Read the January 16 meeting.

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Testing.

Council meeting for January 16, 2024.

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Recording in progress.

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Valerie Amezcua

Good evening, everybody. Madam Clerk, we're ready to get started. I hereby call 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 Kirk, please conduct the roll call.

Jennifer L. Hall

Thank you, Mayor. Councilmember Becerra? Councilmember Hernandez?

Johnathan Ryan Hernandez

Present.

Jennifer L. Hall

Councilmember Penalosa? Councilmember Phan? Here. Councilmember Vazquez?

Benjamin Vazquez

Present.

Jennifer L. Hall

Mayor Pro Tem Lopez?

Here.

Jennifer L. Hall

Mayor Hmesqua? Present. So we have five members present, four in the Chamber, and Mayor Pro Tem Lopez joining us via teleconference. Great. Great.

Valerie Amezcua

Madam Clerk, are there any additions or deletions to the closed session item?

Jennifer L. Hall

Yes, Mayor. I have one announcement related to closed session item number three. The agency lead negotiator in the closed session will be Ramon Figueroa on behalf of the city. And that concludes my announcement.

Valerie Amezcua

Thank you. Do any council members need to announce their abstentions on closed session items?

Thai Viet Phan

I will announce my abstention from item one as Orange County Water District may be implicated by results of this litigation, and they're a client of my employer, Rattan and Tucker. Thank you.

Valerie Amezcua

Madam Clerk, do we have any speakers for closed session?

Jennifer L. Hall

No, we do not, and we did not receive any emails either. Mayor Pro Tem Lopez, do you have any closed session speakers at your location?

No one present, so no speakers.

Jennifer L. Hall

Thank you.

Valerie Amezcua

I'm sorry, I can't hear her?

Jennifer L. Hall

Sure. No speakers. Okay, perfect. Thank you.

Valerie Amezcua

We'll now recess this portion of the meeting to consider the items listed on the closed session agenda.

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Recording in progress.

Jennifer L. Hall

Mayor, the meeting is ready.

Valerie Amezcua

Thank you. I hereby reconvene the Santa Ana City Council meeting to order. This meeting is taking place with in-person attendance and 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. As a reminder, this is a meeting to conduct the business of the city. As mayor, I am afforded the opportunity to call for a recess or break or to even clear the meeting room if a meeting becomes too disruptive to properly conduct business. Warnings will be provided prior to any action being taken.

Valerie Amezcua

We appreciate your cooperation. For everyone's safety, per the Fire Marshal, please do not stand or place objects in the aisles, in front of the dais, along the back wall of the Council Chamber, or in front of the exits or entrances. To ensure that all members of the public may watch and participate in the meeting without disruption, designated areas for filming and photography are marked with the red tape at the back of the room. Guidelines for members of the news media and anyone else who wishes to film or photograph the meeting are available in the lobby during City Council presentations and

Valerie Amezcua

oaths of office guests of individuals being recognized are invited to come to the front and take photos and we thank all of you for being here madam clerk

Jennifer L. Hall

please conduct a roll call Thank You mayor councilmember Becerra here councilmember Hernandez present councilmember Penaloza present councilmember Phan here councilmember Vasquez present mayor Pro Tem Lopez here

Benjamin Vazquez

Here.

Jennifer L. Hall

Mayor Meskwa. Present. Let the record show seven members present, and also noting that Mayor Pro Tem Lopez is teleconferencing for this meeting in accordance with the Brown Act. Her location was posted on the agenda and at her location in accordance. Thank you.

Valerie Amezcua

Thank you. At this time, before we proceed to the Pledge of Allegiance, please make any announcement. Madam Clerk.

Jennifer L. Hall

Yes, thank you, Mayor. For members of the public on Zoom or teleconference to request to speak during public comments on agenda or non-agenda items within the city's jurisdiction you must dial star 9 from your phone or click the button labeled raise hand from zoom now to be in the speaker queue once public comments commence this does not apply to our noticed public hearing items number 26 and 27 for which comments will be heard during those specified public hearings please hold your comments on those two items until called upon

Valerie Amezcua

during the public hearing thank you thank you the first item on the agenda is the pledge of allegiance

Valerie Amezcua

mario alvarado you want to come up and lead us in the pledge please

Valerie Amezcua

I can't see anybody else.

You can please rise.

Please place your hand over your heart. Follow as I begin. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Thank you.

Valerie Amezcua

Thank you very much, Mr. Alvarado. So may we have the words of inspiration by Gustavo Hernandez. Gustavo, Mr. Hernandez, if you can please come to the podium.

Thank you, Mayor. Hi. Thanks so much for having me here. My name is Gustavo Hernandez. I am a native of Santana and the recently appointed Poet Laureate of Orange County. Thank you. Thanks. Thanks. Today in preparation for this, I asked myself a question, and that is, what good is poetry in spaces like this? Can poetry serve us in spaces like this? And I believe that it can. It can stand as an example, as a symbol of what we are working toward and what we are protecting.

protecting, freedom of expression, the ability to seek joy and find love, the ability to shine a sort of light on ourselves, on who we are. I know that these concepts sometimes sit among things that we view as more tangible, more necessary, among matters that we consider more pressing. But what will we be left with after our work here is done? After everyone has said what they needed to say and decisions have been made? What is left? What are we fighting for if it isn't for our hearts, for a full

joyful life? What are we fighting for if it isn't art, if it isn't beauty? I'll now read a short love poem. February, I'm here. What you feel, it is the breath of the the next world. I know. I have been here with this door and this window open all day. And the next world has found its place again in this kitchen. And it is still my father telling me the sky is clearing. And it is still the avocado tree in the backyard for decades recklessly giving itself

away. It is a song that's been the pillar of poem after poem. And it is the day after the day you said you loved me you know my mother always warned me never to mistake a house not even hers for the house of divine providence but you are here with your palms over my palms and your face almost

Valerie Amezcua

feels like a miracle thank you thank you that was beautiful thank you very much

Valerie Amezcua

Thank you. Madam Clerk, are there any additions or deletions to the City Council agenda?

Jennifer L. Hall

Yes, Mayor. Thank you. We have a few clarifications. For item number nine, which is the amendments to agreements for traffic counting services, the title on the agenda includes an approval of an appropriation adjustment. That AA is not required and is not part of the recommended action, so there would be no such appropriation adjustment during consideration of that item. On item number 11, which is the agreement with the OCTA, the Orange County Transportation Authority, for operation and maintenance of the OC streetcar, there was a missing X on Exhibit C, page 3, notating that that part is the city's responsibility.

Jennifer L. Hall

So approval of that item would include approval of that agreement as amended to include that X clerical correction. and in public hearing item number 27 a revised exhibit 3 the zoning ordinance amendment was distributed and posted to the city's website to correct typographical errors in that ordinance so during that public hearing consideration of that ordinance will be as revised by staff for first reading

Valerie Amezcua

thank you perfect thank you very much at this time we're gonna go to presentation the first presentation by councilmember Becerra please I'd like the Santa Ana College football team up here please for your to be recognized

Phil BacerraItem 1

come on up Thank You mayor if I could have coach Adam Neeson and Mary Hagerty Santa Ana College's athletic director to come on up and while they're coming up I want to thank dr. Jeff lamb from Santa Ana College for being here tonight and support of the Dons.

Phil BacerraItem 1

So tonight we are recognizing the Santa Ana College football team's outstanding 2023 season. The Dons finished the 2023 season with a record of nine and two overall and complete their successful season by defeating the college of the desert 56 to 48 over at the um southern california bowl that was played on november 19th just a few blocks down over at the santa ana stadium or the bowl uh santa ana college posted the most wins as a football program since 2010 and won their first bowl game since 2012 when they beat College of the Canyons back then 24-21 also in the Southern California Bowl. In

Phil BacerraItem 1

addition to their team accomplishments, Santa Ana College also saw several individual student athletes honored with postseason awards. One in particular, Zemir Richardson was named the American Metro League Defensive Most Valuable Player and was voted onto the All-American and Regional for All-California first team. While playing defensive end, he posted 13 sacks, which was second in the entire state of California, to go along with his 36 tackles, four forced fumbles, and an interception.

Phil BacerraItem 1

Also along with him, he had teammates Blaza Iglesias, Cole Miller, Alicia Sadler, Aaron Hodgkiss, and Malachi Pierce were all also named to the regional four all California first team while the Dons also saw 20 players make it onto the all-American metro league teams as well. A huge reason why Santa Ana College football has been steadily improving over the last few years has begun has been because of the passion and leadership of coach Anthony White.

Phil BacerraItem 1

Unfortunately, Coach White passed away in November 2023 after battling a very rare yet aggressive form of cancer. The passing of Coach White was not just a loss to his wife, Son, and his children, Anthony II and Olivia Grace, but it was a loss for all of us here in Santa Ana. So if you wouldn't mind, I'd like to take this opportunity to reflect on Coach White's career and accomplishments. So Anthony White was hired as the 18th head coach in Santa Ana College football's history during the summer of 2021.

Phil BacerraItem 1

In his three seasons as the head coach of the Dons, he compiled a 21 and 11 record, including a 2021 American Metro League Championship and earning Coach of the Year honors in his first season. He led the Dons to their first bowl championship since 2012, with their victory in the 2023 Southern California Bowl back in November. Before coming to SAC, Coach White turned around the struggling football team at Buena Park High School, leading them into the top 10 of Orange County and leading them to the Freeway League Championship in 2016. During his seven-year tenure at Buena Park, Coach White finished with a 59-22 record,

Phil BacerraItem 1

as the Coyotes never fell below .500 and only missed the playoffs once. And then prior to Buena Park, he also coached at Temple City High School, Pasadena City College, Rosemead High School, and Wilson High School. Now as a player, Anthony White starred at Rosemead High School before earning a scholarship to play at the University of Utah where he served not only as the senior captain for the Utes but he also served as a resident advisor and student body vice president quite a lot of work for that man Anthony's family was not able to attend this evening so what I'd like to do is I'd like to present this

Phil BacerraItem 1

certificate if I could have Mary come forward so Mary's here as Santa Ana College's athletic director and I'd like to present this to you for the family we just we miss him and we really appreciate thank you so much

we so appreciate this and all of your support it's a great loss for us great coach but even a better man really appreciate this thing yeah well well

Phil BacerraItem 1

like coach white did I want to end on a positive note because you know coach White's last game was that win at the Bowl so what I'd like to do is have

coach Adam Neeson come forward coach on behalf of the city of Santa Ana I'd like

Phil BacerraItem 1

to present this certificate to you. I appreciate what you and Coach White and your entire team did in 2023. If you'd like to say a few words and first of all let's give them a round of applause.

Yeah it was a really incredible thing that we were able to do and the best thing that came out of this was watching all these young men grow and what they had to go through watching their head head coach struggled through a debilitating cancer. And then we lost him at the end of the season. They persevered. They battled every single day. They did everything the coaches asked of them. And their goal to go on and to earn a scholarship and to represent us in the city of Santa Ana, us as a community, is what our goal is for all of our student athletes. And so for the whole athletic department,

Santa Ana College as a whole, we thank you for the support from the city that we get. And it's just really important to us and these young men. like Kaden here that have come out today you know they get to reap the awards for all the hard work that that we put in here so thank you again

Phil BacerraItem 1

Would you guys like to come down and join us for a hug?

Sorry guys, just doing that. . . . . . . .

Thank you.

Thank you.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 1

Next presentation is by Councilman Hernandez, please.

Johnathan Ryan HernandezItem 1

If we can please invite Roman Rayner and the Suavecito Foundation as well as Cristobal Mendez with the midnight cruisers the midnight cruisers please come on up to the front welcome to your house this is a beautiful City Hall

Hi. Hi. Thank you.

We'll make some space. Bring it in. Come on, guys. All right.

Johnathan Ryan HernandezItem 1

Well, welcome everybody. All right. We got a big group of community today. We got families, we got mamas, dads, aunts, uncles, everybody. Right up here. Good to see you, sir.

Johnathan Ryan HernandezItem 1

All right. Welcome to your home. Welcome to City Hall in the beautiful city of Santa Ana. Today, January 16th, we are providing certificates of recognition to our neighbors in the Santa Anita community. I'm very humbled to be here today. I haven't grown up in Articia, we're just right over the bridge. My family also calls the Santa Anita neighborhood home. we've been living in that community for generations I'm very proud to have been raised in that piece happy lad but I went to school in Santa Anita I'm a alumni of Spurgeon intermediate so I just want to say Santa Ana is a

Johnathan Ryan HernandezItem 1

reflection of itself and so what you're seeing up here today is a labor of love and I just want to applaud you guys for giving back to the community in the ways that you have so let's start with the round of applause for them

Johnathan Ryan HernandezItem 1

The Suavecito Foundation has partnered with the Midnight Cruisers for several years, organizing toy drives in July and December. Last month they held their annual toy drive distribution caravan. This caravan happens throughout the Santa Anita neighborhood. They distribute toys to over 500 families. The Midnight Cruisers toy drive officially started back in 2016. However, the first toy distribution actually happened in 2015 with about 16 lowrider cars covering a few streets in their community. It started off small with the delivery of toys to one household and then slowly they

Johnathan Ryan HernandezItem 1

started expanding covering the entire streets, now covering entire blocks. Approximately 38 beautiful lowrider cars participate in this toy caravan, all of which call Santa Anna home. In addition to the toys, Suavecito Foundation and Midnight Cruisers also provide items of need to new mothers, to the elderly, as well as school supplies to children. Throughout the year they hold fundraisers with 100% of the money raised going to purchase toys throughout the toy distribution that happens in Santa Anita. The goal is to reach every single child

Johnathan Ryan HernandezItem 1

in the community, in the neighborhoods where there is need, to ensure that they're seen, to ensure that they're heard, and that throughout the holiday season and all throughout the year they're supported. These types of events may seem insignificant to communities that have everything that they need, but in a city like Santa Ana where we lift up our neighbors, these types of events bring our people together. They promote a sense of giving, they create a sense of community and through this generosity brick people become stronger acquainted together

Johnathan Ryan HernandezItem 1

our neighbors protect their community more often than they do not i want to say from the bottom of my heart thank you to the suavecito foundation and the midnight cruisers for their outstanding contributions to the community and without further ado i would like to present this certificate of recognition to the midnight cruisers for their 2023 annual toy drive cruise and i will also be providing a certificate of recognition to the suavecito foundation so roman if you could please make your way on up on behalf of the city council this is for the suavecito foundation and this is for the midnight cruisers felicidades congratulations

We want to thank the city of Santa Ana. As you can see, it takes a whole team. We want to be there for our neighborhood, for the city, so we get our hands dirty, we get out there in the streets, and we try to provide for as many families as we can. So thank you to all the Midnight Cruisers. It takes a lot of work, and we really appreciate it. Thank you, brother. Thank you.

Many of you have heard of the Suavecito brand. The boys are born and raised in Santa Anita, and they literally give back as often as they can. At some point, they opened up a foundation so they could not only help sponsor other events, but other community events as well. And that's exactly where they came from. So to them, it is a really foundation to give back to our community. and we're looking forward to building stronger relationship with the community with the city as well as garden Grove School District to have a bigger impact in our community I want to thank

Johnathan Ryan HernandezItem 1

you for all of your support appreciate it all right let's give them a big round of applause thank you beautiful Santa Anita community and suavecito

Thank you. Thank you guys.

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. yeah for sure

Sonia R. Carvalho

all right madam city attorney mayor council members and members of the public we had four closed session items hold on one second i'm sorry

Sonia R. Carvalho

um we had four closed session items this evening but we do not have any reportable action i'm sorry no reportable action tonight No reportable action.

Jennifer L. Hall

And Mayor, we do have Mayor Potem on the line who needed to make an announcement.

Valerie Amezcua

Go ahead.

Jessie Lopez

Mayor Potem. Thank you, Jennifer. I just wanted to thank Poet Hernandez for accepting my invitation to come and share his beautiful words with the council and with members of the public. And I hope that he will consider coming back and sharing more poems.

Valerie Amezcua

All right. At this time, I'd like to consider the public hearings followed by the business calendar and the consent calendar. So we're going to go into the public hearings at this time. Before hearing public hearing item 26, Madam Kirk, please provide instructions to the public who'd like to make a comment on this public hearing item only.

Jennifer L. HallItem 26

Yes, Mayor. Thank you. At this time, if any of the members joining us by way of Zoom or conference call who would like to make a comment on Public Hearing Item Number 26 only, which is the Amendment Application and Zoning Ordinance Amendment related to the expansion of Vista Heritage Charter School located at 601 North Fairview Street, you may raise your hand at this time.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 26

Can we close that door? Thank you. Can't hear. Item number 26 is an amendment application number 2023-04 and zoning ordinance amendment number 2023-03 for the expansion of Vista heritage charter school interim city manager may we please have the staff i'm sorry yes interim

city may we please have a staff presentation thank you mayor may pretend and member of the city council the application before you tonight is for the expansion of the vista heritage school located to 609 with 5th Street the school is requesting for approval of a zone change a zoning code text amendment to expand the boundary of SD 82 zoning district and to amend the text zoning district to accommodate the conversion

of an existing 5800 square foot industrial building located at 601 North Fairview Street into administrative office for the school it is recommended minute that the City Council approved the first reading of the ordinance is approving the zone change as well as the zoning code text amendment as presented before you the triangular site is located on the east side of Fairbury Street north of Fifth Street adjacent to the OC Streetcar right away the general plan land use designation for the site is industrial flex and the existing zoning is light industrial the site is surrounded by the old Street Streetcar

Car Right-of-Way and the school district offices to the east and to the north, the Vista Heritage Charter School and Industrial Business to the south, and the Lydia Romero Cruz Academy to the west. The site is approximately 39,000 square feet in total area and is developed with 5,800 square feet of building that is currently used as an auto repair and related businesses. businesses. The project is requesting that the property at 601 North Fairview Street be rezoned from M1 to SD82 to help facilitate the conversion of the existing auto repair industrial building into an administrative office for Vista Heritage Charter School.

Additionally, SD82 will be amended to allow outdoor play area as the updated list allows allow uses to be consistent with the general plan and the West Santa and a Boulevard specific focus area. The overall site building improvements will include exterior facade remodel for the existing 601 building on Fairview. We configure the floor plan for the administrative office. Construction of a new 2200 square foot garden adjacent to the administrative office. Installing a fence along the northern property line along the specific electric right of separating the property from the OC Streetcar right away, a new outdoor play area adjacent

to the existing Vista Heritage School, and relocating 51 onsite parking spaces from parcel two to parcel four.

This is a slide illustrating the site as located on the property. 601 North Fairview is on top of the slide. that is the property in question being requested for a zone change which will convert the existing building into office as well as the new garden use and new parking lot in relationship to the existing school and then for the school as you can see on the bottom right there will be a new play area at the rear of the school as well as a reconfiguration of the drop-off area for better

circulation on site along the bottom right of the slide the amendment will evaluate for potential negative impacts to the built environment for consistency with the general plan as but as the project is located within the newly designated West Center Boulevard general plan focus area it was critical that the proposed changes be consistent with the vision of the general plan this focus area envisioned a mixed-use corridor with a goal transitioning out existing existing auto-oriented and traditional industrial uses to clean manufacturing as well as R&D

uses, as well as live work, maker spaces that are compatible and can coexist with residential, other sensitive land uses such as school, churches, and recreation facilities. The proposed changes, it's critical to note, will not bring any new incompatible or intensify by any existing activities that are not existing on site.

And the proposed project will also advance the vision of the general plan focus area and will bring the site into compliance and alignment with the general plan. The environmental studies complete for the project concluded that it will not exacerbate traffic flow and parking demand or expose people to negative noise and environmental impacts on the site.

The proposed administrative office will reduce the parking demand on the site from five spaces per thousand square feet to three spaces per thousand square feet of office uses and will not negatively increase the number of trips generated on the site during the peak a.m. or p.m. travel hours. Furthermore, the student enrollment will not be changed by this proposal and will remain at the existing cap of 870 students that are currently on site.

The physical education activity will be located, as I mentioned earlier, to an area gated adjacent to the building on the north side of the school and will only be taking place during the school hours, which is Monday through Friday from 8.30 a.m. to 3 p.m. Lastly, the current list of permitted uses in SD82 zoning district currently allow for a number of traditional industrial and noxious uses on the site which are no longer consistent with the general plan's vision for this focus area. This update as part of this project will limit these outdoor activities as well as reducing

and eliminating traditional heavy industrial and noxious uses on the site and within the the zoning district the project has been reviewed in accordance to the California minor quality act and the sequel guideline is amended and it's been found to be exempt to date the project has generated a total approximately 156 permanent employment position and upon completion it will it anticipated that additional 10 jobs will be created it has also generated approximately 46 thousand dollar in environmental I'm sorry entitlement and plan check permit fees and there is no anticipated fiscal impact associated with this project

tonight we end with the recommendation that the council adapt the ordinances approving the amendments for the zone change as well as the amendment for the zoning text amendment that concludes my staff report I'll be answering any

Valerie AmezcuaItem 26

question thank you very much do any members of the council need to disclose ex parte communications or are there any questions or comments by the the council at this time. If you'd like to speak, please hit the speakers button and then we'll do three minutes, three rounds. Thank you. Thank you very much, I appreciate it. I now open the public hearing for members of the public that would like to provide their comments in person and virtually. Madam city clerk, do we have any speakers?

Jennifer L. HallItem 26

Yes, mayor, thank you. Noting for the record first, we did receive five e-comments related to public hearing item number 26. Those were distributed to the council, made available to the public in the back of the chamber posted on the city's website the first speaker will be the applicant Colin Felch representing Vista Charter Public Schools as the applicant you do have ten minutes for your initial presentation thank you and I will not

take ten minutes good evening mayor City Council it's a pleasure to be here in front of you this evening I first want to thank the staff for their their time their diligence in reviewing this issue. Before I get into my comments too much, we are limiting the number of speakers that, at least from VISTA, that are coming because we want to respect your time. And so I do want to take a moment to recognize the support in the room. So I would like to ask all of the all the people here with VISTA to please stand up.

up. Thank you again for coming. So here before you this evening is what I would consider a pretty simple zoning amendment. As you heard in the presentation, we are not planning to expand the student enrollment capacity at all. We are really just trying to provide better more necessary facilities for our students and so I do consider this a win win win a win for students a win for the school and a win for the community it's obviously a win for the students being able to provide necessary safe enclosed

outdoor space that we currently do not have to offer to our students it's it's a win for the school mainly by obviously the outdoor space but also being able to to bring our organizational offices to this great city of Santa Ana. And as the former principal here in Santa Ana, I take a lot of pride in that. And it's also a win for the community. We partner with a number of essential community organizations, namely the Raya Foundation. I'm not sure if Leon had to leave. Yeah, he's still here, great. All right, I'll let him speak afterwards. But we have great partners such as the Raya Foundation.

We have started to host the Artesia Pilar Neighborhood Association meetings at our school campuses, and we would love to, at the new organizational office, be able to provide those amenities for the Neighborhood Association. We obviously have our friends next door at Templo Calvario that we are great partners with. And so we really do believe that this is a win-win-win, and most importantly, it's a win for the students. And that's what we're here for every single day. And so, again, I thank you so much for your time. And if you have any questions, I'd be happy to answer them.

Jennifer L. HallItem 26

Next speaker will be Ilari Oleskowaga, followed by Leon Raya.

Jennifer L. HallItem 26

Time limit for these comments is two minutes.

Hello everyone. My daughter, Iyari, wanted to make a comment but she got a little shy so I'm going to read what she wrote. So, hello dear Santa Ana City Council. My name is Iyari and I attend Vista Global Academies. I have been attending this school since fourth grade. I am in sixth grade now. And all this time I have been having recess inside the gym. We were for some time allowed to play in the parking lot and I was happy to be outside, but that didn't last too long. We are back indoors. I arrive at school at 7.30 a.m. and my mom picks me up at 5 p.m. Some of my friends get to school at 7 a.m. and leave at 6 p.m.

That's almost 12 hours indoors. My mom told me it is good to be outside, that our bodies need sunlight to be healthy, and being indoor all day is not good for my mind i want to be healthy and i want just like my friends and my little sister to have the opportunity that other kids at other schools have to play outside thank you

Jennifer L. HallItem 26

leon raya followed by zoila lubin if you could please line up

Hello Madam Mayor, members of the City Council. My name is Leon Raya. I'm a resident of Ward 3. I'm also president and founder of the Raya Foundation, along with my beautiful wife, Pearl. I'm here in support of these two ordinances that you changed and support the project there at Francisco. They have been a wonderful partner with the Raya Foundation. They have allowed us to host a lot of our programs and activities in their gym, host some of our parent meetings there. there. They, when I first met Mr. Felch, we were blessed to meet him just by chance and

he told us, we support the community, we support the neighborhood and what you're doing is in line with our vision for the type of school we want to be. And if they've done that and more. So I'm just asking that you approve these ordinances and they could allow VISTA continues the great work that they're doing. Thank you very much.

Jennifer L. HallItem 26

Zoila Lubin followed by John Ramirez.

I can do these. I have some pictures that the kids drew. I tried to send them to you guys, but I just couldn't go through. You only allowed 25 MPs, but whatever. Good evening, members of the council. My name is Zoila Lubin and I live in Santa Ana, Ward 2. I am here to to support Vista Charter Public Schools Building Project. My family has been with Vista Charters for seven years. I'm a proud parent of one of the Vista alumni who now attends modern day. And then I am a proud mom of three more, eighth grader, second grader, and a kindergartner. I have not been with Vista only as a parent.

I am, full disclosure, I am the community coordinator for Vista Condor Global Academy. Here's some pictures, so I'm just gonna talk as I show you and as a community coordinator I'm here to kind of represent the kids and what they want and what they've been asking for but I am also here as a parent and I'm here to show you and tell you that the parents have wanted this for a long time you know we need a fence for our children we need a playground and not only that we're gonna have beautiful district district offices, you know, on the back, and we're going to have a community garden.

And then I'll just kind of take a little bit more time showing you the different drawings. There's some really good ones and very creative. And so even though this is not what the plan is for, I just wanted you to see what they envision in their dreams and their plans and how your decision can really impact what they dream of. Thank you and have a good evening.

Jennifer L. HallItem 26

John Ramirez.

Good evening, Mayor, City Council members, and City Staff President. My name is John Ramirez, and I'm a resident of Ward 2, and I've resided in this city my entire life. I'm here tonight to speak in support of Agenda Item 26 and ask that you approve the first readings for this item regarding Vista Heritage School. school. Approving this will provide an outdoor recreation environment for the students along with creating a community garden. Also, just as or more importantly, it will provide an outdoor security fence, which I think we all can agree is needed whenever it comes to student

safety. And I got to read some of the online correspondence from students who attend Vista Heritage and it seems like this is something they all want since they took the time to to email you letters and support. And hopefully you all read them as well. So I hope the council approves this tonight. Thank you, Mayor, City Council, members and staff. Have a good evening and to all our fire and police personnel present tonight, please stay safe. Thank you and good night.

Jennifer L. HallItem 26

Mayor Pro Tem Lopez, please let us know if you have any speakers for this public hearing at your location. There are no speakers in the room, therefore no public comment for this agenda item thank you so much

Jennifer L. HallItem 26

Colin Felch you can return to the podium for rebuttal comments if you would like

Valerie AmezcuaItem 26

actually madam city quick let me hear from the council if there's any comments first and then he can do a rebuttal if he needs to okay perfect are there any

Johnathan Ryan HernandezItem 26

council members want to speak yes thank you I just wanted to ask one brief question if you could please make your way up here to the front sir thank you

Johnathan Ryan HernandezItem 26

well thank you for your time and for your public comment we are considering all of the information that is before us today I had the pleasure of touring your school separate to this but I did get a chance to learn about your guys's approach to education your guys's approach to working across the table with neighbors that have different nationalities different backgrounds and I do see the need and the desire for students to have an outdoor space so given all of that information you know I am going to be supportive of this I would like to make a motion to approve the ordinance change mayor the public

Jennifer L. HallItem 26

hearing has not yet been closed and did you have a question for me you said you

Johnathan Ryan HernandezItem 26

had a question for him yes I wanted to ask you just so my colleagues can can learn more about Vista heritage can you tell us about the demographic of your students the percentage of students that live in Santa Ana yes so we have

approximately 90% of our students you saw that there is 840 students so about 90% reside in Santa Ana and approximately 96% are eligible for free for your reduced lunch.

Johnathan Ryan HernandezItem 26

Thank you. That was the only question that I wanted to ask. And I think it is important for our neighbors and our residents to know, as well as my colleagues, the high percentage of Santa Ana residents that are attending Vista Heritage as the councilmen of Ward 5, where the school resides. I know many of these residents live in Artisa Pilar, live in the Santa Anita community, very close to Vista. So because of all of that, I just want to applaud the work that you guys are doing. I hope that you guys continue to expand and thank you for educating the future. Thank you.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 26

Thank you. I don't see any other council members wanting to speak. So at this time with no further comments, I hereby close the public hearing.

Jennifer L. HallItem 26

And I'm sorry, Mayor, my apologies. Just one announcement that there were no speakers on Zoom within the stated initial timeframe of the public hearing.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 26

Thank you. Is there a motion and a second?

Phil BacerraItem 26

Mayor, I'd like to go ahead and move that we approve the two ordinances, the amendment applications for zone changes and the COA. I'll second. and then determine that the CEQA project, per the CEQA guidelines, that the project is exempt from further review.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 26

Thank you, I'll second.

Jennifer L. HallItem 26

So at this time, let's prepare to vote. Yes, and Mayor, as we are having teleconference participation, we will need to do the votes by roll call. You got it, go ahead. Council Member Becerra? Yes. Council Member Hernandez? Yes. Council Member Penalosa? Yes. Council Member Phan? Yes. Council Member Vasquez? Yes. Mayor Pro Tem Lopez? Yes. Mayor Meskwa? Yes. The vote is seven ayes, no nays. Motion carries. Ordinances are approved for first reading.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 26

Great. Next item, number 27, it's a public hearing.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 26

Public hearing for the Code Amendments. Interim City Manager, may you please have a staff report?

Staff Member Mentai will provide that presentation.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 27

Oh, I was going to say, where is he?

Thank you, Assistant Seaman. Mendoza. Madam Mayor, Mayor Pro Tem and City Council, this item is a request for approval of three ordinances. The first is an ordinance amendment number 232023-04 for clarifying the applicability of the sunshine ordinance to include specific development amendments. The second is an ordinance 232023-05 5 further addressing the permit eligible requirements for the self safe and sane fireworks in the city and finally ordinance amendment number 2023 dash 0

4 amending the various section of chapter 41 of the Municipal Code relating to wireless to communication facilities billboards hotels general restrictions as well as definitions of the ordinance currently the sunshine ordinance applies to zone change specific plan amendment or general plan amendments as relates to development project in the zoning code as the amendment to specific development districts similar to the one you just consider also changes to the zoning code this amendment will clarify the applicability of the Sun strike ordinance to include specific development projects making the ordinance consistent with what we

currently implement at the staff level currently pertaining to the safe and sane fireworks there the ordinance currently limits the eligibility of this cell and safe and sane fireworks to activities to nonprofit organizations with their principal meeting place within the city and 50% of the membership residing within the city the proposed amendment will further addresses the permit eligibility by clarifying several key components the first is to limit the permit issues to only school affiliated organizations and

Santa Ana community serving nonprofit organizations the second is that the entity must be located within the city limits and has been in continuous operation for a period of one year prior to application and finally the third is that the organization must demonstrate that Santa Ana community and is serving the Santa community and is having 75% of the membership be residing within the city's limit instead of the 50% moving on to wireless cut up commission facility existing regulations permit CUP for a period of 10 years and allow for

subsequent 10-year renewal periods subject to review and approval by the Planning Commission. The Commission has found that the changes to these facilities in their review of past CUPs are incremental and have minimal land use impact. With a goal of streamlining the renewal process, the Commission desires to delegate the review responsibility and the approval authority to staff. The proposed ordinance also addresses the streamlining of hotels to foster economic development and streamline the review of quality lodging opportunity in the city.

It is proposed that the city establish objective standards to facilitate the review of hotels proposal under the existing discretionary review process and also to permit certain hotels with qualifying amenities to be established by right in the various commercial and professional zones matching similar to other administrative approval process for establishing hotel in other zoning district throughout the city this include the memo the transit zoning code and the harbor corridor are several district within the city that are currently permitted by right as relates to hotel the objective standards addresses landscaping architectural

building design and materials it addresses pedestrian and vehicular circulation amenities as well as noise protection crime prevention and operational management requirements the remainder of the ordinance addresses minor clarifying edits that are related to clarifying the permissive nature of the zoning code meaning that if it's not specifically specified in the zoning code it is and it has been defined by our code it is not permitted if it's not specifically specify as a use in permitted in certain zones it also will

be removing duplicate definitions of long-term stay business hotel as well as transient residential hotel which are duplicate in different section of code and finally it clarifies that the minimum 1,000 foot separation requirement between billboards under the billboard ordinance applicable to the same side of the freeway for clarification inconsistent with state law the proposed ordinance are consistent with the number of goals that's been adopted by the City Council as part of the general plan update and the ordinance will move and

advance these goals forward as it relates to sequin fiscal impact the The ordinance has been found in accordance with the CEQA guidelines to be exempted under section 15060C2 as well as 15060C3.

Accordingly, a notice of exemption will be filed for the ordinance. Ordinances should it be approved. as relates to fiscal impact the new permit type for extension of wireless communication facilities if approved will result in additional review costs staff will recommend a new miscellaneous fee to recover the cost and will bring that resolution forward should that item be approved tonight in addition to that we have provided the city clerk and also provided you with a supplemental supplemental response to additional public comments that we receive after the publication of the agenda.

And they are supplementing the record and it's made a part of the record as part of tonight's hearing. Finally, staff recommends that the City Council adopt the ordinance amending Article Chapter 2 of the Municipal Code, adopt the ordinance amending Chapter 14 of the Municipal Code and adopting the ordinance submitting various section of chapter 41 of the Municipal Code is described and presented to you tonight thank you thank

Valerie AmezcuaItem 27

you very much for the presentation are there any questions or comments by the council at this time if you'd like to wait to after the public hearing comments we can do that okay at this time I now open the public hearing for members of the public I'd like to provide their comments in person and

Jennifer L. HallItem 27

virtually madam kirk do we have any speakers yes mayor thank you jordan sisson followed by juliana mushev time limit is two minutes

Good evening honorable mayor, city council members. My name is Jordan Sisson. I'm a land use CEQA attorney here tonight speaking on behalf of Local 11 Unite Here, which includes 30,000 members throughout Southern California and Arizona, including hundreds of members who live and work in Santa Ana. such as some who came here tonight who left directly from work and unfortunately could not make the timeline to submit public comment slips. Madam Mayor, we would respectfully request at your discretion to allow them the opportunity to speak since they literally just came from work and could not get here any earlier.

Tonight I'm here to speak. My client's very concerned about the zoning zoning amendment, which essentially up zones many parts of the city to allow by right hotels, which would normally require a zone change or a CUP and subject to sequel reveal.

Areas massive, many areas part of the city, including along Bristol, Maine, 17th, 1st, 4th, and Edinger.

In these areas, we outlined five chief concerns in our five page comment letter that we submitted earlier today which I believe have been circulated to all of you for those reasons we respectfully request that the hotel related items be striked and removed from the zoning administrative or from the zoning ordinance specifically sections 5 or sections 7 through 20 and exhibits A and B in 30 seconds I want to just highlight just a couple of the key points that were explained in detail in our comment letter one this proposed action is a project under the definition of CEQA, which includes the whole of action, which also includes

zoning ordinances, general plan amendments, and things that do control future development of private parties. This has not gone through CEQA review. Two, the standards and definition, respectfully, is not strong enough. They do not have performance standards, and they can be much stronger. Again, we respectfully request to remove the zoning of the hotel-related items. Thank you for your time.

Jennifer L. HallItem 27

Juliana Mushiev followed by Drew Snitzen.

Hello, good evening. I wanted to speak here in solidarity with Unite Here Local 11 against the hotel by right. We do need more housing. We do need more green spaces. We don't need more hotels. Hotels are a luxury. Housing is a basic human right and a need. So I stand here in support of that and that is my comment. Thank you.

Jennifer L. HallItem 27

Drew Snitson followed by Daniel Thomas, if you could please line up.

Johnathan Ryan HernandezItem 27

Madam Mayor, I wanted to indulge to see if we can allow some of the hotel workers who were unable to make the cutoff if we can allow them to speak

Valerie AmezcuaItem 27

Madam City Attorney I'm going to look to your legal expertise the problem with that with Councilman Hernandez is if I open that up that I have to open up every meeting and so Madam City Attorney I think the difference here is we have a

Sonia R. CarvalhoItem 27

notice public hearing and maybe what we could do is get one of the speakers to ask those of those that were showed up today made the time but do not have an opportunity to speak to stand up just like the speaker did in the previous public hearing so you have a sense of how many people yeah and they're here right now standing

Valerie AmezcuaItem 27

up so we're good with that so thank you guys very much for standing we recognize you and we know that you're here and thank you for coming after work and being here we really appreciate it thank you county member hernandez if that is a motion i'm happy to second it i'm i'm sorry i can't hear you because there's a lot of people speaking loudly while we're trying to talk go ahead

Jessie LopezItem 27

If that is a motion by Council Member Hernandez, I'm happy to second the motion and hear the public comment.

Johnathan Ryan HernandezItem 27

Thank you, Madam.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 27

I don't believe it was a motion. Are you making a supermajority?

Johnathan Ryan HernandezItem 27

I'll place a motion on the floor.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 27

I'll second. Can we have a clarification, Madam City Attorney?

Thai Viet PhanItem 27

Yes. My clarification question is for purposes of consistency as well as holding the public hearing is it permitted under our charter to allow to add public commenters for purposes of the public hearing only I didn't hear that last part is it so for public hearing only right they were not able to get their name card or their comment card in prior to our city policy deadline but for purposes of the public hearing can we take those comments yes I hear the question now so my advice was

Sonia R. CarvalhoItem 27

is because we're dealing with a legal public hearing that we should take the cards that were submitted. Your question is, can the city council notwithstanding that advice overrule the chair and allow additional public comment cards to be submitted? You can do that. You can, the city council can do that, but what you're going to need to do is actually have those cards, take the time to register them. That's why my advice was if they're all here to support a particular view and they're going to say the same thing, you might ask them them to stand and to indicate that they're here to support that view. If the City Council wants

Sonia R. CarvalhoItem 27

to waive their rules and procedures, you'll need to do that by a formal vote, and then we're going to need the City Clerk to provide those public speaker cards and open up that process. I understand the difficulties, but we do have rules and procedures that we can keep track. We have an attorney here speaking tonight. I consider this now to be a legal proceeding, not just a general public comment where we're being kind and letting people speak, and that's why we have those rules, to keep track of our public record in case these matters end up in litigation. Thank you. But it's your choice.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 27

Thank you. Thank you. So there was a motion and a second, so unless they have the majority, we're going to continue with the way we're running things. So thank you, Madam City Attorney. So let's just take a quick vote. If there's a super majority, then we'll move forward. If not, then we're going to continue the way we are doing things at this time. You want to take a roll call, please? Yes. Thank you, Mayor.

Jennifer L. HallItem 27

Mayor, a motion by Councilmember Hernandez, seconded by Mayor Pro Tem Lopez, to allow additional public speakers during this public hearing item number 27. Councilmember Becerra?

No.

Jennifer L. HallItem 27

Councilmember Hernandez? Yes. Councilmember Penalosa?

Johnathan Ryan HernandezItem 27

Yes.

Jennifer L. HallItem 27

Councilmember Phan? Yes. Councilmember Vasquez?

Yes.

Jennifer L. HallItem 27

Mayor Pro Tem Lopez? Yes. Mayor Meskwa?

Valerie AmezcuaItem 27

So I'm going to say yes, but what we're going to need to do, like the city attorney said, you're going to need to fill out cards. If you're all going to say the same thing, then maybe you can ask just one or two of you to do it. Otherwise, you can all fill out cards to speak. So can you hold on a second? I apologize if we can just... You want me to sit down then? Yeah. You can just sit right in the front. And if they need to fill out cards, would you like to speak or do you just want to stand and be recognized? nice get out loud and the must get aside see get us out let me get a cell in a

Valerie AmezcuaItem 27

car to come to nombre todo si todos que hablaron a must last personas tres personas all five they all want to speak so then they all need to fill out speakerfights please yes go ahead go ahead sir I apologize the vote was six

Jennifer L. HallItem 27

eyes one day named by councilmember Becerra to allow the additional speakers cards are being distributed thank you madam city clerk go ahead sir you three

go city council for this moment to share hold on one second I need the room to be

Valerie AmezcuaItem 27

I need you to please be quiet so we respect the speakers thank you thank you

so much excuse me I'm speaking to the ordinance with the safety of fireworks and the potential of 75% of membership of your organization living in Santa our particular church is growing so but not just from Santa Ana we are growing from all over Orange County folks coming to our church we're blessed that way also even from Los Angeles so 50% would be more realistic for our church number one and number two though the funds are used for a lot of our different ministries including one is a weekly outreach of food to our community and and always for the community of Santa Ana.

And last week we were blessed and privileged to feed 350 families. So that's one of the ways, main ways that we use the funds from the fireworks. So I would request, I would ask that it would be 50% membership. It would stay there, not move on to 75%. Thank you very much.

Jennifer L. HallItem 27

Next speaker, Daniel Thomas.

Good evening, Mayor and City Council. I'm Danny Thomas. I'm one of the pastoral staff at Bethel Baptist Church. Bethel Baptist started in Santa Ana about 75 years ago near the corners of Maine and Bristol. And we are now, I've been on staff there for 13 years as a full-time staff member. I've been a part of the church for 17 years. We have for well over 35 years run a firework stand. I inherited that because of my involvement in our Christian school. and so we have used the funds from that fireworks stand mostly for our sports program in fact we play Vista Meridian school in their sports league and

because we are also a church the requirement for 75% will be very difficult because we are right on the border of we're on Euclid so we're on the border of Garden Grove Fountain Valley and Westminster are all within a mile of us so we reach out in a whole spectrum from that and we're not I don't think in our current situation we would be able to meet that 50 is not a problem we do have a spanish ministry which about 75 percent of our spanish ministry is from the city of santa ana we also have a korean ministry we have a vietnamese ministry because we're called to reach

the community around us so we have used those funds as i've said to sponsor sports events we We also have sponsored our missionaries with that money. And so we would strongly recommend that that has inordinately affected churches. If you're a little league, your constituency is from Santa Ana. If you're a Santa Ana school, you have a 95% membership from Santa Ana. It's very difficult for a church to do. We feel it is unnecessary. We also believe that the illegal fireworks are not a good thing. we sponsor a fireworks show at our church with safe and sane fireworks. And we feel if we're not able to continue to do that,

we won't be able to support that. So we kindly ask that you, and strongly ask that you keep it 50%. Thank you for your time.

Jennifer L. HallItem 27

Mayor Pro Tem Lopez, could you let us know if you have any speakers for this public hearing at your location?

Jessie LopezItem 27

There are none, therefore no public comment.

Jennifer L. HallItem 27

Thank you. you're welcome we did receive one email regarding public hearing item number 27 which was distributed to council and posted online next speaker jenny rodriguez followed by

Jennifer L. HallItem 27

censorino gomez my apologies when you come up forward you'll have two minutes for your comments and if you could please state your neighborhood or ward for the record

Oh, you do? Okay.

Estamos aquí hoy para hablar sobre el punto 27 que cambiará la forma en que se permiten los hoteles en Santa Ana. Nosotros somos un sistema de alerta avanzado, como el canario que utilizaban los miembros. Estos pájaros eran los primeros afectados por las emisiones nocivas de gases en la mina.

Lo mismo ocurre con nosotros, los trabajadores, con el impacto del desarrollo en la comunidad. Nuestra experiencia debe moderar nuestra comprensión del impacto del desarrollo en el medio ambiente e informar la discusión, las discusiones sobre el uso de la tierra y las reglas ambientales

que dan forma al desarrollo no basta con ver el desarrollo a través de la de la lente del ente del personal de la ciudad los promotores inmobiliarios y los millonarios deberían debería ser ver deberían ver cómo funciona el desarrollo desarrollo a través de mis ojos y los ojos de mis compañeros de trabajo. Señor, su tiempo ha terminado. Muchas gracias.

Good evening, my name is Leonor Gomez and I'm a proud member of United Here Local 11, I work at Sheraton Park. I'm here to talk about number 27, the way that the different ways that hotels are permitted in Santa Ana. We as workers are like the canary in the mine because we are the first ones affected, like the canaries are affected, the first ones affected by the noxious gases in the mine. It's the same thing with us. When community development is affected, we are affected first.

we are we we get we're affected by this by the community development environmental development and when we discuss the issues of land use and environmental rules towards development it's not enough for the development to be considered by the city staff as lens we are here we it's not just to look at the point of view of the developers and builders and millionaires we need to see it through our lens

Jennifer L. HallItem 27

jenny rodriguez followed by elva espinoza

Good afternoon. My name is Jenny Rodriguez. I'm from Local 11. As I said before, we don't need more hotels in this city, but more places where the community can live, people, minorities more than anything else. también porque todo está subiendo y todo está quedando igual con los demás que trabajamos en trabajos que ganamos lo mínimo. Los más hoteles aquí, todo subiría más, definitivamente. Y pues vamos a estar, las personas que hemos vivido aquí casi toda nuestra vida estamos

siendo menos y menos. Ya no podemos, ahora sí que pagar la renta y apenas sí podemos We can't afford to pay for food. So that's why we're against more hotels. If we could, we'd have more homes. Thank you.

We need more housing for us. The more hotels, everything is going up. The prices of everything are going up. And we are minimum wage workers. The more hotels we have, the more prices go up. So there's fewer of us workers here. And we can't even afford to pay our rent. We can barely afford to pay for our food. So we are against more hotels and we do need more housing. Thank you.

personas se quedan sin vivienda cada noche y muchas familias tienen dificultades para pagar la renta no podemos permitir que se viven viviendas para construir hoteles de lujo hacemos un llamado al consejo municipal para que elimine el componente de permisos hoteleros del punto 27 esta noche y considere mejores ideas sobre como regular en lugar de simplificar el

Jennifer L. HallItem 27

desarrollo telly in Santana gracias next speaker Parker Shea followed by James

Brine good evening my name is Elvia Espinosa and I'm here with a United number 11 and I'm a Disney worker food server with Disney and we are against the hotels development in Santa Ana. We need more housing, not more hotels. It's very hard for us to get there. We do not need more luxury hotels. We need, and I'm here calling on the city council members to help us in this. Not no on hotel developments. Item number 27. Thank you.

you all right okay how you doing honorable counsel thank you for letting us speak mayor we really appreciate it so I represent you night here local 11 these folks right here these women who came straight from work to be here today to voice their thoughts and the unions thoughts on this issue we're here today to speak on item 27 which will change the way that hotels are permitted in the city of Santa Ana with decades of experience studying hotels from the perspective of the workers who make them run and the communities who live near them we are staunchly opposed to permitting hotels by right hotels should

not displace existing communities such as for example mobile home parks and low income communities hotels should not generally contribute to park and green space shortages hotels should not generally cause worsening traffic and greenhouse gas emissions hotels should make problems better not worse by by offering community benefits like affordable housing contributions, local hiring commitments, and other things that Santa Ana residents desperately need, and things that hotel developments in other cities have gotten for those communities. The way that Santa Ana ensures responsible hotel development

is by having this democratic body that sits here today make individualized decisions about each and every project. Please remove the hotel motel component of this package of the zoning ordinance and consider alternative approaches to this issue. Thank you.

Jennifer L. HallItem 27

James Brine.

Dear honorable mayor and city council, my name is James Brine and I represent Unite Here Local 11. We are here today to speak on item 27, as I'm sure you're well aware, which will change how hotels in Santa Ana are permitted. Recently, Los Angeles passed a sweeping set of laws about hotel development that will help ensure that hotels are developed responsibly in the communities that will host them. In particular, the responsible hotel development ordinance includes provisions around hotels not displacing housing, and it does something very important for hotel permitting.

It requires hotels to be issued with a conditional use permit that is applicable to the city council. That law passed through Los Angeles City Council by a 14 to 0 vote. Now, I want this council to consider that item 27 will be doing precisely the opposite. It will be making permitting approval for hotels, currently often a CUP, that is appealable to the Planning Commission simply by right. Please remove this component of the Zoning Ordinance Amendment Package tonight and consider an alternative approach to this issue. Thank you.

Jennifer L. HallItem 27

Mayor, that concludes the public speakers during the public hearing.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 27

Thank you very much. At this time, council comments. I see Councilman Hernandez. Three minutes, three rounds, please.

Johnathan Ryan HernandezItem 27

Thank you, Madam Mayor. I just wanted to say thank you to our Director of Planning, Minh Thai. I think that the changes that you're making in the areas of fireworks, I do hear the concerns, but I am supportive. I think that having a higher percentage of Santa Ana-based organizations is going to be supportive to those organizations that work and operate entirely in Santa Ana. I do share the same concerns with our hotel workers from Unite Here who came here today so I'd like to thank them for sharing their experiences. Part of where my concern comes from is due to the fact that Santa

Johnathan Ryan HernandezItem 27

Ana is a densely populated city. We're a city with a number of challenges related to our quality of life. Many of our residents work several jobs to live and stay within the city the city of santa ana has taken many measures to ensure that we are working to meet the housing requirement to ensure that we're able to to meet that need that families need my concern is that this was a decision that we would be making here on the council with very little input from our stakeholders there is no hotel without hotel workers therefore i would I would like to see the ordinance move forward,

Johnathan Ryan HernandezItem 27

but I am requesting a continuation on subsection C, and I believe the item, the numbers are going to be, let me see here, sub-item three, which includes hotel and motel. I'll place a motion on the floor. We're still in a public hearing? Okay. So that is my comments at the moment, Madam Mayor.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 27

We're still in public hearing. Council Member Becerra. Oh, so we haven't closed the hearing yet?

Phil BacerraItem 27

No, go ahead. I'll reserve until we close the hearing.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 27

I'm sorry?

Phil BacerraItem 27

I'll wait until we close the hearing.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 27

So if there's any other comments by council members? It says comments here and questions.

Phil BacerraItem 27

I'm going exactly.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 27

All right. I'm going to close it out. Let's go. Okay.

Phil BacerraItem 27

I'll go again. Or I'll go.

Phil BacerraItem 27

So the hearing's closed? Go ahead. Thank you. First of all, I want to begin my comments by saying I appreciate everybody that came out to speak tonight. MY VOTE IN OPPOSING FURTHER COMMENTS WAS BASED ON OPINION FROM OUR CITY ATTORNEY. MAYBE I WAS THE ONLY ONE LISTENING UP HERE BECAUSE I'M A LITTLE CONCERNED ABOUT LIABILITY. BUT I DEFINITELY WELCOME THAT. AS YOU CAN SEE FROM EVERY TIME WE'VE HAD ITEMS REGARDING THE SUNSHINE ORDINANCE, I'VE ALWAYS BEEN SUPPORTIVE OF EXPANDING IT, NOT RESTRICTING IT. WITH THAT BEING SAID, I DO APPRECIATE SOME OF THE PROPOSED CODE AMENDMENTS AND THE CLARIFICATIONS THAT STAFF BROUGHT TO US.

Phil BacerraItem 27

I do support requiring the specific development amendment applications to hold the sunshine meetings with the community And clarifying that only organizations that benefit the Santa Ana community will be permitted to sell safe and sane fireworks Here in Santa Ana and I also appreciate the clarification on the minimum separation distance between billboards along our freeways But I do not support having wireless communication facilities aka cell towers being approved administratively instead of through a public hearing in front of the Planning Commission. I also do not support the amendments related to the

Phil BacerraItem 27

hotels. You have the cities of Anaheim, Costa Mesa, Higinton Beach, and Newport Beach all with significant hotels that all also require CUPs for hotels. Hotels should be reviewed by the community through the public hearing process. I don't think it's reasonable to try to come up with a one-size-fits-all all set of standards for hotels. I mean, most hotels that you go to, you see the variety of the different layouts, different locations. It's just like a restaurant, right? We can all say, well, all restaurants serve food, and then they're going to serve maybe alcohol. But we do

Phil BacerraItem 27

require them to go through a conditional use permit because there's always different factors involving each of the unique businesses. So I will not be supporting a one-size-fits-all type type approach for the hotels. While we could use more hotels in Santa Ana though, and who doesn't love TOT if you're up here because you're charging a tax on people from outside the city to pay for services for the residents of our city. But we need to make sure that these hotels not only have minimal negative impact to our community, but also are attractive, are hotels that would want folks

Phil BacerraItem 27

to stay here in Santa Ana and contribute further to that TOT. So with that, Madam Mayor, I'd like to go ahead and make a motion that we approve the two ordinances amending Chapters 2 and 14 of the Santa Ana Municipal Code as presented, and then approve the ordinance amending Chapter 41 of the Santa Ana Municipal Code with the following amendments. amendments, removal of Section 4 that proposes to amend SAMC Section 41-198.13 related to wireless communication facilities, and the removal of Sections 7 through 20 and Exhibits A and B that propose amendments through SAMC Chapter 41 related to hotels, and finally

Phil BacerraItem 27

to make the determination that the adoption of these ordinances are exempt from CEQA review pursuant to the appropriate CEQA guideline sections.

MR.

Johnathan Ryan HernandezItem 27

I'll second your motion.

David PenalozaItem 27

Thank you. Councilman Penalosa, please. Thank you, Mayor Mezcua. I just I want to say that I agree with my colleagues that have spoken on this subject and a little disappointed in our city staff when it comes to this item. Interim City Manager Hatch, I sat with you and your staff for over an hour discussing this agenda and when this item came up, I mean to my surprise on Saturday night when I was going over the agenda there was more to it than just a safe and same firework portion of it as it was disclosed to me at the time of this agenda review so

David PenalozaItem 27

disappointed there with that the way that it was just not disclosed upfront from the beginning that there were multiple items as part of these changes that were coming to us especially when you've heard from us as a City Council and myself particularly on the wireless communication facilities and how very VERY SENSITIVE THE COMMUNITY IS TO THESE HISTORIC COMMUNITIES AND HISTORIC NEIGHBORHOODS IN THE CITY ARE TO THESE WIRELESS COMMUNITY, WIRELESS COMMUNICATION FACILITIES AND CELL PHONE TOWERS POPPING UP ALL THROUGHOUT THE CITY.

David PenalozaItem 27

WE SHOULDN'T BE ABLE TO ALLOW STAFF TO ADMINISTRATIVELY APPROVE AN EXTENSION AFTER THE 10-YEAR PERMIT EXPIRES. so not supportive of that I was trying to follow along with councilmember Becerra and from what I I would make a and maybe I'm on the same page but I would make a sub motion to bifurcate the safe and sane firework topic only is

Phil BacerraItem 27

that what so I'm saying go ahead and approve what staff's proposing regarding the fireworks and I'm saying basically I'm saying approve everything except for the hotel components and the wireless cell towers so if you're okay with the billboard separations and requiring the specific development applications to go to a hearing yes and it was a lot it was a

David PenalozaItem 27

lot to swallow just after a lot of break it up yeah i was trying to simplify it for for the members of the public uh 100 moving forward tonight with the safe and sane firework topic of this ordinance but everything else um aside from the billboards so yes i agree i'll stop

Valerie AmezcuaItem 27

talking because i'm just we got it wrong we got it we're good all right we're good councilman

Sonia R. CarvalhoItem 27

is the motion on the floor only to exempt you would adopt everything is presented with the exception of the provisions for hotels motels and the provisions for wireless services those are the two things you are removing correct correct guys want to clarify that thank you that is that's

Phil BacerraItem 27

correct okay but but we're still um my motion is to include all the other items regarding chapter for 41 just those yeah we got that okay we're going to move on all right councilman vascos

Benjamin VazquezItem 27

i'm just happy to hear that all my colleagues are in agreement with uh taking out the provisions there for the hotels and the cell towers so i'm going to go along with that we shouldn't streamline hotels in our communities we don't want something popping up without us taking a look at it first so thank you for uh the motion and i'm going to agree with it councilmember fann

Thai Viet PhanItem 27

thank you mayor uh thank you staff for the presentation and the robust discussion that i've had with you uh i think there was a whole group of us uh talking about this issue um so a couple things i support the um sunshine ordinance i think that's great i support the changes to um the fireworks full disclosure i actually tried to bring an item to ban fireworks in the city of Santa Ana due to the negative environmental impacts on the air quality, public safety, fire department, and health for our community. But since that did not

Thai Viet PhanItem 27

go forward, I do support this item. I think that if you want to make money in the city of Santa Ana and cause damage, trash, and public safety concerns in the city, you should also be serving the city with the proceeds from the fireworks work sales. Regarding the item three, my question for staff, I guess we got a lot of public comments, you know, about how this is displacing housing. It's my understanding that only one of these zones actually currently allow housing at all, right? Commercial residential, excuse me, allow housing that is not

Thai Viet PhanItem 27

necessarily subject to state mandates so for example AB 2011 and SB 6 allow by right housing on most of these properties unless they were exempt under our ordinance that is correct right so I just want to make it clear to the public that if any developer wants to come and build in any of these areas listed on page 7 of the staff report professional community commercial community commercial museum district arterial commercial commercial residential South Main Street commercial district those all already allow buy right affordable

Thai Viet PhanItem 27

and mixed-use housing development so any developer can come in and take a look at those properties and develop as long as they're not exempt from our ordinance so So I just want to make that clear. We're not displacing any housing and we are not actually preventing any housing and that in fact the buy right development actually would make this consistent in some other cases. I also want to just state that I know there are some comments about how we don't need hotels. The reality in the city is that we have the highest sales tax in the county and that that sales tax is going to start sunsetting in four years and then ten years after

Thai Viet PhanItem 27

that that funds our general fund the best source of taxing excuse me the best source of funding for a general fund for the city is TOT because it's not being paid by our residents so for every person who comes here and says well we pay too much sales tax TOT is one way to have someone else pay into our general fund to pay for the services that we want to have so I do want to make that statement that hotels are important for that purpose and it doesn't mean that they're suddenly going to be a proliferation of hotels everywhere in the city it's just one avenue to make it possible and then the last thing I want

Thai Viet PhanItem 27

to say is you know staff I believe this this idea is part of the direction from the City Council in the past talking about the importance of economic development in the city so I do appreciate the thought process that came behind this because we can't only approve housing in this city we have to have a source of taxes to pay for the services that everybody wants because as a reminder we have a lot of non tax properties in the city including schools churches and affordable housing none of those pay into property taxes I will

Valerie AmezcuaItem 27

continue later thank you you get another one I'll come back Councilor Penalosa I'm sorry Mayor Pro Tem Lopez

Jessie LopezItem 27

yes thank you well first I want to thank staff for the digestible staff report in the past when we get these zoning amendments I think it can be a lot for residents to digest and even for council members so I do think this was a much cleaner simplified staff report that that is easy to comprehend. And I appreciate that. And I think for the most part, the changes that we're seeing being proposed are straightforward and some of them are, it looks like cleanup language. However, like other folks that read the staff report, I am not supportive of proposing hotel development by right.

Jessie LopezItem 27

And what that means for members of the public is the staff would be the sole decision makers in the hotel development for the city. And I fundamentally disapprove with that recommendation because I believe in responsible development. I don't think that development should happen to us, whether it's a hotel or whether it's housing. I believe there should be a process that is inclusive of all of our needs and the community. And when you move to build by right, you essentially take that opportunity, not just away from the public, but from the residents of the city, and in this case, also from the council.

Jessie LopezItem 27

And again, I don't think that development should be happening to us. It should happen with us. And so I'm not going to be supportive of staff driving this particular process. I do believe that the discretion should stay with the council and also with the planning commission. And for those reasons, I don't, I'm not going to be supportive of shifting the community's power into the hands of a small group of people. I'm fine with the rest of the recommendations, men. And so I think, you know, as I said earlier, they're simplified. They're easy to understand. And I would be supportive of the motion on the table.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 27

Councilman Penalosa.

David PenalozaItem 27

Thank you, Mayor. I just want to add that. that we all, the executive level staff, we see the significant event emails from the police department, and we're all familiar with hotel, Terrace Drive, Hotel Terrace Circle, and the number of calls and significant events that happen along those hotels, specifically in Ward 6 and 4, every single day, and the number of calls that we get from those hoteliers every single day on safety, and not only the hoteliers, but the hotel employees, the visitors to the city,

David PenalozaItem 27

So until we could also get a grasp on that safety and security of these hotels and the safety of those visitors and those employees at these hotels, we shouldn't be trying to approve buy-right hotels throughout the city. We can't get a hold of the safety issue that comes with all the others. So those are my final comments, Mayor. We'll have more opportunity to discuss this as we move forward. But that is it. Thank you.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 27

Thank you. Final speaker, Council Member Fann.

Thai Viet PhanItem 27

Thank you. Three minutes. So I would like to see if it's possible to continue item, excuse me, ordinance number three because we did get a letter today bringing up a number of issues. I think staff, we just got handed a packet right before the public hearing for consideration and continued discussion on this matter. I know there is an, excuse me, there is a motion. Is there a sub-motion?

Valerie AmezcuaItem 27

There's a motion and a second already.

Thai Viet PhanItem 27

So I guess I would like to make a sub motion to approve items one and two and then continue item three

Thai Viet PhanItem 27

For further discussion and collaboration with staff

Valerie AmezcuaItem 27

That's it thank you. I don't see a second. We're gonna move on. I don't see a second So we're gonna go with the motion so I'm just gonna make my final comments and then we're gonna vote so Thank you for the presentation men and really appreciate it I know staff really take the time to put this together, and so we really appreciate it. And so I think Councilmember Penalosa hit on it and a couple of the councilmembers up here. Please do not forget, TOT, Councilmember Phan talked about it as far as generating revenue for our city. The hotels that we currently have in bring about $8 million to this city. Am I right, Mr. Phan, Director?

I apologize but those I don't have the exact number but those just gave us the

Valerie AmezcuaItem 27

numbers last week so eight million dollars so as we're building new hotels yes we do want hotels but we also want housing and we got to do them both together and so we've done a great job with housing we'll continue to do what we can but also the hotels are important for people to come in and visit our city but we're gonna do them right and so I think the vote up here pretty much says that we're going to do them right but please do not forget that yes our hotels do generate revenue and when measure x sunsets first amount that we're going to lose is 30 million dollars

Valerie AmezcuaItem 27

the second amount we're going to lose is about 65 million dollars so i want you all to let that sink in those of us that live in santa ana because hotels are very important businesses are important in the city so we want to continue to generate revenue so we can continue to run the city and take care of things and so with that let's prepare to vote there was a motion and there was a second and let's mayor mayor mayor pro tem lopez request to speak again so go ahead we we closed it but I didn't see your hand I can't see your hand mayor pro tem oh thank you no worries this will

Jessie LopezItem 27

be quick I I think you know to the last point um in terms of revenue there are many things that that this council could be doing better to be better stewards of public money, like last year not forcing a legitimate and corrupt recall on the residents of the city, but not everybody up there can say that they were responsible in that decision-making process. And so again, when we're preaching about how we can be better stewards of public dollars, we need to take the advice that we give to the public. Thank you.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 27

Thank you, Mayor Pro Tem Lopez. Nobody's preaching, we're stating the facts. when Measure X sunsets in five years there will be a 30 million dollar loss to the city we need to continue to generate revenue and this did not just happen because of the recall that we don't we need to look at our funds it's been happening for many many many years in Santa Ana and the previous council thought it was wise to pass the Measure X which I'm not a fan of I didn't vote for it and so we are paying the highest amount of taxes in the city and a lot of It was supposed to go to public safety, quality of life. So we're spreading very thin.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 27

So there is no preaching. There's reality. Reality is $30 million is the first amount we're going to lose. $65 million will be the second amount we're going to lose. So that should be our priority going forward, not looking back but going forward. How are we going to generate that revenue, or are we going to lay off people? We're going to close departments. We're going to have a building that's going to stand empty with no staff in it when you're talking about $95 million lost in this city. So with that, let's prepare to vote, Madam Clerk.

Jennifer L. HallItem 27

Motion by Council Member Becerra, seconded by Council Member Hernandez, for public hearing item number 27 to approve recommended actions 1, 2, and 4, which are the first reading of an ordinance amending chapter 2 of the municipal code relating to public input through community meetings, an ordinance amending portions of chapter 14 related to safe and sane fireworks, making a CEQA determination, and approving first reading of a zoning ordinance amendment number 2023-04 as amended. to remove section 4 pertaining to wireless communication facilities and sections 7 through 20 and related exhibits a and B related to hotels

Jennifer L. HallItem 27

councilmember Becerra yes councilmember Hernandez yes councilmember Penalosa yes councilmember fan yes councilmember Vasquez yes mayor Pro Tem Lopez yes mayor Mayor Meswa? Yes. Vote is seven ayes, no nays. Motion carries. Thank you.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 27

This is the time of the meeting. We're going to close the public hearing. We're going to move on. This is the time of the meeting for the City Council to receive comments from the public. Item number 25. Did we already? No, we didn't do that one yet. Nope. Item 25. Madam City Clerk, please explain the public comment procedures and call the first speakers.

Jennifer L. HallItem 25

Yes, Mayor.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 25

Are there any speakers for item 25?

Jennifer L. HallItem 25

25. We do not have any speakers in person for item number 25. We did not receive any emails related to item 25, but I do need to confirm with Mayor Pro Tem Lopez if there's anyone at her location for item 25. Nobody here, therefore no comment. Thank you. So there are no public comments

Valerie AmezcuaItem 25

on item number 25, Mayor. So item 25, there's no public comments. Item number 12 is related to the election of Mayor Pro Tem for 2024. Madam City Clerk, may we please have a staff report if there's

Jennifer L. HallItem 25

any there is no reporter there is mayor i'm happy to give a brief explanation otherwise it's at your discretion as a body to nominate um a member of your body to serve as mayor pro tem for calendar

Valerie AmezcuaItem 25

year 2024. i don't think we need it go ahead councilman sarah thank you mad mayor you know

Phil BacerraItem 25

as the second ever asian american elected to the santa city council on the second ever asian american uh selected to serve as mayor pro tem i'd like to go ahead and nominate the third ever asian American elected to the council to serve as third ever Asian American pro tem

Valerie AmezcuaItem 25

Tyviat Pam I'll second okay great are there any further nominations or motions

Benjamin VazquezItem 25

or anything I'd like to nominate a councilmember Jonathan Hernandez or our mayor pro tem is there a second yeah I'll second okay there's a motion and

Valerie AmezcuaItem 25

and then there was a sub-motion. So let's... Are you pushing the button, Councilman Hernandez, to speak?

No.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 25

Oh, okay. All right. So we have a motion, Madam City Attorney, and a second motion, sub-motion. So let's prepare to vote. Is there...

Jennifer L. HallItem 25

Can we get a motion to close nominations? I'll make a motion to close.

Phil BacerraItem 25

Second.

Okay.

Jennifer L. HallItem 25

Moved by Mayor Meskwa, seconded by Councilmember Becerra, to close nominations. Mayor... I'm sorry. Councilmember Becerra?

Phil BacerraItem 25

Yes. Yes.

Jennifer L. HallItem 25

Councilmember Hernandez?

Phil BacerraItem 25

Yes.

Jennifer L. HallItem 25

Councilmember Penalosa?

Yes.

Jennifer L. HallItem 25

Councilmember Phan? Yes. Councilmember Vazquez?

Yes.

Jennifer L. HallItem 25

Councilmember Mayor Potem Lopez? Yes. Mayor Meswa?

Valerie AmezcuaItem 25

Yes. Okay.

Jennifer L. HallItem 25

Vote is seven ayes, no nays. Nominations are closed. We'll now vote on the nominations in the order that they were received. So the first nomination was nominated by Councilmember Becerra, seconded by Councilmember Penalosa, to nominate council member fan to serve as mayor pro tem for 2024 council member becerra yes council member hernandez no council member penulosa yes council member fan yes council member vasquez no mayor pro tem lopez no mayor mesqua yes voters four eyes three nays nays by

Jennifer L. HallItem 25

by Mayor Pro Tem Lopez, Council Members Hernandez and Vasquez. The second nomination was for Council Member Hernandez to serve as Mayor Pro Tem. That was by Council Member Vasquez, seconded by Mayor Pro Tem Lopez. Council Member Becerra?

Johnathan Ryan HernandezItem 25

No.

Jennifer L. HallItem 25

Council Member Hernandez?

Johnathan Ryan HernandezItem 25

Yes.

Jennifer L. HallItem 25

Council Member Penalosa?

Johnathan Ryan HernandezItem 25

No.

Jennifer L. HallItem 25

Council Member Phan?

Thai Viet PhanItem 25

No.

Jennifer L. HallItem 25

Council Member Vasquez?

Yes.

Jennifer L. HallItem 25

Mayor Pro Tem Lopez? Lopez. Yes. Mayor Meskwa. No. Votes three ayes, four nays. Ayes by Mayor Pro Tem Lopez, Council Members Hernandez and Vasquez. First motion carries the nomination of Council Member Phan to serve as Mayor Pro Tem for 2024. Congratulations.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 25

I'm going to leave now so you can take over. I'm just kidding. Please never.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 25

All right. We're going to end up the business calendar. Let's go on to public comments at this time for agenda items. This is the time of the meeting for the city council to receive comments from the public on the consent calendar items listed on the agenda. Madam city clerk, please explain the public comment procedures and call the first speakers, please.

Jennifer L. HallItem 25

Thank you, mayor. At this time, we'll be hearing comments on the consent calendar agenda items only items number three through 24. Pursuant to resolution number 2023-047, speakers are requested to address the City Council directly and to refrain from profane language, racial epitaphs, and libelous or slanderous statements that disturb the decorum of the meeting. Pursuant to the Brown Act, the City Council may not enter into discussion at this time. Speakers will have two minutes for their comments. A report of the emails from today, we received one email correspondence related to item number 12 on the consent calendar.

Jennifer L. HallItem 25

under mayor pro tem lopez do you have anyone at your location council council member lopez i have no one here therefore no speakers okay thank you we have one card mayor um victor mendez

thank you mayor for restoring our first amendment rights in the city citizens of santa ana it's long overdue excuse me time out it said three minutes and went to two

Valerie AmezcuaItem 10

clarification okay so item 10 it dovetails into what you're talking about

revenue but I'm talking really from the expense side your annual finance report referred to a seven point million dollar transfer out of general fund the fund the deficit work comp seven million dollars translates into about a 350 million dollar top-level revenue bottom line this workers compensation situation is blown up in our face the taxpayers received nothing for it we get nothing up for it except the bill it's really time to get this fixed at 2024 I've been dealing talking about it for 12 years and it's an election year something has to be done we shouldn't have to pay these this type of money at our expense

item 24 on respect to the lease vehicles another it's just not rational in terms of this proposal it's an open-ended blank check given to police executives to get their cars the PMA that they have or the agreement is open-ended it doesn't cap anything they can get any car whatever car they want at any expense you know we have people in Santa Ana that are pleading for diapers depends pens, food, and we come to their aid, yet we have these $250,000 executives getting free cars, SUVs. Somebody's got to be done to cap that.

On a more enlightened note, I've been working with the community to extend and enhance the relationship between UCLA and Santa Ana. I think we're making some really good connections. I'm going to leave you with this book. I hope you can leave it on your coffee table. I've been talking to a lot of good students. They've been going to football games. They'll be going to basketball games. They've taken tours. We're going to have UCLA reflect what Santa Ana is about in the near term. That would be my goal. Thank you very much. You have a great meeting.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 10

I don't know, Victor. Phil's a USC fan up here.

You're going to see the numbers, and you're going to be very proud of it. And you're welcome to come to our Latino alumni event in a couple of weeks. We'll make you an honorary member.

Jennifer L. HallItem 10

Mayor, that concludes the speakers on consent calendar items.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 3

Consent calendar items 3 through 24 are before us. Councilmembers, please announce any items that you'll be abstaining from due to conflict. If there's any request to pull an item from the consent calendar for further discussion, let's start with that.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 3

Let's pull the item.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 3

Councilman Hernandez.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 3

Oh, he's out of the room. Councilman Becerra?

Phil BacerraItem 3

No items.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 3

Councilman Panellosa?

David PenalozaItem 3

Thank you, Mayor. I am pulling items.

David PenalozaItem 3

My notes.

David PenalozaItem 3

Items 11 and 24.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 3

Thank you. Councilman Vasquez? I'd like to comment on item 15.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 3

Councilmember Lopez?

Jessie LopezItem 3

Nothing to pull.

Thai Viet PhanItem 3

Mayor Pro Tem Phan? I kept waiting to get called and she's like, she skipped me. No, I didn't. Just a recusal for item 16 as National Renaissance of California is a client of my employer, Ratana Tucker. So if that item is pulled, then I will leave the discussion. Otherwise,

Valerie AmezcuaItem 3

nothing else to pull. Thank you. Thank you. I have a question on items 12, 12, 13, 14, and 19.

David PenalozaItem 3

Mayor, I'll move the remainder of the agenda. Before you do that, I did not mean to pull 11.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 3

You did not want to pull 11? No.

David PenalozaItem 3

You did not want to? No.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 3

Jennifer, Madam Clerk, you have that? Okay, thank you. You made a motion to approve. Oh, I'm sorry. Yes, Councilman.

Johnathan Ryan HernandezItem 3

Apologies, Madam Mayor.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 3

I don't think this is working, so it's by bad. We can't get it to work. Go ahead.

Johnathan Ryan HernandezItem 3

No worries. I had a brief question for staff on the same items that you're...

Valerie AmezcuaItem 3

12, 13, 14, and 19? Perfect. Okay. all right so you made a motion do i get a second i'll second it okay go ahead and recall

Jennifer L. HallItem 3

matter yes i mean call yes a motion by council member becerra seconded by mayor mesqua to approve the consent calendar with the exception of items 12 13 14 19 and 24 pulled for separate discussion and consideration council member becerra yes council member hernandez yes council member lopez Yes. Council Member Penalosa?

David PenalozaItem 3

Yes.

Jennifer L. HallItem 3

Council Member Vazquez?

David PenalozaItem 3

Yes.

Jennifer L. HallItem 3

Mayor Pro Tem Phan? Yes. Mayor Meswa? Yes. The motion is seven ayes, no nays with a reported recusal by Mayor Pro Tem Phan on item number 16. Motion carries. First item pulled, Mayor, will be item number 12.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 3

Can I ask if we could put 12, if you have the same, 12, 13, 14, and 19 together? I think if you have similar questions, all right everybody good with that Nobody has a problem with that. Okay. I'm okay with that. All right, perfect. We'll do 12 13 14 and 19 together

Valerie AmezcuaItem 3

So, let me start really quick and then I'll turn it over to councilman Hernandez or anybody else who wants to speak Mr. City Manager, I just would like to know for these items Did we meet with SEIU and our I mean they represent all of our employees here or the majority of our employees and did we check to see if if they can if they can be part of this do perform these these duties at a lower cost so might save us some money so i'd like to just throw that out there and i'm going to let council hernandez ask his question so it might be similar i know everybody's kind of looking at me like weird but there are some things that our city

Valerie AmezcuaItem 3

staff can possibly do and it may save us some money councilman hernandez thank you madam mayor

Johnathan Ryan HernandezItem 3

Part of why I was interested in having a discussion on these items, City Manager Hatch, was because I don't want us to approve any contracts that take any jobs away from any current Santa Ana employees. Can you verify if these contracts will take jobs away from any current employees that we have within our city?

Thank you, Madam Mayor, members of the City Council. I can't verify that for all of these, but in general, quite a few of these contracts are continuing the same types of operations that we've been operating under through various contracts. These are extending several of these different contracts. For more specific information, I'd have to rely on our public works staff to come up and address that in particular questions.

Johnathan Ryan HernandezItem 3

Thank you. and then secondary question for you interim city manager hatch is do we have the capacity to take care of any of these for instance when we look at maintenance I know we have a very qualified Public Works Department that does tremendous work so when I look at the professional field maintenance I know that we have a very large budget in Public Works to maintain these facilities and our parks and our outdoor amenities the item number 12 is two million seven hundred and fifty nine thousand and thirty five dollars which uh is a large dollar

Johnathan Ryan HernandezItem 3

amount but i know across the city it's a lot of facilities we're maintaining um could you give me confirmation sir that um is this something we're able to do in-house or what's the reasoning as to

why we're outsourcing uh thank you thank you for that question i think in general the most of the contracts on here in the cities i've worked in a lot of this type of work is contracted out to professional vendors that come in and supplement the staff work that we provide I I don't know specifically on every single one of those that there hasn't been any change but I think our public works staff are looking to upgrade these contracts and renew these contracts with outside personnel supporting our internal operations.

And so we, I don't know if we specifically looked at doing those contracts in-house and changing that process, but I do know that quite a bit of work went into going through the process, the public works process, the bidding process, where numerous different agencies can compete for this work. and what you're seeing in front of you tonight is the culmination of that work that brings these contracts that you know that are usually needed to provide quality service to our Santa Ana residents and and so that's my general

answer that question if there's specific contracts I'd ask staff to be called up to answer specific issues on specific contracts wonderful and so this will be

Johnathan Ryan HernandezItem 3

supplemental to the work that public works is actively doing in our facilities and in our parks as well correct correct and there would be no

way that they did the existing personnel in our in our operations could handle the work they're already doing and this additional work thank you for the

Johnathan Ryan HernandezItem 3

clarification sir no additional questions so mr. city attorney I'm a city

Valerie AmezcuaItem 3

manager I'm gonna give you an attorney title right now so my questions are similar to councilman Hernandez thank you councilman Hernandez but we have a vacancy rate of what about 190 positions is that correct it is approximately that amount 190 vacancies so filling those vacancies would have made a difference regarding these contracts and the only reason I asked right because as we start to do mid-year budget budget I think the reason that and I can't speak councilman Hernandez why we're asking this is about right the almighty dollar OKAY, SO IF WE HAVE STAFF THAT CAN DO IT ALREADY THAT ARE PART OF OUR CITY STAFF AND THEY DO

Valerie AmezcuaItem 3

A GREAT JOB, BUT WE'RE SHORT 190 STAFF, I MEAN, WE'RE RUNNING LOW HERE, SO, AND THEN WE'RE PROBABLY GOING TO HAVE SOME RETIREMENTS IN 2024. SO I KNOW YOU ARE REALLY PUSHING TO HIRE ADDITIONAL STAFF AND WE REALLY APPRECIATE IT, AND I DO SEE IT IN THE PARKS AND REC AREA AND I SEE IT ACTUALLY THROUGHOUT THE WHOLE CITY. SO MAYBE THAT'S WHY THESE ITEMS COME BEFORE US, BECAUSE WE DON'T HAVE THE STAFF. I DON'T KNOW. So I would just like an explanation why we're not using our current staff.

Sure. The 190 vacancies are in a multitude of different departments. I think in our public works staff, I think it's a very small number of vacancies that we have in that particular department. And so most of these contracts are public works-related contracts, related generally to maintenance operations. and and so I would I feel very confident saying there's the with the vacancy that we have there's no way this work even if we fill those positions could be completed by our in-house staff and this has been our traditional approach that for these specific contracts we did look to get some outside help that provide

those jobs to those individuals and they that are supplementing the work of the

Valerie AmezcuaItem 3

city staff thank you mayor pro tem i'm sorry councilmember lopez you have comments or questions

Jessie LopezItem 3

i did councilmember hernandez um i think very eloquently asked what i was wondering about in terms of the overlap with current city staff and what would possibly be removed um with the specific contracts that are detailed in the agenda so thank you councilmember hernandez

Valerie AmezcuaItem 3

Thank you. So are there any other questions or comments? All right. If there are none, I'll move these items.

Johnathan Ryan HernandezItem 3

I'll second.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 3

Go ahead, Madam City Clerk.

Jennifer L. HallItem 3

A motion by Mayor Mezcua, seconded by Councilmember Hernandez, to approve consent calendar items number 12, 13, 14, and 19. Councilmember Becerra?

Phil BacerraItem 3

Yes.

Jennifer L. HallItem 3

Councilmember Hernandez?

Phil BacerraItem 3

Yes.

Jennifer L. HallItem 3

Councilmember Lopez? Yes. Council Member Panalosa.

David PenalozaItem 3

Yes.

Jennifer L. HallItem 3

Council Member Vazquez.

David PenalozaItem 3

Yes.

Jennifer L. HallItem 3

Mayor Pro Tem Fan. Yes. Mayor Meswa. Yes. Votes, seven ayes, no nays, motion carries on all four items. Mayor, the next item would be item 15, Council Member Vazquez would like to comment. Go ahead.

Benjamin VazquezItem 3

Mine was just a comment, and we had an RFP for 36 million for landscaping, instead of giving it to one company i want to commend uh the staff of public works and director nabil and the whole group for giving it for giving that rfp to four different companies and now we can compare and see who does good work who does the best work different qualities and great job on your part for looking out for the city on that way it's very creative and i love it thank you

Jennifer L. HallItem 3

thank you go ahead and say yes the next item is item number 24 pulled by councilmember

David PenalozaItem 3

Thank you, Jennifer. I'd like to make a motion to approve with the one condition of Madam City Attorney, and let me know if this would be the appropriate time to do it, with direction to eventually start working on detailed information and policy on what is the deciding factor, what type of vehicle is leased throughout the entire department when it comes to these special vehicles and take home cars if would that be okay to do now you can

Sonia R. CarvalhoItem 3

provide that direction to staff it's my understanding that that right that applies to the management officers is included in their agreement right you would need to give direction to staff to make a note of that okay next time we engage in negotiations that that would be a point yeah I'm not questioning the

David PenalozaItem 3

idea of take home vehicles that I'm okay with being more specific yeah the type type of vehicle that is acquired and whatnot.

Sonia R. CarvalhoItem 3

Yes, that would be appropriate to let staff know that that's what you're interested in.

David PenalozaItem 3

So I would make a motion to approve this item with that condition that we start looking and having that conversation on what that decision to decide what type of vehicle is leased for our members of this MOU.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 3

So I have a comment. I'm good?

David PenalozaItem 3

Yeah. That's the motion.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 3

So I was going to pull this item and I'll second your motion, but I may add something here and I don't see any other counselors want to speak so I was looking at the current police department leases so chief has a car for general police duties an executive officer internal affairs officer an adjunct in a PIO I'm not sure what kind of car the PIO has but it'd be interesting when you ask for kind of like we're gonna do like an audit I was gonna ask for an audit of the vehicles administration bureau we have a deputy chief a training commander

Valerie AmezcuaItem 3

commander training, HR background, CDC, it says a loaner. Field Operations Bureau under the MOU, the deputy chief, area commanders, watch commanders, traffic commander. I believe, chief, there's 14 commanders approximately, give or take one? That's correct. I believe there's 13 or 14. I'm not sure. Okay. Yeah. The last time I had was 14. So thank you. And I'm not talking about the undercover capabilities or those type of things. And And then Investigations Bureau, you have a Deputy Chief as a vehicle. It's under the MOU as well, PMA MOU. Commanders, plural. And then Criminal Investigations.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 3

And then a Jail Administrator has a vehicle, which I was a little confused about that one. So I would also like some information. So maybe Mr. City Manager, some sort of presentation as to what type of vehicles and why, the why, right, and the cost. And so in general, I'm going to come back before the mid-year budget and ask that we do a review. I know we've talked about it before, and I'm passing, I've just mentioned to you, a review of the police budget. Because there may be some ways we can, you know, like you've done, move some officers to create the Colt 2 team, right? Which is great, and thank you.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 3

And there's other things that you have done, AC Rodriguez and City Manager Hatch, that has really helped the police department responding to calls and making contact. But the cars, I'd like to look at just as Councilor Panalosa, you know, what type and the cost, things like that. And it is in the MOU, so we may need to adjust that and take a look at that again. That's the, I think, the ask that we're doing. And then before the mid-year, I would like to take a look at the police budget. And I know we use overtime, and thank you, we do use overtime for Colt and when things pop up in the city that we need the officers for.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 3

so it's good that we have that funding available so the community knows that you are you know being very diligent about responding to calls I know the call response time has decreased so thank you AC Rodriguez I know when I call on the council I would hope the council members feel the same way that we call you come out the officers have been responding so thank you great job on first street great job down Bristol but Mr. City Manager I think it's important to look at this you know I'VE SEEN SOME, I WON'T GO INTO DECISIONS ABOUT THE VEHICLES, I JUST THINK IT'S GOOD TO LOOK AT THEM

Valerie AmezcuaItem 3

AND TAKE A LOOK AT THEIR MOU AS WELL, PMA'S MOU AND JUST OVERALL WHAT IS THE NEED OF VEHICLES WITH THE CITY, LEASED VEHICLES WITH THE CITY POLICE DEPARTMENT. THERE'S NO OTHER COMMENTS? I DON'T SEE ANYBODY'S SPEAKER'S HAND SO LET'S PREPARE TO VOTE ON THIS ITEM. A MOTION BY COUNCILMEMBER

Jennifer L. HallItem 3

PENALOSA SECONDED BY MAYOR EMEZCLA TO APPROVE ITEM NUMBER 24 AND DIRECT STAFF TO REVIEW AND formulate the policy on the type of vehicles taken home as part of the MOU review and negotiations councilmember Becerra yes councilmember Hernandez no councilmember Lopez

Jennifer L. HallItem 3

Council Member Penalosa?

David PenalozaItem 3

Yes.

Jennifer L. HallItem 3

Council Member Vasquez?

David PenalozaItem 3

Yes.

Jennifer L. HallItem 3

Mayor Pro Tem Phan? Yes.

Jennifer L. HallItem 3

Mayor Meskwa? Yes. Vote is five ayes, one nay. Nay by Council Member Hernandez and a temporary absence by Council Member Lopez. as motion carries.

David PenalozaItem 3

Madam City Clerk, is she on the Zoom?

Jennifer L. HallItem 3

She's still on the Zoom, but I'm not hearing her unmute to provide a vote.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 3

Okay, we're going to go on to the end of the consent calendar. At this time, the City Council is going to recess and convene to the Special Housing Authority. We're now recessing the City Council meeting and convening to the Housing Authority. I hereby call the Housing Authority meeting to order. Madam City Clerk, please conduct the roll call.

Jennifer L. HallItem 3

Authority Member Becerra. Here. authority member Hernandez yeah authority member Lopez authority member

David PenalozaItem 3

Penalosa yes here here authority member Vasquez present vice chair fan here

Valerie AmezcuaItem 3

chair Meskwa present six members present madam city clerk do we have any speakers for this item within the housing authority agenda no we have no speakers

Jennifer L. HallItem 3

for the housing authority agenda we did not receive any email correspondence

Valerie AmezcuaItem 3

either thank you does any authority member wish to make a motion or second and please announce your full name for the record councilman Hernandez moving

David PenalozaItem 3

the item I'll make a motion to move the items all second let's cast our votes

Jennifer L. HallItem 3

madam city clerk's a motion by authority member Hernandez seconded by authority member penny Losa to approve the housing authority consent calendar items one through three authority member Becerra yes authority member Hernandez yes

Jennifer L. HallItem 3

yes authority member penulosa yes authority member Vasquez yes vice chair fan yes chair mess with yes but a six eyes no nays with the absence by authority member Lopez motion carries consent calendar approved thank you the special

Valerie AmezcuaItem 3

housing authority meeting is adjourned and we convene to the special successor agency meeting we're convening to the special successor agency meeting I hereby call the special successor agency meeting to order madam clerk conduct the

Jennifer L. HallItem 3

roll call please agency member Becerra here agency member Hernandez present agency member Lopez agency member Penalosa present agency member Vasquez present vice chair fan here chair Meskwa present six members present it does look look like authority member Lopez has dropped off.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 3

Do we have any speakers, Madam City Clerk, for the items within the special successor agency agenda?

Jennifer L. HallItem 3

We do not have any speakers on the successor agency agenda and we did not receive any emails. Thank you. I'm sorry?

Johnathan Ryan HernandezItem 3

I'll make a motion to move the items.

Jennifer L. HallItem 3

I'll second.

Jennifer L. HallItem 3

A motion by agency member Hernandez, seconded by Chair Meskwa, to approve the successor agency consent calendar items one through three. Agency member Becerra? Yes. Agency Member Hernandez. Yes. Agency Member Penalosa.

David PenalozaItem 3

Yes.

Jennifer L. HallItem 3

Agency Member Vazquez.

Benjamin VazquezItem 3

Yes.

Jennifer L. HallItem 3

Vice Chair Phan. Yes. Chair Meskwa. Yes. So it's six ayes, no nays. Motion carries. Noted absence by Authority Member Lopez.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 3

Thank you. The Special Successor Agency meeting is adjourned. We reconvene to the City Council meeting. This is the time of the meeting for the City Council to receive comments from the the public a non-agenda item is madam city clerk please explain the public comment procedures and

Jennifer L. HallItem 3

call the first speakers please thank you mayor pursuant to resolution number 2023-047 speakers are requested to address the city council directly and to refrain from profane language racial epithets and libelous or slanderous statements that disturb the decorum of the meeting pursuant to the brown act the city council may not enter into discussion at this time speakers will have two minutes for your comments before calling the speakers i'll report the summary of emails provided as of today we did receive 254 emails on non-agenda topics and those were distributed

Jennifer L. HallItem 3

to the city council and posted on the city's website we'll now hear from members of the public that are physically present in the council chamber that have submitted their cards please state your name and the ward or neighborhood that you reside in for the record and when i call your name please if you could line up behind the podium. First speaker, Mario Alvarado, followed by Angela Valdez and Fernando Devaras.

Good evening, mayor and city council and everyone that's here and present and watching online. I'm here just to share a couple events and invite the community out. First, through the mayor's office, myself and community leader, Anna Padilla from the downtown area, We'll be hosting the Mayor's Homeownership Seminar, January 25th, which is a Thursday at 6 p.m. I was lucky enough to convince the Mayor to have it in my backyard at Ward 5 at El Salvador Center. So we'll be out there on Thursday. We'll be reviewing the city's down payment assistance program.

And for the residents that don't know, the city can provide up to $120,000 for down payment assistance if you purchase a home in Santa Ana. We're going to be reviewing the state's down payment assistance program, which offers three and a half percent of the purchase price if you buy in the state of California and we will have some private lenders and banks out there providing also their down payment assistance programs and there's programs out there that don't require down payment assistance so we will be reviewing all that. The second event which I am proud and lucky to have been asked to co-emcee is the city's

first annual Tet Festival celebrating Lunar New Year and that's gonna be on Saturday February 3rd it will be at Centennial Park from 2 to 7 we're gonna be the event is actually gonna be highlighting traditional culture food there's gonna be live music so it's gonna be a family event for everybody out there my favorite part of the event will be the finale which be will be a huge firework showcase out there and that event really signifies what the city is and what this council what we want to do with this with the council is bring people together and celebrate our differences and you know combine each

other to celebrate each other so I invite the entire community to be out there and anybody on the City Council didn't know come out there and celebrate with us my name is Mario Alvarado I am Ward 5 Angela Valdez followed by Fernando Devorahs my name is Angela Valdez and I just wanted to bring to your attention the City Council members if you can maybe pass a code for the city that the mayor could sign that the police have to be able to go out to write a citation or for a car to be towed on private property because the The city of Garden Grove has it like that. And it just makes it harder for predatory towing.

Like my son was parked near a 24-hour fitness. And sorry, I'm just getting upset because of the way it was handled. Like he was charged $725 for only three hours that they took his car. And we only were able to find it because he has GPS tracking on the car. Otherwise, we wouldn't have been able to, you know. My car is older. Thank God they took his. But the whole point is like, yes, young people make mistakes. Like I went to my bank and my teller said his car got towed. I went to the police department, Sergeant Blake said his daughter got towed. People make mistakes to park in the wrong spot when they're not paying attention.

The thing that bothers me is that the private business was closed. It was a ride aid, so I doubt that the private owner called for the car to be towed and said it was like a fake ticket on the window from Sunland Security. When I called them, they were like, oh there's no rules in the city of Santa Ana for that we could do whatever we want so in other words like they know already so that he's like yeah we use satellite imaging and he just calls me and I go sign the ticket and we take the car and I'm like wow how many people have you guys

done this to you know because you make a complaints with the BBB they don't answer you send a demand letter they don't answer you have to send them to small claims court which I'm going to go to to at least try to get half the money back but the problem is like you guys are talking here about you you know, poverty and stuff. Like, imagine it was somebody who couldn't pay to get the car out, and then the token meat can sell the car. Like, that's crazy to me. People could lose jobs. They could become homeless. And then not only that, like, people probably don't even know to come here.

I didn't know, you know, what to do, so I just filled out the blue card, and I missed work today, you know, to come because it's important. And the county of L.A. just has a website. Angela, your time is up.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 3

You fill it out, and they help you. IT NEEDS TO BE EASIER. THE CHIEF IS GOING TO ASK SOMEBODY TO SPEAK WITH YOU. THANK YOU. HELP YOU OUT HERE.

Jennifer L. HallItem 3

FERNANDO JEBARAS FOLLOWED BY JAIR KARA AND KADISHA ABURUB.

GOOD EVENING, COUNCIL. SO I'M HERE TODAY TO ASK MAYOR MEZCAL, I WANT TO ASK YOU SPECIFICALLY WHY YOU ARE SO AFRAID OF HEARING YOUR CONSTITUENTS SPEAK. The opening statements today by Gustavo Hernandez, the poet laureate, he shared about the importance of freedom of expression, but in my time seeing you here as mayor, I've seen you do everything in your power to limit the people's ability to speak. I'd like my comments today to be submitted as a formal ethics complaint against Mayor Misko for impeding on the public's First Amendment right to free speech at the December 19th meeting.

Mayor, at the December 19th meeting when there was a disruption at the meeting, you called for a recess, understandably, but you kicked everyone out of the council chambers and you you refused to let anyone in anyone at all except for the press who was allowed to return I came inside and even then you tried to ask why I was allowed it so even the zoom comments I'm not sure what the disruption zoom comments might impose but again I ask you what are you afraid of hearing from your constituents even tonight when we had hotel workers from unite here who came after work to

come and speak to you guys if it weren't for councilmember Hernandez motion you would have gladly blocked them to speak because that might impose the right for for other people to sign up after 545, and you can't have that. Now, I could tell you that all the people here who are sitting in these seats behind me, they don't want to be here. They don't want to be at a council meeting pleading with morally bankrupt politicians, asking them to support them with ending a genocide that's impacting the people that they love. But they're here because they're moral conscious, doesn't let them sleep seeing the slaughter that we're seeing.

And on that note, Mayor Mesko, at the last council meeting you called into question on December 5th, the videos and photos of the children in Gaza. I have some photos here if you would like to see any more of these images maybe they might warm your heart these are not false images these are real children who are suffering and so the fact that you would call that into question it's just morally disgusting and lastly I want to take some time councilmember time before the break you asked people to reflect and I really hope that you took some time to reflect there are a lot of people here we're

gonna be speaking after me who want to hear from you because you have a position to make a difference here so please hear what they have to say

Jennifer L. HallItem 3

Fernando your time is up next

Jennifer L. HallItem 3

next speaker share higher Cara could you say Abiru

Shahira away not greetings council greetings mayor I'm here in solidarity solidarity with Palestine and the thousands. And I saw you roll your eyes right now. Wow. I'm sorry. That's what I kind of saw. If it wasn't it, that's why I interpreted it. So I'm not supposed to respond, but I want to be really clear. I didn't roll my eyes. I hear you. So go ahead. I love the accusations. Okay. Okay. Okay. All right. All right. We'll leave it at that. So I'm here to also denounce your actions from last month's hearing. You know, I'm a social worker. I'm a therapist. I work in violence prevention with youth. I work with New York

arrived youth in Central America, Ethiopia, China. And so some of the values that we instill that I'm sure a lot of you have in your websites and your Facebooks and Instagrams have to do with community. It has to do with keeping community safe, right? So in our profession, the values that we hold are the same, although we don't function the same. So when we're talking about our values, we're also talking about our freedom of expression and that was violated last month. When we take up these positions it's because, well I would hope, it's because we want to be vessels for our community. We want to not not to be a voice for the voices

because there's no such thing as the voiceless. There's only the silenced and that's what happened last month. You silenced many many people from the community and I'm sorry if those are strong words but that's what happened. we can see that you know you told everyone not to come back you eliminated the online comments and for the record I would like to submit this as a complaint as an ethical complaint for the record so that's just something that I wanted to share and I know you can do better I'm not trying to I'm trying to be here antagonized or anything I know that you can do better

because I've read your your Facebook profiles your websites and if you are saying what you say you're about then you will walk what you are walking about what you are talking about i'm just saying you just gotta you gotta live it up you know so please consider the ceasefire

Jennifer L. HallItem 3

resolution your time is up mayor pro tem next speaker kadisha abarub followed by shahira

Oweinat and Farah Miles. Hello council members my name is Kadisha I live in Ward 4. To council member Ty Phan, Phil Becerra and Mayor Emesqua, you insinuated and assumed that individuals present at the December 19th meeting do not care about the matters of this city. In fact, it is quite the contrary. However, our compassion and care of humanity extends beyond the radius of this city. Mayor, you brought up letters from children

from the city of December 19th, and I have a genuine question for you to reflect on. Do you care only about the children of this city? Is your compassion and care limited to this city's radius? As a Palestinian Latina who lives and works in the city of Santana, I take great offense to your demeanor, lack of empathy, and blatant violence against Palestinians, Mayor Meskwa. With that said, I would like my comment

to be formally submitted as an ethics complaint against the mayor for infringement on our First Amendment right to freedom of speech. It is understandable to call for a recess to address disruptions as they occur. It is understandable to ask members of the public to exit the chambers if they are being disruptive, but to clear the entire room and prevent any members of the public from giving public comment, that is unacceptable. We demand accountability, and we demand that the city open an investigation into the mayor's actions on December 5th and December 19th council meeting. Thank you.

Thank you.

Jennifer L. HallItem 3

Shahira Oweinat, followed by Farrah Miles and Masab Hamadi.

Hi, my name is Shahira Wynott. I live in Ward 4, Santa Ana, and I own a small business in Fountain Valley. I'm here today to ask you to put the ceasefire resolution on your agenda. I also want my comments to please be formally submitted as an ethics complaint against the mayor for her infringement on our First Amendment rights to freedom of speech. I am the product of a forced expulsion from the town of Nablus. I'm a

Palestinian-American who deals with Islamophobia constantly, something that we deal with. Islamophobia is a real and it's a dangerous word and it's it's we're risking our lives every day with what's happening in the Middle East. The word anti-Semitic is being thrown around loosely while, sorry, if there was a little more education rather than propaganda, the world would know that the Palestinians are true Semites.

You can verify this fact.

The indiscriminate bombing of a people should be condemned by everyone with any ounce of compassion. The intentional genocide of Gaza is merely to kill as many Palestinian women and children as that, not to eliminate Hamas. 35,000 people have been killed with an estimated of 15,000 still under the rubble, not to mention children left without limbs. This is the reality of Gaza. Palestinians have been dying slow deaths way before October 7th. It was never any concern when Palestinians were being denied their basic human rights. They were being displaced from their homes,

tortured, jailed without charge, and killed. This has been happening for 75 years.

Jennifer L. HallItem 3

Your time is up, ma'am.

Jennifer L. HallItem 3

Next speaker, Farah Miles, followed by Masab Hamadi and Natalie Bosto Camargo.

Hello, my name is Farah Miles. I'm from Santa Ana. But I want to address you, Mayor. I know this may seem like a very, very small act as you're just city, you are not, you know, the federal. But your voice really can create a ripple effect. Palestinian voice really has been absent in politics, in media, in life in general, but your little action may seem so small to you and so insignificant to your work and to your job, but to other political members, to your colleagues, to everyone that looks up to you,

I think it is a huge, huge, huge step for the Palestinians means just to, like, just recognize them as humans, because they are just shunned. As a white person, like, I have never ever, you know, been, I've never had that treatment. I've never felt fear in, you know, Orange County like they have. There has been an influx of hate crimes for anti-Semitism, but especially Islamophobia of people being killed, people being murdered by extremist people and they are not being, they don't have any, you know, they are not being prosecuted. So I know it seems very stupid to you

and I know you may not, you want to look at other issues, but I really do think it is very, very important. Every voice matters and especially your voice since it is a voice of power. So thank you. Cease fire now. Free Palestine. Thank you.

Jennifer L. HallItem 3

Masab Hamadi, followed by Natalie Basto Camargo and Michael Diaz.

As-salamu alaykum wa rahmatullah wa barakatuh. Peace be upon all of you except the Zionists who are here.

I am here to request for a ceasefire resolution to be added to the agenda for Santa Ana for the sake of humanity. Anyone here who is supportive of indiscriminate bombing of innocent Palestinian men, women, and children is not human. If you are only for saving lives of one side and not the other, you are also not human. If you only care about your own people and not others who are innocently being murdered and want to have anything done to annihilate another group of people, you are racist and guilty of war crimes.

Standing by and watching poor innocent Palestinian children being bombed and discriminating.

Shame. What a shame.

If you only care about your own people and not others who are innocent, who are innocently being murdered and want to have anything done to annihilate.

You are racist and guilty of foreign crimes. Standing by and watching poor innocent Palestinian children being bombed indiscriminately means you are supportive of genocide. If you support the idea of killing their own people and bombing possible hostages, you are an animal.

If you are supportive of Nazi-Nazionale war crimes against innocent Palestinians, just like Hitler in World War II, you are a terrorist. Masad, your time is up.

Jennifer L. HallItem 3

Natalie Basto Camargo, followed by Michael Diaz and Lloyd Queen. Queen.

My name is Natalie Melissa Busto Camargo Peñuela Parra Guzman Toledo Morales Ramirez Figueroa. I stand first of all to thank everybody for their time. Time is something we cannot get back. I also want to tell everybody that I see, hear, accept and understand you. Every single person in this room with your roles, responsibilities, family and the money. trust me I see hear feel respect and understand you so what am i doing here I'll give you one minute 30 seconds I respect time I was born in Bogota Colombia grew up in Orange County I was a 2013 OC registered top graduate who

will change the world I graduated Yale in 2017 majored in cognitive science and education studies I speak two languages fluently English and Spanish one one proficient Hebrew, three I understand the Latin languages, and three I speak a little bit, Arabic, Chinese, and Russian. I'm here because I agree with the vision and mission of the city of Santa Ana. And I want to make something very clear. I understand two very important languages, the language of money and the language of the law. Now, those are really the only things that matter. I come to take the chains off, take away fear, and give freedom. Now, how do we do this?

Everybody finds their own way. I do this with strength, with music, with poetry, and with laughter.

There has been comments such as, this generates revenue. The question is, this generates revenue for whom? For whom? Is it for us or for them? It's the money, okay. I am in direct rebellion against chains, which to me mean God, money, lies, and fear. And here is my poem. Fire, fire, spill thy fury, spill thy ire. Smash the order, toss the clean. Turn on chaos from within.

Jennifer L. HallItem 3

Michael Diaz, followed by Lloyd Queen and Amal Alaka. Alcala.

Hello, Council. My name is Michael Diaz. I'm a resident from Costa Mesa, California, and I came here to speak on some things. I'm here today because I'm appalled and shocked by the Mayor's decision to prevent the public from giving public comment at the most recent council meeting, and I would like my comment to be formally submitted as an ethics complaint against the Mayor for her infringement on our First Amendment right to freedom of speech. It's understandable to call for a recess to address disruptions as they occur, but if if they're being disruptive and you come to, you have a clear entire room

and they are here to say some things and you prevent any members of the public from giving public comment that's unacceptable. They came here for a reason and you're the representatives and I feel that's important. And on top of that, I wanted to bring something up, that being said, I'd like to mention something I saw on the meeting on December 5th. That was one of my first council meetings ever and I would just like to say that in response to a question that Councilmember Hernandez asked in general to the council about someone signing a voter card for a public attendant,

genuinely Mayor Emezcua seemed defensive and got and pointed a statement back at Councilmember Hernandez and said something along the lines of, if you want to point fingers at who's getting money from who, I can point fingers. trust me I can sing like a canary on the things I've seen and know and that's not verbatim but I really do urge everyone here to play back the video because it's not far off that being said it was again one of my first experiences at a council meeting and that struck me powerfully I've processed that sense and come to the understanding that what I believe really bothered me so much was that

counts the mayor Emma skewer expressed to me with your with her statement that that the policy of the mayor of Santa Ana follows as protocol for reporting corrupt behavior with her own department is juvenile at best, and I'm sorry, but not really sorry, criminal at worst. I don't say this to be petty, seriously, just to bring this to the attention of the people. Michael, your time is up. And see if it stood out to anyone else. Thank you.

Jennifer L. HallItem 3

Next speaker is Lloyd Queen, followed by Amal Alcala and Omar Z. Lloyd Queen.

Jennifer L. HallItem 3

Amal Alcala.

My name is Amal Alcala. Tonight we started off with Gustavo Hernandez. He opened the meeting and his words should inspire us all. I appreciated his courage to speak about justice. Justice should not be just for the selected few. Honorable Mayor, who's left the room, sat here on December 5th, and I didn't feel that she conducted the meeting with the spirit of justice for everyone here. I will share a little bit of justice inflicted on the civilian population of Gaza.

Over 31,000 have been murdered by the Israeli occupation forces. 1.93 million human beings were forced out of their homes. Israel has killed more journalists in three months. Do you know how many journalists were killed in all of World War II? 67. That's seven years. But Israel has managed to kill 113 journalists in three months. Let that sink in. 295 healthcare professionals have

been murdered by the Israeli occupation forces. It didn't start on October 7th, people. It It started with the creation of the Zionist state. My name is Hope in English, Esperanza in Spanish, Amal in Arabic. My parents named me this because they were forced out of their home and all they had left was to name their child Hope. I am a resident of Ward 4. I'm here today because I am appalled

and disgusted by the mayor I want my comments to be put on your time if I saw

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it here yes thank you Omar Z followed by Lugna a and Tashima

good evening is what is happening in Gaza City Council issue absolutely not But how come other cities like Long Beach, San Francisco, Atlanta, and many other cities passed a resolution? The answer to that is easy. The majority of the city council members in those cities were human. Today I got a phone call from my cousin in Chicago. His brother-in-law was shot and killed. His name was Usama. He was 36 years old and he was a paramedic in Gaza. He had not seen his family for a full month because he was out trying to help save lives in a war zone. Now he leaves behind his wife and two kids. One is two and the other is five.

They are currently living outside in a tent in the cold, living off one piece of bread per day. The mayor has already proven that she is soulless, and I think this is Phil's first time. Actually, he left, so forget that part. David and Ty, that leaves you two. David, I want to tell you about the greatest day of my life. October 28, 2017, it was the day I became a father to my little girl. David, I know you became a father this week, and I wanted to tell you congratulations. Fatherhood, it will change you. It immediately makes you someone else's hero.

David, my little girl is six and she's grown up and she questions every single move I make. I know your daughter will grow up and she will ask you what you did in 2023 when Israel killed 15,000 children. I'm not asking either of you, David or Ty, I'm not asking either of you to be a paramedic in Gaza. I'm not. I'm only asking you to vote with Jonathan, Jesse, and Benjamin to get the ceasefire back on the agenda. No matter what you believe or you have heard, the ceasefire has one purpose. It's not for Hamas to reload. It's only to protect the children and the civilians.

There are over 50,000 pregnant women in Gaza. My wife is pregnant, David. And I know your wife was pregnant recently too. They don't have any care. They don't have doctor visits. They don't have anything. But can you protect these women and their future children? If Ben and Jerry's can call for a ceasefire, why can't you guys?

Thank you.

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Next speaker, Lubna A., followed by Tashim Mash and Basha.

Thank you for this opportunity. I want my comments to be formally submitted because my First Amendment rights were infringed at the last meeting. It's been over a hundred and two days of bombardment, deprivation of basic necessities, and killing of over 30,000 Palestinians. I repeat 30,000 Palestinians and counting. When are we going to admit that the number of deaths and counting is nothing less than a genocide and ethnic cleansing and the aim to a complete erasure of Palestinians. We say enough is enough.

How can we allow for such a catastrophe to continue in our lifetime? We all have the right to vote, to speak, to learn, to have food, and to live. If we have those rights, then there should be no problem accepting the fact that Palestinians Indians also deserve to have their basic human rights too. If we can agree that all humans have the right to live, then there should be no objection to add to the agenda and vote for a permanent and complete and immediate ceasefire. Thank you.

I want to ask, I want my comments formally submitted as a complaint against Mayor Valerie Mesquia for infringement of my First Amendment right of freedom of speech in the last meeting. I urge for Santa Ana to add an immediate permanent ceasefire resolution to the agenda. We're here 100 days later, over 30,000 deaths later, and after 60,000 injuries later, asking for a ceasefire again and again. I'm a Palestinian American and I don't believe I even need to be up here trying to convince people why the killing of my people is not okay. It's not an exaggeration when I say every

single person killed in Gaza today would be alive if we called for a ceasefire yesterday and this stays true until a permanent ceasefire is in place. This is a matter of humanity and as humans it is our duty to do our work of reaching the voices of Gaza to the US and as the US funds billions of dollars to the genocide in Gaza how can I go to sleep peacefully while a family is buried under rubble as if the earth they're buried in is not the same one I walk how can we call for youth to save the environment when we're funding the destruction of it how can we ask the youth to respect all races when we're

funding the genocide of one how can we ask our youth to support women's rights while we're funding a system depriving women of their necessities every single dollar spent sent to Israel to continue the slaughter of Palestinians is a dollar taken away from housing the homeless, improving our education system, improving our health care systems, our streets and so much more. Let's not forget that our own tax money allows Israelis to universal health care when we can't even get a sufficient system in the country we live in. As a closing note just remember Palestinians want to want freedom to live while Israelis want

freedom to kill. Thank you.

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A reminder to please state your name and ward for the record. Next speakers, Basha, Jana, and Thanh Nguyen and Vi Vu.

Good evening. My name is Basha Jamil, and I'm with the Council on American Islamic Relations. I'm here today because I wanted to express my deep frustration around the Santa Ana City Council's failure to pass a ceasefire resolution to call for an end to the genocide in Gaza. Just last week South Africa took Israel to the International Court of Justice and laid out in painstaking detail how Israel's 100 days of non-stop bombing of hospitals, schools, churches, mosques, and refugee camps constitutes genocide. As we're sitting here tonight, Al Nasser Hospital, the last semi-functional

hospital in Gaza is being carpet bombed. People are starving. The whole world sees that it's a genocide. And rather than honor the words, never again, our elected officials here at home can't even call for a ceasefire. I also want to express my concerns about Mayor Emeskwa's actions on December 5th and December 19th, where she demonstrated a blatant and harmful bias against Palestinians and their allies in the Santa Ana community, many of of whom have lost multiple family members in Gaza since October 7th. While people were up here pouring their hearts, Palestinian Americans watching their own people,

their families and friends being slaughtered, Mayor Emeskwet displayed zero empathy and treated them with open contempt. We witnessed eye rolls, constant threats of shutting the meeting down and calling in police, and we even heard the mayor cast doubt on whether the photos of murdered children were real. It is unacceptable to prevent the people from giving public comment about one of the most important and impactful issues of our lifetimes. Calling for a recess is understandable, but to shut a meeting down and preventing everyone attending even virtually from speaking entirely is unacceptable.

It is crucial that members of the public be given a chance to have their voice heard at City Hall. I would like my comment to be formally submitted as an ethics complaint against the mayor for her infringement on our First Amendment rights to freedom of speech. We demand accountability.

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Next speaker, Jana, followed by Thanh Nguyen and Vy Vu, and then Catalina Inistria.

Good evening. My name is Jana. I'm with the Party for Socialism and Liberation. Earlier tonight, we were talking about revenue, about paying for services in the city. But why don't we talk about the fact that billions of our tax dollars are being sent to Israel right now to fund this genocide. genocide. The fact that California alone sent over 600 million dollars to Israel last year instead of funding infrastructure, instead of funding public housing. Meeting after meeting your constituents come to you pleading for scraps. Pleading for community centers, pleading

for public housing, pleading for infrastructure. But what is the answer they're always given? There's not enough money. But there's always money for police, there's always money for for war, there's always money for genocide. This is the business of the council members.

Millions, billions of our dollars are based into Israel. We're not seeing any of it here. And if you can't even do the bare minimum, we're just asking for the bare minimum, calling for a ceasefire. We're not asking you to condemn Israel, though you should. We're not asking you to condemn the United States, which is funding the genocide in Gaza with our tax dollars, with your constituents tax dollars, though you should be condemning them, if you can't even do the bare minimum supporting an end to the violence in Gaza, you should feel ashamed of yourselves. You should feel ashamed of yourselves. Palestine

will be free because the world stands with Palestine. And when we look back on this moment when we look back on the city council people will see who is on the right side of history and who is not thank you

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next speaker Thanh Nguyen and Vy Vu followed by Catalina Iniesta and Veronica Garcia

Good evening, Council Members. My name is Vivian and I'm from Ward 1. And this is Tina and we're here to talk about establishing the Orange County Dental Care Clinic in Santa Ana to provide residents free dental screenings and affordable and urgent dental care with a focus on serving the underserved, the elderly, and the veteran population in the community. We recently signed a lease and made great progress towards the opening of a very large community dental clinic at 1600 North Broadway. Oral health is an integral part of our overall health as it impacts our systemic health, our quality of life, and our economic productivity.

Maintaining oral health is done through regular access to dental care, which unfortunately Unfortunately, many underserved Americans, especially older adults, don't have due to a lack of dental insurance. Community-based dental clinics like the one we are building serves as the primary care for those who can't afford dental care in public sectors or other clinical settings where healthcare is delivered. The clinic will decrease the need for emergency dental care through the many services it provides and through educating the public on oral hygiene. So just like all other community dental clinics,

we do provide hygiene services, exams, radiograph fillings, extractions, and dentures to all residents. But what makes our clinic special and unique is that we are providing free dental screenings to all residents, which will allow them to be aware of the numerous painless oral diseases that may have like oral cancer, gingivitis, cavities, and et cetera. So with these screenings, these are are vital because if caught early, they can easily be treated, preventing the need for more drastic and expensive procedures that would be needed in the future.

So what we're asking of you is for the elected officials, including the council members in our city of Santa Ana, to work with our volunteers to spread the message to the population about these free dental screenings by providing through emails or posting through social media so that everyone is aware of the free dental screenings, that they can get advantage of it if it's needed. Thank you very much.

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Next speakers, Catalina Iniestra, Veronica Garcia, and Sadad Talhouni.

in our parks in the city of Santa Ana. They talk about a beautiful Santa Ana, to which little by little we are being less favored, those who constantly want to visit them, enjoy them, but due to the insecurity that they live in, because they are getting ready, of course they are getting ready, but that security that we require as a family is not maintained, where really the background that all this brings is that in those places they are busy exercising prostitution, selling drugs, smoking, tobacco, marijuana.

In all the surveys we have done as a team of parents who are volunteers, most of them manifest insecurity in the parks. que es y es por aquí es por eso que estamos aquí para pedirles que si por favor pueden poner en la agenda este tema para seguirlo tratando más a fondo gracias buenas noches

good evening council members mayor Valerie a mescua my name is Catherine estra and my heart is with you and the issue that brings me here is as a community volunteer I see the reality that is happening in our parks. We talk about a beautiful Santa Ana but these places the parks are not always safe. Yes they have been fixed but they are not really maintained and the background behind this is that there's a lot of issues there like prostitution and drug use, selling of tobacco, selling of drugs, etc. And in the surveys that we have

have realized that we have done there is a consistent lack of safety around the parks. So we're asking that you put this issue on the agenda to be explored further. Thank you very much.

Good evening, Honorable Mayor Valeria Mezcua and members of the council. My name is Veronica Garcia. I'm a resident of the city of Santa Ana and I'm part of a group of leaders who those qualities represent almost a different as common areas in a city of Santa Ana. And, as members of the community today, we want to talk about the importance of the security and maintenance of our parks. We've collected data, information, and surveys, and we're here to join the city and create solutions. A proposal is to create a group of implementation composed of members of the community.

unidad y el propósito sería trabajar con la ciudad para crear soluciones nos gustaría ver el incremento de la seguridad el alumbrado el mantenimiento para poder crear espacios seguros para nuestras familias también nos gustaría ver una variedad de actividades que anteriormente se ofrecieron en los distintos centros comunitarios y que eventualmente han ido desapareciendo Gracias.

Good evening, honorable Mayor Valeria Mezcua, council members. My name is Veronica Garcia. I'm a Santa Ana resident and I'm with a group of parent leaders to talk about different issues in the community of Santa Ana. We would like to talk about the importance of safety and the maintenance of our parks. We have conducted surveys and the result is that we would like to join with the City of Santa Ana to bring solutions to implement as a group with the community. We would like to find solutions together to increase safety, lighting, maintenance

in in our parks. We want our parks to be safe places for our families and to to bring back the different activities that we used to offer at the community centers and are going away more and more. Thank you.

Hello. My name is Sadaat Alhouni. I'm a resident of Ward 4 here in Santa Ana. This is actually the first time I come to a city council meeting, and I was moved to action when I saw the mayor's behavior in the last council meeting. So I'm here for two reasons. The first is to call out the mayor's decision that prevented the public from giving public comments at the most recent council meeting. Please consider this a formal ethics complaint submission against the mayor for her infringement on the public's First Amendment right to freedom of speech. The other thing I'd like to bring up is that I'd like to express my wishes

that this council consider a resolution demanding a permanent ceasefire in Gaza. Santa Ana residents are impacted by what's going on in Gaza. Some Santa Ana residents know people in Gaza. Santa Ana residents do not feel heard at the federal level, and so they are demanding that their wishes be expressed at the state level, at the county level, and at the city level. If Santa Ana taxes are being used to fund violence, then that makes it Santa Ana business. Thank you.

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Next three speakers are Yaseer, Juliana Mushiev, and Kaz Henderling. If you could please line up.

I'm just here to talk to the council member that represents my ward, and that's Ty so I'ma hope that she's gonna see this recording later. Ty, me and my neighbors are residents of your ward one. Ty, just in time. Me and my neighbors are residents of your ward one. You are our council member. Me and my neighbors are wondering why you haven't supported a ceasefire while a genocide is happening. happening. Your parents fled the Vietnam War to come here. And guess what? My parents did

the exact same thing coming from Palestine. Israel has been trying to eradicate Hamas for decades now. Yet all we see is innocent people being killed. Our mayor doesn't think this topic is important, even though our tax dollars are going to killing innocent people. We could be using that money right here to improve our community. Maybe we could use some of that APAC money too.

I'm sure you're aware of the homeless situation in Santa Ana, but you can be better, Ty. Call for a ceasefire. Why haven't you? I'll be back here asking you the same question until we get an answer that makes sense. If that doesn't work, I'll vote against you. And if that doesn't work, I'm going to move to the ward that Jonathan or Benjamin represent. Thank you.

Is it starting? Hello, my name is Juliana. I live in Santa Ana in ward four. I'm here to give public comment to file a formal ethics complaint against the mayor for violating the Brown Act and impeding our First Amendment rights to speak at the previous meeting. I think everyone has spoken to why in the previous comments. I'd also like to talk about the ceasefire resolution. I want to ask why is it that 66% of the United States population, 66% supports a

ceasefire. 80% of Democrats, 57% of Republicans, 56% of Independents. The UN General Assembly supports a ceasefire. Humanitarian organizations including Amnesty International, Doctors Without Borders, World Health Organization, the Carter Center, United Nations Children's Health Fund, World Food Program, they all support a ceasefire but for some reason the City Council is wavering and refusing to call for a ceasefire. I also want to address Councilmember Phan.

You mentioned after the disruption on January 16th that, you know, we were stopping from conducting city business, which I thought was extremely out of touch because what is happening right now is deeply, deeply affecting people in a way that I just feel like it was inappropriate to lecture people about something when a genocide was happening. happening. I think it was deeply offensive and deeply out of touch. I don't think that we're looking for you to call for an end to the violence generally, but specifically a ceasefire. And when Councilmember Vasquez asked you to include a ceasefire, you refused.

That made people really upset. We don't need just a general end to the violence. We need to stop seeing a moral equivalence between 1,200 dead on one side and 30,000 dead on on the other and a complete cut off of resources on one side and occupation on the other. We need to see what the reality that's happening in front of our faces. Thank you.

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Next speakers, Kaz Henderling followed by Leslie Nguyen and Rocio Guzman.

Good evening council. My name is Kaz Henderling. I am from the city of Placentia, just a little bit north of here. I'm here today to talk to the city council members and implore you guys to draft a ceasefire resolution. The ongoing conflict in Gaza is a humanitarian crisis the likes of which I've never seen in my life and I also wanted to express my disgust at the actions that occurred here at the last city council meeting. Closing the council session was nothing more than attacked it to silence the public on this extremely important issue. Right now at least 30,000

civilians, possibly more, have been killed in Gaza, including over 12,000 children. As a person who works in early childhood education, this hits very close to home for me. I no longer feel any joy at work when I see children learn to read or to speak or take their first steps. All I can think of and see in my mind is the faces of the children and infants of Gaza who will never get the chance to grow up. I understand that Santa Ana might seem small in comparison to such a large, complex international issue, but I believe that if we have the opportunity to do the right thing, that we have the responsibility to do the right thing.

So I really encourage you to consider submitting a draft for a ceasefire resolution now. Thank you.

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you Leslie Nguyen followed by Rocio Guzman and Claudia Morales hello my name

is Leslie Nguyen I am a resident in Santa Ana board 4 I'm here today because I am pretty appalled and shocked by the mayor's decision to prevent the public from giving public comment I'm new to this so I've only been following recently but seeing that was quite appalling so I would like my comment to to be formally submitted as an ethics complaint against the mayor for infringing our First Amendment rights, freedom of speech. So my husband and I, we are a small business owner and we pay an insane amount of tax. So seeing it go towards such obliteration and destruction

is, I don't know how to even put into words, but it's way more than disheartening. I'd also like it noted that I'm not Palestinian, I'm also not Muslim, but I am a mother of a five-year-old, and that is the average age of a child that has been killed in Palestine. So I don't know what else to say apart from it is time to end this, and it is time to call for a ceasefire. So please, we strongly urge you to add that to the agenda. So, free Palestine. Thank you.

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Rocio Guzman, Claudia Morales, Yohana Rojas.

Good evening, honorable Mayor and the entire cabinet. I am here also supporting the request of my colleague Catalina Iniesta and Veronica Garcia. We are here asking for you to join us as a city for the improvement of our parks. We, as families, sometimes have to go visit parks in different cities because they are in better conditions, cleaner, there are different activities.

I know that here in some parks in Santa Ana there are, but sometimes they are very far from where we live. and the parks that are close to where we live are not in the best conditions. It is very true, we visited different parks, we have more than 50 parks in the city of Santa Ana, and the ones we visited were approximately 26 parks, in which we found many things that I think should not be there, and some were commented by the colleagues. And I think we should have more surveillance cameras security that are working, some emergency towers, the most visible numbers, right?

To be able to contact us with someone if there is a situation, some problem within the parks, it would be good to have it too. I think our parks are very good, very nice, in good facilities, good places, but if we want, maybe, right? apoyar en ese sentido formar un grupo de padres e ir a ayudar a hacer esas limpiezas en mi comunidad anteriormente se hacían de ir a colectar basura llevamos a nuestros hijos y así enseñamos verdad también a nuestros pequeños de cómo tener en nuestro lugar nuestra comunidad y nuestra ciudad limpia muchas gracias por su atención

good evening honorable mayor city council members here also to support the issue that my friends, Katrina Iniesta and Veronica Garcia had mentioned. We'd like to join you, join the city to improve our parks. Our families sadly have to go to other cities, to other places to enjoy the parks because they are cleaner. They have different activities. And I know that some of our parks in Santa Ana do have some of these activities and some are nice, but they're too far from where we live. The parks that are closer to where we live are not the best to be honest. We have about over 50 parks in the city of Santa Ana and we visited

around 26 of the parks and there are some things that could be improved as they my friends have said before. We want to have more security maybe have some some emergency towers more visible numbers to call in case of emergencies and other things like that our parks are good but we would like to support you as a parent group in doing some park cleanups to some trash pickups and activity activities such as this to teach our kids about keeping our city beautiful and clean thank you very much

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and thank you for listening next three speakers Claudia Morales Johanna Rojas My name is Mervet Judah.

We have a house, but we decided to build our own home where we rent. Where we rent, and it's really very difficult because last year the owner told me that he was going to evict us. And that's very difficult for me because if my advisor knows my community, I think so. It's so well known, Rose Woody Baker, right? Guns, prostitution, drugs, graffiti, robbery. Wow, who could think of living on the street with that? And I empathized in the last meeting we had before the end of the year

with all the colleagues who came from Palestine, because it's terrible to know that every time you don't make a decision, more and more people die. But I say, they die there and they evict us here, they throw us out on the street, because the owners want more money for that income, right? I paid $2,000, they raised me to $2,200, they want more, $2,700, $2,800. If he takes me out, the owner can have that money. And well, I know that sometimes they say, the same thing as always. The only thing I can say is that we know

who supports the cause of fair housing, of rent control, which they don't even respect. The owners are looking for a way to do it. But we know who is working with us. Thank you for your support, councilors.

Good evening. My name is Claudia Morales. I'm a resident of Ward 4 for over 20 years in Santa Ana. I can call Santa Ana my home. I'm with Tenants United Santa Ana, and I'm also part of the over 20 million tenants in the state of California. We do not own a home, but we have to rent, and this is hard because my landlord wanted to evict me last year. and Mr. Abacera knows my area, I live around Rosewood and Baker and there's a lot of shootings and prostitution and graffiti and thefts and all that and it's hard for people to live in a house

there, must be much harder to live on the streets around there and last time I was here I came and And I empathized with the people from Palestine. And it's hard when you don't get to decide where you can live. And more people are dying over there. And people are being evicted over here. My landlord wanted to raise my rent. I used to pay $2,000. He raised it to $2,200. And then he wants $2,700, $2,800. and if he gets to evict me because I cannot pay the rent then he can get

those prices so I'm here to say you might be saying the same they're coming here for the same thing over and over but we want we want to support this and we want to you to work with us because people we want rent control and it's not being done the way it's supposed to be thank you for your support to the the council members who are supporting us we know who you are thank you

johanna rojas

publicos especificamente hablando de nuestros parques. Como hemos visto, los parques han sido y están siendo renovados y se les está dando mantenimiento y esto nos debería de brindar espacios de esparcimiento sano para nuestras familias. Pero nos damos cuenta que esto no es suficiente para garantizar la seguridad física, psicológica o emocional de los residentes que acudimos a estos espacios con la intención de pasar momentos de convivencia pacífica y alegre con nuestras familias pues los acontecimientos que hemos pasado diferentes padres líderes aquí presentes

nos nos refleja que no se está creando un ambiente propicio y adecuado y especialmente para nuestros hijos por situaciones como alta presencia de personas sin hogar drogándose prostituyéndose falta de iluminación inaccessibility to bathrooms, knives, syringes thrown in children's games, among others. And, in addition to that, the closure of schools in parks and community centers, and for me specifically in my area, which is Garfield Community Center, which from January 1 of this year,

they are telling us that the activities that our children had are being canceled. I want to tell you that the activities are an opportunity to prevent our children and other young people from being arrested for crime or drugs. If our children have the opportunity to develop their skills and improve their sports, music, dance, art, among others, they will have a higher chance of being better citizens. Thank you very much.

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The next three speakers, Mervet Judah, Veronica Gomez, and Madhumita.

Good evening, honorable mayor, city council members. My name is Johanna Rojas, and I am with parent leaders in Santa Ana. We want to advocate for the policies and the plans for the safety of our public spaces, specifically for our parks. Our parks are being maintained and they should be safe places for our families to enjoy, to spend some safe and quality time in these spaces. But the parks are not enough. We need to, the residents want to spend time with their families there.

and we have different parent leaders who are here who realize and notice that we do not have adequate spaces for our kids to play and to be safe. So there's a lot of things going on in the parks, homeless people, prostitution, drugs, and other problems, knives, syringes, around the play equipment. and we we some of the part the programs are being closed for example I'm around Garfield Community Center and we were told that January 1st that many of the

activities are going to be cancelled and we need these activities for in order for our kids to be involved and focused and so that they don't get into crimes crimes and drugs and things like that. So we want our kids to develop wonderful skills such as sports and music and dance, et cetera, so that they can be better citizens. Thank you.

Can I start? Peace be upon you. I'm here to express my profound outrage at the recent comments made by the mayor during our ceasefire resolution discussion on December 5th and her decision to close meeting on December 19th. Our community was deeply shocked and hurt by the mayor questioning of the authenticity of social media images showing Palestinian children murdered or severely injured by the genocide in Gaza. By adding, comment if they're real, this statement is not just jarring but deeply offensive, especially against the backdrop of the well-documented genocide and massacre of Palestinian people.

For over 100 days, Israeli occupation forces have relentlessly bombarded and starved Palestinians, using weapons like white phosphorous and bunker buster bombs in densely populated 25-mile strip of land that is six miles wide, murdering over 30,000 Palestinians, including over 13,000 children, injuring over 60,000 Palestinians, and making over 25,000 children orphans. The reality we face is horrific. Children with limbs amputated without anesthesia, their brains blown out, bodies burned in unimaginable ways. Yes, they are real. I wish they weren't. We see children with no surviving relatives, entire families decimated,

Palestinians crushed to death, parents pulling pieces of their children from under the rubble. They're real. Mayor, from woman to woman, and I don't know if you're a mother, your behavior was really offensive. My children were here at that meeting on December 5th and what my daughter said I don't want to say out here, but she was really shocked and she thought you were really mean and unkind. I would like to file an ethics complaint against you for the way you You treated our community on December 5th and the 19th, formally, and you could have handled things differently. You had somebody lead the Pledge of Allegiance

that was a Zionist. That was wrong of you. Not even if someone was pro-Palestinian, you shouldn't have done that on that meeting for the resolution. I demand you guys put a ceasefire resolution. We matter, we matter. Israeli lives matter and Palestinian lives matter. And this is a progressive city, you need to act like one. Please, and we've tried with all of you. Cease fire now.

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The next three speakers, Veronica Gomez, Madhumita Velumarini, and Tom.

Good evening, everyone. Thank you for your time to listen to everyone here. My name is Veronica Gomez from War II, and I'm here with a group of parent leaders here in Santa Ana. I love Santa Ana and I've been most of my life living here in Santa Ana since I came from Mexico And I also love all the good things that happen in Santa Ana like the some of the comments that they came and did the invitation for the dental clinic and The down payment programs that Santa Ana offers to some of the residents the TED fest and all the other community events that I

some of us have sent invitations to you and you kindly been coming to be around the community. But I'm here tonight to support the proposal that we as parents are would like for you to put in your agenda to have a group that works together with the city members so we could pay more attention to the security on our parks and in maintenance. And why I'm here in support of that proposal that we're doing is for a particular event that

happened in September 25th 2017 and it was an event that had affect our family. My son was a murderer in Centennial Park. So for me and my family and a lot of the the community members think that is very important that we pay attention to the security that is in the parks. So please support our leaders, parent leaders in these matters. Thank you for your attention.

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Madhumita Velumani, followed by Tom.

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Madhumita?

Jennifer L. HallItem 3

Tom?

Tom?

Counsel, after 103 days, there was not even one single successful hostage rescue, which explains why tens of thousands of Zionists protest every day in Tel Aviv and other occupied cities. Not only that, but the whole world is calling for a ceasefire. fire, except for you, except for Sleepy Joe, the Israeli government, and other genocide supporters. The Israeli military have murdered many hostages by their own intentional negligence. Yesterday I witnessed a video displaying a hostage terrified for losing her life by the

Israeli military. And I quote, There is no water, there is no food. All resources have been depleted. Some soldiers have been treating us well. They are caring for us as much as they can, but there are not much resources left. I was located in a building. It was bombed by an IDF airstrike. F-16 fighter jet rockets hit us three times. Two rockets exploded and one did not. In the building, we were with Al-Qassam soldiers. Three hostages, myself, Noah,

Argamani, and Itai Fersly, and Yossi Shrabi. They're both, like, they're three hostages.

After the building we were in was hit, we were all buried under the rubble. Al-Qassam soldiers rescued my life and Itay. Later we were not able to save Yossi. After two nights, Itay and I were relocated to another place. While being transported, Eray was hit by an IDF airstrike, and he did not survive.

I remained injured in my head. My head is full of shrapnels, and I have injuries in my body.

Jennifer L. HallItem 3

Tom, your time is up.

Ittai. Ittai first. Ittai first. Lesherabi died because of their own IDF air strikes. Call for ceasefire. If you care for the hostages, call for ceasefire and the Palestinian lives.

Jennifer L. HallItem 3

Mayor, that concludes the speaker cards and there was no one in the Zoom queue at the beginning of the public comment period.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 3

I'm sorry, I couldn't hear you.

Jennifer L. HallItem 3

that concludes the speaker cards and there was nobody in the zoom queue at the beginning of the

Valerie AmezcuaItem 3

public comment period okay great thank you so very much mr city manager can we please hear your

comments at this time thank you madam mayor members of the city council members of the community and staff just a couple items tonight just on the agenda tonight that the city council approved item six of the agenda included a receiving receive and file of quite a few different audits and our our comprehensive annual financial report for the city it's good that that document quietly was approved by you it showed that the the finance department and our leaders in various departments that purchase things for the city and our processes for going to bid and

allowing competition for city services is working and the no action issues were found in that audit and so it was a it was a clean audit and it's just something that just wanted to highlight that and complement our finance team as our leaders but it's all of us together following the rules and and processes that we have in government, so congratulations to them. In addition, item 15, it was also pointed out by Councilmember Vazquez, it was approved on your consent calendar, it included some new and expanded landscaping for our city parks

and for our city facilities. This was a very creative approach that I have not seen before in any other public agency where specifically four different groups will be providing services to our city parks and enhancing those services but if they're not performing then we have the ability administratively to move those resources around and remove that move the option of going with a certain vendor around to ensure we're getting quality services from that work those are just a couple items I want to highlight that was a

quietly approved tonight and so congratulations to our public works department on that second item so that's that concludes my report thank you thank you mr city manager um real quick

Valerie AmezcuaItem 6

madam city attorney could you clarify a few things for us please yes regarding the clearing of the room please yes i i would be happy to do so

Sonia R. CarvalhoItem 6

mayor so mayor and members of the council and also members of the public based on the many comments that were made tonight, I really do want to thank members of the public for being so respectful during the business portion of the meeting this evening. You've demonstrated that when we follow our rules of decorum, we can both conduct the business of the council and we can hear from all of you. And so I do want to sincerely thank you for being respectful and allowing us to reach the public comment period so that we could hear from you. I do want to just briefly address what

Sonia R. CarvalhoItem 6

happened at the meeting on December 5th and also on the 19th. For those of you that were not at both meetings, you may, and for those of you that were, you may recall that there were numerous disruptions at the December 5th meeting. We also witnessed aggression demonstrated by speakers against one another and this resulted in people being asked to be escorted to their cars and their vehicles as they left City Hall that night. So we as staff decided that we should get together and and tried to address how we could conduct our future meetings to ensure that we could have a lawful meeting and that all voices were respected.

Sonia R. CarvalhoItem 6

As part of that process, we went into the December 19th council meeting with an understanding of how we might handle disruptions. And while the council attempted to listen to a holiday presentation and had plans to recognize children who were at the meeting to be recognized for, I think it was their athletic accomplishments, if I'm not mistaken, there was a disruption that could not be resolved after several warnings. So in accordance with what we had planned for the safety and the conduct of our meetings, the mayor called for a break and after waiting for I think it was over 10 minutes, the mayor and council members

Sonia R. CarvalhoItem 6

who had decided to leave the dais were advised that order could not be restored at that time. So in accordance with the adopted rules of decorum and the Brown Act, the council chambers were cleared. The mayor did not make this unilateral decision. It was a collaborative decision to ensure safety and decorum in in accordance with the city's decorum rules and the Brown Act. Clearly, it was not a popular decision among those who had planned to speak, but as a result, we were able to hold a very respectful meeting this evening, and most importantly, the council was able to actually hear from members of the public

Sonia R. CarvalhoItem 6

and the important news that they wanted to share and requests they wanted to share. And to show that we are listening this evening, Mayor, I heard a number of speakers ask for a code of conduct investigation or file a complaint. I do want to let them know that making an oral request is not sufficient under our rules. I would direct you to section 401.05 of the city charter concerning the filing of complaints pursuant to the city's code of ethics and conduct. If you wish to do so, I would advise you take a look at that section, which does require the filing of a written complaint, which would be referred to an ad hoc committee of the

Sonia R. CarvalhoItem 6

city council. So I hope that addresses any questions and concerns and also addresses comments that were made this evening.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 6

Thank you Madam City Attorney. Councilman comments at this time? Councilman Vasquez please.

Benjamin VazquezItem 6

Thank you. If you bear with me I have a lot of comments. First I want to congratulate Councilmember Penalosa for becoming a father and having a beautiful daughter Penelope. Penelope Nguyen?

Benjamin VazquezItem 6

I did go on a ride along with the Quality of Life team, and I would commend them for the service they provide to our unsheltered neighbors, while at the same time ensuring we have a safe city. The work, in fact, is the true meaning of safety and how we get the most vulnerable people in our community the resources they need and into shelters. I also want to thank Supervisor Sarmiento for starting a homeless prevention fund in the county. I'm looking forward to getting more information and providing that out to the public as well. Do we have a budget survey out yet?

Benjamin VazquezItem 6

So we have a budget survey. If we could have the budget fill it out if you're listening right now, please. and, you know, my heart is still heavy with the families and children of Palestine, of Gaza.

Benjamin VazquezItem 6

We want to cease fire and we want to stop the killing. We brought this resolution when there was 10,000 deaths. We brought it. Now there's 30,000 dead. Rules of war change over time. On this land, we massacred villages of women and children on this land.

Benjamin VazquezItem 6

We saw in Vietnam what we did to villages, including Bailai.

Benjamin VazquezItem 6

We disintegrated two cities in Japan in World War II.

Benjamin VazquezItem 6

We don't want to go back to that. Rules of war change. Israel wants you to believe that killing children is justified. We don't want the killing of children to be the norm. We don't want human shields to be the casualty of war. This should not set precedent. We should be aware that if the children of Gaza are not safe, no child is safe. Not in Africa, not in Asia, not in Latin America. That is why it's our responsibility to call for a ceasefire. thank you

Valerie AmezcuaItem 6

councilmember Ben Alosa Thank You mayor I'm s qua just wanted to thank every

David PenalozaItem 6

public speaker who came out to speak tonight anytime you come in here I will always fight for your right to speak in here as your First Amendment right that That is something I'll always stand by. With that said, I just want to announce to the public and to the residents of Santa Ana that at last week's Transportation Corridor Agency, as your rep, I was unanimously appointed as vice chair for the San Joaquin Hills Transportation Corridor Agency. So I just wanted to make that announcement. We're hoping to work with closely the TCA and OCTA.

David PenalozaItem 6

and our OCT rep mayor, congratulations on that appointment, to help mobility and transportation in Orange County that we all rely on. With that said, I also want to wish a very happy birthday to Brian Sternberg, our executive director of library who was here next week and or this week and also Daniel Soto in the city manager's office who also has a birthday at the end of this month and my colleague, Councilmember Vasquez, who also has a birthday from what I see at the end of this month as well.

David PenalozaItem 6

I had a birthday last week and received the greatest birthday present ever, which was the birth of my daughter Penelope Luna Peñalosa. I just want to make that announcement to put it in the record, to show her one day. you know and and very happy to have her here and healthy and born six pounds seven ounces and almost 20 inches long so very excited for our future together so with that said those are my comments mayor and I will turn it over to you

Valerie AmezcuaItem 6

Thank You councilman Fernandez please Thank You madam mayor I just want to

Johnathan Ryan HernandezItem 6

start by thanking our city staff for all of your guys's hard work especially through the holiday especially through the new year a lot of that work does not go unnoticed so I just want to say thank you from the bottom of our heart these meetings are only successful when we work collaboratively so I also want to thank our city attorney's office for eloquently you know sharing your feedback with with the public I know that they respect you greatly as do we here at the council I also want to take a moment to celebrate the birth of Penelope Penalosa and congratulate my colleague David on becoming a father

Johnathan Ryan HernandezItem 6

That is the greatest privilege of all and I'm so happy for you. It truly is a blessing I I have a 14 year old daughter who just turned 14 January 4th a couple days ago and It could not be a more humbling experience to raise a daughter I also want to touch on the very important topic of protecting children as we know the the pain and the suffering in Gaza is not just foreign to residents here in San Anaheim. This isn't something that is foreign to our community. We know the pain and the suffering that Alex Odeh went through.

Johnathan Ryan HernandezItem 6

We know that the Palestinian community has been targeted for decades. We also need to take into account that 61% of likely voters, through Data for Progress, a report that recently came out, found that a majority of Democrats, 76%, an independence, 57%, and a plurality of Republicans, 49%, support the U.S. calling for a permanent ceasefire and de-escalation of violence in Gaza. These are the cities that have since passed a resolution for a ceasefire. Richmond, California,

Johnathan Ryan HernandezItem 6

Cudahy, California, Bridgeport, Connecticut, Wilmington, Delaware, Atlanta, Georgia, Detroit, Detroit, Michigan, DeBorne, Michigan, DeBorne Heights, Michigan, Hammertrack, Michigan, Albany New York, Akron, Ohio, Providence, Rhode Island, San Francisco. There is a long list of cities that are coming together. As we just celebrated the legacy of Dr. King, one of the most influential Americans of our time, somebody who at the time of his rise was not perceived as American, reminds us that injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere. everywhere. Our lives begin to end the day that we become silent about things that matter.

Johnathan Ryan HernandezItem 6

I'm quoting Dr. King. As we look on the backs of what history has shown us about those who speak out against injustice, the life of King reminds us that speaking out for injustice can be costly. Yet he would also say that the cost of remaining silent is far greater. So let us remember as we celebrate these brave Americans like Martin Luther King that they died because they stood against this country during the Vietnam War. People like Martin Luther King opposed this very government and recognized the violence that our government has unleashed on communities. I am a proud American that stands here on the shoulders of Americans like

Johnathan Ryan HernandezItem 6

Martin Luther King and that is why I support the demands for a ceasefire. That concludes my public comments.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 6

Thank you.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 6

Councilmember Becerra, please.

Phil BacerraItem 6

Thank you, Madam Mayor.

Phil BacerraItem 6

So I wanted to wish everybody a happy new year and it's also nice to begin 2024 with some congratulations. First, I'd like to join everybody in congratulating my colleague, Councilmember Penaloza and his wife, Kim, on the birth of Penelope Luna Penaloza. congratulations and also congratulations on your selection to vice chair at TCA along with Mayor Meskwa congratulations as well for being sworn in to OCTA and finally I'd like to congratulate councilmember Phan as I mentioned earlier the third ever Asian American elected to our City Council is now also the third ever Asian American to serve as mayor pro tem so congratulations with

Phil BacerraItem 6

that last week I met with supervisor Sarmento to discuss a couple of items that impact our city and my ward, Ward 4, including the flood control channels, such as the ones along Flower and Sunflower. More communication and collaboration between the city and the county was discussed as far as our Public Works and our respective law enforcement agencies. What I'd like to ask our Public Works staff and our police to do is, one, get together with our county or your county counterparts, but also I'd like us, whether it's us as a council or whether it's through staff to start proactively looking at some sort of maintenance

Phil BacerraItem 6

or i'm sorry revisions to the existing mou that would result in some sort of possible maintenance agreement with reimbursement because unfortunately letting the county just visit the channels once a week is not enough we have places along those channels that are becoming narcotics hot spots some of the folks that came in this night tonight to talk about impacts to parks like say areas over at rosewood baker that's happening because you've got folks coming out from the flower channel that are making their way into your neighborhood which is right on the edge of your neighborhood so

Phil BacerraItem 6

that is one area we need to address and so i would like to ask staff both director saba and ac rodriguez to look at what we can do and what can be brought back uh to this council with that again happy new year and uh good night thank you councilman sir mayor pro-tan fan mayor pro-tan fan

Thai Viet PhanItem 6

Go ahead. Thank you, Mayor.

Thai Viet PhanItem 6

First, I'd like to thank my colleague, David, Councilmember David Benalosa on his daughter. She's my favorite niece, so very excited for that. I'd like to make a couple announcements for upcoming events. The first will be on March 1st, 2024. It will be a free tour of our local water treatment system. For some of you, you may know that I serve on the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California. I see you, Nabil. You're really excited because, you know, I think Santa Ana, our work, we've been the first I think in Metropolitan to open these tours to members of the public via an application system.

Thai Viet PhanItem 6

So you can send your resume, a paragraph about yourself, and a brief statement about why you should be selected to watertour at santa-ana.org. You must be 18 and over, enrolled in any major or vocational program, be a college student or high school student, and be a Santa Ana resident. As many of you may know, we have been in a long-term drought, and recognizing that water is what we need in this city and how it is treated and how we get the pipes from the Sacramento River or the Colorado River to your taps is extremely important. so I hope you all apply. And then two other events coming up.

Thai Viet PhanItem 6

The first is on Friday, January 26. Again, Noville just doing a lot of stuff these days. But some of you may know that back in 2008, there was a sign on First Street commemorating the Little Saigon Business District. It is believed that as a part of a hate crime, it was actually destroyed. In 2015, the City Council of Santa Ana agreed after much protest by many residents that it should be rebuilt. However, it took until this city council in 2023 to appropriate the fundings necessary to rebuild and reconstruct this sign for Little Saigon. And so we

Thai Viet PhanItem 6

will be holding a ribbon-cutting ceremony on 1st and Harbor to rectify the hate crimes that existed at that time. Another item that we will have is, is as a speaker mentioned earlier on Saturday, February 3rd, from 2 to 7, we will have Santa Ana's first ever Tet Lunar New Year Festival. Thank you so much to Director Scott.

Thai Viet PhanItem 6

This event was something that, frankly, growing up in Santa Ana, we didn't think that any Asian residents or Vietnamese American residents would feel seen or that this would be something that is celebrated, especially in light of the history I just mentioned to you. And this year for the first time by the support of my colleagues and our city staff we will be able to celebrate that here in the city of Santa Ana and Finally, I just want to thank the City Council members For electing me as your mayor pro tem in 2024 It has been a wild ride and I'm excited to serve all of you

Thai Viet PhanItem 6

I will continue to have conversations with you and we will continue to conduct business in the city because I do know that when we all collaborate together we will make Santa Ana better thank you and have a good night thank you very much

Valerie AmezcuaItem 6

mayor pro tem fam okay so the last I'm the last one to speak so I now sit on those CTA board and so thank you for your support everybody else is up here so I will give regular updates and I just want to give an update on construction that it's approximately 83% complete and 100% of those CS poles are now installed placement of decorate decorative pavers and concrete at Sasser Park will begin the week of January 22nd 2024 so I'm really excited about that the Santiago Street Santa Ana Boulevard intersection was closed from December 8th to the morning of December 11th for roadway paving so there's a lot going on

Valerie AmezcuaItem 6

so I will be reporting so that people understand what's happening giving dates and then there is anticipated paving work near Garfield and then Ross Street next week I also want to share with the community that the needle exchange program is coming back to Santa Ana again they're trying to bring it back again and so what we're going to do and I hope that the council up here will join me is at some point we'll be calling a special meeting mr. city manager and I'll let you know if what day we can agree on as a council because I think it's really important that the community come out and hear from the

Valerie AmezcuaItem 6

staff, from the police department, from our chief, and for others that have experienced the needle use in our city in the exchange. And so we had this battle last year. We're gonna have it again apparently. Hopefully it goes the same way where they don't come to Santa Ana, they go to a different city. They call it the needle exchange program. It's probably needle distribution is better. There's 250,000 needles that were handed out and many of them were not located in the city. They were unable to come back and pick them up. But they were never collected.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 6

So to give you an example, some were found in our libraries, in our children's areas. They were found in the bathrooms. They were found in the parking lots. Our maintenance staff picked up about 40 of them in Civic Center in one day. There are 50 needles in one day located in Birch Park. We had to hire, the City of Santa Ana had to hire a security company to patrol the Civic Center area. It was over a million dollars. And I'm just giving you little highlights. And nearly 14,000 needles used, used needles were collected by OC Public Works on the Santa Ana River.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 6

So they are trying to come back and deliver needles in the City of Santa Ana. they call it exchange distribution whatever term they want to use we should really address this mr. city manager and I know that you guys are meeting with them and we're gonna be having some hopefully all of us will be having a presentation we cannot have that in our city when people are distributing needles and then not able to locate them when they come back for them it's not good for our constituents it's not good for our children we're finding them in parks, we find them on our way to schools. What happens when a children picks them

Valerie AmezcuaItem 6

up, gets poked by somebody who's an IV drug user, ends up ill for the rest of his or her life? What about a parent, a police officer? We cannot as a community bring this back to our city. So again we have to speak up and speak loud and clear that not in Santa Ana. We do not want a needle exchange, a needle distribution, we do not want it in the city of Santa Ana. So I will be calling a special meeting Mr. City Manager so we can agree on a date so the community can come and voice how they feel so the police department and you and others can give a presentation

Valerie AmezcuaItem 6

on what the state wants to do again in the city of Santa Ana so we were able to block it once and we'd like to do that again and so it's really important it's so important because everybody comes to Santa Ana to do programs and you know they'll give us a lot of data the bottom line is we have children and families here who want to be safe in our parks, safe in our libraries, safe on our streets. We don't want to find needles and so I'm looking forward to that special meeting. Next I'm having coffee with the mayor on the 27th at the Southwest Senior Center. Excited

Valerie AmezcuaItem 6

about that. It's always wonderful to start the new year out that way. Also we're having a prayer breakfast that the Santa Ana Chamber is putting on on the 30th at Templo Calvario at 7 30 in the the morning and you know I really appreciate all the speakers that came out I'm glad we were able to get through the speaker comments tonight I really appreciate it and so you're always welcome to come back we just need to get city business done and so we do appreciate it and with that there's there is a budget I'd like to share with you that there is a survey this is why

Valerie AmezcuaItem 6

we don't know public comments this is why so there is a survey for our budget priorities Thank You officers we'd like to finish there is a survey for our budget priorities that the community can take I think councilman panel OSA talked about the survey one of our council members up here did there is a survey that you can take for our budget last year we had 1500 and something change people take the survey. We'd like 10,000 people to take the survey for the budget. And so that is santa-ana.org backslash budget. So please go on

Valerie AmezcuaItem 6

there and take the budget survey or you can go on to the website. Final thing is that some parents came up and shared that they are not aware of events coming in the city or they want more events. Hawk Scott, wave your hand, great department here for Parks and Rec. He also has the Cultura magazine that that the city gives out with all the activities in there. And so I would ask you to make contact with him and his staff and get information. We have ballet classes, we have dance classes, we have paint classes, we have teen excursions, we have all these wonderful things that are going on. And if we don't have something you want,

Valerie AmezcuaItem 6

please let him know, maybe we can add it to the budget. And with that, I'd like to close in the memory of my mother-in-law who passed on December 30th, 2023, Esther Marin, she will be greatly missed and she's loved and thank you all very much and have a nice evening this meeting is adjourned

recording stopped