Read the June 3 meeting.

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Valerie Amezcua

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

Jennifer L. Hall

Councilmember Becerra?

Here.

Jennifer L. Hall

Councilmember Hernandez? Councilmember Lopez? Councilmember Penalosa? Councilmember Phan? Here. Mayor Preshant Vasquez?

Benjamin Vazquez

Present.

Jennifer L. Hall

Mayor Meskwa? Present. Four members present. That is a quorum. Thank you.

Valerie Amezcua

Madam Clerk, are there any additions or deletions to a closed session? There are none. Thank you. Do any council members need to announce their abstentions on closed session items? Hearing none, do we have any speakers for the closed session?

Jennifer L. Hall

Mayor and City Council, there are no speakers in person or on Zoom. We did receive one e-comment related to closed session agenda item number one that was distributed to the council and posted online for public review. Perfect. Thank you. We will now recess to closed session. Thank you.

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Valerie Amezcua

Mayor, you can proceed, please. Thank you very much. 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. side please bear with us as the technology may disrupt the flow of the meeting as a reminder this is a meeting to conduct the business of the city as mayor i'm afforded the opportunity to call for a recess or break or to even clear the meeting if a meeting becomes too disruptive to properly

Valerie Amezcua

conduct business warnings will be provided prior to any action being taken we appreciate your cooperation for everyone's safety per the fire marshal please do not stand or place objects in the aisles in front of the dais along the back wall of the council chamber or in front of entrances and exits during city council presentations guests of individuals being recognized are invited to come to the front to take photos madam clerk please conduct the roll

Jennifer L. Hall

call council member becerra here council member hernandez president council member lopez here that's more penulosa president council member fan here mayor protean vasquez president mayor mesqua !

Jennifer L. Hall

public hearings. Please hold your comments on those items until called upon during the public hearing. Thank you. Thank you, Madam Clerk. At this time we're going to do the Pledge of Allegiance. Mr.

Valerie Amezcua

Carl Benninger, can you please lead us in the Pledge of Allegiance?

Do you understand?

I was trying not to be seen.

Go blue. Fall on me, please. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States states of America and to the Republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Thank you, Mayor.

Valerie Amezcua

Thank you, Mr. Benninger. At this time, we're going to do the words of inspiration by Pastor Nati Alvarado.

Good evening Mayor Mezcua, esteemed council members, Chief Rodriguez and members of our community. Thank you for the honor of opening tonight's meeting. I want to acknowledge the weight of the work accomplished. reviewing a 7.78.4 million city budget is no small task. These decisions will shape how this city operates, what services are prioritized, how we protect our neighborhoods, and how we care for the people of Santa Ana. Behind every number are real lives, families, youth, seniors, small business owners, households, unhoused.

Those choices touch the very fabric of our community. community. While much of your work happens behind the scenes, I want to say clearly, it matters. It takes courage, it takes wisdom, and it takes sacrifice to lead at this level. And what's even more powerful is that you do the work together. Even when you don't agree, always agree. The fact that you show up and you listen and you lead side by side shows the strength of your commitment not just to the role but to the people of this beautiful city. Unity is an absence of differences. It's a decision

to move forward together for the good of the city. As someone who walks closely with vulnerable youth and families I've seen what happens when public servants and community partners come together. Hope is restored. Lives are changed and and new stories are written. The scriptures, the word of God in Galatians 6, 9 reads, let us not grow weary in doing good for in due season, if we do not faint, we will reap, if we do not give up. What you are doing tonight is part of that good work. Each one of you here, this council, may we pray. Heavenly Father, thank you for this city

and thank you for the leaders entrusted to this care. We lift up Mayor Omezcua, the council, Chief Rodriguez, and every department represented. As they have reviewed and shaped this budget, grant them the wisdom beyond numbers, unity beyond differences, and clarity rooted in compassion. May every decision reflect dignity, justice, and care for all residents. all residents. Let this meeting be marked by the peace and the purpose. And may Santa Ana continue to be a place where lives are transformed, where leadership, service, and love come together to change the story.

In Jesus' name I pray, amen. And I wanna say thank you again for allowing me to do this tonight. Thank you so much.

Valerie Amezcua

Thank you, Pastor. At this point, this time, Madam Clerk, are there any additions or dilutions to the City Council agenda? I'm sorry. There are none. All right. Let's get down to the presentations.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 1

First presentation is mine. Certificates of recognition presented to Linh Nguyen and Alexander Nogdaleno for outstanding accomplishments. Pushments. Let me find my note.

Come on up, come on up.

David PenalozaItem 1

Thank you. 50 grand. Thank you.

Now it's so nice, give a close up.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 1

Okay, this is a wonderful presentation. They're all wonderful, but this is wonderful. This is our future right here. So yes, let's give another round of applause, please.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 1

These are the Edison Scholars, Lin Nguyen and Alex Magdaleno. The Edison Scholars program receives high school seniors, recognizes high school seniors who aspire to be future leaders and innovators in science, technology, engineering, and math. Each year, 30 high school students receive a $50,000 scholarship to a four-year college or university of their choice. The goal of the program is to empower students to change the world and to contribute to a clean energy future. Each year hundreds of students apply for this scholarship and competition is fierce. Was it fierce? Yeah? Okay.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 1

Each student who applies must have at least a cumulative 3.0 GPA and must dedicate their future studies towards STEM. I am pleased to announce that out of the hundreds that applied to this year, two bright students have been selected right here from Santa Ana. Miss Lin Nguyen from Segerstrom High School, round of applause.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 1

and Mr. Alex Magdaleno from Godinez High School.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 1

And we are all here tonight to honor both of you for your remarkable educational achievements. You're not only an inspiration to your family, friends, and people in this room, you're also an inspiration to all of Santa Ana, especially to the students watching at home. You are showing them what is possible through hard work and dedication. So congratulations to both of you. You're gonna speak right now, you just don't know it probably. It is my honor also to be joined by Tony Gordovanez from our SCE liaison excuse me and to present both of you the 2025

Valerie AmezcuaItem 1

Edison Scholarship Award. Congratulations to both of you. You want to come on up Tony?

Just congratulations to both of you. Southern California Edison is extremely proud of you and and we're humbled and honored to help in your bright future. So congratulations.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 1

So this is our favorite part. You can hand that to your mom and dad, and then you can come up, and then we're gonna hand this to you. This is from the mayor and city council. Come on up. You have to talk because when you go to college, everybody's gonna wanna talk to you, right? And hear about the amazing things that you do in Santa Ana.

So you wanna share it, say hello, and where are you going, what are you doing? Hi, my name is Leni Nguyen. I'm from Sykerstrom High School. Next year I'll be attending MIT, majoring in aerospace engineering.

I want to thank my mom and dad who are up with me here today, and my older sister who is in the crowd. Where is she? All right, okay.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 1

This is for you on behalf of the city council. Congratulations. Thank you. Go ahead, let's share. What are you doing?

Hello. My name is Alexander Magdaleno. I'm from Godinez High School, and next year I will be attending Stanford University, studying... Thank you.

I'll be studying electrical engineering, and I'd like to thank my mom and my sister, who wasn't able to be here, but who has served as my main inspiration for my entire life. That's wonderful. Congratulations. Congratulations.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 1

Do you want to say anything? Do you want to get up? Come on, yes, come on. Please, Mr. Nguyen, please come and say something. Mr. Nguyen?

Valerie AmezcuaItem 1

Come on, por favor. All right, let's give mom a round of applause.

.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 1

Okay, again we want to thank Southern California Edison. Thank you so very much. Yeah, we're going to do it right now. Yeah, and congratulations to both of you on behalf of the City Council.

We're going to take a photo and then the entire City Council can come down.

come out she said no one more look right here please one two three

all right of course stand up either way

All right. Right here, please. One, two, three. One more.

I'll send you something.

One, two, three.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 2

All righty. Next up is I can't see without my glasses. Council member Lopez.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 2

Can we have the Alzheimer's Association come on up? Please.

Jessie LopezItem 2

Good evening, everyone. Tonight we're going to be proclaiming Alzheimer's and Brain Awareness Month for the month of May, and we are going to be presenting this to Deborah Levy, who is the Executive Director of the Alzheimer's Association Orange County Chapter. chapter. And so today, with a deep sense of purpose and urgency, as we recognize Alzheimer's and Brain Awareness Month, this month and every day we are reminded of the profound impact that Alzheimer's disease has on millions of lives across the nation, in California and right here in our own community in Santa Ana. Alzheimer's disease is a devastating

Jessie LopezItem 2

and progressive neurodegenerative disorder that affects over 7 million Americans. In In California alone, more than 700,000 residents are living with the disease, and tragically, it is the third leading cause of death in Orange County. Alzheimer's doesn't just affect those living with it. It touches families, caregivers, and entire communities. The Alzheimer's Association, a leading organization in Alzheimer's care, support, and research has been at the forefront of the fight against this disease. They have invested over $405 million globally in research funding, more than 1,000 active

Jessie LopezItem 2

cases, active projects in 56 countries, including nearly $3.5 million here in Orange County. Their efforts are vital, and they are helping us understand Alzheimer's better, develop effective treatments, and ultimately find a cure. In addition to research, the Alzheimer's Association provides invaluable support to to those affected by the disease. Their 24-7 helpline, available in over 200 languages, offers support to families and individuals facing Alzheimer's and dementia. Their education programs and support groups available in languages including Spanish and Vietnamese serve thousands of families in Orange County each year.

Jessie LopezItem 2

The Alzheimer's Association plays a critical role in advocacy. They have helped secure over 3.8 billion in federal funding for Alzheimer's research and have been instrumental in advocating for landmark policies such as the National Alzheimer's Project Act and the BOLD Infrastructure for Alzheimer's Act. These efforts are not just helping individuals affected today, but paving the way for future generations to live in a world where Alzheimer's is no longer a threat. As we observe Alzheimer's and Brain Awareness Month,

Jessie LopezItem 2

it is important to recognize that raising awareness is a critical step in the fight against this disease. The Alzheimer's Association events, such as the Walk to End Alzheimer's and the Longest Day, bring communities together to raise funds and support for care and research. These events also give the opportunity to show solidarity to the millions of individuals and families affected by Alzheimer's. In Santa Ana, I am so proud to support these efforts and stand with those who are battling Alzheimer's disease. Our commitment to increasing awareness and providing support is unwavering, and together

Jessie LopezItem 2

we know that we can make a difference. Together we can help change the future for those living with Alzheimer's and other brain diseases. I encourage all of you to get involved, whether through supporting the association, participating participating in awareness months or simply sharing knowledge with those around you. By coming together we can help ensure that no one faces Alzheimer's alone. And City Manager, we are also requesting that we illuminate the water tower purple to show our support for this month that we're proclaiming. Thank you so much. And now we're going to hear from the Executive Director.

I'd like to yield my time to our board chair, Derek Serrano.

My name is Derek Serrano. I'm the board chairman with the Alzheimer's Association here in Orange County. I'm honored to be up here with my colleagues, Deborah Levy, our executive director, and Rod Gomez, another board member that serves with us. I absolutely want to thank you and the leadership of the mayor and the council for coming together as a community. This is a very devastating disease, as you've heard. But the only way we're going to ever address this is as a community. So I thank all of you for being here tonight and the leadership and compassion from our leaders in the city of Santa Ana. Thank you very much.

Thank you very much.

Jessie LopezItem 2

And finally, we do want to share with the community that PBS has a lot of important documentaries on this topic, and so if you'd like to learn more in the comfort of your home, you can do so online or via subscription. Thank you.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 2

all right next presentation a certificate of recognition is by council member fan recognizing jay taj please come on up

Thank you. Yeah.

Thai Viet PhanItem 3

All right. Hi. Finally, I get a fun one. Usually I have to follow a bunch of kids and things like that. So hi everyone. My name is Tyviatt Phan and I'm the council member representing Ward 1. I am so excited and I feel so privileged to present a certificate of recognition to one of Santa Ana's very own. He's an artist whose journey and talent have made waves far beyond our city, Jay Taj. Jay was born and raised right here in Santa Ana, but more importantly, he went to Fitz and Los Amigos and Heritage.

Thai Viet PhanItem 3

I went to all those schools, so you know we're just successful people, right? So follow that path, y'all. And his story is just one of resilience, creativity, and authenticity. You know, I think he's going to share some of his story, but I really first want to give a shout out to my rent board commissioner, Tracy Law, for alerting me to his wonderful talent and the fact that he's from Ward 1. I think it's so important to pay attention to our incredible community members. So Jay talks a lot about how his grandparents exposed him to music that a lot

Thai Viet PhanItem 3

of kids might not be exposed to. It's jazz, blues, country, and especially gospel. And in that kind of environment that's how he built the foundation to develop a powerful storytelling based rap style that's rich with reflection pain hope but also pride all deeply connected to his lived experience and his santa ana upbringing but as many of you may know jay gained national recognition as a standout finalist on netflix's rhythm and flow season two his emotional performances raw lyricism and authentic voice earned him a loyal following and brought pride to the city

Thai Viet PhanItem 3

that shaped him. One of his standout tracks, Make Me, which reflects his personal story was even submitted for Emmy consideration. It's a testament to the depth and artistry he brings to the music world. As a proud Chamorro artist, Jay also represents the beauty of multicultural identity never shying away away from his heritage or his roots. So today, as a proud Ward 1 resident, as a proud Lobo, I am so honored to recognize Jay Taj, not just for his achievements on stage, but for how he continues to represent Santa Ana with pride, honesty, and soul. Congratulations, Jay. Thank you.

Please say a few words.

Wow. I was not expecting such a beautiful tribute, and I'm super grateful for that. You're welcome. I really, really appreciate that level of detail. I mean, you covered a lot of the bases. Yeah, my name is Jay Taj, sometimes known as Little Jerry or Herschel's son and Tina's boy. Today I learned that my neighborhood is called Ward 1. I never knew that before. You know, coming up, we called it the West Side, the West Side of the Riverbed, a very special place in my heart. My neighborhood knew my name and celebrated my name and uplifted my name long before the world knew my name.

And the city and the people of this city have celebrated me and supported me since the MySpace days. and the pride that I have for my city is a pride that is reciprocated, you know, the other way around. The city has always shown me love and the community members and the leaders. And, you know, I'm not who I am without Santa Ana. I think that my identity is so clearly rooted in the neighborhood that I grew up in. And the community that raised me, the culture that raised me, the village that raised me is arguably the most important part of the concept of recognition, right?

I think that recognition can go a lot of ways, but it's essentially illumination. And what you do with that illumination is on you. And I think that if Santa Ana gains a spotlight, it's the type of city to point it at people like me. And if I gain a spotlight, I'm the type of person to point it back to my city. And my experience in this city has been a roller coaster like a lot of us. My first relationship with rooms like this was not pleasant. You know where I'm coming from? Like, going to family court and, you know, finding out, you know, that my family dynamic is going to change and things like that.

I'm not used to being in rooms like this where joy and celebration is at the core of the moment. And I think that, you know, to wrap this is the thing that makes me the most proud is that no matter where I go and how far my life takes me, even physically, where I move and where I spend my time, it all comes back here. And there's no one I know over the last 34 years that doesn't know where I'm from. And everybody sort of jokes about it, but it's really part of who I am. Like everybody knows I'm from the Annas. And everybody knows I'm from Westside, 4900 block Acapulco, right next to Heritage Park.

It's not a secret because I'm proud of where I come from. And this is one of the only places in the world that I know that celebrates the people that the city sits on top of, the people that we sit on the shoulders of Chicanos and Blacks and Samoans and Vietnamese and all the different cultures that I come in rooms like this and I'm listening to the celebration I'm looking at the people that are honored and they look and they walk and they talk like me and my homeboys and for that I'm grateful so you know in the name of my pops Herschel Hardiman and my mama Tina and my homeboys the G double Onis and my uncle Bubba

and everybody that's ever loved me the Tahaji family you know I receive this with gratitude and thanks and and know that I do not take it lightly. Congratulations. Congratulations. We're gonna take that.

Thai Viet PhanItem 3

Oh, and it turns out, I just found out, we actually went to high school together. I was a senior and he was a freshman.

All right, let's get a photo, and we'll invite the council down.

Thank you.

I'll get that.

I'll get you some clean one.

Lord one is what it stands for.

There you go.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 3

What a great way to end our presentations for the night. At this time, Madam City Attorney, do you have anything to report out of closed session?

Sonia R. CarvalhoItem 3

No. Mayor, Council Members, members of the public, we only had one closed session. We can barely hear you. I apologize. I'm so sorry. We had one closed session this evening regarding the personnel matter, and there's no reportable action.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 3

Great. Thank you. All right. 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. And we'll have two minutes per speaker.

Jennifer L. HallItem 3

Thank you, Mayor. Pursuant to resolution number 2025-004, speakers are requested to address the City Council directly and to refrain from profane language, racial epitaphs, and libelous or slanderous statements that disturb the decorum of the meeting. Pursuant to the Brown Act, the City Council may not enter into discussion at this time. Speakers will have two minutes for their comments as stated by the Mayor. Before calling speakers, I'll announce the summary of emails received as of today at 2 p.m. We received a total of 16 comments on non-agenda and agenda items, 12 on non-agenda topics,

Jennifer L. HallItem 3

three on item number 7, and one on item number 19. Those were distributed to the City Council and posted online for public review. We'll now hear from members of the public that are physically present in the Council Chamber followed by those on the conference call or Zoom to provide their comments on agenda or non-agenda items only. As a reminder, comments for public hearings 23, 24, and 25 will be heard separately. When you come forward, please state your name and the ward or neighborhood that you reside in for the record. I'll call three names at a time. If you could please line up in the center aisle way behind the podium.

Jennifer L. HallItem 3

First three speakers, Heidi Landgraf, Ilya Sigyn, and Sue Palak.

Jennifer L. HallItem 3

Heidi?

Good evening, honorable council members. As a former public school teacher, and now as a teacher of record for Suncoast Preparatory Academy for the last four years, I stand by the conviction that parents should have the right to choose how they educate their own children. After all, they are their children's first teacher. During his February announcement that he's running for California Superintendent of Public Instruction, Assemblymember Al Meritucci vowed to fight to defend our schools and our students against attacks on public education from the Trump administration. Yet, Meritucci's signature legislation this year,

and one heard last week in the Education Committee he chairs, is the biggest attack we've seen on the ability of California parents to secure the best possible education for their kids. Assembly Bill 84 would give the department he hopes to lead new powers to quash charter schools and force them to become like struggling traditional public schools charters are publicly funded but their success has angered the educational spot establishment for years where everyone wants to ensure that charter schools operate at the highest level of fiscal probability a b84 would trigger expanded audits invest new powers and state

auditors to harass these schools charters have succeeded because they are freed from bureaucratic constraints but this bill would destroy what makes them special it's a cynical effort that will hurt rather than help them we respectfully respectfully ask that you oppose av84 thank you for your time

Jennifer L. HallItem 3

ilya

Valerie AmezcuaItem 3

good evening uh vulnerable can you please bring your mic down sir there you go thank you uh good

Good evening, Honorable Santa Ana Council Meeting and Honorable Santa Ana Mexican Community. My name is Ilya Tseglin. I want to talk on this speech and number 24 item about things that I should talk even

that it cannot be very pleasant to your dignitaries, but I want to talk on behalf of muted community, people who cannot talk of themselves, and I won't talk about money. A drug cartel is a criminal organization composed of

independent drug lords who colluded with each other in order to improve their their profit and dominate the illegal drug trade.

Drug cartel form with the purpose of controlling the illegal drug trade.

So I have enough factual material to prove the Orange County indeed has all definition of the drug cartel where the administration of our county.

Jennifer L. HallItem 3

Ilya, your time is up.

Okay.

Jennifer L. HallItem 3

Next three speakers, Sue Palak, Wendy Eklund, and Ronna Yellen.

Good evening, Mayor and Council. I'm Sue from Ward 4. I sent some pictures to some of you today and if a picture says a thousand words then look at that child's face and see What you see That little bill in that picture is why I fight for pal He wore a fireman's hat had his face painted with a fire truck on his cheek An American flag on his back of his hand and that was over 25 years ago at Chief Walters police fair at the Vaughn's parking lot He had to sit in a helicopter a fire truck In fact, even a paddy wagon had pictures with patrol and bicycle officers, and his little face is poking out of the military tank,

and I'll tell you it was very hilarious because I couldn't get him out. From this point on, he just wanted to grow up to be a fireman, and he talked about it for months. For a moment in time, captured in those pictures, he discovered that there was something more, and it was the happiest day I ever saw him in his young life. If there had been a pal in his neighborhood, he would have spent every minute there after school. He tried so hard to please that it was painful to watch. Just look at his face, it's all there. If he had been into Pell, he would have never ended up where he is today on the streets.

Do not discard the plans for the fire station. There are high risk children who need Pell. This five year old never went to school or kindergarten and had the worst start in life. I helped him learn his ABCs. Pell helps kids after school with learning and gives support to at risk kids who have no one to help them at home with homework. work. Our kids are killing each other. We've got stabbings. We've got kids that are being chased by gangbangers after school. John Holcomb, in five years, turned the lives of so many kids around. Confessions to me personally from teens who were part of the program told me that they would be in

gang's jail or dead if it hadn't been for that PAL program and for John. For our station, renovation funds were diverted, and I'd like to know where they are. You owe the community an explanation. I ask officers to please stop by PAL spend five minutes asking a kid's name Give a kid a smile connect and encourage him because trust me it will make your day Goes a long way. Thank you

Jennifer L. HallItem 3

Wendy Eklund Rana Yellen Emily Ramirez

is that four inches okay good evening council members my name is wendy ecklund and i'm the founder of legislation take action a grassroots advocacy group that helps families and communities protect educational options in california i'm here tonight because ab84 now moving through the legislature will directly impact thousands of students here in santa ana who attend charter schools these schools serve a wide range of learners including those with special needs learning differences and multilingual backgrounds for many families they offer the only environment where their child can truly thrive

ab84 threatens to cut funding increases bureaucracy and limits these schools ability to serve students effectively if passed it could lead to school closures staff reductions and fewer learning options for Santa Ana families especially those already struggling to find the right fit this bill removes removes local flexibility and imposes state level mandates that don't reflect the needs of this community. I respectfully urge this council to adopt a resolution opposing AB 84 and stand with the families who rely on these schools. Your voice matters, especially to the students who call Santa Ana home, thank you.

you good evening mayor a mesquite and Santa Ana council members my name is Rana Yellen and I work for Suncoast prep a non classroom charter school that is authorized by the Orange County Board of Education I'm also a parent of a child that went from kindergarten until until her early graduation at a different non classroom based charter school my family and I are grateful that we have this choice for our daughter I want to sincerely thank you for your leadership and ask you to take a strong stand against a b84 by officially opposing it and writing a resolution against it we have an estimated over 700,000 children

across California including thousands in Santa Ana who could lose their schools if this bill passes let's call this what it is a b84 doesn't fix charter schools that shuts them down it would close nearly every independent study charter in California that's not equity that's elimination charter schools don't compete with traditional schools they complete the education system when you take away school choice you don't protect kids you trap them in a system that doesn't work for all of them these schools serve students with medical challenges

learning differences social anxiety ADHD autism and other disabilities they help kids who've been and bullied, students healing from trauma, homelessness, those struggling with mental health, and children with big dreams, kids who simply learn better outside of a traditional classroom.

Without charters, many would have nowhere to go. If this bill is about protection, who truly benefits? We already have a system in place for any bad apples. We do not need our taxpayer dollars paying for more oversight. AB 84 trades equity for uniformity and our kids deserve better. Thank you, Santa Ana City Council, for your consideration to stand with families, to stand for school choice, and for standing up for what is right. You have the opportunity to protect charter schools, to protect the future of our children. We humbly ask you to oppose AB 84. Thank you.

Jennifer L. HallItem 3

Next three speakers, Emily Ramirez, Abraham Quintana, Rain Mendoza.

Mayor Peralta. Dear Mayor and our honorable City Council members, my name is Emilio Ramirez. I live in Ward 3 and I am a board member of Orange County for People-Oriented Places and Santa Ana Active Streets. And I am here today to formally oppose the proposed resolution to maintain measure M2 M2 funding eligibility, which is currently under consideration. While on the surface, this resolution may appear to offer financial benefits through access to measure M2 funds, a closer examination, particularly in light of the City's current fiscal challenges, raises serious concerns about the long-term implications of accepting

such funds for road-winding projects. According to the most recent staff report and related documents, the City of Santa Ana is projecting a budget deficit in the coming fiscal years in this context it is physically irresponsible to commit to capital improvement projects such as road widenings that carry long-term maintenance liabilities require local matching funds and generate questionable returns on investments the city council must question the public sports agency more closely on the financial impacts and unfunded liabilities associated with such projects while i measure

M2 emphasizes mobility and congestion relief. The method of widening roads is increasingly viewed as an outdated and counterproductive approach. Numerous studies and best practices in urban planning have shown that road widening often leads to induced demands and beyond that wider roads bring long-term liabilities in the form of increased maintenance costs, more complex infrastructure upkeep and heightened pedestrian safety risks. The city's continued participation in measure empty funding should be contingent upon its alignment with fiscally sustainable and community supported transportation priorities

automatically accepting and road-winding projects to retain eligibility for funding without fully betting the financial and environmental impacts is short-sighted I urge the council to reconsider this resolution and direct staff to return with alternatives that focus on multimodal transportation environmental sustainability and physical responsibility thank you for for time and consideration.

Good afternoon, City Council and staff. My name is Abraham. I am a resident of Ward 3 and a member of community service organization Orange County. We're here today to demand that the City Council and the City Manager direct the Personnel Board and the Police Oversight Commission to investigate officers Luis Casillas and Isaac Ibarra for the violation of the Police Department's Code of Ethics for failing to uphold the department's practices in assisting people with mental health issues before the violation of Noe Rodriguez's civil rights. These officers took the law into their own hands. They failed to communicate effectively

and deescalate the situation, and made a brutal example of a member of our community, depriving a family of their husband, father, and son. They denied him his rights to due process and judgment by a jury of his peers. It's also unjust that the family and members of our community are being smeared by the Police Officers Association while we are demanding justice and accountability, something that is already difficult to achieve with this department. All of you on the City Council received a copy of their recent letter which refers to some of your own constituents as anti public safety pro criminal radicals. So we ask

you and we expect an answer, do you agree with the POA about these comments? Do you believe that the people before you want more crime in our communities? We affirm that Noe Rodriguez was also entitled to the presumption of innocence and due process. We, the members of CSO and members of the communities across Santa Ana, will not allow anti-accountability and divisive rhetoric to bury the demands for justice raised by Noe's family. As the Police Officers Association indicated in their letter to the council, it will be no surprise if Casillas and Ibarra are found free of any wrongdoing. This is

because a culture of anti-accountability exists in law enforcement today. To be crystal clear, we're not here to attack the department for what they do right, but to criticize them for what they do wrong for allowing officers who make life-ending decisions to continue to patrol our communities thank you rain mendoza erica armentha david palito uh rain with csoc firstly i wanted to address the police officers association's letter to the city council regarding our organization's efforts for police accountability and police

transparency. In that letter they called our organization, which is made up by residents of Santa Ana mind you, pro criminal and anti public safety. And to that I want to say that myself nor anyone from CSO has ever shot anyone 29 times for holding a toy gun, groped a minor multiple times and then sabotaged our own internal investigation or commanded a canine to attack a 73 year old man ultimately killing him like they did with Miguel Chavez. However, these are all actions committed by the Santa Ana Police Department. So if you

want to talk about anti-public safety, well there you go. Also, if this is the way that the police department responds to the public pushing for accountability and transparency with threatening letters, that is extremely concerning. And and you should all be concerned about this reaction. Transparency and accountability are very basic things to expect from people being paid by our tax dollars. Also, we demand that the city council and city manager direct the personnel board to immediately remove officers Luis Casillas and Isaac Ibarra from the police department without pay. Additionally, we demand that the personnel board

and police oversight commission investigate both officers for the violation of the police department's code of ethics for failing to uphold the department's procedure in treating people with mental illness and for the violation of NOAA's civil rights. Also, I want to make it very clear that the reason we are here demanding these things and not at the Police Oversight Commission is because it hasn't been functional for two years, because of a stalling to hire an independent oversight director, Justice Fernando Rodriguez.

Jennifer L. HallItem 3

Erica Armenta.

Jennifer L. HallItem 3

Followed by David Pulido and Ryan Murillo.

su llegada solo le dieron instrucciones en inglés cuando no es solo hablaba español le dieron 29 balazos en menos de cuatro minutos quien en realidad estaba desarmado no podía disparar y no conformes con eso lo dejaron cerca de 15 minutos para poder llamar emergencias vengo de nuevo exigir a todos los vídeos de las cámaras corporales y de la patrulla de los oficiales así como el informe policial mis hijas y yo estamos destrozadas por esta pérdida y no no tenemos respuestas. Exigimos que hagan algo, que los oficiales sean responsabilizados por sus acciones.

Sé que este caso está bajo investigación, pero exijo que dejen de patrullar nuestras calles. Nuestra comunidad corre peligro por oficiales como los que están implicados en este asesinato. Nada nos asegura que los demás oficiales no han hecho lo mismo y siguen repitiendo los actos al no rendir cuentas por sus actos. el departamento de policías de santana se clasificó entre los 100 peores del estado necesitamos transparencia necesitamos que esta comisión de supervisión policial se ponga en funcionamiento que vas a esperar para actuar santana dejarás que esto pase de nuevo en nuestra comunidad hispana

seguimos en la lucha por la justicia para noé rodríguez con dios de la mano todo va a salir bien gracias

Good evening, my name is Eric Armenta and I am here again to talk about my husband, Noel Rodriguez, who was killed by police officers, Isaac Armenta and Luis Casillas. He was reported to have a rifle, doubtedly. They just were told, the police was told that it was a Hispanic male. They spoke to him with English commands. He does not speak English. He only speaks Spanish. He received 29 bullet holes in 24 minutes. And he was unarmed.

And they delayed EMS response by 15 minutes. And we demand all the body cam footage. and the police report me and my daughters are this desperate and destroyed by this we you need to do something you're telling us that this is being investigated by the police but these officers should not be patrolling our streets our streets are in danger when these people are out there and who knows which other officers are doing something similar Santa Ana Police

department is within the 100 worst police departments we demand transparency we the Commission is not working so we demand you do something Santa Ana we are going to fight for this and we need justice for no Rodriguez and with God's help all will be good okay my name is David Pulido I'm with community service organization Orange County I'm a resident of Ward 5 first of all I'm not sure who's in charge of your cameras but it's shameless and disgraceful that you're not filming the speakers today including Eric Armenta you should I

don't know who's in charge of that you should be ashamed first of all in your last City Council meeting you ignored her testimony and your silence is loud all but one member I should clarify and I appreciate that the rest of you are silent and that is unacceptable we're here to demand that the City Council and and city manager direct the personnel board to immediately remove killer cops, Santa Ana police officers Luis Casillas and Isaac Ibarra from the force without pay. Additionally, we demand that the personnel board and the police oversight commission, as soon as it is empowered, investigate both officers for the violation

of the police department's code of ethics, for failing to uphold the department's procedure in treating people with mental illness, and for the violation of NOAA's civil rights. The family demands that both officers be imprisoned so they do not continue to harm people and kill people in our community. First of all, just to touch on some basic points, they failed to assess or de-escalate the situation based on any reasonable measurement. They arrived on scene and on the full body-com footage that we secured, they basically, the guy Luis Casillas puts down his red bull and then he pulls out his handgun all within 30 seconds,

offers his three commands in English only, and then fires 18 bullets at Noé. That is not assessing a situation or de-escalating a situation. Moreover, according to their policy on assessing people who may have mental illness, you know, Noé was exhibiting signs of disorientation, lack of awareness of self. Even if he could understand the commands that were given in English, he didn't respond to them. The officer should have seen that, not threatened and intimidated him, which again is against that own procedure. He did none of those things and instead emptied his magazine at Noé.

So again, we demand that these officers be removed from the force without pay and that criminal charges be leveled against them they'd be put in jail so they don't continue to harm and kill people and that's on you where are your community residents too okay you need to film us

Jennifer L. HallItem 3

ryan mario wendy rodriguez emma gottfried

all right a little change of topic so my name is ryan mario i am a resident of ward 3. i also have lived in the city for 38 years former employee of the city of Santa Anna I used to work in parks and rec with I ran all the pools in the city for 10 years so today I'm here representing SCI you 7 to 1 I'm the union rep for the city and as you know SCI you is the largest Union in the city we pretty much represent every department across the city and in essence the city of Santa out of runs because our members make the city function the way it does also you know it's

budget season you guys are in the middle of your budget so we're here to talk about item 25 and the vacancy report throughout all my years here in the city obviously the city has never been able to fill all the vacancies which is understandable however one vacancy is one too many it basically Basically, the residents don't get the services that they pay for. And often leads to our members having to do double duty, they're overworked, can lead to errors and safety violations, right? And oftentimes, in addition to that, some of our positions end up being contracted out.

As you know, the contractors don't have the best knowledge of the city, and oftentimes it's our members that end up supervising the contractor. So going forward, back in January, we have Assembly Bill 2561. This basically re-engages the conversation with the city and the union to work together to fill these vacancies that the Santa Ana residents and our members get the services they deserve. Thank you very much.

Buenas tardes. Soy residente de Santana por 22 años y voy a hablar en español porque era el único idioma que Noé conocía. Y estoy aquí para apoyar y pedir justicia por la familia de Noé Rodríguez. No es posible que sigan protegiendo a policías asesinos como Luis Casillas e Isaac Ibarra, quienes se supone deberían proteger a la comunidad y no asesinarlos a sangre fría. En Santana hay una gran comunidad que solamente habla español. Is this a crime? So, why did they only give orders to Noé in English? Nothing justifies shooting a disarmed person 29 times.

Couldn't they give warning shots or non-mortal shots? How is it possible that these policemen are still free and patrolling our streets as if nothing had happened, while they have destroyed the lives of a family and two little girls? la respuesta simple estos policías saben que están protegidos por su asociación y por la alcaldesa de santana pero que se puede esperar de policías que carecen de educación y valores pues para ser policías sólo se necesita sólo se necesita básicamente saber leer y así espera que

la comunidad les tengamos confianza si no tienen la capacidad de manejar un conflicto cambien de de profesión o su única solución siempre es la violencia hoy fue noe pero mañana puede ser cualquiera de nosotros o uno de nuestros familiares justicia para noe rodriguez gracias

good evening I've been a resident of Santa Ana for over 22 years and I'm going to speak in Spanish because that is the only language that Noe spoke. And I'm here to ask for justice for Noe Rodriguez's family. He was brutally murdered by killer cops Luis Casillas and Isaac Ibarra. and he they are protected they're protected right by this situation and Santa Ana many people in Santa Ana speak only Spanish is it a crime to only speak

Spanish and no I was only given commands in English he was shot 29 times what why couldn't they give a warning shot or non-lethal shots the police feel are free to roam the streets and do whatever they want. Now that we have a devastated family with children and the cops don't care because they know they are protected by the Association and by the mayor. They lack values and because the only thing that they need to be police officers are able to

to read and they are out there and they are violating our rights and we need to have justice for Noe Rodriguez.

Jennifer L. HallItem 3

Emma Gottfried, Carl Benninger.

Hello. My name is Emma Gottfried. I'm a resident of Ward 4 and a member of CSO Orange County.

We're here as Orange County to demand justice for Noe Rodriguez. And I want every single council member to look at these two officers, as you guys seem to be very afraid of our signs and us being here in this presence. So I want every single council member to look at these two officers. These are killer cops and these cops are on our street and that's not okay. We demand justice for Noe Rodriguez. We demand the City Council and the City Manager direct that the personal board to end the direct the personnel board to immediately remove officers Luis Casillas and Isaac Ibarra from the police department without pay.

Additionally, we demand that the personnel board and the police Oversight Commission investigate both officers for violation of the police department's Code of Ethics for failing to uphold the department's procedure in treating people with mental illness and for the violation of NOAA's civil rights. The family demands that both officers be in prison so that they do not kill or harm anyone again. And these cops are beyond just being killer cops, they're also liars. These officers lied. In the full body cam footage that we received and was released, Officers Luis Casillas and and Isaac Ibarra lie multiple times.

Casillas said he fired approximately 14 to 15 bullets when he fired all 18 bullets in his handgun and reloaded. Ibarra said he fired approximately seven bullets when there was 11 bullets that he shot. Casillas said it looked like Noé was loading a gun, but that's not what we see in any of the footage, and the footage is, it's very obvious in the footage. Instead, we only see Noé standing motionless against a wall of a furniture store. holding a toy rifle to his chest. Ibarra said that Noe was waving around a shotgun. That's a complete fabrication and pointing in the direction. Again, the body camera footage completely contradicts

both of these false claims.

Jennifer L. HallItem 3

Thank you for your time. Carl Benninger.

Good evening, Mayor and city council members. Carl Benninger, Ward 4, Metro Classic Neighborhoods. I just want to let everyone know that on June 26th at 6 o'clock at Bowers Museum, Comlink is going to have its annual award tonight. We're going to recognize over 20 of the heroes in our neighborhoods. We're going to recognize over 30 beautiful yards. And that number is really 90 because we get three per neighborhood. And some of those yards are so hard to distinguish between. And what we want to do is build pride in the city. We don't separate it into background races or what have you. There's Santa Ana citizens and

We build pride by doing it and that's why our motto is Improving neighborhoods block by block and that's what we do in Comlick. Comlick's been around for 36 years I just found that out today and it's a great honor and it's for the city It improves our neighborhood and I think we're one of the few cities in Orange County to have neighborhood associations and you guys know the fine work that they do. Also I be remiss if I didn't say that through being on Planning Commission and seeing some of the work that Mike Garcia and Justin Brown does, that we're very proud

of the awards that they've won and what they do with money given to them for housing in the city. Unlike Los Angeles where they can't account for a billion dollars, they can't account for a billion dollars, I'm sure every dime that Mike and his group gets goes to good use and housing in Santa Ana we have a lot to be a proud of so thank

Jennifer L. HallItem 3

you Mike mayor and city council that concludes the public speakers that are present we'll now go to the zoom speakers when your name is called please unmute and announce your name and neighborhood for the city for the record Patty D please unmute and make your comments hello my name

My name is Patricia DeSantos and Ward 4. With the release of the new City of Santa Ana budget, I want to remind the City Council that their primary responsibility as elected officials is to deliver the wishes of the residents. This is not only what you were elected to do, but is also what ex-President Clinton stated recently is your primary job. Numerous residents have requested both verbally and in writing they would like a community oversight committee for the 22 million dollars that will be paid to the city from the bristol related development I believe even more residents would like a

community oversight committee on the five other construction projects currently going on in the city the problem is our City Council has denied community oversight for the 22 million dollars in a back room vote that was not on the record currently there is 255 million dollars in the city budget in unrestricted spending. City Council uses part of this money to pay for city improvements and other bills to keep our city running. How to use the unrestricted money is discretionary in part and the City Council decides where and how to

spend it. But the problem is when they refuse to allow the residents to have a say in how to spend some of the money it causes a break in the partnership between the residents and City Council. When the residents ask for community oversight it is their right to have a voice over the use of some of the hundreds of millions of dollars in our budget. My question is why would City Council not want the residents to have a voice? Therefore myself and numerous other residents ask again that City Council take another vote on the record this time immediately regarding our request for community oversight over the

22 million dollars from the Bristol related project community oversight is a common practice thank you mayor and City Council that concludes the public

Jennifer L. HallItem 3

speakers this evening

Valerie AmezcuaItem 3

Thank You madam clerk this time we're going to go to the consent calendar ITEMS 4-22 BEFORE US. COUNCILMEMBERS, I WILL CALL ON YOU TO ANNOUNCE ANY ITEMS YOU WANT TO PULL. IF YOU HAVE A CONFLICT. MAYOR PRO TEM.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 4

THANK YOU. COUNCILMEMBER LOPEZ.

Jessie LopezItem 4

NO ITEMS TO PULL. I JUST WANT TO REGISTER A NO ON 22 AND 20.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 4

REGISTER A NO ON 22 AND 20. COUNCILMEMBER PANELOSA.

David PenalozaItem 4

NO ITEMS, MAYOR.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 4

THANK YOU. COUNCILMEMBER FAN.

Thai Viet PhanItem 5

I'd like to recuse myself from item number 19 as City Ventures as a client of my employer Rattan and Tucker and they are the applicant for the density bonus. Thank you.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 5

Thank you. Council Member Becerra.

Phil BacerraItem 5

No, I am Mr. Pol and I'll move the rest of the consent calendar.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 5

I'll second. Council Member Hernandez is not in the room. We'll go ahead and vote at this time.

Jennifer L. HallItem 5

Motion by Council Member Becerra, seconded by Mayor Miswa, to approve the consent calendar items four through 22.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 5

Everybody vote. That's my opinion, isn't it?

Jennifer L. HallItem 5

Okay. Do you want to do a roll call, please? Council Member Becerra?

Yes.

Jennifer L. HallItem 5

Council Member Lopez? Yes. Council Member Penalosa?

Yes.

Jennifer L. HallItem 5

Council Member Phan? Yes. Mayor Pro Tempestas? Yes. Mayor Mezcua? Yes. The vote is six ayes, no nays with the current absence by Council Member Hernandez. motion carries with a noted no vote on items 20 and 22 by council member Lopez and a recusal by council member fan on item 19 motion carries thank you that is

Valerie AmezcuaItem 5

the end of the consent calendar will now be going to the public hearing before hearing public hearing item number 23 madam clerk please provide instructions to the public who would like to make a comment on this public hearing item only

Jennifer L. HallItem 5

Thank You mayor members of the public joining us by way of zoom or conference who would like to make a comment for public hearing item number 23 only, please dial star nine from your phone or select raise hand from Zoom now. And speakers will then be announced once the public hearing is opened.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 5

Item 23 is a public hearing for approval of the 25-2029 five-year consolidation plan and the 25-26 annual action plan for CDBG, home, and ESG programs. Madam Deputy City Manager, do you have a staff presentation?

No presentation. I'm sorry? We don't have a presentation at this time, but we're happy to answer any questions. Thank you. Are there any questions or comments by the Council? Seeing none, let's

Valerie AmezcuaItem 5

move forward. I hereby close this public hearing. I'm sorry, maybe you have to open the public hearing. I'm sorry, let me open the public hearing. Do we have any public comments?

Jennifer L. HallItem 5

Ms. Jessica Mildon. We actually have no speakers in person on Zoom and there were no e-comments received for this public hearing.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 5

Okay. Now I hereby close the public hearing. There are no comments. No final comments by any council members? There's a motion. Can I get a motion and a second, please? Second. I'll make a motion.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 5

Second. Thank you, Mayor Pro Tem.

Chair Stephanie Sharp.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 5

Trustee Laura Smith- It's your turn.

Jennifer L. HallItem 5

Trustee Laura Smith- It's your turn to vote please. Is it working Madam Clerk? Trustee Laura Smith- I just turned it on so if you could check to see if it's working. Otherwise we can do a roll call vote. This is a motion by Mayor Emescuwa, seconded by Mayor Pro Tem Vasquez to approve the recommended actions for public hearing item number 23 related to the fiscal year consolidated plan, annual action plans and budgets.

Jennifer L. HallItem 5

It appears they're all working, I believe.

Jennifer L. HallItem 5

Voters 5 ayes, no nays with absences by Council Members Lopez and Council Members Hernandez. Motion carries.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 5

All right. Item number 25, before hearing public hearing number 24, Madam Clerk, please provide instructions to the public who would like to make a comment on this public hearing item only.

Jennifer L. HallItem 5

members of the public joining us by way of zoom or conference call who would like to make a comment for public hearing item number 24 please dial star 9 from your phone or select raise hand from zoom now to then be called upon once the public hearing is opened thank you councilmember fan Thank You mayor as

Thai Viet PhanItem 5

I've done before I will be recusing myself from this item as the ordinance may affect clients of my employer Rattan and Tucker so I will leave the room while it's being discussed thank you thank you very much item number 24 is a

Valerie AmezcuaItem 5

public hearing for amendments to the transit zoning code zoning district and citywide zoning map do any council members need to announce a conflict which was council member fan any other council members need to announce a conflict do we need a presentation see none

Valerie AmezcuaItem 5

are there any questions or comments by the council Council? Yes. Yes? No? Yes. Council Member Becerra? Wait. No questions at this time. Sorry. I now open the public hearing for members of the public that would like to provide their comments in person and virtually Madam City Clerk. Do we have any speakers? Speakers?

Jennifer L. HallItem 5

Yes, Mayor and City Council. We do have speakers in person and on Zoom. Additionally noting for the record, we did receive 25, I'm sorry, five e-comments related to public hearing item number 24. Those were distributed to the City Council and made publicly available online. I'll call the in-person speakers first. If you could please line up behind the podium. I'm going to call your name. I'll have two minutes for your comments. Robert Adams. Ms. Williams, Ilya Seglin, and Michael Paxton.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 5

It's a two minute time limit for everybody please, sir. How long is it supposed to be three for this one? Three minutes? It's a two minute time limit.

Aye, aye, aye. Good evening Madam Mayor, Council, and staff. My name is Bob Adams, owner and operator of Adams Iron Company since 1978 here in Santa Ana. We are located at 811 North Poinsettia in a beautiful Burke development, only 24 years old. Also, I represent the Burke HOA as a board member. I built Adams Iron Company from the ground up, and it represents my retirement, a legacy to my children and my grandchildren, and so much to the nearly 80 employees and their families. I want to thank planning staff, particularly Min, Ali, Margarita, and Ricardo.

They have worked timelessly on this ordinance. They spent so much time with me and all others for months answering questions and listening to our comments and concerns. concerns. While the ordinance is not perfect, it's clear that the staff made a concerted effort to refine the draft into something that non-noxious industrial stakeholders can work with, all the while being mindful of homeowners in Joe's Logan community and the fine people in Santa Ana Lofts. Tonight you'll hear a wide range of speakers, many small business owners like myself still deeply deeply concerned about the zoning update. And frankly, I understand why.

The process moved quickly and that's created a lot of resentment, fear and confusion. I'm gonna skip that. A simple solution would be to make a motion to adopt the ordinance with the modification that allows M1 non-noxious users to remain and get rid of the M2 noxious zone. As you, our elected governing body, have a daunting task that is not to be taken lightly tonight, You hold the power to affect so many people. I do not envy you. I do not envy this task. I respectfully request this council bring closure to this process tonight. I wish you Godspeed. Thank you.

Jennifer L. HallItem 5

Ilya.

Good evening. I respectfully want to address and support I would like to report the previous speakers that I believe very much that these people from Mexican community are honest people who come with very important question that needs to be decided. and therefore my side of that that unfortunately for two minutes I cannot

just present that we can discuss for for many months so I just concerned about financing of the, respectively, county illegal drug cartel who steal money from the public and do nothing legal that supposed to they voted. Instead, they are

are part of illegal drug trade that Orange County participant in in

administration a part of this cartel to steal money from the taxpayers who pay for improving life. Like I want to say few words about my son. He was kidnapped for 12 years already for doing nothing illegal. Or he is completely innocent. And he keep be inside.

Inside I talked with Santayana, she knows about my case, nothing was done. This is money going to support this illegal administration that nobody did not vote for. People voted and concerned about what they bring to the public, not about anything else.

Jennifer L. HallItem 5

Michael Paxton, Mehran Tamajian, Jason Rush.

Good evening. I'm a resident of the San Diego Street Lofts. I've been here for almost 20 years now. I bought it when it was a piece of dirt. And over the years we've had some issues that all of you are aware of with some of the more noxious businesses that are in that area. and we tried through enforcement to get that stuff fixed we tried to get the council involved and try and get zoning and stuff changed on that and we had gone from essentially asking to get rid of the worst of the worst to saying we're gonna get rid of everybody and then pulling back to a point where we

have more of a measured attack at this in order to to make it work for everybody I support it I just hope that after going through some of the things in the code and I couldn't go through the full 400 pages that there's not too much wiggle room in there to allow people maybe in a future council to actually act in a little bit more aggressive way toward some of our neighbors that we really would like to keep on the business side and that's pretty much what I have to say thank you

Honorable Mayor Emescu and Council Members, my name is Miran Tumajan. On behalf of Lacey Neighborhood-based NAOP SoCal, the leading non-profit voice for commercial real estate across Orange and Los Angeles counties, with over 1,200 members including developers, owners, investors, brokers, general contractors, architects, engineers, finance professionals and other key service providers I urge you to vote no on recommended action items two and three pertaining to agenda item number 24 staff's proposed changes to remove the m1 and m2 overlays from properties in

the SD 84 transit zoning district will have a negative impact on long-standing industrial and commercial operations in Santa Ana's Logan Lacey neighborhoods these property owners owner operators and businesses are not just our neighbors they are responsible employers infrastructure investors and critical contributors to local tax revenue schools and community services all without burdening the taxpayer stripping the two industrial overlays would destabilize a healthy mix of land uses threaten good jobs and create friction where harmony currently exists as you heard even some residents have asked the

city to maintain the m1 overlay and instead focus enforcement on a small handful of bad actors not punish the many for the actions of a few we urge the council to protect santa ana's economic diversity and storied legacy businesses by preserving the m1 and m2 industrial overlays in sd84 let's build a collaborative path forward that respects both community and commerce thank

Jennifer L. HallItem 5

you for your attention jason rush followed by jack hogan and dan domonowski

good evening mayor and the rest of the council my name is jason rush and i represent jvw enterprises we have the uh what people drastically call the dump on fourth street

the problem with the our general problem with the item is that when you start defining finding noxious bad actors the problem we have it with it is we are the most regulated facility in Lacey and Logan combined we've got numerous government agencies that examine every aspect of what we do may not like the fact we exist there it doesn't mean I'm a bad actor there's so many regulations we have to comply with that others seem to have gotten away with the other problem we have with

the item is that it's incomplete there's 10 or 12 other neighborhoods that are going to come after you for the same thing after you if you choose to vote for this so then you have to go to 10 and 12 other neighborhoods and say well wait a minute so now you want to take m1 or m2 away from them because so if you do it over here you have to give it to us too you're going to create a domino effect and you're not going to have enough staff to properly deal with the with what all that entails you also would like to tell people in lacey and logan the other part of the equation

well so you get rid of a few people but what are you going to put in in its place you haven't exactly come forward and told them that either now at least for what we are

we've had half of our entity we've already left so we've we've given you the respect that you've asked for for years and left logan they moved to a different jurisdiction

so the the level that's been there is we've we've left thank you

Jennifer L. HallItem 24

Jack Hogan, Dan Dominovsky, Charlie Wynn.

Yeah, hi. I'm Jack Hogan. I sell commercial real estate in Santa Ana and in the transit zoning code area that we're discussing now.

And I would urge you to vote no on the current ordinance that's on the table. And the main reason is people own these properties and they own businesses in these areas, and sometimes the property is their retirement. You can't lease an existing industrial building to most of the uses that the city wants to propose. And so it requires you to either redevelop the property or, and what happens is it severely reduces the property value. value and it makes it so you may under current code is that you can't use the

reuse the building for another light industrial use that the buildings have primarily been used at for the transizoning code affects 1.2 million square feet of industrial property of industrial concrete tilt the buildings on 3.6 million square feet of land that's used for contractors yards and and light industrial uses and some heavy industrial uses, which have come into question. I sent all the seven council members some comps showing that industrial properties as industrial were on average sold for $140 a square foot,

whereas the ones that sold to residential for redevelopment averaged about $70 a square foot. So that's half of the value of the square foot. So just to do the math for you, you. 3.6 million times 140 bucks a foot is $500 million. I cut that in half, you're causing $250 million in damages that people are going to wake up to tomorrow morning if you vote on this thing. And I don't think that's, I don't really know the definition of a good policy and bad policy, but I got to think there's a better way than the current ordinance on the table. Thank you.

Honorable Mayor, City Council, staff, my name is Dan Dominovsky. I'm working at 941 East 4th Street in the 6th District. I'm here representing the property owner, Maxima Investment, and the business owner, MenCal Recycling. I've worked at the facility there for more than 30 years, and I'm standing here before for you in support of the goals for SD84, the TZC.

We operate a clean recycling company dealing with beverage containers and cardboard. We're not handling mixed materials, doing sorting, handling scrap metals, things of that nature. We will be in compliance with the new operating conditions if they're imposed. We will not be a noxious use. I would just like to close by saying that we take a long-term view and working with the city to create a partnership so that together we can help make santa ana even better place to live and work thank you hello honorable mayor and

council members my name is charlie wynn i'm a 30-year commercial real estate broker and a professional in santa ana as well as a resident today you will be asked to ratify the amendment for the sda 84 transit zoning code which was barely approved by the planning commission which essentially removes industrial zoning from approximately 1.25 million square feet of additional buildings in orange county weren't asking you to vote against this ordinance not only will you be impacting the livelihoods of hundreds of businesses many of which are second

and third generations but you will negatively impact the livelihood of property owners who rely on the income from these assets we've already heard tonight from residents that have no quarrel with lighter industrial uses and industrial users who are prepared to agree with modest changes to the operating hours and certain restrictions to remain in peaceful cohabitation with the sd-84 community however the current ordinance is a great overreach and quite frankly impacts property values greatly removing the industrial zoning classifying remaining industrial unit buildings

as legal non-conforming is a scarlet letter to any property owners while planning commission will state that the property owner can replace the tenant with a like-kind occupant or less one with lesser impact it is in the reality is every change in occupancy will be conditional reducing the buyer tenant pool as such reducing property values previously we have presented you a spreadsheet with the industrial comps industrial sites in Santa Ana have been selling for two and a half years have been valued at a hundred and forty two hundred and forty five dollars a square foot essentially my colleague previously mentioned that

that would be a loss of over $250 million of equity value. The city should be concerned about the loss of property values because the vote could cause vested individuals to lose millions of dollars overnight. For many of the meetings and public hearings that we have been involved with, businesses feel like the city of Santa Ana has ignored the requests of the business community to inject lighter industrial uses, which residents are voicing their acceptance of some of these compromises. Please consider voting against voting this new ordinance. Thank you.

Jennifer L. HallItem 24

Next three speakers, Michael Andrade, Joe Andrade, Mike Tardif.

Good evening, Mayor, Council Members. Pretty sure you guys already know our story at Logan Community.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 24

Can you bring your mic or speak closer, please? Thank you.

I'm sure you guys know our story, the Logan community, you know, how much impact that these, you know, number of businesses have done to the community, to the neighborhoods. And we ask that you guys approve this 24 ordinance. I wish you guys could see the impact that we see on a daily basis. And I'm sure you guys heard stories from my father, from neighbors and other people. We just ask of you guys that you guys continue to, you know, follow through. I know we've you know had a number of these meetings and you know Changes and whatnot and we just ask of you that you know we continue that that story of this neighborhood and

Pretty much it. Thank you

I guess you guys all know me Leave Dean mayor good evening council them all these people that are coming up here especially these real estate people and all this stuff are coming up here speaking about you know they're gonna make more money on the resident or in commercial than residential what are they trying to do throw it us out they come up here with this second third fourth generations do they understand that we were there a heck of a lot sooner than they were we've been living there and all we're trying to do is get get rid of the bad people, and get back to a residential like they used to be.

We fought this for so long. You guys all have heard my mom, Chepa, Sammy Romero, have fought it for a long time. My mom passed away. I took over with Sammy, and we've taken every one of you and talked to you about it and and showed you what's happened, what's gone through, and what hasn't, and what's going on. Where disposal came in, it just tore the whole place up. They're talking about, it doesn't matter, but they keep on renting to people there, they still own property, and they tear the place up. They tear it up, and they rent to 15 people,

15 companies in there, and one of them has a permit. It's kind of funny. You guys are losing out on all that money. The other thing is, you know, we're here and we have people, you know, you guys, we have the problem with not being able to vote once, twice. Now we've got the third time we're missing one person, one person that took some ugly money and wouldn't pay it back. I got $250 is what they'd owed. if they need it it's right here to pay it back why go and mess with the

people's lives their properties and everything there it is thank you

Jennifer L. HallItem 24

Mike Tardif Kelly Cross Lee Jack Haley

Mayor Redekopi? Good evening Mayor, City Council. The March train station meeting brought together residents and businesses and made clear that residents do not support an unjustified rezoning that will devastate good businesses and their employees. Employees.

Developers will bring high-density multi-story units with thousands of additional residents and traffic. Residents don't want to unnecessarily shut down clean industrial businesses and eliminate jobs. The city puts forward claims of pollution, and there are some things that need to be taken care of. if they haven't done any environmental studies in this area, seemingly blaming this little business area as responsible for pollution which incurs throughout Southern California. Critical details need to be addressed,

such as the inaccurate and subjective classification of noxious businesses. There are devastating consequences for labeling a business as noxious. These regulations would deny continued use of a clean business property for a small box of hoses or pail of machine lubricant while not requiring the same of a noxious gas station property with many thousands of gallons of fuel. That is not fair.

fair. We need a balanced approach that targets the bad actor businesses. They degrade both businesses and residential neighborhoods. At the train station meeting and at the planning commission, residents recommended that the M1 zone remain and the M2 zone designated be eliminated. Consider removing the M2 overlay but allowing the M1 light industrial to remain Maine as was done in the County of Los Angeles green rezoning project thank you

good evening my name is Kelly crossley and I'm a resident and homeowner in the transit zoning code I don't know what residents Mike Tardif spoke to but every resident that I'm aware of would like to see the m1 and m2 overlay removed I want to thank city staff for their sustained engagement with us for residents for for over a year. And several staff members and council members have already joined me for a walk through my neighborhood and witnessed some of the challenges we're facing firsthand, such as meth pipes left by patrons of the metal recycling facility, tow and mow trucks zooming past pedestrians and kids walking to school.

I feel compelled to address this idea that where disposal is a good actor, then why does it smell all the way to my house in the lofts? Why do I have to bring out council member Peña Loza, of the city manager, a police officer, and a variety of other staff members before their street sweeper was moved out of the public driveway at the train station. Austin Hardwood across the street, a good actor, hasn't had a fire, but where disposal did on a Sunday afternoon in March when it wasn't even operating. Why is there contaminated dust blowing towards my house

every day and I have to call AQMD every day? Why do the dump trucks get to idle and block the intersection and bike lane on the public street every day? There are many good businesses that myself and the neighbors would like to keep in the neighborhood but the m1 and m2 overlay must be removed and the proposed amendments i think are a fair compromise in addressing the incompatible land uses thank you jack haley good evening thank you for letting me speak today um i i agree with the goals of the council and the planning department i think they're um they're great

goals for the city and moving us forward but I'm opposed to the elimination of the industrial overlay from the from the zone this ordinance is a taking of these people's property rights and it's anti-business I mean personally what I do is I lease and sell industrial buildings and have for the last 30 30 plus years I've promoted this city throughout Southern California as a pro business community this ordinance is anti-business if you look at the permitted permitted uses table in this ordinance they're not uses that are popular today in southern

california um the uh the vacancy rate for for office and industrial properties is 15 to 20 today so you're taking thousands of jobs and hundreds of properties and you're telling these people they're non-conforming 20 years ago you guys encouraged and your predecessors and the mayor here encouraged burke development and other developers to come into the city build nice new modern buildings these people have spent millions of dollars to buy property and move their businesses to the city and employ local residences and now they're being told they're non-conforming

really i again urge you to vote no on this and i think you there's ways of amending the ordinance and making it better you know one allow more uses that are acceptable and and not non-permitted

i i think you need to think about what you're doing residential isn't the highest and best use of these properties that are around the train station and the five freeway people complain about the the air quality and what's happening here but this whole zone is by you know noxious environments the five freeway the the train the bus depot i mean there's a lot of dust your time is up and stuff that occurs every day here thank you very much

Jennifer L. HallItem 24

mayor and city council that concludes the in-person speakers we'll now go to the speaker on zoom um please dial star six or unmute your microphone when called upon to proceed with your comment resident please unmute and make your comment

Jennifer L. HallItem 24

We're not able to hear you.

Jennifer L. HallItem 24

Resident.

Resident.

Jennifer L. HallItem 24

Mayor and City Council, it appears they're having audio issues. It's not coming through on our end. Thank you, Madam Clerk. That concludes the speakers that were in the queue when the public hearing was opened. Thank you. Hello? Well, there you go. Yes, sir. We can hear you now. Oh, hi.

Are you guys able to hear me now? Yes. I'm the resident? Yes. Okay. Thank you so much. Can I still speak? Go ahead. Go ahead. Thank you. Sorry for the audio connection issue. Good evening, everyone. Unfortunately, what I'm seeing is that residents are not fairly represented in these meetings. You've heard mostly from business owners who do not have to live in the conditions of this zone. I'm a resident of the transit zoning code area. I'm here to express my continued and unwavering support for the proposed amendments to the SD 84 zoning code, specifically the removal of the M1 and M2 industrial use overlay and

one essential correction to also remove the CUP exemption for the storage units. I believe storage, M1 and M2 zoning designations are incompatible with the changing neighborhood. These legacy businesses that are being impacted are exactly that legacy of the past. I'm listening that they're unable to face the realities of the harm they cause. They're unwilling to change with the growing scape of the city. do not let their fractional personal financial impacts supersede the overwhelming health and safety priority of the people who actually live here. People like me, I'm hearing these business owners complain about retirement,

their children and grandchildren's retirement. When most people who live in this zone don't even have retirement, they're worrying about survival, breathing clean air, having a clean and safe place to live, which is the most basic needs. And that needs to be more important than someone's bank account. Throughout this long and often frustrating process, I learned how vital the amendments are. The city has educated both the residents and the business owners on how they will hold the bad actors accountable that are degrading our quality of life with the noise, the pollution, the dangerous street conditions.

I've even learned that it's not going to displace the existing businesses, it's offering them flexibility. They can sell, re-tenant the buildings with safer business goals that align with the community and that will help our neighborhood thrive. So I do feel that ultimately these amendments-President, your time is up. Thank you.

Jennifer L. HallItem 24

Mayor and city council, that concludes the speakers in the queue when we open the public hearing. Thank you, Madam Clerk.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 24

With no further comments from the public, I hereby close this public hearing. Any council members have any comments or questions? If you do, please, I don't know if this is working. Is it working, Madam Clerk?

Valerie AmezcuaItem 24

If not, raise your mic and I'll call on you.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 24

Councilman Hernandez.

Johnathan Ryan HernandezItem 24

Thank you, Madam City Mayor. I wanna thank members of the public for coming into today's public hearing, residents from the Logan community, business owners alike. We hear both sides of this conversation and I just wanna share, when I was elected to the council in 2020, I had the honor of meeting residents in the Logan community, and within a month of being elected, I learned immediately about their concerns with the air pollution, the noise pollution, concerns regarding safety because of the way that these businesses have treated their neighboring communities. And the after effects are children living in a community

Johnathan Ryan HernandezItem 24

with high amounts of lead in the soil, children living in a community where they are at risk of birth defects due to air pollution. This is an opportunity for us to restore a neighborhood that was one of the first safe places for Mexican families in Orange County. The Logan neighborhood is storied and still exists here today because those residents fought. And they fought and they persisted because they loved the Logan neighborhood and they loved the city of Santa Ana. and that was the Andrade family. Ms. Chep Andrade worked alongside Sam Romero and the residents of Santa Ana, and they created the very first neighborhood association

Johnathan Ryan HernandezItem 24

because of the impact in their neighborhood. So this is over 40 years of community organizing, demanding that the city do what's right and prioritize them. And I wanna thank the community for coming out, and i do want to highlight a comment that a member from the public made today and that's that you know yes these businesses you know have done fantastic work for our city they've done great things but these residents deserve a better quality of life these residents deserve a city

Johnathan Ryan HernandezItem 24

that is going to prioritize public health over profit and and i'm going to be supporting this item because i'm proud to support our residents so i'll place a motion to move this item forward

Valerie AmezcuaItem 24

i'll second your motion councilman hernandez comments mr councilman becerra thank you madam

Phil BacerraItem 24

mayor so first of all i also want to thank everybody for coming out today both our residents and our business owners the logan and lacey neighborhoods are a very unique area because because we do have residential and industrial commingled together. When the transit zoning code was adopted, it was long before any of us were sitting up here, but it was clear then as it is now that the way the zoning was done, you had UN1 and UN2 based zoning. The idea was to look at the impacts to the existing residential. As my colleague just mentioned, the Logan neighborhood and the Lacey neighborhood are legacy neighborhoods.

Phil BacerraItem 24

They've been here for generations. One thing that we do also have in those areas are businesses that are multi-generational. I had the opportunity to meet with some of the business owners a couple weeks ago. And I'll be honest, I was looking around the room and I thought, well, how long do you guys really want to continue to operate? And what happened? They brought their scions, their sons and daughters that said, yeah, but what's going to happen to us when we operate the business? and they were interested in remaining in Santa Ana and continuing to operate so

Phil BacerraItem 24

that definitely left an impression on me it made me say wow you know there's a desire to stay here not just from our residents but also from the business community as well and I appreciate that I won't support the motion as it is and I'll ask my colleagues to consider some amendments shortly but what I do want to say is that the issue that we're facing here is how can we have residents and and industrial uses coexist together. And I think the one term that keeps getting kicked around is noxious uses, right? So the zoning on the map doesn't completely dictate whether it's a noxious use.

Phil BacerraItem 24

There's certain operational standards and features that indicate whether it's a noxious use. And you don't have to be a zoning expert to know that. Ask the residents in Logan who say, "'Yeah, I don't really like when a crematorium "'sprinkles stuff over my barbecue.' not too fun, right? Not a good thing. When there's debris in the air, when there's noise at all kinds of hours, when there's heavy-duty equipment blocking residential streets where residents can't get out, that's an issue.

Phil BacerraItem 24

So what I'd like to do, and I see with that, so I would like to propose some amendments, and what those amendments would do, I'm hopeful, would be kind of strike a balance. The reality is that we need to find a way for these folks to coexist. And I know one thing that has been broached in this proposal has been the idea of amortization of uses, the eventual conclusion of certain uses. And while that may make sense for noxious uses, that doesn't make sense for all the industrial uses. Because as we heard from some folks here, not every industrial use is having a negative

Phil BacerraItem 24

impact on the residential community and so if my colleagues would indulge me I'd like to propose a couple of amendments to what staff proposed to us you guys can follow along so in section 5 of the proposed ordinance I would like to change SA MC section 41-2002 subsection a subsection 8 where it IT CURRENTLY SAYS ELIMINATION OF NONCONFORMING USES AND STRUCTURES AND REPLACE NONCONFORMING WITH NOXIOUS USES AND HAVE THE WORDS NONCONFORMING, I'M SORRY, REPLACE WITH NOXIOUS WHERE IT'S APPROPRIATE.

Phil BacerraItem 24

I WOULD DEFER TO PLANNING STAFF TO DO THAT IN SUBSECTIONS 8A THROUGH 8D. And then in the same Section 5 of the proposed ordinance, SAMC Section 41-2002 discontinuance of nonconforming uses generally. I would like to amend subsection 2 that is proposed so that it would kind of tighten up this section to say if a nonconforming industrial use that meets the definition of of obnoxious use as defined in this article is, and the additional words, determined to be in violation of any applicable federal, state, or local regulation as provided below, just so that it's very clear

Phil BacerraItem 24

that we're not just assuming someone is in violation, but that it is actually confirmed.

Phil BacerraItem 24

In section nine of the proposed ordinance as it relates to SAMC section 41-2007G, I would like to amend the proposed language there. there, the sentence that says, the conversion of existing structures containing residential land uses to non-residential land uses is prohibited in the UN1 zone. I'd like to strike out UN2. There are, the UN1 and UN2 zones are mixed use, and so this allows for the mixed use idea to happen in those zones in an appropriate way.

Phil BacerraItem 24

so i just want to strike out un2 in section 11 of the proposed ordinance i would like to remove the phrase or lapses in business license renewal in the proposed new samc section 41-2009 a4 because i'm a little concerned at the idea that the renewal of a business license on time would i'll just say it out loud frankly withstand a legal challenge as to whether a business forfeited the status of its use. So I'd like to see just that one part of that section removed, not the whole section, just that language or lapses in business license renewal.

Phil BacerraItem 24

And finally, in section 11 of the proposed ordinance, the proposed new SAMC section 41-2009 should really, now this is just, you know, the planners will sympathize with me, I hope. This is just more of moving things around so it's a little more organizationally cleaner so essentially taking the 41 41-2009 and moving it as subsection m 41-2008 it's just more of an organizational thing no one else up here would really care but everything else is more of what i'm hoping will strike that balance between the residential and the industrial uses i think it'll help us realize

Phil BacerraItem 24

the vision of the transit zoning code but while also continuing to appreciate the businesses that we have that have been good neighbors and good partners with their neighbors or residential folks so that's my proposed amendments going towards councilman hernandez if you would like to make

Johnathan Ryan HernandezItem 24

a sub motion i would encourage you to do so council member then that would be my sub motion

Valerie AmezcuaItem 24

is there any other comments yes councilman just because that was a lot and i see our executive

David PenalozaItem 24

director of planning and building looking through this can can staff go over what councilmember Becerra brought forward well I mean what does that look like that was a lot to incorporate into to tonight thank you not only go over it

Valerie AmezcuaItem 24

but also men I'm sorry this madam city attorney I'm just so sorry I was

Sonia R. CarvalhoItem 24

consulting with our acting director because I think that councilmember member Penalosa makes an excellent point. The ordinance has been presented to you, shared at the public. It's a public hearing. The changes as proposed were very well articulated. We just need to make sure that that is understandable as a substitute motion. Otherwise, we'd have to come back for a first reading. Staff is indicating that they could potentially read those through, but that is at your discretion. Those were a lot of changes.

David PenalozaItem 24

I want to come back first. Yes. Go ahead, Ali.

Thank you. So to recap, Councilmember Becerra's proposed amendments. So it is a 50-page ordinance. So beginning on page 6 under subsection 7.2, it would be introduction of language that says in line 2 of item 2, use as defined in this article is determined to be in violation of any applicable federal. That's the first amendment.

On page 7 out of 50 there's subsection 8 that says elimination of non-conforming uses and structures replacement of the word non-conforming with noxious and then subsequently on the line below 8 where it says a elimination of non-conforming uses and structures comma generally they would state elimination of noxious uses and structures comma generally and and then subsequent edits throughout to reflect the word noxious instead of non-conforming

on page 18 out of 50 there's section 9 sub item g where the modification would state the conversion of existing structures containing residential land uses to non-residential land uses is prohibited in the un1 zone so there'd be strike through of the word and un2 and the plural of the word zones would be changed to just zone and then lastly on page 24 out of 50 at the top it says

section 41 2009 the council member has recommended that it be changed to 41-2008 parentheses m

and then lastly in sub item four on line six it says anna municipal code or lapses in business license renewal the amendment would state anna municipal code semicolon will lose its non-conforming status so it'd be elimination or strike true of the word or the phrase or lapses in business license license renewal. So those are the five modifications that the council member has introduced.

David PenalozaItem 24

And from CitySAS perspective, I just want to make sure that it doesn't compromise or undermine anything that staff was trying to achieve with the ordinance?

Johnathan Ryan HernandezItem 24

They do not.

David PenalozaItem 24

Okay. Thank you for that.

Johnathan Ryan HernandezItem 24

I'll be supportive of the amendments. If this is going to narrow down, you know, bad actors to specifically what is being talked about today, I'll support the amendment.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 24

So I have a question, Min. So all of this that we're doing here, I want to be really clear. So you know, I get in trouble when I ask that question and I get an answer. I want to be really clear. So to me, as the mayor of this city, and I'm very, very familiar with Logan, very familiar with the history, the families know, you know, there's a lot of history there they've put up with a lot and so one of the speakers said you know the mayor and everybody up here 20 years ago you know brought this forward I wasn't the mayor I'm be really clear I was not the mayor 20 years ago so that

Valerie AmezcuaItem 24

was not me the changes that are being proposed they will not they will not leave the residents so let me say are we addressing all the concerns that the residents are bringing up with these changes and I want a really clear answer

yes the ordinance reflects the community's concerns that I brought brought forward to staff since the original transit zoning code was adopted in 2010 through the work that our neighborhood initiative section has done in the planning division and the work margarita macedonio's team has done in connecting with the neighborhood understanding the issues and taking it a step further and meeting regularly with outside agencies that are in charge of regulating these sort of pollutants and emissions and work with orange county fire our police department and our code enforcement team which

in many cases has gone door-to-door knocking on businesses and residence doors this is a comprehensive ordinance that gives the city the tools that it needs through land use and code enforcement to begin addressing the the existing incompatible land uses and introducing a new tool in that toolkit of amortization for as now that council member becerra has introduced as an amendment the noxious uses in that neighborhood that have been a drain on city resources and a constant source of complaints that has been documented by staff and code enforcement and

planning for now over a decade and a half so your answer to me then is what i'm hearing you say

Valerie AmezcuaItem 24

is that this is going to be beneficial for the community and it will address their issues and concerns that they have been bringing forward for 20 30 years now yes okay i want to be clear that that's on record you said yes okay councilmember lopez yes thank you

Jessie LopezItem 24

okay um

Jessie LopezItem 24

actually there's so much to cover i don't even know where to begin now with the new amendments um well first i guess i want to thank you hold on one second

Valerie AmezcuaItem 24

councilman madam clerk can you turn the time off and someone give her six minutes SO SHE WELL I MEAN I WANT TO THANK YOU MAYOR I APPRECIATE IT GO AHEAD WE DON'T NEED WE'RE GOING TO GIVE HER THE SIX MINUTES SO SHE CAN ASK HER QUESTIONS PLEASE GO AHEAD UM WELL I DO WANT TO

Jessie LopezItem 24

THANK STAFF UM THE PLANNING DIVISION EVERYBODY THAT'S BEEN INVOLVED IN GETTING EVERYBODY INVOLVED HERE TO THIS POINT I SPECIFICALLY WANT TO THANK MARGARITA SHE HAS BEEN IN SOME VERY CONTENTIOUS community meetings where it has just been a lot I will say that and so I want to thank her for her work and I again I want to thank all the stakeholders for their input because what is before me tonight which is the question right what is before me tonight is not what was originally proposed and so I do

Jessie LopezItem 24

appreciate the work of the stakeholders and shaping what we are all have read and are being required to vote on tonight. And I also want to thank the work of the Planning Commission for their study sessions and for getting us all to this point because they did make a recommendation, which is why this is before us tonight. I was hoping that staff perhaps would be able to discuss with the council, with the public, the different versions of what was put together, what is before us tonight, so that people can understand that clear difference. And I also wanted to,

Jessie LopezItem 24

I wanted staff to provide a summary of the evolution, as I said, because I think it's really, really important. And I think I would also like for you to address the claim that I heard tonight, which is an ongoing claim. And I wanna be very clear about whether it's a yes or no before I even decide to take a vote tonight right is this a taking I think we all have to be very clear about what this is and what this isn't and so Ali I'm hoping that you can address that and I'm hoping that you can also address the non-conforming versus the noxious use because I think that's going to be

Jessie LopezItem 24

helpful for me and as I understand it noxious to me is very specific and not easily triggered so I think planning staff should be able to convey that difference to the council and perhaps even define noxious use per the city ordinance because again my understanding is that there are businesses that have been identified as an issue not all of them I've heard great things about some of them like the business that has a community garden that allows the residents of the neighborhoods to use it the businesses that have been actively in communication with neighborhood and leadership and are working with the city

Jessie LopezItem 24

but for the businesses that have you know this trajectory of not wanting and to work with the city I want to know if those would fall under non-conforming but perhaps wouldn't fall under non under noxious and so I think because to me the definition of noxious doesn't address things like large commercial commercial trucks blocking narrow neighborhood streets. So I would like for you to address that, which is a persistent issue that I've heard, and I heard directly when I walked the neighborhood. And so I wanna make sure that I'm clear about those small issues, it seems like.

Jessie LopezItem 24

And again, addressing would all the bad actors be captured under NOCHSHS? Because I think we can all speculate that maybe it will, maybe it won't, but I need to hear that directly from staff. staff and then um I guess please explain the change around the amortization switch to the

Alvaro NuñezItem 24

council and to the public that was a lot I know but no Sully's from from from the administrative component right we'll have Ali as the assistant acting assistant director planning building EXPLAIN AND DEFINE WHAT NOX IS USED VERSUS THE NONCONFORMENT ASPECTS AND THEN IF THE CITY ATTORNEY CAN HELP WITH THE TAKING QUESTION BECAUSE I THINK THAT'S MORE OF A LEGAL CONCEPT TO ADDRESS ALI

THANK YOU COUNCIL MEMBER SO I'LL TOUCH ON YOUR FIRST QUESTIONS ABOUT HOW HAS THIS ORDINANCE evolved so initially this topic was presented to the City Council as a moratorium on industrial businesses expansion or establishment or commencement or intensification on April 16th of 2024 for a 45-day period and that was unanimously approved by the City Council and then it was unanimously extended for a cumulative period of one year on May 21st so it expired on april 15th of this year so taking elements of that moratorium then staff began to assemble a team an

interagency team comprised of staff from economic development planning and building code enforcement business license our colleagues and city attorneys and others that were relevant to the field including consultants working on the overall zoning code update for the city and began to evaluate what were the findings or the reasons that led to the city council adopting the moratorium in the first place and so that resulted in what i call a five-legged table or basically a five pronged ordinance a map amendment that would remove the m1 m2 overlays updates to establish

operating standards for non-conforming businesses updates to the non-conforming businesses businesses establishment of amortization as a tool to address non-conforming businesses and updates to the permissible use Matrix of businesses that could go into buildings to extend the useful life of these structures so using that then staff presented them initially the whole moratorium why it's in place and what staff was working on at a train station meeting

held in October of 2024. Over 120 individuals partook. That was mostly comprised of business owners, but there were still a healthy group of residents there as well, a healthy number. And then following feedback received at that meeting, staff further refined the matrix of proposed uses after learning about some of the concerns of business owners and property owners about what could happen with these buildings if they couldn't be tenanted with industrial businesses. and continued to meet one-on-one or in group settings at City Hall with over 21 meetings with business stakeholders

and then subsequent additional meetings with residents in addition to field visits at business sites as well. And then went to Planning Commission for a study session, got some extra input on community input and other topics, went back for another meeting at the train station on March 6th of this year, and then back for a public hearing with planning commissions. So using the input, for example, businesses were concerned that the city here uses the term nonconforming, and that means in our code legal nonconforming, but they said, hey, you know, just for the sake of lending a loan, right,

to help me maybe get like a business loan to pay employees, it would be really helpful to have the word legal nonconforming in there, for example. So that's immaterial to staff, because nonconforming or legal nonconforming means the same thing to us, as defined but it means a lot for the business owners so we introduced that as an amendment for example the other item that we received some feedback on under the amortization is the idea of a voluntary compliance agreement so for example before you get to the point after many other remedies having been exhausted of getting to the point of putting someone on an amortization

amortization schedule after a ton of studies and a public sorry a hearing officer determination we introduced the idea of a voluntary compliance agreement whereas a business would say you know what i want to comply with these standards help me memorialize that in a document that we can both come to an agreement on and it's clear for any subsequent owners operators whatever what the expectations are for my property or my business so that was introduced and refined so those are just some examples of ways that the ordinance was refined using uh stakeholder input

input, as well as lastly the definition of noxious use as well. So that is an overview of the evolution of the ordinance, how we got from moratorium to ordinance. And then I can touch on the noxious use versus nonconforming use. So nonconforming is a concept that when you have buildings and uses that are established under one set of codes in any jurisdiction, whether it's here, Anaheim, any other city, ordinances change over time, right? The zoning codes we have today are not the same as they were 20 years ago, 40 years ago, et cetera. So what that means for zoning is that standards for how you build buildings and the uses

that can go inside them can change over time. So what was allowed maybe administratively 40 years ago can change when a new ordinance is adopted. So when something was built subject subject to all the required permits and approvals back in the day but may no longer be allowed in its current form under a new ordinance it becomes legal non-conforming so legal non-conforming does not mean the city goes the next day and takes away the keys to the building let's say it doesn't mean that the business must immediately stop operating it's a status that's afforded that says you may

continue to operate but there are limitations on how you can intensify or expand for everyone's edification the majority of buildings actually i won't say the majority of many buildings in the city of santa ana are already legal non-conforming because they were simply built to codes that are different than what we have in place today so for example some of our favorite restaurants may only have a five foot landscape setback today's codes require 15 feet that building is already legal non-conforming right some of the uses inside those buildings may have been allowed administratively

40 50 years ago but today may because of our community involvement require a conditional use permit like a public hearing so it's a status that's given and says in exchange for allowing you to continue even though the codes have changed you are limited in how you may intensify expand modify your building etc the city has a definition for what it considers a noxious use and that is is, well, what is being proposed in this ordinance is item number 53 on page 36 out of 50 of the ordinance.

And so that definition is for select businesses that meet defined criteria. And those criteria would be, number one, it's a nonconforming industrial use. number two that's located within a thousand linear feet of a park school or property zone or used for residential purposes and that according to the proposed definition meets two or more of four criteria that are proposed so number one that their principal operations involve emitting

generating discharging particulate matters emissions handling storing emitting discharging regulated compounds hazardous materials chemicals or substances criteria number two is operations that are regulated by and require what we term colloquially as an outside agency permit or a permit from a federal state or regional agency like aqmd as an example criteria number three storing processing or disposing of listed or hazardous waste and number four operations that that are not contained within a fully enclosed building. So if you meet two out of the four of those, and you're a nonconforming industrial business,

and you're within 1,000 feet of school park or residential, then you would be considered a noxious use. So that's the key difference between just nonconforming building or nonconforming use versus being noxious.

So with that, I will turn it over to our colleagues

Alvaro NuñezItem 24

in the city attorney's office to help answer the question. Just just just shortly now back to the the question presented so with this address Right a commercial vehicle You know parked in a restricted residential street Especially one that Linda Logan or Lacey was very limited or not very wide

Yes, so in the proposed operating standards that are included in this ordinance, for example, truck idling is prohibited.

Jessie LopezItem 24

Sorry, I was writing something down. Can you repeat that?

In this proposed ordinance, truck idling would be prohibited.

Jessie LopezItem 24

Got it. Thank you.

Alvaro NuñezItem 24

So just as a reminder, because it's a Chapter 41 legislation or component, right, this would allow one, the Santa Ana Police Department to be able to enforce, but also under Chapter 41, court enforcement will be able to enforce that also.

Jessie LopezItem 24

Okay, thank you. That was necessary for me to understand. I also just wanted to add that part of the evolution of the ordinance is making sure that, as I understand it, that there are carve outs in the ordinance. And that was direct feedback from business owners, like making sure that artists and production would be allowed, protected, then making sure that restoration for cars, specifically like classic car work, another high production would be allowed and protected. Correct?

Alvaro NuñezItem 24

Yes.

Jessie LopezItem 24

Okay, thank you.

Alvaro NuñezItem 24

But just to clarify, Council Member, AND HE SAID YES. BUT WITHIN THE PARAMETERS OF COURSE OF THIS SECTION OF NOXIUS USE, RIGHT? WHAT WE DON'T WANT TO BE HAVING IS CLAXON USE PREPARATION WHICH IS SOMETIMES THE CASE WHEN WE GET THOSE COMPLAINTS TO THE CITY THAT PEOPLE ARE PAINTING CARS OUTSIDE OF AN INCLUDED STRUCTURE, FOR EXAMPLE.

Jessie LopezItem 24

OF COURSE. IT HAS TO BE CONTAINED AS I UNDERSTAND IT. RIGHT.

Alvaro NuñezItem 24

I JUST DON'T WANT TO LEAVE THAT AMBIUTED BECAUSE I THINK THAT HAPPENS WHEN WE ASK MANY QUESTIONS AND THEN WE RESPOND. IT GETS LOST IN THAT NUANCE.

Jessie LopezItem 24

Yeah, no, thank you for that clarification. I appreciate it being entered into the record. And I do think that this is a very important conversation for us to have because what we might consider perhaps light industrial is the equivalent to heavy industrial in other cities. And I don't know if our constituents or really people involved in this process truly understand that which is why you see what you see today in that area and so again this is why the this particular business that the council is taking on and so imperative for the quality of life for our constituents and I do

Jessie LopezItem 24

appreciate the honesty of the business owners that have said to me I understand because I would not like to live next to these conditions and so I fully respect that acknowledgement and I think this is why this ordinance that we are discussing today is so important it's it's it's been months it's been a lot of work a lot of community meetings in workshopping what we have today so again thank you Ali for the clarification and I think I'll conclude my first round of

Valerie AmezcuaItem 24

comments thank you there any other comments a Madam City Attorney, I think she had a question you were going to address.

Sonia R. CarvalhoItem 24

Yes, I understand that you had a question about whether this regulatory action, adoption of an ordinance, would constitute a taking. Our office did prepare a very thorough analysis of this ordinance. We have provided for you, under the attorney-client privilege, a detailed memorandum of where we believe this regulation could face some potential issues. I would have to say that I believe that the motion that was made by council member Becerra has addressed some of those issues this type of regulation whenever you adopt an ordinance that creates an amortization of existing land uses

Sonia R. CarvalhoItem 24

Because it does reduce property values would always subject a city to potential challenges I would like to say that I think staff has done an incredible job of working with our office to address these issues and we have been able to make some changes which I believe significantly reduces the exposure that the city might have in this area. Thank you, City Attorney.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 24

Thank you, Madam City Attorney. I just want to be clear, and I appreciate your information.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 24

Min, you've been working with legal counsel on this from the very beginning, correct? I'm sorry.

That's correct.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 24

So if we go back April 16th in 2024 as Ali had mentioned City Council approved the moratorium 7-0 correct? That's correct. On May 21st the City Council approved an extension to April 15th 7-0. Is that correct? Yes, that's in 2024 throughout this time you were working with An attorney that specializes in this area. Is that correct? That's correct

Correct, we requested for assistance through BBK for special counsel to work with us on the ordinance, both related to land use matters, as well as CEQA, environmental matters.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 24

So BBK had an attorney that specializes in this, and that's who you worked with?

Three attorneys.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 24

I'm sorry?

Three attorneys.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 24

Three attorneys, and that's who you worked with, correct?

That's correct.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 24

Okay, and then on April 1st, 2025, we have the city council's first public hearing. hearing for four to three three abstentions and April 15th the moratorium expired May 6th the city council second hearing was continued to June 3rd five days two abstentions and then throughout this time again I will ask were you working with the attorney in bvk yes at any time the attorney and he say, maybe we should take a different route?

Valerie AmezcuaItem 24

That way, you didn't work with him though, Madam City Chair, not to be rude or anything, I just, but this is, I wanna ask him to, I know you worked with him, you're a different.

Sonia R. CarvalhoItem 24

My partners from Best Best and Krieger worked on this project.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 24

No, no, I understand that, I wanna, let me.

Sonia R. CarvalhoItem 24

So I just wanna make it clear that anyone who worked for the city attorney's office, they contract with our office, that I speak on behalf of the attorneys who work in that office. So then you were in the meetings with them? It was not in personal meetings, meetings, but I was updated at every instance as to where we were. I had a very detailed long meeting with both members sitting at this table, along with on the phone the specialized attorney that met along with our new planning attorney here. I don't want to in any way suggest to you that the action which you might take is inappropriate,

Sonia R. CarvalhoItem 24

but I do believe that it is my role to advise you if there are any types of risks associated with it.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 24

Now that is your role, but I want clarification from them. And believe me, I understand that's your role. So throughout this time, you've been working with the three attorneys at BBK?

Yes.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 24

Okay. So then now, and then on June 3rd, we had the third public hearing. Is that correct?

Correct.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 24

Okay. So tonight we're here, and there's a motion, and then there's a sub-motion, and then there's support for the sub-motion. Any other comments or questions? Councilman Becerra.

Phil BacerraItem 24

Thank you, Madam Mayor. Two things. So first off, just for clarity, because, you know, as I'm thinking about this and the different uses that I know have come up in conversation with the residents over there, for some of the open air recycling that we have over there, and some of those are problematic beyond the, quote, unquote, noxious issue. you but under what we have before us this evening would this would this proposed ordinance address the environmental impacts from those

businesses so the proposed ordinance includes the definition for noxious use that I described earlier and revisiting the criteria operations that are not within a fully enclosed building and operations that are regulated by and require a permit from a federal state or regional agency so those are two out of the four and if you're within a thousand feet of a school park of residence which most of these businesses are in this geographic area they would be now considered a noxious use and so they'd be subject to the

Phil BacerraItem 24

standards that are before us correct okay and and my other concern and madam mayor thank you for bringing this up um you were asking our staff about who they were working with as far as the legal opinion so i'm not going to go into what was provided to us by our city attorney sitting here today but what i did find kind of frustrating and just directing this to my colleagues now is that it came to us separately to me call me old-fashioned but when i get a staff report i expect that the city attorney's office has reviewed it and i get one package the same way

Phil BacerraItem 24

that the community gets it and they say oh okay well for whatever reason that's what insert name of department says we should do and it's been vetted so i did find it kind of odd to have a separate communication in fact if anything what and i don't want to speak for my colleagues but it almost felt like one part of the city attorney's office was not communicating with the other because typically that should all come together in the staff report i've in my entire time on the council i have not seen it where we have staff driving something coming to us

Phil BacerraItem 24

and it's actually on the staff report there's a signature block that says approved to form city attorney's office has your name on there although it does have another city attorney's signature and then the day after the agenda is posted the day after the staff report is live unchangeable all of a sudden we get communication from the city attorney may i have an opportunity to respond to

Sonia R. CarvalhoItem 24

that because i think it's very very important yeah um staff was well aware of all of the issues that were discussed within that memo they were well aware of it we had numerous meetings and staff knew that this memo was going to be sent to you i have detailed email confirmation of that this was not a surprise to anyone i had spoken to the city clerk about our method that we might use going forward so i i identified the issue as saying how might we make sure that we get counsel these closed session type of memos because they're confidential so i would not have released this this memo with the packet.

Sonia R. CarvalhoItem 24

I hope you understand why I wouldn't have done that. And so like the closed session memos, this memo, we will work with the city clerk's office to make sure if we ever have them, they come together. But that was the reason. So I just, I hope you understand, in my opinion, this was a collaborative process. In fact, staff actually reviewed this memo in detail, like maybe four to six weeks before I sent it to you and had some really good recommendations and recommended changes and edits, which we made.

Phil BacerraItem 24

Well, okay, but if, so if that was happening, I would imagine then between the city attorney's office and the department that proposed this, there wouldn't be a need for the supplemental communication because of the advice of the city attorney. If the city attorney is saying maybe you should go north versus south, there would be some sort of collaboration, as you said, so that we would have one staff report with one signature from the city attorney's office, and that would be it. So I don't want to get into the meat and potatoes of what's in the actual memo that that's not for us to discuss up here

Phil BacerraItem 24

But I'm just saying, you know for my colleagues It is frustrating because it kind of looks like there isn't collaboration. It kind of looks like there is collaboration

Sonia R. CarvalhoItem 24

there may be a difference of level of risk tolerance and I think it is my job as the city attorney to advise you of risk and When I work I work greatly with all of our staff members And as I said in my memo if you would allow me to say this to you I recognize the city's desire to address a noxious uses in that area I've been working for the city for almost 14 years now and this has been an issue since I arrived and so I realized Appreciate and understand what staff is doing I think staff has done an incredible job of being creative to try to address this But I think I would not be doing my job if I said to you it's a hundred percent

Sonia R. CarvalhoItem 24

Okay, and nothing there's no risk here. In fact, I think I've been held responsible in the past for not advising you of risk, well we've ended up in lawsuits. So it was my attempt to let you know I think this is an incredible piece of work, but like with things we do every day, there is a little bit of risk here.

Phil BacerraItem 24

Well, and I just, I want to take the opportunity and I'll be done here. I'll just say I want to thank staff for taking the risk. McDonald's takes a risk every day when they sell coffee and they get sued. So I just want to say thank you to staff for taking the risk and bringing something forward. All right, can we vote?

Jessie LopezItem 24

I'm sorry, go ahead. Can we get clarification? Because I think there was an original motion and then a sub-motion and I don't know if

Valerie AmezcuaItem 24

Yes, there was. And Madam Clerk's going to cover that right now. That's why I said let's vote.

Jennifer L. HallItem 24

Yes, I was actually going to ask for that clarification as well because what I have is a motion by Council Member Hernandez seconded by Mayor Homesqua and then a sub-motion by Council Member Becerra with the amendments. I heard support for the amendments by Council Member Hernandez, but I wasn't sure if that was a second to the sub-motion or an acceptance of friendly amendments to the original.

Johnathan Ryan HernandezItem 24

of the amendments yes madam mayor would you accept those amendments sure why not thank you

Valerie AmezcuaItem 24

wait before i fight i'm sorry take that off the record so sorry i have that ability to go back uh to take back i know this is very serious but i just want to be really clear again i'm going to ask okay because i go back and i know everybody's like oh gosh you're gonna ask again doing this addresses the residents concerns needs what they've been waiting for for 20 years I mean everything you see in here I mean dear God does this address all of that with councilman Becerra's changes I'm gonna amendments I'm gonna ask again

Valerie AmezcuaItem 24

the short answer is yes that's why I want to know okay yes I support it do

you have something on that I do okay go ahead I want to make sure that we as community understand that the ordinance being put in place is a process that will allow us to address the residents concern as well as concerns of the businesses in a way that we believe is fair and equitable but it is going to be a process adopting of this adoption of this ordinance tonight does not mean tomorrow as our interim director said we go out and take the keys or we go out and shut down businesses it does not do that that it does not do but it will allow the city to start compelling and addressing issues that are impacting our community

Valerie AmezcuaItem 24

and thank you for sharing that because it's thought it's very important so that the community and the business everybody hears that yes if it gets approved that doesn't mean tomorrow that poof everybody's you know it's different right there is a process a very strategic process mr. city manager did Did you want to say something?

Alvaro NuñezItem 24

That is important to balance, right? In the end, with any type of enforcement efforts, right? And I think this is what the city attorney was alluding to, right? That process he's talking about, it's not just administrative, it's due process. It's what the law requires of us to make sure that we give reasonable time, for example, to comply, right?

Alvaro NuñezItem 24

for businesses or residents to make sure they understand what the new legislation means. And then definitely allow them time for compliance and responsive to the new ordinance.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 24

Thank you for that. I appreciate it. Okay, I called for the vote. We're ready. Go ahead.

Jennifer L. HallItem 24

Bear with me. I do have to read quite a bit. A motion by Council Member Hernandez, seconded by Mayor Meskwa, to approve the recommended actions for public hearing item number 24, inclusive of a resolution of the City Council of the City of Santa Ana to make findings pursuant to Public Resources Code section 21166 and to adopt the addendum to the Transit Zoning Code Environmental Impact Report State Clearinghouse number 2006071100. To conduct first reading and introduce an ordinance of the City Council of the City of Santa Ana, approving ordinance amendment number 2024-02,

Jennifer L. HallItem 24

amending certain sections of Chapter 41 zoning of Article XIX, of the santa ana municipal code related to the regulations overlay districts and maps in the transit zoning code specific development number 84 zoning district modifying the authorized land uses and permit types establishing revised non-conforming use regulations including the addition of an amortization termination of use process and adding operational standards for certain permitted and non-conforming uses as amended five amendments proposed by council member becerra and articulated by acting executive director possession inclusive of amendments to

Jennifer L. HallItem 24

to Section 7, SAMC Section 41-200272 to state determined to be in violation. Section 8, changing nonconforming uses to noxious uses and additional relevant instances of the same term. Section 9, Senate and Municipal Code Section 41-2007 subsection G to remove UN-2. Section 11, to move SAMC Section 41-2009 to 41-2008 subsection M. And subsection 4, to remove lapses and business license renewal and to introduce and for first reading an ordinance amendment application number 2024-03 an ordinance of the city council of the city of santa ana amending

Jennifer L. HallItem 24

the official zoning map of the city of santa ana by removing the m1 light industrial and m2 heavy industrial suffixes from certain properties within the sd84 zoning district boundary

Valerie AmezcuaItem 24

that was beautiful and that was beautiful

Jennifer L. HallItem 24

The vote is open unless it's not working for you.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 24

Can we do a roll call please?

Jennifer L. HallItem 24

Council Member Becerra?

Valerie AmezcuaItem 24

Yes.

Jennifer L. HallItem 24

Council Member Hernandez?

Johnathan Ryan HernandezItem 24

Si se puede, si.

Jennifer L. HallItem 24

Council Member Lopez? Yes. Council Member Penalosa?

Johnathan Ryan HernandezItem 24

Yes.

Jennifer L. HallItem 24

Mayor Pro Tem Vasquez?

David PenalozaItem 24

Yes.

Jennifer L. HallItem 24

Mayor Meskwa? Yes. Vote is six ayes, no nays with a reported recusal by Council Member Phan. Motion carries. Ordinances will return at the next meeting for second reading.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 24

Thank you.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 24

All right. At this time,

Valerie AmezcuaItem 24

we're going to close out and go on before hearing public item number 25. Madam Clerk, please provide instructions to the public who'd like to make a comment on this public hearing item only.

Jennifer L. HallItem 25

Members of the public joining us by way of Zoom or conference call who would like to make a comment for public hearing items number 25 only. Please dial star 9 from your phone or select raise hand from zoom now to be called once the public hearing is open

Valerie AmezcuaItem 25

Thank you item number 25 is a public hearing for the proposed fiscal year 25 26 city budget changes to the city's basic classification and compensation plan changes to the executive management teams classification and Compensating plan compensation plan excuse me uniform schedule miscellaneous fees SEVEN YEAR CAPITAL IMPROVEMENT PLAN AND THE CITY'S ANNUAL UPDATE TO COMPLY WITH AB2561. MR. CITY MANAGER, DO YOU HAVE A PRESENTATION?

HI. ACTING DIRECTOR OF FINANCE, ALEX TRINIDAD, HAS A PRESENTATION. GREAT. THANK YOU. ALEX, WHENEVER YOU'RE READY.

WE'RE GOING TO BREAK UP THE PRESENTATION.

David PenalozaItem 25

I'm going to call a five minute recess.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 25

At this time I'm going to call a five minute recess. You need to get ready and I think that we need a bathroom call. Thank you. Five minutes.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Can you hear me now? There you go. Good. All right. Good evening, Mayor and Council Members. This presentation is part of the City Council's public hearing on the proposed budget for the upcoming fiscal year 25-26.

With today's public hearing, the following items are presented for City Council consideration and approval. approval. The first item addresses compliance with AB2561, titled Local Public Employees Vacant Positions, which includes an overview of job vacancies, recruitment, and retention efforts. Next is approval of the first reading to adopt the budget for fiscal year 2526. Adopt the city's basic and executive management classification compensation resolutions. Adopt the uniform schedule of Minnesota NSC's resolution and adopt the seven-year capital

improvement program the CIP beginning for fiscal year 2526 through 3132.

New state law requires a presentation on public sector recruitment, retention, and staffing efforts. Tonight's hearing fulfills that requirement. Our director from human resources, Lori Schneider, will present the next three slides.

Good evening, Mayor, Mayor Pro Tem, Councilmembers. AB2561 went into effect January 1st, requiring public agencies to address vacancies and recruitment and retention efforts in a public hearing for transparency. It was enacted to address persistent vacancies that could impact service delivery, employee workloads and staff morale. We have calculated the vacancy data based on budgeted positions and comparing those with filled and those that are vacant the rate of vacancy per bargaining unit is displayed on

the slide as of march 31st 2025. the city has an exceptional recruitment team with staff at city hall and additional staff in the dedicated team at police department for each of the recruiters here at city hall they are focused on a particular department or agency in order to provide to provide knowledgeable customer service and rapid response to that agency. Some of our best candidates come from current employees. We advertise internally as well as in several places externally in order to attract qualified talent based on the position. Our goal for each recruitment is to have an optimal qualified candidate pool.

So each recruitment has a custom advertising campaign. In general, we also have a robust virtual presence with potential candidates. perhaps you've seen our job postings and general information postings about what it is like to work at the City of Santa Ana on social media the dedicated staff at the police department focus on high priority recruitments for police officer correctional officer and dispatcher positions I'd like to point out that we do not have any policies in place that impede hiring such as a hiring freeze

degrees. City leadership is committed to creating an engaging environment to work in order to retain our staff. We offer training and development opportunities to staff to deepen the skills in their current positions and prepare them to take on new roles. These include several levels of leadership training, a new mentoring program, and supervisor training. We also have safety and wellness training with robust offering to ensure a safe and healthy workplace. We also send employees out to training and conferences covering topics that we cannot cover in-house. These are produced by specialized organizations.

We have a tuition reimbursement program to assist employees in advancing their skills and knowledge through higher education. These strategies reflect the high level of importance that city leadership has assigned to employee retention.

Next is a short discussion on work first changes included in the proposed budget.

So this chart shows the city's total authorized full-time staff by fiscal year. So for fiscal year 25-26, the city is proposing a total of 1,455 full-time positions, which reflects a modest increase from the prior year. year. This includes 1,062 positions in the general fund and around 393 in non-general funds. Staffing growth continues to support critical service areas and reflects the city's commitment to meeting operational needs such as in-house services and code enforcement. A summary of the detailed staffing changes is included in the budget document under the the position summary section.

Next we'll move into a brief overview of the city's proposed budget for the fiscal year 25-26. This includes highlights of the budget process, key sections of the budget document, and a summary of major revenues, expenditure, and fund allocations.

As part of the city's annual budget process, staff worked closely with the city council to update the proposed budget based on direction provided during meetings held on March 18th, May 15th, and 20th. To comply with the Santa Ana City's charter, the city manager presents the proposed budget to city council during this public hearing. If council approves the recommendations actions tonight, the ordinance will return on June 17th for adoption.

The proposed budget document includes includes several key components to support transparency and informed decision making. It includes a citywide organization chart and a detailed workforce changes by department showing position adjustments from the prior year. The general fund reconciliation outlines all changes between the previous and the current budgets. It includes a detailed list of proposed additions to both recurring and one-time uses. The estimated spendable fund balance provides both the budget and projected fund balances for all city funds. And finally, each department section includes an annual goals and detailed budget

and staffing information.

The proposed recurring budget for fiscal year 25-26 is balance. So an operating reserve of 18% of recurring annual revenue is maintained, totaling approximately 74.5 million. Overall, general fund revenue is projected to increase by 1%, while recurring expenditures are expected to rise 3.5%. The proposed budget also includes $1 million of contributions to the Section 115 Trust for pension stabilization. In the current fiscal year, approximately $10.5 million of one-time uses were funded using recurring revenues.

The proposed budget does not use much recurring revenues for one-time spending, and that's how we were able to propose a balanced budget even though as expenditures grow fastens on revenue the total proposed citywide budget for fiscal 2526 is seven hundred and seventy eight million dollars the general fund accounts for unrestricted revenue and makes up the largest portion at four hundred and twenty three million or around fifty five percent of the overall budget other Other restricted funds include, enterprise funds include water and sewer. Special revenue funds include gas tax and housing subsidies.

Capital project funds account for restricted money to build new improvement, existing infrastructure such as streets.

The proposed general fund revenue for Fisker 2526 totals $413 million. million dollars. The largest revenue sources are property taxes at around 23 percent, sales tax for Measure X around 20 percent of the revenue, sales tax for Bradley Burns around 15 percent. Other general fund revenues at around 49.5 million or 12 percent includes fines, intergovernmental transfers, investment earnings, and miscellaneous income. Charges for services license and permits equal around eight percent of the budget utility user tax

equates around seven percent of our revenues the remaining revenues are made up of categories such as business tax cannabis tax franchise fees jail revenues and hotels visitor tax this diversified revenue mix helps provide stability and supports essential city services

The proposed general fund expenditures for Fisker 2526 totals $423 million. Public safety, which includes both police and fire departments, accounts for around $222 million, or around 52% of the general fund budget. The next most significant department budget is public works, providing parks and right-of-way maintenance next we'll highlight how the proposed budget aligns with the priorities of the City Council and the community before we get into the

priorities in preparation for the next year's budget process staff is trying something new to engage the community staff is developing a streamlined version of the community budget survey and we'll leave it open all year with with multiple social media pushes and other public messaging throughout the year to promote the survey. The updated survey will feature no more than 10 questions and take no more than three minutes to complete. So this approach makes it easier for the community to engage at their convenience and allows the city to gather valuable feedback on an ongoing basis.

The proposed budget includes a range of new and expanded initiatives funded through the general fund, reflecting the city's council and the community priorities. These investments span from public safety, infrastructure, youth programs, and community services. Highlights include 3.5 million for the Cypress Fire Station, 1.3 million for Centennial Park lighting upgrades, 900,000 for additional ambulance unit to reduce emergency response times, funding for police staffing adjustments, adjustments, code enforcement, and water system improvements.

Support for public amenities like bus shelters, library, inventory and equipment in preparation for reopening, and the Art Walk and Ultra Culture Program. Additional initiatives include blue light cameras, traffic signal enhancements, and STEM program support at neighborhood libraries. Together, these initiatives demonstrate the city's commitment to enhancing services and and quality of life in Santa Ana.

The 10-year general fund outlook shows that the proposed fiscal year 25-26 budget is balanced with revenues and expenditures both estimated at $413.8 million. In fiscal year 26-27, we expect expenditures to continue outpacing revenues. This is largely driven by inflationary cost increases including rising labor contractual and construction costs as well as growing pension obligations revenue estimates in the outlook are based on inflationary growth assumptions developed by the

california department of finance the gap becomes more pronounced in fiscal year 28-29 when the measure excels tax drops from one and a half to one percent these long-range estimates are estimated to support early planning and will continue to be refined as economic conditions and cost drivers evolve so the model does suggest that future adjustments may be necessary to maintain a balanced budget over the long term the proposed capital improvement program for fiscal year 2526 includes approximately 58 million in planned investments across a variety of project categories their

Their largest share, $44.9 million, is allocated to street improvements, followed by traffic improvements and nearly $7 million. The budget also includes $4.3 million for city and park facility improvements and $1.8 million for utility, drainage, and lining projects. Although it is difficult to see in the slide, the CAP document includes the map showing the location of the planned projects. These investments aim to improve infrastructure, enhance safety, address long-term community needs across Inanna.

So here are some of the city's notable capital improvement projects planned for the upcoming year. So 4.8 million for rehab of Euclid Street from McFadden to First Street, 3.5 million for improvements at the cypress fire station 1.5 million to enhance roads and key business areas 1.3 million for lighting at centennial park to improve visibility and safety 491 000 for new courts at bristol and toliver and lilly king park and 301 000 for high visibility crosswalk improvements and enhanced pedestrian safety so that concludes my presentation staff is available

Valerie AmezcuaItem 25

to answer any questions thank you very much all right let's uh start mayor pro time you have any

Benjamin VazquezItem 25

questions or comments i'm really excited about this budget thank you for the fire the cypress fire station and for the lighting at centennial park as well i know we all share it it is our main park i agree um the play courts at uh bristol tolliver park and lily king park and uh i just I just noticed that we have high visibility marked crosswalks as parking becomes more difficult. And we want to create a culture of walking, of public transportation. Right now is our chance to make sure that our kids are able, our families are able to walk safely and cross streets.

Benjamin VazquezItem 25

I know they're on McFadden and Van Ness. We have a hard time walking across the street. But we want kids, we want people walking and taking the bus. we have a chance right now because every almost every school children gets a free bus pass and we didn't have that before it's being embedded into our culture when every college student that sack gets a free bus pass and that we begin to use these bus passes so we want to make sure that our streets are safe we used to have a high pedestrian death rate or traffic collisions I hope we less and we've come down on that but we need to support the the public

Benjamin VazquezItem 25

transportation as much as we can I'm glad to see it here in the budget it shows that we are trying and i hope to see that increase that's all i got for now thank you

Jessie LopezItem 25

thank you councilmember lopez yes um i see your face city manager um and you know first i do want to thank city staff not just for your work but for meeting with me um i and i also just want to thank war three constituents for writing and sending in their request and for letting me know the things that they wanted to see me advocate for on their behalf and you know one of the previous responsibilities at my former workplace was managing budgets and the really cool thing about budgets is that they can't really lie the numbers paint a picture and i can tell that you're

Jessie LopezItem 25

being very careful with this budget city manager and i want to say that i appreciate your work and i appreciate the work of your team everybody that's been involved in presenting this budget to the public and to the council and you know i told you that you wouldn't have my support if it didn't include the needs of ward 3 residents and we're very happy to see that our requests are being taken into consideration and that they are being included and so again i want to thank rudy nabil you sylvia kat alex min for all the work and i want to thank the rest of the council

Jessie LopezItem 25

so for their support as well and so again thank you and you will i will you you have my vote i will be voting to move this budget forward thank you councilman panelosa thank you madam mayor i

David PenalozaItem 25

just wanted to thank city staff for your work on this budget uh it's perfect i mean i wish it was better but i mean taking into account all seven of us and the the i'm i'm thinking in the context of all seven of us seven different voices opinions requests and that of thousands of residents so with that information it it's the best it could be at the moment so thank you for that thank you city staff for for your work in bringing this forward um i'm excited to approve this budget So with that, Mayor, I will make a motion.

Jennifer L. HallItem 25

I'll second your motion. Mayor and City Council, if we could proceed with the public hearing aspect prior to the voting, please.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 25

Yeah, you've got to apologize. All right, Council Member Fann.

Thai Viet PhanItem 25

I'd like to remove the play courts at Bristol-Tulliver Park, please.

Are you making...

Thai Viet PhanItem 25

Centennial is the park that it serves all Santa Ana residents. No, you all know that I'm just so grateful for all the hard work that every single member of our team has done to put this together. And I know that it's not always easy, but I'm just so proud that this is probably the most collaborative budget session we've had since I've been on the dais. and I'm just excited to see all of these really wonderful long-lasting improvements that's really going to make a big difference in a lot of our residents lives and you know the the devil's in the details and so now that I

Thai Viet PhanItem 25

hope that we will approve this budget we're gonna rely a lot on our Public Works Department our parks team and all of you to really implement this budget budget. As you said, it is going to be the last big budget that we have before we have to make some really difficult decisions. And I hope that what we do here tonight is going to have a positive, long-lasting impact for our community. So thank you so much.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 25

Council Member Becerra.

Phil BacerraItem 25

Thank you, Madam Mayor. And I want to thank staff. I think, like my colleagues have already said, I mean, this was a very collaborative process. You have a balanced budget, but you've also funded quite a diverse set of priorities throughout the city especially appreciative of ward four getting that left turn signal at flower mcarthur some street lights along bristol the basketball court at lily king more consistent paving around the hut and center where we're seeing a lot of economic development activity again thank you guys for doing that i i think

Phil BacerraItem 25

we're we're trying to balance the universe as our city manager would say we're addressing safety RECREATIONAL OPPORTUNITIES BUT ALSO THE INFRASTRUCTURE IMPROVEMENTS THAT WE NEED FOR NOT ONLY OUR RESIDENTS BUT TO ACTUALLY GENERATE MORE ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT ACTIVITY BECAUSE AS IT'S ALREADY BEEN SAID, WE'RE GOING TO START TO SEE A DROP-OFF PRETTY SOON. AND SO WE NEED TO START LOOKING. I'D RATHER GROW OUR ECONOMY AND NOT LOOK AT CUTS. CALL ME OLD-FASHIONED. BUT THAT'S WHAT I'D RATHER SEE US DO. BUT LET'S HOPEFULLY WE CAN GET THERE. BUT I THINK THIS BUDGET IS A GREAT STEP IN THAT DIRECTION. SO THANK YOU, EVERYBODY. THANK YOU.

Johnathan Ryan HernandezItem 25

councilman hernandez thank you madam city mayor i just want to thank the city manager's office you guys have really done a fantastic job streamlining a budget that has brought all of my colleagues together with the common goal of serving santa ana as mentioned by council mayor pro tem fan i got to say this is one of the best budget processes that we've had so i really want to compliment your office it speaks volumes of the leadership in the executive management team so thank you to each of you for your due diligence i'm very happy with this budget sir

Johnathan Ryan HernandezItem 25

you completed construction from shelton to flower alongside civic center the willard neighborhood has a crossing walk that is being established angels park on first and flower has a crossing walk that's being established we got the security lights as well for 15th and and parton in the Willard neighborhood as well as security lights for Jerome and so I'm very happy with these investments the only area where I am not in agreement with our with this budget is going to be the vacancy rates of the largest union in our city and that's SEIU 721 they make up our our

Johnathan Ryan HernandezItem 25

public works our parks and recreation these are the people who move the festivals that our residents love i do see 110 vacant positions the only thing i ask city manager is that number one i don't want to see his contract out work number two i want us to ensure that we're accurately reporting on vacancies and number three i want us to work with seiu to identify a plan on on what positions we can fill within these vacancies because these are these are positions that are crucial to san anna's essential services and so i just want to reiterate the importance behind that

Johnathan Ryan HernandezItem 25

city manager i trust that your leadership will bring us something that will be comprehensive and and give us an idea of what is the next steps thank you that'll conclude my comments madam mayor

Valerie AmezcuaItem 25

thank you and i'm the last one here um mr city manager thank you to you and your team i have to agree with all my colleagues up here this was the least painful budget experience I've had the start of my third year here. Before it was painful and there was a little bickering going on but you work, you and your team, it includes all your executive team, police department, parks, recs, public works, library, Kat, Bin, Sylvia, I mean if I leave anybody out I apologize but pretty much everybody. I said Hawk, Mike, I don't want my Hawk to be offended.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 25

it hurt your feelings get hurt so you know what everybody comes together fire police everybody does and so um i just really appreciate it and when i look at this list it is about the quality of life in santa ana and that's what i've been saying all along and that's what i believe in and that's the loudest voice i have that i use for this city it's the quality of life that our residents need and deserve whether it's the lights the cameras you know Centennial Park the fire station so we can have PAL and a senior program there you know the additional ambulance

Valerie AmezcuaItem 25

to reduce emergency response time the police department staffing code enforcement staffing staffing, the art walk, excuse me, arts and culture. Just there's so many things, the libraries. I really appreciate the work and I appreciate the fact that the city staff, you and your team meet with all of us when we call and ask and there's some difficult questions. I'm sure I know I had some. And when Kat tells me there's no more money because people forget I'm citywide I'm not by award so what I'm asking for something she's like mayor there's no more money and I respect that because

Valerie AmezcuaItem 25

then I'm like okay let me go back into my corner there's no more money I will wait for next year but councilmember fan brought up a really good point the next year we are going to start to buckle down and you are tightening the belt we're noticing and so at least I know I'm noticing and some of us up here noticing and we appreciate that because we do not want to be sitting here or whoever's sitting here um saying oh measure x sunset what do we do now whoever sitting up here wants to be able to say you know what they were preparing all along and that's why we're doing

Valerie AmezcuaItem 25

it the right way um we see what happens in other cities and school districts that they kind of just oh wow here we are we're we have no more money and so we're gonna you know do our thing and it hurts people so um this council and myself we're not looking to do that and just this budget has been really good and the process has been smooth and i really appreciate all of the work and i know that even this current budget that we have right now you have accomplished you and your team have accomplished so much in the short time that you've been the city manager and so i really appreciate

Valerie AmezcuaItem 25

it um so with that i will also be supporting this budget so hopefully when it comes back the next time it's just a vote and and we move on and celebrate that we were able to pass the budget on time like we have been since I've been here for the three years so let me go back to what I need to say here are there any additional comments or questions for the council I now open the public hearing for members of the public that would like to provide their comments in person and virtually Madam City Clerk do we have any speakers yes Mayor and City Council

Jennifer L. HallItem 25

um noting for the record we did receive three e-comments related to public hearing item number 25 those were distributed to the council and posted online for public review we do have one in-person speaker Emilio Ramirez

good evening I think you know what I'm talking about here I want to acknowledge thank you council member vasquez for mentioning the pedestrians and council member lapus for your note of no and item 20 as it relates to the budget tonight i am here i'm not an obstructionist actually i'm very thankful for everything the city does but i do want to voice my opposition to the proposed funding for the widening of arterial roads in santa ana as outlined on the capital improvements program. I provide a table to you guys

that you can follow along. First of all I had to manually compile the list from the capital improvements budget and I think it would be benefit you and the public if you ask Public Works to give you the cost of dollars per mile or foot of a road project as it will eliminate the high cost of maintaining the roads and allow you to question the price disparity. The cost of these projects ranges from eight dollars per foot to two thousand dollars this should be questioned and we shouldn't accept this is in this industry standard as a response i'm an engineer in the construction

industry and i can tell you a great part of cost comes from lack of transparency permitting regulatory and compliance requirements that the city has the options to waive santa ana is facing a projected budget deficit as we saw approximately 35 millions by the 28 29 fiscal year, with a deficit potentially escalating to 129 million within the decade. This is very low hanging fruit. There are bigger items in the budget, which is why I am asking you to reconsider some of these areas that will at least tighten the belt, as we mentioned, and bring the budget

to a more balanced position, especially since some of these capital improvements are going GOING TO BE COST MOVING FORWARD. SO I ALSO URGE OUR PUBLIC WORKS TO PUT THAT IN THE BUDGET. EVERY ROAD THAT WE ARE WIDENING, HOW MUCH IS THAT GOING TO COST US IN THE FUTURE?

Jennifer L. HallItem 25

THANK YOU SO MUCH. MAYOR AND CITY COUNCIL, THAT CONCLUDES THE PUBLIC SPEAKERS THIS EVENING. THANK YOU.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 25

NO OTHER COUNCIL MEMBERS? COUNCIL MEMBER SERRA.

Phil BacerraItem 25

JUST REAL QUICK. I WANT TO THANK THAT GENTLEMAN WHO'S SPOKEN. HE'S COME A COUPLE TIMES TO SPEAK ABOUT THE ROAD WIDENINGS THAT WE DO HERE IN THE CITY. AND I AGREE WITH YOU, MAN. I WISH WE WEREN'T WIDENING ROADS. BUT I GUESS THE ONE CAVEAT I'D THROW OUT TO YOU, AND I DON'T KNOW HOW WELL IT WILL LAND, BUT I WOULD JUST SAY THAT OF THE ROAD WIDENING PROJECTS THAT YOU SUBMITTED TO US ON THAT SPREADSHEET, JUST KNOW THAT I THINK HALF OF THEM WILL HAVE CLASS IV BIKE LANES ALONG THEM. AND THAT'S SOMETHING THAT THE COUNCIL IS TRYING TO AT LEAST HAVE A MORE MULTI-MODAL APPROACH.

Phil BacerraItem 25

AS YOU HEARD FROM SOME OF THE COUNCIL MEMBERS HERE, THAT THERE'S A LOT OF SUPPORT FOR TRANSIT on this dais there's definitely support for sidewalks can't get to the bus if you don't have a sidewalk to walk on so uh there's definitely support for a multi-modal approach here we're one of the highest transit user cities in the entire county if not the region so i appreciate you coming and i appreciate you always voicing those concerns because i think you find a friendly audience up here on the dais so thank you for doing that okay i think council pinalosa made

David PenalozaItem 25

a motion earlier correct yes uh i'll motion to approve the budget and i second mr predator

Jennifer L. HallItem 25

vote can you do a roll call please yes um motion by councilmember penulosa seconded by mayor mesqua to approve the recommended actions for public hearing item 25 inclusive of an uncodified ordinance of the city council of the city of santa ana appropriating monies to the several offices agencies and departments of the city for fiscal year budget period commencing july 1st 2025 A resolution of the City Council of the City of Santa Ana to affect certain changes to the City's Classification and Compensation Plan. A resolution of the City Council of the City of Santa Ana amending Resolution Number 2024-001

Jennifer L. HallItem 25

to affect certain changes to the City's Classification and Compensation Plan for the Executive Management Classification. A resolution of the City Council of the City of Santa Ana establishing a uniform schedule of miscellaneous fees for fiscal year 2025, adopting the seven-year capital improvement program and depositing $1 million into the Section 115 Pension Trust Fund. Council Member Becerra?

Phil BacerraItem 25

Yes.

Jennifer L. HallItem 25

Council Member Hernandez? Yes. Council Member Lopez? Yes. Council Member Penaleza?

David PenalozaItem 25

Yes.

Jennifer L. HallItem 25

Council Member Phan? Yes. Mayor Pro Tem Vasquez? Yes. Mayor Meskwa? Yes. Vote is seven ayes, no nays. Motion carries. Ordinance will return at the next meeting.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 25

Thank you. That's the end of the public hearing at this time. City Manager comments? Mr. City Manager.

Alvaro NuñezItem 25

FIRST, THANK YOU.

Alvaro NuñezItem 25

THIS IS, AND COUNCILMEMBER TYPHAND DID SAY IT, THIS IS ONE OF OUR MOST ROBUST BUDGET. because we do want to prepare and as consumer service that we rather have our economy grow so that's going to be our focus as far as that goes but that's some token also so sees so people that the sales tax in work right and I think that's the whole point we showed the work right with how ourselves tax gets spent away so it's significant to make sure that we protect our businesses and we grow our economy that's the critical component so that we can continue to to

Alvaro NuñezItem 25

grow as an organization and we are very committed to working with our collective bargaining units. One good example that we want to bring to your attention in this budget alone, right, six new additions, all SEIU members, not to mention the last, what, 30 days ago, working a construction crew in the public works, 11 new people, SEIU members, and again, in an attempt to make sure we expedite, we respond faster to Councilmember's concerns and community CONCERNS AND MAKE THOSE REPAIRS IN-HOUSE SO WE DON'T HAVE TO CONTRACT OUT. FOR THAT, THE CITY MANAGER COMMENTS IN PARTNERSHIP WITH GARDEN GROWTH, FOUNTAIN VALLEY, AND WESTMINSTER,

Alvaro NuñezItem 25

THE CITY OF SAN ANA IS A SPONSOR OF THE 550 YEARS OF LITTLE SIDEGUN RESILIENCE FROM VARIETY TO LEGACY, A FREE EVENT HONORING THE INCREDIBLE JOURNEY, CONTRIBUTIONS, AND LEGACY OF THE VIETNAMESE-AMERICAN COMMUNITY. The event is June 5 at the Grey Wolf Lodge in Gardner Grove, and we have registered folks that can attend. And please let Sylvia, the Deputy City Manager, if you're willing to attend. In addition, join the Santa Ana Zoo for extended late night hours, as we indicated before, on weekends and select Wednesdays in July. We'll send out a flyer.

Alvaro NuñezItem 25

The zoo will be open at 8 p.m. on Saturdays and Sundays and until 7.30 p.m. on July 2nd, july 16 and july 30th so that's our pilot to see on the attendant and conformance we're expanding right food vendors and exhibit applications are open for upcoming city events we encourage local businesses and organizations to submit the application to participate in our fourth of july celebration the chicano heritage festival and fiesta patrios we're also accepting an application for the Chicano Heritage Festival car show you can find the

Alvaro NuñezItem 25

information on the city website so for the Chicano heritage I think last year they had the cruising and the Chicano head last year they had the cruising from car elementary we're thinking this is going to be from Bristol Nettinger all the way to Centennial Park Saturday June 7 June 9 is this weekend is garage Horacio Weekend in Santana, we're famous now in Santa Ana. First weekend in March, June, September, December. You know, Santa Ana's almost like an open bazaar. And those are my comments.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 25

Thank you. All right, let's go to council comments. Mayor Pro Tem Vasquez, yeah, I know who you are. Let's start with that. Let's start with your comments.

Benjamin VazquezItem 25

Mayor Pro Tem, huh?

Valerie AmezcuaItem 25

I didn't wanna correct him publicly, but go ahead.

I told you Mayor Pro Tem.

Benjamin VazquezItem 25

By mistake.

Benjamin VazquezItem 25

Okay, go ahead Mayor Pro Tem. I just wanna congratulate the residents of Logan, Lacey, and the Senate of Laos for us finally taking the vote on the transit zoning code. We hope to have a much cleaner and safer neighborhood and environment to raise your children. I'm excited for the whole community there. I'm also looking forward to movies at the park. We're gonna have throughout summer, but especially on June 27th, We're gonna have inside out showing at a Jerome Park. I want to let the public know That Santa Unified School District every summer gives out free breakfast and lunch to children 1 through 18

Benjamin VazquezItem 25

anybody who's the age 1 through 18 could come pick up a lunch or breakfast and throughout from starting Friday till July 14th for high schools and July 20th for elementaries and that means in ward 2 franklin roosevelt walker diamond monta vista king pio pico low heninger park please come out also at jerome park i used to go get free lunch at jerome park in the summer and at jerome park they're going to have it from the 6th to the to july 14th from 11 to 12. so if you're in need

Benjamin VazquezItem 25

of lunch feel free to come out everybody is welcome ages 1 through 18. thank you council Council Member Lopez.

Jessie LopezItem 25

Yes, so I just wanted to invite the community on June 13th at 6.30 p.m. We have a family-free event. We are kicking off Movies at the Park with our Parks and Recs team, and we are gonna be hosting Despicable Me 4 at Santiago Park. And so the activities start at 6.30. The showing starts at dusk, because you know the sun does go down a little later this time of the year and then on June 16th at 4 p.m we are having the groundbreaking for the Bristol Tolliver Street Urban greening project

Jessie LopezItem 25

it was great to see this or part of the project the other half of the project be funded in the budget and again thank you for that and I do want to thank the neighborhood leadership who advocated to ensure that the project happened and that the project was was funded Lisa Fuentes and Valerie Magdaleno who's in the audience today and I hope that we get to see all the community members celebrating the new green space in an area that doesn't really have a lot of green space also don't forget that we did release our summer park cleanup schedule we did share it via our main

Jessie LopezItem 25

newsletter and social media channels and so we always welcome anybody that needs volunteer hours or wants to help pick up litter from the creek from the park to prevent it from going to the wetlands in our ocean and finally I did get to I had the opportunity of celebrating the class of 2025 last week attending several graduations and I just want to say that I wish you all the best as you begin in your next chapter some of you are leaving Santa Ana for the first time and you're gonna you know have to do your own uh bedding your cooking all of that and so I really hope that

Jessie LopezItem 25

all of our students are successful and remember that Santa Ana will always be home and we hope that you'll come back and give back to the community that helped raise you

Valerie AmezcuaItem 25

that concludes my comments thank you thank you councilman panelosa please

David PenalozaItem 25

thank you mayor mesqua i just want to thank you again city staff for that budget and uh a special thank you to to executive director uh hawk scott and the city manager and uh the police department for helping us host that memorial beautiful memorial day event at memorial park um and the raising of our flag and to our police department for being there um and honor guard it was it was a nice event to honor those who who have paid the ultimate sacrifice in our armed forces so thank you for being able to do that um thank you for the flowers that were last minute requests

David PenalozaItem 25

about 30 minutes before the event started gaston you're the real mvp but just it was very nice to see the families there as well that we're very thankful for that event. With that, I also want to invite everybody to July 18th. Memorial Park is hosting our movie in the park at Memorial Park, and they're showing Toy Story, the OG, which I'm super excited about. I was six, seven years old when that movie came out.

David PenalozaItem 25

and no I I just I have to tell this story that my my grandma I remember her driving me to the Burger King drive-thru on Seager showman Bristol when that movie came out because they were selling the toys and I still have that Buzz Lightyear and I plan on bringing Buzz Lightyear with me to the movie in the park just and my grandma if she is able to but with that said Thank You city staff you guys are doing amazing and amazing things every day uh so thank you that's it mayor did you say mcdonald's was selling burger keen was selling toys story no they were selling uh it was

David PenalozaItem 25

a special edition toy story set they were about seven bucks each and they had the whole gang but you weren't still in diapers no okay no but bristol street was still under construction

Valerie AmezcuaItem 25

You've had too many M&Ms. Council Member Pham brought M&Ms for everybody. Hi, Council Member Pham.

Thai Viet PhanItem 25

First of all, I'd like to say that I'm really excited to speak on the panel on Thursday on behalf of the mayor. Thank you. I feel like you just gave me more work. I did. Okay. Because I'm not a mayor, but I'm very excited too that Santa Ana is collaborating with with our neighbors and really elevating, I think the history, culture and businesses in the Little Saigon community. So I'm very proud of that and just super appreciative of our team, our staff and our council for being so supportive of this initiative. You know, with that, I'm also really excited to attend the annual Nicholas Academy Center's

Thai Viet PhanItem 25

graduation celebration on Friday, honoring the class of 2025. And for those of you who will be going, my dear friend and former chief of staff, Lizbeth Rosales, will be giving a speech as she is a NAC graduate. And so with that, I hope everyone has a wonderful night and congratulations to the class of 2025. Thank you. Councilman Becerra.

Phil BacerraItem 25

Thank you, Madam Mayor. And yes, congratulations to all those graduating this year. For the month of June, I usually have my office hours on the first Saturday of the month, but this month I'll be hosting them on Saturday, June 21st at 10 a.m. over at Sandpoint Park. And if you're looking for something to do before then, tomorrow afternoon at 3 p.m. over at Fire Station 76 over by Bummel Coral Park, Orange County Fire Authority will be hosting their water safety pop-up event. I hope a lot of folks will come out to that. and June 12th in 1898 so 127 years ago with that good night everybody thank you

Johnathan Ryan HernandezItem 25

councilman Hernandez Thank You madam mayor I want to begin by thanking our city managers office our city staff for putting together a balanced budget I'd like to thank members of the public for their participation in today's council meeting I want to share that on June 6 this upcoming Friday we are having movies at El Salvador Park. Garfield is going to be playing there. So I'm encouraging, you know, children and family to go out there. What I really love about the movies at the park, at El Salvador Park, is you see grandmothers, parents, and children celebrating together. And

Johnathan Ryan HernandezItem 25

they'll bring their lawn chairs out, they'll bring blankets out. Parks and Rec will have local food vendors. So this is a free event. I encourage you to bring your family out. On Saturday, June 7th, my office is working with Habitat for Humanity as well as Orange County Housing Stepping Up and a number of fantastic organizations that believe that housing is a human right. We are having an event at Santa Ana College June 7th from 9 o'clock to 12 p.m. This free housing expo will provide resources for fair housing, rental and home buying resources, down payment assistance, assistance, lending programs, and free resources.

Johnathan Ryan HernandezItem 25

The third thing I want to share is Juneteenth will be held at Centennial Park on June 14th, 2025. I'd like to thank the city manager's office for their leadership in bringing this event back to the city of Santa Ana. It is led by an organization from our community with over 45 years of experience. So I'd like to thank the city manager and my colleagues here at the Santa Ana City Council for supporting that. I also want to encourage members of the public to sign up your vehicle for the Chicano Heritage Festival. We are encouraging members of the public to fill out an application, sign your vehicle up.

Johnathan Ryan HernandezItem 25

This is going to be a grand event where we encourage you to bring your vehicle out. We also encourage you, if you're interested in participating as a vendor, to apply and go through the application process. And lastly, I want to close in memory of a Native American leader. We are in June, which is Pride Month, and the topic of hate is one that we are seeing pop its head out in this country. This is a topic that, particularly during the month of June, is very difficult for people in the LGBTQ community.

Johnathan Ryan HernandezItem 25

community, and I want to uplift Jonathan Joss, who was tragically murdered. He was known famously for his role in King of the Hill, where he was the voice of John Redcorn. And he was tragically killed by his neighbor at the age of 59 in a dispute where the neighbor used hate speech and violent homophobic slurs before he shot him. And he was tragically murdered and this is a hate crime and I think it's important that that we that we stand up and that we embrace love and we protect those who are afraid during

Johnathan Ryan HernandezItem 25

this time and so to the Native American community Jonathan Joss isn't merely a voice actor or a character on King of the Hill he is a Native American actor who broke barriers for Native people and his loss is going to be greatly remembered in the Native American community and may he be remembered as a beacon of light for Native people. Aho.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 25

Are you done? Oh, thank you. Okay. All right. I'm gonna be quick so because we're out before 11, right? That's a good thing. Oh, it's only 930. Okay, the My Santa Ana app. Drumroll. It's coming out. It's out Spanish, English, and And Vietnamese, the app is ready. It's been submitted to Apple and Google. Where's Jack? See, thank you, Jack. Thank you, Mr. City Manager. I asked for, as soon as I got elected, and then you come on board and you all make it happen. So thank you very much. Okay, thank you for the council for supporting it. You have to download the new app. So I got, I wanna have clear directions, right? So it's public.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 25

When get Apple and Google, make it public in the next few days, then you download it, right Jack? Am I in the right place? And then you're going to see a new bright color scheme and a user-friendly layout with new accessibility controls to improve the readability. It will have a built-in language translation, as I stated, Spanish and Vietnamese, to serve our community. And once the stores make it available, your existing app that you have on your phone, for those of you watching at home, it will be automatically updated, we hope. If it's not, make sure you update it.

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it you can download it from the Apple and Google stores if it doesn't automatically do it so again thank you city manager and your team Jack I know you had to hunt for that so so so technically Jack

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says technically Jack did meet May 30th deadline he did he met the May 30th deadline so thank you

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Jack and besides I already posted so if it didn't happen it would be really sad so all right no No pressure, Jack. So congratulations to all the graduates of 2025, whether you're at our public schools or our charter schools, congratulations to all of you. Happy Father's Day. It's coming up, I believe, next weekend. So is it next weekend, David? Yeah, well, you should know. Happy Father's Day to all the papas, to all the fathers out there. It will be coming up soon. And happy birthday to Claudia Perez. Happy birthday, thank you to Claudia, my bestie. Happy birthday. She's 21 again. No, we're not gonna sing.

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No!

Happy birthday to you. Happy birthday to you. Happy birthday dear Claudia. Happy birthday to you.

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all right good job thank you now you know we're gonna do this for everybody David okay all right project kinship had a ribbon cutting it was just wonderful to be there with community leaders law enforcement partners and faith-based organizations and take a tour of their new location it's a huge building you get an opportunity go take a tour and see it they're doing amazing work there for our community I joined councilman panelist at the Memorial Day services it was a wonderful event thank you to the city staff for making it happen and thank you council panelist for bringing this out and the plaque that we have at

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Memorial Park is just it's beautiful so thank you to all the men brave men and women who serve our country and made the sacrifice so last week I went out with Colt and I know mayor Pro Tem has gone out with them and I went out with them at O Dark 100 and you know I always say you know our police and fire do a great job but going out with Colt I was able to see the amazing work that our police department does sitting at our landscaping our company we contract with

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to clean up the fire department we use a lot of resources to clean up our city and we say it but I highly recommend that all council members go out and I know you may have gone out two three four years ago but there's more people out there and it's a little different from what I hear right everybody that we ran into I mean everybody with exception of one person denied any assistance no thank you literally no I spoke to many of them sat down on the curb sat on the steps open the back door the patrol car had conversation with them would you

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like to go to a shelter would you like help we can help you the county can help you um you know at least we hope the county can help you but we can help you as a city the officers you know they wear many hats our police officers and i i really i really appreciate all the work they do and then here comes fire you know looking at the open wounds and you know people have contagious contagious infections and open sores and our staff are out there every day. Going through personal property, yes they wear gloves but

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they're still risking their lives that they don't contract anything, get a finger poked. But I'm going to go back to that everybody that I spoke to said no mayor, because I introduced myself, we like our drugs. We like our drugs. And we don't want to go to the shelter because we can't do our drugs. And one person took the shelter, and I think the only reason they took it is because her boyfriend was going to jail. And when I explained to her that you're a pretty girl, and when you're left alone on these streets, what is going to happen to you?

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And she started crying, and she looked at the staff and said, I'm gonna go to the shelter. But she wasn't from our city. She was from Huntington Beach, started Huntington Beach, went to Costa Mesa, and then came to our city. And when I asked her, why did you come to Santa Ana? For drugs.

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So she did take shelter resources, and our staff did a great job of calling Costa Mesa and Huntington Beach to get her some assistance. But I will tell you that I left that day, and Commander Gutierrez was great, he was with me. and I sat down and talked to an officer, Officer Stu, who's been in Colts for four years.

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And it was, I wish the community, and I know that they can't, maybe they can, I don't know, Deputy Chief, but I wish the community would go out, those that say, we don't do enough. Santa Ana, you're just trying to arrest everybody. You just want to put them in jail. At least that's what they say sometimes about me. But yet if you go out there and you see, you know, what they look like, how they're hurting, how they'll say, you know, yeah, I do what I can to get my drugs, and no, I don't want your help, but thank you. And then you talk to the businesses and they say, please help us because they've ruined

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our businesses, they terrorize us, and we don't know what to do. While we were standing there on First Street, McDonald's asked us to come in because in the bathroom was a guy who had locked himself in the bathroom a homeless gentleman and wouldn't come out so the police had to go out in there and arrest him and about 25 people mcdonald's started talking to commander gutierrez and i about the homeless situation and how they were sick and tired of it and thank you for the work that we're doing but they're sick and tired of it and they want people off the streets and they want us to do more we started talking about you know

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what we can and cannot do. And so I just want to say, you know, if you haven't lately or, you know, if you have, go out with Colt because it's very easy to sit up here and say, you know, well, mass incarceration and jail and, you know, that's what we want to do. No, that's not what we want to do. I saw officers out there that were gentle, spoke very quietly, very calmly, and they were just great. I saw fire respond, gentle, say what do you need, how can we help you. And then I would say, and I'll end with this, is that we really need to work, Mr. City

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Manager, we need to hold the state accountable and the county. The county has a responsibility. You know, if they've got money to give $500,000 to nonprofits for other services, they should be looking at Santa Ana and saying how can we help you? We carry the brunt. Union Pacific, Caltrans, we do it all. Mikey does it all. And when I went home that day, I was so upset because I thought if the community went on ride-alongs and really got to see what we do, what our police does, what fire does, what you know, colt does, what city net does, how much money, where our money goes, people would be really

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upset and they would be at the county meeting saying, hey supervisor, why aren't you writing us to check why aren't you doing more why isn't County Mental Health where's social services and I know we have a social worker one social worker that rides with one police officer I was told Monday through Thursday and that's not enough that's just not enough but we don't have the funding for it you may have pro tem asked for another cult team yeah I support that wholeheartedly but guess what we need to hire additional police officers we don't have enough police officers and then we need more funding so where do we take it from a

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general fund so i just want to say that if you have not gone out with colt please do write it with our police officers go out there and see and and not only will it it'll break your heart a little bit but it also you will be amazed at the work that they do and what they see and when one of the officers was saying you know he's contracted MRSA a couple times those of you that were athletes know what MRSA is you know what it's called MRSA if you especially if you're a wrestler

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And it doesn't go away. It comes back. So I was like, really? I hope that you're getting assistance for that because that's not good. It's not good for you and it's not good for your family. So just the things that our officers have to deal with every single day, I really appreciate it. And let me tell you, there were some very unfriendly people out there. and they were screaming and yelling and they were sick and they wanted their fix and the officers were gentle and I know wasn't just because of me because the homeless people were you ran into most of them they knew the officers and I

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asked them how do you get treated I treated good but I just want to get high we're treated good but I want to get high and I don't want to go to your shelter I want to stay out here so I just want to say that you know going out there if the community if the police department can mr. city manager take a few community members that are the loudest people to say you don't do your job or you don't do it right I would take them out there Oh dark hundred take them out let them see what comes out of the woodwork and let them see how the officers and how CityNet works with them and let them see the

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the stuff that our police officers have to deal with. Cause it's not pretty, it's not pretty at all. So, okay. Better, better, better conversation. Butterflies are back at the zoo. Hey, right Hawk? Okay, so we're gonna go back to the zoo to visit butterflies. 2000 square foot habitat, do not miss it. It's at the zoo. And I think we're there until late August, early September. Yes, so please go see the butterflies at the zoo. And now that we've extended the hours, as Councilman Pinalosa asked for that, we will see him there every weekend with his kids. I know we will, and all of his family.

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And finally, we are having State of the City on June 26th. Please join us. It is put on through the chamber, sponsored by the city and many other organizations. And it's gonna be a great time. We're gonna reflect on the accomplishments of the city and where we are going in the future. Please visit the Santa Ana Chamber website to register. And Coffee with the Mayor will be in partnership with the Orange County Fire Authority on June 14th. You can come too, Councilman Becerra. On June 14th at Orange County Fire Station 79, 1320 East Warner Avenue. Please bring your kids. They love it.

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Going onto the fire truck and get to talk to all the firemen. So please come. Bless you. you. So I'm going to close tonight in honor of Baldwin Park police officer Samuel Riveros. He was shot and killed. His badge number is 4422. He leaves behind a wife and children and I've said this before that when the officers go out there they They put their life on the line every single day. He didn't even have an opportunity to get out of his car.

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And so I want to close in his honor tonight. And the end of watch for him was on May 31st of this year. And so I would just ask that you say a prayer for his family, for his family in blue and his family that he left behind because it's a hard job to have. And when they leave in the morning or in the afternoon or the evening when their shifts start, they don't know if they're going to go home. Imagine that. And I know they all just pray and believe that they're going to go home.

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And this time, Officer Samuel Rivera did not go home. So we are closing tonight in his honor and God bless him and all of his family. Thank you

Thank you.