support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support
0:02Read the August 15 meeting.
1,160 merged speaker turns. Unidentified speech is hidden by default; timestamps open the public recording.
Transcript
Thank you.
0:25Thank you.
0:49Thank you.
1:19Thank you.
1:57Thank you.
2:21Thank you.
2:53Thank you.
3:22Thank you.
3:56Thank you.
4:21Thank you.
4:52Thank you.
5:22Thank you.
5:49Thank you.
6:22support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support
6:51support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support
6:54support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support
7:35Thank you.
7:43Thank you.
8:09support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support
8:48support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support
9:09Thank you.
9:18support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support
9:57Thank you.
10:17support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support
10:55support support Thank you.
11:26Thank you.
11:58Thank you.
12:29support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support
13:09Thank you.
13:32Thank you.
13:59Thank you.
14:33Thank you.
14:57Thank you.
15:34Thank you.
16:01Thank you.
16:29Thank you.
17:05Thank you.
17:31guitar solo
18:25Thank you.
18:30guitar solo
19:07Thank you.
19:34Thank you.
19:59Thank you.
20:30I'm going to go.
21:00Thank you.
21:32Thank you.
21:58Thank you.
22:29Thank you.
22:59Thank you.
23:31Thank you.
24:00
thank you good evening madam clerk please start the meeting yes mayor go ahead please i hereby call the senate recording in progress i hereby call the santa anna 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
24:43
the roll call. Councilmember Becerra? Here. Councilmember Hernandez? Councilmember Penaloza? I am here. Councilmember Fan? Here. Councilmember Vasquez? Here. Mayor Pro Tempolo Mayor Mesa.
25:12Present.
25:27The records show we have five members present.
25:28Thank you. Madam Kirk, are there any additions or deletions to the closed session item?
25:31Madam City Attorney.
25:37Madam City Attorney.
25:39
Yes. Mayor and Council Members, we'd like to ask for your consideration to add a late breaking item related to a syringe program and authorization from the state that we were just notified about yesterday. In order to add this item, you would need to make a finding that the item came up after the posting of the agenda, which it did, and that we would need to take immediate action. We believe that you can make that finding as well. And we would need a supermajority vote to add that item. I'll make a motion.
25:41
I'll second it with the findings that the city attorney made.
26:08Thank you. Let's prepare to vote. Councilmember Becerra?
26:12Yes.
26:16Councilmember Penaloza?
26:18Yes.
26:19Councilmember Fan? Yes. Councilmember Vasquez? Yes. Mayor Mesquah? Yes. Voters five ayes, no nays with two absences. Motion carries. Item is added to the closed session agenda.
26:20Thank you. Do any council members need to announce their abstentions on closed session items?
26:31Seeing none, Madam Clerk, do we have any speakers for closed session?
26:37No, we do not.
26:41We will now recess into closed session and we'll be back. Thank you.
26:42Thank you.
26:54Thank you.
27:23Thank you.
27:52Thank you.
28:28Thank you.
28:55Thank you.
29:22Thank you.
29:52Thank you.
30:23Thank you.
30:54Thank you.
31:24Recording stopped.
31:53support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support
32:35Thank you.
32:45Thank you.
33:10Thank you.
33:42Thank you.
34:12support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support
34:51Thank you.
35:01Thank you.
35:31Thank you.
36:05Thank you.
36:35Thank you.
37:02Thank you.
37:39support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support
38:14Thank you.
38:32guitar solo
39:03Thank you.
39:34Thank you.
40:01Thank you.
40:29Hmm. Thank you.
41:27Thank you.
42:07Thank you.
42:32Thank you.
43:00Thank you.
43:37Thank you.
44:05Thank you.
44:37Oh, oh, oh, oh
45:01support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support
45:42guitar solo
46:08Thank you.
46:29Thank you.
47:00Thank you.
47:30guitar solo
48:08Thank you.
48:30Thank you.
49:00Thank you.
49:32Thank you.
50:01Thank you.
50:32Thank you.
51:04support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support
51:42Thank you.
51:51Thank you.
52:21Thank you.
52:51Thank you.
53:17Thank you.
53:50Thank you.
54:20Thank you.
54:50support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support
55:28Thank you.
55:51Thank you.
56:17Thank you.
56:46Thank you.
57:20Thank you.
57:47Thank you.
58:16Thank you.
58:48Thank you.
59:17Thank you.
59:55Thank you.
1:00:17Thank you.
1:00:46Thank you.
1:01:17Empty support. Empty support.
1:01:56Empty support. Empty support. Empty support.
1:02:00Empty support. Empty support. Empty support. Empty support. Empty support. Empty support. Empty support. Empty support. Empty support. Empty support. Empty support. Empty support. Empty support. Empty support.
1:02:05Empty support. Thank you.
1:02:15Thank you.
1:02:49Thank you.
1:03:19Thank you.
1:03:48Thank you.
1:04:17Thank you.
1:04:46Thank you.
1:05:19guitar solo
1:05:47Thank you.
1:06:17Thank you.
1:06:49Thank you.
1:07:18Thank you.
1:07:49guitar solo
1:08:25Thank you.
1:08:45guitar solo
1:09:26Thank you.
1:09:45guitar solo
1:10:23Thank you.
1:10:48guitar solo
1:11:24Thank you.
1:11:47Thank you.
1:12:17Thank you.
1:12:52Thank you.
1:13:16Thank you.
1:13:48Thank you.
1:14:18Thank you.
1:14:46Thank you.
1:15:19Thank you.
1:15:47Thank you.
1:16:19Thank you.
1:16:47I'm sorry.
1:17:19Thank you.
1:17:47Thank you.
1:18:16Thank you.
1:18:46Thank you.
1:19:18Thank you.
1:19:51Thank you.
1:20:17Thank you.
1:20:46Thank you.
1:21:18Thank you.
1:21:46Thank you.
1:22:19Thank you.
1:22:46Thank you.
1:23:18Thank you.
1:23:46I'm going to go.
1:24:22Thank you.
1:24:48Thank you.
1:25:18Thank you.
1:25:46Thank you.
1:26:15Thank you.
1:26:49support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support
1:27:29Thank you.
1:27:38guitar solo
1:28:17guitar solo
1:28:49Thank you.
1:29:10Thank you.
1:29:41Thank you.
1:30:09Thank you.
1:30:41Thank you.
1:31:08guitar solo
1:31:46Thank you.
1:32:11Thank you.
1:32:39support support
1:33:36guitar solo
1:33:48Thank you.
1:34:13Thank you.
1:34:39Thank you.
1:35:09Thank you.
1:35:42Thank you.
1:36:10Thank you.
1:36:43Thank you.
1:37:09Thank you.
1:37:39Thank you.
1:38:09Thank you.
1:38:41Thank you.
1:39:11Thank you.
1:39:42support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support
1:40:20support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support
1:40:38Thank you.
1:40:44Thank you.
1:41:09Thank you.
1:41:38support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support
1:42:22Thank you.
1:42:27Thank you.
1:43:00support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support
1:43:40Thank you.
1:43:50Thank you.
1:44:23Thank you.
1:44:50support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support
1:45:30Thank you.
1:45:51support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support
1:46:30I'm going to go.
1:46:48Thank you.
1:47:09Thank you.
1:47:33Thank you.
1:48:09Thank you.
1:48:42Thank you.
1:49:03Thank you.
1:49:37Thank you.
1:50:04Oh, oh, oh.
1:50:32guitar solo
1:50:40guitar solo
1:51:14Thank you.
1:51:35Thank you.
1:52:04support support Thank you.
1:53:02Thank you.
1:53:34guitar solo
1:54:13Thank you.
1:54:35guitar solo
1:55:14guitar solo Thank you.
1:56:02Thank you.
1:56:39Thank you.
1:57:05Thank you.
1:57:35Thank you.
1:58:07Thank you.
1:58:35Thank you.
1:59:09Thank you.
1:59:39Thank you.
2:00:03Thank you.
2:00:35Thank you.
2:01:06Thank you.
2:01:38Thank you.
2:02:08Thank you.
2:02:38Thank you.
2:03:04Thank you.
2:03:35Thank you.
2:04:09Thank you.
2:04:36Thank you.
2:05:04Thank you.
2:05:34Thank you.
2:06:09Thank you.
2:06:38Thank you.
2:07:11Thank you.
2:07:35Thank you.
2:08:05Thank you.
2:08:35Thank you.
2:09:13support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support support
2:09:49Thank you.
2:09:49Thank you.
2:10:20Thank you.
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2:13:32Oh, Oh, Oh, Oh, Oh, Oh, Oh,
2:14:02Oh, Oh, Oh, Oh, Oh, Oh, Oh, Oh, Oh,
2:14:19Thank you.
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2:15:05guitar solo
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2:26:34support support Thank you.
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2:31:04Good night.
2:31:39Good night.
2:31:42Good night. Good night. Good night. Good night. Good night. Good night. Good night. Good night. Good night. Good night. Good night. Good night. Good night. Good night. Good night. Good night. Good night. Good night. Good night.
2:31:47Thank you.
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2:33:14Thank you.
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2:34:43Thank you.
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2:35:32guitar solo
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2:37:07support support Thank you.
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2:46:36Recording in progress.
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2:49:06support support Thank you.
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2:50:41I 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 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.
2:51:06Councilmember Becerra?
2:51:26Here.
2:51:27Councilmember Hernandez?
2:51:28
Here.
2:51:30Councilmember Penaloza? Present. Councilmember Phan? Here. Councilmember Vasquez?
2:51:31
Present.
2:51:36Mayor Pro Tem Lopez? Here. Mayor Emesqua? Present. All seven members are present. Perfect. Thank you. Proceed to the
2:51:37Pledge of Allegiance. Do we have any elementary children in the audience? And if so, can one of you
2:51:46come up? Do we have any elementary children? Mayor, as they're making their way up, if I could make the Zoom announcement. You sure can. Thank you. For any member of the public on Zoom or the teleconference to request to speak during public comments on agenda or non-agenda items within the city's jurisdiction you must dial star 9 from your phone or click the button labeled raised hand from zoom now in order to be in the speaker queue when we open public comments we're gonna do the Pledge of
2:51:51Allegiance I didn't see any children want to come on thank you Let's go.
2:52:22All right. Well.
2:52:26Good evening, sir.
2:52:31Thank you for that. If you please place your hands upon your heart. Lord, 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.
2:52:32Thank you very much, representing Teen Challenge.
2:52:50Words of inspiration, please, by Police Chaplain Rupert Vega.
2:52:57Would you please bow your heads?
2:53:04Gracious Heavenly Father, we come before you today, giving you honor, glory, and praise. Lord, you are the source of all that is good, and we are grateful for all the blessings you've bestowed upon us. We thank you for our wonderful City of Santa Ana, our Honorable Mayor, City Council, Chief of Police, courageous police officers, and all first responders and staff. Lord, we thank you for our freedom and the opportunity to unite and gather together this day. We thank you for your hand of blessings to be upon tonight's meeting and proceedings. We thank you for your grace, your unending love and wisdom.
2:53:09And we thank you, Father, that you would guide and direct tonight's meeting, and that it be of your sound wisdom, that it be productive with integrity, accountability, and with respect towards one another. Thank you, Lord, for helping us to accomplish our work and our goals this day. City of Santa Ana, I leave you with a scripture found in the book of Numbers, chapter 6.
2:53:50It says,
2:54:42Jesus' name we pray. Amen and amen. Thank you. Thank you very much. Madam Clerk, are there any
2:54:43additions or delusions to the agenda? Yes, Mayor. Announcing for the record that item 29 was a noticed public hearing related to a resolution vacating a portion of public right-of-way adjacent to 2383 North Flower Street. That public hearing has been canceled and will be renoticed and heard at a later date. No public testimony on this item will be heard today.
2:54:59Thank you for sharing that. So if you are here for item 29 and if you have submitted public comment requests, we will not be hearing it tonight. You're more than welcome to stay for the meeting. They're always great meetings, but otherwise you can come back in 30 days or whenever we place it back. I think it'll be 30 days, place it back on the agenda at that time. So thank you. All right, first presentation. I have the first recognition presented to Alexis Rodriguez Mejia.
2:55:22Come on up here with me.
2:56:25Okay. Congratulations and welcome back home. Alexis Rodriguez-Miguel was born and raised here in Santa Ana. At the age of 10, he enrolled in the Santa Ana Police Athletic and Activity League. During his six years of participation, he developed into an exemplary role model. In 2019, he graduated as valedictorian from high school and went on to earn four honors associate degrees in business administration, economics, business and technology, and liberal arts from Santa Ana College. With his dedication and scholarship earned, Alexis was accepted into Harvard University, of which he graduated cum laude in 2023. Congratulations.
2:56:27Big deal, right? Big deal. With two Bachelor of Arts degrees, one in government and the other in history. So we'll be seeing you run for office soon. Alexis plans to attend law school, strives to become an attorney, and a future judge. Please join me in congratulating Alexis and wishing him the best in all of his future endeavors.
2:57:11So Alexis for me as a previous school board member and a supporter of PAL and all the students that are in there, when you came home and I saw it I was like, whoa, and one of the council members was like, we should recognize him. And I'm like, yeah, we should. And so I hope that you're visiting PAL centers and programs and sharing your experience. And so on behalf of the city, we want to award you with a certificate of recognition.
2:57:39Thank you so much. Thank you.
2:58:04Nice to have you.
2:58:06Thank you so much for everything. As a member who was born and raised in Santa Ana, California, from childhood to present, it's absolutely incredible to be able to come back and say we did it because at the end of the day my success isn't my success alone it's the success of my community i attended carl harvey mendes middle college high school and harvard and to all the constant support my community afforded me and all the support every community member here by just being present has we managed to do it and
2:58:07for that. I am eternally grateful. Thank you.
2:58:48Thank you so much.
2:59:05All right, we're going to take a picture of Council if you want to join, you're more than welcome.
2:59:29Come on up, come on up. Let the family appear here.
2:59:37If the council walks you guys, the more than welcome too. Thank you.
2:59:43Thank you.
3:00:34Thank you.
3:00:52presentation by Councilmember Hernandez please. All right if we can have Aaron
3:01:16Mostow come up to the front please. Come on up today August 15th we will be recognizing the late great Alex Ponce, B-Boy Abu. This will be accepted by Aaron Mostow so let's welcome him here to the beautiful city of Santa Ana.
3:01:21All right. Well, it's a beautiful day today, August 15th. We are in the month of Chicano Heritage Month here in the beautiful city of Santa Ana. And we are celebrating a Chicano who called Santa Ana home and is native to Santa Ana. Alex Ponce, a.k.a. B-Boy Abu, was born and raised here in the city of Santa Ana. He dedicated his life to breakdancing and left a positive impact on his community. He educated the youth of Santa Ana. He taught them about the art of breakdancing and he did so at local community centers. One of the community centers where he taught breakdancing at was El Centro Cultural de Mexico,
3:01:54towards the end of his life. B-Boy Abu's legacy continues through his family, his friends, and the global breakdance community. accepting the recognition of the late b-boy is Aaron Mostow Aaron was a breakdance crew member a friend and is the writer of the screenplay one breaker one move a film about the life and the legacy of Santa Ana's own b-boy Abu most recently Aaron produced a mural of b-boy Abu which will be revealed at the upcoming Santa Ana Art Walk in September you can see it it'll be located in between the Main Cave Barbershop and Next Round Bar and Grill.
3:02:32And let's please give a very loud round of applause for Alex Ponce, AKA B-Boy Abu, and Aaron Mostow, receiving this recognition on behalf of his friend. Let's please welcome him here and thank him.
3:03:12So on behalf of the city of Santa Ana, we'd like to post humilessly recognize this outstanding contributions to the
3:03:33community thank you Aaron this award is bigger than me this is for Alex Ponce aka bboy Abu representing Santa Anna to the fullest and I'm so grateful to be here This award is going to be given to his family members, and I'm here on behalf of the breakdancing community, all the b-boys and b-girls worldwide. I'm humbled to be here, thankful, grateful, and blessed to be here.
3:03:41And I'm very honored to share the story of the screenplay that I wrote about b-boy Abu that is taking place in Santa Ana with a famous director. and this is what's to come and I'm just again big shout out to everyone out there who came all the b-boys and b-girls who came on behalf of b-boy Abu we're all here together and thank you again for having me
3:04:21and one more time Santa Ana will have a feature film about one of her own residence, the first of its kind, and it'll be Washington Square neighborhood zone, Alex Ponce, B-Boy Abu. So Santa Ana will have its own on the map and the first is a break dancer. So that is something that we should celebrate and I just also want to thank B-Boy Abu for opening those doors because in the 80s and 90s there was not a whole lot of Chicano representation when it came to hip hop and when it came to break dancing.
3:04:54So Alex broke those barriers for people and I want to say thank you Aaron because you telling his story helps people across this nation and it's to be celebrated.
3:05:26Thank you. Thank you.
3:05:36We want you guys in the picture my man. Let's get you guys up here. See ya. Hey.
3:05:42Thank you.
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3:06:30B-boy or boo?
3:06:48One, two, three. One, two, three. One, two, three. But who's going to get the break stance right here?
3:06:52Who's going to get the break stance right here?
3:07:04Thank you. the next one at councilman vasquez please
3:07:31this is for the national community health workers awareness month week excuse me
3:07:48thank you uh i'd like to call up Josefina Jimenez Maria Merlan Ana Lidia Tutilia
3:07:55Thank you.
3:08:04Thank you.
3:08:43City of Santa Ana proclaims August 28 to September 21, 2023 as National Community Health Workers Awareness Week. The National Association of Community Health Workers developed this event to increase awareness of community health workers' identity, roles, impact on communities, and leadership to promote policies that respect, protect, and authentically collaborate with the community health workers' profession. Community health workers, dedication and efforts, especially during the challenging times of COVID pandemic, have been remarkable in supporting and uplifting the communities they serve.
3:09:01They, the promotores here vaccinated this community. They, they, and they fed us at the same time. They took care of us. They uplifted us. I work with them many, for many years, and I just saw their work during COVID. It was amazing. Community health workers play a critical role in our community's well-being and health. Organizations such as Latino Health Access have selfishly undertaken the task of bringing health equity and sustainable change through education services, consciousness raising, and civic participation. Thank you.
3:09:38and other more national networks. It's a honor to be here, thank you. We ask constantly what is a promoter. A promoter is a member of the community with many problems, as any other person, but with much resilience and heart to help others. We can inject much hope in our own stories and make that many cases where people share their stories and that we can navigate the systems. The promoters have been before the pandemic, during the pandemic and now after the pandemic. And many of these promoters, like me,
3:10:25are migrants who have been leaders in our communities, both in our countries and in this condado. We thank you, we honor you, but we also want to raise a little bit the voice and say that we are not only going to be encasified and that has been valued our work. And this is the great opportunity that we have, that we are recognized, that we have better salaries and also better benefits for our personal growth and also for our families. We thank you. We are not sure the organization we represent, we are working together, because we are not divided. We are persevering to help to help this vulnerable
3:11:05so vulnerable and that has so many barriers. This is the work of the promoter. Thank you very much.
3:11:46Necesito a table. Good afternoon. We are two paredes. Yeah. I want to teach you what is the promoter. Dice que promovemos y educamos y guiamos con programas educativos a nuestras comunidades. La resiliencia nos enseñó la capacidad de superar circunstancias traumáticas que vivimos antes, durante y después de la pandemia y de un sistema que no trabaja. orienta a people and helps identify what are their needs
3:12:02to live with human dignity and fear. We are mediators of social services and community. The goal of the promoter is to get to the goal of improving the life of our communities. We are all listening, listening, and motivating and project a better future for our future generations. We are the eyes and the ears, the voice of the people that our representatives represent. We are the raices, the information and tools.
3:12:42We have learned and learned to remain and be equated with others. others. We are crying and crying, telling our stories and testimonies of the people we represent. And that gives us the faith and the strength to continue on. We are volunteers of passion and passion, thank God. Today we are for a proclamation just that opens the doors of opportunities to the promoter, sin importar su estatus migratorio, ya que eso no ha impedido ser un voluntario. Es justo que su voluntariado sea recompensado y les pedimos que apoyen por favor.
3:13:22Somos promotoras de salud, una esperanza positiva. Gracias.
3:14:04Buenas tardes, mi nombre es María Merlán y como miran traigo, como dijeron las compañeras, We are promoters that sometimes are not only in an organization, right? We are not prepared, we are not doctors, we are not a doctor, we are not a title, but we have to be able to help the community. We are mothers, we are the same needs, and we know from the root of what we need. And the community has that confidence to say, you know what, help me. How can I do to solve that?
3:14:14So, we give us those resources. And we are the link of the organizations, of the doctors. All of that we are we. So, we need to be recognized. Because they don't recognize us, they say, they are the promoters. But we don't have that recognition. So, thank you very much for that and it's an honor to be here.
3:14:55I just want to say that we are community, we are community, we are community, we are community, we work for the community and we know the need of the community. Thank you.
3:15:27Thank you.
3:15:49All right, great. Thank you. We have one staff presentation this evening, Madam City Manager. May we please hear the presentation?
3:16:36Certainly, honorable mayor and council members. We do have a staff presentation concerning the citywide parking study which is taking place right now. Many of you may have noticed some white vehicles driving around the city with a camera sticking out of their window. So Nabil Saba will be providing the presentation.
3:16:46Mayor Potem and Council Members. This presentation is to provide you with our progress report in the effort of evaluating the City's Residential Parking Permit Program. program. The city retained Dixon Resources Unlimited to evaluate the current residential parking program and to provide suggested parking action and implementation plan for council consideration. Dixon Resources is well positioned and experienced in conducting similar studies
3:17:22such as ones are done in Costa Mesa and Tustin. Dixon Resources also retained FUR and PIRS for outreach support.
3:17:57Our progress includes stakeholders' input, analysis of parking conditions, data collection, and parking action plan. We developed a public participation plan and launched an online survey. We also launched a pilot parking program in selected streets. Staff and consultants have done on-site assessment and ride-alongs, we also reviewed community feedback. We also have implemented license plate technology for data collection. We also began municipal code review, research feasibility of parking lifts,
3:18:10permit fees, and reviewed permit program study cases. Our initial findings, some of our initial findings include deferring policies between single-family and multifamily dwellings. Density is a challenge. It is common to have multiple families in a single home, and many households have several cars. Permit rates are considered high. The permit application process is inefficient and inconvenient. There are common misconceptions, however,
3:18:50like parking permits are revenue generators and if someone pays taxes and car registration should not have to pay for parking permit in addition enforcement is not consistent and physical permits are difficult to verify
3:19:29as of August 7 2023 we received over 1700 online survey responses survey will remain open for the duration of the assessment survey is available online in english spanish and vietnamese and in paper format in the three languages at this time i would like to ask that all of our city residents fill the survey they have they can search the santa ana parking program and that will lead them to the survey it's very easy and convenient to do and again we do have
3:19:50it in paper format if they wish. Some of the survey results showed common themes. Safety concerns such as walking long distances at night, poor light, and high traffic areas are concerns. Enforcement and compliance are believed to be inconsistent. Spillover impacts results from apartment residents that have insufficient parking at or near their homes
3:20:26one of the questions on the survey was how many cars does your household have most households have at least two vehicles some households have up to 11 vehicles
3:20:58another survey question was which of the following statesman statements apply to your residential parking experience? Some of the answers were limited guest parking, reserving parking spaces with objects, car parked for long periods of time, car parks on streets during street sweeping time, lack of parking enforcement, no options for mobility other than cars, unsafe to park far from home, and uncomfortable to display parking sticker on my car. Those are some of the responses as i mentioned that we have started data collection in order to capture a more
3:21:14complete picture of street parking density data collection takes place three times a day at 5 1 30 and 8 o'clock to get a picture of how the streets look in terms of density and amount of vehicles are in any one particular span of a of a sidewalk or curb these maps show examples of what data collection will provide some of the policies that impact parking in santa anna are reduced parking requirements to support edu development cities can no longer impose minimum parking
3:21:55requirements on new developments within half a mile of a public transit stop the attorney general opinion that multi-unit dwellings shall include a permit zone and programs alongside single family homes now you may want to ask what's the next steps the next steps are to continue with stakeholders input and council updates like we're doing right now continue with the program analysis which will include evaluation of staffing permit rates a review of pilot programs and continue with
3:22:33data collection the plan is to bring to you draft parking action plan as a recommendation in the fall of 2024. this concludes my presentation and my prog the progress report and i'm open for any questions we also have members of dixon team and our own traffic team here for questions if you like Thank you.
3:23:09Thank you, Nabil. Very good presentation. In the beginning when we were talking about doing this, I was like, eh, I don't know about parking permits, but the more we talk about it, especially when you mention 11 cars, I'm like, yeah, we need to talk about parking permits. Are there any questions or comments from any of the councilmen? Is there, nobody's pushing? Councilman Becerra? I did.
3:23:34Push that button. I did. Thank you, Mayor. And thank you, Nabil, for the presentation and the update. You know, you hit the nail on the head. We need folks to fill out the survey. Now, the interesting thing is from the stats that you shared with me, more people have filled out the survey for the parking than they did for the budget. But it kind of shows you how important parking is to many folks here. But one thing I do want to emphasize that I'm hearing a lot of folks provide feedback to me directly about is enforcement. And I know that's not necessarily your department. That also is Chief Valentines.
3:23:57But we definitely need, you know, for folks that are going to take all the time and energy to go out and collect the signatures and go through the painful process block by block to do permit parking, there has to be the enforcement. So I would just say as part of the recommendations that you're going to eventually bring back to us, there has to be something that shows how we're going to make sure that there's consistent enforcement in these areas.
3:24:32Absolutely.
3:24:57That's all I have.
3:24:57Thank you, Mayor. Thank you. I don't see any other names.
3:24:58Go ahead, Council Member Fain.
3:25:03
Thank you. So first, I'm so excited about this because I know that since I joined, even before I joined, Council Member Becerra had brought this up. I know that Mayor Fotom Lopez and I had talked to residents about it. And I live in multifamily housing. I live in a townhouse. We have two cars. and in order to get a guest parking pass we have to literally allow the HOA to come check our garage to make sure that we're actually parking two cars in there and there's not a lot of street parking I mean you know about it so I know the pain and my mom lives in a duplex on at the end of a cul-de-sac whereby she's
3:25:06she's handicapped so she has to park by the house and if we come over for dinner sometimes there's no parking folks in nearby neighborhoods come there to park people leave out their trash cans actually some people leave out orange cones now to try to block the street but the point is you know they've tried multiple times in that neighborhood to get permit parking but they can't because traditionally has been only available it needed the vote of property owners and everyone in that neighborhood except for a couple buildings are renters and so these are some of the issues that I know Public Works is
3:25:43working on to make it equitable. Over 60% of our residents here in Santa Ana are renters. And renters matter too. My mom's lived in the same rental units for over 20 years. You can't tell me she doesn't care about her neighborhood. And so I'm really excited that Public Works is bringing this back. I would like to encourage everyone to tell their friends. I made my husband fill one out too, as well as all my neighbors. So make sure you do that. I do want to kind of say and I think that's something we've talked about is the discussion of enforcement like Councilor Becerra mentioned is what the process is
3:26:18and we bring it to Public Works instead of PD because Public Works is also working 24 hours and you know that's just part of the job and what that would mean as to cost because I know that we want to be able to enforce this but we want to be as efficient as possible and to make sure that people feel that they get a fair shot right and I also want to remind everybody that these are public streets we all pay taxes and for every single-family homeowner who says you can't park on that public street because it's my street let me remind you we all pay taxes and for every person who says that I need to have that parking spot
3:26:55for my house I also want to ask you if I were to check your garage are you parking in your garage because I know I have to and then finally I want to also ask that as you go through the process of getting information and just keeping us updated about what's happening and what the next step is I think a lot of residents are eager to get more information and so this is really great but what you did about being proactive about you know folks going around with cameras taking pictures I think because staff was so proactive we didn't have a alarm and I think that's really important for our residents. Thank you.
3:27:36Thank you very much. I don't see any other speakers. I remind the council it's three minutes three rounds so you're gonna take your three rounds all at once. But I just want to say again, Nabil, thank you very much and you can let the timer go on for me, Jennifer, as well. You collected data which I think is really important that the community knows. I know they heard you but I just want to be, I want to say it again. You're out there collecting data at 5 a.m., at 1.30 p.m., and at 8 p.m. And those hours are very important, right? Especially when 1.30 p.m. and people are, you know, either going to work
3:28:17or they're going to go to their home. And then at 8 p.m. again, when everybody is, a lot of people are home. And so you get more information. So again, thank you very much. And I look forward to hearing more about this. Thank you.
3:28:53You're welcome.
3:29:04Okay, Madam City Attorney, do you have anything to report out of closed session?
3:29:10Thank you, Mayor, Councilmembers and members of the public. I do. The City Council met in closed session to discuss several items this evening, and prior to going into closed session, the City Council added an item. The item that was added was a matter involving the California Department of Public Health's approval of a syringe or needle exchange delivery program to be operated by the Harm Reduction Institute. The Council has authorized a challenge to this approval and we will keep you updated. That's all the reportable action that I have.
3:29:16Yes, you should clap. That's a very good thing. We are going to challenge it. So thank you.
3:29:45All right. So next one, 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 profane language racial epitaphs and libelous or slanderous statements that disturb the decorum of the meeting we will now hear from the members that are on zoom and then after that we will hear from the public and those that are physically present madam
3:29:52more yes mayor thank you and prior to unmuting the colors on zoom i'd like to report out on the electronic comments received for this meeting we did receive 177 prior to 2 p.m today there were four on item number four the permit parking report two on item 13 the grand jury reports 134 related to item 14 on enforcement efforts one related to item 15 the renaming of a street to Zoolain, 2 on item number 27 related to the recall election, and 24 on item 29 the cancelled public hearing related to the alley abandonment, and 10 on non-agenda topics.
3:30:31So speakers on the queue may provide their comments on agenda or non-agenda items within the city's jurisdiction. When unmuted please announce your name, ward or neighborhood that you reside in within the city of Santa Ana for the record.
3:31:09and the first speaker on zoom daisy ramirez
3:31:25please go ahead and unmute
3:31:32ms ramirez yes i'm right here thank you so much okay please proceed good afternoon my name is
3:31:44Daisy Ramirez and I'm a senior policy advocate and organizer at ACLU of Southern California. My work includes examining conditions of confinement in the Orange County jail system and advocating with people in custody and their loved ones. I'm joining today's meeting to comment on agenda item 14. The dangerous and regressive public intoxication detention and substance abuse enforcement policy that was introduced during the Santa Ana City Council meeting on July 18th. Criminalizing poverty, houselessness, and health care issues is morally wrong, violent, harmful, and always ineffective. Experience and litigation have demonstrated
3:31:52that municipalities cannot target, arrest, and jail unhoused people and people experiencing substance use needs as a remedy or way out of the unmet housing and behavioral health needs of Santa Ana residents. According to data from the Board of State and Community Corrections, nearly 50% of people in the Orange County jail system have an open mental health case. Approximately 30% are receiving psychotropic medication, 70% are detained pretrial, most who poured or afford bail, and one in five people behind bars are unhoused. Data obtained by Million Dollar Hoods, a research team at UCLA, reveals that although respectively
3:32:30Latinx and Black people make up 31, I'm sorry, 34.1% and 1.6% of the Orange County population. They represented 46.5% and 6.7% of the Orange County jail bookings between 2010 and 2018, indicating significant racial disparities. During the same time, the top three charges against people in OC jails were DUI, drug possession, and probation supervision violations. Santa Ana was a top home city for those booked into an OC jail, accounting for 13% of the county jail population. Poor people, black people, and brown people, and people with mental health and substance
3:33:11use needs are suffering in Santa Ana and countywide. Criminalizing substance use is a failed and retrograde policy that is both immoral and ineffective. It has only served to expand our bloated carceral system, wage war on poor people and communities of color and stigmatize substance use as a personal failure it is time to end the culture of disposability and treat substance use as a as a public health issue that it is we cannot continue to throw money at police and jails and expect a different outcome we demand humane and effective policies and investments in housing and care not police and jails thank you
3:33:51next speaker on zoom Cara Sandoval
3:34:32Ms. Sandoval yeah please go ahead
3:34:41good evening my name is Cara Sandoval I'm a social worker advocate and doctor candidate at USC school schoolwork that is born and raised in Santa Ana. I wanted to speak on agenda item 14 on behalf of my houseless neighbors that are continuously harassed by the police and the community. Unhoused people are much more likely to be arrested which prohibits them from receiving housing, employment, healthcare and other vital life saving services. This is a very serious situation. I'd like to bring attention to the story of an unhoused man that suffered at the hands of discrimination and criminalization by the police.
3:34:49I'm sure we can all remember this story. His name was Kelly Tomlitz, a 37-year-old houseless man that suffered from schizophrenia. He was a well-known un-house member of our community. He was known by local business activists and community members. On July 5th, 2011, Kelly was in a parking lot and a local business owner called the police. At first, two police officers responded to the call and approached Kelly. So they began interrogating Kelly about his unusual behavior in the parking lot. They also called for additional four officers to help. Just to put this in perspective, Kelly only weighed 135 pounds,
3:35:26but the officers' combined weight was over 1,500 pounds. For the next 10 minutes, the officers beat Kelly to the point where he was unrecognizable. Kelly repeatedly called out for his father and apologized as it can be heard, repeatedly uttering the phrase, I can't breathe. Those involved in the meeting did everything they could to place the blame on Kelly as being a dangerous unhoused man. He ended up dying in the hospital five days later. His death did bring attention to the violence that the houseless community endures at the hands of the police. So I tell this story as evidence of what happens to unhoused
3:36:03people and how vulnerable they are to violence and murder at the hands of stakeholders that perpetuate this cycle of violence. This brings me back to the same names of so many unhoused people who have lost their lives unjustifiably at the hands of our police vincent valenzuela monique decker kurt reinhold and that less it continues please do not enforce the public intoxication and substance abuse policy in santa ana our unhoused neighbors deserve more they are human beings they deserve housing not handcuffs they deserve services not sweeps every unhoused person deserves to be to treat it with empathy, compassion and dignity.
3:36:39You cannot disrupt this meeting, sir, please. We must demand that housing-
3:37:18Let her, please let her finish.
3:37:25I apologize, go ahead.
3:37:26We must demand that housing is a human right and stop enforcing violent policing, encampment sweeps, and punitive ordinances to have a devastating impact on our houseless community. Thank you very much.
3:37:28Next speaker on Zoom, Sonia.
3:37:40Good evening, Mayor. Hold on one second, Jennifer. Jennifer, can you hold on? Someone trying to interrupt me. Ma'am, just one moment, please. No, ma'am. I'm not trying to interrupt you.
3:37:47So we need to keep the requirement here, please, and not have engaged in arguments or please, because otherwise we'd have to ask you to leave the meeting and we don't want to disrupt people while they're speaking, please. Thank you very much. Go ahead, Jennifer. I apologize.
3:37:56Sonia, please proceed with your comments. Good evening, Mayor and Council members. My name is Sonia Fernandez, I have been a resident of Santa Ana for 14 years Ward 3. I urge the council to support item 14 directing SAPD to enforce public intoxication laws. I believe the priority for the safety of the tax-paying citizens of Santa Ana has been pushed to the side long enough. Mental health for our children and the entire Santa Ana community is your responsibility as leaders. Watching someone shoot up while at a red light, nodding off at the bus stop next to you,
3:38:09or walking down the middle of the street half naked on the way to school does not provide a healthy environment. Is this what you want for your community? The memories that people will have of this city and their childhoods? I would like to remind you that you work for the residents of Santa Ana, your constituents that have voted for you. Some of the council members are blurring the purpose of this request. I would like to clarify that there are subcategories of homeless. They're the ones willing to accept help and are working hard to overcome their hardships, and they're the ones who declined the help time and time again,
3:38:43suffering of drug addiction and mental health conditions that do not allow them to keep themselves safe or make the right decisions. It's not about the unhoused, it's about public safety. For the people that are not able to care for themselves and for those who live in the same environment. And let's remember that most of them are not Santaneros, they come from different cities, counties, even states. People will not stop substance abuse because they are housed and these numbers only continue to grow and continue to make Santana unsafe and slightly depressing. Is this what you want as your legacy?
3:39:13I would like for the council to request in the homeless update from the city clerk the number of beds that each neighboring city has to offer the unhoused and to make this public at every homeless report that is being given going forward. This is to allow us the insight of what our neighboring cities are collaborating with other than animal shelters. I know that if approved, there are concerns of police response time. I would like to ask what the progress on SAPD hiring to fill in the various positions is.
3:39:46To add insult to injury, the California Department of Public Health has approved syringe exchange in Santa Ana, despite the heavy opposition. Facilitating resources, which more often than not are declined by these individuals, as per Mr. Kaminsky's report in the July 18th meeting. drain money from the city resources money that could be redirected for free programs to keep our children engaged and with the increased chance for a higher level of education thank you for your time and effort to keep santana residents safe i hope you make the right decision for the majority of the people thank you
3:40:14next speaker on zoom eve garrow
3:40:50Good evening, Mayor and City Council members. I'm Eve Garrow, a policy analyst with the ACLU of Southern California and a volunteer with Housing as a Human Rights Orange County and other local advocacy groups. I continue to urge you to reject item number 14, the so-called public intoxication and substance abuse enforcement proposal. This carceral policy would call for Santa Ana police officers to haul all residents who they perceive to be intoxicated to jail and to provide them with information on available substance use treatment services before release. I urge you to focus on
3:40:57investments in housing and voluntary community-based services instead so that help is actually available. The policy is premised on the false assumption that people are refusing housing and services and must be forced by our criminal legal system to get help. But we know the real problem is a dire shortage of affordable housing and services that people need and want. People are not refusing safe housing and services because those resources are rarely available. People with service needs will not benefit from encounters with police and time in jail.
3:41:32They will be needlessly traumatized, exposed to searches during detention and processing, separated from their belongings and companions, displaced and exposed to criminalization and a high likelihood of other charges. Also, they can receive a flyer that could have been handed out or left available in a public area. I know an unhoused woman with severe cognitive disabilities who regularly became nonverbal for many months at a time after spending even a short amount of time in jail for sleeping in public. This is just one example of how the policy would harm rather than help.
3:42:09The mayor and several city council members have used unacceptable language when talking about unhoused neighbors and made it clear that the underlying goal of this policy is to forcibly erase these community members from public places. But cycling people in and out of jail will not solve the housing affordability crisis, which is the root cause of houselessness. moreover you must stop using denigrating speech when referring to unhoused constituents these words perpetuate several false and inflammatory stereotypes as elected representatives it is your duty to speak the truth to be honest and to treat every resident of Santa Ana with
3:42:48the dignity and respect we all deserve I join numerous groups congregations and individuals to ask that you invest in housing and voluntary services, not police in jails. Housing is a human right. Thank you.
3:43:29Next speaker on Zoom, Pat Davis.
3:43:48Yes, good evening and thank you. I'd like to read from a message to the mayor and the city council that Santa Ana needs housing and voluntary services, not police and jail. The undersigned individuals and 20 plus community organizations demand that you reverse your July 18, 2023 recommendation to have the Santa Ana Police Department implement what is now called in item 14, public intoxication and substance abuse enforcement policy. Instead, we strongly recommend the city invest in real solutions, safe, permanent, affordable housing, and desperately needed voluntary community-based services.
3:43:53The city policy calls for Santa Ana police officers to stop and detain anyone in public who they perceive to be intoxicated. We know that this policy is premised on a false assumption that people are refusing housing and services and must be forced by our criminal legal system to get help. The real problem is that Santa Ana, like so many cities, is experiencing a dire shortage of voluntary behavioral and mental health and affordable housing. Weights for mental health and substance use treatment are long at best and are rarely available on demands.
3:44:33Evidence shows that jails are likely to traumatize people and are not conducive to care and recovery. While your stated policy does not overtly single out unhoused community members, comments by the mayor and council members during the July 18th meeting made clear that the underlying goal of this policy is to use law enforcement to forcibly clear public places of visibly unhoused housed and unsheltered persons. While some on the council argued this policy might be helpful, it will only target and hurt people. Community members will be needlessly traumatized, exposed to unlawful searches during the detention
3:45:07and processes and separated from their belongings and companions. And again, all so that they can be handed a flyer that could be distributed in the public sphere. Criminalization harms our entire community. The proposal would put more untrained discretionary power in the hands of the police department, which already monopolizes over a third of your city's budget.
3:45:43The policy also aims to divide our community. During general public comment at the last meeting, many of your constituents pointed out that your use of fear-mongering stereotypes about unhoused neighbors and people with substance use issues is a political ploy to divide housed and unhoused constituents, all of whom would benefit from the investments in affordable housing and community-based services. Thank you.
3:46:06Next speaker on Zoom, Nadia A.
3:46:34Please proceed with your comment, Nadia.
3:46:46Nadia, can you unmute?
3:46:59Next speaker, Lou Noble.
3:47:04Lou Noble.
3:47:16Do you hear me?
3:47:18Yes, please go ahead.
3:47:19Hello, can you hear me?
3:47:21Yes, Mr. Noble, please proceed with your comments. Hello, am I on?
3:47:22Hello, am I on?
3:47:28Yes, you are.
3:47:30My name is Lou Noble. I'm sorry, I probably have my headphones. Sorry, my name is Lou Noble. I don't know if everybody can hear me, but all I can say about this proposal for 14, it has already been done. It's not new. The police have been putting people in jail for years for any little thing, misdemeanors that they find wrong. So this proposal is not gonna be, it's gonna be more harmful to the community because I was spending over and over millions
3:47:32of millions of dollars on policing, even when the police don't even wanna do the job because they're not social workers. We need more social workers out there talking to these people and be able to get them into either even a structured campground. That's all. I mean, nobody has asked those people what they want. And they don't want much. Okay. Because we've been through this since 2010 when the homeless population lost their homes.
3:48:13lost their businesses like I did okay but I was fortunate and blessed to have a motor home and a park to go to because I belong to a resort park that that got me through that it got us through the situation that we were at and why I actually advocated for structured campgrounds because nobody even you or i or anybody wants to go to a shelter because
3:48:54you're putting people hundreds of people with different uh mental drug addiction all kinds of situations that you cannot get your head straight there um so i hope uh everybody's hearing this because I can't hear myself but anyways thank you
3:49:28next speaker Martha Molina
3:50:03hi good evening can you hear me yes please go ahead hi yes good evening uh first of all thank you Mayor I saw you on channel seven on the needle exchange program please let us know how we can help my name is Martha Molina I live in Ward 3 and today I speak in strong support of item number 14 the motion introduced by councilman Phil Becerra as a resident of Santa Ana I want to let the outsiders know that are speaking that you know if you lived in our city you would know that
3:50:08Santa Ana has taken its beyond its responsibility of providing shelter beds and affordable housing I invite you to learn about all of the added units that are being built across our city so I would invite you to learn about that first do your homework before you ask us to put in more resources um you go ahead and go to the other cities around santa ana uh tustin um newport beach um huntington beach irvine who will not build the kind of affordable housing that's needed
3:50:48yet they will dump their homeless in our city um i've also speak from experience i have 30 years in local government experience and have worked with homeless families from skib row and yes I mean, I've worked on housing a thousand people. And then you do have the others that will not take help, that do not want to be housed. And so I would ask ACLU to please help us get money from the county to be able to provide mental health, more mental health, to give us the beds, the treatment beds that are needed. Absolutely. We don't have enough mental health money or beds for treatment.
3:51:24And so I think that, you know, we fully support our Santa Ana PD to be able to enforce this law since we've tried numerous times to get them off the street. And so, again, I think that our city has done enough to be able to help the unhoused. And so with that, I, you know, again, from Ward 3, I strongly support Council Member Becerra's effort on item 14. Thank you.
3:52:05Next speaker on Zoom, Victor Payan.
3:52:39Hello, can you hear me?
3:52:43Yes, please go ahead.
3:52:45Awesome. Hi, I am Victor Payan, resident of Ward 2 and the founding director of Media Arts Santa Ana. I want to invite everyone to attend our free Smart Walk South Main Arts Retail and Technology Resource Fair this Saturday from 11 to 5 at the OC Musicians Union, 2050 South Main near Warner and there is a one-hour street parking right in front of the space. The SmartWalk is a free community resource fair showcasing technology-based art businesses, career opportunities, and training programs to Santa Ana youth and adults. It is free and open to the public and will include artists, organizations,
3:52:46demonstrations, educational opportunities, food trucks, and an art and technology based resource organizations. It will feature augmented reality art, music programs, video game design, drone piloting, arts and technology programs, Santa Ana Public Library, Knowledge Mobile, Artists, the San Arte History Walk. We're celebrating Rickenbacker who has been in South Maine since 1964. And the union has its own lot and like I said there's free parking. So we hope everyone gets there. 2050 South Maine also accessible by Okta 53 and 72 bus lines and free. More information at massamedia.org. I want to take my non-profit hat off and speak
3:53:22as a resident of Ward 2 to talk about the discussion at the last meeting about the fees for city facilities that was put forward by Councilman Hernandez. I just wanted to call attention that community members in support of this request were talking about excessive fees for residents to use community centers for meetings, not talking about fields and athletic spaces. We were talking about residents who are not charging fees, who are not commercial enterprises to have safe spaces to meet organized socialized discuss and inform each other about
3:54:04community issues to use roosevelt walker community center as an example we're talking about a fully funded operation with staff that is already paid to be there with a computer room housing 20 computers that is closed to the public and with a room dedicated to pal that is only used for six hours a week with tables and chairs that are already paid for it should not cost 116 an hour plus 300 deposit plus insurance for tax paying residents to use the spaces that are already being paid for. I commend Council Member Hernandez for bringing this issue to the Council's attention.
3:54:31He's 100% right about the need to re-examine the fees charged to residents to use spaces that are already fully funded, staffed, and equipped. I'd also like to ask Council Members Peña, Los, and Becerra to consider that we can address this inequity separately from the issues faced by baseball fields and other city spaces. Nobody's going to resell a meeting room or steal bales of copper wire from the Roosevelt-Walker Community Center. I urge the Council and City to reconsider fees so to address this inequity also on issue number 27 I want to vote to ask the council not
3:55:01to accept the resolution to accept the certification the recall for councilmember Lopez because there are serious allegations about how those signatures were gathered lies told to residents by signature gathers and a current lawsuit challenging this effort I also ask the city to look into whether the Santa Ana POA using fear-mongering signatures that might violate the conspiracy
3:55:32Mayor that concludes the zoom comments. Thank you. We'll now go to public comments
3:55:54for those that are present here. I'm gonna call two at a time if you can please come up and line up here please. Angela Capaccio and Alan Cottle.
3:56:00Hello? Okay. Did not realize I was going to be first. Hello, my name is Angela and I'm a resident and homeowner in Santa Ana in Ward 3 and I'm here to speak on item 4 and ask for equitable access to public street parking. Since I purchased my condo, all of the public streets have turned into permit-only parking. And as a condo owner, I am not allowed to purchase a permit. I would love to. I'd be more than happy to pay that money. But I am legally not allowed to purchase a permit. And it's nearly a walk of about a mile from my condo to publicly available parking I am legally
3:56:20allowed to park in. As you can see, I'm a young woman. I live with my 20-something-year-old niece. It is unsafe for us to walk that distance at night, and we are forced to make do with one car and expensive Uber drives. Many of my fellow homeowners have two people working in their household. If you're married, you have a spouse, you have two cars, they have to make the decision, am I going to park my car legally but unsafely? Am I going to park my car illegally and get fined? Or am I going to park my car in a local business and hope, pray they don't tow me? We can't have guests. I've never had an overnight guest.
3:57:01It's impossible for me to have an overnight guest. My fellow residents combined pay hundreds or even thousands of dollars a year in fines to the city because there's nowhere for us to park our car. Santa Ana's policies are implicitly saying, yeah, it's nice that you want to live here and own your home here, but we only care about you for parking if you are rich enough to afford a single family home. We're not trying to park 11 cars. We just want one. I just want one extra car for my home. When most of us bought our homes, there were no issues with parking.
3:57:42However, due to Santa Ana's discriminatory preference for single family homeowners above all others, all the street parking is for their use and their dedicated use only. I pay thousands of dollars a year in property tax and I can't park on the streets I pay for. Meanwhile richer families get to convert their garages to storage or to living space, claim they don't have any parking on the streets, and then make themselves permit parking and nobody else can park there. I am imploring you to open the public permit system to allow condo owners to park on the public streets. We aren't strangers trying to take over your neighborhood.
3:58:18We aren't doing drugs or leaving trash or doing unspeakable things. We're your neighbors. We're the people who live next to you. And I'm just imploring you to remember that when you complain about those stupid condo owners, those stupid apartment owners, we're just trying to live in Santa Ana like the rest of you are. And all we're asking for is an equitable place to put our cars, not 11, one, maybe two, that's it. Thank you. Thank you.
3:58:51But on a note, and when you come up, you can just tell us what city you are. So I know that the parking issue, we can address that. So if you can tell us what city you reside in, please, when you come up to speak, thank you.
3:59:27Good evening, my name's Alan Cottle. We live in the Meredith Parkwood area. In my job, one of the main things that I work on is safety management systems and risk management. I'm really concerned about the parking situation in terms of risk for our children. When you start lining up parked cars on a street in a neighborhood, it's one thing in a busy area. In a neighborhood, when you start to line up cars, you really start to limit visibility. We have a lot of children that live in our neighborhood. If you see the people who use our neighborhood as a cut-through at high speed, if you have visibility, you can see children
3:59:39chasing balls you can see dogs running out of the street it's not a big issue once you start lining those cars up now kids appear out of nowhere and it's impossible to stop that's a tragedy waiting to happen I'm very concerned I that from a safety standpoint I understand that permit parking and parking in general in our in our city is a is an issue but there are hundreds of businesses just in our area alone that have an enormous parking lot that is vacant all night and we could I feel like the solution is to start approaching
4:00:16some of these businesses and say you know saying from 8 p.m. to 5 a.m. or where we need we need to start working with some of our local partners to allow residents because if we allow and just unfettered access to all of the streets I feel like we're going to see just a difficult situation and a dangerous situation for the homeowners. Thank you very much.
4:00:54Thank you. Adam Zyrstra and followed by Brad Day.
4:01:18Hi, I'm Adam Zylstra from Ward 5, West 7th Street. And yeah, so I guess sort of related to this whole parking issue. Yeah, the code enforcement has been coming down on our entire block. basically nearly every house on our block has seven cars and that's due to it we can't afford I mean we have to we have ten people living in our house we cannot park in our garage we need the space the street it's really a challenge
4:01:33to park in the street and so the solution that we have all done we have all paved over our front lawns and we all park you know five cars in front of our house we there there is absolutely no other solution to the problem and somebody decided to send code enforcement to make the situation worse and we have you know multi-generation living in the house we're not rich, you know, and they're coming after us, and we're in a horrible situation because of this code enforcement thing.
4:02:13They forced us to dig up part of our driveway and put, quote, landscaping in. I mean, we were not an eyesore. You know, we keep things looking nice. There's nothing wrong with what we're doing. We're paying our taxes, and, you know, I understand, oh, there's some rule, code enforcement, whatever but it should not be enforced and that is what's happening there everybody digging up the driveway now there's no place for anyone to park and you talk about sunday nights because monday's trash day everybody strategically places their trash cans to block all of the parking and there's
4:02:53nowhere to park it is tragic on sunday nights and the other thing when people park there'll be a space for three cars and and they managed to make it so only two can fit or two and they managed to make it so only one can fit and you know trash can should be placed blocking the driveway and just move them when you need to get in and out that would provide more parking put lines here you park here park there rather than hogging multiple spaces for a car um stop this whole code enforcement thing of not allowing people to park you know in the in their front of their house we have a wall
4:03:30around it and everything we're not creating any eyesore all of the cars are running we need them i'm being forced to get rid of my car due to this because i have no place to park and you know this is just going after tax paying residents yet we have people selling you know meth on the streets living in their cars and nobody's going after them because they don't have checkbooks so yeah please honor the residents thank you
4:04:05hi hi my name is Brad day I live at 2002 North Williams Street in the Meredith Parkwood tract of housing. Councilperson Lopez is our council person and we thank you Councilperson Lopez for your support of our neighborhood. We have a lot of parking challenges in our neighborhood condominiums, single-family dwellings. My My family and I have lived where we live for 26 years. When we bought our home, there were no parking problems.
4:04:47And over the years, demand for parking has expanded and our neighborhood became unsafe.
4:05:26Parked cars on the side of the road, trash on the curbs in the mornings,
4:05:39loud parties and stuff going on by the cars at night cars car alarms going off cars starting up and coming and going all night we had small children at the time and mr. Cottle's comments about if you have cars parked along the street kids can run out and somebody's gonna get killed and we we spent thousands of dollars that we didn't have at the time to put up a wide iron rail fence around our home we live on a corner to keep our children from running out into the street because we were so terrified something was going to happen to one of
4:05:46them and it came down to we we decided we either needed to move we don't want to move we love Santa Ana or we needed permit parking and so we asked the city to evaluate and put in permit parking. And I know that creates issues for the condominiums that live next to us. And my heart goes out to them.
4:06:26But I don't think the solution is to crowd city streets with parking. As Mr. Cottle pointed out, there's tons and tons of space for overnight parking. It just requires a conversation between the city, the school district. There's a school right next to the condominiums. There's private businesses right next to the condominiums. All of those parking lots sit empty. All it requires is a conversation, and there may need to be some insurance or something to protect people from liability, but it's something that could easily take care of all the parking problems, at least in our area. We love Santa Ana.
4:06:50My family is multiracial. We live in Santa Ana because of that component. We love it here. And so as you're doing this parking, we would ask you, as you're evaluating this, we would ask you to please keep a balanced perspective. Please don't force unnecessary parking onto our neighborhoods. Thank you, sir. Thank you.
4:07:32Janela Simpson followed by Josie Tenario.
4:07:57Council members, my name is Janella Simpson. I'm Ward 3, Jessie's Ward. I'm going to try and make it through this as quickly as possible. I'm talking about item number 13, the animal shelter. And full disclosure out there, I am a kitten foster and a volunteer for the Orange County Animal Shelter. I am not here to violate any of their rules because I still want to work with the animals but the shelter can be very retaliatory nonetheless I have some very strong opinions about the shelter operations I know a lot's been said
4:08:05about the shelter and the grand jury detailed a number of the findings which apparently some council representatives not necessarily City Council would like to ignore, sweep under the rug, because they want to claim that those opposing the shelter are a bunch of retired do-gooders that don't really know what's necessary to run a shelter. And they want to leave it to the professionals that have degrees in animal husbandry as experts. However, someone has not done their due diligence. Something's wrong. It's seriously wrong.
4:08:46The public has a need for a location with a humane care for lost, stolen, surrendered, and homeless animals, as well as a forum to review those animals available to shop when it's most convenient and take a new family member home. shelter has value and they they do have a value but they don't and aren't doing the whole job that's necessary for the public and for the animals it's inadequate it's insufficient the shelter says that they take in sick animals but if the kitty cat is over two and a half pounds guess what that means that there
4:09:19are about two and a half months old they're out on the streets they don't take them in. They're left to the cars and the coyotes, injuries and no food. They're homeless animals. The shelter, the public doesn't have a place to put their humanity. They want to be kind to these animals. They want to have a place to take them. But basically, they're all turned away. there's nothing there's no funds apparently I've had kittens that have
4:09:59had contagious diseases that are entirely treatable entirely but rescues have to come in and take care of those animals because the shelter won't and the shelter also doesn't share the funds to take care of those animals the next door people are adamant not to take the animals to the shelter because they're killing them that's a little overstated but we need help the public needs help the public needs ma'am your time is up to have their needs thank you very much your time is up and animals need to
4:10:38have their thank you ma'am thank you josie followed by james rocha
4:11:13So good evening everyone. My name is Josie Tenorio and the reason why I'm here today is to address many issues that has came upon, not only in our communities, but it's addressing the missing and murdered as well. Because many of our women are murdered on every 60 seconds goes missing and is being murdered. And why I bring this up is because what's happening in our community at this moment, What's happening today and what I've heard and what I've seen is actually leads to our women being murdered out there. And this is what needs to stop.
4:11:25And one of the things that I want to bring is that I've actually encountered myself, the violence, the whole doxing and putting our lives in jeopardy. And the reason why I say this is because you guys have allowed, allowed not only this woman to come in here to create division among our people, to also create unsafe places for our own women and our sisters and our people to join together and bring awareness to what's happening in our communities.
4:12:00She has not only have docs and also went against our sister here, Nellie Legaspi, which is, she's a commissioner, that she's done great work with our native indigenous people. But you've allowed that to come in here and create division, create harmful tactics towards our women, towards our community, towards our families. When will this stop? And then to top it all off, I hear how you all are allowing the police to harass our homeless population. This is something so harmful to our people. You are here, Ms. Mayor, to support our women, to support our Indigenous people.
4:12:36And as I stand here in front of you, I ask, how can you allow this woman or anyone to come into your court, into your circle, and allow for negativity to be displayed against another woman, and to another Indigenous person? If we are supposed to be creating bridges and creating rapport with each other and helping and supporting each other and empowering each other, how is that okay? And how is everyone in this room allowing this? How is this okay? Because at this moment, I find myself that if I have to march outside with hundreds and
4:13:15thousands of sisters and people, indigenous families, to stop this, we will do so. And I will not allow this any longer. And so with that being said, this is the reason why I'm here today, to ensure that our families, our relatives, and every single person in this community, in Santa Ana, and everywhere else, feel safe at all times. And not be fearful of retaliation for their lives. Nothing further.
4:13:52Thank you. Jay Rocha. Followed by Abram Maya, Jr.
4:14:23My name is James Rocha. I'm here to advocate for the art show that is to take place at the Chicano Heritage Festival in El Salvador Park in the community center this 27th of August. It has come to my attention that this art show was canceled and partly in behalf of the city council, even though this art show has been in plans for over a year or at least one year.
4:14:31And I want to know why. Why would the city council want to cancel an art show, a Chicano art exhibit?
4:15:02I was born in Santa Ana. I was raised in Tustin. Now I live in Found Valley. But most of my life, yeah, growing up, a lot of my life took place in Santa Ana.
4:15:12My mom was really, really liked going to church, So every Sunday, I would go to a church on MacArthur and Greenville. That was Sundays, Tuesdays. I was also involved with the Boy Scouts in Santa Ana. My Boy Scout leader was from McFadden and Minnie Street. So there was that. All the times we would meet up to go to camping trips or to present a flag, we would meet at the Santa Ana Zoo. Eventually, when I finished my Eagle Scout project, I did this at Glen Martin Elementary School, right there on Flower and Wilshire. So I have so many positive experiences in Santa Ana,
4:15:24and now that Santa Ana has helped shape me as a person, now I want to give back to the community. And me as an artist, well, I want to do that through art shows, through exhibitions. and I would really love to use the El Salvador Park Community Center for the Chicano Park Heritage Festival.
4:16:02I have so much experience, so much knowledge. I feel that Santa Ana was there for me when I was a youth and now I wish to be part of that and to help another person that may also be looking for something, looking for inspiration. I believe that true art elevates a person's life, not only the artist but the viewer as well. Chicano art is very historic and educational in nature. And now I stand here before a council, before the rulers of the city.
4:16:29and I just want to end my three-minute speech with just saying what kind of ruler would you like to be or what kind of ruler would cancel an art show that is meant to educate the citizens, to unify the public? What kind of Santa Ana would you like to be part of? That's all. Thanks.
4:17:10Thank you. Thank you. Abraham Moya.
4:17:35Good evening. My name is Abram Moya, Jr. Abram Moya, Jr. If we can sit right next time. And I am an artist, a freelance artist. I do live in Yorba Linda, but however, I have coordinated and worked with the arts here in Santa Ana for over 30 years. I've worked with Emilio Vasquez, the godfather of Chicano art. I do have a bachelor's in associated arts degree and one year towards a master's in public administration. But let's get that all back. My issue here is why did they cancel out and close down the show for El Salvador Park? Chicano art and art has always been one of the main three R's
4:17:45of the whole system, reading, writing, and arithmetic. Reading because they have to learn how to read to be able to do a certain subject. Writing is the painting on the wall or the painting on the easel. And the arithmetic, well of course they have to measure. I've been involved with so many of the arts and the murals here. The one at Godinas High School,
4:18:24with Boeses Camacho and many of the students, and I've been also with the Santa Anita Mural Project. I have worked with a lot of these young people, and a lot of these young people need this type of artwork, because it not only does that, does it help them, It also helps out with their comprehension, it helps out with their creativity, and it helps out with their educational future. These individuals and the young people that I've worked with, I'm mentoring, need this type of an art show that should be held at El Salvador Park.
4:18:49Instead of being closed down, you are closing avenues of young people who are over there trying to do something positive. This is a positive element of the community, which brings positiveness to Santa Ana. Mr. Mesqua, your father knows this, Al. Your uncle, Juan, knows this, and your grandmother. And I've met and worked with all three of them before in the community. And my ex and your grandmother were very good friends at one time. But I hope I'm not boring you. But anyway, we need this type of stuff. These young people need the artwork.
4:19:20And to close it down, just a week before they had planned it, because these young people are the ones that are planning it. They're going to bring in young artists, get them off the streets, do something positive, something that is very good for them, and they're going to get something back in return. What is the city of Santa Ana going to get? Beauty. and they're going to get a lot of love from their own community on there with that so that being said I know I have 20 or 21 or 19 seconds left I hope that you guys we send and do allow the art show that the young people have been planning
4:20:01for over a year at El Salvador Park on the 27th as they had planned before and like the young man that said before that they've been planning this for a year
4:20:36Your time is up.
4:20:47Why couldn't something have been said a year ago? Thank you.
4:20:48Thank you, sir.
4:20:51Tony Reyes followed by Dale Halvig. Can you please state what city you live in, please?
4:20:54Hello. My name is Tonancin Reyes. I'm a part of Ward 5, and I'm here today on behalf of the Articia Pilar community. I would like to address the Chicano Heritage Festival. I was recently informed there will be no more art show or access to the community center, and I was under the impression that the community center would be available for the art show planned on August 27th. I have over 25 artists participating that have been preparing this for months. This function was made strictly for the city's communities and it was created to inspire the youth for hope and to speak a sense of faith into our community.
4:21:17The purpose of this show is to plant seeds for future generations and you guys are just taking it like if it doesn't matter.
4:21:51Art has showed me the way to find my own path. And if I can move people with my art and inspire at least one person, then I know that I'm doing right by my community and the community that raised me. All I'm asking for is permission for one day to use the community's facility to give back to something to my community.
4:21:58At the end of the day, what can be done to make this happen? Because giving us a week and a half of notice is unacceptable. The mural isn't enough at the art show. The art show goes hand in hand and everything goes together. And Ms. Amoyzko, with all respect, you know what I mean? And at the end of the day, what harm is this going to do to the community? It's for the community, and we need things like this. Would you rather have people be loitering in the city? Because that's what it is out there. That's why I'm an artist, because I want to change that, and I want to break the cycle. So I don't understand.
4:22:19You have the power to change this. All you have to do is say one word, and it can be done. So at the end of the day, it's on you. And if that show isn't done, just know that there's so many people that are waiting for this, that this can change their lives, and that's going to fall on you and your hands. That's right. Thank you.
4:22:52Dale Helvick.
4:23:11Good evening, Mayor, City Council, City Staff. Dale Helvick, Ward 3. I want to talk about four items tonight. Item 14, I'm in full support of that. Doing nothing is not compassionate. So I hope we go ahead and approve that. The needle exchange program, it was disturbing to see the Nexcel report come out that says permission has been given to the Harm Reduction Institute to go ahead and do the needle exchange.
4:23:18Back when we had the needle exchange before, our community did a park clean up at Santiago Creek. we collected two full liters of needles that were left behind. We found them in the creek, we found them in the playgrounds, we found them in the park space. It's unacceptable and you guys know that and I'm glad to hear that you had a closed session item to discuss it. I'm hoping that the the harm reduction Institute is held accountable for these things. The last needle
4:23:51exchange program it was said they lost track of 250,000 needles unacceptable and so if we're going to have the same type of program where we lose these needles for every needle that citizens find they ought to be fined a hundred dollars or something to hold them accountable ideally let's not even have it so hopefully you guys are successful in stopping that little public service announcement. August 7th is National Purple Heart Day. I'm hoping next year that you
4:24:27guys can do something to honor the people that either gave their lives or were wounded in the protection of the country. So keep that on your calendar, August 7th, National Purple Heart Day. last thing is I'm wondering if you guys are considering anything to support the residents of Maui I think it'd be worthwhile to consider that I know there's a lot of attention being given it to it right now a lot of private donations are going in but I think it'd be a good gesture on your part to help
4:25:03them out as well. Thank you. Thank you.
4:25:42Uma Apasani, and I apologize if I say your name wrong. And it looks like you're from Plasencia, followed by David Ball.
4:25:49Hi, my name is Uma. I am a college student, an organizer with the Party for Socialism and Liberation, and a lifelong resident of Orange County. I live in Placentia, but I have friends and family members that live in Santa Ana, and I am here to speak against the illogical and inhumane public intoxication and substance abuse enforcement. This measure and the dangerous anti-homeless rhetoric that has been pushed by the council won't help the people of Santa Ana. It only serves to divide our community and distract us from the real difficulties that working class people are facing.
4:26:14Increased police vending, arrests, and even forced relocation have been presented as magical solutions to the addiction problem that people are facing today. The mayor and other council members have used harmful stereotypes to paint the house of some people suffering from addictions as a dangerous other. However, nothing has been done to address the root cause of these problems. Most of us know, me included, friends and family members that have struggled with substance abuse in the past. These people are some of the most vulnerable members of our community, struggling under a system that is constantly trying to
4:26:50push them down. Every day the cost of living rises in Santa Ana and around the country as wages stay low. Addiction is a systemic problem rising from poverty and it should be treated as such, as a health issue that we need to work together to fix. As police commander Gaminski himself mentioned in his update on homelessness from the July 18th meeting, the UCSF statewide study of people experiencing homelessness confirms that most people on the streets have already been to jail. Sending people to jail doesn't save them, it traumatizes them and exacerbates the conditions that may have pushed them to substances in the first place.
4:27:25Yet, the city continues to cut public programs and invest more and more money into law enforcement, which already takes up more than a third of the city's budget. We know why this really happens, not to help working people, but to placate the corrupt police union. The police union has threatened council members who go against them with recall elections on many occasions in the past. Their portion of the city budget increases each year, yet the problems that people face remain the same. Clearly, if the city really wants to help the working people of Santa Ana, it needs
4:28:05to focus on providing them with affordable housing and health care.
4:28:35Painting this as a struggle between ordinary people and criminals is reductive and frankly ridiculous when community programs benefit all members of the community and forced searches and arrests harm everyone. Thank you.
4:28:40Good evening, Mayor, Councilmembers. You know, my name is David Ball. I am a resident of Ward 3, father, husband. And I'd like to say I'm a sculptor. I'm an artist. And I hear that an art show was taken away from these people that were planning on art. So artists spent a long time on their work. and it's really important to them. It's an outlet. It can help a lot of people. So please give that back to them. Okay, as far as item 14, arresting people for open drug use is a separate issue from homelessness.
4:29:06The three council members who do not want to enforce the law and claim this is a housing issue so they can push for more building in high-rise apartments in an already densely populated Santa Ana are doing a huge disservice to the families and residents of Santa Ana. Notice that they are saying no or but without offering any solutions. Calling this a coping mechanism without offering solutions affects the quality of life, safety, and future of our children. Allowing the exposure of children to
4:29:49drugs and crime does not create equity. Conflating the issues of housing and open drug use harms the users and the public. They are completely separate issues. There are plenty of studies showing people with substance abuse problems prior to losing their homes. To be clear, no person, homeless or not, should be arrested for being in public. Item 14 was never about arresting homeless people, don't let them fool you. It's about arresting people for open drug use in public, arresting people who are using and leaving bloody syringes in our parks,
4:30:27arresting people who are near death passed out on our public sidewalks, and arresting people who are a danger to society and themselves. And yes, a person high on drugs in the park, regardless of their housing status, should be arrested just like anybody else. But most importantly, they should be given medical help, offered a drug diversion program, and a ride to their home city, wherever that may be, so they have a chance to get off drugs and off the streets. This is your chance to make a difference in Santa Ana.
4:31:07push housing another way but don't use these people they need help and that may come in the form of an arrest I support item 14 and I hope you do too
4:31:45
thank you Kimberly Adams is next and after Kimberly it's Danny Vega and then
4:32:01Mara.
4:32:08Sorry, Mara, I cannot pronounce your last name. Thank you.
4:32:11Hi, my name is Kimberly Adams. Thank you for letting me speak this evening. I am speaking on behalf of Laura, someone that I've been assisting. I lived in Santa Ana all throughout my 20s. it's near and dear to my heart. I work and volunteer with people now who live in Santa Ana, and Laura, the one I'm talking about, was arrested by Santa Ana police. As a result of that, she was assaulted and was diagnosed with PTSD, post-traumatic stress disorder. Her story is a perfect example of why the public intoxication and substance abuse enforcement
4:32:21policy is a problem and not a solution. Due to an exorbitant rent hike, she was left without a home in order to cope with a dangerous life on the streets. She uses methamphetamine to stay awake at night so that she doesn't get assaulted or raped. It's a very common problem with females out on the street. They cannot go to sleep at night on the street. It's unsafe.
4:33:03So she drinks alcohol to numb the pain of the loss of her thriving life, her dignity, and her dreams.
4:33:31The solution for Laura is housing, not an arrest like what is proposed in this policy. Service offering is not realistic. I know this. I work with people. Public outreach, Orange County outreach and engagement. I have contacted them four times within the last month for different clients, and they don't have shelter beds. So this is not realistic, talking about these resources that are supposedly out there. They're not. I know this firsthand.
4:33:40Sorry.
4:34:17So in reality,
4:34:21So there are hundreds, if not thousands, of residents who are on waiting lists for housing and other services. Shelters are full and dangerous, particularly for women. In reality, we do not have the proper resources to offer her. The true solution is not arrest, but rather housing first, substance abuse counseling in conjunction with wraparound services. Laura could be my daughter, a cherished family member who deserves a safe, stable, affordable place to call home, and the support that she needs to reintegrate into society like the rest of us. Her desires are the same as yours. Her needs the same as ours.
4:34:25An arrest is devastating for anyone to experience. Have you ever been in painful handcuffs, humiliated, and directed to strip down? solutions are hard to come by but I humbly ask you thank you speaker your time is up thank you
4:35:07Danny Vega followed by Mara Makudi Makudle I'm sorry I'm not good at this apologize
4:35:27good evening council members and mayor can I just say that the most vulnerable people in our city are our children. Santa Ana has been put in a real tough situation. The entire homeless crisis has been put on our shoulders by other cities who decided that they wanted to advocate for their residents and their families and they took advantage of our compassion because we have the most shelters in the county and now we are facing crime and open drug use and by the way let me remind everybody that my wife when she was seven months pregnant was attacked by a houseless
4:35:38individual and when we try to advocate for our families we are told that we are being cruel and that we don't have compassion but you know what i'm at a point that if a father cannot advocate for the safety of his family, and that's considered cruel, then I'm going to own it. I'm a cruel person, I suppose.
4:36:17You know what? Let's go over affordable housing, because it seems that everybody who advocates for it never comes with a plan. So, you know, I don't have a major in activism, but I have a major in engineering, so I'm pretty good with math. So Councilmember Lopez was posing with a big check of $4 million and that would afford 34 housing units if I'm not mistaken. We are a city of 300,000 people. 50%. I know Councilmember Ty said 60%, but for the easy in the math, 50%. That's 150,000 residents.
4:36:48Let's suppose five people per family. That is 30,000 families in Santa Ana. divide that by 34 units that would mean that council member Lopez would have to carry 880 of those big checks and every one of those checks is four million dollars that would equate to 3.5 billion dollars how are we going to pay for that because and I bring this up because when you talk about affordable housing and this is by your own all admission and by the admission of people behind me that we're all supposedly one check away and that we could find ourselves being
4:37:28houseless so you have to include them in that in that equation as well so I really hope that the people who came here from other cities have a check ready because we don't have the money where are we gonna build all of these houses
4:38:08yeah thank you that's it
4:38:31Mara
4:38:38Mara you're from Capistrano Beach that's what it says here yes I was going to admit that
4:38:40so my name is Mara Mykulek I'm a resident of Capistrano Beach I'm one of the outsiders that somebody mentioned so you don't have to care about my opinion because I can't vote for you But hopefully you can get some facts from me because I am a social worker and I work with people who are homeless in South County. So I'm very familiar with the services that are and are not available. I also want to say to the residents, like the last gentleman, I totally get it and your family should be safe. The concern is that this policy is not going to do what you think it's going to do.
4:38:44And then when you talk about the expense of housing, well, it's even more expensive to keep people in jails and to run them in and out of jails and to use your resources, your law enforcement for that. So it's a waste of money. I mean, there are studies that show that, not to mention it hurts people. So I'll just give you a couple stories from the street. So I have, well, a lot, but a couple people in my mind who have serious mental illness, and on top of that, they have substance use issues, and they want help, and we try to get them help, me and other service providers. I mean, we're calling telecare
4:39:22that's supposed to provide that service. You know, we're calling the county. The city has their own outreach staff. We can't get, there's nowhere for them to go. I am not kidding you there's nowhere for them to go until you take the rights away and maybe you can lock them up in a state hospital but hopefully it doesn't come to that let's see so I mean I've got three people just right off the top of my mind that that fall into that category and then in regards to substance use treatment I was here two weeks ago and shared with you the numbers and you can confirm this with County health care staff there's
4:40:03literally 60 detox beds in the county, 60. I've made calls with people often, and they can't get in. Now eventually they can get in, but it's complex, right? Because you call, you can't get in, you have to call back the next day, but the next day I'm not there with my phone. And you know, it's just not easy. We don't have treatment on demand. So I don't know what you're gonna offer these people when you bring them to the jail that's any different than what really they already have, which is not enough. Also, we have 160 beds for rehab, 160 for the whole county.
4:40:38Now, mind you, I should clarify that I'm talking about people with Medi-Cal. If you have private insurance, maybe you have other options. But most of the people on the street probably are Medi-Cal recipients. Also, last thing, right now, there's at least 8,000 people on the list for housing assistance, people who have jumped through the hoops, who are working with service providers, and are just on a list that will take years for them to get off your streets. And I'm sorry.
4:41:17Ma'am, your time is up.
4:41:46Thank you.
4:41:47David Duran, followed by Brian Alexis Mendoza.
4:41:51David Duran.
4:41:57Brian, Alexis Mendoza, if you can line up please. Thank you.
4:42:02I'd like to address some of the rhetoric that the council has used publicly. that we find unconscionable? Not only rhetoric, but for example, Council Member Becerra's post on his Instagram, I think it was, in any case it was social media, claiming that a lady who is sleeping on a bench is dangerous and harmful to the community.
4:42:16how is that possible that a sleeping human being is dangerous and harmful to the community
4:42:51but it's not addressed any differently here even though at the beginning of the meeting you do a great job of recognizing good people You even had a police chaplain come here and pray using examples of kindness and care and consideration.
4:43:03And everybody prayed. And everybody that participated agreed that, yep, that's how it should be. and then the prayer is done and the public comes and talks to the council and now I'm here to ask what happens when the prayer is done? What happens to the council that they would propose an idea that would jail people because they're ill
4:43:32jail people because they're unhoused, jail people because they're poor, how is that of some help to their community? It's not.
4:44:10So, really, it's, you know, if you have to hurt people
4:44:27in order to feel powerful, maybe, I don't know.
4:44:35then maybe you should reevaluate because you might be a real weak individual.
4:44:42People have come here to educate, and I have heard opposing views in support of 14, and I recognize that. I don't think they're wrong in coming here. I just disagree with them.
4:44:52But ultimately, I'm here for the people who don't have a voice. The ones that are being arrested. And to what cause?
4:45:08Sir, your time's up.
4:45:19At what cost? Enough of it.
4:45:19Thank you. Brian Alexis Mendoza.
4:45:22Followed by Jennifer Levoren.
4:45:28Hey, hi. I have a couple of comments. A lot of comments. First of all, I wanted to introduce myself to the city and to the city council people. I'm a social worker and a journalist. I used to work for Mercy House, Royalty RC. I've been all over the place with county in terms of social services. I'm 24 years old currently. I'm homeless, living in my car. I've tried to get county resources from 2-1-1, City Net, Elimination Foundation, all of the ones that you get on a list when you contact SAPD and they tell you, like, okay, contact 2-1-1 and they'll tell you what to do.
4:45:31I've directly spoken to Mercy House and Grace Womack, the Housing Service Director. She asked me why am I talking so much after I tried to report all of the issues that I was having with the county resources after being fired as a social worker after four months at Mercy House for my tardiness.
4:46:04Again, I'm sleeping in my car right now. Fortunately, I have a car to sleep in. Not everyone has the same privilege. and those are some privileges guys. Housing, shelter beds, they have, I know they have housing because I was working in their housing solutions program and I saw the housing units they had available but when you try to talk to the county they'll be like there's no shelter beds available or like we don't accept like you don't have the proper um what's the word you don't have the proper like qualifications to enter our program. That's speaking about Mercy House specifically in In a way, it seems kind of like vengeance,
4:46:24and in a way, kind of is for having my voice taken away. The words that I heard exactly from Grace Womack, the Housing Solutions Director at Mercy House, were, why are you talking? They escorted me out of their building, I'm not sure how many times, and they tried to make it seem as if I was a danger to the people that were at Mercy House. That was never really the case. Again, I'm a social worker. I've worked at Royale CRC Mercy House. They kind of tried to, I'm not going to say kind of, they definitely disrespected me. To tell you a little bit more about myself and who I am, at 18 years old, I was a patient at RoyaltyRC.
4:47:02I was diagnosed with bipolar 1 disorder. Three years later, I got my bachelor's degree in human services from CSUF, and I ended up working at RoyaltyRC at 21 years old. I worked there for a year before being contracted as a caseworker at Mercy House by Vanessa Guillen. And then it all kind of spiraled from there. I worked there for four months. I had issues with my family. They got a restraining order against me for my bipolar one disorder and for not taking medication. I spent some time in jail. I spent some time in the hospital. And again, right now I'm currently homeless without any monetary funds.
4:47:37And I've been selling these. I call them barritas. I sell, what do I sell? I sell these granola bars. They're Nutri-Gain bars that I got with my EBT card. And so I sell them, or I try to give them out to people and they'll donate a dollar or two dollars or any change or sport change. Nicholas, Penny, Zines, that's kind of what I'm taking right now. If I see them all over the place, it's because I've been all over the place right now. And I'm out of time. Thank you, guys.
4:48:09Thank you. Jennifer.
4:48:35Jennifer Lavorin.
4:48:39Adam Overton.
4:48:44All right, good evening, Mayor and City Councilors. My name's Adam Overton. I'm a faith-through-to-organizer with CLU, Clergy and Lady United for Economic Justice in Orange County.
4:48:57Our mission is to educate, organize, and mobilize faith community to accompany workers and their families and their struggle for good jobs, dignity, and justice. here to oppose item number 14, the proposed public intoxication and substance abuse enforcement, formerly named the intoxication detention and service offering policy. This was introduced at the last meeting, and it basically calls for Santa Ana police officers to stop, identify, and detain individuals in any place in Santa Ana
4:49:09who they perceive to be intoxicated at their discretion can immediately transport these individuals to Santa Ana Jail for processing and prior to release to provide them with information, et cetera, et cetera. This is just, this policy is to arrest the unhoused. The police are not going to be hanging out outside of bars. They're not going to be setting up stops to catch drunk drivers. They're going to be combing the parks, looking for the unhoused to evict them and to terrorize them. These are folks who are ill.
4:49:47These are folks who are self-medicating because they do not have a doctor to give them the appropriate medication. and the police are known in every case with these folks that these folks will get agitated by the presence of the police. They will get agitated, they will get traumatized, and if they get too traumatized by the presence of those police, the police will shoot and kill them, like they did Kurt Reinhold in San Clemente, shot by sheriff's officers who were trained homelessness liaisons,
4:50:29who within minutes of pulling him aside for jaywalking, shot and killed this man, our neighbor. He wasn't a piece of trash. He's not someone that we push and pick up and dump somewhere like trash. He was a neighbor. and he once was a child. He had parents who were afraid for his life then and now and they and any parent I guarantee in here and in the city would never ever say to us that sending my
4:51:07kid to jail because they are intoxicated, quote unquote, have a medical issue is going to help the situation in any way, shape, or form. So we please ask you to oppose this horrible, mean, hard-heartened policy.
4:51:46Thank you. Thank you for your comments. Thank you.
4:52:04Irma Hadagin followed by John Ramirez.
4:52:10Good evening, Mayor, Council Members. Pleasure to see you. I am here in support of item 14. I have been hearing everybody. The one thing that most people don't talk about is us, the regular citizens, and when we are exposed, only specifically that those are intoxicated, posing a danger to themselves and under the influence. It is a little bit of a tough love to help to take them. They've already been traumatized by their own, what's going on, but hopefully that will start sending them on a path. Sometimes you need to do that, but you have to look at the full, all the residents that live in your city
4:52:22to help them have a better standard of life. It's part of your mission statement to have safe, a safe place to live and be helpful to everybody but that's to all of us so for that I support another thing that everybody's talking about is the homelessness situation of Santa Ana excuse me Orange County a lot of this weight should be put on the county not on our shoulders we are the taxpayers but not of the whole county. Enough. Yes, they have millions of dollars specifically for these issues, so please go to the chambers
4:53:04of the county and start insisting that they have all the programs that we cannot carry the weight. You cannot put this burden on our city that we have the highest density of the whole county or Southern California. So they should be going to that. Another thing, those who are suffering of because of economic shortage on their income we need to have a very prosperous city we need to foster economic development because our housing density has reached its maximum we don't have a space for parking just listen to it whatever people are saying there's not enough parking
4:53:44why because we're dense we don't have enough space anymore go to let's have other cities build more homes we need to have a very economic and prosperous city with more businesses coming and hopefully our colleges Santa Ana College have because it's free to for the residents to have more classes in trade in the skill sets in the technology that these higher paying businesses should be coming so we don't have just a minimum every city that lives on coasts be it United States or europe or other countries the cost of living will always be higher because it's so appreciated and
4:54:23people want to be here we need to have those jobs that pay higher so thank you very much fully support 14. thank you john ramirez
4:55:05good evening mayor city council and staff my name is john ramirez i want to emphasize i'm a resident of the city of St. Adam my entire life and currently residing in Ward 2. I support item 14 and I want to commend and say thank you to those city council members for giving direction and move forward with item 14, formerly item 39. And again I want to say thank you to Councilmember Sarah for introducing this two council meetings ago. It is my hope after this implementation that we see a noticeable difference in the amount of persons intoxicated in our public streets and parks. To our police officers, I ask that you please use
4:55:21your discretion to detain these individuals at every opportunity when you receive reports on these lawbreakers or you observe them during your regular patrols through our city, provided that you are not on a more urgent and higher priority call at the time. We, the residents, have spoken
4:55:56and made our concerns known and crystal clear, and it all falls on you to do your part in making our city safer and detain these individuals. and we, the residents, will support you in that effort. To our city council, I say this to all of you. It is important that you always make public safety a top priority whenever an item concerning that comes before you on the dais. Item 39, now 14, is the most clear instance of public safety. So I find it troubling that a few of you felt it wasn't the right approach and decided not to support it. For future reference, when I say it is important to make public safety a top priority,
4:56:13That means you don't let your decision to do what's best for our city be wavered by people who aren't from here, who call us dehumanizing, inhumane, or unjust, when as residents are just trying to voice our concerns to you regarding our city and what we have to witness on a daily basis. This also means taking an approach to deal with the issue as quickly and as efficiently as possible right now rather than putting it off. you're elected to serve and listen to us the residents who live here and we just want a cleaner and safer city not just for us but for our children or in my
4:56:48case my nieces and nephews lastly I want to express my extreme disappointment that the state of California's Department of Public Health decided to move forward with the syringe distribution program here in our city despite numerous residents some city council members and even our mayor voicing concerns again against it, I ask that our city council members do whatever is in their power to try and implement any and all ordinances that might help to curtail any fallout as a result of this program being implemented here. Because I know we will be seeing more syringes laying on our streets, our sidewalks, and even our city parks.
4:57:27I can only pray that none of our children who live in our city come upon these used syringes on their way to and from school and hope curiosity does not get the best of them to want to pick one of these used syringes up. So please do whatever you can. Thank you, Mayor, City Council, City Staff, and thank you to our police and fire personnel present tonight. You'll have a good evening and stay safe.
4:58:04Thank you. Daniel Riley, followed by Frida Ramirez.
4:58:27Daniel Riley, followed by Frida Ramirez.
4:58:34Hi, I'm a resident of Santa Ana and I live in Ward 4. I'm requesting that the council reverse a decision to direct police to arrest people for public intoxication. The drug use that brought this proposal to the council is only a symptom of homelessness. The homelessness issue needs to be addressed directly by going to the root of why these people are on the streets in the first place not swept under the rug placing them in jail. Jails shouldn't be used as rehab centers they shouldn't be used as mental health facilities and they shouldn't be used as shelters if the
4:58:42city has so much extra resources that they can expand the Santa Ana jail to act as on all these things they can use it as facilities dedicated for these functions. Why not focus our resources on providing these people with housing and services they actually need. Cycling these people in and out of jail does nothing. The council pushing for such a thing during such an economically challenging time is especially cruel. Thank you.
4:59:15Frida Ramirez.
4:59:43Good evening, city council members and community members. My name is Frida Ramirez and I am a resident of Ward 6. I am here to speak in support of agenda item number 14. This proposal will ensure that there is accountability on both ends. The police will make arrests when necessary when an intoxicated person poses a threat to themselves and to others. And in addition, this will provide services and information for the person once they are sober and will allow them to make a hopefully conscious decision to help better their future. However, I still believe that rehabilitation and reintegration into society should be at the forefront
4:59:53of this program. I believe that a way to do that would be to create a system where there is accountability when someone is offered services. Sometimes an individual with a substance abuse problem will deny services. However, there might be some that would love to get help. Hopefully, there can be a system where the city can keep track of those people that want those services and continue to help them in their journey of recovery once released. Mainly, I am in support of this item because I have lived in Santa Ana my entire life, and I don't want to grow used to having people under the influence on the streets.
5:00:28I believe it is more inhumane to enable someone doing drugs at a local park or a local small business than it is to force them to get help. It is more inhumane to step over a passed out person on the side of the road than it is to call the police and give them the medical attention they need. I am also in support of this item because a burden has fallen way too hard on the residents of Santa Ana. This city has had to carry the weight for all the other cities in the county because of their inability to create shelters and to implement programs similar to ours. Why does Santa Ana need to bear all of this weight?
5:00:59This city has been dumping grounds for far too long, and the residents deserve to be able to enjoy their parks and amenities that every other city gets to enjoy. In fact, Laguna Beach has been policing some of the unhoused population for a little longer than we have. On the Laguna Beach website, which you all are welcome to check out, under harmless services, they have a program known as Community Outreach Officers. While there are only two in the city, the Laguna Beach Police Department actually has a program called Project Homecoming, where they reintegrate unhoused individuals with their families.
5:01:32This project sounds very similar to what the city is trying to implement here. However, we are faced with a lot more scrutiny than other cities that are already doing what we are trying to do. I feel for the first time as a lifelong resident of Santa Ana, we are finally being put first. please council members I urge you to vote yes on this item because our community has tolerated far too much I'll leave you all with this note as stated on the Laguna Beach website it will be a collective effort on both the County of Orange and all Orange County cities that will end homelessness yet
5:02:04the city of Santa Ana has been forced to endure this all alone thank you all
5:02:36Thank you. Claudio Boroncina followed by Bertha Carrillo. Claudio followed by Bertha Carrillo.
5:02:42Good evening. Claudio Boroncini with Warta number three, Flower Park. I'm here to support item number 14. A moment ago there was a gentleman with a picture of a lady laying on a bench. he said that she was sleeping hopefully she was sleeping we don't even know if that person was in the last grasp of breath maybe overdose or something like that and that's where the police could come and help that person within with the services that she needs we don't need in Santa Ana anything different than they have in South Orange County.
5:02:53I want the Santa Ana Police Department to be able to do what Newport Beach Police Department will do if they find somebody at Fashion Island just consuming some heroin, somebody at the spectrum, somebody at a kaleidoscope, or pretty much anybody who's drunk coming out of Cabo cantina in Balboa Peninsula. Now with this syringe exchange things get a little bit more tricky because that kind of kick us parents and the kids out of the parks and literally
5:03:36perpetrates the suffering and misery of those people who are under the influence. Let's hold them accountable. I don't care about the money, but if I push somebody to take their lives, I will be held accountable. I want the people from the health department to be held accountable as well. Now, I have turning pages. The Dixon contract states that they are supposed to do 60 public meetings for the calendar also in the contract. It says the last one should be in September. I have not heard even one of those meetings be public.
5:04:12Let's just revise that or let's just scratch the cost. It's $140,000 that I have not been able to take a part of. Thank you very much. Have a good night.
5:04:55Thank you.
5:05:06Bertha Carrillo, followed by Victor Mendez.
5:05:09Good evening, everybody. My name is Bertha Carrillo. I live in Santa Ana. I lived in Santa Ana for most of my life, all my life. I love Santa Ana. My family members, some of them moved out, but we decided to stay here because this is our home. I am here to talk about homelessness. This is wrong. I mean, what are we going to do? What are you guys going to do? This is ridiculous. I mean, my grandchild, I don't want her to grow up looking at these people, falling over drunk with drugs, with all kinds of diseases, all kinds of problems. I take her to
5:05:17the park. I don't want her to see a guy sleeping on the floor. It is a problem. It is a very big problem. We shouldn't have to see this. I live here. I pay my taxes. I paid and I'm here and I don't want these people to just live here for free. Help them out. I'm not saying pick them up and throw them out just like other cities do. Orange County or the city of Orange, Costa Mesa, other people bring them here. Everybody knows. Everybody's seen them and no one is saying anything. They bring them, they bus them here and throw them in our streets. And then all these other
5:05:56people are just saying, oh, please don't. What are they supposed to do? What are we supposed to do? Just take care of all of them? Take care of them? We need to take care of ourselves. We need to take care of our children. We need to take care of our grandchildren, our elder people, our people who don't have a car and that they have to use the buses, but they can't because there's people sleeping on those benches? Come on now. They need help. Yes, I agree. They need help and let me help them out. But it's not inhumane for me to think. I don't see me as inhuman thinking, oh, take care of them. It's not.
5:06:38I'm protecting myself, my children, and my grandchildren, and all my family members that we live here in Santa Ana. these people do need help I'm not saying jail them and leave them there get them out of the streets and get them help if I go out there driving walking I come out of someone's house and I'm drunk or a bar on 4th street and I come out and I'm falling over because I'm so drunk if a police officer sees me they're going to pick me up and take me to jail
5:07:17That's my decision. I'm making that decision that I'm walking in the streets in public intoxicating, not just drunk, but even worse. I wouldn't do that because I don't do any of that because I know what the circumstances are. If I do drugs, I am gonna get in trouble and I will end up in jail. How hard is that to believe? How hard is that to understand? Thank you very much for listening. Thank you. Victor Mendez.
5:07:57Good evening. I want to make a few comments. Just so you know, I'm a card-carrying member of the ACLU too, and this is not a civil rights issue. This is a matter of public safety and the risk to public safety. Let me give you East First Street just a case study right in the heart of Ward 3. About four months ago, it was littered, saturated with drug use and homelessness. I made constant calls almost daily to get the police to come out. Sometimes they did, sometimes they didn't. This went on for quite some time. Now fast forward to about six weeks ago. The neighborhood from Grand to where I live on Tustin is literally
5:08:32clean. I don't see bodies laying down on the sidewalk. I don't see, you know, people with their umbrellas are trying to hide their drug use um i do see homeless people but i've been educated enough that i'm not going to call the police i'm going to call city net because these people are seem like they need help and that's okay now first street itself is a is a center of affordable housing i live in affordable housing there's an affordable housing apartments down the street there is supportive housing across the street in the orchids there's two more units there's hotels
5:09:13or motels but these drug use continued on so somebody say well we got to do housing first well we had housing first on first street and it failed it didn't work and there is substance abuse going on in those houses these apart and even in my apartment we have drug problems we've had drug arrest i've witnessed drug dealing so the housing alone is not going to solve it this needs to be a very multi multi-faceted approach it does involve mental health it involves public safety but right now you got to put out the fire and right now i think you've done a pretty good job on east first
5:09:49street let's model that first and there's people out there that need help whether it be housing substance abuse alcohol abuse which i know all too well personally let's do what we can to get them help santa anna does not dehumanize people santa hannah is a great track record of being humane to other people look at the go all the things we do for our citizens look at all the things we do for other people look at all the burdens that we carry to come out and say we're dehumanizing because we want to keep people safe that's just simply a farce there are 500 senior citizens in my
5:10:24apartment okay they need protection they don't even have parking most of them they have to walk or pay $150 you know to do up to have just like their own what their own one car so let's do what we can for them as well they don't if they shouldn't have to drive into a driveway like I did and get assaulted by a drunk man with a beer bottle. That's unacceptable. And if you find it acceptable, that's a problem for me and those 400 seniors who vote. Thank you.
5:10:56Thank you. Juliana Musheyev, I apologize. And Nally, followed by Nally Gillespie.
5:11:25Okay, we're not going to do discussion during comments. Please don't disrupt the meeting. Juliana, thank you.
5:11:35Good afternoon. I'm an organizer with the Party for Socialism and Liberation. Wow, it's really, I'm just like emotionally trying to work through some of the things that have been set up here. The comments have absolutely been dehumanizing. Absolutely. The words that are being used are that homeless people are dumped into Santa Ana like trash. Do you know that these are people who are suffering because of the systemic issues we're all facing? Housing is not affordable. Even affordable housing is not affordable.
5:11:43People can't live off one income anymore. People don't have the jobs to pay for housing. And what if these people have suffered trauma or are grieving or are suffering from mental illness or are disabled? Okay, they end up homeless. Now they're seen as trash. They're dumped from one city to another. They don't have a shower. You're going to go home today. You're probably going to have dinner at your house. Take a shower. Change your clothes. Maybe do a load of laundry. Maybe make a cup of tea. Maybe, you know, go to the bathroom. Okay?
5:12:22Imagine not having any of that. You don't have your privacy and people see you as trash. Guess what? They're going to numb the pain with drugs. They're going to self-medicate. So I don't see how people are so blind to this. I understand people are afraid for their public safety. I understand that. And in times where you're going to get assaulted, of course, I'm not saying that there shouldn't be somebody stepping in if you're getting assaulted. That's not what we're talking about here. Okay, you can talk about these sensationalist sort of examples,
5:12:57but that's not what we're talking about here. What we're talking about here is the criminalization of public intoxication, that unfortunately that does target homeless people because homeless people do not have a private life. Do you think that people that are housed don't have drug abuse issues and are not abusing drugs in their houses? They are. The difference is that they have the privacy of their own home and they're not constantly monitored by the police. Homeless people do not have a home and they have reason to want to escape from the reality of constantly
5:13:38being dehumanized by some of the people that are sitting in this room right now. I am a resident of Santa Ana. I am not an outsider, okay? As a resident of Santa Ana, I am here to say these people are human beings, and the way that people are talking about them is disgusting. I really hope that everyone reflects, especially Mayor Mesquah and Phil Becerra, your morals are backwards. Thank you.
5:14:11Thank you. Nellie Gallispie.
5:14:43Good evening council members and mayor. I've known you for over 20 years and you still can't pronounce Legaspie. I'm just teasing you. I'm sorry. I'm calling you Nellie. Just say Nellie. You know after the topics that I've got on tonight I kind of feel a little guilty even talking about myself. The reason why I'm here tonight is two weeks ago at the last council meeting on August 1st, a person that is not a resident of our city who is coming from Garden Grove spoke here in a very aggressive, negative way and mentioned my name several times. I will not mention that person's
5:14:49name because as far as I'm concerned, she's not worth mentioning her name. But I will stand up for myself. I have been a commissioner for almost three years for the personnel commission. I have represented proudly. I do not cuss. I am not a racist. You cannot compare Native American regalia to the zoot suit outfits that they wore back in the day. They're not the same. In no way, shape, or form. I am a proud Oglala Lakota woman in Cherokee Apache, and I carry that with pride. Everything I say and do is to reflect my ancestors that went before me and the children that come behind me.
5:15:21When I speak publicly, I speak with this city in mind. That means I represent each one of you, including our neighbors. And I try and do that in the best way I can. What a lot of people don't know about me is I'm a domestic violence survivor. Also, a year ago, this same woman cost me my job that I don't often talk about. I was this close to being homeless. Yes, homeless me. But I got lucky. I am now an assistant director for social services at a hospital. And that's because I know my stuff and I live in a good way and I walk in a good way.
5:15:57So when I hear someone saying, oh, a resident said that you approached her in a racially motivated way and you try to intimidate her daughter and you cuss them out and you used a racial slur. Guess what? That's not me. And if y'all don't know me well enough to know, talk to the people that come and support me the people in the community for over 20 years who have known me in the labor union, here in the city, the Chicano people, the families, the people that I've gotten to know personally, I've gone to every other cultural event that I can possibly go to, who know who I am and know how I walk.
5:16:36I walk in a good way, in a positive way. I am tired of this woman being given a platform to attack me. She did the same to Dr. Neary at Santa Ana Community College because she didn't get her way. She didn't get to have a powwow there. So she went and attacked her to the point where now she doesn't even get to go talk anymore because it's just gibberish. It's slander. It's anger. We either speak in a good way to bring people together or to incite violence. After the last council meeting, I got numerous death threats on my cell phone from unknown numbers.
5:17:07Please can't do anything, and I understand that, but that's what this person does. And when you incite violence, you're responsible for that violence. And I always seek to bring peace. And that's it. Thank you. Thank you, Nellie.
5:17:37Ivan Rubidoux.
5:17:52I'm sure I pronounced it wrong. I'm sorry.
5:18:00It's okay. My name's Ivan Rubidoux. Can you come closer to the mic, please? I'm sorry? Closer to the mic. Thank you. My name is Ivan Rubidoux, and I'm from Garden Grove, but I spent most of my youth here in Santa Ana. I am here today to express myself since the last meeting on August 1st when the same lady that Miss Legaspi is talking about. I'm here to say that I'm Native American Indian. I have a tribe. I have a reservation in Oklahoma.
5:18:02and I've known this woman that she is talking about since I was a child. She is not of Native race. Her children are, but that does not make her of Native race. She may participate in helping her children do things at powwows or gatherings, but to sit there and say Nellie threatened her to strip her naked in the arena is not true. In our culture and in our traditions, if you go past beyond Arizona into the other states,
5:18:43especially Oklahoma, if you cannot name a person who dressed you in their arena and brought you out, you are not entitled to wear that outfit. that regalia. An elder has a right to walk up to you and tell you, you have to remove that regalia. You are not allowed to wear it because you did not get permission to wear it. So Nellie never, what do you say, threatened to strip her naked in the arena. That is not true. The second thing is that she's had a personal vendetta for whatever reason against Nellie,
5:19:23and I'm quite frankly tired of it. This woman is Hispanic. She has been Hispanic. My mom knew her before I did when they grew up in Crow Village.
5:20:03I know her children are native and they're into their culture. They're on federally recognized roles. but this lady is not. She cannot prove state recognition neither can she do federal and yet she claims all these tribes and I'm here to say that we need to stop giving her the time of day to waste your guys' time that you could be talking about other things instead of just trying to persecute one person for her own personal benefit. And I want to thank you for listening to me.
5:20:16you guys have a good evening thank you
5:20:54mayor that concludes the speakers thank you very much at this time we're going
5:21:02to go to consent calendar items 5 through 26 there before us now council members please announce any items that you'll be abstaining from due to conflict and if there are any requests to pull an item from the consent calendar for further discussion. Let's go to items pulled please. Councilman Hernandez. I'll move the
5:21:06calendar and pull item number 14. Councilmember Becerra. I'll go ahead and
5:21:27pull items 12 and 14. Councilmember Fan. I would just like to state my recusal from item number nine, as well as the one contract in item number 22, as the Illumination Foundation and VFS Fire and Security are clients of my employer, Rattan and Tucker.
5:21:33Thank you. Thank you very much. Council Member Vasquez. Item 14, please.
5:21:54Council Member Penalosa.
5:22:01
Thank you, Mayor. I'd like to pull items 9, 16, and 26.
5:22:05Mayor Pro Tem, Lopez. I was going to pull item 9.
5:22:13Great. Okay. The only item that I'm going to pull just for a comment is item 15. And that's just for a comment. So there was a motion by Councilman Hernandez. Second.
5:22:18Let's prepare to vote, please.
5:22:34A motion by Councilmember Hernandez, seconded by Councilmember Becerra to approve the consent calendar with the exceptions of items 9, 12, 14, 16, and 26, and a comment on 15, and noted recusals by Councilmember Fan on one contract for item 22. Item 9 will be discussed separately. And the vote is 7 ayes, no nays. Motion carries.
5:22:45Thank you. Madam Clerk, is the appointed member present to administer the oath of office? Mayor Pro Tem Lopez is appointed ETAC commissioner.
5:23:07Yes, Maria Beza is present. Should she please come forward?
5:23:17I, Maria, do solemnly swear that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States and the Constitution of the State of California against all enemies born and domestic, that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the Constitution of the United States in the Constitution of the State of California, that I take this obligation freely, without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion,
5:23:39that I will well and faithfully discharge the duties upon which I'm about to enter. Thank you.
5:24:20Mayor Potempo, did you want to take a picture with me? Sure.
5:24:32Thank you.
5:24:38Thank you. At this time, let's go to item 9, please.
5:25:18Thank you, Mayor Mesquah. Item 9 was pulled by myself. It's to approve a modification to the fiscal year 2324 annual action plan and budget for the Emergency Solutions Grant Program and to direct the City Attorney to finalize and authorize the City Manager to execute a subrecipient agreement with Illumination Foundation in the amount of a hundred thousand dollars. I pulled this item, I am supportive of the item, but I was going to ask Madam City Manager and City Attorney if it was possible that we also include as part of the language
5:25:22that the ability to provide public transit as part of the homeless prevention activities
5:25:57is available for these funds. I would like to see that added and included as part of this that Illumination Foundation must also use these funds to provide the ability for various forms of public transit including bus, train, whatever is convenient and desired by the recipients. Is that a possibility?
5:26:07Yes, Councilmember. Part of the homeless prevention activities that are allowable by this type of a funding stream, that would be acceptable.
5:26:30Okay. And is there, would we have to amend any contract or MOU as part of this, or is this just, can Can we send a memo that I would personally like to see that that is something that they
5:26:39I think you making a motion with that that staff and the attorney's office would be able to take care of it for you.
5:26:55Okay. Well with that I will make a motion to move forward with this but with that caveat that we're that we ask them that they also provide public transportation to those in need with the funds that we're allocating.
5:27:02I'll second with a comment.
5:27:17I have a comment as well. Councilman Hernandez?
5:27:19Yes, thank you, Mayor Mesquita. I just wanted to thank my colleague. This item is about homeless prevention activities under the ESG program, and it involves eviction prevention and may include financial assistance, mediation, legal services, rental assistance, case management, housing counseling, credit repair services, utility assistance, and now with the inclusion of transportation services, I think this is a very robust program that the city of Santa Ana will be rolling out into our community. So with that, that concludes my comments. Thank you.
5:27:22Mayor Prochon.
5:27:57Thank you. So city manager, I saw that some of the money that had been allocated was declined by Mercy House, and so this is why we're discussing this item.
5:27:58and so some of the services Councilmember Hernandez just quickly ran through but I had a question about because it they are a lot of services and that's not the issue the issues that some of these are very niche like the legal services and so is that something that Mercy House I'm not Mercy House and the Illumination Foundation has done and has a consistent track record of being successful, specifically when you're talking about the mediation and the legal services.
5:28:13Mayor Pro Tem Lopez, I am very familiar with Illumination Foundation and they are a very well respected provider that engages in a lot of different services. For the specific question that you asked regarding, did I hear you say mediation?
5:28:45Yeah, well I see some of these under the ESG program it involves and it has a list of services and it details mediation as being one of them so I don't I don't have any doubt right about the reputation of the organization that the city has done business with my concern is really what you know what what kind of is the track record record specifically with the legal services and how are we measuring those outcomes is really my area of interest okay got it so I will
5:28:59ask executive director mike garcia to come out i don't know if that's one of the services that we actually engage them to provide it is one that is allowed so i'll defer to him
5:29:33so i guess if you could clarify for me then what are we engaging them in
5:29:43so the legal uh as you guys do provide that and you contract with uh legal staff correct jordan Jordan? Why don't you come on up? So we have Jordan from Illumination Foundation, and he can talk to that specific. Okay, thank you. Yeah, so specifically as it regards to homeless prevention funding, we have received homeless prevention funding through the Family Solutions Collaborative in Anaheim in the past that we've operated out of our Anaheim Service Center that operates as a family coordinated entry system access point as well. We don't have any lawyers on staff that would work on this.
5:29:49We primarily handle it through referrals with case management services to existing community resources like the Public Law Center or Legal Aid Society, depending on the particular nature of the client's case and what the community resource can offer. I would note that we want to use as much of that $100,000 as possible for rental assistance and for eviction prevention, and that legal assistance gets quite expensive. so I think we'd be looking primarily to use it to directly pay for rental assistance for people that are in need. But we do have experience with homeless prevention.
5:30:26Part of that, of course, is connecting clients to legal resources when it's appropriate, so we are able to do that. But we wouldn't have it in-house as part of this contract.
5:31:06Thank you, because I saw a list, and I just assumed that those were all the services. So thank you for that clarification. And then do we get quarterly reports on the list of people that get service a part of
5:31:14this amount of money or can we can include that absolutely similar to what we do with our other housing programs.
5:31:28Okay perfect thank you. So to the maker of the motion.
5:31:35I have a comment before we go to.
5:31:41So to the maker of the motion would you be willing to accept that we request a quarterly report in terms of how many people are assisted with with the dollar amount yeah that's fine
5:31:44i guess it would that would encompass any service that's provided correct yeah that's that's good
5:31:54madam city manager my my uh only comment is that i know it's not i mean hundred thousand dollars is it seems like a lot of money but it really is not right and so i'd like to believe that it is and you know i always talk to you about the families that are in the shelters so So, you know, maybe we can look at, for rehousing and for shelter and homes, we need to look at our families. Children do not belong in shelters. And I have visited both Yale and Carnegie. And not that I'm biased or anything, but our shelter is pretty good. And so when I go there, I see children.
5:32:00And so if we can move them out of there and maybe get them a voucher into a motel or to a home, I mean to an apartment, that would be wonderful. I know, again, $100,000 does not go far, but I think we have anywhere between like 9 and 11 families on a regular basis maybe.
5:32:41We do, and, Mayor, we understand your concerns with that segment, and so we are always looking at different sources of revenue and means to accommodate that. Thank you. I appreciate it.
5:32:58There's a motion on the floor and a second. There's no other questions, comments, let's vote.
5:33:09Moved by Council Member Penaloza, seconded by Council Member Hernandez with amendments to provide public transportation and require quarterly reports.
5:33:19The vote is six ayes, no nays, with a noted recusal by Councilmember Phan. Motion carries.
5:33:36Thank you. Item 12, please.
5:33:42Madam Mayor, I pulled this item. I'm supportive of the item, but what I wanted to just make sure that staff hears this, and I know we've had these conversations, but I just want to make sure it's part of the public record. and that is, you know, in July 17th, 1889, the voters of Orange County voted for Santa Ana to be the county seat of Orange County. So in other words, the capital of Orange County. As we begin to envision what the future of our civic center, not really Santa Ana's, but Orange County Civic Center is going to look like, we have to make sure that we don't exclude some of those elements.
5:33:45So with the purchase of the state building, which has pretty much been vacant most of this time, and many of the state agencies that were located in that building have moved out thankfully here into Santa Ana into other office buildings but I just want to make sure that's for the record that as we look at the future of our civic center that we also include state and federal government offices alongside the city and the county buildings because for it to be a true civic center it has to have all those elements so I just want to make sure that that
5:34:18sentiment was recorded and expressed in the public record and with that I'll go ahead and move the
5:34:49item I'll second any other comments I see none let's prepare to vote
5:34:53motion by councilmember Becerra seconded by mayor Emesqua to approve item 12 the purchase and sale agreement for property at 28 Civic Center Plaza
5:35:04vote is 7 ayes no nays motion carries thank you item 14 and before we begin Madam City Manager, anything you'd like to say about item 14, please?
5:35:13Certainly. I know there was a lot of public comment on this item. The item that is before you is simply a receive and file. It's an informational report. Two council meetings ago, we did already receive the majority direction to implement this program.
5:35:23Thank you very much. Any comments? I see nobody. Oh.
5:35:40Councilman Vasquez. I understand the folks frustration of community on this community on this issue. I understand we want more safety. I agree that folks who are in danger to others should be handled by police and those in danger to themselves should be handled by the quality of life team. Nobody is stopping the police from performing their duties. I put this idea because the intent is not one of best practices for unhoused people. There are various studies that state the opposite, including one from the Department of Justice, the RAND Corporation that is a nonpartisan think tank, the National Coalition of
5:35:49Homeless Veterans, and the Urban Institute. The studies call for housing-first solutions to limit strong police policy. I'll lift all the links on my Instagram if you follow me, Ben Hamim Vasquez for San Ana. We have seen this in San Ana play out before that strong policing doesn't work. We used to have homeless on the parking lot on Civic Center and Flower across from Eddie Westfield. People got upset, they pushed them out, they went to Civic Center. They went to Civic Center and the library. People got upset, we called police, and they pushed
5:36:27them out. The homeless don't disappear. They did disappear. Many went on to Santiago Creek and Santiago Park. The residents got upset. We got homeless police. We got police inside there, pushed them out. They moved over the corridors of Bristol and First Street, as we see them now, and other hotbed areas. The homeless don't disappear. The homeless are not going to disappear.
5:37:01Heavy-handed policing does not and has not worked. The housing simply did not disappear. As we have seen here in the city, it takes about 20 conversations with the homeless from the Quality of Life team with an unhoused individual to gain trust in order to move them of becoming better in their life and moving into housing. When strong policing policies are enforced, it breaks that trust, not only with police but the Quality of Life team. While the Quality of Life team is developing trust and relationships, the police with this policy will break that trust and start that all over again, having to build again.
5:37:28People who are sent to jail are not able to raise money and keep it as they're going in and out of jail, but they lose hope when they are incarcerated. When we build trust with the unhoused, people will be moved away from the street and into housing. This policy will exasperate the situation by decreasing the number of the folks transitioning to homes and increase the homeless, as we've seen in many studies. Furthermore, a strong police policy creates a cycle of criminalization where the un-housed will increase the times that are incarcerated.
5:38:04For this, I call for a creation of un-housed committee that brings the council, residents, service providers, partners, police, the office of Vicente Sarmiento, the Office of Lu Correa, the Office of Tom Emberg, and the Assembly Member of Evelino Valencia to come together. Santa Ana should not be left alone to solve this issue, and the simple plan of arresting the unhoused is not the solution. Unhoused people do not disappear.
5:38:37Are you done, Councilman? Yes. Councilman Hernandez?
5:39:06Thank you, Mayor Mesquah. I opposed this item when it was initially brought forward because of my professional work experience. I worked in a capacity as a re-entry case manager, and I worked with young adults that were aged between 18 to 25. And the largest demographic of growing community members that are experiencing homelessness are foster youth and teenage youth that are transition aged. But the largest demographic of people affected by homelessness are our elderly.
5:39:10Police will tell you themselves they are not trained, nor do they want to respond to this issue. This is bad policy direction. And our police officers are going to face the brunt. of having to chronically deal with people that are experiencing very complex intersectional traumas, traumas that can linger from foster care, youth that have experienced the foster system. Oftentimes, when they are transitioned and they are of age and they don't have family,
5:39:47and they don't have families that have allowed them to stay in their home, guess where they end up? In our streets. I am fully aware that there are buses that have dropped people off in our community, and that is inhumane. We shouldn't stoop to that level. I do believe that when it comes to the response of people who are not from our community, we need to work with the county. We need to work with foundations like Orangewood so that we can have family reunification for those that did go through the foster system.
5:40:25The issue that we're seeing that is spilled into our street is very much an offshoot of the criminal justice system. When you look at the people sleeping on our streets, the chances are they're coming from jails and they're being released into the center of the city. and this issue will exasperate that. Residents of Ward 5 can expect that our jails are located central in the city. The most urban neighborhoods, Artisa Pilar, Willard, Washington Square, a lot of these neighborhoods will be impacted by
5:41:00this issue even more so than they already are. Many of the of the people who are experiencing homelessness understand that that there is services out there but this isn't a one-size-fits-all solution which is why having police be the sole response is going to lead to more issues our city of Santa Ana staff do a good job putting together staff reports I'll read you a couple of different concerns that they share some of the challenges that we have of course is the legal and ethical considerations. Legal and ethical considerations
5:41:38surrounding the detainment and the transportation of individuals should be thoroughly evaluated. Police are not experts to deal with people who are experiencing a mental health crisis. We know that. Orange County has a very clear public example. July 5th of 2011, the killing of Kelly Thomas. This literally transformed the city of Fullerton that we have an assemblywoman who at the time was a councilwoman and is now devoted her career to ensuring that police do not respond to issues relating to people experiencing homelessness. Our
5:42:17assemblywoman in Fullerton Sharon Cork-Silva literally shaped her career around ensuring that no injustice ever occurred again at the hands of police because of a homeless man sleeping on the street councilman hernandez we're
5:42:57gonna do three rounds of three please thank you that'll conclude my first round of comments thank you councilmember fan thank you mayor I want
5:43:11to thank everybody who's emailed contacted us showed up make comments I think that it's been really helpful to hear from everyone because it is such a big issue right homelessness is the top issue here in our city and something that we deal with staff, the council, every day, and so do all of you.
5:43:21My approach to policy has been and always will be dealing with these big heavy items in all different manners. We have to use all the tools in our toolboxes. I wish that when folks talk about housing and affordable housing and shelter and programs, that you're also looking at what Santa Ana is doing. We have the number one, we have more affordable housing in the city than pretty much any other city in the county. Please correct me if I state anything wrong. We have entitled more housing units overall than any other city in this county. Since my time joining this council,
5:43:43we have not said no to any affordable housing developments. We have invested multi-millions of dollars, whether it's general fund, ARPA fund, or other state grants and federal grants to providing not only affordable housing, wraparound services, as well as other mental health outreach programs. We're also working with nonprofit partners. In fact, just tonight, you saw in number eight, which is on the consent calendar, but we are asking CalOptima, the county's mental health care provider for low-income individuals in this county. I was on CalOptima as a child.
5:44:23Actually, I was on CalOptima until I got off it from Obamacare. But they have over a billion dollars. That's a billion with a B sitting in their bank account that they are not using. And so I urge all of our residents to show up to their next meeting on September 7th and ask them, ask those board members, please expend those dollars to support mental health programs, wraparound services, and housing for our residents, because they're spending $20 million here and there. That's not a billion dollars. And, you know, at the same time, we're looking at families and other residents who are
5:45:04also working class, who are also saying, we need help too. And to say, we can only focus on the perfect solution or only one avenue to solve this problem is I think ineffective. Just like my support for developing housing of all different levels and my support for rent stabilization and just cause eviction, we have to deal with the crisis on all fronts. And with something like this we need to trust that our officers who are trained to say is this a dangerous situation, are they using drugs openly is this something we need to intervene in and let them make that call as necessary
5:45:42i appreciate the comments and i'll continue and really quickly regarding mr kelly thomas and other situations but that is not santa anna that was 15 years ago almost and i think that what we need to focus on is what santa anna is doing today to make sure that we address this issue for all of residents not only those who are houseless but also working-class members
5:46:20thank you mayor Pro Tem Lopez I don't see here but I think you want to speak yes
5:46:43thank you so you all heard the city manager say that there was majority support there was a super majority support for this item two week and two weeks ago when we discussed it I think it was July 18th and so this is a receive and file the direction has been given to implement this policy you know and I do want to thank everybody that has come you know into this chamber to speak specifically if you are outside of the city if you are sharing your knowledge of social workers of people that do this on the ground but I also
5:46:53just want to stress to you the experiences of working-class people in the city and and and and the hardships that so many of us have experienced every single day for years you know and and unfortunately it takes it unfortunately in government I've learned because I've been on the opposite side that you can come to a council meeting and you can tell people if you don't do something about this issue it will explode if you don't do something about this issue it will explode and unfortunately a lot of times in government people wait until
5:47:28an issue has exploded to be reactive and I think that's part of the big problem here now and so I think for us it is about addressing this in every single aspect and every single pathway avenue that we can address it we know that it's just not about incarceration a majority of the council members said that we understand that however how do we provide relief to our residents that have been asking for this and my responsibility is to listen to the residents about what they think what other solution we can implement and so you know chief valentine i support you i want you to
5:48:07know that but i also just want to state very clearly that this is not just your initiative to carry out city manager as the as the city manager of the city as the ceo of this business because that is what we do we conduct business it is also going to be um i think upon you to work with the chief to make sure that we do anything and everything that we can to find you know to to to provide relief to our residents because we can continue to throw money at this issue the way that we have but the question that our residents are asking us is what are we getting in return for
5:48:48it right and so when we are implementing these measures we need to have um we we need to be able to have accountability within departments and say hey this is how much money it's going this is what we're getting in return and so you know i just want folks to think about that right people have been pushed to their breaking point about what they can want to see you know and in our neighborhoods and so I think that's part of a bigger conversation and the other issue is really the the the medical aspect of this plan that I emphasized when I gave my public comment during the July 18th meeting
5:49:25and how we reduce liability and so I think those are the things that you are going to have to figure out with Chief Valentin. I think it's a very difficult job to be quite honest with you what you have been tasked with. You know I took the liberty of speaking with your officers. They confirm that you know some of our officers do this you know and so they shared their experiences and I think one of the things that should come back to this council is why hasn't this worked if we're already doing this and what will be different. And, you know, quarterly reports, right? Where do we just ask one of our contractors to do that?
5:50:07Um, and so the same should go for our staff. So thank you for that.
5:50:47Thank you. Council member, panelists, please.
5:50:53Thank you, mayor. And, uh, thank you, uh, staff for putting this information report together. I want to make it very clear that this isn't a policy decision or a program that the city is trying to implement. This is just asking us for our police department to enforce laws that are already in the books. Public intoxication. This has nothing to do with homelessness, as half my colleagues have mentioned, and the outsiders from South County and the socialists from Placentia came in here to mention. Okay, I want to make it clear that this is about public intoxication. Today, on Flower Street and Ettinger,
5:50:56the strip mall behind 7-Eleven, Carlos Market, Brisas de Patzingan. I was there today because every single day there are people that are not homeless. These are men that are actually painters because they were wearing their paint-covered clothes, and they had their utility truck, and they're parked in front of Carlos Market with a 24-pack of beer. There's three of them, and they pound those beers pretty quick. and guess what? I've had a beer or two. You know what happens when you have a beer or two? You got to use the restroom. You got to relieve yourself. So what are these painters, these hard-working men
5:51:34that are now in the parking lot of a public right-of-way drinking, getting drunk, and urinating all over the place? They're not homeless. And guess what? They jump into their car and they drive home. Down the street, St. Andrew and Flower, the liquor store that code enforcement is very familiar with, Same thing, public alley behind the liquor store. Every day from 4 to 9 p.m. there are two or three utility trucks back there with construction workers. With their 24, sometimes a 36 pack of beer, between two or three of them.
5:52:11Guess what? They finish them, get really drunk, piss all over the place, then drive home. That is what we're talking about here. They're not homeless. They're not unhoused people with a coping mechanism. These are a nuisance and a problem to our city. Every neighborhood is affected by this. Memorial Park. There are men that hang out that actually live across the street and play dominoes every afternoon and linger around the restroom and loiter. And guess what? They have their coolers full of beer. Police department knows about this. Court enforcement park staff knows about this.
5:52:49They're not homeless. They're not unhoused. They're not, again, suffering with mental health. They're drunks that are getting drunk in a public space that obviously don't want to go home to their wives. They should go home to their wives or their kids and help them with their homework, but they're not. They're causing a nuisance and becoming a danger to our community. That's what we're talking about here. Not the unhoused, as the woman from Capriciano Beach came to talk about. There's a city council meeting this week in your city. I hope you're out there advocating for shelter beds in your city.
5:53:27So thank you staff to our police department. I hope that we're enforcing and code enforcement going after these various strip malls throughout the city to enforce our laws that are already on the books, not just our state laws as well, about public intoxication. Because these people are getting behind the wheel after a long day of work, getting drunk in our park, in our streets, in our alleys, and driving home. And I will let city staff, how many pictures have I sent you guys of these multiple men that are not homeless? Again, we're not talking about homeless people here.
5:54:04You want to come back for another three minutes?
5:54:40Yes. But those, thank you, Steph.
5:54:41Okay, let me go back this way. Councilman Hernandez, you wanted another three minutes? No, it's okay. Actually, okay. You want to take your name off then? Councilman Becerra? Thank you, Mayor.
5:54:45I wanted to thank everybody who took the time to come out tonight and to send emails in support of this policy, even though it was given direction by the majority of this council back on July 18th, and here we are today with this receive and file. It is a shame, whether it's the people from South County or whether it's people on this dais that continue to either misunderstand or deliberately misrepresent what this policy is. I mean, it's almost insulting to say that everybody that has a substance abuse issue is homeless. That's insulting to those that are inflicted with substance abuse problems,
5:54:56to say that they're all homeless, because that's what you're implying when you come in and say that this item is about nothing but the homeless. It's not. It's about our families being able to enjoy the parks, the sidewalks, the streets, without folks passed out. I do have a question, though, for staff, Madam City Manager. So when will all of us, our residents, see SAPD out there doing this proactive enforcement?
5:55:34I will defer to our Chief of Police, David Valentin, to answer that question.
5:56:04Mayor, City Council, thank you for the question. it's happening now I was suggested to provide a quarterly report and we certainly can do that
5:56:17okay great thank you for that because I'm still receiving reports from folks that are seeing officers just kind of honk at them shoo them along and these are folks that are really completely inebriated I can tell you right now Maine and Dyer, quite the hot spot they either go from the bus stop by the 7-Eleven now they're going across the street and invading the businesses over there and passing out along there. And we're talking multiple groups. I mean, you couldn't miss them. So that's why I have to ask that question. When are we going to see the implementation?
5:56:26Because right now, I've got to tell you, I don't see it being implemented. So you're saying it's being implemented as we speak?
5:57:01Sure. Yes. And I think an appropriate response as follow would be a quarterly report.
5:57:07Well, I'm not worried about the quarterly report. I'm saying for our residents, I want them to have the comfort that this council provided direction to the state manager to provide to you to have the officers proactively detain folks that are publicly intoxicated, that are in violation of our existing state laws. I just want to know that that's happening now, according to you.
5:57:13I already answered the question, sir. Okay. And so yes. And the other thing that we need to be careful about is discretion of officers. So for me to tell you that in each instance, an officer is detaining someone who is possibly being intoxicated, there may be a variety of different factors as to why that didn't happen in that one instance, right? And so, or are they going to another higher priority call? There's context to everything. And so is it occurring already? Yes.
5:57:32Well, in that regard, thank you for bringing that up. So one of the things that you mentioned, because you helped author this report that's for us today, when it comes to resources for PD, so as you just mentioned, if there's a higher priority call. We are giving direction for this to be a priority. And so what I'm hopeful of, and maybe this is something that comes back in a subsequent report, if there is additional resources that you need, you need to proactively tell us. Is that clear?
5:57:59Crystal.
5:58:30Perfect. Thank you. Because I can tell you in my time on this council, I have rarely seen any proactive outreach to us from PD that says, here's what we need in order to prioritize these things because you've heard all of us talk about these quality of life issues and we hear about the wonderful things that you're doing when it comes to the priority one calls but what we need is we need folks to be able to feel that when they call in on non-priority one calls that they're going to be able to get the response that they need from pd and i just
5:58:30constantly we're not at least for me i've never seen something that says hey in order to reduce call times on the priority two three and four calls this is what we need and so in this report where you talk about possibility of needing more resources. I just hope that you will return to us with those requests if you need them.
5:59:00Certainly.
5:59:17Okay. I just, real quick, Mayor, I know I'm running out of time here. I just want to say that I appreciate that the report, that's okay, Chief, you can go. I appreciate that the report talks about our collaboration with CalOptima. It shows that this is not just about arresting our way out of the problem, but it's trying to offer services, offer access to services. and then actually I did like chief I do want to ask you one thing in your report you talk about you want to come back to come back to your three minutes please okay I'll come back to hold that
5:59:18question and then sorry chief you want to just sit at the end here you're probably gonna have to walk back and forth okay councilman panelosa is this your last three minutes yes it is I just
5:59:47wanted to also say for the record and since the chief came up wanted to thank you actually and the police department today on my way here to the city council meeting I pulled into the Carlos Market on Flower and did come across one of our black and whites doing proactive enforcement of the drunks that were kind of hanging out in the parking lot. So thank you for that. I did see it unfortunately within an hour they'll come back and continue to drink in public. I just with with my understanding of the officer's discretion of who is publicly intoxicated.
5:59:56I guess these two specific examples, Carlos Market on flour in Ettinger and the liquor store in St. Andrew and flour behind the public alley. I mean, these are men in their vehicles with numerous open containers of alcohol. I know what a talk hand looks like and and you know I public discretion I mean the discretion of an officer I mean anybody's discretion walking by could say hey that's an open container inside a vehicle you know sometimes a car is even on to blast music I just I just hope that we we aggressively go after
6:00:38those obvious people violating the law and yeah and hope that we cite them at At the end of the day, that's where it's going to hurt is that monetary thing. That's going to, whatever fine that comes with, I hope we aggressively pursue it. Thank you.
6:01:15Councilman Vasquez. Hello. Chief Valentino, I want to thank you for, don't worry, I just want to thank you for how you wrote this report. And I hope the priorities like sex crimes, assault, robbery, domestic violence, those kind of things can become, those are priorities. How do we save folks who are in danger in the moment beyond this? So I would like to see the list of priorities that you do have in the police force and where this is going to land, because I really hope we can protect our families on those pressing issues that we need to solve.
6:01:33And I do appreciate your wording here of discretion by the police to determine how it's going to come out. Thank you for bringing that in there, writing it in, and the officers can make an informed decision regarding appropriate course of action. Thank you for adding CalOptima and some kind of hope. I don't know if people make a decision in jail
6:02:10where you're locking somebody up as a form of violence. So I don't know if people are going to trust that violence, but thank you for having it in there. Also, thank you for letting us know that the Santa Ana jail may pose limitations in providing comprehensive medical clearance and care. So people that need emergency care are still going to get emergency care. Thank you for having a comprehensive approach to address substance abuse in Santa Ana and emphasizing both accountability and compassion.
6:02:33So I want to thank you for the words compassion in there as well.
6:03:07So I don't agree with the intent of the policy, but I support some of the work that you have in there. So I do appreciate you adding some of those things in there. Thank you.
6:03:10Councilman Becerra, and then I'm going to speak, and we're going to close this out as it is a receiving final.
6:03:22Thank you, Mayor. So Chief Voting, go ahead, come on back up. While you're coming up, so I want to ask, so in the portion of your report where it discusses medical staff at the jail, does it take into account in the proposal the policy direction from the dais to add or I guess maybe evolve the nurses into nurse practitioners to change out those staffs so that they can handle more at the jails when it comes to medical clearances versus you know paper cuts at the hospital officers tied up for hours on end? Yeah so that's an area that
6:03:26that we're still exploring with my jail administrator because we cannot have an infirmary in the jail. That higher level of medical care is really coming from the county, not from the city jail. And even they have limitations. And so we have to be careful in what we, I don't want to overcommit, right? Because we would need literally MDs assigned to the jail. And we're not there yet in terms of exploring that fully, cost, et cetera. And I understand what you're saying in terms of direction but there's also the foundation and context in order to have a deliverable and so
6:04:03what we don't want is officers arresting people out in the street and when otherwise they don't have a warrant or they can cite them right take them to the jail and they have some other complication and now we have tied up resources either by the officers or the jailers so but it's certainly an area that we're looking at to to incorporate and leverage okay well I I would say
6:04:44when it comes to the jail obviously we're not turning it into a hospital it's still in jail and as far as for those that do have to go to the hospital one thing I'd like to ask you to explore or city manager if you would when it comes to staffing so maybe perhaps there's a way and I don't know the ins and outs of this whether some sort of either a CSO or a police officer could be posted at the hospital so that the patrol staff could hand off custody of the person who needs medical attention at the hospital. That way, those patrol staff aren't tied up at the hospital.
6:05:08If there's a way to have somebody there so that, obviously, you're not just releasing them into the hospital's custody, but rather having a Santa Ana police officer or someone associated with the department being able to be at the hospital. Yeah, and that was certainly a consideration,
6:05:43But when you look at, let's just say, global, what used to be Western Med, there are various floors there, obviously the ER room. And can we cover, you know, we put one police officer, there are two police officers there, obviously the cost. But can we cover all spaces? Absolutely not. The sheriffs, when they take custody of someone, can they cover all the spaces? And then it's also an officer safety issue. We don't ever want to deploy one officer or one deputy to do anything. We always do it in pairs and twos. So we will certainly take a look at that.
6:05:58It was part of the consideration and discussion that I had with my staff as we prepared the document.
6:06:31I appreciate that because the idea with this policy obviously is going to require more resources but also while we're doing this we also need to look at possible efficiencies that we could realize. The last thing I have is just really in this report where we talk about the, let's see, the conclusion about community perception. and the way it looks it's almost as if like the community perception is there's some concern whether people are going to be I guess have a problem with seeing officers take folks that are severely intoxicated you know and arrest them or detain them and bring them to the jail.
6:06:36I would tell you right now in fact I would ask Madam City Clerk how many emails again did we receive in support of this item?
6:07:12Councilmember Becerra, we received 134 emails as of 2 p.m. I did not do a specific breakdown of the support versus oppose, but in general my recollection was a majority in support.
6:07:23Oh, I would argue it's probably an overwhelming majority because I too received those e-comments and I did not see any that were in opposition. And that was probably a lot more than what we received when this policy first came around for item 39. So I just want to say out loud and to you, Chief, is that the perception out there is that our officers aren't doing enough when it comes to folks that are intoxicated. And so the hope is, is that with this direction and with the support of the council, that you will feel enabled to empower our officers to make those arrests and to clean up our parks, our sidewalks, and our
6:07:36streets, because it's out of control out there. I mean, when you look, just driving up Bristol today to come to the City Hall and seeing all the folks that openly camp out out there, and they're shooting up, they're hiding. I think Councilman Peloza talked about them hiding behind their umbrellas to shoot up. I mean, we're seeing that all the time, and it's just a slap in everybody's face. So I just want to thank you and your officers for what you already do, but I'm just really optimistic and hopeful that with this direction that you guys will step up and really turn the corner on this because our community demands it.
6:08:07So I really hope that you and your team will step up.
6:08:40Thank you. Councilman Hernandez, did you push your button? Chief, I have a question. That's why I thought Councilman Hernandez was going to have. I apologize. That's why I said you sit in the corner. So I'm the last one, and then we're going to move on again. This is a receiving file. And so your report, thank you very much. Public intoxication and substance abuse. And so I know I heard a quarterly report. Madam City Manager and Chief, I'd like initially, if we can do monthly, if my peers appear, would be okay with that because and not a lot of information just like contacts
6:08:46and how many people you've had to detain what organizations have you released them to who are we working with I know we've had meetings with Cal Optima and so thank you for bringing them in on this and so I know they have they're coming on board and assistant city manager and I we met with ultimate last week and so they're also interested but is it possible then we'd like if you guys are okay with it monthly initially just to again just contacts what organizations you're working with what are you really finding out there right public intoxication you know some guy slamming on the corner passed out you
6:09:19know I mean there's so many different things that are happening in our city I also want to thank you because every time I have a coffee with the mayor your officers come out and it's usually cult gang a commander and sometimes traffic And the first question right out the bat, and I, you know, anybody who's gone with me, Hawk goes with me, Nabil goes with me, he's one of the most popular guys there, Hawk and Nabil and police. They don't want to talk to me. They want to talk to staff and to your officers. First question off the bat, what are you doing as police to take care of the homeless issue?
6:09:58First thing, how are you keeping it safe? What is the response time? Why are you not coming out? And so that's what the discussion always comes down to. So I want to thank you. And I really want to make a point here, two things, because I think enough has been said up here. I believe last week at Denny's, an incident occurred in the bathroom with a small child. A small child was with his mom having dinner at Denny's. Went in to use the bathroom. There was a guy who came in. I didn't read the report. I don't need to. Whether he was homeless or not, refused to pay his bill. while your officers, I believe, were making contact with him,
6:10:36and before they were able to let him go, the mother informed him that her son had been sexually assaulted by him in the bathroom. So when people come up here and talk about, we're inhumane, and I'm not directing this at you, we're inhumane, and, you know, this is awful, they have trauma, I want you to go home tonight, and I want you to think about that little boy that was in the bathroom, because he could have been your little boy, could have been my little boy, who was in the bathroom,
6:11:14using the bathroom, and he was sexually assaulted in the bathroom by a stranger. Think about that when you go home. I don't care what city you live in, just think about that for a minute. And then, and for some people it may be funny, it may be like, oh my gosh, what's the big deal? If you have children or people you love, or children you love, grandchildren, nieces, nephews, those children have to deal with that trauma for the rest of their life. the rest of their life. That little boy is going to have to deal with it for the rest of his life. So, Chief, I want to mention that. I also want to mention that at River Glen
6:11:44Homes, your officers came out with me last week and met with the community, and thank you again for that. And Commander was there, Team Sergeant Montiel was there, Ken, Alvidal, Nabil, and City Manager, thank you as well. The staff come out. The community absolutely loves it. And they talked about the issues at Adolfo's Liquor. And then what happens? They talked about the drinking, the drunk guys sitting out there drinking beer, being loud, urinating all over, doing god-awful things in that parking lot. And there is a 602 posting that Councilman Becerra always talks about, right? And there's a posting up there.
6:12:20They even put a new light, if I'm not mistaken. I think we talked about the new light that went up for some of your officers. And then what happened there this weekend? It was a homicide. Are you, as the police, going to solve everything? No, Chief, I know that. We know that. But I just want to say this report, thank you for it, because there's some good things in here. And when you talk about legal and ethical considerations surrounding the detainment and transportation of individuals should be thoroughly evaluated, I know that you, and correct me if I'm wrong, please, you're working with our legal team? Yes, ma'am. Okay.
6:13:01So that way we don't run into any problems. Because if there's somebody under the influence, whether it's an immunity code and you're working with our city attorney, or they have a warrant, you're working with hopefully with parole or probation. So there's agencies that you can work with to help people get off the street or help your officers help them get off the street, correct?
6:13:36Correct.
6:13:57Okay. And then this was the key for me, and this is the one I want to really thank you for. You said community safety, enhanced enforcement, can improve community safety by addressing behaviors hindering public use of streets and sidewalks. and so Councilman Becerra I think and Councilman Panalosa talked about I wouldn't say people drinking running from their why hiding from their wives I would just say they tend to drink but you won't find my husband out there but
6:13:58um but I want to thank you for that because that's what our community is asking for and the city manager and assistant city manager we have this conversations all the time about the quality of life and so your officers now and they have been because first street looks better the other day I was driving down Bristol and there were three units making contact with you know people on Bristol but we still have a problem with the addict that's passed out on the sidewalk that I hope your officers are gonna stop now and get off and address it and do they need help are they alive we're gonna call fire hopefully and are
6:14:32they alive we're gonna get them help we get them into a program get them to the shelter the cult team can get them into our shelter which is never full correct city manager we usually have about 40 to 50 beds Yale's got a hundred and fifty beds for us 125 125 beds for us so this report thank you and I think it's very important that the community constituents that live in Santa Ana and and you could sit down I'm sorry but thank you I just want to thank you for this. Constituents that live in Santa Ana, not people who are coming
6:15:13from wherever. Because if you want them, please take them to your city so they can defecate on your sidewalk and in your parks and leave their needles and have sex in front of your children. As your kids are driving, walking to school, they can see a dead person leaned over because they had just overdosed take them to your city and I've only been there seven months but I sat on the school board for eight years and I'm all about not locking people up for things they don't need to be but this is not about throwing away the key this is like getting them through the door and in
6:15:49this report the chief talked about you know detox and there's a lot of safety issues about when you're especially coming off alcohol it's so dangerous right and so I'm I trust the city manager and the chief and all the staff that are working on this, to work with CalOptima and other agencies. But we sit up here and we serve the constituents of Santa Ana. That's who we serve. And they have made it pretty clear, as far as I'm concerned, that they've had enough. Enough is enough. I don't know what else it's going to take. We're going to be like Irvine and load up 24 buses and go to the Board of Supervisors. I would. I'd be happy to.
6:16:28Load up 24 buses and come here to the city council meeting and say, enough is enough.
6:17:11Because when I heard about the little boy at Denny's, guess what? That little boy is going to have issues because he was sexually molested.
6:17:17Again, I want you to think about that when you go home tonight. And that's what I want you to think about.
6:17:31So if you don't live in our city, thank you for your service. Thank you for all the work you do in other cities or in the cities. But our constituents have spoken loud and clear. And I really appreciate that. And I thank you all for doing that. And those that have been coming and emailing and calling, we all, I would say, the majority of us really appreciate it. I know I do. And I look forward to, Madam City Manager, the reports that we're going to hear monthly. And I look forward to hearing what our police department is doing, what agencies we're working with, whether it's CalOptima, Ultimed, the Board of Supervisors,
6:17:39with Supervisor Sarbiento. I know Katrina Foley is very supportive as well. And I'm sure that we can, you know, you sit on the Homeless Task Force now, correct? Commission to End Homeless. Oh, there you go. The Commission to End Homeless. So again, this report is called Public Intoxication and Substance Abuse Enforcement. And so we are going to receive and file this. And again, thank you for all of those people that came out tonight, have been submitting emails, have been calling us, have been, you know, on social media, and you're a Santa Ana resident,
6:18:17and you're saying, I've had enough. It's time. It is time. We've had enough. So with that,
6:18:58we're done with comments, and we're going to go on now. So we don't need, you're good with the receiving file. You got direction. Madam City Attorney, is there anything you wanted to add? Perfect. Okay. Thank you. Let's move on now.
6:19:08Item 15. That's fine. And I just had a comment. And actually, Hawk, come on up. And Ethan. I'm going to let them share something that they have.
6:19:23So, Hawk and Ethan, hopefully you guys got a microphone right there. All right. Do your thing.
6:19:42Yes. Hi, everybody.
6:19:48You only have three minutes.
6:19:50Three minutes. Hi, everybody. Thanks. Like I said, Hawk, Parks Rec Director, Ethan Deputy. We want to come up here real quick because we just have an exceptional moment we want to share with you guys. And Ethan's going to go a little bit more on it. 15 deals with the street name change. And as you guys know, when you all drive down the streets, whether it's Bristol, MacArthur, Fairview, you see the streetlights. You see those big old signs. So I'm gonna bust out something for you guys and I'd like if our council members can please all join me down here And I won't let Ethan give a little bit of history
6:19:52So Hawke is showing off something special here A little bit of history so the street adjacent across the street from the zoo was Mayberry when the zoo opened in 1952 It was extended and renamed Elk Lane and now today we voted to rename it Zoolaine.
6:20:28You look great though, you look great.
6:21:16Okay, now I'm on time.
6:21:23I want a normal one. I love that one. One for me, please. Come on.
6:21:27Perfect. One for me, please. One, two, and three. Thank you.
6:21:40That's cute. Come on.
6:21:46Nabila.
6:21:50Hurry, get me there. It's a 20-case, come on. Nabila, we got 120. You only have a minute. I love the time. I miss that. Keep it going.
6:21:52Oh, thank you.
6:22:05All right, we're down. Yay, beautiful.
6:22:20Thank you, everybody. Thank you. Great job. Those lines are so giant.
6:22:35All right. That is business as well because it's very important. It's going to look great. That's all I have. So can I get it? I'm going to make a motion to approve. Second. All right.
6:22:45Mayor, you pulled that for comment only, so it was approved.
6:22:57Oh, it's comment only. That's right. Thank you. I apologize. Okay. Item 16 was pulled.
6:23:00Yes. Thank you, Mayor. I pulled 16. the question I had Madam City Manager is do we have any private entities or donations or sponsorships participating in this city event?
6:23:07They're certainly not precluded from doing it as part of our sponsorship packet but I will defer to our Executive Director of Parks and Rec to see if he has any sponsorships from private entities.
6:23:19Hi again. Is this just for Chicano Heritage or overall? For this particular event. No, so we have three sponsorships. We have, I'm sorry, we have two partnerships and one sponsorships that have come in for this.
6:23:33Okay. Thank you, Huck. That was it? That was it. I pulled this item to voice my opposition, Madam City Manager, particularly to these types of sponsorships with regional elected officials when it comes to city-sponsored events. I believe that by allowing and moving in this direction, it opens the door to a very slippery slope for these city events to be politicized, We're essentially selling stage and social media mentions of elected officials, which is, I believe in my eyes, inappropriate. Also, I'm uncomfortable moving forward with this item at the moment because of the money that is currently unaccounted for
6:23:47that was provided to individuals and entities during the most recent city event in June by various organizations and elected officials. I would rather we not entertain the idea of these types of sponsorships until we have a clear understanding of who solicited funds and where they went to as it pertains to any previous city events. and I make that because when I previously said city staff get us some funding get creative bring in revenue I mean going out there and getting sponsors from you know big corporations that could use the opportunity to want to advertise at our city events and and help sponsor
6:24:24them so I'm just not comfortable with the idea at the moment maybe in the future we'll revisit it or we work the policy, but that's all I have to say. Thank you.
6:25:04Councilman Hernández, is this for this one? Yes. Okay, go ahead. Thank you.
6:25:16Thank you, Mayor Mezcoa. I just wanted to say that the Chicano Heritage Festival is an event that belongs to the people. Chicano people are the largest demographic of residents that we have in the city of Santa Ana. Oftentimes, Chicano people have been lumped into the category of Latino or Latinx, and that isn't who we are. We are Mexican-American people that have called this country home for generations. We led to desegregating our schools with historic cases like Mendez versus Westminster.
6:25:19Santa Ana is a city that has always challenged racism, institutional racism, and police violence. This event is directly empowering historically marginalized and disenfranchised people that have been facing the brunt of police violence for generations, whether it be the Zoot Suit Riots and the hundreds of Mexicans who were beat and stripped of their clothes in front of the Yost Theater when the Zoot Suit Riots happened, or whether it be the last person to be lynched in the state of California was a Chicano.
6:25:56Francisco Torres here in the city of Santa Ana. This event is important and I want to celebrate our congressman, I want to celebrate Supervisor Sarmiento for partnering with the city of Santa Ana because I'll tell you what, there are tons of elected officials that serve the city of Santa Ana but only two stepped up and offered to help the city of Santa Ana celebrate one of the largest demographics of people that we have in our city. This is an opportunity for residents to come closer together and unify through their stories. We should not criminalize Chicano people because
6:26:35they're gathering in unity at El Salvador Park. We shouldn't say we want money, we just don't want it to come from elected officials. Elected officials like our congressmen, like our supervisor represent hundreds of thousands of constituents that you guys also all represent up here as well. I'm not going to pretend like the Chicano people's voice is not important, because I wouldn't have mine if it wasn't for those who stood before in the 60s. I stand on the shoulders of people like Ruben Salazar, Modesta Avila, Silvia Mendes, And that is why I'll make the motion that we approve these donations to the Chicano Heritage Festival.
6:27:11I second that. If there's no more comments, you have comments. Yes.
6:27:53I want to thank the office of Luke Correa and Vincent Sarmiento for the donations that we have, and especially Representative Correa for taking the baton and taking it to Washington and asking for a Chicano Heritage Month in August and making it throughout the country. And that's the right partner we should have. They're upstanding men in our community. They've done good work and continue to do good work. So I do support this item. Thank you.
6:27:58All right. There's no further comments. Oh, you have comments? Sorry. You didn't push it. I apologize. Go ahead.
6:28:28Thank you. Director Scott, I think this, or it might be for Madam City Manager, I'm supposed to direct my comments to you. So I just want to make sure because we do have a sponsorship packet, right? And whatever issues or concerns we may have had in the past, I do, I assume, and you can correct me if I'm wrong, these sponsorships were done in accordance with our Santa Ana Partnership and Sponsorship Opportunities Packet.
6:28:32Thank you, Council Member Fan, for mentioning that. Yes, they're not donations. These are actual sponsorships. There's a complete brochure with different levels. Each level of sponsorship would come with different recognitions. It's detailed in the staff report, which each one receives. So it does help supplement the funding when we do events, and this is the right way to do it, to present it to Council to receive it as an appropriation.
6:29:04Thank you. Because I know with last year, with mid-autumn, we had a sponsorship packet, and if someone wanted to donate or sponsor, I'd say, here's the packet, follow the rules. And so for me, if it is the desire of the council to say we don't want to get sponsorships or make partnerships with elected officials or candidates, I think that's a discussion to be had at a later time. however the fact is we have this event and it there are people who want to give us money to hold this event for our community and if it's being done in accordance with city policy I'd like to support it to make sure that we don't
6:29:31leave anything on the table we've seen what happened when whether it's a state or the you know federal government wants to give Santa Ana money wants to give us free money so we can provide services to our residents and provide programming but folks are saying no so i don't see why we wouldn't accept this and i think there could be a discussion later on about who we want to partner with or have sponsor us thank you thank you councilman
6:30:09hernandez thank you mayor mesquip just to inform the public and to engage in transparency the chicano heritage festival is held at the end of the month of August commemorating the Chicano moratorium and it also commemorates the death of a Santa Ana resident who was the first Mexican-American journalist in California his name was Ruben Salazar and he was murdered by a sheriff at the Silver Dollar Bar during August 29th 1970 the Chicano moratorium this event is about amplifying and raising the voices of those who were attempted to be silenced.
6:30:38And so I do want to note that my colleague who is voting no also voted no when the Chicano Heritage Festival was first brought forward. And he stated, we already have fiestas patrias. Why do we need Chicano heritage? Latino people and Chicano people are very different. They're not the same. We share the same struggles. We come from Mexican roots, but the Mexican-American identity of Chicano people is very different than the Mexican independence that we celebrate. So I want to hold space for ignorance at this dais and say that, hey, I'm thankful that some of our colleagues learned,
6:31:20and then they did vote in favor of Chicano Heritage Festival, but there still seems to be ignorance here at this dais. Ruben Salazar, quote, a Chicano is somebody who sees himself in the non-Anglo version. Chicano people do not assimilate. And so I want to tell my colleagues that this event is an event that is political. Because it talks about people that have been historically and marginally, systemically kept down. whether it be police violence stripping us from our clothing or criminalizing us in our streets
6:31:59we still experience the same injustices that we experienced in the 60s which is why this festival brought thousands of people together and which is why it is so polarizing and why it is being criminalized so I want to thank my colleagues who did look within their heart and made the brave decision to uplift those who have historically been criminalized because that's why people like myself were elected to serve residents of Ward 5, a ward that historically was not invested in a park like El Salvador Park that was synonymous with violence, that was looked at as one of the
6:32:37most dangerous ghetto parks in the city. I grew up two houses away from it. That is one of the most beautiful parks in our city, and I'm proud of it. So I'm looking forward to seeing every single one of my neighbors August 27th, and I look forward to advocating for this event as long as I'm here at this dais. Thank you. Are there any other speakers? So I guess Councilman
6:33:12Hernandez, you said something very important to me. I was not sure where I'm going here, but I don't look at the festivals and I'm not ignorant, but I don't look at the festivals as political. I look at Juneteenth and Chicano heritage and indigenous, I mean, I look at the Fiesta Patrias as festivals, fiestas, entertainment for our community. So I don't want it to become political. And yes, I am Chicana, straight up. So I understand the history very well. And my family are Chicanos, straight up from here, one side, and the other side are immigrants.
6:33:38So I have a very strong, strong understanding about what being Chicana means. I grew up with it.
6:34:16So I don't want it to be political. And so I guess my question is, why now? And so I'm going to wait till the votes come down. But I just want to be really clear that I don't know that I would not agree that we're ignorant up here. I think Councilman Pendleton had a question, just like we all have different questions. We're not always going to be in agreement with things. But I don't think I've ever used the word or called my colleagues up here ignorant. So, you know, we all look at things differently. Some people like chocolate ice cream, some people like vanilla ice cream, some people like
6:34:24Victor Outreach, some people like the Life Center, some people are Catholics, some people are Buddhists, some people that are Chicanos, some people are Latinx. So I do have, you know, concerns about other things that I'm going to address in my public comments with the city manager but I just I just wanted to address the ignorance part I feel very strongly about that because I'm not ignorant I understand my family has history here as a gentleman indicated earlier that he knows my father and my grandmother and so my father led a walkout the very first
6:35:03walkout Santa in high school the year I was born so I understand the movement very very well but this is the Chicano festival and thank you for putting it out here thank you the council for approving it but I don't want events to become political either but madam city manager I have a question on that and as well so we have Juneteenth Chicano heritage indigenous people I believe in 2024 and you or mr. Scott can correct me we're also supposed to have a
6:35:39cannabis event so we're probably gonna get stopped by the city attorney for venturing too far away from the the topic that's before right as it's actually within our municipal code to hold a cannabis festival okay I'll wait
6:36:13till my comments because I'm gonna ask more about that so okay all right that's all I have so let's prepare to vote was there a motion or something here yes I'm I'm sorry, you had a comment? Oh, go ahead, I apologize.
6:36:29Yes, so I appreciate everybody for their comments, and we have a lot of strong feelings up here, but I do want to reiterate what you just said, Mayor, that we all live, we all learn, and we may have differences of opinion, but one of the things that I think all of us have been talking about, and I've been talking about for years on this dais, is let's tone down the temperature and respect each other for our difference of opinions, or when we have questions. I think it's very valid that Council Member Penalosa has concerns about elected officials or candidates for office or anybody who may be sponsoring an event.
6:36:40But I also think it's really important that when there are people who want to work with us and support the community that we say how can we do that together because it is for our residents. And so with that, I would like to make a motion to approve item 16, but also direct staff to take a look at whether we want to adjust that policy relating to, you know, maybe it's elected officials or it's candidates running for office. You know, those kinds of things I think would be really important.
6:37:18Finally, I do want to say that when we have local events, we do invite our assembly member or council members or supervisors or congress members out because they also provide services to our residents and we want to have a good working relationship with them. I see this as the same thing, but I think it's a good discussion to have. Thank you.
6:37:53You made a motion? Yes, ma'am. Is there a second?
6:38:18Second.
6:38:23Second.
6:38:24Second by Councilman Hernandez. Let's prepare to vote. I'm sorry, Councilman Vazquez, did you want to speak?
6:38:25Yeah, really quick. I'm in agreement with this tone-down rhetoric we have up here towards each other, and I appreciate that from Councilman Vazquez. And I also want to add that celebrations festivals are political. I'm a high school teacher. I teach Ethnic Studies. I teach U.S. History. I teach Chicano Studies. The first Fiesta de Patrias was in Yorba Ranch. And in Yorba Ranch, all the Mexicans would go and celebrate and have stories of the revolution. When time came that we had more people selling on the east side of 4th Street, La Calle Cuatro,
6:38:31when we gathered enough people, then we were lucky enough to have the first Fiesta de Patrias at Birch Park. and being able to celebrate there and being part of community, that's political. That's space and power and it's politics. And who came out? All the politicians came out. All the newspapers covered it. And now we're talking about influence, the beginning of influence of Chicanos and Latinos and Mexican Americans in this community. When we have these events and we empower the Vietnamese community and Rosita Park, it's political and I'm proud of it. And I love it that we empower them that they belong here.
6:39:11We're not ignoring them. We're saying you belong. And it's a beautiful thing to be felt welcome and belonging. So Chicanos, to be belonged with Mexican families as well, the indigenous, the Juneteenth, and accepting these places. They're all political. Our stories are political, our lives. So we're not going to ignore each other. This is political to empower people to feel that they're welcomed. Thank you.
6:39:50Councilman Hernandez.
6:40:25Thank you, Mayor Mesquat. My last comment is just to thank my colleague, Councilmember Vasquez. This event is 100% political. The city of Santa Ana didn't introduce Chicano Heritage Festival. People like myself had to get elected. I ran against a sheriff, Juan Villegas, that was placed here by the Santa Ana Police Officers Association. And when I won my seat, I advocated for Chicano heritage to be brought here. So these events are very much political because we're the first city in the United States to declare August Chicano Heritage Month.
6:40:27Number two, we're the first city in the United States to have a Chicano Heritage Festival.
6:41:06conclude my comments. Councilman Panellosa. Thank you mayor. I won't address the ignorance comments because again I look at the source not worth my time but I do want to ask a city manager for just for clarification that the public is aware it seems like we're just distorting the reality up here all night with this This isn't about any particular festival. This is about having elected officials, be paid sponsors.
6:41:13I guess the question is, did you receive unanimous support to have Chicano Heritage Festival for this year?
6:41:48Oh, sir. The answer is yes. I mean, it was unanimous support. So this is actually the second year that we are hosting that event. So my apologies, your memory is better than mine.
6:41:59Yeah, so thank you for that. And thank you, Council Member Hernandez, for bringing this forward last year. You did help educate me, so I thank you for that. And I made a comment of that last year at the Chicano Heritage Festival. So, again, thank you. But with that, I will end my comments. Thank you, Mayor.
6:42:12All right, let's prepare to vote.
6:42:29This is a substitute motion by Council Member Phan, seconded by Council Member Hernandez to approve item 16 with the direction to staff to review the policy related to elected officials and candidates as potential sponsors.
6:42:35Madam City Clerk, I don't recall a second for Council Member Hernandez's original motion. Council Member Vasquez. Oh, so we both. Okay. Thank you.
6:42:49So the vote is three ayes, three nays with one absence. Ayes by Councilmember Hernandez, Councilmember Phan, Councilmember Vasquez, nays by Councilmember Penaloza, Councilmember Becerra, and Mayor Emesqua. Motion fails.
6:43:05Thank you. Madam State Manager, we will still be having the Chicano Festival.
6:43:21Great.
6:43:25Just to be clear. Thank you.
6:43:26Item 26.
6:43:28Madam, my apologies. That was a substitute motion by me then, right? So now we have a motion on the table?
6:43:32Yes.
6:43:38Thank you.
6:43:39Okay.
6:43:40So the original motion by Council Member Hernandez, seconded by Council Member Vasquez, to approve item 16 as presented.
6:43:44The vote is three ayes, three nays. Ayes by council members Hernandez, Fan, and Vasquez. Nays by council members Becerra, Penaliza, and Mayor Mesquilla. And an absence by Mayor Pro Tem Lopez. Motion fails.
6:44:05Perfect. Okay, thank you again. We will be having the festival. Let's go to item 26.
6:44:18Mayor, and I'm not sure if the protocol of this is proper, so City Attorney, please correct So we entered into sponsorship agreements, and based on anticipating that money, we did enter into contracts for the actual festival. So it will have an impact to us to not be able to receive these funds. I don't know if that makes a difference for you, but I did want to point that out to you.
6:44:22But we will still have the festival.
6:44:47We'll still have the festival, but we're not going to be able to pay for contracts that we've entered into as a result of these commitments that were made to receive these sponsorships.
6:44:48Well, maybe next time we get this before and not to late notice. We can't bring it forward to you until we actually have the sponsorship. Well, hopefully next time we get it before, please. Thank you. I appreciate it. Okay. All right. Item 26.
6:44:57Thank you, Mayor. I pulled item 26. Six, I just wanted to first off thank our city manager, Christine Ridge, for the excellent five years of service that you've provided to the city of Santa Ana. I was here when you first came on and have been very impressed with you've led the city through the ups and the downs and made it through on the other side. So thank you so, so much for all the work that you've done across various departments. And just wanted to publicly thank you.
6:45:17And with that, I also wanted to indulge my colleagues in making a motion to adopt resolution affirming positive evaluation results and approving an adjustment annual salary for the city manager in the amount of 5%.
6:45:58Instead of the staff report that says, three, I'd like to make a motion to move forward with a 5% pay increase. I think it's warranted. I just wanted to make that motion.
6:46:16Councilman Vasquez?
6:46:33I also wanted to thank you for your work that you've done. You've been here seven short months, but your professionalism, your work ethic, how you come at it, you're bringing the staff together the way your staff loves their jobs. And whenever I see staff, they love their work. So I wanted to show my gratitude as well. I'm going to second his motion.
6:46:34any other comments
6:46:59no Councilmember Sarri yes okay
6:47:04thank you Madam Mayor I too would like to echo my colleagues sentiments you've done an amazing job I appreciate all that you've done I appreciate the fact that you've been able to weather quite a bit not easy being at the helm of the Golden City so I appreciate my colleagues desire to move forward with this amendment and I am going to support it thank you
6:47:09any other comments oh I didn't see your names go ahead thank you this is a hard
6:47:36job a lot of folks in public don't know what a city manager does they think well you work for the city and so we can save whatever we want we can do whatever we want we can treat you however we want and it's fine but every single staff member every single employee here in Santa Ana gives their heart and soul into making sure the city runs well and many of our staff members live in the city and I just want to say that you know you help steer our ship through a turbulent time with COVID and you have done your darndest in the face of a lot of really
6:47:45complex interesting new crazy items here in the city and I think that the success of the city and how we've improved over the short I guess three years that I've been here is really testament to your leadership and so with that I just wanted to make sure the public knew about that and we are very happy to have you thank
6:48:19you are there any other comments all right there's a there's a motion on the floor was our second now actually this is I was moving panelist second my councilman Vasquez
6:48:41motion by councilmember Penaloza seconded by me councilmember Vasquez to approve item 26 as amended to increase the salary increase by 5% rather than 3% and pursuant to government code section 54953 an oral summary of the salary and benefits shall be made prior to final action of the council and any local agency executive approval of this item does include now a salary increase of 5% for the city manager and would be retroactive to July 1st of 2022.
6:49:03Just so I have understanding this is just to change it three to five. Councilman Penelope?
6:49:32Yes.
6:49:39Everything else stays the same.
6:49:41Yeah, just what the city clerk just said.
6:49:43I just want to make sure that's what I heard correctly.
6:49:46So the action would be for the resolution approving a salary adjustment, which would be 5% rather than 3% for the city manager based on employee performance, and to take formal action of the city council to not extend the city manager's employment agreement for one additional year.
6:49:48Got it. Let's vote.
6:50:04vote is six ayes no nays with an absence by mayor pro tom lopez motion carries
6:50:10thank you for your service madam city manager
6:50:17go to item number 27
6:50:21madam city clerk with a staff report yes one moment mayor thank you
6:50:27Mayor and City Council, the item before you again this evening is for two procedural and ministerial actions in compliance with the California Elections Code, to accept the certificate as to the sufficiency of the recall petition, and to issue an order stating that an election shall be held. This item was originally presented on August 1st, 2023, but no motions were successful at approving resolutions at that time. time. Elections code section 11240 states that within 14 days after the meeting at which the governing body received the certificate of sufficiency, the governing body shall issue an order stating
6:50:38that an election shall be held to determine whether or not the officer named in the petition shall be recalled. As the certificate of sufficiency was presented to you on August 1st, today, August 15th, is the last day for council to issue the order of election. Based on the timely submittal of a sufficient number of registered voters signatures on the recall petition, the actions before you are to approve two resolutions. The first is to accept the Registrar of Voters certification as to the verification of signatures and my certificate of sufficiency for the recall petition.
6:51:12The second is a resolution calling and giving notice of such election and requesting certain services of the Registrar of Voters to conduct such election. The elections code requires the election to be held within 88 to 125 days of the issuance of the order by the resolution adoption. Elections must be held on a Tuesday that is not the day before, the day of, or the day after a state holiday. And the Tuesdays available within the mandated window for you to set as the election date are November 14th, November 21st, November 28th, December 5th, or December 12th.
6:51:43In addition to calling and giving notice of the special municipal election, a related action is approval of a third resolution setting a regulation for an officer statement to be printed in the voter information guide. The statement is optional on behalf of the officer is limited to 200 words and the officer shall pay the estimated cost of $1,102.45 for a printed statement or $431.56 for an electronic only statement. Items that will be included in the voter information guide include the ballot question of whether Mayor Pro Tem Lopez shall be recalled
6:52:16or removed from office, yes or no, the notice of intent language originally submitted by the proponents at the beginning of the recall process, and the answer to the recall statement submitted by Mayor Pro Tem Lopez, both of which were included on the recall petition itself. If the officer chooses to submit a statement, it is due no later than 88 days prior to the election date. Should City Council fail to issue the order of election tonight, Elections Code 11241 requires the county elections official, Orange County Register of Voters Bob Page, to set the date for holding the election within five days.
6:52:47In the event that Mr. Page sets the date, I will still need to bring resolutions forward for Council's consideration to request the county registrar voters to perform election services, such as the ballots, vote centers, canvassing the results, etc. And this concludes my report, and I'm happy to answer any questions.
6:53:18Thank you. So what I have here, there's two actions required. Accept the certificates, set the election date. We'll consider each one separately. Are there any questions or comments by the council?
6:53:34Councilman Vasquez, is that your hand? Okay, go ahead.
6:53:48I don't see yours, but I'm clear. I moved to have the election on November 14th, and it's really a shame that we've come to this. This has been based on the POA wanting to control this body. the poa has spent 500 000 in 20 2020 and they spilled a million dollars in 2022 and now they they can't control the body they called to pull two folks to be recalled council member fam and council member lopez and they built this online they claimed that lopez was
6:53:53responsible for increasing rent 15% when she actually fought for rent control
6:54:31the the council member they said the council member Lopez support to fund the police but every year in office the police budget has gone up so for that I don't support this recall but we hope we get it November 14th I'll second your
6:54:39motion with a comment go ahead Thank You mayor mesqua I'm not supportive of this recall because it's rooted in corruption the Santa Ana Police Officers Association have long had a stranglehold on politics they are the largest political spender in Santa Ana they also have spent an abundance of money influencing local elected officials at the county level such as our district Attorney, Todd Spitzer, and a couple of my colleagues who sit here at the Council, Councilmember Becerra, Peña Losa, and our Mayor, Valerie Mesqua, were all endorsed by the POA and received
6:54:55financial contributions from the POA. Part of why I cannot support this recall is because it's not about democracy. It's about having control and a majority, which consists of four people. You need four people to get things done here at the dais. They are trying to remove one so that they can replace it with a puppet that they can control. The POA has went as far as using taxpayer dollars to stifle progress here at City Hall by targeting women. These cowards are targeting women. Our city employees like our city manager, our city attorney,
6:55:35and staff members who are tasked with carrying out deliverables for you, the residents. They've attempted to recall two women on this council and Councilmember Fan and Councilmember Jesse Lopez. These recalls are completely about having absolute power here at this dais and corruption does not have a place here at City Hall and this recall campaign was rooted in deceit. They led this recall campaign with a slew of lies stating that council member Jesse Lopez was somebody that was making Santa
6:56:13Ana more expensive to live here when she advocated for a better quality of life, protected residents, and helped our city get through a pandemic. Police want absolute control and they're not, they're willing to go through whatever efforts to make sure they get it. This recall campaign is absolutely about political power. It's not about democracy. The lies that they said to residents at the door, they'll say to you at the dais. If they recall her, they're going to try to get a puppet in office that will just do their dirty work. And that is exactly why I am not supportive of this recall,
6:56:54and I am happy to second your motion, Council Member Vasquez.
6:57:29Thank you. Council Member Fan. Thank you, Mayor. You know, I really wish we didn't have to do this. I really wish that we didn't have to expend over $600,000 of your money, of your taxpayer dollars for an election we're going to have in about a year.
6:57:33And you know, when we talk a lot up here, when we talk to our residents about how to be good fiscal stewards of our budget. It's about bringing services. It's about making sure our residents have what they need. It's about making sure we enforce public intoxication or support affordable housing. And here we are, we have to set a date for this recall election. And it really makes me sad that that's where we're at, especially when the certificate of sufficiency met the threshold by 10 signatures. So you can never say here in
6:58:01the city of Santa Ana that your vote doesn't count, that your voice doesn't count, because that's 10 people for whatever reason sign that petition and here it's going to cost us $600,000 or more. And so with that I will support the motion to approve the resolutions and set the date for November 14th and I hope that all residents in Ward 3 get registered get involved and vote because ultimately it's up to you to decide how this city is going to be run thank you
6:58:39Councilmember Sarah thank you mayor mayor mesqua so the item before us tonight this is not a discretionary action except for only setting the date is that correct
6:59:15madam city clerk yes so the the actions before you are set forth in the elections code it does use the word shall shall receive the the certificates and shall set a date for the election the only discretion is to set the date as well as the resolution adopting the the statements, regulations.
6:59:27No, thank you for that. And I'm slightly amused tonight that on one moment we've got colleagues up here saying that we've got to bring down the temperature of the dialogue up here, then the next minute I hear terms like puppets. You know, being pro-public safety and being supported by the POA does not automatically mean that any of us are going to vote a certain way. I think you see a lot of diversity in our opinions up here on this dais. There's no set groups up here. On some issues there are, but there isn't on everything. And so the insinuation that whatever happens in this election that's going to be set in Ward 3,
6:59:52to say that somehow automatically one group is going to have some sort of control, that's just absolute fear-mongering. And by the way, on our police, so we're trying to vilify our police by trying to maintain one person's representation on this council? We're going to vilify the police? That's despicable. That's terrible. So I'm really disappointed in the narrative that I hear up here tonight. But again, I guess, you know, for folks that want to say, oh, let's bring down the temperature, but then again, they're going to leave the dais or, you know, probably do it from up here as well. Go ahead and continue this
7:00:33political narrative and they're going to go out there and sadly vilify public safety. When you heard so many people tonight talk about how they want public safety, they want our police to step up and do more, and yet here we are trying to create some sort of narrative that the police are the boogeyman. It's just despicable. So I'm really disappointed in that narrative that's being thrown around up here tonight. What we have before us is an action that's ministerial, and unfortunately we are at a point where yes we do have a person that is being subject to a recall that will have their election coming up but you know as
7:01:09the representative of Ward 4 I have no control over what happens in Ward 3 folks sign the petitions regardless of what some people want to believe was the motivation and now we have this item before us tonight so I will do my duty to vote for the certification and move forward. Thank you.
7:01:48Thank you. So I'm going to speak and then we'll vote. Councilman Penelope has a lot for the day, for the night. Oh, here he comes. Do you need to speak before I speak? Okay. So, yeah, I'm going to just say, you know, we sit up here and say, tone it down, try to get along. And two times tonight.
7:02:06Ignorance. We're ignorant. or were a puppet. So I ran for office a couple times. Some people up here ran once, twice. But I've run a couple times. And you get endorsed by laborers or teachers or, you know, whatever organization it is. And so I did spend 30 years with the Orange County Probation Department. And just for the record, I was endorsed by Anaheim Police Department, the Orange County Sheriff's Department, the Orange County Fire Authority, and by Santa Ana Police Department. And I'm not ashamed to say that nor am i embarrassed and i am not anybody's puppet because if you're a bad police
7:02:29officer i will not support you if you're a bad teacher when i was a school board member i didn't support you either and so i can go on about the school district for a long time about many things that happened at the school district level with teachers and staff and our children and so even councilman hernandez when he ran for office i supported him i endorsed him i helped him so So for him to say, you know, I'm a puppet or I'm ignorant, well, politics, you know, running for office is a slippery slope. You got to be thick-skinned. Not everybody's going to like you. You're not always going to agree.
7:03:05But hopefully everybody's sitting up here for the right reasons. You're sitting up here to serve your constituents and not serve yourself. But serve your constituents and not serve your political agenda, but yourself. So all we had to do today was approve the election day, which Councilman Vasquez motioned for November 14th, which I'm in full support of it. And so that's what we're here to vote for. We're not here to, you know, call names and, you know, make up whatever stories you want to tell. But I think before you throw stones, look in your own backyard. Look very carefully.
7:03:44Very, very carefully.
7:04:26Because I'm going to talk about it in my closing comments. We have a cannabis event coming up. I don't know about you all, but I'm not supportive of a cannabis event in this city. And who's funding a lot of this recall? Cannabis. Is it a special interest? It's a special interest. So if we're going to throw shade, is that what it's called? Let's be truthful. Okay? Because people on one side, if you drink the Kool-Aid, you're good. If you don't, you're not. or power here, power there. I don't have power. People say, well, the mayor could have stopped
7:04:29the recall. No, I don't. I'm one vote. It takes four people up here to make a decision, push it through, make it happen. City manager takes direction from four people. So I may be the mayor, and I love serving my community, but you have to have four votes. So tonight, we're voting to set a recall date, which Councilman Vasquez made a motion for November 14th. I will submit it, but I would just remind people that are sitting up here, when you start throwing out words, ignorant, puppets,
7:05:01there's a, we all have to be very careful, because when you throw glass, when you throw rocks, like I said, make sure you're looking in the mirror, because I want to hear all about this cannabis event that we're going to have in Santa Ana, and people up here are proud, like, ooh, we're the first city to have a cannabis event. Well, I'm not supportive of it, And ooh, with a beer bar, beer whatever, too. Ooh, well, you better have a DUI checkpoint, too.
7:05:33So let's prepare to vote on this item so we can get to closing comments.
7:06:01I'm sorry, public hearings, and then we'll get to closing comments.
7:06:07A motion by Council Member Vasquez, seconded by Council Member Hernandez, to approve item 27 via three resolutions, a resolution accepting the certificate as to verification of signatures on petition and certificate of sufficiency for petition to recall council member Jesse Lopez, a resolution calling and giving notice of the holding of a special municipal election to be held in council ward three on Tuesday, November 14th, 2023, for the submission of the question of the recall of certain officers and requesting specified services from the county of Orange to conduct that election,
7:06:13and the third resolution adopting a regulation for an officer statement whose recall is being sought at a special election on Tuesday, November 14, 2023.
7:06:45Thank you. Let's vote.
7:06:56Council Member Fan.
7:07:09You haven't showed up on mine online either.
7:07:16Vote is six ayes, no nays. With a reported absence by Mayor Pro Tem Lopez. Motion carries. Resolutions approved. Election set for November 14, 2023.
7:07:19All right. This time we're going to go into public hearings. Public hearing clerk. Before the public hearing, item 28, Madam Clerk, please provide instructions to the public who would like to make a comment on this public hearing item only.
7:07:32Members of the public joining us by way of Zoom or conference call who would like to make a comment for public hearing item number 28 only, please dial star 9 from your phone or select raise hand from Zoom now.
7:07:48There doesn't appear to be any comments or questions here.
7:08:02I'll move the item.
7:08:09Thank you. I'll second it.
7:08:11Let's close the public hearing and let's vote.
7:08:17A motion by Council Member Hernandez, seconded by Mayor Emesqua, to approve public hearing item 28, a resolution lowering the city's drought water conservation standard from a water shortage level 2 to a water shortage level 0.
7:08:25Great, thank you. And item number 29 is canceled.
7:08:39The vote is six ayes, no nays, with a reported absence by Councilmember Becerra.
7:08:41I apologize. Item 29 was canceled. Mayor, city manager, do you have any announcements?
7:08:48Yes, Mayor, I do. So volunteers are needed for an annual intercoastal cleanup day. The California State Transportation Agency awarded our Public Works Department $7 million for... Oh, I'm sorry. I had the title with the wrong announcement. So, good news, our public works department was awarded $7 million for the Santa Ana Boulevard grade separation project.
7:08:53And is that part of the intercoastal cleanup or is that two different items?
7:09:16Okay. And then we are accepting applications are now open for the Environmental Justice Action Committee. They will be receiving them through September 18th. And if you recall, this is a part of the general plan implementation and they specifically the environmental justice policy implementation. And this is a committee that is needed to help us carry out that policy. And then as mentioned before, it's going to be a busy couple of weeks. We do have in two weeks the Chicano Heritage Festival. But before that date, we also have Zoofari that's taking place at our zoo. This is a fundraising gala that brings a lot of neat amenities
7:09:21and it is put on by the Friends of the Santa Ana Zoo. And this year's theme is Through the Looking Glass. So that's all, Mayor.
7:09:58all right let's call council members to announce their comments councilman vasquez
7:10:07yeah it's uh first day of school was yesterday welcome back to all the kids of santa anna myself as well i have a great group of kids i'm in love already they're awesome and doing work we're off to a good start what was worried me on my way to work i started seeing signs that we're missing crossing guards that there's no crossing guards on rate Street and will it's have you been a waste that's a long way to walk for a child there's no crossing guards on rate and Ettinger so what happened is we expanding our crossing guards to charter schools and other schools around the
7:10:13area then now we have less than anticipated so kids kids be careful when you're out there. Parents, teach your kids how to cross. Make sure they look both ways. Make sure they go right, left, right, look again. They have to know this. Parents, make sure that your kids know to make eye contact with drivers before they step in the street. Let's teach them how to walk in the street because it's dangerous out there. So make sure, because I don't see kids making eye contact they intentionally don't and I'm worried about this when when a kid is
7:10:52stepping off a curb and some car is making a right turn it's a dangerous proposition when they don't make eye contact no you see me I see you okay I'm gonna cross I'm gonna walk and you walk so make sure you teach your kids how to cross look both ways one two three look again how we were taught make sure they make eye contact with drivers and stay safe please thank you that's all I got
7:11:31mayor Pro Tem Lopez I'm just powering up my laptop so if you can come back
7:11:57thanks councilman Hernandez yes thank you mayor Mesquah I want to thank the residents who attended today's meeting and just want to also voice my support for the residents who came from Artisa Pilar and advocated for the Chicano Heritage Festival. I would like to provide direction that I would like to see the Chicano Art Show be brought back to the Chicano Art Festival at El Salvador Park Community Center. The word community exists in front of the word center for a reason. We're having thousands of Chicano people at El Salvador Park.
7:12:04is in our best interest that the taxpayers money is utilized in the best of ways they paid for this community center the first community center ever built in Santa Ana was at El Salvador Park in 1960 we're having a heritage festival that community center should also be a shining example of the community it should welcome community members to be able to walk through and see Chicano art displayed on the walls I'd like to provide that direction to our City Manager that it is my request that we bring this back and I also just out of an abundance of of interest to the community I did receive a lot of phone
7:12:42calls from the media and from press in relation to me coming forward on August 1st about Mayor Valerie Mesquo violating the Brown Act I did come forward with my Brown Act disclosure on April 19th and I did as a result of the Brown Act violation bring my concerns to the council under section 401.5 and I do want to indulge my colleagues that is the responsibility of the Santa Ana City Council to appoint an ad hoc given that our mayor is the subject of this investigation the ad hoc would not be able to be appointed directly by her so I would like an update on where we are at with this ethics complaint since this is a matter that
7:13:21I did bring forward publicly I wanted to make sure that I used my public comments to engage in transparency and also inform those who have reached out. I did come forward on August 1st. August 2nd, two individuals did arrive at my residence and attempt to hurt my family and I. This is a private matter and there this is a private matter where I want to respect the privacy of my mother and the privacy of my home but I do want to send a firm message that we are not afraid of people coming to our home and disturbing our peace. We are servants to the public. Nobody's going to run us off our block.
7:14:02No one is going to come to our house and attempt to terrorize us on our worst day. We're not scared. So I very much indulge my colleagues to do the right thing and start an ad hoc committee here. Thank you.
7:14:42Councilman O'Fann.
7:14:56Thank you, Mayor. Thank you again to everybody who came out, who made comments, who shared your thoughts. I always welcome them. I think it's really important for us to get a variety of perspectives. So a couple of events that are coming up. One is going to be this Saturday, August 19th at 10 a.m. It's the Housing Authority Forum. It is co-sponsored by the Housing Authorities for the City of Garden Grove, Santa Ana, Anaheim, and the County of Orange. Our team has worked very hard to bring information to the public. And so at this Housing Authority Forum,
7:14:59you're going to learn more about housing choice vouchers, or Section 8, as I know it, and other related affordable housing resources. It's going to be available in Spanish and Vietnamese. This is going to be taking place at the Garden Grove Community Meeting Center at 11300 Stanford Avenue in Garden Grove, thanks to our friends for hosting. and I will be there because I want to know what information our residents are getting because we know that housing is a crisis not just in Santa Ana not just in Orange County but everywhere the more resources folks have the better them they and their family are going to be
7:15:39another item I just want to announce that I received notice about is that there's going to be a village Santa Ana sunshine meeting it is going to be Wednesday August 23rd it's scheduled at the West and South Coast Plaza. This is going to be for a project in Ward 4, I believe. Yes, sorry about that. I got the notice, and so I wanted to share because it does have effects nearby. And then another one is for the CompLink meeting on August 24th, next Thursday. And I want to encourage everyone to come because over this July 4th holiday,
7:16:15I received a lot of emails about fireworks and one of the topics that's going to be covered is going to be a panel presentation regarding fireworks involving Orange County Fire Department, Santa Ana Police Department, Santa Ana Neighborhood Initiatives and Environmental Justice. Thank you.
7:16:53Alright, Councilman Panalosa.
7:17:10Thank You Mayor. I just want to thank every resident that came out in support tonight of item 14 and the hundreds that we've heard from over the last couple of weeks in support of this item. Please, please don't give up. I know with the way the state just throws things at us and continues to lead us, take away our local control essentially. I know it might seem like a losing battle, but it's not. We're in this together and just continue continue to press press us call your your your state legislatures your county
7:17:16supervisor your congressman call all of us pester staff I mean that's the only reason that's the only way we're going to get control of this and and make our voices heard so just thank you again for coming out tonight thank you mayor
7:17:56Pro Tem Lopez thank you um so I was out away from the chamber because I thought item 27 or the recall item was next not to say we pull way too many items so I would like to ask the chair if you can reconsider rehearing the two items that I missed so that I can have a vote publicly what two items did you miss I I don't have the numbers off the top of my head, but it was the city manager's pay raise, and it was the acceptance of money for an event.
7:18:12Mayor, with respect to those two items, there would be a different procedure for addressing those items if you were to consider. With respect to item number 16, it would not be a formal reconsideration because there There was no majority vote. It failed for lack of action. And so with that, it would just be indulgence of the Chair to say yes, we'll look at and vote on item 16. With respect to the other item, item number 26, there actually was a vote, and so it would require a motion to reconsider, and that motion would have to be made by someone who voted in the affirmative.
7:18:57So there's a request on those two items to be handled in two different ways. 16 can be handled simply with the approval of the chair.
7:19:32Yeah, go ahead. Item 16. Thank you. So Jennifer, if you can mark me down as a yes in accepting. Okay.
7:19:40There, the first, so for item 16, we would have to take a full motion and a vote on it because there was no, it failed for lack of action.
7:19:53Just need a motion on number 16, and then you would take a vote on that.
7:20:08I'll make a motion to approve.
7:20:11I'll second the motion.
7:20:14Are we going to vote twice because Sam had a sub-noitment motion?
7:20:21Let the clerk discuss what she's got to say because I don't like to go back and forth like this. That's why it's important you guys stay here so we can do this. So go ahead.
7:20:26This is for item 16, which is receive and file informational report regarding partnership agreements with the Office of Congressman Luke Rea and the Office of Supervisor Vincent Sarmiento for Chicano Heritage Festival 2023. The motion on the table right now is a motion by Council Member Hernandez, seconded by Mayor Pro Tem Lopez, to approve as presented.
7:20:36Go ahead, Council Member Fern.
7:20:59May I please make a sub motion to approve accepting these funds, but to direct staff to bring back this policy to discuss whether we want to in the future accept sponsorships from elected officials and candidates for office.
7:21:00I'll second that one.
7:21:18So it is a substitute motion by Councilmember Phan, seconded by Mayor Emesqua, to approve item 16 as amended with the direction to staff to review the policy as it regards to elected officials and candidates for and bring it back for council's consideration so let's do a roll call vote council member becerra no council member hernandez absolutely council member penaliza no council member fan yes council member vasquez yes mayor protom lopez no Mayor Mesquah?
7:21:23No.
7:22:02The vote is 3 ayes, 4 nays. Ayes by Councilmembers Hernandez, Fan, and Vasquez. Motion fails. We revert to the original motion by Councilmember Hernandez, seconded by Mayor Pro Tem López, to approve as presented. Councilmember Becerra?
7:22:04No.
7:22:19Councilmember Hernandez?
7:22:21Yes.
7:22:22Councilmember Penaloza?
7:22:24No.
7:22:25Councilmember Fan? Yes. Councilmember Vasquez? Yes. Mayor Pro Tem Lopez? Yes. Mayor Mesqua? No. The vote is four ayes, three nays. Nays by Councilmember Becerra, Penaloza, and Mayor Mesqua. Motion fails. Requires five affirmative votes for appropriation adjustments. Let's go to item 26.
7:22:26Mayor Procheon. I believe somebody in the affirmative has to make the motion. I'll move to reconsider the item.
7:22:56I'll second.
7:23:03This is just the motion. You'd be voting on whether you want to recall this item for further discussion.
7:23:06Correct. So motion by Council Member Phan, seconded by Council Member Hernandez to reconsider item number 26. Council Member Becerra.
7:23:12Yes.
7:23:20Council Member Hernandez.
7:23:22Yes.
7:23:23Council Member Penaloza.
7:23:24No.
7:23:25Councilmember Fan? Yes. Councilmember Vasquez?
7:23:27Yes.
7:23:31Mayor Pro Tem Lopez? Yes. Mayor Mesquah? Yes. Okay. The vote is six ayes, one nay, nay by Councilmember Penaloza. Motion carries. Item can be reconsidered.
7:23:32That means that the motion, any action previously taken would be considered, that you're actually reconsidering the item in its entirety. So you would need a new motion.
7:23:44Okay, so I'll make a motion, the previous motion I had made to approve the resolutions and items with the 5% instead of 3. I second.
7:23:53May I make a clarification on this? So in the second resolution it says that it will not extend, oh I'm sorry, I didn't get approval from you. It does not extend the city manager's contract by one year, but to clarify this contract, if approved would be good into 2026.
7:24:06Yes, that is correct. And thank you for clarifying that.
7:24:25Thank you. So a motion by Council Member Penaloza, seconded by Council Member Vasquez to approve item number 26 as amended to include a 5% increase for the city manager's salary and to take action to not extend the city manager's employment agreement for one additional year. Council Member Becerra? Oh, and yes, retroactivity to July 1st of 2022.
7:24:27Councilmember Becerra?
7:24:53Yes.
7:24:54Councilmember Hernandez?
7:24:56Yes.
7:24:57Councilmember Penaloza?
7:24:58Yes.
7:24:59Councilmember Fan?
7:25:01Absolutely.
7:25:02Councilmember Vasquez? Yes. Mayor Pro Tem Lopez? Yes. Mayor Mesquah? Yes. Motion carries unanimously.
7:25:03All right. Can we go back to where we were?
7:25:13Mayor Pro Tem Lopez, do you have any closing comments?
7:25:17Thank you for indulging the request, Chair Musco. I appreciate that.
7:25:20So I am disappointed that we could not accept essentially free money for this incredible event that is coming up. And I think, you know, we often talk about building partnerships and relying on the county for support, financial support, money that they have access to that sometimes we don't. And so I am disappointed that this council, for whatever reason, said no to the money that the supervisor was offering that could pay for that art show, for education, for kids at that festival.
7:25:25It doesn't make any sense, but I hope that staff is able to find money for that. The other issue is there's been an election date said as I heard and so from the very beginning you know we've had concerns about the false and inaccurate statements that were circulated to residents right and this is not my opinion residents have signed affidavits stating the lies that they have been told by these people that were brought in from Utah, Colorado, whatever. And so, you know, some
7:26:02of those lies are like, they went out to the residents and they told them that I defunded the police. You know, when the city manager clearly stated on the record in 2021 that the department's budget would go up because of contractual agreements. They went out and they said that I don't live in the city of Sanayana and and for those that don't know I'm born and raised in the city I went to Hoover Elementary Willard Intermediate I graduated from Sanayana High School I even graduated from Sanayana Community College and I have to prove that I live in War III year after year after year
7:26:43that is a practice that members of this council established you can't just say that you live in the city you have to submit documentation and not just one piece of paper but it's various forms and and and that form is available to the residents on our city's website and so there is a long list of lies that residents have shared ring videos with us about how sign affidavits about and so we really just want to make sure that people have factual information that's always going to be important for me I know that we live in a society now where people don't like to believe in science, want to ban books, all these crazy things happening.
7:27:22You know, and it's been publicly stated, right, by the proponents of this recall that they initiated this because of my support for rent control and because of my vote to support the establishing of a police oversight commission. And I want to remind the public that the commission, the city circulated surveys and a lot of the residents the plurality of residents said yes this is something we support it was supported unanimously by the council at the time as well and so what they didn't tell residents is that they were upset with me because I voted no on a
7:28:0424 million dollar contract request and they're upset with me because they initially can't control my vote on this dais and so I think it's important for people to know that I think it's important for people to recognize that a lot of work goes into being in these spaces that historically have not been accessible to to first-generation Santa Ana kids and to first-generation women like myself and council member Ty Phan and so once again you are seeing that the women in this chamber are being targeted and it hasn't stopped there you
7:28:43know it's the city manager and all the false accusations that have been sent her way it's been the city attorney being named in a lawsuit and it's been our executive staff that have been consistently ripped been ripped apart when we don't do when one individual that worked in the city wanted us to do and so I just want to leave that with you all just food for thought and you we're going to do a lot more advocacy on this issue but there are serious concerns here i don't think that that this is a practice that should be supported and for those reasons you know of course
7:29:24we're going to do what we can but we are going to continue to spread factual information as best we can so thank you thank you councilmember sarah i almost forgot you sorry no worries uh
7:30:05Thank you, Madam Mayor. A lot of politicking going on up here tonight. A lot of politicking. I just want to thank the residents who came in, minus the nonsensical politics, and came in to advocate for what city government is supposed to be about, which is keeping our residents safe, making sure that our businesses can flourish without having to deal with folks passed out in front of their doorstep, or having their copper wires stolen, or any other sort of issues that are happening from folks that are severely intoxicated. I want to thank my colleagues, the majority of whom supported this direction.
7:30:18And, you know, while it's terrible, it is absolutely terrible that the state's Department of Public Health has decided to inflict the only syringe distribution program in Santa Ana, nowhere else in Orange County. We're the only one, only city in Orange County that will have this sort of delivery program. So they'll be going to wherever you see these folks. be sure these guys are going to go and give them needles but I will just say this without saying anything that I shouldn't say but just know that this council because despite all the politicking that's going on up here at least we are united when it comes to when defending the
7:30:53city against some of these issues that are coming at us from the state whether sometimes it's from activists in South County but we are going to continue to be strong at least for some of us up here, try to avoid some of the nasty politics and continue to be focused on helping residents stay safe and deliver the services that we are supposed to make sure that you are provided with. So thank you all for participating, for sticking through, and have a good night.
7:31:30Thank you, Councilor Macer. So I'm going to close out here. There's a housing fact sheet, and I want you all to hopefully get a copy of this when we talk about housing. It goes over everything that Santa Ana has done and related to housing. So over 2,300 residential units and large multifamily projects are currently under construction. More than 2,800 units are entitled and are undergoing the permitting process. Over 5,500 residential units are going through the review process. I can go on and on. We could talk about Heroes Landing, Crossroads of Washington, Legacy Square, Westview House, Habitat for Humanity, Wise Place.
7:31:56Santa Ana has done a phenomenal job in the housing area and affordable housing. And it was before I arrived here, and they're continuing to do it. So thank you. And City Manager, all of your staff, thank you for the great work. Yes, Councilman Fann, thank you. So City Manager, there were some comments about the Chicano art. So I don't know anything about it. So I stay out of the business of the city when you guys are putting projects together because that's not my place to tell you how to do it, where to do it, or that's not my place when you guys, Hawk does that under your direction. But what is this Chicano art? Can you explain?
7:32:36Or because I'm confused when the community comes up and says, you know, or Mayor Yu or Council Yu, you know, you guys took this away. And always, you know, there's always somebody who's, you know, gossiping and telling lies. So what is that, please?
7:33:15Well, first of all, the council did not take any action to do away with any art show at the Chicano Heritage. Was there one approved? I'll set the record on that. So at the last year's Chicano Heritage, a community-based organization sponsored it, and it was a small art exhibit that was inside of the community center. So this year, our staff has not had any plans for it, hasn't communicated to anybody about it, and didn't have it planned at all. And the CBO that did it last year is not actively participating in Chicano heritage this year.
7:33:28So the community members that came up and spoke, can somebody make contact with them, please, and clarify? I know that, but I'm not asking them to engage with you until afterwards, please. We certainly can. Can you please, City Manager, clarify that? Because I didn't know anything about an art festival, so I just want to clarify for the record, because somebody will put out there on social media that Mayor of Masqua canceled our festival. I don't believe it was ever discussed at
7:34:05Miss Dias and you guys did not take any action to do away with it. Okay perfect.
7:34:29Thank you. So if you can address I'd really appreciate it. Just really quick Councilmember Farron covered the Housing Authority, the forum that's going on on the 19th and Garden Grove. I am also hosting a housing information meeting at El Salvador Park on August 24th at 6 p.m. and coffee with the mayor August 26th in historic French Park. Really excited about that. I also want to be really transparent so when people say August 1 I made an announcement that the mayor violated the Brown Act and then August 2nd somebody went to my house I got insulted so I'm like wait a minute August 1st August 2nd I hope nobody's
7:34:34looking at me like oh because first of all I am not that ignorant and I don't engage in that type of behavior because I'm a grown woman and I own a home and I have a family and I would not engage in any type of activity to go assault somebody and their property, no, would I engage with people who do that? So I want to be really clear. There's a difference when you sit up here as a woman, because we've been talking about women, and yes, women are always under attack, whether it's the way we dress, whether it's who we talk to, who we associate
7:35:11with, where we come from, the color of my hair, you know, I'm a puppet for them, I'm a puppet. I like that song, I'm Your Puppet. It's a great oldie, because I'm a Chicana and I know that oldie. But I just want you to know that when people make those kind of statements, light bulb goes on in my head like, hey, I want to check with the police and see, was I mentioned in that report? Because if I was, I need to notify my attorney, because I need to do a cease and desist letter, because I want anybody going out there and saying I'm assaulting people or having people assault people
7:35:43because I don't do that. I carried a badge for 30 years proudly and I retired proudly and I served my community proudly. So again we get up here and politics are ugly and I just want to be clear for the record the investigation that I discussed the ad hoc committee that was created it was a complaint that came to me as the chairperson and I think this is where things get confused people get confused it came to me as the chairperson her direction of the city attorney to say you must create an ad hoc committee to address a B and C and
7:36:14this complaint that came in against a certain council member and so I was like okay great this is on my lap so since I've been here I've had to deal with taco trucks or taco vendors in a very short time I have had to deal with a death threat, I've had to deal with up here I'm a puppet or I'm ignorant or I'm a POA this. I'm a woman so I take offense to all these insults and then I had to create this ad hoc committee that I did not want to create but it's per this charter because there's a complaint, a formal complaint against a council member that involves employees of the city and money. So whether we handle it
7:36:51or goes to a law enforcement agency, that's going to happen. There's a process that we are following as an ad hoc committee. Did I ask to create this ad hoc committee? No, I was directed to per the charter. So I'm okay with the tax on me personally because I've been in office nine years and I know how this works. You have one council member saying, oh, the mayor stopped crossing guards. Well, I'm only one person. I need four votes. So, and I remember having this conversation with a council member fan early on about crossing guards.
7:37:33So, let's just stop with, I mean, you know, again, people sit up here and say, let's be nice to each other. Let's stop. Well, you know what? Yeah. It takes an adult to do that and not children. And so, yes, I said that. It takes adults. And I raised a family. I bought a home on my own. I'm not a princess. I'm not a Kardashian. I've been working since I was 13 years old. I have an address, I pay a mortgage, paid for my kids' college as a single mom and sacrificed my backside for all of that. I don't rent a room. I list my employment on all my forms. I list my retirement.
7:38:04It's interesting because there's some people up here, we don't even know where they work. We don't even know what they do. So, fine. But I just want to be really clear. So, people sit up here and it's that, you know, it's okay if I do it, but it's not okay if you do it. So I try to be really, you know, I haven't given myself a little credit. I've been very professional. I come up here before I take a step and I sit down and I say, okay, I'm going to be professional. But you know, it cracks me up to now. We're like, let's all get along. But we're ignorant and we're puppets. And so, and then again, I'm sorry about the art show.
7:38:42I wanted, I'm glad you stayed because I didn't know anything about it. So when you come up and say, Mayor Muscoa, or somebody said, you know, you took it. Right. So it's going to be resolved. And so I just, please, I would ask people, if you have a question, reach out to me personally. I give my city cell phone number to everybody. Reach out. Text me. I have nothing to hide. And I will answer your text message. And I will answer your email. Because that is what I do. Because up here, I serve my community. I do not serve myself. And so I just want to be really clear on that.
7:39:12And, you know, there's a lot of things that go on in politics. And I could tell you, I could write a book about what went on at Santa Unified and teachers and how Santa Unified has the highest double-ditching rates of sexual offenses on children and all kinds of things. And then I could come here and talk about things that are happening already in the seven months I've been here. And I inherited things that were sitting here because the ad hoc committee that had to be created, that happened like, I don't know, two years ago or a year ago. and all of a sudden it falls on my lap. Why? Why wasn't it addressed before? I
7:39:48didn't ask to address it. Why wasn't it addressed before? It's a great setup. I think that's an oldie too. It's a great setup, right? We're gonna dump everything on Val's lap because one, she's the first woman so we don't want her to be successful. Two, she's Latina and three, she's fighting for our community. Oh, we don't want her here. So, I just really want to clear, I want really clear when somebody says on this first I made a complaint August 2nd I get assaulted that's on you I don't even know who assaulted who that's none of my business and if the police have something that they need to discuss with
7:40:24me you come see me because you know where I live any time of the day I'm not a problem with it so I just want to be really clear on that and so the ad hoc the complaint that was made against me because it included two other council members the city attorney wrote something up for me and so I'm gonna read it right now. Councilman Hernandez has filed an ethics code complaint pursuant to Section 401.05 of the Santa Ana City Charter. The Charter requires the City Council to refer the complaint to an ad hoc committee of the Council for review. The Council ad hoc committee may then make a recommendation to the full City Council
7:40:58for further review, investigation, or action. The Charter is silent on what happens if the complaint refers to a majority of us. Because the Hernandez complaint makes allegations against me as the mayor and three other council members, rather than appoint an ad hoc committee, I directed the complaint to the city attorney's office and requested that the matter be forwarded to the appropriate law enforcement agencies immediately. That means the district attorney's office. So I have nothing to hide. Let it go there. Let the district attorney and his staff make a determination on what happens because then, what does that say?
7:41:31I welcome the investigation. So I'm not like other people to sit here and say, you know, because you created an ad hoc, I'm going to go after you now. Guess what? It is what it is. This is politics. Welcome to the world of politics. I want to thank everybody that came out tonight and made comments, whether you were for item 14 or against it. Thank you. I want to thank all of the constituents and the residents of Santa Ana that are standing up and speaking up, because without you, we do not move. This would not be happening without all of you. So speak loudly. Speak loudly.
7:42:08And when we vote next year in election, remember who to vote for. Want to get political? Remember who to vote for. Remember who serves you, and remember who is self-serving. And with that, have a nice evening. This meeting is adjourned.
7:42:45Thank you.
7:43:04