how much more, but they will now be cobbling together the rest of the financing. And then if they're successful in it, what would return to you is the actual loan agreement to provide them that funding, if they're successful at getting the rest of their funding. Mr. Garcia, do you know what their gap is?
6:09:52Yes, it's $5.3 million to build out the remaining amount. so it's about a $7.3 million project estimate. They have commitments at this point, a major gift of $1 million.
6:10:32It's anonymous at this point, I believe. We've got Illumination Foundation immediately behind me. $125,000 from a Chick-fil-A grant, $100,000 from a Wells Fargo grant, $20,000 from a George Hogue Family Foundation grant, and then a million dollars pending from the community project funding of ca-46 so um so there is a a slight bit of a gap there but not much and uh so they've already got some uh
6:10:49secured and some pending funding there okay thanks look this is step one um and whatnot and what may be a step two that will come back to this council we don't know that right because of the funding the gap, which is a little bit steep. However, I will be supportive of this item because I think it's important. So I'll make a motion to move the item forward. Councilman Hernandez.
6:11:23Thank you. Thank you, Mayor Mesquah. I just wanted to touch on this item very briefly because this is clearly a conversation that has been important to this council is preventing preventing homelessness, preventing public inebriation. Items like this is exactly how we do this. This is an item that is designed to prevent homelessness. So let me tell you who we're going to house, because this isn't just two units for senior citizens, which make up the largest demographic of people experiencing homelessness.
6:11:47One of the demographics that is also impacted greatly by experiencing homelessness is transition aged youth. St. Ann is the youngest city per capita 13 to 24. This is a proactive item that is going to ensure that residents who live in this community can stay in their neighborhood. There are eight units restricted to homeless transition age youth. That qualifies from 13 to 21. And so when you look at who this permanent supportive housing project is trying to house, It's trying to house your neighbors because that is ultimately a priority to the city of Santa Ana.
6:12:23But all of a sudden now we're going to pretend it's not when there's $2 million in front of us that can help literally change the course of this neighborhood story by taking a dilapidated building, redeveloping it, and housing people that are vulnerable. So, head start. I'll say this because I am the only person on this council with a child under the age of 18, and I am also a Head Start parent. My daughter went to Head Start right here, right near First Street in Flower. So let me tell you who is eligible for California Head Start, which kudos to Illumination Foundation for being evidence-based and picking the best partners.
6:13:05Who is eligible for California Head Start? Children from birth to age five from families with low income, income, according to the poverty guidelines published by the federal government, are eligible for Head Start and Early Head Start services. Children in foster care, homeless children, and children from families receiving public assistance, temporary assistance for needy families, or supplemental security income are also eligible for Head Start and Early Head Start services regardless of income. Head Start programs may enroll children from families that have incomes above the poverty guidelines.
6:13:46pregnant woman may also be eligible for early Head Start. So I want to diminish the notion that Head Start is incredibly difficult to enroll your child in. My daughter was in Head Start from 2013 to 2014. So I know firsthand. I enrolled my daughter in it. I picked her up in it. And she graduated from Head Start. And so I want to remind my colleagues that a no vote is reckless and irresponsible. The difference in what we're seeing here today is there is a solution in front of us. It's not a pie-in-the-sky solution. It's a tangible one. We're creating housing.
6:14:17We're giving people something better than a sidewalk or a bus stop. But some of my colleagues want to say no. So when they tell you they're public safety champions, follow their votes. because eight transition-aged youth can be housed if they vote yes. Two seniors, which make up the largest demographic of people experiencing homelessness, can be housed with a yes vote. The experts in dealing with people experiencing homelessness is Illumination Foundation, which is why they've been part of some of the largest cities and counties building the infrastructure to respond to it.
6:14:57I completely agree with my colleague, Council Member Penaloza. They dropped the ball when it came to Carnegie. I'm not happy with that, but I'm glad they're not trying to build Carnegie. They're trying to do something that they can excel at in this case, and I'm supportive of that. And I thank Judson Brown and Michael Garcia for your guys' commitment to being responsive to the issue of solving homelessness. It takes creative partnerships like this and brave leadership, so thank you. And I'm fully supportive of this item, and I will second your motion, Councilmember. Mayor Pro Tem Lopez.
6:15:31Councilman Becerra and then Penelosa. Thank you, Madam Mayor. So, it's kind of a frightening trend we have tonight. So, when some of us have a different opinion up here, the way that it's framed by other folks goes in a completely different direction than what was actually stated. So, I think all of us on this dais have all talked about permanent supportive housing as being the far superior solution than just human warehousing and shelters. But the concern that was brought up about this particular item isn't about permanent supportive housing, it's about whether the entity
6:16:03that we would be giving money to or preliminarily saying we're going to eventually give them money, whether they can do the job. And to me to say, well, the 10 improvements at Carnegie are different than, say, what they're going to do here, that's like saying, well, the person might not be able to swim in a lake, but they can swim in a river. No, they can't. They can't swim. And I think in this case here unfortunately with illumination foundation they've demonstrated that they can provide services within a built out existing facility but to give them money to construct
6:16:37i i can't support that so i just want to be clear and i think that all of us up here have expressed support for permanent supportive housing in this particular instance it is not about the permanent support of housing it's about who would be building the permanent supportive housing that's where the concern has been raised.
6:17:10Thank you.
6:17:26Councilman, is it?
6:17:27Thank you, Mayor Mesquah. I guess the the one of the final questions I have, city staff, Madam City Manager,
6:17:30with in the only one the city only received only this one eligible proposal was from Illumination Foundation.
6:17:40Yes, that's correct. The city issued this RP in October and reached out to any organizations, any developers that had expressed an interest in developing housing for transitional age youth, and we only received one proposal.
6:17:51And were there attempts by others to submit proposals, or was there just no interest in submitting?
6:18:06There was just really no interest. It's a unique target population to serve, and these funds are restricted to serve only transitional age youth. So, there was just no interest out there.
6:18:13Okay. Thank you for that. So, IF was the only one that submitted?
6:18:26Yes, sir.
6:18:32Yeah, there was, okay. Thank you for that.
6:18:33I guess I also just want to reiterate what Councilmember Becerra mentioned, that I guess the concerns that I have here have nothing to do with the product, the services, the idea that is being presented here. We all want to support this, and it's not a matter of we don't want it. It's just questioning the contractor. I know that I've been consistent, and Executive Director Saba will tell you. That's the reason why I ask for resumes of each contractor that we award contracts to,
6:18:39because there's a lot of very crappy work being done on our streets. Not all of them, but a few. And I want to know which contractors those are so that they don't get contracts again. And it's just a matter of being, you know, responsible here and awarding these contracts.
6:19:18But if this would be... Is there a way where we could open it up further to see if any other service provider would desire
6:19:37submitting proposals, maybe they weren't aware or made aware of them?
6:19:52Sorry. The following the direction from City Council on this item, I think your options would be right to continue the item and seek additional proposals or yeah, city attorney is shaking her head yes. So you could either continue this item and we could try and seek additional proposals for the development of transitional age youth
6:19:59and return to city council or the item either passes or fails.
6:20:26Continuing the item, would that automatically allow staff to reopen for a proposal?
6:20:31No, let me ask. So Judson, did IF identify the site and they've made the arrangements for the site? And we don't have anything to do with the site. Yeah, exactly. So basically the RFP that the city did was for a nonprofit to find a location and to create these permanent supportive housing units. So that probably explains why you don't have an overwhelming number of proposals. That's a pretty heavy task to do. so if you want us to go back out for an RFP odds are you're you're probably not going to get an additional robust response to it okay so and one final
6:20:40question with that's my third final question right you said that three times with on this particular site you've seen it madam city manager I haven't seen it or heard of in a while, but there was a huge prostitution issue right in front, like literally on this yard of this particular property. It was right off of Bewley and Hazard. It was the site on the ride-alongs that we went on, Madam City Manager, way back when.
6:21:19This was where most of the concentration was of the women and the Johns. And so I just want to make sure, I don't know if our PD could comment, but is that still an ongoing issue at this particular location? Because I would also hate for IF to not really know what's going on at this site at night, you know, from 9 to 3 in the morning.
6:21:54May I suggest that if you do continue the item, that is something we could look into and bring back that information and return the item to you?
6:22:21Yeah, because...
6:22:30With prime stats around the area.
6:22:31So I would make a... Because I don't want to deny this. I don't... If IF is the only service provider that submitted a proposal and they're qualified to do it per staff at this time because of different circumstances, I don't want to deny this because of the services. This isn't what it's about. But I do want to make sure that Illumination Foundation could execute this and not have the same problems that we had with the previous project.
6:22:33And just building on that, building on the direction from the mayor as well, these are both issues and concerns that we can address. If you continue the item, we can meet with a proposed developer. We can inquire if they can potentially add a development partner to increase their capacity to ensure that this project is successfully completed and that fully addresses any concerns about their technical capacity to construct and complete this project. Relative to the mayor's concerns, we can meet with the developer regarding the unit mix,
6:23:08regarding their outreach strategy, regarding their, you have one more, Mayor, barriers to entry to Head Start. Head Start. We could discuss all those concerns, and depending on the outcome of those discussions, we could either return to City Council or if you can continue the item.
6:23:47I will make a sub-motion then to continue the item to the second meeting in August. Is that okay?
6:24:04I'll second that motion.
6:24:11Okay. Thank you, Judson. Thank you, Steph.
6:24:14Okay. Did you really speak or this is due?
6:24:18Oh, no, yeah.
6:24:21Oh, go ahead.
6:24:22Thank you. So just very quickly, two comments. I think the last one is a question, but to Councilmember Becerra's comment about when someone doesn't agree with you or someone's philosophy, the narrative being turned around, and I agree that we shouldn't do that. We just witnessed your behavior during your agenda item. very unprofessional and rude when I simply asked for a clarification and towards the end trying to towards really the majority direction of this council gave so I agree we should not engage in that way now we do have the folks from elimination foundation here can they possibly address the concerns that
6:24:23they're hearing from the dais tonight if you would like to hear from them they They probably, I don't, maybe they can talk about whether they are using the same construction company that worked on the Carnegie. If they're not, maybe they can talk about the qualifications of the group that's doing, this is an already built out, it's different, you know. The comment was whether it's built out, it's built out. It is rehab more than it is construction. So the group that they're working with may not be the same group that they were working with at Carnegie.
6:25:02Yeah, and not to get into the details of every single concern, but really a macro addressing some of the issues that you've heard here. I am interested in...
6:25:40And they acquired this site for $3.9 million. This is a little different than you will normally see. I'm sorry.
6:25:50Let me interrupt you, Mr. Garcia. Madam City Manager, attorney, can you address this? Madam City Manager.
6:25:55It's at your... You're the presiding officer. So I'm going to make this very clear.
6:26:02So Illumination Foundation, thank you. We don't need you to come up. There's a sub motion. Mike, thank you. You can ask the questions, Mayor Pro Tem, but this is a, you know, the pre-commitment, and so there was already an amended motion. Did you get a second?
6:26:05Well, I was going to say that I would like to make a motion to listen to Elimination Foundation.
6:26:22So in the interest of time, I'm going to remind this council that we are going back into closed session, so it's already 11 p.m. So unless we're going to continue the item from in closed session to August 1st, then we're going to and it's not that I don't want to hear from you either it's just that we've spent a lot of time on other items and so this is a pre-commitment letter. Can you come back as the amended motion was to address the concerns I think that were pretty clear from the council what they're looking for. Certainly. And you can meet with Illumination Foundation and bring them all back. So continue it
6:26:26to August 8th. That would give us adequate time to do just that. August 15th. It's the first or the 15th? Oh, I'm sorry, did I do it? We have the 1st and the 15th. The 15th.
6:27:05So, because that was your motion. Otherwise, we're going to be here until 2 o'clock in the morning in that back room. We've been here until 5. We're not going to make decisions at midnight. It just doesn't work. People turn into pumpkins. But there's three motions on the floor. Can we just repeat that? Yeah, so. Can you repeat the motion? No, there's not three. There's only two.
6:27:13Madam Clerk, what do you have? I did hear the last motion from Council Member Penaloza, seconded by mayor pro tem lopez to hear from illumination foundation right i'm so as a
6:27:31chairperson i can make that decision and again i'm saying that we're going to go on we can vote on your amended or vote on the first one you tell me madam city attorney because i'm i'm happy
6:27:44you want to sit here we're not going to go back in a close motion or was it the first motion made
6:27:55the first motion made was by mayor pro tem lopez seconded by council member hernandez to approve the item as presented, then the substitute motion was by Council Member Penaloza, seconded by Mayor Emesqua to continue the item to August 15th to allow staff to discuss further with Illumination Foundation.
6:28:00That's exactly what we have on the floor.
6:28:18And so you're saying there was a second substitute motion? Is that what we're taking?
6:28:20Yes, to bring Illumination Foundation to the podium to answer questions.
6:28:25To allow him to speak.
6:28:27That was a procedural motion though. That's not a motion on the... That item is... That's procedural.
6:28:28Can you clarify? Yes. Well, this is why I'd like you to act on the other item about adopting Rosenberg's rules, but it's much easier. It is a matter of process. The chair, it is your discretion as a matter of process unless you're overruled by supermajority vote. So motion, substantive motions, you can have up to three on before you as a matter of process. Again, if you can make that decision, you can be overruled by a supermajority vote.
6:28:33Okay, good. So I'll do the amended motion and then August 1st they can come back and present and speak August 15th August 15th I apologize August 15th so if everybody's okay with that I don't mind hearing from them I'm just reminding you we have to go back into closed session after this so if I prefer that we bring them back August 15th they've heard our concerns they can address it then so
6:28:58how does that be taking I that what she's referring to I'm sorry Council Council Member Hernandez had a question just so that you know.
6:29:26What is the question?
6:29:32There's two motions on the floor.
6:29:34And she's referring to the substitute motion which is to refer it to August 15th. Correct.
6:29:35Unless you want to stay here until...
6:29:41There's still an original motion on the floor.
6:29:44Correct. Yes. In process you would take the substitute motion first and then you can vote on the first motion. Right.
6:29:47So let's take the substitute motion first. Come back on August 15th and hear from Illumination Foundation. Let's vote.
6:29:52This is the substitute motion by Council Member Penaloza, seconded by Mayor Emesqua, to continue item 14 to the August 15th meeting. Allow staff to discuss with Illumination Foundation and have them come back at that time.
6:30:03The vote is three ayes, three nays. Ayes by Councilmember Peneliza and Becerra and Mayor Emesqua. Nays by Councilmember Hernandez, Vasquez and Mayor Pro Tem Lopez. And a recorded recusal by Councilmember Fan. Motion fails.
6:30:21Now you would take a motion, you would take a vote on the first motion, which was to approve the item.
6:30:36So we're voting to approve the item. Let's vote.
6:30:41motion by mayor pro tem lopez seconded by council member hernandez to approve item 14.
6:30:51vote is four eyes two nays nays by mayor mesqua and council member becerra with a recorded Reported recusal by Council Member Fan. Motion carries.
6:31:04MS.
6:31:14Perfect.
6:31:15Let's go to item 16 now.
6:31:15And who pulled that item? Council Member Hernandez had a comment.
6:31:20Yes. I just had a very brief comment, Mayor Mesquo. I just wanted to inform residents of Artisa Pilar that today we approved a budget reallocation and awarded a construction contract to Onyx Paving Company in the amount of $5,204,000 for the Fremont Elementary and Spurgeon Intermediate Safe Routes to School project with an estimated project delivery cost of $6,505,000. The intersections where you will see the construction taking place will be between Fairview and Bristol and between 17th Street and 1st Street. Thank you. That concludes my comments.
6:31:24Thank you. Item 18.
6:32:05Thank you, Mayor Mesquat. I pulled this item because of, well actually, Madam City Manager, if I could have Director Saba come up. I had a question because all of us received an email. Now, Director Saba, I hate doing this because I'd rather have spoken with you prior, but there was an email that we received from a Mr. McCullough. in, let's see, he is with Southwest Pump and Drilling. And in the email, Mr. McCullough is stating that he submitted his bid through Planet Bids, the system that Public Works uses, and that he was the lowest bidder.
6:32:09But then at some point, he could not get a hold of staff. And then all of a sudden, it was being communicated to him that he was non-responsive. I don't know what to believe at this point. I'm just reading this email. So, Director Saba, if you could provide some clarity on this.
6:32:50Director Saba Good evening, Mayor, Mayor Patel, members of the City Council, Nabil Saba, Director of Public Works.
6:33:05Southwest pumping and drilling company did submit a bid. The bid is consistent of two items, the application and the support documentation. The company did submit the application by the deadline. However, no attachments were included in the submittal, and therefore their application was incomplete and not responsive at that point.
6:33:12Okay, because, and again, I mean.
6:33:40There was no attachment with a signed bid document. If you look at the staff report itself, there is an itemized list of items that they bid on with a signature at the end. And that document was not included in the electronic submittal through the plan bid. And therefore, it's not responsive because we did not receive the attachment. That's part of the bid itself.
6:33:42So, and maybe I'm misreading this, but from what I'm reading from the email, it sounds like they were initially the only company to submit a bid. Is that correct?
6:34:09No, we received two bids.
6:34:19You received the two bids. Okay, and so because the other company completed all the documentation.
6:34:20The submittal, yes, it was complete application.
6:34:27Okay, so at this point then that's why they were deemed non-responsive. Yes, exactly. Help me understand it, just so we're all clear. So when somebody, excuse me, when they utilize Planet Bids, they submit the documentation because they're alleging in here that they were not or they were trying to contact staff and staff was non-responsive. and I guess there was some, I'm going to call it a third party or something that they were going through or you guys were going through and there just wasn't communication. Again, that's what's in their email. So I just want to understand.
6:34:29So if I'm submitting something through plant bids and maybe I have a question or just, you know, there's always something, right? Right. How does that work as far as them contacting staff?
6:35:02When someone submits a bid and there is a question about the bid process or the bidding document on any question those questions need to be put in through planet bid so everyone will know what the question is about and what this company is looking at okay so i don't believe that was followed but again the uh when we look at the bid we look at the application itself and the support documentation and all the signatures and the legal documentation that comes with a bid packet. In their case, there was an application, they met the deadline, however, there was no
6:35:13signed sheet like what you see here that was signed and submitted as an attachment to support
6:35:50the application. Okay. Thank you for that clarification. I don't appreciate receiving this email so late right before our meeting, but it did bring up a concern that I appreciate you providing that clarity. So with that, Madam Mayor, I'll go ahead and move staff's recommendation on this item.
6:35:56I'll second. If there are no more comments, if done, let's prepare to vote.
6:36:15A motion by Council Member Becerra, seconded by Mayor Omescua, to approve item 18, awarding a construction contract to best drilling and pump, Inc. for the Washington Well Improvements Well Drilling, Phase 1.
6:36:28Thank you. The vote is 7. Ayes, no nays.
6:36:39Motion carries.
6:36:42I apologize.
6:36:43Item 31, Mayor Pro Tem Lopez.
6:36:46You had comments.
6:36:50Yes, and I made my comments. Thank you.
6:36:51So you have no other comments? No. Councilman Vasquez, you had indicated you wanted a comment.
6:36:53It was Councilmember Hernandez that pulled that.
6:37:00Oh, I didn't see your hand over here. Yes. Can you push your button?
6:37:02Oh, you know, unfortunately I did, but it doesn't look like it's coming up.
6:37:05Okay, go ahead.
6:37:09Wonderful. Thank you. I pulled this item for discussion with my colleagues because this is an item that is of concern to our residents. And this is an item that I know a lot of people are looking at and a lot of us want to see improved police services in our community. What I'm concerned about is that the hiring crisis that we're experiencing all throughout the country related to policing isn't because people don't want to become police officers anymore.
6:37:10It's due to the fact that there are very high profile instances of police misconduct. There are very high profile incidents of excessive use of force and in some cases lethal force. And when you look at Santa Ana's police scorecard, the police scorecard.org, we unfortunately have a very low score at 34%. And the reason why it's important for us to acknowledge this, if you Google Sanana PD, you will see a number of scandals that are attached to our police department. The challenge that we're having is related to the issue of culture.
6:37:46And I do not want to incentivize somebody becoming a cop solely because of a bonus. There has been money allocated to hire police officers. and for some reason we're still not able to fill that need and my concern is that the culture that we have within our police department is so adversely impacted that it is now affecting our hiring and it is spilling out into our community we have a vote of no confidence from the police department from police officers against the chief of police there is a very public battle between the police union leadership and our police chief there are very public
6:38:29instances of police misconduct that made national news headlines and there is a very public recall that we are in the middle of and so when you're looking at all of these different factors Santa Ana I don't think we can throw just all of the taxpayer money that we have and think that this is going to be an issue that is going to resolve itself with with money I truly do believe that this is a band-aid of a solution I don't think that this is ultimately going to change the fact that police officers aren't applying here to Santa Ana I believe this is a issue that is related to culture and I do not think that this
6:39:09is going to change the hiring issues that we have I believe we need to address the culture the low score that we have within our police department I believe that we should shift our priority to community policing and build relationships and build trust with the officers that we do have. And that concludes my comments. I am a no vote at this time.
6:39:50Thank you, Councilman Hernan. Is there somebody, is there another hand up? Okay. I'm going to let you speak before I speak.
6:40:13Go ahead. Thank you, Mayor Mesquah. You know, I think it's important that we do talk about that. The fact that, well, there's two factors when it comes to why we are even having to do these hiring bonuses. They both do involve culture. But what it is is, and it was shown tonight, if I was a police officer looking for an agency to work for, I would unfortunately have to take a pause when I look at Santa Ana. Because when I look at leadership and I look at what's going on, I go, hmm, would that council support police?
6:40:19And on some of the votes that you see this council take, if I was an officer, I'd say, ooh, I don't feel too comfortable there. I don't feel too confident. Would they support us being proactive and keeping the community safe? Unfortunately, no. I think there are some votes that you've heard up here tonight that would give any good promising officer pause. So the fact that we have to have this hiring bonus program, part of it is because you have seen police portrayed, I think unfairly in many cases. But also, too, you see what's happening here in Santa Ana on this dais.
6:40:51So this is, you know, when you talk about decisions having costs, that's what this is. This has a cost. This sort of what we put out there, what police or potential police are seeing, that's what happens with this. So I agree that there is that concern. But unfortunately, because of all that, we can't unwind that. So we are in this point where we are hiring bonuses. I want to thank staff for the way they've structured this because I think it incentivizes trying to bring in officers that have further education and further skills. So I appreciate it, and I'm going to be supporting this item. Thank you.
6:41:28So there's no other comments. So, Councilman Ternanis, thank you for your comments. I appreciate them. I'm a big supporter of community policing, and I think it's very important. and we've had numerous conversations about police getting out of their car, making contact with the public, engaging with them. We do get complaints, and we also have really good officers, and we may have a few bad apples, right, that everybody looks and says, okay, Santa Ana, this Santa Ana, that one. The majority of our officers are very good officers, and, you know, I'm glad they're working for our city.
6:42:05Yes, if you Google Santa Ana PD, it comes up with all kinds of stuff. I agree with you. I won't mention names, but I'll just say the leadership I have some concerns about. I think that you and I, and I don't know about the others, have been very clear about our position on that. You know, our officers need to be trained better. They need to be trained to interact with the community. They need to know the laws, the changes that come up. They need to interact with administration at the top on a regular basis. They need to see them. They need to know them. And we need to have people out and about in our community.
6:42:46But this is not just a Santa Ana issue. The hiring of police officers is everywhere. Everywhere that you go, people are having a difficult time hiring officers. So I am going to support this item, but Madam City Manager, just like the earlier item about arresting people, I would highly encourage you to really work on the leadership and training and holding officers accountable to get out of their car, interact with the community, know the laws, know the basic changes, is, you know, keep their little cheat sheets in their vests
6:43:28so they're not arresting people for jaywalking when it's no longer illegal to do that. So there's a lot of things, and I'll stop there. But I would just say that I'm going to support this item. It's great we're doing the 30 for 30. I don't care, male or female. I just want officers to get hired that are good and that are qualified, and we pay them this bonus. So I'm also going to support this item. However, I want to be really clear that I really would like to Google Santa Ana PD and see all the good stuff that's happening and how they're interacting with our community
6:44:10and how we're doing true community policing, not what we say is community policing, but we are doing true community policing. and we know our neighbors they know us and officers know them by their names and they feel comfortable and safe around them so with that was there a
6:44:51motion to approve motion to approve let's say about
6:45:09Should we wait until Mayor Pro Tem comes back?
6:45:20No, I'm not waiting. We're voting.
6:45:24VOTE IS 5 AYES, 1 NAY, NAY BY COUNCILMEMBER HERNANDEZ, AND A REPORT TEMPORARY ABSENCE BY MAYOR Mayor Pro Tem Lopez. Motion carries.
6:45:33All right. So let's go now to 36. 36.
6:45:44Who pulled 36?
6:45:53You're on the business calendar now. I'm sorry? You've made it to the business calendar now. I'm getting there. I promise.
6:45:55I'm making my way. I'm trying to flip through my papers here. 36, business calendar. All right, Mayor. That's me. Item number 36 is to select a voting delegate and up to two alternates for the League of California Cities annual conference. Do any council members have a nomination? I do. I want to nominate Councilmember Becerra. I second. Oh, great. Yay, that was really good. Okay. How about two alternates?
6:46:02Gotta have two alternates, people. Councilman Vasquez, I don't believe you sit on any commission or committee.
6:46:34I didn't even have a chance to reject this or not.
6:46:39Which one do you sit on?
6:46:41You're an alternate.
6:46:44Mayor. But you're an alternate. Mayor, may I make a recommendation? Well, I guess it depends on who's actually going to attend the conference. He's going to attend the conference.
6:46:46I guess I'm going to attend, but I'll nominate Mayor Mesquo as my alternate.
6:46:55I second.
6:46:58I think we don't, I don't think we need more alternates.
6:47:00So how many alternates are there? You've got to have two. Do we have to have two? You have to submit two.
6:47:03Mayor, you up to two, you don't have to.
6:47:07Oh. well just oh just me oh thank you so much i said on like you're welcome commission your committees
6:47:09may i motion to approve the nomination of uh councilman becerra you were going to be the alternate and then uh the alternate to mayor mezcua there we go we got our two that was easy
6:47:14i'm voting no all right let's prepare to vote i'm not going to the conference
6:47:26the motion is by council member fan seconded by council member becerra to appoint council member becerra as the voting delegate and mayor amesqua as the alternate
6:47:37and the vote is six eyes no nays with a noted absence by mayor pro tem lopez motion carries alter delegates approved yes all right hearing no further discussion we're done
6:47:48with that item number 37 item number 37 pertains to city council meetings rules and procedures as well as teleconference options madam city manager may we have our staff report please so i believe
6:48:02the city clerk is going to have this one for you yes thank you very much um mayor and city council the item before you is to consider three recommended actions the first is to adopt a resolution amending the rules and procedures for city council meetings. There's various components to that piece, but part of it does allow for changing the noted time of the regular meetings, updating the rules of procedures, clarifying decorum regulations and addressing teleconferencing. And I can go into those in more detail if you would like. The second recommended action is to approve a revised teleconferencing policy.
6:48:16This will allow you to have a policy in place that stipulates when and how council members may use teleconferencing during your meetings. And then three would be to provide direction to staff regarding the continued use of Zoom and teleconferencing for public participation in city council meetings. So I'm happy to go into the details of the resolution if you would like, but I'll just note that the last resolution that was adopted was in 2013. So it's been in place for 10 years. As the city attorney mentioned earlier, one of the components would be to update the rules
6:48:52of procedure, so to no longer be utilizing Roberts Rules of Order, but to be using Rosenberg's, which is more of the municipal government standard at this point in time. It is a little simpler, it's more easy to follow, and we can provide guidance and a cheat sheet, if you will, in that regard, if that action is approved. Other options are regarding the start times of meetings is to really help allow us not to have to notice meetings as special meetings whenever we change the time within a specified window.
6:49:23For your consideration also is a meeting end time, a curfew with the allowance for counsel to vote to extend past that time if needed. Setting public hearing speaking limits beyond just the standard public comments, particularly for public hearings related to land use entitlements and appeals. decorum enforcement regarding state law and then various clerical edits to do a cleanup measure I'm happy to answer any questions that you might have that was
6:49:57quick all right comments or questions go ahead
6:50:29thank you mayor so I'll just go down my list first I just want to make sure that we retain the public's ability to speak via Zoom or teleconferencing. That was an item that we had kept after even, you know, shut down, lockdown and all that other stuff. The city of Santa Ana maintained that ability for the public. And I just want to make sure that we continue to allow the public to do so. So, section 2, page 37-6, I'm fine with the general idea that we have the 11 p.m. consideration to terminate at 12 a.m.
6:50:34However I would like that to be changed to four votes instead of a supermajority if there are items that the council majority still wants to consider before closing for the night.
6:51:17I guess I will accept Rosenberg's rules. The city attorney convinced me, so we'll go with that. Item 5C, or Section 5C of the resolution. I do agree that the city, excuse me, the mayor would have the ability to shorten the time, but I also would like to clarify that the mayor or the presiding officer, excuse me, would have the ability to increase time. And that should the mayor or the presiding officer decide to decrease time, the city council would be able to adjust that via motion with a majority vote.
6:51:33On Section 5D, I do see why we want to limit the amount of public hearing time, You know, the 10 minutes, three minutes for comments, and five minutes for rebuttal. I see that in our previous resolution it was kind of generic, reasonable. I'm a little worried about the 10 minutes, though. I think people, applicants, you know, they behoove themselves to not spend 20 minutes on a presentation, but if they have testimony in other presentations, I don't want us to stop them, especially if it's a, you know, a big matter. I want to make sure that they allow it. So, you know, maybe 20 minutes, up to 20 minutes,
6:52:10they don't have to use the whole time. I've never seen an applicant use all 20 minutes in a public hearing. The other item is the five minutes for rebuttal comments. I would remove the time period because if they have, if we have a lot of public comments on a public hearing item, five minutes just really, I think in some cases, won't be enough time to respond. So I think placing a limit on that isn't really necessary. And then Section 5F, page 37-8, it says that the presiding officer at the first sentence
6:52:49may direct the group to designate a spokesperson or limited number if the speakers are speaking on the same thing. I think that it should be changed to may request that the group choose a representative and not direct. I think that if people want to come here even if they're with a group but choose to make public comments they should be able to and Then regarding the teleconferencing policy I would support the policy that includes the ability to do teleconferencing with I believe is AB 2449 as an option so it gives flexibility
6:53:27I know that with typical Brown Act teleconferencing, you know, we have to do the 72 hours and posting whatnot, but you know some of us you might have a medical emergency or you're you're sick for some reason whatever I think having that flexibility is really helpful I believe that would be all thank you so just for clarification so once we do the comments I would support a motion to approve with those edits if the council
6:54:02I just wanted clarification, Madam Clerk, if you could.
6:54:39Under Section 2 in subsection C, it states that a special meeting may be called by the mayor or the mayor pro tem. In my past experiences, I've always been under the impression that only the mayor could call a special meeting so I'm not sure why it says that the mayor pro tem could call a special
6:54:44meeting that's carryover language from the previous resolution and I looks like the city
6:55:07attorney has some additional input I think the intent was probably the mayor pro tem in the absence of the mayor yeah maybe the language or at least four members of the council okay I think
6:55:12it's very important that we add language that all if and only in the event that the mayor says hey I'm going to Europe for a month you know and and the mayor pro tem would be the presiding officer but I do believe that we should follow our charter and and make sure that only the mayor or a majority of the City Council call a could has the ability to call a special meeting so we just to be clear would be
6:55:22the mayor the mayor pro tem in the mayor's absence or four members of the
6:55:48City Council and what the mayor madam city attorney with the mayor's absence
6:55:52have to be defined so we have to find the mayor's absence and another provision in municipal code when it comes to signing documents with your direction this evening you could direct us to clarify that and use that same language and the language we used in the municipal code was in their absence in noticed absence away from the city or a refusal to carry out their duties and we put it there in terms of the signatures because we did have an instance where we had a mayor not want to sign the document that was really I think some of you may remember that yeah and so we could use similar language if you want
6:55:57to be consistent yeah I think that would be appropriate for for this just to make sure that only the mayor or majority of the council. I'm okay with the start times and end times. I do want to continue the pre-pandemic teleconferencing policy for us council members. I think that's important. And as well as the, and also want to, I know that the school district recently did it and AND THEY WERE MOVED AWAY FROM ALL TELEPHONE COMMENTS, FROM DURING PUBLIC COMMENTS, AND I THINK WE SHOULD DO THE SAME.
6:56:37AND TELEPHONE AND ZOOM COMMENTS IS WHAT I MEANT, DURING PUBLIC COMMENTS. AND THAT'S IT FOR NOW. THANK YOU, MAYOR.
6:57:21SO I UNDERSTOOD YOU SAY YOU WANT TO NO LONGER HAVE ZOOM OR TELEPHONE COMMENTS.
6:57:28CORRECT, YEAH.
6:57:33OKAY. ANY OTHER COMMENTS? COUNSELIN VASCOZ?
6:57:34I do, sorry, David, for contradicting, but I do want to continue public speakers via Zoom. I think that's a great way to get people to speak, especially our senior citizens or mothers with children and families with young children. We have a nice amount of people speaking today. I'm okay with the Rosenberg rules. Thank you very much. I need a workshop. And I do support Council Member's ability to participate remotely as well and include to the finish time at 12 a.m.
6:57:38Mayor.
6:58:21Thank you.
6:58:22Mayor Pottson?
6:58:23Thank you. So on teleconferencing, I support continuing the option for the public to have the option of calling in remotes. You know, we live in a digital world now. I think we really need to learn how to adapt to what works best for people's schedules. I also support the continuation of teleconferencing for council members and the commissioners, but I do understand that there are state guidelines that we must abide by city clerk, so of course being in compliance with them, I'm supportive. I'm supportive of the proposition of Council Member Fan to change the supermajority vote to four votes.
6:58:24And I am also supportive of the idea that the Councilwoman brought forth in terms of addressing the motion to reduce the speaking time by a motion. since we've heard public comment, you know, pretty much tell us that they're not happy with the times that have been reduced in the past.
6:59:07For the public speaking time regarding land use entitlements, can you let me know if the, which I think the answer is going to be yes, whatever the minute is for the Council would be for the Planning Commission as well?
6:59:32The Planning Commission does have their own bylaws that dictate the timeframes for their presentations. Do you know what their time limit is? I believe it is Min do for applicant presentations at the Planning Commission.
6:59:50The Planning Commission has practiced that if there's a presentation by an applicant, they're limited to anywhere between ten I'm sorry five to ten minutes but it really the Commission has shift back and forth a little bit but historically it's
7:00:08about five to ten minutes okay so I think I'm fine with it being ten minutes I I I'm under the impression that the chair can always that the chair does have leeway to say you can go for longer and whatnot let's see what is the other the other and then oh Councilman Fan can you please report repeat sorry one of the last suggestions you made in terms of who gets to be designated to be a spokesperson for a group
7:00:24yes so on section I think it's 5f it indicates that if there's a big group of people who are talking about a similar topic let's say a non-profit group and so the language here in the resolution says that the presiding officer may direct the group today to designate a spokesperson or limited number of speakers to address the City Council I would like to change that to may request that the group you know speak how to choose a spokesperson so if there's 20 people who want to talk about something you know madam mayor can say hey you guys are all here for the same
7:00:57thing maybe you want to choose somebody to speak on your behalf rather than report you know 20 people repeating the same thing I think I'm just personally uncomfortable with the idea that any one of us or the presiding officer can say hey you organization need to pick somebody to speak on your behalf and to me that's what the word direct kind of says so that's why I wanted the change
7:01:34in that language thank you so it's just like a word change so I'm fine with that and the second or the last issue that I'm supportive although I think I struggled to get here was changing from Robert's Rules to the recommendation that staff is making. And so hopefully you will send, actually can you send me some sort of compare and contrast or some
7:01:55sort of cheat sheet? And we have circulated in the past and the Rosenberg Rules is a really nice, what I call a cheat sheet, really simplified version. And we can provide copies at your desk. they're up there on the bias for you and it really is easy to understand and how we do these substitute motions and so on so we could provide that to you I already have it I've shared it this evening with some of you that asked me
7:02:18for it thank you thank you thank you madam mayor I I also join my colleagues in supporting I think it was said that you know we are in a digital age and you know, COVID really showed us that we can function remotely. I do prefer that we're in person. I think it's important, but I think the flexibility when it's absolutely necessary to be mobile, I think we should preserve that. With that being said, I too have a couple of specific requests for changes.
7:02:44So in the resolution section 2A, I wanted it to read regular meetings of the City Council shall be convened in the Council Chambers or as noted on the agenda and at the time specified on the agenda rather than and time as specified. Because I want to make it clear that we need to try to start as close as possible to when we post it because I think it's fair for those that attend physically here in the Chamber that they know that we're going to come out as darn close as we can to the actual stated time on the agenda. And on Section 2D, this is going to be a small thing, but I think it's important just so
7:03:20there's clarity, but I wanted to read all meetings are scheduled to terminate at 11.59 p.m. on the same day that the meeting began. Just so that we're clear, what does 12 a.m. mean? We'll just say 11.59 on the same day, so there's no ambiguity on that. And then any other places where it says 12 a.m., I'd like it to reference 11.59 p.m. on the same day. And then as far as in the teleconferencing policies, let's see, there was in Section
7:04:013C4 there's a language that says the member participating remotely shall publicly disclose at the meeting before any action is taken, whether any other individuals 18 years of age or older are present in the room at the remote location with the member. I think it should be disclosed who's in the room, no matter who it is. I don't know that having an 18-year-old threshold would be suffice. I mean, if somebody's in the room, if they're 16 years old or 14 years old, I think it's important that we know that who is in the room with the member. Other than that, I would support the other recommendations.
7:04:37I agree with Council Member Finn in that, you know, when you have the back and forth with the developer, that you want to afford the ability to respond because in a perfect world, there are no reasons to respond, but if there are and there's a voluminous amount, then yeah, you wanna have the ability. You don't wanna be, there's an hour's worth of comments, but you get five minutes to respond. I mean, you may need a little bit more, so I think it's important to afford someone that. So that would be my recommendation, and then I support the change from Robert's rules to the new rules. Thank you. Councilman Hernandez.
7:05:15Thank you, Mayor Mesquah. I'm in full agreement with my colleagues, Madam City Attorney. With the exception of the time, I believe that we as a council should end our meetings no later than 11 o'clock p.m. That's the only area where I'm not in agreement. I'm in agreement with everything else.
7:05:53Councilman Panalosa.
7:06:13Thank you, Mayor. I HAVE A QUESTION, MADAM CLERK, FOR COUNCILMEMBER, I WANTED TO GET CLARITY. WHEN IT COMES TO CLOSED SESSION, I WAS TRYING TO FIND THIS SECTION, ARE WE MOVING TOWARDS ALLOWING US MEMBERS TO PARTICIPATE REMOTELY AGAIN? NO.
7:06:15IT WOULD STILL BE UNDER THE SAME PROVISION. So if you have a need that you currently have, either a notice on the agenda that you are participating from a set location via teleconference or potentially under the provisions of AB 2449 for just cause and emergency provisions.
7:06:38Got it. I got it. I got it.
7:06:56Not just on a general basis.
7:06:58Okay. Thank you.
7:07:00Yes. It's very limited in scope under the state law as it currently exists. and that does sunset currently on January 1st, 2026.
7:07:02And I guess I would like to add that if somebody would to exercise on that limited scope or that provision to participate remotely, aside from identifying anybody that's in the room, I would like that we include in here that a working camera must be on so that, I mean, that's in there, right? Yes, that's part of the provision. Okay.
7:07:11through the state law actually, that it does have to be through audio and video component. So they do have to have their camera on.
7:07:36Thank you, Madam Clerk.
7:07:44Go ahead. You want to clarify?
7:07:50Thank you. So Madam City Clerk, I just, or maybe I'm trying to understand. So if we have, I support allowing traditional teleconference, meaning, you know, 70 we have to give you notice prior to the 72 hours for well one week really to post it on the agenda with the address like so if I'm at home sick and I still want to participate I have to post my home address and print the agenda and post it on my door and allow any member of the public to come into my house and participate that's great great traditional and if I miss the agenda deadline under Brown Act then I cannot participate via zoom at all teleconference
7:07:51Okay. And then on top of that, my support for AB 2449 is to say, hey, because that allows for the emergency or just cause provision. So if I plan a vacation and forget to tell you, I can't use that. Correct. Right. I have to, maybe my mom went to the hospital or something. That's an emergency.
7:08:30Yes. There's very specific proponents under AB 2449, illness of yourself, child care, and things along those lines. It's definitely official travel on business, but again, that might be able to be noticed in advance so we could put that on the agenda. But it would have those very specific provisions only.
7:08:50I just want to clarify that one of the things I think causes some confusion is that what we call the emergency or just cause provisions that allow you two times a year to say without notice, you can only exercise those if the council is providing a virtual environment. So for cities or public agencies that are deciding not to provide a virtual environment, then you go back to the old rules and default, and if you didn't notice it, you missed the meeting. So just want to make sure that's clear.
7:09:08Thank you. And then one last thing that Councilman Peñalosa made a good point about is typically with traditional Brown Act teleconferencing, even in participation in closed session, you know, you could be just on the phone. can we as a council mandate that it also have your camera on because we've had that issue in the past or would that be just a separate item I think if you have
7:09:39a policy that requires that then you can require that yeah I would support that
7:10:03I would as part of the teleconferencing at least at the very least for closed
7:10:07session thank you yet you said that we that's for 29 let me let me re-clarify
7:10:12I apologize if I misunderstood the question. Under the just cause and the emergency provisions of AB 2449 requires audio and video. Traditional pre-pandemic teleconferencing with your location posted on the agenda, your agenda posted at your location, people being able to attend there, that only requires telephone participation. But like the city attorney just mentioned, if we would like to add that to the policy to require video in that instance as well, we could add that to the policy.
7:10:22Yeah, I would personally like that.
7:10:51Anybody else? Is there a motion on the table? I'm going to make a motion.
7:10:58Is there a motion?
7:11:02Do you want to speak? Well, I do, but there is a motion, right, by Council Member?
7:11:03Well, I said I would support a motion to add all these items, but I don't know if staff might want to come back. I have a question about your items for us, though.
7:11:08So, yes, so this is for the council. There had been, I think, a thought about possibly starting our meetings or closed session about an hour earlier, because we do sometimes tend to have two-hour closed sessions. In order to not make the public sit there for two hours or wait a lot longer than what they really should be we had entertained the thought of uh you know starting at four and so i just want to put that you know out there to see if there is any interest from the council
7:11:16in entertaining the idea of starting closed session at 4 pm well i would entertain it um if
7:11:58we have a lot on closed session items and i know the city manager madame said she's asked um a couple times where it's full agenda closed session can we start at 4 4 30 and like yeah so if you want to make if you want to make that recommendation I'm okay with I think some people that don't get off work until almost 5 or you get it's kind of hard so if you're flexible to say between 4 and and 5 starting time I think we could probably get more support yes so section 2a of the
7:12:07The resolution does state that the closed session may start between 3 and 5. Just depending, I think, as staff determines is needed, but without having to post special meetings. It's in here from 3 to 5. Right.
7:12:40So that's what we've been exercising now. No.
7:12:52The current resolution reads that closed session will start at 5 p.m. So any time prior to this that you've started at 4.30 or 4 or 3, we've had to call and notice that as a special meeting because it deviates from your rules and the mayor has to you know do that because she's the one that can do the special meeting we can't just decide as staff at that point in time so this would give us the flexibility when there are a lengthy closed session agenda to have the start time at 4 p.m um which i or 4 30 just depending on what staff determines how long
7:12:56each item may potentially take okay but it's not set at four correct no it's not set we start
7:13:29between 3 and 5 p.m.
7:13:35Okay, thank you.
7:13:36So just to clarify, Councilman and Profound, nobody else, right? We're good? Everybody's good? Okay. So I think you were speaking and everybody was kind of going, so I just want to be clear that the three-minute limit, we're going to keep it, that as the mayor, whoever the mayor is, has the ability to keep it at three minutes.
7:13:38You didn't change that.
7:14:00Correct. My change is that provision kind of below that on subsection, so section 5C, it just says that the mayor has the ability or the presiding officer shall have the discretion to reduce the time allotted to speakers. I want you to also be able to increase the time if it's necessary. Okay, perfect. Okay, thank you.
7:14:01I just wanted clarification on that. Okay, is there a motion on the floor? Can you read back
7:14:19what we agreed on? Sure, let me see how much I can capture of what you all said. Maybe you can go item by item and we'll just straw poll.
7:14:25Go ahead and do your thing. You just do what works for you.
7:14:36Okay. So the notes I have from council member Fan saying to keep Zoom for public comments. Okay with the 11 p.m. allocation for setting the meeting to end by midnight or 1159 from what council member Becerra suggested, but having four votes to potentially extend past that if necessary, rather than a super majority. providing the presiding officer the ability to increase the time for public comments.
7:14:38And then when the presiding officer may decrease the time allowing the rest of the council to address that by motion and majority vote to not allow for the decrease.
7:15:08She expressed concerns about the 10 p.m. or the 10 minute public hearing presentation and suggested up to 20 minutes. But I think I heard some other members just in favor of the 10 minutes, so that would be a section for clarification. And she requested to remove the rebuttal time limit. And I believe Council Member Becerra also was in support of that.
7:15:21Asking that the mayor could request a group to set a designated spokesperson as opposed to direct them to do that. and allowing the AB 2449 flexibility just cause emergency provisions for teleconferencing.
7:15:44A clarification to calling a special meeting for the Mayor Pro Tem's ability to do that only if the Mayor is absent and using the language that we already have existing in the Municipal Code. I'm sorry, these are Council Member Penaloza's comments. Okay, with the starting and ending time, keeping the teleconference policy for the Council Members, but to remove the public comment portion of Zoom. Council Member Vasquez requested to keep Zoom public comments and was okay with Rosenberg's, the AB 2449 provisions and the meeting times. Council Member, Mayor Pro Tem Lopez, keeping public comments via Zoom,
7:15:59keeping the AB 2449 teleconference provisions. And then she agreed with the four votes to extend the meeting, reducing the time. and the other provisions of that, of Council Member fans about reducing the time limits and the like, so.
7:16:40Council Member Becerra requested specific revisions to put that we will start the meeting at the time as stated on the agenda, and within the Council Chamber, suggested changing midnight to 11.59 p.m. on the same day the meeting begins for clarity, making sure that it's disclosed anybody who's in the room with a Council Member who is teleconferencing, regardless of age. and then support for the other recommendations and for Rosenberg, Council Member Hernandez agreed with, or he preferred to end the meeting at 11 p.m. rather than 11.59 or midnight and agreed with the other provisions. And then we had the request to include
7:16:59in the teleconferencing policy that a council member would use video and audio whenever using teleconferencing, regardless of if it's under the AB 2449 provisions.
7:17:35You're good, wow, bravo.
7:17:45So may I make a motion? Wait, is she done? Are you done? Yes, that concludes what I have.
7:17:48Okay.
7:17:53So I'll make a motion to approve staff's recommendation with my suggested changes, except the 20 minute thing. We'll just keep it at the 10 minutes. And to include Council Member Becerra's inclusion or the change in language to 1159 on the same day instead of 12 a.m. And to require that anyone using teleconference also provide video teleconferencing with 2449.
7:17:54Identify all people, including minors, in the room, regardless of age. And I believe that covers all of it.
7:18:25And to continue allowing teleconferencing, which was part of my comments. Thank you. Okay.
7:18:35So that's a motion to approve staff's recommendation for adopting the resolution with the edits as stated by council member Fan just now and approving the revised teleconferencing policy with the provisions of AB 2449, including identifying all members in the room and requiring video during traditional teleconferencing procedures and providing the direction to staff to continue public comments via Zoom.
7:18:43You also have there the four votes to...
7:19:11Yes, the four votes in order to extend the meeting past midnight.
7:19:14Perfect. So there's a motion on the floor. Is there a second?
7:19:19Second. Councilor Mayor, may I?
7:19:22Yeah, go ahead.
7:19:26I wanted to...
7:19:27Does that include the language to... When it comes to calling a special meeting, defining that?
7:19:30Yes, that was already included in staff's recommendation.
7:19:36No, the specific part about that the mayor pro tem can only call a special meeting in the absence of a mayor.
7:19:39Apologies.
7:19:48Thank you.
7:19:50I'm sorry, real quick. When we define that in the absence of the mayor, what does that mean?
7:19:55In our current municipal code, it's when the mayor has announced an absence, like I'm on vacation, or we know that the mayor is out of town. So when the department head leaves and puts someone else in charge, so that's when the mayor pro tem could act based on maybe the request from the city manager because there's an emergency situation.
7:20:02So just to be clear, though, so the mayor's in town, but for whatever reason, the mayor's not picking up her phone for maybe a couple hours. That doesn't qualify. Doesn't qualify. Okay, perfect. Thank you.
7:20:21Okay, any other questions, clarification? We're good, you did good, Jennifer. All right, there's a motion.
7:20:32The motion by Council Member Fan, seconded by Council Member Hernandez, as stated, adopting the resolution with stated edits, approving teleconferencing policy with AB 2449, and keeping public comments via Zoom.
7:20:41All right, let's prepare to vote.
7:20:57The vote is 7 ayes, no nays. Motion carries.
7:21:05All right. Now we're going to go to public hearing.
7:21:08Before public hearing item 38, Madam Clerk, please provide instructions to the public who would like to make a comment on this public hearing item only.
7:21:15Thank you, Mayor. If there are any members of the public joining us by way of Zoom or conference call who would like to make a comment for Public Hearing Item 38 only, please dial star 9 from your phone or select Raise Hand from Zoom now.
7:21:24Are there any comments for Item 38?
7:21:40There are no one on Zoom, but we do have one card. Okay.
7:21:43Mr. Ed Danoff?
7:21:51Yes.
7:21:52Come on up, sir.
7:21:54Thank you.
7:21:56Thank you for waiting. Thank you.
7:21:57either good evening or almost good morning we're close anyhow what I'd like to do is oppose the assessment being made against my property AP 398 5 2 3 0 7 I believe the city council members got a copy of the letter that I submitted has everybody seen that we can't engage with you sir oh I'm sorry well the problem is there was never any property removed from that parcel number or 1323 North Broadway there was no warrant no permission to remove any property well
7:21:59actually there was permission to remove it from that property but there was no property there the city mr. Rodriguez when they found out there was no items there to be abated at that particular parcel of property that they got a warrant from the court for they went to another property they have around the corner on Sycamore and remove property from there without a warrant so the bottom line is I asked that it be nigh the assessment be denied or if nothing else at least stay or vacate a ruling on this until we're done with the courts
7:22:39because this is something that's gonna be before the courts let the court rule whether they can remove property without a warrant. And that's where we are. They removed property from another address that was not on the warrant without any permission and took about $200,000 worth of property and absconded with it.
7:23:19It's going to be in the courts to find out whether they can do something like that. Personally, I think if you have the wrong address on the warrant, you just can't go to another property and take property from a different address. The warrant, it was very specific. It said what parcel would address. And the property they took the property from was in the letter that I sent you. It was a different address. It was 1322 North Sycamore and a totally different parcel number, 398-523-16.
7:23:42So I asked that the court deny that that assessment, I mean, this mayor and the council deny that assessment or an alternative state until it's decided by the courts. Thank you.
7:24:17Thank you, sir.
7:24:32And Mayor, stating for the record that we did receive one email comment related to this public hearing that was distributed to council and posted online.
7:24:33Thank you. Men, can, excuse me, Dr. Todd, can you address this, please?
7:24:41our legal team has reviewed the property and it's one property with two separate parcels and that the action was taken for the property as a single site that site has frontage both along Broadway as well as Sycamore and the removal of the work was done on the property as a whole under citation. The action that's being requested by the City Council tonight is to affirm that we spent the money and that you would authorize staff to be able to, if we are unable to recover the cost through the owner, is to submit it
7:24:47to the county assessor so that we can recover it through the tax roll through the lien process. By doing this action it doesn't mean that the owner can't come in sit down discuss the issue with staff and hopefully be able to resolve the issue through that process but what you actually you're taking tonight is just to confirm the fact that we did spent the money which we have and that if we cannot recover from the property owner that we have the ability to submit it to
7:25:28the county as a lien so so what no sir sorry so what I hear you saying is that WE'LL CONFIRM THIS. IF IT GETS CONFIRMED TONIGHT, THEN THEY CAN COME AND MEET WITH YOU.
7:25:56ABSOLUTELY.
7:26:09AND THEN YOU CAN WORK IT OUT.
7:26:10CORRECT. WE WOULD WELCOME TO MEET WITH THE OWNER TOMORROW.
7:26:11OKAY, GREAT. ARE THERE ANY QUESTIONS? SIR, WE CAN'T ENGAGE LIKE THIS, SIR. WE CAN'T. SIR, WE DON'T ENGAGE THIS WAY. THANK YOU SO VERY MUCH. THANK YOU, SIR. ARE THERE ANY QUESTIONS FROM THE COUNCIL?
7:26:15ON MY END, MAYOR MESQUA? No questions, but I would like to make a motion to end the meeting with the newly adopted rules that we just voted on to end the meeting and bring our closed session item back to the next meeting.
7:26:29So we're going to vote on this item.
7:26:44I don't believe we have a vote. We don't need to vote.
7:26:47We're good with this item.
7:26:49On this item, well, you'll need to vote and close up this public hearing and then your motion can come right after us.
7:26:51That's what I was about to do.
7:26:55Long night. Apologies.
7:26:56But you're recommending that we discuss our closed session item August 1st?
7:26:58Yes.
7:27:04Okay, great. I'll second that in motion when we get there. Okay, so let's go on item 38. Let's close this out. Is there a motion?
7:27:05Make a motion to move the item.
7:27:12I'll second. Prepare to vote.
7:27:13A motion by Councilmember Hernandez, seconded by Mayor Emescoa, to approve staff recommendation for Public Hearing Item 38.
7:27:25No further comments, I hear my, I'm sorry, go ahead.
7:27:33Still waiting for the final votes to come in.
7:27:36I'm rushing to apologize.
7:27:38Mayor Pro Tem Lopez.
7:27:41Okay, if you could voice your vote, please.
7:27:45If I could what?
7:27:48Voice your vote. Oh, yes. Councilmember Penaliza?
7:27:49Yes. You might as well just do a roll call since we did today.
7:27:54It's seven ayes, no nays. Motion carries.
7:27:58Okay, perfect. With no further comments, I hereby close the public hearing. No other questions or comments by the council members. Okay, item 39 was already discussed. Are there any closing comments? Because there was a motion by Councilman Hernandez to end this meeting at this time.
7:28:01Mayor, if I may, I apologize for the interruption. But besides your potential closed session item, there is a special housing authority agenda that you need to address.
7:28:23Where are we at here? Oh, I apologize. Let's go to the housing authority. A separate meeting.
7:28:32Where are we at? Do we have any speakers? I'm going to open up the Housing Authority. Do we have any speakers for items within the Housing Authority? We do not.
7:28:39And I'll note for the record that all seven members are present in the chamber.
7:28:50Is there a motion? We'll make a motion and move the items.
7:28:54Mayor, I need to state a recusal. So I need to recuse myself out of an abundance of caution as item three on the Housing Authority agenda is related to Illumination Foundation, which is a client of my law firm. And so if it is pulled, then I will leave the room. Thank you.
7:28:57And I'll be registering a no vote on just Item 3.
7:29:12Okay. So you're registering a no vote on Item 3.
7:29:17Cal Smoker fan, if they do not pull this off the consent calendar, you don't have to leave.
7:29:22Okay. And that's the one we had earlier, the Bulee Lusantanita one. I'm a registered no vote as well. so items one and two and three the rest of the council if we can vote please can
7:29:26I get a motion to approve the consent calendar for this housing authority
7:29:39please I made a motion to approve I'll second the housing authority meeting is
7:29:43now adjourned mayor if we can take the vote please oh Jesus I know it's late
7:29:48I told you I turned into a pumpkin. So, Madam State Clerk, so just a clerk. And I saw him in a bill turn the air conditioner off.
7:29:56Go ahead and vote on the consent calendar as a whole, and I'll state the recorded no's.
7:30:02You'll state that I'm a no on three and the mayor's?
7:30:06Yes.
7:30:08Okay.
7:30:08Can you tell me?
7:30:10I'm so sorry. I'm a little embarrassed. What am I voting on? Because it's warm in here.
7:30:11You're voting on the Housing Authority consent calendar, which are items one through three. And if you could basically vote on three. but if you could cast your vote related to items one and two.
7:30:15Okay, let's vote on one and two. I turn into a pumpkin when it gets warm.
7:30:25Just waiting for your vote, Mayor, please. If you're an aye vote on the first two items. Okay, perfect. Thank you. So the motion on the consent calendar, the vote is seven ayes, no nays, with recorded no votes by Mayor Emeskola and authority member Becerra on item number three. Motion carries.
7:30:30The Housing Authority meeting is now adjourned, and I'm going to reconvene to the city council meeting. Let's start with, Madam City Manager, do you have any announcements? Just a few, Mayor.
7:30:48So I did want to comment on Fiestas Patriots. We have been, that is one of our largest events and our most popular event, and it takes almost a year to plan. So for 2023, which is well underway, it was planned to be on Flower Street and not in the downtown area. We certainly can reevaluate Fiestas Patriots for 2024.
7:30:59Madam City Manager, I want to apologize because I'm in the wrong here. And I can always admit when I'm in the wrong. So there was a motion on the floor to close the meeting and to not go back into closed session and discuss that matter. But actually, we're going to completely close the meeting at this time because I second it. So let's vote on closing the meeting right now as the motion was made. I apologize. So let's vote, please.
7:31:20I'm sorry. Point of clarification, Madam City Attorney. Are we closing just ending the meeting? That's correct. That was the motion by Council Member Hernandez?
7:31:45Because you adopted the resolution earlier and the resolution takes effect immediately upon its adoption, you have a council member who made the motion to exercise that right. And I second it.
7:31:51I love that. So now we're going to vote to close or not. So let's don't take 20 minutes to make this decision. Ready to vote?
7:32:02We were closing comments, but all right, whatever.
7:32:10No, this is what we voted on. Let's vote.
7:32:13A motion by Council Member Hernandez, seconded by Mayor Emesqua to adjourn the meeting immediately.
7:32:17I have a question. So no one gets to have closing comments? No. He made a motion.
7:32:23You just adopted a resolution that said that when it turns 11.59 p.m., someone can make a motion to end the meeting. It can be overturned by four votes, but the motion is to close the meeting. Understood. Thank you.
7:32:29Okay, let's vote.
7:32:42I'll make a sub-motion to not close the meeting tonight since we're almost done with it.
7:32:43I'll second.
7:32:49Okay. Let's vote on the sub-motion.
7:32:52I didn't vote on any motion.
7:32:57I'm going to clear it out. Hold on, please.
7:33:00The sub-motion is to go ahead, literally the sub-motion is to go ahead and proceed with the meeting instead of being for the meeting.
7:33:03But it has to be four or more. That's right. So we have to vote on this.
7:33:09You'll need four votes. I'll just let the city manager finish.
7:33:13We're going to do this every meeting.
7:33:18Okay.
7:33:21Please let me just do a roll call vote on this now. This is a motion by a sub motion by council member Penaloza, seconded by council member Fan to continue with the remainder of the agenda. Council member Becerra?
7:33:27No.
7:33:40Councilmember Hernandez?
7:33:42No.
7:33:43Councilmember Penaliza?
7:33:44Yes.
7:33:45Councilmember Fan? Yes. Councilmember Vasquez?
7:33:47Yes.
7:33:50Mayor Pro Tem Lopez? Yes. Mayor Mesqua?
7:33:51No.
7:33:55Vote is four ayes, three nays. Nays by Mayor Mesqua, Councilmember Becerra, and Hernandez. Motion carries to continue the agenda. And we were on city manager comments.
7:33:56Go ahead, Madam City Manager. This is going to be a regular thing every meeting. We say we're going to get out early and then we don't.
7:34:07All right. I was commenting before that 2023 Fiestas Patriots will be held on Flower Street. We can reevaluate the downtown area. But because that event has become so popular, it does require quite a large footprint. And over the history of having that event in the downtown area, it has been mixed between the merchants that want it there and the merchants that don't want it there because it does require like a closure for four days. So we'll reevaluate based on the feedback that we heard from commenters tonight. And the only other thing is I just want to announce that today the Orange County Board of Supervisors
7:34:13approved my appointment to the Commissioned in Homelessness, and I will be on there representing the central region of Orange County. That's it.
7:34:47Great. Now meeting is adjourned because she finished. So at this time... Mayor.
7:34:55Mayor.
7:35:00There are closing calls. What was the motion? Council. What was the motion? The motion was to continue the remainder of the agenda, which does the next item would be council comments all right do your thing
7:35:00councilman Vasquez I just back to for transparency reasons and I have to say I went to a conference paid by the city in New York City and it was great so I had it I went to be trained for the Leo which is a national association of Latino elected officials I went to a few workshops they were great I went to the nuts and bolts of budgets and I learned that we're doing a great job at presenting our budget to the community. Good job, Sanayana. You guys are, it's amazing. The only thing that everybody messes up, including ourselves, is community input for the budget, so let's
7:35:11do better. I went to a small business and Latino entrepreneurship workshop as well and what we found out is it's very difficult for Latino businesses to get loans, so there's systematic racism is happening. I went with the workshop and a few of us went for electrification and growing alternatives and this is more about electric cars than anything else. It was a good informational, if anybody wants information I got it for you. And the last one was on Latinos and housing, creating, being able to create partnerships with different groups and
7:35:49and using those groups that are Latino based, that are Latino owned to use federal and state incentives to build housing, affordable housing for families. And then we do have rent control in Santa Ana, so I am going to come up with a workshop. I'm organizing a workshop hopefully soon in August, so look out for that. Besides that, we're going to have on Rosita Park, we're going to have a concert. Great. Thank you. I can't wait. It's at 530 it starts. And then on Friday, SAS is organizing a bike ride from the Delhi around and it'll be great as well at 6 p.m.
7:36:27That's all. Mayor Pro Tem Lopez.
7:37:08Yes. Thank you. Let's see. Well, first I'd like to request
7:37:11to end this, adjourn this meeting in honor of Tania Valencia who was tragically killed not too long ago on West 17th Street due to a pedestrian accident and I really just want to take this opportunity to urge all Sun Anna residents to slow down. I've said it multiple times here I've advocated for it you know with different organizations and that's really one of the top concerns our office is receiving the concern of people speeding on the arterial roads but also in the neighborhood roads and so please slow down everything has consequences and
7:37:17tragically we've lost one of our community members her name is Tana Valencia I would also like to per AB1234 I also attended the national conference with Nalale and several of my colleagues here and the week really consisted of adhering to multiple sessions that they had prepared for all of the electeds, like the housing session and the role of electeds and Latinos and whatnot, and solving the housing crisis that every state is really facing here in the nation. Another one was how to manage your role in an era where everything is so incredibly polarized,
7:37:57how to deal with you know unprofessionalism bad behavior bullies things of that sort we also attended an opening ceremony with welcome remarks from a number of elected leaders and universities and nonprofits to discuss the various trends that are happening in the nation and how they impact different states like California and different counties. So there was just like a lot to do and one of the favorite things that I actually got to participate in was in their service project which is a tradition for Nileo
7:38:38of every year picking a nonprofit organization and having the elected set of ten that are willing to do this it's voluntarily you know do some sort of service hours and the organization that they picked this year was a violence intervention program, the Benefits Women. And so they got, folks got to pack health and hygiene kits for the beneficiary of this year. And they work with Latinas victims of domestic violence and sexual violence. In closing comments, I just want to state that for the record, the $1 million that was mentioned earlier during public comment for the recall was approved by this council.
7:39:19It was a line budget item that we approved because two recall petitions were submitted, one against me and one against Councilmember Fan. And so that is a fact. Again, not only will residents be burdened with the cost of a special election this year, they will have to pay for another one if it is successful, unless the rumors are true that the council seat has already been promised. In closing comments, I do want to invite everyone to Portola Parks event. We're having a tree planting event to celebrate Parks Month.
7:40:00And so I hope that really any enthusiasts out there will come out and support the Public Works Department and the Parks and Rec Department. Thank you so much. Have a good night.
7:40:36Councilman Penelosa.
7:40:50Thank you, Mayor. I just wanted to also state for the record, per AB1234, that I also attended the Naleo conference along with some of my colleagues in New York, and the city paid for for the conference and the flight. I think one of the things that we need to discuss here further is, and I heard some of my colleagues mention it, is as we move forward, especially in this state, with the electrification of vehicles and how it's different here in the state where we do have rolling blackouts every summer and the state tells us not to charge our vehicles,
7:40:52but they're telling us to move towards electric vehicles, but how we have a lot of unused parking lots and that there's potential there for multipurpose facilities and mixed use, but also building this electric system that we needed for charging stations to charge these vehicles, because we don't have many of them. I thought, well, we have been. In Santa Ana, we started using our public spaces to install, to partner with electric companies and installing these electric charging stations.
7:41:34So it was nice to see that we're already moving in that direction, but there's definitely ways that we could further implement it. So I just wanted to state that for the record and not violate AB 1234, which is why I wanted to continue the remainder of the meeting. But with that, thank you, staff, and good night.
7:42:10Councilman Hernandez.
7:42:32Thank you, Mayor Mesquah. I wanted to adjourn today's meeting in honor of a resident from Ward 5. Helen Romero Reyna was the fourth oldest of ten siblings. Helen was raised not too far from the local dairy farm by the Santa Ana Riverbed. And Helen is a Santa Ana native and completed her education in Orange County at a time when segregation was still in place. Although she lived in Santa Ana, she was bused to Hoover Elementary in Westminster and attended Santa Ana High School and was a scholar athlete. Helen and her husband, Thomas Rangel Reyna, raised four children, Thomas Reyna, Denise Reyna,
7:42:34Kenneth Reyna, Roman Reyna, and in the same city, her family roots were established in the 1920s in Santa Ana. She worked at Baxter for over a decade until 1990, in which she became a crossing guard for a school district within Orange County. She enjoyed her family to the fullest in the past 30 years. She loved family time, especially with her eight grandchildren, her 25 great-great-grandchildren, and she also enjoyed her weekly bingo and was an avid sports fan. Cheering for the 49ers, the Lakers, and the Angels, Helen leaves behind a legacy of love to all of those who knew her.
7:43:13Let us join in mourning the loss of Helen Reyna, her family, and her community will never forget her. May she be remembered. Thank you.
7:43:51Councilman Becerra. Thank you.
7:43:59July 17th, we celebrated the 134th anniversary of the voters of Orange County selecting the City of Santa Ana to serve as the county seat. So next year will be the 135th. So hopefully I'm looking over towards the City Manager and Hawk at maybe some sort of celebration or Brian's already left. I know Brian can probably bring some good things to that celebration. And then I would also like to acknowledge that we are adjourning the meeting in memory of Robert McCullough and Kim Sinclair. Robert or Bob, as many of us at the Santa Ana Elks Lodge knew him, he was a 70-year elk, passed away at 94.
7:44:04He's the reason why for those that are members or those that have visited the Elks Lodge see a brand-new contemporary building that's state-of-the-art. and that was something that Bob pushed for and Bob was able to get. Bob was an amazing man and we're going to miss him. Kim Sinclair is somebody that served this city, was a resident, a longtime resident of Floral Park and served on various commissions and committees here in Santa Ana and we're going to miss her. These are folks that have given so much back to the community, to the greater Santa Ana community. And so it's unfortunate that we've lost them, but we should remember them.
7:44:44And tonight we will adjourn our meeting in memory of those two as well. Thank you, Madam Mayor.
7:45:25Councilmember Fan. Thank you. So first I'd like to say congratulations to the Garden Grove Unified School District, particularly Santiago High School. I believe Councilmember Becerra was there, that's his alma mater, for the ribbon cutting for the athletics facilities. And I know that there are a couple more coming up, including Los Amigos High School. So I'm very excited that the Garden Grove Unified School District is working to improve its athletic facilities for students. I'd like to say that as a member of the Metropolitan Water District Board, or your representative,
7:45:31we met, we had three cities meeting because the city of Anaheim, Fullerton, and Santa Ana are original founding members of the largest water importer in America. And we meet quarterly or periodically to talk about how to advocate for our cities with this large water agency to ensure that our residents are getting the benefits of our advocacy and that they don't just choose to increase rates or do what's common or easy for other cities, but that we work in unison. I'd like to thank staff for the second ever Santa Ana Vietnamese Business Forum held on July 13th.
7:46:05It was the first one we ever had was in 2008, and I'm really glad we brought it back. It was in the Doubletree, and Councilman Becerra was also there. That was a really fantastic event. I hope that we can continue to do it each year because I think it'd be really great to bring all of our businesses into the city and ensure that everyone who wants to own a business here feels comfortable and knows the processes to do so. I would also like to make a couple additional items. Fourth of July was pretty crazy. The fireworks were pretty terrible this year, and I know that I brought up the issue about banning fireworks in the city.
7:46:43I received multiple emails from residents, and I really wish that we would ban safe and sane fireworks because they are not safe nor sane and a couple additional I guess announcements this Thursday I guess that's technically tomorrow July 20th at 5 p.m. we will be excuse me 5 30 p.m. it'll be summer concerts in the park at Rosita Park it's going to be featuring Latin soul I also want to highlight an organization that is going to I think it's called kids business but they are they have been working with a
7:47:24students to teach them about opening their own businesses so go and see what they're going to be presenting to everybody and then finally before I forget is August 1st we will have the national to 2023 National Night Out at at Rosita Park at 4 p.m. So I hope to see all of you there right before you come and join us at City Council. And have a good night.
7:48:06Thank you. Very quickly, I'd like to also close this meeting in the honor of Molly Lee Dowdy. She was born and lived, she was born in Santa Ana on June 10th in 1940. She raised her family here, she was very involved. She's a large real estate business, comes from a very big family. so I do want to pay my respects to the family and give my condolences in closing her honor. This Saturday, I'm having coffee with the mayor. There are always wonderful events with a lot of people, and Nabil seems to be the most popular one, or Hawk, or they don't want to really see me.
7:48:29They want to see city staff, and Avada will be there, and PD, and Daniel. And so I'm looking forward to coffee with the mayor this Saturday. THEY'RE ALWAYS FUN. AND THANK YOU TO ALL THE STAFF TONIGHT. IT WAS A LITTLE INTERESTING TONIGHT. THANK YOU, MADAM CITY ATTORNEY, MADAM CITY MANAGER, MADAM CITY CLERK FOR ALL OF YOUR HARD WORK AND ALL OF THE STAFF OUT THERE. REALLY APPRECIATE IT. THE NEXT MEETING IS ON AUGUST 1ST AND HOPEFULLY WE WILL BE OUT HERE AT 545. THANK YOU. COUNCILMAN HERNANDEZ, THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR TRYING TO ADJOURN THE MEETING. I REALLY APPRECIATE IT.
7:49:08I'm going to actually try again. I was going to make a motion since we got the public comments.
7:49:48I was just about to close it.
7:49:52Oh, I was just going to say, if I would like to place a motion on the floor to bring this item back to August 1st, placing it on the closed session and closing our meeting here today.
7:49:53What do you mean?
7:50:05So meaning closing the closed session and bringing it back for August 1st.
7:50:07Oh, yeah, that's what I said. We're not going back into closed session right now.
7:50:11Oh, wonderful.
7:50:13Yeah, I said that right. I said that.
7:50:14Mayor, but you can't just say we're not going back into closed session.
7:50:16No, she actually responded to me.
7:50:19What?
7:50:22Okay, so we're not going back into closed session. It is okay with the city manager, and I didn't know we needed a motion because we had said it multiple times. And so can you set a cheat sheet out for the new rules so we all understand? Mayor Pro Temp is already running out the door, so there's no meeting. So all right, we're good. Meeting is adjourned.
7:50:23Thank you.
7:50:48You
7:51:15