Read the March 19 meeting.

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© transcript Emily Beynon

Thank you.

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guitar solo

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I'm sorry.

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guitar solo

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piano plays softly

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© transcript Emily Beynon

Thank you.

Thank you.

Good night.

Thank you.

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guitar solo

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Recording in progress.

Valerie Amezcua

Madam Clerk, please start the meeting.

Jennifer L. Hall

Yes, Mayor, please go ahead.

Valerie Amezcua

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 Clerk, please conduct the roll call.

Jennifer L. Hall

Thank you, Mayor. Councilmember Becerra? Here. Councilmember Hernandez? Here. Councilmember Lopez? Here. Councilmember Penalosa?

Here.

Jennifer L. Hall

Councilmember Vasquez? Mayor Dukes. Mayor Pro Tem Phan. Mayor Emescu. Mayor Emescu. The records show we have four members present. That is a quorum.

Valerie Amezcua

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

Jennifer L. Hall

I'll defer to the City Attorney.

Sonia R. Carvalho

Mayor, Council Members, we do have a request for your consideration. We have an item on our open session agenda tonight for which we've received public comment, including what we perceive as threats of litigation to a proposed ordinance. ordinance, we would ask pursuant to the Brown Act that you add this item to your agenda as this issue came up after the posting of the agenda and there is a need to take immediate action. If you are inclined to do so, we would need a unanimous vote of the four of you who are present.

Valerie Amezcua

I'll just give my, I'm not in support of that. I think if we all read our emails and we're all up to date on things, we should discuss the ordinance publicly.

Jessie Lopez

Anybody else? I don't see the harm and our legal staff if they see a perceived litigation threat advising this body since it would be wise of this body to not expose the city

Sonia R. Carvalho

to litigation so I'm not opposed as we would need a unanimous vote it doesn't appear we'd have that so we would not be able to go into closed session on that

Valerie Amezcua

item Thank You madam city attorney do any council members need to announce to announce our abstentions on closed session items.

Valerie Amezcua

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

Jennifer L. Hall

For closed session, no, we have no speakers, and we did not receive any emails related to the closed session agenda.

Valerie Amezcua

Thank you, we will now recess this portion of the meeting to consider the items listed on the closed session agenda.

Recording stopped.

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Good night.

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guitar solo

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Good night, everyone.

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© transcript Emily Beynon

Thank you.

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guitar solo

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guitar solo

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© transcript Emily Beynon

Thank you.

Thank you.

Good night, everyone.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

guitar solo

Thank you.

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I love you.

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I love you.

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guitar solo

Thank you.

Thank you.

Oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh

Thank you.

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Test, test.

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I'm sorry.

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Recording in progress.

Thank you.

for the email

Valerie Amezcua

madam clerk can you please start the meeting yes mayor please go ahead thank you all waiting patiently as you know sometimes a very we always have something very important to discuss in closed session so thank you i hereby reconvene the santa ana city council 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. As a reminder, this is a meeting to conduct the business of the city.

Valerie Amezcua

As mayor, I am afforded the opportunity to call for a break or recess or even to clear the meeting if a meeting becomes too disruptive to properly conduct business. Warnings will be provided prior to any action being taken. 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, or along the back walls. To ensure that all members of the public may watch and participate in the meeting without disruption. Guidelines for members of the news media and anyone else who wishes to film or photograph the meeting are available in the lobby.

Valerie Amezcua

During City Council presentations and oaths of office, guests of individuals being recognized are invited to come to the front to take photos.

Jennifer L. Hall

Madam Clerk, please conduct the roll call. Thank you, Mayor. Councilmember Becerra? Here. Councilmember Hernandez? Present. Councilmember Lopez? Here. Councilmember Penaloza? Present. Councilmember Vazquez? Present. Mayor Pro Tem Phan? Here. Mayor Meskwa? Present. RECORD SHOW ALL SEVEN MEMBERS PRESENT.

Valerie Amezcua

MADAM CLERK, BEFORE WE PROCEED TO THE PLEDGE OF ALLEGIANCE, PLEASE MAKE AN ANNOUNCEMENT.

Jennifer L. Hall

FOR MEMBERS OF THE PUBLIC WHO ARE 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 KEY ONCE PUBLIC COMMENTS COMMENCE. THANK YOU.

Valerie Amezcua

THANK YOU. CHIEF ARJUKAS, WOULD YOU LEAD US IN THE PLEDGE OF ALLEGIANCE, PLEASE?

Yes, everyone please stand. Raise your flag. Raise your right hand over your heart. Ready? Begin.

David Penaloza

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

Valerie Amezcua

Thank you, sir. Words of inspiration will be provided by the police chaplain Barnett. Please come to the podium.

him. Thank you, sir. I just have a simple little prayer of blessing for tonight. So, Lord God, we begin this service tonight, this meeting, Lord, and we ask that you would be here, that your wisdom would be on display, that you would use the people gathered here as your public servants, and that, Lord, wonderful things would happen for our community. We pray, Lord God, a blessing upon those to be honored tonight, and we're thankful, Lord, for the example they set. And, Lord, most Most importantly, we pray for our city. Bless and prosper our city, Lord God. Bring health and safety. And Lord, keep our first responders safe.

All the men and women in law enforcement, all those in the fire authority. Lord God, we want your blessing. In the name of the Lord, amen.

Phil Bacerra

Amen.

Valerie Amezcua

Thank you, Chaplain Barnett. At this time, Madam Clerk, are there any additions or deletions to the City Clerk agenda?

Jennifer L. Hall

Yes, Mayor. I'd like to just note for the record that Agenda Item Number 27 was a continued noticed public hearing regarding sanitation fees. This item has been removed by staff, so there will be no action by the Council.

Valerie Amezcua

Great. Thank you. We're going to go to presentations. The first one is recognition of the Modern Day High School Board's varsity soccer team for exceptional athletic performance.

Can you all come up, please?

Applause

Hello, welcome. Welcome.

Hello, welcome. You want to sit down over there? Or crunch in there like family?

Valerie AmezcuaItem 1

Welcome.

Welcome. Welcome.

Wow.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 1

Look at these handsome young men up here representing modern day. Thank you.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 1

Thank you for waiting patiently, everybody. Tonight I'm pleased to welcome the Mater Dei High School Boys Varsity Soccer Team. The Mater Dei High School Boys Varsity Soccer Team includes 35 young men, 6 coaches. Coach Sean Ganey, Coach Jack Rice, Coach Jill Smith, Coach Shion, Coach Carlos Godinez, and Coach Gus Gomez. is their accomplishments include overall 21 31 I'm sorry 21 31 that's her league overall well congratulations their first in Trinity League first in southern

Valerie AmezcuaItem 1

section first in southern section division one first in California fifth in the nation yeah big round of applause for that let's say that again fifth in the nation Trinity League champs open division champs and the runner-up state regional finals for the open division these are tremendous the compliments modern-day high school has not won a title in the sport of soccer in over 22 years congratulations gentlemen the program has several players who call the

Valerie AmezcuaItem 1

the City of Santa Ana home. They come from families who are deeply rooted and own businesses within our community. Over half of the program is able to attend modern day with the assistance of financial aid and grants. These athletes grind in the classroom and on the field as they take advantage of the opportunities bestowed upon them by attending modern day. They have to maintain a certain GPA, right? Alright. The adversity the team faced this season could have stamped the end of their run in the playoffs, but they leaned on faith and fought the humble fight for the program on behalf of the Santa Ana City Council I would like to

Valerie AmezcuaItem 1

express our pride and recognizing the modern-day high school boys varsity soccer team the coaches and the parents which you can never forget the parents please give your parents a round of applause

Valerie AmezcuaItem 1

never think never forget the parents special thanks to the booster mom Candace Rodriguez for and everybody who participated and the modern-day boys soccer program so coaches I am NOT going to call out all the boys names we're gonna give them to you but please come up and say a few words

first I want to say thank you to the mayor for having us and for all those kind words thank you to all the parents out there who have supported us thank you to the city of Santa Ana for supporting us thank you to modern-day high school and all the administration and all the support that you guys have given us and congratulations to each one of these boys not only are they exceptional on the soccer field they're exceptional in the classroom our team GPA on the varsity team was 3.53 this year they are exceptional men thank you they are exceptional men on and off the field we pride ourselves in making

better individuals and these guys are exemplary of that so congratulations to all of our boys

Valerie AmezcuaItem 1

sure Jack would you like to say a few words okay all right once again let's give them a round of applause and congratulations to modern day why are you over there come up and take a picture Thank you.

smiling

There we go

Over here. Over there first.

Alright.

Right here. 5, 4, 3, 2, 1.

All right, before we're good.

All right, congratulations, gentlemen. Thank you.

Thank you. Appreciate it.

Where's Jason?

uh

thank you thank you

Johnathan Ryan HernandezItem 1

All right. Let's give a big round of applause for Madhude.

Johnathan Ryan HernandezItem 1

And if we can please invite the next recipients of our recognition here at the Council, Pearl Raya and Leon Raya with the Raya Foundation. Please make your way to the front here.

Johnathan Ryan HernandezItem 1

And if you're a family member with the Raya Foundation, we want you up here as well. You're part of their legacy.

Johnathan Ryan HernandezItem 1

all righty well thank you everybody for attending the Santa Ana City Council Today we are celebrating our neighbors March 19th 2024. Today I have the pleasure and the honor of recognizing Pearl and the Raya Foundation. This is Women's History Month and I'm a product of Santa Ana who was raised in Artesia Pilar and families like mine don't just simply exist in beautiful neighborhoods like Artesia. The families that have been in Artesia have stayed in this community because of the services, because of the parks, because of the traditions that exist here. And the individuals that we're recognizing have

Johnathan Ryan HernandezItem 1

over three decades of service in the city of Santa Ana, but more specifically to the Articia Pilar neighborhood. I want to start first by thanking Pearl and Leon Raya for their services to the city of Santa Ana. These were former Parks and Rec employees who retired with the city. So let's first and foremost thank them for their service.

Johnathan Ryan HernandezItem 1

The Raya Foundation was formed 2010 right here in the beautiful city of Santa Ana by Pearl and Leon Raya in response to the need for positive, affordable athletic opportunities for Santa Ana youth. They have combined 60 years of professional experience in organizing and in presenting youth and family programs, events that have been both professional and events that they have participated in in their volunteer capacity. Both were former City of Santa Ana employees, Parks and Recreation professionals. With a

Johnathan Ryan HernandezItem 1

dedicated board, the Raya Foundation has supportive volunteers, parents, and the Raya Foundation has served hundreds of children. They have helped them achieve their mission to develop youth to be successful adults by providing athletic opportunities, academic support, and family support. The Raya Foundation understands that we simply can't just serve children. We have to have a two-pronged approach to wellness, and that means including parents and children together. Their motto is coaching success beyond sports, and their legacy exemplifies that. In 2023, the foundation provided services for over 800 boys and girls

Johnathan Ryan HernandezItem 1

through their various events and activities. They partnered with and supported events in the city of Santa Ana, such as the Chicano Heritage Festival for the first year and the second year. They provided the basketball tournament, which was busy at all hours of the day. In addition to that, they also have relationships with Santa Ana College, with SAUSD, Santa Ana Elks, Santa Ana Kiwanis, and the Vista Heritage Charter School, which is also located in Articia Pilar. The Raya Foundation provides scholarships for its programs to help qualifying families.

Johnathan Ryan HernandezItem 1

They have a principle that they live by, which is no family should be turned away. Referrals to supportive services are also provided and is part of the parent mentoring model that the Raya Foundation has. Tonight, they are being recognized for their outstanding work showcasing Santa Ana student athletes at the Santa Ana Prep Basketball Clinic which was just held this past Friday. On Friday, March 15th. Their supporting sponsor was our former mayor and county supervisor Vicente Sarmiento and it showcased Santa Ana students and gave them the ability to participate in

Johnathan Ryan HernandezItem 1

basketball games. They also have one-on-one games that they do which is pretty fantastic. The goal of that event is to provide Santa Ana students and and athletes an opportunity to demonstrate their basketball skills, and to be celebrated with family, friends, and community. Thank you, Pearl. Thank you, Leon, for your outstanding contributions to the Santa Ana community. Thank you for making this a better place for children and families. On behalf of the Santa Ana City Council, we would first like to begin by honoring our matriarchs, by honoring Pearl Raya.

So without further ado.

Johnathan Ryan HernandezItem 1

Thank you very much, Pearl. If you could share some words with us. This will also be going to your organization, the Raya Foundation.

Would you guys please pass this with some words?

Pearl wanted me to be short, but I'm not going to be as quick as the modern day guy. So please bear with us. Thank you, Councilman Hernandez, Madam Mayor of the City Council, it's great to be recognized like this the event we put on our Friday was a magnificent event it couldn't have been made possible without a lot of community support Senator Kiwanis we smile the president is here tonight they were wonderful supporters the Senate and the Elks if you sent the sorry mental and a lot of other donors Godinez high school that put on the event for us and all their staff it couldn't happen without them parks and recreation for their

assistance orange county sports zone orangecountysportzone.com if you go to that site you'll see a wonderful coverage and great pictures of all the kids who participated and the senate unified school district the athletic directors and coaches who help bring teams together councilman hernandez mentioned our mission to develop young people to be successful adults through positive athletic opportunities academic success and family support and that's ingrained in everything that we do one of the really cool partnerships we got this year was through the city of san anna with the say in california for all program which is a youth

mentoring employment program and that's allowed us to expand our capability and our services tremendously and we have two of them here today alani villasenor alani and lucas on the loose we also have three participants from the all-star game the high school all-star game and that's Gilbert Vargas, Lucas, and Lalani. And so, congratulations to them, yes.

The councilmen mentioned the purpose of the event, which is to provide an opportunity to showcase the basketball talent of our student athletes in the San Diego Unified School District. And these are young people, many of them who we've known since they were nine or 10 years old, who work tirelessly to be better players and better people. and sometimes it's overshadowed and not recognized but ten years ago we had a vision and a dream four years ago we moved forward with making it come true four years ago there was a pandemic so that went out the window well we've been

doing it for three years and if you have the opportunity to come out at next year's event please do because it is a wonderful display of the positive attributes that our student-athletes bring to our city so we invite you to come out and join us next year. We do a lot of different things in the city. We have a track meet coming up on April 14th and we invite everybody else to come. But none of this is possible without a lot of the people you see here standing behind us, whether they be parents, whether they be volunteer coaches, or whether they be our alumni. We have two board members, three partners with us,

Norma Haro, Susie Gray, Josh Jogway. Just a quick point, Susie Gray's son Jake was with us since he was nine years old in our programs, just got his bachelor's, his master's degree from Boston University, was a Godinez High School graduate and is now working in New York. We're real proud of Jake. We have Josh Jogway. Josh Jogway played in our program, went to Cedars-Trem, graduated from UCI UCI and is now I call him the Wiz the financial industry making a lot of people money any volunteers for us and then we have his brother Nandy Nandy played for us went to Cedars-Rom went to Brown graduated from Harvard Law School

and is now doing wonderful things in the community so we're really proud of all these young people here today you talk about legacy and they're gonna leave a legacy so we want to thank the council we want to thank councilman Hernandez we We want to thank all of our parents, because when you're with the Raya Foundation, you become part of our family for life. And don't forget, April 14th, the Santa and Youth Games, track and field meet. Got another great partner, JFK Transportation, sponsoring that event. Children 7 to 14 years of age, it's free. It's another opportunity for kids to do something special. Thank you.

I'm Lucas Andaluz. I'm a senior at Godinez High School, and I've been part of the Raya Foundation for like 10 years, like most of my life, and they've taught me so much about leadership, about communication skills, just being a part of a team. And I think these are great skills that everyone should be able to learn. And if you guys have children, it's a wonderful experience. Just for me as basketball, I've had amazing coaches like Josh. He's taught me so much, not just in the game of basketball, but with life. And it's just amazing. I just competed in the All-Star game. It was one of my last things I'm going to do for RISE.

And it was amazing. whoever was at the game they could like it was a good game but it's just the riots are amazing everything they do for the our community and we just we love the support and we're so grateful for mr. Leon and miss miss Ryan I am, so.

Johnathan Ryan HernandezItem 1

All right, we're gonna go ahead and get to it here.

If we can invite my colleagues as well, make sure we'd love to have you.

Can you go over there and come forward?

Yeah, stop playing the note. You guys let me know what you think.

One, two, three.

Can we do one more? Can we say right? Okay. Alright, we gotta do it. Ready? One, two, three, Riot! Thank you. Thank you. Applause Applause Applause Applause Applause Applause Applause Applause

Thank you.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 1

Okay, next up we have Councilmember Lopez recognizing the V at Rainbow of Orange County, please come on up.

Jessie LopezItem 1

Yes, I'm looking for Paula and Ivy.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 1

Hi.

Jessie LopezItem 1

Well, hello, everyone. Good evening. Tonight we're going to be recognizing V Rock as we know them in the community for their outstanding contributions.

Jessie LopezItem 3

VROC's mission is to create a world where everyone has the resources and agency to thrive with dignity. They primarily work with LGBTQ plus Vietnamese residents and their loved ones through research, education, and advocacy. and started in 2019. They conducted their own community needs assessment to better understand the ever-shifting landscape of challenges and needs for LGBTQ plus communities of color in Orange County. They found a need for more opportunities for intergenerational dialogue and healing, community building and political education.

Jessie LopezItem 3

From April 2020 through December 2021, VROC fundraised and maintained one of the first COVID-19 community assistance funds for LGBTQ people of color who live in the county, with a priority on undocumented individuals in partnership with RE Center. In total, they gave out over $70,000, which allowed community members to sustain themselves through the pandemic, pay for medical bills, pay for school tuition, buy fresh food, pay for child care as well. In April of 2021, V-Rock helped host a COVID-19 vaccine clinic for trans and non-gender conforming individuals.

Jessie LopezItem 3

And in June of 2022, they started Hot Person Summer, Little Saigon's first mutual aid pride event. It is a celebratory, fashion-forward community resource fair and gender-affirming clothing swap up focused on celebrating queer people, trans people, and celebrating joy. And so through this event, they were able to provide gender-affirming haircuts, binders, and resources free of cost to participants. And in 2023, VROC mobilized to protect students' rights in the County of Orange. They also participated in 26 events in outreach to the Asian American community and the LGBTQ

Jessie LopezItem 3

LGBTQ plus community and they conducted 12 workshops, which equals one per month, touching on several topics such as self-care, mental health, well-being, advocacy, and leadership skill building, and they reached more than 5,000 people. I want to thank BROC, all the organizers of this grassroots organization for all the work that they do day in and day out and year after year, not just for Santa Ana residents, but but for people in need throughout this county. So we wanna recognize all of your work and present you with the certificate and hopefully you'll share a couple of words about the extra work that you do.

Hi, my name is Ivy. I use they, them pronouns and I am the senior education coordinator at Vietroc. I have with me Paulo Vo, who is our newest member, who is our senior program coordinator for mental health and well-being. My family has lived here in Santa Ana for over 40 years, and I am so fortunate to have found another family of queer and Vietnamese folks here in Orange County. Thank you, Council Member Lopez, for introducing a little bit about VROC. I just wanted to elaborate a bit further. Viet Rainbow of Orange County or VROC stands on the shoulders of previous LGBTQ plus Vietnamese

American activist groups in Orange County, California and is part of that legacy. Our beginnings as an organization began in 2013 when a group of LGBTQ plus Vietnamese American individuals were barred from participating in the annual Lunar New Year that parade as as the parade organizers stated that being LGBT was not part of Vietnamese culture. In response, LGBTQ plus Vietnamese youth and Vietnamese mothers of LGBTQ plus children organized and fought for inclusion and established VROC. We strive to create a world where everyone has the resources and agency to thrive with dignity.

Currently, our key strategies are research, education, advocacy, and strengthening collective power alongside other communities working towards liberation. We would like to thank Council Member Lopez for recognizing our efforts in engaging with and advocating for our LGBTQ plus Vietnamese community. We could not have done it without the love and support of our communities. In our work towards justice and liberation, we must also remember that injustice anywhere threatens injustice everywhere. The genocide that is happening in Palestine is an issue that affects us all and has particular resonance with the Asian American

Pacific Islander community here in the United States, especially us and our Southeast Asian siblings. As an LGBTQ plus advocacy organization, we reject efforts in pink washing our collective movements towards liberation, which include queer Palestinians as well. Finally, organizing, protesting, and civil disobedience are part of REROC's origins, and we would be remiss to not acknowledge the courageous efforts of the community members here in Orange County who have fought for the liberation of Palestine and who have the right to continue their efforts and resistance until liberation. Thank you.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 3

Thank you. The next presentation is by Councilmember Vasquez, please. So, Centro Cultural de Mexico.

Thanks.

Thanks.

Benjamin VazquezItem 3

Oh, pass it to me, pass it to me. Stand right here.

Benjamin VazquezItem 3

Hola, como esta?

Benjamin VazquezItem 3

Thank you.

Thank you for trying me, okay?

Benjamin VazquezItem 3

So tonight I'm so proud to be here to present a proclamation recognizing El Centro Cultural de Mexico and El Condado de Orange.

Benjamin VazquezItem 3

I have been part of this group since 2006. 2006, I joined and I was a board member up until about two years ago. So whereas El Centro Cultural de Mexico is celebrating its 30th anniversary and whereas El Centro Cultural was founded on March 18th, 1994 at the height of the anti-immigrant movement in California and whereas Mexican immigrant women came together to begin an organization by the name of El Centro Cultural de Mexico to create a counter-narrative of what it meant to be Mexican and immigrant by organizing opportunities to learn, organize, and teach

Benjamin VazquezItem 3

Mexican culture and immigrant history in a dignified and empowering way. And whereas El Centro Cultural was grown to be an organization that truly represents a unified-based institution for building democratic processes by and for immigrant community in Orange County. So when we make decisions at El Centro, we make them as a group, we form consensus. There's no leaders. We're all leaders. leaders. Everybody here would be a leader and we vote. It has taught me to be humble. It has taught me to take the word of the people and move that forward. It's made me the person

Benjamin VazquezItem 3

I am today. El Centro Cultural has committed to serving as a pivotal location where communities can come together, organize and obtain support and resources during public health emergencies. El Centro Cultural is the only organization in Orange County combining legal services, community organizing around housing and labor rights, and whereas El Centro Cultural has been a central site of information since 2014, providing resources and different form of aid. During COVID, we gave out $800,000 of funds to undocumented families, and we did it at the beginning without being paid as volunteers. So thank you for all the work.

Benjamin VazquezItem 3

Most of the women here did that work.

Benjamin VazquezItem 3

Their culture network reaches approximately 1,000 immigrant families in Orange County. El Centro Cultural is committed to investing in both its physical and social infrastructure and continue to build and strengthen resilient communities and spaces that are based on networks and trust in long-term relationships. Now, we, the Mayor and the City Council of Santa Ana, do hereby recognize and celebrate the 30th anniversary of El Centro Cultural.

Benjamin VazquezItem 3

Anyone want to speak?

Yes, Gemma and then me.

Hello, good afternoon. I'm going to speak in Spanish because it's our easiest language. Is that okay? Okay. So, my name is Gemma. I'm the coordinator of the community organization. I've been here for 15 years, just like many others here, as a volunteer. And I'm pleased to introduce Socorro, to say a few words that she was, from the beginning, as a co-founder. Go ahead. Thank you, Gemma. Thank you. Thank you, Benjamin, for this recognition.

Well, in the center we have a motto that reaches our hearts. It is, the center is from whom it is worked. So, we receive this recognition in the name of all the volunteers and all the volunteers, of all the teachers who have worked all those 30 years without a salary, of volunteers, of all the activists for social justice who work non-stop during these 30 years, of our artists with a heart,

and of all who have worked in the center and who have done an unforgettable, an unforgettable, endless work during all these years, these 30 years. During these 30 years, many people who have participated, some of them are no longer among us, but their strength and participation are already part of the history and the future of the Center, even when they are not here. A round of applause and recognition to them.

Thank you.

Well, we have this future guaranteed by the strong participation of our young people in the center and our new generations. Here I would like to give credit to this new youth, to these children who fill us with their strength in the center and who continue with the legacy inspired by the love for our ancestors and the love for our culture. And a round of applause for them too, who are our inspiration.

Good afternoon, my name is Keily Siena and I am 7 years old. and I dance flocorico with my little sister Daniela in the flocorico group of little girls. But I am very proud of the Mexican Cultural Center because it does not only have flocorico, but also many other services that are offered so that our Mexican culture can continue to live for all these years. And I am very proud to be part of the Mexican Cultural Center with my sister.

And not only is there Flucórico, there are many other services, like there is a curriculum for the whole family, for children, for adults, and also on Mondays you can learn how to embroider. And that's why I feel very proud to be part of this Mexican Cultural Center and I feel so happy and proud of our Center for gaining this very special knowledge.

Good afternoon. My name is Kaylee Siena and I'm seven years old. I'm very proud and happy to be a part of of the Centro Cultural de Mexico with my little sister Daniela, and I dance, I'm learning how to dance Flacorico from the little kids group, but there are also many other services and traditions that you can learn how to do here at Centro Cultural de Mexico.

Like, not only if you're a little kid, even if you're an adult, you can still learn how to dance flucórico. You can dance flucórico at any age, and on Mondays, you can learn how to abortar. And that's why I'm so proud to know that El Centro Cultural de Mexico is getting this very special initial award. And I'm very proud to be part of the Centro Cultural de Mexico.

Bravo. So yeah, this is why we think a culture is powerful, because of what we just witnessed. Entendemos que la cultura es clave en cualquier movimiento social. Estamos con mucho orgullo de apoyar proyectos como lo son Noche de Altares, la Radio Comunitaria 104.7, el Mercadito Carrusel, that this past Saturday just celebrated its monthly market where community trade spaces are fought for, that although abundant in the city we still fight for a legal recognition and regularization.

At the same time, our Palestinian Youth Movement colleagues carried out an informative event to the Palestinian community and we send them We send a loving and supportive hug to the Palestinian community. May they know that the doors of the center are open for them.

We recognize those people in the city who understand and value the contribution of the migrant and refugee people, those below, humanity and the value of people.

and our movements are connected from the struggle of the workers with Palestine our movements are connected from the struggle of the workers with Palestine and also the right to vote, the right to housing here and in our countries, wherever we come from and we also know that when culture dies, people die. Thank you.

Thank you.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 3

Ma'am, you need to not make with the comments, please. We need to keep, we're doing a picture. Madam, please do not disrupt the meeting.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 3

At this time, Mr. City Manager.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 3

We have staff presentations when we're all done here. It says, Mr. City Manager.

Yes, thank you, Madam Mayor and members of the City Council. Min Tai is going to provide a presentation.

Good evening, Mayor and member of the City Council, as well as our Santa Ana community. community. Tonight I'd like to present to you the presentation award of recognition to our planning division. Our planning division is frequently recognized for plans and projects that exemplify smart and advanced use in land use and design practices. And I'm privileged to lead such a talent group of dedicated community planners who is guided by our planning manager Ali Pazeskapur. If I can take a moment to recognize our

staff. Ali and staff if you can just stand up to be recognized by our council in the community.

So to say that this team is an award-winning team is an understatement since 2001 this our planning division and the department has won over 30 awards for the activities that we have done through our staff dedication to excellence and this year is no exception tonight it is my distinguished honor to present to the council in our community with awards and recognition highlighting projects from our community and they include the Santa

Valerie AmezcuaItem 5

anna arts collective at maine and 17th i'm sorry can you have your staff come up here sure sure we'd like all of you to come up here thank you thank you mayor thank you for doing that

so while they'll come up i'll continue thank you um fourth street market lofts in our downtown and la pasita cinco in the artesia pillar neighborhood these and other awards recognition we have have received over the years are also on display on the second floor in the Ross Annex. Next slide, please. The first project, the Santa Ana Arts Collective, this award is an honor award presented by the American Institute of Architect, recognizing excellence in residential design. This project was also featured in a full-page spread in the National American Planning Association, highlighting successful adaptive reuse of office building.

Next slide. Next slide is a 4th Street Market Loft. This is also another adaptive reuse of an existing building. It is a merit award also presented by the American Institute of Architects, recognizing excellence in design and execution of architecture. Next. Our staff, this is last but not least, but our staff share with me that they're particularly proud of this one. It is a recognition from the Joint Center for Housing Studies of the Harvard University.

So out of 47 nationally identified project feature in the Harvard University Journal recognizing excellence in residential design, two spaces were reserved for the city of Santa Ana. So that's two out of 47 nationwide. I think that's worth a clap, don't you? Thank you.

So this is all being done through the support of the City Council as well as our community. And I want to say thank you to our dedicated team in front of you here as well. In closing, I look forward to our city ongoing achievements as well as the leadership. And I want to congratulate us all. And I look forward to working hard with everyone to hopefully come back next year with some awards as well. Thank you. Thank you.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 5

Thank you very much, Ben. We appreciate it. Thank you to all your staff. City Manager comments? Mr. City Manager, can we please hear your comments at this time?

Thank you, Madam Mayor. Good evening, members of the City Council. Good evening, members of the community. And good evening, city staff. staff. At the request of the Mayor and City Council on February the 20th and on March 5th at the City Council meetings, I provided detailed updates concerning a new application for a needle distribution program planned for Santa Ana. The recorded update from March 5th is available to the public on our City website. The site has all the latest information that the public needs on this vital issue. Please visit the site.

Tonight, I want to again highlight a few key messages related to this issue. Number one, that the new application was received by the state, and that's a fact that is out there, and a copy of that application is available for review by the public on our city website. website. The application describes how this group would operate a needle distribution program in Santa Ana. We have significant concerns when their plan is to provide 300,000

needles but only collect 180,000 needles. So their plan, if it is even accurate in terms of their application is to not collect 120,000 needles annually in Santa Ana. The basic structure of this plan is unacceptable. Number two, we know that everyone remembers the prior program that was operated within Santa Ana from 2016 to 2018 and it was an epic failure and caused harm and headache in our

entire community number three the county of orange is our partner on this issue and they have stated they have a stated position in opposition to this type of program thank you to the county the county health officer is strongly opposed as well as our local health expert she strongly believes that the the county is not ready for this type of program. She has stated it will result in significant negative impacts as well as create the need to redirect valuable staff time away from

other duties to respond to the needle debris all over Santa Ana and other parts of the county. The public should know that the city is strongly requesting meaningful consultation with the California Department of Public Health. We want to talk to them to ensure that they fully understand our concerns and the negative impacts from the last program. Our legal team is negotiating for the state to live up to the law and their obligation for meaningful consultation.

In short, we want them to talk to various stakeholders stakeholders in our community about our concerns. We should not have to fight for this, but we are. There are many key stakeholders and of course the public and our neighborhoods are one of those stakeholders. We want our residents to have the ability to communicate concerns directly to these California Department of Public Health leaders. It is not okay for them to sit in their offices in in Sacramento, 400 miles away, and not engage our Santa Ana community.

We have met with and communicated with our key local, state, and federal legislators about our concerns. As a first step, we are seeking their help in obtaining meaningful consultation from the state. We publicly thank them for their help so far. I know the mayor and City Council want to make sure we keep preparing ourselves related to these issues and we will the mayor and the City Council will need the community to become involved at the right time in the future so we want residents to continue to stay engaged on this issue Thank You madam mayor and

members of City Council for your leadership on this issue and for the time to provide this update tonight that concludes my report Thank You madam

Valerie AmezcuaItem 5

mayor thank you mr city manager we really appreciate that information that you give out is very valuable and very important to our community at this time madam city attorney do you have anything to report out of closed session thank you mayor members of city council members

Sonia R. CarvalhoItem 5

of our public the city council held closed session this evening to discuss three matters as listed on the agenda the council has taken reportable action on item number three which was the public employee appointment the council by unanimous vote has appointed Alvaro Nunez to serve as the acting city manager effective upon interim city manager Tom Hatch's last day with the city which will be March 29th 2024 it's all the reportable

Valerie AmezcuaItem 5

action that I have thank you madam city attorney and before we do public comments if the council would be so kind I'd like to if I can get a vote on item eight so that we can have our youth commissioner you're allowed to go home if he's still present i'll make a motion to move the item second thank you very much if we can

Jennifer L. HallItem 5

prepare to vote at this time jennifer and mayors we do have a mayor pro tem teleconferencing i'll be taking roll call votes this evening thank you so much appreciate it so council member becerra yes council member hernandez yes council member lopez yes council member penaloza

Jennifer L. HallItem 5

Councilmember Vasquez? Yes. Mayor Pro Tem Phan? Yes. Mayor Meskwa? Yes. Motion carries six to zero with a noted temporary absence from Councilmember Penalosa and if Wyatt is present he could come up to the well to receive his oath of office. Thank you.

I, Wyatt Malthavon, do solemnly swear that I will support and defend the Constitution the Constitution of the United States and the Constitution of the State of California against all enemies, foreign and domestic, that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the Constitution of the United States and the Constitution of the State of California, that I take this

application freely without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion that I will well and faithfully discharge the duties upon which I am about to enter.

David PenalozaItem 5

Madam Clerk, please record my vote as a yes.

Jennifer L. HallItem 5

Thank you, Council Member Penaloza. So noted. Motion approved unanimously.

Benjamin VazquezItem 5

Mayor, can I have a point of inquiry if I could ask a question? I'm sorry? Can I have a point of inquiry? Sure. Can I propose to move item 24 to the front as many people are celebrating Ramadan? They've been fasting since sunrise and they've been waiting to break that fast and they haven't drank water or food or any kind of ailment since then, but they're here to speak on item 24. Can I propose to move that up?

Valerie AmezcuaItem 5

I'm okay with the rest of the councilors. The only thing is I want, we have public comments. You want to hear those first because there's public comments from, or you want to just just go to item 24. You want to go to item 24 then? Yeah. Put it in front of public comments. Go ahead, Jennifer.

Jennifer L. HallItem 5

Mayor and City Council, per the Brown Act, you do have to hear public comment on items prior to them being acted upon.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 5

So it's two minutes, two hours max. Okay. Okay. All right. So let me ‑‑ this is the time of the meeting for the City Council to receive comments from the public on agenda and non‑agenda items. Madam City Clerk, please explain the public comment procedures and call the first speakers that are here present. and then we'll go to zoom two minutes two hours max please thank you mayor pursuant to resolution

Jennifer L. HallItem 5

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 as the mayor stated speakers will have two minutes for their comments up to a maximum of two hours hours. Before calling speakers, I'll announce the report of email summaries. As of today at 2 p.m., we received 68 emails, one on item 11, one on item 12, 53 on item 24, four on

Jennifer L. HallItem 5

item 27, and nine on non-agenda topics. Those were distributed to the council and posted to the city's website. We will now hear from the members of the public that are physically present in the council chamber, followed by those on the conference call or Zoom to provide comments. Please state your name and the ward or neighborhood that you reside in for the record. I'll be calling speakers three at a time. If you could please line up in the aisle behind the podium when your name is called so that you can be ready to make your comments after the former speaker.

Jennifer L. HallItem 5

The first three speakers, Liza Rios, Jeffrey Katz, and Hassan Abushamzani.

I'm Lisa Rios and I'm a resident of Floral Park.

That was 30 seconds. Now imagine two more hours, 59 more minutes, and 30 more seconds, that recording taken from the inside of my home with the doors closed and the windows closed. Before I go on, I just want to make it clear that I am not here at all to represent a political stance. That is not it at all. My quarrel is not with the message, but the mode in which it is being delivered. and understandably wanting to protest the horrific atrocities, travesties that are going on in Palestine and in Israel.

I understand the need, but what I don't agree with is punishing those who had nothing to do with the signing of a piece of legislation, the signing of a policy. I am a first-generation American, and generations before me came from countries that were filled with chaos, that did not value freedom of speech. I'm very proud of our democracy. I'm very proud to be a first-generation American and that we do value being able to use our voice for personal justice and for social justice. But there is a way to send a message by being able to have respect for others and integrity. When

we've made phone calls to the police department for non-emergencies, we've You've been told that this sort of protesting cannot be done with bullhorns, with any type of automated or battery operated type of voice transmission. Your time is up.

Jennifer L. HallItem 5

It started at three minutes and so you're down to the one minute mark now. Thank you for your time. Thank you.

Jennifer L. HallItem 5

Next speaker, if you can adjust.

Can I postpone filming?

Jennifer L. HallItem 5

May your protest stop here. We're taking them in order as received.

That's ridiculous.

These are the words of one Santa Ana resident as reported to NBC News on a night when the noise was particularly blaring. Quote, this is my district. I'm embarrassed that this is how you're treating my neighbors. There's children here. here have some respect for my community the words are of honorable Council member Jonathan Ryan Hernandez spoke in April 6 2022 as the Santa Ana Police Department was Blair Disney tunes and artesia Pilar late one night as president of the Floral Park neighborhood Association I'm here and I'm charged to come here on behalf of my neighborhood in its entirety to speak for those

here and those at home to let you know that we certainly appreciate the essence of our democracy A democracy that cherishes the rights of every single person to speak their mind. However, as Councilmember Hernandez said, this speech, it must be tempered with responsibility and with respect. Four months ago, the good people of Floral Park wrote a letter to Councilmember Hernandez, beseeching her to heed our concerns and shield our city from the turbulent winds of Middle East affairs. But alas, our police fell on deaf ears. They were ignored and they were forgotten.

So Council Member Hernandez, wherever you are right now, now is your chance once again to make a decision.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 5

Council Member Hernandez is right here, sir. I'm sorry.

I'm sorry. Council Member Lopez. My Council Member Lopez, who was unaware.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 5

We need to let him finish, please. I apologize. I just wanted to just clarify for you.

Please. Can I?

Valerie AmezcuaItem 5

Yeah, we're going to give you back your time. Go ahead.

This is the lack of respect that I'm talking about. I know we are... Let's please be respectful, everybody.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 5

Go ahead, Mr. Katz. Thank you.

This is your opportunity to decide, will you stand with the weary people of Ward 3 who simply want tranquility and peace, or will you stand with Palestinians who are protesting and for certain agencies such as Chispa who certainly seek to sow seeds of discontent and discord? Court. This is not a question of policy. This is a question of principle.

Jennifer L. HallItem 5

Mr. Katz, your time is up.

Jennifer L. HallItem 5

Thank you. Next three speakers, Hassan Abushamzani, Jairo Cortez, and Kelly.

Good evening, Councilman Hernandez. Hope you're doing well.

everyone who's come up and spoken so far has talked about them their comfort and not wanting to be woken up in the early morning while children in Gaza are being woken up every morning by bombs by the looming threat of death over each and every one of them by a tyrannical illegal occupation and a genocidal attack on their homelands.

Firstly, I come here to say I believe Congressman Lou Correa should call for an immediate ceasefire in Palestine. And secondly, if the sacrifice we have to make for the children in Gaza is being woken up a little early because one congressman is willing to take money from an organization promoting genocide. I think that that is a sacrifice that we are all obliged to make. It's a necessary sacrifice. And you should not take up these grievances with your community

who, I mean, on two separate issues, two separate community organizations have both talked about Palestine, clearly this is an issue that your, you know, your citizens care a lot about. I just believe that we should not be bowing over to, you know, the entrance of one man who wants to get a little Saturday, you know, sleep in while he goes the next morning to Washington and, you know, votes for genocide. You know, I think that the people have had enough and we've tried to reach him

every way possible. The only way we had left was to go to his house and wake him up. And so if you're so concerned about this, why don't you make sure that he gets his emails on time. Thank you.

Jennifer L. HallItem 5

Next three speakers, Jairo Cortez, Kelly and Robin.

Good evening. My name is Jairo Cortez. I'm the executive director at Chispa. And I want to start off by saying that Congressman Luke Correa needs to call for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza now. I'm a resident of Ward 5 and I'm here in opposition to item 24, the Luke Correa Peace of Mind Ordinance. There has been a consistent pattern of cowardice in the face of opposition and of antipathy towards opposing viewpoints within this council over the last year and a half. And that's what this ordinance is about. Elected public officials seeking to create a little protective bubble around themselves to insulate against opposing

opposing views expressed by their constituents. In 2016, I organized a protest in front of Vince Sarmiento's house. He didn't respond by introducing ordinances to crack down on protests. Can't say the same for some of you. Councilmember Becerra regularly hides comments on his social media profiles. Up until a few days ago, the mayor's official Instagram page was private, and I sent an email about this to city staff last week. I would like to hear of response. So enough. Be adult and accept that responsibility that comes with being a public

official. Engage with your constituents. Argue with us if you want. We've argued. Because you're not children and neither are we. Don't tell us to start treating you as such by passing this ordinance. Instead, support democracy and uplift the ability of residents to engage with their elected officials and adopt the policy to standardize social media policies against and censorship that all council members in this body should follow. Thank you.

Jennifer L. HallItem 5

Kelly, followed by Robin and Omar Z.

Hello. I'm back here again. I'm a mom and yet I feel like I'm with more children here here because of this Prop 24. I'm also standing up here to again to please ask for Lou to call for a ceasefire. I think it's pretty clear we've also said to Lou that if he wanted us to be quiet as we're peacefully protesting, I've been there, it's peaceful, except for one time when a neighbor charged us and grabbed two phones from the hands of someone and smashed them on the ground, which is a felony. So everything I've seen has been pretty violent from the neighbor's

side. We're exercising using our voice. This bill is in place to silence us and this is a problem. This isn't democracy. This is people trying to keep themselves comfortable because of their skin and their conditioning. This is a problem and you know last time I was here you guys sat here and said that this didn't affect foreign. Well here we are. Here we are. It's a problem in your streets, right? It's a problem. It's here. It's not gonna go away guys. We're not stupid Like we're not stupid and isn't this what the world is about having these tough conversations

Who's the fragile one? You know, we can't have these conversations. This is what a democracy is. We're watching it die We're watching it die because you're trying to silence us and I'm telling you I've been at those protests. They are not they're peaceful we're asking him to talk to us he's not writing us he's not emailing us he's emailing about his comfort you know there's there's a difference between peace and comfort and peace and justice and we're not here for no one's comfortable you want to hear some sounds I can play some sounds of my friends

that are there and they're hearing much more disturbing sounds yeah like screams screams screams Kelly your time is up

Johnathan Ryan HernandezItem 5

guys guys if we can please be respectful so that we can get every public speaker to have an opportunity to share please refrain from clapping or cheering thank

Valerie AmezcuaItem 5

you Thank You councilman Hernandez I was just about to say that but if we're gonna continue to have to say that then we're gonna have to take a break and The chief will let us know when we, it's safe to come back out, but we have to let everybody speak. So this is the second time that we've said this now. So after this, then we're going to go on a break, and then chief, you let us know when we'll come back out. But we cannot have this. We need to get this through so everybody can speak, please. Thank you.

Jennifer L. HallItem 5

The three speakers are Robin, followed by Omar Zee and Omar K. Okay.

So Council Member Vasquez, on March 5th at the City Council meeting, you made this grandiose statement about how the US welcomed and helped all of the victims of Kristallnacht.

I'm sure you know Kristallnacht was not a pop-up pogrom, and that it occurred after 40 years years of anti-Semitism occurring across an entire continent. Things that were dehumanizing to Jews. We were paraded in public humiliation. We were ridiculed and subjected to screams of blood libel and conspiracy theories, not unlike the things that go on in this room.

And I want you to know, of course you should know, that the response to Kristallnacht was international collective silence. Even the United States, every country in the world closed their borders to the Jews. We are terrified that that is happening again right now, right here.

You see, Council Member Lopez, my people have been ethnically cleansed or suffered an extermination event an average of 100 years for the past 3,000 years. Just like your family, we have had to flee for our lives. We have been murdered by militants. And our countries have become unsafe for our families. and we see it happening right here in Santa Ana, and you are not saying a thing about it.

Jennifer L. HallItem 5

Omar Z, followed by Omar K and Kashif G.

Okay. Good evening, everybody. Hello, council. I'm back here. Sorry to be back here again, guys, especially to you, the mayor. It took you five months to prove that a genocide in Gaza was city business. Just now, you recognized two different groups of people in the city business portion of this meeting, and did you guys notice how they were talking about Palestine did you guys see that so you might not think it's city business but your city business is talking about Palestine what does that tell you guys

now that we got the ceasefire passed you guys chose to bring me back here to fight for my First Amendment right it's being stripped away and it seems that we can protest against anything in this world except one thing I just have one question for you, all of you. Are we in the greatest country in the world or are we in the United States of Israel? Mayor, are we in the United States of Israel?

Okay, since you're not going to listen to me, I'm here Mayor Valerie again to ask for your resignation and there's a reason for it. Your Islamophobic comments comments last time when we passed the ceasefire and you said, I told you they're not peaceful and you were talking about me and my people and we are peaceful. And just to let you know, I've never committed a crime in my life. I've never been charged of anything. So why do you think I'm not peaceful? Why can the other side say that there's a lot of hate being towards Jews, but why do Muslims get no respect? It's been proven that 40,000 of us can get killed and it

And it won't shed a tear from you. Not one tear. And I know that for a fact. So my question to you is, at what point will you step down because you're not fit for this job? Because you have a prejudice against Muslims and a prejudice against Arabs. You kicked me out of your birthday party even after I wished you a happy birthday. Omer, your time is up.

Jennifer L. HallItem 5

Next speakers, Omer K., Kashif G., and Yaz.

Good evening, council members. My name is Omar Kurdi. I'm an attorney and an activist, and I've been involved in organizing efforts to get Congressman Correa to call for a ceasefire in Gaza, including protests in front of his office and, more recently, his house. I'm here today to ask that you not adopt the proposed ordinance which would end up restricting our First Amendment rights. It should go without saying the First Amendment is the cornerstone of our democratic society. The right to free speech and to freely assemble and petition our elected officials is the

bedrock from which all of our other rights are built. I have serious concerns concerns, as does the ACLU, about the effects this proposed ordinance will have on First Amendment rights and the chilling effect it will have on First Amendment activity. I hope you share in my concern and consider this issue carefully. For nearly six months, members of our community have been demanding our elected officials do their part to help bring an end to the slaughter and to the genocide in Gaza. This includes protests in front of Congressman Correa's office and his house.

It's in response to these efforts dealing with this issue, the issue of the genocide in Gaza, that this council has taken it upon itself to propose this ordinance, which begs the question, why is it that this council proposed the ordinance now, and in response to these protests? Why did the council not raise any such proposal after protests in front of Dr. Nicole Quick's home, the Orange County Health Officer who faced protesters because of the county mask mask mandate or supervisor Katrina Foley who faced similar protests over similar issues the list could go on congressman Correa has a photo has a

portrait of Cesar Chavez in his office what would Cesar Chavez say about this

Jennifer L. HallItem 5

proposed order next speakers Kashif G Yaz and Marina Salmon

Thank you, everyone. I wanted to share an excerpt of a very inspirational speech that is extremely relevant to the proposed protest ban. And I quote, history, remembering history. Well, ladies and gentlemen, history is being repeated today. We cannot wait. We cannot let it happen. If there is one thing I'm going to do today, I'm going to ask you, do not let this happen. Do not let us in that building wait. Take action right now. now. Lives that are suffering right now, human beings, can't let history repeat itself. Please make sure the next time you are here, double the amount of people. Make sure your voices

are raised loudly. You have to make sure that you remind us that we are on top of this. Please make sure you take action so that history is not repeated. This is from a speech given by Lou Correa on September 23rd of last year while he was shining light on the ethnic cleansing happening to the Armenian community. I bring this up now not to undermine past atrocities. I bring this up to shed the light on the irony and the hypocrisy of our leaders. We are encouraged to speak up and take action, but you are now voting on a resolution to silence us. Instead, we all should be focusing our

efforts to urge Lou to stop his double standard hypocrisy and follow his own teaching, urge him to call for a ceasefire. Lou, this is for you if you're listening. I know it's uncomfortable for many to criticize Israel and they probably think it's political suicide. I urge Lou to not fall into the trap. The truth is becoming so clear. Stand up for what is just and God will be on your

Jennifer L. HallItem 5

side. Thank you. Next speakers, Yaz, Marina Salmon and Maha Afra. And a reminder if you could please note your ward or neighborhood for the record. Well glad to

to be here again. I think this is my 20th meeting. Hoping to come every other Tuesday or whenever we have these meetings. This is actually fun to be here. I want to say I know what the folks in that neighborhood feel. I lived in LA with a six-month-old when the Black Lives Matter protests were happening. There was a lot of noise. There was a lot of protest. But never once did I say, wow, you know what? This is a lot of noise. They really shouldn't be protesting down down the street because what I went through is a fraction of what the African-American

community went through. When I get pulled over, until they see my name, I actually don't get questioned. When they see my name, it's a whole different story, but we don't need to go into that. This doesn't affect just Palestinian protesters. Just know if you sign up for this, when there's protests in the future, this is one more thing you're giving your cops the ability to use shut down protests. This is the same concerns people had when the LA City Council tried to pass this kind of ordinance. So just know you vote for this your names will be on that. When a Hispanic community protests, when a black community protests, or any other

community that feels like they have a concern protest. When you chose public public office, no one forced you to do it. Lou Carrera, if you don't like the attention you have, resign. We don't care, resign. You chose that position, own it. But now we're seriously talking about limiting someone's constitutional rights to protest? Just know, you vote yes on this, believe me, it will be backlash for your political career. Some of you on this council are young and gonna do some amazing things in the future. some of you are washed up and almost done don't join the washed up people

help your career keep your name off of this agenda item because believe me there'll be backlash for this thank you see you in two weeks

Jennifer L. HallItem 5

Marina salmon followed by maja afra and goberto for us I'm right now I'm a

Santa Ana resident of French Park I think formerly of Riverview representative Lou Correa is using this ordinance to erode and destroy democracy and freedom the very things our nation claims to stand for we can't vote in good confidence because represent representatives like Lou Correa refuse to listen to our pleading our elected representative who we put in power is refusing to listen to the majority will of his constituency we would not be at his house if he would act in and do what is right by calling for a ceasefire and for the end of military aid to Israel as they commit a genocide.

Now he is trying to render our right to assemble and protest ineffective by making us stay 300 feet from his home. First, it will not stop us because we are fighting for the lives of our community's families in Gaza and occupied Palestine to end their suffering from starvation and lack of any basic necessities and rights. I don't know if anybody here has ever starved. That is what our money and support of Israel is doing to people. And moving us 300 feet away not only hampers the effectiveness of our protest upon the man who deserves it, but it will make his neighbors 300 feet away extremely upset as well.

Second, if we cannot vote or peacefully protest with any effectiveness, then we are effectively living in an authoritarian government where the people in power can lie and do whatever they please. We are already seeing that with Representative Lou Correa. How many more ordinance lists like this will pass before we become exactly like the dictatorships which we claim are our moral enemies? My fear is not many. The only way to protect our democracy and the lives and rights of our people is to continue to allow these peaceful protests, not stifle them.

Again, if Lou Correa would choose life over genocide and greed, he wouldn't be in this mess. Vote no on this ordinance to be on the right side of history. Thank you.

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Next three speakers, Maha Afra, followed by Dagoberto Juarez, and Johnny Mejia.

Good evening. My name is Dr. Maha Afra, mother educator. I am Omar Fernando, Nas, Aya, Palestine, Lebanon, Syria, Yemen, Congo, Sudan, Mexico. Our protest is to ask Lou Correa, who represents us, to call for a ceasefire to stop the genocide, which is our constitutional right. And he is ignoring us, which is anti-Semitic. The neighbors are invited to join us, but if they are okay with their tax money paying for the murder of our families and people, then they should be okay with us crying and

mourning. Loo is being paid to support our murderers. We have the right to protest when our families are massacred, starved, maimed by your money and silence. By the way, Zionist chief par excellence Jeffrey Katz came to us and alone and asked to eat a date. That's how peaceful we are. And the lady who, the Zionist who who smashed our cell phones, walked away perfectly. We are beautiful, powerful, we are the future.

All we are doing is pleading with Jose Luis Correa to call for a ceasefire. City of Santa Ana, don't trample on our constitutional rights.

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Doug Alberto, Johnny Mejia, followed by Tomas Fernandez.

Good afternoon. My name is Johnny Mejia. I represent a soccer league, Olympic Youth Soccer League and Jazz Sports Soccer League. and just giving you guys the words earlier remind me when my father Juan Mejia and our friend Pedro Magallon 2019 also got an award here for encouraging for helping the community the reason we're here for is because we feel being unfairly treated by the parks recs they have been changes on their rules and regulations without asking the community what is our needs for example in my situation and a couple of my colleagues there's different kind of groups in

order for the pricing the nonprofit organizations stuff like that and we get an I got a notification which I got copies all of you guys here asking share and read them I got one day a notification of changes that I have to do in order to stay in that group another reason another reason that we brought down to the our group now we have to pay extra amount of money was uh the residency of uh 90 percent that uh i haven't met yet um but other cities around their their uh percentage is 50 max just like those uh soccer players from modern day guess where they come from from our league they

were all participating there you know so um and most of them they're not santa ana residents right but yet they can also use our fields, right? They can use the stadium. So stuff like that, it bothers our programs, right, because they can't play with us. Another reason, the 16-years-old, or the max now is to 17-years-old. When they get to high school, you got 18, 19-year-olds playing in the same program. But yet, when they come out of high school, they cannot play in my program because they're already 18-years-old. So stuff like this and I have more stuff but my time is already up. I'll leave some emails here, copies.

Your time is up. Can you show this one?

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Tomas Fernandez, followed by Muhammad and Kendi Hamilton.

Good evening, my name is Tomas Fernandez. I have the privilege to be the son of Hugo Fernandez, the first founder of the very first soccer league back in 1978. I have known all these gentlemen from United Latin, Santa Ana Soccer League, Jam Sports, Elite Sports, Veterano Soccer League, Olympic Soccer League, Team 90, California Youth, Santa Ana DSP, Santa Ana United, altogether about 8,800 players. 8,800 families that voted for you.

We have made several attempts to talk to you guys. Nobody seems to care, with the exception of Councilmember Jesse Lopez, who actually was on a talk to us for 30 minutes, ended up being two hours, seeing how big the problem it is. In the early 90s, as many of you know, the city of Santa Ana was facing a big problem with the gangs. This gentleman that I just mentioned were local heroes, pulling all these kids from the streets. And now they're being treated like garbage. Actually, when they voted for this new policy back on October 5, 2021, Council Member Peñalosa had the audacity to call this decent, hardworking people mafia.

I hope you regret that. that we're being victims of overcharging they change and modify the rules every time they feel like it they increase the prices without any prior notice i want to ask all of you all this 8 800 people who voted for you is this the best you can offer this disaster that we have in the department of parks and recreations is this the best you can offer to the voters of santa ana Hannah, thank you for your time.

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Muhammad, followed by Kendi Hamilton and Michael Diaz.

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Kendi Hamilton.

Hello. My name is Kendi. And first, I want to call on Congressman Lou Correa to call for an immediate and permanent ceasefire now. I don't mean disrespect. I don't really want to be here. I don't know that anyone really wants to be here, but we need to be here. Gaza Strip is the most dangerous place in the entire world to be a child. And guess what? That is paid for by our tax dollars. We are all sitting here today because we aren't okay with our tax dollars being used to torture, murder, and traumatize innocent children, women, and men. Yet, the item on the agenda is whether or not we can protest in residential areas.

is. Really? Of all the things to prioritize, trying to get rid of freedom of speech is on the docket today. I know why Lou figured out how to get this on the agenda. AIPAC is owned by a foreign entity called Israel. AIPAC has been infiltrating our U.S. government for over 75 years now and at this point basically owns most of the politicians, whether Republican or Democrat. Some other foreign entity has come into the US and now owns most of the politicians who make the laws that should terrify all of us you guys sit up there and I believe you are good people and ran for office for good reasons and want to do good things

however having a foreign entity give any one of you money or have any kind of play in what's going on in our democracy is not okay Martin Luther King had to protest people were okay with him going and having people go in and sit into into white restaurants. They weren't allowed to be there. It was disruptive, yet that's what it took to make changes. We have to be able to protest. We have to be able to fight for what is right. I hope that you guys make the right decision here. Children are being affected. There's literally children having amputations done without anesthesia.

Children are starving to death. This is ridiculous that this is even what we're talking about.

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out. And then the next three speakers, if you could please line up in the aisle. Michael Diaz,

Wasal, and Samantha. Hello. So I'm here tonight as a constituent of Congressman Luke Correa, who for the past five months has refused to meet with me or my community to discuss the genocide side in Gaza. As a Palestinian, my family has been directly affected by the latest Israeli aggression. I came tonight to give some context of what has been occurring over the past several months. It's not like we just woke up one day and decided to make the residents of Floral Park uncomfortable. We've tried every method to reach out to our congressman. Since October,

me along with many members of our community have called the Congressman's Santa Ana office dozens of times to request he called for a ceasefire and to formally request a meeting with the congressman. We've also visited his Santa Ana office dozens of times to request a meeting. We've spoken with his DC office multiple times. We've even wrote letters requesting a meeting and nothing. We then decided to hold rallies outside of his office demanding a meeting for him to call for a ceasefire and to meet with us, but he cowardly shut down his office each time.

Only then did we decide to bring our message to his home, which many protesters across the country have also done to demand politicians call for a ceasefire. Their free speech was never threatened, so why is ours being threatened tonight? And as some have already said, in Orange County elected officials are no strangers to protest outside their homes. But it seems that we have finally got the Congressman's attention to the point where he is supporting this new legislation to ban us from expressing our First Amendment rights outside of his home this is shameful the city of santa anna should not be trying to silence us rather you

should be the ones protecting our freedom of speech vote no on this proposal this proposal

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thank you michael diaz wesol samantha

hello council members my name is michael diaz first and foremost i want to call on lou correa to call for an immediate and permanent ceasefire. The fact that this ordinance is even under consideration is deeply troubling to me. I've shared with this council over the past few months how I am new to being involved in local politics at all. And over that time, I've got to witness this council conduct themselves in outrageous ways. Most surprising to me during that time has been your behavior, Mayor Amaskua. At one of my first council meetings, I witnessed you make a statement literally admitting to withholding wrongdoing

by your own department, and you were only mentioning at that time as a threat directed at council member Hernandez during a council meeting. This was back in December. I even made a formal complaint at the next meeting I came to. Now here we are to speak on an ordinance that clearly aims to restrict the public's ability to use their First Amendment rights to send messages to their representatives and their community. This is beyond ridiculous. It is shameful. An added layer of this disturbance to this issue is a fact that I've noticed the pattern of implementing

restrictive measures on the Palestinian community and their supporters. This is another clear example of that. Both Mayor Emeskua and Congressman Correa are actively working to silence the public and prevent meaningful discussions about the Gaza genocide. As constituents, we expect better representation and accountability from those who are supposed to serve us, especially in what is considered to be the most progressive city in Orange County. So please, council, do the right thing and say no to this ordinance. Do not silence your constituents. Hear them, talk to them, listen to them and support them.

And on top of that, like, these are peaceful meetings. Like, I've been to them. There's nothing wrong happening. The fact that this is even like on the table is wild to me and it's so blatant and I've seen other councilmen, other city councils do the same thing over this specific topic. and to anyone paying attention like just just think about it like I asked you genuinely to think about it as human beings and your time is up thank you

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next speakers Wessel followed by Samantha and Jana hello good evening I

want to thank you all for passing the ceasefire resolution in Santa Ana at the last meeting it takes a lot to have to stand up here with your colleagues and have to deal with this and we just really appreciate it you know I want to also go ahead and make sure you know you all are doing your jobs and asking Lou Correa to call for a ceasefire obviously you're having a challenge with that as we are and we've decided to take it in our own hands to go ahead and make sure our message is heard within our rights and I've been attending all of these um these protests at his home I think we've had about eight or nine at

this point I've been at almost all of them we've got our kids our dogs our families there they're very peaceful a lot of the neighbors stop with they walk their dogs by us and speak with us and and ask us what's going on. We've educated folks. A lot of them call us and let us know when Lou is home because they too are on our side. The only dangerous situations I've experienced during that were when Zionists came up to us who live in the neighborhood like that crazy psycho, Jeff Katz, who just spoke to you earlier, and he walks into our audience and shoulder checks us and the police do nothing.

The only danger we've had is with angry neighbors who are supportive of the genocide in Palestine disagreeing with us, which is what we're up against here, what we've been up against for months now and why we continue to raise our voice. So whether you put an ordinance in place to prevent us from coming within 300 feet of his house or not, we'll stand at 301 feet with a louder megaphone within our rights to make sure that we get a stop to the genocide in Palestine. We need to cease fire. We're going to do everything in our legal rights in order to get that, right? I was really happy after we got the cease fire

because the hundreds of people that I've employed here in Santa Ana and relocated here and the seed funding investments from our hedge funds that we invest into this area, I was proud to say, is a great place to do so. And I was thinking we were getting somewhere, but now you're trying to infringe on our rights as a council? Who are you to say that we can't speak our voices? Do you see Camp Blinken? Have you seen that? They're still camped out there. It's been two months. That's not illegal. We are peacefully protesting with our children and dogs to ask people to stop being murdered.

And we're going to continue to do it, whether our feet distance it away is from the house. It's not going to end. Your time is up. Thank you.

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Samantha, followed by Jana and Tanya Navarro.

Good evening, my name is Samantha and I'm a longtime resident of Ward 6. Can you put your mic down please so we can hear you? Thank you. Good evening, my name is Samantha and I'm a longtime resident of Ward 6. I'm here today to urge the council not to pass this ordinance in the best interest of the community. As council members and representatives of the respective wards, it is your responsibility to listen to your constituents and advocate on our behalf. If the council was to vote in favor of this ordinance, you are all agreeing to violate our constitutional right. Please represent all of Santa Ana and not just Florida Park.

Thank you for your time.

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Jana, followed by Tanya Navarro and Jose Lopez.

Good evening. My name is Jana and I'm with the Party for Socialism and Liberation. And I'm looking at this council and I see a really great multinational representation representation here, you know, everyone from all different parts of different countries, and I asked myself, how did we get to this point when America, several hundred years ago, or hundreds of years ago, was mostly white men in power, women were not allowed to rule, people of color were not allowed to speak their voice, how did we get here? It's because people protested. The fact that any of us are even here in this room is because people

People use their voice and fought back. And people have always been demonized for doing that. Just like what was said earlier about Martin Luther King Jr. and the sit-ins, that's always been demonized. But now we look back, we're like, that's horrible. They shouldn't have done that. So the fact that this is even on docket that is being considered when we have people from the Philippines, people from Vietnam, people from Latin America, all countries with history of fighting back against oppression, fighting back against colonization, the hypocrisy is incredible that this is even being considered. Even Lucrea, someone who's

from Mexico, an immigrant, immigrant family from Mexico, the fact that he's even deciding to fight back against our free speech is blatant hypocrisy. And I just want to say there's a very simple solution to this problem that Lucrea seems to be having that would not take up any more council's time that would not bother the neighbors call for ceasefire very simple thank

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you tanya navarro followed by jose lopez and juliana m

hi city council my name is tanya navarro and i'm a lifelong resident of santa ana and a community organizer with chispa i'm here to oppose item number 24. first i want to call on congressman in Lucuria to call for an immediate cease and permanent ceasefire now. None of us should be comfortable with genocide. It's deeply ironic to claim that this emergency ordinance that caters only to loose comfort is being proposed in the name of public safety. This ordinance effectively suppresses and targets the voices of those advocating for peace, justice, and a ceasefire in Gaza. In loose letter to the council,

he states that the home is a place that should be protected and asked that the city council take into account the comfort of his family. Yet he is hypocritically voting to continue to fund a genocide where entire families are being killed in their homes, streets, shelters, and while attempting to secure desperately needed aid. The definition of protest is to disrupt and to challenge the status quo and to demand change. The protesters outside of Lou's house are not harming anyone, yet Lou is influencing decisions that do cause harm, and this is one of them.

politicians like you mayor amesqua and the rest of the council and lu corea do not have the right to silence dissent simply because it is an inconvenience to you or because you disagree with it santa ana is a great city that is a great city because of organizing and protesting this tradition is often led by youth and has spearheaded several community center positive programming that had made headlines for leading the county such as rent control and the sanctuary ordinance although you may try to limit our ability to protest outside of residential areas and criminalize us you wouldn't be the first nor the last and

just know we'll never stop resisting

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Jose Lopez followed by Juliana M and Monique Rangel I will go boozy yeah my apologies

Valerie AmezcuaItem 5

traducir señor se puede hablar en español y después si vas a en inglés

gracias a hablar español si por favor gracias

buenas noches gracias por darme la oportunidad de expresar a mí mi problema que tengo que es muy sencillo después escuchar todo lo que I think there is a discrepancy in the area where I live.

I paid a permit in the city and there was no problem with the permit I put in my car to take you from 2 in the morning to 6 in the morning. So, there is no problem. But today, they have given me two tickets because I am parked in a different district. And it is very strange, I do not understand the terminology. When I bought this ticket, this permit in the city, they did not explain to me where I can park or at what time or anything like that.

I have been staying there for two months, there is no problem, and today they gave me two problems. It's money, not bullets, or war, or anything. But I would like to know if we can solve this problem, or at least that they examine the discrepancy that I have. Because in front of my house I need permission. I need permission. My neighbor in front of me doesn't need permission. In front of me there are some apartments and a church that they use everywhere and I don't have a place to park. That's why I bought the permit to park where there is a problem.

And I would like to see if something can be fixed.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 5

Yes, sir, thank you. Before you translate, please, Steven, if we can get city staff to speak to him. I want to personally give an about contigo, si, por favor. Gracias, senor. Thank you very much, Commander.

Thank you for the opportunity to express my issue. My issue is pretty simple, actually pretty easy. After hearing everything that is going on here, my issue is really easy to solve. There's a discrepancy in the area where I live. I paid for a permit, a parking permit, and I didn't have any issues, but now to to park and now they're saying that I cannot park from 2 a.m. to 6 a.m. So I never had any issues. But today I have two issues. I have two tickets because they told me that I parked in a different district. I do not understand what this means.

But the permit, when I got my permit and I bought my permit, nobody explained to me where I could park or when I could park or not park. So my issues are very simple. So I got these two tickets. My issue has nothing to do with money. I mean, my issue is only money. I got these two tickets, has nothing to do with bullets or war or anything. So my issue is simple. So if we can please look into this so we can have this resolved. The person in my house, I cannot park in front of my house without a permit. My neighbor doesn't need a permit. There's a church nearby and I can't park there so I had to buy this permit.

So if you can please do something about this.

Jennifer L. HallItem 5

Next three speakers, Juliana, Monique, and Diplomatic Democrat.

Good evening. My name is Juliana. I'm from Ward 4. I'm here to speak on ordinance number 24 and also to call on Lucrea to not only pass a ceasefire, support a ceasefire, but stop arming a genocidal state, stop signing on to bills that send weapons to commit genocide against civilians because he did, he does continue to do that and speak in support of the genocide. I know that Lou Correa and other politicians want us to protest in a way that's convenient for them, but what we've learned from the last several months of

protesting and calling our representatives and being you know respectful is no one's listening you know they don't want to listen to us they're not listening and this genocide keeps happening and people keep dying and suddenly we show up at their house and they are paying attention and unfortunately that's what it takes not allowing us to do this is basically telling us, hey, go back to a place where we can continue to ignore you because you're inconveniencing us, because your care for human beings is causing us to get up a little too early.

We're not going to stop. If this passes, we'll figure out another way to be an inconvenience, because that's what works. We don't live in a democracy. Unfortunately, Congress doesn't represent us. 65% of the population wants a ceasefire, and yet a very small minority of Congress is calling for one. So we understand that these are not our representatives. They're only going to respond to protest and civil disobedience, and if that's what it takes, that's what we're going to do.

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Monique, followed by diplomatic Democrat and Jenny Hazen.

My name is Monique. I'm a graduate of Monterey High School here in Santa Ana and a graduate of Columbia University, and I'm a proud organizer with the Party of Socialism and Liberation. All that to say no one here is ever going to pull a fast one over on me. First, even though I know he won't do it, I demand Luke Correa call for an immediate and permanent ceasefire. A democracy where our so-called representatives are colluding on how to best not represent our interests is no democracy at all. This ordinance and Correa's inflammatory letter to the mayor follow a long

historical tradition of smearing peaceful protest movements and painting Americans well within their so-called rights as a violent mob. The mayor underestimates the organizational memory within this long history of protest and we will not be gaslit into believing lies about what we stand for. Protest has never been peaceful. Non-violence does not equate to peace. It's historically said that plantation life was very peaceful, even for enslaved enslaved peoples. Does this make plantation life and slavery just? As Kwame Ture, formerly known as Stokely Carmichael, famously said, you can have injustice and peace. You can

have peace and be enslaved. So peace isn't the answer. Liberation is the answer. Lou Correa underestimates the steadfastness of Palestinian people and all nationally oppressed people who have stood with Palestine in solidarity since the first colonizers set foot on their land. Where there is oppression, there will be resistance, as Assata Shakur said. And you can try to tire us out with your little schemes, but understand that you can never tire out a people for whom death is not the end.

Hello, Council and Mayor. My name is Diplomatic Democrat. I work in Ward 1. I'm here, again, again, probably the 20th time. Today, though, I'm here for a different reason. Somehow, my First Amendment rights are being attacked, but that's not the only thing that's been attacked in the last six months. I've tried every single possible thing to stop this genocide, and the reason that I feel like it's my responsibility to stop this genocide is because my tax dollars are funding it. I wear the guilt of what my tax dollars are doing, and if you don't wear that same guilt, That's not my problem. What your problem is is representing us,

and what Congressman Jose Luis Correa's problem is is representing us, not representing APAC's $16,000 contributions. We've tried everything in the book. We've gone to his office. We've organized rallies outside of his office. We've organized protests across the street without even knowing he lived there. We have gone to his events where he has lied and said he doesn't even know what APAC is. when he has video record, when we have recordings of him years ago talking about how important AIPAC is for maintaining peace in the Middle East. Well, let me tell you something. When you're

accepting money from a colonizer and calling that peace and then forcing your constituents who elected you into office to not speak up about that oppression, that is not peace. That is not peace. Occupation is not peace, and taking away First Amendment rights are not peace.

I think we all can see that this democracy does not work without the people. So if you guys can't respect the people and what the people have to say, then you guys will disappear. That's not my decision. It's literally what you guys have brought upon us. It's we the people, not you the people. We the people. Thank you.

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Jenny Hazen, followed by Jaime Saleta and Jennifer Martinez.

Hello, my name is Jenny Hazen and I live in Floral Park. Part of what I love about our country is our protected right to speak our truth, beliefs, and mind. The freedom of speech, our First Amendment right, is critical to our democracy. However, what I additionally desire is to protect our right to the sanctity of home. To preserve and protect the well-being and tranquility of my home and neighborhood is a liberty I do not take lightly. Sadly, the peace of our neighborhood has been taken from us as it has become an unwanted receptacle of

noise shrapnel that we cannot escape from for hours at a time, multiple times a week. The sirens, drums, and noisemakers have no business within the bounds of neighborhood residents. I am here tonight to urge our City Council to establish distance requirements for targeted residential protesting. Thank you.

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Jaime Saleta followed by Jennifer Martinez and Hassan.

Hello, good evening. My name is Jaime Saleta. I am a neighbor of the Flor Park neighborhood. and basically I'm here just to share my opinion. I make the statement in Spanish because during the demonstrations I saw flags from Ecuador and Mexico. So I want to communicate with the people of my continent, of Latin America, and I support their solidarity, I support many of the things that have been mentioned during this whole meeting.

but the only thing I'm not in favor of is exactly to make demonstrations in someone's house. None of the members of this place would agree with that, and none of the audience members would agree with that. No one wants to go to make a demonstration at any time at their house. So, for that reason, I'm here communicating and expressing my right. Obviously, everyone has the right to protest, everyone has the right to manifest.

And whether or not this measure is passed, keep manifesting, keep protesting, you have all your rights. In fact, I think there has to be a place where there is peace for a person after their work, after working all day.

So, I think it's very bad that they are not being listened to. That is unacceptable. We are precisely in a country where we can protest and where we are free. There are many Latin American countries where none of that can be done and it would not end well. But again, there has to be a limit, there has to be a place where there are no protests and there is peace for the person to be able to rest. Thank you.

Good evening, my name is Jaime Saleta. I'm a neighbor of Floral Park and I'm here to share my opinion. And I'm going to say this in Spanish because during the protest I saw flags being flown from Ecuador and from Mexico. and I'd like to talk to the people from my continent. So I do support, I'm in solidarity with what you have been saying in this meeting. What I do not agree is the manifestation at someone's home. There are some members here that would not like to have this at their house. Some members in the audience would not like to have this at your house.

We have, this is not appropriate at someone's home. and everybody has the right to express themselves. They have the right to protest. They have a right to manifest what they don't like and whether this passes or not, do continue to protest if you like, but we need to have a peaceful place where someone can come after a hard day's work to rest in their their own home. And I believe it's bad that you have not been hurt. But in this, we are

free, in the United States we are free. In many Latin American countries, this would not be permitted, and this would not end the same. But there are limits, and I'm calling for a peaceful place so that we can rest.

Hello, my name is Jennifer Martinez. As someone who resides in Congressional District 46, specifically Anaheim, I was very disturbed to hear of this emergency ordinance being proposed by a neighboring city. Lucrea calls Santa Ana home. So had our House of Representatives been responsive to concerns via snail mail or emails or phone calls or social media or office visits respecting a genocide at any point in the past six months, we would not feel the need to come in person. Politicians are not above interactions with the public. And it says so much about the state of the United States of America to have this even be proposed.

If you pass this ordinance, the oath that young man took earlier is one that y'all will be breaking if you vote yes. And also, Luke Correa, all I have left to say is that a fully liberated Palestine is coming. I mean, how much guilt will you have when it does?

Jennifer L. HallItem 5

Next three speakers are Hassan, Perla Dionisio, and Fernando Devaras.

Hello, my name is Hassan. I am a resident of Ward 1. So what pushes residents to confront Representative Lucre at his home? I'll tell you. It's his blatant disregard for his own constituents' demands and his continuous support for the genocide and oppression of the Palestinian people. When community members tried reaching out to him at his office, there was little to no response. In addition, Lou Kreya has actively avoided public events because of his support for Israel's killing of the Palestinian people. Lou refuses to do his job and instead wants to act like a representative of the people.

For context, Lou Kreya's district is home to Little Arabia, America's first official Arab ethnic enclave. And it is Little Arabia who ultimately gave Lou Kreya his current position. And it is those same people in Little Arabia who have their loved ones experiencing the unbridled violence within Gaza and the West Bank. However, instead of truly representing his voters, Lou Krayet has decided to take dirty money from Israeli lobbyists who want the United States to continue financially and politically supporting the atrocities Israelis committing against millions of innocent women, men, women, and children.

Giving his own constituents no other choice but to have their voices heard at his home. Jeffrey Kratz, the Florida Park Neighborhood Association's president letter to the City Council cites Supreme Court case Kerry v. Brown, which describes the sanctity of an individual's home. But what about the homes of those in Gaza, where their entire bloodlines and street blocks are wiped in a matter of seconds by Israeli forces? Do those people and their homes not deserve peace and happiness? And is it really unconstitutional for community members to take a stand against an ongoing

genocide by letting their voices be heard to the individuals that can make an impact hacked in our government. No, it is not unconstitutional. I'll tell you what's unconstitutional. Community members like Jeffrey Katz who harass and threaten community members advocating against the genocide of Gaza being perpetrated with our tax money and our government support. It's unconstitutional for our elected officials to ignore the demands of their constituents and continue support for the violent settler colony state like Israel. And if infringing on people's rights of speech is unconstitutional.

Johnathan Ryan HernandezItem 5

Israel bombs, USA pays.

Jennifer L. HallItem 5

Next speakers. Israel bombs, USA pays. Next three speakers. Perla Dionisio. Fernando Devorahs. Hope Palestine.

Hi, good evening. My name is Perla Dionisio. Thank you for everyone that has spoken. spoken. Honestly, I'm a Santanera. My heart just melts every time I see this room filled with the scarves and the flags. So thank you so much for the resistance. Again, my name is Perla Dionisio. I am a Ward 2 longtime resident and I grew up in Santana. I'm actually class of 99. I was standing in a high school, go Saints. And the reason I am here today is because when it comes to national liberation, there's a quote that I love, and it's,

Pedro Alviso Campos, who was a Puerto Rican attorney born in 1893 and who grew up to be a politician and led as the president of the National Party of Puerto Rico for the liberation from 1930 until his death in 1965. And so when we think about tyranny, we can talk about Palestine, we can talk about Puerto Rico, we can talk about Philippines, we can talk about Vietnam and all the atrocities that have been carried by people in your positions throughout

history. And I am here to tell you that what you are trying to do is protect protect someone, protect someone that you legitimately care about because he's your homeboy, he's your homie, right? And that's what we do. But what happens with sexual assault victims, Mr. Vasquez? What happens? You celebrated 30 years of Centro Cultural of Mexico as a board member. How many victims have they been? How many victims have I personally brought to your attention and the organizations? So let's talk about keeping everyone safe, especially the women and the children, not just in Palestine, but in our hood.

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Fernando Devorahs, followed by Hope Palestine and Nos S.

Good evening, council. I wanted to speak on something really quickly that one of the commenters, Jeffrey Katz, president of the Floor Park Neighborhood Association, said in his comments where he tried to equate a police officer, a civil servant, blasting Disney music late into the night in order to try to get a copyright strike strike on a citizen auditor who was holding that officer accountable, trying to equate that to our Palestinian brothers and sisters and their allies who are protesting a congressional representative who has received money from an Israel lobby and is defending a genocide. Jeffrey Katz is an attorney.

I really hope he takes some time to really think that one through one more time. I really hope that we wouldn't have to be back here. The council majority did the right thing the last time when they passed the ceasefire resolution. all the people here who are speaking today, we're thrilled to see that. We really hope we wouldn't have to be back here, but now we've been brought back because of our congressional representative, Jose Luis Correa's inability to speak out against the genocide. And I'm gonna pause just reading this here. I really just, we're all here in our suits and we have the dais and the flags here.

Sometimes it's hard to remember that you guys are human beings. You know, before your political ambitions before your elected office, you're human beings. And I know that if I was to sit you down and just drop all this performance that we have up here, and I was to ask you, how do you feel about what's happening here? You wouldn't know where to stand. You wouldn't know where the right place to stand is.

Now, I know that some of the members on the council here, however, Mayor Meskwil, you made it clear that it's not your job to speak out on these issues. And Council Member Becerra, you dismissed it as playing model UN. AND THEN BLUE KISSES AT PEOPLE WHO WERE UPSET THAT THE RESOLUTION FAILED. AND COUNCILMEMBER PENALOSA, YOU'VE ALL BUT HIDDEN AWAY WHENEVER CONVERSATIONS AROUND THIS ITEM HAVE COME ABOUT. IT'S NOT GOING TO GO AWAY. IT'S GOING TO KEEP COMING AT YOUR DOORSTEP. AND KNOW THAT IF THIS ORDINANCE DOES PASS, LIKE PEOPLE HAVE SAID BEFORE, THE PROTESTS WILL NOT GO AWAY. BECAUSE WE CAN'T JUST SIT IDLY BY AS THIS GOES ON.

SO JUST KNOW THAT. IF YOU REALLY WANT THIS DISRUPTION TO STOP, PLEASE DO THE RIGHT THING. VOTE NO.

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Hope, followed by Naz, followed by Lita.

Good evening, Mayor and Council Members. I chose to call myself Hope because my name is Amal and it means Esperanza, Hope. I'm hoping you'll listen to me, Mayor. Again I'm deeply concerned by the city's treatment of pro-Palestinian activists. activists, in particular tonight's resolution to adopt an urgency ordinance establishing distance requirements for targeted residential picketing.

We have the First Amendment right, and that is given to us in the Constitution, ma'am. I want to share my experience with Congressman Lew. I walked into his office. I didn't have an appointment. I met him and I talked to him in his office. He was gracious to talk to me for five seconds. He dismissed my call for a ceasefire by absurdly suggesting I call Hamas and ask them to release the hostages, as if I could call 1-800 number Hamas. Please answer me. Congressman Rouleau wants to ignore history and facts.

Gaza is the most well-documented genocide in history. Multiple videos are uploaded by the Israeli military showing the brutality against women and children. 13,000 children have been murdered since October 7. 10,000 civilians have been kidnapped by the Israeli military, not in Gaza, in West Bank. I tried to explain to my congressman that settlers are murdering civilians in the West Bank. I told him if they want to carry out a war crimes they shouldn't do it with my

money hard-working taxpayers deserve free health care paid maternity free colleges American taxpayers deserve to know that Israeli citizens are getting all the above-mentioned services for free when I asked him don't American American citizen deserve the same privilege. Your time is up. Thank you for your time.

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Naz S. followed by Lita, followed by Kit Thalo.

Good evening, council. First and foremost, as constituents of the district, let it be known that if Luis Correa would call for a ceasefire, we would stop showing up at the sidewalk of his home demanding for a call of justice. justice. Lou Cray is worried about our protest evolving into something violent when for the last 160 plus days we have never incited violence, yet we have watched our people experience the most extreme forms of violence in Gaza and the West Bank. We ourselves have experienced the hate and violence by his Zionist neighbors, so this is a tactic of projection.

The sheer irony, ignorance, and lack of awareness speaks volumes. The ordinance in item 24 infringes on the very right of our first amendment to free speech. As elected officials, you are placed in these positions to hear your constituents and their concerns. Throughout this genocide, we have been pushed aside and ignored. When we say no justice, no peace, we mean no justice, no peace. Like that, she walked out. We refuse to be silenced. I have watched the oppression of my people for the last 75 years, and here we are in 2024, and you are still trying to silence and oppress us.

The inconvenience these protests have caused are nothing in comparison to the inconvenience we, your constituents, have experienced watching this genocide. The anxiety, depression, and loss of sheer normalcy. Mayor Emescué, she doesn't want to hear it, your commentary at the last meeting when the ceasefire was passed was sheer ignorance. You shamed us for celebrating a win when we have been fighting for the ultimate win, which is a ceasefire over in Gaza. How dare we celebrate a victory even on a small scale when we've been watching our people get slaughtered and personally myself 15 of my own family have you lost

touch with humanity I'm not ashamed for celebrating I am ashamed that you're the mayor of Santa Ana and as a woman of color and you should be ashamed of yourself if this ordinance passes and will only have a path for other cities to pass such a ludicrous ordinance and without any merit leading to further impingement on our rights exercising your First Amendment right is a very American thing to do so why does that not apply when it has to do with Palestine you all took a note the morality so anyone portraying these these protests as anything other than peaceful is merely inciting fear on a false premises

and to that I say shame. Do what is right and vote no on item 24.

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Next three speakers, Lita, Kit Thalo and Janan.

Good morning, or good evening. This morning I woke up to two people from our community showing videos of their uncles in Palestine that were taken into a room by the IDF terrorists and executed people from our community. I want to let you all know if the tables were turned and people or your kids were being silenced we would be standing with you. We would be loud and we would be fighting for your voice. Every week I'm with this community we hear how more and more of their family members are murdered and then we show up to these meetings and we hear the most disrespectful Islamophobic remarks.

People in Palestine are being silenced and now we are being silenced from speaking up for them. I'm new to city council meetings but I had no idea it was so corrupt. The blatant disrespect is actually chilling. You can even hear it in my voice. It's scary to be amongst people that are just not human. You guys are actually kind of scary. I was surprised when I saw this was on the agenda but I see how everyone tries to paint this community behind me as angry terrorists. All this tells me is that you've never really met a Palestinian. Because if you ever did, you would never forget their gentleness and the highest form of compassion

they show even in the midst of genocide. Before each protest, we are told to keep it peaceful. This community is peaceful. They pray at the protests. Children and puppies are in attendance. Not one piece of trash is left. We all go around with flashlights. The lawn is avoided. We have security to make sure that the sidewalks keep a path for bicyclists and no one's in the streets. I have not once heard of someone suggesting violence. We're even told not to curse. Please don't disrespect this community even more. Thank you.

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Kit, followed by Janan and Mona Palestine.

Hello Council Members. I'm here today as a concerned and frankly appalled community member and community organizer regarding the proposed ordinance that is currently under consideration.

consideration. This ordinance is a direct threat to our freedom of speech and is a clear attempt to silence us and the work this community has carried out in efforts for the congressman to call for a ceasefire. Despite this agenda and the council's attempts to suppress its constituents, it will not weaken the organizing efforts within this community. It will not silence Palestinians and their allies in our demands and in our calls for an immediate and permanent ceasefire. As elected officials, it is your duty to represent the people. Agenda 24 is shameful and its direct attack on Palestinian organizing. I urge

the City Council to consider the implications of this ordinance and the ways in which this goes against the basic principles of democracy. Thank you.

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Janan followed by Mona followed by Solera. Hello Council, my name is Janan.

I'm a local community organizer with the Palestinian youth movement. For the past past six months alongside our strong resilient and committed community of Palestinians, Arabs, Muslims, allies and all people of consciousness we have taken to the streets we have sat and spoken in the council chambers we have been denied entry into the offices of our local elected officials we have stopped traffic shut down intersections and we have done all of this while watching an active genocide the murder of our people we've done this while

while watching the murder of our people at the hands of our government, our tax dollars, and our local officials. The people of Gaza are not voiceless. They are silenced. And despite this, they have taught us what true resilience and commitment to liberation and justice looks like. They have taught us what it looks like while they live under brutal siege for over 16 years, while they are bombarded by air, land, and sea, and face mass starvation all at the hands of Israel and the U.S. The city of Santa Ana is no stranger to people's movements and protests as it has weaved the social and political fabric of this city. But this is

obviously lost on the mayor who's not even here considering since her tenure in City Council there has been clear patterns by members of this council to silence views they don't like including limiting public comments, pushing agenda items later into the night and dismissing the results of the city's owns budget surveys only because residents responses did not align with their worldview. This ordinance comes at the tail of ongoing protests which have taken place in front of Congressman Lou Correa's house against his continued silence on the genocide in Gaza

and his acceptance of money from weapons manufacturers and Israel lobbying groups like AIPAC. This shows the power of the people and this shows Lou Correa's complicity and weakness and his fear of the people's voices. And if we don't get justice, he will not get peace. And we We will continue to disrupt the peace of war criminals every single day until our demands are met, until they are free from occupation. Your time is up. The siege on Gaza. Our prisoners are free. Your time is up. The end of the U.S. aid to Israel. We will continue to show up.

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The next three speakers are Mona, Solera, and Armagon Raymond.

Good evening.

I wish the mayor was here. So, first order of business, I really want to thank Congressman Correa for giving us this platform to again ask him to support a ceasefire, an immediate and permanent ceasefire. Maybe he'll hear us. I think that at least someone from his staff is probably paying attention since he sent this horrible letter. Second, the comment about Councilman Hernandez, my experience with you, Mr. Councilman, is that you have always been very consistent.

And when things are taken out of context, and seeing what you were doing as supporting people's First Amendment rights, and now are being spinned over, like, spinned around and and misconstrued. We're used to that, unfortunately.

And I really would like to ask the mayor to sort of keep it down a notch on my community. She needs to tone it down. I wish she was here so I can tell her directly. Stop dehumanizing my community, MSQA. I'm done with that. If we clap, you're yelling at, you're barking at us. I'm sorry, but like this is how you're sounding. That's it. And now you want to curb my First Amendment rights. Fine. Pass this ordinance,

and Mr. Correa is going to call you again and ask you to also curb more rights, because if we can't protest in front of his house, I promise you we're going to be marching day day and night, throughout the whole neighborhood. The whole neighborhood. Right now, we're just at his house. If he really cared about his neighbors, he would have done the right thing, instead of trying to curb our rights. Thank you. And by the way, I'm going to turn right now to his house. If you want to join us, maybe I must go there.

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The next three speakers are Salerna, followed by Armagon Raymond and Ali H.

I'm here to ask this council to oppose the ordinance that will restrict our right to protest in residential areas. Two weeks ago we witnessed this council finally pass a ceasefire resolution, but now here we are with an ordinance to ban protesting outside of people's homes. Protests that have included even some of the congressman's neighbors who are begging him to call for a ceasefire. We have asked time and time again for him to come to speak to us, and instead of facing us, I guess Lou would rather just report us and try to get our First Amendment rights stripped. This seems to be a reoccurring theme among government

officials in DC as well as the Senate and a City Council. Councilmember Becerra told the voice of OC that he chose to leave last meeting because, and I quote, the item was another attempt by the four proponents on the council to distract people from their failure to make Senate and a safer and cleaner. To that I ask all of you, is it distracting for you to listen to your community members' concerns? Or is it just an inconvenience for you to listen to your community members talk about this matter because you're profiting off of the killing of innocent people? Do you all think we want to be protesting outside of Luke Correa's

house? We have been left with no choice but to come to the houses of government officials because you all refuse to acknowledge your constituents demands every other way we've tried. Nearly six months and 40,000 innocent innocent people have been killed with weapons used by the IOF that our tax dollars fund.

All we want is for Lou Correa to call for a ceasefire. So if one of y'all can just tell him that, all of this would stop. To restrict our right to protest is to strip us from our constitutional rights. By approving this ordinance, you will be saying that our voices do not matter. If it is the context of our words that make you uncomfortable, then maybe you should confront us head on rather than trying to silence us as a whole. As government officials in a so-called democracy, you should be amplifying our voices, not suppressing them. Please vote no on this item. Thank you.

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Armagon, followed by Ali H., followed by Ann K.

Respective Council Member Hernandez and respective Council Member Vazquez, last meeting, that was the first time I was in this council, and I had no hope, but when I saw you guys, the way you guys passed the ceasefire motion, I have a lot of respect and hope in this council. Second is, I don't understand who in their right mind would come up with an audience to protect an AIPAC chump who is hiding in his house, and we are only asking him respectfully to come and talk to us. The protests we have over there outside his house are very peaceful. We have officers there. They're friendly officers. They have been talking to us.

I don't know why someone would come up with something like this. Even the officers see every time that our protests are very peaceful. We are loud. That's what the protest is about. But if they try to stop us from like 300 feet, there is a mall over there. That mall will be closed. There is a highway. We have the right to go and then protest over there. So rather than going and disrupting all over the place, it's better that congressman comes out. He talks to us. I think in the beginning he liked our protest because he there was idiosyncrasy on his his end that he came up with the orange some oranges.

He left that outside. So I don't know how he comes up with those ideas. But if he talks to us as a sensible man, I don't get it how we have such people in Congress. So our protests are very peaceful. We have been very peaceful. We have been loud. And that's the right form of protest. Unfortunately, if people are not allowed to protest in a peaceful manner, then it's a gentleman who is on my shirt. He had the highest form of protest, and I'm sure you guys don't want people to go to that level. So, and a lot of respect for this man. So yeah, I would really appreciate if you guys just strike this down, and it's our right

to protest and to stand with our people in Palestine. Thank you.

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Ali H. followed by Anne K. and Allison DeMark.

Good evening, city council members. I stand in front of you today to implore you to reject agenda item 24. This item cites concerns of public safety, but it's nothing of that sort. If enacted, what this ordinance will actually do is restrict the most basic of civil liberties the people behind me have already spoken about. And I would like to clarify that the point of any protest is to be disruptive. Otherwise, what is the point? However, that does not mean that these protests are violent. There has been no evidence of that. The protests outside of Representative Correa's home have been intensely focused on the violence

that is ravaging Gaza.

If Representative Correa wishes for these protests to stop, the solution is simple. Call for a ceasefire. Polling shows that his constituents already are in favor of a ceasefire. You, city council members, voted on a ceasefire resolution which passed. Let me state again, if this passes, it will not only stifle the speech of certain constituents of whose opinion you may not agree with, but of all of your constituents, even those whose whose opinions do not align with ours. Effectively, if you vote in favor of this ordinance, you will be complicit with not just silencing these protesters, but all of your constituents

wishing to express their First Amendment right. Viva Palestina, thank you.

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Anne Kay.

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Allison DeMark. Next speaker will be Rock DeMark.

Hello, my name is Allison DeMark. I live in Floral Park. I'm not against the right to protest. I strongly believe in the right to disruptive protest. I belong to several organized groups who've done the same. But my problem lies with the location. We as civil servants should be afforded the opportunity to have sanctuary in our own homes. This ordinance is aimed at ensuring peaceful personal residence. It's not aimed at the cause in which the majority of individuals speaking tonight think it is.

Although the timing seems abrupt, I understand. However, what would be the cause? If we do have a ceasefire ordinance after this, then it's going to be the idea that, oh, we can go in front of Lou's house anytime, any group, any situation. The ordinance is aimed at keeping Santa Ana neighborhoods peaceful, and my concern lies in the next organization, including those of which I actively involve in coming to the private homes of individuals and being disruptive. and waking up children and not having a safe and sexual place where we can reside. Thank you.

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Rock DeMarc followed by Richard Silva and Dov Lazarus.

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Rock.

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Richard Silva.

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Dov Lazarus.

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Beth Thomas.

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Jim Pantone, Nina Jurek, David Jurek.

Thank you, Council and Mayor, for allowing us to speak. I'm here from, my name is Nina Jurek. I'm here as a resident co-president of Washington Square Neighborhood Association Ward 5 I'm here to speak to item number 26 exhibit 1 about the vacant property in Washington Square for feasibility study

Reason we're back as it were still passionate about a walkable park in our neighborhood We've heard the best first step is for a feasibility study Yet, it was recommended not moving forward for a variety of different reasons. A part of which, one of them, the location was not identified within the City Master Park Plan. Well, guess what? It is. Gap 15, I believe it is. And it was within the general perimeter. It should have been included.

included. So that was not taken into consideration. One of the other reasons is the development of a park at Tenth of Flowers underway. That's a completely different animal. That is truly an active park. It's nothing like what we want. And David Jurek will be speaking to that. Bottom line is this rare vacant land offers a crucial chance to create community spaces in a dense urban landscape a green poor area of Santa Ana we're in

an environmental justice area a green space deficient Santa Ana considering the strong community interest immediate land availability strategic location grant opportunities community aspirations it would definitely improve improve the neighborhood livability, leave a positive legacy. We want seniors, children, and the rest of the community. And thank you. Your time is up.

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David Jerick, followed by Nadia M. and Rashad.

Good evening, my name is David Jerick. I am a 38-year resident of Washington Square, retired Santa Ana business owner, and been active in the Washington Square Neighborhood Association for years and years and years. And I'm here tonight to urge you to consider moving forward with a walkable park in our neighborhood. And there's land available, it's vacant, it's almost a one-time opportunity to, it's the last vacant land in Washington Square. And it's perfect for a park. In fact, the Parks and Recreation Commission visited last fall and they said, yeah, it's a good place for a park.

and they're interested in in helping us support it we're not asking for a mega dollar active playground like what's being proposed for the 10th and flower park we're asking for a fairly small neighborhood walkable park that will be good for people walking dogs to go up to and you know take a couple laps around we rate for a family we have a lot of young families in Washington Square be great for them to grab a wagon fillet full of goodies and go up there for a sunday afternoon picnic it it won't cost the city a tremendous amount of upkeep because it'll just be a

well landscaped area without a lot of hoopla and it'll be kind of a zen garden if you will that's kind of what we're asking for um let's see Let's see, several months ago, the acting city major, acting city manager, Steven Mendoza, talked to us about the next step and he said it would be a feasibility study. And that's kind of what item 26, exhibit one is all about. We urge the city to move ahead with a feasibility study and there may be measure X funds available for that. So thank you for the time and please consider a park for our great neighborhood. Thank you.

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Nadia M. Rashad. Followed by Ahmad Hassan and Mark Rothenberg.

Good evening. My name is Rashad Aldabagh. I'm the executive director of the Arab American Civic Council. I wasn't really planning on coming here today. I don't really enjoy trying trying to convince council members or mayors that we're human. But then I read Congressman Lou Correa's letter, and that's why I came. In his letter, he described the demonstrations by his home as noisy.

That wealthy part of Santa Ana was inconvenienced by a little noise. The Congressman wants you to ban protests because it inconvenience him with noise while he's supporting the bombing and intentional starvation of our families in Gaza, the city where my father was born. I met with Lou Correa at his office back in November, and as a constituent, I asked him to call for a ceasefire in Gaza.

Instead, he called for a temporary pause. A pause. And since that pause, more than 25,000 people have already been slaughtered. The Congressman approved this slaughter. He has failed to call for a permanent ceasefire and supported financing this genocide. If Lou is feeling angry because people were noisy outside of his home, how are we supposed to feel? How are families living under constant bombardment supposed to feel? He referred to this genocide as an issue that is up for a policy debate.

A genocide is not a topic of debate. You simply stand against genocide. And if you're complicit, we will protest. This ordinance is a response to a protest against genocide is undemocratic and it's a bad time. Your time is up. Stop the silly ordinance. Thank you.

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Next speaker, Ahmad.

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Mark Rothenberg, followed by Carlos Perea and Mohamed Abdel Fattah.

I hope the mayor comes back because I'm the president of a fan club. I think the mayor showed great intestinal fortitude as did several other members of this council with regard to the deliberations on the resolution and at the end of the last hearing the mayor said to the protesters You got what you wanted now go home peacefully and instead of going home peacefully They've brought their protest to our homes. I live in Floral Park councilman Loatwomen Lopez I live in your ward The lion's share of the people that spoke to you tonight did not give you their address,

they did not tell you they live in the city, because instead of peacefully going back to their homes in Los Angeles and Long Beach and Irvine, they've come to our homes. And it may surprise you to know they're not directing their protests at Congressman Correa, because he's not home for the lion's share of those protests. He's never there. He's in Washington. His office is 600 feet away on the other side of Broadway. As a practical matter, that's what this ordinance drives these protesters to. They can protest on Broadway. They can protest in front of his office. They can wave their flags. They can give us the stink eye.

They can call Jews like me baby killers if they want to. But they do it outside of the neighborhood in a manner that does not invade the sanctity of our homes. I have to say to my colleague, the city attorney, as a former city attorney and as a professor of municipal law, Sonia, you did an outstanding job in drafting this ordinance and in the analysis that accompanied it. The United States Supreme Court has upheld a virtually identical ordinance. It protects the sanctity of the home. This is a reasonable time, place, and manner restriction. That's it.

We're talking five to six hundred feet to get them on the other side of Broadway in front of his office. And finally, he's not ignoring you. He doesn't agree with you. If you don't like that, vote against him at the next election. That's your remedy if he's not paying attention to you. Not destroying our neighborhood. Thank you.

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Carlos Perea, followed by Mohammed and Beatrice N.

But I swear I have three minutes, not two minutes, okay. Good evening, Santa Ana Mayor and City Council. My name is Carlos Perea. I am a resident of the city of Santa Ana, World One, so please put that on the record. And the Executive Director of the Harvard Institute for Immigrant and Economic Justice. Our organization, along with other organizations, has sent a letter in opposition of Agenda Item 24 and the attempt to restrict people's First Amendment rights. rights. Mayor and city council, the city should not be in the business of suppressing public

speech and protest, which by the way have been all nonviolent. So I do not understand why people are talking about destroying neighborhoods when every single protest, which I also have attended, have been very nonviolent. I'm also concerned with escalation by the mayor and some of the council to shield yourselves from the public and the free press. This escalation started months ago when residents were advocating in these chambers for the right to vote and the city started to restrict where media could record. I also remember council member Phil Becerra was

panicking for having a camera here recording the city council meeting. So there is that. Now the city is attempting to silence pro-Palestine and anti-genocide protests. My question is who in this council asked the city staff and the city attorney to put this emergency ordinance forward. Which one of you did it? Who in here is doing Congressmember Lucorrea's bidding? Is the council in the business of doing political favors for their allies by restricting the First Amendment rights of its residents? Lastly,

the mayor is not here, but I wanted to put on the record as well that this council has not been as divided as it has been in the last year since she has been in charge very disappointing and very embarrassing for the city thank you mohammed abdel fatha

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beatrice n

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monica tenorio

Good evening, Council. My name is Monica Tenorio. I live in Ward 6. First, I urge Luke Correa to call for a ceasefire. Secondly, I'm urging you, Council Members, to vote against Agenda Item 24. Do you think it is okay for certain residents and elected local residents such as Luis Correa to try and deny us the opportunity to express our First Amendment? It seems as if the people we put in power are constantly trying to silence us. We are simply asking for our local congressman to listen to the people that put him in power. We are not blocking streets, threatening anyone, or causing harm. If you support this ordinance,

you are purposely silencing American citizens.

And to the residents of Floral Park, be thankful you only have to worry about some horns and drums and not worry about your neighborhoods being destroyed by American bombs. Thank you.

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Ashley Arellano.

Jennifer L. HallItem 5

Kadia.

Hello, everyone. My name is Kadisha. I'm in Ward 4. It's where I live and I also work in the city of Santa Ana. I'm tired. I'm super tired of coming here and just begging y'all to see us. We've been going to Lou Correa's house peacefully. We have children there. we have dogs, we've had conversations with neighbors. And, you know, I don't understand

how if you are a neighbor, seeing someone come to a politician's house, how you don't ask yourself why they're there. They're not there out of convenience. They're there because there's pain and they want that pain to stop. So I really ask you all here to consider their pain, please.

And we've had some people share with us that they've lost several family members in this. I feel lucky because my family lives in the West Bank, so they don't have bombs flying over their heads every hour but just consider that for a moment that this peace is not just quietness but your life almost ending just consider it that's what we're

Jennifer L. HallItem 5

asking thank you Jesus Vasquez followed by Karush Karimi and Lucinda Solorzano

Hello, Council Members. Jesus Vasquez, Ward 4. I live in this city. I've lived in this city my whole life. I know no other city as my own home. And I come here to express my deep concern with this Ordinance 24.

It's been a longstanding tradition and right in our country that we have the peaceful right to protest in public forums such as streets and whatnot. not and it and this ordinance seems arbitrary and broad because as many residents brought up they seem to be troubled with the disturbances they are going on in front of their own homes but are okay if it's 300 feet away or okay if as long as it's somebody else's house how does that make enough sense to to curtail our own right to protest, does that have any meaningful impact

or does it just serve the purposes of one person at the cost of another person's rights? I ask you to vote against this ordinance because it's against the principles and foundations of our country.

I wanna bring up things that have been going on in the past councils. Mayor Mezcar, rhetorically stated that she didn't have a direct hotline to Washington. It seems ironic to me because that seems the opposite seems to be the case. And also Phil Becerra previously mentioned that undocumented immigrants didn't need a vote because he listens to them. them, yet when they come asking for help, he's not in the room, he's not there listening, and that just seems abhorrent to me. Thank you.

Jennifer L. HallItem 5

Karush Karimi.

Jennifer L. HallItem 5

Lucinda Solorzano.

Jennifer L. HallItem 5

Ahmad Shah.

Jennifer L. HallItem 5

Haz Al.

Jennifer L. HallItem 5

Aaron Valle.

Jennifer L. HallItem 5

Ivan Reyes.

Jennifer L. HallItem 5

Michael Chiu.

Jennifer L. HallItem 5

JANE DOE?

Jennifer L. HallItem 5

YAFAA?

Jennifer L. HallItem 5

MAYOR AND CITY COUNCIL, THAT CONCLUDES THE SPEAKER CARDS WE HAVE PRESENTLY. MAYOR PROTEMPHAN, ARE THERE ANY SPEAKERS AT YOUR LOCATION WHO WISH TO ADDRESS THE COUNCIL?

NO, THERE ARE NO SPEAKERS AT MY LOCATION. THANK YOU. OKAY.

Jennifer L. HallItem 5

WE COULD BARELY HEAR YOU, BUT I THINK YOU SAID NO. No. Okay. Thank you. We do have it looks to be about 14 more minutes, and we do still have some speakers on Zoom.

Jennifer L. HallItem 5

First speaker on Zoom, Leah, you could unmute, make your comment.

Jennifer L. HallItem 5

Leah? Leah. Next speaker, Ben Salazar.

Yes. Hello. My name is Ben Salazar. I'm a member of the board three in the neighborhood of Saddleback View. First of all, I call upon Lou Correa to call for a ceasefire in Gaza now. Secondly, I do not think the city's time or money should be wasted on the coddling of a congressman who refuses to listen to his constituents, overwhelming calls for a ceasefire. He is not responsive to the demands of his constituents, and civil disobedience is the most constructive and most democratic response to a representative elected who refuses to do their job. By cutting off these avenues,

the only possible response is more drastic action and less peaceful protest. Do not hamstring our ability to express ourselves to protect an anemic and disengaged congressman. Thank you.

Jennifer L. HallItem 5

Next speaker, caller whose phone number ends in 921. Please unmute and make your comments.

Jennifer L. HallItem 5

921.

Jennifer L. HallItem 5

Next speaker, Pat Davis. Hold on, Jennifer, one second.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 5

Sir, you need to sit down, please. Thank you.

Yes, this is Pat Davis, and I'm on tonight to urge that you reject this ordinance bodied in item 24. You seem to thrive on creating fear and angst about and among folks in your community. Shame on you. I do want to thank you for the ceasefire resolution, though. That lengthy process was unnecessarily long and quite painful to watch. Watch. Access to our elected leaders in person and even distance on social media platforms is most important. I question the legality of several of you denying the exchange of thoughts and ideas on your accounts. Congressman Correa is my congressman, and his continued unwillingness to meet with his

public is sadly not surprising. His lack of calling for a permanent ceasefire in Gaza and to stop the genocide while claiming impartiality is at the least very dishonest. I suggest those who are disturbed in the neighborhood by the noise, please use your influence, neighborly influence, to insist that he meets with his public. Limiting rights to protest and gather in public places is the basis of our foundation. Your latest offering to gain favor from Congressman Correa to protect and buffer you from those you and the congressman were elected to serve is most disappointing.

Pointing public protests again, being that fabric of the founding of this country, we all continue to demand that right. Calling on our country for a ceasefire and to stop the genocide. Earlier, you made reference also to other very deadly practices, one being your resistance to the harm reduction program and the needle exchange. Only again reflects your ignorance and attempt to continue to create fear. And finally, in the area of unhoused folks who die on the streets, you brag on your work, but I do want to mention again that Santa Ana had nine out of the 33 deaths in February unhoused on your streets.

That exceeds any other city in that count. So I suspect that you again this year will have the most unhoused die on your streets. Thank you.

Jennifer L. HallItem 5

Next speaker, Julia. Please unmute and make your comments.

Good evening, members of the City Council and Mayor. My name is Julia Gomez and I'm a staff attorney at the ACLU of Southern California. Yesterday, the ACLU sent a letter to the Council urging you to reject item 24. We're extremely concerned with the fact that this ordinance was introduced to put a stop to ongoing ceasefire protests in front of Congressman Correa's home. In fact, the urgency ordinance specifically identifies ceasefire protests protests as the reasons behind this attempt to suppress free speech. Santa Ana residents have a history of exercising their rights to protest without

similar suppressive response from the council, including in 2016 when youth ended their hunger strike in front of then council member Sarmiento's home. The agendizing of the ordinance in response to ongoing residential protests raises an inference that the measures intended to stifle the expression question of pro-Palestinian views that the Mayor and some members of the Council may disagree with. As we laid out in our letter, laws that discriminate based on viewpoint are unconstitutional, and even if a law is content neutral on its face, the law may nonetheless be unconstitutional if

it is in fact a facade for viewpoint-based discrimination, and that's what appears to be happening here. The 300 foot requirement is also incredibly concerning. 300 feet is almost the length of a football. Think about that for a second, the length of a football. If passed, this restriction would be on the more extreme and restrictive end of residential picketing laws in the country. The eighth circuit, for example, struck down a ban that prohibited picketing within 200 feet of a targeted resident. And other courts like the New Jersey Supreme Court also struck down restrictions over 200 feet.

The City Council has historically shown a commitment to civil rights by adopting progressive policies following robust public discourse. There is no reason why Santa Ana should have a more restrictive protest law than a place like Arkansas, which is located in the 8th Circuit and is not known for its civil liberties. Although the ordinance will force protesters to move nearly an entire football field away from it. Your time is up. Thank you.

Jennifer L. HallItem 5

Next speaker, housing. Please unmute and make your comment.

Yes, thank you. I want to recognize, first of all, the great job that this council did in recognizing community at the beginning of the meeting. Those community members are really what Santa Ana is all about. And frankly, the community members are really what every city is all about. And in the same breath, somehow this dais has chosen to silence community by proposing ordinance that would silence people.

people. You heard from the ACLU representative a minute ago that that is egregious, quite frankly, my words, that the ignorance and the effort to do harm to the community is actually something that you gave effort to. It's actually something that you took time to think up and draft. Like, how could we hurt the community that pays us? How could we hurt the community that helped us get into office? And you want the communities to support this?

I think it's horrible. And lastly, I want, I demand actually that the rhetoric that's being used for the people who are suffering from poverty in your community, the unhoused, let's say, you know, the people of color. You always mention many times, the mayor mentions and Councilman Becerra mentions, and they use negative rhetoric to identify people who are unhoused as criminals, as a threat to the community.

But if you look at the statistics of those who maybe were.

Jennifer L. HallItem 5

Next speaker, Danette. Please unmute and make your comments.

Yes, thank you. Can you hear me?

Jennifer L. HallItem 5

Yes, go ahead.

Thank you. I would like to start out with this quote. Censorship is the tool used when the lie loses its power. As a constituent of Representative Correa, I am calling on him to immediately call for a permanent ceasefire. I have been haunted day and night by the images and videos coming out of Gaza, and it's beyond horrendous that we still haven't called for a ceasefire in this country. And this is why we feel compelled to use our collective voices to end this vicious obliteration of a people. I have been to several of the protests in front of Representative Lucrea's house, and our group has been nothing but peaceful and respectful.

This resolution, if passed, will set a dangerous precedent in Santa Ana and Orange County, and at this juncture in our country's fading democracy, cannot be tolerated. The right to peaceful assembly is an American right. As I said, I am a constituent, and Representative Correa refuses to take constituent calls or answer emails. I have sent millions, not millions, tons of emails to him. I only get boilerplate auto responses, nor will he take meetings anymore. I personally met with him maybe three times and have found him arrogant and dismissive and unwilling to speak about anything that he does not agree with.

I also have called and left messages with his staffers and have asked more times than I can count for calls back or a response to my numerous emails. I get nothing. Shame on you, Lou, although it looks like you don't have any. And also I wanted to reference a comment that an earlier speaker said that he doesn't agree with us and that's why he's not returning calls. That is not a valid answer or response to that. And we did try to get rid of him and the corrupt Democratic Party kneecapped our candidate. So thank you.

Jennifer L. HallItem 5

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

Good evening, Madam Mayor and City Council members. My name is Leonel Flores from the Madison Park neighborhood. I am here today in opposition of item 24.

I just wanted to say that for 26 years, we had the same mayor here in Santa Ana that didn't do a lot of good things for the city. and congress member carrera has also been a representative for 26 years so i believe someone from ward three mentioned if you know if you don't agree with it to vote him out i think that's a pretty good idea you know he's been in office for quite a long time and as we've seen in our community that doesn't always pay off i know now we have our first

female mayor and she's very proud to tout that but I've also noticed that now that we do have this there's been a lot of suppressive tactics and policies that are being trying to push onto the community first with the media and trying to dictate where they can stand and record trying to violate the freedom of the press and now with this measure trying to violate our constitutional rights. I think this is

a very dangerous policy. I think it's actually a form of systemic violence against the entire city of Santa Ana including the residents of ward three because this is going to affect all 310,000 NOT JUST THE PEOPLE THAT ARE IN SUPPORT OF PALESTINE.

SO I ASK YOU NOT TO PASS THIS ORDINANCE AND NOT CREATE HARM FOR OUR COMMUNITY AND ALSO FOR THE CITY BECAUSE I COULD ALREADY SENSE LOTS OF LEGAL BATTLES ARE GOING TO BE COMING TOWARDS THE CITY'S WAY AND THAT'S JUST GOING TO BE A LOT OF WASTE OF YOUR TIME IS UP.

Jennifer L. HallItem 5

NEXT SPEAKER KATIE PLEASE UNMUTE AND MAKE YOUR COMMENTS.

Hello. Can you hear me? Yes. My name is Katie Newman. I live in Ward 4. I am using my public comment to urge the council to vote no on Agenda Item 24. I echo the concerns of my fellow community members that this ordinance infringes upon our constitutional rights to freedom of speech and public assembly. Additionally, I I want to remind Lou Correa as well as Mayor Emescua, Council Members Penalosa, and my Council Member Becerra that when you fail to engage in meaningful conversation with

your constituents through the appropriate channels, we resort to this type of direct political action. You already have a solution. I also would like to note that logistically this ordinance is written in a way that unjustly moves the disruption further into the community of Floral Park. So it moves it away from the targeted residents and audience, and it puts further burden on the community. 300 feet is, I imagine, would go on both sides. So that includes the side that is Floral Park. I leave you with this quote from Martin Luther King Jr.

There is a type of constructive nonviolent tension that is necessary for growth. Thank you. MS.

Jennifer L. HallItem 5

Next speaker, Ash. Please unmute and make your comments.

Yes, can you hear me? MS.

Jennifer L. HallItem 5

Yes.

Thank you. Good evening, everyone. So as we all know, the First Amendment of our Constitution grants citizens the right to assemble and engage in peaceful protests in public spaces, at sidewalks, public squares, where it's parked, and yes, streets adjacent to the homes of genocide-supporting congressmen who has claimed that we are not peaceful or civil. I would like one example of a protest driven anything other than civil, one example of property damage, one law that was broken, one threat that was made. The police have showed up every time we protest and do nothing but speak with us

because they know as well as you do that we've broken no laws. Lou Correa's rhetoric is full of lies, and it's a shameful behavior from an elected official who wants us to watch our families get slaughtered with our tax dollars and just shut up and take it. We're simply not going to shut up, even if he keeps spreading lies about us. This is extremely disappointing that we're even considering this ridiculous proposed ordinance. But it's also not surprising at all. Zionists and people like Lou who support Israel are well known for claiming land that isn't theirs

and then doesn't actually belong to them and then telling people what they can or can't do on it and restricting people's legal rights. is what against this absolutely ridiculous and un-American proposed ordinance thank you

Jennifer L. HallItem 5

mayor and city council that concludes the two hours

Valerie AmezcuaItem 5

thank you madam city clerk all right at this time um councilman vassar looks like the room is pretty much emptied out so if we can get through the city business and then we'll get through that thank you we're going to go to the consent calendar at this time item 6 through 23 with with the exception of item eight. There are any items you want to be pulled, please let me know or any abstentions. Mayor Pro Tem, you still there with us?

Valerie AmezcuaItem 6

Yes, and can you hear me better now? Perfect, we can hear you. Do you have any items you'd like to pull or abstain from?

Nothing to pull, but I would like to abstain from item 22 of Taiton Associates as a client of my employer's apartment. Thank you.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 6

Confirming you said item 22? Yes.

Johnathan Ryan HernandezItem 6

thank you councilman hernandez yes thank you madam mayor i'd like to make a motion to move

Phil BacerraItem 6

the consent calendar um before we do that i'd like to go ahead and pull item 23.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 6

councilman caneloza motion hold on a second councilman panelosa thank you mayor i would

David PenalozaItem 6

like to also pull item number where my notes it's the one with the destruction of records

David PenalozaItem 6

or my notes closed item 14 yes somebody's mic is on jennifer can you man 14 item 14

Valerie AmezcuaItem 6

yes item 14. is that the only one yeah mayor councilman lopez uh no item to pull okay thank you councilman vasquez nothing to pull thank you a motion by councilmember hernandez

Jennifer L. HallItem 6

seconded by Council Member Lopez to approve the consent calendar with the exception of item number eight which was previously approved items 14 and 13 pulled or I'm sorry 14 and 23 pulled for separate consideration and a noted abstention by Mayor Pro Temp fan on item number 22 councilmember Becerra yes councilmember Hernandez yes councilmember Lopez yes councilmember penaloza yes councilmember vasquez yes mayor proton van yes mayor mesqua yes motion carries 7-0

Jennifer L. HallItem 6

mayor the first item that was pulled is item 14 by councilmember penaloza thank you thank you mayor

David PenalozaItem 6

and madam clerk um i wanted to make a motion to approve number 14 but remove any of the records

David PenalozaItem 6

I WOULD NOT BE SUPPORTIVE OF DESTROYING ANY RECORDS ABOUT THE BRYSTLE STREET WIDENING UNTIL BRYSTLE STREET IS COMPLETE. I'LL SECOND. REGARDLESS OF THE PHASE. THANK YOU. SO APPROVE EVERYTHING ELSE EXCEPT BRYSTLE STREET WIDENING RECORDS.

Johnathan Ryan HernandezItem 6

I'LL SECOND YOUR MOTION.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 6

JUST ONE QUESTION. I DON'T HAVE IT HERE IN FRONT OF ME. I APOLOGIZE. NIBIL, HOW FAR BACK ARE WE GOING? !

Jessie LopezItem 7

So some of those documents are really old, and I know it's part of our retention policy, which is pretty consistent. Even like in corporate, there's retention policies.

Jessie LopezItem 7

Are there any aspects of the current documentation included in this that the city should retain? I know plans change all the time. Some of them are really, really old, so they should be updated. So I just want to hear from the department.

Those are plans that were in the basement. in the city hall and most of them are development type plans and permits

Jessie LopezItem 7

so what is the need is there a need to have to hold on to that paperwork there is no need to

hold up to to hold on to these plans and there is a record retention that we need to comply with anything other than i believe 10 years needs to be destroyed okay got it no other questions comments

Valerie AmezcuaItem 7

okay go ahead we're prepared to vote please motion by councilmember paneloza seconded by councilmember

Jennifer L. HallItem 7

hernandez to approve the destruction of obsolete city records in the public works agency with the exception to retain any records related to the bristol street widening project councilmember becerra yes councilmember hernandez yes councilmember lopez no councilmember paneloza yes

Yes.

Jennifer L. HallItem 7

Council member Vasquez. Yes. Mayor Pro Tem Fan. Yes. Mayor Meskwa.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 7

Yes.

Jennifer L. HallItem 7

Vote is six ayes, one nay. Nay by council member Lopez. Motion carries. The next item pulled is item number 23 by council member Becerra.

Phil BacerraItem 7

Thank you, madam clerk. And thank you, madam mayor. This item is to increase the city manager's offices and the police department head count, AMEND THE CITY'S CLASSIFICATION AND COMPENSATION PLAN AND APPROVE THE CITY COUNCIL APPOINTEES' SALARY SCHEDULE. SO THE CITY MANAGER'S OFFICE IS SEEKING TO ADD AND FUND A DEPUTY CITY MANAGER FOR THE CITY MANAGER'S OFFICE. AND I DO SUPPORT THAT. I THINK THAT WE'VE BEEN OPERATING OFF AN ORG CHART THAT IS, YOU KNOW, I WOULD SAY OUR CITY HAS OUTGROWN SOME ASPECTS OF THAT ORG CHART. SO I THINK IT'S VERY IMPORTANT THAT WE ADD THAT DEPUTY CITY MANAGER. BUT IN

Phil BacerraItem 7

In addition to that, what this item is also asking us to do is to reallocate PD funds towards non-sworn positions. And talk about listening to our community. I listen to my community and my community says, we want more police. We want quicker response times. We wanna see sworn officers out there responding to calls for service. And so rather than reallocate police department funds towards non-sworn positions, and that's not to say that those positions aren't needed, but I can't in good conscience reallocate PD funds away from sworn officer positions.

Phil BacerraItem 7

I think if anything, what we need to work on is filling those positions, not necessarily reallocating. This is just another, I mean, honestly, it's just another aspect of defunding the police. granted it stays in the department but it's going away from sworn officers which we need more of not less of so I don't know how my colleagues want to address this but I want to support adding the deputy city manager to the city manager's office but I do not support the reallocating of the PD funds to these other positions that are non sworn so madam city attorney let me ask

Valerie AmezcuaItem 7

you we separate these up because I don't know how the other counselors I don't know if you're pushing your buttons I know Jennifer so we're not going to use that because mayor pro tempos also she doesn't have a button to push here so if you want to speak let me know I want to be able to separate each position so we can vote appropriately or have a discussion from a legal standpoint you

Sonia R. CarvalhoItem 7

can take each of them or in sections based on departments if you so choose and I would defer to the city manager if he'd want to do that in a different way.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 7

Perfect. Do you want to go through department classification?

It's up to the council, yes, we could do that.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 7

I'm good with classification. Is everybody good with classification?

Jessie LopezItem 7

Do you want people to provide comment first?

Valerie AmezcuaItem 7

If you want to, yeah. Or we can do classification, then you can provide comment based on that.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 7

Go ahead. You have comments. Go ahead.

Jessie LopezItem 7

Oh, thank you. So, Tom, can you speak to the point that Council Member Becerra just talked, because I know this was like a staff-driven item. So can you explain, I guess, to the community, if you're trying to defund the police, as it was stated?

Thank you, Council Member and members of the City Council. The focus of this item came from the issue that we have quite a few vacancies in our sworn ranks, and those positions, not just in our agency, but every agency throughout the state of California, especially in Orange County, every agency is having trouble recruiting and hiring police officers to fill those positions. The city of Santa Ana, my understanding, for many years has had a number of vacancies in the sworn ranks, and this was a concept and an attempt

to utilize existing vacancies and the salary savings from those vacancies to fill additional positions that can help provide a quicker response from our police personnel to our citizens and residents and guests that we have in the city of Santa Ana. And so in terms of our discussions with the Police Officers Association and the Police Management Association, the acting chief Rodriguez and I had several discussions about how we could further

increase customer service without, from our point of view, impacting the budget and impacting kind of the day-to-day operations that we're utilizing. So this is has support of the department, support of the labor unions, and support of our our staff internally in management to look at this issue and to move forward with these. So the concept is that we have so many vacancies for our sworn. We want to fill those. Part of the operation of this and the change in this will be to hire additional human resources personnel

to help speed up the hiring of personnel. But in addition, the police department is made up of a lot of different professionals. that provide a variety of different services to the community. Many times police officers that are in the field might have to go to a car break-in, and then maybe that car break-in occurred six hours earlier, and just the next morning the residents are realizing that break-in occurred. It's not an active crime scene. It is a crime scene. To be able to call a forensics personnel, a crime scene investigator,

to go out and take fingerprints and do the good work in terms of ensuring that we provide that service to that resident, they can do that without necessarily taking a police officer out of the field. Councilmember Becerra makes a good point that we should be doing that with officers as well, and we could fill those positions. From our point of view and from our discussions with, again, the unions and our department, department, every agency is having trouble filling all those vacancies. Our point would be until we get to that point where all those vacancies are filled, let's

hire additional non-sworn personnel that we can fill at a faster pace and get them to provide a higher level of service immediately. And then down the road, this council has shared with me that there's an interest in hiring hiring additional personnel to provide additional services and to reduce crime even further. And so I think that could happen down the road and through increased hiring, but this is a good first step to immediately create some change and provide either even a higher level of customer service. That's what I wanted to talk about this evening. I'm not sure if our acting chief has

anything else he'd like to add yes thank you city manager good evening now mayor and City Council in addition to that I would add that increasing some of these professional staff roles will increase our service delivery but more importantly it would bring us back to certain staffing levels and professional staff before the economic downturn of 2008 back then we had approximately 15 15 CSI officers. We had three more dispatcher positions that we reallocated throughout the years to fund other positions. So this actually would elevate our service delivery platform

and bring our, as the city manager said, we still have vacancies on the PD side and I would love to have all these positions and additional police officers, but I understand and there's budgetary constraints, so this would give us an opportunity to bring up our dispatchers, our police investigative specialists, our police service officers to levels that they were before the economic downturn.

Jessie LopezItem 7

Got it. Thank you. I think it's important for the public to hear that from both of you, right, because it's very easy to try to instill fear in people or go out there and lie, as we've seen in past years, saying that I'm defunding the police, but thank you for letting the public know that this came from staff, and that makes sense. Even monetarily, you get more non-sworn people that are able to help residents with reports, whatever the calls are, for sworn officers. officers. And so that makes sense. And that's, those are the types of solutions that we should

Jessie LopezItem 7

be supportive of, specifically because of the predicament that we are with the budget and long-term planning. And so how can the department be more effective with the resources that they have? And how can you open up those positions for other people to learn who possibly will want to be a sworn officer one day? So thank you for your recommendation. I will be supporting it.

Johnathan Ryan HernandezItem 7

I'll make a motion to move the item.

Jessie LopezItem 7

Thank you. Second.

David PenalozaItem 7

Thank you, Mayor Miscaua. I don't think the mayor had opened it up for a motion, but... No, I did not. Thank you, staff, for the presentation.

David PenalozaItem 7

Well, I do understand the reasoning behind it and the concept, and I'm just... And I'm very supportive of adding the deputy city manager position as well, but I'm just concerned about the major major changes that this is for the for our police department especially when the city is in at the cusp of hiring a permanent police chief hiring a new city manager a permanent one so i i would hate to do these major changes to the police department and the

David PenalozaItem 7

organization given that they're these changes are going to happen soon and we're going to have have people come in and they won't get a chance to make that assessment of what the police department should be, what the organization should look like, whether it should be, you know, we should have more sworn officers and a bigger effort at hiring those sworn officers, or are they, is the need there for more non-sworn staff?

David PenalozaItem 23

So I am not supportive of this because of that reason. Because once we, I guess I didn't want to allege defunding the police, but we really are defunding sworn officers. Once we move those sworn officers, that funding away or that classification, we're not going to get them back. It's going to be very hard to say, you know, five years from now, we want to hire more

David PenalozaItem 23

officers or beef up the sworn officers to 425 or whatever it is because it's just going to be less likely for us to be able to do that, whoever is sitting up here. So I would want to, I guess I would make a sub motion to continue that portion of the item and let the the permanent chief of police whoever that may be i have no idea who it is make that assessment of the police department um yeah that would be my sub motion thank you

Phil BacerraItem 23

councilman becerra i'll second that with comment and i want to thank councilman paloza for framing that as really we are defunding sworn officers right it's not defunding the police obviously we're talking about a forensic service supervisor police service officer police service dispatchers we need those positions but as councilman palazzo said we're gonna lose that funding for the sworn officers in other words we aren't gonna go out and hire police investigative specialists and then all sudden next fiscal year kick them out and then try to go back to hiring officers so that

Phil BacerraItem 23

money will leave that column it will not be in the line item for sworn officers so that's why and I would think that some of my colleagues would appreciate I do appreciate the fact that even though the police union supports this item, some of us up here don't support it. So who knew? There's some disagreement there. But with that being said, I too will not be supporting this portion. I appreciate Council Member Penaloza's suggestion that we go ahead and allow our new permanent chief to make that judgment call. although I do appreciate Acting Chief Rodriguez for taking a look at this.

Phil BacerraItem 23

And I do want to compliment our Acting Chief because he has made some adjustments that I think the community is already receiving very well. I think things that are happening down in the south end of town, and I'm going to steal a little bit of your thunder. I know that we're going to be seeing some bicycle cops rolling through our neighborhood soon. Well, timing is everything. So, yes, I just wanted to thank you, Acting Chief, for that. again i appreciate your efforts on this but i do think that we should go ahead and allow that to

Benjamin VazquezItem 23

be determined by our next chief councilman vasquez hello mr hatch i got a question are we deleting sworn officer positions or are we merely suspending so it could be easily brought back or

changed around yes council member the uh the proposal in front of you is to suspend and uh put put a freeze on a certain number of positions, 12 sworn positions that are funded, and opening up the 17 new positions to help support the department.

Benjamin VazquezItem 23

How many do we have positions that are not filled right now in the police department?

I wanna say it's about, in terms of sworn, I think it's 38, but the total number of positions, I'd have to ask Acting Chief Rodriguez if he knows that information off the top of the set.

Mayor Rodriguez. Including storm positions, I believe we're approximately about 70 or so positions unfilled.

Jennifer L. HallItem 23

Mayor and Council, pardon the interruption. I just wanted to announce for the record that Mayor Pro Tem Vann did need to leave the meeting, so she is no longer participating.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 23

Thank you. Council Vassar, do you have any other questions?

Benjamin VazquezItem 23

So we have a long way before we get to that 12 that we're using for this, right? We have a long way to go to higher positions. 12, another 12, 13, 15?

Yes. So in terms of the total sworn vacancies, and the acting chief is here to correct me if I'm inaccurate, it's approximately 38 sworn vacancies. And so this would be freezing 12 of those 38 positions to create the funding towards 17 non-sworn positions.

Benjamin VazquezItem 23

How many do we square in a year? How many new officers do we hire a year?

That's dependent just on the current situation in the year. Right now, up to this point, we've hired five new police officers this year. but we have approximately 20 plus in backgrounds.

Benjamin VazquezItem 23

Right. And how many do we lose about retire or transfer out every year?

We've been losing a greater rate, I believe, or equal to retirements or people leaving the state.

Benjamin VazquezItem 23

So we have a healthy balance of we could use this 12 and we still would be okay as we move on. We'd still be fine and running and we'd still continue to hire at the rate we're hiring and we wouldn't really feel this 12 moving to the 17 unsworn positions right

it's not going to be so we looked at that carefully and that was a important consideration from my perspective and again i've been here a short time with the city but in those discussions that we've had with the police department the associations of unions uh the the likelihood of filling all 38 positions in the next year or even a little bit longer than that is unlikely because we continue to have people that leave and separate from the organization to go on to other positions or to retire or other kinds of situations. And so these number of positions, from my perspective, have shown to be vacant for many

years and not just something new right now.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 23

Thank you. Thank you. Councilman Hernandez.

Councilman Hernandez.

Johnathan Ryan HernandezItem 23

Thank you, Madam Mayor. I'd like to thank my colleagues for the dialogue today. This is a topic that is important to residents here. But I also want to acknowledge the need for us to have a police department that can strengthen its efforts in having a continuity of care. Our police department has an abundance of officers who are responding to crimes on a daily basis. but we also know there are open cases where there are shootings that happen in our city that are still unsolved fatal shootings where you know underage children have lost their life in our city and although I see the importance

Johnathan Ryan HernandezItem 23

in us adding sworn officers to the city this approach that our city manager its office has taken is in collaboration with our police department I want to be very clear the city of Santa Ana is not defunding the police department the rhetoric that was talked about here at the dais is reckless because what we are going to be bringing to the table with this transition is solutions that can help us solve crime. We have police officers who will respond to emergencies, but now we will have an additional forensic services supervisor, forensic specialist, police service officer, police investigative

Johnathan Ryan HernandezItem 23

investigative specialists, police services dispatcher, and human resources analysis, and then an additional deputy city manager. What this is about is expanding our city and ensuring that we are filling every single gap that exists in government. And sometimes it looks like having additional officers that can respond and have different responsibilities that are not solely just focused on what our sworn officers are doing. We still need to have forensic investigators. still need to have dispatch we still need to have additions to the city manager's office so i just

Johnathan Ryan HernandezItem 23

wanted to be on the record that i'm supporting this item because it's actually going to improve the city services and i want to rebuke the narrative that we are defunding our police department our police department worked collaboratively with the city manager's office and it's because of that collaboration that centers community that is why i'm voting in favor of it and that's why there's a motion on the floor thank you so I haven't had an

Valerie AmezcuaItem 23

opportunity to speak yet so before we vote on motions and whatnot so mr. city manager thank you so very much because we did have lengthy conversation about this item Thank You chief I know we also had a conversation about it so here's a couple of questions I have and I and for me it's and I'm not gonna say we're defending the police what I will say is that our city has a need to fill the 38 positions that are vacant and we've been trying for years and you're right across the country there are agencies that are having challenges you know hiring officers and we're one of them for many reasons which I will not touch upon

Valerie AmezcuaItem 23

right now because that's not the issue here but there's many reasons why people are leaving our police department there's many reasons why people have left our police department and as a chief said we just hired five more chief

Five more as of January, yes ma'am.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 23

And how many are in the queue, sir?

We have approximately 25 or 24 in backgrounds.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 23

And how long does a background take? Because I know that backgrounds usually take what, five months if not longer?

Yeah, usually around five to six months if not longer.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 23

And then they go into the academy for how long, sir?

Another six months.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 23

And then they're being trained how long?

For another five months with an FTO.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 23

So how long does it take to get an officer in a car by himself to answer calls?

Not excluding the background with the background, at least a year and a half or so.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 23

So, and that is one of my biggest concerns is a year and a half is a very long time. And there is a need in our city for additional officers. When I do my coffees with the mayor, when I meet with constituents, one of their biggest issues is, as you know, because you've been president, and they're very supportive of law enforcement, but it's the time, right? And I know we've reduced response time for certain calls, but it's always, I hear the same thing. It takes them a long time to get there, and I always explain it's not that they're not coming. They're answering other calls, and we are short officers.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 23

And so I just want to be clear on that, that nobody's talking about defunding the police, and I want to just say that. But being able to hire police officers is very important in this city. And I believe you and the city manager agreed to increase the laterals, right, the bonuses?

Yes, that would be an option to increase the bonus even more for laterals.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 23

And, sir, how high did you raise the bonus? You and the city manager came to that agreement. How high is that now? What are we paying?

I'm not sure. The total, I think, is about $20,000, but that's dependent on college education and military service.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 23

So up to $20,000.

Correct. and you'd like to increase it if we would increase it for laterals it would we would have a more opportunity to recruit ladders which gives us a shorter return on putting police officers out on the street and that's good to know so

Valerie AmezcuaItem 23

thank you for sharing that maybe that's the conversation you have with the city manager about increasing that so when you look at funding right we're gonna move funding from the 12 police officers that we're not gonna hire if this gets approved to maybe we shift some of that funding over to lateral bonus increases so that we can bring in additional officers because again it's important to our community to have enough officers however it's also i support the deputy chief manager position the hr position so chief um under the five-step salary here with the police department and thank you city manager for saying

Valerie AmezcuaItem 23

that the poa and the police department and you have agreed to all this because it's really important so thank you um so chief the forensic specialist you have uh showing here a need for six of them but in dispatchers you're showing a need for just two um how many dispatchers are we

short sir currently we are short four dispatchers we just hired two so we're still short four

Valerie AmezcuaItem 23

yes four without these additional two so we have staff in there from sciu who work like eight to five and then when they leave the dispatchers take over their duties after a certain time and so now it's dispatchers doing additional duties is that is that accurate uh that is uh correct i i believe

they are sciu but yes you're i think you're referring to records yes that when records uh closes because they do have limited hours dispatchers are assuming that additional role

Valerie AmezcuaItem 23

so i would be supportive of hiring for police dispatchers because that is so important right because when people call 9-1-1 they want a dispatcher to pick it up pick up the phone so i would be supportive of that can you tell me forensic specialists you have a request here for six of them for the sake of the community what exactly do they do please a forensic specialist

is a csi personnel who respond out to the field to various crime scenes various uh crimes that have just occurred or even cold crimes to collect whether it's DNA, lean prints, or collect any evidence regarding any crimes that have occurred.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 23

So when we had discussed it, it was more about instead of an officer responding to do that and taking him or her out of the field, it was to get additional forensic specialists to respond. Because back in the day, how many did we have at Santa PD?

Back in the day we had 15. When I got hired here we had 15 CSI.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 23

And how many do we have now?

Nine.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 23

Nine. Okay. So I agree with you that we do need them. I'm very concerned about the dispatchers, the police investigator specialists, the forensics. I do think they're all very important. For me the dispatchers are a priority. and hiring new officers is very important as well but I'm gonna agree with councilman Panalosa when he talks about a new city manager coming on board a new police chief and and and Tom I'm city manager and active chief you guys have both done it in my opinion a great job and I enjoy working with you

Valerie AmezcuaItem 23

and having healthy dialogue and healthy conversations and really getting into the meat of all of these things when I do agenda reviews with you or when we discuss issues and so I'm really big on hiring additional police officers I would love to hire additional dispatchers because that is a very stressful job dispatchers I think chief we talked about it you actually have a meditation room up there where the dispatchers are which is actually beautiful and it gives them an opportunity to go in there and kind of decompress when they're working take a break and so that tells you how

Valerie AmezcuaItem 23

stressful that job is and so a request if you're short for then I would say request for right and so because the budgets coming it's very important so at this time I am going to support I said the human HR analyst the deputy chief manager I would I would support at this time for dispatchers I'm not sure about the others you know but I can't support the whole as a group so that is why I asked the city attorney there's a way we can break them up by classification so you can but I just want to

Sonia R. CarvalhoItem 23

mention they're all contained within a resolution so we would need to be very specific if there is a motion on the floor as to what would be included and what would be excluded okay so there's already

Valerie AmezcuaItem 23

a motion and a sub motion so go ahead council panelist thank you mayor uh thank you uh chief

David PenalozaItem 23

rodriguez the with the the question i have so you have right now you're you're authorized for 400 sworn officers but we only have uh only 384 are funded correct that's that's correct and out of those 384 how many are are filled total we have 38 sworn vacancies so 38 sworn vacancies that are funded yes they are funded and vacant yes and from so this would leave you with your your

David PenalozaItem 23

You're looking at moving, is it 17? No, 16. 16 unfunded vacancies. No.

David PenalozaItem 23

You're looking at moving 16 of the funded vacancies from what you have currently unfilled, correct?

I believe it's 12.

David PenalozaItem 23

12. And that would leave you with how many?

That would leave me with 372 funded, which would leave me with 26 vacancies.

David PenalozaItem 23

26 vacancies. I would have to use my calculator. And so you said that there's how many in the queue over the next year?

We have approximately about 24 in the queue right now.

David PenalozaItem 23

And how many in the queue are expected to retire? I guess we don't know if anyone would throw in the towel and quit, but I'm talking separating. Do we know of separations that are coming in the next year?

We do have some scheduled separations that I can account for right off the top of my head right now, at least five. But also in addition to that, just because they're in the queue, they don't all make it through the process.

David PenalozaItem 23

Because you're going through backgrounds? Yes. Okay.

David PenalozaItem 23

All right. So it would still leave you with a substantial amount of funded vacancies that you could fill?

That's correct, yes.

David PenalozaItem 23

But those 12, how likely would it be to be able to get them back in the future if we were to increase your authorization back to 384?

I think in the future, if that would be the case, if the vacancy rates were just shifted, and then let's say we weren't able to fill those CSI positions or all the dispatcher positions, I believe we could reevaluate and readjust the budget. If we happen to hire more police officers due for other factors, whether it's bonus increase, whether it's labor agreements, And if that's the case, then we can shift back the funding back to the Swarm Peace Officers.

David PenalozaItem 23

Okay. And I guess my last question would be for our Executive Director of Finance, if I may, City Manager Catherine. Would it make more sense to – I'm looking at the timeline of this, and I'm listening to my colleagues speak. speak I I'm more inclined to support this because it's from an operation viewpoint it makes sense but timeline it it doesn't um again my respects to both of you and the incredible work you've done but I'm I'm thinking about budget cycle you know new budget coming in two months two three months

David PenalozaItem 23

for approval um new city manager permanent police chief Catherine would it make more sense to do this as part of the budget process like not right before we're approving a budget um it there is

certainly some advantage to doing it during the budget process because then you can see the totality of your budget and the impact on it um you know it's a it's up to the council's pleasure as to what you'd like to do but there there is some logic to that yeah and and again

David PenalozaItem 23

I'M SUPPORTIVE. I HEARD COUNCILMAN HERNANDEZ AND IT MAKES SENSE. SO THANK YOU, COUNCILMAN HERNANDEZ FOR THAT FROM AN OPERATION STANDARD. BUT NOW I'M JUST LIKE, OKAY, WE'RE TWO MONTHS AWAY FROM APPROVING A BUDGET, TWO, THREE MONTHS. WHY NOT JUST IS THIS SOMETHING THAT COULD WAIT TWO, THREE MONTHS, I GUESS IS THE QUESTION. CITY MANAGER HATCH?

Absolutely it could. The idea behind this was to make it a net zero cost. And so taking existing resources and looking to expand the number of personnel in the department by five. So this proposal would increase the number of police personnel by five individuals. And as part of a budget, you absolutely could do that. So we saw this as two separate issues, maximizing the existing budget,

and then in the future the city council could always expand and add resources to the police department budget.

David PenalozaItem 23

Okay, thank you. So I don't know if the motion was still made. I have another question. Okay.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 23

I have one more question. So, Kevin, thank you for that information. Where did she go? Thank you for that information. It's good to know about how we can do it in the budget, and that's actually a good recommendation, so thank you. Again, I'm going to go back. So I think you just said something about the funding of the 12 officers. So we're moving money, right? We're taking money from one allocation and we're moving. Catherine's shaking her head yes, right?

Benjamin VazquezItem 23

Can you come back? Is that okay, Mr. City Manager?

Valerie AmezcuaItem 23

Thank you.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 23

So we're taking the funding from where exactly, please?

It's all within the police department budget, and so you would just be moving it from one allocation to another allocation within the same budget.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 23

So several months back, I would say late last year, I had asked for an audit of the police department's budget, and I think we've even talked about it as well, and I know I talked about it with State Manager Hatch. Because this reason, right? Like where should the money go? How are we using it? You need to increase the bonus to hire more officers or dispatchers. Again, I'm going to go back to dispatchers because once records leave, I think they're there from what, 8 to 5 or 8 to 430? Do you know? So then dispatchers take over. And I really keep saying that because when you call 911, they're the ones that answer.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 23

And then after hours when you call records, the dispatchers are answering that phone call and the 911 calls. And so it's a very stressful job. The forensic specialist is very important. But as far as the funding, I think doing it in the budget time is so critical because we need to really look deep into the police budget. So if we have not filled the 38 positions, we're funded for 384. Is that what you said, Chief?

Yes.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 23

And there was approval before I was on the council for up to 400. is that correct? That is correct. And so currently with 38 non sworn vacancies but overall you have 70 vacancies throughout the police department. Yes that's

including professional staff and sworn. Right so in my mind looking at it during

Valerie AmezcuaItem 23

the budget time is critical because then we can look at the budget as a whole and where is that money going? I know we use chief and you can correct me we use OVERTIME QUITE A BIT FOR CERTAIN AREAS, IS THAT CORRECT?

YES, WE DO.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 23

CAN YOU GIVE US AN EXAMPLE?

I DO HAVE AN EXAMPLE OF SOME SPECIAL EVENTS. FOR EXAMPLE, THE, LET ME GET THE E-MAIL REAL QUICK.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 23

WHEN THERE'S A CONCERT? YEAH, I'M SURE THAT'S PART OF OVERTIME. THAT'S OKAY, CHIEF. So during the budget, we can dig into, I'd like to dig, we can dig into the, not dig, you know what I mean, evaluate, examine the police budget. And then look how we can allocate the funding for each one of these positions. Because they're all very important. And so, again, I know there's a motion and a sub-motion.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 23

I just think the deputy chief is very, manager is very important. The human resources, we need it. But for dispatchers, you know, again, if we're going to move forward, I'd like to include four dispatchers if that works for everybody instead of just two.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 23

So I just have a question, but I'm a fan of looking at it during the budget time because we're tightening things up. So all right. Thank you.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 23

That was an interesting one. Okay. Any other comments by anybody? I can't see your hand. Go ahead.

Jessie LopezItem 23

The training is not, the length of the training is not an issue with me. I think our officers need it. You know, there's probably every other council meeting that we're talking about the payouts that our residents have to pay, right, because of police car crashes. And so, and that's just the tip of the iceberg. So I don't want that to become an issue within the framework of hiring people.

Jessie LopezItem 23

But one of the things you said earlier was the reference of the police response time. Can you talk about how this would help with that, since that's a big issue that we consistently hear about?

Sure. I'd be happy to start, and then I ask the acting chief to assist me if I miss something or he wants to add anything. And so from our perspective, I think that the acting chief is correct that, you know, we might have 20 individuals we've identified that are going through the process. My experience in most organizations, the vast majority of people that go into a background check process do not come out of the background check process. And so it's a much smaller number than we might end up, you know, going through the academy and ultimately hiring and having them

as part of our staff we saw this as an opportunity to take vacancies that were reoccurring on a regular basis and instead of those dollars not being fully utilized within the same allocation take those dollars put it into non sworn personnel or professional personnel and would hopefully be able to hire those at a faster rate and then those individuals would be out on the streets along with or other existing staff and be able to help reduce response times and serve the public at a faster rate.

Thank you. And I would add to that that some of these professional staff positions, for example, the police investigative specialist, we currently have vacancies in our detective bureau. So every time we have vacancies and we don't fill them, that impacts our case management. So I would have to assign some officers to move over to the detective bureau, which would take some officers away from patrol, allowing to have more police investigative specialists or even the police service officer that can take traffic collision reports.

it would free up some patrol officers to be able to respond to more emergency calls and not send as many officers up to the detective bureau.

Jessie LopezItem 23

Thank you. Because the message that I'm getting is that it would make the city safer, right? So I don't really understand what the holdup would be. But acting chief, how long have you been with the department?

24 years.

Jessie LopezItem 23

24 years. thank you and Tom how how much professional experience do you have in the realm of policy work city work sure it's 36 total years but I've been with

the city of Santa Ana a humble amount which is a one day short of four months

Jessie LopezItem 23

you are counting well you know I asked that because some of the comments that I heard is we should really let somebody else make this decision and you can make this decision with the executive authority that you have which is why you're bringing it forth right and so with 36 years 24 years in the department I don't know why anyone would try and undermine the recommendation that you are giving this council tonight which essentially you're saying is going to to help the city be safer by adding dispatchers, by adding lab analysts, by adding detectives that are gonna actually help solve crime in the city.

Jessie LopezItem 23

And so again, I just wanna state that I'm in full support of the recommendation that our professional staff is making. Thank you.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 23

Thank you. If there's no other comments, I just wanna be really clear. Nobody's undermining, and words up here are always very interesting. Nobody's trying to undermine. our job up here as always is to ask questions and so you know mr. city manager we've had discussions about this we are trying to find a way to fill the gaps I think chief Rodriguez at the police department it's not about an undermining it's asking questions because we have constituents at home that are watching and I know because they call the next day and say I watched the meeting and blah blah blah they have questions so it's good to ask while

Valerie AmezcuaItem 23

we're sitting up here it's not about undermining you have the I personally We have the utmost respect for both of you. And you sometimes come in my office or see me in the hallway and say, can I talk to you and ask questions? That's what this is about, that we have conversation with you and say, why do we need this? Or we're about to go into the budget cycle. And so police are always, the budget for police is always such a big deal in the budget cycle. I haven't been here that long, but I've watched it, and it can be pretty contention. So guess what? I'm not saying I don't agree with it.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 23

again the deputy city manager the hr position i would add four dispatchers instead of two um so i'm not trying to undermine you and i don't think anybody else up here and i'm going to speak for them but that's not what i'm hearing so um there's a motion and then there's a second motion amended motion so let's move forward i'm sorry go ahead council panelist i um i would just say that i i've

David PenalozaItem 23

just for the record that i do agree with councilmember lopez and hernandez and i think and and with the staff's recommendation, I think it's a great idea. It makes sense. But the timing of it is what I'm just not comfortable with because of the budget and whatnot. But I think I had made the sub-motion, but I would amend my sub-motion to bifurcate the deputy city manager position, move forward with that resolution. I know the city attorney was asking for that specific language of which resolutions we wanted approved, I would move forward with that one. The deputy city manager,

David PenalozaItem 23

and this iPad never works when I want it to.

David PenalozaItem 23

And just continue, not deny, not stop the police workforce changes. within the department. So that would be the sub-motion, is moving forward with everything else, but continue the police department workforce changes. That would be the sub-motion.

Phil BacerraItem 23

And I would second that sub-motion.

Jennifer L. HallItem 23

Yes. And just for specificity, that would be the first resolution, which is amending the current fiscal year, 2023-24 annual budget to add full-time positions in the city manager's office, striking and the police department from the title, and removing section three, which pertains to adding positions in the police department correct and as well the motion would include approval of the other two resolutions before you changes to the city's classification and compensation plan and adopting and approving the council appointee salary schedule yes and again my sub motion

David PenalozaItem 23

isn't denying it it's continuing it for two months from now when we dive into

Valerie AmezcuaItem 23

to the budget there was a motion in a second anything else go ahead so this is on the sub

Jennifer L. HallItem 23

motion by council member penaliza and seconded by council member becerra to approve the three resolutions with the first resolution amended to at this point in time remove the police department provisions to be continued to a later date as well as approving the other two resolutions to the city's classification and compensation plan and the council appointees salary schedule councilmember Becerra yes councilmember Hernandez no councilmember Lopez no councilmember Penaloza yes councilmember Vasquez no

Jennifer L. HallItem 23

Mayor Meskwa? Yes. The vote is three, three. That's a tie vote. Motion fails. We would revert to the original motion on the floor, which is to approve the item as presented.

Jennifer L. HallItem 23

Council member Becerra?

No.

Jennifer L. HallItem 23

Council member Hernandez?

Yes.

Jennifer L. HallItem 23

Council member Lopez? Yes. Council member Penaloza?

No. No.