Read the February 18 meeting.

Valerie Amezcua

Mayor, you can go ahead. Thank you very much. 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. As a reminder, this is a meeting to conduct the business of the city. As Mayor, I'm afforded the opportunity to call for a recess or a break. or to even clear the meeting room if a meeting becomes too disruptive to properly conduct business.

Valerie Amezcua

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, along the back wall of the council chamber, or in front of the entrances and exits. During city council presentations and oaths of office, guests of individuals being recognized are invited to come to the front to take photos. Madam Clerk, please conduct a roll call.

Jennifer L. Hall

Council Member Becerra.

Phil Bacerra

Here.

Jennifer L. Hall

Council Member Hernandez. Present. Council Member Lopez. Council Member Penalosa. Council Member Phan. Here. Mayor Pro Tem Vasquez. Present. Mayor Meskwet. Present.

Valerie Amezcua

That is five present. You have a quorum. Thank you so very much. Madam Clerk, before we proceed to the Pledge of Allegiance, please make any announcements.

Jennifer L. Hall

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

Valerie Amezcua

Thank you. The first item on the agenda is the Pledge of Allegiance. Where is Don? Hi, Don. Come on up.

Member of the audience, please stand. Right hand over your heart. Pledge of Allegiance. to the flag of the United States of America, and to the Republic for which we stand, one nation, under God, invisible, and just as far. Thank you.

Valerie Amezcua

Thank you very much, John. Appreciate it. Words of inspiration will be provided by Police Chaplain Bob Barnett. Thank you, sir. And come to the podium.

Let's do a little prayer tonight to get the evening going, and a blessing on you all that serve the community. So, Lord God, I do thank you for the people gathered here, our mayor, our city council members, all that serve the community, Lord, gathered here, our chiefs, Lord, from the fire authority and our patrol officers and NAPD. And, Lord, we're so thankful. We ask a blessing on this time tonight that your wisdom would be displayed here through the gifts and talents of the people gathered. We ask a blessing upon those to be honored, Lord, tonight for their service to the community.

And, Lord, we're thankful, always thankful for the community we serve. We ask this in the name of the Lord. Amen.

Valerie Amezcua

Amen. Thank you.

Valerie Amezcua

Well, Councilman Paladino-Losa let us all know he's here.

Valerie Amezcua

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

Jennifer L. Hall

Yes, Mayor. We have three. Item number one, recognizing the Santa Ana High School wrestling team has been postponed. Item number two, the recognition regarding Black History Month has been withdrawn. And public hearing item number 17, the economic development subsidy reports has been withdrawn and will be re-noticed for a later date.

Valerie Amezcua

Perfect. Thank you. There's one presentation by Councilmember Lopez. The Santa Ana Unified declaring February 19th as We Care Day.

Thank you. Thank you, Jennifer.

Jessie Lopez

Hi, everyone. So you might be familiar with this proclamation because we've done it in the past, but it really is important to us as the members of the sub-mental health committee and Don who who has really led this charge with Steve as well, that we remind people in our community the importance of acknowledging the We Care Month in the city of Santa Ana. And this month, we are very happy to join various partners in raising awareness about suicide prevention and mental health education for our youth. We know that mental health and people's wellbeing are fundamental to the future of our community.

Jessie Lopez

Our young people are not just leaders of today, They are the hope of tomorrow as well. And so the work that we do now to support their mental wellbeing will also shape our city's vibrant future. And I would like to take a moment to acknowledge the tremendous efforts of the Mental Health Subcommittee. Since its formation in 2018, the committee has been at the forefront of addressing and assessing how we can better enhance our mental programming here directed at the young people in the city of Santa Ana. And their dedication to raising awareness and advocating for mental health services in our public schools has been invaluable.

Jessie Lopez

In 2024, the committee brought over 130 community members, organizations, business owners, and stakeholders for the first ever SAUSD Mental Health and Wellness Convening. And we got to hear directly from students about the things that impact them the most on a day-to-day basis, whether that's feeling pressure because they need to be part of an after-school club, whether they need to be enrolled in playing sports, whether they feel that they need to get straight A's in all of their curriculums and still having to manage a social life or issues at home, or for the juniors and seniors getting ready to leave

Jessie Lopez

and getting prepared to go to college, what that is like for first-generation students students that don't necessarily have a system of home to be able to tell them what that culture shock may be for them. And so it was really important, I think, for all of us to be able to understand the issues that students today face. And as you will recall, this is the third year that the city not only acknowledges the campaign to prevent suicide in our community and center mental health, but we do this by acknowledging the campaign from the chamber and lighting the water tower red.

Jessie Lopez

And so I'm really happy to be presenting this proclamation to Don Reese and other members of the mental health group committees, someone, folks that I have personally seen work incredibly hard to support our kids, to support their well-being, and who had again led the charge to bring a dedicated group, a dedicated group of people together to do more because we know that must, that more must be done. And so the vision of the mental health subcommittee is very clear. we want a future where all of our children are not only academically successful but emotionally healthy,

Jessie Lopez

prepared to face the challenges of the modern world, and ready to be strong leaders, parents, and global citizens. On behalf of the city, I'm proud to proclaim February as We Care Month and encourage all residents to join us in recognizing the efforts of the subcommittee for their ongoing work to support mental health and the well-being of our youth. Thank you to the work that again Steve and Dawn have led and all of the dedicated members that have dedicated their time their energy their resources to carrying out the mission of the mental health subcommittee and so we're gonna present this to you all.

So thank you so much Councilmember Lopez. Councilmember Lopez has been serving on on our Santa Ana Youth Mental Health Subcommittee for the past three years, and her voice with also Mike Garcia with Economic Development. This year also Paul Eakin with the PIO here for Santa Ana. One of our goals was to really extend our reach, and I'm really happy to say that inside of all the Santa Ana digital billboards, the Eddy Stadium this year is lit red, our water tower is lit red, and we also have the newsletter was sent out to thousands of residents inside of Santa Ana because our goal is that

everyone if they have a child in distress they know they can go to SAUSD so also what we're doing thanks to Mike and also Paul is we're gonna be putting a button on the city website so if someone knows they need help they go to we care and we'll direct them immediately to the Santa Ana website website that's been a goal of mine since 2019 and I'm finally happening and it's only because the timing is right the right people are at the table who want to make a difference in Santa Anna I also want to thank Mayor mesqua as well when she was on the school board it was her vision that really

set in motion the Family Resource Center that we do have within the city of Santa Anna and as a USD I also want to thank Andrew who leads our We Care Day month. We Care Day every day in Santa Ana. Andrew Montoya is with SAUSD. Don Hahn has been on our committee for I think five or six years now. Our work isn't done. The goal for next year will be to bring the business community around the message and have it in every single business inside of Santa Ana, supporting the work of City of of Santa Ana, also with SAUSD and the Santa and Youth Mental Health Subcommittee. So I wanna thank you, thank the council,

thank Councilmember Lopez and all the council members. So thank you.

Thank you.

Okay.

Valerie Amezcua

At this time, 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 procedure and call the first speakers.

Jennifer L. Hall

Thank you, Mayor. Pursuant to resolution number 2023-047, speakers are requested to address the City Council directly and to refrain from profane language, racial epitaphs, and libelous or slanderous statements that disturb the decorum of the meeting. Pursuant to the Brown Act, the City Council may not enter into discussion at this time. Speakers will have three minutes for their comments. Before calling the speakers, I'll report the following summary of emails. As of 3.30 p.m. today, we received 54 total e-comments. Six were related to the withdrawn public hearing item number 17.

Jennifer L. Hall

Forty were related to the council member requested item number 18. And eight were on non-agenda topics. Those were distributed to the city council and posted online for public review. We'll now hear from members of the public that are physically present in the council chamber, followed by those on the Zoom call. Please state your name and the ward or neighborhood that you reside in for the record. I'll be calling three names at a time if you could please line up in the center aisle behind the podium Nina Jurek David Martinez Tomas Castro

Thank You mayor City Council and City Manager Nunez My name is Nina Lindsay. I Had that name for way too many years Nina Jerick I am in life 2.0 and loving it Anyway, it's good to see everyone again. I'm a resident of Washington Square in Ward 5, and I am here again keeping the dream alive for a walkable park within Washington Square.

We've got some great activity going on with parks across the street, the 10th and Flower Park. That's wonderful, but it's across a major street and we want something much smaller and much more intimate in our neighborhood. neighborhood. It took a lot of collaboration and work within the Willard neighborhood to get that done and I know within Washington Square we can do it ourselves in unison with city leadership. Measure X funds were allocated for a feasibility study last summer. It was submitted back for revision several times as I understand it and it was just recently

submitted to the city manager's office so I'm hopeful that it's following the right path to be put out to bid so that's that's our that's our goal we want to get that moving and you'll continue to see me again and again because I want to keep the dream alive for the residents of Washington Square anytime a new home is purchased in our neighborhood we've got a turnover of younger and younger members younger and younger residents in our neighborhood the families, young children. We want to see them have a place, a playground to play in. We want to see people my age and well in any ages in between have a nice

place to sit and relax, enjoy, enjoy camaraderie of our of our fine neighborhood. We're very active. We will work with you in uncovering funds, funds, uncovering resources to gain grant funding, to see what we can do to uncover every stone possible, to see what we can do to get funds to purchase and build the park. My name, again, Nina Jerick. I have got the whole neighborhood behind me. I can't go walking in the neighborhood without people asking what's going on. So I want to be able to give them an update.

City Manager Nunez.

And anyway, thank you for listening to me. I know you've seen me one too many times, but I enjoy you inviting, allowing me to come back again and again. Thank you, everyone, for all of your support.

Hello, Madam Mayor, members of the City Council. My name is David Martinez, and I'm with Climate Action Campaign. I'm here to discuss Agenda Item 18, the resolution in opposition to South Coast Air Quality Management District proposed rules 1111 and 1121. These proposed The proposed rules represent the largest emissions reductions as proposed by that agency. These rules would regulate more emissions than from refineries in the South Coast region. They would regulate more emissions than six times, six times more emissions than electricity generating facilities in the South Coast region.

The proposed rules will prevent thousands of cases of disease, thousands of emergency hospital visits, thousands of premature deaths. these proposed rules will save lives. The resolution opposes life-saving clean air guaranteeing rules. So when when the additionally when proposed these rules had an entirely different framework entirely different just last Friday the air quality management district held a working group meeting in which they presented a new framework for the proposed rules. Instead of regulating consumers and

new purchases of gas units, they regulate the manufacturers of the gas units. This is not a ban on gas appliances. It is not a case where a consumer is forced to switch. It is is now simply regulation on manufacturers. That is it. This resolution is now outdated. In some areas it's inaccurate, as I wrote in a letter to you from Climate Action Campaign, and it doesn't reflect Santa Ana's commitment to environmental justice policies that I know you all have. For these reasons, I ask that you vote no on agenda item 18. Thank you.

Jennifer L. Hall

Ms. Tomas Castro, followed by Jeffrey Jensen and Jose Reyes.

Mr. Good evening, council members. My name is Tomas Castro, and I'm urging you to oppose the resolution under item 18 tonight. Santana residents live in some of the most disproportionately impacted areas for air pollution in Orange County. According to CalEnviroScreen, some neighborhoods, including in Ward 6, are in the top percentiles for ozone and particulate matter exposure. By contrast, the proposed AQMD rules would prevent over 4,000 deaths, 16,000 asthma cases, and 4,000 ER visits through electrification. Setting strong air quality standards will quite literally save lives.

To oppose this is to keep Santana residents locked in a deadly status quo for the sake of continuing gas industry profits. Furthermore, this resolution fails to mention any of the robust financial assistance available for installing electric appliances. The HERA program offers up to $8,000 for installing heat pumps and water heaters. And if the concern is about housing affordability, then the city's own housing authority can recalculate utility allowances that will incentivize electrification without increasing rent burden. Housing and public health go hand in hand.

one should most definitely not be used as an excuse to not do the other thank you

good evening mayor city council chief city manager um i guess i'm here just out of curiosity to see what's going to be discussed for the parking parking study session from city staff. Since there's a study session, I have a couple suggestions myself before you guys bring everything to the table.

Some suggestions on meters and some suggestions on structures. We'll start with meter suggestions. Adjust meter hours to end at 6 p.m. Make all three meter zones the same. Simplify meter signage. Change. Keep meter pricing the same or lower. $2 an hour plus 9.25% tax rate. It's pretty steep if you pull up to a meter to buy a quick cup of coffee. Three hour time limit instead of two hours. Sundays were free prior to COVID. Having Sundays free again or Saturday and

Sunday free if the meter end time is not adjusted lower to a more reasonable time than 10 p.m. Create a parking meter fund committee to follow the money and make sure some of the money goes back to beautification of the area that it's generated from. It's been years since curbs have been painted in downtown. Eliminate LAZ contract in downtown. There's overlap with Santa Ana PD parking enforcement. Structure suggestions. Keep structure pricing nominal. Keep some type of grace period.

We want to drive traffic to parking structures for long-term parking, which means we need to keep the downtown walkable and clean up the homeless situation. We are expecting patrons to walk several blocks from where the structures are located. More and better signage directing traffic towards structures. In closing, City of Orange will be adding parking meters in eight city blocks of their business district in the fall. the structure will still be free but meters throughout eight city blocks of their business district of the circle in orange this will be a good case study to

see if and how it will affect or slow down business and tax revenue for the city of orange so that's all thank you

Jennifer L. Hall

Jose Raya followed by Jarrell Connor and Joshua Brown and Suman Boston

Good evening, Mayor and City Council. I'm here to request that you vote no on the proposed resolution number 18. And this is in regards to the rules by AQMD regarding the electrification of the homes. As you well know, the Green MP&A organization organization and Madison Park neighborhood association have been conducting research for some time that tells us that we have the worst cases of

asthma in children with more visits to the hospital we also more mistakes of schooling another research with UCI researchers tells us that the indoor air air quality in Santa Ana is one of the worst. And when you open the windows, it gets worse. So you don't want to be known as the most polluted city in Orange County. And I think this is a good opportunity for you to change that scenario for the environmentally impacted communities in the city of Santa Ana.

So following a conversation that I had recently I recently had with City Council Becerra, he assured me that there was no environmental justice supposition on the City Council. And so I'm asking you, City Council Peñalosa, who represent us, our district, to protect our health, especially the little ones and the elderly, with not only asthma, but those who have respiratory issues and cardiovascular disease. disease. It's taken years away from our lives. Just going to Irvine, and I'm not

attributing this to just this cause, going to Irvine, people are expected to live 10 to 12 years more. And I think this is one of the factors that really decreases our life expectancy here in Santa Ana. Thank you.

Good evening, Mayor and Council Members. Thank you for your time.

Valerie Amezcua

You can move that up if you need to, to accommodate you.

Thank you. So, I'm going to check my notes so I don't forget anything important. My name is Jarell and this is Joshua. We're working representing Samueli Academy. It's a local charter school. They work with kids, youth in foster care. So, what we're doing with them, their tracks are like engineering and the arts. and they're passing out packets that we put together for you guys just to see a little bit about the school and some of the events that we've already put on that are pretty similar so their focus is engineering and the arts and we're bringing a program and an event to them to kind of celebrate the students and

all their accomplishments so the our event that we're doing is on March 5th it is open to the community is to celebrate the the students also their families and it's open to the community so previously we submitted about a week ago a special event donation request form and so we're looking forward to tearing back on potentially working together with the city and since this school is right in the backyard and a lot of the families are right here and these kids are great and their families deserve them and their families deserve of a great event to celebrate them and to kind of foster their future where giving them

opportunities for scholarships, internships, and different things moving forward, celebrating their diverse gifts and talent sets. So thank you for your time. And do you have anything to add? You said that very well. So I think we're just going to pretty much leave it at that. Besides that point, we've been doing these events for quite some time in different areas, and they prove really well for a family-friendly environment, and they're also teaching the kids a little bit more about these things that they have that are interest to theirs that are already being pushed at Samueli Academy. So, thank you.

Jennifer L. Hall

Suman Basin, followed by Virginia Bernal and Giovanni Chavez.

How do we bring it up? These glasses are watered, so I'm sorry for that.

Dear Mayor and Council Members, Hello, I'm speaking in favor, not in opposition, of the Air Quality Management District's proposed amended rules that this draft motion opposes. My name is Suman Basin. My husband and I have lived in Santa Ana for 17 years in Ward 2. I transitioned to a heat pump for my home, water heater and a combined clothes washer dryer appliance, both run by heat pump technology. My old gas-powered appliances needed replacement, and we chose the heat pump technology for health and climate concern.

We are very satisfied with both appliances, and my plan is to eventually replace my gas stove when it needed replacement with an induction stove. Since many people worry about possible extra cost, I remind you that a heat pump is more than able to heat a home in winter. It has the added capability to cool the inside air so that the need and cost of an air conditioner is eliminated. At the At a time when we are beginning to experience occasional extreme heat, the cooling function

of a heat pump can be of great value and a lifesaver for some of our elderly. I believe that the Council will be wise in welcoming the AQDMD Rule 1111 and 1121 by by requiring retailers to have heat pump based furnaces and water heaters available instead of the gas burning types in the coming years. The ADMD will help our cities in the Southern California Air Basin transition

to healthier air without nitrous oxidase in our homes and reduce the greenhouse gases that our buildings are now emitting. Please send a positive response of approval for the AQMD rules 1111 and 1121. Thank you.

Good evening, Mayor Mayesqua and council members. members, please vote against the motion to oppose Southern California Air Quality Management District's proposed amendment rules. My name is Virginia Bernal. I've spoken here before. Good to see some faces again. The motion which you are considering leans heavily on cost, but it strikes me as an excuse to continue with business as usual. Yesterday I wrote you an email with my arguments against this myopic view. In person I wish to speak in a more personal level. I have lived in Santa Ana Ward 5 for nearly 47 years.

In the last couple of decades I have been watching closely what scientists tell us about climate change and I have seen the changes that they predicted begin to appear in a ferocious manner. I've also seen how our leaders at all levels have not been able to pursue efficient policies in response. So for me, the main motivation to speak today is to express the urgent need to reduce our fossil fuels, including natural gas, whose emissions contribute to the natural catastrophes that we have seen recently, like in Palisades and Altadena.

But even beyond the overwhelming concern, the continued widespread of natural gas use in our homes adds the health risk, which people have been talking about here, for many of us, especially our youth causing an exacerbating asthma and our elderly with lung and cardiovascular disease. The arguments given in the motion being discussed remind me of poor farmers that we heard but in underdeveloped countries who say they cannot afford to have their children go to school because they need their help at the farm. In a society like ours we found a way to help the farmer and also help the children get an

education. We can do this. The cost should not be prohibitive. We need to think of our long-term needs and goals. BAQMD is trying to lead us all to make the changes that need to be made for the sake of our health and for the sake of a safe climate. Please let us cooperate as we set long-term goals. I am proud that California has been working seriously on this towards these goals. So please again vote against the motion. Thank you very much.

Good evening. Good evening, Mayor and Councilmembers. I'm Giovanni Chavez, a Santa Ana resident and the President of the California Young Democrats. Right now, Santa Ana educators, Santa Ana students, and the community needs you. After doing zero due diligence and engaging in bad faith bargaining, the Santa Ana Unified School District Board of Education voted to layoff nearly 280 educators and counselors effectively balancing their budget on the backs of our teachers and on the mental health of our students i wanted to thank mayor valeria mesqua and council member david pinalosa for standing alongside our teachers and opposing

these layoffs and i hope the rest of the council will soon follow suit but i must say i was perplexed when i saw mayor pro tem benjamin vasquez at last week's santa ana unified school board of education meeting rather than standing up for teachers he tried to put the blame on our teachers rather than standing up for workers he tried to put our teachers and our law enforcement officers against one another rather than holding management accountable he adopted many other talking points if he was not going to come and support our educators why even show up As a resident, I can't help but feel betrayed. Mayor Pro Tem Vasquez, I

believed in you. I believed in you when you said you supported public education. I believed in you because I thought you were not just another politician. I believed in you because I thought you stood for the community. We need you to support our teachers and let the school district know that layoffs would destroy our community. We need your leadership now. We encourage the rest of the council to speak up in support of our students and our teachers our community needs our council members to believe in education silence is not acceptable thank you mayor and city council that

Jennifer L. Hall

concludes the in-person speakers we'll now move on to the zoom speakers when unmuted please announce your name and the ward or neighborhood that you reside in within the city of santa ana for the record for speaker peter whittingham please unmute and make your comments

good evening thank you mayor and council members peter whittingham i am not a resident of santa ana i'm appearing tonight on behalf of the broad coalition uh led by la biz fed but which includes includes cities, nonprofits, property owners, and residents. We appreciate your placement on the agenda tonight at this item. As was shared earlier, the AQMD last Thursday held a working group meeting where they unveiled a pretty dramatic revision to the proposed rules that we would certainly believe is better than

the prior version. However, there still remains many unanswered questions. The rule language has not been released yet we are anticipating that that may be sometime in march uh but there still is no information on the potential cost implications of this uh of these rules uh and again this is by far the most expensive rulemaking ever contemplated by the south coast air quality management district and that cost is not on refineries or electric generating facilities It is on the residents of the south, 17 million residents of the south coast air basin, those folks in multifamily communities.

A study was done of a 1970s era apartment complex where contractors were brought in, did bids. The cost per unit to comply with these rules was $73,000. There is no way a landlord can pass those costs on to a renter. The implications of this are dramatic. We again believe that this rule has been improved. However, there are many unanswered questions and what we would encourage you to do if not to support this measure tonight, but to send a letter to the AQMD that you have significant concerns

about the cost implications to residents of Santa Ana, that these rules need to be fully vetted and also that the AQMD needs to, as their governing board directed them, do better public outreach so that the people of the community are aware of these rules and can weigh in. I appreciate your consideration. Thanks so much.

Jennifer L. Hall

Next speaker, Erica Gonzalez. Please unmute and make your comments.

Yes, hello. Good evening. Good evening, City Council members and fellows. My name is Erica Gonzalez and I am a lifelong resident of the Del High neighborhood, Ward 6, a small business owner from the Main Street Corridor, a leader of the Del High Neighborhood Association and the Finance and Logistics Director of Orange County Environmental Justice. I am here to encourage you to oppose the resolution under agenda item 18 that is being proposed here today by my very own council member, Mr. Pinalosa, as a representative of one of of five environmental justice clusters identified by the EPA here in Santa Ana,

I am appalled by the proposal being made here today. It seems that Mr. Pinalosa is either unaware or simply doesn't care that his board has been identified as an area of the city that is disproportionately burdened by air pollution. SEAQMD's proposed rules 1111 and 1121 would help to alleviate some of the pollution burden that our corner of the city faces on a daily basis. By electrifying gas appliances like water heaters and furnaces, we have a unique opportunity to reduce our exposure to toxic emissions

known for causing asthma, lung cancer, and cardiovascular disease. As a leader of the Delhi Neighborhood Association and a member of a resident-led committee in the Madison neighborhood, I have been organizing in my community for more than 10 years. And I am absolutely not in support of Agenda Item 18 Brean proposed today. And what I would like to know is, where was this passion and dedication for the safety and well-being of constituents when our children tested positive for lead, were being diagnosed with asthma, lung cancer, or any one of the other many health issues that plague our part of the city?

He wasn't there to see the tears and the frustration in the eyes of the parents who have to find ways to protect their children from the very environment that they're growing up in. He wasn't there to hear the cries and the shouts of the angry youth demanding that their voices be heard and that their health be prioritized. He wasn't there to feel the pressure his constituents put on the city and representatives who finally put people over profit and create policies and resolutions that put our quality of life at the forefront. He has never advocated for us. So why would we believe that he is advocating for us now?

Now, we all know that agenda item 18 isn't about standing up for community or protecting residents. It is about using the powers at play.

If Council Member Pinalosa was really concerned with the health and well-being of the community that he is supposed to represent, he would have been present at every single one of the five stakeholder meetings that Green MP&A has hosted over the past two years in the Madison and Delhi neighborhoods to address the concerns that the residents have had for decades he isn't even accounting for the numerous rebates and incentives that are being offered to residents who install electric appliances there are at least six programs totaling between 59 years up thank you mayor and City Council that

Valerie Amezcua

concludes the public speakers this evening thank you very much at this time we're going to go into the consent calendar numbers 4 through 16 are before us council members please announce any items that you will be abstaining from due to conflict and if there are any requests to pull an item from the consent calendar for further discussion councilman Hernandez no I would like to

Johnathan Ryan Hernandez

register that I am a no vote on item 10 thank you

Valerie Amezcua

councilman Becerra none tonight councilmember fan I'd like to recuse

Thai Viet Phan

myself from items 13 and 4 sorry 13 as ideas group is a client of my employer rattan and tucker and for item 14 just a recusal from the somas agreement and kleinfelder as their

Valerie Amezcua

clients of my employer rattan and tucker thank you thank you councilman panelosa thank you mayor

David Penaloza

i'd like to pull item and madam city attorney i i'm not sure how this would be done but i'd like to pull item 7.5 and item 16 please thank you

Valerie Amezcua

Thank you. Madam City Attorney, any?

Sonia R. Carvalho

Yeah, no, I can address those when he comes to that. Perfect, thank you.

Valerie Amezcua

Council Member Lopez, please. No, I'm not pulling anything. Thanks. Thank you. Mayor Pro Tem Vasquez.

Benjamin Vazquez

I have nothing to pull.

Valerie Amezcua

Thank you. Is there a motion to approve the remaining of the items?

Phil Bacerra

So moved.

Valerie Amezcua

I'll second. Second.

Valerie Amezcua

Prepare to vote, please.

Jennifer L. Hall

A motion by Council Member Becerra, seconded by Mayor Homescua, to approve consent calendar items number four through 16, with the exception of items 7.5 and 16 pulled for separate discussion and consideration.

Valerie Amezcua

Are you waiting for it? Councillor Becerra?

Valerie Amezcua

Thank you.

Jennifer L. HallItem 10

The vote is seven ayes, no nays with a noted nay vote on item number 10 by Councilmember Hernandez and recusals by Councilmember Fan on items 13 and a portion of item 14. Motion carries. Thank you.

Jennifer L. HallItem 13

So, Mayor, if we would like to do the three oaths of office and then move on to the portion of item seven, or would you like to discuss item 7.5 first and then proceed to the oaths?

Valerie AmezcuaItem 13

I'm okay with doing the other ones first and then we can do one, two, three, four, six, and seven.

Jennifer L. HallItem 13

If the appointed members who are present could please come forward. Miguel Ochoa, Dwayne Shipp, and Michael Chiu. Perfect.

Johnathan Ryan HernandezItem 13

Before we move forward, just because I know the commissioners had requested to all be sworn in together, is it possible for us to discuss item 7.5 and then we'll take a vote on it?

Valerie AmezcuaItem 13

Sure. If you would ask me, I'd let you know. Yes. Thank you, Madam Mayor.

Johnathan Ryan HernandezItem 13

I'll put a motion on the floor for us to discuss item 7.5 and that way all the commissioners can be sworn in together.

Benjamin VazquezItem 13

I'll second.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 13

That's perfect. Everybody's okay with that? We're fine with that. Madam City Clerk, thank you very much. if you commissioners if you can hold off one second all right item 7.5 please councilman

David PenalozaItem 13

yeah thank you mayor i just wanted to simply state my opposition uh to 7.5 to the reappointment of the police oversight commissioner i cannot in good conscience support the reappointment to the police oversight commission the commission is meant to ensure accountability and transparency through an impartial and fair approach unfortunately the commissioner has demonstrated a clear anti-police bias that undermines this responsibility. Most concerning is a recent call for individuals at a UCI protest where SAPD responded to a mutual aid request to come forward and file complaints against our officers. This was not objective

David PenalozaItem 13

oversight, it was a fishing expedition aimed at manufacturing complaints rather than reviewing them fairly. I support accountability but it must be based on facts not an agenda. So oversight should be impartial not an activist driven than a mission for those reasons i cannot support the reappointment in 7.5 thank you any other

Johnathan Ryan HernandezItem 13

comments yes madam mayor yes go ahead thank you i want to thank my colleagues for the opportunity for us to have this dialogue it it further you know exemplifies the importance of why this commission was created in the first place public safety is a is a topic that is important to every single one of us in Santa Ana and when it comes to the solution of how are we going to represent ourselves when we have a seat at the table in terms of police oversight and accountability this council decided to create a civilian oversight board where residents would have the opportunity to be appointed to

Johnathan Ryan HernandezItem 13

these boards and there's a diverse array of opinions on this particular Commission there are people with law enforcement backgrounds who serve on on a number of different commissions. There are people who have law degrees and backgrounds, you know, who have worked as lawyers. Many of our commissioners who are on this particular commission all share the same exact goal, and that's that they believe Santa Ana is a city where residents should feel safe. Amalia Mejia is a commissioner that I appointed because of her studies, because of her expertise

Johnathan Ryan HernandezItem 13

expertise in these particular matters. She is a PhD candidate at UCI. She's a Santa Ana resident and was born and raised in this community. And she has devoted her life to studying how our police departments can better improve their policies in our cities. Santa Ana, without a doubt, is a city that is impacted by police misconduct. As evidenced by, from 2010 to 2020, $24.5 million in police misconduct lawsuits we're facing in 2030 a 30 million dollar shortfall due to mess

Johnathan Ryan HernandezItem 13

the sunset of measure X 24.5 million dollars sounds pretty critical to the city right now and that is why we need oversight commissioners who are going to be forthcoming and honest about why these Commission's exist I have a commissioner that didn't believe that this Commission should operate in the dark a commissioner that educated the public and said hey if you feel that you have experienced you know policing that has violated your civil rights there is a commission where you can now report these concerns that you have outside of going directly to a police department

Johnathan Ryan HernandezItem 13

that is a step toward creating safety is educating our neighbors to the rights that they are afforded And that's what this is. This is a democratic process. And I'm going to disagree respectfully with my colleagues because Amalia Mejia's opinion is welcomed at this dais. It's the reason why we appointed her to this commission. commission. And I'm fearful that due to the opinion that she has, and that's that we should have residents on this commission that should be critical of our policies and the way that they're being implemented in this community. This is not something that should be penalizing

Johnathan Ryan HernandezItem 13

a resident and removing them from a commission because of the fact that they have a different opinion. There are a number of people who have been appointed to this commission that i do not agree with and i still voted in favor of them being appointed because that's why government exists is so that we can all have a seat at the table and so respectfully i will i i am going to disagree with that and i will put a motion on the floor to move forward with the

Jessie LopezItem 13

appointment of miss amalia mejia any other comments councilman lopez yes um so i'm going to look at the city attorney and city manager because here we are right again talking about the behavior of commissioners cherry picking which commissioner we want to hold to a completely different standard and so of course i'm not supportive of of only singling out certain people when other commissioners, city commissioners, I can say are not abiding by the core values missions

Jessie LopezItem 13

of the city or the ethics and code of conduct of the city. So again, let me make myself perfectly clear. Staff came to this body and said, you have an issue, this commission is compromised. The city manager's office, the city attorney's office gave this body clear guidance as to how they think that we should move forward. The body did not want to take your guidance. And so that is what I say, here, this is where we are, right? Again, singling out commissioners. So I'm happy to support the motion on the floor to move forward with this appointment of the commissioner, because if this council, if members of this council

Jessie LopezItem 3

were seriously concerned about the behaviors of members sitting on this particular commission, then we should have followed the lead that staff presented to us weeks ago. So thank you.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 3

Mayor Pro Tem Vasquez.

Benjamin VazquezItem 3

I too want to support Amalia Mejia and being our commissioner and continue to be our commissioner. I had appointed her to one of my commissions earlier. She is a respected member of this community. She grew up within Ward 2 within my ward and still has her family home there. And I appreciate her outlook and life. LIFE SHE IS A DOCTORATE CANDIDATE AT UCI THERE'S NOBODY MORE EXEMPLAR THAN HER WITH HER BACKGROUND TO SERVE AS AN URBAN PLANNER TO DO THIS WORK ON THIS COMMISSION SO I'M GOING TO SUPPORT

Valerie AmezcuaItem 3

AMALIA MEJIA THANK YOU I'M JUST GOING TO SAY VERY BRIEFLY SOMETIMES YOU KNOW I FEEL LIKE we're getting scolded up here rules only apply to certain people so it's not a good example to use when we get recommendations for our city attorney our city manager because i recall very clearly since i've been sitting here some very serious issues that have been before us for example the non-citizen voting rent control that our city attorney and our city manager gave us clear direction on and the majority of the council did not support their direction so we can't we cannot

Valerie AmezcuaItem 3

not sit up here and point fingers at one council member or another you know without when you point one finger one person there's three pointing back at you so this is items been pulled we're gonna vote on it and that's that's how it works so I don't think anybody said anything any personal attacks we pulled it we're gonna vote and we're ready to go so I'm for a motion by councilmember

Jennifer L. HallItem 3

Hernandez seconded by Councilmember Lopez to appoint Amalia Mejia to the Police Oversight Commission.

Jennifer L. HallItem 3

Voters 4-3, nays by Mayor Homesqua and Councilmembers Penalosa and Becerra. Motion fails.

Jennifer L. HallItem 3

Thank you. If we could do the other three oaths of office at this time please. Thank you, Madam City Clerk.

Jennifer L. HallItem 3

So this would be for Commissioner Chiu, Commissioner Shipp, and Commissioner Ochoa.

I, Dwayne Shipp. I, Miguel Ochoa. I, Bruce Allen Swearer. I, Dr. Support and Defend. Constitution of the United States. Constitution of the State of California. I, John Linnemey. Foreign and Jurassic.

I, Robert Schreiber. I, Robert Linton. The Constitution of the United States. case, Constitutional State of California, where I take this obligation freely, without intermittent reservations or purposes of evasion, that I will well and faithfully discharge the duties upon which I'm about to enter into the image.

Jennifer L. HallItem 3

Mayor and City Council, if I could just announce for purposes of transparency, pursuant to our Senate and Municipal Code section, that vote did require a super majority of five affirmative votes in order to have carried and so that is why a 4-3 vote failed in this instance thank you madam clerk and the next item pulled was item 16 by council member Penalosa

Council Member.

David PenalozaItem 3

Thank you Mayor. I'm Esquire. I pulled item 16. Let me pull up the agenda really quick. Item 16 is the second reading of ordinance of the City Council of the City of Santa Ana amending chapter two of the Santa Ana Municipal Code by adding section 2-112 which would prohibit the award of agreements contracts or grants to immediate family members of the mayor city council members or city officials which i am 100 percent in support of but um i think madam city attorney and chime in if you need to or mr city manager i would um i think this

David PenalozaItem 3

ordinance should also expand the state ethics revolving door regulations so that no employee that the employee who has left employment of the city can come back and seek a contract from the city or an agreement for at least one year from leaving that employment. I would like to make this as a motion and ask that the city attorney to propose appropriate language at the next council meeting so that we can reintroduce this ordinance for first reading this evening.

David PenalozaItem 3

And that's my motion.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 3

Thank you, is there a second?

Phil BacerraItem 3

I'll second with comment.

Phil BacerraItem 3

Madam City Attorney, so what Council Member Penalosa is proposing, I feel like isn't that already applicable to those leaving the city?

Sonia R. CarvalhoItem 3

I'm sorry. The regulations regarding revolving door apply to elected officials and certain high-ranking officials like an executive, city manager, like a city attorney does not apply to all employees. So if I understand the Council Member, he's saying it would apply to all employees. you would expand that well okay thank you there any other comments come there

Thai Viet PhanItem 3

council member fan I'll take it thank you so much for bringing up this proposal I wanted to see if you'd be open to I guess only applying that to full-timers because I do know that we may have some part-timers who leave Maybe they were college students who interned or something like that. You know, I think that if you have a college student who only worked You know 15 hours a week Having them continue to work with the city in some other capacity But still part-time or something like that would be beneficial to them into the city

Thai Viet PhanItem 3

I can see the concern as to or in regard to full-timers who leave the city would that be that is?

David PenalozaItem 3

fantastic point councilmember fan, so I will turn to the city attorney so that when this this new language is added, we include that section.

Sonia R. CarvalhoItem 3

Okay, and so I guess my question for you would be, do you want me to come back with language, or do you want me to try to add the language tonight so that you can reintroduce tonight?

David PenalozaItem 3

If we could add it tonight to reintroduce it tonight,

Sonia R. CarvalhoItem 3

that'd be, because I know it's simple,

David PenalozaItem 3

it's adding a sentence or two in one of the sections, so it's just best determining where, and then we would just vote on a first reading tonight.

Sonia R. CarvalhoItem 3

I can do that if you want to go on with your comments. I'm gonna just look something up in the state law and I

Valerie AmezcuaItem 3

Okay, thank you. Thank you. Madam City Attorney and the comments. Thank you Yes, thank you

Jessie LopezItem 3

Well, it looks like staff has their votes So I'm happy to support the recommendation that councilmember fan has made and also I would actually like for this to come back Because since we're gonna be amending the ordinance to include The language about the revolving door. I would also like for it to have language about consequences that folks may face if they don't abide by the new ordinance.

Sonia R. CarvalhoItem 3

Can I hear that last part, that folks what?

Jessie LopezItem 3

Consequences that anyone that may break, whether it's a future potential contractor that receives public funds violates the ordinance. So I just wanted to see some of those options.

Sonia R. CarvalhoItem 3

So the remedies or the enforcement are already included within our general standards. so any violation is a misdemeanor.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 3

Okay, thank you. No other comments?

Sonia R. CarvalhoItem 3

Madam City Attorney? Yeah, so I think if you look at section A of the ordinance, this is the section that actually contains the prohibition. Right now it says any person authorized to act on behalf of the city is prohibited from making the award, and it says to an immediate family member. We could do a subsection one there, then add at the end of it or a subsection to any former full-time employee for one year from the date of the employees separation from the city with that change you could reintroduce this as your first reading this evening

David PenalozaItem 3

if you'd like to I that would that's perfect exactly what we wanted and I I think it includes Councilmember Phan's motion or amendment. So I would be in agreement with that, Madam City Attorney. So if that is final, I will make the motion now to reintroduce it as a first reading tonight.

Sonia R. CarvalhoItem 3

Yes, and then I would just say when it comes back to you for your second reading, if there are any other sections that need to be made similar, we'll do that. Okay. When we come back with the comments.

David PenalozaItem 3

Sounds good. Okay. Thank you, Madam City Attorney.

Thai Viet PhanItem 3

So let's prepare to vote. Do you need a second? Oh, you seconded?

Phil BacerraItem 3

I did, but I have a quick question. Madam City Attorney, what you just said, so my understanding is our charter does not allow any, I mean any changes between the first read and the second read.

Sonia R. CarvalhoItem 3

So third- This is a substantive change, so it would require a new- No, no, no, I understand that, but what

Phil BacerraItem 3

you had just said prior though was that if there are any other changes that you would bring those back for the clean version. I'm saying no. Whatever we vote on tonight is what we vote on. that will be the first read and what comes back as a second read will be exactly identically what's

Sonia R. CarvalhoItem 3

before us tonight i was only making the respect if i had to add those exact that exact same language to any other subsection then i would put it in the other subsections but the language i read into the record would be the only language okay perfect thank you and just for clarity that language

David PenalozaItem 3

includes and covers agreements contracts kind of all of the above contracts grants um agreements

Sonia R. CarvalhoItem 3

contracts or grants okay wonderful thank you amendments to contracts grants or

Valerie AmezcuaItem 3

agreements got it thank you all right nothing else let's prepare to vote please

Jennifer L. HallItem 3

mayor and City Council unfortunately the electronic voting is not working for me at this moment so I'll do a roll call vote please this is a motion by councilmember Penalosa seconded by councilmember Becerra to introduce for for first reading the amended ordinance number NS3077 entitled an ordinance of the City Council of the City of Santa Ana amending chapter two of the Santa Ana Municipal Code by adding a new section 2-112 concerning the prohibition against awarding of agreements, contracts or grants to any immediate family member of the mayor, city council members or city officials

Jennifer L. HallItem 3

as amended for sections A1 as stated by the city attorney. My apologies, I have a question.

Thai Viet PhanItem 3

Thank you. Madam City Attorney, so my question Madam City Attorney is, you know, as to this ordinance, it goes into effect 30 days after second reading. Would it have any effect on any contracts that are, have already been approved?

Sonia R. CarvalhoItem 3

You got some good lawyering over here. That's what your Chief Assistant City Attorney was just, we were just whispering about. It would not apply retroactively because it will apply going forward I would like to bring up one additional issue just for you to consider when you say any full-time employee for one year on occasion the city will bring back a CalPERS retiree when there are certain findings that have to be made would you consider just an exception for those usually those CalPERS retirees are brought back for a very specific reason and you have to adopt a resolution anyway so we could keep this prohibition and just say

Sonia R. CarvalhoItem 3

except for any CalPERS retiree for which the city council adopts the required resolution. What I don't want to do in the future is put ourselves in a situation where we have a departure in a department and you need to bring back one of those people and then we have this prohibition and you could not bring them back.

Thai Viet PhanItem 3

I would love to see that. One example is Mr. Kaminsky, right?

Sonia R. CarvalhoItem 3

If that were happening in the go forward, absolutely. And again, yes. I'd like to thank again the chief assistant for raising that as an issue. It's a good one.

David PenalozaItem 3

I will amend my motion to include that exception.

Phil BacerraItem 3

Okay. And I'll accept that as well.

Jennifer L. HallItem 3

Thank you. Okay. Go ahead, Madam Speaker. I was able to get the voting up if you're able to vote.

I'm sorry?

Jennifer L. HallItem 3

I was able to get the vote going if you're able to vote electronically.

Jennifer L. HallItem 3

Vote is seven ayes, no nays. Motion carries. Ordinance is introduced for first reading and will come back at the next meeting for second reading and adoption.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 3

Perfect. Thank you. we're going to end the consent calendar at this time we're going to go into the public hearing item 18 please item 18 was requested by council member panelosa council member panelosa please

David PenalozaItem 3

thank you madam madam mayor we're not doing a public hearing yes okay i was going to say it's

Valerie AmezcuaItem 3

it's it says public here oh i'm so sorry i apologize thank you for always correcting me end of the public hearing i love it we're going to go back to council member requested items

David PenalozaItem 3

Council Member Pena Lozada. Thank you, Madam Mayor. I appreciate the time. And so item 18 was to discuss and consider directing the city manager to direct city staff to bring back the attached resolution for council consideration that would oppose the South Coast Air Quality Management District's proposed amendment rules 111 and 1121, which will have a profound impact and impose significant costs on millions of Southern California homeowners, renters, and businesses who are already struggling to make ends meet while providing minimal air quality benefit.

David PenalozaItem 3

The whole, I want to speak directly to the issue that would, you know, this issue would impact millions of homeowners, renters, and businesses across our region. The South Coast Air Quality Management District's proposed rules would phase out natural gas-powered furnaces and water heaters, imposing significant costs on families and businesses while placing additional strain on California's already overburdened electrical grid. Let me be clear that we all recognize the need to improve air quality. Santa Ana residents, like many across Southern California, live with the effects of air pollution every day.

David PenalozaItem 3

We have a duty to pursue policies that promote clean air and environmental sustainability. However, we also have a duty to ensure that these policies are equitable, practical, and do not impose unbearable financial burdens on our community. At the, this past, I first want to thank AQMD for the tireless work that they do. They do so much good work in our region and it's thanks to them that we have helped lower those emission levels in our region and have some type of control. We need them. But unfortunately, for this particular amendment rules, they missed the mark.

David PenalozaItem 3

I get the sentiment and I am thankful that hundreds of letters in opposition flooded AQMD over the last two weeks. Many cities throughout the region opposed AQMD's rules. OCOG opposed the rules proposed by AQMD. And because of that, AQMD had a work group on Thursday, not Friday, as one of the speakers mentioned. they had this past Thursday, and AQMD staff heard people loud and clear, heard stakeholders loud and clear, heard residents loud and clear,

David PenalozaItem 3

and AQMD staff is now suggesting some revisions that will now, that they've submitted revisions that, for the rule language, that there isn't, hold on let me find my notes revised rule language and there isn't an update on the potential cost to homeowners and more significantly owners of multi-family communities and their tenants so the rules that they've proposed and the the changes they've now made that language is still not made public until that language is made public and we know for certain what these

David PenalozaItem 3

amended rules mean i cannot in good conscience vote on something or or support something that i know is going to have economic challenges to our residents the whole point of everything we do as government agencies is to ensure that this is sustainable over the next not just five years ten years but over lifetimes and just last year i had to replace the water heater in my home and I went into Lowe's and the Lowe's employee offered me the new tankless electric water heater I was all in I'm all about saving the environment and

David PenalozaItem 3

doing my fair share in keeping pollutions down however then he said okay what kind of electrical panel work do you have and I was like well the house was built in 1950 like most of the homes in Santa Ana so I know that when I I try to steam, when I have a hand steamer on and a little surface heater on, the whole lights break, switches break, and I have to go out into my backyard and turn on these switches again. Because my house, the infrastructure in my house is not sustainable to be able to sustain the power grid that it would take to sustain a power electric water heater.

David PenalozaItem 3

So he said, okay, you're going to need these upgrades, you're going to need this and that, you're going to need these permits from the city, you're going to need this contractor, By the end of it, I was looking at a $15,000 investment for a water heater replacement that broke overnight. I understand that the state of California and the feds have these rebate programs up to $8,000 if you qualify. I looked at the income qualification table. Guess what? I personally do not qualify. However, I do not have $15,000 right now to invest into my home to replace this water heater and make and replace all these electrical panels.

David PenalozaItem 3

So a lot of these things are short-sighted. I fully believe that we should strive to work to be able to electrify our homes. But if we don't have the infrastructure, not only in our individual homes, but citywide, this isn't sustainable. And it's not going to be able to be achieved by many of the residents in our city. hundreds of them, thousands actually. And until we could guarantee that just like we do with electric cars and rolling blackouts come around in the summertime and we start warning residents, hey, don't charge your cars between 3 and 6 because of blackouts. What comes with that?

David PenalozaItem 3

Don't take a hot shower between 3 and 6 because of the blackouts. Guess what? We don't have the infrastructure to sustain this. So until we could take a step back and focus on that first and work with different government agencies and the state and the feds to make sure that our cities are retrofitted to be able to sustain this electric grid, this demand, kind of like we did. I know Councilmember Phan and I were out there, we were all out there, Mayor was out there as well, when we had the grand opening for Rove on 17th and Lincoln. That is what we should,

David PenalozaItem 3

that type of infrastructure, solar panels, on-site battery storage, that is what we should be focusing on. AQMD should be focusing on helping us achieve that citywide, statewide, so that we could charge our cars 24-7, we could take hot showers from 3 to 6, and we're not concerned of these rolling blackouts but that infrastructure is not there so i know that aqmd has revised their rules and their proposed amendments those aren't made public yet so i would like to move forward with this resolution um uh madam city manager mr city manager not madam uh and um maybe not

David PenalozaItem 3

necessarily bring it back in two weeks to the next council meeting but hold off on it because i know aqmd is having a committee hearing this friday and see what that language looks like because we we we need to be able to balance it and focus our energy in the infrastructure that's gonna make this successful um and also the the rebate program is funded by the um uh the american uh inflation reduction act and that's only temporary and as we've seen with the federal government there's a lot of unfortunately there's a lot of departments and these programs that are on the chopping block

David PenalozaItem 3

and i don't know if that funding is going to be there next year so i can't in good faith tell my residents no it's going to be fine there's going to be a rebate for you when i know that's not the case so with that meta mayor that is my comment on this and hopefully aqmd reads the room and reads and here's takes all the input that all these various stakeholders brought to them and amend the rules for good and make them public so that we could all see.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 3

Thank you. Thank you. Thank you very much, Councilman. Councilmember Fann?

Thai Viet PhanItem 3

Thank you, Mayor. Thank you, Councilmember Ben-Elissa, for bringing this forward. I do have a, well, I guess I feel like this is a little premature, just given that this is an iterative process that AQMD is still going through and we don't have the language to actually assess whether or not it is exactly a good or bad bad policy. I'm looking at their website which has presentation for February 21st for a working group, right? There are some amendments. They also have a rule 1111 and 1112 fact sheet which seems a little bit contradictory to what was stated in

Thai Viet PhanItem 3

the draft resolution just because things are moving very quickly and things are changing in response to public comments. For example, it states, you know, whether Will there be any flexibility? Exceptions will be allowed for construction or utility upgrade delays, high altitude areas, owners of multi-family buildings, and considering other circumstances. How will the rules impact you? Rules will take effect in two to five years and will be required only when appliances are voluntarily replaced or existing appliances break. For me, I truly believe that dealing with the climate

Thai Viet PhanItem 3

effects and it's a climate change and its effects on our health are non-negotiable we have or I shouldn't say non-negotiable but we have to take them into account right Santa Ana residents including myself suffer at higher rates of asthma childhood asthma as well as adult asthma than pretty much anywhere else in the county so I think it's really important that we take these into account. In so many cases the indoor air quality that we have due to you know gas stoves, gas furnaces are worse than outdoors and just because we're a

Thai Viet PhanItem 3

low-income community doesn't mean we deserve to have bad air but I also know how difficult it is to replace these types of utilities excuse me. So I guess I guess my point is I'd like to see staff follow this. I'd like for us to pick it back up. We have a team that follows these types of rule changes, look at where the changes are that are good. For example, what are the rebates programs? What are the income threshold? Does it apply to the majority of Santa Ana residents or is it higher than the median income in the city of Santa Ana? What is the likelihood of someone who has to replace

Thai Viet PhanItem 3

their appliances within the next five years. It also seems that there have been updates to the timeline for zero emission units versus NOx emitting units. So I just think that there's just too many factors at play right now for us to take an actual stance on it. So I would like for us to follow it. I'd like to have updates back to the city council and when there is a rule for us to evaluate and to take a vote on whether a resolution to support or to oppose then we can bring it up at that time thank you thank you thank you

Johnathan Ryan HernandezItem 3

madam city mayor I just wanted to share that at the moment I'm not in support of this item I am gonna support us bringing this back at a later time supporting the community's direction and that'll be my final comments thank you thank you

Phil BacerraItem 3

Council Member Becerra. Thank you Madam Mayor. I'm very reluctant to support this but I think Council Member Phan made some good comments in that this is a fluid situation and I think for us to submit a resolution either in opposition or support I think is premature at this point. One thing though I appreciate Council Member Pena-Loza bringing this up is that that we constantly see governmental entities impose their desire, their goals on us without any consideration for how it would be implemented. It sounds great to say, I declare world peace, I declare no emissions.

Phil BacerraItem 3

It sounds wonderful. But how does it actually get implemented? And when we're talking about folks that also out of the other side of their mouth say, say, oh, but we really care about the economic vitality of the community, okay, then think about some of the mandates that you're imposing on them. I think it's important, though, that yes, we do have to take into consideration the environmental impacts that these appliances have on all of us. But having said that, I think there's a way to do it. I mean, you look at when you saw over time the idea of trying to get folks into electric cars.

Phil BacerraItem 3

They didn't just ban gas, you know, fossil fuel burning cars, and then say everybody's got to get an electric car, go, or say once your fossil fuel car breaks down, you have to have an electric car next. There was a lot of incentives, a lot of ways to entice people to do the right thing. So I'm hopeful that AQMD will take that into consideration, and at the time that they do put forth language that we can actually deliberate on and possibly adopt a resolution, I'm looking forward to that. So thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 3

Councilman Panalosa.

David PenalozaItem 3

Thank you, Madam Mayor. And I want to thank Councilmember Fann. It seems that we're in agreement all night tonight. I definitely, this is premature. Except last Tuesday when it was agendized, it wasn't premature because these were the rules that were before us. So I do love the suggestion by Councilmember Fann is to follow this very closely because we don't know what these rules are going to be. and these rules have been being discussed since last summer is a human D has had these multiple working groups and hearings and That these are changing so what that would be my I

David PenalozaItem 3

would agree with councilmember fan is that we follow this very closely and we keep an eye on it because a Lot of the infrastructure in our in our city our homes residential. They're old I mean houses in my district alone Madison Park Memorial Park Wilshire Square French Park these are houses that are almost a hundred over a hundred years old in many areas they don't have the infrastructure to do this so I want to suggest that we just keep our eye on this on these changes with a QMD and we work closely with them to try to help and see what we could achieve this

David PenalozaItem 3

because I would love to achieve this as a goal I agree with every speaker that claim and spoke we should be doing everything we can to to limit the the harmful effects that it's having but how can we do that and be sustainable with it at the same time and be able to achieve it so that was the whole point of this again this is changing tomorrow very fluid I mean not tomorrow Friday they have another committee hearing it will change again so it's just keeping our eye on the target so thank you madam mayor thank you mayor Pro Tem Vasquez

Benjamin VazquezItem 3

please thank you to my peers for your words today and holding back on taking this for a vote I do want to ask city staff to create some information for our residents that want to make the change voluntarily and have those grants federal state and county where there would be rebates or grants that are out there so they'll be readily available so if people want to do this they can do it now and not wait not wait till a later time and we could support the environment as we can as we move forward thank you thank you mr. city manager I

Valerie AmezcuaItem 3

think you have clear direction oh I'm sorry I didn't see okay so I mean I

Jessie LopezItem 3

think we we've heard a lot of information and again I think because because as somebody said, things are changing. Some of the factual information that has been given to us doesn't necessarily reflect what was submitted in the council member requested item. But I think that also the public must take into consideration that AQMD has done an extensive data informed analysis. Some of these rules, some of the things that people are trying to change have been in place since the 70s. They're very, very old. they are not they have not been helpful to building healthy communities

Jessie LopezItem 3

especially help communities like ours and so I do think that as we talk about the affordability issue here for everybody involved whether you're a tenant whether you're a homeowner really any and providing any type of service for folks I understand that that's an issue and I do think that if people are genuinely concerned about that then they need to also get in contact with the governing board of aqmd because they have the ability to create more programs or extend some of the programs that they currently have but i do think that you know most of the folks that i speak with will say that

Jessie LopezItem 3

climate change is happening now and we're seeing more extreme heat wildfires and air pollution affecting a lot of different communities now and so for me my position is that reducing greenhouse gas emissions from buildings is one of the most impactful steps we can take to improve air quality and public health and again as I understand it as I understand it these rules do not force anyone to convert or go buy a new appliance it is strictly up to the person if they want to convert their appliance. And again, I think that it's also really important for the public to understand

Jessie LopezItem 3

that these rules have been found to be cost effective, would reduce 4,000 premature death, 16,000 new asthma cases, and 4,000 emergency room visits. And again, this isn't something to speak to all of the comments that people are saying up here. This isn't something that was just thrown to the wall to see what six things are changing and so I encourage the public to go online and read the extensive data information that is available to the public online because I also if this is going to continue to

Jessie LopezItem 3

come back this is going to take up staff's time then I want an analysis as to how opposing these roles is going to impact the health of my constituents and And so I think that's important. I don't see that as a part of the council member requested item. I don't think that clearly staff has that on hand. I see you shaking your head no, city manager. And again, these rules are not proposing a ban on natural gas power furnaces. If people having all of the information that they have about the correlation of growing up in a home with these type of furnaces still believe that that is the choice that they should make,

Jessie LopezItem 3

then that is up to them, right? right, these regulations are not taking that choice away from parents, from constituents, from keeping what they currently have or switching over. And so I think that we should ensure solutions that work for everyone and I do encourage everyone to read about the incentive programs that are, there's more than a handful to read about the financial assistance available to people. And I do think that, you know, for me, being part of those MP&A roundtables that have been hosted in the city

Jessie LopezItem 3

listening directly from you know very very very very rough hearing moms talk about the health of your children my main priority now is figuring out if this is going to continue to come back to the council again what is the impact on the health of my constituents so thank you

Valerie AmezcuaItem 3

you mr. city manager I think you have direction yes yes thank you thank you there's no other comments it's time yes just really quick I just want to say

David PenalozaItem 3

that I I hope that my colleagues would would support councilmember Lopez and those comments about seeing how this affects the community long term which we know it's detrimental but it's finding that balance of how we could achieve it and be equitable about it the one thing I just want to correct for the record that these rule changes don't force you to change into a gas uh heat water heater today but the minute that you need to replace it two three years from now four years from now five years from now guess what you have to go to all electric so it does force you um so i wanted to correct that for

David PenalozaItem 3

the record it's just not an immediate force so i mean that just wanted to say that mayor thank you

Valerie AmezcuaItem 3

no thank you for bringing that up because like you i had to replace my water heater and I got the same sales pitch and I did not buy an electric water heater because I cannot afford it. My home was built in 1953 and I live in Morrison Park and as a homeowner I'm usually when you're a renter I would hope that the owner would replace that and take it off your rent but as homeowners we have to buy those things and change the electrical like yours my electrical box it blows out sometimes and no matter what time it is you got to go out there and flip it all back on so I'm in support of this and a QMD is changing things as we as we speak

Valerie AmezcuaItem 3

and so I'm looking forward to it coming back mr. city manager and we are always looking to do what's best for our constituents you know we all say that up here everybody that sits up here says that so it's not one loud voice it's all of our voices together that we are always looking to do what's best for our constituents so thank you very much and you do have direction thank you let's move on to the next item it's a work study session item number 19 is the parking enterprise fund 27 work study session mr city manager may we please have the staff presentation

Alvaro NuñezItem 3

yes executive director michael garcia will do the presentation for us and again this is to provide input and receive input and direction thank you

So the item tonight before the mayor and city council is to look at a review of the parking study, do a parking work study session to review parking meters, parking structures, to look at revenue and expenditures. And this item was pulled out of the budget for discussion and study. study and we've been working closely with City Manager's office as well as members of the City Council and we've coalesced a lot of the comments from our City Council what we wanted to do is

explain to the public where we're currently at going back to 2021 we made changes to the way that the parking structures are being charged and that was to deal with the impacts from the pandemic. And so with those changes, two hours free during the day from 8 AM to 5 PM or free all day from 8 AM to 5 PM and then two hours free after 5 PM, the downtown, the program in our structures in the downtown has been operating at a deficit the streetcar

construction and then major equipment repairs in infrastructure also led to the deficit that's the downtown parking enterprise fund has been operating under

staff wanted to look at the parking meters and look at where we compared to to surrounding cities and some larger cities. And you can see that most parking meters are very similar to ours, especially in the near immediate area, Orange and Newport Beach. So we are very comparable to the surrounding cities and some of the larger cities. Laguna is at the higher end.

We also looked at the parking structure rates AND THE CITY IS ON THE LOWER END IN OUR PARKING STRUCTURES. AS FAR AS WHAT WE'RE CHARGING PER HOUR, WE'VE GOT THESE SEGREGATED BY COLOR. SO YOU SEE THE CITIES ARE IN GRAY. TO GET AN IDEA THAT HUNTINGTON BEACH IS BEING CHARGED AT A MUCH HIGHER RATE PER HOUR. THE CITIES ON THE SANTA ANA ARE PARKING STRUCTURES ARE ON THE VERY LOW END. AND THEN WE ALSO LOOKED AT THE COUNTY OF ORANGE AND THEIR parking structures and what they're charging within our city as well as some of the private

in black here you'll see some of the private parking garages in our city our last rate increase it's been quite some time in our parking structures was back in 2019.

so after speaking with the city council members and with our consultant abm we wanted to put forward the following recommendation and we'll get into a little more detail but to keep the parking meter rates at two dollars per hour except to spread that across all meters there are currently meters where you only pay a dollar per hour and so we thought it would be good to put that across all meters to change the meter ordinance to allow it to go two dollars per hour across all meters

AND THEN WITH STRUCTURES, WE THOUGHT THAT LOOKING AT HOW WE COMPARED WITH THE OTHER SURROUNDING CITIES AND THE LARGER CITIES WITHIN SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA, THAT THE STRUCTURES AND THAT COULD BE HANDLED THROUGH THE CITY MANAGER'S ABILITY TO CHANGE THE PARKING RATES FROM $1.50 TO $3 PER HOUR. We thought it would be good to offer the first Saturday free for Art Walk. It's one of our busiest times. It gets the most foot traffic and visitors. And then possibly the first hour daily as well when you go to the parking structure to try to entice folks to go to the structures.

We also looked at a market rate study from ABM, our provider of the maintenance and operation in the structures and there was a $35 per month increase that could be achieved for unreserved spaces and these are folks that are employees in the downtown you want to have an unreserved space to get it from $50 per hour what it is now to $85 per hour and for those who want a reserved space so they don't have to look for their parking space when they come into our parking garages to move that from 60 to 95 dollars per

hour the 120 dollars per hour for overnight parking would stay the same that was within similar areas within southern california

so what we're looking at is if we were to as a city look at keeping the parking meters where they're at a two dollars per hour increasing the hourly parking structure rates what would the revenue versus expenditures look like and you see that it would generate a net of 2.95 million dollars and we thought that that would be a good way to go about increasing the parking revenue in our in our parking enterprise fund and still provide free parking on the first saturday of the

month for the art walk as well as one hour free to entice folks to use parking garages and keeping the downtown enhancement program with clean and safe the holiday decorations as well as being able to keep up with utilities and repair expenses another option was looking at the four dollar per hour rate that's being charged uh in in comparable county parking structures now this would generate QUITE A BIT OF REVENUE AND WE THOUGHT THAT MIGHT BE A LITTLE BIT FOR THE PUBLIC TO CONSIDER.

AND THAT'S WHY WE WERE GOING WITH THE $2 PER HOUR, STAYING THE SAME WITH THE METERS AND JUST INCREASING THE STRUCTURES TO $3, NOT TO $4. BUT WE WANTED TO PRESENT THAT TO SHOW WHAT THAT WOULD LOOK LIKE FOR CITY COUNCIL TO CONSIDER. Now, with these increases in the fund revenue, we could look at additional ways to modernize equipment, make security and lighting repairs, and then necessary public structure repairs in the parking structures. And then, of course, we do have some ADA accessibility improvements and elevator repairs in the parking structures that we'd like to consider.

AND SO WE WANTED TO NOW LOOK AT IF WE WERE TO JUST KEEP IT THE WAY IT IS NOW AND REINSTATE REGULAR RATES BACK TO PRE-2021 LEVELS, WHAT WOULD THAT LOOK LIKE? IT'S A VERY NOMINAL INCREASE THERE, $569,000. THIS WOULD KEEP THE PARKING STRUCTURES AT $1.50 PER HOUR, $2 PER HOUR ON THE PARKING METERS. and so we wanted to open it up now to City Council I'm gonna go back to the different budget options and and hear from City Council what they want to

Valerie AmezcuaItem 4

consider please either push your button or raise your mic so I can call upon you I believe councilman Hernandez Thank You madam mayor and Thank You director

Johnathan Ryan HernandezItem 4

Michael Garcia for today's presentation I'd also like to thank the members of the public who came out to share their input on this parking study i recently had the the past over the past week i met with a couple of different business owners in the downtown and i had the pleasure of hearing them out firsthand learning about the benefits that they felt existed by having some of the parking structures open hearing about some of their challenges and also the critiques that they have as to what are areas where we can make improvement The experience that I've had working with these businesses is vast.

Johnathan Ryan HernandezItem 4

Over the last four years, I've worked with them on the construction that they were impacted by with the streetcar, worked with them on implementing the Santa Ana Business Interruption Fund, and as we're looking at this parking study, I asked my colleagues to take into account the historical context as to what downtown has been experiencing since COVID. it has been impacted adversely and i'm very thankful that our businesses are still open there but as we are going to be taking a look at this parking study there's an opportunity for us to

Johnathan Ryan HernandezItem 4

not only generate revenue for the city but there's also an opportunity for us to become more business friendly while we're generating that revenue i am supportive of increasing the parking meters from from $2 to $2.50 an hour. I am supportive of the input that our city staff has provided to lower the hours. I'm not supportive of going from 10 o'clock to 8 p.m. I'm supportive of going from 10 o'clock p.m. to six o'clock p.m. Given that that is a hour, those two hours will make a vast difference for businesses getting additional support from people coming out to enjoy their dinner, getting out of work.

Johnathan Ryan HernandezItem 4

and it's just more friendly for businesses to encourage residents to come out and enjoy dinner to spend their dollars in the downtown versus keeping it where we have enforcement going until 8 o'clock p.m. is also going to be more costly it costs more money to have staff out until 8 p.m. I think if we can cut that down to 6 p.m. it's going to be more friendly for businesses and our our residents who are enjoying their food and spending their money in the downtown town i am supportive of us having no enforcement on sundays and us having a free first saturday

Johnathan Ryan HernandezItem 4

art walk and as well as the free first hour i i think it's important that as we're updating this ordinance that we also update the language on our signage in the downtown so that there is no enforcement reflected on the meters as it pertains to sunday i am also supportive of taking a look at how we can save money due to the fact that there will be reduced enforcement what type of money is the city saving in addition to that i also would like for us to consider ending the laz contract and transitioning to in-house i think that if we were to go from laz

Johnathan Ryan HernandezItem 4

to in-house our businesses and our residents would receive better quality service many of the businesses in the downtown have shared their concerns and their complaints that they have as to the way that lez has been conducting business a patron cannot finish a dinner sometimes without their car being you know watched until you know the minute ends and you have somebody ready to write up a ticket there should be a grace period if you see a patron walking over to his car and has a minute left i'll share from experience during the santa ana business interruption fund

Johnathan Ryan HernandezItem 4

while we were working with businesses i i along with our city manager christine ridge at that time received a ticket when we were going to meet with businesses to help them due to the impacts of the streetcar and and that's the type of concerns that businesses are experiencing on a day-to-day basis We want to improve upon that. And so my direction today is to change the hours from 10 o'clock to 6 p.m. That way we can have reduced enforcement costs and we can be more business friendly. I am supportive of us having free Sundays and for us to keep the first Saturday art walk.

Johnathan Ryan HernandezItem 4

And then lastly, for us to increase our parking meters from $2 to $2.50, as well as our parking structures, I'm supportive of the increase.

Phil BacerraItem 4

THANK YOU. THANK YOU. COUNCIL MEMBER SERR. THANK YOU, MAD MAYOR. SO THE GOAL OF THIS WHOLE EXERCISE IS AS DIRECTOR GARCIA STATED WAS BECAUSE OF THE FACT THAT WE ARE UPSIDE DOWN. SOMEHOW SOME WAY WE MANAGED TO FIGURE OUT HOW TO GO INTO THE RED ON COLLECTING REVENUE. BUT HOPEFULLY THAT WILL CHANGE COME VERY SOON. SO RIGHT NOW MY ATTITUDE ABOUT THIS IS THAT THE the parking revenue should at least minimally cover the operational maintenance costs, which Director Garcia, what was that amount? Because when I saw the staff report, that number wasn't in there.

So if we were to keep the parking meters at $2 per hour.

Phil BacerraItem 16

No, no, no, no, no, the cost.

The cost. $1.5 MILLION WOULD BE THE EXPENSES ON PARKING METERS AND 2.1 MILLION IN EXPENSES FOR THE PARKING STRUCTURES.

Phil BacerraItem 16

SO ALMOST 4 MILLION. YES. PLUS THE 705,000 FOR THE CLEAN AND SAFE. THAT'S CORRECT. AND ANOTHER 60,000 FOR HOLIDAY DECORATIONS. THAT'S CORRECT. OKAY. SO IT'S QUITE A BIT OF MONEY. SO I THINK FIRST AND FOREMOST, ONE THING I DO HAVE A PROBLEM with in the presentation is just i mean planner to planner fundamentally you want to charge more to park in the premium spaces which are where on the street on the street so it's absolutely backwards to say let's charge more to get into the structures we want people in the structures because we want people to park and we want people to walk around this is not a suburban downtown you don't

Phil BacerraItem 16

get to park right in front of the front door go in get back in your car and leave you are experiencing an urban environment and you should park in a structure if possible now let's say i think someone mentioned earlier if you're just gonna go grab a cup of coffee and you're just gonna go in and out again that's where those meters are the premium because you're not there for three hours four hours you are hopefully there for a couple minutes and then you go in you get your your coffee and then off you go uh as for what to charge i i think it's i feel like we're

Phil BacerraItem 16

just kind of throwing the arrow into the the wind here because what I don't know right now for instance is I didn't see in the staff report talk of actual concrete data right we all talk about being data driven right so how many spaces are in the structures right what are our peak periods and I asked about peak periods because I look at Fullerton as one example Fullerton has free parking in their structures because they're trying to get people in there downtown but then during their peak periods which is i believe between 9 p.m and 1 a.m thursday

Phil BacerraItem 16

night friday night and saturday nights so they charge a five dollar flat fee so let's say you're using the structure in downtown fullerton by the train station you would let's say you're a commuter on thursday right so you parked in the structure on 9 a.m to take the train you're not going to be CHARGED BUT IF YOU SHOW UP 9 PM OR AFTER YOU'RE SUBJECT TO THE FLAT FEE RIGHT AND SO YOU'RE CHARGING FOR THAT PEAK PERIOD DEMAND SO I I'D ASKED STAFF EARLIER AS FAR AS PEAK PERIOD DEMAND AND WHAT I WAS TOLD AND CORRECT ME IF I GO WRONG DIRECTOR GARCIA WAS BIRCH THE BIRCH STRUCTURE

Phil BacerraItem 16

IS AT ABOUT 89 PERCENT THE SPURGEON OR FIESTA PARKING STRUCTURE IS AT 70 PERCENT AND THE MAIN STREET STRUCTURE THEY'RE ON THE MAIN AND FIFTH IS AT 55 THAT'S GREAT SO SOMETHING TELLS ME WE COULD PROBABLY DO A LITTLE BIT MORE TO ENTICE PEOPLE TO PARK OVER THERE AND WOULD THAT BE SUCH A BAD THING TO HAVE FOLKS PARKING AT MAIN AND FIFTH AND WALKING TOWARDS OTHER PARTS OF DOWNTOWN I DON'T THINK SO AND I THINK MOST OF THE BUSINESSES WOULD APPRECIATE THE FOOT TRAFFIC COMING PAST THEIR FRONT DOORS SO THE PEAK PERIOD THOUGH FOR THE BURCH STRUCTURE ACCORDING TO STAFF WAS

Phil BacerraItem 16

monday to friday from 11 a.m to 3 p.m and 6 p.m to midnight thursday to sunday so that that was interesting to me do we possibly charge something for those structures during a peak period i don't know i think that's something we should be exploring this is a workstation session so while you're making recommendations i'm hopeful that whatever comes back will be different from what you recommended uh i think the the um when it comes to the parking meters and i've expressed this in multiple means with staff i think the meters need to go i think the meters need to go

Phil BacerraItem 16

i think we need to recognize we're a young city i mean how many people do you see when you're out at a restaurant ironically and everybody's on their phone i don't care if you're 90 years old or five years old everybody's got a phone everybody's looking at their apps and at different things on their phones i think there's a convenience to utilizing the park mobile app which director garcia correct me if i'm wrong but that app is available at many of the parking meters today it is okay i was sitting outside of pops cafe a while back and uh i was like oh my goodness i

Phil BacerraItem 16

didn't bring any nickels or quarters and um i saw the the little sign underneath it that said no you can use the app to pay for the parking which was a major convenience i think though we do have to recognize that while i think overwhelming majority of folks are on their phones and utilizing technology a lot of folks or there are some folks that are still going to rely on coins i think that we can take the examples of what we've seen in other cities where you have a few key locations where you have some sort of pay station so that way that for those that are going to still use COINS, THAT THERE'S THAT OPPORTUNITY THERE AS WELL.

Phil BacerraItem 16

BUT TO HAVE THE METERS AT THE WAY WE DO, IN FACT, WHAT WAS IT, I THINK IN YOUR, I THINK IT'S IN OUR BUDGET, WHERE WE'RE PAYING CLOSE TO, WHAT WAS THE COUNT, WAS IT LIKE ALMOST A MILLION DOLLARS IN OPERATIONS COSTS FOR THE PARKING METERS? YES.

WHAT WAS THE NUMBER? IT'S 1.5 MILLION FOR PARKING METERS.

Phil BacerraItem 16

$1.5 million to go around to these antique parking meters, right? They are. They're antiques. And I think that what we need to look at is utilizing the app more and having pay stations. We can have that. We can do both of those. I think we can walk and chew gum. At least I hope so. The idea that it would take a long time to take out these meters, I think that's ridiculous. I think we could start dismantling them right away. If we're already utilizing the park mobile app, let's start looking at that. But again, I want to make sure that when we start taking down these meters, we also have

Phil BacerraItem 16

the pay stations available. So I'll just conclude right now by saying, look, my direction to staff would be just to make sure that our revenues, let's be cognizant of the fact that we want our revenues to cover the cost. Because if we don't cover the cost, there is no clean and safe downtown. town. There is no holiday decorations downtown because we're not going to be able to afford it. I forget who brought it up tonight because it's almost like we always do. We bring up the concept of measure X sunsetting. Well, when we talk about, and I think it was in the staff report, you

Phil BacerraItem 16

mentioned that we've been subsidizing downtown. Well, yeah, you know what we've been subsidizing it with? ARPA funds, the one-time funds. As in one time, now they're gone. Those are not there anymore so we can't continue to do that subsidizing so this needs to happen there's no other part of santa ana that has structures that can actually take on these costs to actually pay for these services so i think what we need to do is make sure that they can at least cover that um so i would like to ask that we make sure that they're covered um again the pay stations are kiosk in key

Phil BacerraItem 16

locations um and and the sooner you can get that back to us the better because the reason why this is before us was because of the request in the budget that was adopted where we were already showing in the red what was it 1.6 1.8 million so um those are my directions i think for us to understand whether it's two dollars an hour three dollars an hour i think it's really you need to come back to us with i think better data because you don't have that here i don't know how many spaces are in each structure i mean the the information that i was um regurgitating to you

Phil BacerraItem 16

you right now about the frequency and the occupancy was because I'd asked that prior to this meeting but my colleagues don't have that information they don't have that available and it wasn't in the staff report so I think those are the sorts of things like when you come back to us there should be some sort of justification hey we've covered the cost but to to the folks that here thank you uh businesses for coming for them they want to keep the parking low I I don't think we're going We're gonna fund a bunch of other things off this, especially from looking at the cost of operations thus far,

Phil BacerraItem 16

we're not gonna probably fund much from the revenue. So, Mr. You've used your whole time.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 16

I know.

Phil BacerraItem 16

I know. And I was the one that was been driving this thing. So I did take that lecture. Thank you.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 16

Are you done?

Phil BacerraItem 16

I'm done. Thank you.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 16

Thank you. Just to answer your question really quick. How many spaces are in Spurgeon structure 648, Birch structure 396, Main structure 364?

Valerie AmezcuaItem 18

Yes. That's correct. So I just want to make sure. So Mayor Pro Tem Vasquez.

Benjamin VazquezItem 18

Thank you so much. Thank you for that, Council Member Becerra. I would like to see an option where we don't burden the business in downtown Santa Ana where it's more balanced than having a net of $3 million. So it's like a $3 million burden after we cover all our expenses. I'd rather see something that is more, is going to be easier to take in and not come up with this extra 2.9 million that we have here, $3 million. So having the fees laid out to us where it's going to be equivalent and we pay all our

Benjamin VazquezItem 18

expenses at the end of the day, that we do support the downtown businesses, that we don't put a burden on them that we do welcome and I'm oh I'm uh I'm uh just like a council member um

Benjamin VazquezItem 18

Hernandez I'm also for a no no fees on Sunday and let the families come down let the kids come down and check out downtown Santa Ana as my family did for many years but uh let's let's take a balanced approach to the parking in downtown Santa Ana so we don't burden our people so much thank Thank you.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 18

Thank you. So I know Mayor, Council Member Fanon, I'm just gonna say something really quick. So thank you for the study, Mr. Hercie. I really appreciate it. And I know you, I believe you met with each council member and shared with everybody and with myself. So I really appreciate the information. And we had a long conversation, you, me, and Mr. Mark Morley about all of this. So, you know, as we sit up here, I just wanna remind people that, you know, and I'm always downtown as well I know men I know the business owners many of them I meet with them I chat with them sometimes we disagree sometimes we agree

Valerie AmezcuaItem 18

but at the end of the day it's you know we're gonna do what's best for the city and thank you councilman Hernandez for saying you you're also down there right I know councilman Penalosa goes I think we all do actually so yeah I think I see JJ on a regular basis once a week or every other week so but what I want to say and and I I think some of us up here say it all the time but I really want to say as we go into the budget Mr. City Manager what month will we be starting the budget discussion

Valerie AmezcuaItem 18

I know it but I want you to say next month next month in March right so if you look at the budget option one and budget option two we'll be generating revenue is that correct Mr. Garcia you that's correct and option one you're generating 2.9 and option two five million that's over five million so i just want to be clear on record the clean and safe program is 705 and change correct yes okay because you have 700k here so i don't i don't want to round off numbers i want to give the exact amount so when we're looking at the budget and you know we bring

Valerie AmezcuaItem 18

up measure x and i will not be sitting here maybe one of you or two of you will be but i i will not be here but i don't want people to go back and look and say you know they did not prepare for measure x to sunset they did not as a council and so we need to start preparing and it's and i am so supportive of the businesses downtown i meet with them i talk to them i talk to the city manager and the deputy city manager all the time about pr for them and signage and you know we're actually going to be meeting with some of them I mean so it's not about that for me what it is

Valerie AmezcuaItem 18

about is balancing our budget and generating revenue because if we were to take measure x I said if I don't want anybody to go post something on social media because I'll call you out on it if we were to go back to the voters with some we'd reduce it from 9.25 to let's say

Valerie AmezcuaItem 18

8.75 right so let's say we do that we're going to have to make up that money somewhere else that correct Mr. City Manager yes okay so we leave it at 9.75 okay that's what the voters want to do but we're going to sunset so we start having these conversations they're hard conversations they're very hard and I'm so happy to hear that during the art walk you know I see here that it's it's always full right it says on birch 89 and Councilman Becerra brought this up 89 occupancy and full on weekends and peak times. On Main, 55% occupancy,

Valerie AmezcuaItem 18

but an increase expected as Rafferty ramps up leases. Thank you, Councilman Penalosa. And it's only full on Fiesta Patrias, and you have OC Pride here, and we don't have OC Pride in the city. You know they moved to a different city, unless I'm wrong. And then Fiesta is 70% occupancy. It's full on Art Walk and Sundays during the day. So when I say that is because we have a responsibility up here to look at the budget and be fiscally responsible. And so do I want to make it difficult for downtown? No, I do not. I love the downtown and I support them 100%.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 18

But I also know that at the end of the day, and let me just throw in there, you know, we have a new president in office and he hasn't even hit his hundredth day. They say new presidents come in and the first 100 days they change everything, fix everything, clean everything, move people out, move people in, cut things and who knows. So we don't know if we're ever going to lose federal funding. Is that correct, Mr. City Manager?

Alvaro NuñezItem 18

Yeah, we don't know yet.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 18

We don't know. So and we always have to prepare as the Council and Mayor. We sit up here with the City Manager and his leadership and the staff, the City Attorney, everybody. You know, we get those emails and be prepared. So I do not want to make it difficult, but I just want to say we have to generate revenue. new we have to we've been in the red completely in the red I was not here when ARPA money was used for the downtown and many others in our city but I would have hoped you looked ahead to say what happens when ARPA money runs out right what happens and so we're having those discussions now and I

Valerie AmezcuaItem 18

really appreciate them and I am NOT pointing fingers at anybody so I hope nobody up here starts to you know talk like we're children and speak at us because nobody has the answer here but what I will say is I'm gonna support one of these options because we need to generate revenue we have to because if we don't and we go into the budget session and people want ponies and rainbows and babies and parties we don't have that kind of money we do not we We have to fill potholes, you know, sidewalks. How often does it come to us to fix sidewalks and it's $140,000 every time they come forward to fix a sidewalk?

Alvaro NuñezItem 18

How much is that? A million, actually, for the sidewalks.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 18

How much?

Alvaro NuñezItem 18

A million, that's revenue.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 18

Okay, well, I'm way off. So a million fixed potholes. I want the downtown to remain clean and safe. So yeah, we want that, right? But it comes at a cost. So I would just say, you know, I'm gonna support one of these budget options because we're going to generate revenue for the city. But I know, Mr. City Managers, many of us up here have had conversations with you to say, we need to do good things for downtown Santa Ana. And not just downtown because I serve everybody, but the restaurants down there and the businesses, we need to work with the Hispanic Chamber to get them to do some PR for us.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 18

The Chamber does work with us, so they do a good job with that. I believe so. So we need to work with Travel Santa Ana so that when, as we're doing budget one, option one or option two, we know and those businesses and restaurants and everybody downtown knows that, okay, there's a plan in place. Because our responsibility up here is to ensure our businesses can stay with us in the city. Some of them have been here for a very long time. Their businesses can stay afloat, and they're also generating revenue. They also need to generate revenue.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 18

So I go to downtown Long Beach frequently and I just use a QR code. Yes, you can record. I said that. I do. But I go downtown here too. There's a QR code and that's how you pay. Nobody uses change. Nobody uses money. So, you know, I think Councilor Becerra talked about young people or Councilor Hernandez, a generation of young people. Everybody's got their phone. I don't know about all you all, but if I'm having a cocktail in a restaurant, I don't want to have to get up after an hour and 55 minutes. Because customer awareness is right. They're out there watching.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 18

And they wait until that meter hits that timeout, and they give you a ticket. So that's another conversation about that contract. But okay. So you can just reload it on your phone. There's a way to do that so that it makes it user friendly so they don't have to. leave the restaurant or their place or wherever they're at so I'm gonna support one option either one or two here I haven't decided yet but councilman panel OSA I mean keeping councilman Becerra brought up some great points we've been in the red a long time is that correct mr. city manager yes yes

Alvaro NuñezItem 18

what yes in the red too long we've been in the red too long so we have a

Valerie AmezcuaItem 18

responsibility up here to get out of the red because we're gonna be having having conversations about the red a few times um as time is uh coming along soon so it may

Alvaro NuñezItem 18

just to clarify because I was mentioned it's not so much that the causal options again this is for your input some of the recommended items and so there's no excess money per se right regarding the the burden of the downtown in other words any revenue generated through the parking parking is shared citywide. So obviously one, we do want to maintain the service in the downtown, right? We think the downtown is a heavy pedestrian district, the special sidewalk sales almost on a monthly two to three a month, right? So it's a heavy transit, heavy pedestrian

Alvaro NuñezItem 18

traffic area. So we obviously need to pay attention to make sure it's clean and attractive, That's a minimum mandatory from our perspective, but I just want to clarify that that any Revenue from our parking is shared citywide also right in other words for programming for other events It's not just here's the minimum to cover. Here's the other perspective and so that's the key, right? How do we make sure that we keep maintain certain aspects clean? We talk about all the time, right? Nobody wants to go to structure. That's dirty. That's not lighted. That's not being repaired because we don't have the revenue

Alvaro NuñezItem 18

you right so those are the key components and I really appreciate you sharing that

Valerie AmezcuaItem 18

that the money the revenue that is generated is for citywide it is city wide you will use some for downtown and I think we should we should have better signage downtown we should have great lighting it should be attractive you know when you go to certain downtown areas you know you're in their downtown area it's it's lit up it's absolutely cool to go there and hang out and so that's what i would like our downtown to look like and it used to and i want us to not go back there but i want us to be better for the merchants for the business owners and for those of us that

Valerie AmezcuaItem 18

go down there and enjoy downtown so thank you for sharing that it is good that revenue would be used city wide so i just want to say it is a difficult conversation you know i know we'd like like to do free every day, you know, but I support the free first Saturday art walk. And again, I haven't decided option one or option two, but I just want to make sure that people understand that, you know, even if it wasn't, even if Measure X wasn't on the table, we as a city have to generate revenue. We have to. We have to generate revenue to pay for things that we do, and especially our Clean and Safe

Valerie AmezcuaItem 18

program, which is not, it's not cheap, right? we want we want when i walk downtown it's always clean it looks good um so i want to keep that so that's all i'm going to say right now and i just wanted people to know how many parking spaces we do have and counseling for sarah brought it up and thank you for bringing it up councilman becerra and um it's great to see that birch is 89 occupancy and full on weekends and peak times

Valerie AmezcuaItem 18

It's great. And Fiesta, 70%. And it's full on Art Walk and Sundays during the day. And then Main Street. So I just want people to know that. So thank you very much. I see any, Mayor, Council Member Fatton, please.

Thai Viet PhanItem 18

Thank you. Director Garcia, I'm not sure if you answered Councilmember Becerra's question as to why the meters are at $2 and the structures are being proposed at $3. Is it just to keep it generally in line with the rate study that we saw in comparison to other cities?

That's correct.

Thai Viet PhanItem 18

Okay, thank you. Because I do agree with Councilmember Becerra that meters are prime parking, right? Right, and not everybody who goes to a meter is gonna be there for two hours. They might be there for 15 minutes, pay a dollar, pay 50 cents, because they're doing a pickup, a coffee pickup, a food pickup, et cetera. So I would actually be interested in seeing that switched, potentially, or an analysis of what that would look like. For us, in full agreement with removing the coins, we don't need it, we shouldn't have it, we need to go to the app, whether it's individual stands, like you've discussed before,

Thai Viet PhanItem 18

or I think the little parking station, the little pay stations can be a little annoying because you have to walk around looking for them, but I'll leave it to staff to figure out the best way to handle that. We should be digital, yes, exactly. QR codes, digital app, whatever. I will leave it up to staff to figure that out. I am not supportive of free First Saturday Art Walk. Why would we make it free when it is the busiest time of the month? If we are going to generate revenue, we should capitalize on the fact that it is one of the largest programs well publicized we have a lot of visitors from inside and outside the city who are

Thai Viet PhanItem 18

gonna be interested in coming to downtown and spending time and money there I think that that's like giving food away for free if you're a restaurant during dinnertime I don't understand why we would do that so I would like to remove that I think the first hour is fine during the day but again if If evenings and weekends are our busiest times, especially on Sundays, why would we be doing any type of free activity at that time? Maybe the first hour, again, I'll leave it to you to do that analysis, but I'd like to see what that looks like.

Thai Viet PhanItem 18

Option one looks generally fine, but again, I don't support the free for Saturdays. and option two, it looks a little bit topsy-turvy because the parking meters and parking structures are backwards, in my opinion. So I'd like to see those come back to us. And I guess the other thing, I want some clarification on, this might be an answer for Mr. City Manager, the clean and safe program is specific to downtown, right? Do we have any other targeted clean and safe programs at all in the city anywhere else?

Alvaro NuñezItem 18

No. Okay.

Thai Viet PhanItem 18

Okay. Do we have holiday decorations being paid for or spent anywhere else in the city?

Alvaro NuñezItem 18

No.

Thai Viet PhanItem 18

All right. So what I'm hearing is we are investing in our downtown to ensure that it's vibrant, it's beautiful. We have subsidized the businesses for four years. And I think that it's time for us to not just come back, but also make sure we find ways to bring in money for this budget cliff that we are looking at. that I'm not fully supportive of either options today, but I would like to see the analysis based on the comments that I've made as well as what my colleagues made. And I would like to see that when we come back, we see options for the changes in meters, that we see, I guess, analyses based on how full it is

Thai Viet PhanItem 18

for Friday, Saturday, Sunday, et cetera. I think a breakdown of that would be very helpful. and then finally I'd like to see us no actually that was it thank you so I'm

Valerie AmezcuaItem 18

just gonna make another comment since come from the Sarah took eight minutes don't I'm just kidding I know so on the very best versus the backwards as options for increase in fund revenue the ad a improvements in Alva elevator replacement I think that is very important when I'm down there we see people that are walking all the way to the top floor nobody wants to get on that elevator so i'm glad that we hopefully will be generating some revenue to replace that and to make some structure repairs also facility improvements and you gave an example of dog trash containers i

Valerie AmezcuaItem 18

think that's really important because everybody's walking down there with their dogs right and so we want to we want to take care of that and i appreciate council member fanning's comments about the information that no other area in the city gets Christmas decorations or clean and safe programs. But I'm just going to push back a little bit and even if we disagree we still can walk away and talk and laugh.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 18

is that nobody in this city no business area had to go through what downtown did and currently still does with the streetcar no other area in this city for four miles and I said on those CTA aboard and they're coming next month to make a presentation because I asked them to and thank you mr. city managers I know you're putting them on the agenda the streetcar is not going to be done until 2026 early 20 they say early 2026 and I work with them and they give me information they give it they make it public and so the last meeting they're

Valerie AmezcuaItem 18

very public about the timeline however I just want to say no other area in the city went through what they went through council be Sarah has a lot of experience in Los Angeles I think council Sarah correct me if I'm wrong but when they did Metro did they not give the businesses lots of money that

Phil BacerraItem 18

was a discussion we had up here and I think all of us were supportive of doing that but we're also asking OCTA to contribute because it was their contractor that was wreaking havoc on our downtown and I wasn't here then so

Valerie AmezcuaItem 18

yes you guys were having those conversations and so I just want to say that I don't ever want anybody to forget for four miles that whoever was out up here agreed to this from the train station to harbor boulevard in garden grove it's costing an obnoxious amount of money but the businesses downtown suffered and continue to suffer so i'm supportive of the clean and safe program i'm supportive of the holiday decorations i'd like like more holiday decorations, you know, but I just want to be clear that, you know, for me,

Valerie AmezcuaItem 18

the options is really the pricing of the parking meters and the parking structures, but I don't want to take anything away from them. If anything, I want more signage, not just downtown, but I want it throughout the city. Down Main Street, there's restaurants. Down Bristol, you know, so which related will, the related project will hopefully take care of some of those areas down Bristol but I don't know I don't want any and I think anybody up here will ever forget or the people who are downtown will never forget what they've had to go through during all this construction for four miles four

Valerie AmezcuaItem 18

miles I tattooed on my forehead for four miles so that is that is all I'll say and any other comments before we end councilmember lopez yes thank you um city manager we've talked

Jessie LopezItem 18

about the laz contract before and you said you were gonna provide an update do you have an update

Jessie LopezItem 18

not for this agenda item no do you have an update in general as far as the contract goes we provide

Alvaro NuñezItem 18

an update in emails i can research and give you yeah can you read that re-up that email for us right i think we brought us a couple of the contract but if not we'll do it again

Jessie LopezItem 18

yeah please just so that we um are better informed because as you just heard we continue to hear um we continue to receive comment comment from our business partners in the downtown area about how unhappy they are with the contract and so for us it's imperative that we also relate to our business partners how this is going to move forward right and so it's been quite some time so I'm looking forward to receiving that email again. Thank you. So a couple comments. I will say that also additionally what I want the city or your team to do is work with I would say maybe the private businesses in the

Jessie LopezItem 18

area that are around the downtown area. I was at Art Walk and I was really upset because I saw a car being towed right and part of that is because so many people come into our city during Art Walk and so when this is the experience that people from outside the city and even our own constituents are having where they're now having to pay hundreds of dollars to take their car out of a tow shop that we have here in the city that is not the experience that I want consumers to have and and that is not the impression that I want shoppers to to have here with our downtown. So I think I would like to see if perhaps they're willing

Jessie LopezItem 18

to have entertain this conversation with your team to figure out if perhaps on one night out of the month, which is our walk, if they're willing to also allow other people, you know, and they can subcontract that lots like other businesses do at a reasonable rate so that consumers here are not experiencing that very negative impact impact of having to pay hundreds of dollars to take their car out of the impound facilities here in the city. But I just wanted to relay that because that's something that I've seen in the downtown area. I would be supportive of free Sundays.

Jessie LopezItem 19

I'm not necessarily supportive of any option that I'm seeing here now. I know that my meeting is upcoming with the economic development staff, so I'm happy to actually brainstorm about some of the things I'm hearing or what I think would work of course staff can decide what you want to present to the council but I think I'm happy to also brainstorm alongside staff to see what's gonna you know what's gonna help me figure out what path I want to support moving forward I would be supportive of making sure that during art walk we're not necessarily charging again not only our residents but the creatives of the city

Jessie LopezItem 19

that help bring in hundreds of dollars. And I think it would incentivize more people to come into the downtown to experience Art Walk because then they wouldn't be burdened by the parking costs or the fact that they're having to move every other hour or move out of the parking structures, et cetera. The other thing I will agree with is getting rid of the meters, especially in the neighborhoods like the Willard neighborhood. I don't think that our constituents should be subjected to paying meter fees when we know that we have a massive parking issue in the city and the parking study is not going to come back

Jessie LopezItem 19

to us till later this year and so I think that until we provide actual solutions to this massive issue happening all across the city we should not be making parking harder for our constituents and so again removing them from the residential areas is what is something that I would be supportive of

Jessie LopezItem 19

Additionally, let's see.

Jessie LopezItem 19

Additionally, I do agree that we need to start preparing for ultimately, you know, the financial situation that we've been talking about for many years here. From the dais, I think that we need to start looking at every expenditure, we need to start recognizing, you know, and many of our constituents are gonna ask, are we a top heavy organization really because it's uh i think that using one-time dollars for these types of debts have not proven to be sustainable right and so this is why we're continuously having this conversation because we're trying to figure out how do we move away

Jessie LopezItem 19

from being further in debt and if i'm not mistaken i think one of the items we approved today was improvements to some of the parking structures so I'm actually very happy to see that and I also understand that we must get out of debt that we have currently right now and so again we're gonna have to look at every expenditure in the budget to come up with that or to make up for the 1.5 million I'm pretty confident that a couple things could be crossed out to make up for the 1.5 million dollars because it is a massive dollar amount but it's not as big as other I think other debts that the city is holding and again I'm happy to

Jessie LopezItem 19

brainstorm with staff I have an upcoming meeting with you all to figure out what kind of options are gonna I think work for for me and and again I think what I said was Sunday's art walk free I'll reread that email once you forward it to me and then I also would not be opposed to the 6 p.m. request of making making sure that people can stop by a coffee shop and not have to be worried if they're going to get ticketed in that five minute period. Because I do think that that's an important experience of doing business in the city. So thank you.

Jessie LopezItem 19

Councillor Becerra.

Phil BacerraItem 19

Two quick questions. Number one, when will this item come back to us?

30 days. 30 days. Yeah. March 18th.

Phil BacerraItem 19

so you guys are going to have all that data bring it back in 30 days what's so because we were

Alvaro NuñezItem 19

working on it because this is important right it's significant so we clearly had at least six you know and i know have one-on-one meetings that was the whole point of having those one-on-one meetings so we can be better prepared to discuss in public and receive that type of direction but the reality

Phil BacerraItem 19

is that's that is the key we have to be ready good and my last question is um how much revenue revenue did places outside of downtown Santa Ana receive from the parking structures and the meters in the last couple years no they don't it's easy we haven't received any right because we haven't we lost you guys have been in the right so my point being is when we talk about generating revenue that could benefit the whole city that's amazing as the mayor likes to say unicorns and gumdrops and all the things that's a beautiful Vision when the parking structures can generate

Phil BacerraItem 19

that much revenue without hurting the businesses downtown but to be clear and i don't want to set the bar too low but i'd be happy if we just were in the black i understood customer but that is the

Alvaro NuñezItem 19

key though right because again we'll provide the contract for example for the parking enforcement right and there is no easy way to make parking enforcement fun right that's that's what they we hired them and so the idea is to we want to cancel the contract obviously there's to be some some changes that we can take to bring them in-house. Obviously there's benefits. But my response was more to clarify the record because I don't want to have this notion out there that somehow the parking revenue from the downtown parking is only for the downtown folks, right? That goes into the general fund and we solicit benefits throughout.

Alvaro NuñezItem 19

But to answer your question, no, they haven't been because we have been in the red.

Phil BacerraItem 19

I just I mean and I appreciate you saying that yes it does go into the general fund but you have to

Alvaro NuñezItem 19

have a certain amount before you can spread the wealth and again my my clarification on that is to provide context as we discuss measure x and other savings I do want to point out though that council member Lopez does present a pretty interesting aspect regarding the parking in the wheeler area and I think that should be probably a key discussion we get consensus what would it take to move the meters from the neighborhoods and what's the impact given that there is a concern especially willard one of the most impacted one of the most dense neighborhoods right so that should

Alvaro NuñezItem 19

be a consideration that should be one of our options because i don't think anybody has mentioned that prior as far as moving the meters in a key residential component i would support removing the meters from willard and rb there you go so that's that's the key so then we've received the options of the both with executive director of um community development his team so they understand what are the meters that we remove in Willard that's the neighborhood they're no longer impacted you just focus on the commercial materials or commercial

Johnathan Ryan HernandezItem 19

streets thank you madam mayor hearing comments here from the Dyson I support the the mayor on removing the parking meters in the Willard neighborhood I think that it's it's a good opportunity for us to move away from that and for us to focus in the downtown in the structures and the meters that we have there could you clarify mr city manager under the current ordinance that we have to date right now does it read that the parking meter revenue is spent back in the zone that it is generated from

Johnathan Ryan HernandezItem 19

the parking meters yes i've been the parking structures so in terms of the revenue that is being generated through the parking meters could you give us some clarity on where is that that that those money is going to be spent?

Alvaro NuñezItem 19

Ask again?

Johnathan Ryan HernandezItem 19

Say that again?

Alvaro NuñezItem 19

Ask me again?

Johnathan Ryan HernandezItem 19

So under this current ordinance that we have for the parking meters, what is currently in the ordinance as far as money's generated, where is it to be spent?

Johnathan Ryan HernandezItem 19

So with the parking meters, the funds that we have, they're under the ordinance. Does it force us to spend these monies exclusively in the downtown because I I believe that that is what the current ordinance reads

Johnathan Ryan HernandezItem 19

so I think it's important we have some clarification on the parking meters

Johnathan Ryan HernandezItem 19

because in working with some of the businesses recently I sat down with them I take I took a look at our ordinance I worked with a couple of our businesses

Alvaro NuñezItem 19

that have been in the downtown for 15 plus years so again so because we ask right it is to be in the parking meter district right and so as the council member Lopez suggested right it doesn't just for the downtown you have parking on north on North Main for example there's some of in French French Park and in Willard so that was us that's what's clarifying in in the parking structure which is a little bit different there's more of a general fund component that makes sense and that and so I made that to clarify because that's the key right that's important there's some is nowhere that's not just the

Johnathan Ryan HernandezItem 19

downtown of course so the parking structures is general fund revenue and then we have for the parking meters and ordinance where that that revenue that's being generated is to be spent back in the zone is that correct your mics not working parking meter district so that would be downtown santa ana as the parking meter district that revenue that's being generated is to be spent in that same zone correct

Alvaro NuñezItem 19

again parking meter district so there's parking meters on north main not just that's no longer the downtown there's parking meters in french park that's no longer the downtown and there's

Johnathan Ryan HernandezItem 19

parking meters at willard no longer the downtown okay wonderful and just so i can be clear on on council considerations that I wanted to support. I am supporting the parking hours changing from 10 o'clock p.m. to six o'clock p.m. I'm supporting us simplifying our meter signage. I'm supportive of us transitioning to electric, the QR codes, so that way we can reduce some costs there, getting rid of some of those meters. I'm supportive of free parking on Sundays with no enforcement at our structures. Supportive of free parking during the art walk so that we can encourage people to spend their money in the downtown.

Johnathan Ryan HernandezItem 19

I am supportive of a parking meter fund committee. I saw that we had one of our businesses mention that today. I think that would be great for the downtown businesses and stakeholders to have a seat at the table. And in terms of the hours of operation, the structures operating 24-7 as we regularly have them, meters, as I shared, 8 o'clock to 6 p.m. the rates i am supportive of increasing by 50 cents at the structure going from 150 to two dollars per hour in terms of the meters going from two dollars to 250 per hour in terms of the reservations monthly key cards i am in favor of increasing from 50 to 85 i'm in favor of

Johnathan Ryan HernandezItem 19

increasing the monthly key cards in terms of reserved key cards from 60 to 95. i'm supportive I'm supportive of keeping the overnight key cards at 120. In terms of the grace period, I'm supportive of the first hour free parking at structures only. First Saturday, free parking all day at structures, and free parking every Sunday at structures. And based off the presentation that was sent to us about a week ago, this was considered budget option three, which could generate us over $1.1 million. so I would like to see staff bring back an analysis that reflects some of this

Johnathan Ryan HernandezItem 19

direction thank you mr. city manager and that'll conclude my questions today

Valerie AmezcuaItem 19

thank you councilman Hernandez and I'm gonna let councilman panel those of closer really quick mr. city manager mr. Garcia I am in favor of option one and so when you bring back the report and study please include that and again the the cost to upgrade the elevator, the cost for ADA. Also, you may want to bring it back as a different agenda item, as Council Member Lopez asked for the contract with, what is it, LAZ? LAZ. Chief, if we can have that, so we can take a look at that as well. And then a discussion again about a committee.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 19

Thank you, Councilman, for recommending that. I just, I can't see that because then people start to say it's our money our money our money and then I think mr. city manager you just talked about how the revenue is for the entire city but I'm sure everybody would agree up here that we want to take care of downtown we want beautiful lighting we want it clean we want it safe we want the trash bags for our dogs we want all those things that they're asking and that the mr. Garcia has shared with us today because again they've been to they've just suffered a

Valerie AmezcuaItem 19

lot so I do encourage us to really look at what they need and I know we'll be meeting with them so I look forward to hearing from them as well but we have to generate some revenue and and that's what that's what hopefully we're going to be doing here councilman panelist after you speak we'll go on to the next

David PenalozaItem 19

item thank you Thank You mayor Mascua Thank You city staff for this presentation for the work you've been doing towards this i am supportive of seeing uh us come back with probably budget option two to see how we could best increase the revenue and get out of the red uh in our parking structures it's time we come to the realization that like i've said many times before from the styles many of the decisions that we put forth need to be sustainable and for years this has not been sustainable and we need to to take a hard look and reassess I am supportive of moving towards charging for Art Walk Saturdays for for

David PenalozaItem 19

Sundays because before people would point to the City of Orange and say look the City of Orange they have a thriving downtown because of their free parking well guess what the City of Orange is moving towards paid parking because it's not sustainable we have city assets that we need to maintain we need elevators we need to repair we have many upgrades that need to happen and there's no money to pay for it so how do you pay for it by charging for parking i think i was one of the few that was supportive of keeping the meters and that was because our executive director of of cda mentioned

David PenalozaItem 19

that 50 of the revenue comes from coins um that we generate so i was you know what have all of the above i i'm i was i'm supportive of having all of the above uh of options the qr code the app the the coins, the tap, I even mentioned if I know people at Whole Foods pay with their hand. If they want to pay with their hand, pay with your hand. But whatever option we could give people to pay, I think the more the merrier. But if coins is a burden on staff and cost, then yeah, let's eliminate it. As far as the Willard neighborhood goes, I'm supportive of removing those parking meters,

David PenalozaItem 19

parking meters, but I like to first take a look at why those parking meters were added in the first place, because I know there's a lot of businesses and schools and office buildings in the area, and I could, I wasn't here, but I could imagine that way back when, Willard residents were like, hey, there's nowhere to park because businesses, the employees have taken over our neighborhood. Can we do something about it? And now, I imagine that's what happened. I could take a wild guess and probably suspect that that is what happened so if we could find out why we added parking meters in the willard neighborhood to

David PenalozaItem 19

begin with i think that would give me a better uh understanding of how to move forward but i'm overall supportive of removing those parking meters if they're no longer needed as far as the

David PenalozaItem 19

let's see there was a couple other things the parking meter and parking structure rates I do believe they should be if not equal just because the parking meters are considered prime parking locations so why they would be less than the parking structures I'm trying to understand and that that is it for me mayor I hope that we come back with various options I do want to see what as part of the study study Mike I'm at executive director Garcia excuse me we see what a peak calendar looks like when it comes to rates if we see that you know summer

David PenalozaItem 19

months are super super busy maybe we charge a dollar more during the summer months and a dollar less during the winter months or if it's raining maybe we we look at hey Parkins a dollar today because it's raining I think the parking rate should be able to fluctuate throughout the year depending on how busy or how not busy the the downtown is i think that's something that we should look at to consider and those are are my comments madam mayor i'm overall supportive of most of everything that my colleagues said except for the free days i think at this day and age i mean we have to to move away from that knowing

David PenalozaItem 19

that we need to be able to sustain these parking structures and that's it thank you madam mayor

Valerie AmezcuaItem 19

thank you mr. city manager you sure you want to bring this back in just 30 days and it sounds like you have a little bit more work to do what do you have to

Alvaro NuñezItem 19

we're asking for more things it's understood mayor and again a door respect to the mayor city constant to my staff we have to they said we're at we have to make those kind of terminations where we cease it's kind of the detective questions being asked why why is park meter parking more expensive and the destruction when it's prime good questions right if you could look at we look we have the slide of the compare we look at your PowerPoint you see this comparable to other cities right we talked about orange the last stab report I saw from City of Orange and went from zero to I think a dollar twenty five in

Alvaro NuñezItem 19

you know I think parking for for the city and then on the street a dollar $50. So again, they weren't there a year ago, two years ago, three years. So I say that's a comparison and I'm not exactly sure, but I'm just saying because this is the level of discussion, we can be a little bit freer with our discussion. That's the key, right? What is it about us in the past that, whether by tradition or practice, right, we show that this is why we've always done it this way and how do we get here? Because nine out of ten times the questions we get asked is we look at our staff and say, why did we do this?

Alvaro NuñezItem 19

like you know will it was perfect sample there were businesses and and we built in the 80s a lot of those apartments and and so forth so there's an understanding to that but if we're gonna have that this policy discussion then this is the perfect time to do it but we talk about cost we talk about meter parking districts right and we say yes the downtown is the traditional heart of the city right that's we call it the kayak water oh and it's what we love and we come and and we see it right there's there's items there for adults you know and there's

Alvaro NuñezItem 19

items for the you know younger younger folks but that's the key right how do we do it so that we can sustain that's when you know customer was sort of asked the question or how did what did we generate citywide well we can't generate for the downtown we can't generate citywide and i think that's the perspective that we put out there because i think that's the um kind of presentation and options and the way we speak as we approach this new position right this is the hard cause we have to make when we say we talk about burden what does burden mean and and what does it mean we invest a little bit more in

Alvaro NuñezItem 19

the heart of Santa Ana and what that means at Civic Center and so that's the key how do we sustain the progress that we think they're important thank you for

Valerie AmezcuaItem 19

that mr. city manager so it sounds like you're good with 30 days we have to be all right I like that I think well like that good for 30 days and Thank You councilman panalosa for bringing up the issue of willard how did we get there um you know i don't know the history you don't know the history just like bristol right we don't know why it's been 30 years um but i gotta say it i always have to throw that out there so we want to know the history how many 37 i'm sorry 37 years okay so we want to know the history behind willard and you know come up

Valerie AmezcuaItem 19

for come up with a solution for that neighborhood as well so okay this item will come back in 30 days we're good all right we're gonna move on now to city manager comments you have any mr. city man no comment today too much comments already you said more tonight than I think you've ever said in a council meeting that's good all right okay let's go to councilmember comments councilman Bessara please thank you

Phil BacerraItem 19

THANK YOU, MADAM MAYOR. SO ON MARCH 1ST, SATURDAY, MARCH 1ST, I'LL BE HOSTING MY MONTHLY COMMUNITY OFFICE HOURS. THIS MONTH I'LL BE HOSTING THEM AT ADAMS PARK OVER IN WARD FOUR. THEY'LL BE ON GREAT AND WARNER.

Phil BacerraItem 19

AN ITEM THAT I WANTED TO BRING UP TONIGHT, AND IT'S FRUSTRATING THAT WE HAVE TO BRING THIS UP. but so I had quite a few residents send me a clip of Mayor Pro Tem Vasquez calling for SAUSD to balance their budget by reducing their police force and why does that frustrate me I mean SAUSD is gonna do what SAUSD does and we're seeing what what's happening over there and it's awful but to come in in a meeting before and talk about how you're working with the police and you want to you know do stuff with the police and then go to another agency and basically say you want to get

Phil BacerraItem 19

rid of them and that's been a constant theme and so it's just it's frustrating to hear you say that i think it's reckless i think it's irresponsible to keep advocating whether it's here whether it's over there for less police i mean garden grove unified they come to santa ana pd to use our officers as sros san anna unified is woefully woefully in a deficit when it comes to the number of officers that they have on their campuses. They could use more, not less, and I think most parents would think that we could use more, not less officers. So rather than tonight continue that chorus of

Phil BacerraItem 19

berating the police, asking to abolish the police as some folks do up here, I wanted to actually take this opportunity to congratulate the young men and women of our Santa Ana Police Explorers who graduated recently from the OC Law Enforcement Explorers Advisors Association Academy. Martin Baltazar, Evan Martinez, Sophia Alvarez, Dulce de Los Angeles, and Fernando Fuentes. Most of them were either squad leaders or came through our city's PAL program. So I'm proud of the fact that they were kicking so much butt in a county-wide academy like that. So congratulations Congratulations to them.

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In conclusion, and it's not normally for good children like me to ask this, so bear with me, but I would like to ask that we adjourn tonight's meeting in the memory of Santa Ana High School alumnus and two-time first-team All-American linebacker at UCLA, Don Mumaw. Don graduated from Santa Ana High School in 1948. He went on to play at UCLA where his number 80 was retired. retired. He was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame in 1973 and the UCLA Athletics Hall of Fame in its inaugural year of 1984. After football, Don became a Presbyterian

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minister and he gave the invocation at Ronald Reagan's inauguration as governor of California in both 1967 and 1971, and then again at President Reagan's 1981 and 1985 presidential inaugurations. And with all those accomplishments, as the saying goes, thankfully we can all say, once a saint, always a saint. So I hope we remember him and his family tonight. And with that, good night, everybody.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 19

Thank you. Councilman Hanalosa.

David PenalozaItem 19

Thank you, Madam Mayor. My comments are brief. I was able to travel to Sacramento last week as chairman of the toll roads and be there for the Mobility 21 conference and summit reception. and just wanted to say that I had about 20 seconds of face time with the Secretary of Transportation for the state of California and use those 20 seconds to just plug our city very hard when it comes to transportation needs and so fortunate enough to do that so mr. city manager I will be reaching out to you to schedule something with that office because I know that there was a

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preference on on what the different numerous projects came back to Bristol Street and regarding more of the of the bigger projects that we're seeing throughout the the state that we're gonna need a lot of not throughout the state throughout the city that we're gonna need more funding for like the underpass on Santa Ana Boulevard I know that's coming and I know that's not funded all the way so there was a brief conversation there regarding that so let me know when we could do that those are my comments madam mayor thank you thank you mayor pro temp

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hello i'm ben vasquez ben coming vasquez high school teacher of 21 years i've been teaching at valley for the last 16 years my sister is a counselor at century and my brother is a special needs teacher with adult transition his daughter my niece is two three years in as a special educator his other daughter's educator out in corona narco my fiance is also an educator at corona narco my family is invested in education in santa ana we have dedicated our lives to supporting and when i went to give my speech

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at the school board my disappointment was in the school district and association leadership not meeting over impending layoffs that we have in coming in Santa Ana and I say impending because we have lost we've known we've lost 6,000 students since 2021 and not to charter schools does that in 2021 charter schools had 10 of the student population now they have seven percent so they're they're not leaving their charter schools they're leaving the city so they have left and we lost six thousand and then our district uh decide i thought it was a

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good idea to hire over hire staff post covid to support children and their social emotional well-being that was a good thing uh the district dropped the ball and didn't hire him as temporary TEACHERS, MANY THOUGHT THEY WOULD BE STAYING ON. WHEN ASKED THE LEADERSHIP ABOUT IMPEACHING RIFTS, OUR ASSOCIATION LEADERSHIP TOLD US THAT IT WAS IMPOSSIBLE, NOT IT WAS IMPOSSIBLE, THAT THE DISTRICT WAS TOO INCOMPETENT TO HANDLE THAT MANY RIFTS, AND THAT THEY DIDN'T HAVE A CONVERSATION ABOUT RIFTS. AND I'M LIKE, BUT WE ASKED YOU AT A MEETING LAST

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OCTOBER, AND NOW YOU'RE SAYING THAT WE'RE NOT not having these risks. It's really sad for our leadership to drop the ball, but also the district office to drop the ball. And I did call on cuts across the board on anything outside of counselors, leave alone the certified staff and teachers, and where we can figure out how to save money and come together and come up with a plan to save those jobs i am want to keep as many jobs as possible

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but as i've laid out we've lost many many uh students and then we we did over hire so um i'll post up my speech if anybody wants to see it on my social media we can have comments there as much as you uh like that being said we are having an event on uh february 22nd at the the Southwest Senior Center. We're gonna do some black history event from 11 a.m. to 2.30 p.m. Me and Councilmember Hernandez, along with Santa Ana Active Streets, are gonna put it together. My office is supporting Dumpster Days across Ward Two, and we'll be working with the neighborhood associations,

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and those that are not meeting, we're gonna reach out and see who we can support with Dumpster Days there. If anybody has any questions of anything I have said, feel free to come and see me. I've been supported by all my family members, by my school site and my peers of the things I have said at the school board meeting. So if anybody wants any conversation, I am open to it. Thank you. Councilman Hernandez.

Johnathan Ryan HernandezItem 19

Thank you, Madam Mayor. I want to begin by just telling the public that this Black History Month I had the honor of working with my colleagues to celebrate the Black History Parade that took place in Anaheim. This parade began in Santa Ana off of Ward 5 off of Willits and Raitt Street 45 years ago. And on February 22nd I have the honor of working with Mayor Pro Tem Vasquez on hosting a Black History event that will take place at the Southwest Senior Senior Center off of Center and McFadden Street in Santa Ana. The intersection of Jerome Park, you can meet us there at 11 o'clock AM, where you will

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be able to take part in a two-mile walk and talk event with Santa Ana's leaders. The event will begin at 11 AM. There will be a check-in. The leaders that will be there are Dorothy Mulkey, who challenged Proposition 14, which was unfortunately redlining many families across California. Daniel Michael Lynham, the founder of the Orange County Black Panther chapter. And last but not least is Duane Shipp, whose mother, Helen Marie Shipp, started the Black History Parade 45 years ago in Santa Ana. There will also be free food provided by Santa Ana Reds, as well as Gus's Fried Chicken, providing some sweet tea.

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There will be some music as well. We encourage our neighbors to just RSVP and visit Santa Ana Active Streets or Orange County Heritage Council or the respective council members that are involved so that you can register. I also want to speak to the adverse impacts on education that we recently saw at the school board. Any decision to fire teachers, to fire counselors, to fire staff who are critical in developing these children is going to hurt Santa Ana. Recently, we learned of 280 plus teachers being laid off.

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Many of those educators work in Ward 5 and serve families in Ward 5. And so I just want to be public in my opposition of the decision to fire teachers and counselors. I understand that this was a decision that was very difficult to make, but it should have been a balanced one. Anytime that decisions are made on the backs of workers and we're dismantling our public education system by firing teachers and counselors in a city where children are desperately in need of these services. In order for us to have a higher attainment of success in academic spaces, we need to invest in these spaces.

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And so I just want to stand in solidarity with those educators and also urge the school board to rethink their decisions and that any attack on education, an attack on workers, is an attack on children and families. And if we're going to be pro-working families, we have to be pro-educator. We have to be pro-counselor. We have to be pro-child. And that means those who are elected need to make bold decisions. So my call to them is please consider children and families when you're governing. Because in Santa Ana, this is a city where children unfortunately have seen a lack of investment.

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And in a city where education first is our motto, I ask that the school district reconsider how they are investing in education and putting it first. And those will conclude my comments. Thank you.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 19

Thank you. I'm going to share my comments and then Councilmember Phan is going to close out the meeting. First of all, I want to announce that the City of Santa Ana has been selected as the only city in California to receive a new public arts installation from the International Arts organization mural mosaic as part of its winter 2025 tour so congratulations and thank you to all the staff that did the hard work really appreciate is that you go beyond thank you thank you your people so so thank you mr. Hawk Scott really appreciate into all the city staff that's that's a great thing that

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we're gonna have this here second of all I hosted with the chamber third annual Mayor's Prayer Breakfast where over 400 people attended. Thank you to the city staff that attended and they were able to hear from Jennifer Friend who's the CEO of Project Hope Alliance. She shared her inspiring message of being a motel child and now being the CEO of Project Hope Alliance and they do phenomenal work with with our children so I want to I want to thank her. I also want to invite everyone to my very first coffee with the mayor on this Saturday February

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22nd at historical French Park from 10 to 12 so I hope to see you there come on down and get your calendar because I have a whole bunch of them to give out mr. city manager is going to stand there and give them out since he didn't want them I'm kidding I'm kidding so come on down on Saturday for coffee with the mayor and the staff will be there to answer your questions I know there's some concerns that you know people will share and then lastly I just want to say you know thank you councilman Hernandez for your comments about the school district and standing in solidarity with them and as councilman

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Penalosa and I have been there with them as well you know we can't deflect about we make comments we own them up here I have people posting videos about me all the time and I'm cool with that because it comes out I said I have no problem with it you know that I you know I said because I mean it there was a comment about laying off school police and we we can't do that our school since I sat on that school board students have brought guns to school teachers have been assaulted students have been

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sexually assaulted on campus sexually assaulted in a classroom they've had active shooter calls I mean the list goes on and on I could sit up here for hours and tell you about all the things that I know about Santa Ana Unified for the eight years that I sat there some years were good some years were challenging and how we always had to call they had to call Santa Ana PD on a regular basis to assist them if Santa Ana Unified disbands their school police and they start asking the city to assist them when there is a call they will go go bankrupt I'll guarantee you that because if they're going to call the

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chief and say we need help can you send ten officers to a high school because we got an active shooter called now we're going to bill you as a city we're going to build them for the time I would highly recommend that we're going to build them therefore they're going to have to pay the city so no we do not want to disband school police they have relationships with students they do a great job and I think there's only 17 18 of them if I'm wrong on the number somebody please correct me but they used to be 35 of them and now there's very few officers there and in our school district needs to have that there and to

Valerie AmezcuaItem 19

protect not only the students but our staff and our families and so you know let's just say what we admit what we said we said lay off school police you know when the school districts looking at things it affects all of us even I'm sure everybody up here in the council has had contact with constituents that have said how can you help us because I know that they have called me how can you help us what is happening there what can you do I can't tell the school district what to do but I can support you and that's why I was out there with councilman Penaloza to support them you know they want to give a raise to the

Valerie AmezcuaItem 19

superintendent who already makes over four hundred and fifty thousand dollars a year let's talk about comparing his income to the families that live in our city they have lawyers many many many lawyers as they need them they need them because of all the lawsuits lots of executive directors and lots of directors so they're very top heavy that's my humble opinion and it doesn't matter to me you know if you come from a family of this i come from a family of lawyers gang members guys that have been in my family in prison i'm not ashamed to where I come from educators professors law enforcement family who work for Homeland Security

Valerie AmezcuaItem 19

I can I can give you my resume and my family too that is not what's important actions speak louder than words if I was to stand up here and say defund make sure if you record me you get the whole thing defund the police you don't ever hear me saying that never will you hear me say that never because when I call 9-1-1 I want someone to come and so do all of you I don't care how much you say up here oh whatever just that and chick or fat about police when you call 9-1-1 you want them to come you want them to come the complaints that I get from constituencies mayor they don't come

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fast enough I'm sorry we're short officers I wish I can hire 500 of them and I know somebody will post that 500 of them for a city our size because because we're 27 square miles. Census will tell you we're 310,000 people. We know that's not accurate. We're almost at 400,000 people, I'll bet you. So, you know, when you get up here and you say, well, I didn't mean this, I meant that. No, what you said was to fund the school police. That's a way to help out. No, that's not a way. What they need to do, the district, is sit down with the teachers, like they've done before, with a different school board, and work it out.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 19

was I a perfect school board member no my perfect mayor no we make decisions up here and but we have to be truthful about what we say because it's not okay for one person to be called out and say oh no you were dishonest oh no you meant this but not call out the other person or call yourself so the school district is going through some very challenging times it is going to affect our children is going to affect their education and it's going to affect their well-being and so I would encourage the school district to really sit down with the unions and figure out a way to get through this and I applaud the Santa Ana

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Educators Association for all of their hard work and all the teachers and counselors and social workers that have been out there marching and protesting and and I don't mean protesting walking up and down the street but protesting there in front of the front of the district office to say we matter our children matter because I'll guarantee you they're going to come to the city of Santa Ana our constituents and say how can you help us and we're not going to be able to help them because that's not our job our job is not to provide education that is the school district's job and so we have again I'm gonna say

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it a new president in office and he is gonna shake things up and you know I I hope that he doesn't touch our Department of Education but I don't know he might and it'll be very interesting so I just want to be very clear that when you say things I say things all the time if people don't post just a little clip that's all right I saw all the same thing I'll say the same thing that Mayor Prochazovaski said call me ask me I'll tell you the truth always of what I said always but it is very important that we remember that up here in the dais we are policymakers for the city of Santa Ana but yes we still can help the teachers

Valerie AmezcuaItem 19

and the counselors and the therapists and social workers of Santa and unified to stand with them and say we're here with you and with Santa Ana school police we're here with you and we're gonna give you whatever support that we can because it's going to affect our entire community and I will end with this is that I mr. city manager chief I have not heard of any immigration issues in the city is that correct that is correct so I will probably ask that at every council meeting because i want to make sure that if there is something that we are made aware

Valerie AmezcuaItem 19

of it and you know somebody posted on their social media oh they're coming for us again shame on you shame on you for causing fear that's what you're doing you're causing fear let's educate our community we have a tab on our city website know your rights so let's keep working together to educate our community on knowing their rights and let's not create fear in our community and thank you chief and mr city manager for staying on top of those issues um and if something does come up i i really i know you you will contact us and let us know what's going on so it looks like um

Valerie AmezcuaItem 19

councilmember lopez returned you have closing comments i do um we're also having office hours

Jessie LopezItem 19

next month as we normally do and so we invite the community the community to come and ask questions and i wanted to thank our public works department because when we were at office hours at maubry Park we got a mini tour of the water well and so folks really enjoyed that so thank you we really appreciate it and so we just I also just want to thank staff Gaston and really everyone that works to help get our canopy at these events print resources all the little requests that I know can be really annoying but

Jessie LopezItem 19

help us provide factual information to our constituents because a lot of those resources they always come and pick them up and so I really appreciate your support and so that's gonna be those are gonna be my only comments thanks

Valerie AmezcuaItem 19

everybody thank you councilmember Fan and you'll close out please thank you

Thai Viet PhanItem 19

mayor so first I like to say congratulations special shout out actually to Evan Martinez our graduate for the Explorers because I saw him at the Westminster TET festival and I called him a noob and so he's no longer and new congratulations um the other thing i wanted to say is um this is a little bit early but director hawk scott i believe that our santa ana fun run the 5k and 10k are saturday may 17th and i'm announcing it early because i know i'll be running the 5k and i hear councilman benalosa is running the 5k so i think we're gonna have to do a city team to run the 5k i'm looking at you

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all. So get training, you have 12 weeks. Do a couch to 5k, I'm gonna do that. And so to close out, unfortunately I just received news today that one of our dear reporters with Ngoi Viet Daily News, the oldest Vietnamese language newspaper in America, the first Vietnamese language newspaper in America, reporter Ngo Trong Dang Yau, who is who was so instrumental in covering the rent stabilization and just cause eviction ordinance the fight for renter protections the fight against rent gouging he covered pretty much all the meetings he talked to residents and

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was very involved in making sure that information got out to the community he He passed away at 63 years old on February 5th, 2025. I would like to request a certificate or recognition for his family and to adjourn this meeting in his memory.

Thai Viet PhanItem 19

You know, I hope that despite all of our differences up here and the discussions we have about what's going on, whether it's political, policy or otherwise, that at the end of the day, we can still shake hands and talk about the good that we've done in this community. And I hope that all of you can tell your loved ones how much you love them, that you hold them, and that you remind yourselves and each other that life is short, and we should really make sure that we tell the people we love how we feel. And with that, our next meeting will be March 4th. Thank you. Have a good night.

Thank you.