Read the July 1 meeting.

Doors open on September 11, 2018. Doors open on September 11, 2018. Doors open on September 11, 2018.

Doors open on September 11, 2018. Doors open on September 11, 2018.

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Valerie Amezcua

mayor you're live thank you 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

Council Member Becerra? Here. Council Member Hernandez? Council Member Lopez? Council Member Penalosa? Council Member Phan? Here. Mayor Pro Tem Vasquez? Present. Mayor Mezcua? Here. That is four members. That is a quorum. Thank you very much.

Valerie Amezcua

any additions or deletions to the closed session agenda madam clerk yes thank you noting for the

Jennifer L. Hall

record that closed session item number five the sei u part-time labor negotiations was added to the agenda that revised agenda was posted on june 26th perfect thank you do any council members need

Valerie Amezcua

to announce or abstentions on closed session items hearing none madam clerk do we have any speakers

Jennifer L. Hall

for closed session yes mayor and council we do have one nancy robles thank you please come forward

Valerie Amezcua

to the podium it appears they may have left you want to call her again one more time please

Jennifer L. Hall

nancy robles for public comments

Jennifer L. Hall

well session item number four

Valerie Amezcua

okay seeing none at this time we're now recessing into closed session thank you

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I'm going to use the same method for the other side. I will use the same method for the other side. I will use the same method for the other side.

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Jennifer L. Hall

Mayor, you can proceed.

Valerie Amezcua

I hereby reconvene the Santa Ana City Council meeting to order. Madam Clerk, please conduct the roll call.

Jennifer L. Hall

This meeting has taken 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. This is a meeting to conduct the business of the city. There's an opportunity to call for a recess or break or even to clear the meeting room if a meeting becomes too disruptive to properly conduct business. Warnings will be provided prior to any action being taken. We appreciate your cooperation. For everyone's safety, per the Fire Marshal, please do not stand or place objects in the

Jennifer L. Hall

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 and oaths of office, guests of individuals being recognized are invited to come forward to the front to take photos. for roll call councilmember Becerra here councilmember Hernandez present councilmember Lopez here councilmember Penalosa here councilmember Phan here mayor Pro Tem Vasquez

Valerie Amezcua

present mayor Meskwa here all seven members present thank you very much madam clerk before we proceed to the pledge of allegiance please make any announcements for members of the public

Jennifer L. Hall

on zoom or teleconference to request to speak during public comments or on agenda or non-agenda items within the city's jurisdiction you must dial star 9 from your phone or click the button labeled raise hand in zoom now to be in the speaker queue once public comments commence this does not apply to public hearing item number 30 or the housing authority items for which comments will be heard during the specific public hearing slash meeting please hold your comments

Valerie Amezcua

on those items until called upon thank you thank you very much first item is a pledge of allegiance pastor tommy coda if you can lead us in the pledge of allegiance please

Let's place your hand over your heart. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.

Valerie Amezcua

Thank you very much.

Valerie Amezcua

Words of inspiration will be provided by Reverend Terry Lee Page. Please come to the podium. Thank you. Thank you.

I represent Clue Justice, a coalition of people of faith supporting human rights, labor rights, immigrant rights in Orange County and LA County. First, a few words of lament. I have been at the immigration court on Dyer Road most days for the last three weeks. I've witnessed plainclothes ICE agents arresting people as they walked out of their hearings. In dozens of those hearings, I have yet to hear a single criminal accusation other than the misdemeanor of entering the US without permission.

I have seen men, women, and children whisked down emergency exits, put in handcuffs, stuffed stuffed-in vans, a five-year-old, a 74-year-old, people trying to do the right thing. Nobody knows where they go, but probably some of them are in the basement of 34 Civic Center. We do know that they are held in overcrowded conditions with food and water inadequate, healthcare inadequate, bathroom facilities inadequate, showers non-existent.

Most of them will be deported to somewhere in the world because it could be anywhere. They're joined in their suffering by gardeners, car washers, laborers, and people guilty of walking or driving while brown. This is my lament to you. People are in terrible fear right now. Please open your hearts to them. Let us be creative as a community. to discover how to keep our neighbors safe. And now, words of inspiration. They will be religious words if you're not religious.

Hear the value and intentions behind them.

God of power and love, thank you for the city of Santa Ana, for its creativity, for its diversity, for its rich cultures, for its vital commerce, for its wonderful arts. And thank you for these appointed leaders. And thank you for the people who show enough to care to come to these meetings. Bless us all. Bless this city. Bless its inhabitants. And keep us safe.

Now is a time of deep trouble in our country and it seems that trouble has landed on us. Amidst all the normal affairs, we have more than we need. Please give us inspiration, give us courage, give us the ability to bridge the differences that have held us apart before so that we can can come and make progress to make this a safe and pleasant city.

So let us set our differences aside as soon as we leave the arguments of this room and let us bless one another and honor what we love and value by serving all people in this this city, showing compassion, justice, creativity, diligence.

It can happen. Let us put aside our differences and build a safe and happy city. Amen.

Valerie Amezcua

Thank you.

Valerie Amezcua

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

Jennifer L. Hall

Yes. Just noting one for the record. Item number one, recognizing OCFA's best and brightest has been rescheduled to July 15th. Thank you very much.

Valerie Amezcua

Madam City Clerk, do you have anything to report out?

Valerie Amezcua

Madam City Attorney? Madam, I'm sorry. Madam City Attorney, I apologize. Do you have anything to report out?

Sonia R. Carvalho

No. We had several closed session items regarding labor negotiations and there's no reportable

Valerie Amezcua

actions thank you because we have some of our youth here that are being recommended as commissioners if the council would agree with me i'd like to bring um take a vote on those items first for appointments of commissioners and then move forward with the rest of of the meeting if that works so madam kirke would be item looks like item three four five six and seven perfect i'll move those three or those four moved by councilman becerra second by councilman panalosa can we take a vote please can we do a roll call yes so motion by councilmember becerra seconded by

Jennifer L. Hall

councilman pinalosa to approve the nominations put forward in agenda items number three four five six and seven from the consent calendar councilmember becerra yes councilmember hernandez yes councilmember lopez yes councilmember pinalosa yes councilmember fan yes mayor Mayor Pro Tem Vasquez? Yes. Mayor Meskwa? Yes. Vote of seven ayes, no nays, motion carries. If the appointed members could all come forward, we can perform your oaths of office now.

Valerie Amezcua

Okay, congratulations to all of you, please come forward. We have, yes.

Valerie Amezcua

We have Denise Reynoso, Aylin Luis, Marlene Pena Marin, Naren, Jesse Rodriguez, and Nancy Gonzalez.

That I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States and the Constitution of the State of California against all enemies, foreign and domestic.

That I will bear true faith and allegiance to the Constitution of the United States and the Constitution of the State of California. I take this obligation freely, that I may mentalize her, for the purpose of her vision,

that I will well and faithfully do these upon which I am well attended. Thank you.

Jennifer L. Hall

I'll take a couple photos and then you guys are going to sign your votes.

Valerie Amezcua

Congratulations to everybody.

Valerie Amezcua

All righty, we'll get started with public comment. This is the time of the meeting for the City Council to receive comments from the public on agenda and non-agenda items. Madam City Clerk, please explain the public comment procedures and call the first speakers.

Jennifer L. Hall

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 three minutes for their comments. Before calling speakers, I'll report the summary of emails provided as of today. By 2 p.m., we received a total of 89 e-comments on agenda items and non-agenda topics, 13

Jennifer L. Hall

on non-agenda topics, 1 for item 26, 3 for item 27, 3 for item 28, 66 for item 29, and 3 for item 32. 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 comments on agenda or non-agenda items only comments for public hearing number 30 and the housing authority will be heard separately when you come forward please state your name and the ward or neighborhood that you reside in for the record when you hear your name please line up in the center aisle

Jennifer L. Hall

behind the podium the first three speakers nancy robles tanya b lopez and cassandra perez

Good evening, Mayor Emescua, Council Members and City Manager Nunez. My name is Nancy Robles, SEAU Local 721 Santa Ana Chapter President. And thank you for the opportunity for allowing me to speak today. As we reflect on the challenges our city has faced, from rising community needs to the recent unrest it's clear that the residents are calling for meaningful change accountability equity and lasting solutions at the same time the city departments are under pressure budgets

are tight responsibilities are growing and the needs for efficient high quality services has never been greater and through it all scau members have remained committed and present We are not just employees. We are the essential workers who keep Santa Ana running. When our streets are cleaned and maintained, that's SEIU. When residents turn on the tap and save clean water flows, that's SEIU. When development plans move forward, when city ordinances are followed, and when resources are managed responsibly, that's SEIU.

When housing services are delivered, when families receive support, when unhoused residents are connected with care, and when affordable housing programs are implemented, that's SEIU at work. We keep city vehicles operating. We process payments, uphold environmental protections, and ensure compliance with federal guidelines, so the city remains eligible for key funding. And beyond infrastructure and administration, we help make Santa Ana a vibrant place to live. We maintain parks. We support recreation programs for families and youth.

We help create safe, welcoming environments for our residents. This work isn't just operational. It's transformational. It helps build community. It helps prevent crime. It supports opportunity. opportunity. Council members, SEIU members are the heart of city operations. We are your work, your workforce. We are the workforce serving your constituents. We show up every day for the city and we and we do it because we care. But to continue delivering our best

work, we need your support. Tonight we are asking you to recognize a vital role SEIU plays in keeping the city running. Invest in the frontline workforce that serves and supports your residents every day. Ensure that equity, respect, and fairness are reflected in every decision that impacts city employees. When city workers are supported, services are stronger, faster, and more reliable for everyone who lives and works here. Support for SAU. Nancy, your time is up. Thank you. Thank you. Good night.

Good afternoon. My name is Taina B. Lopez, the Santa Ana resident you allowed to be arrested at the last city council meeting. This was and remains an abuse of power. You allowed this to happen in your office and on our streets. I am demanding the immediate withdrawal of all charges against me. No one assaulted you. You and your police department assaulted me. Officers used excessive force. They had no probable cause, nor did they read me my rights. My hands, body, and spirit are in pain.

But I am not here today to speak just for myself. I am here on behalf of Narciso and his family. and for all the exemplary Santa Ana residents who have been illegally kidnapped by our federal government under policy set in motion by Donald Trump this is a petition from our community we understand that you may feel pressure from the federal government but that does not give you the right to sit by with your hands crossed we have the following urgent demands and we expect accountability this will not be ignored our demands one One, declare an immigrant state of emergency in Santa Ana. Police are here to protect the community,

not assist or enable federal officers. There have been multiple violent incidents involving youth and excessive use of force. I've experienced this personally.

Number two, end the criminalization of our people. None of us are criminals. This isn't about being against the police. Police are members of our community too, but the narrative you are pushing is divisive and dangerous start building trust and awareness within our department teach empathy and stand with your community three stop allowing the system to control our city we will not let this continue especially given how my father not evil upper Lopez and so many other others work to shift the political landscape in this district you wouldn't be sitting here if it wasn't for him and those

people that worked hard number four accountability for all detained Santa Ana residents has the city located them are you are they receiving legal support or a defense fund Congress congressman Lou Correa has the authority to grant humanitarian visas and we demand that he issue one to every detained Santa Ana resident number five transparency around federal operations six union involvement We call on the Orange County Labor Federation and on Gloria to ask union leaders to send shop stewards on lost time To help patrol our communities our union dues must go toward protecting people and not political endorsements

Stop unlawful detentions and ice court ambushes reinstate ice notification policies Economic pressure on local businesses. We demand that businesses supporting or enabling ice detentions be held accountable accountable those who stay silent will be boycotted starting with those allowing detentions on their property if they benefit from our community's money they must stand with us protect us from bounty hunters deportation is a legal process it requires a judge evidence and representation no law allows people to be violently grabbed off the street ICE OUT OF OC ICE OUT OF OC ICE OUT OF OC ICE OUT OF OC

Jennifer L. Hall

The next three speakers.

Jennifer L. Hall

The next three speakers, Cassandra Perez, Tommy Cota, Amalia Mejia.

Good evening, Council. I'm Cassandra Perez, a district director for Congressman Lou Correa. I'm going to be reading a letter on his behalf. It is lengthy, but it was submitted via electronic comment. Dear Madam Mayor and Santa Ana City Council members, I write to express my support of item 27 a resolution making a call to action regarding ice immigration enforcement As a proud representative of the city of Santa Ana I stand with our immigrant community and I've heard their concerns and fear over the escalation of force and rhetoric by the US Department of Homeland Security

This resolution sends a clear and reassuring message to our neighbors That we value their contributions and Santana and to this great nation The city of Santa Ana is a tranquil and peaceful community. It is the home of hardworking, law-abiding, tax-paying families. One month ago, masked individuals began to appear in our communities and started apprehending members of our community for deportation. These individuals claim to be federal agents. Many people who were forcefully detained, abducted from our streets are lawful permanent residents, US citizens, or mistaken identities.

These individuals were grabbed and were denied the due process rights guaranteed to them by the United States Constitution. The violent and brutal methods employed by these masked and unidentified federal agents have no precedent in Santa. Santa residents were rightfully concerned about immigrant enforcement raids in our community by unidentified and masked individuals indiscriminately and violently targeting neighbors. Just recently Narciso Barranco was working at his job when mass agents brutally beat and detained him in Santa. Narciso has no criminal record and he is the proud father of three US Marines. He is a hard worker who

has who was snatched away from his job and being on the ground. We honor people like Narciso who raised their children to love our great nation. That is why Santa Ana residents are exercising their First Amendment right to protest peacefully. At the same time the White House ordered the National Guard into Santa Ana. Traditionally the National Guard is activated upon a state governor, local police chief, or local sheriff's call for aid to quell civil unrest or to respond to natural disaster. Like many in our community, I was shocked that given neither

Orange County Sheriff Don Barnes, Norris and the Police Chief Robert Rodriguez called for the National Guard or other federal agents to come to Santa Ana. Up until today, both Chief Rodriguez and Sheriff Barnes insist that the presence of the National Guard was not necessary. The activation of the National Guard escalated and inflamed the situation at these protests. Our local law enforcement are adequately trained to escalate, protect the public, and restore order. I've expressed these concerns to ICE acting director Todd Loines and called attention to incidents that have taken place at immigration courts

across the country including incidents where masked plainclothes ICE officers detained nonviolent criminals immigrants immediately following the dismissal of their existing deportation cases by Department of Homeland Security attorneys. Most recently I joined my colleagues in Congress in introducing no secret police act to require DHS officers to wear or display official insignia or uniforms in a manner clearly visible to the others as well as to to prevent DHS officers from wearing face coverings or any item that conceals their detentions or arrests. The rest of the letter is available on e-comment.

Valerie Amezcua

Thank you.

Along with the packet of letters that he sent to DHS and to submit it on his committees as well.

Good evening.

Out of many, one, a call for unity, e pluribus unum. I'm a pastor of Hope of Life Church in Santa Ana, and I represent some of our faith community in Santa Ana, in which we love and desire to serve. And right now, our city is in obvious crisis. I've been having conversations with pastors and leaders all and we all agree that we very much dislike what we see happening with mass spaces taking people from workplaces and neighborhoods. Madam Mayor, I do believe that if you can make them leave you would have and I understand the truth and the reality of

it because our local government our hands are tied if the governor can't make them leave what makes us think that our local government can do so. However, we do pray that it that we take steps that this all stops quickly and believe things and I believe also that things can be better and done better for from our federal government. But I do want to highlight that in a time of crisis it's important to put opinions to the side and come together as one and support for for the sake of peace in Santa Ana. Instead, it seems that this crisis is used as opportunity to stir hate towards others and divide.

And this hate and ugliness was revealed at the last council meeting towards our mayor. It was mean-spirited, ugly, and embarrassing to see our city behave this way. We can do better with unity. I believe all of you here on the council and also our Madam Mayor love Santa Ana and desire to see our city flourish. My main concern is with our spiritual welfare of Santa Ana, and my prayer in ask is, out of many, one, e pluribus unum, to devote ourselves to unity and find a way to work together.

Speaking evil and stirring strife only invites hate, confusion, and fear. Here, where unity exists, there is favor, flourishing, and blessing. There's a passage in Psalm 133 that says how good and pleasant it is when people dwell in unity. I pray for a miracle of love and peace in the hearts of all of us here in the city of Santa Ana. Thank you.

Jennifer L. Hall

you next three speakers amalia mejia bumaro vicente anna gomez hi everyone my name is amalia

mejia i'm resident of ward 4 and i serve on the police oversight commission representing ward 5 and i'm speaking today on items 29 and 32 and i want to be clear and transparent that the commission was not informed or updated on any proposed amendments at a previous commission COMMISSION MEETING I ACTUALLY ASKED THE CITY MANAGER'S OFFICE THE INTENTION OF THE AHA COMMITTEE AND EXPRESS MY CONCERNS ON CHANGES WITHOUT CONSULTING THE COMMISSION AS WE SEE TODAY THERE'S PLENTY THE COMMISSION HAS BEEN MEETING FOR ALMOST TWO YEARS NOW AND I DO AGREE THAT WE DO NEED AMENDMENTS TO STRAIGHTEN THE COMMISSION BUT THE MAJORITY OF THE AMENDMENTS

PROPOSED TODAY WOULD WEAKEN THE ROLE OF THE COMMISSION I CANNOT HELP BUT THINK WHAT IS THIS A COINCIDENCE THAT NOW THAT WE'RE HIRING OR THE CITY COUNCIL IS VOTING TO HIRE AN OVERSIGHT director we are currently now seeing these amendments pop up which means to me that this will mean that your your intentions or the amendments are actually intentional once we have the od we can begin to review complaints and i would like to hear your thought process on how and why you decided to make such amendments these do not improve transparency rather turns the

commission into a symbolic act for the council to say hey we established one without any actual actual actual san anna pd accountability how unreasonable is it to be willing to pay 250 000 on salary for an oversight director but not have a proper commission working to actually address the issues that was intended to the public should be concerned that the council is willing to spend taxpayer money without increasing transparency and accountability and this is parallel to what we're witnessing at the federal government this is how decision makers in power change policies TO INTENTIONALLY NOT HOLD LAW ENFORCEMENT ACCOUNTABLE.

THERE ARE SEVERAL ISSUES WITH THE AMENDMENTS, BUT I'LL FOCUS ON THREE. ONE, SECTION 2-664, I ASK YOU TO KEEP THE LANGUAGE TO STILL SAY CHIEF OF POLICE AS SOMEONE THE COMMISSION CAN GIVE THE ANALYSIS AND RECOMMENDATIONS DIRECTLY. BY REMOVING THAT AND HAVING THE CITY MANAGER'S OFFICE BE A LIAISON, IT ALLOWS DISCRETION TO THE CITY MANAGERS TO DECIDE WHICH RECOMMENDATIONS ARE GIVEN. SECOND SECTION 2665 THE CURRENT AMENDMENTS REMOVED THE QUOTE-UNQUOTE DEVELOP IT DEVELOP PROGRAMS AND STRATEGIES TO PROMOTE POSITIVE POLICY COMMUNITY RELATIONS AND THIS IS REALLY

IMPORTANT FOR PEOPLE TO UNDERSTAND THAT BY REMOVING THAT YOU'RE ACTUALLY ALLOWING OTHER COMMISSIONERS WHO HAVE BLATANTLY STATED IN COMMISSION MEETINGS PUNITIVE MEASUREMENTS SO IF YOU REMOVE THIS THAT ALLOWS COMMISSIONERS TO ACTUALLY BE ABLE TO DO PUNITIVE POLICIES RATHER THAN POSITIVE ONES AND LASTLY THE MOST IMPORTANT AND THIRD ONE IS A REDUCTION TO HAVE the commission only investigate complaints after an internal affairs finds it eligible so you're removing the independence of the committee and this is not independent nor transparent and if

we want if what the council wants is to improve safety then strengthening the commission's ability to fully be independent is what we need to provide i also want to have my support for item number 32 two thank you good evening mayor and city council members in november 19th of 2024 when the city implemented the current short-term rental ban the mayor along with councilman becerra lopez requested that the city staff develop a short-term rental program for consideration this direction included developing a regulatory framework and conducting outreach to stakeholders

However, to date, no visible progress has been made and short-term homeowners continue to face financial uncertainty, a lack of legal and regulated options. This has also deprived the city of potential revenue from registration fees and transient occupancy taxes. Short-term rentals provide a vital financial support to many local homeowners such as myself. In today's economy and the uncertainty with everything that is going on, the income helps homeowners afford rising housing costs, pay property taxes, and manage household expenses. For many of us, especially those supporting elderly parents on fixed

incomes or dealing with long-term financial responsibilities, renting a spare room is one of the few flexible and practical ways to stay afloat. This is not about commercial enterprise, this is about staying in our homes, caring for our families, and contributing to our our community. I respectfully ask that you act on the statements made in November of last year and prioritize development of a short-term rental program. Doing so will provide relief to homeowners and enable the city to benefit from an equitable regulated system. Time is of essence. Thank you for your time and your service.

Hello Mayor and Council, my name is Bulamado Bumar Vicente and I'm here on behalf of Chispa to speak in strong opposition to item 29, the proposed amendments to the Police Oversight Commission. These changes are a betrayal to the hundreds of residents who organized, advocated and demanded true accountability, resulting in what is now the strongest independent police Oversight Commission in Orange County. Gutting its powers not only would reverse years of community-led progress, it would turn this commission into a toothless body resembling Anaheim's ineffective

police review board, which several of you previously said was not the model we wanted for. Let's be clear, there is no state law requiring these amendments. When we worked alongside the city attorney's office to draft the original ordinance, we've made sure every power was fully compliant with state law and the peace officer bill of rights. These proposed changes aren't about legality they're about politics they're being driven by police unions and council members backed by law enforcement interests using the ad hoc process to make sweeping decisions behind

closed doors without public input that is unacceptable and let's talk about these interests mayor valeria mesko received over 217 000 from the santa ana police union and her 2022 campaign and took nearly 98 000 more in her 2024 re-election campaign that's over 315 000 in police union money. If you want to understand the motive behind these changes, just follow the money. These aren't neutral policy updates, they're payback. This isn't unique to Santa Ana. In Vallejo, a nearly identical effort was recently defeated, an attempt by the Vallejo Police Officers Union

to weaken their already minimal oversight body. Civil rights organizations, including the ACLU and the AACP, called those changes what they were, a step backwards. Santa Ana cannot afford to follow the same path we urge you to reject these amendments and stand with the community not with the special interests trying to sabotage oversight from the inside i also want to speak in strong support of item 32 the ordinance requiring all law enforcement officers operating in santa ana to wear clearly visible identification and prohibiting face coverings that obscure the

identity our officers claim to be proud public servants if that's true then show your name and badge be out and proud boys accountability and transparency are optional they're part of the job

Jennifer L. Hall

thank you the next three speakers the next three speakers jasmine palmerin to notson reyes jennifer rojas

Good evening. My name is Jasmine Pomeran and I'm here to speak on items 28 and 29. The proposed financial assistance program is a vital lifeline for families. But we must address a critical concern. The immense risk of data exposure. Collecting sensitive information like names, addresses and details about detained family members creates a database that even with the best intentions could be compromised we've seen how easily data can fall into the wrong hands potentially exposing our undocumented and mixed as status families to the federal to the very federal agencies they fear we need ironclad solutions we

demand robust data encryption and security protocols and strict enforceable confidentiality agreements for everyone involved how can we guarantee the safety of our mixed-status families if data is compromised? How can we ensure trust when fears of being identified are so real as we've seen with other government programs? Our community is frightened. We need your commitment to ensure absolute data privacy and safety for every family seeking help. In regards to item 29, we cannot forget nor will we forgive the painful reality that many in our community, the Santa Ana Police Police Department and ICE feel indistinguishable.

We've witnessed actions that undermine trust and safety, and we demand that both problems, the actions of ICE and the misconduct with SABD be addressed with the urgency they deserve. The proposed amendments to our police oversight commission are a step backward. Limiting the types of cases that commission can review creates dangerous gaps in accountability. If a serious incident doesn't fit a specific category, it could simply be ignored by the very body meant to hold it in check. How can our community trust a commission that isn't truly independent, especially if forced to train under the department it's supposed to oversee?

This isn't about technicalities. It's about the erosion of public trust. When families bring forward their deepest concerns, they need to know this commission is truly there for them, not constrained by arbitrary rules. So I urge you all to vote no on the amendments of this ordinance. Thank you.

My name is Tonantzin Reyes and I'm here because Santa Ana PD is working with ICE to kidnap our people and I want to know what you, Valerie Almezcua, are going to do to stop the kidnapping of our elders. Take example from the mayor of Chicago who is blocking ICE from entering into their communities and kidnapping the people. You have the power to stop this from happening. Be a leader and lead the people to do the right thing. So many of our people fear to live, work, or to leave home. We need to do better than this and remember, Santa Ana is native land and territory. These lands belong to our people.

You are Mesquite, you're a Latina, and you're going against your own people by allowing this to happen to the people in our city. These ICE agents need to identify themselves with a warrant and a fair hearing in law. That's how law works. and something needs to be done about everything that's going on. And if we just sit back and allow this to happen, you, especially because you're the mayor and you have the power to stop these things from happening, I mean, it speaks for itself. You're either going to be with the people or you're going to be against the people. So everybody in Santa Ana is waiting for you to do something

and to speak up and to make a change in our city. Are you going to keep allowing these people to come and kidnap our people, or are you going to stand up and do something and fight for what's right? Because it's not even about anything but what's right and wrong, what side are you gonna be on are you gonna allow this to keep happening are you gonna do something about it because this has already been happening for months and it's unacceptable it's tearing our city apart I'm 26 years old and I have never seen anything like this and all of my life in the city and it's

a shame it's a shame you say that you're about your people girl but you're not doing anything to stop it and that's all I have to say

David Penaloza

they are miss one just a point of clarification with the city attorney I I just wanted for the public to know is that just the difference in that the cities of like Chicago and Los Angeles, the mayor is an executive and has executive authority and power over city operations. Here in Santa Ana, we're a city manager, council form of government. The mayor has no more power than myself, Council Member Lopez, Council Member Becerra. uh yes uh madam city attorney can you please yes i have been the city attorney for the city of santa

Sonia R. Carvalho

ana since 2000. madam city attorney can you speak louder please yes i've been the city attorney for the city of santa ana since 2012 and i have proudly served this community since that time i've also had the opportunity over those 13 years to read the charter and to understand the charter you are a city manager form of government just like to remind people that our credibility is is our most important asset in responding to criticism and conflict in our community. I want to say that again. Our credibility is important when we come into this chamber to discuss city business. And I can tell you that without a doubt,

Sonia R. Carvalho

the mayor of the city of Santa Ana does not have the power that many of you are coming up here saying she has. And if someone, I can explain that. If you want mayor, I can explain that. The city of Los Angeles is not a council manager form of government. They are a strong mayor form of government. They adopted their charter amendments in 1995 to give that mayor even more power and to cover the police commission. So mayor, what I'd like to do, because I believe that credibility is very important, is anyone who wants to come up to the city clerk, leave their name and their phone number, I will

Sonia R. Carvalho

proudly meet them where they want or here at city hall and go over the city charter with them. them. Because for us to have good solid conversations about the conflict that is happening, we have to all be on the same page as to what the rules are and what the law is. And I believe if we are all on that same page, we can come up with solutions for the community. But yelling at each other, yelling at each other in the council chamber and spouting facts that are not facts are not useful. So I'm going to make myself available. I really do want to help people understand what the city's powers are so any of you that would like

Sonia R. Carvalho

to do that please leave your name and number and I will contact you thank you madam city attorney thank you you need to stay

Valerie Amezcua

you're out of order madam city attorney thank you so very much for explaining

Sonia R. Carvalho

that I just add one thing sure it is the power of the people I don't represent any of you as individually I actually represent the people who run this municipal corporation so I'm gonna give them a very good piece of advice if you want to become a strong mayor form a government there is a method to do that it's called having a Charter amendment that's the power of the people initiative and referendum power in the state of California is in our Constitution so if that's what you really want use that power because that's how you make the laws that I think you guys are asking for but you

Sonia R. Carvalho

cannot do it under the Charter that you have thank you very much Madam City

Valerie Amezcua

Attorney you have three minutes go ahead speaker good evening mayor and City

Council members my name is Jennifer Rojas and I work with chispa I'm speaking today in strong opposition to item 29 and I urge this council to reject the proposed ordinance that would dismantle the police oversight Commission as we know it I want to be very clear this ordinance does not just make small changes it completely guts the Commission's power and strips away its most meaningful responsibilities if passed this ordinance will eliminate the Commission's ability to conduct independent investigations into allegations of police misconduct remove the Commission's and milk authority to

issue disciplinary recommendations when misconduct is sustained and finally eradicate the process that allows the commission to bring concerns directly to the city council when the city manager's response is inadequate. These structural changes are not procedural reforms. They are rollbacks designed to ensure this commission is rigged to fail. When the police oversight commission was passed and established in 2022, this council passed it unanimously it was drafted in partnership with the city attorney's office and the former ad hoc

committee built on dialogue and collaboration i participated in stakeholder meetings where we discussed the police officer's bill of rights california law and the city's charter to ensure that the ordinance was compliant the current ordinance reflected this community's demands for real police accountability after the 2020 uprisings for racial justice. To gut the Commission now is nothing short of a betrayal of the community's advocacy of the promises made and of the movement for meaningful oversight. These amendments are not grounded in best practices. They are not about

transparency. They are the opposite. They create the illusion of oversight while stripping away every tool necessary to hold police accountable. Let me be absolutely clear again bad oversight is worse than no oversight at all a hollow Commission with no authority does not protect this community it protects police misconduct I urge you to not pass this ordinance please reject item 29 thank you

Jennifer L. Hall

the next three speakers next three speakers Alia Nunez, Daniel Suarez, Sean O'Connell.

Good evening. My name is Alia Nunez, and I am a constituent from the third ward.

It's been really hard for me to write this, not because I don't have anything to say, but because there's just too much to say. say, not truly a good explanation of how heavy this feels all right now. Since our last meeting, June 17th, every time I open up social media, I see someone who looks just like me, my shade of brown, being taken, beaten, and humiliated just because of a piece of paper that says that they don't belong here. This is happening daily, in broad daylight, on the way to work, outside of schools, at at grocery stores, inside hospitals. And I'm not just watching this. I'm living it.

This past weekend, my family couldn't get a hold of a loved one. I had to go to their job and ask if they've seen them. I even walked up to a tow truck in the parking lot, asking if it was their car they were looking for.

Terrified that they were coming for their car.

I didn't even flinch in the moment, because this kind of fear is something that's become normal. That's how messed up this reality is. And now that I had time to sit with it, I feel with it. I feel it. The pit in my stomach. That I'm worried that I missed call.

Sorry.

I'm worried that I missed call. Might be the last one that I get from my family member. Remember, the fact that we're trying to improve our communication, not because we care, because we're scared that we might not hear from each other. That's not normal. That's survival. And meanwhile, what are those in power doing? What are the police doing? What are they doing? While masked men grab people off the street in plain sight, aren't you supposed to protect us? Is it or is it just open season on brown bodies?

We're the ones patrolling our own neighborhoods giving our time energy and supplies to protect our gente Stepping up. Can you guys say the same the ones in office the ones wearing the badge? So tonight I'm calling on you to do more than just talk. I'm urging for you to support not

Support item 27 and don't water it down follow through with the real protection for our community not just behind statements because your vote tonight isn't just symbolic. It's a message to everybody watching, including ICE, that Santa Ana will not be complicit. Actually protect us. Enforce sanctuary policies, not just on paper, but in practice. And for everyone who holds power or a badge, go back and read your oath. If you can't stand by it, step aside because we will. We're rising and we are ready and we are already protecting each other with or without your help.

but you see what you see in the system no no scooter no so terus cuidamos entre nosotros econ alia your time is up you got a sonoma side in the heart gracias

good evening Santa Ana City Council my name is Daniel Suarez and I am a born and raised Santa Ana citizen I also represent the Orange County Democratic Socialist. I'm here to oppose item 29 which will affect the Independent Oversight Commission. This bill aims to neuter and weaken both the Independent Oversight Director and Commission. This bill attempts to do so by removing all independent authority from the Commission, granting the police supremacy over the Commission and removing most, if not all, resources from the Commission. The proposed revisions remove any and all references to the

word independent and replace it with police, such as changing the Independent oversight director to the police oversight director. The bill removes the power of the independent commission to quote, subpoena witnesses, administer oaths, and compel the production of evidence for their independent investigation, end quote. Potential members of the commission will also be forced to attend a ride along and complete multiple SAPD academy courses or face forced resignation. This bill aims to limit and curtail not only the power of the independent commission, but also the people who can join in the first place.

All of these actions prove that this bill aims to turn the independent commission into a puppet for the police. This bill is a malicious power grab, an attempt to steal from the people, a power from the people and grant it to the already unaccountable militarized police force. This can be seen within the bill as it grants the chief of police the ability to review, to review and initiate all internal affairs investigations. Furthermore, as if this corruption couldn't become any more blatant, the chief of police will also have the final determination of the internal affairs

investigation. In other words, the police will now investigate themselves and find that there was no wrongdoing. Not only is the bill weakened the people's power but also undermines our city's democratic processes, stripping the City Council's ability to appoint the independent oversight director. The bill muddles the current one transparency, completely removing the City Council's power, those who are beholden to the people, and granting power to the unelected unaccountable police chief and city manager. The unaccountable city manager will now have the power to hire and fire the independent oversight director at

their will does this seem like a democratic and fair process no of course not this is a democratic and corrupt and any of you who vote for this deserves to be voted out of office unfortunately there are many malicious and corrupt changes in this insidious bill that i do not have enough time to discuss this is why i implore everyone here to read the bill especially pages 4 through 10. nevertheless before i leave to the city council i ask all of you one question quiz custodian exposes custodians who will watch the watchman and to my fellow citizens i leave you

with this we must remain diligent and aware of any and all attempts to infringe upon our rights democracy is fragile and we must nurture it i'm going to keep this quick good evening i'm also here on the same ordinance number 29 if recent events concerning the relentless attacks on due Due process, checks, and balances, combined with the history of law enforcement, and the U.S. has taught us anything, is that independent oversight for police departments is a necessity. Please do the same thing and keep independent oversight of the police. Thank you.

Jennifer L. Hall

The next three speakers, David Pulido, Gilbert Gilbert B. Giovanni Chavez.

All right. My name is David Pulido. I'm a member of CSO Orange County's Police Accountability Committee. And we are here to speak on item 29 and demand that City Council not pass the ordinance to amend the commission. Commission. This ordinance would destroy the ability to independently investigate cases of police misconduct. All investigative authority would be in the hands of the police themselves and the Department of Internal Affairs. But if the police could be trusted to do that, then we wouldn't have demanded this commission in the first place. Let's talk about the timing,

by the way, on this attack. This month we've seen an explosion of racist and unconstitutional attacks on working class immigrants and especially Chicanos. Then our police department violently attacked young Chicanos for defending their families and protesting against rice ice raids no amount of PR that you all do is gonna change that pact it's not gonna make us forget what you did Phil Valerie right now we need more community control over the police and not less in fact I want to add that in that time the first thing you chose to do is condemn the people the protesters

instead of condemning the ice raid so we remember okay and today we are also joined by Erica Armenta who has demanded a police report on the killing of Noe Rodriguez for six months. We did not learn critical facts about his death through the police department. We were forced to submit a public public records act request to the Department of Justice to learn about how officers Luis Casillas and Isaac Ibarra lied about Noe, what Noe was doing because he was not pointing a shotgun or waving it around, he was not loading it, he was simply standing there. Okay and if you had evidence of that you would have released

but you didn't and I didn't get it in that report. So that's a lie. We didn't get that information from the department. We got it from them. If we had a functioning and fully staffed commission, we could have had an independent investigation into this police killing. But instead, city council has failed to hire a director for months and now before the commission even has a chance to function, you're trying to gut it. This ad hoc committee wants to claim it does not comply with state law, even though this commission was already vetted by city attorneys, so it's changed.

Today, if you hide behind compliance with state law as an excuse to attack or erode our limited democratic powers over the police, we will know exactly where you stand. No amount of crocodile tears that you shed for immigrants while you get awards is going to change that fact. Where were those tears for the immigrants that were already killed by the police, like Miguel Chavez? It's not just when it comes around like for an award, okay? This is all the time. So if you stand for immigrants, you need to stand for the victims of police violence. defend the police oversight commission no to this amendment and changes attacks on police

accountability justice for in the way Rodriguez and since I have 20 seconds we don't trust the Department of Internal Affairs I know others are gonna speak on this but you know that that department oversaw investigations and it sabotaged them like in 2020 in the Clichy town affair and when I talk to you guys you you know you hushed up about it but that was a crime that's why we don't trust that we need an independent oversight police commission now okay

Jennifer L. Hall

gilbert b giovanni chavez and kang tran

good morning excuse me good evening uh fellow council member protesters and the ones that didn't We know, at least I personally know and had interactions with the Santa Ana Police Department going back to 1980. I was cuffed, I was beaten, I was jailed, all charges were dropped. Didn't get a bill, didn't get anything. So I have zero trust in this police department. It goes way back. As I stated previously, some people look like a criminal. I don't know, some people think I talk like a criminal, but the real criminal is sitting right there.

Okay, you claim to be a Chicana? I don't see one inkling of that in you, or else you would have spoken up completely. You hide behind your laws. You have a law for this, you have a law for that.

Well, I try to live on my own laws, which is what you can't do as I said and how long is this gonna go on how long is this crime against brown people I'm used to it I've been victimized almost my entire life I've lived in Santa Ana since 1971 prior to that I lived in Garden Grove in a body oh we were treated as second-class citizens to this day my parents ask why we lived in such run down shacks. They didn't know anything about redlining. And they're trying to erase that history. It didn't happen. You're making that up. No. I've lived a lot. I've seen a lot.

And I'm not liking what I'm seeing. There are some council members out there that really got the cojones to stand with the people. And they are the ones that stand with the developers, with the police. Police is a militarized force, yet they don't want civilian oversight, like the real military. They like to be called sergeants, lieutenants, captains, but with no oversight. They're an entity unto themselves.

And this has got to end. This has got to stop. You keep protecting the developers and the police department because they protect you. We in the city, we have to protect ourselves.

And I can go on and on and on, but I will leave it at this.

Mayor, resign. Thank you.

Good evening council members, Mayor Giovanni Chavez. I'm a Santa Ana resident and the president of the California Young Democrats. We have members here in Santa Ana and all across the state, a lot of young folks that have been concerned about these challenging times. And make no mistake about it, these are very challenging and dire times. We have an authoritarian president right now that is hell bent on attacking our communities every day, kidnapping folks, gelling them, deporting them with no due process whatsoever. And some of the things we do have the power to work on is work with our federal Congress members.

Congress member Lou Correa introduced a bill that would require ICE agents to wear masks. I encourage the council. So I know a lot of you folks have been working with our Congress members to support this bill, to make sure that we hold ICE agents accountable. Other items that we can work on is large gatherings, right? The city of Bell Gardens, the city of Cudahy, they've limited their large gatherings. These large gatherings can be targets for ICE. I encourage our council to limit these large gatherings so that we keep our immigrants' communities safe.

and really you know continuing to engage with the public i know a lot of folks are commenting here today and i look forward to seeing the healthy discussion we have and the important part here is we stay united um these are challenging times it's not the times we want where we want to play politics we want to make sure that as a city we are united and we stand with our immigrant community so thank you council members and look forward to the discussion

Jennifer L. Hall

Next three speakers, King Tran, Daniel Diaz, Sandra.

Council members, esteemed and otherwise, I come before you today as a Santa Ana resident, history teacher, and a refugee. I was raised to see the United States of America as not just the land of liberty which saved my family and millions of my people, including Councilwoman Phan, from the kind of authoritarianism in Vietnam from which we were forced to flee. I was also raised to believe that Mekong was a land of opportunity, one created by a system that itself creates wealth rather than punishes those who pursue their own economic interests. Naturally then, when my parents became naturalized citizens

in the 80s, they were proud and relieved. They passed this new sense of belonging belonging onto me when I was still in the fifth grade. In school, I was further taught that in the United States, everyone has a fair chance to build a life and dignity and economic security if they so choose, no matter their racial background, ethnic identity, or country of origin. I was also raised to respect and admire even the police. After all, my grandfather was a police chief in the old country. I grew up believing that in authoritarian states like our homeland, the police are are the hand of an oppressive government,

that when they are not brutalizing the people on behalf of the government, they serve their own corrupt interests. By contrast, supposedly, in the United States, the police are your friend. They actually serve and protect the people. They actually uphold the law, and that law, I was taught, is based on principles of justice and freedom. However, by the time I entered high school, I began to see that the reality of this worldview is much more complicated. I began to question why my Mexican friends and neighbors were treated like criminals here to steal our jobs, while my family and my people were held up as a model minority?

Is an America the land of justice and freedom for all? Is risking death to cross the desert for a better life that much different than crossing an ocean for that same purpose? By the time I got my bachelor's degree, I began to realize that the reason brown immigrants are targeted for persecution and removal has much to do with history, that many other ancestors are indigenous to this continent, that Santa Ana is is the land of the Tongva and Akechumpe peoples, that all of California and Southwest was once part of Mexico, that it was taken from the Mexican people by naked imperialism in 1848.

As I like to tell my students, you did not cross the border. The border crossed you. We live in Santa Ana, not St. Anne. By the time I earned my master's degree, I also began to realize the use of excessive force and outright murder by our police is unimaginably worse than in Vietnam. Our police began to look more and more like a military occupation force that shoots first and asks questions later even after the blm movement exploded across the country right here in santa ana noah rodriguez an immigrant suffering from mental health issues was murdered by the sapd last year shot 29 times even as he

was falling to the ground there was miguel rodriguez a 73 year old immigrant murdered in 2022 again by sapd uh well this is all not just infuriating and senseless it's heartbreaking i I urge you, council members, to vote no on agenda item 29 and yes on 32. Put an end to this madness.

Okay.

I'll start with Michael.

All right. So, hello, all. I'm Daniel Diaz of the Santa Nero. You guys might not know who I am, but I've been running the whole newspaper by myself for a couple years already, but thank you. So it's been 23 days since the raids began here in Santa Ana en masse, and 22 days since first sending my questions to Santa Ana Public Information Officer Paul Eakins and Santa Ana Police PIO Natalie Garcia. Garcia. Over the course of seven days, I emailed them 87 questions and an additional five to

Garcia and city attorney. The morning Narciso Barranco was detained, eight have been answered by the means of press release, social media posts, PRA response, or during the last city council meeting. The other 84 remain unanswered. These questions I ask aren't to be nosy. I I asked them because I believe the community has the right to know the answers given the high level of fear, anxiety, and uncertainty plaguing our community. According to Transparent California, Eakins got paid $167,297.16 in 2023, including benefits,

and Garcia received $167,966.48 in 2023 with benefits. You guys can do the math on how much they got paid each day, but I did leave it there for you to see um let's see here uh that's my place um but it does sound like a good job for not being able to answer questions i mean i would love to do that job just sit here and not answer questions um but in all the stuff i've reviewed i've reviewed budget reports dating back to 1989 and all the campaigns that i've seen growing up in most of the comments given by the electeds it has

has always been the city's goal to be more transparent, including city attorney Sonia saying just moments ago that quote, credibility is one of our most important assets in responding to criticism and I forgot. To criticism in our community. So it's always been the city's goal to be more transparent, but in times the city is gripped with fear, people refusing to step into the sunlight and shelter themselves in the blanket of grief, who are the people turning to they're turning to you guys and so is the press because i feel i did my due diligence in questioning the correct entities this body and police department entrusted

to not only answer the press but the people because not only do the people pay their salaries to do the job they were hired to do but they swore an honor and the responsibility to serving the city's mission including its people just as you did so as for the pios and everybody else i'm I'm still waiting for those answers. But with that, I really think that, you know, if you're gonna continue to have the PIOs, and you're gonna hire a new one, you know, split the wage or have them answer questions at $10 a pop, I don't know. But.

Jennifer L. Hall

I know your time is up.

Thank you.

Jennifer L. Hall

Next three speakers. The next three speakers are Sandra, Matthew Compton, John Compton.

Hi, good evening, council members and mayor. My name is Sandra and I'm a proud staff member at the Orange County Wrapper Response Network. And I just want to share a little bit of what we do because many of you on this dais are not doing anything. So that includes sometimes waking up very early on around 4 or 5 in the morning to patrol our communities. That will take a couple of hours. By then families will be detained around 7, 8 in the morning.

At that point a family will try to detain their loved one through an ICE locator. From there, you'll see that actually it will take days to locate an individual because these kidnappings are no longer trackable. And all while one individual is being detained, we have several operations happening all at once. We have operations happening at our local courthouse, as my colleague Terry mentioned. We have operations happening here at our local field office.

We have operations happening at our local car washes, at our local Home Depots. Some of our vendors are being taken. But a lot is happening all the time, and our team has never seen this sort of pain and suffering from our Santa Ana residents. and sometimes these days feel like years because of the pain I would lowball a number of 20 30 people being detained a day and I can confidently tell you that because I work with a very committed team of ice watchers dispatchers

attorneys clergy members and most of us are volunteers so I am here to support court. Item number two, because I am tired of running into these masked agents who cannot provide us with a warrant, a badge number, a name. There was only one time at the courthouse where, well, several times where they provided a immigration detainer notice of action from DHS. But aside from that, if these people are harmed, how are they going to hold these masked agents accountable. If these people are killed, who are they gonna hold accountable?

There's a clergy member that was harmed at our local courthouse. She wouldn't even know how to hold, who to hold accountable. So please, please work hard to make 32 possible because at least we can begin to find a semblance of justice in this very, very dark time. Thank you.

Hello, my name is Matthew Compton. I'm here as a member of CSO OC. I'm here to raise my concerns for item 29. All of you on this council represent the Santa Ana community. You all claim to put our community first. However, this ordinance that is being proposed is not community first. This ordinance will take substantial power from the Police Oversight Commission. For example, these changes will delay the Commission's review by months and eliminate their ability to independently investigate cases of misconduct, for example, sexual assault. What I'm referring to is the Colucci Town incident.

As my comrade stated earlier, you guys like to be a little hush-hush about it. At the time of this incident, the head of the Internal Affairs was Robert Rodriguez, who is now the Santa Ana Chief of Police. Robert protected a fellow officer who sexually assaulted a minor. Robert sabotaged their own investigation and only started an investigation after a complaint was filed seven months later. How can we trust SAPD to hold themselves accountable when they protect each other? We can't. This ordinance will also take away transparency from families who are

trying to seek justice for the family members. This ordinance accomplishes that by withholding important information by keep by making closed sessions confidential. Families deserve justice and families deserve closure. Justice for Noe Rodriguez. Rodriguez.

Jennifer L. Hall

Next three speakers. John Compton, Zuri, and Jocelyn Pacheco.

Jennifer L. Hall

Thank you. Zuri, Jocelyn Pacheco, Tanya Nava.

Good evening. My name is Jocelyn Pacheco and I'm here with CSO OC, Police Accountability Committee. We're here again to demand real accountability from the Santa Ana Police Department and today we are calling out this blatant attempt to dismantle the power and purpose of the Police Oversight Commission. Let's be honest, the original goal of this commission was clear, to provide independent independent review of police misconduct, to build transparency, restore public trust when you all broke in the first place, and hold officers accountable. But those proposed amendments do the exact opposite.

Under this new ordinance, the Commission will only be allowed to review certain cases and only after SAPD's internal affairs completes its own investigation and sustains the findings. That means the police get to investigate themselves first, decide what counts as misconduct, and only then maybe you'll allow oversight that's not accountability that's a loophole you're gutting the commission's power while calling it a clarification you're formalizing delay you're centralizing control and sapd and city staff and calling it compliance with state law but let's be

so freaking for real after months of stalling where the commission sat inactive because the city failed to hire a director you finally appoint someone just in time to strip the role of any real authority that timing is not lost on us it's strategic and it's shameful you've also added some improved protocols for access and training but those mean nothing given that these are biased trainings provided by Santa Ana Police Department itself this prevents the Commission from acting in real time launching independent investigations and meaningfully holding the department

accountable let's be clear about what this change means reduce transparency delayed justice increased potential for internal bias a weakened ability to hold officers accountable and the public left completely in the dark again and quite frankly it's a slap in the face to the community you claim to serve to make it worse you now want to make Commission discussions around police misconduct confidential why what are you hiding from the public the people who pay for this police department have every right to know how it operates but of course this is just another attempt to protect corrupt officers and frankly that's what

this council is becoming known for if you really care about rebuilding public trust restore the Oversight Commission's authority to initiate and conduct independent investigations without waiting for SAPD internal affairs and ensure full transparency by rejecting confidentiality clauses that block public access to discussions of police misconduct reject item 29 thank you

Hello, my name is Zuri. I'm from Ward 2. I'm here to talk about item 29. So basically this ordinance is going to eliminate police accountability in Santa Ana. And I urge you not to pass it because the police can't be trusted to police themselves. It includes changes to the training to make it more biased. And these changes were suggested by biased entities. So starting with police can't be trusted to police themselves in the caliche town incident two teenage girls were sexually harassed and groped by off-duty officers and then the internal the head of

internal affairs delayed the investigation and protected the officers and later sapd internal affairs concluded that no misconduct was was found and no officers were disciplined and then in 2021 21 downtown Santa Ana, a witness reported an off duty officer holding down a woman, groping her breasts and telling her to just chill and shut up. Again, the Santa Ana police internal affairs concluded no misconduct and no officers were disciplined. So we have to ask ourselves who is even suggesting these changes? Let's see. Mayor Emesqua, Councilmember

Bacera. Those are the two I want to point out. Bacera received $81,000 in 2022 alone from the Police Officers Association and Mayor Emescu received $217,000 again in 2022. So it's not in their financial interest to hold police accountable or to protect us. Again, watch their pockets and you'll see why they're doing all of this. And then I want to talk about the the bias training. So the ordinance would change the commissioner's training requirements to heavily bias the police. Previously, it was required in their training to be

predominantly independent third party trainings, and now they're trying to change it from SEPD personnel and third party bodies that do not have, sorry. They're trying to change it to be mainly trained by the police, and they also are forcing people to go on ride-alongs. This is a clear attempt to skew the commissioners perspective and another attack on the independence of the commission. The police cannot be trusted to police themselves. We cannot let this pass and I urge all of you city council members to reject this ordinance. Thank you.

Jennifer L. Hall

The next three speakers, Tanya Nava, Erica A, Abraham Q.

Hello, City Council Members. My name is Tanya, a community organizer with Chispa and a born and raised Santanera. Last week, this chamber was filled wall to wall with residents, many of whom were young people and showed up in their power after witnessing and experiencing horrifying ice raids and being subjected to SAPD's brutality at peaceful protests. They shared their pain, their fear, and their loss, and their trust, and the loss of trust in this city's leadership.

And today, with all of that fresh in your memory, you chose this moment when ICE is terrorizing our communities with no accountability, when SAPD is escalating their violence, and when people are afraid to walk outside of their homes to roll back oversight of the police. To hand even more protection to officers already shielded by layers of secrecy and power. The claim that these amendments are happening in order to be compliant due to state law is misleading. The state does not require cities to eliminate community investigative powers or limit oversight to internal hush-hush

investigations. In fact the state allows this the state law allows cities to have robust oversight as long as due process and confidentiality rules are respected. Other cities in California like Oakland, San Francisco, and Long Beach have much much stronger, more independent oversight mechanisms that operate within the same laws. The city is using vague references to state law to justify weakening the commission, but this is a political choice, not a legal necessity. To me, it looks like the POA is cashing in on their exorbitant contributions to several

of your campaigns to get an oversight commission that's stripped of its ability to actually hold anybody accountable.

This commission was passed in 2022 and has yet to investigate a single complaint while our communities continue to suffer police brutality and murders. Justice for Noe Rodriguez and justice for Brandon Lopez and many more. I also join in the demand that all charges be dropped against Tania that was arrested at the city council meeting last time. I'd like to voice my extreme opposition and disappointment with agenda item 29 and voice voice my strong support for agenda items 25, 26, 27, 28, and 32. These are the kinds of actions Santa Ana should be taking, demanding transparency and directly

supporting our families who are being horrifically torn apart every day. Federal agencies are running rampant in the city terrorizing anyone, everyone, and yet they continue acting with impunity. A month later we finally see some action after thousands of our community members have suffered. Submitting these information requests calling on our federal reps to get ICE and militarized agents out of Santa Ana and providing emergency financial relief to impacted families, requiring law enforcement to wear clearly visible identification. These are necessary and needed steps but we need to go further.

Families who have witnessed raids need trauma-informed mental health resources. I demand justice for everyone unjustly kidnapped in Santa Ana and advocate to free all of our people. We need additional funding for legal defense defense funds and we need these rates to stop.

Luís Casillas quienes siguen patrullando nuestras calles desde el primero de diciembre del 2024 no estaba desarmado cuando recibió 29 disparos ellos están libres ellos

necesitamos justicia transparencia y que sean demandados que sean despedidos por por el departamento sin pago segundo exige mo's que el consejo botten no al punto 29 que proporciona enmiendas a la comisión de supervisión policial que le impiden realizar investigaciones independientes a través del director de supervisión además de eliminar su capacidad de enviar recomendaciones al jefe de policía y el ayuntamiento la comisión de supervisión policial se creó para proporcionar al jefe de policía y el ayuntamiento investigaciones

análisis y recomendaciones independientes sobre prácticas policial es mala conducta tiroteos con agentes involucrados y otros usos graves de fuerza sin embargo la nueva redacción solo permite al director de supervisión y a la comisión revisar las investigaciones de asuntos internos del el sap en lugar de realizar su propia investigación independiente sabemos por experiencia que no se puede confiar en que el departamento investigue por si mismo Robert Rodriguez como jefe de asuntos internos Sabote una investigación conocida como el incidente de Cooley Chiton donde dos

menores fueron agredido sexualmente por oficiales fuera de servicio que se dice eran miembros de una banda policial conocida como el mayor enforcement team

him a unmask tiempo para que se haga justicia el nuevo texto de la enmienda en impedir a que la comisión solo revise y de nuevo no investigue las quejas que tienen descubrimiento sostenidos de la investigación de asuntos internos reiteramos que no podemos confiar en que el sap investigue por si mismo necesitamos una comisión de supervision policial independiente estos cambios no mejorar la confianza publica en el departamento ni la transferencia ni la rendición de cuentas al contrario le garantizan al departamento de policía que puede evitar una investigación independent a en beneficio del publico

nosotros residentes miembros de la comunidad de Santana exigimos que botan en contra de las enmiendas del artículo 29 gracias good evening my name is Erica I am here today for two reasons first of all it's been seven months as my husband was murdered and I am demanding justice it was murdered by no air Rodriguez first of all he continues to patrol our streets and we demand that they be fired from the department without pay he was shot 29 times by Santa Ana PD officers Luis Castillas and Isaac Ibarra on December 1st of 2024 secondly we demand that the council vote no on item 29 which

which proposes amendments to the Police Oversight Commission that prevents them from conducting independent investigations throughout the oversight director as well as removing their ability to send recommendations to the chief of police and the city council. The Police Oversight Commissioner was established to provide the chief of police and the city council independent investigation of analysis and recommendations of the police practices of misconduct. Officer involved shootings and other serious issues of force, but the new language only only allows the oversight director and the commissioner to review Santa Ana PD internal

affairs investigations instead of conducting their own independent investigation. We know from experience that Santa Ana PD cannot police themselves. Robert Rodriguez, as the head of internal affairs, sabotaged an investigation known as Coliche Town Incident, where two minors were sexually assaulted by off-duty police officers. They were members of the police gang known as the Major Enforcement Team, EMET, which which had multiple allegations of misconduct that were cleared by Internal Affairs. The City then refused to disclose all relevant information from Prada requests until the lawsuit was brought against them.

To this day, the Department has not released a report of the killing of Noel Rodriguez and the Oversight Commission has not had the opportunity to investigate this case, but these changes will make sure that we have to wait even longer for justice. The new language in the amendment would stop the Commission from reviewing and again not not investigating from reviewing complaints that do not have sustained findings from the internal affairs investigations. We again reiterate we cannot trust a Santa Ana PD to police themselves. We need independent police oversight commission. These changes do not

enhance public trust in the department. They don't improve transparency or accountability. Instead, they give the police department the guarantee that they can avoid an independent investigation in the interest of the public. We, the residents and community members of Santa Ana demand that you vote no on the amendment in item 29.

Valerie Amezcua

Madam City Clerk, can you share that that is a city Santa Ana translator please so we're all clear on

Jennifer L. Hall

that thank you. Yes that's correct and so instead of just having the voice from the translator piped in over the speakers they came down to the podium today. Perfect thank you.

Good afternoon, City Council and staff. Thank you for helping us with that translation. My name is Abraham. I live in Ward 3. I'm a member of Community Service Organization, Orange County. I'm here for two purposes, again, to continue demanding justice for Noe Rodriguez, who was killed by Santa Ana PD officers Luis Casillas and Isaac Ibarra, December 1st, 2024. The family and their attorneys still have not received a report from the officers. we are still demanding justice for Noe. Secondly, we're demanding that you vote no on the amendments proposed in item 29 of the agenda, because it's insane.

I cannot emphasize how insane I felt reading these amendments. First of all, let's talk about the language changes. They want to remove the commission's complete and prompt access to SAPD records. They want to remove the authority of the independent oversight director to conduct investigations, including their ability to compel the production of evidence and subpoenaing witnesses. This is terrible. They're literally taking away the commission and director's ability to conduct investigations. The commission can no longer independently investigate complaints that allege misconduct. They can only review and make recommendations

on SAPD internal affairs investigations, meaning that they have to wait months for SAPD's internal affairs to finish their own investigation. They can't actually do their own. They can only make recommendations. They can only comment on what's going to be submitted to the city if there's enough time, if SAPD Internal Affairs gets it to them on time. Again, to that point, they have to ask the oversight director, the commission has to ask the oversight director to ask the chief of police to initiate an internal affairs investigation according to the language of these changes.

If the chief decides to entertain that idea, then the commission can only review certain types of cases if the police department internal affairs sustains findings of alleged misconduct. In other words, we have to trust that SAPD is going to police themselves. Really? I can't, I cannot stress this enough. We have seen that they cannot be trusted to do that. We have seen that they cannot be trusted to investigate themselves. The Kulichitaun incident that people have been talking about tonight. Two minors were sexually assaulted by off-duty SAPD officers, okay?

The family called 911 to report them and when other officers arrived to the scene, they would turn off their body cameras, they would turn them in different directions to make sure that evidence incriminating those officers was not properly recorded. And then when the investigation by Internal Affairs was conducted, a commander from the SAPD alleged that the head of Internal Affairs at the time, Robert Rodriguez, was delaying this investigation intentionally. Not only that, but the Internal Affairs investigation ultimately concluded that the officers conducted no wrongdoing.

So we have evidence, evidence from five years ago that SAPD cannot be trusted to investigate themselves. We know this already and it's not the only case. It's not going to be the only case unless we vote no on 29. That's what we want you to do tonight. No on 29. Justice for Noe Rodriguez. Protect police oversight.

Jennifer L. Hall

The next three speakers.

Jennifer L. Hall

Carl Benninger, Francisco Berrigan, Fernando Devoros.

it was a good good evening council i came here prepared to talk totally different what i'm going to really say right now but there isn't a city and i saw it here again tonight hate we need all of you to stop the hate i witnessed it two weeks ago when which we went out and hired people i talked to four going out the door we're the residents of santa ana and let me remind you i'm ward four um they were here blasting the mayor and the sad part is you were told and you've had

experience and you know that the ice does not associate with the mayor don't associate with the police doesn't associate with this with the city and by law they cannot communicate with them but yet i heard three-year council people keep insisting that they do i hear people tonight keep saying the mayor can control well i wish i know she wish she could but she can't what i really want us to do is stop the hate let's pull together and let's go to our council our our representative, Lou Correa, who I talked to last Saturday. And he would love to work with people.

And what we really need to do is take our immigration laws and revise them. I stood in front of this council two years ago and said, citizenship in this country matters. And it still matters. That's why my grandparents, when they came to this country, became citizens. But I think what we need to do is support immigration changes that gives a path to citizenship not in years but in weeks and there's no reason why that cannot be done and I welcome every immigrant and I am one an immigrant too from different parents and there's nothing wrong against immigrants

but let's do it legally because we are a country of laws and if we don't have laws we don't have organization and we don't have a country thank you

hi good evening my name is Francisco Barragan I was actually here to speak on another subject but good evening mayor Valerio Mezcua mayor Pro Tem Benjamin I'm a representative fan, World One. Actually, hearing the issues that are happening in our community, I just want to offer my perspective. I served eight years in the Marine Corps. I served three years in the National Guard. My stepfather was an active duty Vietnam veteran for four years, and then he did three years reserves. serves, my daughter's mom served 15 years in the Army Reserve,

and a lot of my cousins, nephews, nieces, they also served, uncles. When we put on our uniform, just keep in mind that when our Marines and National Guard have been mobilized, that's not what we train for. OK? When the US president says that he's sending the military, because, for example, like the state or the county of LA, the city of LA, that they're there to protect the federal property and protect the police. If you look at the example, the police chief says, what are you talking about? I don't even know what they're doing, who they're coordinating with.

So we know that really what they're doing right now from the federal side with the raids, I think it's more about cruelty and chaos. us and in a way it's an attempt to divide us. And I think the best thing, what we can do, is really, really stay united. I would ask that you are leaders, elected leaders. Maybe work, and I'm glad that attorney Sonia Cavallo mentioned that she would be willing to help guide us on what's proper, what's not. But I think if we work as a community, because remember, if we harm anything in our community, we're harming ourselves. ourselves, right? So let's work with our city elected leaders, our pastors,

faith leaders, community leaders, other veterans, right? So that we can stand together. The harm they'll cause to our community, we'll cause to ourselves. I would ask the other activists, right? Stay in the fight. Don't cause anything that gets you arrested. Because it's something more long term. Be prepared. Don't let them take away your right to be able to vote in the next election, the midterm elections. So stay in the fight, but do it peacefully. One thing that I'm concerned, because I also did things against domestic violence, human trafficking, I'm very concerned that individuals are out there,

because they could be pretending to be law enforcement. None of us put the uniform. And I bet my brother was also law enforcement. None of military or law enforcement, we didn't put a uniform for that. But I'm concerned that somebody may pretend to be a law enforcement. If there's a way that the city can help us work with the ICE, we know they have to do their job, even though they hate doing it, many of them. If you can help us find out when they take someone.

Jennifer L. Hall

Francisco, your time is up.

If they take someone that we know where they took them, so we know it was a valid detainment and not a kidnapping for sexual trafficking or something like that. Thank you.

you. Good evening, council. I have a few items that I want to speak on today. So first, I want to speak in opposition to item 29, weakening the police oversight commission. When I was nominated back for the police oversight commission in 2023 by Councilmember Hernandez, Mayor Mezcua, Councilmembers Peñalosa, Becerra, and Taifan, y'all voted against my nomination to that oversight commission saying that my outspoken criticisms of police brutality and police abuse made me too biased to serve on that commission and that it could jeopardize the integrity and credibility

of the commission the amendments that are proposed in this ordinance today would do that for you there'll be no integrity and credibility left it would just be a symbolic gesture so i urge you to oppose this ordinance item 32 i want to speak in support of this one requiring officers to display clear names and badges prohibiting face coverings for law enforcement officers operating in our city I know that there's going to be a back and forth about what can the city do to regulate the actions of federal officers But this is something that we should at least bring to the forefront for a conversation just this morning

I had a call from a mother in our community saying how do I talk to my daughter 16 year old daughter about? Reports that men are impersonating ice agents wearing masks and going out and assaulting women How do I talk to my teenage daughter about that and even within our own department? I know that I was out there at the protests when we were tear gassed and our department was out there with riot gear we've seen how much more aggressive and abusive our police officers and officers in general get when they have that anonymity so I would say we don't need secret police in our streets and so anything that we can do to show their

faces while they're out here serving and protecting let's do that for item 28 financial assistance for families I think this is a solid proposal and something that I think our families in our community really would really benefit from marimesqua i wish that this was the kind of language that you were bringing forth when you were telling people to lay low this is the kind of thing that we needed at that time uh i do want to also propose though i know the events like chicano heritage juneteenth mid-auburn festival all those it's beautiful to see our communities coming together i know right now it's a vulnerable

time and especially certain residents that are vulnerable with their status may not come out there but i would like to see some funds allocated whatever the council can come up with to host some sort of solidarity event so the community can come together stand in solidarity with our immigrant immigrant community. I've hosted a few events in recent weeks and it's beautiful to see people coming together in that way. So I would encourage you all to have that conversation. Regarding social media, Mayor Mezcua, I wanted to bring this to your attention. There's a

copaganda page called Mi Santana and they recently posted a photo of a 15-year-old minor being arrested by SAPD. I know that you recently posted a reel in collaboration with the Mi Santana page on June 21st talking about Narciso Barranco. So I'm assuming you have some kind of communication there please urge them to stop putting minors on blast on the social media and lastly a message to residents lastly a message to residents do not wait for elected officials to save us organizing your neighborhoods get to know your neighbors form group chats organize grocery drop-offs and rent

fundraisers for your vulnerable neighbors organize community safety watches to keep your neighbors safe we will take the help from politicians when they offer it but we also have the power to keep us safe remember that thank you

Jennifer L. Hall

Next three speakers.

Jennifer L. Hall

The next three speakers, Michael Valentine, Mia Verdine, Emma Gottfried.

Jennifer L. Hall

Michael Valentine.

Jennifer L. Hall

Mia Verdine, Emma Gottfried, Carlos Perea.

Good evening, Mayor and City Council. My name is Mia Verdine and I'm a Ward 3 resident. I wanted to speak to you today on two items, so I hope you're taking notes. First, I would like to speak in favor of item 32, the resolution to direct city staff to prepare an ordinance to require law enforcement to wear visible identification and face coverings, as well as supporting SB 627 and 805 at the state level. I highly encourage all members of the council to vote in favor of this resolution now more than ever our community needs protection at all

Levels of government, especially the local level. I know there's been a lot of concerns. It's like oh, we're a local government What can we do? It's the federal government. This is what we can do So I really really hope to see all of you vote in favor of this resolution

Especially when we've seen these mass goons come into our city without warrants and without reading rights to the detained taking our loved ones off of the streets and away from our families. If we're going to hold the status as the only sanctuary city in Orange County, the council must follow through with that promise and be a sanctuary to the community. So that's why I implore you all to support this resolution. Secondly, I would like to speak in strong opposition to item 29, the proposed of a police oversight commission amendments. These amendments weaken the integrity of

the commission. The fact that the very commissioners that you are all legislating on barely found out that these amendments were being made is not right. Stripping the Commission of its ability to conduct independent investigations and being only able to review what the Commission receives from the SAPD's Internal Affairs Department is absurd. Especially when the Internal Affairs Department in the past has failed to adequately hold its officers accountable. The police cannot police themselves. That's the whole reason why the Commission was fought for and co-created alongside the community and

the city. The Commission must retain its current powers. The City of Santa Ana deserves a police department that is accountable to its residents. The city of Santa Ana deserves a commission made up of its residents who can effectively conduct these investigations and hold officers accountable in instances of misconduct. Council, if you truly believe in justice and accountability, if you believe in transparency, like council member Peña Loza was touting on social media earlier, you would vote against this item and your vote against this item would reflect this belief. And finally, I would like to speak on item 28,

The item to establish an emergency assistance fund for families impacted by immigration enforcement. I'm in favor of establishing this emergency assistance fund. However, I take issue with the source of the funding. The item states that the funds for this would be established with funding for city events. City events are a vital source of pride and joy in the community. They are a vital part of what makes our community so special. When I'm away at college, I'm always missing the community events and it makes me really sad. Well, yes, I very much do agree we do need this fund established.

I highly encourage the city staff, sorry, the city council to direct city staff to find alternative means to funding this fund. Thank you.

Alvaro Nuñez

Hello. My name's Emma and I'm a resident from Ward 4 and I'm here as a member of CSO's Police Accountability Committee. We're here to demand that the City Council not pass the ordinance for amending the powers of the Police Oversight Commission. I want to talk about the commission itself briefly. This commission was created in 2022. They've not investigated a single case. And in that time, right as you all are about to appoint the final piece for this commission for this commission to actually function, you're proposing this amendment to effectively destroy this commission.

Alvaro Nuñez

And who is proposing this amendment? Our mayor, Valerie Mesca, council member, my representative, council member, Phil Becerra, and the city manager's office, and crucially, the police department. It's right there in the staff report that you submitted with the amendment. That's unacceptable. This was supposed to be founded as a way to increase transparency, a way to increase trust with the Santa Ana Police Department, which clearly needs it after all of the countless

Alvaro Nuñez

incidents that have not been properly investigated by the Internal Affairs Department. This ordinance completely destroys the ability for the commission to actually do independent investigation. They have to wait until after the SAPD's internal affair investigation is completed. It limits the topics that after that investigation completes, whatever those findings sustain, that's not complete oversight. That's not independent at all. In fact, you all are even renaming the independent oversight director, especially into police oversight director.

Alvaro Nuñez

director. Like, you're not trying to hide that this is an independent commission anymore. This is a PR tool for you all and that's a shame. That's shameless and it's unacceptable. The city deserves so much better and we need stronger, we need community control over the police and we need much stronger accountability for the police department. And also, I want to comment on how you all are so quick to say what you can't do in your abilities as as a city, as a council, as a mayor, as a city manager's office, because you're shrouding that these changes are complying with state law.

Alvaro Nuñez

They're not. You've heard many other people speak on that. But also, in terms of what you could be doing right now to protect citizens of Santa Ana right now, if we had a functional police oversight commission for these past two years, the commission would be able to propose different policies for SAPD so that they could actually protect our citizens from ICE and our vulnerable community.

Alvaro Nuñez

If you had, if this oversight commission was functional, you'd be able to submit for the excessive force that SAPD is doing in this protest.

The police can't police themselves.

Jennifer L. Hall

The next speakers.

Jennifer L. Hall

Carlos Correa and Emilio Ramirez.

Good evening, Mayor Mezcoa and members of the City Council. As a current member of the Santana Police Oversight Commission, I'm here to express my firm opposition to the proposed amendments to the police oversight ordinance. Let me be clear. These amendments don't improve oversight. They dismantle it. They strip the commission of its power to conduct independent investigations investigations and reduce us to passive reviewers of select internal affair cases only after SAPD has already concluded its process. This cuts our core purpose.

Civilian oversight cannot exist without the ability to independently evaluate complaints, especially those coming directly from the public. For over a year, this commission has taken our responsibility seriously. We've undergone extensive training, held monthly commission meetings and prepared ourselves to engage in real oversight. Meanwhile, our work has been stalled, not because of inaction on our part, but because the City Council failed

to appoint an independent oversight director until hopefully today. A rule that is essential to our function. During this time we have received complaints from community members that we've been unable to review on their merits due to the absence of a director. Now instead of empowering the Commission to to finally do its job, this council is considering amendments that will take away the very tools we need to serve the public. These changes were developed without any input from the commission.

They were made by an ad hoc committee created by Mayor Amezcua, which prompts me to ask the following transparency questions, since I cannot ask them at my very own commission. Who was part of this ad hoc committee? Who recommended the proposed changes to this ordinance? Was anyone outside of the council or city staff involved in making changes?

This proposed ordinance also removes our ability to make recommendations on the city's MOUs with the police officers association and eliminates key mechanisms of community engagement like public public forums, and educational outreach. These are not minor edits, these are structural changes that raise accountability and tie the hands of the Police Oversight Commission. I urge this council to reject these amendments, work with the commission to review this ordinance, and together have a constructive conversation as to how it can be improved, because what you have today in front of you ignores the commitment of commission members

who have volunteered their time and energy to do this work.

Jennifer L. Hall

Carlos, your time is up.

Let us the people you appointed to carry out the study do the work we've been preparing to do for over a year. Thank you.

Good evening, members of the city council. I'm here today to express my opposition to agenda item number 20, the memorandum of understanding for the MPAH between Santa Ana and the City of Irvine. I would like to ask you to please raise a discussion with city council and public works to question why Santa Ana aims to widen the streets in some areas and implementing the road guides in others. Specifically here as a background, Irvine is a city of arterials. It just has wide roads everywhere. and it has asked for an amendment to the MPAH for this section of Red Hill to be reduced.

And they have rightfully identified that to be able to quiet their streets and align with their city vision. So I'm also asking, instead of moving forward with the road widening, I think Santana should also ask to amend the MPAH for our section of the Red Hill-Suggestrom, as this would align with our Vision Zero plan. plan. Poor youth lost their lives earlier today on that very street for speeding because the road is a fast road. So I really would like you to consider this as we move forward. This is a matter of budget. I've expressed this before. I love our city. I want our city

to be resilient. I want there to be abundance. I am in support of item 28 and like a previous as the resident mentioned, it is coming out of city budget for events. Every time we walk in a road, and traffic engineers can tell you here, there's a rule of fourths. The more way there is in a road, the four times more faster it will erode. So it is really more of a liability every time we are doing these roads. I'm an engineer and I studied chemical engineering so it is different from traffic engineering, but it is the same principle. They're trying to get through a road, in my case a pipe, and the only way to do it is

velocity times area. We are restricted by velocity and the only thing that changes is area. In a refinery like where I work, that's easy, it's just a pipe. But a city is not a pipe. Every time you're walking the street, if you go to your favorite streets, they're probably small, there's people walking. but on a major arterial people don't want to walk because it's a freeway it's in the name it's a highway and you know it was brought up before I know the City Council is very bike friendly and I really appreciate that I'm very thankful for that and I think we need to nothing like I'm not

here as a bicyclist I'm here just as someone that's very concerned about the budget and I I think about the abundance and the prosperity of the future of the city.

Today CEQA has been amended, so I do think there's a lot of work to be done in zoning and I urge the city to consider the ways that we will grow together. Thank you.

Jennifer L. Hall

Mayor and City Council, that concludes the public speakers that are present. We'll now begin with the Zoom speakers. When unmuted, please announce your name and the ward or neighborhood that you reside in within the city of santa ana for the record

Jennifer L. Hall

first speaker on zoom

Jennifer L. Hall

kayla asato

Jennifer L. Hall

hello can you hear me yes go ahead please awesome

my name is kayla asato i am a former resident of ward 3 and a employee over in ward 5. um i I am just really bothered by the ideas that the city council, probably under Mayor Mezco from previous comments, is trying to weaken and pretty much dismantle the effectiveness of the police oversight commission. I think that is extraordinarily alarming. I think that everyone should vote no on item number 29. I do like item number 28 and the support of the bills.

bills I believe it was items number 22 right now I'm sorry I haven't I don't have the agenda right in front of me but I support the bills that are up for consideration the state bills I think that the council should endorse them I think the council should approve the fund for immigrants communities I think that we need to be a lot more creative with how we target a lot of this stuff I think that we need to protect the police oversight Commission and also this isn't something that is on the agenda to my understanding but I think we need to create a sanctuary board but that is

pretty much all I have to say except for it is deeply concerning that mayor you you are using city staff as a shield to say like, oh, well, we can't do anything. We can't do anything. I understand that things are difficult, but I think you need to start getting creative. I think that everyone needs to start getting creative and Mayor, you need to stop being so dismissive. Thank you.

Jennifer L. Hall

Next speaker on Zoom, Teodora.

Please unmute.

la comunidad vive estrés frustración coraje e impotencia por todo lo que está pasando y no no ser no son responsable no pero mi también tancito

y no ser respaldados por ciertos concejales y valeria mezcua este fondo The community accepts the funds, but it is not enough. Their job is to find out where else they can get more funds for the community. Mainly, the police also have events during the year. Let's use everything that is available. de que hay, hay y no le digan a la comunidad que no hay porque la comunidad vive aquí y sabe todo lo que pasa.

Que aunque nada de lo que se haga logrará que la comunidad olvide todo lo que está pasando con hijos, hermanos y papás. Ver a los niños de la comunidad, de nuestra comunidad, encerrados y preguntando a papá y a mamá que por qué no los llevan al parque, que por qué no salen de paseo, que por qué tienen que estar encerrados.

Basta de todas estas cosas que vive la comunidad y a la policía. De tanta policía que hay, ¿por qué no hacen su trabajo? ¿Por qué, como dicen, proteger a la comunidad? ¿Por qué no se aseguran de que las personas que están entrando a nuestra comunidad realmente sean ICE y no cazarrecompensas? or sabrá Dios qué tipo de personas se están llevando a nuestra comunidad. Hagan su trabajo, que es cuidar a la comunidad. Gracias. Gracias.

Good evening. I'm part of the tenant group, and I'm here to talk about item number 28. and we are receiving we like to receive that help that you mentioned for ice activities and but please realize that it's not just one or two families it's a lot of families the entire community needs needs this because we are suffering from stress and frustration and fear and impotence and we we are not supported by some council members we are not supported by Valerie Emescu and we accept the money for this community but I want to tell you that it is not enough

we want you to find more funds to help our community there are some police events that need that you can suspend so you can find the monies we can use all available monies to help our community and we need to find more monies and And don't tell the community that there's no money because the community knows that there is money. And the community needs to get this help because they're disappearing, our brothers, our fathers, our sons. So our community is hiding away. Our kids are asking us, why can't we go to the parks?

Why can't we go out? Why do we need to be hiding? stop all this and to the police do our do your work you're so you say you're you're doing you say you're supposed to protect us ensure that the people who are coming in our eyes and not just bounty hunters do your work and protect the community

Jennifer L. Hall

next speaker on zoom Claudia Morales Sanchez

Thank you. assistance a financier a las familias afectada por las actividades migratorias hoy no apoyo este plan ya que viendo nuestras comunidades como están viviendo esta situación necesitamos un plan que apoya toda la comunidad pues todos hemos sido afectados de diversas maneras ocupamos un plan de emergencia ya que la necesidad la necesidad ya está aquí ahora no podemos esperar sobre todo las las familias trabajadoras de ingresos extremadamente bajos la cantidad del fondo será insuficiente para la necesidad generada se ocupa buscar más fondos por el momento no apoyamos este plan incompleto insuficiente y no

inclusivo los fondos están donde tú no quieres ver gracias

Good evening, City Council. My name is Claudia Morales Sanchez and I lived in Ward 4 for over 26 years. And I'm part of the Tenants United group and I'm here to speak about number 28. This is unacceptable because the funds to protect against ICE, the situations that our families are going through are very complex. And we need help for a comprehensive plan for all of the community. This money is not enough. We need an emergency plan to act because we need the help now. The situation is here.

We cannot wait. Our low-income families need the support and the money that you're proposing for this item. The money is not enough. We need to find more funds. We do not support this incomplete plan. That is not going to be enough. And the money is there, but the money is where you do not want to see.

Jennifer L. Hall

Next speaker, Araceli Robles. Please unmute.

Yes, good afternoon. My name is Aracely Robles and I live in District 2. At this moment, I am here to support that they do not make any changes to the Police Police Watch Committee. Having this group has taken us many hours of council, many late stays, a lot of time without spending time with our families, because we really We really need the police department to be monitored. I ask myself, Valerie, if you trust your police department so much, why do you want to take things away from the committee? Why do you want to take their value away? Because you know that later they will uncover things that are even more serious.

I will do everything I can to support this committee. And also, as a city lawyer, can we have a meeting? Because you say that we have to be in good terms and all that. Why does a public servant have to pay the campaign to a public servant? And they see themselves in the need to be giving them our money, giving them our taxes. We need to have that meeting and make a campaign. Valery, I'm really sorry. When you have that attitude, your body language is completely unacceptable.

We are a community that fights and we will not let you take this committee away from us. Use the funds where we really need them, not in the police department. Lawyer of the City, I'm ready to have a meeting with you and plan a campaign to dismiss a public servant le de dinero a otro servidor público. Es conflicto de interes.

Good evening. My name is Aracely Robles. I live in Ward 2, and I'm here to support that there are no changes to the police oversight commission. commission. We have spent many hours and many late nights away from our families to get this done and supposedly is to support the police. But Valerie, if you trust your SAPD, why are you taking away the power of this commission? Maybe because in the near future some things are going to come out that are not good and all of us, we support this committee. meeting. To the city attorney, you're saying that we can have a meeting. Why do we need to have a

meeting if we're all, but we all need to be in good terms, and why do we need to pay for public servants with our tax money? So we do want to have that meeting, my city attorney. And Valerie, it's a shame that you have that attitude, your body language speaks volume, and that you are not supporting and the community needs this we do not need to have changes to this police commission and to the attorney we want to have a meeting and on how to have this campaign on why is a public servant using money to support another

public servant this seems to be a conflict of interest next speaker on

Jennifer L. Hall

on Zoom, Victor Mendez.

Hello, Victor Mendez, can you hear me okay? Yes. Okay, hey. So Victor Mendez, Ward 3, item number 24, I fully support moving forward on this item and getting independent slash investigative director in place. Evidently, there's some policy issues that now they gotta be worked through. I'm a little concerned about that as well. There was an awful lot of time spent trying to put this commission together. There was a lot of testimony, a lot of effort, so I'm not sure why these changes need to be done at this time.

But perhaps through deliberations, we can get these questions answered and move forward in the best productive manner possible. But I'm very glad to see it went with a firm. I think this will make a much more agile, flexible response to varying needs and is certainly preferable to the staff heavy and very expensive Oakland style models that were kind of proposed earlier in this process. Number 28, the immigration support fund. I certainly support this item. However, I'd like you to consider other alternatives to fund this initiative.

In prior years, staff provides a final reconciliation of the prior year budget. That reconciliation then goes, the funds in that reconciliation then go to fund, you know, funds or stabilize other funds such as workers' compensation. It's a lot of money that kind of, you know, gets transferred out at the end. And I'm wondering if maybe there's a way to defer until we see what that reconciliation looks like. Like if in fact it is gonna exist, I'm not too deep into the budget process here, but if there is gonna be a reconciliation, waiting till that kind of comes about might provide a better opportunity.

You could always still go forward with this initiative, that would be to getting the money in place, either through the proposal that's been presented by the mayor or through the reconciliation process for the prior year. Nonetheless, the circumstances of this proposal are urgent. And I would like the council to consider consider all viable options to implement this. It's very important to me. As many of you know, I was recently hospitalized for several days. And at a time when immigrants are vilified in the news, I can honestly say that the immigrants probably saved my life. During my recovery, I was treated

by providers, doctors, surgeons, nurses, technicians, all with varying degrees of the immigration experience and who came from many parts of the world india vietnam china the philippines mexico central america and even one of my surgeons was from canada of all places uh so this the history of immigration in our country goes back to the revolutionary war where slaves cyprus addicts became the first person to die for the 13 colonies so let's embrace the history and and all the things that part of the region.

Jennifer L. HallItem 24

Next speaker, Fabi.

Hello, good afternoon members of the city council.

Can you hear me? Yes. Okay, thank you. Good evening, mayor and council members. My name is Fabi Hakume and I'm here on behalf of the Orange County Justice Fund and our office is in Ward 5. I'm speaking in support of agenda items number 27 and 32. As always we stand with our community in supporting transparency around immigration enforcement and advancing policies that promote true public safety, especially for immigrant and refugee communities who are too often the targets of harm. We also urge the council to take great care in its approach to agenda item number 28 which which discusses direct aid for residents.

Santa Ana already has an existing proposal program designed to support families impacted by immigration enforcement, which is the Immigration Legal Defense Fund. Legal representation is a heavy financial burden for families already struggling to survive the consequences of detention and deportation. Expanding funding for this existing program is a clear and immediate way to offer relief. It should not be delayed or over complicated by creating new and duplicative programs. And we urge the city to strengthen and streamline access to this fund. In doing so, please ensure that legal services are accessible to all impacted residents,

including Southeast Asian refugees who are disproportionately targeted for deportation and face unique barriers in securing representation. We encourage you to also keep in mind basic needs like rental and utility assistance.

As a nonprofit, OCJF has fundraised to provide community members with bond assistance and to connect them to legal services at the very least we're helping families find their loved ones who've been taken by loose masked individuals off our streets people acting with no accountability these are not abstract stories they are real families in our neighborhood we are supporting a mother from ward 4 whose husband the primary provider for the household is currently detained in texas this family is now trying to cover rent put food on the table and find legal help. All while living with the trauma of having a loved one

taken by unknown masked people. And they are not alone. Families across Santa Ana are in desperate need of help. This is the moment to invest in programs and to act with urgency and compassion. We also want to express our strong opposition to item number 29. Thank you.

Jennifer L. HallItem 24

Mayor and city council, that concludes the public speakers that were in the queue when we began thank

Valerie AmezcuaItem 24

you madam city clerk at this time I'm gonna call a five-minute break and we'll be right back

recording stopped

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guitar solo

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Jennifer L. HallItem 24

Mayor, you're back live.

All right.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 24

We're back on. This is the consent calendar. We're going to do items 2 through 24 before us minus the items 3, 4, 5, 6, and 7.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 2

Councilmembers please announce any items that you will be abstaining from due to conflict. Is there any request to pull an item from the consent calendar? Please let me know. We'll start with Mayor Pro Tem. I have nothing to pull. Thank you. Councilmember Lopez? No items. Thank you. Thank you. Council Member Panalosa.

David PenalozaItem 2

Yeah, thank you, Mayor. Item 21, please.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 2

Thank you. Council Member Becerra.

Phil BacerraItem 2

Thank you, Madam Mayor. I'll be pulling items nine, 11, 15, and 20.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 2

Nine, 11, 15, and 20.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 2

Thank you. I don't know if I say thank you or oh my goodness. Council Member Fann.

Thai Viet PhanItem 2

Nothing to pull, Mayor, although I do have to recuse myself from number 19, 20, and 10 as Kleinfelder Inc., City of Irvine, and working wardrobes are clients of my employer, Rattan and Tucker, so if they are pulled, I will leave the die as well as being discussed. Thank you. 10, 19, and 20, correct?

Valerie AmezcuaItem 2

Thank you. Council Member Hernandez.

Johnathan Ryan HernandezItem 2

Thank you, Madam Mayor. I just had a brief comment on item 15. I do believe Council Member Becerra pulled that item?

Valerie AmezcuaItem 2

Yes, he did.

Johnathan Ryan HernandezItem 2

And then just a brief comment on item 10. I won't be pulling the item, but just wanted to share that I'm supportive. So I'll make a motion to move the balance of the consent calendar. I'll second.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 2

And I don't have any to pull. But I believe here we go. Okay, there's a motion on the floor to second. Madam Clerk?

Jennifer L. HallItem 2

It's a motion by Council Member Hernandez, seconded by Council Member Penalosa, to approve consent calendar items number 3224, with the exceptions of items 3, 4, 5, 6, and 7, which were previously approved, and items 9, 11, 15, 20, and 21, which have been pulled for separate discussion and consideration.

Phil BacerraItem 2

council member becerra wait is our voting system not working i got a roll call sir okay uh aye

Jennifer L. HallItem 2

council member hernandez aye council member lopez yes council member penalosa yes council member fan yes mayor pro tempasquez yes mayor mesqua yes seven ayes no nays with a reported recusal by council member fan on items 10 19 and 20. motion carries first item pulled

Phil BacerraItem 2

is item number nine by council member becerra thank you madam clerk uh this is uh the item is to approve a pre-commitment of 920 000 in inclusionary housing funds for eligible home buyers to purchase nine existing rental units that will be converted into affordable ownership

Phil BacerraItem 2

CONDOMINIUM UNITS OVER OFF OF WELLINGTON. SO I LOVE THE IDEA. I LOVE THAT WE'RE SEEING THIS HAPPEN. I LOVE THAT THESE UNITS WILL BECOME OPPORTUNITIES FOR FOLKS TO OWN IN OUR CITY. BUT I HAVE MORE OF A QUESTION WHEN IT COMES TO KIND OF PROCESS AND PROCEDURE. AND SO MR. CITY MANAGER, SO I GUESS WHAT I WANT TO UNDERSTAND IS, SO THIS IS A PRECOMMITMENT. AND IN ORDER FOR THIS, FOR THESE APARTMENTS TO BECOME CONDOMINIUMS, CERTAIN THINGS HAVE TO HAPPEN, RIGHT? CERTAIN approvals, right? So I guess what I'm concerned with is we're looking at pre-approving money

Phil BacerraItem 2

and then later coming back and possibly approving entitlements. So I have to imagine very minimal, there would probably be at least a track map that would be a part of the approvals for this project. Is that correct?

The Assistant Director-Man would answer the specific questions because, yes, we are aware of that. Mayor Redekopal, I'll turn it over to you, Mr. President. Good evening, Mayor and members of this council. The answer to your question is yes, there will be a tentative track map that's required in order for the project to be subdivided into ownership units. The pre-commitment tonight is simply just that. It's a commitment to provide funding for families to purchase the home subject to the project

THE CITY'S REVIEW PROCESS. THE COMMITMENT DECISION TONIGHT DOES NOT BIND THE CITY ON ITS REGULATORY PROCESS. IN TERMS OF GOING THROUGH THE MAPPING PROCESS, THE APPLICANT WOULD HAVE TO SUBMIT TO THE PLANNING DIVISION OR REVIEW UNDER THE SUBDIVISION MAP REQUIREMENTS, GO THROUGH THE PLANNING COMMISSION FOR THE TENANT MAP AND EVENTUALLY GO THROUGH THE FINAL MAP PROCESS FOR REVIEW AT A LATER DATE.

Phil BacerraItem 2

SO LET ME ASK YOU THIS, MR. MAYOR. Mr. Tai, so you said something that piqued my interest. So the money itself, it's not going to the company building the home or converting the apartments into condominiums. It's being set aside for the purchase. Is that correct?

That's absolutely correct. It's being set aside for purchase at the project site, but to San Antonio residents and not to Habitat for Humanity.

Phil BacerraItem 2

Okay. Because what alarmed me on this particular item was we've seen in the past where staff staff has brought forward items that were pre-commitments prior to entitlements. And I think that is, if everybody out there that's screaming bloody murder about transparency and what's going on, there is a situation ripe for some sort of malfeasance. Because I think that to ask this council to commit money and then have us pretend that we are just completely unbiased and that we're somehow going to make a decision on a discretionary action without any sort of kind of predetermined outcome in mind is absolutely insane. So I

Phil BacerraItem 2

appreciate you making that clarification because if it had just been, I mean, think about it. If we had done a quote-unquote pre-commitment to one of the bigger private developers in town, rightfully so, everybody should be losing their mind over that. That is not the way to do business in this city. We should be doing entitlements first before anything along those lines. So So I appreciate the clarification and now that I know that, I'll go ahead and move this item.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 2

I'll second. Any other comments by council members?

Jennifer L. HallItem 2

A motion by Councilmember Becerra, seconded by Mayor Meskwet to approve the recommended action for item number nine. Councilmember Becerra?

Johnathan Ryan HernandezItem 2

Yes.

Jennifer L. HallItem 2

Councilmember Hernandez?

David PenalozaItem 2

Yes.

Jennifer L. HallItem 2

Councilmember Lopez? Yes. Councilmember Penalosa?

David PenalozaItem 2

Yes.

Jennifer L. HallItem 2

Councilmember Phan? Yes. Mayor Pro Tem Vasquez? Yes. Mayor Meskwa? Yes. So there's seven ayes, no nays. Motion carries. I believe the next item is a brief comment by Council Member Hernandez on item 10.

Johnathan Ryan HernandezItem 2

I thank you very much, Madam City Clerk. This is a comment just to inform the public that item 10 is an item related to agreements with the Orange County Therapeutic Arts Center, Working Wardrobes for a New Start, and Stand Up for Kids Orange County to provide workforce readiness, preparation, work experience and career training programs to Santa Ana youth I just wanted to highlight in a comment today the effectiveness of these programs I believe every one of my colleagues here has visited working wardrobes as well as octak and I can tell you these are credible organizations that are working

Johnathan Ryan HernandezItem 2

you know around the clock to make sure that our residents who are who are looking for some of these support networks get the support that they're looking for. OCTAQ is right off of Main Street, right near the Main Place Mall. They're a homegrown organization, and I just want to applaud the work that they do. And I'll make a motion to move this item.

Johnathan Ryan HernandezItem 2

I'll second.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 2

It was just a comment, so you don't need a motion. It was just a comment.

Phil BacerraItem 2

No, but he pulled it. He pulled it.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 2

No, he just wanted a comment.

Okay.

Phil BacerraItem 2

We're going back to that again?

Valerie AmezcuaItem 2

Yes. He just wanted a comment to show his support. Madam Clerk, go ahead.

Jennifer L. HallItem 2

The next item is item 11 by Council Member Croninger.

Phil BacerraItem 2

Councilmember Becerra. Thank you, Madam Clerk. So this is an item, it's an agreement with Graves and King, Jones Mayor, and an agreement with Bobco Law. So according to the staff report, the City Attorney's Office is asking this Council to approve an agreement in the amount of $500,000 with Graves and King because they, according to the staff report, previously represented the City for a wrongful death claim and they continue to provide the city with timely and responsible responsive work product and excellent litigation results for the city then of course or not of course then the

Phil BacerraItem 2

uh city attorney's office is asking us to approve an amendment to a current agreement with bobco law from 50 000 to 500 000 based on mr bobco's over 25 years of experience in municipal law and then finally the city attorney's office is asking the council to approve an agreement for 500 000 with Jones Mayer for legal services in the area of administrative and litigation matters and that Jones Mayer has served the city and the city attorney's office since 2012. Now Jones Mayer is an experienced municipal law firm with some great attorneys. In fact, their attorneys serve

Phil BacerraItem 2

as a city attorney for a variety of nearby cities, right, including Westminster, Placentia, Fullerton, and La Habra. So our city, we have an agreement with Best Best and Krieger, which Sonia is a partner in their municipal law group, and she was designated by the council back in 2012 to be our city attorney. I know that Sonia also serves for city attorney in Pomona and San Bernardino, as well as the city of Santa Ana. But what I'm trying to understand is just as far as the what we're trying to accomplish with this particular item is, so Best Best and

Phil BacerraItem 2

kreger um according to our agreement with that firm you provide us with general city attorney services special legal services and additional specialized legal services and that's a little over 300 000 correct okay so if we approve this item tonight we're going to be paying up to 1.5 million dollars for three more law firms to provide our city with legal services services. My understanding in contracting with Best Best and Krieger is that we have access to that whole variety of legal services. Jones Mayer, again, being a municipal law firm, reputable firm, so what I guess I'm trying to understand is what are these other

Phil BacerraItem 2

law firms offering that we aren't getting through our contract with BBK?

Sonia R. CarvalhoItem 2

Excellent question. Excellent question, and I really welcome the opportunity to explain I'm sorry to explain that. So we have three different things. I'm gonna start with what you do with respect to our contract. So our contract, when I say our, Best Best and Krieger and the city, covers general city attorney services. That's what I do at all your meetings, advice, overseeing the office, and that's set through a retainer. Our contract does allow us to contract back for other specialized council services, but because when I started this relationship, I was very, very concerned,

Sonia R. CarvalhoItem 2

concerned, not only about an appearance of an impropriety, but actual impropriety. So we made it clear that we, our firm, would never handle certain types of cases because there could be a real appearance that we were, in my role as a city attorney, referring work back to the firm. It would be very easy for my firm to do all of your work. It would cost you a lot of money, but I just think that's a huge conflict of interest. We don't work that way. But even if you had an in-house city attorney full time, I'll tell you why you would still need these three law firms.

Sonia R. CarvalhoItem 2

So it doesn't matter that you're contracting with me, but there's a reason why you would need each of them. With respect to Graves and King, they are actually a tort claims law firm. They are hired through your risk management program and they're paid for by your risk management program. Okay. So while that is general fund funded, you would have to hire them no matter what, because I'm sad to say you have about 71 pending lawsuits in your city right now for things from tripping over sidewalks to potholes to bicyclists car accidents etc that's what graves and king mostly

Sonia R. CarvalhoItem 2

handles and they do so in accordance with your insurer icma icrma has rate restrictions and they're actually approved by your insurer so that's where graves and king comes in no matter what you'd use them jones and mayor in addition to doing city attorney services they are an excellent law firm that does that. They actually also have specialists in their firm. They have one in particular. Mr. James Touchstone is a specialist in law enforcement matters. Sometimes when the city of Santa Ana is sued, if individual officers are sued, the law does not allow the law firm

Sonia R. CarvalhoItem 2

that's representing, or even us in-house, when we're representing an officer or when we're representing the city, does not always allow us to represent the individual officers. It's a conflict of interest and so Jones and Mayer serves and has served really since 2012 as our conflict council they're currently representing those officers where the city's been sued and officers been sued so again even if you had an in-house person you would have to conflict that's good they're called conflict council and then finally on Bob Coe mr. Bob Coe did work for Richards

Sonia R. CarvalhoItem 2

Watson and Gershon that law firm really is the go-to law firm the firm has used like in election challenges land use matters and he left and formed his own He was doing very good work for us. I think also our city manager can attest to that, which is one of the reasons why we stay with him. And he actually worked on the Bruce Meadows case. We had a land use challenge from Bruce Meadows. He was on that case. And he is currently counsel on the 2525 Maine project case. You may recall that we've been sued on that. So once again, there's reason why, even if you had an in-house person, or even if my firm could do this,

Sonia R. CarvalhoItem 2

we wouldn't represent you in these three matters. That's what those cases are about.

Phil BacerraItem 2

Madam State Attorney, I appreciate you clarifying that because when I was looking at the staff report, I was trying to understand, especially when I—because I've seen Jones Mayer before, and knowing that they're a municipal law firm, I'm thinking, well, if we've already got a contract with Best Best and Krieger, who also provides us with municipal law, I just wanted to make sure that we were, as you say, getting our bang for our buck.

Sonia R. CarvalhoItem 2

You are. Then I'd just like to make clear, we do refer some work back to our firm. It's done in strict guidance with the contract. I can't make the recommendation a staff member has to ask. For example, our public works director might say, hey, I have a construction issue. I only offer services from our firm in those areas where I really believe you're getting superior service, and that would be in like construction cases and CEQA. You've seen a lot of our CEQA council here, development agreement type council. You've seen them before, and that's when we come in, but that's about it.

Phil BacerraItem 2

Well, thank you for that clarification. I'll go ahead and move this item unless anybody else has any questions.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 2

I'll second.

Jennifer L. HallItem 2

Motion by Councilmember Becerra, seconded by Mayor Homesqua to approve the recommended action for item number 11. Councilmember Becerra? Yes.

Jennifer L. HallItem 2

Councilmember Lopez? Yes. Councilmember Penalosa?

David PenalozaItem 2

Yes.

Jennifer L. HallItem 2

Councilmember Phan? Yes. Mayor Pro Tembaskas? Yes. Mayor Homesqua? Yes. Yes. So, to six ayes, no nays with a recorded absence by Councilmember Hernandez. Motion carries. The next item is item number 15, pulled by Councilmember Becerra.

Phil BacerraItem 2

Thank you, Madam City Clerk. For this particular item, this is to approve additional contingency funds for the 10th and Flower Street improvements with an estimated project delivery cost of $2.2 million. So according to the staff report, the project is currently under construction and close to completion however it has encountered a number of unforeseen conditions and project betterments that necessitated change orders and use of existing contingency funds so of course the contingency funds are being used to address things that were not foreseen when the initial

Phil BacerraItem 2

proposal was put forward so but then the report says that the funds are going to be used for an increase in contingency funding in the amount of 375 000 to perform additional street paving and sidewalk construction work. So to be clear, I'm not opposed to the work. You know, the staff report states that with that $375,000, we're going to add a new fire hydrant to improve fire protection. We're going to extend the street and pedestrian improvements to deliver a more complete pedestrian and mobility improvement project. But so here's where my issue is. So you've identified what the funds are going to be spent on.

Phil BacerraItem 2

How do they continue to be qualified as contingency? Contingency to me is I have this money just in case, just in case I'm not sure what's going to happen. But this staff report is a giant crystal ball. It says you're going to spend the money on the following things. So for it to be represented as contingency, and this is what I want clarity on, because is there a reason why the staff report doesn't just say that it's going directly to the construction contract? Like, why aren't we just doing a change order on the contract? And I know this may seem very minuscule and ticky tack, but it's important because when

Phil BacerraItem 2

folks go to look at this stuff, they need to believe what we're putting forward. There needs to be clarity. There needs to be transparency. And for someone looking at this from the outside, I can see where they go, but it's not contingency anymore because now we already, like literally in the same staff report that's asking for contingency funding, it's telling you what the money is going to be spent on. like there isn't going to be an opportunity at the end where you go oh thank goodness we saved 50 000 or not because we're saying we need this additional money to spend it on the following

Phil BacerraItem 2

items there is no what ifs this is what we're going to do so i i mr city manager if you could provide some clarity that'd be very appreciated secretary to victory

Mayor Redekopal. Mayor Redekopal. Good evening, Mayor, council members. The word contingency is the way that we describe those additional funds that we need to put into the project itself. Like it was mentioned in the staff report, we needed to add those improvements that we were unforeseen improvements that we we needed to relocate a gas line and build a fire hydrant and so forth. But also, we're adding monies to pave the street or the cul-de-sac all the way to Parton, which is a street that

needed some improvement. The word contingency is what we use to add funding into the project. It is a change order for the project, and we need to finish it. And it's a betterment of the project itself.

Phil BacerraItem 2

Gail Marshall. But it's a change order?

Gail Marshall. It is a change order.

Phil BacerraItem 2

change order. So what this should have said is a change order to add $375,000 for the additional

street paving. That's correct. So just to be right, so it's coming from the contingency aspect of the project, right? When the project was originally approved, it had a contingency funding, correct? That's correct. So that new modification is coming from that contingency fund.

Phil BacerraItem 2

So we're adding 375,000 to the project. So it's not sitting in a contingency fund. It's now coming in new. And it's going to fund the project and these additional activities. So it's no longer unforeseen. Correct.

In fact, I see it because it's seen here in the staff report. Yes, understood.

Phil BacerraItem 2

So I would hope that going forward rather than play cute and call it contingency, let's just call it what it is. It's a change order.

Correct. Coming from the contingency fund that we set aside. That's That's what the Bureau's trying to say.

Phil BacerraItem 2

Right, but it's just, so you're adding it into the contingency, but the way it portrays here,

Understood, Council Member.

Phil BacerraItem 2

It's not unforeseen.

Johnathan Ryan HernandezItem 2

Understood.

Phil BacerraItem 2

So with that, I'll move the item. Thank you.

Johnathan Ryan HernandezItem 2

I'll second your motion with just some very brief comments. I want to thank the City Manager's Office as well as the residents of Willard and Washington Square for their advocacy for this park space. The change order that is brought before us today, I'll call it a change order, Council Member Becerra, is going to bring improvements to the Willard neighborhood. This is adjacent to Washington Square, both of which are park poor communities. These improvements will include constructing a cul-de-sac, a bio-swell, a signalized crosswalk, a sidewalk, street improvements, and this project is currently under construction

Johnathan Ryan HernandezItem 2

and it is close to completion. And so there's a motion and a second here and I'm looking forward to voting in favor. Madam Mayor, thank you. Thank you.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 2

Thank you, let's vote.

Jennifer L. HallItem 2

Motion by Council Member Becerra, seconded by Council Member Hernandez to approve the recommended action for item number 15. Council Member Becerra?

Phil BacerraItem 2

Yes.

Jennifer L. HallItem 2

Council Member Hernandez? Yes. Council Member Lopez? Yes. Council Member Penalosa?

David PenalozaItem 2

Yes.

Jennifer L. HallItem 2

Council Member Phan? Yes. Mayor Pro Tempestas? Yes. Mayor Meskwa? Yes. So that's seven ayes, no nays, motion carries. Next item is item number 20, pulled by Councilmember Becerra with a noted recusal by Councilmember Phan.

Phil BacerraItem 2

Thank you, Madam State Clerk. So this one is just, this is a really a good item. So in April 2024, this Council rejected what I would say were proposed unrealistic amendments to the master plan of arterial highways that would have eliminated an entire backyard of one existing existing home and chopped off a portion of another home along MacArthur Boulevard in our city in order to allow the City of Irvine to reduce Red Hill Avenue between MacArthur and Main. So I want to thank our Public Works staff because you guys went back to the table and you negotiated

Phil BacerraItem 2

what I would say are much more reasonable and favorable mitigations than the ones that were originally proposed. So now the MOU that we have before us tonight, the City of Irvine has agreed to provide the City of Santa Ana what they call fair share mitigation funding. So it's just a fancy way of saying they're going to pay a portion of the left turn signals at two intersections in that area which is at flower and segastrum and flower and macarthur so those funds will be leveraged in addition to the funds that we already approved up here on this dais for those two what i

Phil BacerraItem 2

would say are life-saving projects now it sounds real fancy engineering talk to just say it's going to mitigate some other project and impacts but it's going to save lives and i want to thank our public works staff for going to bat for the city and saying no we're not going to accept what were awful awful proposed mitigations but coming back and helping to steer it towards projects that this council already committed to and that will save lives so i just wanted to uh publicly acknowledge your guys's efforts and say thank you for that work and with that i'll go ahead and move this this item.

Johnathan Ryan HernandezItem 2

I'll second your motion.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 2

Any other comments that's prepared to vote, please?

Jennifer L. HallItem 2

Motion by Council Member Becerra, seconded by Council Member Hernandez to approve the recommended action for item number 20. Council Member Becerra? Yes. Council Member Hernandez? Yes. Council Member Lopez? Yes. Council Member Penalosa? Yes. Mayor Pro Tem Vasquez? Yes. Mayor Meskwa? Yes. Vote is six ayes, no nays with the noted recusal by Council Member Phan. Motion carries. The next item pulled is item 21 by Council Member Penaleza.

Jennifer L. HallItem 2

Council Member Penaleza.

David PenalozaItem 2

Thank you, Madam Mayor, and thank you, colleagues and staff, for the time. I have pulled item 21, Bristol Street Rehabilitation from Santa Clara Avenue to Memory Lane. Madam State Attorney, please interject if I step out of line on the substance of this item. but I'm definitely supportive of awarding this contract to the contractor that put in a bid. However, the question is more just on the overall plan that we have moving forward with Bristol Street. I know that in the staff report, it said that the Bristol Corridor Widening Plan,

David PenalozaItem 2

approved by the city council in 1991, when most of us up here were babies, and I don't believe Councilmember Hernandez was even alive,

David PenalozaItem 2

does include this segment of Bristol to be widened in the future. However, there is no near-term plan to initiate the widening project in this segment. Widening this segment would require securing significant sum of grant funds and City Council approval of extensive right-of-way acquisitions. Staff will evaluate and present options for widening this segment to City Council in the future once the existing widening projects are completed. I guess my question, Mr. City Manager, is I know how time consuming and costly

David PenalozaItem 2

these projects are just to secure funding, chase these grants, plan, and given that this was a vision from the council in 1991, knowing what area of Bristol Street we're talking about, lined with homes and housing up and down Bristol Street. I personally don't feel or believe that we should even consider or have staff waste their time in considering seeking grants to acquire properties along that stretch of Bristol Street. So I guess the question here is,

David PenalozaItem 2

obviously this is just a rehab, which I'm happy to support it and I'll make a motion to approve it. but Madam City Attorney, if you could chime in here. I guess this wouldn't be an appropriate time to discuss those plans, correct? I thought so.

Sonia R. CarvalhoItem 2

Yeah, no, because it's just the funding part on this for the consent calendar, but you can give direction to staff to come back.

David PenalozaItem 2

And I would make a motion to approve this item to rehab the section of Bristol Street, but with the caveat, Mr. City Manager, if we could at some point in the next couple of months bring back some kind of resolution that kind of just ceases and stops all widening of this segment of Bristol Street and just drops the idea. I don't think it's worth our staff's time to continue dabbling with this 40 years later. And I don't anticipate us having the funding to acquire these properties anytime soon.

David PenalozaItem 2

So with that, I know that this opens up the broader conversation of many of the arterials across the city that have planned widenings. I just don't think that that's something that we should be considering at this point anymore. But with that, that would be my motion to approve this, awarding this contract. correct, but with also directing staff to bring back at some point just the overall master plan of what we have currently in the pipeline to widen these streets.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 2

I'll second that motion. I'll second that with a comment. I actually have a comment, too. So let me start on this side. Any comments on this side? Yeah. Okay. Council Member Becerra.

Phil BacerraItem 2

Thank you. And thank you, Council Member Paloza, for bringing that up. We do have to start talking about this. This is a project that's been going on since 1991. We're obviously a little slow on this one, but I think we're at a point now where the proposed quote unquote improvement may no longer be seen as an improvement. And so we need to have a real conversation about that. We have a gentleman that's come to a couple of our meetings now that talks about the master plan of arterial highways. I've voiced concerns in the past because I don't believe our legacy should be to keep

Phil BacerraItem 4

keep widening roads so that we create highways so people can just bypass our city. I think people should slow down, enjoy our city. I think it's important so that we have folks that feel that they're safe in their own city, that they can walk along the streets, not just only drive, but be able to walk, be able to take transit, be able to ride their bikes. And so I appreciate you bringing this forward, bringing the motion forward. I look forward to the conversation, but I do think that, especially with Bristol, we've gotten to a point i know we're thankfully in mid construction in the segment south of 17th street and we've got

Phil BacerraItem 4

that pretty much handled all the way through to warner but i think at this point now it's probably a good time to start having that conversation not only about bristol but potentially about citywide and other future widenings so thank you for that councilman pillows i'll be supporting it

Valerie AmezcuaItem 4

so thank you councilman i'm going to support it as well mr city manager um in the time that you've

been here i know you're counting by the minutes how long has it been um with uh acting and permanent would be i think about 14 15 months so 14 15 months i know that we've had conversations

Valerie AmezcuaItem 4

about wanting you wanting to complete projects in a timely manner yes and so when i read this too i was like 1991 i won't tell you how old i am i was at 1991 but uh i was born councilman hernandez

Valerie AmezcuaItem 4

But so I have to agree with my colleagues and the conversations that I've had with you, I know that they've been brought up here on the dice as well, is like starting projects, finishing them, starting, finishing them. So as far back as I can remember, you know, we joke about Councilman Penalosa's comment about Bristol's been under construction since he's been in diapers. I'm glad that my colleagues have brought this up because I know you're evaluating projects that are going on in this city and how long it's taking to complete them. So I would ask you if you can come back with something to share what is, and I know we

Valerie AmezcuaItem 4

have this master plan for Bristol, but what is the real plan? Like what do you, now that you're the city manager and you have your leadership team, what is the goal here because I drive down Bristol almost on a daily basis and I don't like it I mean it's a it's a it's a mess and you start in one area it's wide and it goes in and it goes back out and then you're gonna get a flat tire somewhere along the way and so am i right that means true so and I would really like and I know as council panelists to say with the city attorney and she'll pull her red card out. I just want us to have, I want us to see something,

Valerie AmezcuaItem 4

and I want the community to see, what are we doing? Bristol, on Harbor, I know Warner, you know, the areas that people are flying through, it is. The gentleman spoke earlier, it's like a freeway. You know, if you're driving 25 miles an hour down Bristol, people are all upset at you because they're driving 60, 70 miles an hour.

It's in my interior, usually around 30, 35 miles.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 4

I understand that. well then i'll go 35 but my point is is that there's a lot of construction on bristol always has been for a long time and now with your leadership team i would really hope that you would bring to us and i'm asking you to to share with us what is the plan for bristol you know where are we heading what's the timeline because i know that's important to you and it's important to all of us to be up here what is the timeline and do we have to keep going over we we build on bristol we tear down we put back up blah blah blah so we need something so um i'm going to

Valerie AmezcuaItem 4

support this item however i also am concerned because when i read 1991 i was just like oh my god i hope nobody mentions 1991. um and of course councilman panalosa did so um but so if you can bring something back i'd really appreciate it and i'm going to be supporting this item so let us

REVIEW WE'VE BEEN BRISTO AS A TEST CASE BECAUSE I THINK BRISTO IS A PERFECT EXAMPLE I KNOW WE WE FINISHED IN WARNER THERE'S SOME CONSTRUCTION ALREADY SEMI FINISHED ON MAIN STREET AND I KNOW IN THE LAST COUNCIL MEETINGS ONE OR TWO WE'VE TALKED ABOUT MIKE FADDEN SO MAYBE WHAT WE CAN DO WE'LL PUT A PAUSE BEFORE WE BECAME THE HEAVY CONSTRUCTION AT MIKE FADDEN EVEN THOUGH WE DO HAVE AGREEMENTS WITH OCTA MEASURING PRICES AND THAT KIND OF COMPONENT SO SO LET US DO THAT AND That would be wonderful. So we can start looking at that.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 4

Thank you, and what timeline would you like? Because I know we want it sooner before, but I know you have a lot of projects on your plate. So late August, early September.

We're still not done with the agenda, so you see we do have a lot of projects. So a good 60 days at least to get an idea where we're at, get a historical perspective with public works. See where we're at. Again, we did art tech from 1991. I was finishing UCI at that point. so 1991 901 yes okay so 60 days or 120 days give me 60 days and uh because i think with bristol we can provide at least a historical perspective where we're at everybody is good with 60 days okay right i think that's the key because we have to provide at least one of the

experience what are the ideas look at the staff reports again good 60 days will be at least the

Thai Viet PhanItem 4

minimum. Perfect. Council member Phan please. Yeah just really quickly I'm perfectly supportive of stopping all work on Bristol and spending all our

energy on Euclid. Thank you. I wasn't gonna call on you because I knew you were gonna say that.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 4

All right so go ahead Madam City Clerk. Motion by Councilmember Penalosa

Jennifer L. HallItem 4

seconded by Councilmember Lopez to approve the recommended action of item 21 with the direction to staff to bring back the master plan of street widening for review that's my river Sarah yes councilmember Hernandez yes that's remember Lopez that's my opinion Liza yes that's remember fan yes mayor Pro Tem Vasquez yes mayor Meskwa yes go to seven eyes no nays motion carries mayor and City Council that concludes the consent calendar great

Valerie AmezcuaItem 4

thank you at this time we're gonna go into the business calendar first item is number 25 is the resolution supporting assembly bill 91 mr city manager um council up here do we need a staff presentation no we could just move the item okay you move the item second and second by council member penalosa no comments let's vote i don't see any comments go ahead madam clerk

Jennifer L. HallItem 4

a motion by council member mayor pro tempasca seconded by councilman penalosa to approve a resolution of the City Council of the City of Santa Ana supporting the Middle Eastern and North African Inclusion Act Assembly Bill 91. Councilmember Becerra? Yes. Councilmember Hernandez? Yes. Councilmember Lopez? Yes. Councilmember Penaleza? Yes. Councilmember Phan? Yes. Mayor Pro Tem Vasquez? Yes. Mayor Mezcua? Yes.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 4

Vote of seven ayes, no nays. Motion carries. Perfect, thank you. Item number 26 is the the Freedom of Information Act request. Do we need a presentation?

Valerie AmezcuaItem 4

At this time, if not, let's vote.

David PenalozaItem 4

Mayor, is there a presentation available? No, there isn't, right? Okay. No. Well, with that, I'll make a motion to approve the item.

Johnathan Ryan HernandezItem 4

I'll second.

Phil BacerraItem 4

I have a question, though, real quick on this item.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 4

I'm sorry, you had your time. I'm just kidding. Geez. Go ahead.

Phil BacerraItem 4

No, no, I just, I wanna thank my colleagues who introduced this and brought this forward. I appreciate this. What I wanted to ask though is one of the speakers earlier had mentioned something about data encryption and making sure that this data was secure and then it just got me to thinking. So if the federal government was to comply with this request, what are we planning to do with the data once we receive it?

Post it. I mean, the idea is to share it, right? Okay. Obviously evaluate the impact, right? by what are the policy making decisions and how we can analyze how it impacts our residents the most. Obviously the first and foremost, and I think paramount is what's being said on a continuous basis, is how do we share the information? And at that point then, what does that mean for us as a city as far as our ability to respond to it also?

Phil BacerraItem 4

Well, and I appreciate that, just because when I'm looking at the forms that we're asking for, there's gonna be a lot of personal information on there. And I just, again, I don't know. This is just I'm throwing it out there for all of us to digest But I just don't want to do something that ends up harming somebody else right like I think we need to Make this request. I'm not in any way opposed to the request I'm just once we get that because all this is doing is saying shall we submit the request once we get it I think we do need to think about what we do with it because putting

Phil BacerraItem 4

Individual folks out there because you may have had somebody that was detained and there may be someone else in that household that would possibly be eligible to also be detained and I just don't want to have we already have enough fear in our community and we have enough folks that are already you know just being targeted so I just want to make sure that we don't do something that accidentally you know goes against our sanctuary city status understood okay but I'm in full support of the request we'll work with the city

attorney's office make sure within the clear parameters that we have to do and of course any sensitive information that we should not share we won't share yeah

Valerie AmezcuaItem 4

Yeah, that's what I was going to say. Madam City Attorney, you'll be very involved in this because if they give us information, if they do, and we hope that they do. When and if there may be information in there related to what the offense was they arrested for or their family may want some privacy or there may be just their name and date of birth. And so I'm, you know, Councilman Becerra is more concerned about giving out that information or, you know, sharing it. i'm concerned as well but i i want to respect families and so please work with our city

attorney like you always do so our intent is to get the information that we can share with the public is asking obviously our intention is not to embarrass anybody right right so we're cognizant of that fact so for us we work with the city attorney's office we're sensitive to that point in itself and so that's something that when we look at information like this we evaluate as a

Valerie AmezcuaItem 4

routine basis anyway perfect and we're hoping we're going to get a council member fan thank

Thai Viet PhanItem 4

Thank you, Mayor. Madam City Attorney, I guess my recommendation or Mr. City Manager would be to release information under consistent with arrest records under the Public Records Act. It's my understanding that arrest records for those, for example, who are arrested and held at the Santa Ana jail are made public because our government has determined that we do not want any type of undercover arrests, black sites and things like that. So I think you know typically if you are arrested that's your mugshots public the charges are public You can find that information with any police agency So I think if we are consistent with that

Thai Viet PhanItem 4

I think that would work out really well since there's already a basis to do that in the state of California I also think that it would be very helpful to Potentially collaborate with any nonprofits that are already doing the work to reunite families I know, for example, there are residents in Ward 1 who have had family members go missing and they're looking for them. And so by doing that, I think, you know, with these nonprofits that are already doing the hard work, the legwork for us, I think that would be very helpful if we're not necessarily posting all this information online.

Thai Viet PhanItem 4

And finally, I just definitely want to clarify that some of the, for example, the current immigration status of the individuals arrested and administrative proceedings i i want to iterate that we should not provide that information whatsoever um i think it's helpful to get that information for for you know whether they need that assistance but i don't think that's something that would be typically shared publicly oh i just direction for what if we get this this information.

Sonia R. CarvalhoItem 4

Okay, because just remember how this item came up. Right. So not a staff-generated item. Yes. This was proposed from the council-generated item, probably at a time when we weren't dealing with the current affairs that we're dealing with and probably wasn't considered right in that light. Sometimes we know what we know later, so I just want to make sure, because we're going to take the direction that's in the resolution as written. We'll be very mindful of who we're trying to protect, but if you want us to not do what this item's doing, you need to be very specific in your motion.

Thai Viet PhanItem 15

Sorry, I mean that, yes, we should collect this information if we can receive it from ice or any federal agencies just once we receive it and we determine that we are going to post it i just want to make clear that those two items i mentioned are not going to be shared publicly as you do not typically share information about someone's

Valerie AmezcuaItem 15

immigration status thank you so to piggyback on her and on your comments councilman from thank you so chief um correct me if i'm wrong and because i don't want to share the wrong information either there as a city and end up in litigation years ago the sheriff used to post what your offense was when you got arrested if I remember correctly and then there was an incident that occurred in the jail where somebody was he passed in the jail due to the offense that was posted publicly which is not correct so they no longer post what they get arrested for so I know we want to share to share information and that's why I just brought up,

Valerie AmezcuaItem 15

I want people to be aware, I just don't want to share information that could hurt people or hurt families. So I know you just want, Council Member Lopez and Mayor Pro Tem Vasquez, you just want names of people that were requesting information. You don't want arrest info, what exactly do you want?

Benjamin VazquezItem 15

We need to make sure we could help the families out and know where where they're at and how we can support families i also want to know the numbers of people taken by in our city so we can support those families and see um what is happening what are the effects on our community and where we can support and where and where they were taken we want to know that how so we can better support our communities and be there able and to give them

Valerie AmezcuaItem 15

any support they need from rental to so you want to know who got arrested the location currently like if they're in Adelanto or wherever they may be, the city of Santa Ana, they're from Santa Ana, and then whatever resources later we can provide for them, that's something that we would do. That's what I'm looking for. Is that what, that's what you're requesting here?

Benjamin VazquezItem 15

Yes.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 15

I didn't think about posting,

Benjamin VazquezItem 15

but I wanna find the raw numbers, yes, but not necessarily the names and the cases. So Chief, just can you clarify my question, please?

Yes, thank you for the question, Mayor and City Council. So in regards to publishing, yes, I don't think we would publish the names of people, the arrests, or the detainments, or whatnot. It could expose families to other fraud possibilities. For example, I think there was just a new article that came out yesterday about warning COMMUNITY MEMBERS ABOUT IMMIGRATION LAWYERS AND FRAUD AND FAMILIES BEING EXPLOITED DUE TO THE HIGH NECESSITY OF THEIR CURRENT SITUATION. ALSO, WE WOULDN'T WANT TO PUBLISH THAT

INFORMATION ALSO FOR THE REASON BEING THAT MAYBE FAMILY MEMBERS COULD BE COLLADIERAL, YOU KNOW, DAMAGE TO SOME OF THESE FEDERAL ICE RAIDS AND WHATNOT.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 15

Councilman Hernandez.

Johnathan Ryan HernandezItem 15

Thank you, Madam Mayor. I'll be brief. I support Councilmember Phan's comments. I completely agree. This is something where we want to be mindful of protecting people's, of course, any family members who are vulnerable. That is a top priority for my office. I am supportive of complete transparency in terms of the ICE notifications, information that is provided to our city by in the Freedom of Information Act so we can we can highlight a couple of different areas that that I think we can we can focus in on so for one I think it's important for us to identify anybody

Johnathan Ryan HernandezItem 15

who's been detained with respects to their families privacy I know that that's something that is going to help a lot of families with respects to the the activity that is taking place in our backyard. That is information that is also accessible to us through the Freedom of Information Act. It gives us high level insight on ICE activity, any notifications that we've received. And so I would also like for us to pursue that information and make it available on a publicly available website. And so those would be the ends of my comments. And I do believe we have a motion and a second on the floor, thank you.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 15

So Mayor Pro Tem I just want to go back really quick. I don't council member Lopez you have a comment here But on the letter that the city manager has attached here

Valerie AmezcuaItem 15

So you want it says names of individuals targeted arrested detained otherwise subject to the enforcement action including any individual not designated as a target prior to the enforcement action and Then on the one of the bullets on the back it says the alleged immigration violations and or criminal convictions or pending criminal charges related to the target or targets of the enforcement actions in any records that indicate whether those violations were known to ice at the time of arrest so that's the one that i'm just concerned about um because i wouldn't want my family's information released regarding any

Valerie AmezcuaItem 15

criminal i mean i wouldn't i mean i i have family that have criminal record i don't want it posted on the register that you know so-and-so is arrested for this criminal action so i don't know if you'd be willing to strike that one so that it's not the criminal um information the criminal proceedings that are that is shared publicly i would not i think if we if we have

Benjamin VazquezItem 15

a location i'm good with that as long as we can find the person and have a conversation if people in the community who are helping if their lawyers can find them their families can find them perfect we could get that company to get that information privately so john doe arrested currently at

Valerie AmezcuaItem 20

adelanto bed number blah blah blah blah right that's kind of what we're looking for okay

Jessie LopezItem 20

councilman lopez i think i disagree a little bit um because that that was part of um the strategy of other mayors right to try and find out different data points because um people are being arrested without being charged people are being arrested that don't have a criminal background record and so I think it's important for the city to collect as much data as they can obviously you have you can exercise discretion as to hey it's not a good idea to release somebody's birthday right or a social security number and so I think I would love for this item to stay as it is

Jessie LopezItem 20

being presented with you know this council giving you the power to decide what data points could be shared with organizations, not profits that do this work, because I think it is a little bit important for us to recognize we're not immigration experts. And I think this item perfectly tells the public why I wanted to reconvene the sanctuary advisory group that the council did not want, because this is something that they could have guided us through. And so I think for me, understanding, understanding we don't have to release somebody's criminal history if that is not in alignment

Jessie LopezItem 20

with state law, but what are the data sets or data points that you have that other mayors are requesting, that other cities are requesting that could potentially help paint a bigger picture, a more clearer picture about where this enforcement is happening, who is being taken and why, because not everybody that's being arrested and disappeared has a criminal record.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 20

So just to be clear, the mayor's not requesting it. It's a discussion. So it's not that I'm saying, you keep saying other mayors. This is a conversation among all the council members. So I support this item. I just want to be really careful when we're releasing information to the public because and we'll leave it at your discretion. So let me finish. But if somehow there's a PRA that will come in, we all know that, and if it accidentally gets released because somebody in error releases this information and it's happened, and then

Valerie AmezcuaItem 21

it's out there that, you know, John Doe was arrested as a registered sex offender and there are family here, it causes embarrassment maybe for the family or there's a problem. I'm supportive of the item totally I just want to be respectful or privacy of people's privacy so if everybody supports it and I'm gonna support it I'm good with it I so this is not about mayor's other mayors or this mayor that mayor because council members are requesting this as well and other elected so it's for me it is truly about the families and how this would affect

So if I may, Mayor, City Council.

And it goes back more or less to the initial request of what, and sometimes even stats frustration, right? So we understand that we want to balance the universe, right? We're kind of saying that we're not, the city is not the enemy, right? We want to help when we can every time, right? And this discussion kind of highlights that aspect, right? So we want to get the information. I think we should request as much information as possible because for us to find out the families we would need to get the name, the number, and the level of why they were arrested.

So we can balance that, but to share that information and still keep some information quiet and silent to be posted, we have to balance it. We have to be sensitive enough to understand that some of us get what that means to have people charged, maybe not convicted, and how we look in public. We get that. But it goes back to the whole point of staff being professional and understood enough that sometimes we understand that we have to balance the universe. We have to be cognizant of the information that we're asking and then what it means when we have the information.

So we can already have a contract with Immigration Defense Fund that we can talk to the attorneys, right? Because we keep hearing this sense of not being subject matter experts, work with the non-press, where we'll get anybody. anybody, but we also have a city attorney's office that has the level of expertise that can provide that. And so we have, some of us, that personal anecdotal experience that we keep talking about. I grew up in an area where immigration sweeps were not uncommon growing up. Not that we liked them, it was just part of our life, how we grew up.

So we have that perspective where we don't want to embarrass anybody, but it's a fine find balance between trying to share the information, make sure we're transparent, and still be sensitive to our residents that nobody gets embarrassed. We get it.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 21

Thank you, I appreciate it. Councilman Becerra?

Phil BacerraItem 21

Thank you, Madam Mayor. The good thing for all of us tonight is, the action before us is just simply to approve the FOIA request, that's it. So all this other discussion, and I'm at fault, I brought this up, but it's just because I didn't want this to not be heard by staff, because I think that there are some concerns, And you've heard a variety of concerns up here. So I'm glad we're having this discussion because it's just good for staff to know that, God forbid, what if the federal government actually does fulfill the request? You know, what happens then? And I don't want us to not be thinking a couple steps ahead.

Phil BacerraItem 21

It's too important to our community not to think about these sensitive issues. So I appreciate the dialogue we're having up here tonight. And unless there's anything else, I hope we can just move on the item.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 21

Councilman Panalosa.

David PenalozaItem 21

Thank you, Mayor. I do agree with all of my colleagues up here. I'm kind of torn between the privacy concern, but at the same time want those resources available. But I will say that a lot of the people that are unfortunately getting abducted in our city and kidnapped and beat, they're made very public. That's thanks to our community, thanks to social social media thanks to for bringing awareness to what's going on on our streets um every day it seems like so um I'm I'm again supportive of the item um to to the other point if there are

David PenalozaItem 21

if somebody is I don't care who it is uh arrested for a sex offense registered sex offender I would hope we publish them they're mugshot too I mean let's be honest you know nobody likes a chomo so So with that, Mayor, those are my comments, and I'll be supporting the item.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 21

Thank you, Councilman Palacios. Councilmember Fann.

Thai Viet PhanItem 21

Madam City Attorney, this might be a question to go back to you. So it's my general understanding that the California Public Records Act is modeled after FOIA, right? So if we are in fact going to receive information under the Freedom of Information Act, meaning these are public records not exempt from disclosure, they are also very likely to be public records not exempt from disclosure under the California Public Records Act, is that correct?

Sonia R. CarvalhoItem 21

I am sitting here next to our senior Assistant City Attorney, Miss Tamara Boghossian, who serves as our police legal advisor, and that's exactly what she said, which is we're kind of having a conversation that we don't need to have because it's very unlikely that we're gonna get any information from the federal government to pass along accidentally or otherwise because if it's exempt they are gonna claim the

Thai Viet PhanItem 21

exemption right just my nine years of city attorney work but what I'm trying to say is that if we do in fact receive this information pursuant to the FOIA request if we don't have to publish it but if we do receive a PRA request for it we would have to produce it and so my point in making the comments about you you know, someone's status or proceedings, that is technically public information. If someone is in fact arrested or there is a criminal complaint against them, you can find that in court. It doesn't mean we have to proactively post it online. So let's just take this first action,

Thai Viet PhanItem 21

try to get this information, make the effort and see where we go. Thank you.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 21

Council Member Lopez.

Jessie LopezItem 21

Yes, I agree with the Councilwoman. Let's take this first action, right, of giving you the authority to do that. But I also appreciate your recommendation and I'm supportive of that of you your office working directly with our current partner immigrant defenders They can advise you much better than anyone up here about what data points we should be requesting So I hope you'll reach out and you'll report back. Thank you. Perfect. Let's vote

Jennifer L. HallItem 21

A motion by councilman Rapani Losa seconded by mayor Pro Tem Vasquez to approve the recommended action for item number 26 Council Member Becerra? Yes. Council Member Hernandez? Yes. Council Member Lopez? Yes. Council Member Penalosa?

David PenalozaItem 21

Yes.

Jennifer L. HallItem 21

Council Member Phan? Yes. Mayor Pro Tembaskas? Yes. Mayor Meskwa? Yes. Vote is seven ayes, no nays. Motion carries.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 21

Perfect. Next one is item number 27. It's a resolution making a call to action regarding ICE immigration enforcement. No presentation, Mr. City Manager. If not, I'll take comments from, none? Take comments from the council? Council?

David PenalozaItem 21

I'll move the item, Madam Mayor.

Johnathan Ryan HernandezItem 21

I'll second the item with a comment, Madam Mayor.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 21

Go ahead.

Johnathan Ryan HernandezItem 21

I just wanted to say that I want to thank the City Manager's Office and the City Attorney's Office for being proactive, listening to the members of the community, and seeing that there is a consensus, not only here at this Council, but in the community, and that we want to be proactive about identifying all of these different risk factors that are very very public we're seeing empty bus stops we're seeing you know empty car washes we're seeing grocery stores that without customers and so this resolution although it is symbolic it is a testament of our solidarity and I want

Johnathan Ryan HernandezItem 21

to take that a step further with us adopting this you know I think it's important that our police department respects the direction of this community and that in this community we're going to protect our immigrant neighbors and And so that'll be my final comment. Thank you.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 21

Thank you. The only thing I will add is that it states here that the city council to call upon all of its federal elected representatives in Congress to advocate on behalf of the people of Santa Ana and others who have been impacted by this issue. I know that my office has sent out letters. I would hope that everybody else up here would move forward with that and send letters out to our federal representatives. And so with that, Council Member Lopez, did you have your mic up?

Jessie LopezItem 21

Yes. So I just wanted to thank you all because I know this is really a staff-driven item. And so I wanted to tell the public that this resolution directs staff to share accurate information, share information with the council, expand resources and legal support. And it calls on our entire community, whether you're a business owner, a corporation, faith groups, really anyone, all residents to come together and support our neighbors during this difficult time. And so So this really is about us doing anything and everything that we can to make sure that we protect our residents. So thank you, city manager.

Phil BacerraItem 21

Council Member Serra. Thank you, Madam Mayor.

Phil BacerraItem 21

Since protests over ICE enforcement actions began over three weeks ago, even when outside agitators tried to turn these peaceful protests into something not peaceful, Santa Ana still never needed the National Guard. Our police, along with the assistance of the sheriff and other neighboring police agencies, were able to keep the demonstrations predominantly peaceful. If anything that's made our city less safe in the last three weeks, it has been the unnecessarily aggressive tactics used by federal agents to apprehend people on the streets in our community.

Phil BacerraItem 21

It has been the cruel actions of those agents that have heightened the tensions in our community and made our city less safe. This administration claims that immigration enforcement would be focused on actual criminals. Instead, this administration has arrested scores of people without any criminal records, like what we saw with Mr. Branco, who was violently detained by masked immigration officers. Federal officials claimed that Mr. Branco assaulted them, but then the only video that they provided, those federal officials provided, was him, Mr. Branco, being sprayed by what was either pepper spray or bear spray

Phil BacerraItem 25

by those same masked federal agents. He lived in our community for 25 years with his family, three sons that were all United States Marines. I hope that Mr. Branco is released soon from ICE custody because our community needs more Mr. Brancos and less murderers, drug traffickers, and human traffickers that this administration promised to go after, not innocent residents. But because we're dealing with federal agents, our city and this council, and I hate saying this, it frustrates me because I didn't get up here and get elected to not do something or be stopped at trying to do something to

Phil BacerraItem 25

improve our community but we are limited and I know folks came tonight and swore up and down that we can do something. I appreciate the city attorney providing some clarity and agreeing to meet with folks to hopefully help them understand what we can and can't do. This resolution we are calling on our federal representatives to take action but I also want to implore all of them to work with us and i want to thank our staff for putting this all together for us to um to pass tonight to show our community what we're trying to do you guys did an amazing job um one thing i would ask

Phil BacerraItem 26

staff to do i know the resolution says to send it out to all the federal representatives that have jurisdiction in santa ana but we are the capital of orange county i would ask that we send that resolution to all federal officials that have any jurisdiction in orange county because the fact of the matter is there is no federal courthouse in brea there's no federal courthouse in san clemente which means there's no national guard posted outside in their cities so i would ask that we send it to those representatives as well i know councilmember panaloza has been very strong in

Phil BacerraItem 26

calling out another federal representative who does not represent santa ana but is an orange county representative and i think she needs to see this and know what we're um addressing here today So that would be my only request, thank you. I second your amendment. Thank you. You can vote on it.

Benjamin VazquezItem 26

All right, no other comments? Yeah, you know what, this is very symbolic. I had a really good friend of mine say, has somebody has to stand up. You have to say, please leave our city. Somebody has to say, get out. Did you do those actions? Did you take the steps? Did you try anything? What did you do? And historically, I'm proud of the council right now for telling the federal government that we don't need them here in Santa Ana. I'm proud of the work that we're doing today and passing on. Different resolutions we'll continue to bring as we fight and struggle to see what we can

Benjamin VazquezItem 26

do. We will bring more resolutions to the dais, but this is what we're doing today as long with the three other ones here. So I'm proud of you all for this because history has to be known, it has to be historically that we tried something and

Valerie AmezcuaItem 26

we're doing the work. Thank you Mayor Pro Tem and that is why I ask all of you to please send letters i know council member panelosa sent one out i don't know if anybody else has but send out letters as well um that's what i did and we all need to not just the city manager and city staff but we all need to as the council up here um so thank you all very much

let's prepare to vote so mayor for me yes go ahead we keep saying symbolic this is a resolution of stating the feelings of the city of santana this is not symbolic this is our stand and our position in this moment in history. This is not symbolic. We're asking our legislators, federal legislators, to do their job. This is not symbolic. We're telling people why we're limited in our scope and what we can do. This is not symbolic. We're honoring SB 54 of the California Valor Act. This is not symbolic. We're making a statement today, a united statement hopefully,

of all seven votes that the city is united in this sentiment, right? The Senate Police is not assisting with ice in immigration enforcement this is not symbolic this is our statement as the city of santana that we stand in a moment of frustration for lack of a better word and then we stand with our community it's not symbolic thank you no thank you for that mr city manager and we

Valerie AmezcuaItem 26

hear your passion and we know this is um an issue that's very near and dear to your heart like it is to all of us and so thank you for bringing that to our attention that it is not symbolic because those of us that have read this if you look on the back page page four very important it says the city council as mayor proton was talking about the city council confirms that the santa ana police department does not in any way coordinate or support ice in its federal immigration enforcement efforts. The City Council would, if it had the power, immediately ban ICE from the City of Santa Ana and stop raids. The City

Valerie AmezcuaItem 26

Council reminds the community that the City and its Police Department do not have any jurisdiction whatsoever over federal immigration enforcement. The City Council reminds the community that the United States Attorney's Office for the Central District sent the City a letter stating, and then there's information of of what he had stated. And these are some really important things, so you are correct, and thank you for bringing that to our attention, that this is not symbolic. Staff was directed and will continue to support and coordinate with legal services providers under its existing program to ensure immigration services

Valerie AmezcuaItem 26

are provided to the community. Staff will notify the mayor and council members of ICE personnel presence in the city, consistent with the legal manner in which elected officials are notified of all other significant law enforcement operations in the city. Staff has created a Know Your Rights page on the city's website, which provides links to immigration resources and includes questions and answers. Staff will continue to post up-to-date information as it is received. Upon direction of the council and identification of sufficient funding, staff will implement direct support to individuals and families impacted

Valerie AmezcuaItem 26

by the ICE immigration raids, And those are just a few. So thank you for reminding us that this is not symbolic. Thank you very much. Let's prepare to vote.

Jennifer L. HallItem 26

Motion by Council Member Penalosa, seconded by Council Member Hernandez, to approve a resolution of the City Council of the City of Santa Ana, making a call to action to all of its federal elected representatives in Congress to advocate on behalf of immigrants who reside and work in the City of Santa Ana, to remove ICE, military, and other federal and federal enforcement personnel from the city of Santa Ana, call for support to those impacted by immigration raids and city actions and commitments. Council Member Becerra?

Phil BacerraItem 26

Yes.

Jennifer L. HallItem 26

Council Member Hernandez? Yes. Council Member Lopez? Yes. Council Member Penalosa?

David PenalozaItem 26

Yes.

Jennifer L. HallItem 26

Council Member Phan? Yes. Mayor Pro Tem Vasquez? Yes. Mayor Meskwa? Yes. Vote of seven ayes, no nays. Motion carries.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 26

Thank you. Item number 28 is an emergency assistance program for families impacted by immigration enforcement. DO WE HAVE A PRESENTATION OR DO WE NEED ONE, COUNCILMEMBERS? SO LET ME JUST SHARE WHY I BROUGHT THIS ITEM FORWARD AND I RESPECT HOW THE COUNCIL VOTES. FIRST OF ALL, OUR SISTER CITY, SAWAIO, IS GIVING US ABOUT $50,000 TO ASSIST WITH THIS AS WELL FOR OUR FAMILIES THAT NEED SERVICES. THE REASON THAT I BROUGHT THIS FORWARD IS BECAUSE WE ARE CURRENTLY IN A CRISIS AND WE'VE seen in other cities where they have large events, ICE shows up or going through the

Valerie AmezcuaItem 26

parks or taking our families. I do not want to have any large events where they can come and harm or take our families and just do what they've been doing, treating us the way they've been treating our community. And so this money that we're looking at is a million dollars and it's very fluid. We can reevaluate if the council wants or however we decide to vote we can reevaluate in 120 days or 90 days but if you look at the events fourth of july there's going to be a lot of people at the park and other cities have canceled their fourth of july events for the safety of the community chicano heritage fiesta patrias imagine ice

Valerie AmezcuaItem 26

showing up at fiesta patrias and what it would do to our community noche del tares the tet festival Santa Ana Fun Run, movie series, and Juneteenth. So it's a million dollars, and if the council agrees to it, then we can protect our families and allocate that funding for food resources, to assist with evictions, and to add some of it to our legal defense fund. Our legal defense currently is only $300,000, so if we could add some of this money. the council chooses not to again however everybody votes up here is truly your decision but I brought this forward only because just like other council members

Valerie AmezcuaItem 26

the council members have brought other items this is about the needs of our community so if the father or mother who is the breadwinner is taken from the home we do not want them to lose their residence they we do not want them evicted so this money would go to them and I would recommend that we leave it to the city manager's office they did the city did a great job with COVID COVID funding, we have the mechanism in place, so we know how to do this type of work in the community. And so that is why I brought this item forward, so that we can help our

Valerie AmezcuaItem 26

families that are in need from the City of Santa Ana. So let me start over here. Councilman Becerra.

Phil BacerraItem 26

Thank you, Madam Mayor. And I want to thank you for proposing this item. I think this is the example of effective leadership that we need right now. It shows that, you know, protesting is one thing but not the only thing that one can do to show that they're there for our community mayor you identified what you want to accomplish with the assistance to those impacted by these federal immigration actions you identified how we can realistically fund this assistance so I appreciate you doing that there's not a lot of guesswork here it's very straightforward so thank you for bringing this forward you know the chaos

Phil BacerraItem 26

that's been created by the federal agents in our city poses a very serious challenge to our city being able to host what should be celebratory events like 4th of July like Fiesta's like Juneteenth and unfortunately this is a real fear these federal agents have caused us to be in such a state right now that we were just good we unfortunately may end up not deliberately but unfortunately we may end up subjecting our residents to dangerous because of the dangerous situations. And I say residents because regardless of citizenship status, if you've got a raid going through a city event, the

Phil BacerraItem 26

chaos that it will cause, I don't even want to begin to imagine what that could be. So if we are going to unfortunately have to possibly consider canceling events, I'd rather there be a bright side, which is we can take those savings and put those toward the community that needs it the most. So I will be supporting your measure. Thank you. Thank you.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 26

Thank you. Councilman Hernandez.

Johnathan Ryan HernandezItem 26

Thank you, Madam Mayor. This is a very important next step for us to take as a city is to ensure that we, for one, finalize the immigration defender's contract, right? Number two is making sure that there is mutual aid. I don't support placing mutual aid against the celebration of culture. We should have both. So I'm not supportive of defunding Chicano Heritage, Fiestas Patrias, Noche de Altares, Tet Festival, Santa Ana Fun Run, movie series, Juneteenth. I'll share.

Johnathan Ryan HernandezItem 26

I believe I may have been the only council member to visit Juneteenth outside of maybe Mayor Pro Tem Vasquez.

Johnathan Ryan HernandezItem 26

There was no issues with the Juneteenth event. There were hundreds of people who showed up. It was a peaceful event. and the Juneteenth event celebrates the ending of slavery. I want to commend the city manager's office, city manager Nunez, who were there, and that event was safe. The Chicano Heritage Festival celebrates the contributions of Mexican Americans in this country, and as we see, Santa Ana is a majority Latino city, with a bulk majority of those residents being Mexican American. I don't think that the right thing for us to do would be to defund these events.

Johnathan Ryan HernandezItem 26

I am supportive of us moving the 115,000 away from 4th of July and canceling that event, given that the consensus in the public is that they don't feel safe for the 4th of July event. Given that the raids happened on June 9th and Chicano Heritage takes place at the end of August, there's over 60 days for us to be able to work with our community on a number of issues where we can ensure that they're safe. But I'm not going to be supporting one million dollars in defunding our cultural events. Chicano Heritage, as I mentioned, celebrates the life of Ruben Salazar, a Santa Ana journalist who

Johnathan Ryan HernandezItem 26

led the Chicano moratorium and was tragically killed by Sheriff Deputy Thomas Wilson. We are the only city in the country who has a Chicano Heritage Festival. We were the first city in the country to declare August Chicano Heritage Month. month. Fiestas Patrias celebrates the independence of Mexico and we are the only city in Southern California who has a Fiestas Patrias event. And Tet Festival is an important event. It celebrates what is one of the most important celebrations in the Vietnamese culture. And it also celebrates the coming of spring. And so these are events that will take place next

Johnathan Ryan HernandezItem 26

year, but these are events that families look forward to. It missed times where our families I DON'T THINK THAT IT IS THE RIGHT THING FOR US TO DO IS TO DEFUND THESE EVENTS. I AM SUPPORTIVE OF US MOVING 115,000 AWAY FROM 4TH OF JULY, BUT I'D LIKE TO MAKE A MOTION FOR US TO DIRECT CITY STAFF AND THE CITY MANAGER'S OFFICE TO IDENTIFY $1 MILLION IN OUR BUDGET, WHETHER IT BE FROM THE POLICE VACANCIES. THERE ARE 40, IS THAT CORRECT? MR. CITY MANAGER?

CURRENTLY AS OF TODAY WE HAVE 36 VACANCIES.

Johnathan Ryan HernandezItem 26

36. HOW LONG HAVE THESE VACANCIES BEEN? HOW LONG HAVE WE HAD THESE VACANCIES?

WE'VE HAD VACANCIES WHERE WE RANGE FROM 45 DOWN TO ABOUT 36.

Johnathan Ryan HernandezItem 26

OKAY. HOW LONG DOES YOUR HIRING PROCESS TAKE, CHIEF RONDRIGUEZ?

IT DEPENDS ON THE CANDIDATE, BUT A BACKGROUND RETAIL TAKES APPROXIMATELY SIX MONTHS, THEN THE ACADEMY AN ADDITIONAL SIX MONTHS, AND THEN TRAINING. OKAY.

Johnathan Ryan HernandezItem 26

SO I WOULD MAKE A MOTION TO TAKE THE FUNDS FROM THE VACANCIES. You can come back at the mid-year budget and then we can assess how we can then address those vacancies. I'm anticipating that they'll still be there. But I'll put a motion on the floor for us to fund mutual aid with the police vacancies that we have. I'm not going to be supportive of defunding cultural events in the brownest city in Orange County and making the public choose between celebrating our culture or giving it mutual aid. We should be doing both. And so there's a motion on the floor.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 26

that'll be the end of my comments thank you any other comments mayor pro tem and he's asking the

Benjamin VazquezItem 26

city to look into it and see if it's possible and i'm going to agree i'm going to second your motion

Benjamin VazquezItem 26

and why not why give up community events and why are they important studies have found since 2021 when we had covid that murders is down and violent crimes are down and there's a study going happening and what they found is the investment that we have in events, the investment that we did to people, it worked. It works because it brought down crime. We are at an all-time low. This is low and this is what the study has found, that we keep spending money and we need places for children to go, for youth and families to be, to be together and to heal. We're spending money on stuff,

Benjamin VazquezItem 26

Let me do a quote from the study. We're spending money on stuff, and when stuff is nice, people have places to go. It creates jobs, it creates environments where people are hanging out. It's not the broken windows concept of we need to arrest people for graffiti, but it's more like the kind of idealized version of a broken window that if we make things nice and people are around it, it provides a meanness of interrupting cycles of violence. So we've done that with these events. We've done that with building more libraries. We've done that with having more parks. And this is how we create safety.

Benjamin VazquezItem 26

These events, the cultural events, the libraries, the parks, creating community creates safety. That's why I say when we have programming in parks, that creates safety. The kids will feel it out. It creates a safe environment. And this is that we continue. We've been doing good work and the country has invested in community events. That's where I'm going to support Councilmember Hernandez to look into other resources of what we can do. If not, I also want to include maybe just Fiestas Patras on Fourth of July, have half a million set aside, and after six months we could see where we're at.

Benjamin VazquezItem 26

So to look at other places, because we still need those community events. I went to the movies at the park and it was full. There was families there that were happy. In a time where you're sad, when every day you look at the news and you break and you have to go home and you have to heal. And every day you go home and you break and you come back and you have to find a way to heal to keep moving on. And these places are those spaces where people heal and we need it now more than ever. So I'm gonna support Council Member Hernandez, but also looking at Fiestas Patras. I know it's one of our biggest and loved,

Benjamin VazquezItem 26

including the parade, but let's start with Fourth of July and Fiestas Patras. We have funds there, but let's look other places. And I'm with Councilmember Hernandez on that. Thank you. Councilmember Lopez.

Jessie LopezItem 26

Yes, thank you to all of our staff. I'm very happy to support the idea of allocating funds. as I requested during the last council meeting, because we all recognize that our families are in crisis. These raids have left many households without income overnight. And so this program really is aimed to support immediate, provide immediate help and relief with food, rent, utilities, and really to bring some stability to families that have had that taken from them. So the proposal suggests reallocating the city events budget

Jessie LopezItem 26

because it's discretionary funding that's available. But I think for me, before I decide tonight, I would like to consider all uncommitted general fund resources because I do think that community events, especially this year, Day of the Dead, you know, that's a very significant event for our city, for so many members of our community. It's really like a religious day for all of Latin America. And so it celebrates the life of people, death, so many of our ancestors. And people really, it's one of the most visited events in the city.

Jessie LopezItem 26

And so I think that I would want to know if it is possible at all to use other funds or or a combination of sources to avoid fully, you know, taking these spaces away from our constituents. I don't know, I definitely don't have the answer about whether it's right to host them or it's wrong to host them. All I do know is that so many spaces have already been taken from our constituents and that in this moment where people are suffering, they're grieving, they're frustrated, I do think that it would be valuable to offer space where our constituents can possibly come together and have some sort of joy in their lives.

Jessie LopezItem 26

And so I wanted to know if staff can confirm whether any of the portion of the $4.9 million in the general fund non-departmental budget is unallocated or could be reprogrammed for emergency assistance.

No.

Jessie LopezItem 26

Okay. Are there any other discretionary accounts or one-time savings from last year's budget that could help fund this relief fund?

So if we would call literally a month, right, we had five million, right, with the allocation to the Centennial Park lights and the rest of Cypress, we literally are to less than a million.

Jessie LopezItem 26

Understood.

Just to have that, I mean, as far as a tight budget, right, we couldn't be tighter and still provide the city council and the community those low-standing requests. I mean, that's the reality where we're at.

So if the direction is go back and see if we can find other resources, obviously we will yield to the majority of the city council's will. But this is where we're at.

Jessie LopezItem 27

Okay, got it. I do think that the increase to the legal defense fund, I'm very supportive. I've said in the past, you know, when I spoke with our federal lobbyists, I think in January, because we were very concerned about what was gonna happen in our city, they said, you know, it should be about a million or more. That was a recommendation that they had been talking to many of their clients because they understood the severity of what could happen. And so I do think that that should be different from this, right? That is a fund, a line item in our budget that has been approved.

Jessie LopezItem 27

So if we're going to increase that, bring it back, we can discuss it. I hope that everybody here is committed to funding that because one of the biggest obstacles to family being reunited is being able to afford legal counsel. And so I think I would I'm actually interested in hearing what the rest of my colleagues have to say about this recommendation

Valerie AmezcuaItem 27

Thank you. So before I turn over councilman, Mr. City Manager I think you heard me when I first started that because this issue is so fluid We don't know what it's gonna look like from day to day with the federal agents coming into our city And so that is why to me this is a crisis and we have families that need food I know Steve is giving out food yesterday Yesterday, my office was giving out food. Tomorrow, we'll be giving out food. People are calling for funding for assistance with utility bills. We just helped a family, you know, arrange transportation for her daughter, cerebral

Valerie AmezcuaItem 27

palsy, fully in a wheelchair, get to and from doctors appointments. So there's a lot of things that families need. And a million dollars will help some families, but not, it's never going to be enough. I won't support taking funding from the police department because we need the police department. And I know that that's, you know, where some people want to go and we don't want to use the term defund the police, but that's basically what we're doing up here. And I'm not looking to do that. What I'm looking to do, and hopefully we can all agree up here, that we are in a crisis. We're in a crisis. Our families are hurting.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 27

And so the reason I brought this item forward, and yes, many council members up here, a few people said hey all of them what can we do how do we help i have given up my trip to sewail which is very important i am not going on that trip i don't think any in my opinion anybody should be traveling right now because every dime that we can possibly save and put into our immigration fund our legal defense would be great currently between now the end of the year we have travels that's like almost $32,000 we can take that and put it in the immigration fund we have some wild

Valerie AmezcuaItem 27

trips we have a council member appear going to the Harvard Kennedy School for eighteen thousand dollars we have conferences so we want to find money we can take that money as well but I have given up all my travel until because that's a sacrifice I'm gonna make this is what we do for our community we find anywhere and everywhere and I know there we just passed our budget so where do we find the money and to say that we're going to take it from our police department is reckless i think we have some people in the queue chief that are going through the hiring process right now

um how many do we have currently i actually just approve uh five additional uh recruits or candidates that cleared backgrounds they're just waiting for the process in the city so that'll bring our number back down to 31 which is a low number since the time i've been uh chief and

Valerie AmezcuaItem 27

that's the lowest it's been since i've been the mayor if we get to 31 so thank you very much and that's one of the reasons why i would not support taking money from the police department for hiring because we need officers in our city and i you know i know people have different opinions up here but for me bringing this item forward was truly just to say you know we have these events and i would not want anybody to be arrested i would not want federal agents at any event and And I know that they're cultural and they're important. And my goodness, we all know they're great events. And that's why I said initially, everything's fluid.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 27

We can come back in 90 days and reevaluate. But however the council votes, we'll vote. But it's really important that we sit up here and when we say we wanna help our families, what can we do? We know families are gonna lose their housing if their main breadwinner is gone. They're gonna lose it. They're not gonna be able to pay their rent. So we need to help where we can. They need food, we need to help where we can. They need assistance with their utilities, we need to help where they can. And they need assistance with legal defense, we need to help.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 27

And a million dollars sounds like so much money, but in reality, a city our size, it is not a lot of money. I mean, I wish we can give $5 million, but we don't have that money available. So Councilmember Fann.

Thai Viet PhanItem 27

Thank you, Mayor. I have a lot of questions for staff. First, I want to state for the record, I do not support canceling 4th of July. As an immigrant, as someone who swore to become an American, I refuse to allow these ICE agents, these border patrol agents, and these federal agents from taking the Constitution, the Declaration of Independence from me. The 4th of July does not belong to them. It belongs to all of us who live in this country and celebrate American independence and what it means to be American. I will not support anything to get rid of 4th of July. It's an extremely important holiday to me.

Thai Viet PhanItem 27

And I just think that by saying we're going to cancel it, we are giving them the field. We are saying that that's their holiday. I refuse to believe that. You know, I was at the Movies in the Park event in Windsor, and families were out there. And, you know, it's my understanding, and please correct me if I'm wrong, but I am not personally aware of ICE doing any type of mass raids or even smaller raids at large community events, not at Pride, not at, well, Council Member Hernandez mentioned Juneteenth, any of the movies in the parks in Santa Ana.

Thai Viet PhanItem 27

I know other cities, while some have canceled their Fourth of July, others have not. For so many residents here in the city of Santa Ana who have become American or are immigrants themselves, Fourth of July and this public holiday, especially because it's free, is one of the only ways for them to celebrate. So I think it's really important for us to continue to do those celebrations. I refuse to take money away from Chicano heritage, the only such celebration in the county in Southern California, and it is fantastic every single time. I refuse to take money away from Fiestas Patrias, which is 80,000 people strong over two days.

Thai Viet PhanItem 27

What is better than celebrating the most Latino city in the county than celebrating independence? You know, Noche de Altares, again, an incredible event, TET Festival, all of these events are a celebration of what Santa Ana is, and by refusing to celebrate them or taking money away from that, we are then saying that what they're doing, the fear mongering, the hate, the crimes that they're committing is working. I refuse to do that. I'm also very concerned about how we are going to implement such a program. Number one, when we're talking about someone who is a primary income earner who is detained, I

Thai Viet PhanItem 27

can understand if they can prove, okay this is a person who lives in this family, he's a Santa Ana resident and they're detained and they need assistance with rent, food, utilities. However, how do we treat someone who decides not to go to work because they're afraid of being detained? Are Are they also eligible for any such funding? How do we prove that? How do we prove that they had a job? Because many people who may be undocumented do not have proof of their jobs. I'm also concerned about creating Santa Ana's mini social services agency. First, we're looking at utilities. Can we connect some of these families with SCE,

Thai Viet PhanItem 27

SoCal Gas, or any other utility companies? If it's Waterbill, our finance department can actually work with these families to potentially waive water fees and whatnot. We've done that before. I think that we can implement those programs without necessarily creating a whole new department to administer those. Food, we work with a lot of these food banks. There are food banks that are unpermitted but are still functioning in the city of Santa Ana.

Thai Viet PhanItem 27

Second Harvest Food Bank and a variety of other food banks that operate in Orange County are still active. Let's work to connect families with that rather than creating new programs we don't have the expertise to do that but what we can do is connect families and people who need with these programs as to rent I think that we have an incredible rental agency or department that could work with landlords in the city of Santa Ana whether it is to defer some rents help with some rental assistance if they can prove it I think I think we can do that, but I'm gonna need more detail here because I understand the need for this funding.

Thai Viet PhanItem 27

I think at best, maybe you're looking at potentially a 10% decrease. I think we can work with that over some of the events to start with some type of fund to start with that, whether it's paying overtime for staff to connect people to these events, or even, yes, some cash assistance. but I just don't think that we can have a wholesale change in our budget that we spent several meetings the last six months working with the community working with this council working with staff to plan and to create to move to a program that we are essentially funding for a million dollars without knowing

Thai Viet PhanItem 27

how to implement it I understand the need for it I understand what it means to not have money for rent or food or utilities, but there are programs out there. And on top of that, you know, are we working with our county? Can our supervisor who has discretionary funds in his budget help to fund some of these rental assistance? The city council members here, each of us have $10,000 in discretionary funding that just started again today. If we want to donate $10,000 to a nonprofit, such as SEVA, such as Second Harvest, such as any of these other food donation programs,

Thai Viet PhanItem 28

we can do that. That's $60,000 right there. You know, I think that there are ways to do that without taking away the very thing that makes Santa Ana special. And the things that make Santa Ana special is our culture, our heritage, and our art. And so I refuse to support removing the funding for these events. And I very much look forward to our 4th of July because just because we're a Latino city and immigrants did not make us an un-American city. We are the most American American city in Orange County and I'm very excited to celebrate it. Thank you.

Johnathan Ryan HernandezItem 28

Councilman Hernandez. Thank you Madam Mayor. I just wanted to thank Councilmember Phan for your eloquent comments. I think you really you really highlighted how a lot of our community feels. We're proud to be American and we're proud to be santaneros and that's what these events all reflect. Being a santanero doesn't mean that you're one particular group of people. It means that you live in a community that is diverse and celebrates all groups of people and so I want to just highlight the importance of these events and mutual aid together and I want to clarify a notion that this proposal that I'm bringing forward to

Johnathan Ryan HernandezItem 28

take the vacancies from the police department to fund mutual aid is not about defunding the police but I will tell you what Santa Ana Police Department has defunded when we were going through the recession Santa Ana PD helped defund our fire station. We had a fire department in Santa Ana that left in 2012 because we were giving a bulk majority of raises to the police department and what was financially feasible was to defund a fire department and outsource it to the county. Our fire department was defunded by the police. We used to have a library on McFadden and Fairview that now is the Powell Center.

Johnathan Ryan HernandezItem 28

They defunded a library. We had a number of youth programs, education first when I was a kid, right? We've seen youth programs up until 2020 when people like myself and Jesse Lopez and Tyvia Fan got elected and Mayor Sarmiento. We fought for youth investment. This is not about defunding police. This is about our police department finally being on the side of this community, Santa Ana. Their motto is, Police Chief Rodriguez, what's your police department's motto? Community first. Thank you, Chief. Community first. The proposal is about collaboration.

Johnathan Ryan HernandezItem 28

This proposal is about collaboration from the department that receives $160 million of your taxpayer money. It's time that they use your money to help your family. And it's time that the politicians who are funded by them do the same. Put that police department money to work in this neighborhood. If you see this as defunding the police, you're not truly focused on your neighbors and you're not truly focused on a solution. What you're doing up here is politics. And so it's time that this police department put its money in protecting our neighbors. And there are vacancies, 36.

Johnathan Ryan HernandezItem 28

We can get back to those vacancies in the mid-year. We can make sure that those vacancies are brought back. What I'm asking for is from collaboration from the largest funded department in our city. This isn't about the funding police. This is about investing in people who are in crisis. Those will be my final comments, thank you.

Benjamin VazquezItem 28

Mayor Pro Tem. Thank you, Mayor. I'm in agreement that we're not defunding the empty spaces, the unfilled that will still be on there. where it's an emergency, this is COVID time and families need that money. And this is why the only reason I'm hoping this works or we get some money and some money and I'm bringing up Yeses Betas because this is the biggest event and it's close to half a million. And I'm continuing to advocate. You said it was lucid and we're moving, it was fluid. And I was sorry, not lucid, it was fluid. And if we can fund what we can for half an year

Benjamin VazquezItem 28

and then look into other events or other monies and we can move forward on it. But as much, I love Fiestas Patres and I love the parade, but I still think we need as many events as we can as community needs them to heal and to be safe and to feel welcomed here. This is the one event and I'm also agreeing with Council Member Hernandez, if there's some funds or a way, we're gonna have to figure out where we get money from. So we have to look under every rug, every safe, every account to see how we can squeeze money out. But I suggest we start with Fiestas Patrias and move from there.

Benjamin VazquezItem 28

So if you add my friendly amendment.

Johnathan Ryan HernandezItem 28

I'll add your amendment, Mayor Pro Tem. Thank you. It's on the floor.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 28

So just to be clear, you're not saying take money from the police for the vacancies? I want to know what you're exactly saying.

Benjamin VazquezItem 28

Mine is start with Fiestas Patrias and then look other places. He's saying police, and that's on the table. So your agreement is, yeah.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 28

Okay. So Mr. City Manager and Mr. City Attorney, Councilman Bessette, I'll call you in a minute. So I understand. I hear all the, I hear everybody. And so, again, my item was to provide immediate services and lots of questions about the how and when and who. During COVID, the city did a phenomenal job. So you know how to do this. you have a playbook. So I don't need to tell you. And that's why there wasn't direction on how to do it because you guys did a phenomenal job during COVID. And so there's no playbook. Again, I'm gonna give up my travel and I wanna be really clear that council members up here are traveling.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 28

Again, the Harvard School is almost $20,000 for one council member to go to. I would hope that council member would counsel and give that money to the Immigration Services legal defense fund but I just want to ask a question madam city attorney I don't want to just pick and I personally since I brought this item and I know it's on the agenda I don't want to pick and choose you know Fiesta Patria's or you know a fourth of July or this festival or that festival I would rather just take the whole thing off the table so my my make a friendly amendment I'd rather remove the whole item leave all the festivities leave all the fiestas

Valerie AmezcuaItem 28

that we have on the table, spend that million dollars on the community, and God forbid that we come here and have to have a conversation about federal agents coming to one of our events. And so I'm willing just to pull the whole item, that would be my motion, and remove it and leave that money there. And we have all of the events, not just remove Fiesta Patria's, because if we're going to remove one, I would prefer to remove them all. because now we're picking and choosing and I don't want to say well we're gonna leave no to that thought is because I think mayor Pro Tem you're involved in

Valerie AmezcuaItem 28

that much of the thought is and Chicano Heritage is councilman Hernandez's big event so I just want to say that I'd rather just pull the items so madam city attorney is that something that we can do okay so we have two issues that are

Sonia R. CarvalhoItem 28

really pending in your question one is under the Brown Act what can we do like what to what extent can you make amendments to the proposal that was in in the agenda packet, and the second one presents an issue, in my opinion, of parliamentary procedure and how you're gonna proceed since you have a motion on the floor. On the first issue, the Brown Act says that we're supposed to describe an agenda item in about 20 words or more, exactly what the council's going to be considering. We often do allow you the flexibility sometimes to say, well, the proposal was to fund it here, but we're gonna fund it over here,

Sonia R. CarvalhoItem 28

and you guys make motions to do that, provided that staff can give you the information and the public can understand the conversation, right? Sometimes when you want to go afar, I will say to you, well, that sounds to me like you're going beyond the description that was in the agenda packet. The public has a right to come here and know. At this point, because you have a motion, I understand a second on the floor, under parliamentary procedure, you would need to make a substitute motion to table the item or to remove it. And then there could be a second on that, and then that vote would happen first.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 28

Perfect.

Phil BacerraItem 28

I'd like to make a substitute motion to remove it. I'll second it, but with comment. So thank you, Madam Mayor. I wish I wasn't seconding that motion because while I hear my colleagues talk about these events and how much they mean to the community, I absolutely agree 100%. But I think what I believe the mayor's motivation to bring this item forward was because unless somebody has the playbook, please share it with us. But I don't know what ICE's playbook is. And they've been very unpredictable.

Phil BacerraItem 28

Predictable. Three and a half weeks ago, if somebody said, let's get a bunch of folks together and hang out in front of Home Depot, everybody would say, fine, nothing's going to happen there. Well, that's not the case today. We've seen multiple instances at Home Depots, right? So we're saying, oh my goodness, we've seen no instances yet of ICE coming into large scale events until they do. And as the mayor said, do we really want to be up here saying, well, we could have, should have, but didn't. We had the opportunity, but we didn't. So that's been my motivation to support what the mayor brought forward.

Phil BacerraItem 28

Not because I want to cancel these events. I think these are amazing. These are great opportunities for the community. But what we're talking about today is not what we were talking about when we approved a million dollars for these events. I hate to say this out loud, but it was a different world back then. And it wasn't that long ago, but it is today. And I will just say this. I'm not going to take the bait of some folks up here to start playing the device of politics when it comes to talking about whether we're going to defund the police or not, because the item that was before us was to help our community.

Phil BacerraItem 28

If we want to take our pet philosophies, our pet ideas, and run with them and try to sabotage an item because the mayor proposed it, that's up to you. We've been doing a great job tonight of trying to show compassion for our community and try to help, and then all of a sudden here comes politics rearing its ugly head, especially from somebody that wants to throw out things about anybody supported by police? I have been supported by police and I'm proud of that and I support the police. There we go. So anyways with that being said I'm proud of that and you know why? Because I ran and to get elected to keep our

Phil BacerraItem 28

community safe and the police have been keeping our community safe. But again to take an opportunity like we have tonight and sabotage it with divisive rhetoric is just very unfortunate and I hope that doesn't continue up here because our community demands more of us so with that i'll support your motion mayor but i just i wish we didn't i wish we weren't gambling with our community safety but it seems like right now unfortunately because the mayor proposed something we're going to see politics rear its ugly head

Thai Viet PhanItem 28

mcconnell before i start will you please clarify your motion so that i better understand it

Thai Viet PhanItem 28

to withdraw the item so uh a couple things one that's my recommendation So one, I do believe that we can start some type of program. I don't think, I think a million dollars to start is a really big budget for something that, I actually don't think it's very similar to COVID at all. When you're looking at COVID, we had money to distribute to, for example, different census tracts that are low-income census tracts. We had a tie to that. We had, you know, people who are applying for unemployment. We had people who can show that they are on food stamps. programs. What you're looking at here is you're looking for people who meet certain

Thai Viet PhanItem 28

criteria such as they were either detained by ICE, they were a primary income earner, or they are somehow affected by the ICE raids. That's why I recommended a 10% cut to these programs. I think that a 10% cut, while not going to be funding this at the full amount that some of my colleagues would want, it would allow us to start a program to see, Okay, what can we do? Do we help out with rent? Maybe that's the most important thing for some of these families because food, again, there are food banks, utilities. We can work with our utilities. We can work with our water department to defer or waive those costs.

Thai Viet PhanItem 28

But rent, it's hard to come by. So let's start with that. Let's see who would even sign up and apply because fun fact, they have, if they are already worried about sharing information with the government, and here we are asking them to sign up with the government, although we cannot comply or work with ICE, there's a concern there too. And as fiduciaries for the city and taxpayer dollars, we can't just give money without tracking who we're giving it to. Even when we were doing the visa gift cards during COVID, we had family members or those living in the homes where we gave those cards out, sign paperwork saying they received it.

Thai Viet PhanItem 28

So I think that a 10% cut to all these events would start a budget. I think that we have the immigrant defenders contract coming up soon at a reasonable amount to start and It's my understanding that the 4th of July event already has $50,000 That is being spent for it. No matter what because we have already been Contracted to pay for that. So to me When you look at the fact that you know at the no Kings rally in Anaheim There were no ice agents at the Juneteenth event there are no ICE agents and the answer is there could be ICE agents at any given time but there

Thai Viet PhanItem 28

are also a lot of community members here in Santa Ana who may not be undocumented who may not be green card holders who also want to celebrate these things and I think that it's important for us to make sure that a community also has a chance to celebrate it in these difficult times and so if we start with that in 60 days or 90 days and we find that if you know the fund is really working really well we're working with our partners we need to fund it more okay let's come back let's see how we can reprogram some additional monies but if we don't find anyone actually signing up for it then we'll know that it's not

Thai Viet PhanItem 28

something that community members are willing to to register for so I guess that would be a sub sub motion to which I think you know to know we oh we're not We're not in a, see, we don't have Robert's Rules anymore. Exactly. No, we do not. We use the Rosenbergs. Well, if you're willing to amend your motion from withdrawing the item to reprogramming 10% of each of these events to, that's a.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 28

How much money is that, Mr. Chairman? That's about $100,000.

10%, I can find $100,000.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 28

Which is what other cities have given, smaller than us. Right. A lot smaller. But let's start there.

So I don't need it from the events. I think in the organizational hours, I can find 100,000.

Thai Viet PhanItem 28

Yeah, don't cancel it, find the 100,000. So instead of withdrawing the item, would you be open to having the city manager reprogram $100,000 to start this type of program to help our families being impacted and coming back in 90 days, seeing how it goes, or 60 days if you find that is extremely helpful for the community and the funds go quickly, and then we can talk more about how to fund additional monies.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 28

So let me just say, so the reason I brought up COVID, it's not because this is similar to COVID, right? This is a crisis that our families are in. So I use COVID because the city knows how to do it, right? They know how to give money, they know how to reach out to people, they know what data to keep. So that's what I meant, just to be clear when I look at COVID, right? And so if Mr. City Manager, So, Sandra, if you're telling us, of course, we're the county seat, we have funding. I would hope that all the council members would give up their travel to their conferences and their trainings and give their money back to you to use.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 28

Again, we have conferences coming up with all the council members going, I'm giving up all my travel. We have a council member going to Harvard for almost $20,000. So, I mean, these are things that can be given up and we can put it with the legal defense fund. That's fine. So if a city our size has $100,000, I would just say that I will withdraw my motion and then we can give, Madam City Attorney, I withdraw my motion, let Council Member Fan make a motion, motion, sub-motion to say, Mr. City Manager, we're gonna find $100,000, I'll second your motion and we'll go from there.

Sonia R. CarvalhoItem 28

So just like you had a motion on the table, you are withdrawing your substitute motion and the second to that is also this?

Valerie AmezcuaItem 28

No, I want this item withdrawn. I wanna withdraw the item. And then she's making a motion for the city manager to fine $100,000 somewhere.

Sonia R. CarvalhoItem 28

Okay, but see, I'm not trying to make this difficult. No, no, go ahead. But remember, as a matter of process, if you take action on that item, then you're gonna need a motion to reconsider because you're taking final action to table. I don't have a problem with it.

Thai Viet PhanItem 28

No, don't.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 28

Wait, I'm confused, what? Oh, whatever, we'll amend the item.

Sonia R. CarvalhoItem 28

Okay, we're gonna amend the item.

Thai Viet PhanItem 28

No, just withdraw your motion.

Sonia R. CarvalhoItem 28

I'm gonna withdraw my motion. Just a second, you're just withdrawing the motion. Okay, now there's a motion on the floor. If there's a withdrawal at the second, it leaves room for a new substitute motion.

Thai Viet PhanItem 28

Yes, and so my substitute motion is to direct the city manager to find $100,000 to start a program that will help families impacted by the ICE raids who are from Santa Ana and who can prove that either a primary income earner or an income earner was either detained or can prove that maybe they didn't go to work because of the ICE raids of fear. And let's start with that and come back to us in 90 days. Councillor Becerra.

Phil BacerraItem 28

I don't know that I can support that motion. And the reason being is I just, the original item that was before us was very clean. it was here is money here's repurposing that money it wasn't taking from somewhere else and adding a little bit of this to that so to just give you carte blanche to say go find a hundred thousand maybe it all comes from one of councilmember Hernandez's events maybe it comes from one of councilmember Palos's events my point being is that hundred thousand come from anywhere and then we come back and we're gonna have the same discussion again because

Phil BacerraItem 28

somebody up here will say well that's not where I expected that money to come from councilmember Hernandez wants it to come from the police but what happens if doesn't come from the police is he not happy with that that's what i'm saying so i don't know that i can support just saying go find a hundred thousand i i agree with you mr city manager i know you could find it but i don't think it sets a good precedent for us to just say go find money without this council whose responsibility is to give you direction to say where that money should come from

Valerie AmezcuaItem 28

so i don't know that i can support this well i said ten percent of all the programs lopez has has been waiting, I'm so sorry. Yes, thank you. Thank you. On your motion.

Jessie LopezItem 28

We'll be seeing you. So a couple things. I'm not married to these events. I think that we should take into consideration, I hope that it's taken into consideration that a raid just happened at Centennial Park. An attorney, a US citizen was taken without any rhyme or reason. And so I hope that people take into consideration that you can host an event this weekend, but if people don't feel safe, they're not gonna show up. and then you waste thousands of dollars on an event that our constituents could not enjoy. So it is a very sensitive time for people in our community, whether you're a proud American or otherwise.

Jessie LopezItem 28

And this is my understanding, correct me if I'm mistaken, but this is not about the logistics of the program. This is about giving you the authorization to find the dollars to begin to build out the program. Do I not understand this correctly?

Sonia R. CarvalhoItem 28

You're talking about the subsidized motion made by the call? This item, yes. This item in front of me. No. So the item in front of you, as I understood it and written and did discuss the procedure with the city manager because it's important, because of the way it was framed, if the money had stayed within the parks department and the funds were administered through parks, we would not be subject to the charter requirement on appropriation. But if you start to now challenge your city staff to start to move money from different departments for different reasons, now you're going to put yourself in that supermajority vote position.

Sonia R. CarvalhoItem 28

So, yes, you could give direction to the city manager to go do it. And when he comes back, if he's moving money among departments, that's going to require five votes to get you your support to fund immigration assistance.

Jessie LopezItem 28

Understood. Thank you so much, city attorney. I appreciate that clarification. One recommendation that I have heard up here is to take the travel budget of the council, which the council did vote to increase earlier this year. And so I think that's a great starting point. Take the travel budget of the council. And I'm very to hear that electives up here are not going to be using taxpayer dollars to travel to Mexico again. I think that's great. I think there's a lot happening in our community. And so I think that, again, thank you for the recommendation. I think that's a good starting point.

Jessie LopezItem 28

I don't know if people will support it or not. But I just want to be very clear too, right, that this item is talking about establishing a $1 million relief fund. And so I'm hearing about creating a $100,000 one. And so I want to make sure that we're not lowering the dollar amount that we have already discussed.

So this is up to $1 million. That's one point. And you can discuss the amount as the city council, as the majority seems to be fit. Number two, if it stays within the parks and recreation component, right, this is the discretionary expenditure we use. I think more to Council Member Fan's point, if we were to say let's start with 10%, then then it stays with still within the discretionary aspect within parks and recreation. So I don't think we have, as far as maybe the city attorney can correct me,

a big jump then to make on the as far as the reapportionment component. That's the key, right? We, or the mayor recommended that all these programs programs, up to a million dollars for considerations and discussion. So if I may, so we can discuss 2026 options and come back in 90 days as a potential, kind of like to the point that the council member said, but that's the key and this component, right?

That's what we said, up to a million dollars, and that's where we put the program so it can be discussed and evaluated and so so for us is we just approved the budget literally what two weeks ago the second reading right and so and and we and we approved a very tight budget when we talk about the vacancies in the police department what the chief omitted to say is that most of those vacancies are used for overtime to you know to account for those you know vacant positions that we have right so we are very very finite in the way we're approaching this We're very specific in the way we approach this. This way we're very clear,

and we will discuss the budget component, right? It was probably one of the best year as we programmed for the sunset of our sales tech component. So in the end, this is at the discretion of the city council and the amount. This is where we put up to a million dollars. If it's 100,000, we do the best thing we can with 100,000. If you give us more, then we'll do the best that we can. And as far as the institutional component within the organization, right? So using our infrastructure to collaborate and work with those non-profits that are gonna help. Whether it be, we have to come back and say,

hey, the Immigration Defense Fund requires more money, we'll bring it back. If we work to a weight control component with Mike's team, then we can work with those folks. We have our relationships with Meals on Wheels with the Parts of Recreation. We can continue to work with those folks, right? Any component working with the nonprofits, we're working with that. If it gets removed and no money is allocated, we'll look to what we have as far as our relationship and see if we can enhance that, kind of like Council Member Fran said. How do we expand those relations? How we notify our constituents?

And then because she does raise a good point, we can validate, we can vet the ones that were arrested hopefully, right? Which is the key component. We met with the Mexican consulate on June 18th. As far as our knowledge and awareness, the federal detention component here in Santa Ana is more of a processing center, which means they're here for temporary point, and then they're moved to different locations, whether in El Anto, El Centro, or in Los Angeles. And again, this is a discussion with the Mexican consulate. So because as far as the diplomatic standing and their international agreement,

any time a quote unquote Mexican national gets arrested, they notify the Mexican consulate so they can make the customary help and assistance. At that point, we're asking, if we can't get it from ICE, the information, which I think Mayor Portima is asking, how many times, how many people have been arrested since June 9th? how to put our residents. So when we met on June 18th with the Mexican consulate, we said, if you can find out, and you can share the information. And she relayed to us that we go on a daily basis when we get notified, including Saturdays and Sundays. So to this date, we haven't received any information

as far as how many of us here, whether in Santa Ana or Orange County.

Jessie LopezItem 28

Actually, can I finish my questions regarding this item before we get into the conversation? Okay, great, thank you. Again, I just want to make myself clear. I'm not opposed to these recommendations. I don't think that we should look to 2026. I think we should look at this year because we don't know what's gonna happen in 2026. That's why I don't think it's such a far-fetched idea to say we have a massive event coming up this weekend. Other jurisdictions like the County of LA, other cities have canceled this type of celebration for the same reason. And again, you can use those dollars

Jessie LopezItem 28

to start creating this relief fund meant to support our families. And I think it's more than appropriate, given the location of the event that we're talking about and what happened at that park. And, you know, it is my understanding that for Fiestas Patrias, community members are not attending the organizational meetings. And I don't know if you want to speak to that, Hawk, but I think it's important for everybody to understand that nobody is showing up to those meetings.

Go ahead, if she really knows, if she's telling us and you know.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 28

For once, he's speechless.

Are we just talking about the parade meeting?

Valerie AmezcuaItem 28

That specific, yes.

That is correct.

Jessie LopezItem 28

Thank you. And I also don't think that we can sit up here and say, you know, an ICE raid hasn't happened at an event, therefore we shouldn't think that it can't happen. What is most concerning about what we're seeing in the city is that this is behavior that is not the same as in past years. And so we don't know if it'll happen at an event or not. And I think this is why when we're talking about large scale events, we should approach them with a little bit of caution and discretion because nobody here can guarantee our community that they won't see something or that something

Jessie LopezItem 28

may not happen at an event or near an event. And that will just really bring a lot of chaos to an event that we're hosting. And so I think what I would like is for the temperature up here to calm down a little bit, because this is really a moment for this council to come together to figure out what we can do together on behalf of our constituents. constituents, this is a really, really delicate moment for us to be pointing fingers at each other, be throwing these accusations, be saying that people wanted to fund the police because

Jessie LopezItem 28

we're trying to find any fund out there to help our constituents. When you just said that we have a very tight budget, it should not be met with this much hostility up here. At the end of the day, this conversation is about supporting residents who are hurting, residents who have bills, who have had the opportunity to make a living taken away from them. And so again, I just want to put that on the table. We don't need to meet each other with this hostility right now. We need to find a solution to give our constituents.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 28

Councillor Penalosa.

David PenalozaItem 28

Thank you, Madam Mayor. As one of the, I think Councillor Becerra was up here with me when we first launched the revive program revive santa ana back in 2020 at the onset of the pandemic i think what what was uh i i'm trying to go through my what i could remember of the time and and you know it was uh it was very universal and it was affecting everybody in the city the same way um and what did the federal government do gave us 150 some million dollars for us to be able to provide these

David PenalozaItem 28

resources to our community um and councilmember fan mentioned that earlier how we were you know it was only certain census tracts that we were allowed to provide resources to and i know we were going door to door and offering uh whether it was gift cards or groceries or or whatever COVID TESTS. SO WE WERE JUST WHICHEVER RESIDENT WANTED ANY RESOURCE OR HELP, WE WOULD GIVE IT TO THEM. NOW WITH THIS ONE, I'M TRYING TO UNDERSTAND HOW WE WOULD BE ABLE TO MANAGE IT. I HEARD SOME CONVERSATIONS UP

David PenalozaItem 28

HERE STARTING TO $100,000. BUT GUESS WHAT? we're gonna need a 150 000 analyst to figure out how to how to provide the the the programming how to program it and how are we how do we do it fairly right um i personally don't want to remove any of these events um i enjoy all of them they're all beautiful cultural uh events that make our city what it is today but to council member lopez's point i agree with her i we don't know what kind of enforcement is going to happen at these events if any we we can't i wish we had a

David PenalozaItem 28

crystal ball to say hey ice agents are going to be at this event on saturday so that we should cancel it but we don't know but do we want to put our community at risk to that level to that that magnitude to have 50,000 people congregate on 4th Street to celebrate Fiestas Patrias. It's like, what kind of danger are we putting our own community in?

David PenalozaItem 28

I look at this funding, and if we were to, let's say, start with a smaller amount to not cancel all these amounts. so i'm just kind of thinking out loud here um mr city manager and maybe your executive or i was going to say finance director uh maybe your assistant city manager catherine or your finance director um right next to her would would uh could how much money i'm willing to forfeit any of the discretionary fundings that i have which is ten thousand dollars i know it's not much but when you

David PenalozaItem 28

start adding all these little things it's going to make a huge difference and it could help us fill in these gaps if the council majority does not want to remove these events but the idea is to be able to provide this funding to our residents who need it three weeks ago um so with that question is council discretionary funds it's seventy thousand dollars total correct

David PenalozaItem 28

And I know my colleagues are going to hate me and I'm sorry, but council leads, what is that total funding? And I'm not, this isn't a joke. I'm being serious because this is an unprecedented situation that we're dealing with.

420,000.

David PenalozaItem 28

$420,000 a year. $70,000 for discretionary funds. How much money is budgeted in our travel budget? and not just for the council members for across the board citywide for for city staff for for elected officials what is that budgeted travel sponsorship

criteria these agency has their own budget that they allow for travel I

David PenalozaItem 28

would have to look for this agency okay but what about for City Council what is that that's because I know there was a sponsorship fund approved as well we did what 40 000 40 000 okay um what about um and and i and i have to ask because it was mentioned like three times and if any who who who's traveling to harvard for twenty thousand dollars because i genuinely want to know oh the mr city manager i'm gonna ask the city manager so uh

Councilmember, Judge Lopez requested and I approved a training in Harvard.

David PenalozaItem 28

$20,000?

Yes.

David PenalozaItem 28

For one councilmember to go to a training?

Yes.

David PenalozaItem 28

Okay, well that, we're going to have to revisit signing contract authority because if we're approving 20, what if we all decided to go to Harvard for $20,000 a pop? You're talking a quarter of a million dollars? I mean, the-

So, understood. So in the past, right, we have had other council members, maybe not the ones currently, have gone and have been approved. So that's one of the reasons why we approved it. And it's valid. It's training for one of our policymakers. It is a Harvard Leadership Institute. We don't have discretion. And that's fine. Fine, we can bring it back to evaluation as far as city council wants to do. My recommendation though, we are gonna do it. I prefer it's a municipal code section, so then we don't have to worry about policies and changes like that. So we're making sure that it's something

that we're all mandated and responsible to do.

David PenalozaItem 28

And I'm trying to be helpful here in regards to finding this funding, because I hear from a lot of my colleagues, and again, I don't wanna cancel these events either, but this is this is what we're elected to do to make these tough decisions and unfortunately to councilmember Lopez's point we don't know what these events and we don't know the kind of danger that we're putting our community in by having such a public massive gathering of our community so it's like do we do we want to forego the events and and and or look at nickel and dime every single single thing that we do until we come up with a million dollars.

David PenalozaItem 28

The one, because of the, how unprecedented the situation is that we're seeing in our community. And I want to ask, and this isn't, again I'm thinking out loud here. What if we have a rainy day fund, Mr. City Manager? That's what it's for, for a rainy day. They don't happen every single day. What does that look like? So. What would be the-

So, okay. Okay.

David PenalozaItem 28

Again, I'm asking out, I'm thinking out loud here.

So let me be clear, right? And I think this is part of the discussion where we keep saying it, right? So this is our response as far as community asking. We need it now, right? We need to be able to be supportive. We need to be responsive.

The mayor made a recommendation. This is why we put it in the business calendar. We could easily have made a determination to put it in a city council recommendation, have a discussion, and come back in two weeks. But if the idea is that you as the council members, you as the policy directors, tell me what kind of funding you're looking to have, and then I'll do my best in two weeks to come back with a recommendation and a funding source. And you can order it as an appropriation component, right? If you want to look at the management, at the consulates as an option, we'll present that as an option.

option if you want your discretionary resource as far as your funding discretionary fund we can put that as a function if you want to look at canceling all travel for all city staff in training that you can you can make that as a recommendation we'll bring it

Sonia R. CarvalhoItem 28

we are way out far afield of I think the original question the mayor asked he asked two questions on the Brown Act and on the procedural question so I think your options at this point are are to either make a substitute motion,

perhaps to support the recommendation that was in the staff report,

Sonia R. CarvalhoItem 28

or to take an action on the first motion that's on the floor. I really think those are your options. If those don't work, you raise this issue the first time, staff can come back, exactly looking at some of those alternatives, have a discussion. But I want the council to fully understand, because you may be having a conversation that leads you to nowhere. Because remember what I said, this was a care, if the council directs staff to start moving money around from different funds, we are out of the normal. You need a supermajority vote. And so in my opinion on a procedural matter, not to get into your policy, I think you would

Sonia R. CarvalhoItem 28

be best off seeing if you can address the recommendation that was made or the motion that's on the table.

Jennifer L. HallItem 28

And if I can clarify, we do have a motion and a sub-motion on the table already.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 28

Okay. Okay, so one more comment. Okay. Motion.

David PenalozaItem 28

Are you done? I wasn't done, just, I guess I just need answer for that, I guess for informational, for information purposes.

Sonia R. CarvalhoItem 28

But the problem is we can't keep having a conversation about matters that were not posted on the agenda. Okay, I'm asking.

David PenalozaItem 28

I understand where you're trying to go. I'm asking a question about information, for an information purpose. Mr. City Manager, what is in our reserves Rainy Day Fund? I'm just, again, this is just for information only.

Over $70 million.

David PenalozaItem 28

Okay. All right. So again, it's not something that I would even want to touch. But I mean, when I don't see an effort or a willingness, a real willingness from anybody on this council to fund this, aside from the mayor, sorry, and because of the funding sources, then this conversation is pointless. this i'm ready to support this meeting this item as is right now because i know how important these funds are and these programs and this for us to program this for our community but i brought up

David PenalozaItem 28

council leads because no one's going to agree to that i brought up discretionary funds because nobody's going to agree to that because if we really wanted to fund this program we would do that but with that i would support the item as is as the mayor and mayor mesquite presented um i I don't know if that's still a second.

Sonia R. CarvalhoItem 28

As a sub-motion, do we have a sub-motion on the floor? I thought it was withdrawn.

Jennifer L. HallItem 28

Well, so I have an original motion by Councilmember Hernandez, seconded by Mayor Pro Tem Vasquez. And then the Mayor had moved to withdraw the item. She withdrew that sub-motion, but then I thought there was a secondary sub-motion by Councilmember Phan, seconded by Mayor Hamezcoa, related to the 10%. No, I didn't. No.

Sonia R. CarvalhoItem 28

So there was only one motion on the floor, and so are you making a substitute motion?

Jennifer L. HallItem 28

I made a motion to withdraw and Council Member Becerra seconded. But then I thought that that sub motion was taken off the table as well, withdrawn. So that would have left us with just the original motion. Right.

Sonia R. CarvalhoItem 28

So on the floor right now is just the original motion. And Pantaloza, if you'd like to make a substitute motion, you could do that.

David PenalozaItem 28

I'll make a substitute motion to approve tonight's item as is.

Sonia R. CarvalhoItem 28

I'll second.

Sonia R. CarvalhoItem 28

We then take a vote on the substitute motion. Motion.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 28

Let's prepare to vote on the substitute motion.

Phil BacerraItem 28

And it's as presented in the staff report?

Jennifer L. HallItem 28

Can you do a roll call, Madam Clerk? Yes, motion by Council Member Penalosa, seconded by Mayor Homesqua, to approve the recommended action for item 28 as presented. Council Member Becerra?

Phil BacerraItem 28

Yes.

Jennifer L. HallItem 28

Council Member Hernandez?

Phil BacerraItem 28

No.

Jennifer L. HallItem 28

Council Member Lopez? No. Council Member Penalosa?

David PenalozaItem 28

Yes.

Jennifer L. HallItem 28

Council Member Phan? No. Mayor Pro Tem Vasquez?

David PenalozaItem 28

No.

Jennifer L. HallItem 28

Mayor Meskwa? Yes. So it is three ayes, four nays. Ayes by Mayor Meskwa, Councilmember Becerra, and Peñalosa, motion fails. Then we would revert to the original motion on the floor, which was by Councilmember Hernandez, seconded by Mayor Pro Tem Vasquez. I believe that there was a friendly amendment to this motion to look at utilizing the funds currently allocated for Fiestas Patrias to start the fund for financial assistance and then to look at other additional funding options.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 28

And Madam Clerk, you left off the part where Councilman Hernandez wanted the money taken from the police department.

Johnathan Ryan HernandezItem 28

Yes, I wanted. We're not gonna leave that out. For the city manager's office to identify potential monies and for the potential for us to look at those vacancies we have in PD.

Sonia R. CarvalhoItem 28

And that vote would require five votes because it's requiring appropriation, which will come back to you.

Jessie LopezItem 28

And just clarification, are you saying to look at strictly the funds from the un unfulfilled positions yes so

Johnathan Ryan HernandezItem 28

direction of the city manager I'm happy if you take a look at any fund of money that we have and you say hey here's what we're able to get it doesn't have to be exclusive to vacancies I just think that given the fact that we just went through this budget we've had these 36 vacancies for a number of years they're still not being filled we can come back at a mid-year budget and ensure that we replace those and so so the motion is for us to direct the city manager's office to identify a funding source

Valerie AmezcuaItem 28

so that we can provide mutual aid so that's not the that wasn't the motion so and just just for

the council members edification so because we're not this so so you're right we have 36 unfulfilled field positions, but those salary savings is what the police department use for overtime to fill in those type of positions. I understand. I think that. I just don't want to give the misnomer that somehow it's also a savings. Absolutely.

Johnathan Ryan HernandezItem 28

But I think that given the climate of where we're at today, it would be beneficial for our police department to collaborate with the immigrant community who is in crisis today. This is how we build an established trust. As a police department that has its motto is community first let's really put that to action so can we get the motion so we can get a second

Jennifer L. HallItem 28

in about please so um a motion by council member hernandez seconded by mayor potem vasquez to allocate the current funding for the fiesta's patriots parade followed by direction to the city manager to identify additional funding sources from within the police department including through the vacancies budget for this financial assistance program i think councilman

Valerie AmezcuaItem 28

Mr. Hernandez-Cocker, if I'm wrong, but I thought you added a Fourth of July as well.

Johnathan Ryan HernandezItem 28

Well, it looks like there's no consensus for Fourth of July, but there is a consensus that overwhelmingly our residents are gonna be concerned for Fiestas Patrias, so if that's an amendment that you.

Benjamin VazquezItem 28

Okay, well I don't know if they're overwhelming. It wasn't the parade, it was the whole festival.

Johnathan Ryan HernandezItem 28

Thank you.

Benjamin VazquezItem 28

It's half a million, so it's a good start.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 28

Madam City Attorney, can we clarify please? This has gone so like to the left. It was just a really simple agenda item to just help our community.

Sonia R. CarvalhoItem 28

So I mean, can you ‑‑ Remember, if it's going to come directly from the parks and rec department and they're going to be the ones administering the payments out, it does not require an appropriation.

Sonia R. CarvalhoItem 28

But if you now start to add specifically a vacancy in the police department or any other department ‑‑ reserves, by the way, require all kinds of special things because you have you have a finance policy that governs when you can touch those. I don't know them by heart, but they certainly aren't just a simple vote. There's some findings you have to make in order to touch them. So anything other is gonna take you into the five votes. Okay, so we need five votes. Go ahead, Madam Clerk, do your roll call.

David PenalozaItem 28

For clarity, this is the motion, the funding for the police vacancies?

Jennifer L. HallItem 28

Yes. The original motion, Council Member Hernandez, seconded by Mayor Patan Vasquez, to utilize the current funding for Fiestas Patrias for the financial assistance program, followed by direction to the city manager to identify funding sources from within the police department, including the vacancies for additional funding into the program. Do a roll call vote, please. Council Member Becerra?

No.

Jennifer L. HallItem 28

Council Member Hernandez?

Yes.

Jennifer L. HallItem 28

Council Member Lopez? Yes. Council Member Peñalosa?

David PenalozaItem 28

No.

Jennifer L. HallItem 28

Council Member Phan? No.

Jennifer L. HallItem 28

Mayor Pro Tem Vasquez?

Valerie AmezcuaItem 28

Yes.

Jennifer L. HallItem 28

Mayor Miswa?

Valerie AmezcuaItem 28

No.

Jennifer L. HallItem 28

So it is three ayes, four nays. Ayes by Mayor Pro Tem Vasquez and Council Members Hernandez and Lopez. Motion fails. So may I make my motion now?

Thai Viet PhanItem 28

My actual motion that the city manager stopped me?

Valerie AmezcuaItem 28

No, Madam City Attorney is just letting me know. We're done at this point.

Thai Viet PhanItem 28

Why is it done?

Valerie AmezcuaItem 28

Because action was taken and there's no action.

Thai Viet PhanItem 28

Well, no, but I'm saying I have a motion. We're done. Well, how is it done? Because my motion—

David PenalozaItem 28

She can make another motion. Go ahead, Council Member Fahey. Yeah.

Sonia R. CarvalhoItem 28

My motion. I'm with the city attorney, so that's what's—The chair can accept that. The chair can accept the motion if she does—if you don't want, but there was no action. It's up to the chair if you want to take a new motion.

Thai Viet PhanItem 28

Well, no action yet, right? Right. But there could still be a motion, and my motion is to allocate 10 percent of each of these—

Valerie AmezcuaItem 28

Are you asking me as the chair? Can you make your motion?

Thai Viet PhanItem 28

May I make my motion, Mayor? Yes, you can. Thank you. I would like to make a motion, which was my original sub-motion that Mr. City Manager stop me from making because he can find $100,000 in the budget but I'm saying let's take 10% from each of these events to start a fund to help our community that's been impacted by these ice raids come back in 90 days or sooner if you feel that it is working that is doing the thing that we needed to do and if we need to allocate more funding we will have a broader staff report that would would allow us to discuss all these different sources of funding. That is my motion. I'll second your motion.

I'll second your motion.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 28

Made by Councilmember Phan, seconded by Panelosa.

Jennifer L. HallItem 28

Motion by Councilmember Phan, seconded by Councilmember Panelosa to allocate 10% of the identified city events to start a fund to help the community with return by staff in 90 days or sooner with information and a potential broader discussion as necessary. Councilmember Becerra?

Yes. Yes.

Jennifer L. HallItem 28

Council Member Hernandez?

Yes.

Jennifer L. HallItem 28

Council Member Lopez? Well, before I vote, I do have a question.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 28

I'm sorry, we're gonna vote, so.

Jessie LopezItem 28

The 10% that's being recommended, is that the cap? Or are you essentially saying? Point of order, Madam Chair. Point of order. We're voting. This is a roll call.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 28

Point of order, Madam City Attorney. Clarification of my motion, right? The clerk is saying, hold on please. Madam City Attorney, we are voting. So let's point, we are voting. So continue with the roll call, Madam City Clerk.

Jennifer L. HallItem 28

Council Member Lopez.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 28

Well I don't know how you expect me to vote if I don't have full clarity. She said it, 10%.

Jessie LopezItem 28

And so I'm asking the Councilwoman for clarity on her motion.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 28

Okay, so can you, Madam City Clerk, can you read out the motion one more time please? It's becoming like a political theater. Please just read the motion.

Jennifer L. HallItem 28

A motion to allocate 10% of the identified city events to start a fund to help the community with staff to return in 90 days or sooner to discuss the efficacy of the program and allow for a broader discussion of additional funding.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 28

Thank you, and you started the call, so the vote with Council Member Becerra?

Jennifer L. HallItem 28

Yes, which was an aye, and Council Member Hernandez, which was an aye.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 28

Okay, go ahead, continue.

Jessie LopezItem 28

Council Member Lopez. I still have a question for the Councilwoman that made the motion.

Go ahead.

Jessie LopezItem 28

I'm clear on the 10% for your motion. What I need clarity is, is that the cap, or is it open to finding other sources of revenue to make sure that it doesn't

Thai Viet PhanItem 28

cap off no this motion in order to only require a four vote majority and to immediately start the program is limited to only the program events listed here that's why I'm asking staff to come back in 90 days that or sooner if we need more money because they're seeing how important you know how effective this is and then they can talk about police funding, the council aid budget, travel, whatever it is, and put it in there and we can have the really broad discussion and then the city attorney won't yell at us.

Jessie LopezItem 28

Thank you, thank you for the clarity.

Thai Viet PhanItem 28

Of course.

Jessie LopezItem 28

And thank you for your professionalism too.

Thai Viet PhanItem 28

Anytime.

Jessie LopezItem 28

Council Member Lopez.

Thai Viet PhanItem 28

Madam Clerk, go ahead.

Jennifer L. HallItem 28

Council Member Lopez. Yes. Council Member Penalosa?

David PenalozaItem 28

Yes.

Jennifer L. HallItem 28

Council Member Phan? Yes. Mayor Pro Tem Vasquez?