Read the November 7 meeting.

Music plays,

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guitar solo

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guitar solo

guitar solo

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MUSIC MUSIC

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guitar solo

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Recording in progress.

Madam Clerk, please start the meeting. Yes, thank you, Mayor. Go ahead. Thank you. I hereby call the Santa Ana Council meeting to order. this meeting is taking place with in-person attendance and by teleconference via zoom the public may access the meeting via the san ii youtube channel or the city's website please bear with us as the technology may disrupt the flow of the meeting madam clerk please conduct roll call

Jennifer L. Hall

thank you mayor council member becerra here council member hernandez council member penaloza Councilmember Phan? Here. Councilmember Vasquez?

Benjamin Vazquez

Present.

Jennifer L. Hall

Mayor Pro Tem Lopez? Mayor Mesquah? Present. Okay, record show you have four members present. That is a quorum.

Thank you. Madam Clerk, are there any additions or deletions to closed session? No, there are not. Thank you. Does any council member need to announce her abstentions on closed session items?

Seeing none, do we have any speakers for closed session? No, we do not. Okay, we'll recess at this time to close session. Thank you.

Recording stopped.

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guitar solo

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guitar solo

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guitar solo

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guitar solo

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guitar solo

guitar solo

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guitar solo Thank you.

guitar solo

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guitar solo

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guitar solo

guitar solo

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guitar solo

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MUSIC MUSIC MUSIC MUSIC

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guitar solo

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guitar solo

guitar solo

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piano plays softly

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guitar solo

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guitar solo

guitar solo

guitar solo

guitar solo

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guitar solo Thank you.

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Phil Bacerra

Recording in progress.

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

Jennifer L. Hall

Thank you, Mayor. Council Member Becerra?

David Penaloza

Here.

Jennifer L. Hall

Council Member Hernandez?

David Penaloza

Present.

Jennifer L. Hall

Council Member Penaloza?

David Penaloza

Present.

Jennifer L. Hall

Council Member Fan? Council Member Vasquez?

Benjamin Vazquez

Present.

Jennifer L. Hall

Mayor Pro Tem Lopez? Mayor Mesquah?

Present.

Jennifer L. Hall

Five members present. That is quorum.

Madam Clerk, before we proceed to the Pledge of Allegiance, any announcements?

Jennifer L. Hall

Yes. For members of the public on Zoom or teleconference, in order to request to speak once public comments commence on agenda items or non-agenda items within the city's jurisdiction, you must dial star 9 from your phone or click the button labeled Raise Hand in Zoom now in order to be in the speaker queue when we start. Thank you.

Thank you very much. First item on the agenda is the Pledge of Allegiance. Councilman Becerra, please.

Phil Bacerra

Thank you, Mayor. If you'd all please stand for the pledge. I just want to say I appreciate everybody who does participate in this very patriotic activity. Ready? Begin.

David Penaloza

I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.

Thank you, Councilman Becerra. At this time, words of inspiration. They'll be provided by St. Ann Church for Morris, please.

Is he here? No?

I don't see him.

Mayor, it doesn't seem like they checked in. Great. Okay. Pastor Nathie, you want to come up? You don't mind me asking, sir?

I'm on the cuff, huh?

This is how you do it. This is your best way. I apologize, but I know you don't mind.

All right. Well, Father, we thank you, first of all, for who you are in our lives. And we just ask you to watch over this beautiful city, watch over our leadership, our police officers, just our families, our children, and our streets. And I ask you that you give this council wisdom, the wisdom that they need to govern this beautiful city. And I say this in Jesus' name. Everybody said amen.

Thank you, sir.

Thank you very much. Madam Kirk, are there any additions or deletions to the City Council?

Jennifer L. Hall

Yes, Mayor, thank you. For item number seven, there's just a clerical update to the code section that is cited. should be referencing Santa Ana Municipal Code section 2-326A as opposed to 236A. And then for item number 24, which is the Glenwood Place water improvements, public works agency staff did provide a memo and revised staff report with a change to the requested action related to the funding source that was distributed to all of you, been posted online and made publicly available. Action on this tonight for your consideration would be on that revised staff report.

Great, thank you very much. We're going to do our ceremonial presentations at this time. I'm going to do mine. And first, it's the Beta Cell Foundation declaring November 2023 as Diabetes Month.

Okay, this is my favorite part because Rikki is up here with us. This month we acknowledge more than 37 Americans living with diabetes. One in ten Americans has diabetes and one in five don't know it. While advancements have recently been made to help manage diabetes, millions still struggle with the constant challenge of managing blood sugar levels, the dangers of long-term complications, and the frustration of an invisible disability. World Diabetes Day occurs on November 14th each year to commemorate the birthday of Frederick Banting who discovered insulin in 1921 taking diabetes from a fatal disease to

one that could be managed. The water towel will be lit in blue for Diabetes Awareness Month, excuse me, for Diabetes Awareness on November 14th World Diabetes Day. In 2019 diabetes was the seventh leading cause of death in the United States. Some signs and symptoms of diabetes are increased thirst, frequent great urination, blurry vision, fatigue. Type 1 diabetes is an autoimmune disorder in which the body stops making insulin. Type 1 diabetes must take injected insulin for the rest of their lives. Beta Cell Foundation is a nonprofit organization that was founded in 2019 to create community support

networks so that no one with type 1 diabetes feels alone. Beta Cell Foundation supports multiple online communities for Diabetics, hosts several events each year, including free camping trips, in-person meetups, educational events, runs, book clubs, and so much more. Beta South Foundation Type 1 Run has thousands of members all over the world who build support, community, and awareness for Type 1 diabetes through running. So thank you for everything that you do. This is a proclamation from the City of Santa Ana for World Diabetes Day. And there's a lot of whereas. So instead of me talking, I'm going to let you both talk.

But now, therefore, we, the Mayor and City Council of the City of Santa Ana, do hereby recognize November 14, 2023 as World Diabetes Day and encourage everyone to celebrate the diabetics in their lives, acknowledge the daily struggle this disease requires, and to join activities that raise diabetes awareness and help prevent, treat, and manage the disease. This is signed by myself and the entire city council. So this is for you. And please say a few words. And then I'm going to have you say something. Thank you.

I'm going to move this this way.

Thank you.

Thank you, Mayor and Council. I'm Craig Stubing, the founder of the Beta Cell Foundation, and I've been living with type 1 diabetes since I was 13 years old, and I hope I don't have chocolate in my teeth because I have a low blood sugar and was just eating some chocolate before we came up here.

Society doesn't treat people with diabetes very well. We've all heard the jokes on TV, TV shows, movies, and even read them on social media every day. And when it's not outright wrong information, it's usually just mean. society likes to blame people with diabetes for getting a disease that has more to do with your genetics or your zip code than anything you've done and being barraged by that constant blame often turns into shame and guilt for people with diabetes to the point where people with diabetes

experience depression at a higher rate than people without it what we do at the beta cell Foundation is bring people with diabetes together to find community and support in a society that doesn't think we need it. And similarly, I think proclamations like this that show that people with diabetes are worthy of our time, care, and respect are important in helping change diabetes stigma to help all of us with diabetes live full and happy lives. The Beta Cell Foundation is really excited to see the City of Santa Ana make this proclamation and we're excited to see what you do in the future and throughout the year since diabetes

doesn't go away for us once December starts. Thank you again.

Thank you very much.

Hi everyone. My name is Lauren Matthews. I was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes on World Diabetes Day in 2005, so the day has a little more of a special meaning to me. The mayor is quite a good friend of ours now because Ricky, my diabetes alert dog, who's asleep next to me, comes into work here at City Hall every day and keeps my blood sugar in range. She lets me know when I'm too high, too low, or my blood sugar is changing faster than any technology can. And I'm very grateful for the community that BetaCell Foundation brings because having an invisible disability can be really isolating and it can make you feel really alone.

and whenever you're feeling burnt out and like why do I have to deal with this it's really nice to have that community to back you up so thank you mayor so you

if you can't see Ricky she's just beautiful and she comes in whenever I come in she comes into my office and brings a toy and greets me and so she greets everybody but she's she's incredibly beautiful so let's give them round of applause please. We're going to take a picture.

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Okay.

Next up, I'm sorry. Next up, Mayor Pro Tem Lopez, please. I can't find my glasses.

with the Family Court Awareness Month Committee.

Thank you.

Do we have Rebecca Farrell?

Jessie LopezItem 2

Oh, perfect. Thank you.

Jessie LopezItem 2

Okay. So tonight we're going to be recognizing Family Court Awareness Month, and we're going to be representing this proclamation to Rebecca Farrell, who's a volunteer, with the Family Court Awareness Month Committee. And so you're going to learn a little bit about what the committee does for Santa Ana residents tonight. And as I said, November is Family Court Awareness Month. The month of November provides an excellent opportunity for Santa Ana to demonstrate its support in recognizing the importance of a family court system that prioritizes child safety and acts in the best interest of children.

Jessie LopezItem 2

The goal for the Family Court Awareness Month this year is to shine a spotlight on our family court system that lacks providing proper training. And the family court professionals should receive training surrounding the topics they rule about every day, which includes domestic violence, sexual abuse, physical abuse, emotional abuse, trauma, coercive control, as well as victims and perpetrator behavior. And the committee's work impacts Sunayana residents by empowering the large network of survivors that live in the city of Sunayana and giving them a voice.

Jessie LopezItem 2

creating awareness and illuminating some of the challenges that survivors experience and raise the importance of having judicial training on topics such as domestic violence, child abuse, coercive control, and post-operation abuse, and creating awareness and serving as a co-sponsored EPICES Law, which mandates that judges dealing with these cases have some sort of domestic violence training, and helps the kids of Sanana by ensuring that dangerous, highly traumatic treatments targeting kids in family court cases have been prohibited in the state of California and so with their contributions to all that you do for our

Jessie LopezItem 2

families here we want to proclaim the month of November as Family Court Awareness Month and present me with this proclamation and we would also be honored to hear about your experience as a volunteer and the work that you do and really anything that you'd like to share.

Good evening everyone I'm actually here on behalf of Rebecca I'm her sister and in law, Katie Adams Farrell. Rebecca was called away to another meeting this evening in Covina, so of course, first I wanna please extend my thanks to Mayor Pro Tem. Thank you to the mayor, as well as all of the city council members for your ongoing support. This is the second year in a row that the city of San Ana has recognized Family Awareness Month as November, so we are very, very grateful for that continued support. We had this wonderful overview already, which kind of took away some of my talking points,

but I'm going to go through them anyway. I am so pleased to be here tonight on behalf of the thousands of families who have active family court cases in the city of Santa Ana. The mission of Family Court Awareness Month is to educate the public and decision makers about the ways the system is inadvertently harming children. In many cases, the people making decisions about child custody are prioritizing equal parenting time over even the safety of the child. The judges, with all the respect in the world for their diligent work and their incredible education,

don't have specific education on really important family court issues like child abuse, childhood trauma, domestic violence, and coercive control. But with the support of lawmakers and an educated public, we're making changes. Last month, Governor Newsom signed into law Peaky's Law, and that was on October 13th in both California and it was also passed in Texas. Peaky was a five-year-old boy who was returned to his father by the courts and then he was murdered by his father. So Peaky's law requires that judges be educated on these complex family court issues

relating to child abuse and it also bans dangerous family reunification camps and treatments with abusive parents. It's really easy to feel overwhelmed and powerless about the state of children, especially in other places in our world right now. But I'm here to tell you that being a part of this committee and a part of this effort makes me feel like I can make a difference for the children of this world. And as a mom of three, it's incredibly important to me to do everything that I can to protect kids. And so being a part of this and with you know an educated public and the laws that we're passing now

We are able to make a difference. We are able to save children's lives. So again, thank you so much

Thank you at this time, Councilman Penalosa.

David PenalozaItem 2

Thank you, Mayor Amescua. I am here tonight to recognize, as you all have already heard the news, our police chief retired last week after 33 years of service. Santa Ana Police Chief David Valentin began his distinguished 33-year career at the city of Santa Ana on August 7, 1990. He is the 21st chief of police in the city's 154-year history and the first chief that was born and raised in the city of Santa Ana. Chief Valentin is credited with significant accomplishments throughout his career, graduating from the FBI National Academy, California Command College, Harvard University's Kennedy

David PenalozaItem 3

School of Government program, inducted into both the Santa Ana College and California League of Community Colleges Hall of Fame for substantive community investment and positive legacy accomplishments. Chief Valentin also served as the Chief of Police for the Santa Ana Unified School District for nearly five years and was on the board of directors for both the Santa Ana Boys and Girls Club, a club he once attended growing up in Central Santa Ana, the Santa Ana College Foundation currently serving as vice president. Investments in generating and sustaining community trust

David PenalozaItem 3

were significant accomplishments under Chief Valentin's leadership where he proactively took on a public voice to police accountability, constitutional policing, sensible reforms, and ensuring focus on servant leadership. Chief Valentin's transformational leadership and steadfast guidance is credited with reestablishing the SAPD as a national leading premier police organization once again. Today, the city of Santa Ana acknowledges its profound gratitude to Chief David Valentin for his many years of dedicated service and countless contributions to the city of Santa Ana and his unsurpassed devotion to service in the line of duty.

David PenalozaItem 3

So with that, I will, Chief Valentin is probably on vacation, well-deserved one, so I will present with him this city tile that I'm sure our city clerk will get to him. So congratulations, Chief Valentin, and thank you for your service.

Thank you, Councilman Panalosa. May we have staff presentations at this time, Acting City Manager?

Thank you, Madam Mayor. We have two staff presentations tonight. As a reminder, staff presentations are meant for us to inform the public and the City Council of activities going on in the city, and they're not meant to be discussion items. We will entertain a few questions. But with that, I introduce Nabil Saba to give you an update on last night's meeting with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.

Thank you.

Good evening, Mayor, Mayor Potem, and members of the City Council. This brief presentation is to provide you with an update on the Santiago Creek Flood Risk Management Project. The presentation is meant to provide you with a short overview of the project and does not imply that the Public Works Agency is supporter nor an opponent of the project. This is, it is our understanding that the project in itself is a regional flood risk management which is not under the preview of the city. A brief background

in the project. The project is to make flood related improvements in the cities of Orange, Villa Park, and Santa Ana along the Santiago Creek system. Congress approved the project scope in 1986. The Corps of Engineers is the lead on the project and the County of Orange Public Works is the local partner. The city does not have an official role of the project. There is a complete description of the project on

both the Corps of Engineers and the county websites. This cutout of the project description is from the Corps of Engineers web page. The area proposed for improvement in the Santa Ana is the bold red line on the map between the I-5 and the Santa Ana River. In an effort to communicate with the residents and comply with the environmental regulations, the county and the Corps of Engineers held three community meetings. The most recent meeting was last night. The environmental documents

are in circulation right now, and the closing date for comments is November 30th. This email address can be used to provide comments.

The Public Works Agency and the Neighborhood Initiative and Environmental Services team informed the community about this project, utilizing all means that we have. Meeting notices were posted on the city website, city electronic newsletter, and social media outlets. We also sent email blasts to the neighborhood associations and community contacts and made notifications of the meetings at our ETAC meetings. The city staff from various agencies including Public Works, Planning, Community Development and City Manager's Office attended all the meetings and were

available for questions. According to the Corps of Engineers this map shows the hundred-year flood zone or what is known as the 1% AEP, annual exceedance probability. This typical cross-section is of the channel after the proposed improvements. This is a picture of current and after project completion of the same section of the channel. The picture was taken from or this picture was taken from the Bristol Street Bridge looking west. The picture on the left is existing

conditions and the picture on the right is the channel after the improvements or the proposed improvements. This picture was taken from the Bristol Street Bridge looking east. The picture on the left is again existing conditions and the picture on the right is the proposed conditions after the improvements are completed. This picture was taken from within the channel, looking east towards the Flower Street Bridge. The picture on the left is, again, existing conditions, and the picture on the right is after improvements.

Next steps is for the Corps of Engineers to fund the design, right-of-way acquisition, and construction. The project will take five and a half years to complete. Complete information is available on the Corps of Engineers and the county websites. For questions, I can provide you with the proper contacts at both entities. Thank you.

Thank you, sir. Are there any comments from the council? Any questions? If not, we'll move on to the next item.

Johnathan Ryan HernandezItem 4

I just wanted to say thank you, Director, for the presentation. Thank you.

Jessie LopezItem 4

Mayor Brotten. Yes, thank you. And thank you to our staff for being at the presentation last night and for being there in May and in January. And just to remind the public that they have until November the 30th to submit comments online. So thank you.

Thank you very much, Bill. And next up, City Manager.

Thank you, Madam Mayor, members of the Council. We have our monthly homeless update provided by Mr. Ken Gominski. Thank you.

Good evening, Honorable Mayor and members of the City Council. November is recognized nationally each year as Homeless Awareness Month. During this month, it's a good time to reflect on the important work that the City of Stantan has done to address homelessness, to learn more about homelessness, and to hear stories of hope and resilience. Please visit the City's Homeless Services Division website where a variety of information is now available.

Tonight, we'll share information about volunteer opportunities at the City's shelter, comparable data for the SMART program on a monthly basis that's now available on our website, and an in-depth look at the 2023 Orange County Homeless Survey.

Volunteers can play an important role in providing a variety of activities and services or just provide a listening ear. Individuals are invited to provide a helping hand, enrichment activities, support shelter staff, or help with events. Days are flexible, seven days a week. If you are interested in volunteering please visit ifhomeless.org slash volunteer or email volunteer at ifhomeless.org all volunteer opportunities pertaining to the shelter are coordinated through our partner the illumination foundation

at last month's homeless services update council requested some additional data We went forward and now have added these items to our data dashboard. We continue to enhance our transparency by adding these additional metrics to the Homeless Services dashboard. Additionally, we're adding month-over-month comparisons. The data illustrates the last four months of performance, highlighting outreach contacts, case management, street exits, calls dispatched, and housing exits.

Additionally, based on what we discussed at the last council meeting, in a partnership between the City of Santa Ana and the Santa Ana Jail, every person who comes into the Santa Ana Jail is now contacted by jail staff and asked if they need any type of resources, should they request any resources. CityNet is contacted. CityNet then responds to the jail, offers those resources, and then if the people are interested in shelter or need transportation somewhere, CityNet waits outside. Upon their release, they're being transported to either shelter or other services.

Over the course of the last week since the inception of the program, we've contacted 32 people, 25 refused services, 7 requested services, and had CityNet respond and have the conversations. questions. The county recently conducted the 2023 homeless survey to collect feedback from individuals experiencing homelessness. Specific questions were asked regarding which homeless services are effective or ineffective, gaps in barriers and services, as well as access to

services. The full survey is available on the homeless services web page, but what we learned

was the survey was broken up into seven sections, including demographics, current living situations, at-risk, feedback on shelter stays and outreach, and community ties. There were a total of 642 individuals who completed the survey, and for completing the survey, they were given a $25 gift card by the County of Orange. 307 surveys were conducted in the Central Spa, 99 of those surveys were conducted specifically within the city of Santa Ana. Although city specific responses are not provided these are the countywide

key findings from the survey. The number one people experiencing homelessness want help. The other information I thought that was key was there are many people who are homeless that say they're not being contacted by outreach professionals. However, in our city, we have outreach professionals that are going out there and doing that. So we are a bit ahead of the curve as far as where we're at compared to other cities. With that being said, I know you're extremely busy and I look forward to your calls and emails

throughout the week to answer your questions. Thank you. Thank you, sir. Council wants to speak. please press your button so I can find you on here. I do have a question. I just want to clarify the numbers. 32 people were contacted, 25 refused services, and seven were referred to CityNet. Is that correct? Yes. And that is from the San Ana City Jail. Yes, ma'am. Great. Thank you so very much. I don't see anybody else wanting to speak. Can you? Okay. Let me see. Go ahead, Councilman Vasquez.

Benjamin VazquezItem 5

Thank you for this presentation. I really applaud you on the work you did with the comparables of month-to-month. And it's just on the outreach contacts, I see it decreasing really down to from 600 to 300 in October. And that's really worrisome to me in the amount. I don't know if it's the season or is there other factors that might play into that. Could you?

So I have had a conversation with CityNet about why October seemed to be a lower month, seeing it is 31 days.

Their response was they got less calls for service. They did more proactive outreach to the people that they know are out there and are service resistant. But they didn't have the successes we would hope that they continue to have.

Benjamin VazquezItem 5

Thank you. And I really appreciate the homeless surveys and the app that people want help. That they're not just out there, but I really appreciate that that came to the front and that we're offering it and how much street exits we've had and the housing exits. It's just there's good work being done in Santa Ana and we can continue, so I appreciate your work. I'm just worried about that October number. hopefully we get more folks being contacted come November and we haven't lost trust and the people giving the services so I'm just hoping that the trust continues that we've had in the past thank you

Johnathan Ryan HernandezItem 5

Councilman Hernandez yes thank you mayor Mesquah first and foremost thank you for your presentation sir I'm looking at the length of homelessness in your presentation slide 11 and the question says did you become homeless for the first time in the last 12 months. I just wanted to state I see a commonality between three to five years and six to ten years. Yes. So that to me, based off my professional experiences, could indicate that the people who are experiencing homelessness may very well live in those areas or have came from those areas that they're staying in, either having a family member, have went to school,

Johnathan Ryan HernandezItem 5

have grown up in that community or have some sort of relationship. What that means is there there's somebody or a family that they can go to that may let them shower, may give them access to food. So maybe when it comes to case management, family finding can be helpful. If any of these individuals are from the foster system, there's an abundance of resources that we can leverage at the county. I would encourage that we take the info that we've collected on the amount of years people have been experiencing homelessness and we apply good practices to this data. I do believe it will help us tremendously.

Johnathan Ryan HernandezItem 5

The mental health, I see 58% of respondents who reported having a mental health condition stated either receiving services for their mental health or wanting services and not being able to access them. Mental health does intersect with people experiencing homelessness, so I would like to see us work closer with county agency providers focused on case management, trauma-informed care. if there are like I said anybody who has been through the foster system it's important we leverage those resources a couple hotspots that I want us to place on your radar sir our Holly and Fifth Street in Artisa Pilar off of Fifth

Johnathan Ryan HernandezItem 5

Street and Holly across the street that is an area where you'll see a large number of people experiencing homelessness I would like for us to place an emphasis on on helping people in that area as well as Birch Park is number two. Birch Park is an area where you have a senior center, you have families that live adjacent to it, but there's still a large number of people experiencing homelessness. And if we can have services offered there, I think that'll help tremendously. With the recent policy on public inebriation, I have received your emails to my constituents

Johnathan Ryan HernandezItem 5

regarding Flower Park off of Flower Street, Angels Park. That is an area of concern, as well as Washington Square in between Willard and Washington Square. That is an area where we've seen an increase in people going into people's yards or backyards. Santa Anita off of Fifth Street and Harbor is another area of importance I'd like you guys to focus on.

I have 11 seconds madam.

Johnathan Ryan HernandezItem 5

Sullivan Street between First Street and McFadden and then First Street off of Clara and First in between First and Second. That concludes my comments.

Thank you. Acting City Manager, do you have a comment, sir?

Yeah, thank you, Mayor. As I discussed earlier on, this is an item of information we provide the City Council and the public. We will entertain light questioning, but we want to make sure that we provide you with access to Ken during the week if you have very specific questions that you'd like to ask or you'd like to engage them in any questions regarding the homeless update.

Thank you, sir. Mayor Pro Tem.

Jessie LopezItem 5

Yeah, I have a very light question for you, Ken. About a week or two, I think the system crashed, correct? Or no?

The system? Yeah. Which system?

Jessie LopezItem 5

Our internal system that uses for admissions into the shelter system. We were getting complaints about not having people be allowed.

The HMIS system, you mean, crashed? Okay.

Jessie LopezItem 5

And so can you just remind us and the public of when the public runs into those technical challenges, who they can call?

So I'm terribly sorry. I'm not picking up where you're going. If you're talking about that there was an issue with the app, then I can say that. Which system specifically?

Jessie LopezItem 5

Not an app issue. The system that CityNet uses to help people enter the shelters.

I'll have to check on that, ma'am. I can just tell you that CityNet has tablets that they use to enter input information in HMIS. However, following that, they take the body to the shelter. There's a warm handoff. Even if the system's down, Illumination Foundation should be able to take the body. So I'll check into what you're talking about, and I can get back to you.

Perfect. Thank you. Thank you, sir, very much. And thank you for the presentation. We appreciate it. At this time, Madam City Attorney, do you have anything to report out of closed session?

Sonia R. CarvalhoItem 5

Mayor, Council Members, and members of the public, we do not have any reportable action this evening.

Thank you. At this time of the meeting, it's 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 two minutes for their comments pursuant to Resolution 2023-047. Speakers are requested to refrain from profane language, racial epitaphs, lividest or slanderous statements that disturb the decorum of the meeting. We will now hear from members of the public that are present followed by Zoom. And before we proceed, Madam Clerk, I need to read something that was given to me at

my request and the City Attorney, thank you. We have a full agenda today and many people who are here to discuss the agenda items and to comment on matters directly concerning the city. We have about two hours roughly of public comments. Under the Brown Act, we are required to permit public comment on matters under the city's jurisdiction. We will only take public comments on these items this evening. Matters concerning the state or federal government at an international level are not within the city's jurisdiction, so we will not take comments on those items. I want to just be really clear on that.

If you're here to discuss international matters, we're not going to allow those during public comments. Okay, let's proceed. John Dimitri, please, followed by Jack Brito.

Thank you, Mayor, Council Members, Mayor Pro Tem, Council Member Daddeby. First of all, thank you for allowing me the opportunity to speak. It's definitely a non-agenda item. I'm here to teach a little lesson. As you know, being an elected official, I represent the City of Orange, and I've served with most of you on one board or another, and we all take our roles very serious. One of those things that we take so serious is being not just a steward of the fiduciary, passing ordinances are doing, but it's being a cheerleader, and a cheerleader for our student

athletes here in the city. Recently, two weeks ago, myself, Councilman Phil Becerra, and Mayor Amesqua, we all got to take part in our namesake high schools competing in a football game against each other, and we got to take part in the coin flip. What you didn't know is that during that coin flip, Councilman Becerra and I, or as I'm going to refer to him from the rest of the evening, the loser, made a very genuous bet, a wager if you will. And one of our things that as council members is we support our student athletes. And your Santa Ana Saints played the Orange High

School Panthers. And as we say in orange, and since it's going to be written, I got to see it, once a panther, always a panther. Yes. But the bet, the wager, if you will, was that the council member that was victorious would come down to the council meeting of the team that wasn't victorious and present the high school pennant that you will have to place over your name tag for the meeting.

Of course, it's all in time.

Your time is up, so we're going to place it over his name. Thank you.

Phil BacerraItem 5

Can we call security?

We'll have the city clerk get it from you, sir. Thank you so much.

Phil BacerraItem 5

Mayor Mesquil, if I can take up my personal privilege, can I? Yes.

It was a great game, okay, I have to say.

Yes, it was. It was a very good game. Sorry? Oh, okay.

Phil BacerraItem 5

I'll just say that part of this whole wager was, of course, having pride in our team. And I thought it was a safe bet because our Saints were undefeated going into the game.

Orange High School had, what, one loss? Two.

Phil BacerraItem 5

Two. Okay, two losses. So I really thought we were going to prevail. But you know what? As Councilman DeVitri said, we both are very proud of our student athletes, and so I'm happy to accept this.

Thank you, sir, for coming. Appreciate it. Yes, Councilman Sarah, put that over your name. Thank you very much. All right. Thank you. Jack Brito, followed by David Ball. Thank you, sir, for waiting. Appreciate it.

Good evening, Councilmembers. Thank you for having me and allowing me to speak. I'm going to read this because my memory is good evening council members I have two major issues to discuss first and foremost are simply there are simply too many traffic accidents occurring at the intersection of Wilshire Avenue and South Baker Street eventually someone is going to be seriously injured or killed opening up the city to a major lawsuit we circulated a petition to present to the City Council and not a single resident told us no all were excited to sign

hoping something could be done about this a neighbor installed the camera and has video he would gladly share showing all the accidents that have occurred we would like to see either a signal light a roundabout or a four-lighted stop signs installed at all corners the second issue is dealing with speedsters endangering residents on south baker street the residents were all on board with having speed bumps installed i parked on park avenue and saw in south baker street on different days at the same time 7 30 to 8 recording traffic south baker gets triple the amount of traffic

than park avenue yet they have speed bumps and it's a struggle to get them on south baker street why is that i'm aware of the speed a speed a driver must hit to be considered speeding yet none of the traffic i saw on park avenue went over 20 miles an hour another neighbor has video of the traffic on baker including specers that has offered copies if need be circulating petition should open up a can of worms as many of the residents told us about other traffic problems like modern-day parents dropping their kids off blocking residents from exiting their their driveways and refusing to move on

Wilshire the red curbs were extended and they worked for a short time but eventually people returned to parking their cars on the red to eat their lunch purchase at the food truck parked on Wilshire this makes turning left very dangerous I have a lot of other suggestions but with only two minutes

to speak I had to cut to the chase thank you sir very much so thank you I have pictures if I can leave them with you can leave it with the clerk sir okay thank you very much David Ball followed by Yulena Ball

good evening mayor council members my name is David Ball I am a resident of Ward 3 racism criminalization disenfranchisement now taxation without representation. This is the divisive jargon that I hear from our council members. It's dividing our residents. After rent control units decreased and rents went up and they knew it would but they passed it anyway. It hurt our residents. The anti-police rhetoric has caused an increase in sexual assaults and violent crime. Police oversight would have been better than diverting 1.1

million. It endangered our residents. Now non-citizen voting. Question number two on the N-400 forum to become a US citizen is, have you ever voted in a local US election? What we have are council members exploiting these people for personal gain, no matter the repercussions. They are the first to make the news. Why not help them become US citizens? Has any of these four council members suggested it ever to help these people become citizens? What about the cost? Has the fiscal impact report been finalized? Why would we put something on the

ballot that has a big question mark next to it? What we're talking about is having our own elections, printing our own ballots, having our own voting boxes, our own counters, our own election software, our own election staff. What is the cost? One year, five year, ten years, twenty years? Is this taxation without representation or just another way to erode our laws what we've seen thus far from the some of these council members not citing minor traffic violations not signing all the participants of a street race diverting funds away from the police sir this does not belong on the ballot

Sonia R. CarvalhoItem 5

thank you thank you yolena ball mayor may just ask for a point of decorum we do have decorum rules and i'd like to just remind the gentleman who has the camera we do have rules about taking your camera and having it stationary against the wall we are not interfering with people in our front row or others to watch so if you could please put it on your stand back there we would appreciate that and if you can

that's correct sir but I can make the determination to me so we're not going to get into the conversation thank you thank you madam city attorney for clarifying that so okay so Yelena Yelena Ball thank you

Good evening, Council and Madam Mayor. My name is Elena Ball. I'm a Santa Ana resident, Ward 3. Tonight I would like to speak on non-citizen voting. I am an immigrant and previously a non-citizen. I have to say that non-citizen voting is not the best idea. Non-citizen voting undermines the law, which is a slippery slope, and I hope Santa Ana does not adopt that trend. San Francisco does allow non-citizen voting in their school board elections only for the parents of the attending students, but let's be honest, San Francisco is not a city we should model after. One of the questions on

application for naturalization form asks whether applicants have ever voted in US federal, state, or local election. It is important to answer the question truthfully. Voting in a US election as a non-citizen can have a legal consequence including potential challenges to the eligibility for naturalization. Even if non-citizen voting is allowed in some places, it is ultimately up to U.S. citizenship and immigration services to determine the eligibility for naturalization. Non-citizen voting undermines the rights of citizens and diminishes the significance of people who went through the process of obtaining their citizenship.

It appears that voting and citizenship are somehow getting disconnected, but they are very much a package deal. Voting is not just a privilege, it is also a responsibility. Residents who are not eligible to vote do have representation through the award representatives and they also can attend and speak at the city council meetings. There is no reason to put this on a ballot for citizens to decide as it will become a financial nightmare to implement. Santa Ana has more pressing issues to take care of and non-citizen voting is not one of them.

I oppose non-citizen voting not because I want to exclude anyone, but rather to inspire people to become citizens and embrace the invaluable experience it offers thank you and have a good

night thank you gilbert b followed by miss cameron good evening divided council and mayor

i am a long time resident of san anna i know some of you up there in the dais and some that i don't want to know i believe they should be universal suffrage yes i believe in democracy for all i don't believe the status of one person in another should deprive us of voting for this in this great city you're trying to do different things but a divided council will not work

I have been visiting some of the institutions here in the city. I have been looked upon as a criminal by the way I dress and where I live. I have, if not the gall, but the intestinal fortitude to come out here and berate every one of you, but I'm not going to do that because only some of you deserve to be berated. and we know who the mayor and her cronies back up how much times do we have to have the divide and conquer i've been conquered all my life and we're going to conquer and divide us some more

because that's what i see happening right now and i will support anybody that supports this mayor not being re-elected again and with that i will leave you with I am running for re-election because I love Santa Ana and our city residents deserve a mayor who will continue to listen to them and work hard to deliver results at City Hall. As mayor I have implemented new ideas to reduce homelessness, build housing, I've worked with first responders to make neighborhoods safer and built strong partnerships with our school youth programs.

As mayor, I know the things that make our city special, and I understand what can be done to improve the qualities of life for our residents. I'm excited to officially relaunch my re-election campaign, and you will lose this election.

Sir, your time is up. Thank you, sir. Your time is up. Followed by Mark Lopez. I'm sorry, Ms. Cameron? Is she here?

Mark Lopez. Lisa Nguyen.

Lisa Nguyen speaking. Good evening, City Council members. My name is Lisa, and I'm here today with VietRise. I am in support of Agenda Item 39, the proposal to adopt a resolution to place ballot measure permitting non-citizen voting in municipal elections on the 2024 general election ballot. Allowing non-citizens to vote can promote a sense of belonging within the community. When people feel they have a stake in the decisions being made, they may be more likely to participate in local activities and initiatives. Moreover non-citizens who are engaged in their communities can play active and vital roles

in advocating for policies that benefit everyone. Their perspectives can lead to a more inclusive and effective governance. Many of my friends and their family members should have the right to vote, just as I do. I hope the council moves to support democracy for all of its residents and allows for the voices of everyone to be heard. Thank you so much.

Thank you. Dwight Hua, followed by, I believe it's Fong. Please, if you can come up as well and line up behind him. Thank you.

Good evening, City Council members. My name is Dwight Hua, and I'm a Santa Ana resident from Ward 1 and a community organizer with Viet Rise. And I'm here in support of agenda item number 39, the proposal to adopt a resolution to place ballot measure permitting non-citizens voting in municipal elections on the 2024 general election ballot. First, I want to thank the city staff for working hard on this issue and the city council for spending the time to discuss this important issue. Expanding the franchise to include non-citizens for local elections is an essential step forward

in assuring that our communities feel fully heard, fully represented, and feel a true sense of belonging. As many other community members and voices in the room have expressed in previous meetings and today, it is unjust that so many residents are not able to vote locally due to their legal status but pay taxes and are an active part of this community. We'll continue to say, no taxation without representation. In addition, I would like to reiterate that the evidence that points towards how non-sistent voting in local elections has not negatively affected individuals' applications for citizenship is very solid.

multiple examples from various parts of the country like SF as well as places in Vermont and Maryland and none have reported issues with non-census voting in local elections and we've discussed and brought up many ways to support such measures we can continue to advocate for immigrant rights and work together to ensure that our vulnerable community members are heard and safe it's important to take a stand now to support immigrant communities is important to show commitment now towards this important issue and to really support the efforts to make non-system voting a reality. We have community members who are here now

and who are supporting this item now and I hope this council moves forward to support democracy for all its residents and allows the voices of

everyone to be heard. Thank you. Thank you. A phone please. Followed by Vincent. Thank you.

Thank you.

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to make sure to represent this question, and to represent the stage, and to represent the stage, and to represent our unity, and to represent our unity, I just want to represent our unity and represent our unity and unity,

when you go to represent our unity and represent our unity and friends,

I just want to represent our unity to represent our unity and represent our unity because, I just want to represent, I just want to represent, to be with you, they are people who live for the people, and care for the people. So the experience of them with you will be with you. Thank you.

within the area they live in. Why? I realize this is unfair and we are being unfairly discriminated against. Why do I say that? There are two reasons. First, we are people who contribute to the city like everyone else through consumption and shopping for our families' daily needs. Second, we are the ones who contribute more than others. Why? Because we only contribute and do not get back anything. Whereas citizens get back what they paid to the city, for example, getting tax refunds, social benefits, programs, etc. I'm just an ordinary single mother who has worked hard

with her own strength to raise two sons so that they can become good people who contribute to the country and society, and I've succeeded in that matter. In conclusion, I hope that all members of the council will consider and think carefully about the issue to comply with the principles and spirit of the Democratic Party that you represent. If you agree with us and support us, helping our dreams come true, we can promise you that we will support you in the coming days when you need us. Our support for you will come from our children, grandchildren, friends, and acquaintances

who will use their voice to keep you in office and in order to continue representing them. Through your support, they will realize that you are the ones who live for the people and care for the people, and their trust in you will only increase and you will have represented the values of your party well. I would like to thank you. Thank you, Council. Thank you. And you're Vincent, correct yes okay good evening council members my name is vincent i'm the organizing director of the rise and i am here to support uh agenda agenda item number 39 um you know over the past

month and a half i've been you know making public comments after translating for fung each ever and every single time i am really amazed by her passion and her conviction to stand up to represent vietnamese non-citizens who have been voiceless uh in santa anna Fung is the perfect example of how Santa Ana will be transformed if non-citizens voting is passed. Fung is someone who has toiled all her life, raised two kids, all while not being able to drive. Can you imagine living in Santa Ana for 20 plus years, not being able to drive and raising two child.

And she's been forced to live in the shadows all these years. And now she's an active resident here in front of you, demanding the right to vote. And I want to reiterate how brave and powerful she is to, you know, for someone who is undocumented, who is, you know, primarily a Vietnamese speaker, who is a single mother, and someone who has never been very civically engaged in the city, to now come up to the council in front of the dais to demand the right to vote. Not just for herself, but for everyone else in the city. Fung is one of just 25% of adults in Santa Ana who have been disenfranchised, and these

are the people who are the backbones of the city and our communities. And these are the people who deserve to have their voices amplified and uplifted. And now we have the opportunity to enfranchise them and also to build a stronger, more vibrant democracy. And I urge the council today to place the non-citizen voting ballot onto the general election next year. Thank you.

Thank you. John Paul White followed by Indigo Vu, please. John Paul White, Indigo Vu.

Thank you, council members. My name is John Paul White. I'm a Santa Ana resident. And I am with the California Republican Party, Associate Delegate Representative. Vote no on 39 avoid problems. Thank you.

Thank you, sir. Followed by Indigo Vu.

All right. good evening madam mayor and senate city council members my name is indigo vu i'm a resident of ward one as well as a staff member at viet rise and i'm here today to speak in support of agenda item number 39. for several city council meetings in the past three months you all have listened to dozens of community members and local organizations share their personal experiences and reasons historical account and legal precedent all in favor of non-citizen voting we know that taxation without representation is unfair and undemocratic. We know that we are at what

some call a crisis of democracy with record low voter turnout and civic engagement. And we know that some of our community members have been here for decades without any way to hold the people who are supposed to represent them accountable. Voting yes tonight on agenda item 39 is a step in the right direction toward remedying all of these. Currently, the residents of Santa Ana are looking toward each of you to continue Santa Ana's legacy as a leader for immigrant rights, voice, and dignity, and to encourage and foster democracy for all in our

city. It is in the best interest of our city to give every resident of voting age the ability and opportunity to make their voices be heard and to vote for the people who represent them, who make the decisions to impact their lives every day. Many, if not all of you, have spoken about supporting immigrants or being or coming from a family of immigrants with pride. I call on each of you to vote according to the support that you promised your constituents and not only in support of a narrow definition of who a good or deserving immigrant might be. It's time for each

of you to be bold and courageous leaders and push Santa Ana and the country to broaden immigrant rights again i urge you to vote yes on agenda 39 thank you thank you paul guzman followed by celeste

vasquez paul guzman followed by celeste vasquez thank you mayor city council persons i went to

two questions staff report and Santiago Creek by behind because of my previous work in the construction industry and damage done by water in the city of Santa Ana orange and the Santa River I am first a city council to be a leader not react to the damages what it does we just went in Acapulco you saw the damages

we can be in Acapulco itself if we don't think forward I'm emphasizing this to you because in the past Del High the South Sanyana was completely flooded you couldn't get in and out. Santiago Creek, every project that was done in Santiago Creek was damaged, completely gone, except for the 1936 work. Now there is a lot of work that's been done since the 1990s when the San Antonio Mainstream

projects were approved. But we still have to be vigilant and be prepared by making sure our staff is up to date not only in the Santa Ana Orange the county and the upstream people is 36 miles of Santiago Creek that's a lot of water this past year most of the water was stayed in the north part of the day east part of it where it was trapped and filtered down it's good but we still

have to have a lot of work done. Now the other one, project number 25, you approved an award of contract. Sir, your time is up. Okay, I'm sorry. Thank you, sir. See, I was gonna, I asked for that because I only get two minutes down into projects. That's

okay, sir. Thank you so much. Thank you. Celeste Vasquez followed by Celeste Rivero.

good evening city council members my name is celeste vasquez and i'm a resident of ward one here in santa anna i'm speaking tonight in support of agenda item number 39 the proposal to put nonsense and voting on the ballot next year nonsense voting to me is an issue of fairness as others have said it's everyone who lives in the city is affected by the decision that the council makes they pay taxes regardless of immigration status they participate in our community they do go to events to allow them to vote is just allowing the fairness to extend to everyone but we already kind of know this because as I

said others have brought this up not just this time but at the previous meetings undocumented people know very well the risks that come with being undocumented and to kind of also want to say that they they are here speaking in support of this because they know this is something they want this is not something that uh as others have said the council was using to whatever advantages that people may assume is happening uh we've been here so you guys know like this is something that we as a community want regardless of like argumentation status we're in support of this yeah so pretty much I hope the council moves to

continue to support democracy for everyone that resides here so everyone

has a voice to be heard thank you thank you Celeste Rivera followed by Claudia

Morales good evening my name is Celeste Rivera I'm here on behalf of clergy and Laity United for Economic Justice and I'm also here in support of agenda item number 39. As a person of faith I believe in the values of compassion, inclusivity and justice and I believe that this measure aligns with these principles. Our community is a diverse one and we have the privilege of welcoming people from all corners of the world to call Santa Ana their home. Many of these individuals, although not citizens, contribute to our community in meaningful ways, paying taxes, sending their children to these schools and

and actively participating in civic life as we've been hearing all evening. They deserve a voice in the decisions that affect their lives just as much as any other resident. I believe in loving my neighbour as myself and therefore believe it is our moral duty to ensure that everyone in our community is treated with fairness and respect. Non-citizen voting can help foster a more inclusive and welcoming environment for all residents regardless of their immigration status. By allowing them to have a say in our local governance, we acknowledge their contributions and create a stronger, more united community.

And as others have also mentioned, there are cities across the country who have been able to effectively implement this without negatively impacting applications for citizenship for those who are trying to become citizens of this country. Whether or not you're a person of faith, I urge all of you to open your minds and support Democracy for All for San Antonio residents and allow the voices of everyone to be heard. Thank you.

Thank you. Claudia Morales, followed by Araceli Robles.

And I feel happy because today I feel like I'm in Santana, I feel like I'm in the city of Santana, something that I didn't feel like I had before, I didn't feel like I had to go to school, I didn't feel like I was in Santana, I wanted to go back to my country. But today I feel happy to be here because, you know, Valerie, you're giving me the opportunity to be here and to have a voice. And I just wanted to thank you for the representatives, to the council that are here and that we represent. with much strength, with much value, seeing young people. I felt proud of David when he did his campaign.

I said, wow, young people in the political relevo generational. And when I saw that the first alcaldess Valeria Mezco was here, I said, wow. So, with that joy, representing all those organizations that we know that in the union is the strength, I support the 39th of their agenda, because we know that united we are powerful and we are more than thousands of families that are good to the bad ones. So, with that joy, I support that point 39 and thank you to all the young people who are there,

being a generation of generation for this city, because we know the power that Santana has as a city. Thank you, thank you for being here.

Gracias, señora. Araceli Robles, followed by Tom Frazier, please.

Good evening, City Council members. I'm happy to be here, to be the voice for Tenants United in Santa Ana. And for millions of tenants, because there are millions of tenants here to support the residents' right to vote. I'm happy. I feel happy to be here in Santa Ana. I didn't used to feel happy even though I sent my daughters to school. I did not feel Santa Ana. I wanted to go back to my country but now I'm happy. I'm happy that you, Miss Valerie, have given us a voice and I used to thank the city council members

who represented us because they gave us the valor and the value for us people. And I felt very proud when I knew and I found out that Mr. David was campaigning. The new generation was coming. When you were campaigning, the first female mayor of Santa Ana, I was very happy about that. And we are, there's strength in numbers, so I'm here to support item number 39. and just like the thousands of families, we are more than the few bad people that are out there. So I'm here to support the strength in numbers of Item 39.

And back there, I applaud the next generation that is going to have this wonderful city. Santa Ana is powerful as a city. Thank you. Go ahead. Gracias. Mi nombre es Araceli Robles. I work with many families in the city of Santana and I'm here to support the point 39, so that more people have the privilege of choosing the representatives here, so that they can see the interests of the community and leave on the side of the interests. It's a lot of sad to see that this council is so divided.

Me da mucha pena ver cuando la señora Mezcoa hace un lenguaje corporal completamente falta de respeto. Ella nos dice que no tengamos faltas de respeto, pero usted sí los tiene hacia nosotros, hacia la comunidad. Su lenguaje corporal dice muchísimo, muchísimo de lo importante que somos nosotros como comunidad.

Por eso yo los invito y la invito, señora Valeria, muchísimo tiempo hemos estado trabajando en la comunidad y cuando dijimos la primera mujer alcalde en la ciudad de Santana, no éramos para que dividiera un concilio o dividiera una ciudad o dividiera un gobierno o dividiera diferentes grupos, sino para unir. So I don't ask you more respect for the community of Santana. We also pay taxes, we take every dollar, we take our money to keep our money, to keep paying the insurance of many people who are contributing to their retirement.

And many people in my community have not had the opportunity to have that benefit. If there is something in Santana, there is something now, but more than anything, that we have to unite, not to unite, because the city says that every people have the government that they deserve, and when you start these meetings, they say that justice is for everyone. There is a really a leg and value those words, and not only for cumpling, for my agenda, and I say justice for everyone and for all. Thank you. Thank you, John.

My name is Alasedri Robles and I'm here representing Santa Ana families. I'm here to support item number 39 because I want more people to be able to elect the representatives, the people who represent them in the community and not to serve their own personal interests. I was sad. I am sad to see the city council that is very divided. And Ms. Amesqua, when I see your body language, you are asking for respect from us, but your body language says a lot about how you feel about the importance of us as a community.

We do not want to feel divided. We have worked with the community a lot. When we saw you as the first woman mayor, we were happy, but now we see that you thought you were going to unite and not divide the city, not divide the government, but unite people. I'm not here to ask. I'm here to demand respect. We pay our taxes, and these taxes are used to pay the insurance for people's retirements. so a lot of people are paying taxes and they're not seeing this benefit so we want to unite and

not divide and people there's a saying that people get the government that they deserve and at every meeting you start the meeting with justice for all and I want to have justice for

all and also prayers for all thank you thank you Tom Frazier followed by Carlos Perea

Hello, my name is Tom Frazier. Me and my wife reside on Buffalo Avenue in Park Santiago in Ward 3. We've lived there for 33 years. My wife and I both were raised in Santa Ana and went to schools through here. I'm here tonight to bring up an issue. I did speak with Councilmember Panalosa and Councilmember Becerra at the recent town hall meeting and briefly discuss this with them. I wanted to come here tonight to put it on the record. We've been getting, this is some of the flyers we've been getting over the last couple weeks

that are very unhelpful and do a disservice to this city and to this council. They are basically berating our council member, Jesse Lopez. They are very caustic. I would describe them as being Trumpian in style and in content, belittling our councilperson, demeaning her, and putting up all this theatres about her. it's very unhelpful very costly not doing any favors

to our city nor this council

we shouldn't have this type of stuff in our city you know if you believe the stuff that's written here you'd think that Jessie's for Hamas terrorism you think she's for more homeless you think she's for putting drunks on her street you think she's for street racing you think she's for street takeovers you all know that's not her stance and and yet you know here we are and actually three of the members up here have their pictures on some of

these flyers and mr. Fraser your time is up okay well thank you sir Carlos Carlos Perea followed by Amal Al-Selec, please.

Hello.

Good afternoon, Mayor and members of the City Council. My name is Carlos Perea with the Harvard Institute for Immigrant and Economic Justice. Geez, I've been hearing the public comments and apparently I didn't get the memo that federal immigration law has changed to allow a pathway for undocumented people to become citizens and so Mayor Mezco and Councillor Peñalosa you had that application please share with me because apparently I missed it but with that said we know that immigration law hasn't changed and we know that a lot of us have been here for a long time living in the city and we have made this city

thrive yet we do not have political representation and we cannot vote to select whether or not some of you should be here in office. But I'm gonna first start with saying we have sent a letter of support signed by different organizations, labor unions, and also immigration legal service providers in support of non-citizen voting. That's important because if immigrant legal service providers are telling you they support this, maybe they're onto something around some of the so-called immigration concerns that you have. But

First I want to go with Councilmember Peñalosa because you sure have flipped a lot in the last couple years on your stance. Last year, and I quote from the Voice of OC, you said, I'm not supportive of it coming as a charter amendment this election cycle, 2026, mainly because these are the midterms. It's a valid discussion to have and that you see a benefit increasing the democratic process for a huge area of our community. So what has changed, Council Member Peñalosa, that you continue to flip-flop every chance you get on issues that impact immigrant communities? That is a shame for your background.

And Mayor Emesqua, you went on to read the provision from San Francisco and said, you know, non-citizens cannot vote. But yet, you forgot to mention that federal immigration law says non-citizens cannot vote in federal elections, but they are not banned from voting in local elections because that is a local matter. That is a state matter. So please stop lying. Thank you.

Thank you for your time.

Amal Al-Salak, please.

Good evening. My name is Amy Al-Salak, and I'm a law student with the UC Irvine...

Can you pick up your mic for me? I'm sorry. Start over for me, Jennifer, please. Thank you. Okay. Better? Yes, thank you.

Good evening. My name is Amy Al-Salak, and I'm a law student with the UC Irvine Immigrant Rights Clinic.

Thai Viet PhanItem 5

I want to address some of the concerns that have been raised about the safety of implementing

non-citizen voting, especially with regards to naturalization. As noted in a letter, we have submitted along with the Chinese for Affirmative Action and the ACLU. There are things that can be done to ensure that no resident is harmed by lawfully participating in local elections. Federal law does not prohibit non-citizens from voting in local elections if their participation is authorized at the state and local level. This is according to Section 611 of the United States Code. As in San Francisco, election officials here can provide residents with letters certifying that a person has voted lawfully in city elections.

Second, to the extent they are still concerned that federal officials might be confused, advocates can educate USCIS adjudicators to ensure they understand San Ana's non-citizen voting law. These changes have proven to be successful in San Francisco. No application for naturalization we know of have been rejected to the voting in their school board elections. Additionally, like in San Francisco, election officials here can help community groups understand protections that govern voter registration information. This will help residents make the best decision for themselves about whether or not to vote.

San Francisco is not the only jurisdiction that have successfully implemented non-citizen voting. Other jurisdictions in Maryland and Vermont have done so as well. We understand the concerns and the desire to ensure the safety of our residents. However, this process has been done before with no known issues with immigration. Thank you so much. Thank you. Myra Ruiz followed by Lupe.

All right, good evening Mayor Mesquah and City Council. I was born and raised in Santa Ana and a resident of Ward 3. My parents are also from Mexico. Do we really value citizenship? That is my question. Voting is a right and a responsibility. If we allow everyone to vote, we dilute the principle of representation for citizen. If non-citizen votes, will they be discouraged from seeking citizenship? If they vote, will there be a consequence

if one day they want to become a citizen? If you really want our community to be able to vote, why don't you help them start a path of becoming a citizen? We come to this country for a better future, don't we? Why not follow the process of becoming a citizen. No on 39. Thank you. Lupe, followed by Sylvia

Avendano, please. Lupe, Sylvia Avendano.

I'm here and I'm not going to be repetitive, we have been told much about being emigrant, all the stories that we have already said that we are not now, we are generations, people who lived 40, 50 years old, people who are going to work because they are not working, because they have already been working, because they have been working on the water, in hot, in cold, in cold, in cold, limping, and they have to move, right? They have already been working, but what beautiful would be that before going,

they would be able to vote, they would be able to participate in this process that they have lived, right? We have been working here, we have been working and we have stopped. We have paid 20, 30, 40 years of rent and we know that we are going to have a house. And we are paying taxes and we keep taking taxes. And our parents also took them taxes and never paid them. And we just asked them to come back. We just asked them to vote. And we know that we are afro-americaners, we are going to vote. We are also going to vote.

but in history they could do it and we are not asking anything that we can do not want to solve, vote, participate, organize ourselves and have a better world and a city that is of us, of the migrants, because Santana, all migrants are going to work in all parts of Orange County and we are here and we are not destroying the city, sino estamos contribuyendo, estamos creciendo juntos. Las familias están teniendo niños que van a trabajar y que son personas de bien. Gracias. Y espero que voten, sí. Gracias, señora.

Silvia Avendano, followed by Gemma Suarez.

Silvia? Is that you, señor? ¿Puedo hablar, por favor?

Good evening, all members of the City Council and Mayor. I'm not here to repeat everything that has been said. We've told all our stories of immigrants. You've heard our immigrant stories. And it's not for us that we're here. It's for the generations past, people who have been here 40 and 50 years and who are living. And they can't work. Their hands are broken because of all the hard work and washing and hot and the cold and the field. And we would like for them to have this before they go. to have the right to vote, to be part of this progress and this process that we've had.

We are here, we're working for years. We've paid for 20, 30, and 40 years for rent. We're never going to own a home. And we've paid taxes, and our parents and our grandparents have paid taxes that they will never get back. So I'm just asking you to give us the right to vote. In the past, the African Americans did not have the right to vote. and you look at the history, they did it, they were able to do it. And we want them to vote to be part of this city, to have a better city. And Santa Ana, we have all the workers that go and work all over Orange County.

And we want to have this to grow together for our families to enjoy this, so please vote yes.

Thank you. Gemma Suarez.

Buenas noches a todo el equipo aquí. Yo no voy a señalar porque no soy racista, pero mi respeto es para cada uno de ustedes. Yo llevo aquí más de 40 años y he trabajado también mucho en el campo y fui miembro, padre como presidente del Distrito Escolar de Santana para el programa inmigrante. and I am very happy to be here in this country, I love it, I super appreciate it, because I have opened the doors to their house and I come to the vote that they want,

they can't give them, because if they come to these people, all those who are entering will want the same thing, so we have to wait.

Good evening everyone and I'm not here to point any fingers because I'm not a racist. I give respect to all of you. I have been here for over 40 years working in the field and elsewhere. And I've been a parent, an involved parent in the Santa Ana Unified School District and the immigrant program. And I'm happy to be here in this country. I love this country. It's opened its doors to me. And we cannot give everyone the right to vote because then we cannot be doing that because everybody who is coming now, they're going to want it too. We should wait. Maybe there will be an amnesty coming.

We need to work and we need to survive. And I do not agree with voting for all. Thank you and good evening. Thank you.

Go ahead.

Buenas tardes. Mi nombre es Gemma Suarez. Trabajo en el Centro Cultural de México. Está en el Distrito 5. It is a space that involves the community in issues cultural, educational, relevant and artistic. The center was founded in 1994 and the principles that we guide are the social imagination, where history is important, the participative democracy and individual responsibility. individual. Somos parte de la coalición de Santana por el, familias de Santana por

elecciones justas y apoyamos el punto 39. La exclusión de las familias trabajadoras al voto tiene una larga historia de racismo que continúa con la clasificación de ciudadanos, muy parecido a un sistema de castas. Se puede He can share many stories, stories of migration, discrimination, suffering, and also the effort to survive and prosper. But under a capitalist system, nobody has the same opportunity since the birth. No one can have the same luck. It is important to understand these stories

and also to recognize the systems that allow them. And the governments have the responsibility of change these systems that show patterns of inequality. So I ask those who still need to see the point 39 from a new historical perspective,

of planning sustainability, and that support to change a political orígen racist. Todavía tengo un poquito de esperanza, a pesar de todos los comentarios repetitivos en contra de esto. Pero espero que cambien. Gracias.

Gracias, señora.

Good evening. My name is Gemma Suárez, and I'm from the Centro Cultural de México, Ward 5. We believe in support culture and education and the arts. We were founded in 1994. Our values, among others, are social imaging and history matters and individual representation. And we are part of the Sanana Coalition for Fair Elections, so I'm here to support item 39, exclusion of working families in voting. It's part of racism. It's part of a caste system.

And we've heard the stories of immigration, which bring discrimination and suffering, trying to survive and to thrive. And capitalism does not allow opportunities for people since from birth. And we are not all that lucky to have this. We need to recognize the systems that allow this. And the government is responsible for changing systems of inequality.

So I'm asking you to support item 39 because of its historical representations and support change, changing this racist policy in spite of all the things that we have been hearing. I hope that we can have this representative against this. Thank you.

Tracy Law, followed by Sitlali.

Followed by Seat Lawley, please. My name is Tracy Law. I'm the executive director of Vitrise, and I'm here in support of agenda item 39. Every person living in the city should have the right to vote for the people who make decisions that impact their lives every day. You've heard a lot of things already, a lot of facts that we've provided for you over the last month and a half so I'm just here to remind you how many Asian residents that this will impact in the city a couple of you are Asian and this is a community that until recently has not felt represented in our city government and can you imagine how undocumented Asian residents

feel so it is nearly 6,000 people to visualize it for you this room fits 204 people this room we have to be filled 30 times for that amount of people to fit in this room. We know that Ward 1 has the largest concentration of Asian residents and Vietnamese residents make up a majority of those. So this means that this will benefit and impact thousands of Vietnamese people in the city. You know in less than two years it's going to be the 50th anniversary of the end of the war in Vietnam. Vietnamese people have made a home here in Orange County and many in Santa Ana. Our

Our community organizes for human rights and democracy, young and old, and if you are for democracy and human rights like we are, then you would vote yes on this item. If you don't, that's your legacy. And you will be joining an exclusive club of legislators over the past several decades that have denied marginalized people the right to vote. That is your legacy, and we all know that they were on the wrong side of history. see lally followed by sylvia hernandez um good afternoon city council my name is cikla lee

um i'm a long time resident of santana and i want to start off with shame on all of y'all for trying to silence what is currently going on in palestine a genocidal war that is happening in front of our

eyes and you will not silence us because can you cut off the microphone jennifer please ma'am you need to stop ma'am ma'am

We're going to take a 10 minute break.

I know people want to say, oh, we can't take the heat. That's not what this is about. We need to keep it together and handle city issues. So if you come up and that's how you want to make comments, we're going to turn off your microphone and the police will escort you out so thank you. Sylvia Hernandez. I have a point of information. Go ahead, Councilman Vazquez. Are we suppressing

Benjamin VazquezItem 5

people's First Amendment rights if they're not able to speak? Yes.

Madam City Attorney. I was about to say that, that with under Constitution we have the right to

free. Hold on, Ms. Hernandez can you hold on one second please? Councilman Vazquez

Sonia R. CarvalhoItem 5

ask a question thank you madam city attorney would you repeat that question please are we

Benjamin VazquezItem 5

suppressing people's first amendment rights if they're not allowed to speak of which they want in a in a city government meeting so under the california brown act this is a public meeting

Sonia R. CarvalhoItem 5

but it's not an entirely open forum the brown act says that you must allow public comment And that's a must. However, it says if the city is allowed to restrict comment to matters under its subject matter jurisdiction. So it's up to the City Council to decide if an issue is under the subject matter jurisdiction of the city. And since we normally defer to the chair, a chair's decision can be overridden by a super majority vote. So if the subject speakers want to speak to something that's within the subject matter jurisdiction of the city, we cannot restrict their speech.

Benjamin VazquezItem 5

Point of order. Can I propose that we allow anybody who wants to speak to speak tonight?

Johnathan Ryan HernandezItem 5

I'll second. Your motion?

Supermajority, so you would need five votes. Okay.

I'm sorry? Go ahead.

Thai Viet PhanItem 5

Just to speak on the motion. I totally understand that public speakers should be speaking on issues of the city. We're here to conduct business. This is a business meeting.

Thai Viet PhanItem 5

However, I would like to support the motion so that we can move forward. We don't want to stop all the business that is on this agenda because of one particular issue. I hope that any speaker who is looking to speak on this matter says their piece and allow other residents who have public comments to also say their piece that that's all and I hope we get a supermajority vote thank you so there's a motion in a

second and let's prepare to vote yes mayor if I could do a roll call please

Jennifer L. HallItem 5

motion by councilmember Vasquez seconded by councilmember Hernandez to allow all speakers to speak during public comments that have turned in cards and raised hands on zoom councilmember Becerra no councilmember Hernandez always absolutely councilmember Penaloza yes councilmember fans yes councilmember Vasquez yes mayor Miskwa I'm a no vote because there's two sides to everything

and so I'm a no vote you have Israel and yet Palestine I'm a no vote

Jennifer L. HallItem 5

again we're not going to disrupt the meeting so we're all everybody gets to The vote is five ayes, two nays. Motion does carry.

Okay, thank you. So everybody gets to speak.

Sonia R. CarvalhoItem 5

Mayor, can we please remind the public, we'd like to remind the public, this is a public business meeting and we are, by allowing the council to conduct business, they are going to allow people to participate today. We need to be respectful of everyone's voice and so I'm going to ask that if you insist on clapping and yelling if you do so outside the doors and be respectful of

our speakers this evening. Thank You Madam City Attorney. Sylvia Hernandez

followed by Jenna Narajara. Good evening City Council members my name is as you heard Sylvia Hernandez and I am a long time resident in Santa Ana. I am with the Tenants Inquilinos Union Esperanza. Esperanza means hope. We have a lot of hope. And we are here to support the agenda item 39, the proposal to adopt resolution to place a ballot measure permitting non-citizen voting in municipal elections on the 2024 general election.

Yesterday marked 37 years since the Immigration Reform and Control Act was signed into a law in 1986. 37 years.

That law provided a pathway to legal status for approximately 3 million immigrants who have lived in the United States before 1983. Nearly four decades have passed and that law remains the last major update Congress made to our immigration system. I hear last meeting that the family relatives of Mrs. Mayor went through the process and they get the status.

I'm happy every time that I hear that someone goes through that, I'm really happy. But we still have many people who doesn't have that opportunity because the law is broken. We Now, it's not that something that is a change, it's not that we cannot do. It's not needed. It's not only needed, but it's a long overdue change. So the council, this council should lead with courage and hope.

Your time is up, ma'am.

Not yet. Not yet. Everyone contributes taxes, make this, have to have the right to pay.

Jennifer L. HallItem 5

Ma'am, every speaker got two minutes and you've exceeded your time frame. I've been waiting for you when you asked me.

So I came to begin.

Ma'am, there are rules that we need to follow, so everybody has two minutes. So please.

I understand that, but you take more of my time. So I'm sorry. Go ahead. I need to finish.

What do you want me to do?

Every union advocate for laws and policies that will help any transcriber.

Sonia, we have a problem, Madam City Attorney.

Sonia R. CarvalhoItem 5

You know what, if you'd like to, she's disrupting the meeting. You could call a break. I'm sorry? She is disrupting the meeting.

Yes, she is, and I understand that. So if I call the break, the majority won't leave anyway, so they want her to be able to speak.

Jennifer L. HallItem 5

Ma'am, that's negative time. Ma'am, you only have two minutes.

Two minutes, ma'am. I'm not trying to be disrespectful. Everybody spoke for two minutes, ma'am, so please. I understand that, but you're... Two minutes.

Ma'am, because there's so many speakers. We'll be here for a really long time. And so I don't want to make decisions at 3 in the morning because it's not okay to make decisions at 3 in the morning. So thank you, ma'am. And that is why we're doing public comments. So thank you. Thank you so much.

Jenna Narahara followed by Louise Solomon. Two minutes, please.

Hello, my name is Jenna Narahara, and I'm a law student with UCI Law's Immigrant Rights Clinic. I'm going to be speaking briefly about San Ana's legal authority to implement non-citizen voting in municipal elections. In August, the California First District Court of Appeal in Lacey upheld San Francisco's Proposition N, which allows non-citizen parents to vote in San Francisco school board elections. According to the court, neither the plain language of the Constitution, North's history prohibits legislation expanding the electorate to non-citizens. In the Lacey case, the harder question was whether Charter City's power to determine

the manner of elections was as broad for school board elections as it was for elections for municipal officers. This is in part because the issue of education has been found to be a statewide concern in some cases. The plaintiffs who challenged Proposition N treated Charter City's authority to decide who could vote in municipal elections as an easier case. Thus, even though San Francisco's measure was limited to school board elections, the Lacey decision confirms that Santa Ana can expand the electorate to non-citizens for municipal elections. Finally, if the council feels it is right to do and turn this question over to the voters,

the possibility of litigation should not be a reason why the city does not move forward. Every time Santa Ana adopts a resolution or ordinance, even if it is perfectly legal, there is always a chance Santa Ana will be the subject of litigation. This was the case when Santa Ana enacted its sanctuary ordinance and has been the case other times in the past. If those who brought suit in San Francisco could scare cities off from expanding the franchise simply by threatening to sue, then it would be like handing them a win, even though they lost in court. The important question is not whether the city might be sued,

something that is impossible to predict, but whether the city is doing what it thinks is best for its residents. Thank you.

Thank you. Thank you. Louise Solomon.

Followed by Perla Deanocio.

Hi. Good evening, ladies and gentlemen. My name is Louise Solomon. I'm appalled that this is the number 39 is even up for discussion. I am a U.S. citizen. My parents are naturalized U.S. citizens that came here after the Holocaust. My whole family was wiped out, and yet my parents took the trouble to come here as legal citizens. They had took the path to citizenship. I'm hearing all these complaints today, oh well, we've been living here for 20 years,

and we don't do the... You know what? I say to you guys, to these people, you go back, you go back, you came through the back door, go back through the back door, and come through the front door, and do things right! Okay, in addition, in addition, in addition,

In addition, and your attorney should know this, you do not have the jurisdiction. Okay, under U.S. Code Title 8, Section 1324, it is a violation.

Article 1, Section 8, Code 4, you do not have the jurisdiction to do this.

Thank you. Thank you. Ma'am, please.

I still have 46 seconds here.

Okay. Let's not attack what it means, please.

I still have 42 seconds. You do not have, number one, this is all about jurisdiction, interposition, nullification, and inverse hierarchy. You, as the city council of Santa Ana, and your attorney should know this, do not have the jurisdiction to even consider putting this on the ballot. Okay, we have nothing but corruption, and this is the order of the day now, corruption. I spoke at the board of supervisor meeting this morning, and we need to get rid of the machines, and we need to stop this corruption immediately. Okay, you all live a good life and you're destroying it for all of us. And within the power of my being,

I will not let that happen. Thank you very much.

Thank you, ma'am.

So let's all, so other people come up here, make comments. Not everybody's going to agree. So let's be fair about this. So, okay. So Perla Dionisio followed by, I'm sorry.

Sonia R. CarvalhoItem 5

I just want to make one more comment. Again, we are in a public forum. We're just asking for respect. Everybody wants to be respected. Let people speak.

Sonia R. CarvalhoItem 5

We're speaking on the issue. Many people are speaking on the issue of the sacred right to vote. It's the right to have debate, to have differences of opinions. Can we please respect one another in this forum tonight? You cannot find the place to do that. I ask you to leave.

please don't disrupt this meeting thank you thank you madam city attorney let's try this again Perla Dionisio followed by Juliana Macher thank you for reminding us of how to properly behave

especially in such dividing times and times that across history across land across time has divided has divided us by color, by religion, divides us in this city by zip code and words. It marks us, and these systems are used to educate us to just simply obey and be bodies, to work, to feed the white people, to clean their homes, to cook their meals.

And I think that it is a perfect time to talk about Palestine because this is exactly what is happening to Palestine happened to us 500 years ago. What happened to Palestine happened to the Philippines and continues to happen across the world. It happened to Hawaii. Happened to Puerto Rico. It happened to your comrades. I have pictures of you with your fist up.

Yeah. So to anybody that is just as appalled, as heartbroken, that feels as betrayed by the people with their own skin color, not identifying themselves with the Palestinian struggle, shame. Shame on you. And may I remind you that 2024 is coming up and re-elections and all those fun and firework things that you love to throw at people are going to come back to hunt you, Valerie.

You are my sister. And now you are mayor and you have forgotten where you come from. You have forgotten your values and your morals. and free Palestine and stand against genocide. Your time is up, ma'am.

Your time is up, ma'am. Julianne Mesher, followed by Daniel Riley.

Hello, City Council. I'm here to speak in support of Measure 39 or Agenda Item 39. I think it's clear that everyone who's had points against this is, like, the points that have been pretty empty and debunked. The legal problem with naturalization has been debunked by several people speaking with a logicational background. The motivation to be a citizen, this is not an issue of motivation. This is an issue of there is no path to citizenship that is a viable path to citizenship. That's just the issue here.

And then just the value of citizenship is, of course, a meaningless talking point. I mean the only reason that I have citizenship is that I was born here and somehow This gives me more political power than my neighbor that has been living here for decades even before I was born That doesn't make any sense Which makes me think that people that are who are who are against non citizen voting are just racist and Or they're deeply misinformed because all of the arguments don't seem to hold any water The so-called immigrant crisis is one that our government created through violence in

South America and violence in Vietnam and in other countries, and we need to recognize that. Almost a quarter of the citizens in Santa Ana are, or residents are non-citizens, and they should have the right to vote because we benefit from their labor, they're our neighbors and our family members, they have deep roots in the community, and in order for this city to be truly democratic they should have the right to vote lastly i'll say that i am a jewish person who has been in solidarity with palestine for the last decade and i will continue to stand

in solidarity with our palestinian brothers and sisters for a free palestine thank you daniel

O'Reilly followed by Danny Vega.

Hi, I'm here to speak on non-citizen voting and ask the council to vote yes on item 39. A third of our community has no say in who represents them. 30% of voting age residents in Santa Ana are non-citizens. San Francisco has already put in place that this is legally possible. Santa Ana has the opportunity to show that it truly values democracy. There is no doubt that our immigration system is broken, but maintaining the system only serves to designate people to a second-class citizen status.

Historically, we've seen what happens when groups don't have the right to vote, So I, again, am urging the council to support universal suffrage and vote yes on item 39. Thank you.

Thank you. Danny Vega, followed by Fabi Jacom.

Mayor, anyone that lives outside of their political bubble absolutely loves you. We know that you're doing a fantastic job. And this is what we hear throughout the entire city of Santa Ana. So my name is Danny Vega, resident of Ward 3. And I'm just here to remind the residents of Ward 3 that the Orange County Registrar of Voters said last week that the recall is well underway. So I encourage all Ward 3 residents to vote and to vote yes to recall Council Member Jessie Lopez. Ward 3 residents, she has not been truthful to you. On Jessie's website, she claims that it's a lie that she supports defunding the police.

However, that in itself is a lie.

Right here. In March 2020, Jesse Lopez ran as part of the Party of the People slate. Now, you may be asking yourself, what is a Party of the People slate? What is their platform? I'll show you. On there, it clearly states that one of their platforms, one of the items they believe in, is to defund the police.

Also, in 2021, after Council Member Lopez won her election, she hopped on her official council Facebook page and hosted a panel of candidates who were running in 2021 as part of that same Party of the People slate where nearly all of them uttered the words, defund the police. There was no, she didn't challenge them at all when they were saying that. so word three residents don't be fooled by her lies she hasn't defunded the police sure but

that's only because we still have same people on the council that that can stop her but you know there are other people on here who are part of the people slate and vascus is on here too endorsed by our former mayor and now supervisor vince or manzo So vote yes on the recall, please.

Thank you. So your time's up. Fabi Jacome, followed by Susanna Cruz.

Hello. Good evening, council members and Mayor Mesquah. My name is Fabi Jacome, and I am the executive director at the Orange County Justice Fund. We are a coalition member of the Santa Ana Families for Fair Elections. We serve Santa Ana residents through our different programs, including our bond program for undocumented people coming out of immigration detention, as well as a series of other programs.

First and foremost, I would like to request that you please pay attention and listen to the Santa Ana residents that have come here after a long day of work and have taken that time to come speak to you directly. As somebody mentioned, body language really is the first presentation that we give folks whenever we're talking to them. And so rolling our eyes or looking down at our computer like two of you are doing right now is extremely disrespectful for those of us that have taken our evenings away from our families to be here and speak to you directly.

I am here urging you to support agenda item 39, which gives non-citizens the right to vote on local elections. Non-citizens are a part of the city's population and deserve the right to be represented fully on this dais and the decisions that affect their everyday life. Councilmember Becerra, thank you so much for worrying about me and how non-citizen voting will affect me as a DACA recipient and an undocumented person. You're not my parent. I can make my own decisions. Mayor Amescua, thank you so much for saying no when somebody said that there are other ways for folks to become citizens. I may have missed the memo.

Maybe it was in a newsletter and it just wasn't signed up. But if you do have that link and you could send it to me, it'd be greatly appreciated. I have been a paralegal in immigration for years, and I have worked in law offices like the one that your father runs, and I have not heard of an easy pathway to citizenship the way that all of you have made it seem. So if you do get those links or you would like to give me more tips on how to live my life, I would really appreciate that.

Thank you. Susanna Cruz.

Hello. Valerie, I just want to thank you for everything you have done. I know that you came into a dirty city, a corrupted city, to try and help better the city. It's not going to be easy. I've told you since you started. I'm telling you now. Just hold on. Do the best you can because that's all you can do, and I know that's all you've been doing. I want to thank you. A lot of people here don't even know you. I know you. I know you could do it. That's why I voted for you. That's why I worked to the day that it was your voting, the last day to vote. I believe in you. I know you can do it, and you will do it.

If people here don't know you, they will with time. But tell anybody here, if they've ever had a house that's dirty, as dirty as the one you had come take over.

Because people that are coming here, talking about 39, I also married an immigrant. I worked super hard. I worked three jobs, supported 10 kids. He helped me too. But he did a process. He got his paperwork. I didn't hire an attorney. I'm a citizen. I'm a born citizen here. My parents were immigrants. They came here with papers. They worked hard to come here. There is a process. And if we can't go by this process, then what do we have? Because it's our tax money, my tax money, that pays for all the programs that immigrants get.

But come on, we all need to be fair and say, you know what? There's a process for everything. And if we can't respect that, then what do we respect?

I appreciate everything you do, and I thank you for giving up your weekends and getting together with people. I really love the Saturday that I spent with you while you were talking to everybody, being open, letting everybody speak, because right here we can't do it. but that's why I came today because yeah I can come give you two minutes of my

time Susanna your time is up thank you thank you at this time madam city clerk

David PenalozaItem 5

can you go to zoom please excuse me ma'am can you please woman with the glasses you need to be respectful of other people in this room thank you

Jennifer L. HallItem 5

Councilman Panalosa. Thank you, Mayor. Before going to the Zoom comments, I'll report out the e-comments that were received. As of 2 p.m. today, we did receive a total of 17 e-comments. Five were on non-agenda topics. One was on item 28 related to video services. One on item 38 related to the rental registry update and 10 on item 39 non-citizen voting. First speaker on Zoom, Nat Sochman, if you could please unmute and make your comments.

Jennifer L. HallItem 5

I'm going to turn it over to the next speaker. Nat Soshman.

Jennifer L. HallItem 5

Nat.

Jennifer L. HallItem 5

Next speaker, Kenny Lee. Please unmute and make your comments.

Hello, my name is Kenny, a student involved with VietRise and representing students for farm workers at the Clarmac Colleges, the Vietnamese Student Association at the Clarmac Colleges and KSAMA at the Clarmac Colleges. I am here in support of agenda item number 39. If the city council truly cared about immigrant and refugee communities, then the Council would unconditionally support this resolution. Our racist systems perpetuate violence against our non-citizen community members every day, from farm worker heat stroke deaths to housing injustices to exclusion from labor protections.

Let's not forget that decades of U.S. imperialism and warfare, in Latin America, in Southeast Asia, in the Pacific Islands, and in Palestine, created the global conditions that cause migration and refuge. This question of enfranchisement fundamentally gets at the question of which communities our democratic government was built to represent. Understanding this racism and these historical continuities shows us that universal enfranchisement would help us build and imagine more humane, just, and equitable futures for all of Santa Ana.

citizenship is a nebulous violent construct based on arbitrary racist requirements that value wealth over dignity. How can non-citizens pay the same taxes, work the same jobs, play and live in our neighborhoods and not have the right to vote? Non-citizen residents of Santa Ana, our neighbors, our friends, our family members deserve voice and agency. non-citizen residents deserve to have full recognition of their humanities. The council has an ethical commitment to move this proposal forward. Thank you.

Jennifer L. HallItem 5

Next speaker, Andy O'Brien. Please unmute and make your comment.

Yes, hello. Can you hear me?

Jennifer L. HallItem 5

Yes, please go ahead.

This is for not on the agenda, correct?

Jennifer L. HallItem 5

This is the time for all public comments, sir.

All right. All public comments. All right. Two things I want to say is I'd like to have the city pass a resolution as other cities have condemning the terror from the Israeli government on the Muslim people in Palestine. It is in your jurisdiction as other cities have come out and condemn the attacks. And I'd like it that your city council and your government do the same and condemn these horrible things. the Israeli government is killing children they're bombing mosques they're bombing churches Israeli soldiers shoot the genitals of children and make fun of them I've seen videos of them holding children and breaking their arms

I've seen videos of Jews spraying sewage water onto mosques holy sites we can't let this happen Muslim lives matter

in the Talmud I have some scripture here and these are supposedly our allies

they say jesus was a bastard born of adultery and sanhedrin 58b it says if a non-jew hits a jew he must be killed in yalkat 2450 it says extermination of the christians is a necessary sacrifice you can go look this up for yourself in the talmud it's the book that all the jews use they may say that they don't believe in it but it is in every synagogue across this country and across the world. I welcome you to fact check those claims. Some other scripture, it's in their book in the Talmud, says, Glitten 57a, Jesus is in hell being boiled in hot excrement. So not only did they kill our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ,

but then they mock him and say that he is in hell being boiled in excrement. These people are literal, I don't know, they're little parasites. These people are lower than rats. These people are lower than dogs. As a society, we're allowed to criticize everyone but one protected group. I don't think that us whites and blacks should be fighting together. We should be working together to expel these Jews peacefully from our country.

Jennifer L. HallItem 5

Andy, your time is up. Next speaker, Santa Ana resident. Please unmute and make your comment.

Jennifer L. HallItem 5

Santa Ana resident.

Jennifer L. HallItem 5

Next speaker, Khadijah, please unmute and make your comments.

Yes, hello. Dear city of Santa Ana, it makes me immensely proud to see my area community stand with those who are targeted and unfairly oppressed, the innocent Palestinians. All I know is that all life is precious, whether that be Jewish life, Christian life, or Muslim life, Hindu life, or whatever religious persuasion one may have. And as such, so too are Palestinian lives precious. I don't want our nation to be complicit in an unjust occupation or worse, a genocide of the Palestinian people, which the entire world is witnessing. And it is just

heartbreaking, the images of the thousands, literally thousands and thousands of children that we are seeing just maimed and murdered. What are we teaching our children if we do not affirm the humanity of fellow Palestinians. We must raise our voices for a ceasefire now. We also must address the problematic financial relationship of our nation with Israel. I certainly don't work hard locally and pay my taxes for them to be misused and fund the systematic killing off of innocent Palestinian children, mothers, and fathers. Financing the terrorist regime of Israel is the

most un-American thing we could do. The right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness are American values with which we should be leading the world. We must stop funding Israel immediately. There is no reason to give away 3.8 billion U.S. dollars annually, nor grant another 14 billion to Israel in the midst of its inhumane bombardment. If we as Americans would never stand for it, then why should we fund a system of apartheid and occupation along with all the horrors and war crimes being committed against Palestinians, a civilian population? That money being denied the

American people should rightfully go back into strengthening our society. Your time is up.

Jennifer L. HallItem 5

Next speaker on Zoom, Media at Viet Rise. Please unmute and make your comment.

Hi, my name is Tian Nguyen and I am an immigration justice candidate at Vib Rice. I am an unwavering advocate for the immigration community of the city of Santa Ana. I endorse agenda item 39, con for non-city voting in the 2024 general election as it as it upholds the fundamental democratic rights of every tax contributor member in our community. Our non-citizen community is an integrated part of the city of Santa Ana prosperity and growth.

As you cast your vote, please envision the unwavering dedication to all city growth and ponder whether they deserve a voice in shaping policy that affects their families. Let's empower the voices that deserve to be heard. Embrace these decisive step toward an inclusive, equity, democratic process for all residents of Santa Ana. Thank you.

Jennifer L. HallItem 5

Next speaker, Maya, please unmute and make your comments.

Hi, everyone. My name is Maya Cheeve. I'm the Land and Health Director at Orange County Environmental Justice, an OC nonprofit with our office based in Santa Ana. I'm in favor of Agenda Item 39 on non-citizen voting in municipal elections on the 2024 election ballot. According to the U.S. Census of 2022, there are about 69,000 residents living in Santa Ana who aren't citizens. So much of our community is going unheard. There are so many businesses run in Santa Ana that are led by non-citizens that stimulate the local economy and contribute to the city.

democracy for all no taxation without representation please vote yes on item 39 for non-citizen voting additionally as a child of immigrants and war refugees of the Khmer Rouge a genocide in Cambodia I believe we should stand against the genocide happening in Palestine and agendize a resolution in solidarity with them though this may appear as an international issue it is also related to Santa Ana as a city there are many other Cambodian genocide survivors and children of genocide survivors living in Santa Ana. The people of Palestine have been under occupation for the past 75 years.

Millions of people cramped together in an open-air prison. They have had limited access to electricity, food, and water, as well as have been undergoing bombs and warfare. Thousands have been killed this month alone, and even more have died in the past 75 years. As people who have experienced such violence, we cannot silently stand by when another group of people are experiencing the same thing. None of us are free until we're all free. please create a resolution in solidarity with the people of Palestine. Thank you.

Jennifer L. HallItem 5

Next speaker, caller whose phone number ends in 061. Please dial star six or press microphone to speak now.

Good evening. Can you hear me?

Jennifer L. HallItem 5

Yes, please go ahead.

Thank you. I just want to say, I was there earlier and I have to leave because it was getting late. I am the saddest tonight that I have been in many, many months. I'm an Asian female, and the reason I'm so distraught is that I have been listening for the past almost two hours to people twisting the narrative, claiming that if you are somehow not in favor of this non-citizen voting, you are somehow a racist. I wish with all my heart that I was there tonight and I could stand before you an Asian woman born in India whose first language is not English. My second language isn't even English.

It was just literally my third language. I'm an immigrant. I was adopted and I'm the daughter of immigrants. My adoptive parents were immigrants themselves. I want to set the record straight on one thing because nobody else seems to have bothered to mention this. Non-citizens have absolutely the right to vote. They have an unequivocal, unfettered right to vote, and no one will fault them. They have the inalienable right to vote in every single election on the local, provincial, state, and national level in the countries of which they are citizens.

So this argument that non-citizens are being denied the right to vote, they do have the right to vote wherever they are a citizen. The second lie I would like to refute is that this is somehow depriving people of their human rights. Citizenship and voting are intertwined, and it's a folly to pretend otherwise.

Again, as an immigrant, America, to hear people coming and demanding the right to vote, not even bothering to speak English, is to me just very... Thank you. Your time is up.

Jennifer L. HallItem 5

Next speaker on Zoom, caller who ends in 477. Please unmute star six or the microphone icon.

okay good evening mayor council members and city staff this is dale heldig 34 year resident of santa anna item 29 is to increase the budget for administration management and implementation of the rent control program by a half a million dollars and it's not to exceed 1.3 million since this program is supposed to be self-funded the city needs 13 000 rent control units to make it solvent so it'll be interesting on the rent registry presentation later tonight to see how close we will be to this target number so uh again approving items without knowing the cost

is not a responsible way to conduct business yet that is what we are attempting to do again with the non-citizen voting issue the initial cost is unknown the reoccurring cost is unknown for many years and according to the staff report the estimated legal costs are in excess of half a million dollars. I think the city should focus on assisting its residents in obtaining citizenship and changing versus changing the election rules to allow residents of 30 plus days to vote. In closing let's honor the ones that serve this country, the ones that help protect your rights to free speech.

Veterans Day is this Saturday so thank a veteran and thank you guys. Good night.

Jennifer L. HallItem 5

next speaker on zoom kayla asato please unmute and make your comments

hello can you hear me yes go ahead uh hi kayla asato uh the public the policy director with orange county environmental justice um my co-worker maya made a comment earlier uh to about both palestine and the non-citizen voting i would very much like to support that agenda item for the non-citizen voting agenda number 37 and yeah I mean I think it's pretty clear I know that we've been talking about it in Santa Ana for a while so I think that it's about time we do it and put it onto the ballot and make sure that we can do it so I support that and for

the resolution on Palestine I know that we have had a very heated conversation about whether or not to even have this as something that we could talk about tonight and I think that's ridiculous I think that we should be having this resolution. I know that we have several people who have been very much impacted by this. Santa Ana has a larger MEMSA population, many of whom have been over-policed and had a lot of Islamophobic comments and threats of violence directed at them as a result of some of this and I think that we should follow the city of Richmond

in passing something that says that we sign with Palestine. Thank you very much.

Jennifer L. HallItem 5

Next speaker, Darnell Jackson. Please unmute and make your comments.

Hi, can you hear me all right?

Jennifer L. HallItem 5

Yes, please go ahead.

All right, man, it's been a wild one tonight, huh? Yeah. You know, I'd like to reference what I've been hearing about the non-citizen voting, item number 39. I'm absolutely against it. And like one of the last speakers just said, you know, you have the right to vote in the country where you are a citizen. And people speak of these people who have, you know, so-called no rights. Well, here's the thing. Nobody forced you to come here. I do understand that actions by our rogue, well, by rogue factions of the U.S. government over the past several decades have done a lot of dirt in other regions of the world.

Here's the thing. If you have a lifeboat and the lifeboat can only hold 50 people and there's 100 people around you who feel that they're drowning, if you try to take on all 100, guess what happens to the lifeboat? You can't save everybody in the world, and you can't right every wrong that's ever been done in history. I wish we could. We can't. And as far as Israel and Palestine, I mean, one woman earlier said, one of the women on the council said, well, I'm not voting because there's two sides. Well, there's right and there's wrong also. Israel is in the wrong, okay?

hey, Palestine has been subjected to open air concentration camp conditions for decades. What's happening over there is a travesty. The fact that it's happening on public TV and more people are not speaking out against it and that we have politicians flying to Israel to kiss their rear end is despicable. It grosses me out. It grosses out millions of Americans just like me. and I happen to be a white American. Ignore my name. I did not pick my name, but I'm a white American and I would like to speak up for white people. We feel we're being drowned out by seas of voices. Darnell, your time is up.

Jennifer L. HallItem 5

Next speaker, Casey Nguyen. Please unmute and make your comments.

Hello, my name is Casey Nguyen and I am a youth activist with the Viet Rise organization in support of Agenda Item No. 39, the proposal to adopt a resolution to place ballot measure permitting non-citizen voting in municipal elections on the 2024 general election ballot. Every member of a community should have a voice in shaping the future of that community, regardless of their citizenship status, and passing this measure is an important step towards a more inclusive and equitable democracy. Municipal elections are the front lines of local governance where decisions are made

that directly affect the day-to-day lives of all residents, irrespective of their citizenship status. Our local government should reflect the diversity of our communities, and when non-citizens are given the right to vote, the voices and concerns of all residents are better heard and considered, which helps to ensure that policies and programs are more representative of the entire population. It's only fair that those who contribute to and participate in the community, pay taxes, and are invested in its well-being should have a say in these crucial decisions.

By allowing non-citizens to vote in municipal elections, we demonstrate our commitment to diversity and inclusion while creating a welcoming environment for people from different backgrounds whose perspectives are all valued. I hope this council moves to support democracy for all of its residents. It allows for the voices of everyone to be heard. Thank you.

Jennifer L. HallItem 5

Next speaker, listed as username. Please unmute and make your comments.

Jennifer L. HallItem 5

Username, go ahead.

Jennifer L. HallItem 5

Nat Soshman?

Jennifer L. HallItem 5

Nat Soshman? Nat Soshman? If you would like to make your comments.

Jennifer L. HallItem 5

Santa Ana resident?

Jennifer L. HallItem 5

Please proceed with your comment. Santa Ana resident?

Jennifer L. HallItem 5

Mayor, we're not able to hear those last three speakers. That does conclude the speakers that were in the queue when we began public comments.

There's nobody else on there then. Okay, great. Thank you. All right. At this time, it concludes public speakers. We're going to go now to the consent calendar, items 6 through 37. Consent calendar items number 6 through 37 are before us. Council members, please announce any items that you'll be abstaining from due to a conflict. Is there any request to pull an item from the consent calendar for further discussion? Councilman Hernandez, any items you'd like to pull?

Johnathan Ryan HernandezItem 6

Thank you, Mayor Mesquith. I just wanted to move the consent calendar with a comment on item 30.

David PenalozaItem 6

I'll second.

Item 30. Mayor Mesquith. Yeah, I'm going to come to you right now. Thank you. We're not moving anything yet. So, Council Member Becerra?

Phil BacerraItem 6

Thank you, Madam Mayor. I would like to pull items 9, 12, 26, 29, and comment on item 22.

9, 12, 26, comment on 22, and item 29?

Phil BacerraItem 6

29, yes.

29. Council Member Phan?

Thai Viet PhanItem 6

Thank you, Mayor. I'd like to comment on item 37. And for item 32, I will be recusing myself only to the agreements relating to DUDEC and EPD Solutions, Inc., as they are clients of my employer. And on item 30, I will only be recusing myself from the agreement on America on Track, because, again, they are a client of my employer. If these items are pulled for discussion, I will leave the room. Thank you. Thank you. Council Member Vasquez?

Benjamin VazquezItem 6

I will not be pulling any items.

I'm sorry? I will be pulling the item. Okay, thank you. Mayor Pro Tem? Nothing to pull.

Jessie LopezItem 6

Ready for the vote.

Thank you. Council Member Penaloza?

David PenalozaItem 6

No items. Thank you, Mayor.

Great, thank you. Let's prepare to vote. I'm going to... Oh, you pulled item 12 already. Perfect. All right, let's prepare to vote, please.

Jennifer L. HallItem 6

This is a motion by Council Member Hernandez, seconded by Council Member Penaloza, to approve the consent calendar, with the exceptions of items 9, 12, 26, and 29, pulled for separate consideration. Comments on items 22, 30, and 37, and a noted...

Jennifer L. HallItem 6

Council Member Penaloza, cast your vote, please. Thank you. The vote is seven ayes, no nays. Motion carries with a noted recusal by Council Member Fan on portions of item 30 and item 32. Motion carries.

Thank you, Madam. Let's go to item 9, please.

Jennifer L. HallItem 6

Mayor, could we do the oath of office? I'm so sorry. Go ahead. I apologize. Thank you.

Jennifer L. HallItem 6

Sorry. If Tracy Law and Josephine Mendoza are here as their appointments to the rental housing board to take the oath of office, could please join me up in the well?

Hi, Tracy Law. I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States and the Constitution of the State of California against all enemies, foreign and domestic, that I will bear truth, faith, and allegiance to the Constitution of the United States and the Constitution of the State of California, that I take this obligation freely without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion. That I will well and faithfully discharge the duties upon which I'm but to enter. Thank you.

Okay, thank you. Is there another one? She's not present. Okay, perfect.

Moving on to item number 9 at this time, please.

Phil BacerraItem 7

Thank you, Madam Mayor. I should have prefaced it with these are just comments. So this is the quarterly report for housing division projects and activities for the period of July 1st through September 30th of 2023. So the Affordable Housing Opportunity and Creation Ordinance, or the OHOKO, more appropriately, the OCHOKO, because this ordinance has done nothing but choke our city from taking in any new in-lieu funds. Those funds that would go to wonderful programs like down payment assistance for first-time homebuyers. On page 7 of the staff report, it shows that $0 has been taken in since the adoption of the OHOKO,

Phil BacerraItem 8

or the OCHOKO, depending on how you want to look at it. In April 2022, well, under the previous inclusionary housing ordinance, the WHO, which was adopted in 2020, and the city of Santa Ana received $10.6 million. That was $3.7 million in fiscal year 2021 and $6.93 million in fiscal year 2021-22. And also on the bottom of page one and the top of page two of the staff report is a table that highlights the applications sent out and approved for the down payment assistance program. So it's wonderful to see that in that table that 61 applications were sent out, but then

Phil BacerraItem 8

we see from the table that only four applications were received and three were approved. So while staff, you guys are batting about 750 when it comes to the number of applications approved out of the number of applications received, it is only about 5% of the applications that are being sent out. The number of inquiries and applications sent out has increased, but the most important statistic which is applications for down payment assistance being approved is still less than a handful. So if our city is serious about addressing housing security and stability we need to increase homeownership and one of the

Phil BacerraItem 8

highest hurdles to homeownership is coming up with a down payment on a home. I appreciate that the council in our community gets to see these statistics so that you could track how policy decisions from members on this dais impact our ability as a city to effectively address housing security and stability here in Santa Ana. That's all I have Madam Mayor thank you and with that actually I'll go ahead and move that we receive and file this report. I'll second

but I want to have comments. Please push your button if you want to speak. Three minutes three rounds. So the only comment I have on here Mr. City manager, I was going to call you city attorney. Sonny's been popular tonight. On the down payment system loan program progress there was a couple of items a couple dates listed that we had events and that's wonderful but I had two commissioners that also had an event at El Salvador Park at the at the site there and they had about 50 people in attendance and I think mr. Garcia you had some of your staff there so I want to make sure that's also added here there

was 50 people in attendance they asked for another one at El Salvador Park and or another location, but in Spanish as well. And so I have two commissioners that are working, hopefully, with Mr. Garcia on getting that taken care of. So I just want to make sure we get that on the record as well. Thank you, Mayor. Thank you. There was a motion and a second?

Johnathan Ryan HernandezItem 8

Yes. And I had a brief comment, Madam.

Are you pushing your button, sir?

Johnathan Ryan HernandezItem 8

That is correct, yes. Okay. It's not popping up here.

Okay, go ahead.

Johnathan Ryan HernandezItem 8

No worries. I just wanted to thank staff for the receiving file and continue to do the great work that you guys do for our city. Thank you.

Okay, let's prepare to vote.

Jennifer L. HallItem 8

Vote is seven ayes, no nays. Motion carries. Let's go to item 12, please.

Phil BacerraItem 8

Thank you, Madam Mayor. I pulled this one as well. Well, this is the fiscal year 2023-24 first quarter budget report and proposed appropriation adjustments. I wanted to thank Catherine Downs and our finance team for their diligent and cautious approach to our budget and our city's finances. Our city's revenue estimates are usually pretty cautious and our staff tries to keep our expectations realistic. In this item, our staff is proposing an expenditure reduction. In other words, a reduction in our spending totaling about $408,000.

Phil BacerraItem 8

So unless we want to see more reductions in our spending, which means less that we can spend on providing quality city services, we need to have a serious discussion on growing our revenues. What will save us, though, will not come from one single source. So we need to start looking at multiple ways to make this happen. While it is not an option that is available to us this fiscal year, I think that the observation deck on our iconic water tower once it's built and open to admission paying customers will be helpful in generating some of that much-needed revenue but in the immediate term we need to look at ways to help our

Phil BacerraItem 8

city's hotels provide safe and enjoyable experiences to visitors to our city in order to grow TOT revenues which are the best taxes why because none of us but at least none of us that are residents in this room, paid those taxes. So we also need to ensure that we are capturing as close to possible 100% of the possible business license fees. I'm in no way proposing an increase in business license fees, but what I am urging is a strong proactive effort to make sure that everybody here in Santa Ana is paying their fair share. One thing I would like to ask staff, and that is what is our mechanism for actually going out and capturing

Phil BacerraItem 8

these business license fees? In other words, what is it that we're doing to make sure that all businesses are paying their fair share? Thank you, Council Member. I'll have Catherine Downs,

our Finance Director, respond to that for you. Good evening, Mayor and Council Members. Thank you for the question. We do some proactive work, which includes comparing our data of businesses to other databases such as the state. So we work with the Franchise Tax Board to get their sales tax data for the year, and we try to find unlicensed businesses that way. We also do reactionary enforcement based on information that comes to us, maybe from other sources, our own observations.

But we do have several methods like that. However, we are limited on the number of business license tax inspectors, collectors that we have and so they work very hard to try to collect everything that they can. They did a great job this year maximizing revenues.

Phil BacerraItem 8

Okay, I appreciate that. Thank you. I think it's something that we really need to focus on, whether it's your staff or code enforcement to ensure that we are getting that. Thank you.

Phil BacerraItem 8

So, for the folks that are claiming that, you know, we hear sometimes that we're not investing enough in libraries, our staff is recommending a general fund adjustment in this item to cover the funding shortfall for the Jerome Park Outdoor Library Project, and I full-heartedly support that. But we are fortunate now to have those funds currently available in other departments to cover these types of costs. But if we don't get serious about growing our revenues now, this council will be forced to cut projects just like that. Those are my comments, Mayor. Thank you.

Thank you. I do want to add some items here. So, I'm sorry, where did you? Well, that's Mr. City Manager. You want to answer.

Thank you, Mayor. Catherine's on her way.

Thank you, Catherine, for coming up. So in the discussion area, I think this is really important, and I had highlighted too, but Councilman Becerra pulled it. So when you have the discussion for 23-24 revenue, and I think a couple meetings ago I was talking about as policymakers, our job up here, right, is to look for businesses and generate revenue because we're gonna run out of money, right? There's not a lot of money in the bank here. So in here it says a budget reduction, the first bullet, a budget reduction of over 2 million, right? But a 2.4% increase from 22-23. Can you talk a little bit about that, please? Sure.

The Bradley Burns, thank you.

Yeah, so this is the 1% sales tax allocation that we get from the state. This is not our local Measure X tax that we're talking about here. During last fiscal year, we received 61 and some change, 61 million. And so our adjusted revenue estimate to 62.5 is a 2.4% increase from that prior year actual number. But that prior year actual number was, oh yeah, just a hair over 61 million. But we had prepared a budget based on $64.7 million.

We prepare these budgets during the spring, and we get another three to five months of revenue after we prepare these revenue estimates. And so once the actuals come in for the year and we finish up all our accruals, then we can see, oh, that's where we landed for the year, and so then we adjust accordingly. so that's when you're going to see these types of adjustments is typically during

your first quarter budget report okay then on the second bullet the city sales tax consultant has noted we are experiencing a decrease in new vehicle sales and taxable construction materials so where does that leave us well that

that's also a decrease in our measure X revenue our local one and a half percent tax. So we do get a, we have, having a decrease in new vehicle sales and taxable construction materials does have that greater impact on Measure X because there are different collection rules between the Bradley Burns allocation that we just talked about and the Measure allocation and so for those categories we actually have a better collection rate here in the city of Santa Ana so that's another 2.7 million dollar

decrease from our original estimate and again this is based on seeing the final

actual numbers for 22 23 thank you and then on the next page it says increase

paramedic service. Can you explain that please? Sure. So this one, there is a new program, PPGEMT. It's a program that cities can contribute to and we get a higher bill rate for for transportations, ambulance transportations, that are paid for with federal money, like Medicare. And to participate in this program, you need to pay a fee, but the way the program is structured

is even if you don't pay the fee to participate in the program, you still get the benefit of these higher collection rates. So that became effective in January 1st, 2023, And so for approximately 10 months, we have been collecting at these higher rates for like Medicare and Medi-Cal transports. And so therefore we were able to increase our revenue based on those higher bill rates.

Thank you. So it looks like you're trying to find ways for us to raise money, right? So because we're spending a lot of money, but we also need to make sure that we have funds coming in. Absolutely. Because we'll be having a different conversation in a year or two if we continue to spend the way we are.

Yeah, our Treasury and Customer Service Division does everything that they can to collect every penny that is due to the city.

Thank you. Thank you so much. Thank you. I appreciate it. Is there a move to approve this? A second?

Johnathan Ryan HernandezItem 12

I do have my hand up, madam.

It's not coming up, so go ahead.

Johnathan Ryan HernandezItem 12

Thank you, Madam Mayor. I just wanted to thank you, Catherine Downs, for a fantastic presentation, all of the great work that you do for our city. Just a couple of things I wanted to highlight that I'm really excited about, and this is just high level for the public to understand that when there is investment in our libraries, there are multiple agencies that are coming together to make sure that happens. In this report, something that I'm very excited to see is the libraries in the planning stages of the Jerome Park Outdoor Library. The project will include a 24-hour satellite library kiosk at the southwest end of this park.

Johnathan Ryan HernandezItem 12

The satellite library will incorporate recreation-based play learning experiences, and based off our recent cost estimates, the project was approximately $800,000 short. To help fund this project, I want to thank Parks and Recreation Community Services, who agreed and offered to pay $100,000 from its cell tower revenue budget. Thank you. I'd also like to thank Public Works who offered to pay $300,000 from its water enterprise budget due to the water conservation elements in this project. Thank you. And staff is requesting a one-time general fund adjustment of $400,000

Johnathan Ryan HernandezItem 12

to make up the difference in this short call. When we put special interests second and they have no place here at the diocese City Hall, these shortfalls that we have, we could fund them. And so I want to encourage my colleagues that ways we can generate revenue is to support parks and rec. We can support them through the Santa Ana Stadium, which can generate revenue by hosting fights, hosting concerts, that'll in turn increase the revenue we generate from our hotels, which is a very lucrative tax here in the city. So for us to have more visitors, more hotels, I do want to see the collaboration of agencies coming together.

Johnathan Ryan HernandezItem 12

I do think that Parks and Rec could be a shining example of a department that can generate a lot of revenue for the city. I do believe that this is a new direction for the city of Santa Ana. I fully support Parks and Rec generating revenue through our stadium. And there is no such thing as too large of an investment in youth. This is the youngest city in Orange County. We should not be debating on investing in young people. And I will place a motion on the floor to approve this item.

Thank you, Councilman Hernandez. I don't think there was a debate about that. This was informational, so let's be honest about that. Councilmember Vasquez.

Benjamin VazquezItem 12

Thank you. I want to thank Councilmember Vecetta for pulling this and for your comments, including Councilmember Hernandez. And it would be great if we could do an ad hoc committee

Benjamin VazquezItem 12

to investigate new revenue serviness or increase and I think it would be great on it councilmember Hernandez and I would volunteer myself if the mayor would so much allow us to do it it would be great and I would propose that and hopefully we could do this in the future and start thinking about how we are going to create more funds for the city so thank you once again councilmember of the setup for pulling this item and for your comments.

Great. Let's prepare to vote. Is there a motion?

Councilman, did you make a motion? Yeah, I'll second your motion.

Okay. Let's go ahead.

Jennifer L. HallItem 12

VOTE IS 7 AYES, NO NAYS. MOTION CARRIES. ITEM 22 WITH A COMMENT, PLEASE.

Phil BacerraItem 12

THANK YOU, MADAM MAYOR. I JUST WANT TO THANK STAFF FOR ENGAGING LOCAL BUSINESSES LIKE GUARANTEE CHEVOLLET. this item was awarding purchase orders to guarantee Chevrolet Motors of Santa Ana and some other vendors but I wanted to highlight and say thank you director Saba for doing this because not long ago we were seeing items come before us and we kept wondering why is it that we're always seeing dealer auto dealers from other cities auto dealers sometimes from outside the county so in expressing that concern to you I appreciate your engagement with these

Phil BacerraItem 22

local businesses. I know at one point in time, you know, we do rely on planted bids, but I think it was that, you know, personal touch that you and your staff did that really kind of helped bring some of these local businesses to the table. So I just wanted to say thank you to Director Saba and his team for doing that. So I don't think there's a need for approval on that. That was just a comment.

Thank you, Councilman Panolosa.

David PenalozaItem 22

Thank you, Mayor. I'll second Councilman Bacero's motion if that was a motion to approve this. but this item was already approved correct oh it was okay so just same Nabil just director Saba just wanted to thank you I remember the first couple council meetings that I was here back in 2019 I think there was a contract that we awarded to a auto dealership outside the county because it was I believe I I want to say was $40 less than Karen T Chevrolet. And, you know, it's important that whether it's $40 or $400,

David PenalozaItem 22

we try to keep those dollars in our city where these businesses could thrive. So thank you for that. And thank you, Councilman Bacero, for those comments.

Councilman Hernandez.

Johnathan Ryan HernandezItem 22

Thank you, Madam Mayor. I just want to thank staff for bringing this to us and for shopping local. and my concluding comment is thank you for buying union-made cars that concludes

my comment okay let's prepare to vote no votes necessary mayor perfect okay with the comment thank you let's go to item 26 please

Phil BacerraItem 22

thank you mayor so director Salva while I compliment you on one item now I have a question on another one and that is this item is to approve a municipal Facilities License Agreement with T-Mobile. What I wanted to ask you is, so in the past when we've had these types of items come forward, I know I get a lot of concerns from residents about the aesthetics of these facilities. And from my understanding of the item, these are going to be on poles within the public right-of-way. So this is from back of sidewalk to back a sidewalk but what will staff do to ensure that these things are not a complete eyesore

right we do have an established guidelines for the construction of these small cells that have been approved by council and staff so we really strictly follow these guidelines and make sure that the new poles coming in complies with the guidelines and the looks it's really important for us and we prefer there's categories of these kind of installations The provider has the ability to put some of these small cells on wooden poles that belong to Edison. But our push to the provider is to use city-owned street lights where we can control the looks,

and that's been very successful. So we've been, go ahead.

Phil BacerraItem 26

Oh, no, I was just going to ask, when you were talking about the Edison poles, if they're still within the city's right-of-way couldn't we still manage how they look

yes we do a better but you know again you know it's a retrofit when you have a a a wooden pool then you have to put an arm and then the can for the for the antenna but we always push the providers to use our own street lights this way it would look a lot better and we've been again successful and pushing him to go to the route where the cupra head type light will have an attachment on top and that is very kind of aesthetically better than the wooden poles. Less

Phil BacerraItem 26

noticeable to the public. Perfect. Well thank you for that Director Samba. With that I'll go ahead and move this item. I'll second. Let's prepare to vote please.

Jennifer L. HallItem 26

VOTES 7 AYES, NO NAYS, MOTION CARRIES. THANK YOU. ITEM 29, PLEASE.

Phil BacerraItem 26

MY LAST ONE, MADAM MAYOR. THIS IS THE ITEM TO APPROVE A SECOND AMENDMENT TO THE AGREEMENT WITH THE RSG IN REGARDS TO THE RENT STABILIZATION AND JUST CAUSE EVICTION ORDINANCE MANAGEMENT. SO IN LOOKING AT THE STAFF REPORT, STAFF WILL NOT BEGIN COLLECTING THE RENTAL REGISTRY FEE UNTIL JANUARY 1, 2024. Until then, staff is proposing to take $500,000 from the Inclusionary Housing Fund to pay for this contract. We haven't even started collecting on the rental registry fee yet to pay for all these elements and now we're going to take from the Inclusionary Housing Fund.

Phil BacerraItem 29

That's $500,000 that won't be going towards core purposes of the Inclusionary Housing Fund including down payment assistance for first-time home buyers. so I won't be supporting this item so I'll just make a motion now to not

Johnathan Ryan HernandezItem 29

approve this item thank you I'll make a sub motion to approve this item I'll

second go ahead madam Senate clerk there's a motion there's a sub motion

Jennifer L. HallItem 29

yes there's a motion in the sub motion did you want to entertain any additional

David PenalozaItem 29

Yeah, I just had a question of staff. Go ahead. And Atkins City Manager Mendoza, I'll defer to you. Is there a reason why staff hasn't begun? Why are we allowing people to register their units and not collecting this fee? Why isn't it being collected?

Thank you, Council Member. I'll have Mike Garcia, our Executive Director of CDA, respond to that question on your behalf. Yeah, Council Member at this time, and Mayor and City Council, at this time we're trying to establish the rental registry database and give landlords the opportunity to register their units before we begin charging the fee which was set at $100.

David PenalozaItem 29

So what do you do afterwards? You just send an invoice to everyone that's registered or how are you going to collect that?

That's correct. That's correct. We would send an invoice to the landlords for each of their units at $100 per year, and we would hope we would get a successful return rate on that.

David PenalozaItem 29

Wouldn't it make more sense to charge the fee when it's registered? Because now you're going to add to the cost that you don't have, you're going to spend funds that you don't have to send out postage, letters via postage, and now process that payment whenever they send it back, whether it's a check or a why would we do it that way?

We're doing it that way to also analyze the exemptions that some landlords are applying for and to walk since it's the first year of the program to give landlords a time to understand how to register their units, how to claim exemptions, understand the petition process that they can possibly apply for, and basically introduce the program to them.

David PenalozaItem 29

Okay, well, just from the way it looks already, I don't see us getting this money back, so I will also not be supporting this item. Thank you.

Thank you. Mayor Prochem-Lopez?

Jessie LopezItem 29

Oh, yes. Just wanted to say for the record, because I was unsure the last time we had this conversation about how publicly we had a conversation about, you know, treating this as a regular business startup and therefore using some of the HLO funds that we had and so I went back then I checked and so I now I can stay on the record that we did have that conversation and so yeah let's call for the vote thank you

perfect there's a motion and then there's a submission so the substitute

Jennifer L. HallItem 29

motion by councilmember Hernandez seconded by mayor pro tem lopez to approve item 29 as presented.

Jennifer L. HallItem 29

The vote is 4 ayes, 3 nays. Nays by council members Becerra, Penaloza and Mayor Emescua. Motion carries.

Item number 30.

Johnathan Ryan HernandezItem 29

Comments. Thank you Madam Mayor. I just wanted to thank my colleagues for approving an agreement with America on track and not at this house doing business as neutral ground for gang prevention and intervention program services that promotes a proactive preventative approach to addressing concerns with at-risk youth and gang activity. I just wanted to say thank you to my colleagues for supporting this and that I think it would be great to have gang prevention services and intervention program services at our city events. So something for Parks and Rec to consider is perhaps utilizing some of these organizations

Johnathan Ryan HernandezItem 30

and adding them to the robust calendar of events that you have to strengthen public safety efforts. Thank you, sir.

Acting City Manager, I have a comment here. So happy to support it. I'm very familiar with America on Track and Neutral Ground for a very, very, very long time, longer than anybody sitting up here. I would like to see some data. So I read the staff report. I'd like to see what is the approach, how are we going to count, are we going to double count, one contact, they both contact, are they going to be working together, they're both good agencies, right, but good programs, so how are they going to do this, are they going to be working with our local law enforcement.

So I'd like to see it, I'll meet with you in Neutral Ground America and try to get more information. I mean, I don't call them at risk, I call them at promise. I think at risk is a negative connotation to it when we talk about our youth. And also, you know, when I was a school board member, we did not call it gang intervention and prevention. We called it community intervention. Because in the world of gangs, when you call it gang intervention, you're giving them this left up, like, ooh, look, we're doing gang intervention. Sometimes those involved in gangs really like that attention. I'm not in favor.

We call it, it was voted on to call it gang prevention and intervention. But I would like to meet with you at Neutral Ground and America on Track to look at exactly what data they'll be gathering, what is the plan of action in our city. And also, I'm not quite sure, you know, when we say we'd like them in the community, I would too, but I also want to make sure they're safe. Because those of us who've worked in the world of gangs, grew up around gangs, we know it's not always safe. And so I would hate if one of their staff were injured while they're doing the work. So if we can set up a meeting, I'd really appreciate it.

So I don't take time here.

We certainly will.

Thank you, sir. Okay, the last item, I believe here was 30...

Jessie LopezItem 30

I'll second your motion.

Oh, it was just a comment. Correct. It was a comment. Do you have any comments?

Jessie LopezItem 30

Actually, yes. I wanted to say that I'm very happy to see some of our federal dollars these are federal monies that are supporting these initiatives in our city and I would like to see PD work with Nutri-Groud in the past we've heard you know they've they've come here and publicly have said that PD hasn't been receptive and I think working together they can do a lot more for the communities specifically some of the targeted neighborhoods that they're currently working on that they've been in and the I know that they're also in the school sites and so I personally would like to see that partnership be

expanded so thank you okay thank you after City Manager very much item 37 please the comment

Thai Viet PhanItem 30

Thank you, Mayor. This is actually just a quick comment on item 37.

Thai Viet PhanItem 30

Brian, Director Sternberg, I am so excited. The West Side is so excited, and we're so grateful that the city is getting free money to help build and renovate New Hope Library. Like, that is the kind of energy the kind of work and the kind of commitment that I am so grateful for with our city staff and the Westside has been neglected for a very long time and to see our team just go out there and work with our state and federal representatives to get dollars that we earn that we deserve to help our

Thai Viet PhanItem 37

community is exactly what you know I came here to do so I just wanted to make that comment and look forward to the unveiling of this new library and we're all gonna celebrate there thank you so much thank you that was just for a

comment madam clerk so we're gonna end of the consent calendar at this time we're gonna go to the business calendar item number 38 is related to the rental registry active city manager may we have our staff report please my apologies

Johnathan Ryan HernandezItem 38

Madam Mayor, I did have my hand raised. I just had a very brief comment on the last item.

It's not up here. I'm sorry. On the last item?

Johnathan Ryan HernandezItem 38

Yes. Item 37.

Go ahead.

Johnathan Ryan HernandezItem 38

Thank you, Madam. I just wanted to thank our director of our library. You've done a fantastic job. Your department has done great. And thank you for this and bringing it to our council. We're excited for New Hope. Thank you.

Okay. Let's proceed now with the rental registry. And there'll be a report, correct? Thank you, Madam Mayor.

Yes. We're, as you know, a couple of weeks ago we started this discussion in a different area. There was some very much interest in continuing that discussion. So we moved to a discussion item for the CDA department to provide you an update. So there you have a presentation that will start behind me. The director will lead that. And then we also have Ms. Maricela Marquez in front of you to help guide you through the presentation as well. With that, I'll turn it over to Mike Garcia and Maricela.

Thank you, Acting City Manager, Mayor, City Council. This is a refresher to go over real quickly from the October 17th Council meeting. For those in the audience who were not watching that Council meeting, the rental registry is required under the rent stabilization and just cause eviction ordinance. and all landlords with rental units must complete and submit registration forms for each of their rental units. The rental registry is the city's online portal where rental property owners input their rental unit information,

submit notices, and will eventually pay the city's rental registry fee. The rental registry is important for monitoring rental properties, including rent amounts being charged and changes in tenancies. This allows staff to be able to regulate rent increases and track evictions on certain rental properties and mobile home spaces throughout the city. Property owners with rental units in the city must register annually and update their rental registry within 30 days of any changes to a rental unit.

In addition, there are reports and changes of ownership and uploads of notices and documents required by a landlord in the rental registry portal. These are some of the documents that are required as part of the registration. I won't read them all off. However, what I do want to point out is that these will be maintained in the rental registry database.

And it's quite an easy process. I've actually gone through it with some of my staff. And 3DI, our software provider, is actually here in the audience. And thank you, Meher Desai. You've created a great software program for us. Thank you. documents that are not required to be entered in after registration notices to enter the premises by a landlord notices to change terms of tenancy which do not involve a change in rent here is a list of the information that the ordinance requires

to collect for every rental unit Now here's some of the information that is no longer collected. At the last council meeting, there was concerns from the city council about whether tenant information such as the name of the head of household, the tenant's phone number, email address, preferred language, would be needed. We felt after examining this issue for two weeks that this information would not be needed in the course of action. So we have removed that from the registry. It is no longer in the system.

And we appreciate the council's comments on that.

Information that is not collected, we want to make sure it's clear. A lease agreement is not required. Social Security number, pluridentification number or tax ID number. these are not part of the rental registry and we try our best not to maintain and collect any confidential information not related to the compliance with the ordinance 3d I as I mentioned is the software provider there is service organization control type 2 company that ensures security

confidentiality and privacy of all information submitted. It's a cloud-based SAAS platform. It's supported by Amazon Web Services. It offers the ability to encrypt data at rest and in transit, furthering the reliability, security, and technical capabilities of the system. Information entered in the rental registry is restricted to authorized users with role-based permissions and it's not publicly accessible. 3DI has over 20 years of experience creating similar platforms for government and community

organizations and they manage the rental registries for multiple cities in California including Oakland and Los Angeles. If a landlord fails to register the unit the city is able to commence enforcement as of October 1st however we We are rolling out the program in a manner that is not only educational but helpful to landlords. We've received very good responses from people who have worked with our staff. Right now we're supplementing our one full-time employee. I'd like to introduce Maricela Marquez, who is our rent stabilization manager.

She comes to us from our housing programs division. and prior to that you worked for the city of Rosemey doing a lot of housing programs and housing management work at that city.

And we are available for any questions from the members of the council and thank you for the presentation time.

Thank you. I missed a little bit of it but I have reviewed and met with you so thank you. I don't see any hands up here for speakers so I just have a question. Oh there we go. Two popped up. I have one question because I missed it earlier, but I just want to be clear.

So my first is a statement. I remember the last presentation we said that we won't ever be hacked. It's secure. And then the same day the district attorney's office was hacked. So I think I said that like we never say never because the DA's office was hacked, right? So I just want to say that for the record. And so please, that's why collecting people's personal information is so important. Maybe I mean to say not collecting it is important. So God forbid we ever get hacked, right?

So just for confirmation, it says here in big, bold letters, information no longer collected. So we're no longer, no longer going to ask for a tenant's full name. It says only head of household.

We are no longer collecting that information.

That's correct. No longer going to collect tenant's phone number? That's correct. No longer going to collect tenant's email? And no longer going to connect tenant's preferred language? That is correct. And they're not required to submit the lease agreement, Social Security, or any other confidential. So when you say not required,

We are not requiring any of that information. None of that information is being uploaded. That is correct.

Great. Thank you. And I want to thank you for the changes that you've made. Absolutely. I'm not sure that everybody's in full agreement in the community, but at least we've made some significant changes and we're protecting people's privacy. And so I know for me personally, that was really important as we met and talked about it. So thank you. Council Member Becerra, please.

Phil BacerraItem 38

Thank you, Madam Mayor. So I appreciate you making that change as well as far as the requirement of the tenant's data. But what is going to happen, though, when a tenant registers a complaint? I assume you're going to have to acquire their information, right? You're going to have to take it in. So once this tenant provides their data, what is going to happen to it?

So thank you for that question, Councilmember Visera. Currently what we are doing is we're collecting the information via our email, and that's normally how I'm working with a lot of council members, where they're coming in and information is being presented on either tenants or people having issues. So that information is being saved on our computers, and we are retaining those records for two years. Now, if there was a public records request, all of the personal information would be redacted. So that would not be available.

Phil BacerraItem 38

Okay. But I think to the mayor's point though, we are still, I mean, while we're not collecting tenants' data on every single rental unit in the city, once they submit a complaint or some sort of request for service from the city, we will be keeping the tenants' data on file, on record for, you said, for two years?

For two years. That would be on our system and not on the rental registry database.

Phil BacerraItem 38

Well, I mean, it really doesn't matter. A hacker doesn't really say, well, that's one type of system. I'm not going to go in there. A hacker's going to hack, right? That's what they do.

Well, I can't speak to the system here at the city getting hacked, but I can't say that we are not requiring the information with 3DI in their database and that we are following normal business practices as we have before.

Phil BacerraItem 38

Okay. Thank you. Welcome.

Council Member Fan.

Thai Viet PhanItem 38

Thank you, Mayor. Hi. Welcome. Thank you. I say welcome like you're brand new, but I've been working with you since, I think, day one, working on, you know, Section 8 housing workshops and getting residents signed up and down payment assistance programs and all sorts of stuff. Emergency rental assistance. Yeah, rental assistance, all those things. And I'm just, congratulations. Thank you so much. And for your commitment to our city and the work that you do. I just want clarification for myself, or it might be Mr. City Manager, regarding a complaint.

Thai Viet PhanItem 38

So I get emails, sometimes text messages, all the time, whether it's code enforcement, nuisances, noise, all sorts of complaints about potholes. When I get an email about that, that complaint, is that saved in our system, the city system, for two years pursuant to a retention policy?

We have a 90-day retention policy, and then Jack has a storage retention policy. City Clerk, I think you can probably talk better of that as the custodial of records.

Jennifer L. HallItem 38

Yes, as you spoke, there is the standard for what remains within the standard outlook system, which is a shorter term, but then there is the longer term retention of two years for our email correspondence.

Thai Viet PhanItem 38

Thank you. And so I guess the two years that you're talking about, if there is a complaint regarding, you know, a landlord who's doing an illegal eviction or something like that, the two-year retention is no different from the way that we retain records for other complaints that were received. Is that correct?

That's exactly correct.

Thai Viet PhanItem 38

Thank you. And when we get any complaint, whether it's code enforcement, potholes, loud music, if someone asks for, say, records, maybe this is to you, Madam City Clerk, records regarding noise complaints, we would redact private information. Is that correct? That's correct. Okay. So I just wanted to make sure that what we're doing with the rent registry or complaints relating to the rent stabilization ordinance is similar to or exactly the same as what we would do with other complaints that we receive in the city. That is correct. Thank you. So I guess my other comment is just to you know say

Thai Viet PhanItem 38

thank you for receiving information and concerns by this council and by residents and in really working with the City Council and our residents to make the best rent registry that we can have to ensure that we protect residents and landlords or interested parties to ensure that you know this information is correct and that people comply with the law because we are already seeing that there are those who are not complying with the law in place thank you thank

Johnathan Ryan HernandezItem 38

you councilman Hernandez thank you madam mayor I just want to say thank you for the presentation your guys's department has done a fantastic job and I had received letters from constituents in relation to the October 9th letter. I'm going to read from Exhibit 1, sent to 13,154 single-family property owners whose property address is the same as the mailing address on their property tax record. Our staff has explained that the owner occupants who do not use their home for any residential rental purposes are not subject to the ordinance and do not need to register. I want to thank you guys for providing information.

Johnathan Ryan HernandezItem 38

that explains to assist landlords with registering their rental units, a dedicated email address and rent stabilization helpline are available with staff standing by. Staff have also created a comprehensive webpage with information about the rental registry, including helpful resources such as a user guide. I want to say thank you to you guys and tremendous work. Thank you. That concludes my comments.

Councilman Becerra?

Phil BacerraItem 38

Thank you, Madam Mayor. I just want to clarify. So when I receive requests for service from constituents, they usually don't have to fill out a form, right? They can, as previously mentioned, text, email, call, and we don't ask for, I'm assuming, correct me if I'm wrong, I'm pretty sure that what you would need to address a concern or complaint from the rent stabilization ordinance, you're probably going to need name, address, and a whole litany of information that you probably wouldn't need to fill a pothole in in front of a house or in front of a location you've identified that's offsite. Is that a fair thing to say?

Phil BacerraItem 38

That's a fair thing to say. OK, thank you.

So I do have one clarification as well. OK. So City Manager, you said we hold onto the emails for 90 days?

Those are in our immediate inboxes. But the retention storage is two years.

Two years? Yes. OK, I just want to confirm, because I know with the district attorney, they just sent in a preservation motion to preserve emails that I believe that we should have already received so if they send that in then we preserve all the emails correct we don't delete anything okay I just want to make sure thank you

Mary if I may add thank you if I may add I have to brag a moment about these Brian miss Maricela Marquez for the last four years since kovat started she has held and handled the personal records of so many rental assistance residents in our city and with zero complaints she handled their phone call 40 minute phone calls she handled their lives their lives were in her hands to get that immediate rental assistance nobody is more sensitive about their privacy than Marcella is and we're very proud of what she did without the software and now that she has see the software company behind her I think they'll do a great

job no and I appreciate I think we all do up here and we do appreciate you as you know we've met for for me personally I'm only speaking for myself personal information is my personal information is private right I mean I want to keep it that way I'm as an elected there's very little that is confidential anymore but the normal citizen right the normal person living in apartment a apartment B apartment C you know they don't want their information released or they may not want it released and so I'm glad that since we've had these presentations things have changed and the letters are softer and gentler instead of saying you

know we're gonna find you on December 31st we're doing a softer gentler rollout and we'll come back in a few months and you can give us an update and see how things are going and hopefully we've raised some money right people have paid that is the plan hoping yes thank you thank you okay if there's no other comments or questions by the council. I think Mr. City Manager you've captured the council direction. Thank you very much. All right thank you for your information. All right let's go to item number 39 please. May we have a staff report.

Madam City Attorney.

Is there a staff report for item 39?

Sonia R. CarvalhoItem 39

I'm just pulling this up real quick. I'm sorry.

I don't have one. That's why I'm asking.

Sonia R. CarvalhoItem 39

So, Mayor and Council members, this is an item that was previously requested as a Council requested item. And we brought it back to you at a previous meeting to get clarification and direction. So what you have before you this evening is a proposed resolution that reflects the direction that a majority of the City Council gave us on the issue of non-citizen voting and all municipal elections. You have been provided a staff report which explains that the first proposal that was requested by the Council was simply to consider proposing a question to the voters as to whether

Sonia R. CarvalhoItem 39

they might want to consider non-citizen voting in municipal elections involving the election of officers. Clarification was given at a subsequent meeting to expand this proposal to the election, to all municipal elections, including election of officers and related referenda initiatives or recalls. The proposal before you, as I mentioned, reflects the city's direction. I have previously advised the City Council, both in public to some extent and in private, communications regarding attorney-client privilege of opinions regarding the legality of moving

Sonia R. CarvalhoItem 39

forward in this direction. I know you heard from the public this evening different opinions, and this is not unusual when you are facing issues of first impression. If you were to move forward with this proposal, it would be the first of its type in the state of California that deals with things other than non-citizen voting in elections involving school board members, for example. I previously advised you that although we have the case of the Lacey case, which many people have commented upon, in which you've been provided legal written advice, I cannot

Sonia R. CarvalhoItem 39

say with absolute certainty that this matter if approved by the voters would go unchallenged I also recognize that as you make policy you can't always make final decisions based on whether you will have litigation but I do want to let the council know that if you do end up in litigation that litigation will be quite costly we have prepared as a part of this measure actual proposed amendments to the City Charter as outlined in the staff report. We would propose a change to section 1203 of the City Charter. This is the manner of elections and voting.

Sonia R. CarvalhoItem 39

It is the language that we propose to add that would actually implement non-citizen voting and would also require the City Council to subsequently adopt policies and regulations to fully implement the proposal. If this matter is forwarded to the voters for consideration, it would require just what we call 50% plus one to pass. It would then implement an amendment to your city charter and you would be required to adopt an ordinance after that so that the rules could go into effect for the general municipal election in 2024. I'm happy to answer any questions that you have about the process or about the proposal

Sonia R. CarvalhoItem 39

that's in front of you.

So please push the button if you'd like to speak. At this time I only see one speaker and I'll also be speaking, but I'll wait for my turn here. So Councilman Hernandez.

Johnathan Ryan HernandezItem 39

Thank you, Madam Mayor. I want to thank members of the public who reached out to the council. No matter what side of the opinion that you have, both are valuable. And ultimately this will be a democratic process where you will still be able to use democracy to your favor. You will be able to vote in favor or in opposition of it. Now before I talk about why this item is so important to Santa Ana, I want to acknowledge that there are 80,000 undocumented residents in the city of Santa Ana per our census report, 60,000 of which are potential voters.

Johnathan Ryan HernandezItem 39

The decisions that we make here at the dais are already impacting families. families who are undocumented who are business owners who are employing your neighbors who own property in the city of Santa Ana like my grandparents who migrated from Jalisco my grandmother who was deported from Santa Ana in the 80s these are issues that are affecting our residents on a day-to-day basis I'm going to read directly from the United States Citizenship and Immigration services and I'll be specific the policy is 18 USC 611 voting in a local election is not an unlawful

Johnathan Ryan HernandezItem 39

act if the applicant is eligible to vote under the relevant law what is being asked today is for the voters to be the deciders to for them to decide in a democratic process I am requesting for us to amend the language that is being proposed today to include and reflect shall the city of Santa Ana City Charter be amended to allow comma by the November 2026 general municipal election non-citizen city residents including those who are taxpayers and parents comma to vote in all of city

Johnathan Ryan HernandezItem 39

Santa Ana municipal elections the language is clear it is concise and it makes it easy for our voters to understand what they will be voting on in the 2024 election that concludes my comments I second thank you so council

there's no second I think you want to he didn't make a motion no he didn't make a motion he's making his comments councilman Vasquez go ahead you want to

Benjamin VazquezItem 39

speak sure I'll make a question is why why do we want to why do we want it why do we want non-citizen voting the reason is simple because they're human beings because they're human beings just like black men

Benjamin VazquezItem 39

wanted the right to vote because they're human beings when indigenous were given the right to vote because they're human beings when women were given the right to vote because they're human means when our asian brothers and sisters want the right to vote because they're human beings they're our neighbors their children go to school with our children they make our food They work right next to us. They're right all around us. There's 80,000 of them and they're human beings. It's not so difficult to understand. We also do it for inclusion.

Benjamin VazquezItem 39

If you're going to build a city, if you're going to build a safe, humane city, you want everybody to buy in. There's a disenfranchised group of 60,000 immigrants in Santa Ana. We want to build a community that's stronger where people buy in. a government accountable a government that's accountable to everybody who are we afraid of we want to be accountable to everybody we are ignoring some of the people who are in the most need this has non-citizen voting has been found to be legal in the United States some people think it's only citizens because they

Benjamin VazquezItem 39

got that junior high teacher who told them so your US history teacher from high school was telling you that non-citizen voting applies here in the United States and we're allowed to move forward are we pushing boundaries yes we are it's courageous acts are not always easy it's not always an easy task they never are they never were we could go on with the history of voting rights but But here we take a stand in Santa Ana. We have always fought for each other.

Benjamin VazquezItem 39

When we have the Mendez versus Westminster, I know it's another city, but the Japanese farmer from Westminster called up the farmer from Delhi and said, do you have somebody I could trust to come over? And they're, yes, I'm going to send Mendez. They sent a Santanero. And the Santanero, along with other families, fought for these rights. They fought for these rights of being included, of having their kids being able to go to school with white kids. We're talking about human beings and our neighbors, our families, my cousins, my uncles.

Benjamin VazquezItem 39

That's why we do it. That's why we want it. It ain't going to be easy. We never said it was. So we're doing it because it's the right thing to do. Thank you.

Johnathan Ryan HernandezItem 39

I'll place a motion on the floor.

Thank you.

So I have a couple of questions here. Madam City Attorney, thank you so much for your information on this item. And it is a very sensitive item. And so, and I know it's been a lot of work for you. And I appreciate all that you have done and information that you have given us. and I will not share it because it is confidential and I do follow that attorney-client privilege here, the confidentiality. So this was brought forward by four council members, the majority. Council Member Vasquez, Council

Member Hernandez, Council Member Fan, and Mayor Pro Tem Lopez. So can we talk a little bit about or can you share what is the cost when you say it's good? You You said your term was quite costly. Are we talking about multiple attorneys? Are we talking about other law firms? What are we talking about? Because there's always two sides, right? And I won't go into that discussion about something over here is costing $600,000 and something over here is costing this.

And it's okay to spend probably millions of dollars on this. And I know for a fact we are going to be in litigation. I will bet anybody a quarter because I know. I know it and I welcome it. I know it. So tell me, Madam City Attorney, because we're going to be in litigation for a few years. So it's not going to happen right away. What is the cost? You said quite costly. And you don't have to give the exact, but what are you roughly estimating? And you're 12 years as an experienced partner in BBK, and I have a lot of respect for that. You're not a baby attorney.

You're not a first-year law student. You're not a three-year attorney. You are an experienced partner in BBK, correct? Correct. Okay. So can you talk a little bit about the litigation cost?

Sonia R. CarvalhoItem 39

I imagine that this type of legislation, because of its very nature, that this is not the type of case that would stop at a trial court level one way or the other, right? Because there are so many people on both sides that have strong feelings about whether this is good policy or not. So my estimate to you would really largely be based upon the fact that I think this would be one of those things because it's making law here in the state that it has a high potential for being appealed. Know whether this, the likelihood of it being filed in federal court, which is a little more costly.

Sonia R. CarvalhoItem 39

I did disclose in the staff report that I think if you move forward I potentially could see an estimated cost in terms of legal fees. I would advise you to probably budget an initial $500,000. I think that would potentially take us through some initial challenges. If it goes multiple levels of appeals, I could see you maybe doubling that. And it could take, you know, several years. Can I predict that with certainty? I cannot. I can tell you that with previous policies that the Council has proceeded with,

Sonia R. CarvalhoItem 39

For example, like our rent stabilization and things that were a little more progressive, we have three cases right now. Some of them are in federal court. We've tried to handle as much of that litigation as we can in-house, so we don't incur outside council fees. But we will be coming to the council at the next meeting making a budget request because we do need to refer some of that work out. So immediately I'd say budget $500,000. I think that would be sufficient. I look to the finance director and I think that we categories that in the non-departmental funds that we have.

Sonia R. CarvalhoItem 39

And then probably long term, I think you could potentially double that.

So initially $500,000 is local level, right? That's just the initial court case. I have lots of lawyers in my family, but I'm not a lawyer. But I spent many years in court. So when, as you proceed, we end up in federal court, the cost triples, doubles, because now, instead of just you and Laura sitting there, you will have five other attorneys sitting there with you or another law firm that we'll have to hire to help you. And so that cost may increase. Is that correct?

Sonia R. CarvalhoItem 39

Again, that's true. It really depends on who comes to the table. And I'm looking to Laura because we've been doing some estimates on some of our other litigation work. And I think these child court cases, you know, we had some litigation with an outside law firm with regard to some of our homeless work. We hit that $600,000 mark on that work. That particular law firm did give us some pro bono hours. So that was helpful because they did that. And I don't know if we could potentially explore those options. There might be those options available.

Sonia R. CarvalhoItem 39

But if we have to go outside and hire an experienced law firm in federal matters, I think these estimates are just about right.

So you touched on rental stabilization. We have three cases right now, correct? Three litigation cases? We do have three. Do you know the rough amount we've already spent on those cases, roughly?

Sonia R. CarvalhoItem 39

Well, as I mentioned, we have really handled those in-house. So we have not incurred, but we're coming to your next meeting with a budget request and allocation for those.

So you're going to come back and ask us money for rent stabilization, the three litigation, the cases we have. And then you're going to also come back at some point and ask for additional funding for the non-citizen money.

Sonia R. CarvalhoItem 39

If we receive a lawsuit, yes.

Well, we will. So we'll be prepared for that. So my three minutes are up, and I'm going to come back. So if there are any other speakers, I don't see anybody's hand. Are you up here? I don't see. Okay, go ahead, Council Member Fanny.

Thai Viet PhanItem 39

Thank you, Mayor. So, Madam City Attorney, I'd like to just read in a couple edits to the resolution. I had emailed these to you, but I do want to read it into the record.

Thai Viet PhanItem 39

First, in the fourth, whereas, there needs to be added an and and a period removed. I think a lot of this is clerical. The next whereas, it should say allocates funding for the legal defense of Santa Ana, not to.

Thai Viet PhanItem 39

On the eighth whereas, it should say currently tens of thousands of non-citizen residents, TS, and mixed status families pay taxes yet are instead of feel disenfranchised. The next whereas, I'd like to amend it to state, whereas local governments across the United States allow non-citizen residents to vote in local elections, semicolon and. And in the next whereas, I would like to state, to remove the phrase, arguments can be made that.

Thai Viet PhanItem 39

In section 3, I would like to include elections at which municipal officers, comma, including the mayor and city council members, comma.

Thai Viet PhanItem 39

And so those are the primary clerical edits that I would like to see. Regarding the ballot language, I appreciate Councilmember Hernandez's edits. however I would like for it to state more clearly that it would be by the November 2028 general municipal election so in total it would state shall the City of Santa Ana City Charter be amended to allow comma by the November 2028 general municipal election comma non-citizens city residents comma including those who are taxpayers and parents comma to vote in all city of

Thai Viet PhanItem 39

Santa Ana municipal elections. And then regarding section 1203 of the ordinance, we would add the definition of municipal elections before the last sentence to state municipal elections include all local elections at which the mayor, city council members, or any other municipal officers are elected. Valid measures are considered and initiatives and referenda are proposed. Finally, the last sentence I should say November of 2028. And I will observe my comments for the next round. Thank you.

Sonia R. CarvalhoItem 39

Can I just say for purposes of keeping track of comments tonight, I am going to refer to the staff prepared documents as version one, the Councilmember Hernandez's comments as version two, and your comments as version three, just so that we can keep track of them because I don't have any direction. I'm just taking them in at this point.

I'm sorry, can you tell me again? So I want to make sure I write this down. Version 1 is yours.

Sonia R. CarvalhoItem 39

It's the ones we prepared. Version 2 would be the ballot question that Council Member Hernandez read into the record. And Version 3 would be the changes to the recitals, the changes to Section 1203, as well as changes to the ballot question.

Johnathan Ryan HernandezItem 39

Madam City Attorney, I'll amend my comments and I'll support yours. Council Member Fenn, I am okay with moving it to 2028. Do you have a motion on the floor?

Sonia R. CarvalhoItem 39

So now we have Version 1 and Version 2. Yes.

So just version one and version two. So we're still in comments and then if you're going to make a motion, but we're still in the comments time. So. Thank you. So okay. So Councilman Vasquez, go ahead.

Benjamin VazquezItem 39

Yeah, I just want to agree with version two. Thank you, Councilmember Fan and Councilmember Hernandez to move forward.

Benjamin VazquezItem 39

the $500,000

Benjamin VazquezItem 39

it's a lot less than $600,000 for the recall election that's a sham and it's criminal that we're having right now and this is really for people to have a say in their community this is for people to be able to choose how we run this government these are our residents our citizens persons, and we're leaving them outside, and we're not doing the work for them. And the only reason I'm here is to help as much of Santa Ana as possible, and to help every single last person.

Benjamin VazquezItem 39

And we need to be held accountable by everybody who lives in this city. So I move the item, item number two. Thank you. All second.

Councilman Bassieri, you have comments?

Phil BacerraItem 39

Thank you, Madam Mayor. I won't support something that could jeopardize one's ability to become a naturalized United States citizen. Now while we've got some passionate law students in the audience that swear it won't endanger their ability, I'm going to defer to our city attorney who has quite a bit more experience than some of the folks armchair lawyering from the audience. I also won't support committing our city to millions of dollars in lawsuits because, you know, to Council Member Vasquez's comment that it was only 500,000 or less than 600,

Phil BacerraItem 39

I did hear the city attorney say, try doubling that. And going before the Supreme Court, if the city's serious about trying to win a case, I would assume we wouldn't want to go on the cheap. So therefore, we're looking at millions of dollars in attorney's fees when this gets to the Supreme Court, because that's where it will end up. So perhaps all the organizations tonight that have come from outside of Santa Ana, rather than spending all your money on staff lobbying the council, maybe you should lawyer up, maybe you should take on this cause.

Phil BacerraItem 39

rather than trying to force the hand of our city to take our revenue and dedicate it to things that are not essential to our core mission. And let me remind everybody what our core mission is, because it seems like it's forgotten sometimes up here. To deliver efficient public services in partnership with our community, which ensures public safety, a prosperous economic environment, opportunities for our youth, and a high quality of life for residents. Spending millions of dollars, of city dollars for these outside organizations causes will only prevent our city from fulfilling

Phil BacerraItem 39

its core mission. And let me just say whether one votes in Santa Ana or doesn't, to say that you're disenfranchised, maybe in your ward, maybe in some of the council members up here who don't pay attention to you, but the folks in Ward 4 know whether they're a resident or not, whether they're a citizen or not, I pay attention to my ward. I'd like to believe that all my colleagues up here do and I don't believe that they need to check their citizenship to do that I know I don't thank you thank you so I'm gonna take one of my three

minutes here so madam city attorney I'm gonna come back to you so litigation five hundred thousand initially possibly then it's gonna double can you talk a little bit about and while you're talking they'll stop my time can you talk about the process because we're gonna have to set up our own process because the ROV we don't know what position the county will take so if they don't take on this election of non-citizen voting we have to do what madam city attorney it's my time she'll stop you know I'm looking over at the

Sonia R. CarvalhoItem 39

city clerk only because as the election official she may be much more knowledgeable than I am about the voting process and what would be necessary

thank you madam city clerk can you share with us exactly what happened so from the start to the end because there's a cost for everything that we're going to do.

Jennifer L. HallItem 39

Right, and so unfortunately I don't have an easy answer for you on what that cost would be and we don't know at this point in time whether the ROV would provide any services in regards to an expansion of the electorate to include non-citizen voting. That would be a conversation that would have to be held later. But if we were to have to potentially take it in-house, there would be costs associated with determining a registration process, potentially separate ballots, potentially machines for counting or canvassing, etc.

Jennifer L. HallItem 39

I have a little bit of information from a neighboring jurisdiction that looked into some similar items for stand-alone elections. Again, we'd have to do more research in order to conduct a study to determine what the full economic impact would be of adding staff, most likely to my department, potentially to Sonia's department, to conduct these election-related activities. But as far as this information from another Orange County city, they estimated initial

Jennifer L. HallItem 39

startup costs for equipment, $664,000 to $858,000, recurring or operating costs to hold each election running $689,000 to $832,000, and an estimated cost for one standalone election to be $1.35 to $1.69 million. I did reference the amount of registered voters from that jurisdiction to our jurisdiction. They were relatively close.

I'm sorry, the last amount, 1.35, can you repeat that?

Jennifer L. HallItem 39

1.35 to 1.69 million.

1.699 just for the election process.

Jennifer L. HallItem 39

Yeah. As of the last report I was able to look at, they had about 133,000 registered voters, and we had about 128,000 registered voters. Of course, potentially with implementation of this program, our number of registered voters would increase.

So thank you.

So thank you, because that's on top of the litigation cost. And if we were to have our own election, we're looking at several millions of dollars. And so that's what I want to share, because, you know, yes, it's, I get it. It's very, people are very passionate about this. It's very important. But we're also looking at, everybody sits up here again and talks about the cost for a recall election, $600,000. So this is going to triple the cost. And I would love to know, Acton City Manager, where this money would come from, hypothetically,

if we were to do this. Where would this come from, the general fund?

Most likely it would be a general fund transfer, but if I can give you some historic information. About a couple of years ago, the city council directed us to study having our own health department. And if you all remember, we did a feasibility and fiscal evaluation service for that municipal public health agency. We went out, we went out to RFP. We got the experts to tell us what size that department would be. In this case, it would be what size our city clerk's department would be, what would be necessary to pull it off, and funding options. Now that is something we did in a very proactive manner. We haven't done that for this.

And thank you for saying that because people keep bringing up San Francisco, and Madam City Attorney, correct me if I'm wrong, San Francisco took four years for the school board election. They studied it. They met. They had an ad hoc. They studied it, studied it, ended up in court, and had, you know, just went up the chain here. Four years. And the majority of this council is doing it in less than two months for whatever their political agenda is. And so I just, and thank you for sharing that, City Manager, because that's what's really important to me is the study, the experts. You use the term experts.

And there's a cost to also bring in experts to study this. And so there would be a cost probably, I'm assuming there as well, to hire experts, or would it be you, Madam City Attorney?

Sonia R. CarvalhoItem 39

No, we would need to do that. And I know I used a phrase earlier today, and I want to use it again. The council sets policy and tells us, you know, the what, and we as professional staff get to tell you the how. Sometimes that how requires us to hire consultants, as referenced by our city manager, to do surveys, to do some of our own research. So one of the things I think I mentioned at the last meeting was to mitigate the risks of a program like this, I do feel like additional research, both in election law and immigration policy based on the issues that were raised, would need to be further reviewed.

Sonia R. CarvalhoItem 39

I do think if you move forward with policy, one thing that you need to understand is that as you then, if the voters were to approve this, there may be a lot more questions, there may be a lot more hows, and it may take us a while to implement that, an additional cost for us to come back and tell you how many staff people we might need in the city clerk's office. I might need an additional election lawyer to go over election issues and things of that nature. So I personally wish I had a little more time to be able to be more clear for you and give you definitive answers.

No, thank you. I appreciate that because that's really important that, you know, you were not given the time to do the research and really do the work behind this because it's being rushed very quickly again by the four. Councilman Vasquez, Mayor Pro Tem Lopez, Councilman Hernandez, and Mayor and Councilmember Fan. So Councilmember Fan, you have a comment?

Thai Viet PhanItem 39

Thank you, Mayor. First of all, I'd like to say that the signatories to one of the letters that we received from the Chinese for Affirmative Action UCI Law Immigrant Rights Clinic and the ACLU was signed by Annie Lee Esquire, Managing Director of Policy, 10 years experience and graduate of Harvard Law School. Julia Gomez, Senior Staff Attorney, ACLU of Southern California, 10-year experienced attorney, graduate of Columbia Law School. We have Annie Lai, the director of the UCI Urban School of Law Immigrant Rights Clinic, also an

Thai Viet PhanItem 39

experienced attorney, at least 10 years, and I believe she graduated from NYU School of Law. So while I appreciate the law students, I appreciate you coming out because you are spending your volunteer time, I do want to say that there are qualified attorneys who are standing up and saying that this is something that that we want to have. The other thing I would like to say is, you know, we talk a lot about how much this costs and what does it mean and how difficult this is, but expanding the franchise has never been easy in this country. Thank you to

Thai Viet PhanItem 39

Council Member Vasquez who brought up the fact that women did not have the right to vote. It was local governments that gave women the right to vote before the 19th amendment. Men did not get the right to vote unless they owned land under our founding, but it was local governments who gave white men the right to vote before owning land, before that was changed in our constitution. So local governments have always been at the forefront of expanding the franchise because we know how important it is for residents who live in this city, who work in this city, who contribute to the city to have a voice to the people regarding

Thai Viet PhanItem 39

the people who represent us. I'd also like to say, when we say, okay, well, this costs a lot of money. Non-citizens pay taxes every day in the city. They pay income tax, property tax, sales tax, gas tax. Non-citizens pay taxes. They are part of this community, whether we like it or not, and they should have a voice because they contribute to this very general fund. And finally, I'd like to say that in this country, when we expand the franchise, it's always a fight. People die for it. And my cousin is going, is in basic training for the Army right now.

Thai Viet PhanItem 39

He can die for this country, but he can't vote in this country. That is wrong, and we need to change it here in the city of Santa Ana. Thank you.

Jessie LopezItem 39

Councilman, may I present to you Lopez, please? Yeah, thank you. City Attorney, I have a question for you. Something you said caught my attention.

Jessie LopezItem 39

So the council has discussed this issue in the past, I believe about two years ago, and you did receive a majority direction then to research this topic, right? So what do you mean when you say you haven't had enough time to do research?

Sonia R. CarvalhoItem 39

As you may recall, the last time that the item was discussed, I sent a communication to the Council in writing saying that we had done some initial research. My recommendation was that the Council refer the matter to the City Charter Ad Hoc Committee so that we could receive direction. After that first direction that was given by the Council, we did research the legal issues but it was pre-LACI. So we were prepared to advise on the legal issues. But our recommendation was to send it to the ad hoc committee. The ad hoc committee could have given us a direction to go hire the consultant, to do

Sonia R. CarvalhoItem 39

all the integral things that needed to be done to actually give you the how and the implementation plan. So when this didn't come back until two months ago, we did not have sufficient time to look into the implementation, the full implementation plan for you. And I do appreciate that the start date to this has been extended and perhaps that recommendation is coming so that we can address those issues. So we will have more answers if you kind of push this out. I think the proposal is until 2028 and that will give us some more time.

Jessie LopezItem 39

So you've done the research on the legality of it, right? And various attorneys will say yes, no, based on this one jurisdiction. However, you know, even the U.S. government website for immigration states on there that it is lawful at the local level. So I understand attorneys will have different interpretations. Your main issue is the implementation.

Sonia R. CarvalhoItem 39

Right. I mean, I think on the legal issues, I've said that publicly and all. I've given you my private advice on that. I have disclosed some of it in the staff report. But I think at this point it's really how would we implement this law going forward. And then I've acknowledged I think that you will see some litigation. I do want to go back just real quick because I'm very detailed on these things. When this item first came forward by Council Members Hernandez and Council Member Vasquez, if you go back and look at their Council Member requested item, it actually had two pieces.

Sonia R. CarvalhoItem 39

It said, direct the city attorney to do the legal research on the ballot measure item and direct staff to look at some of the implementation. But we went back and listened very carefully to the video and audio that night and there was never direction to staff on that second piece. It was listed on the agenda item when that matter was brought forward. The council members may recall that it was their item. It had two parts. but when I went back because I was really careful to do my research I saw that second piece but that was not no direction was given on it that night and

Sonia R. CarvalhoItem 39

that's why that wasn't done that wouldn't have been my responsibility but it wasn't done so just so that you know that yeah thank you I also just want to

Jessie LopezItem 39

add that you know I've heard specifically when we're talking about this issue I've heard now multiple times said that that there must be political reasons why I'm supporting this, giving it to the voters, right? And I've said that before, that to me, it is sound and fair that the voters have a say in this massive issue that impacts so many people in this community. I've said that I'm always going to be interested in what the voters have to say, because I do think that it can provide us with valuable insight. But I want to make it very clear that I am not sitting here in my capacity as a councilwoman

Jessie LopezItem 39

saying give this to the voters of the city of Sanana because there's something in it for me or because there's something in it for a campaign. And I know that I've only been elected for three years. And so people that have been on this dais much longer than I have, maybe that's how they think about policy or how they carry policy for people very transactional what can I get in return for it and so I just want to make it very clear because I've heard that comment several times now and we don't we shouldn't be elected to do good things to do sound and fair things

Jessie LopezItem 39

for our constituents because of political reasons we should do them based off of our principles and the values that we believe and giving our residents the best opportunity to succeed financially in all aspects of our lives in our society I believe is my

Johnathan Ryan HernandezItem 39

responsibility so thank you do believe there's a motion in a second on the

David PenalozaItem 39

Thank you, Mayor. I haven't spoken. And I had pushed it. But I would like to also state for the record that those signatories that Council Member Fan alluded to, at the end of the day, they're attorneys. They're going to sign whatever pays their paycheck. They're getting paid. Someone's paying them top dollar to write those letters.

David PenalozaItem 39

So with that said, I will say that Madam City Attorney, I do remember when this first came up, we spent, I want to say it was close to three years going over 26 ballot or charter amendments, potential charter amendments that we had discussed extensively on this dais. I know Daniel was very helpful with that, so thank you. And it was at around 11 p.m. at night when we had, after two and a half years of discussion, that we had the charter amendment proposals up here that one of my colleagues yelled out,

David PenalozaItem 39

non-citizens should get the right to vote. And it's like, wait a minute, pump the brakes. We just spent three years discussing whether the city clerk should be called city clerk or clerk of the council. and now in a matter of seconds you want to add this to the election. And I did say this is a valid discussion to have. And I continue to say that. My position hasn't changed. This is a valid discussion to have. However, that discussion isn't happening. We are throwing this to city staff with absolutely zero direction. So it's disrespectful to our city clerk and disrespectful to our city attorney and our city manager.

David PenalozaItem 39

Our city attorney and our city manager at the last meeting asked multiple times, who exactly would this apply to? How would we register people in the city to vote? What is the residency requirements? How would these elections be handled? Who would handle the processing of these ballots? Who would mail out these ballots? Nobody up here had that discussion. and you continue to just throw this to staff because you know that the minute you hire a consultant and they come back and tell us, hey, this is going to cost you $10, $15 million a year

David PenalozaItem 39

to start this entire department to register people to vote, handle ballots, handle election counting. You know you're going to have egg on your face when you move forward with this decision to move this direction. So I will continue to not support this at the moment until that discussion is had, at the end of the day, we all up here took an oath of office to defend the Constitution of the State of California and the Constitution of the United States of America, who say that only citizens shall have the right to vote. And we will also protect it against all enemies, foreign and domestic, which we have right here.

David PenalozaItem 39

So I cannot move forward with this. and I can assure you Madam City Clerk that when this budget comes before us for your office and Madam City Attorney you will not have funding to protect this this litigation I can tell you right now you will not and Madam City Clerk I could tell you right now that your office will not have funding for this ballot measure that is my comments thank you madam mayor thank you I think

Councilmember Fan, you've already gone here three times.

Is it twice? Twice? Okay, you keep track. Good, thank you. Okay, go ahead. And then followed by Councilmember Becerra.

Thai Viet PhanItem 39

Thank you. You know, with this item we're saying give residents their say. If you don't support it, vote no. Lobby against it. Campaign against it. If you support it and you're a voter, come out and vote for it. lobby for it, campaign for it. That's what we're saying. And if the voters of the city of Santa Ana doesn't want it, then we won't have it. But if we do hear from voters in the city of Santa Ana that we have a 50 plus 1% that says we want this because it's what we think is right, then we should do it. I don't think that that's really complicated, and I think that that is important.

Thai Viet PhanItem 39

And I do think that it's important to hear from our residents on this specific issue before we do go and look, you know, hire consultants and things like that. That's the point of this. I want to hear from you, and I want to know what you want. If you don't want it, great, we won't do it. If you do, perfect. We'll make it work because that's what our residents have demanded. And I do want to say that the 2028, you know, date that I asked was to ensure that we have the time to implement anything that our residents are voting for you know hiring the consultants looking at any type of implementation programs and

Thai Viet PhanItem 39

processes that's the point of having that 2028 date and so for me when I look at something like this it is about protecting our constitutional rights it is about standing up for our residents all residents whether you're legal permanent resident, whether you're DACA recipient, whether you're non-citizen, or you are a voting member of this community. I think that as someone who did stay up here that I will protect from all enemies foreign and domestic, that it is important to stand up for what is right. And what we see every day is that different states and different governments trying to take away the

Thai Viet PhanItem 39

rights of citizens and people in this country and we cannot let that happen. I'm very excited and very proud to stand up here and say this is the right thing to do and history will look back at us and know that Santa Ana is at the forefront of ensuring that all residents in our city who choose to vote will have that opportunity. Thank you.

Phil BacerraItem 39

Councilman Becerra. Thank you Madam Mayor. There are so many things that this council considers that we don't rush right we take the time to flush it out we try to make sure that it's viable that it's cost efficient it's all these things so that we can continue to provide high quality services to our residents so when someone is concerned at the fact that they're being accused of playing politics up here well I hope there's another explanation because everything else that we're doing we're taking the time to study we don't tell Mintai the director of planning ignore the EIR it's important we got to just

Phil BacerraItem 39

develop something because it's important the hell with the EIR now with any sort of review it's important and we'll just go ahead and cruise past any litigation right that's okay because it's important we have a responsibility to you the residents whether you are a citizen or not to make sure that you have high quality services when we continue to make these types of rash decisions rather than go through a thorough study to make sure that what we're doing actually could work actually could be defendable but we're not doing that so yeah it is questioned as to why now why so sudden why not

Phil BacerraItem 39

take the time to vet it we witnessed that on a couple of other items when we get dangerously close to an election and right now it just seems exactly like deja vu thank you councilman hernandez

Johnathan Ryan HernandezItem 39

thank you madam mayor i just wanted to confirm we do have a motion and a second on the floor

and there's comments so go ahead city madam thank you

mayor pro tem lopez

Jessie LopezItem 39

Yes, thank you. Just three quick points because we've continued to hear these really gross remarks against very well-educated professionals, and in this case some of those attorneys that you're talking about, Councilmember Peñalosa, are your constituents. So you should be respectful of how much education they've had to endure, probably more than you, and their profession. And I doubt that any attorney is going to slap their signature on any paperwork that they cannot

Jessie LopezItem 39

legally defend. And I just also want to say for the record that there are many attorneys out there that work for free. It's called pro bono work. I volunteered my own time in helping them translate for you visa cases there's a range of work that attorneys out there do for communities that they understand are under resourced and can never afford to engage with an attorney of their caliber so thank you to the attorneys that don't have to get involved that don't have to do work or work with our communities on a pro bono cases or whatever it might be but choose to do so and choose to help

Jessie LopezItem 39

share the knowledge that they've accomplished through their law schools. And I also want to say that, you know, I've heard multiple times now when we discuss this issue that funding for this is going to be blocked, and that is not allowing the voters to participate in this decision-making process. How is that fair to you if you have a council here that is telling you openly that they will block any funding for this question to be given to you. That's not fair. So you can disagree with the majority of the council saying give this to the voter but I strongly disagree that you should be sitting here plotting how

Jessie LopezItem 39

you're gonna block funding so that this is given to the voter so that it can be settled once and for all. Thank You Councilman Panoloso. Thank You Mayor

David PenalozaItem 39

Mesquan I just want to thank Councilmember Fan for those comments. They were actually very valid and they make sense and they're valid arguments to state. But part of our job as well up here is to not be lazy when we bring these questions forward. Do the work, answer these questions for staff. We're running to two voters, telling them, do you want this yes or no? And now if they say yes, now we're stuck. They don't know how much this is gonna cost their tax pay, their pocket. They don't know what this looks like in the city. we just saw we can't even handle rental registry because it's a complete failure

David PenalozaItem 39

and that's been two years in the making but we're going to register people to vote make sure they get ballots make sure they have voting centers and make sure they vote I could tell you right now that four years isn't enough that would this that it's going to be a disaster why because this council is lazy and don't want to do the work. They don't want to answer the hard questions of what this is going to look like. So those are valid questions, Council Member Fan, but we when we're making these decisions we can't take the laziness route. We got to do the work and answer these questions for staff. Again, Sonia,

David PenalozaItem 39

I apologize to your office for having to go down this route with no direction. You said it today, we were able, we have to provide the what, and your office provides a how, but when we don't provide the what, and we don't provide any direction of what that looks like, you struggle to provide that how. That makes sense. Apologies to staff. Thank you, Sonia.

We're going to move forward now.

There's a motion. I'm sorry, it popped up. You push the button. There's a motion, Madam C. Quick, you're putting it up to vote?

Jennifer L. HallItem 39

Yes, I was, but I do see Mayor Portem Lopez's name. Yeah, go ahead.

I saw her comments, that's why I was gonna let her. Go ahead. Mayor Pro Tem, this is your third time, go ahead.

Jessie LopezItem 39

Oh, thank you, so sorry. You know, I appreciate all the debate, but I don't accept you calling me lazy, you out of all people on this dais. Please be respectful about my work ethic here. And so, I also just wanna say that I love the passion about protecting people's voting rights, but you didn't do that last Monday. You should have been consistent then. Thank you.

So we're going to take a vote right now. And you know, that's why people sit up here and, you know, they go back and forth and make comments at this meeting's ghetto. People in the audience will say, let me talk. No, don't let her talk, you know, because you don't drink, you don't agree with me. So if you don't agree with me, we can't have differences. You know, so we use terms like plotting. Nobody's plotting anything. I think we've been very clear up here about questions. you all have been, I have been, everybody's sitting up here. Is it going to cost millions

and millions of dollars? Yes, it is. And so when we lose things in our community, like public say, we have a homeless issue where people are being assaulted and, you know, attacked and they're living on our streets or defecating on your front yard. Your children get to see them naked in our community and doing terrible things but I haven't seen the majority up here that is pushing so hard for this non-citizen voting to really push for something the homeless like we built a shelter okay there's so much more to do why haven't with the relationship that they have up here with the supervisor why haven't you

brought in street medicine why haven't you brought in money from Caliopto why are we not doing this so I'm the last person to speak up here because I this my third time and I hear somebody in the audience vote vote you say that when it's convenient for you not when you know it's not what you don't want to hear so this is not how it works it's not gonna we're not gonna vote because you said so we're gonna vote when we're done up here whether you like it or not because everybody had their say out there so we get to have our say up here and

nobody's plotting our city attorney thank you city manager thank you city clerk staff that are going take this on it is going to be a big deal and it's going to cost a lot of money and again there's going to be consequences where are we going to get the money from so with that let's proceed to vote

Jennifer L. HallItem 39

thank you so this is a motion by council member vasquez seconded by council member hernandez to approve a resolution of the city council of the city of santa anna calling and giving notice of a general municipal election to be held in the city of santa ana on november 5th 2024 for the submission of a ballot measure to the qualified voters asking if the city of santa ana should permit non-citizen voting in all city municipal elections as amended to include the edits from version 2 as stated by council member fan which include clerical edits in five whereas

Jennifer L. HallItem 39

clauses addition to section 3 to include the mayor and city council members edits to the ballot question language and edits to the language for section 1203 of the charter to add the definition of municipal elections and for implementation in 2028. It also includes a CEQA determination that the resolution is not subject pursuant to sections 15060 C2 and C3.

Thank you Madam City Clerk. Let's prepare to vote.

Are you ready for a vote? Can you do a roll call please?

Jennifer L. HallItem 39

Councilmember Becerra?

Johnathan Ryan HernandezItem 39

No.

Jennifer L. HallItem 39

Councilmember Hernandez?

Johnathan Ryan HernandezItem 39

Absolutely. Yes.

Jennifer L. HallItem 39

Councilmember Penaloza?

Johnathan Ryan HernandezItem 39

No.

Jennifer L. HallItem 39

Councilmember Fan? Yes. Councilmember Vasquez? Yes. Mayor Pro Tem Lopez? Yes. Mayor Emescua? No. The vote is four ayes, three nays. Nays by Mayor Emescua and Councilmembers Becerra and Penaloza. Motion carries.