Read the March 4 meeting.

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Valerie Amezcua

Mayor, you're live. I'm sorry, I didn't understand. You can go ahead. Oh, thank you very much. I hereby call the Santa Ana City Council meeting to order. This meeting is taking place with in-person attendance by teleconference and by teleconference via Zoom. The public may access the meeting via the Santa Ana YouTube channel or the city's website. Please bear with us as the technology may disrupt the flow of the meeting. Madam Clerk, please conduct the roll call.

Jennifer L. Hall

Council Member Becerra. Here. Council Member Hernandez. Here. Council Member Lopez. Here. Council Member Penalosa. Presently. Council Member Phan. Here. Mayor Procham Vasquez. Mayor Meskwa. Present. There's six members. That is a quorum. Thank you. Madam Clerk, are there any additions or

Valerie Amezcua

deletions to the closed session agenda? No, there are not. Do any council members need to announce or abstentions from closed session items?

Jennifer L. Hall

Hearing none, do we have any speakers for closed session? No, there are no speakers in person, in Zoom, or via email for closed session.

Valerie Amezcua

Perfect. Thank you. At this time, we will recess to closed session.

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Jennifer L. Hall

Madam Clerk, please start the meeting. Yes, Mayor, please go ahead.

Valerie Amezcua

I hereby reconvene the Santa Ana City Council meeting to order. This meeting is taking place with in-person attendance and by teleconference via Zoom. The public may access the meeting via the Santa Ana YouTube channel or the city's website. site 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 and or break or even to clear the meeting room if a meeting becomes too disruptive to properly conduct business warnings will be provided prior to any action being taken we

Valerie Amezcua

appreciate your cooperation for everyone's safety for 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 entrances or exits. During City Council presentations, guests of individuals being recognized are invited to come to the front to take photos. Madam Clerk, please conduct a roll call. Councilmember Becerra? Here.

Jennifer L. Hall

Councilmember Hernandez? Present. Councilmember Lopez? Here. Councilmember Penalosa? Present. Councilmember Phan? Here. Mayor Pro Tem Vasquez? Present. Mayor Mayor Mesquite. Present. All seven members present.

Valerie Amezcua

At this time, we'll proceed with the Pledge of Allegiance. Let me bring...

Valerie Amezcua

Councilman Panalosa, thank you, sir.

David Penaloza

If you all could please rise and join me. Put your right hand over your heart, face our flag, and follow along. Pledge of Allegiance to the flag of the United States of America,

into a republic for which it stands,

David Penaloza

one nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.

Valerie Amezcua

Thank you, Council Member Serra. At this time, we'll have the words of inspiration by Pastor David Correa. Please come to the podium, sir.

Awesome, good evening, honorable mayor and city council. My name is David Correa. I'm the pastor of Eden Church here in Santa Ana. I was born and raised here in Santa Ana, so to be here today in front of you guys, it's such an honor for me, so thank you. Before I pray, I also want to thank all of you guys, everyone who works for the city. I know these meetings, a lot of times you don't get a thank you, so I just want to say thank you guys for your hard work, all the hours you guys put into it, and for loving and serving our community. We're so grateful for that.

So let me go ahead and pray and get you guys started in today's meeting. Father God, we come before you today and I thank you for every leader in this room. God, I pray that you would graciously give them wisdom and discernment as they lead and make decisions that impact the people of our beautiful city. God, I thank you for their hearts to lead. and God I just pray that today as they make decisions got that you would give them the wisdom and the courage to make decisions for our city God I pray a blessing over every family represented in this room and in our city God I pray

that you would just bless them and so God we thank you and we pray this in your name Amen thank you very much

Thank you.

Jennifer L. Hall

Madam Clerk, are there any additions or deletions to the City Council agenda? Yes, Mayor, and if I could please make the public comment announcement as well. 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 now to be in the speaker queue once public comments commence. This does not apply to public hearing items number 21 and 22, which comments will be heard during those specific hearings. In terms of additions and deletions,

Jennifer L. Hall

consent calendar item number 18, the pre-commitment letters with Habitat for Humanity has been removed from consideration by the city manager.

Valerie Amezcua

Thank you. First presentation by Council Member Becerra, please.

Phil BacerraItem 1

Lori, come on up.

Phil BacerraItem 1

Yes, yes. Yes.

Phil BacerraItem 1

So we got some of our OCFA firefighters up here. Today we celebrate the extraordinary career and contributions as OCFA Assistant Chief and Fire Marshal, Lori Smith. Lori has been a dedicated public servant and an integral part of our fire service community for over 44 years. Now, here's my favorite part. Lori began her career with the Santa Ana Fire Department in September 1980 as a data entry operator. At a time when technology was rapidly evolving, Lori was a part of a forward-thinking team that created the first data-driven fire department in the entire state. Thanks to her skills and computer programming that

Phil BacerraItem 1

made that happen. Lori's work in transmitting incident and inspection data to City Hall through mainframe computers laid the foundation for for innovations that would shape the future of fire service operations.

Phil BacerraItem 1

So as her passion for the fire service grew, Lori returned to school to complete degrees in fire science and public administration. This dedication to both education and service led to her promotion to fire inspector in 1988, and ultimately Lori went on to serve as the fire marshal for the city of Santa Ana from 2002 to 2012. Now in 2012, Santa Ana transitioned over to the fire authority and Lori transitioned over to OCFA as well, where her leadership and expertise continued to make a profound impact on the organization and the community. She further honed her skills through

Phil BacerraItem 1

the National Fire Academy's Executive Fire Officer Program, a program that she was a part of for over two decades, demonstrating her commitment to excellence and lifelong learning. Throughout her career, Lori has been involved in some very key projects here in Santa Ana, including the development of Main Place Mall, Hutton Center, MacArthur Place, as well as OSHA, the Orange County High School of the Arts, as well as her work with the Enterprise and Empowerment Zone teams. These accomplishments reflect her dedication not only to the fire service, but also to the community she served.

Phil BacerraItem 1

Lori's career has been defined by innovation, leadership, and a steadfast commitment to public safety. It is with deep gratitude and respect that we recognize her today. So on behalf of the City of Santa Ana, for over 44 years of service to the community, I just want to present you with this certificate of recognition and just say thank you for everything that you've done for Santa Ana and all of Orange County.

Sonia R. CarvalhoItem 1

I was afraid he'd ask that.

So my first 31 years were served here in Santa Ana. It was an interesting development. I won't give you my life story, but I came here as a young adult and left here a senior citizen. Went over to Orange County Fire Authority with the promise that I would give them two years to transition Santa Ana's data to the Orange County Fire Authority, and 13 years later here I stand. So I appreciated my time here in the city of Santa Ana. I worked here when the city was under a lot of change a lot of change and there were a lot of Improvements, you know throughout the city in my time here that we're very proud of

The OCFA has been very kind to me and it's been a good transition and I think our agency serves the city Well, so I was wasn't very happy about having to go but in the end it all worked out. I appreciate the recognition Thank you

Phil BacerraItem 1

Before you go away, Chief Henry, do you have anything you'd like to say?

Just a few things. First I'd like to talk a little bit about the symbol of the bugle. So the bugle goes back to the speaking trumpet of the olden days, right, and was issued to chiefs that gave direction and leadership out on the fire ground before radios and everything. So it's a very significant symbol that we carry on our collars that signifies leadership. And so, Lori, on behalf of all of us here in Division VI and Battalion IX, it says, to Fire Marshal Lori Smith, thank you for your 44 years of dedicated service to the Santa Ana Fire Department and the Orange County Fire Authority, Division VI, Battalion IX.

You made it.

Thank you all. You're welcome to run. No, you've got to get up here.

Benjamin VazquezItem 1

Thank you.

David PenalozaItem 1

Thank you.

All right.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 1

Councilmember Lopez please.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 1

You're going to recognize the Santa Ana Lawn Bowling Club.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 1

Come on up people from the bowling club. Come on up. Come on, come on.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 1

No, please come on this side over here. You all can join.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 1

All of you, please come up.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 2

No, sit down. Hold him that way.

Okay.

David PenalozaItem 2

You're the photographer.

Jessie LopezItem 2

Ready, Don?

Jessie LopezItem 2

All right. Hi, everyone. We are here to recognize the outstanding contributions to our community, and we are going to be presenting the certificate to the Santa Ana Lawn Bowling Club. and Don and I met each other at the park. We were out there working and he came over to our booth and asked what we were doing and he got to talk to me a little bit about the Lawn Bowling Club and its history here in the city and what they're doing and they also shared some feedback with us about what they wanna see moving forward at the Lawn Bowling Club. And so it's really my honor to stand before you today

Jessie LopezItem 2

and recognize a remarkable institution in our community, the Santa Ana Lawn Bowling Club. Founded in 1935, the club's journey began with the construction of the first lawn bowling green in Santiago Park, funded by the Works Project administration during the Great Depression. This was just the beginning of a long and storied history. As in 1938, the first lawn bowl was rolled, making the start of a beloved tradition here in the city. The sport's growing popularity led to the construction of a second green in 1952, and for 34 years, the club operated out of a structure acquired from the Army base in Costa Mesa.

Jessie LopezItem 2

In 1991, the club moved to its current facility, which remains a vibrant hub for lawn bowling in Santa Ana. I would like to extend a heartfelt congratulations and gratitude to all of the members of the Lawn Bowling Club for their continued contributions to our community and their presence in our public park. your dedication to persevering and promoting your sport has enriched the lives of many and i am proud to have you as part of our city's history so thank you for your continued service and we're going to be presenting this to you dawn on behalf of the club and all of its members

Jessie LopezItem 2

and we would really love to hear from you and anyone else

Thank you.

Oh my goodness, this is something else.

Yeah, you want to hand this out to our city council members and what we're doing here? Thank you.

Thank you, City Council. It's really my pleasure to be here before you to promote our club. And to you folks out there in the audience, thank you for being here. And thank you for hearing me out in this. I'm a nervous old man.

There we go. Okay. I already thanked you all. Parks and Recreation, I left you off, but you're very important to us, so thank you for everything that you can do for us. Okay, thank you.

Jesse mentioned a whole bunch of information about the club that I didn't even know about. All right. I thought the club just started in 1938. there where we are now, but apparently it was some other place started. But the club was started in 1938, and that's a long time ago. That's 87 years ago, and the reason I'm saying it's a long time ago is because I'm 87. And that means that only in 13 years, our club's going to be 100 years old.

And I hope the city and Parks and Recreation will hold a real great centennial celebration for the Santa Ana Lawn Bowling Club. Thank you. Thank you. Where am I here, folks? Okay. Some little history about lawn bowling.

Actually, it wasn't called lawn bowling by the Egyptians 3,200 years before Christ. But they did make bowls out of rocks, they chipped them, and that game eventually turned into what they called bocce ball. Okay, and I'm sure all of you have heard of bocce ball, you might have seen it. and lawn bowling became a little bit accented from bocce ball by developing a special ball which is not called a ball it's called a bowl

Okay. Okay.

This is what we call a bowl. And if you see here on the round side, that's where we roll the bowl. Okay? On the sides, they're sort of beveled. And on the bevel, on one side of the bevel, there's a weight. And that weight changes the game.

Now, where's my notes? Well, I'll get them here in a minute. In bocce ball, they have a target just like this. We call it a jack. In bocce ball, they call it something else. I heard it a couple times, but I can't remember what it is. Anyway, that's the target. And so we use this lawn bowl to hit this target. And on the side is a weight. And on the weight, it helps you when you've got an opponent in front of you there in the jack, you can bowl this bowl around your opponent and hit the jack.

Alright? Or you can turn the bowl over and roll it this way with the weight on this side and it'll go around this way. So it's quite a sport and quite a technique.

and Jesse talked about the club facility, was it 1991, Jesse?

Okay, anyway, it's called the Dale Craig's Lawn Bowling Center, City of Santa Ana. And this is a plaque out in front. It's wooden, and it's really weather-beaten.

Now, lawn bowling is a pretty big sport. A lot of people really don't even know about it. it's in 57 countries and it's across six continents. Now the reason it isn't in the seventh continent because that's Antarctica and there's no grass there. But that's a good place for hockey and ice skating. Just kidding. In the United States here, there's 2,800 clubs.

We'll pass up that note.

So we're almost done, yes?

There's a time limit. OK. Thank you.

Benjamin VazquezItem 2

OK.

Okay, I already done that. Okay, our membership of our club.

Phil BacerraItem 2

He's laughing.

Okay, our club consists of 31 members. Our youngest member, I believe Tyler is 24, 25, someplace in there. And our oldest member is Walter. He's 95, 96 years old. So, wow, huh? Huh?

Now our club, we have some disabled folks in the club. We have two folks on walkers. We have three members that use the extended arm

Phil BacerraItem 2

because they can't get down low to the ground.

They put the bowl in this grip. They put it in there just perfect, and since they can't bend down, they can go like this, and whack.

They're very good at it, too.

Phil BacerraItem 2

That arm sort of gives them a straight shot, so they're really good at that.

We hold. Pardon me?

Phil BacerraItem 2

We hold.

Yeah, we hold. Okay. Okay, and then one guy we have in our club, he's partially blind in his left eye. He can't play catch with his grandson.

He's lost peripheral vision. He can't play badminton. He can't play tennis. He can't play baseball. He can't play soccer. He can't play any game where there's a moving object. And so what do I do? That's me. That white ball sitting out there on that green grass is a sitting target, and that's developed into my favorite sport, lawn bowling. And I really love it. Every minute of it I play twice a week.

I forgot this one game and I'm sorry to you pickleball players I'm sorry I can't play pickleball either that's an up-and-coming sport booming booming okay Okay. All right.

Council Member Lopez, we want you to invite them every meeting so we can start the meeting this way, every time. Our facility can handle 96 bowlers all at one time. That's a lot of folks out there lawn bowling all at one time. Okay, the most I've ever seen is 48 bowling, But I'm sure in the past there's been that many. Alright. Now our club

gives lawn bowling lessons. And we have three certified coaches for lawn bowling. And these certified coaches spent a lot of time with the Southwest Northwest Lawn Bowling Division learning their technique of coaching lawn bowling. They're there two times a week, Tuesday afternoons, Saturday mornings. We give, or the coaches give, these lessons twice a week for free,

all year long, all equipment is provided. for free. Now I don't know of any activity around that gives that much attention to newcomers to a sport or a technique.

I want to talk about the Parks and Recreation. As you've all heard, we've been 87 years. And Parks and Recreation here a year ago, year and a half ago, discovered that this club hasn't had any insurance for 87 years. Oh, I guess it fell through the cracks.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 2

Hawk, we want to make sure you heard that, Hawk. 87 years, Hawk.

Now, also, believe it or not, the club hasn't been registered with the state of California for 87 years. So, with a little bit of struggling and maneuvering and so on, we got the insurance taken care of for Parks and Recreation.

Through working with the state of California to get us registered, that was a bit of a hassle. So I filled out the forms and sent in the money, and they wrote back to me, but they sent to the wrong address. They were telling me that I didn't fill out the form correctly. So I said, okay, and they said, now this is how you fill out the form. Ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba. I said, okay. They said, but you owe a fee because you're so late. I said, okay, well, I'll pay the fee again.

So I fill out the application, put a check in there, send it off to them, and guess what? They come back and tell me, oh, the person that gave you the information gave you bum information. You've got to do another form. So we have one of our members in our club, I discovered, Warren Cook. He understands government stuff, so he grabbed the reins and got everything straightened out for him.

Jessie LopezItem 2

Thank you. No, no, no, you're fine.

Johnathan Ryan HernandezItem 2

Can we translate?

Jessie LopezItem 2

We've been here for a very long time, so this is fine. But I know when we talked, you really, really wanted to thank two people from Parks and Recs, I believe. Yeah. One of them was Eric. Yeah. And the other person. I'm going to get to them. Oh, okay.

I'm sorry.

Jessie LopezItem 2

I'm going to get to them.

Johnathan Ryan HernandezItem 2

Let the man finish.

Okay, so we're out of time. We're out of time limit. We got to go. I got to go? We got to go. Okay. Okay. We belong to Southwestern Division.

Phil BacerraItem 2

There's 25 clubs in the division.

The clubs are all the way from Cambria to San Diego to Sun City, Arizona. Arizona. Boy, oh boy, you got to hurt. Okay, let me get to Eric and Juan. These two guys take care of the parks for us and all. Two terrific guys. I was standing there, this is a year and a half ago, and in walks Eric. And I don't know who he is, a young guy. He comes in and introduces himself. And he and I really hit it off, and we walked around. and now I have his cell phone and I can text him little problems and stuff.

Boom! He takes care of it. Boom! He takes care of it all. And it was really good. Alright, I even reported to him there was a fire by the homeless people. Yeah! Yeah!

Take a picture!

Valerie AmezcuaItem 2

Come on, John, let's go take a picture.

Alright! Here we go! Let's take a picture! Come on, John, let's go! Let's go, John! Let's go! Let's go! Let's go! Let's go! Let's go!

Phil BacerraItem 2

I promise you.

Benjamin VazquezItem 2

All right, let's do it.

Right here. One, two, three. Lamar, one, two.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 2

Wait, Paul. We're going to invite our city manager. Because he's not here.

He's not here.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 2

He's not here. Juan, no, he's not, sir.

He knows how to longboard.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 2

But that's his box. All right, here we go.

All right. Here we go.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 2

okay

all right

Thank you.

Bye, guys. Thank you guys for coming.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 2

All right, what a wonderful presentation. All right, thank you, Councilmember Lopez. What a wonderful presentation. Mr. City Manager, can we please have your presentation?

Alvaro NuñezItem 2

Yes, we're going to have the Acting Director of Planning and Building, Ali Pesichberg, do a brief presentation on an item that we're very proud of that was presented at the Orange County American Planning Association meeting. And this is part of our process far as far as the private expedite development within the city and be a little bit more Explaining how we process applications

Thank you, thank you mayor Thank You city manager. This is an abridged version of a presentation we gave at the Planning Directors Association of Orange County conference on February 13th and and I want to thank the support we had in representing this version this evening next slide please thank you next slide please thank you so we're be we're gonna be discussing planning and building Express tonight this was the topic of our presentation to the planning directors of Orange County as we all are aware the city was recognized three times on last Thursday evening one

of which was with a turning red tape into red carpet award for the planning and building express program so we want to share with you this evening why it's been such a big hit because it is a streamlining effort for both small and large projects it is a measure of improving customer service and it is a branding exercise that brings recognition to the city some of the council members may also remember that the city has one other turning red tape into red carpet awards such as the main place specific plan not too long ago thank you councilmember next slide please so

why are we streamlining now it's because just in 2023 alone the city issued over 9500 building permits for a record construction valuation of almost a billion dollars in just six years ago the city of Santa Ana added approximately 23 million in ongoing tax revenue for city services through increases in property tax valuation and we are continuing to streamline efforts because we want to maintain the positive press that's been coming to the city as well as our changing reputation in generating the revenues that provide the services that our community expects from us as we know

this change is no accident is thanks to the City Council's willingness to adopt long-range planning documents such as the general plan update that have laid the groundwork for the city's success and the leadership of the city managers office in promoting sustainable economic development measures this is ongoing as well with the comprehensive zoning code update that will be brought before the City Council later this year for consideration next slide please so what is PBX it stands for planning and building Express it's a permit streamlining approach that reflects a new mindset at City Hall it's about

consistent and constant evaluation of existing practices and how they can be streamlined evaluation of how those changes can deliver results for both applications and staff such as staff efficiencies we've implemented PBX in a variety of formats so far including branding with a new logo for PBX same day permits for the most common types of applications like window change outs reroofs kitchen remodels bathroom remodels these applicants can now go straight to our building counter with an average service time of 20 10 minutes or less over-the-counter plan check for things like minor commercial improvements and one thing that's

new is seven day or less reviews for adus accessory dwelling units are the most dominant form of housing production in the state according according to a recent turner center report from uc berkeley we want to ride that wave here in santa ana next slide please so why pbx has mattered so much well because it's an outward commitment it's a branding effort branding ensures trust and credibility with the community and internal buy-in from staff consistency just like when you buy a name brand product you know what you're going to get in terms of quality and value clear communication and

public engagement it's also about sustaining that development renaissance that i mentioned earlier that has captured national attention and it's delivering results it's resulted in reduced wait wait times for our community, improved efficiencies with staff, and is an implementation of best practices in the industry. Just for your awareness, when I was presenting on this topic at the Planning Directors Association, I asked the audience, which was packed, to raise their hand and say, how many of you are from a city in Orange County that is branding any sort of streamlining effort?

Only one other city raised their hand, and that was a neighboring city, and their branding was 10 years old. So it's good to be part of being ahead of a wave instead of being part of a wave in this mindset. It was the city of Anaheim. Next slide please.

So what comes next? We are making sure that PBX is consistently implemented across our agency. We're also continuing to work with other agencies such as Public Works on our rapid turnaround times for ADUs. So we thank them for their partnerships. and expanding the PBX certification onto new efforts like expanding what we can do over-the-counter and online, reducing processing times for other projects similar in scales to ADUs or minor projects, and incorporating these principles into the comprehensive zoning code update.

Also, at the end of the day, it's about reintroducing just something so simple into our processes, which is empathy. We know that a lot of our constituency has employment that oftentimes does not give them paid time off, And we know that people have to pay for parking when they come to City Hall. So the more we can reduce Visits to City Hall and the time that's spent here and empathize with processes that reflect our community values the better. We're serving our community So with that, thank you for your leadership and thanks again to our city manager's office for giving us this opportunity to present this evening

Valerie AmezcuaItem 3

Thank you. Thank you so much for the presentation Thank you for your presentation. Appreciate it.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 3

Madam City Attorney, do you have anything to report out at the post session?

Sonia R. CarvalhoItem 3

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

Valerie AmezcuaItem 3

Thank you, Madam City Attorney. This is the time of the meeting for the City Council to receive comments from the public on agenda and non-agenda items. Madam City Clerk, please explain the public comment procedures and call the first speakers.

Jennifer L. HallItem 3

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 discorum 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 out the emails received as of 3 p.m. today we received five e-comments three on non agenda topics one on item number 13 and one on item number 18 which has been pulled from your consideration

Jennifer L. HallItem 3

those were distributed to the City Council and posted online for public review we'll now hear from members of the public that are here present in the council chamber and when I call your name please line up behind the podium the board or neighborhood you reside in for the record. The first three speakers Kimberly Duran, Dale Helvig and Aida Espinoza.

Kimberly Duran.

Jennifer L. HallItem 3

Ward 4. You can make your comments at the time. Go ahead and make your comment.

Good evening Mayor Mesquite and council members and Santa Ana community. My name is Kimberly Duran and I'm a proud Santa Ana native award-winning artist and muralist with over 23 years of experience in public art. I painted over a hundred murals in universities, commercial developments including including multiple murals and Mexico City. I brought millions of dollars in revenue to the city through Travel Santa Ana's Expedia campaign, yet I'm here scoring number eight in the Saguaro Mural Project.

There's no justification or feedback, and I'm demanding basic respect from arts and culture. The project was meant to celebrate our cultural ties to Mexico, yet the scoring process was riddled with conflict of interest the guideline requires artists to live or work in santa ana yet the number one ranked artist lives in florida he has six years of experience and 30 murals under his belt i have 23 and over 100 which gives me a reason of suspicion for an unjust scoring ranking me at number eight arts and culture commissioner from ward 3 has personally funded projects for

for the artists ranked one and two, and was previously employed by the artist ranked number three, raising serious concerns of conflict of interest. Not a single Mexican-American woman was selected at the top for a mural met to honor our heritage. I've sent multiple emails to Arts and Culture, yet I've received no response. How does an artist who has brought national and international recognition to Santa Ana generated revenue for the city with decades of public art experience get completely disregarded. Santa Ana needs to stop funneling public arts funding to artists with insider connections

and start supporting your local artists who have built the city's cultural identity. The community deserves transparency, fairness, and accountability. I demand a response from arts and culture, full transparency on the scoring. Santa Ana deserves better. And on another note, I think it's completely disrespectful that Arts and Culture is requesting an interpreter to be hired so that the finalists can get a translation with the artists from Mexico. Aquí hay suficiente artistas que estan calificados, que hablan espanol, y que puedan representar nuestra cultura, gracias.

Yes The evening mayor mayor pro tem council staff just want to give a shout out to public works and parks and rec Been working with the public works for quite a while. They've worked with Caltrans to get the Main Street corridor or i think fixed to some extent with getting the international or the interstate signs up there i haven't seen as many people swerving out of lanes because they don't know whether they're getting on northbound or southbound interstate so i appreciate the help on that and i was at the

thornton park ribbon cutting today i was at the groundbreaking ceremony whenever that started a few years ago and it looks great out there i like to see these parks continue on in that direction so last thing i'll mention is item 23 i i support that item and i think there ought to also be a clause in there that prohibits people that are impacted by that potential resolution or ordinance from doing business in Santa Ana for

Time determined by the council not just reporting it. They ought to have some Penalty for doing those actions. So thank you

Good evening Mayor Valerie Emescua, council members, staff and community. My name is Aida Espinosa and I'm an educator, parent and resident here in the city of Santa Ana. deeply invested in the safety of Santa Ana students and families I appreciate this opportunity to voice concerns that weigh heavily in our community at a recent school board meeting a troubling sentiment with us was expressed by mr. van Vasquez a fellow educator in our district who called to defund the police as someone who works directly with Santa Ana youth I find that stance not only

misguided but dangerous dangerously out of touch with the realities our students face daily every day I see students who rely on the visible presence of school police and community police to feel safe just this week a student told me I'm glad the police are here walking home doesn't feel as scary anymore these are children who've witnessed violence encountered on unstable individuals on the street or feared gang activity for them police officers aren't symbols of oppression their guardians who provide stability in a community grappling with

homelessness mental health crises and crimes mr. Vasquez as an educator you know firsthand how vulnerable our students are you've seen the trauma they carry yet advocating to defund the police ignores their pleas for safety and dismisses the critical role law enforcement plays in deferring harm in deterring harm. Empty rhetoric about defunding doesn't erase the drug activity near our schools, the assaults on our teachers, or the human trafficking operations targeting our kids. What does it sow? It sows division and distracts from the collaborative solutions

we desperately need. To suggest dismantling the police resources isn't progressive, it's reckless. It risks leaving our schools, streets, and neighborhoods unprotected at a time when mental health crises and homelessness require more coordinated intervention not less our officers need more help better partnerships with social workers and better tools not fewer resources weakening public safety puts students families our communities and even the unhoused at greater risk i urge the city council and mr vasquez to listen to the voice of those who live work and learn here

Let's focus on solutions that bridge compassion and safety. Invest in community policing to build trust, not fear, in our communities. Santa Ana deserves leaders who prioritize safety without apology. Our students shouldn't have to walk home in fear because adults in power choose slogans over substance. Let's project polarizing rhetoric and work together to protect every member of this community. Thank you.

Jennifer L. HallItem 3

Mayor and City Council, that concludes the speakers, including Zoom. There are no speakers there.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 3

Thank you very much. This time we'll be going to the consent calendar. Consent calendar items number 4 through 19 are before us. Council members, please announce any items that you'll be abstaining from due to a conflict. If there are any requests to pull an item from the consent calendar for further discussion. Councilman Hernandez.

Johnathan Ryan HernandezItem 4

Thank you, Madam Mayor. JUST WANTED TO PULL ITEM NUMBER 8 AS WELL AS ITEM NUMBER 9.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 4

COUNCILMEMBER BESARA.

Phil BacerraItem 4

I TOO WOULD LIKE TO PULL ITEM 9.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 4

COUNCILMEMBER PENALOSA.

David PenalozaItem 4

NO ITEMS, MAYOR. I'M KIDDING. 17.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 4

COUNCILMEMBER LOPEZ. NO ITEMS. MAYOR PROCHAN VASQUEZ.

Benjamin VazquezItem 4

NO ITEMS.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 4

THANK YOU. COUNCILMEMBER CHAI IS NOT HERE. I have no items. Do I have a motion?

Phil BacerraItem 4

So moved.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 4

Second. Thank you.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 4

Ms. Rapport to vote.

Jennifer L. HallItem 4

Motion by Councilmember Becerra, seconded by Councilmember Hernandez to approve consent We now move to the consent calendar items 4-19 with the exceptions of items 8, 9, and 17 pulled for separate discussion and consideration and item 18 which was withdrawn from the agenda.

Jennifer L. HallItem 4

Council Member Becerra.

Jennifer L. HallItem 4

VOTE IS 6 AYES. NO NAYS. MOTION CARRIES WITH A NOTED TEMPORARY ABSTENTIONS BY COUNCILMEMBER FAN.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 4

THANK YOU. GO AHEAD.

Jennifer L. HallItem 4

THE FIRST ITEM PULLED IS ITEM NUMBER EIGHT BY COUNCILMEMBER HERNANDEZ.

Johnathan Ryan HernandezItem 4

THANK YOU. GO AHEAD.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 4

COUNCILMEMBER HERNANDEZ.

Johnathan Ryan HernandezItem 4

THANK YOU. THANK YOU. THANK YOU. THANK YOU. THANK YOU. THANK YOU. THANK YOU. THANK YOU.

Johnathan Ryan HernandezItem 4

THANK YOU. THE PURPOSE OF ME PULLING THIS ITEM IS IN THE SPIRIT OF COLLABORATION GIVEN THAT THE SAN ANA STADIUM IS AN AMENITY THAT THE CITY OWNS AND THE PROSPECT OF GENERATING REVENUE DURING A FINANCIAL CLIFF IS EXTREMELY IMPORTANT TO ALL OF US HERE AT THE CITY COUNCIL. THIS WAS A I WANT TO MAKE IT CLEAR THAT THIS WAS A PILOT ATTEMPT TO UTILIZE OUR STADIUM TO GENERATE REVENUE. I'M NOT GOING TO TALK DOWN TO THE ORGANIZATION THAT PARTNERED WITH OUR CITY BECAUSE ANY TIME THAT YOU GO OUT OF YOUR WAY TO

Johnathan Ryan HernandezItem 5

BEGIN SOMETHING NEW AT A STADIUM LIKE OURS, THERE ARE GOING TO BE THINGS THAT YOU LEARN. THERE ARE GOING TO BE SIGNIFICANT CHALLENGES. IN THIS CASE HERE, I JUST WANTED TO ECHO THE SENTIMENT THAT I WANT THE CITY MANAGER'S OFFICE to work closely with our Parks and Recreation Department in generating revenue with the usage of our stadium. What that means is if we have to expand the horizon of who we collaborate with to promoters like Golden Boy Promotions, where we have athletes from our city like Alexis Rocha, the UFC, we have athletes like Danny Silva,

Johnathan Ryan HernandezItem 5

music promoters that work with artists like Carlos Santana, Aguilar, very big household names, I would be in favor of the city bringing us proposals to waive costs and to partner at that level with organizations that are doing this time in every single day of the year. I mean, this is what they do. Power of One Foundation is a fantastic nonprofit organization that did really critical work all throughout the COVID pandemic, all across Orange County.

Johnathan Ryan HernandezItem 5

However, this event did cost our residents over $100,000 in losses, unfortunately. We will only be recovering 10% of the generated revenue, which totals $6,856.45 to the $128,452.66 of the city's expenditures. THE CITY OF NEW YORK, THE POWER OF ONE FOUNDATION WILL RETAIN THE REMAINING $61,708.08. ALTHOUGH THIS EVENT WAS NOT SUCCESSFUL, I DO THINK THAT THE SUCCESSES LIE IN OUR CITY BEING ABLE TO DISPLAY, HEY, WE KNOW HOW TO GET AN EVENT DONE AT THE STADIUM.

Johnathan Ryan HernandezItem 5

WE KNOW WHO TO PARTNER WITH TO CLOSE THE STADIUM, TO PROTECT THE TURF, AND TO HAVE THE RIGHT MATERIALS. WE KNOW THE SUCCESS RATE IS GOING TO BE WE NEED TO FILL IN THOSE SEATS. If we're having ticket sales, they need to be in the thousands. We need to be past a minimum of 8,000 tickets sold in order to break even with our events here. I did see some positive things. Power of One Foundation reported that there was some revenue generated in terms of food and beverage sales. So I think that that's an area where we can find some strength, is we need to have adequate staffing when we do utilize the stadium

Johnathan Ryan HernandezItem 5

SO THAT WE CAN TAKE ADVANTAGE OF THE REVENUE THAT WE CAN GENERATE. BUT IN TERMS OF THIS EVENT, I AM CONCERNED ABOUT PARTNERING WITH NON-PROFIT ORGANIZATIONS GIVEN THAT THEY'RE NOT HERE TO GENERATE PROFIT. I WANT US TO WORK WITH ORGANIZATIONS THAT ARE GOING TO DRIVE PROFIT FOR OUR CITY. ORGANIZATIONS THAT ARE GOING TO SPECIALIZE IN SELLING OUT ARENAS LIKE GOLDEN BOY PROMOTIONS. SO THOSE ARE MY COMMENTS AT THE MOMENT.

Johnathan Ryan HernandezItem 5

I just wanted to be very clear one more time. I am supportive of us continuing to utilize the stadium and for our city manager's office to bring us back different proof of concepts that we can look to to, you know, make successful. Unfortunately, this one was not, but I don't have any doubt that moving forward, we will have tremendous success at the stadium. And, you know, although the first one wasn't, you know, a knockout of the park, I'm sure that the second one will. Thank you.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 5

Thank you, Councilman Hernandez. Mr. City Manager, I believe up front, I just want to be clear so everybody understands. Anybody who rents our stadium right off the top, $150,000, is that correct?

Alvaro NuñezItem 5

$130,000.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 5

$130,000 because of the...

Alvaro NuñezItem 5

The rental for the stadium and the floor covering.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 5

So I agree with Councilman Hernandez that when we have the next event, it'll need to be a very large... to be with somebody who is experienced in this. But as you talked about, boxing, we talk about concerts up front, and we need to work with them from the very beginning, not wait several months when the application has been submitted. So, again, I'm not critiquing anybody or talking down or bad. I'm simply saying it's great. We know now we can rent it, use it for concerts and events, but it is very costly for whoever's coming in next to rent it for an event. And so I hope that we will continue to work with groups,

Valerie AmezcuaItem 5

you know, entertainment that has the ability to pay for the use of our field. Thank you. Councilman Penalosa.

David PenalozaItem 5

Thank you, Mayor. I just wanna quickly comment. Thank you, city staff, for putting this together. It was something that we asked for as part of the approval for this event a couple months ago or back in the fall you know it's disappointing that the numbers aren't what we wanted to be but it's it's you know what we've seen multiple times with numerous different endeavors that we go down events that we the city hosts we don't see a turnout like we would have liked and with this one in particular I love love love the idea of programming it advertising our

David PenalozaItem 5

stadium having events there uh councilmember hernandez brings up a great point with golden boy promotions and musical likes and pepe and that sounds amazing but none of those acts are going to want to rent the stadium because the stadium locker rooms the concession stands they're a dump this stadium needs a huge overhaul in the millions of dollars and we've discussed this before and until that investment isn't done into our stadium those acts are not going to come fighters and boxers. They want locker rooms. They want nice showers. They want an ice bath after the fight

David PenalozaItem 5

available to them in that locker room and those things aren't available here. There's a lot of stadiums around the city that is appealing to these types of acts. So I think this is a larger conversation that we should have about being able to invest into our stadium and the overhaul that that's going to take. So until that is done, I don't think we we could advertise the stadium to to appeal to those types of events because it's not Built for that. I mean, it's I see it I could see it happening and I love that idea But we got to work on investing into that stadium before we could start promoting it at that level. Thank you

Jessie LopezItem 5

Thank You council member Lopez Yes, Thank You mayor So I agree we have to figure out a pathway forward so that we can can generate revenue that we desperately need. And I think we have to be a little bit wiser, right, about the partners that we choose. And again, when we're using taxpayer dollars, we have to be responsible because this is not a small loss. And understanding the place that our budget is in, this could have done a lot of good for a lot of different people in the city. I understand we have to take risk again because we're trying to generate revenue

Jessie LopezItem 5

which is something that we should be doing but again being mindful about the return which is something that I originally talked about when we discussed this last year it's also really really important and so I look forward to having more discussions about how we can use the stadium since it is a current CITY ASSET TO GENERATE MONEY WITH PARTNERS THAT ARE CAPABLE OF DOING THAT.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 5

THANK YOU. THANK YOU, COUNCILMEMBER

Phil BacerraItem 5

BESARA. THANK YOU, MADAM MAYOR. SO THE NUMBER THAT STRUCK OUT OR STUCK OUT AT ME IN THIS REPORT WAS 118,548. AND THAT NUMBER IS FOR THE FLOORING. SO JUST THE FLOORING ALONE. ANOTHER THING I WANT TO POINT OUT AND I'LL WEAVE THIS ALL TOGETHER AND THAT IS IF YOU WERE TO JUST GO TO GOOGLE AND TYPE IN SAN ANA STADIUM. YOU GET A COUPLE OF WEBSITES. YOU GET THE WIKIPEDIA PAGE. YOU GET SOMETHING FROM THE OC SPORTS COMMISSION WHICH MY UNDERSTANDING IS WHO TRAVEL SAN ANA INTERACTS WITH TO PROMOTE THE STADIUM. BUT THEN YOU ALSO SEE A CITY PAGE. AND

Phil BacerraItem 5

THE CITY PAGE HAS A VERY TINY PICTURE OF AN AERIAL SHOT OF THE STADIUM. NO INFORMATION ON WHO TO CONTACT. NO INFORMATION ON CAPACITY. NO INFORMATION ON ANYTHING ABOUT THE STADIUM. AND SO TO THE POINT TO SOME OF MY COLLEAGUES UP HERE WHO TALK ABOUT INVESTMENT IN THE STADIUM MR. CITY MANAGER I WOULD ASK THAT MAYBE AT SOME POINT IN THE VERY NEAR FUTURE WE HAVE THAT DISCUSSION WE TALK ABOUT HOW SERIOUS ARE WE ARE WE JUST SAYING IT BECAUSE IT FEELS GOOD ARE WE SERIOUS THAT THIS IS TRULY ONE OF THE FOCUSES THAT WE WANT TO TAKE ON TO GENERATE REVENUE I THINK THE STADIUM HAS AMAZING

Phil BacerraItem 5

POTENTIAL I THINK ALL MY COLLEAGUES UP HERE HAD SOME GREAT POINTS UM BUT WHEN I LOOK AT JUST THIS WEBSITE IT TELLS ME CURRENTLY TODAY WE'RE NOT SERIOUS BUT THEN IT ALSO MAKES ME CONCERNED BECAUSE WE TALK ABOUT THIS PROOF OF CONCEPT WHERE WE'RE OUT AND I THINK COUNCIL MEMBER HERNANDEZ BROUGHT UP THE THE DOLLAR AMOUNT OF HOW MUCH MONEY THAT THE CITY IS OUT FOR THIS CONCEPT SO I THINK THAT AT SOME POINT WE NEED TO GET SERIOUS UH WE NEED TO LOOK AT HOW MUCH DOES IT COST I HEARD SOMEBODY SAY MILLIONS IS IT MILLIONS IS IT NOT I DON'T KNOW AND I DON'T THINK ANY OF US TRULY KNOW I THINK WE

Phil BacerraItem 5

WE NEED TO KNOW THAT AT SOME POINT. WE NEED TO UNDERSTAND WHAT IT WILL TAKE TO DRAW IN THE TYPE OF EVENTS THAT WILL GENERATE REVENUE. I THINK, I FORGET WHO SAID UP HERE, HAVING A NONPROFIT COME UP BY NATURE, THEY'RE NOT THERE TO GENERATE A PROFIT. TO HAVE THEM COME INTO THE STADIUM, THEY'RE NOT THERE TO GENERATE REVENUE. WHO ARE THOSE ENTITIES? WHAT CAN WE DO TO MAKE THE STADIUM MORE ATTRACTED TO THEM? But very importantly is making sure though that whatever improvements we do is sensitive to the community around it because I we've seen venues in other parts of Southern California that are near residential that are able to coexist.

Phil BacerraItem 5

And I think this can as well, but we definitely need to see what what the investments would be, what that cost would be, and just really a vision for this. Because right now, the only vision on the city's website is an itty bitty little picture of an aerial shot of the stadium. AND I HOPE THAT'S NOT OUR VISION FOR THE STADIUM. THANK YOU.

Benjamin VazquezItem 5

MAYOR PROCHAN. THANK YOU SO MUCH. I REALLY WANT TO APPRECIATE, THANK THE STAFF FOR ATTEMPTING TO DO THIS WORK. IT WAS A HEAVY LIFT. BUT THERE WAS A VISION TO BRING IN ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT TO SAN ANA. AND THANK YOU SO MUCH. AND FOR POWER OF ONE, DON'T GIVE UP ON YOUR DREAM OF A MARIACHI FESTIVAL. SCALE IT DOWN A LOT. SCALE IT DOWN. MAYBE WE'LL START 2,000, 3,000. I KNOW I ORGANIZED NOCHE DATARES. WE STARTED AT 300 PEOPLE TO 70,000 PEOPLE. AND IT TOOK YEARS, BUT SLOWLY BUT SURELY IT CAME AROUND. SO POWER ONE, KEEP THE DREAM ALIVE.

Benjamin VazquezItem 5

AND THANK YOU SO MUCH TO OUR CITY MANAGER FOR HAVING AN ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT TEAM THAT'S INCREASED OVER THE LAST FEW YEARS. and to have that vision and to lead with it. But let's take that vision beyond the stadium and through the whole city and see how much more work we could do and how we can produce and bring in funds to the city. But thank you for trying.

Thai Viet PhanItem 5

Council Member Fan. Thank you, Mayor. Mr. City Manager, I just wanted to get some clarification. Because as I remember it, it was the organization that approached us with this fantastic idea to utilize the stadium in this way for the first time, correct? correct? Yes. And city staff, I think in consultation with your office, decided or determined that this was a great opportunity to figure out which parts of the stadium needed updates or changes in order to accommodate these types of events in the future, correct? Yes, that's part of it. Did we get what

Thai Viet PhanItem 5

we needed out of that? Yes. Was it worth the investment that we made? Perspective, yes. Great. So I look forward to more large events at the stadium. I look forward to a fantastic mariachi festival and I look forward to having a lot of big parties there thank you all

Valerie AmezcuaItem 5

right their motion oh we all need to vote receive and file thank you very much let's go to the item number nine madam city clerk no if we could please

Jennifer L. HallItem 8

have a motion for the receiving motion thank you thank you motion by mayor Mayor Mezquez, seconded by Mayor Pro Tem Vasquez to receive and file the Fiesta-Stelmarchi post event summary and analysis. Let's vote please.

Jennifer L. HallItem 8

Yes?

Jennifer L. HallItem 8

If you could voice your vote. Okay, thank you. Vote is seven ayes, no nays. Motion carries. We need a new system, Mr. City Manager.

that's a joke that's a joke all right item number nine madame

Jennifer L. HallItem 8

yes mayor item number nine was pulled by both council members hernandez and becerra

Johnathan Ryan HernandezItem 8

there you go gentlemen pick one thank you madam city mayor i want to be very um supportive of our of our city staff in preparing today's council agenda as well as our staff report

Johnathan Ryan HernandezItem 8

I WANT TO SHARE MY COMMENTS IN FAVOR OF FULLY STAFFING THE EIGHTH FLOOR.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 8

SO NUMBER NINE. I'M SO SORRY. I'M LOOKING AT A DIFFERENT ITEM. LET ME START WITH COUNCIL MEMBER. THANK YOU.

Phil BacerraItem 9

THANK YOU, MADAM MAYOR. SO THIS LAZ PARKING ENFORCEMENT AGREEMENT RUNS FROM JULY 1, 2023 COMING UP TO JUNE 1, 2022. 30th 2025. SO LOOKING AT THE CONTRACT AND I UNDERSTAND IT'S RECEIVING FILE BUT I KNOW IT WAS BROUGHT UP BECAUSE OF THE CONVERSATION WE'VE BEEN HAVING ABOUT DOWNTOWN PARKING I KNOW I'VE HEARD AND I KNOW SOME OF MY COLLEAGUES HAVE HEARD FROM BOTH PATRONS AND BUSINESSES IN THE DOWNTOWN THAT TALK ABOUT HOW PARKING ENFORCEMENT ISN'T NECESSARILY JUST ENFORCING PARKING SO I WAS EXCITED WHEN I SAW THIS BECAUSE I THOUGHT OH GOOD I'M GOING TO FINALLY SEE A LIST OF ALL THE THINGS

Phil BacerraItem 9

that LAZ is tackling in the downtown unfortunately I didn't see a very clear list but I appreciate PD showing me it was a citation that they use when it comes to what they enforce two things with that so the first thing is I there should be something in the contract that makes it clear what their roles and RESPONSIBILITIES ARE RIGHT LIKE IN OTHER WORDS I DON'T ANTICIPATE LAZ GOING ON A HIGH SPEED CHASE I JUST I'LL ASSUME MAYBE THEY DO I DON'T KNOW BUT LET'S ASSUME THAT THEY DON'T BUT THAT'S NOT

Phil BacerraItem 9

SOMETHING THAT WAS CLEARLY DELINEATED IN THE AGREEMENT SO WHATEVER WE SEE COMING FORWARD POST JUNE 2025 IT SHOULD BE SIMPLE STUPID EASY TO TO READ THAT JUST SAYS HERE'S WHAT THEY DO AND HERE'S WHAT THEY DON'T DO WHOEVER IT IS THE OTHER ISSUE IS SO ONE OF THE CONCERNS THAT HAVE BEEN that has been raised to me was that we've got parking enforcement going around citing for things that aren't related to parking. So when I'm looking at this citation, I don't see it on here, but I do believe the folks that have said it to me that they are witnessing or experiencing

Phil BacerraItem 9

citations for front license plates not being on the cars. Now, I don't know how much revenue we're getting after going after that sort of infraction now you tell me that hey a person sees a sign says i'm going to put x amount of money in the meter i know that my time expires at a specific time and they're there over that time i don't have the sympathy it's like watch your meter watch especially with the apps the apps will alert you to when your time will expire but if we've got I've got folks that are part of this group that are just going around just aggressively

Phil BacerraItem 9

trying to enforce things that it looks like if they're utilizing this citation that was provided to me, they're going above and beyond. And I don't want to make that accusation, but I don't know because Exhibit A in the contract isn't clear. The citation that they have conflicts with what I'm hearing from multiple people in the community when it comes to what LAZ is actually enforcing.

Phil BacerraItem 9

So that in itself is a concern. When I look at our police, I know what they're enforcing because it's the law and it's codified. I can point to it. In fact, our officers are very well versed in law. They'll cite it. Hey, you're in violation of XYZ law. But if people are being cited for not having a front license plate and it's not even on this form and I can't tell whether LAZ is contracted to actually do that, there's an issue there.

Alvaro NuñezItem 9

So let's confirm that then, right? Because you're right. So I have Commander Joe Marty who oversees the traffic and also oversees this contract specifically. So we got the information. Obviously, this predated, you know, BA time, how we call it, before Alvaro. So this is a contract, and obviously, we're going to be looking at to renew and update and make sure we have that type of information. but more importantly when you asked right and this is why commander Joe Marty provided the description of the actual citation form that they use that's the item do that primarily LAZ does enforce now understood because

Alvaro NuñezItem 9

that's part of the company's that that somehow LAC is overstepping this is one of the reasons why we asked your Marty to be present good evening madam mayor

and respective council members and thank you for that point and I'd love to clarify so that is in fact true about a year ago we received a council complaint where a laz ambassador I believe cited somebody for it might have been primarily for a parking meter but in addition to that there was a citation for expired tabs which is the 5204 section listed on that citation copy that you have And so when that complaint got down to the chief and got to me, there was some concerns because LAZ is in a contractual agreement with us and our direction to them is not to

go out and start shopping for citations. What we want them to focus on is the primary violation and not to just mark everything up. And so as a result of that, I went ahead, I believe it was last March or April of 24, I put a stop to LAHs being able to enforce the 5204 section, which is the expired tab, as well as no front license plate. I wanted them to be able to focus on primary violations, but in addition to that, we gave some training to them, which was a community engagement enforcement philosophy back in August, because we did see some lack of community service efforts on their part.

And so we deliver that training, not only to all LAHs ambassadors, but also to our parking control officers at the PD. And what I want to do is I wanted to create a much more of a positive encounter when we're engaging with our folks who may be in violation. I wanted them to make their first effort be more of an educational approach, because maybe if you educate the violator, maybe the violator is not going to, you know, do that violation again. Right. And then there are gonna be some situations where it may violate a citation, but I wanted to really introduce and teach them how we do things here in the city of Santa Ana,

which is much more of a community engagement approach.

Phil BacerraItem 9

Now, I appreciate that, Commander Marty, and I would just say to you and to our city manager, since this contract is gonna expire soon, when we have it brought back, I would like it very clear what they are to enforce and what they're not. My concern is that, and I appreciate that you've done training with these folks I'm gonna say it probably didn't work as well as you'd hope because some of the complaints that I received or in more recent time so they're still doing it but the the thing I'm kind of concerned about so some of these things like let's say the front

Phil BacerraItem 9

license plates and and some of these other things I look at those as their laws they should be enforced but I know that our officers depending on the the situation uses their discretion on which to pursue and which not to pursue. That's not LAZ's role. They're the kicker in football. They don't run, they don't pass, they don't call an audible, they just kick. That's all they're there to do. If the meter's out or if they're parking in the red, they're there just to do that. I don't, at least for me and I don't want to speak for my colleagues, I don't think any of us envisions parking enforcement all

Phil BacerraItem 9

sudden seeing high-speed chase and there's LAZ right behind you guys. like that's not their role their role is just simply to enforce parking so all these other things i would like to see when the contract comes back to to reign them in and rain whoever ends up doing our parking enforcement down to enforce the parking infractions not all this other stuff but the other last thing i'll say is that so it for them to pursue these other items are they somehow compensated for it because they're a private contractor why would they go out and try to cite for these other things unless they're getting some sort of

compensation I don't believe they're getting any type of compensation based on what they're issuing citations for I mean like and what I mean by

Phil BacerraItem 9

compensation I don't mean anything nefarious I mean just simply are they interpreting their contract as see we got a citation and then it's now pouring through the weeds to go wait a minute yes you got a citation but it's not for

parking enforcement no I think what it is is what we found once I got educated by the last company is that these last ambassadors are used to being employed by other cities where they are just machines when it comes to issuing citations right and so it was good for me to know that but it was also more importantly for us to deliver this community engagement response to show them that we're not Inglewood or we're not other cities where that capacity might be used on which is that's their prerogative and their preference but here in Santa Ana we want more much more of a community engagement educational POSITIVE ENCOUNTER.

Phil BacerraItem 9

AND LAST THING I'LL SAY IS I STILL WANT STRICT ENFORCEMENT WHEN IT COMES TO PARKING VIOLATIONS. I'M NOT SAYING LET'S BE LAX ABOUT IT. WE STILL NEED TO ENFORCE IT BUT I THINK JUST WE SHOULD MAKE IT CLEAR TO THEM AND TO EVERYBODY THAT PARKING ENFORCEMENT IS THERE TO ENFORCE PARKING, NOT A WHOLE LITANY OF OTHER THINGS, JUST THE PARKING.

YES, SIR.

Phil BacerraItem 9

THANK YOU.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 9

THANK YOU, COUNCILMAN BUSSER. SO I JUST WANT TO MAKE MY TWO SENSE ON THIS. So you read the report, and I'm sure we all did up here. And thank you, Commander Marty, for being here. They're doing their job right to some degree. I think if you look at how many tickets they've given, what they do. For me, the big thing, I believe this came up in our last meeting, if I recall correctly, is customer service. Everything is about customer service. And so when you're at a restaurant and you're eating, you look out the window and you see LAZ like waiting by your meter because they

Valerie AmezcuaItem 9

know it's gonna expire in like 30 seconds and a minute okay and they're waiting then they pop out their ticket but could you probably haven't even had time to like get on your phone and and and do the app I don't have the app the councilman started talked about like it beeps you lets you know that your time is about running out so it's about customer service I'm not trying I'm not asking to ignore any of that I'm simply saying that you know when you see them especially in the downtown like you know they're walking around say hello because I'm down there a lot they never ever say hello smile hi because they represent

Valerie AmezcuaItem 9

the city of Santa Ana yes they do and so when you talk about community it is about that hey you know mr. ma'am you know you know you're talking you're walking away from your car your time is about to run out I'm gonna have to give you a ticket and again I'm not tying you have to tell them how to do their job but it really is about customer service to me and if they have to give tickets that is their job right and if you're gonna put in the contract exactly you know for what parking but I also want to share something you know I had a coffee with the mayor last Saturday in historical French Park and just for the

Valerie AmezcuaItem 9

council's information there was about 70 people there and one senora came up and in Spanish said I want you to give tickets I want you to give tickets I want you to give tickets and then another so you know it comes up and says I don't want you to give tickets and we all laughed because this is what we have to deal with every day you can hear councilman Becerra very passionate about like give ticket don't give tickets right maybe I'm gonna just say you took that position don't give tickets and then I'm gonna say I want you to give ticket I don't mean I'm not saying that I don't want for Street to be like oh

Valerie AmezcuaItem 9

the mayor wants to I shouldn't be I mean you stop my friend she said so I mean I mean, we're kind of stuck, but I just want to remind people, like, we're a big city, right? And we have a lot of activity downtown. And for me, with this item, it really is about, because I read, you know, I read the staff report and thinking Mr. City Manager, it was a very good staff report as far as how many tickets they all give, that LAZ gives, how many tickets PD gives, how much money is generated, how much money we've lost, you know, all this good stuff. And so we always have to look at those things.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 9

but it's also looking at good customer service I won't tell you well I will that I got a ticket before I put my little doohickey city being out there and I think was before I was the mayor and it was right before I got elected yeah and I wasn't parked within the white boxes so I'm gonna say attorney you probably got one too I wasn't in the white boxes and I and the guy watched me me walk away from my car and then when I came back out there was a ticket and he kind of was within my my still within my view I was like hey what is this and he said well ma'am you're not in the white boxes I said are you kidding me it's

Valerie AmezcuaItem 9

like $82 I was like really so I was really bothered because I was like all you had to say when I parked was like hey ma'am you want to be in those boxes so I did call the watch commander and he said ma'am we don't I think was a watch GRAND ARROW, SIR, SOMEBODY, WE DON'T DO THAT. I WAS LIKE, THEY GAVE ME A TICKET FOR NOT PARKING IN THE BOXES. SO I PAID MY $82. BUT MY POINT IS, ALL I HAD TO SAY WAS, MADAM, MAKE SURE YOU'RE PARKED WITHIN THE BOXES. WHAT ARE THEY CALLED? WHITE, THE WHITE BOXES? PARKING STATIONS. YEAH, BUT THEY'RE WHITE. NO, THEY'RE THE WHITE ONES THAT YOU HAVE TO. WE CAN CALL THEM A STALL.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 9

PARKING STATIONS. YOU CALL PARKING STALLS?

WE CAN CALL THEM A STALL. OKAY, WHATEVER.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 9

so if I'm if I'm working for LAZ I'd be like hey ma'am you know I know you want to make sure you within so otherwise I have to give you a ticket as I'm walking away if I say I know whatever and I keep walking that's not that's on me but if I stop and say oh thank you turn around fix my car make sure I'm within my white little boxes I don't get the $82 ticket I use that as an example because I did have a personal and I did get a ticket for no license plate as well not tags but just no license plate front last week but so yeah I know how this was before I was a man and I've got a ticket after the mayor to I want to be give

Valerie AmezcuaItem 9

that disclaimer so I understand about their job but I want to be really clear mr. city manager they have a job to do and we want them to do the job right half the community says give tickets give tickets in tow we heard that on Saturday gives the dope matter of fact they were gonna tow a car during my coffee with the mayor give tickets and tell and then the other senator was like i please don't give tickets so i don't know we have to find that fine balance and so i really want to thank the staff for this report i have a better understanding i looked at the number of tickets but i also think

Valerie AmezcuaItem 9

we do a really good we need to do a better job communicating with the areas because if you look at downtown laz um and 2425 have issued 5 235 citations citywide 32 30 citations so they are doing what we've asked them to do um but it is about for me personally it is about customer service and how we take good care of our community thank you commander thank you council member lopez

Jessie LopezItem 9

pass yes thank you mayor I actually agree with um councilman Becerra all of all of the points that he raised these are concerns that we've been hearing for months now right the getting a ticket for the front license plate getting a ticket um or or having somebody stand by the meter waiting till it expires so that they can immediately ticket you these are all concerns that we've raised now for months because we're hearing them directly from the business owners from our own residents from patrons that come into the city and want to try a new coffee shop but they're worried that hey if I get off to get this coffee I'm gonna get

Jessie LopezItem 9

ticketed and then will they come back so it's an it's been a problem for a while now and not just in the downtown area but also in my neighborhoods with street sweeping days how many fam how many residents have not been ticketed for moving their car or putting it in the drives in their driveway and then getting a ticket for blocking the sidewalk when simply they're just trying to move their car so that they don't get a ticket because they didn't move the car for street sweeping and so i know the chief has been great about helping some of our constituents in the past so thank you for that

Jessie LopezItem 9

but i do agree that the language and the upcoming contract has to be clear and for me um we're contracting last to help with parking enforcement and that's pretty much it enforce the parking code that exists here in the city, and also the red zone, the fire hydrant, the blue zone. But other than that, I don't want to hear about last giving out tickets to our families, who many of them, many of them, whether people like to hear this or not, or agree with me or not, are struggling financially under this economy. And a $100 ticket, two tickets at that at one time can really disable somebody's budget. And so we have to be mindful,

Jessie LopezItem 9

they have to be mindful about the community that they are being hired to serve and so that is why I'm in full agreement that the language that comes up must be clear so thank you

Thai Viet PhanItem 9

councilmember fan I'm supportive of the work that they're doing I think that you know my mom's handicap if you're blocking the sidewalk that means someone in a wheelchair can't walk by an old person's gonna have to walk onto the street in order to get around you I get that I lived in LA for 10 years I I understand how difficult a distant park, living in Santa Ana, that's also a difficult situation, but ultimately we all carry our phones, we can set our alarm clocks, be responsible, those are all things that we're capable of doing. Now, I understand when Madam Mayor mentioned someone's watching someone walk away,

Thai Viet PhanItem 9

I think we can be a little kinder and gentler, but ultimately we all have a responsibility when we live in this world and you know we're talking about parking enforcement because that's a problem in our city if someone is doing something that is negatively impacting the parking that is so scarce here then we should enforce it and that's how we learn so I look forward to seeing some of the clarifications in the contract but I'm fully supportive of this work and hopefully we will continue to park within the lines of the parking stalls Thank you.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 9

Councilman Hernandez. I will know where I parked out with them.

Johnathan Ryan HernandezItem 9

Thank you, Madam Mayor. Just wanted to share in the downtown Santa Ana, there's a lot of businesses, Commander Marty that my office has met with, most notably at the intersection of 3rd and Broadway. You have Chapter 1, which is a staple business, and they have done a fantastic job documenting a lot of their discrepancies. THE CONCERNS AND THE COMPLAINTS THAT THEY HAVE. THE MEETINGS THAT I HAVE WITH THEM GO BACK TO 2022 WHEN WE INITIALLY BEGAN THE LAZ CONTRACT. EVERY SINGLE YEAR MY OFFICE HAS MET WITH PATRONS AND BUSINESS OWNERS IN THE DOWNTOWN. AND WHAT IS MOST DISHEARTENING IS ONE OF THE MOST PRESSING

Johnathan Ryan HernandezItem 9

CONCERNS THAT WE GET IS YOU GUYS GOT TO DO SOMETHING ABOUT LAZ. AND WHAT IS FOLLOWED IS SOMETIMES 30 MINUTES TO AN HOUR worth of videos or picture messages as to, hey, here's a video of a patron entering their car and saying, hey, my meter's expired, but I'm in my car and I'm about to leave, and they're being ticketed already and they're in their vehicle. Their time's done, but they're entering their car right at the point of the meter expiring. And I think that's where that nuance in customer service differs with our own local police department. OUR OWN LOCAL POLICE DEPARTMENT WOULD TREAT YOU WITH A LITTLE

Johnathan Ryan HernandezItem 9

BIT MORE COURTESY TO SAY, HEY, YOU KNOW WHAT? YOUR METER WAS ABOUT TO EXPIRE. LOOKS LIKE YOU'RE GETTING YOUR CAR. BECAUSE I'VE EXPERIENCED THAT FROM OUR OWN DEPARTMENT IN OUR OWN CITY IS THE DIFFERENCE IN LEZ VERSUS OUR OWN OFFICERS IS THERE IS A LEVEL OF UNDERSTANDING, I BELIEVE, THAT OUR OWN DEPARTMENT HAS. WHEN YOU'RE INTERACTING WITH SOMEBODY WHO'S JUST THERE TO GET COFFEE OR IS MAYBE THERE WITH TWO CHILDREN GETTING A haircut there's a big difference in somebody who is clearly leaving or is looking to put more money in their meters i'll share where my own example comes from during the streetcar construction

Johnathan Ryan HernandezItem 9

businesses were ravaged all throughout the downtown sylvia vasquez was working very closely with the city manager's office on meeting our businesses and facilitating you know a listening session as to how can we help our city manager at the time and my office and our mayor Vicente Sarmiento decided to meet with some of the businesses I had my parking placard in my car and I was still ticketed and the reason why was because I couldn't see the date of your parking placard but I was there on city business and of course I still paid the ticket but I can only

Johnathan Ryan HernandezItem 9

imagine if I was a patron that was there to to you know grab a coffee and let's say you know I pay my meter and if i'm treated that way and i have my own parking pass in front saying hey clearly it says here and the guy goes sorry the tickets were written and little did he know he was with a mayor and a city manager and we just respected it and i i took the ticket and it was okay concerns that i've gotten over the last year is increased aggression from a particular lez enforcement officer where this individual you know has been recorded by some of the businesses own business

Johnathan Ryan HernandezItem 9

owners arguing with the owners of the establishments where, you know, he'll park his car, you know, right adjacent to where someone can't exit. So right beside your car so he can write you the ticket as you're trying to maybe get in your car and get out. Now your door is blocked. And, you know, videos getting sent to my office of that type of practice is just really concerning. It's anti-business. It's not friendly to the patrons. SO I AM SUPPORTIVE OF US OPENING UP AN ADDITIONAL RFP AT THE END OF THE LEZ CONTRACT JUST TO

Johnathan Ryan HernandezItem 9

ENSURE THAT WE'RE EXTENDING AN INVITATION TO OTHER BUSINESSES, OTHER MORE QUALIFIED CONTRACTORS TO APPLY. AND LEZ IS MORE THAN WELCOME TO APPLY AGAIN AS WELL. BUT I WANTED TO SHARE THAT SENTIMENT THAT I HAVE RIGHT NOW BECAUSE OF THE OVERWHELMING CONCERNS. AND TO SUPPORT THAT MESSAGING THAT I'M sharing here i know that in early 2024 commander marty if you can confirm did our police department receive complaints from laz regarding their lack of customer service that's correct and as a result what did our police department do to foster a sense of community in this contractor

so there were two things that i mentioned previously was that the first part of the The other complaint was patrons getting cited for no front license plate or expired tabs. So we went ahead and took that away, which still stands today. They're not issuing any of those violations. Secondly, my staff and I developed the community engagement enforcement philosophy, which forges much more of a positive interaction, much more of an educational interaction. Take the opportunity, like the mayor was saying, take the opportunity when somebody's walking away where they're somewhat in your presence, to stop them, educate them,

potentially give them a warning. I'm not taking away that discretion, but I'm trying to increase that interaction to be much more positive and educational. Because like I mentioned before, if they get educated on something that they're doing wrong, a violation, maybe they won't repeat it. Maybe they're not aware of it. So we went ahead in August of 24, gave this training, It was about a three-hour training to all LAHS ambassadors as well as all current SAPD parking control officers. And that's on an ongoing basis. From what I'm hearing from city council, we will be doing this immediately once again.

Johnathan Ryan HernandezItem 9

Thank you, Commander Marty. And my closing comments are I think that Santa Ana PD would do a much better job enforcing our parking issues, especially in the downtown. town and given that i know there is a a shortfall of officers i think that this provides an opportunity for us to increase that number um also ensuring that we're improving our our customer and and our community engagement we have a department that is already um focusing on their public policies being community engagement i see that we have a contractor that over the last three years in the first two years i look at it as that trial period and i look at year 2024

Johnathan Ryan HernandezItem 9

as what is a culminative period where all of that community response is now coming to fruition, where our police department is having to provide training. So I'm concerned that over the next couple of years, we will see additional efforts from our police department to respond and to remedy the challenges that we're having from this contractor. I would much rather see us do this in-house, and so those will be my comments today, Commander Marty and City Manager Nunez. I just think we can do a better job in-house with their own staff and with their own police department

Johnathan Ryan HernandezItem 9

But that'll that'll be my my direction here today. Thank you. Thank you

David PenalozaItem 9

Thank You madam mayor and Thank You commander and staff for this Update and presentation. I just wanted to say that I mean I along the lines of councilman fan want to see our parking laws enforced however, the message would be just just to LAZ is don't be jerks about it. You know, there's a way to provide that, what we've all set up here, that additional community customer service and just be nicer about it. Just a week ago, along the lines of the mayor, there was a friend of mine parked on 4th Street

David PenalozaItem 9

and I see her run and add coins or pay on the meter. And I'm like, hey, you already have a ticket. there was a ticket on the windshield and she's like what do you mean I still have ten minutes and she was responsible to run out there and add money and I she's like what's it for and I grabbed the ticket and it's like oh you're parked a foot over the the park the mark parking stall there was enough space in between both stalls where it wouldn't matter but I'm like I mean here she is running out of there to be responsible and because she knows her but now it's like well

David PenalozaItem 9

they gave her a ticket for her tires were a little bit over the parking stalls i thought it was excessive and exaggerated but those are the things that our residents are are um dealing with and and it leaves a bad taste and and it's not okay i've gotten tickets here on ross uh when i'm here on official city business when it's you want to quickly jump in and out of of city hall i've gotten tickets there and and the placards full visible but because um and that's probably our mistake because we at we made those they used to be 20 minute parkings and then the county

David PenalozaItem 9

customers were always taking them up so public works and and with the city manager's office made them loading zone only and so that's why they're ticketing the the laz now is ticketing loading zone only but we did that so that city officials the chief uh anybody could park there to quickly run in and out of City Hall. So that's probably something we should look at. But I agree with Councilman Hernandez. We should, instead of just extending this contract automatically, we should put out an RFP, and if it's last, that comes back again, then we award the contract to last. But it's just making sure that we've flipped over every rock

David PenalozaItem 9

to see what kind of other contractors are out there. And, yeah, just not be excessive about it and be mean about it is what we should try to achieve here um the other thing that i mentioned to the city manager last week is over our agenda review is looking at the idea of grace periods too if your parking meter expires you know there should be like an automatic 10 15 minute grace period to not have someone take it i mean along those lines but numerous things that we could look at and that is THAT IS ALL. THE MAYOR PROBABLY DOESN'T LIKE IT BUT IT'S FINE. YOU KNOW, SHE'S ONE VOTE.

David PenalozaItem 9

SO WE'LL LOOK. THERE'S MANY THINGS WE CAN LOOK AT. SO THOSE ARE MY COMMENTS. THANK YOU, MAYOR.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 9

NEW SPEAKER THANK YOU. I AM ONE VOTE. BUT IF YOU WERE AT THE MEETING WITH 70 COMMUNITY MEMBERS, 70 WHO WERE VERY VOCAL AND HALF WERE LIKE TICKET THEM AND THE OTHER HALF WERE LIKE DON'T TICKET THEM, WHERE DO WE GO, right and so you're saying give a grace period on but you can't give grace periods you know again we are a big city and I'm gonna support this item but like everybody said I pray think when it comes back and commander Marty I'm sure you're gonna do a great job when you leave here tomorrow and say hey let's have a conversation here's some things that were brought up and hopefully we

Valerie AmezcuaItem 9

can change that and I am you know we're all one vote up here however I would hate to have this council chamber full of people saying no ticket then the other half saying no don't take it right because you know we're going to spend five hours on the discussion of ticketing um yeah so it is we don't have parking space in santa and we all know that and so it's a it's a big challenge for all of us so thank you can i get a motion in a second let's move on oh i'm sorry you're not here i apologize it's not on here go ahead councilman thank you so much uh i appreciate

Benjamin VazquezItem 9

I WANT TO SAY I AGREE WITH COUNCIL MEMBER VECEDA AND LOPEZ THAT'S HAVING PERIMETERS OF WHAT LAS IS DOING TO MAKE SURE THEY DON'T TAKE ADVANTAGE OF OUR PEOPLE AND ALSO NOT BE EXCESSIVE IF PEOPLE ARE PARKED OUT OF A STALL BY A FOOT. PLEASE WORK WITH US. AND MAYBE RECOMMEND THAT WE TAKE IN-HOUSE DOWNTOWN SAN ANA AND RFP THE REST OF THE CITY. THIS IS A PLACE WE WANT PEOPLE TO COME. WE WANT PEOPLE TO STAY. We want people to feel like there is customer service and we want them here. So those are my words today. Thank you

Valerie AmezcuaItem 9

Well, we're looking forward mr. City manager what you're gonna bring back to us because there was a lot of different I just put out here tonight and there was no, you know, they were all we were all over kind of things

Alvaro NuñezItem 9

But so at least to clarify so we will look to to make sure that the next contract does have a very definitive type of Enforcement violation that can be addressed by the contractor

Alvaro NuñezItem 9

This is the opportunity for us since it does expire June of 25.

Alvaro NuñezItem 9

If we are going to do an RFP, we have to move it at a fourth width, right? And two, maybe as Mayor Portillo-Vazquez says, maybe we look for a hybrid approach that allows us to maintain and then limit some of the enforcement components in the downtown and the rest of the city. But we can limit that through our contract. So we'll look at those items. items. But this is one of those where it is balancing the universe, right? There is enforcement and it's true, blocking the sidewalk may not be a big deal until somebody can walk and the accessibility, right? Extending the 10 feet, 18 inches from the curb or the parking

Alvaro NuñezItem 9

component is because it's parameters within that aspect, right? That's part of the parking violations that is the big extension then no have don't have enough plates in the front and expired tax yeah we can limit those so we'll balance it and we'll be a little bit more educational customer service and they may what we do is review let's say teachers that are given right and and recommend that people do submit you know concerns and commit so we can review nine out of ten times those go to independent hearing officer and so sometimes folks just

Alvaro NuñezItem 9

feels too troublesome or burdensome so they don't they don't apply or appeal that citation is correct and say maybe we look for a different way also all right is that good thank you very much

Valerie AmezcuaItem 9

mr city manager is there a motion and a second i'll make a motion to move the item i'll second

Jennifer L. HallItem 9

let's vote please motion by council member hernandez seconded by baron mesqua to receive and file the report related to contract parking enforcement services with laz parking california LLC.

Jennifer L. HallItem 9

Council member Hernandez.

Johnathan Ryan HernandezItem 9

Yes.

Jennifer L. HallItem 9

Vote of seven ayes, no nays. Motion carries. Mayor and City Council, the next item pulled is item number 17 by Council Member Penalosa.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 9

Go ahead, Council Member Penalosa.

David PenalozaItem 9

Don't worry, I'm going to be nice.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 17

Remember, you have a three minute limit.

David PenalozaItem 17

I know but I would like because I know staff prepared a presentation I would request that the presentation is shown This is a huge 27 million dollar investment into our city. So it's important that we Show the public

Valerie AmezcuaItem 17

Absolutely

Good evening, Mayor, Mayor Putem, and members of the City Council. Council. Item 17 in the agenda is to award a construction contract with Sully Miller Contracting Company and a construction management agreement to Cannon Corporation for the Bristol Street Improvement Project from Warner to San Andrew Place.

Some project information. Ultimately the project will widen the segment of Bristol from two lanes to three lanes with the addition of a new sidewalk, parkways, sound walls, landscaped medians, and new water distribution lines and storm drains and underground all of the overhead overhead utilities. There are few sources of funds that are funding this project. They include a Measure M2 competitive grant, development impact fees, Bristol remnant land sale, water

enterprise, Measure M2 fair share, gas tax, and a general fund. The total project delivery The total delivery cost is $27 million.

This picture is a depiction of the existing conditions.

This picture shows the final look of the improvement showing extra wide sidewalks, landscape buffers, class four protected bike lane, raised buffers, three traffic lanes in both directions, and the addition of striped buffer, wide landscape medians, and no overhead utilities.

The project consists of four major phases. Phase one includes sound walls, temporary street lights, and potholing, or underground investigation.

Phase two includes electrical and communication undergrounding, which will include ducting, cabling, and the removal of the poles.

David PenalozaItem 17

Kaveh Khoshnoor- Director Saba, you skipped. There was a slide previously that was skipped over.

Saba Saba- This is phase two. I'm sorry. Sorry.

Undergrounding of the utilities are a challenge. In order to manage this challenge. Director Saba? I'm sorry.

David PenalozaItem 17

You skipped over the previous slide. Number six.

Phase two.

Phase two.

David PenalozaItem 17

That one.

Sorry about that. Phase two.

Okay, go on. Okay, I'm sorry. Phase two includes electrical and communication undergrounding, which includes duct cabling and the pole removals.

Undergrounding of the utilities are a challenge. In order to manage this challenge, Public Works staff will be meeting with the utility representatives on a weekly basis. The uniqueness of this project is that the city's contractor will be building the undergrounding infrastructure per utilities standards. Phase 3 is the wet utilities and the civic or the civil work which includes the sidewalks, bus pads, and curb and gutter. This work will include and will will occur in different stages, completing one side, then moving to the other side, and lastly,

the center median, or the construction of the center median.

Phase four of the project is to install the protected bike lane and the final paving.

As indicated earlier, the bike lane are an essential part of the improvements are in the design. However, because of the lengthy federal funding approval timeframe and to accelerate the construction project and the fact that bike infrastructure will be constructed in the later phases of the project, we are recommending to start the construction now. We will come back to the city council to receive the funding and bid out the bike lanes separately,

but complete both within the time frame of the project completion. Outreach program. We are prepared with a strong outreach program that includes mailing of postcards, hand delivery of project notifications, door hangers, project signage, changeable message signs, and maintenance of a project specific web page and of course attending all affected neighborhood association meetings for an ongoing

project updates we have prepared frequently asked questions section about the project that i will go through with them with you a question when will we start seeing construction construction is is scheduled to start in April 2025. When will the project be completed? The project is scheduled to be finished by November 2026. What about future improvements? The project, the Bristol corridor was split into five major phases. Phase one and two have been completed. Phase three, Civic Center to Washington

is under construction as we speak. The final segment, phase five of the project from 18th Street to Elm is not funded and will be revisited in the future. Who will maintain the empty lots? During construction the contractor will be responsible for the maintenance of the lots. After construction the city will maintain the lots until they are sold or developed as parks.

Will traffic be impacted? Yes, as with this type of project or roadway construction, traffic disruptions are unavoidable. However, the project is designed to maintain at least two lanes in each direction. Once completed, the roadway will have three lanes in each direction, improving traffic flow. How are we going to mitigate construction noise? An eight-foot sound wall will be constructed first to reduce noise. The contractor must must follow designated working hours that restrict loud activities during overnight and early morning hours.

How are we going to mitigate construction dust contractor will is required to regularly sweep the streets and implement best practices to minimize dust. And we will be watching for that. Where will be, where will the contractor stage their equipment and material? The contractor will be using or using the vacant lots on both sides of Bristol for the construction staging. However, there will be designated area away from residents for the contractor to maintain their heavy stockpiling and large equipment.

What will happen to the empty lots after construction? Vacant land will be developed per Bristol specific plan land use designation. Some will be commercial two lots 2024 24, South Bristol and 2102, South Bristol will be commercial. A park with commercial option will be on two and one location, two locations at the addresses of 2231 and 2209, South Bristol. From 2231 to 2209, South Bristol. Park area will be from address 2205 to 2109, South Bristol.

and the park will be the remnant residential properties, or parks will be on the remnant residential properties. All remnant residential properties will be developed as part of this project.

This picture shows parkways, street medians, and linear parks that are included in the project. These are the green areas. The two orange areas are commercial lots that can be sold to be developed. The red area has a potential of being a park or sold as a commercial site. The yellow lot is proposed to be a park per the specific plan. Public Works Division will be actively seeking grant funding to develop these areas into into parks just as we did with the Artesia Pilar Park and Ed Caruthers Park.

Continuing with the frequently asked questions, how will any remaining commercial lots be sold? The city will have to follow the Surplus Land Act process. Following this process, the properties will become available for sale. Will the area designated as park be landscaped with this project? The remnant residential properties from St. Cretout Place to St. Andrew will be landscaped as part of the project. The large park parcel north of St. Cretout Place will not be landscaped as the grant funding does not allow for these improvements.

improvements. Again, staff will actively pursue park grants and or recommend the use of other such funds to develop these improvement of parks, such as development impact fees.

This is a list of project contacts. We have a construction manager, construction inspector, inspector, project manager, and senior project manager that are listed here. And again, we will be maintaining a full webpage, website for the project to provide information and updates to the community on the progress of the project. I'm looking forward for the start, and I'm open for any question or discussion.

Benjamin VazquezItem 17

Thank you for that, Director Nabil. I got my one chance, I'm gonna get it. Councilman Revenalosa.

David PenalozaItem 17

Thank you Mayor Pro Tem Vasquez.

David PenalozaItem 17

Thank you for that presentation Abil. You know, this is part of a long-term multi-phase effort that has been going on since, what year? 1990? 1991? It's way before me, that's for sure. Yeah, and around the same time that I entered this earth. So I'm happy that we're finally here. You know, 35 years later, it's finally, this contract's finally getting awarded to complete this segment of Bristol Street.

David PenalozaItem 17

And I want the public to understand that this isn't just fixing the surface street that we all drive on every day filled with potholes. This is putting, undergrounding the entire utility electrical wires that we see along Bristol Street. Those brown, ugly poles over the last year alone, they've been taken out twice by high-speeding cars. And the whole neighborhood gets blacked out. You could hear it in the middle of the night. So all those poles are going to get removed and all the electrical wiring is going to be shoved underground and away from, It's gonna just make it more aesthetic aesthetically pleasing

David PenalozaItem 17

it's gonna Widen the street as part of the widening the street effort. I just want to get confirmation. There's no additional

David PenalozaItem 17

Land that's going to be acquired correct No, okay Because in some of the graphics of the green landscape that is shown kind of shows like it's budding into people's backyards and I want to make sure that that's very clear that we're not going to be THAT'S CORRECT. ACQUIRING ANY MORE LAND.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 17

PERFECT. COUNCIL PANEL LOSA, I'M SORRY, CAN I ASK A QUESTION? SURE. NABIL, CAN YOU SAY THAT AGAIN PUBLICLY? I WANT TO BE VERY CLEAR. HE HAD A GREAT QUESTION ABOUT WILL YOU OR WILL THE CITY BE ATTEMPTING TO TAKE PROPERTY?

David PenalozaItem 17

NO, WE WON'T. WONDERFUL. THANK YOU FOR THAT, DIRECTOR SABA. THE OTHER THING THAT I WANT TO

David PenalozaItem 17

ASK ABOUT IS THE PLANNED LANDSCAPING OR FIRST I GUESS LET start from the outer moving inward. So the first part of this huge project is going to be reconstructing people's property line. They're there. They're the fence. That's correct. The sound walls is the first thing, an eight foot sound wall. So they're going to get it's going to only it's going to make their backyards better, probably increase their property value, which is great. And then keep the sound and noise from the construction that will go on for the next year you're away from, try to limit it as much as possible. That's correct.

Eight foot long.

David PenalozaItem 17

Eight foot long, yes. Wonderful. One thing that I do want to ask if we could still change is the landscaping that you talk about, parks and landscaping along those parcels of land. I can tell you right now that our community doesn't want additional parks and landscaping and grass areas along Bristol. Because when they drive down Bristol, just north of First Street, south of First Street, north of Ettinger, the vagrancy that we see, the people loitering, drinking, doing drugs,

David PenalozaItem 17

all throughout that grassy area that, I bet you back in 1990, when Miguel Pulido approved these plans,

David PenalozaItem 17

they were like, yeah, that's a great idea. Let's add some grassy area. but we can't maintain it. We can't police it. We can't enforce. It's gotten better. So thank you, City Manager Nunez. It's gotten a lot better. But I know that by adding more along Bristol Street where people aren't, families aren't going to go have picnics there, they're not. It's going to be used by people loitering up and down Bristol Street, so let's be real. So I would hope that as we move throughout this project that we look at what, if we could fence it off temporarily until we could figure out what to do with these

David PenalozaItem 17

remnants piece of land I mean I would I would ask that we do that because I don't want to see more land that we can't manage and we can't enforce and we can't police because we will see those same issues that we see on on Bristol Street between first and and a Wilshire those are the same issues we're gonna see down here now right now we don't see them because it's fenced off and it's a away but as soon as you lay down grass and make it nice it's it's going to become a problem so I want to make sure that we try to maybe is there a way that we could address.

Council member I'm glad that you're asking the question the areas that you're talking about right now are considered open space the areas that are in this phase are going to be parks and parks are meant to be opened and closed and patrolled through the park system so there may maybe a little difference here a little bit more control but again we will look yeah i know there's

David PenalozaItem 17

a plan for a park just up north on bristol let's do that first okay and then five ten years from now whoever's sitting here could make that decision then hey does the park make sense here let's let's stop biting more than we can chew i mean that's just i'm just going to be honest that's how i feel right now um let's let's fund fully fund and construct that park on north bristol uh just north of mcfadden let's do that first and then then maybe once this sound was built and the streets widened maybe like you know what a bike could work a park could work here so let's let's

David PenalozaItem 17

do one thing at a time i hate uh throwing this thing out there just because there's a grant available there now we gotta study what a park's gonna and and just because there's a grant available doesn't mean it's a the great greatest idea right so that would be my two cents um when we move forward with this uh the other and just because i i know that that there's a there's a lot and i'll stop so that some of my other colleagues could maybe ask some questions the the other question that i had uh director saba just really quickly is the the contractor that we're awarding

David PenalozaItem 17

this to what other uh projects have they done in the city because i know that a couple years ago i asked that anytime we award a major contract we list their their resume um of other areas that they've we've seen work at and for whatever reason that stopped recently i haven't seen that um when we award these contracts on in the staff reports but it's important that we know which other areas of the city they've worked in are there is there any history with the there is there is no history

the city. That's why you don't see the blurb that we typically and we make sure that we address your concern and your request on every construction. Yeah, and usually it says this contractor hasn't done work in the city. So and that

David PenalozaItem 17

wasn't I didn't see it if it's on there correct me if but I didn't see it on there so I want to make sure that if in the future we do say that hey will do which is fine, you know, there's it's i just if it's the contractor that did main street it's like hey you know we want to make sure we stay away from that um but those are my comments for now mayor and i will uh

Valerie AmezcuaItem 17

turn it over to one of my other colleagues so i'm gonna i'm gonna ask a couple questions bill thank you for the presentation i when i was out i could still hear it so my big thing is outreach as you know and we've had conversations about this um i'm always concerned about construction because if you drive around the city it's almost like the whole city's under construction and it has been since david was born um and so um just madison park alone in my neighborhood that wow has taken almost i don't know it seems like two years and um yeah right councilman

Valerie AmezcuaItem 17

found in two years and so it disrupted my neighborhood and you know i get it i'm not special but it's just it's a very slow process and then i had to go to the city manager and ask why Why are they not working? When it's not raining, it's not muddy, they're not working. And so, you know, and Cesar's amazing at always answering my questions, so I do appreciate that. But outreach is very important in our community, and I know with the city manager we've talked a lot about with Sylvia as well, I'm sorry, the deputy city manager and the city manager, about communication with our community, right?

Valerie AmezcuaItem 17

So as you know, I'm sure other people up here as well have received complaints complaints about Civic Center from Fairview to Bristol I drove on it I almost crashed there was no lines there was nothing and now it looks so much better because they put it in but if for weeks there was no lines um and then I asked you about Outreach because community members are saying hey we didn't know and I asked you about door-to-door you said well they put door hangers and I was like no door-to-door tell me the date I never got the date that I saw maybe you sent it I

Valerie AmezcuaItem 17

don't know so here's my question so you have here outreach program past outreach state of the city june 2024. i don't know how many of our community members watch state of the city but probably not a lot got it all of us were there but probably not community members uh presented at numerous neighborhood meetings can you tell me how many and when please um you know it's been um a long time a

long time so we i can provide you with that information no you don't need to let me tell

Valerie AmezcuaItem 17

I finished a sentence for you because I said a long time. So you were probably there, I don't know, last year maybe. I don't know. Or you were there. Okay. So they're not going to remember because everybody's busy working and living life and raising kids and paying bills. So I see here that you have put that you're going to now do postcards to be mailed later this month. So can you give me a date, please?

A WORD IS TODAY. SO FOR THEN TWO WEEKS, WE WILL DO THE MAILING. WE WILL COMPLETE THE MAILING IN TWO WEEKS.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 17

SO TODAY IS MARCH 4th. SO LET ME LOOK AT MY CALENDAR UNLESS SOMEBODY HAS A CALENDAR TO TELL ME TWO WEEKS FROM TODAY IS? MARCH 18th. MARCH 18th. THANK YOU VERY MUCH. SO BY THE END OF THE WEEK, MARCH 21st, THEY SHOULD HAVE ALL, THEY WILL HAVE ALL RECEIVED POST CARDS.

YES, MA'AM. CAN YOU PLEASE TELL US WHEN THEY

Valerie AmezcuaItem 17

you give us a copy of the postcard that you'll be mailing out please and then you're gonna do hand-deliver notices two weeks prior and where are you gonna do these hand-deliver notices through the whole instruction area by phase by phase

the the initial one will do the entire stretch of the construction site from San Andrew to Warner and the businesses and the residential areas how are you going to do that? Let's see. Creatively we are going to hand deliver the notices. We have staff that will do that. How many staff do you have, Nabil, that's going to do that? We have quite a bit of four individuals I've been told and we do have students or part-time students that can actually help us

with that and we can do that you know. So all of us up here have campaigned right? I'm not trying to get

Valerie AmezcuaItem 17

political but we've all campaigned. So when you go door-to-door it is very timely and you leave either door hanger or postcard or whatever so we most of us up here probably have teams like like hundreds of people who do this. Okay, well, okay, I'm sorry, a few, a few people. So you're talking, you're gonna do door to door from what street to what street?

From San Andrew to Warner, all the businesses, and the two streets across, or not sure, I think one of them is Magnolia is one of the streets, and tell me, Rudy, the other street.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 17

I see, Rudy, you're trying to jump out of your seat. So don't give me how to dig a hole, okay? I'm going to be really clear. You got it, ma'am. I want to know how you are going to deliver these notices. It says hand deliver notices two weeks prior to the start of construction. And you know I appreciate you guys. I always talk about how I appreciate all the work you all do. But here's my problem. For the last couple weeks, I feel bad for the city manager and the deputy city manager. I'm in their office almost every day or I call them and say I am tired of getting calls and emails and the community reaches out and

Valerie AmezcuaItem 17

Questions and we get beat up all over social media about construction on Civic Center construction on Bristol construction on Warner Construction at geek and Savick. Yeah, I don't even know like it's everywhere And so because at the end I have comments about other things about in your shop And so I know how to dig a hole But I want you to tell me how you are going to notify our community Because you are doing a very large project council panelists of 28 million dollars and it's right here. It's huge You're gonna disrupt our community again, right?

Valerie AmezcuaItem 17

And so how are you going to take care of our community members mayor council? Thank you for the opportunity

We hand deliver notices to the entire stretch stretch along this Bristol corridor and we go about two blocks in interior to the homes. We have, I don't want to say an army of interns, but we do have very many interns in our construction and engineering team. And we have done this, this is what we normally do in other projects. We spend a couple of days out there hand delivering notices. The second piece of that is the 48 hour notice. That is the contractor's responsibility. So the contractor will be out there and delivering these notices 48 hours prior to the residents going to be affected for

example for the sound wall construction so they'll go and say here you go 48 hours ahead of that happening and as well as through advice we've received from mayor and council we've now started the postcard mailing and so as Nabil director we will have those mailed out by March 18th and we will provide a copy we are also going to be putting out you know project signs and these changeable message boards that we have on the street that talk about you know upcoming construction please avoid from this date to that date and additionally we're

going to actually we just reached out to some of the neighborhood associations to to get back on their agendas and to have myself or staff go out and present updates on the project and the phasing and the statuses. So these are... Okay, so let me stop you there.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 17

Yes. So you said you just reached out to the neighborhood associations?

Correct. To restart that, as you mentioned, it has been a long time since we went to some of these neighborhoods and presented on this project.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 17

And you're starting this project what day?

It will begin in April.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 17

So in a month, less than a month, you're going to start this project, and you're barely now going to meet with the neighborhood associations again?

That's correct.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 17

So maybe you could come to neighborhood association meetings I have with all the presidents and hand out flyers every month that I've been doing it for, this is the start of my third year to say, we're going to do construction and maybe you want to notify your community members. I mean, you've got to use every avenue, the council members, when they do their coffees or their office hours, you have to use every avenue. we can't just say well now that we're doing it we're gonna start we're gonna notify them now right so and then you also said that it is the responsibility of the contractor to do the 48

Valerie AmezcuaItem 17

hour notice is that what you said correct and they're going to do door hangers yes is that in the contract with them yes can you send me that contract please i don't know if any other council member wants but i'd like it please and then councilman panelists would thank you um and then then you said you're going to put up signs, correct? Signage?

Correct.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 17

So on the signage, will it say, if you have a problem or complaint, please call this number? Because I don't see that on our signage.

That is a good question. I don't know the answer to that.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 17

We should have that, Mr. City Manager, because if I have a complaint as a community member and you're working in my street on St. Andrew, who do I call? I'm going to call, and I don't, again, I don't mind the community reaching out to me. I love it. I talk to them every day. HOWEVER, THEN I SAY, WELL, LET ME CONTACT THE CITY MANAGER, I'LL GET BACK TO YOU. I DON'T WANT TO DO THAT. I WANT THEM TO BE ABLE TO CALL YOU OR WHOEVER DIRECTLY AND GET A RESPONSE. LIKE, HEY, THEY LEFT THEIR TRUCKS ON MY STREET. CAN YOU REMOVE THEM? HEY, THERE'S DUST IN MY HOUSE. WHAT DO I DO? WHO DO I CALL?

Valerie AmezcuaItem 17

HEY, YOUR WORK IS SHAKING MY HOUSE AND IT FEELS LIKE IT'S GOING TO FALL. WHO DO I CALL? RIGHT?

CORRECT.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 17

OKAY. SO YOU CAN FINISH.

I believe I did mayor in terms of our average thank you so then the next question is and the

Valerie AmezcuaItem 17

reason I bring up dust is it says here the contractor to mitigate construction dust he's going to they're going to regularly sweep the street and implement best practices to minimize dust what does that mean I know what that means but I want you to explain to the community

anything sure so there are plainly speaking they have to water the dusty areas to keep dust down that is essentially the number one thing they do so our inspection team will be monitoring especially on windy days to make sure that we have water trucks out there keeping the dust down we will have the contractor go out and spread rock gravel in some of these dirt areas as well to kind of place a temporary layer to keep all this dust down during construction so there's a couple of different kind of practical methods to ensure that the dust is minimized so my last one and i know

Valerie AmezcuaItem 17

mayor pro tem has some comments and um i don't know if i will come back here but it says you're going to start april 2025 and that it's scheduled project is scheduled to be finished these are the the keywords Mr. City Manager project is scheduled to be finished by November of 2026 so I don't know about all of you but there's no project in our city that ever is done in that kind of timeline so how are you going to make sure that happens 28 million dollar project 27 million that's the 20 and they put my glasses back on 27 million dollars

correct um our construction management team will have daily meetings inspections with the contractor as this goes on as well as weeklies and then we also have monthly principles meetings to make sure that my senior construction management staff and the contractor are meeting We also talked about having weekly coordination meetings with Edison. So there's going to be a tremendous amount of coordination for this important project. I will say there have been a lot of lessons learned from some of the other projects, and a lot of that is incorporated here in terms of phasing and making sure that certain elements

are done first. When we say, for example, the sound walls have to be done first, not just whenever the contractor thinks it's a good time. So there's a lot of elements built into the how to get this project done that is meant to really you know limit the risk of delays and

Valerie AmezcuaItem 17

Will there be something in the contract that states that if they are not doing the work as We've asked them to per the contract that we can Remove them and bring in a new contractor BECAUSE YOU SAID IT RIGHT NOW, RUDY, THAT YOU LEARNED LESSONS FROM PREVIOUS PROJECTS. SO I'VE BEEN IN THE CITY A LONG TIME BUT I'VE ONLY BEEN UP HERE FOR TWO YEARS AND TWO MONTHS, EVEN THOUGH IT FEELS LIKE FOREVER. AND I WILL SAY TO YOU THAT PROJECTS IN OUR CITY TAKE FOREVER. AND I DON'T KNOW WHY, AND THANK YOU, MR. CITY MANAGER AND YOUR LEADERSHIP AND YOUR STAFF, YOU ARE MAKING IT A PRIORITY TO MAKE SURE PROJECTS GET DONE.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 17

BECAUSE WE HAVE MULTIPLE PROJECTS GOING ON IN THIS CITY and it it takes forever and you live in here you live here so i'm not saying anything you also don't experience so um what what's in the contract that's going to help us so the stick in this

particular contract if you will we have a liquidated damage amount that is substantially higher than another contract so eleven thousand four hundred and twenty dollars per calendar day We will assess to the contractor for being late in terms of not delivering within the timeline Now any as with any of our other construction contracts, we do have the ability to terminate for default. So If we run into a situation where they are failing to deliver on time Within you know the project details we can always WE CONSULT WITH OUR CITY ATTORNEY'S OFFICE AS WE ARE DOING WITH SOME OF OUR OTHER PROJECTS

TO GO AHEAD AND TERMINATE CONTRACTS WITH CONTRACTORS THAT ARE NOT PERFORMING TO OUR STANDARD.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 17

GOOD. I'M HAPPY TO HEAR THAT BECAUSE THERE SHOULD BE SOME CONTRACTORS THAT WE DO TERMINATE AND THAT WE GET THESE PROJECTS DONE. MAY I PRETEND VASQUEZ?

Benjamin VazquezItem 17

THANK YOU FOR THOSE QUESTIONS, MAYOR. WHEN THIS CAME UP, WHEN THIS PROJECT CAME UP, I WAS REALLY WORRIED ABOUT HAVING THE GREEN SPACES AS WE DO FROM BRYSTOL FROM FIRST STREET TO WILSHIRE AND WE HAVE A LOT OF GREEN SPACES AND I WAS WORRIED AS COUNCIL MEMBER BENALOZA WAS AND I WAS HAPPY TO SEE THAT THERE WERE PARKS BECAUSE PARKS USUALLY GIVES FOR PROGRAMMING THERE'S MORE STRUCTURE AND IT HELPS OUT I'M GLAD THAT WE HAVE A PARK COMING UP ON TOLIVER AND BRYSTOL AND THAT BEING SAID I STILL HAVE GREEN SPACES, OR WE ALL STILL HAVE GREEN SPACES THAT ARE NOT LOOKED OUT

Benjamin VazquezItem 17

FOR AS MUCH AS A PARK WOULD, WHERE I WOULD LIKE TO SEE IF THOSE GRANTS ARE STILL AVAILABLE, JUST BRINGING THEM DOWN TO WILSHIRE AND BRISTOL, AND THERE'S A BIG SPACE THERE. WE COULD DO A DOG PARK. SORRY IF I LEAF FROG, BUT THERE'S A SPACE THERE WITH A PARKING LOT AND A BIG SPACE FOR A DOG PARK THAT WE CAN HELP OUT FAMILIES AND HAVE A SPACE TO BE OR BRING THEIR DOGS, DEPENDING. BUT ON THE GENERAL PAN THOSE GREEN SPACES ARE LABELED PARKS SO I WOULD WANT TO SEE THAT COME BACK AND SEE HOW WE CAN MAKE THOSE INTO PARKS I REALLY THE GREEN SPACES ARE ALREADY THERE AND

Benjamin VazquezItem 17

THE THE GREEN SPACES ARE HAVE BEEN AN ISSUE SO I WOULD LIKE TO SEE THEM AS PARKS OR IF THEY'RE COMMERCIAL PARK LET'S SELL THEM AND MAKE THEM COMMERCIAL TO HAVE THOSE SPACES AVAILABLE

David PenalozaItem 17

THANK YOU THOSE ARE MY COMMENTS COUNCILMAN PANELOSO THANK YOU MADAM MAYOR THANK YOU BRUDY FOR for answering those questions. I have brought up a couple questions with me now on noticing. You guys mentioned, Director Saba and Rudy, that noticing will be done to everybody on Magnolia and then the little streets along Bristol Street that are cul-de-sacs. I find that troubling because a couple years ago when we amended the Sunshine Ordinance to make developers go from 500 feet to 1,000 feet radius,

David PenalozaItem 17

it comes to construction projects we said that if the city were to do construction projects we would also follow those same rules and guidelines because uh my childhood home and my mom lives about 0.1 mile from here and per the noticing she wouldn't receive these notices but she would be very affected with the construction the noise the dust there are a lot of residents on throughout throughout Memorial Park that will not be noticed, but they will face the consequences. So I would hope that that noticing is not just limited to the residents on Magnolia, which are very important

David PenalozaItem 17

and they should be noticed, but there's a big buffer zone here that needs to be notified because of how massive this project is going to be.

We can expand the sphere of noticing to include 1,000 feet from each bridge.

David PenalozaItem 17

And that should be standard. I think one of the requests that I made when we amended the Sunshine Ordinance was that if a project touches a neighborhood, that entire neighborhood is notified of what's happening. Whether it's on either side of Bristol Street, I think that's important. With the undergrounding of the electrical underground work, are there going to be any times or periods when residents will be without power?

We hope not. It probably will be a disruption of a short period of time where Edison is transitioning from the underground, from the top to the underground. So the transition should be minimized by the utility and we will monitor that.

David PenalozaItem 17

Because both times in the last year that a car took out one of the poles on St. Andrew

Alvaro NuñezItem 17

I THINK THERE'S A DIFFERENCE BETWEEN AN ACCIDENT OR A CAR TAKING OFF. RIGHT. I UNDERSTAND THAT.

David PenalozaItem 17

BUT I'M SAYING THAT IF THAT SAME POLL IS GOING TO GET REMOVED, I IMAGINE THERE WILL BE TEMPORARY POWER OUTAGES THROUGHOUT THAT NEIGHBORHOOD.

Alvaro NuñezItem 17

USUALLY, JUST TO CLARIFY, EDISON DOES PROVIDE TEMPORARY temporary electrical where they're making the shift, right? Sometimes you see the big poles, they seem like four by fours, right? Right. But that's part of providing some of that electrical component. So when they're cutting the other lines, the ones they're going to replace, they provide those temporary electrical outlets.

David PenalozaItem 17

Wonderful.

Alvaro NuñezItem 17

Whether it's like little towers, but they're like four by fours, temporary aspects, but they're enough to support so that you don't have a disruption of electrical components.

David PenalozaItem 17

Beautiful. Thank you, Mr. City Manager. THE OTHER COMMENT, DIRECTOR SABA, IF YOU RECALL, THOSE RESIDENTS ON MAGNOLIA, WHEN WE WERE USING THOSE LOTS, THOSE PARCELS OF LAND FOR STAGING FOR THE CONTRACTOR FROM MAIN STREET, THIS WAS JUST SIMPLY STAGING. OFFICE, BUNGALOW, STAGING EQUIPMENT AND MATERIAL, THE AMOUNT OF NOISE AND DUST COMPLAINTS FROM THOSE RESIDENTS ON MAGNOLIA WAS ASTRONOMICAL. IT WAS DAILY. WE EVEN WENT OUT THERE. I think myself and you did as well. I'm the previous city manager. We provided free car washes we provided power washing in people's backyards because there was a

David PenalozaItem 17

Inch of dust in people's windows and on their backyards along the Angolia and that was just staging that wasn't construction That was just hey, I'm parking my vehicle here My my so I could imagine that the impact on dust is going to be a lot more more than just what we saw when there was just staging like we did a couple years ago so I would hope that we're also communicating how we'll be able to mitigate that and help these residents out uh whether it's power washing their backyards or or whatever it is I mean it's gonna cause a problem because we saw it just with staging so I would hope that we also address that as part

David PenalozaItem 17

of this uh the last and final question is with the with the sound wall do you know if it's going to be uh decorative because again with green ivy just similar like the ones we see uh north of first

street along bristol correct it it will follow the bristol theme of the of walls you'll have

David PenalozaItem 17

decorative uh sound wall with uh green ivy uh that's to avoid graffiti i'll confirm if we have

the ivy throughout there are as with the other sections of bristol you know areas where we do have it areas where we don't just kind of break up the look um but if that's uh city council's request that the entire segment be green ivy then that's something we can incorporate for sure okay

David PenalozaItem 17

and the protected bike lanes will be landscaped correct they they will direct your saba they'll be full yeah they will okay and again don't want to add to the concrete jungle that's why i want want to see green landscaping and something that where we don't allow for people to loiter and camp and do drugs so that it looks appealing to residents that use this stretch of road and not only that but all those residents it's a huge thoroughfare that connects Costa Mesa through Santa Ana up to Orange and a lot of people use it to drive whether they live here or not

David PenalozaItem 17

So we want to make sure that it looks welcoming and this is gonna help us sell those lots those commercial lots along Bristol No one's gonna want to buy them with the way it looks like right now. So the the quicker we can get this done I hope it doesn't go till November 2026 There's no reason it should If we have if we have a contractor that's out there working daily And not just two days a week like we've seen in the past right now I'm very impressed with the work on standard by the way. I mean that is I see them every single day And that's what I want to see here

David PenalozaItem 17

That's what we haven't seen in the past because what I noticed that contractors do is they'll use our city to sublease all their or not sublease to to Subsidize all the other projects that they get at these smaller cities and that's what's happening I'm not saying that this is what's happening here, but I want to keep that from happening. So let's stay on top of it congratulations this is a huge project for your department and for this city and I want to make sure it's it's done properly and quickly so that our residents feel the most minimal impact Thank You mayor those are those are my

Thai Viet PhanItem 17

comments councilman fan thank you I do not support this project I think we should transfer ten point five million dollars to finish off Euclid and we'd save the city sixteen million dollars I think that's a fantastic thank you but But in all seriousness, I do support that idea though.

Thai Viet PhanItem 17

In all seriousness, I mean, it's been 35 years. Well, it's another decade or so. It's fine.

Thai Viet PhanItem 17

Regarding notification, I'm not sure if our team has considered. I'm sorry, I didn't see it in the staff report. Whether it's texting, robocall, something like that, a lot of our residents obviously have cell phones and whatnot. Sometimes people don't check their mail very often, especially if it's a two-day notice or something. So I just want to put it out there. I'm actually very excited to see the improvements on Bristol. I do drive it all the time.

Thai Viet PhanItem 17

I think it's also really important for us to maintain those bike lanes and bike medians. I know a lot of people have a hard time adjusting to it, but it's a really important aspect of making sure the city is bikeable, walkable, and has all the different modes of transportation. And as people have access to these things, hopefully they get used to it and use it. So I look forward to staff updates on this. I do think, Mr. City Manager, that it'd be good to have periodic updates at city council meetings regarding this, because I think it'll be really fantastic news, especially if we have some really, I guess, big improvements,

Thai Viet PhanItem 17

you know, before and afters and things like that. I think it'll be really fun to see. Thank you. Councillor Becerra? But we got a first and a second, right? So I think we should vote. I did.

Phil BacerraItem 17

THANK YOU, MADAM MAYOR. MY COLLEAGUES HAVE MADE SOME GREAT COMMENTS TONIGHT. I THINK IT JUST SHOWS FOR HOW LONG THIS ITEM HAS TAKEN HOW IMPORTANT THIS PROJECT IS. THERE'S A LOT OF CONCERNS OUT IN THE COMMUNITY ABOUT IT, A LOT OF DESIRE TO SEE ITS CONCLUSION, RIGHT? I WANT TO ECHO, THOUGH, THE NOTION ABOUT THE PARKS. AND I DON'T ENVY OUR STAFF AND WHAT THEY HAVE TO ENDURE WITH THE PROPERTIES ON BRISTOL BETWEEN FIRST AND HIGHLAND. I mean from the chop shops to the open air drug use it's awful and I'll tell you right now I don't want to see that replicated south of at injure between and you're more. I don't want to see that

Phil BacerraItem 17

So when it comes to what you do with those Lots, yeah, there has to be some attention given I don't accept though this whole thing about parks versus open space. Oh I'm on I'm on a different zone property so I can commit a crime But if I'm on a different zone property, I know no no, it doesn't matter what the THE ZONING DESIGNATION IS. IF THERE'S SOMETHING HAPPENING, IT NEEDS TO BE MITIGATED, RIGHT? AND IF IT'S WITHIN THE PUBLIC REALM, IT NEEDS TO BE ADDRESSED. SO, YEAH, THE OTHER THING, I APPRECIATE THE COMMENTS ABOUT NOTIFICATIONS. AS FAR AS WHAT IT LOOKS LIKE, I KNOW ONE THING

Phil BacerraItem 17

THAT COUNCILMEMBER PELOSA AND I GET TAGGED ON SOCIAL MEDIA ABOUT IS THE CURRENT CONDITION of those properties between St. Andrews and Warner. And, you know, there was equipment there. Thank you, Director Saba, for getting that removed. But as this project gears up, what are we to expect along there? And not just simply, okay, obviously it's dirt. There's going to be some movement and whatnot. But I think on an ongoing basis, I think one thing we see with our contractors on certain projects in the city is, oh, well, we're under construction, so it is absolutely okay to make a mess.

Phil BacerraItem 17

There's no sense of let's keep it clean. You know, you go to certain cities where they have a vacant property They don't have just the chain link fence. They have some sort of wooden fence They have actual landscaping that if it takes too long it matures, right? But there's something that shows that They're not going to accept an unclean site just because there's construction again. There's gonna be dust There's gonna be you know, it's gonna be mitigate with water through construction but I just want to make sure that as construction's happening, there's a little more attention to, as some of my colleagues have already said,

Phil BacerraItem 17

Bristol is a corridor that is very highly traveled, not just by Santa Ana residents, by many other folks. And if we want to continue to showcase what a beautiful city we are, we've got to keep it clean. And so, yes, construction can get messy, but I think extra attention needs to be paid to making sure that when they're done with their activity at the end of the day, it doesn't look like they kept going, that they cleaned up it looks as decent as possible so that it doesn't look like a mess because this project has gone on forever so to have 30 years of a mess is

Phil BacerraItem 17

not acceptable so hopefully per what you've described this project is going to be done by fall of next year that's amazing but again in the meantime as we're going let's do what we can to keep it as clean and presentable as possible those are my comments thank you thank you councilman panalosa this is your

David PenalozaItem 17

last time you're out of thank you mayor i just want to make a suggestion uh rudy and director saba for noticing and and and year years ago and uh when we had the 2020 census and i was the chair of our committee here we we put dollars behind sponsoring advertising the census and it wasn't much it was like i don't know it was like five thousand dollars throughout the whole year of of heavy targeting specific areas in the city. We could do it. I don't know why we haven't done that with other projects in the city, other things that we're trying to do, noticing construction work throughout the city.

David PenalozaItem 17

We could sponsor our Facebook and Instagram. Everyone's on social media. Council Member Phan said it. Nobody checks her mail. Nobody is subscribed to our newsletters. I mean, people are, but not everybody. everybody isn't subscribed to our newsletter. So that's a great way to target people and let them know that this is happening. It's a lot cheaper than mail, and you'll get more people to see it, share it, comment, and engage with it. So that is one thing. And the other thing that I would just say is that we've met a number of times and had communications with Modern A over that little strip

David PenalozaItem 17

just south of their property. that's another thing that we could also probably address with with as part of this project and that's it I'm excited for this if you guys could shoot for May of next year great I mean it's just it's a long time but but we'll looking forward to it thank you man well I'm looking for the

Valerie AmezcuaItem 17

completion day it says November of 2026 so sir city manager will be holding to that date but

Alvaro NuñezItem 17

But those things that, because I don't want to leave it without being at least clarified or at least overly stating. The things that Rudy talked about, this whole component about a start and a definite completion date, right? This whole component about notification and yeah, we should have signs, like anybody else. We can make our signs ourselves in our public works agency. We can put them, right, upcoming construction, construction, any concerns, call this number. Legitimate, viable items to include. But it is construction, right? And with construction comes certain levels of anomalies

Alvaro NuñezItem 17

and dust and things like that. So it's how we can make it absolutely correct, message received, and when Rudy said, look, we are reminding people now, right? And you're right, it's data, so it's taking so long. So those meetings do count. We do have to be a little bit better about informing, but I know again, the fact that he's mentioning certain things and those learned aspects is those notions that we keep mentioning at the city council meetings, and how we're now taking steps to be part of either the staff report, the notification, or the contract, right? Those are the things that you see now

Alvaro NuñezItem 17

tangibly being pointed out and itemized in our contracts and our staff reports.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 17

No, thank you. We all appreciate that. I know we've seen some changes, definitely seen changes.

Alvaro NuñezItem 17

We want faster deadlines. Yes. We accept that.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 17

Yeah, I mean, we've seen changes and so I think we all up here, I don't want to speak for everybody, but I think we all appreciate that with your team, there are changes. But it's very important from the community who's watching at home or those that are, you know, getting their mail or email, seeing on social media, even text messaging, you know, you can do that as well because Councilmember Phan's right. People don't, I don't check my mail but once a month just so you know um i don't read it um so but you know city mr city manager you know it i know it and anybody who's been here a long time knows it projects start in

Valerie AmezcuaItem 17

the city and then we go to another location start another project then we go to another location this is all before alvaro and then we go to another location and then we go to another one And then we leave it 50%, 60%, 70%, and 40%? Oh, Warner. Yeah, don't start with Warner. Yeah. So I think what you're hearing up here, I hope, is that we do appreciate all of that and that we want things done. Because people who live here, like yourself and the deputy city manager and Rudy and all of us up here and many people in the audience that are sitting here, city staff and constituents, we want it done.

Alvaro NuñezItem 17

We understand.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 17

I love when David's the council panelist says bristles been worked on since he was in diapers. He's right He's right. And now he has two kids gonna have two children. It's probably gonna be worked on till pennies in college

Alvaro NuñezItem 17

No, so Okay

Valerie AmezcuaItem 17

Rudy your kids are gonna grow up Bristol will be done. Yeah

Our objective is to get it done before councilmember Pena loses and diapers as he likes to say, yes

Valerie AmezcuaItem 17

and diapers again yes all right we're going to hold you to that thank you very much thank you

David PenalozaItem 17

i think we need a motion i'll make a motion to approve madam mayor i'll second let's prepare to

Jennifer L. HallItem 17

vote motion by councilmember penalosa seconded by mayor mesquite to approve the recommended COMMENTED ACTIONS FOR ITEM NUMBER 17.

Jennifer L. HallItem 17

VOTE IS 7 AYES, NO NAYS. MOTION CARRIES.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 17

ALL RIGHT. END OF CONSENT CALENDAR. WE'RE GOING TO GO TO THE BUSINESS CALENDAR AT THIS TIME. ITEM NUMBER 20 IS THE FISCAL 2024 MID-YEAR BUDGET UPDATE.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 17

COUNCIL, DO YOU NEED A STAFF REPORTER OR WOULD YOU JUST LIKE TO GO INTO COMMENTS?

Jessie LopezItem 20

THEY CAN DO THE PRESENTATION.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 20

YEP. ALL RIGHT. THERE YOU GO, MR. CITY MANAGER. Alexander.

Alvaro NuñezItem 20

Acting Director of Finance and Financial Services, Alex Tridad will do the presentation for us.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 20

I'm sorry, what is your name?

Alvaro NuñezItem 20

Alejandro.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 20

Alejandro, nice to meet you.

you all right good evening mayor and City Council members so this presentation is to provide a brief summary of information from the mid-year update report so City Council is asked to consider the following actions

remaining balances for the general fund. For the recurring funds, we will have approximately 13,300 available. For the one-time funds, the remaining balances will be, for one-time funding will be 16,080,000. These figures reflect adjustments proposed in the mid-year update, and this ensures that we maintain fiscal responsibility

while addressing key priorities. priorities. Looking ahead, staff will continue to monitor expenditures and revenues, and we will provide further updates as part of the third quarter financial report.

This chart shows quarterly receipts for Measure X since its inception. While the overall trend indicates a gradual growth, actual receipts in recent quarters have fallen below the estimated estimated trend line. Bradley Burns sales tax revenues have also followed a similar pattern with actual receipts consistently falling short of the estimates. This decline has been factored into our mid-year budget report, which includes a reduction of estimated sales tax revenues. Specifically, the report adjusts Measure X revenues by $2,652,000.

The Bradley Burns revenues by 2,780,000 for a total reduction of 5,432,000. These adjustments reflect ongoing revenue challenges and align our estimates with actual collections. Looking beyond our city, we do see a similar economic challenges at the regional level. So Orange County's taxable sales declined by 2.3%. And this matches the drop across Southern California. This suggests that the revenue challenges we're facing locally reflect broader shifts in consumer and business spending.

Some of the key sector trends for auto sales, so high interest rates have weakened new car sales as consumers hesitate on big ticket purchases. In the business and industry, while the business business transactions saw a slight growth, most categories remained flat or declined due to economic pressures. For the fuel and service stations, fuel payments dropped 13% driven by lower consumption and falling fuel prices. We do expect this trend to continue

for end of fiscal year 24-25. This chart shows the gross receipts, revenues, trends for both both adult use and medical cannabis. So we saw a peak in grocery receipts between 2021 and early 2022. But since then, there's been a steady decline. The red line marks January 1st, 2023, when the city lowered the cannabis tax rate. However, as you could see, grocery receipts had already been trending downward before that, which points to broader market challenges.

One of the major issues is regional unlicensed sellers who continue to dominate the market since they don't pay taxes or follow the same regulations that could offer lower prices, making it difficult for the legal business to compete. Another factor is increasing competition. So more cities have allowed cannabis sales, which expanded supply, driven down the prices, and reduced profitability for local operators. In response to these trends, staff has recommended major budget adjustments to rebalance the public benefit fund, ensuring it aligns with current revenue estimates.

While some revenue sources are underperforming, growth in other areas are partially offsetting the decline. For utility user tax, revenues is up. This is largely due to higher electricity rates from Southern California Edison, increased consumption from recent heat waves, and continued adoption of electric vehicles are also contributing to this growth. For business tax revenues are benefiting from stronger compliance efforts, ensuring more businesses are properly licensed, and paying their fair share. This has helped sustain growth despite economic challenges in other sectors.

These positive trends have stabilized the general fund and staff will continue to track these revenues closely.

To rebalance the current year budget, we are proposing one-time adjustments totaling $2,943,000, resulting in overall budget decline. So these include 1.4 million reduction in the alley improvement program, 213,000 in savings from the OCFA contract, 1.5 million reduction in transfers to the public benefit fund due to cannabis revenues, 200,000 increase in Fort Santiago gym flooring and children through programming now covered by the general fund as a result of declining cannabis revenues.

revenues. Recurrent spending additions total $473,000, including street lights, utility costs, graffiti payment, and new plan check software. Furthermore, 13 new full-time positions are included in the budget, fully offset by part-time savings, contract savings, or additional revenues. The staff report also includes adjustments for other funds. These are the most significant adjustments proposed. For the Civic Center adjustments, we're aligning the budget with the county, primarily for capital projects around the Civic Center. For water and sewer operations,

this is funding for equipment purchases, including a backhoe, utility truck, heavy truck, CCTV truck, and other operational equipment. Restricted fund adjustments, we're aligning the budget with final grant allocations, as well as other restricted funding adjustments.

Okay, so looking ahead, some key budget and project discussions are scheduled for upcoming city council meetings. On March 18th, council will receive early direction for fiscal year 25-26 budget. Additionally, public works will bring forward a construction contract and a one-time general fund appropriation request for the Centennial Park improvements. At a future council meeting, staff will also present a separate staff report proposing the addition of a full-time construction crew to handle work currently performed by outside vendors.

So this concludes my prepared presentation, and staff is ready to answer any questions you may have.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 20

So council members, if you can please push your speaker card, your button if it's not working, then raise your mic so I can call on you please.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 20

Councilmember Lopez, is your mic up?

Valerie AmezcuaItem 20

Do you want to speak?

Jessie LopezItem 20

Yes, I'll go first.

Jessie LopezItem 20

Well, it's not great to see the decline in sales in cannabis.

Jessie LopezItem 20

And, you know, I heard you talk about the offsets. But with the new tariffs that have been implemented, I would like an analysis of how it's going to what are the projections of how it will impact our sales tax and the auto industry here in the city of Santa Ana which is most certainly going to be negatively impacted and so I want to see that before I make a final determination on on on this budget or or any recommendations, appropriation requests, workforce changes that you're asking me to essentially take a vote on.

Jessie LopezItem 20

I'm not supportive of reducing the alley improvement program. That's something that I've been talking about here for the past couple years. We have a 15 year wait period for the alleys to be improved. I don't wanna extend that time length. In fact, I wanna see some of these alleys continue continuously be improved on a year-to-year basis and not prolong them what I am supportive of as of this moment is the water fund I think that's incredibly important especially give it the new EPA ruling today that is not

Jessie LopezItem 20

mandating cities regulate the water which is incredibly dangerous obviously Obviously, our sewer, yes. The quality of life team requests you've made, yes. The graffiti abatement program, I use it all the time. My constituents really love it. So I want to maintain these service levels. The gas tax is doing really well. In fact, I wish it wasn't restricted money so that we could use it for other infrastructure projects. but giving the large dollar amount here, I want Public Works to consider addressing as many sidewalks, obviously in Ward 3 and beyond,

Jessie LopezItem 20

as possible because there is a lot of money that is allowed to be used for that public benefit.

Jessie LopezItem 20

Let's see. I AM SUPPORTIVE OF PUTTING DOWN I THINK IT'S A MILLION DOLLAR ALLOCATION FOR SOME OF THE DEBT THAT THE CITY HAS.

Jessie LopezItem 20

AND I THINK THAT'S IT FOR NOW. I'LL COME BACK WITH MY SECOND ROUND OF COMMENTS. THANK YOU.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 20

THANK YOU. COUNCILMAN HERNANDEZ.

Johnathan Ryan HernandezItem 20

THANK YOU, MADAM CITY MAYOR. Mayor I just wanted to echo this the same sentiments that councilmember Lopez has for sidewalk repair our city pays out a lot of money annually for people who unfortunately may trip or fall throughout the city and increasing the amount of investment towards repairing our side sidewalks is also public safety it's protecting our city from liabilities and it's also improving the perception of safety if your sidewalks are clean and they're well paved you're going to feel more safe in your community i want for our city to emphasize the importance

Johnathan Ryan HernandezItem 20

in in strengthening our public works department who does a fantastic job repairing our sidewalks i've had the honor of working with public works and i just want to see you guys get that that support and so i want to see sidewalk repairs be a priority for us here within the mid-year budget i'm also not supportive of decreasing funding for alley improvements i had the honor of working with director saba our city manager's office on rep repairing some alleys in ward 5. since we've repaired some of these alleys alongside san anna food market we've seen a decrease in

Johnathan Ryan HernandezItem 20

homelessness in that area and so i can i can note that alley improvements also improve the perception of public safety so I'm supportive of maintaining a strong commitment to alley improvements I'm supportive of the civic center rehabilitation specifically from Shelton to Flower I know that was something that I've been fighting for and civic center is now getting of course the treatment that it long deserved from Fairview to Bristol and of course there's been some challenges is there but we're augmenting them the construction from shelton to flower i'm sure many of us are

Johnathan Ryan HernandezItem 20

already aware that drive is not a comfortable one it's not friendly on your car but you know the civic center corridor has not received the funds that it should have received over the last couple of decades so that we can prioritize fixing these streets now we are prioritizing that as a city i'm also supportive of us increasing our funding to accommodate the library staff i see in the mid-year budget staff staffing is a priority for our library i'm also supportive of you fully staffing the eighth floor the city manager's office recently added an additional

Johnathan Ryan HernandezItem 20

executive assistant fully staffing the eighth floor i'm supportive of that i'm supportive of the adjustments for the zoo and lastly in terms of sidewalk repair i wanted to bring up an area of priority to residents in ward 5 and given that there's going to be a park space in the willard neighborhood on 10th and flower there's there's a strong need for us to repair the con the sidewalk between the intersection of washington and civic center along the flower corridor the the construction that is happening there is going to bring a

Johnathan Ryan HernandezItem 20

crosswalk but there is also a lot of liability for people who are walking throughout Flower Street families that are going to come from Washington Square and Willard are going to share that sidewalk it's important that we repair it given we're going to introduce a new amenity to the public and then lastly I wanted us to I would like to see us prioritize the Fairview corridor as well i know we're focusing on bristol i just wanted to mention that it's a priority for residents in ward 5 for us to see the fairview corridor get some attention and some much needed funding and

Johnathan Ryan HernandezItem 20

then lastly an area of priority for residents in washington square is the park feasibility study i know that we were successful in getting that in our last budget cycle for 2024 i just wanted to emphasize the importance of us preparing for that potential park space as well thank you

Valerie AmezcuaItem 20

and that'll conclude my comments thank you mr city manager before we move on this is the start of our budget conversations as we talked about so after this what is our next meeting discuss

Alvaro NuñezItem 20

the budget the 18th yes so this is the mid-year adjustment so you get an idea where we're at currently and then some of the staff allocations and some of the savings and we see some deficit uh the next meeting we'll probably ask for a preliminary direction this is why this is critical when we did this way so that we start thinking about that, right? And of course, we have to always discuss previously when we talked about, for example, Eddie West, right? What type of improvements, what type of investment, and how do we think about things like that when our sales tax has decreased, our cannabis

Alvaro NuñezItem 20

sales also decreased, and then bringing into consideration this whole thing about tariffs and the impacts, well we don't know because they just went in, right? So So preliminary to do an analysis, do we expect an impact like anybody else? Of course we do. But one thing to point out, and I think that's critical because it's not a staff issue per se, right? You saw that the sale decrease with the city mirrors the Orange County decrease and the regional Southern California 2.3, right? So this is more of a market-driven kind of component.

Alvaro NuñezItem 20

So for us, this is the critical time to have the discussion up in years to get the preliminary numbers for what we consider the, quote-unquote, for minor adjustments and they get direction at the March 18. This is the big ticket item, this is the thing we gotta start looking at and where we start making some of the suggestions. With the consideration, just as a caveat for the March 18, that we're also gonna go into negotiations and meeting confer with most of our collective bargaining contracts.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 20

Now thank you for that. I wanted you to share that so that we can all hear that. and thank you. Council Member Becerra.

Phil BacerraItem 20

Thank you, Madam Mayor. And I definitely appreciate hearing my colleagues talk about sidewalks. I know a couple years ago when I first really started drilling down on that when we didn't have a dedicated revenue stream for it, when we were just relying on whatever the mercy of the gas tax, if you will. I'm glad that we are all seeing the importance of sidewalks now. In the staff report, by the way, I'll just say, MY COMMENTS HERE ARE GOING TO BE AS WE'RE DISCUSSING MORE FOCUSED ON WHAT WAS IN THE REPORT. I HAVE PLENTY OF THINGS TO ASK FOR IN THE BUDGET.

Phil BacerraItem 20

SO RATHER THAN MAKE YOU ENDURE THAT TONIGHT, I'LL JUST FOCUS ON WHAT YOU PRESENTED, LIKE YOU SAID, CITY MANAGER, ABOUT THE BIGGER TICKET ITEMS. SO IN THE STAFF REPORT, IT SAYS GAS TAX FUND HAS AN ESTIMATED SPENDABLE FUND BALANCE OF 26.3 MILLION FAR EXCEEDING THE CITY'S TARGET RESERVE LEVEL OF 20%, WHICH IS 1.7 MILLION. AND THEN THAT PUBLIC WORK STAFF WILL RETURN WITH APPROPRIATIONS REQUESTS ONCE SPECIFIC PROJECTS HAVE BEEN IDENTIFIED. WELL, LET ME GIVE YOU SOME IDEAS ON WHERE WE CAN IDENTIFY PLACES FOR THAT FUNDING. SO WE TALK ABOUT REVENUE GENERATION. AND MR. CITY MANAGER,

Phil BacerraItem 20

YOU AND SOME OF YOUR STAFF HAVE BEEN VERY GRACIOUS WITH YOUR TIME IN ATTENDING MEETINGS DOWN ON THE SOUTH END WITH THE SOUTH COAST BUSINESSES. SO THE FOLKS THAT ARE IN THE HUT AND CENTER NEAR FIRST AMERICA AND THE HOTELS AND WE ALL HEARD THE SAME STORY WHERE ONE OF THE PROPERTY MANAGERS DOWN THERE FOR ONE OF THE MORE PROMINENT PROPERTIES LOST A HUGE TENANT TO ANOTHER NEIGHBORING CITY BECAUSE OF THE CONDITIONS OF OUR STREETS AND SO I THINK IT'S IMPORTANT THAT YOU KNOW I THINK OUR DIRECTOR FOR PUBLIC WORKS HAS DONE A GREAT JOB OF MAKING SURE WE STAY ON A CYCLE AND and maintain a certain routine, but not all streets are equal.

Phil BacerraItem 20

Not all streets are adjacent to revenue generating properties. And so we can treat them all the same and we can lose money that same way that we have been losing it, or we can figure out how to make sure that certain areas are addressed in a way that helps our city generate revenue. I'm not trying to play favorites, but I'm also trying to recognize that some streets don't have the same level of traffic. Some streets just need a little more attention and just to stick it on the same cycle like it's a tree trimming cycle Is not good business for the city

Phil BacerraItem 20

For the Santa Ana Regional Transportation Center or our train depot when it comes to capital projects What I'd like to know for For us is what are we doing over there because every I'd say the past couple of years when we're talking about Sartic we We always are like either very close to breaking even or we're veering into the red. And we have spaces that we should be looking to lease out. Now, I know in the past couple of years, there's been quite a bit of construction over there, but that's starting to subside. And that hasn't stopped commuters from utilizing that train station.

Phil BacerraItem 20

So again, coffee shops, you know, you have a large leaseable space on the north side that in the past has been used for events. we have office space on the upper floors i'll tell you right now that the space that's in the top of that tower why that's not a restaurant or some sort of much more accessible amenity i don't know it's a community room today but i don't know much of the community that goes up there let's figure out a way to utilize that and so i think as we're talking about things uh capital projects in relation to the santa ana uh train depot that's something we should be looking at

Phil BacerraItem 20

and last but not least Mr. City Manager I really love the idea of the in-house construction crew there's just certain projects that we need to be nimble on they're not large-scale projects we're not going to take this crew and finish Bristol god forbid right but this is the sort of crew that we need to really take care of these you know urgent matters that again this is not something that circumvents any agreements this is not something that um undercuts quality this is just something where if we have our own you know jack of all trades crew that can go out and take these

Phil BacerraItem 20

instant projects if you will or just matters that need immediate attention i think it's a great idea i think it'll definitely reduce some costs and the way that you frame it in here that the increased cost will be offset by reductions in certain contract services so this isn't going to be a DETRIMENT TO ANY SORT OF LABOR GROUP. THIS IS MORE OF OUTSIDE CONTRACTORS. HOW DO WE BECOME MORE NIMBLE AND RESPONSIVE TO BOTH THE NEEDS OF THE CITY, THE NEEDS OF OUR RESIDENTS AND BUSINESSES. SO I THINK THAT IS AN EXCELLENT IDEA AND I'M DEFINITELY GOING TO SUPPORT THAT. THOSE ARE MY COMMENTS. THANK YOU.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 20

THANK YOU. MAYOR PERKINS.

Benjamin VazquezItem 20

THANK YOU, MAYOR. THANK YOU FOR THAT, COUNCIL MEMBER VECETA. THAT ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENTS SHOULD ALWAYS BE IN THE FRONT OF OUR MINDS INCLUDING MARKETING FOR CANNABIS, MARKETING FOR THE AUTO MALL, BUT ALSO MARKETING FOR THE USED CAR DEALERSHIPS ON HARBOR. SO WE HAVE A LOT OF USED CAR DEALERSHIPS THAT DO OPERATE ON HARBOR AND HOW WE SUPPORT IF YOU'RE GOING TO BUY A USED CAR COME TO SANTANA, COME DOWN HARBOR AND WE CAN SEE A LOT OF SALES COMING OUT OF THAT. THE PROPOSED GENERAL BUDGET, I DON'T LIKE THAT I SEE THE REDUCTION IN ALLEY IMPROVEMENT PROGRAMS I DO WANT TO SUPPORT IT I KNOW THAT I BENEFITED AND I'VE

Benjamin VazquezItem 20

SEEN IT ON MCFADDEN A GREAT JOB AND THE WORK THAT THEY DID AND THEY CLEANED UP THE ALLEYS AND IT MAKES A BIG DIFFERENCE TO CONTINUE TO CONTINUE THAT WORK I DO SUPPORT THE SANTA AGUA GENT FLOORING THE CHILDREN'S ZOO AND OF COURSE THE QUALITY OF LIFE HOMELESS SERVICE CLEANING CONTRACT I DO APPRECIATE EVERYTHING ELSE IN THE WORDS FOR MY MEMBERS BUT THOSE ARE

Valerie AmezcuaItem 20

mind for now thank you thank you the only thing i'll add as councilman becerra said i support the 13 full-time positions um that's going to be great for us as a city we'll be able to take care of things quicker and save some money that i think we're going to see that it's definitely going to be a savings for us as far as the cult mr city manager can you share a little bit about what what that will look like, please?

Alvaro NuñezItem 20

So most of this cost that we're adding is for the remainder of this fiscal year. And so we're doing a lot more frequent type of outreach and visits. So what you're seeing is that almost an increase of an additional team out there, regarding quote. So what I mean by that, it'll be, you know, in addition to police officers, of course, outreach folks and and I and cleaning crews that that's them that's the main

Valerie AmezcuaItem 20

objective for something like this thank you and I know that you and your staff are working very closely with the county I'd say working closely with them but really holding them accountable to handle the matters that they should be handling as far as social services mental health things of that nature is that correct yes because at the end of the day we as I always say Mikey we're paying a lot of money doing a lot of things that the county should be doing and so um i'm very supportive of this but i also want us to make sure we continue to work closely with the county and

Alvaro NuñezItem 20

ensure that they're also doing their part so we are trying to be just just so i can be clear about that obviously being the common seat and and benefiting and collaborating with the county is essential for us to be successful so we are being diligent a lot more communication and a lot more focus on how we respond to critical issues. Increased level of communication is actually what we're doing. And then key people, you see our staff communicate more with county staff than before.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 20

Thank you, and that's all I'll share right now. I mean, I've met with you and deputy city manager and we went over this, but I'll wait for the other meetings to share what I'm really looking for. So I think we're for me personally we're on the right path and I just want to again I remind the public and those in the audience and watching from home that it measure X is coming fast And so what you're doing is helping us prepare for that and the conversations They're they're gonna get harder And the meetings are gonna get a little bit more interesting as far as what we're spending money on and how we're spending it and where

Valerie AmezcuaItem 20

where what are we going to do at the end of the day? Because I hope that we don't wait for the year that it's about to sunset. And I know you have a plan and you're working on that. So I trust that you're going to bring that forward as we move forward. So if there are any other comments, Councilman Penalosa.

David PenalozaItem 20

Thank you, Mayor. I'll be very brief. I just wanted to also voice support for the workforce changes, the proposed 13 positions. And also, I'll have more to say as we move along this budget process. But when I look over the Civic Center budget, budget increase and thinking about how we've been talking about the Civic Center Master Redevelopment Plan for years now and I don't see any movement on that and I think that's something that could check so many boxes on the Civic Center maintenance, the stadium, the ongoing maintenance issues that we're seeing and economic development.

David PenalozaItem 20

I know I looked to San Juan Capistrano, they just got a brand new city hall built and affordable housing on site. I mean, it's great. And there's so many ways, creative ways that we could address all the budget issues we're having and all the questions we have in the staff report alone by looking at moving quickly on this Civic Center master plan. And I know I've talked to Public Works when we had our meeting over the plans, how maybe there's land swaps with the county, with the stadium and the courts, because they want to build a new courthouse as well.

David PenalozaItem 20

So there's a lot of potential here for investment and development. I know it's but it's it's related to many of the boxes and questions that this budget staff report proposes right it's like there's so many things that we're not doing in our own see movement on that could address a lot of these issues that we're having now so with that a mayor those are my comments thank you

Thai Viet PhanItem 20

Thank You councilman fan Thank You mayor so I think you have one two three four four of us who would like to keep the alley improvement you know I I guess it's a little early to give any direction but I'd actually like to see it focused in revenue generating areas because we do have a lot of businesses particularly in industrial areas Susan Street and Ward 1 that I keep getting complaints on and I think that that'll help us right we're all talking about how do we improve the environment to ensure that our revenue generating businesses are able to thrive and since councilmember Becerra mentioned it

Thai Viet PhanItem 20

there's 1.7 million dollars in PWA that is not yet allocated it seems like the 1 million dollars you can take a look at that and see how they can cover that

Thai Viet PhanItem 20

other than that I'm actually really looking forward to our next meeting to discuss what we're going to do about Centennial since you know Ward 1 is very important and we should really transfer the Bristol funding back to Euclid but since that item's passed.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 20

I seconded it.

Thai Viet PhanItem 20

I know, we should have had a vote. I really thought so. But ultimately, I am very satisfied with the, I think the thoughts that staff have brought forward. I look forward to seeing how we're going to address a lot of these, I guess, changes with programming going forward, especially youth and community programming. I'm also really interested in seeing how we are going to address you know what the cannabis the cannabis I remember anything like 21 really like 21 million dollars so that's a huge hit to us if there's anything

Thai Viet PhanItem 20

else we can do or if it's something that is really just affecting the region overall with that I look forward to our next meeting thank you thank you I don't

Valerie AmezcuaItem 20

the other oh you do yes go ahead thank you um you know i was uh one of the last points was

Jessie LopezItem 20

addressing the unfunded pension liability was which is a big priority and i know that it's in here but i don't agree with everything that you're asking me to support which is which is which is what i said during my first part of comments right um and so thank you for including that um in the mid-year and i know that we're going to have other opportunities to discuss in detail what is it that we want for the city in our respective areas and i look forward to that conversation and i also think that it's so incredibly important that as we move forward in this process we keep in mind that

Jessie LopezItem 20

we have staff that are grant dependent right and so can i want to see if the general fund budget that we oversee can absorb those losses that can potentially happen at the federal level because because that is a massive concern for working people right now, whether they're going to lose their jobs from one day to the next and what local jurisdictions are going to do to maintain those services that they are currently operating and servicing and essentially providing that service to our community. So that should also be part of the analysis that comes back, not just with the tariffs, but what is it that we are projecting?

Jessie LopezItem 20

and I know that's hard, but there's also a little bit of a blueprint out there. And so I think with our federal and state lobbyists, they should be able to give us some details, some numbers as to what is it that the city should have on reserves or what is it that the city should think about, about, you know, tracking or putting to the side in case people that we have now as current employees lose their grant funding, which pays for their positions here in the city. So that's gonna be really, really important for me as I move forward in this process. Thank you.

Jessie LopezItem 20

All right.

Alvaro NuñezItem 20

Just quickly, and for fun, what do you call it, F-150? I'm sorry. So you notice that in December we did $2 million, and then we're asking for another million dollars. Now, for us, this is critical, and it goes back to this overall messaging that we're trying to signal. You're right, the tariffs, the impact on grant money, both federal and how the state does does come in, like they say they're gonna come in, but if they don't, right? And so we have those numbers and we should be able to include some level of analysis to get that. But one of the reasons why, at least in this fiscal year, you see that $3 million allocation

Alvaro NuñezItem 20

as to that type of F-115, our funding, is because we know that when Measure X sunsets, it's gonna be a little bit more difficult to make that level of allocation. But we also know that if we do it now, the benefits are exponential, right? So that's the whole point of deferring that level of cost so that we benefit later on. And then if there's critical times, we can make a different type of determination. That's the investment now, not dollar for dollar, but we know we're going to gain a little bit more in the long run.

Jessie LopezItem 20

And to your point, since we're thinking long term, which we should be, which great, I guess I do want to understand, and we don't have to do it here, we can definitely meet later during this week or next week the workforce train of thought because again right we know people here are grant dependent our city is heavily grant dependent because of the restrictions to the general fund and so what is the train of thought of hiring more people when we don't know if we're gonna be able to sustain them long term and so again we don't have to get into that

Alvaro NuñezItem 20

back and forth but just to clarify it doesn't seem significant so the The workforce adjustments, they're not a net gain on staffing, so they're absorbed. It's actually a lit now, so what you're seeing is you're seeing adjustments and workforce changes, but they're not net gains, right? We're actually limiting some staffing and readjusting some of the staffing components. Just to clarify.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 20

Thank you, I think that's it. And Mr. City Manager, to you and your staff, thank you. I think as we move forward and we don't know what's gonna come down from the federal level and you know we were you know everybody's you know there's so many things that are going on and around and gossip and truth and I'm not quite sure what we know what we don't know right we all keep up on things so but measure X is coming we know it is and so we need to be ready for that and start working on that as I always say I sound like a broken record because the last thing we need is for our city to be in a financial crisis and there's a lot of

Valerie AmezcuaItem 20

things that can and can't hurt us and hopefully we don't end up in that position because I know we won't with your team and your leadership so with that let's move on no further discussion is there a motion make a motion to move the item I'll second I have madam clerk let's vote

Jennifer L. HallItem 20

Motion by Councilmember Hernandez, seconded by Mayor Mescua, to approve the recommended actions for item number 20, the fiscal 2024-25 year budget update, inclusive of a resolution of the City Council of the City of Santa Ana to affect certain changes to the City's classification and compensation plan, and a resolution of the City Council of the City of Santa Ana to amend the current fiscal year 2024-25 annual budget to adjust full-time positions in the City Manager's Office, Human Resources, the Finance and Management Services Agency, Parks,

Jennifer L. HallItem 20

recreation and community services planning and building agency and public works agency including additions deletions and or reallocations you're really good at that madam clerk but

Valerie AmezcuaItem 20

can you turn the volume up a little bit sure no problem i'm kidding all right we're going

Jennifer L. HallItem 20

to go into the public hearing um we need to complete the vote please oh i apologize

Jennifer L. HallItem 20

who's who hasn't voted um that's nervous there could you voice your vote please

Jennifer L. HallItem 20

Okay Vote is six eyes one nay nay by councilmember Lopez motion carries Thank You councilmember fan

Thai Viet PhanItem 20

Thank You mayor I'd like to state my recusal from items 21 as well as 22 as TAC energy and thrive Santa Ana Inc are Clients of my employer rattan and Tucker and so with that I will leave the dais while the discussion is being held. Thank you

Valerie AmezcuaItem 20

Thank you Thank you. And Mr. City Manager, the gentleman spoke his name is Alex? Alex. Thank you very much. Thank you. Okay. Public hearing. Here we go. Before the public hearing item, number 21, Madam Clerk, please provide instructions to the public who would like to make a comment on this public hearing item only.

Jennifer L. HallItem 21

Mayor and City Council, at this time, we do not have any attendees via Zoom.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 21

THANK YOU. NUMBER 21 IS A PUBLIC HEARING FIVE YEAR ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT SUBSIDY REPORT FOR TAC ENERGY. MR. CITY MANAGER MAY WE HAVE THE STAFF PRESENTATION. DOES COUNCIL NEED THE PRESENTATION? NO. OKAY. NO PRESENTATION NEEDED. ARE THERE ANY QUESTIONS BY THE COUNCIL OR COMMENTS?

Johnathan Ryan HernandezItem 21

MAYOR I'D LIKE TO MOVE THE ITEM. I'LL SECOND.

Jennifer L. HallItem 21

IF WE COULD PLEASE OPEN FOR COMMENTS.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 21

I'M GOING TO OPEN UP THE PUBLIC HEARING FOR COMMENTS. I DID. ANY QUESTIONS OR COMMENTS?

Jennifer L. HallItem 21

JUST NOTING FOR THE RECORD THAT THERE WERE NO CARDS SUBMITTED FOR PUBLIC SPEAKERS, NOBODY ON ZOOM AND NO EMAILS RELATED TO THIS PUBLIC HEARING. THANK YOU.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 21

I THINK YOU SAID THERE WERE NO COMMENTS.

Jennifer L. HallItem 21

CORRECT. NO COMMENTS.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 21

OKAY. SO THERE WAS A MOTION AND A SECOND. SO NO FURTHER COMMENTS. I'M GOING TO CLOSE THE PUBLIC HEARING. AND THERE'S NO FURTHER DISCUSSION. LET'S PREPARE TO VOTE. I'LL MOVE THE ITEM.

Jennifer L. HallItem 21

COULD WE PLEASE HAVE THE MOTION AND SECOND RESTATED?

Phil BacerraItem 21

YES. MOVED.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 21

MOVED BY COUNCILMAN BESSERA. SECOND BY COUNCILMAN HERNANDEZ.

Jennifer L. HallItem 21

THANK YOU VERY MUCH. THAT WILL BE TO APPROVE THE RECOMMENDED ACTION FOR PUBLIC HEARING ITEM NUMBER 21, THE FIVE-YEAR ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT SUBSIDY REPORT FOR TAC ENERGY.

Jennifer L. HallItem 21

VOTE IS SIX AYES, NO NAYS WITH THE REPORTED RECUSAL BY COUNCILMEMBER FAN. MOTION CARRIES.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 21

THANK YOU. BEFORE HEARING PUBLIC HEARING ITEM NUMBER 22, MADAM CLERK, PLEASE PROVIDE INSTRUCTION I WOULD LIKE TO MAKE A COMMENT ON THIS PUBLIC HEARING ITEM ONLY. THERE IS NO ONE ON ZOOM. ITEM 22 IS A PUBLIC HEARING FOR A FIVE YEAR ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT SUBSIDY REPORT FOR THRIVE SANTA ANA. DOES THE COUNCIL WANT TO HEAR A PRESENTATION? HEARING NO. ANY QUESTIONS OR COMMENTS? I'M GOING TO OPEN IT UP. MAYOR AND CITY COUNCIL NOTING

Jennifer L. HallItem 22

FOR THE RECORD THERE ARE NO IN-PERSON OR ZOOM SPEAKERS. However, there were four e-comments that were received distributed to the council and posted online for this public hearing

Valerie AmezcuaItem 22

No further comments. I closed the public hearing Council members have additional comments or questions council member Lopez. No questions. I just want to thank

Jessie LopezItem 22

Planning staff for their work and working with our community land trust and I want to thank thrive. This is An idea that was born long time ago and that the community has really pushed forward has really had to force its way into City Hall to buy Support from staff and I just want to thank everybody that's been open-minded about this process and again, I want to thank all the community members that brought this concept to the city because I think it's gonna be successful and allowing people to become their own

Jessie LopezItem 22

Business owners allowing people to generate money using plots of land that were not being used before Those are all good things for our city. So thank you

Johnathan Ryan HernandezItem 22

Thank you. I'll make a motion to support this item just with a brief comment madam mayor I had the honor of visiting the community land trust recently and this is a world-class facility a beautiful location right in the heart of Ward 5 in an area where there is a strong need for FOR OPPORTUNITY. AND I JUST WANT TO THANK THE CITY STAFF AND I ALSO WANT TO THANK THRIVE FOR HAVING THE COMMUNITY'S INTERESTS IN MIND. AND WITH THAT BEING SAID THAT WILL CONCLUDE MY COMMENTS.

Jessie LopezItem 22

I'LL SECOND.

SECOND.

Benjamin VazquezItem 22

OKAY. PLEASE. THANK YOU SO MUCH. I WANT TO THANK THE STAFF FOR WORKING VERY HARD TO GET THIS WORK DONE AND I WANT TO THANK THE FOLKS OF THRIVE FOR PUSHING AND FIGHTING FOR THIS LAND AND and now we see spaces on bristol which might be able to be used in a different way than a green space or a park that there will be people working there and it's going to be programming uh i would like to see some of this work happen if if this is something successful if we have something that's done well let's multiply it in the city in the spaces that need the help so thank you so much

Benjamin VazquezItem 22

strive for leading this forward there's other lands to be had and and taken care of so let's

Valerie AmezcuaItem 22

move let's uh let's take a vote all right no further discussion there's been a motion and a second let's prepare to vote please motion by council member hernandez seconded by council

Jennifer L. HallItem 22

member lopez to approve the recommended actions for public hearing item number 22 related to thrive santa ana inc vote is six eyes no nays with a noted recusal by council member fan motion CUSTOMER RESCUE. CUSTOMER RESCUE. CUSTOMER RESCUE. CUSTOMER RESCUE. CUSTOMER RESCUE.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 22

CUSTOMER RESCUE. CUSTOMER RESCUE.

Phil BacerraItem 23

CUSTOMER RESCUE. CUSTOMER RESCUE. CUSTOMER RESCUE. CUSTOMER RESCUE. CUSTOMER RESCUE. CUSTOMER RESCUE. CUSTOMER RESCUE. CUSTOMER RESCUE. CUSTOMER RESCUE. CUSTOMER RESCUE. CUSTOMER RESCUE. CUSTOMER RESCUE. CUSTOMER RESCUE. CUSTOMER RESCUE. I WORK WITH FOLKS THAT ACTUALLY PRODUCE HOUSING, HOME BUILDERS. AND I WAS IN A MEETING ONCE WHERE SOMEONE THAT I WAS WORKING WITH ASKED IN A PARTICULAR CITY OUTSIDE OF ORANGE COUNTY WHO THEY SHOULD HIRE FOR POLITICAL LOBBYING. AND I'LL NEVER FORGET THE RESPONSE FROM THE STAFF FROM THAT CITY THAT SAID, IS THERE SOMETHING WRONG WITH YOUR PROJECT?

Phil BacerraItem 23

AND THE PERSON WHO WAS ASKING THE QUESTION WAS REALLY ASKING ABOUT WHO TO HIRE FOR LOBBYISTS. not one negative bone in their body, but they just thought that that's what they had to do. And so unfortunately, there is that perception that politics and development being woven together in a very negative way. And we saw that here in Santa Ana back in 2018. But this item tonight is more of something not to dwell on the past, but to look at what we can do in the future, because we've thankfully already gone through one very large development where

Phil BacerraItem 23

I don't believe unless someone tells me otherwise that there were no negative political repercussions we were able to see a very transparent collaborative process and we were able to get through quite a bit of time but we eventually got through to the end of it and I'm pretty sure the FPPC or the FEC has had had no reason to weigh in on the on that development and I hope that that's the way we see things going forward and I think with this council you'll see that but we don't make laws because of who's here today we do it because we want to make sure that good practices and good standards are upheld in the future so my

Phil BacerraItem 23

item tonight just to remind my colleagues was to ask staff to bring bring back an ordinance and I would say this is not something that has to come back tomorrow or the next day I would ask that it come back in 60 days hopefully that would be enough to bring back something and this item would be to require applicants for contracts licenses permits or any other entitlements for use including any person who files an application for or is the subject of a proceeding involving a contract license permit or other entitlement for use and any person who actively supports or opposes a

Phil BacerraItem 23

particular decision in a proceeding involving a contract license permit or other entitlement for use and who has a financial interest in that decision to disclose pending or prior FPPC and or FEC violations fines and enforcement actions and that those disclosures appear on any notices for public meetings hearings and any and all staff reports related to that application so this isn't just really focused on land use development but also to we have a lot of contracts that come before the city and some are pretty high ticket items and I want to make sure that that when we are looking at these and I

Phil BacerraItem 23

believe again that this council does this in that we look at them fairly and openly but again this is to make sure that we make it clear to folks that that think that dirty politics is the way to get things approved in Santa Ana, we make it clear that if you do that, you will be called out and it will be known. And we are blessed that we have a very active community, but sometimes, as we saw in 2018, people don't play by the rules and they try to hide what they did. But thankfully, justice prevailed. But again, let's make sure that we send a message that Santa Ana is not open to corrupt developers or any other type of contractors,

Phil BacerraItem 23

AND THAT THIS ITEM WOULD BE SOMETHING THAT SHOOTS A FLARE IN THE AIR WHEN THOSE SORTS OF CHARACTERS TRY TO COME INTO OUR CITY. THAT'S MY REQUESTED ITEM TONIGHT.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 23

THANK YOU, COUNCIL MEMBER BESARA. COUNCIL MEMBER FAN. THANK YOU.

Thai Viet PhanItem 23

THANK YOU, COUNCIL MEMBER BESARA FOR BRINGING THIS FORWARD. I AM DEFINITELY SUPPORTIVE OF THIS ITEM. I JUST WANTED SOME CLARIFICATION OR AT LEAST TO GIVE SOME DIRECTION TO OUR CITY ATTORNEY. THE ITEMS THAT YOU LISTED, CONTRACTS, ENTITLEMENTS FOR USE, et cetera. I believe that generally tracks the Levine Act or Levin Act. So I just want, if it does, I just want to make sure that maybe we can ensure that it does track so that way the language is clear and everybody knows what we're talking about. And then the other item I wanted to mention is the parties involved. So whether it's the applicant, the property owner, supporters,

Thai Viet PhanItem 23

opposition and whatnot, again, I would like to see that it tracked the Levine Act because it does does generally have that implication. Just to make sure that it's consistent so that we have these definitions that exist somewhere in state law, that we don't have to keep updating it or creating our own definitions for it. I think it'd make it a lot easier. My only concern, and I wanted to put it out here for my colleagues, is for pending complaints. So I have a lot of experience defending and being the subject of an FPPC complaint, complaint, some of which were completely dismissed with no investigation, no request for information.

Thai Viet PhanItem 23

Others that I want on behalf of a client that took two years to show that we won and there was no violation, there was no issue whatsoever. So I grapple with the idea that someone who is the subject of a pending complaint that that may be completely frivolous because anyone can file complaint they can file it anonymously etc that there would be this mark on their application during the process so I just want to put it out there I don't know what my colleagues are thinking but I wanted us to consider that definitely if there have been past I guess determinations and things like that we should

Thai Viet PhanItem 23

definitely you know know about it I think that's important for us and real quickly councilman

Phil BacerraItem 23

YOU SOMEHOW MUST KNOW THE LAVINE ACT BECAUSE I DEFINITELY LIFTED A LITTLE BIT OF THE LANGUAGE IN HERE FROM THAT. AND THAT WAS DUE TO MY CONSULTATION WITH OUR CITY MANAGER AND THE CITY ATTORNEY'S OFFICE. THAT WAS ONE THING BECAUSE WHEN I WENT IN WITH MY DRAFT, THAT WAS SOMETHING I WANTED TO EXACTLY WHAT YOU SAID, JUST TRYING TO MAKE SURE THAT THERE WAS SOME SORT OF CONSISTENCY AND LANGUAGE AND SOMETHING THAT WAS KIND OF THE BEST PRACTICES. AND SO, YES, WHAT YOU WHAT I WAS READING OFF OF WAS LANGUAGE LIFTED FROM THAT ACT.

Thai Viet PhanItem 23

Thank you. That was all my comments. Councilman Panalosa?

David PenalozaItem 23

Thank you, Mayor. I want to thank Councilmember Becerra for bringing this forward. Definitely something that I see no issue with, just from reading the staff report on face value.

David PenalozaItem 23

The only thing I would also just try to clarify, Madam City Attorney, that makes sure we're okay, and just thinking in the future, you know, somebody, a developer or applicant will eventually seek a, whatever it is, whatever they're trying to get entitled and have a public hearing. Would this, this is in no way saying that this is like a red flag on their application at that time. would that I guess what I'm trying to say is would it be considered that we're

David PenalozaItem 23

taking a we're not taking an impartial analysis or look and or of the public hearing and give them a fair public hearing if you know the first thing we're asking is have you ever had any I guess I'm just trying to make sure that we're clean on that and when it comes to public hearings and stuff not that we're

Sonia R. CarvalhoItem 23

not yes I think that could make a difference in terms of whether you're looking at a legislative act like if you were adopting an ordinance and they needed a zone change and they were coming before you for his own change and they had to disclose that they had this issue those are legislative acts and so what you think your opinions matter and you're allowed to state them I think they're then I think in that scenario it would be okay to say you know I'm not feeling good about this applicant because I have this track record of violating these ethical rules that could be more problematic in the context of a

Sonia R. CarvalhoItem 23

a quasi judicial action where maybe they're appealing a planning commission decision and when the council is sitting in a quasi judicial setting, you're only supposed to be looking at the record that's before you. And so there probably would have to be some reminders to you if you were to move forward with this ordinance. When we do those quasi judicial actions, I would probably remind you, even though this has been disclosed, that disclosure is not relevant to your decision tonight.

David PenalozaItem 23

Right, okay, and that'd be good to have in our ordinance and it's very important to because I could see the planning commission approving something right and then it gets the appealed by the city council because One of us up here somebody was like hey, you know what? I didn't like that they had that violation 10 15 years ago and that gives just Want want them to appeal and just give them a hard time I want to make sure that everyone gets a fair public hearing when it's not related to whatever violation they had previously but I am 100% supportive of Council Member Becerra's.

David PenalozaItem 23

I just want to make sure we do it cleanly so that we don't get in trouble in the future.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 23

That's it. Thank you, Council. Panel also I also am supportive of this. So there are no other comments. Is your mic up, Mayor Porten? Oh, OK. All right. It sounds like Mr. City Manager, have you captured council direction?

Alvaro NuñezItem 23

Yes. Yes.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 23

Okay, all right, at this time we're good, Council Member Becerra? No other comments? All right, Mr. City Manager, can you share your comments with us now at this time, please?

Alvaro NuñezItem 23

The Santa Ana Police Department just launched a new text messaging system to keep residents informed about when requesting police assistance for non-emergency incidents. So callers can receive real-time texts once they submit a concern, and they leave their phone number. Now, this is trial basis, just started, so if you do accept and you leave your phone number and you're not getting texts, go ahead and call the police department to make sure that it's working adequately. But this is a good thing. This is so that when people complain, again, they leave their phone number and they can receive real updates regarding texts,

Alvaro NuñezItem 23

especially when police officers are taking it a bit longer or they're on route it just gives a little bit more information so that that's a good thing complaints regarding red striping we have received quite a bit of calls we have received quite a bit numerous calls regarding painting red curbs throughout the city now now with standing right in the new state law a before 30 for 13 which we're here is parking within 20 feet of marked on mark crosswalks right the city does receive quite a bit of complaints regarding um visibility you

Alvaro NuñezItem 23

know inter uh within intersections people parking near driveways so the public works department does go out there they do try to assess you know they have a matrix and so sometimes they do paint it red right but that's just after they do their analysis and they keep records and they review Now, why do we keep the records? For posterity and for review and analysis, if people do submit complaints. But again, this is more complaint driven in response to assist community concerns. Nine out of 10 times, no difference in the parking tickets and enforcement component. Some folks feel that somebody parking in front

Alvaro NuñezItem 23

of their property, they block the visibility with the driveway, and so we go out and assess. says sometimes it might take out the parking from somebody else and so you're going to get that level of concern but we do try to balance the universe and it does it is done in to ensure safety and responsiveness i just want to put it out there again independent of state law ab413 which does require uh no parking within 20 feet of an intersection now doesn't mean that we're out there proactively uh red curbing that also but i just wanted to put out there so it's it's

Alvaro NuñezItem 23

clear and it's understood. George Upton All Access Park. So many of you attended the ribbon-cutting celebration earlier this morning at the George Upton All Access Park located at Carl Thornton Park. This is the 2.3 million dollar project designed to support playground usage by children with disabilities, their parents and their givers. Again this is one of those parks parks where everybody can be has an opportunity to use the park communities and it's what for us is one of our key milestones and kudos to public works and the parks of recreation on this issue tomorrow the city of Santa Ana is going

Alvaro NuñezItem 23

to host two in-person public meetings to hear community input regarding fair housing issues in Santa Ana and Orange County the meetings will be held here at at city council chambers both at 10 30 a.m and 6 30 p.m and again this is just for folks to submit complaints and concerns in consideration for a city county-wide city input and a future

Valerie AmezcuaItem 23

report those are my comments thank you so very much i'm going to take ab413 off my comments now now because yes I was already and um I want to make sure that you address it so thank you starting with Council Councilman Hernandez please thank you Madam Mayor I just want to begin by

Johnathan Ryan HernandezItem 23

thanking the public as well as our city staff for today's Council meeting a lot of exciting things happening in Ward 5. of course there's construction happening at 10th and Flower at the intersection in the Willard neighborhood we recently closed what was formerly 10th and Flower and is now a cul-de-sac and that is so that we can protect children and family not only throughout the construction but to protect them and on their their journey en route to the park and back from the park home there's a lot of families from both washington square and willard who are going to be

Johnathan Ryan HernandezItem 23

utilizing these amenities we want to make sure that we give them safety we want to make sure that we give them adequate lighting and of course that they have a safe and vibrant park There is also renovations that were recently done at Angels Park, which is at the intersection of Flower and Second Street. That park sees a brand new restroom, brand new playground equipment, as well as early learning, childhood education, playground amenities that were provided to us by UCI. the city of Santa Ana under our parks and recreation department is going to be

Johnathan Ryan HernandezItem 23

having a ribbon-cutting ceremony details will be coming shortly there is also construction happening at El Salvador Park we have the community garden which is being renovated and we have brand new restrooms coming to us at El Salvador Park I want to thank our city manager's office for their leadership on ensuring that El Salvador Park has brand new restrooms and then lastly there is construction that was happening along the civic center corridor between fairview and bristol that is the renovation of the civic center street it is now a one-lane street many residents have reached

Johnathan Ryan HernandezItem 23

out to our office into the city of santa ana asking questions about the construction as well as when is it going to finish we're starting to see the final touches of that construction um you know being added to our being added by our city i just want to thank the residents in both the santa nita the neighborhood and in artisa pilad for their patience and their understanding throughout this time i look forward to seeing you all at our next council meeting on march 18th thank you

Valerie AmezcuaItem 23

thank you council member lopez please

Jessie LopezItem 23

thank you um well first i just want to remind our community that it's really really important to to as much as you can to keep your keep our pets leashed, especially in public parks, in the trails. It's always very challenging to have, you know, to hear comments from our constituents that feel that perhaps they cannot enjoy a public space because they have small children and there are parks running around. There's dogs running around everywhere. And so I just ask folks to be considerate of other people because you just never know when something may happen. And unfortunately, accidents have happened in the past.

Jessie LopezItem 23

And so we're really trying to mitigate any of those issues and altercations between neighbors and things of that nature. So if you're in a public space in one of our parks, one of our trails, just please be mindful that other people are also wanting to enjoy those spaces. Also, we are having office hours this month, so come visit us. It's going to be hosted on March 15th from 10 to 11 a.m. at Fisher Park. And I also just want to say that not sure what happened with the Arts and Culture Commission,

Jessie LopezItem 23

but I do agree that our public dollars should stay in the city. You can probably imagine that I don't like hearing that they're going to Florida when we have so many talented people in this city that could be providing the service. Again, I don't know what the process was like. I don't know how it all unfolded.

Jessie LopezItem 23

but I really encourage the city manager's office and the arts and culture office to think about how we can better improve the relationships with all of the artists in our city that have contributed so, so much. That is important to me and I hope that you will look into that and moving forward that whatever the process is that there is priority given to Santa Ana residents because I don't want to continue to get these complaints. And just lastly I want to say happy International Women's

Jessie LopezItem 23

Day and March is the month where we celebrate all the contributions of women and so I want to thank all the incredible women in our community that get up and fight for their families every day that are in the history books all of the american heroes the poderosas that have been recognized and everyday women that do everything that they can within their power to not just improve their lives but the lives of their families in our communities and so i want to thank my mom my grandmother my sister all of the women in my life all of the women that work for our office and all of the women in the chamber. Thank you.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 23

Council Member Penalosa.

David PenalozaItem 23

Thank you, Mayor. I just want to echo my colleague, Council Member Lopez's comments on the Arts and Culture Commission. We should be doing a better job at awarding those to our local artists here in Santa Ana. With that said, I know I've reached out to you, Mr. City Manager, regarding the planters on Santa Ana Boulevard that were put in by what by the OCTA streetcar contractor on if you're driving north on flower to take a ride on Santa Ana Boulevard these planters at least once a week and I'm pretty sure a police department and our fire department could verify this but at

David PenalozaItem 23

least once a week there's a car inside those planters because they're not It's completely pitch black. They're not lit. There's no markers. There's no reflectors. There's nothing it is dark I've almost crashed into them. You really cannot see them and this is these are I hope That someone goes out there tonight and puts reflectors sticker reflecting stickers on there because it is a dangerous dangerous hazard And someone's gonna get killed so I'm putting everybody on notice and it's on record now So I hope that gets addressed with the streetcar contractor because it should be their responsibility

David PenalozaItem 23

with OCTA. With that said, this Sunday is spring forward, unfortunately, so don't forget to move your clocks forward an hour. We lose an hour of sleep and sorry to be the bearer of bad news, but that's this Sunday. And also I want to take a moment to remind everyone that tomorrow is Ash Wednesday, marking the beginning of Lent for many thousands, tens of thousands of residents in our community. It's a time for reflection and a reminder of the values of humility,

David PenalozaItem 23

service, and compassion, and it's a time for renewal. So please, over the next month, there are many of our communities, Cuarentena, observe of this. We got to remember to try to practice sacrifice and self-discipline. It's good for you and uh just try to practice that that kindness in in our daily lives uh with that said

Valerie AmezcuaItem 23

uh madam mayor that is it thank you thank you council panelosa octa will be giving a presentation at the next city council meeting on march 18th so mr city manager make sure we put that on and address our concerns with them please um council member fan

Thai Viet PhanItem 23

Thank you, Mayor. Tomorrow might be Ash Wednesday, but today is still Fat Tuesday. So go get some food, go have some fun. And come on, man. And March 17, St. Patrick's Day, nobody pinched me. My nails are green. This is for Mrs. Nguyen Penalosa here. And finally, I just want to say thank you to everybody. I know today's meeting was quite long. It's a lot of s so i really really appreciate staff going above and beyond to help us out with that

Thai Viet PhanItem 23

the last thing i'll say is i was at the ocbc um installation dinner cutting the red um tape awards and honestly i think councilman benalosa and i were just really tired going up and back and forth onto the stage taking all these photos because santa ana was killing it in all the awards categories um thank you so much to staff i know that acting director presesh kapoor said that it was the the council that approved PBX, which all reminds me of a PB and J sandwich. But that's coming from staff, that's coming from the team who said, how can we better serve the development community? How can we better serve Santa Ana residents?

Thai Viet PhanItem 23

How can we make sure that when residents come to City Hall, they get the services that they deserve and that they need? So thank you to our staff, thank you to our team, and thank you to everybody who's been so patient with us in this process. And with that, have a wonderful night. I will see you at the next meeting. Thank you. Council Member Becerra.

Phil BacerraItem 23

Thank you, Madam Mayor. Yeah, Council Member Paloza, you forgot the whole Mardi Gras part, man. So just make sure you safely celebrate in Santa Ana. Spend your money here, please. Speaking of celebrating, we did have a, as the city manager mentioned, we had a great ribbon cutting ceremony at George Upton All Access Park. I wanna thank Senator Umberg because the whole event would not be possible if it wasn't for his work in Sacramento to bring back $2 million in a grant. Want to thank my colleagues, Mayor Pro Tembazquez and Council Member Penalosa for attending along with our public works staff, Parks and Rec.

Phil BacerraItem 23

Thank you for putting on a great event and thank you to the Kiwanis Club for showing up and thank you to Principal Munoz over at MIT for bringing the kids over to celebrate with us. SATURDAY, MARCH 15TH, OCFA WILL BE HOSTING AN OPEN HOUSE OVER AT THEIR HEADQUARTERS AT ONE FIRE AUTHORITY ROAD IN IRVINE. IT'S A GREAT EVENT. 10 A.M. TO 3 P.M. THEY BRING OUT ALL THE FUN EQUIPMENT. IT'S GREAT FOR CHILDREN TO COME AND SEE WHAT OUR FIREFIGHTERS DO AND SEE THE EQUIPMENT THAT THEY HAVE AND THAT THEY WORK WITH. I WANT TO THANK OUR CMO, OUR CITY MANAGER'S OFFICE AND PUBLIC WORKS FOR THE COMPLETION

Phil BacerraItem 23

OF THE CONSTRUCTION OF THE FENCING ALONG THE FLOWER STREET BIKE TRAIL. THAT WAS A LONG TIME COMING, BUT DEFINITELY IT LOOKS GREAT. I APPRECIATE YOU DOING THAT. IT'S IMPORTANT FOR THE COMMUNITY TO KNOW THAT WE DIDN'T JUST TAKE THE INCIDENT THAT HAPPENED WHERE YOU HAD TRESPASSERS THAT WERE IN THE COUNTY'S FLOOD CONTROL CHANNEL THAT CAME OUT AND ASSAULTED TWO CHILDREN FROM MCCARTHUR JUNIOR HIGH. SO THAT WAS SOMETHING THAT WE WERE TRYING to do our best as a city even though that's the county's flood control channel but what we can do from the city side to make sure that we were able to keep it to where it was a safer area i hope

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that the county will reciprocate and do their part as well um city manager nunez i want to ask and this is something i think we've all been kind of intermittently inquiring about but i'm just going to put it out there when our interview is going to be scheduled for the candidates for the the independent oversight director for the Police Oversight Commission.

Alvaro NuñezItem 23

So the city attorney and myself did speak earlier today. We should be bringing two items. Hopefully the scheduling of the candidates for your interview in 30 days, in addition updates to the municipal code that we think are necessary to make sure that it's more successful.

Phil BacerraItem 23

Thank you for that. And I just wanna be clear for everybody because this was an item that was supported with a unanimous vote. This is not by a couple of folks up here. This is something that for probably a variety of reasons but I'll tell you right now I always seen police oversight as something that is something that would help our police department be transparent and show the good work that they're doing and be open to improvement. So I've always seen this as a positive thing and I want to see this go forward.

Phil BacerraItem 23

I know that we've approved the enabling ordinance a while back. We don't have a director yet, but we're already making tweaks to the ordinance Nonetheless, I think for a lot of my colleagues who are also supporting this we'd like to see this done. So let's get it going And last but not least I would like to ask That we adjourn in the memory of Frank Lopez Frank is a resident of Park Santiago and the reason I knew Frank is I've known Frank for years Frank was a parishioner over at the Church of the Messiah and he passed away just recently. If I may read into the record, Frank was born in East LA on May 13th 1942. He

Phil BacerraItem 23

attended Cathedral High School in LA. Afterwards he joined the, I'm sorry, he was drafted and then joined the Navy. He was stationed on the USS Yorktown aircraft carrier as a photographer after the Navy. He went back to school and achieved his his associate's degree while at the same time working at Hughes Aircraft. In 1976, he met his future wife Esther, and by 1977, they were married and they purchased their first home in Santa Ana in 1978. In 1983, they welcomed their son Jonathan into the world. In 1985, Frank then opened a photography shop here in Santa Ana on Main Street called AccuColor for 15 years.

Phil BacerraItem 23

He retired in 2000 and his passion was always traveling. He went to Hawaii, loved being there, and loved bringing back plumeros when he could. His Aloha spirit got him the nickname, the Big Kahuna. He was always a very kind gentleman, and yeah, he'll be missed. And so he is, excuse me, survived by Esther, his son Jonathan and he has been a very loving husband father uncle brother and a veteran thankfully a veteran and he will be missed so thank you for that

Valerie AmezcuaItem 23

Thank You councillor Becerra mayor Pro Tem Vasquez please thank you I want to

Benjamin VazquezItem 23

start I want to thank my students because I've been out of class and these kids have been amazing I really am blessed to just teach and today I went TO THE OPENING OF A PARK AND THESE KIDS HAVE GIVEN ME NO TROUBLE. I DON'T CALL THE OFFICE OR NO REFERRALS, DON'T CALL SECURITY. JUST HAVING THE GREATEST TIME. I HAVEN'T HAD REFERRALS IN I DON'T KNOW HOW MANY. SO THANK YOU, KIDS AT VALLEY HIGH SCHOOL. YOU'RE AWESOME, YOUR BEHAVIOR AND THE DISCIPLINE IS JUST GREAT. I HAD A CLASS WITH ONE F ON THE DAY I LEFT. I GAVE THEM A WRITING ASSIGNMENT. I TALKED TO THE LITTLE GIRL WITH THE F.M.O. HANDLE THIS BUSINESS AND GRADE WILL GO UP.

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SHE WENT UP TO A C. SHE DID THE ASSIGNMENT. SO WE HAD A LITTLE CONVERSATION. SHE'S AMAZING. SO I'M SO HAPPY. I'M JUST LIKE BLESSED RIGHT NOW. I ALSO, I DID GO TO GEORGE UMPTON PARK AND IT WAS A BEAUTIFUL PLACE. IT WAS AMAZING. IT WAS ENCHANTING THAT PLACE. THANK YOU, HALK, FOR THE WORK AND STAFF THAT YOU CREATED FOR THE CHILDREN. EVERY SPACE IN THERE WAS JUST IT WAS JUST AMAZING AND I LOVED IT AND I WISH I WAS A KID SO I COULD PLAY ON THERE AGAIN. IT WAS GREAT. I WANT TO DO, I WANT TO SAY HAPPY WOMEN'S HISTORY MONTH TO ALL THE WOMEN WHO ARE HERE ON THE DIASTER. YOU'RE AMAZING. THE WOMEN HERE ON THE STAFF.

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THANK YOU FOR YOUR WORK THAT YOU DO. YOU'RE LOVELY PEOPLE AND YOU'RE HARD WORKING AND SMART AND INTELLIGENT AND YOU PUSH US FORWARD ALL THE TIME. I WANT TO GIVE A HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO THE WOMAN NEXT TO ME, JESSE LOPEZ. HAPPY BIRTHDAY FROM SUNDAY. FOR ALL THE WORK YOU'VE DONE AND YOU'VE BEEN LIKE A MENTOR HERE TO ME. YOU'VE BEEN A MENTOR, NOT LIKE, BUT A MENTOR. AND THANK YOU FOR THE WORK THAT YOU DO HERE ON THE DIAS. YOU'RE AWESOME. I WANT TO THANK SUPERVISOR SARMIENTO FOR OUR SELECTION, THE CITY OF SAN ANA FOR THE CAL OPTOMAL HEALTH AND STREET MEDICINE PROGRAM. IT'S SOMETHING THAT WE NEEDED AND WAS NECESSARY. IT'S BEAUTIFUL.

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I WANT TO THANK AGAIN COUNCILMEMBER LOPEZ AND HERNANDEZ WHO'S GONE FOR YOUR WORK AND YOUR EFFORTS FOR GETTING THIS AND TALKING TO SUPERVISOR SEMIENTOS TO SECURE THIS CONTRACT. I REALLY APPRECIATE THE WORK THAT YOU'VE DONE IN THAT. THANK YOU.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 23

THANK YOU, MAYOR PROTEM. LET ME JUST CLARIFY REALLY QUICK. THE CAL OPTIMA HAS NOT VOTED YET. THEY HAVE A MEETING ON THURSDAY. That is probably why the city manager did not make the announcement that Santa Ana was awarded street medicine Because the board has to officially vote on it on Thursday and it has been in the work of many of us up here We've had many meetings with Cal Optima with Michael hun I personally have some of us up here have so I want to thank everybody who's Worked on this and hopefully the votes will be there

Valerie AmezcuaItem 23

I just did not I don't think any of us should jump the gun because the vote is the board is officially voting on Thursday there are two cities in the running Santa Ana and Huntington Beach, and so I don't want to speak before the vote comes in Officially, so I just want to clarify that so hopefully nothing changes on Thursday And I'll leave it at that First of all, I think it's been set up here, March is Women's History Month, and we all know and love amazing women in our lives, grown up with them, know them, love them, and raise them.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 23

And so I love the month of March because we get to celebrate some amazing women. Maybe the men will have a month someday, I hope. But we have some amazing women, especially I want to thank the women on the eighth floor. I'm you know I have a I have a bias to Sue Mills who works directly with me but all the women on the eighth floor and throughout the entire city that do a phenomenal job so I want to acknowledge them and we just have some amazing women in our community that we can sit here and name all night long just all the great work that they do and so and I have my own village of amazing women

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that surround me and I appreciate them and I love all of them so February 19th We were at the Mosaic Mural unveiling at the Jerome Community Center with the artist Louis Lavoie. I think I said his name right. Amazing, beautiful, beautiful project. I wish I would have known about it. I think other council members wish they would have known about it so we could have painted a tile ourselves. I think many city employees would have loved to paint a tile. It was just, I can't even tell you. It was just, it was amazing. If you get an opportunity, go out to Jerome Center.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 23

take a look at it all those tiles were painted by our seniors by our children by our community just just breathtaking and beautiful so also I had my faith based meeting this in February as well as the monthly association with the neighborhood leaders and the hot topic of course was immigration and so we had very hearty conversations I want to thank the police department I want to thank our city manager and all of our staff that have had these open conversations very honest I'm not spreading fear and not spreading rumors and not yelling fire in the movie theater but saying hey here's what we

Valerie AmezcuaItem 23

have on our website here's how we can help you but this is what we know so far because we know it's very fluid and things change minute by minute so thank you for all of that mr. city manager and the police department that joined me on those the faith-based meeting is wonderful there's 30 plus faith-based leaders in there and of course the neighborhood association meetings are always great with all the leaders from the associate from the neighborhoods we're also working on myself and councilman penalosa and councilman becerra with the sober living recovery task force

Valerie AmezcuaItem 23

we have many sober living homes in our city i've learned quite a bit from councilman penalosa and councilman becerra but also being a member of that committee and that group and we are a very strong committee and i believe we have 89 sober livings did i get the number right where's mike garcia somebody 89 sober living homes in our city not all of them are licensed we don't know if they're all sober living and so we're hoping that the assembly and senate will pass some bills that will help us on the local level to um we don't we're not trying to close all of them we're trying to

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control them make sure the patients are treated humanely make sure there's doctors on site and many other things and the neighborhoods that they are in there's many issues whether it's drug use whether police are going out on a regular basis trash more than six people living in the residence there's so many things that we are addressing and so i want to thank the neighborhood association that has said, yes, mayor, we will help you with that. And they are working also with the Sober Living Task Force, similar to what we did with the Needle Exchange Program. Our neighborhoods are very powerful.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 23

When they start to speak, people start to listen. And so I'm very appreciative of that. And thank you, Councilman Penalosa and Becerra for joining us with that. Coffee with the Mayor, February 22nd, Historical French Park was great. So many residents were there, over 70 residents. I was a good way to start the year lots of great questions you know it's always police and Public Works that are the most popular and so besides almost towing a car that set the alarm on purpose so we wouldn't have our meeting and I always want and I want to thank water because water is always there they put

Valerie AmezcuaItem 23

up a table they give out their swag and people just love it and we have the best tasty water around so why not right Nova Academy had their 20th year anniversary I was able to attend with Councilman Becerra. We celebrated with them for 20 years along with Senator Emberg. It's great to see that even though they went through a lot with the streetcar construction, they're still doing a great job at NOVA with education. And I support public education as well. And NOVA is also a good charter school, and I support them as well. As the mayor, I support the city. So I know people have said, oh gosh, it's not public education.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 23

We have some really good schools in our city, and so if they're providing good services to our students and our families, I am going to support them. So congratulations, Nova, for your 20 year. And then I'm going to end with Saturday was the opening ceremonies for Santa and a Pony baseball. And it was, the kids were amazing, the parents were great, so many families, they were happy to have us there myself and sergeant Lopez I believe his name is was said at

Valerie AmezcuaItem 23

a PD I'm sorry oh yes and council panel loses nephew but lots of family friends out there but it was just great you know when you see the families all together and the kids and they're all smiling it's the best part of what I do up here is going out into the community and doing something like the opening opening ceremonies at Pony. And so I'm excited that next Saturday I'll be at another baseball opening ceremony with kids and families. And so it's a great day, great morning. It's a great way to start your Saturday morning. So if you haven't done it, go out and do it. They will definitely make you smile.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 23

My next Coffee with the Mayor is on March 22nd at the Boys and Girls Club. And I'm really excited because it's going to be the first time that we hold a Coffee with the Mayor at the Boys and Girls Club. So I'm looking forward to it. I know it'll be a great turnout as well Families and kids, please join us and city staff looking forward to you being there Mr. City Manager as of today. I just want to clear be clear when I am before I end my comments. We've had no No information of any immigration raids in our city Not to our knowledge. No. Thank you. Mr. City Manager

Valerie AmezcuaItem 23

manager um we have a budget survey that is currently going on and as I close I would say to you please when is that survey closed Mr city manager um we're working on it so it's time to

Alvaro NuñezItem 23

submit so we haven't opened the budget survey yet we have we have some share with some neighborhoods

Valerie AmezcuaItem 23

okay so we know it's open right okay so I would really just recommend please go on there take the survey tell us about what you think is important of the two years that i've been sitting here and have worked on the budget has been public safety and homelessness do not let anybody encourage you to answer don't let anybody answer for you don't let any council member answer for you don't let them sway you one way or another you answer it as a community on what you personally feel is important to you to you and your family whether it's public safety parks homelessness whatever it may be but please complete the budget survey

Valerie AmezcuaItem 23

because that's how we're able to do our job up here and I thank you all for being here tonight thank you to all the city staff and all the work that you do and our next meeting is March 18th and we're adjourned

Thank you.