Read the September 16 meeting.

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© transcript Emily Beynon

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Good morning, everyone.

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guitar solo

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Jennifer L. Hall

Go ahead, Mayor.

Valerie Amezcua

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

Jennifer L. Hall

Council Member Becerra. Council Member Hernandez. Council Member Lopez. Here. Council Member Penalosa is planning, will be participating in this meeting via teleconference. He has not yet joined in that capacity. Council Member Phan. Here. Mayor Pro Tem Vasquez.

Benjamin Vazquez

Present.

Jennifer L. Hall

Mayor Meskwa. Present. Record show you have four members present. That is a quorum. Thank you so much. Madam Clerk, are there any additions or deletions to the closed session agenda? Yes, Mayor and City Council. Council, the City Attorney has something to request.

Sonia R. Carvalho

Mayor and Council Members, from time to time, the City Attorney's Office, in connection with the staff, will ask you to add an item to your agenda. Under the Brown Act, you can do so. The item came up after the posting of the agenda, and there's a need to take immediate action. The City of Los Angeles contacted us after the posting of the agenda to request that the City join an additional amicus brief. We'd like to talk to you about that in closed session. This is the same case we discussed previously, Newsom versus Trump. So if I could get a unanimous vote of those present, we can add that item. I'll make a motion. Second.

Sonia R. Carvalho

All those in favor? Aye.

Jennifer L. Hall

There you go. I heard four ayes for the motion by Mayor Mezcuah, seconded by Councilmember Lopez, to add item 1G, Conference with Legal Counsel Existing Litigation, Newsom v. Trump, to the closed session agenda. Motion carries.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 1

Do any councilmembers need to announce abstentions on closed session items? Hearing none, Madam Clerk, do we have any speakers on any closed session items?

Jennifer L. HallItem 1

Mayor and City Council, we did not receive any speaker cards from members present or in Zoom related to closed session, nor were any e-comments received related to the closed session agendas. Okay, thank you. We'll now go into closed session.

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Oh, oh, oh. Oh, oh, oh. Oh, oh, oh. Oh, oh, oh. Oh, oh, oh.

Oh, oh, oh. Oh, oh, oh. Oh, oh, oh. Oh, oh, oh. Oh, oh, oh. Oh, oh, oh. Oh, oh, oh. Oh, oh, oh. Oh, oh, oh. Oh, oh, oh.

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Valerie AmezcuaItem 1

Mayor you can go ahead please. Thank you. Good timing to start at 540 instead of 6 or 630. So let's start the meeting Madam Clerk. I hereby reconvene the Santa Ana City Council meeting

Valerie AmezcuaItem 1

Madam Clerk please conduct the roll call.

Jennifer L. HallItem 1

Yes. Thank you, Mayor. This meeting is taking place with in-person attendance and by teleconference via Zoom, including teleconference participation by Councilmember Penalosa. 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 is not held. meeting becomes too disruptive to properly conduct business. Warnings will be provided prior to any action being taken,

Jennifer L. HallItem 1

and we appreciate your cooperation. For everyone's safety, per the fire marshal, please do not stand or place objects in the aisles, in front of the dais, along the back wall of the council chamber, or in front of entrances and exits. During city council presentations and oaths of office, guests of individuals being recognized are invited to come to the front to take photos. For roll call, Council Member Becerra.

Jennifer L. HallItem 1

here councilmember hernandez councilmember lopez here councilmember penulosa present and if you could please let us know if there's anyone there present with you in the room no there is nobody

David PenalozaItem 1

here in the room with me okay thank you very much councilmember fan here mayor proton vasquez

Jennifer L. HallItem 1

president mayor mesqua president record show you do have six members present four five in person

Valerie AmezcuaItem 1

Thank you.

Jennifer L. HallItem 1

Madam Clerk, before we proceed with the Pledge of Allegiance, please make an announcement. For members of the public jurisdiction, you must dial star 9 from your phone or click the button labeled raise hand from Zoom now to be in the speaker queue once public comments commence. This does not apply to public hearing item numbers 27 and 28 for which comments will be heard during the specific public hearing. Please hold your comments on those particular items until specifically called upon. Thank you.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 1

Thank you, Madam Clerk. The first item on the agenda is the Pledge of Allegiance. May I have Adrian please come up and join us. Lead us in the Pledge of Allegiance.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 1

I'm sorry, he's representing Labor's Leuna 652.

Thank you, Madam Mayor. If we can all remove our hats, place your right hand over your heart. Ready, begin. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for

David PenalozaItem 1

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

Valerie AmezcuaItem 1

Thank you so much. Words of inspiration at this time will be provided by Pastor Jeff Schidler. I'm sure I said that wrong. Please come to the podium. Thank you. I'm going to call you Pastor Jeff.

Thank you, Mayor. Mayor, honored to be with you all this evening, representing Cross of Grace Church of Santa Ana. Thank you for the opportunity to address the city council and to ask God's blessing upon what's going to take place this evening. Let's go to him now in prayer. God of heaven and earth, I am grateful that your word promises that the Lord is near to all who call on him. We call upon you now because we need you to be near to us. Truly, we need you at all times, but in the lives we live there are some times where that need becomes even clearer to us. Right

now is one of those. As we gather this evening we find our city, our community, and our nation experiencing unrest, disunity, division, anger, fear. Even here in our little corner of the world the waves of tragedy both near and far off continue crashing upon the shore. For all kinds of reasons members of our community have heavy hearts and are in need of hope. We pray, Lord, that you would meet us in a time like this, that you would do a work among us to anchor our hearts in peace, protect the innocent

around us, accomplish true justice where there must be justice, and to bless our city according to the riches of your grace. We pray that through what takes place tonight, you would work good for Santa Anna, that you would give wisdom and insight to our city councilors and leaders, that you would strengthen them to do the difficult job they have to do, that you would grant them unity of mind and heart and spur them on in a common purpose to serve those they represent. Would you cause all that is done tonight, every discussion, every decision, every public comment made to be done

for the building up of the families, schools, businesses, neighborhoods, nonprofits, and churches of our city. And Lord, for all of us, in a time where hate is common, would you fill the hearts in this room with a love that is not. The very love that comes from you. The kind of love that expressed itself in the giving of your son in order to do everlasting good for broken and needy people like us. A love that would not be contained to this place, but would pour out into our city.

In a time where evil seems rampant all around us, would you work through us to overcome evil with good? And Father in heaven, would you cause your will to be done in Santa Ana as it is in heaven? Would you make our city a place that people love to be? Would you be near to us in all the ways we need it. For the glory of your name and the good of our city, we pray in Jesus name. Amen.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 1

Thank you, Pastor Jeff.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 1

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

Jennifer L. HallItem 1

No, there are not, but I heard there is a little birdie who flew all night from Florida to tell

Valerie AmezcuaItem 1

you something a little birdie that flew all the way from florida to tell me something well wow here he comes here's the birdie everybody

Valerie AmezcuaItem 1

All right, Mr. Birdie.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 1

I don't know, is it okay to take it? Are you sure? All right.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 1

Mr. Birdie. Thank you, Mr. Birdie. Let me see what he gave us. It says, we did it. Not quite sure yet, but let me read it. We're so proud to announce that our Santa Ana Zoo team has earned accreditation from the Association of Zoos and Aquariums. Yay!

Valerie AmezcuaItem 1

AZA, you want to wait right here? Yes, there you go. You take that seat right there. AZA accreditation, you're going to vote tonight too, is a prestigious recognition award to to only the top zoos and aquariums. It's more than just a badge of honor. It signifies excellence in animal welfare and veterinarian care, as you can tell. Access to global conservation and species survival programs. We let him live. Enhanced educational programs and funding opportunities. A safe, engaging space for families and visitors to connect with wildlife.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 1

life. Just don't connect with this one, okay. Professional development and career growth for our dedicated team. We're thrilled to join the ranks of AZA accredited institutions and continue working every day to inspire, educate, and protect. Your Santa Ana Zoo team will continue to provide the highest standards of animal care, conservation, education, and visitor experience. This This achievement belongs to all of our staff, the friends of the Santa Ana Zoo team, our volunteers, our city leaders, our city management, and you, our incredible community. Congratulations.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 1

I don't think he's sticking around for photos, so we're gonna let him go back to the zoo.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 1

All right. We're going to do presentations now. Sorry, I was thrown off here with a little birdie. He's not a little birdie, by the way. He's a big birdie. Okay. Orange County Hunger Alliance, we're declaring, I am declaring the month of September 25 as Hunger Action Month. Come on up, Hunger Alliance. Please join me.

Thank you.

First of all, I'd like to point out how happy I am I changed clothes and didn't bring my green parrot suit today. That would have been embarrassing.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 1

You should have worn one. All right. Good evening. It is my honor to present this proclamation to the Orange County Hunger Alliance in recognition of September as Hunger Action Month. Hunger Action Month is a nationwide campaign that brings together food banks, anti-hunger organizations, and communities across the country. It is a time to raise awareness about hunger and food insecurity and to inspire people to take action to ensure every family has access to nutritious food. Unfortunately the reality is that right here in Orange County, over 359,000 individuals are food insecure, including more than 86,000 children.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 1

These are our neighbors, our classmates, our coworkers, and our community members. In response to local organizations, in response, excuse me, local organizations are stepping up in incredible ways. Second Harvest Food Bank alone distributed over 8 million pounds of food at 47 distribution sites in Santa Ana last fiscal year, serving more than 1.6 million individuals. That's why this month we are calling on everyone to be part of the movement to end food insecurity. security, whether through volunteering, advocacy, donations, or simply spreading the word, your voice, action, and commitment will make a difference.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 1

On behalf of the city, as the mayor, I'm proud to declare September 2025 as Hunger Action Month, and I present this proclamation to the Orange County Hunger Alliance in recognition of your unwavering efforts to fight hunger and uplift families in our community. And I just really want to thank you because I know we've worked together even when I was on the school board and so i appreciate everything that you do for our community it means a lot thank you for your service thank you very much

i'd like to i'd like to thank mirameska on behalf of the hunger alliance which is all those non-profit agencies across the county including the two food banks that work to alleviate food insecurity that helps provide that consistent access to nutrition to individuals and families that are lacking that food. And I wanna thank the city, the city council, but most importantly, I wanna ask everyone to please help. There's plenty of ways to help, and you can start by supporting the nonprofit agencies in Santa Ana that feed our residents. So thank you very much, Mayor. Thank you for all the support. Thank you, let's do a photo.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Phil BacerraItem 1

All right.

Phil BacerraItem 1

There we go. If I could have Ignacio Munoz, Jamie Cortez, Mark Schoewacker, and Marta Rodriguez join me up here, please.

Phil BacerraItem 1

While they're coming up here, we're recognizing them because they are part of our very essential service club infrastructure here in Santa Ana, and we're going to be proclaiming September as service club month.

Phil BacerraItem 1

So good evening everybody. So tonight it is my honor to recognize the invaluable contributions of the Kiwanis, Lions, Elks, and Rotary Clubs as we declare September 2025 Service Club Organization Month here in Santa Ana. Each of these organizations have been a pillar of strength and compassion in our community, dedicated to enhancing it through their steadfast commitment to service, charity, and fundraising. For years, these clubs have played a pivotal role in driving the growth and development within our community. The Kiwanis Club, Ignacio, if you can come up here.

Phil BacerraItem 1

So the Kiwanis Club, currently led by this gentleman here, Ignacio Munoz, also here with the Kiwanis Club. Is Michael Moss here? Michael Moss, where's Michael at? Michael right there, thank you.

Phil BacerraItem 1

Now Ignacio's the president, but Michael's got the title of California, Nevada, Hawaii District Division IV Lieutenant Governor. Is governor next?

Phil BacerraItem 1

I won't say which one has an opening, but there is a governor spot opening, just saying. So the Kiwanis Club has been serving the children and families of our community for over a century. Each year they host signature youth programs including a holiday shopping event at Target for underserved students and they award over $58,000 in scholarships to Santa Ana College students pursuing higher education. Thank you for that. If I can have Jamie Cortez come up.

Phil BacerraItem 2

So Jamie is currently the president of the Santa Ana Lions Club, but represented here tonight I believe is Cesar here? There he is. How do I miss him with the big yellow sachet there?

All right. So we've got Jamie and Cesar and we've got quite a few other Lions here tonight.

Phil BacerraItem 2

The Lions Club's community efforts include providing free eyeglasses to low-income children in collaboration with the Santa Ana Unified School District and other partners to strengthen vision programs. Beyond vision care, the Lions Club is deeply committed to a broad range of initiatives, including environmental programs, food aid, senior support, and services for individuals with disabilities, demonstrating their unwavering dedication to improving lives across our community. Thank you, guys. If I could have Mark Schoellacher come up here.

Phil BacerraItem 2

So Mark, Mark's, you know, kind of competing with Michael. He's got a fancy title himself. Mark is the exalted ruler over at the Elks Lodge, 794, of which my wife and I are proud members. Wendy and I have been members for over 10 years now. now. The Elks are committed to supporting children through their drug awareness programs, educating and protecting kids from the dangers of drug use. Last year, the Santa Ana Elks awarded over $50,000 in scholarships to local youth, helping them pursue their educational dreams. Additionally, the Elks provide back to school backpacks to help prepare kids for

Phil BacerraItem 2

the school year in an effort led by Linda Fernandez. I know Mayor Meskwa was there. I know our police officers association was there helping out as well. So that's great. The Elks continue to support local youth sports, including little league baseball and football, ensuring children in Santa Ana stay active and engaged. Thank you, Mark.

Phil BacerraItem 2

And Marta, who is our president of the Rotary Club, whose motto is service above self, makes makes a tangible difference in our community and beyond. The Rotary Club supports students with scholarships, fighting food insecurity through partnerships with local shelters. They also support the Los Angeles Fire Donation Project, organized book giveaways for youth, participated in the Rotary Walk for mental health, and sponsored Rotary Youth Leadership Award camps for high school students. Thank you, Marta. it. So in conclusion, each of these organizations is committed to unlocking the full potential of

Phil BacerraItem 2

our community. Through mentoring, leadership development, scholarships, and tailored programs for underserved young people, they are helping to make change and help shape the next generation of San Ana leaders and change makers. Today we celebrate the profound impact of the Kiwanis, Lions, Elks, and Rotary Clubs in Santa Ana as they continue to strengthen and enrich our community, ensuring that every individual has the opportunity to thrive here in Santa Ana. So on behalf of the Santa Ana City Council, it is my honor and I want to express a heartfelt appreciation to all the

Phil BacerraItem 2

members and all those in the audience as well and at home, volunteers and supporters of all these service clubs, and proclaim September 2025 as Service Club Month here in the City of Santa Ana. Your tireless dedication and selfless efforts embody the true spirit of community and inspire all of us to strive for a better tomorrow for our Golden City here in Santa Ana. So thank you guys let's give them a round of applause.

Thank you.

Welcome, welcome, good to see you.

Hello, welcome. Good to see you. Thank you for your service.

Hello there.

Hello there, ma'am. Good to see you. Always an honor.

Thank you.

Thank you. Thank you.

Thank you.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 3

presentation is council member lopez please

Jessie LopezItem 3

and everybody all of the service providers as well come on up everybody

Hello, welcome to your house, welcome to City Hall.

Jessie LopezItem 3

Can you hold these for me?

Sonia R. CarvalhoItem 3

Thank you.

Jessie LopezItem 3

I think these are all in alphabetical order. Hello, hello, good to see you.

Are you President Bush? And then the other faculty are people that are not . Okay, good to see you. Good to see you. Hello, welcome, welcome. Thank you guys for coming. Good to see you.

Hello, how are you? Good to see you. Good to see you.

Hello there, welcome to City Hall. Hello, thanks for your dedicated service. Hello. How are you? Good to see you. How are you? Good to see you. How are you? Good to see you. How are you? Good to see you.

Okay.

Jessie LopezItem 3

Hi everybody.

Jessie LopezItem 3

Tonight we are going to be recognizing the Santa Ana Unified School District FACE Team, the FACE liaisons, the folks that work in the immigration support division or plan, and so many more of the people that have, for the past eight months and before that, have really been at the front line supporting so many of our families through some of the difficult times that they have, that our community has been experiencing this year. And so I am really proud to highlight the leadership of the Santa Ana Unified School District, specifically the District's FACE team that has responded to the needs of its

Jessie LopezItem 3

immigrant families in the broader community with both compassion and a concrete plan in place. Since February, SAUSD has implemented a comprehensive immigration support plan designed to empower, protect, and uplift families across this city. This initiative has reached thousands of families through targeted workshops, staff training, and essential services. They have hosted 55 workshops drawing a total of 7,817 participants. These sessions were crafted to address urgent and long-term needs within the community. Nearly 5,000 individuals attended Know Your Rights workshops gaining essential information

Jessie LopezItem 3

about their legal protections. Over 1,876 participants took part in the family preparedness workshop plans through learning how to safeguard their families during emergencies. Through empowered community network workshops, over 1,199 attendees found connection, community, and support. SAUSD has also supported 419 individuals in citizenship classes, guiding them through the process of becoming U.S. citizens. 150 people participated in the mental wellness support workshops, gaining access to coping

Jessie LopezItem 3

tools and mental health resources. Beyond direct engagement, SAUSD has invested in its own people. A total of 979 staff members have been trained through 25 professional development sessions, equipping them with the knowledge and tools needed to better serve immigrant students and their families. In partnership with the City of Santa Ana's Ayuda Sin Frontera program, the The district has also supported hands-on support to over 50 families to ensure that they're aware of the program and that they apply to the program, helping them complete applications for emergency financial assistance during these difficult times.

Jessie LopezItem 3

Through collaborations with partners such as Second Harvest, the Seva Collective, the district has helped to distribute over 8,500 bags of food, including home deliveries to those parents in our community that are too afraid to be out in public spaces. And so I really want to thank them for going above and beyond and making sure that people are not just being supported mentally and emotionally, but also with the everyday needs that their household needs to have. With every workshop, every training, and every bag of food, the FACE team continues to affirm its commitment to the well-being of our families that it serves.

Jessie LopezItem 3

For that, I am proud to recognize their team on behalf of the city of Santa Ana. I wanna thank you all for your work, your compassion, and your dedication to our community. And I thank the districts for being at the forefront of this fight, for listening, for being prepared, and for establishing a plan of action to respond to one of the most urgent needs we face this year. And while the main awardees are the liaisons, the district staff, a lot of the people that you see behind me, their work is not possible without the support of partnerships like United Across Borders Foundation,

Jessie LopezItem 3

Foundation, the Orange County Rapid Response Network, the families of our city, the Orange County Justice Fund, various community partners, Caeli is one of them, the office of Supervisor Sarmiento, our incredible community volunteers, the Mexican Consulate, our community schools coordinator Mr. Jose Alfredo Hernandez who's an attorney and has been at many of these these workshops and so many more. And of course, I want to thank our, the city manager's office as well for always lending support to the district and to any family that has reached out to us saying, we need, you know, we need support during this time in whatever capacity.

Jessie LopezItem 3

I will now hand this over to Ms. Lisa Solomon. Yeah.

And I apologize, I have problems with my knee

Valerie AmezcuaItem 3

and it started to buckle.

And I only have a three hour speech, so just hold on, okay? First of all, I would like to thank Councilwoman Jessie Lopez for the recognition. Your leadership and commitment to uplifting our families and stabilizing our community have been an inspiration and we are honored to be here tonight. In FACE, we say everyone is family and community engagement engagement. And you can see that with all the people up here. I literally brought everyone.

We believe in faith that solo el pueblo salva el pueblo. What that means is only community saves community. This has been our guiding spirit. Over the past year, we have seen our students, teachers, families, and community partners come together in extraordinary ways to support one another. Thanks to the vision of our district leaders, including Dr. Lorraine Perez, Jerry Almendares, our superintendents, and our school board members, we've been able to offer supports, resources, and the information that our families needed during challenging times.

times. What has truly come to the forefront though is that there are so many people who value and care about our immigrant community and the only way in which we get through challenging times is not by working together, is not by working apart, but by working together. Through our collective efforts, I can now say that we have provided, the number has increased, over 9,000 bags of food, hand delivering to our families who could not reach our distribution sites. With the amazing help of our partners, Erika from United Across Borders, Assistance League of Santa Ana,

the Suchi Foundation, Supervisor Sarmiento, our mayor's office, and even our local farmers we have been able to deliver food to our families and students teachers school administrators opened up their school sites and they were also able to collect much needed donations even our school bus drivers helped to deliver food to the families beyond food we've also worked with community partners like oc justice fund and orange county rapid response response network to not only ensure that our community is safe, but that people know their

rights and that they have access to vital resources. We've had over 7,000 people who have participated, not just from Santa Ana, but from across the country in our Know Your Rights workshops. We've also received legal guidance from the amazing Mexican consulate, Alejandra is here with us, and Jose Alfredo Hernandez, one of our former board members, as well as the Orange County Health Care Agency, who's provided mental health supports and family supports. We are so grateful for everyone, including Santa Ana College, who has also opened up more citizenship classes for our families.

We are especially grateful to the OC Justice Fund, who every month comes together with with us to present Know Your Rights updated information to our community. To Orange County Rapid Response Network, Sandra De Anda, who continues to keep our community safe day and night. To of course the Mexican Consulate, Jose Alfredo Hernandez, and everyone who has stood alongside us to inform and protect our community and staff. And also to the amazing Family and Community Engagement Team, who walked side by side with with the families to help them complete critical applications to get rent and utilities assistance.

I don't think I could ever thank Tanner and Saulo enough for the patience that they've had with us and for all that they've done. This recognition is not just for us, it belongs to every volunteer. We've had parents volunteers here, we have staff, we have students who have all volunteered by our side to make sure our families are well taken care of. From that, I just want to say thank you to everyone, and thank you once again, Councilmember Lopez, because people will always say it takes a village, but this is truly our village, who's helped us get through really tough times. Thank you.

Thank you all, especially Lisa Salomon, FACE. Thank you.

I just wanted to say thank you for the recognition. And I couldn't be more fortunate to work with so many people who literally just listen to what the needs are and come and say, hey, this is what I'm hearing. Can we do this? How do we make this happen? And so I'm just grateful to all of the folks who have been part of this partners with us in SAUSD and thank you To the city and thank you Councilwoman Lopez for this recognition for our face team and for just the work that we've been doing as a district. Thank you

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 3

All right. That's it for presentations. Thank you everyone at this time. We're going to continue with the meeting. I think there's four of us up here.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 3

You're waiting for the what? I'm sorry? Oh, okay. We're not, it'll be a little bit. Okay. So at this time, Madam City Attorney, do you have anything to report out of closed session?

Sonia R. CarvalhoItem 3

Mayor, council members, and members of the public, I do have reportable action. You want me to wait a few minutes?

Valerie AmezcuaItem 3

I'm sorry, Madam City Attorney, I can't hear you. Yeah, would you like me to just wait a few seconds for us to empty the room?

Sonia R. CarvalhoItem 3

Thank you, Mayor. Mayor, Council Members, and members of the public. The City Council met in closed session today beginning at 4 p.m. Pursuant to the Brown Act, I do have reportable action to announce. Number one, the City Council added a late-breaking item to the agenda in the case of Gavin Newsom versus Donald Trump, which is currently in the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals. And the Council voted 6-0 with Councilmember Hernandez absent to join an amicus brief to be filed by the City of Los Angeles. Item number two, in the case of Share Ourselves, listed as item 1B on the City Council agenda,

Sonia R. CarvalhoItem 3

the Council voted to settle this case for $550,000. On item number three, in the case of Paloma Ortiz, listed as item 1C, the City Council voted 6-0 with Councilmember Hernandez absent to settle the case for $85,000. And item number four, in the case of Purdue Pharma and National Prescription Opioid Litigation, the council voted this was listed as item 1d and 1e the City Council voted 6-0 with councilmember Hernandez absent to opt into a settlement and to waive certain claims for the acceptance of settlement funds which are anticipated to be in the range of hundreds of thousands of dollars incoming to the

Sonia R. CarvalhoItem 3

city and then finally an item number five in the case of Rita Ramirez listed as item 1f the City Council voted 6-0 with councilmember Hernandez absent to to waive the attorney-client privilege as to specific personnel reports. And that is all the reportable action.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 3

Thank you, Madam City Attorney. Mr. City Manager, if there are people outside, you can let them know, or somebody can't please their seats inside now they can join us, please. Thank you so much.

Alvaro NuñezItem 3

We'll do that.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 3

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

Jennifer L. HallItem 3

Mayor, did you wish to consider item number seven? We don't have any speakers for that nomination. Yes, thank you for reminding me.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 3

Let's go to item seven if the council would so join me here. Item seven.

Johnathan Ryan HernandezItem 3

Make a motion to move the item? Second.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 3

I'm sorry, we didn't let the clerk read it out first. Please, thank you.

Jennifer L. HallItem 3

That's okay. I heard a motion by Council Member Hernandez, seconded by Council Member Becerra to approve item number seven, which is an appointment of Ruben Reyes, nominated by Mayor Pro Tem Vasquez as the Ward 2 representative to the Measure X Citizen Oversight Committee for a partial term expiring December 8th, 2026. And I'll do a roll call vote, please. Council Member Becerra? Yes. Council Member Hernandez?

David PenalozaItem 3

Yes.

Jennifer L. HallItem 3

Council Member Penalosa?

David PenalozaItem 3

Yes.

Jennifer L. HallItem 3

Council Member Phan? Yes. Mayor Pro Tem Vasquez? Yes. Mayor Mezcua? Yes. Yes. Six ayes, no nays with a temporary absence by Councilmember Lopez. Motion carries. And if Ruben Reyes is here present, he can come forward to receive his oath of office.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 3

Mr. Reyes, if you come out to the front. Thank you.

I, Ruben Reyes, do solemnly swear that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States and the Constitution of the State of California against all enemies, foreign foreign and domestic, that I will bear truthfully in allegiance to the Constitution of the United States and the Constitution of the State of California, that I take this obligation freely,

Jennifer L. HallItem 3

without any mental reservation or purpose of reservation, and that I will well and faithfully

discharge the duties upon which I'm about to enter. Thank you.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 3

Congratulations.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 3

Okay, at this time, Madam Clerk, we'll do public comments.

Jennifer L. HallItem 3

Yes, thank you, Mayor. Pursuant to resolution number 2025-004, speakers are requested to address the City Council directly and to refrain from profane language, racial epitaphs, and libelous or slanderous statements that disturb the decorum of the meeting. Pursuant to the Brown Act, the City Council may not enter into discussion at this time. Speakers will have two minutes for their comments. Before calling speakers, I'll report the summary of emails provided as of today. As of 2 p.m. this afternoon, we did receive a total of 39 e-comments related to agenda and non-agenda topics.

Jennifer L. HallItem 3

29 were on non-agenda, eight were for item number 10, one for item 15, and one for item 30. Those were distributed to the City Council, made part of the record, and are 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 that may be at the teleconference site and on the conference call or zoom to provide their comments on agenda or non-agenda items only. Comments for public hearing items 27 and 28 will be heard separately. Please state your name and the ward or neighborhood that you reside in for the record. I'll be calling three names at a

Jennifer L. HallItem 3

time. When you hear your name if you could please line up in the center aisle way behind the podium. Again, the time limit is two minutes. First three speakers, Nancy Robles, Oscar Reyes, and David Arvizu, if you could please come forward. Mayor and City Council, we are having more people come in from outside, but I do believe the first set of speakers should be inside already.

Jennifer L. HallItem 3

Nancy Robles, please.

Good evening, Mayor, Councilmembers, and city staff. My name is Nancy Robles, SEIU Local 721 Santa Ana Chapter President. And I stand before you on behalf of SEIU Local 721 members, the dedicated full-timers and part-timers that power the city. Tonight we won't be here. You won't just hear me, but you will see the sea of purple outside. They're outside. They're outside. And they're present.

And that's just not a color. That's the family. That's our family. And that's pride. That's power. These are the workers who keep Santa Ana moving forward, repairing streets, caring for our youth and seniors, keeping neighborhoods safe, and delivering the essential services every family depends on. Together, full-time and part-time are the backbone of the city. I came before you at the start of negotiations in the spirit of partnership to work together toward a fair contract for this workforce. But instead of respect, we've been met with delays, takeaways, and proposals that threaten

our livelihoods and strip away our hard-won protections. This is not bargaining in good faith. This is blatant disrespect and workers of Santa Ana will never accept this. All the while the cost of living in the city continues to climb. Health care costs are up. Wages are falling behind inflation. And yet the city holds millions in reserves. There's no excuse for this short change to very excuse me. There's no excuse to short change the very workers who keep this city functioning.

So tonight I say stand with the dedicated workers who keep Santa Ana running and not with proposals that strip away their dignity and protection. One thing is for certain, you cannot do both. We are united. We are visible. We are SEIU.

Jennifer L. HallItem 3

Nancy, your time is up.

Thank you.

Jessie LopezItem 3

The city manager or mayor, can we make it clear that nobody should be blocking the entrance to this chamber? And if there are empty seats, members of the public are welcome to come into their chamber and sit down. Actually, I just mentioned that while you were outside.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 3

Thank you. I appreciate it. They will be filling up the seats, so you were outside. So go ahead, Mr. Reyes.

Good evening. My name is Oscar Reyes. I represent La Academia, a nonprofit soccer organization serving the youth of Santa Ana. Our mission is to unearth and nurture hidden soccer talent, leveraging soccer as a vehicle towards education, educational attainment, and social mobility. Since you guys gave me two minutes and not three, I'm just gonna cut to the chase. I'm homegrown in Santa Ana. We gave Saddleback its first national championship ever, scholarship to play at UCLA, and I became a sociologist. Retired in 2019 after ten years with the US national team and playing a World Cup. I

not chasing their soccer dream. My brother, myself, my brother who played at UC Irvine, sister who played at UCLA and won a national championship now plays with Tigres, brother-in-law Frankie who was the first round first pick in 2019 and plays at LAFC founded this Academy to bridge the gap that we've seen in Santa Ana for 30 plus years. We are recognized globally and we do business as Albion SE Santa Ana. We play at the highest platforms. We have nine alumni playing in Division one programs. 21 players in junior colleges ready to make the transfer. In the last two years we offered 206,000 in scholarships to our

community. We do charge because we employ world-class coaches who are licensed, life scanned, and safe sported. We pay for expensive fields and we pay high fees to compete in the top leagues. Our annual fees are $2,500 a year or less. Our Our neighboring cities charge $4,000 and north of $4,000. Myself and our founders make exactly $0 from our program. Now, I heard last City Council meeting real concerns about access to fields. Securing fields is one of the top issues in youth soccer in Santa Ana. They have an issue with that, and we have that same issue.

We're proud to put Santa Ana soccer on the world stage, and we will continue to do so. So thank you for your time.

Jennifer L. HallItem 3

The next three speakers, David Arvizu, Ruben Lemus, Andy Morales.

Jennifer L. HallItem 3

You can come up in any order.

Jennifer L. HallItem 3

Please state your name at the microphone.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 3

Madam City Clerk, can you read the names again, please? I'm sorry, hold on. Yes.

Jennifer L. HallItem 3

David Arvizu, Ruben Lemus, and Andy Morales. Thank you.

Good evening, my name is David Arvizu. I'm the Director of Coaches and Soccer Operations for La Academia in Albion, Santa Ana. I was born and raised in the soccer field of Santa Ana as an ex-U.S. Under 17 and U-20 youth national team player and former Under 17 World Cup player representing the U.S. and former MLS professional player, I was blessed to have played for teams like New York Red Bulls and Chivas USA. Here is a little background of my soccer journey and how I was a pioneer that broke the cycle to seek opportunities that would bless me through my soccer journey. I started

playing soccer at four years of age with Super Antojitos. After four years, I was given an opportunity to try out in club soccer where I was introduced to a whole new world of soccer. in a professional environment surrounded by professional coaches that would turn out to be vital in my development. However, this club, Patiadores, was based out of Mission Viejo. Therefore my dad had to drive 45 minutes to get me to practice three days a week, plus travel games and tournaments in the weekends. I was fortunate that the club saw something special in me and I received a financial scholarship

to allow me to pursue my dream of becoming a collegiate and or a professional soccer player. Long story short, I had to seek professional coaching and development outside of Santa Ana. If I were to have any real opportunity to play in a Division I college program or to one day play as a professional soccer player, here at Albion SC Santa Ana La Academia, our passion and vision is for players in our community and city of Santa Ana to have opportunities on a national platform stages such as the Elite Academy League. and soon we hope MLS Next can be part of our platforms to develop and seek exposure

that will help our players reach their goals and dreams. We have licensed coaches and even more importantly, tremendous role models to help our players not just become great soccer players, but exceptional human beings. We look to develop winners, not just on the field, but in life.

Jennifer L. HallItem 3

David, your time is up.

Thank you very much. Appreciate it.

Jennifer L. HallItem 3

Ruben, followed by Andy Morales and Alejandro Licea.

Good evening. My name is Ruben Limas. I live in Santa Ana for the last 25 years. years. And I have a privilege of serving as the head coach for Santa Ana Albion, Boys 2008 and 2011 soccer teams. Soccer has been a big part of my life for the last 35 years. Throughout that time, I had the opportunity to coach at every level from like AYSOL all all the way to semi-professional teams. For the past 15 years, I dedicated myself to coaching youth soccer here in Orange County.

One of the main reasons I chose to join Albion-Santana is my commitment to giving back to the community. Growing up, I never had the opportunity to participate in a club soccer because there was no local programs available. Traveling to another city was not an option for my family due to financial limitation and that experience has always stayed with me. At Avion Santana our mission goes beyond the game. We focus on developing not only players athletic abilities but also self-confidence,

resilience, teamwork and leadership skills. Our ultimate goal is to help young athletes reach their full potential on the field, in the classroom

Jennifer L. HallItem 3

through and in life. Thank you. Andy Morales, followed by Alejandro Licea and Noel Arisu.

Good afternoon, Council Members, Mayor. My name is Andy Morales. I'm a volunteer coach

Valerie AmezcuaItem 3

and a parent with the U6... Can you speak into the mic, please? Thank you. I'm sorry.

I am a volunteer coach and a parent also with the U6 and the UA team. I was raised in Santa Anna. I went to Jefferson Elementary. I went to McFadden Intermediate. Currently my team is playing. We're playing playoffs this weekend. We're really excited. The team is doing really good. I come here today to speak on behalf of my family and as a coach of the over 40 kids that I'm overseeing. I've seen these kids grow mentally, physically, and emotionally over the last two years since I've been involved with La Academia. Why La Academia, you might ask? La Academia has

a great vision and it is a very ambitious organization that's looking to put Santa Ana on the global map. I was in another team and I wasn't content with what they had to offer. I wanted more for my kids. I have strong values and I have a relentless work ethic and that is something that I saw in La Academia when I went to the parent meeting. And when they were looking to put a team together, I jumped at the opportunity and I'll um and also I want to be a part of the the organization. Since then, they've hosted tours at UCLA. They've gotten to watch Real Madrid train

at a private training session. We've had the SoFi experience and the Rose Bowl experience, which lets the kids play on the soccer fields. And this was all for free. And yes, many have spoken about their connections, and that's the reason why we could do so much. But that isn't necessarily a bad thing. They put time, effort, sweat, blood, and tears into being blessed with those connections and that's because good people attract others overall the message that i want to relay to everyone in is that lakademe is here to service everyone in the community regardless of

income levels it doesn't discriminate and it isn't pushing anyone out all of my kids and yes i call them my kids because i yell at them i scream at them and i just have you know good conversations with them. Well, we're so good, I'm sorry, we are so good at what we do that we are attracting

Jennifer L. HallItem 3

families from other cities. Thank you so much, guys. Alejandro Licea, Noel Arvizu, and Juan Lopez. Lopez.

to give the opportunity to help academically and sportively the children of Santa Ana and their surroundings. And that's what the academy offers, to guide and advise parents and children on what they can achieve with study and sports. As the academy's coach, that's what we try to instill in the children. It's worth mentioning that the Reyes family is a prepared people and that they had the opportunity through football Paul, tener estudios en reconocidas universidades, al igual que su hermana Mari Carmen y Frankie Amaya, que son modelos para nuestros hijos, y vean en ellos que sí se pueden lograr grandes

cosas con la ayuda y consejos adecuados de gente como los Reyes y los entrenadores que pertenecen a la Academia Albion, y que muchos de ellos han pasado por todo eso. También con el proyecto de la Academia, se quiere poner el nombre de Santana en Alto, to try and do partidos de alto nivel para que van canister ciudad I mean yous can talento que pueden competir a niveles altos mention Aaron que la familia Reyes que Rios a la imagen de su hermana para sacar provecho event a pero para me como papa yo veo Mari Carmen como modelo para mi hija y muchas

ninas y y van que las las cosas que pueden lograr y para que después con I'm just a kid from Santa Ana. Vamos la academia.

Jennifer L. HallItem 3

If you could just wait a moment, please. No worries.

My name is Alejandro Deseo. I've been in Santa Ana for about 30 years, and I played soccer in high school and some in college. I also played in Mexico for some years, years and I also played in local Santa Ana leagues and I mentioned all this because I have never seen in all this experience I have never seen a program like La Academia that is helping children in Santa Ana. La Academia does this they coach and they help and they counsel parents and children on how to be better the coaches instill these in in the children the Reyes family is well prepared and

educated and they're ready for in soccer and in other studies international studies and the sister Mari Carmen and brother Frank they're helping the children the Regis family is helping coaches and La Academia wants Santa Ana to be put on the map and Santa Ana to do better they're trying to bring games so that they elevate the game and that they can showcase the talented children the children who are talented into this higher levels and they're saying that the Regis family wants to use the sisters image but I don't think so I

think I'm mighty Carmen's image or my comment is a role model for children and it shows the children what they can do and and they can say in the world stage I'm just a kid from Santa Ana. Let's go La Academia.

Hi, my name is Noel Arvizu. I'm born and raised here in Santa Ana. I've been here my whole life. I've played through my whole youth career through Centennial Park, Carr Middle School, and

I've also had the privilege of playing at Santa Ana College. I am a homegrown player from the city and my journey has shaped me why I stand here today. The families you see here fighting for these fields are fighting for opportunity not just in soccer but in life without access to programs like ours. Many kids risk going through the same flawed money-driven system that leave them behind. They risk missing out on opportunities to earn a higher college education or play sports even at at a junior college or university levels. I know this because I've seen it. I've seen it as a player growing up where unfortunately

in the last 15, 20 years, I felt like I was flawed through the system and you're only looked at when it benefits a certain person or a certain group.

Unfortunately, I've been a part of these organizations growing up where I've even had to sign a contract where it says if you were to go higher than what you should, you'd be getting a certain percentage and outside of Santa Ana I've never ever had to sign any type of contract where I had to give my own earnings away from to anybody else I've also worked in Santa Ana high school for about two years and I'll be quite frank there we don't get paid year-round I get paid there during the season everything else I do it out of out of myself I do it out of the kids

of santa ana because i know what it's like and the reality is this we we don't charge families to sit in the stands and watch their kids play like others do we don't use kids for financial gain we invest in them the same individuals criticizing us today have benefited from our platform and they've sent their own kids to our own program they didn't come out thank you so much

Jennifer L. HallItem 3

the next three speakers juan lopez pedro magallon and melissa aberto

good evening council members and good evening mayor mezcua my name is juan lopez i had lived here in santa ana for over 40 years i went to elementary here during high high school i also attended santa ana college so although i wasn't born here i probably considered myself santanero For the past three years, I have the privilege of serving as a volunteer coach for La Academia. I joined because I deeply believe in their mission, using the sport of soccer as a vehicle to encourage education and promote higher achievement for our youth. On contrary to what some might think, La Academia offers the best of both worlds.

On one side, we have the recreational program where kids learn the fundamentals of soccer in a supportive environment. On the other hand, we are in partnership with Albion-Santana. We provide a competitive pathway for those who want to grow and challenge themselves at a higher level. To my knowledge, no other organization in Santana offers this unique combination. So just like the founders of La Academia, we are Santana.

Good evening, Mayor and City Council Members. I am so proud to be here today because 17, 20 years ago, I was fighting for the people talking because they didn't have nowhere to practice. We didn't have nothing to do with... I started Santa Ana Youth Soccer Association when they were little, when they were five, six years old. Now, we're not here against La Academia. We're not here against any program. We're here against due process. We're here for you guys to give the fields equitably, to give everybody the chance to do their programs. We could all exist. I will steal a quote from Mr. Reyes that says,

El sol es como el futbol, es como el sol y sale para todos. And we heard that. I did. I brought the Mexican national team, the U-17 national team, to play here in Santa Ana, where a lot of the people that spoke today were playing that game. We're all about Santa Ana. We want Santa Ana to grow. We just don't want to lose the opportunities. Back then, there was only baseball fields. We played on baseball fields and we practiced on baseball fields and i'm part and and i get very emotional when i fought for centennial to grow

to have artificial turf we went out there we got grants we fought for grants the only thing we're asking this council is to keep it fair that's all we're not saying get rid of them we're not seeing that mls next i could give you an hour or two of what i think of mls next because it's not what they say it is but it has nothing to do with them just be fair on how you distribute the fields and don't do hate shady stuff leave it up to the public wherever parents are going to take their kids wherever they're going to take but the reason why they're all here successful is because we fought

for them many many years ago so they could have opportunities so yes we are all santa anna thank Thank you so much.

Jennifer L. HallItem 3

The next three speakers, Melissa Alberto, Brian Leos, Victor Balderas.

Hello, Mayor and City Council members. My name is Melissa. I reside on Ward 4, and I'm here representing Team 90 League. La Academia slash OVM stated in a post they put out saying, Santa Ana deserves better than seeing adults tearing each other down. Let's make it clear. It is not adults tearing each other down. It is your organization tearing many kids in this community apart. This is a form of gentrification. The children of this community are being gentrified. Soccer isn't just a sport. To a lot of these families, it's their tradition and it's part of their culture.

La Academia slash OVIA also mentioned soccer has evolved and La Academia is addressing gaps that our city has faced for decades. To the founders of La Academia, please stop microaggressing this community. Don't forget where you came from. And to David Peñalosa, this community will not rest until we make sure you're not elected for state assembly. Thank you.

Good afternoon, mayor and all city council members. My name is Brian Leos. I reside in Ward 4. I am also a coach. I am also an SAUSD graduate, class of 2024. I would like to share a video of why everything MLS is wrong. Please listen.

FIFA uses it to see who forms the player and who can receive monetary compensation. All this if you come to play professionally or if you want to play abroad. Something that many families do not know when their son plays in MLS Next is that when he is registered, even if it is an independent team, he stays within the system where he can enter this compensation system. So if your son wants to play in Mexico at 16, 17, 18 years old, that club can demand a payment for having had him on the squad. And what happens if the Mexican club does not want to pay? The door closes, they will not be able to register you.

and the dream can be blocked for money that you didn't even know it was due. It has already happened to several players, the registration in Mexico has stopped them for having participated in major leagues like the MLS Next. Before deciding where to play, you have to inform yourself. What today seems like a great opportunity, tomorrow can be an obstacle for your football career. This is called a sports passport and few explain it. Share it with parents and players who think they need this information. The right decision today can change the future of your son tomorrow.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 3

So I'm sorry.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 3

So just so it can be on the record, if you could email that to the clerk so that we can make sure that it's on the record, because we couldn't. I know I couldn't hear. So if you could please. Thank you.

Jennifer L. HallItem 3

Go ahead, Madam Clerk. Next speakers, Victor Balderas, Jose Ortiz, Luis Roman.

Jennifer L. HallItem 3

If your name has been called, please come down. Victor Balderas. Jose Ortiz. Luis Roman. Come down. It doesn't matter. Just come on down.

Hello.

Hello, my name is Jose Ortiz. First of all, I want to thank you for allowing me to talk and let me tell people what La Academia is all about. I myself was one of those kids playing Sunday leagues, playing registration, playing uniform, playing refis, without coaching at all or not the proper coaching. I got good coaching until I went to college. By the way, I went to high school here in Santa Ana and then college here in Santa Ana.

I believe Santa Ana has been and still is the maker of soccer in Orange County. La Academia has professional coaches. Some coaches have lived in Europe, like Oscar Reyes prepared himself in Europe to come and help kids here in Santa Ana, and others like myself have played here in the US and in Mexico. La Academia is only using soccer as a vehicle to take as many kids as we can to college and have a degree to live a better life than us parents. I'm not asking the city to take away soccer fields from anybody. All I'm asking is to divide the soccer fields equally for everybody.

Every kid in Santa Ana has a chance to play for La Academia. There's financial aid for those who qualified. qualified. So every kid, everyone here in Santa Ana has a fair chance to get trained the proper way and succeed not only in soccer but in life. Those leagues that have been around 20, 30 or 40 years like they said, what have they done for the kids from Santa Ana? So don't lie to parents, you know, be honest and I would say God is good to all of us. Thank you.

Thank you. Thank you. Dear Mayor, esteemed council members, my name is Luis Roman. My son is a player at the Albion group. I was a long-time resident of Santa Ana from 1977, over 48 years. A product of the city of Santa Ana, school system. I graduated from Santa Ana high school, Rancho Santiago, aka Santa Ana College now, and graduated from Cal State Fullerton. A large portion of my family still resides in the city and in the neighborhoods of Del High and southeast. We have family friends that own several businesses in the city and some are members of the Chamber of Commerce.

I'm here to ask the support of the Council for La Academia Group, a nonprofit organization that is providing youth the opportunity to play soccer at a high level while also providing tools, workshops, to help the youth enter universities and college academically or via athletics. The Reyes brothers and the Avizo brothers have built a program that helps our youth find a path to college by providing tools and opportunities. These tools consist of clinics on how to create a path towards college, how to apply for college, setting up visits to campuses such as UCLA, meetings with coaches and helping them navigate NCAA rules.

Also having a dedicated director for college acceptance, Brian Woods, former college coach for UCI. In my experience growing up playing sports in the city, I have not seen a complete program like the Academia Albion group has put together. Although young in its inception, it has created opportunities for our youth and I look forward to a bright future with Academia. There's plenty of room for all the groups and we hope that you not only support Academia, but you also support the other groups here representing their interests. Thank you so much.

Jennifer L. HallItem 3

Next three speakers, Israel R., Noe Areola, Victoria Diego.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 3

Madam Clerk, can you call them again and have the other three line up, please?

Jennifer L. HallItem 3

So Israel R., Noe Areola, Victoria Diego. After that will be Tommy Fernandez and Yumiko Hiramoto. Israel.

Noe.

and girls. Not only is it focused on football, but also on academics. It is a bridge to help students open their eyes to what they really want to do when they are adults, when they become adults, and to motivate them to continue studying and be someone important in their lives. And it motivates and helps adults so that universities or schools recruit them. La academia no quiere afectar ni atacar y mucho menos hacer daño a nadie. Y no lo ha hecho. Solo quiere seguir haciendo lo que le gusta, ayudar a los niños.

Yo confío 100% en la academia y sé que mis hijos están en una organización buena. Hace tres años, el equipo de la academia iba a viajar a Florida. In that time, we had to pay a good amount for the expenses. What did Oscar do? Oscar Reyes moved, started to cut stones, and even took a sponsor.

sponsor. Jorge Reyes, están haciendo un buen trabajo. Muchas gracias a todos. Applause Applause

Good evening, my name is Noia Riola. I've been a Santa Ana resident for many years. I have three kids from Santa Ana, one who graduated from college, college, been with La Academia for five years, and they help boys and girls. And it's not just about soccer. They help them with academics as well. They're a bridge for the adults to get motivated, motivate their kids to be better in life, to be someone in life, and for the adults to be recruited into soccer. locker. La Academia does not want to do harm. They don't want to attack. They don't want to

go after anybody. They just want to help children. I trust La Academia fully and the children are supported there. They're a very good organization. About three years ago, La Academia was going to go to Florida and they said we have to pay this much money. But some of us didn't have the money and Oscar Reyes got to work and got a sponsor and he he didn't if he was not a good person he would not have said anything about the money that he got the sponsor he may he might have kept the money not say anything but what

did he do a couple days later he said everything had been paid and we just JUST HAVE TO COME UP WITH FOOD FOR THE MONEY. SO OSCAR REYES AND JORGE REYES ARE GOOD PEOPLE AND THEY'RE DOING GOOD THINGS FOR THE COMMUNITY. THANK YOU.

HI, MY NAME IS VICTORIA DIEGO. MY HUSBAND AARON AND I GREW UP GOING TO SCHOOL AND PLAYING SPORTS IN SAN ANA. AARON SPECIFICALLY PLAYING SOCCER. OUR DAUGHTERS EMMA AND KELLY HAVE fallen in their dad's footsteps playing soccer and now play for lacademia u4 and u10 cali our oldest is also a player for lb on sc santa ana and i'm here today to say thank you for our rec and club program for emma the program has brought ability to learn a new skill outside of a school setting and make new friends with coach mari who is beyond amazing the talent our u4 team has is incredible

to see each weekend out on the field for my 11 year old the program has done more than just to to prove her soccer abilities. Alongside her coaches, Alex Juan and Coach Reyes, she has learned leadership skills, becoming co-captain, gained self-confidence, and has come around to the idea of being capable of going to college. You see, Kelly wants to be a police officer in our city of Santa Ana, and has always thought college wasn't needed. But now she's excited for the idea of a university aside from a soccer program. And that's more than I can ask for from any program or sport. The hard work and dedication her and her teammates

are putting in is admirable. These girls go out and represent Santa Ana with their heads held high, even when outside spectators doubt them. They're a team to watch. Now with all that being said, the program La Academia is setting the example for what our city needs. Growth, opportunity, and a chance. The youth of Santa Ana needs to know with hard work and the right pathway, the possibilities are endless. I'm grateful my family gets to be a part of what the city needs. We are La Academia and we are Santa Ana. Thank you.

Those leagues have had their chance for 40 years. They have said it in interviews. And they haven't done anything to raise football to another level. Thank you.

Hi, my name is Israel and I wrote this. I want to express my opinion as part of the community. The parks belong to the community, but the soccer fields do not. They are controlled by the Santa Ana leagues. These leagues don't do anything to take soccer to the next level. We want to have we wanted to have a club here. Club that would take us to bigger tournaments where we can participate, our children can participate, and they are assessed by professionals that they are trained by professional coaches. And now the time has come we have to support the

the club that represents this city in other states. And we want to have professional players in the future. Don't be afraid of change. These leagues had their opportunity for over 40 years. Don't be afraid of change.

Jennifer L. HallItem 3

The next speakers will be Tommy Fernandez, Yumiko Hiramoto, Giovanni S., and Jorge Rodriguez. You can go ahead, Tommy.

Good evening, my name is Tommy Fernandez. First of all, I want to leave it clear, we are not against La Academia. They have a good program. We're against the due process. Mr. Oscar Reyes, a few minutes ago, he said he wants to secure the fields. Perfect. He knows the right way to do it. Go to Parks and Rec, fill out your application like everyone else. Please do not take advantage of friends and politics to try to secure your fields. Why do I say this? On August 19, during his closing statement, Council Member Peñalosa admitted that when La Academia, Javier Santana, present him their project, he thought it was a great idea.

Even though a few seconds later, he admitted he doesn't know much about soccer. Also the same night, Mr. Peñalosa clearly admitted that he was the middleman between La Academia and Mr. Alvaro Nunez, our city manager, to do meetings. We know there were a lot of meetings. We also know there were a lot of emails. and California Public Records Act, CPRA, allows any person to obtain copies of those records related to public business. Agencies must respond to that within 10 days. We submitted a formal CPRA, and we received a big box of nothing.

California Public Records Act allow us to know. There's nothing to hide, correct? correct? Madam Attorney, please respectfully enlight us if I'm saying this wrong. Also California, Ralph M. Brown Act, which is the open meeting law on Government Code 54-950, why the act exists? To ensure transparency and we are demanding transparency. Code Government Government 54-953, meetings must be open to the public, not in secret.

Government Code 54-960 explains that any violation can be challenged, corrected, or voided.

Here in my hands, I have a copy, a post, from people from La Academia where they say how much money they charge. They're bragging about it and they know it's a profitable business. They clearly know it. Thank you.

Jennifer L. HallItem 3

Yumiko, followed by Giovanni, Jorge Rodriguez and Antonio Cielo.

Good evening. Today I speak as a citizen who demands transparency, legality and respect for the California Brown Act. California. The Brown Act in its articles 54,950, 54,953 and 54,954.2 clearly establishes that all negotiations and decisions that affect the community must be carried out publicly on an agenda and with prior notice to citizens. What we see here is the opposite, private meetings between the City Manager, the Councilor Peñalosa and Oscar Reyes, who manages the Albion in Santana, disguising a private business as if it were a youth program,

introducing MLS Next to the city of Santana. We all know that Albion already has links with MLS Next and that the real intention is to insert this program in Santana, privatizing our fields and closing free access to the community. My questions for them would be the following. If Albion and the MLSNX have so much money and success, why don't they invest in private facilities with their own money? Why do they want to privatize the Santa Ana fields, which are public, and who are the officials who are going to benefit from these negotiations?

Today we ask that the citizens find out about these maneuvers and that every agreement or negotiation be made public and on the agenda, because any decision taken in private can can be imposed and annulled, according to Article 54,960 of the Brown Act. And from here I make a call to the other councilors who have not lent themselves to this negotiation, as well as to the supervisors of the Orange County and all the members of the communication. We need your support to defend Santana, its young people and its public fields. These fields are not property of Albion, they are of the community,

built by our leagues and with taxes from the citizens. The people of Santa Ana are watching, and we will not allow the future of our young people to be delivered in private, disguised negotiations of elite programs that only benefit a few. Thank you.

Good evening. Tonight I speak as a citizen demanding transparency, transparency, legality, and respect for California's Brown Act. The Brown Act in sections 54.950, 54.953, and 54.954.2 clearly states that all negotiations and decisions affecting the community must be conducted publicly, based on the agenda, and announced in advance to the citizens. What we see here is the opposite. Private meetings between the city manager, council member Peñalosa, and Oscar Reyes, who run the Albion Santa Ana Club, disguising a private business as if it were a youth program, while introducing MLS Next into the city of Santa Ana.

We all know that Albion already has ties with MLS Next, and the real intention is to insert that program into Santa Ana, privatizing our fields and shutting off free access to the community. My questions to them are as follows. If Albion and MLS Next have so much money and success, why don't they invest in private facilities with their own funds? Why do they want to privatize Santa Ana's public fields? which officials stand to benefit from these negotiations. Today we ask that the public be fully informed of these maneuvers and that any agreement or

negotiation be conducted openly and on the agenda because any decision made in private can be challenged and nullified under section 54 960 of the Brown Act. Act. From here, I call on the rest of the council members who have not engaged in these negotiations, as well as the Orange County supervisors and the media. We need your support to defend Santa Ana, its youth, and its public fields. These fields do not belong to Albion. They belong to the community built by our leagues and with the tax dollars of our citizens. The people of Santa Ana are watching and we will not allow the future of our youth to be handed over in private deals

disguised as elite programs that only benefit a few thank you very much

Jennifer L. HallItem 3

the next speakers Giovanni s Jorge Rodriguez Antonio cielo Marisela Ortiz

Jorge Rodríguez They report 150 children who are residents of Santa Ana. There are not even 40 children here. Where are those 150 children that they report? They are from the city of Santa Ana. Now, what they are promising, we are already doing it. We give them the opportunity. We have many children that we have supported and helped to have a better future. Now, being a professional player has a career of 10 years. After 10 years, what do they do? They don't do anything.

We promote them to go to a school or a university, too. Because they have more life, so they can use their talent to get a scholarship. If they are not very good at school, they can go to a community school, to get a license from a plumber or electrician, or any other way of living. But the way of being a professional player is not the right one, and that career is very short. Thank you.

Good evening, my name is Jorge Rodriguez, and I'm not here to talk against the academy. I'm talking about the process that they have. We have the same live scan process and we have not been doing it for two or three years. We've been doing it for over 10 years and the fields are not the problem. It's how they are processed for acquiring the fields that is a problem. Now they say that the report that they have about 150 kids from Santa Ana, but here there are probably less than 40 are here. So where are these kids that are supposedly from Santa Ana? So they promise some things, but we do the same things.

We help lots of kids and support them to get to a better place, to a better education. When you have a professional soccer player, their career is probably about 10 years only. So what happens after that? We encourage our kids to go to college and or university to get a better life, to be prepared for life, to develop their other talents, maybe get a scholarship, maybe become a plumber or electrician or something like that. So a professional

soccer career, player's career is too short. Thank you very much.

Jennifer L. HallItem 3

Giovanni S. Antonio Cielo. Maricela Ortiz. Julian Flores. Maricela.

Jennifer L. HallItem 3

After Maricela, Bruce Senator. David Pulido.

La Academia kids matter. Their lives matter. They're the community. They're the pueblo. La Academia gives kids a chance to be part of a team, a family, and provides opportunity to build confidence and character. Soccer is for everyone. one. It teaches us about hard work, teamwork, and resilience. La Academia has a recreational and a club team that is affordable. La Academia encourages every player and makes sure that every kid, child feels valued because of what we do, what the Academia builds. La Academia made time for a free college night to inform parents on how to enroll their kids in college

and what to look for as a soccer player. If it's not for soccer, then they were teaching teaching them what are the other opportunities. My parents never had the opportunity to inform me what to do after high school. I didn't go to college because I was first generation. And these parents had the opportunity and were able to be guided by Oscar Reyes and the siblings to enroll and how to enroll in college. I also wanna give some time to Mari Carmen. I have her on the phone if that's okay.

Mayor Redekopal, you have the floor. Hold on.

Sonia R. CarvalhoItem 3

Mayor, I would like to mention it has not usually been our practice to allow presentations that involve audio or pictures. I was going to ask you about that. I know this is a different type of hearing. Please stop the clock, Madam Clerk. I'm so sorry. Just because we can't authenticate where that's coming from and it's being represented as part of the public up to you and the council whether you want to do that I'm a little bit concerned about representation perhaps they can give you the link if you could send it to us and then we can distribute to all the council members I think that's right that's what I

Valerie AmezcuaItem 3

indicated earlier in the young man had the video so if you could just give it to a city clerk's email it in and then we could hear what she has to say thank you okay thank you very much we appreciate her trying I hope you

Sonia R. CarvalhoItem 3

understand we do that for one we'd have to do it for everybody okay thank you so

Valerie AmezcuaItem 3

So moving forward, there's no more audio. Thank you, Madam City Attorney. Thank you.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 3

Go ahead. Come on up.

Hi. My name is Julian Flores, and I'm 11 years old. I live here in Santa Ana. I play soccer with Albion Santa Ana, and I'm really proud to wear this jersey and represent my city. Soccer is my favorite thing to do. It makes me happy. I've learned how to work hard and be a good teammate. I like that my club is here in Santa Ana because I don't have to travel far to get good training. I get to practice close to home. It helps me chase my dreams of becoming a better soccer player. What matters most to me is having a reliable field where my team can practice and play.

It's important to me that our practice stay here in our city so we could keep growing as players while representing Santa Ana. I'm proud that La Academia and Albion, Santa Ana represent the city and I hope I can keep representing Santa Ana in every time I step on the field. Thank you for listening. Thank you for listening.

Jennifer L. HallItem 3

The next speakers, Bruce Senator, David Pulido, Erica Armentha, and Abraham Kew.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 3

Can you please line up if she's called your name? Please thank you.

Go ahead, sir. Good evening. Okay. I'm Bruce Senator, and I came back again on a number of issues.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 3

Can you speak into the mic so we can't hear you?

As I normally do, I submitted them to you online before coming tonight. I just want to talk on some of the important ones. On the soccer field issue, in our building we have a tenant that does screen printing. And he happened to print something up for a family. So I asked permission from the family. I'd be able to get a copy and bring it here. And this is what they produce for their daughter. This is her in her soccer uniform.

What the families are saying to you.

When they were here last time, they weren't voicing their concern. They're not voicing their concern here tonight. They're pleading with you not to harm them. I said last time, this community, So as a Hispanic community, soccer and sports are a fabric of the community. Do anything to undermine that fabric. Unwind this community. They went through hell and COVID. They went through hell through inflationary after COVID. They're going through hell now with the terror of Trump. You do anything to undermine the fabric of this community, and it's really going to create a scar that we .

Another issue I want to bring up is, you know, I'm a volunteer at Delhi. One of the things we do there is we do food pantry. We get food from Second Harvest on Mondays and then after that we go run around and we do what's called food rescue. What Delhi needs is if somebody could find a used refrigerated, like a box truck or a van, that they could use in running around to Costco and Sprouts and so forth and get get this food, put it in a refrigerated van, bring it back to del high where they inspect it, sort it and put it in refrigerators and freezers and distribute it on Wednesdays. So if anyone in the city can

find something like that.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 3

Your time is up. Thank you so very much.

Before I begin, I have a question. Is there a technical reason?

Valerie AmezcuaItem 3

Madam Clerk, start the clock, please. Thank you.

No, no, no. Is this protected speech?

Valerie AmezcuaItem 3

Go ahead with your comments.

Okay, well, I will take my time. Reset the time, please. Reset the time, please. Are you kidding me? My name is David Pulido. I'm a resident of Ward 5 and a member of CSO Orange County's Police Accountability Committee. committee. This month I spoke with members of United Club Soccer League and Jam Sports League. CSO supports the families in this chamber today who are demanding fair access to soccer fields in Centennial Park. Working class Chicanos, Santa Neros, Latinos should not be priced out of access to publicly funded spaces. Santa Ana is not for sale. Now I'm here to demand justice for Noe

Rodriguez. Noe was killed by Santa Ana police officers Luis Casillas and Isaac Ibarra on on December 1st, 2024. We are here to demand that city manager Alvaro Nunez fire those officers immediately, immediately. Noe Rodriguez was a 31 year old farm worker and resident of Santana, a loving father of two daughters, age seven and nine, and the husband of Erika Armenta, a member of CSO Orange County who has shared her testimony here many times. Noe was suffering from hallucinations, but he has not had a history of violence. He was doing nothing wrong. He was simply standing motionless

against the wall of Casalina Furniture holding a toy plastic gun that the police have only released a short video of, so we can't verify exactly what it is, but they verified it was a replica gun that could not fire. Now, the officers gave only 26 seconds for Noé to respond to three English commands before they blew him away. They shot 29 bullets at him, and then they delayed medical attention for over 10 minutes, and he bled out there in the street. Now, the moment, the moment, Pardon me. Both officers lied about the incident. They claimed that Noe was waving the gun around, pointing it at them.

These are lies disproved by their own body camera footage. Both officers lied about how many bullets they shot. They fired 29 bullets, 18 and 11. Isaki Bara left out the last three that he shot as Noe was falling to the ground. Now, since then, they've killed another man, Henry Gonzalez Jr.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 3

David, your time is up. Your time is up, sir. They've abused a 15-year-old minor in June. Sir, your time is up. Thank you very much. And I want to see action on this. Thank you. Your time is up.

Sir, your time is up. Before they kill again, they've already killed. What are you going to do?

Valerie AmezcuaItem 3

Please, I will have to ask them to escort you out. Sir, your time is up.

You're going to use your power to oppress me because you can't do this?

Valerie AmezcuaItem 3

Sir, your time is up. Please, you're disrupting the meeting. We'd like to get business in.

You took my time because your camera person didn't want to show his tooth.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 3

Sir, your time is up. Thank you so much. Have a nice evening. Thank you so much. Thank you.

Jennifer L. HallItem 3

The next speakers.

Jennifer L. HallItem 3

Eric, you're next. America Armenta Abraham Q Jocelyn P Tanya Nava

who was disarmed with an object in his hands in a mental crisis. Officials gave him instructions in English and he only spoke Spanish. He was shot a few seconds after his encounter. Casillas unloaded his gun on Noé and reloaded again, and shot again, and on the other side Ibarra shooting and continuing three more times when Noé was collapsing. Luis Casillas was involved in another death the following month after taking Noé's life. por mismo motivo no intentar minimizar la situación y usar fuerza mortal incluso estuvo involucrado en una golpiza un niño de 15 años el día 9 de

junio sin medir fuerza ni tener ningún remordimiento por sus acciones pasadas y su comportamiento ni ningún temor de rendir cuentas él sigue trabajando patrullando nuestras calles como si nada pasó por eso mismo estoy aquí pasando nueve meses desde que le arrebataron la vida a mi esposo y al parecer luis

is

My name is Eric Carmenta and my family was impacted by police brutality and and unnecessary lethal force by the Santa Ana Police Department and officers Luis Casilla and Isaac Ibarra. They killed my husband, Noe Rodriguez, on December 1st, 2024, with no hesitation and in cold blood. They deadly fired almost 30 bullets at Noe, who was unarmed with an object in his hands and experiencing a mental health crisis. The officers only gave him orders in English, but my husband spoke Spanish. and because they did not attempt to communicate with him properly, they opened fire on him within seconds of arriving at the scene.

Casillas fired all of the bullets in his gun and then reloaded. Ibarra also fired several shots at Noé, three of which while he was falling to the ground. Noé's cause of death, according to the forensic report, was multiple gunshot wounds. wounds. Luis Casillas was responsible for another death just one month after taking Noe's life for the same reason, failing to de-escalate the situation and excessive use of force. On June 9th, Casillas was involved in the beating of a 15-year-old boy without restraint of force and

without remorse or accountability for his actions. Because we do not have any oversight of the police department, these officers are patrolling our streets as if nothing happened. That is why I am I'm here more than nine months after my husband's life was taken. Casillas and Ibarra have confidence that they will be absolved of any wrongdoing in Noé's killing. And we are led to believe that every bullet was justified. But how can you justify 30 gunshots? At an unarmed man that was walking with an object in his hands, 30 bullets is absurd. What happened was not an accident. It was an intentional cold-blooded killing.

Shame on Santa Ana PD. The community and my family are extremely concerned that these kinds of officers continue to work for the department, which we are demanding that they are fired immediately and jailed. We are demanding that the Oversight Commission be allowed to do its job instead of waiting for more people to die at the hands of the police. And the people united will never be defeated. Justice for Noel Rodriguez.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 3

Go ahead with your two minutes, please.

Good evening, City Council and staff. My name is Abe. I live in Ward 3. I'm a member of Community Service Organization Orange County. I'm also here to support continuing demanding justice for Noe Rodriguez. CSO and the family of Noe have been protesting. We've been contacting your offices, especially you, Mr. City Manager, and we've been attending city meetings for months now. And we're going to continue to come and support the family of Noe Rodriguez until Luis Garcia and Isaac Ibarra are fired. I'm also here for item 30 on the agenda because we need a police oversight commission with the power of investigation

to actually hold Santa Ana PD and officers like Luis Casillas and Isaac Ibarra accountable. The changes proposed in July are going to remove the commission's power to investigate misconduct. Instead, they'll only review sustained internal affairs investigations from Santa Ana PD. We're trusting the police to investigate themselves and that's absurd. According to the California Department of Justice, between 2016 and 2022, only 3% of civilian complaints against Senate and a PD were sustained. So making these changes, the changes proposed in July, would completely defeat the purpose

of the commission. It also makes no sense to remove their power of investigation when they haven't had a chance to use it. They were established in 2022 and they've investigated exactly zero cases. Talk to your own commissioners about that. CSO also came to the commission meeting last week and members of the city attorney's office confirmed that the current an ordinance is not in violation of state law, it does not violate POBAR. They were concerned that there could possibly be issues arising from dual investigations, which can be solved by having the

oversight director and the SAPD internal affairs investigator do their interrogations at the same time. One system we should be looking to, as an example, is Chicago's Empowering Communities for Public Safety ordinance passed in 2021. It created bodies like our commission, and it also created counsels specifically in charge of getting public input on police policy and practices in other words chicago is listening to the most impacted communities uh listening to communities most impacted by over policing by police misconduct and by police violence and that's what we need to do

Valerie AmezcuaItem 3

we need to listen abraham your time is up your time is up thank you so much your time is up

Jennifer L. HallItem 3

Next speakers. Jocelyn P, Tanya Nava, Matthew Compton, Zuri.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 3

Madam Clerk, can you state the names again because I couldn't hear them either.

Jennifer L. HallItem 3

Jocelyn P, Tanya Nava, Matthew Compton, and Zuri. Thank you.

Hello, City Council. My name is Tanya Navarro, and I'm the Organizing Director at Chiswa and a resident of Santa Ana. I'm joining many residents in opposing the ad hoc committee's recommendations which would weaken our oversight commission by stripping away the very powers that make oversight meaningful. Across the country, oversight bodies are being dismantled. We cannot let Santa Ana become part of that trend. Chispa remains committed to a fully investigatory model that allows the commission to conduct independent investigations and make disciplinary recommendations. recommendations.

We understand the challenge of having a only part-time director, but that cannot be used as an excuse to dismantle core powers. At least half, if not the majority of commissioners have already voiced opposition to the ad hoc amendments stressing the importance of maintaining investigatory authority and the ability to remain to recommend discipline. We support the hybrid investigatory audit model being proposed by the director, the current director, but with critical conditions. The Commission must audit all internal affairs investigations and complaints, not just those

IA sustains, limiting access only to sustain complaints guts accountability. The Commission must retain the ability to bring its findings and recommendations directly to the City Council when the City Manager's response is unsatisfactory. If this pathway is cut off, accountability dies at the City Manager's desk and the community loses its voice at the highest level at City Government. The Commission must keep its authority to review police union memorandums of understandings, MOUs. Without this power, residents lose transparency over how police contracts are negotiated and

funded, meaning fewer safeguards against provisions that shield officers from accountability. Police violence remains at an all-time high, five years after George Floyd's murder, not only nationally but also here in Santa Ana. We stand with the families of Noe Rodriguez and Mario Diaz, who continue to seek justice, and we remember that just this month, it marks the four year anniversary of the unjust murder of Brandon Lopez by police. If the city council Tanya, your time is up. will preserve the

Valerie AmezcuaItem 3

Ma'am, your time is up. Thank you so much. Have a nice evening.

Good evening, my name is Jocelyn and I'm with CSOOC's Police Accountability Committee. Before I begin, I wanna acknowledge what today means for many of us in Santa Ana. Mexican Independence Day is a day that holds deep meaning and brings immense pride for many of us in this city. A city with a large, proud, and powerful Mexican community. Today I remind everyone here of our collective strength when we rise together against injustice, especially in today's political climate where we see those in power attempt to eradicate our rights daily. Actually, Valerie, today

would be a good time for you to join us and raise your Chicano fist, especially considering the praise you received over the weekend for being the first woman and with that, the first Latina mayor of Santa Ana. But you and Councilmember Penaloza seem to have forgotten where you come from and who you represent. That quiet deal with La Academia to privatize the Centennial Park soccer fields, a space that belongs to the community, proves that. So yes, shame on you. We expected more, especially from our own. You say you're prioritizing safety, but safety doesn't begin and end with the police, and taking away community resources

while inflating the police budget is hypocritical and not lost on us. Officers Luis Casillas and Isaac Ibarra are still with SAPD after fatally shooting Noel Rodriguez over nine months ago. They shot at him 29 times when he was not a threat and there still has been no justice, no report, and no accountability. If it were as cut and dry as you guys like to claim, then the report would have been provided. Where is the oversight on that? That's right, you've weakened the Police Oversight Commission by taking police union money to keep the Commission from having any any real oversight powers, but you're not fooling anyone.

You can't keep hiding behind these legal limits. We demand real accountability, real transparency, and consequences when police kill your constituents. We demand justice for Noel Rodriguez and Henry Gonzalez Jr., fire officers Luis Casillas and Isaac Ibarra, support Councilmember Lopez's in-car video ordinance, and protect and strengthen the Police Oversight Commission. Commission.

Jennifer L. HallItem 3

The next speakers are Zuri, Matthew Compton, Mayra Ruiz, and Sean Verdeen.

My name is Zuri. I'm from Ward 3. So today marks 289 days since Isaac Ibarra and Luis Casillas killed Noe Rodriguez. Rodriguez, 289 days since he was shot at 29 times as he was standing motionless. Within 30 seconds of seeing Noair, he pulled over, got out of the car and shot every single bullet in his gun at him and his partner came out of the car right after, Ivada, Ivada came out of the car right after and shot at him 11 times. Three of those bullets were as Noair was falling to the ground. A combined 29 bullets at a man who was standing motionless and experiencing a mental health

crisis, leaving behind a wife and two young daughters. It's been 258 days since Casillas killed Henry Gonzalez, only 30 days after Noe, and he was also experiencing a mental health crisis. He was suicidal and his mom was telling Casillas not to shoot, and he proceeded to shoot him in the head and kill him. It's been 99 days since that same officer beat a 15-year-old so bad that his ribs were broken his his lung was punctured and his eye socket was fractured he's being monitored for brain damage because of how rough uh castillas was with him and this was after he had already

surrendered to the arrest how much violence must santaneros endure before you guys do anything about it 289 days and they're still out there hurting santaneros y'all are supposed to protect protect us, but you're complicit in the murders of these Santa Ana residents. Please do something about it.

Jennifer L. HallItem 3

Next speakers, Matthew Compton, Myra Ruiz, Sean Berdine, Tracy Simons.

Good evening, my name is Matthew. I'm here as a member of CSO's Police Accountability Committee. I'm here to raise concerns about officers Luis Casillas and Isaac Ibarra. These two officers were involved in the shooting of Noe Rodriguez last December 1st. Noe was experiencing a mental health crisis. Noe was not a threat to anyone. In the body cam footage, we see Noe standing still up against a wall. Luis Casillas gave three commands in English and then proceeded to empty his gun. Luis fired 18 bullets and then reloaded his gun. Isaac fired 11 bullets, 29 bullets in total were fired.

This is not only excessive, but both of these officers failed to deescalate and instead took a life when the loss of life was preventable from the start. On the Santa Ana City website, there is an About Santa Ana Police Department section. Under this section, there is a value of accountability. This value states, we are responsible for our words and our actions. Yet both of these officers have yet to be held accountable for the killing of Nwe.

Furthermore, Luis Casillas has yet to be held accountable for the beating of a 15-year-old minor, Mario Diaz, on June 9, 2025. Mario suffered broken ribs, a punctured lung, and a broken eye socket. Luis along with Isaac are threats to our community. Both of these men have not only taken a life but have caused great bodily injury to members of our community. If SAPD is truly about accountability, then they must fire Luis Casillas and Isaac Ibarra from the force without pay. As a member of CSO, we stand with working class families who deserve access to Centennial Park.

Santa Ana is not for sale and justice for Nauvade Rodriguez. Thank you very much. Thank you. Thank you.

Jennifer L. HallItem 3

Myra Ruiz, Sean Verdeen, Tracy Simons, Nina Jurek.

Good evening, Mayor and council members. My name is Myra Ruiz, and I'm a resident of Ward 3.

I'm gonna be talking about item number 15,

I'm the President of Greater Southern California Towing. And earlier this year the police department presented me with the one-year extension that included a clause allowing towing companies to store vehicles outside of the city. Before signing anything I put my objections in writing. I explained why this was a bad idea for the residents and for fairness. is on August 7th I signed the extension with the clause only because I felt pressured and was told that it wouldn't go to city council. Later I was informed that the extension and the amendment would be separated.

Once they were split I decided to only sign the one with the one year amendment and I I disregarded the other one. So what is before you tonight is not just the one I signed. It's going to be the second one which will allow towing companies to have a yard outside of Santa Ana. And I didn't sign that one because I think it's not fair for the residents of Santa Ana to have to drive and go to another city to pick up their vehicle.

They're going to have to be traveling out there. It's going to be inconvenient for them. I don't agree with that. So I urge you to reject that amendment and think about the residents of Santa Ana. Thank you.

Jennifer L. HallItem 3

»» Thank you. Mayor Verlaine, Tracy Simons, Nina Jurek, Carol Frank.

Hello Mayor, members of the council. My name is Shawn Verdon, and I'm a resident of Washington Square, board five, and I'm coming to speak regarding item number 10 on tonight's agenda, which is the Washington Square Park feasibility study. And I'm just here to voice my support for this and really urge you guys to consider consider putting this on a track to being Greenland. As we all know, everyone here wants more parks in the city. Yes, do we need more parks? Right. And as part of that, you guys have said it yourselves, you have published a parks master plan and in it, it has goals.

So this is pretty low hanging fruit for these lots in our neighborhood, especially since our neighborhood falls within the environmental justice area and in in line with the park master plan goals which is to pursue land acquisition acquire and develop parks that's falls right in place with I think what this city is looking to do over the years you know past decades I mean you know zoning hasn't always favored residents over businesses I feel like this would be a great way to kind of swing the pendulum

in the other way to enrich our neighborhoods and hope other neighborhoods can follow as well I am aware that they're building a park in the adjacent neighborhood but I will argue that if anyone has ever tried to cross flower it is quite the task and possibly dangerous so parking our neighborhood would be awesome thank you

Jennifer L. HallItem 3

when you hear your name if you could please line up in the center aisle tracy simons nina jerick carol frank karen perez and david jerick

i'm piggybacking on the same item on the agenda i'm tracy simons good evening and i live in washington square ward 5 and i wrote down some ideas that come from my heart why we want to park in washington square parks are the soul of the neighborhood quietly powerful spaces that shape how we live connect and thrive why parks matter so much because of mental and emotional well-being parks offer a natural escape from the stress of daily life just being around greenery can reduce anxiety improve mood and boost mental clarity

The studies also show that access to green spaces help lower depression and stress levels, which we all need. Parks encourage movement, whether it's walking or jogging. Even casual strolls can improve cardiovascular health and reduce obesity. Parks are great gathering places. People who live near parks tend to know more neighbors and feel a stronger sense of belonging. parks help clean the air cool down urban heat and homes near parks often have higher property values parks make neighborhoods more attractive to residents parks reflect the character of a

community there are places where stories are told memories are made and century and cultures are celebrated in short parks aren't just green spaces there are community builders health boosters and and environmental guardians. Thank you.

Three minutes. Okay, hi, thank you, Madam Mayor, Councilman.

Nina Jurek, Washington Square, Ward 5. I stand before you with a heartfelt plea from the entire neighborhood. We took up a poll, you have that in the attachment, to help us secure a walkable park in our neighborhood. It's not just a nice idea, as Tracy just alluded to. It's a matter of equity, health, quality of life, and we could go on.

It also further completes the city's park master plan so that every neighborhood should have a walkable park, or should I say every resident should have a walkable park within five to ten minutes of where they live. While there is one going in at 10th and Flower, we're excited about that. However, the far reaches of our neighborhood, it's almost a mile away from the 10th and Flower Park. It's .87, so it's darn close. I don't know about you, but unless you're power walking in a race, it's a good 30 to 40 minutes. Feasibility study is complete, three scenarios. They're awesome.

Of course, we would love the most land, but we will take option two. Option one, if need be, option two would be our preferred. We have a willing seller, ease of construction due to open parcels, no access, traffic concerns, suitable soil, minimal permitting requirements. We're not just asking for a park. We're ready to partner with you. You know us. You've seen what we do. We have great neighbors. It would be pretty much self-policing. You've seen what we do. We really want to partner with you. We can't miss this chance. Senate Bill 1123 opens the door for high density housing. If we lose this

opportunity, it's the last piece of land in the neighborhood. We can't miss this chance. Every Every neighborhood deserves a park. Now it's our turn. Nina, your time is up. Thank you.

Jennifer L. HallItem 3

Carol, next speakers. Carol Frank.

I'm here.

Jennifer L. HallItem 3

Karen Perez, David Jurek, Sandra Cortez, and Kevin Perez-Henriquez. You can go ahead, Carol.

Okay, my name is Carol Frank, and I'm a resident of the Washington Square. I'm also a past president of Washington Square Neighborhood Association. I moved into this neighborhood at the ripe old age of two. I was lucky enough to have a playground at Wilson School. Love those swings, they were great. Today the grounds are all locked up. Kids are unable to get into it, which is sad. Washington Square is one of those neighborhoods that are still affordable compared to the rest of the county. Therefore, we have a lot of young families with a lot of young kids.

And I'm sure the neighborhood east of us has the same problem. The new park is just really not big enough to accommodate both neighborhoods. And as it's been pointed out, it's not really walkable for a lot of our neighbors. Yes, you put those big flashing lights across the street on Flower. hour, but I don't know if anybody noticed stopping at stop signs and red lights and pedestrians seems to be an option these days for car drivers. So it's just really not a safe crossing. This is not a new project. These folks behind me have been working on this for over two years.

We've worked with a lot of these folks over here and a lot of the people in the city. Thank you very much for your support. This is our golden opportunity to take the last open space here in Washington Square. It's an opportunity that will go away and it's sorely needed. Thank you very much.

Hello.

My name is Karen Perez. I'm one of the league owners here for Santa Ana. representing all of the leagues here in Santa Ana. I want to make it clear that we are not against new organizations or existing organizations getting fields. The real issue here is the secrecy in the backdoor entrance they were allowed to go in through. Some of our organizations have asked for more play space. We have been told to wait in the back of the line. How is it acceptable for people to jump the line just because they know someone? Peñalosa likes to call us the mafia, but his actions suggest that he's the real mafia here.

Your job is to listen to us and do what benefits our community. How does Santa Ana benefit when you are giving exclusive use to one organization that the majority of the kids aren't from Santa Ana versus thousands of Santa Ana kids and adults from our Santa Ana leagues? When you needed funds to build the synthetic fields at Centennial, you were happy to meet with us. Now that you took our money and the fields are built, we are no longer heard. Mayor, Peñalosa has defamed our Santa Ana organizations. He called us a mafia. Will you now open up your agendas to meet with us? Do we need to continue to come here to be heard?

I noticed there's great communication between some of you guys and La Academia. They were all here today. I wish that we would have had the same communication when you guys were doing all these negotiations back door. I don't think it's okay for you guys to do this negotiation and not communicate with all of the sanity leagues. But they're all here thinking something different. We're not here against them. We're here against the way that the matter was being brought up. Why do you need to do it in secrecy? Why do you meet back door? Peñalosa said that he was just the one that enabled the communication.

I've emailed all of you guys and asked for a meeting to open up your agendas. I've only heard from a few and I thank the ones that I've heard from. I thank you. But I think that this issue needs to be dealt with immediately. I wish that you guys can open up your agendas. And lastly, justice for Noe Rodriguez and his family. Karen, your time is up.

Good evening, council members, city staff. David Jerick, 40-year, Ward 5, Washington Square resident, and a retired Santa Ana business owner. And I'm here in support of the park in Washington Square, Agenda Item 10. and I'm really excited that the feasibility study is complete. I read it. I hope you took the time to read it as well because it really explains word for word really what we've been saying all along that this piece of property that's available temporarily until it's sold to somebody is great

for a pocket park. It fits all the city requirements and would be a great addition to Washington Square as well as the city of Santa Ana. And it is different than what's being proposed and what's being built at 10th and Flower, and we thank you for approving that and getting that going. But we're looking for a more passive park, something that we can walk to. It's a neighborhood park, something that I can walk to, because I certainly can't walk all the way down to Flower, because the Flower Park is going to be a walkable park too, but it doesn't really serve a lot of the members

of our community, whereas our park would serve more people. So in conclusion, I just want to ask for your vote for not just receiving and filing the feasibility study, but receiving it, reading it, taking action on it, and getting us a park in Washington Square before it's sold for other purposes. Thank you very much.

Jennifer L. HallItem 3

Next speakers, Sandra Cortez, Kevin Perez-Henriquez, Julian Rivera, Jonathan Librato.

Jennifer L. HallItem 3

Ready? Go ahead, Sandra.

Hi, my name is Sandra Cortez. I am a part-time negotiation committee member and I'm also the part-time chapter board member for this SEAU chapter. and a chapter. I just wanted to express that I hope this time as another time that you will look at our contract. I know you don't see it, but that you will see that we are asking something for things that are comparable to what other people are getting in other industries, public and private.

I see that there are private industries where they don't have to have any education whatsoever They make more than some of our employees that are part-time. We do require almost education, some type of education, whether it's office equipment or college courses. They're not making as much as these people are. I really hope that when you look at the monetary and non-monetary things that we're asking for that you take it into your heart and remember that you have our backs and that you're hoping for the best for us and that we have that we're treated equitably and have a good contract so

i wasn't prepared today to come but um i hope to see that a nice contract has come this period again as in some of the other ones we had in the past and i've been doing this since 96. i have taken some years off but i've done have negotiated a lot of contracts and the first one that did didn't even have any anything but a wage increase if that if that there may that didn't we We also had some negotiators from the affiliate union who didn't even listen to us and wouldn't follow our directives, but this time we do have someone who listens to us and follows our directives and is a very good negotiator for us

and we're happy with that person and we hope to see a good movement on this contract soon. Thank you.

Jennifer L. HallItem 3

Next speakers. Can you please line up? Kevin Perez-Henriquez, Julian Rivera, Jonathan Librato, Pat Linehan, Brian Mendez-Maravilla. If you're hearing your name, please come forward. Giovanni Arriola, Jackie Cordova.

Jennifer L. HallItem 3

Please state your name and make your comments.

Good evening. I'm Pat Linehan. I'm here in support of the Washington Square Park. I was born in Pennsylvania, grew up in South Jersey, college in Miami, graduate school in Chicago, and I've lived in Santana for more than 25 years. However, it's the last 12 years when I've lived in Washington Square that have been the greatest. I didn't know neighborhoods like this existed everybody knows everybody everybody cares about everybody everybody wants to work together a park in our neighborhood would be an outstanding thing and

another way for all of our neighbors to get together and to share time and as tracy had said the advantages to physical mental emotional health are overwhelming and we want to keep our neighborhood as great as it is thank you

my name is jackie i'm a resident of santa ana also i'm a mother of santa ana i came tonight to speak with the community In this city, all our main funds go to Santa Ana police for our safety and protection. Since June, we are currently under attack every single day by armed ICE terrorists sneaking into our city and kidnapping our people. Mothers working at car washes, fathers mowing the grass at Home Depot. They are snatched from us every day. City of Santa Ana had a mother arrested and snatched away from here in the city council Council chambers when she asked them for a seat.

They treat us like criminals here in our own land, even searching us and putting us through metal detectors just to get in here and asking us for an ID when we know they're the ones with the weapons and they use them heavily against us. For years, it's the same crap news headlines. Santa Ana officials returned a $7 million grant. For youth programs without telling the City Council, Long Beach Council's annual Dia de de los Huertos parade over fears of ICE operations. A 13-year-old boy was killed and several other teens were hospitalized after a mass shooting in a Santa Ana neighborhood. Police fatally shoot

man outside Anaheim Elementary School, triggering temporary lockdown. The young boy killed in a shooting in Orange County earlier this week has been identified by family members as a loving, protective, and bright teen. The youngest of the group, a 13-year-old, was shot in the upper torso and pronounced dead at the scene by first responders. While officials did not provide the decedent's name, he was identified in a GoFundMe as Adrian Torres. Up here, we know there is massive election fraud. We know the energetic parasite politicians up here are all the same. There is no differentiating party lines. They all take up the same stage.

SAPD uses our money to purchase certain politicians. Those politicians order attacks against us. San Ana PD comes out in riot gear and terrorizes our community at the order of a puppet politician.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 3

Your time's up, ma'am. Thank you so very much. Since June, San Ana PD allows ICE to attack us every day.

Why is Crystal Car Wash used for coordinated setups and continuously attacked?

Valerie AmezcuaItem 3

Ma'am, your time is up. Please. Thank you so very much. Thank you very much.

Jennifer L. HallItem 3

Good speakers. Brian Mendes Maravilla. Giovanni Areola. Rafael Serrano.

Jennifer L. HallItem 3

Jesai Akinan.

Jennifer L. HallItem 3

Victor Balderas.

Jennifer L. HallItem 3

Come forward.

Thank you. please state your name uh hi my name is josiah keenan i live in huntington beach but i've been working here for the past two years i'm an employee at a small independently owned coffee shop on fourth street i've worked there for a while i wanted to address the changes in the price of parking in downtown santa ana as a few days ago the price to park in the public structures went from being free excluding the weekends to 15 a day or 90 a month $15 a day is painful for anyone coming to Santa Ana, and for a customer or patron, it becomes much less attractive.

$90 a month may not seem like a lot, but for me, my coworkers, and the many people who are working for minimum wage in downtown, it's equivalent to nearly five hours of labor. The city is essentially requiring us to give five hours of our month simply for the privilege to park near work. Unfortunately, parking nearby and walking to our jobs is not feasible because of how crowded the neighborhoods are and the fact that most of them require permits. Due to the prohibitive cost of parking in the structures and the negative impact on the businesses and the near impossibility of parking elsewhere,

I am requesting that the council take action to reinstate free parking in the public structures located on 300 East Fifth Street, 310 East Burr Street, and 420 North Main Street in downtown Santa Ana. Thank you very much for your time.

Jennifer L. HallItem 3

Speakers, if you're here, please come forward. Victor Balderas,

Jennifer L. HallItem 3

Giovanni S,

Jennifer L. HallItem 3

Mayor and City Council, that concludes the the speaker cards. Council Member Penalosa, are there any speakers at your teleconference location?

David PenalozaItem 3

There are no speakers here present. Thank you, Madam Clerk.

Jennifer L. HallItem 3

Thank you, Council Member. We'll now move on to the Zoom speakers. Speakers on Zoom, 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. HallItem 3

Jorge, please unmute Can you unmute and make your comments? George, Jorge?

Hello, can you guys hear me?

Jennifer L. HallItem 3

Yes, please go ahead. You have two minutes.

Hi, my name is Jorge Reyes. I am one of the founders of La Academia. La Academia was born out of my years of research at Cal State Fullerton, where I studied something I care deeply about, about how soccer in Santa Ana connects to education and open mobility. My research honors the long history of our city's, my research honors the long history of our city's Sunday Leagues. They've given Santa Ana joy, identity, and pride, and many of our teams still play in them.

Can you guys hear me? Yes. Oh, sorry, okay.

Jennifer L. HallItem 3

Please continue.

continue? They've given Santa Ana, Joy Day, and many of our teams still play in them. But for decades, those leagues alone haven't filled key gaps.

Key gaps our young people face. Consistent mentorship, academic support, and real pathways to college and careers. I also examined the pay-to-play club system in U.S. soccer. Too often, it widens the divide in access and educational attainment. Simply put, it. It wasn't built with communities like ours in mind. That's where La Academia comes in. Our mission isn't to compete or replace with anyone. It's to stand in the spaces others haven't, pairing soccer with tutoring and mentorship, guiding families through the college process, and turning passion for the game into a pathway to higher education. My thesis makes this clear.

Soccer can reproduce inequality or it can drive mobility depending on who guides it and how it's guided lately there's been misinformation about us that we're outsiders that we don't care that this is for profit uh the truth is the opposite i am san anna through and through we're here to serve our kids uh the ones most often overlooked in both soccer and our society even our name is intentional when i got when academy meant mls programs that didn't include us we claimed the word for us for for our community, La Academia, built by and for Santa Ana. I'm asking you to support-

Jennifer L. HallItem 3

Jorge, your time is up. Thank you. Thank you. Mayor and City Council, that concludes the speakers on Zoom that were in the queue when we began public comments.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 3

Thank you, Madam Clerk. Appreciate all the speakers tonight. If the council would allow me up here, we're going to go into public hearings at this time. We're gonna go directly to item 28. We have several people here this evening that have been waiting, and everybody's been waiting and we really appreciate the patience of everybody before hearing public hearing item number 28 madam clerk please provide instructions to the public who would like to make a comment on this public hearing item only mayor I'm so sorry to you but I did have a request to

Sonia R. CarvalhoItem 3

respond to one of the issues would you like to move forward no go ahead okay okay I'm just I had a request from one of the council members so I just wanted to state tonight after all of the can you speak loudly into your mind yeah I'm I'm so sorry. After listening very carefully to all the public comment tonight, I wanna just reiterate that we all understand that the public speakers are often very passionate about the issues that they speak about. I do wanna put on the record that accusing city staff and or elected officials of violating the Brown Act or the California Public Records Act is very serious.

Sonia R. CarvalhoItem 3

That's why I'm taking this step of responding to those accusations. As I've said before, to build trust and accountability, we have to listen, but we also have a responsibility to respond to make sure that there's accurate information out there and I hope that the speakers that were here this evening will listen carefully to this under the Brown Act the Brown Act applies to the elected officials not staff the city has not violated the Brown Act and there's been no accusation or any evidence this evening that a majority of the City Council members got together to discuss the soccer field

Sonia R. CarvalhoItem 3

field usage or made any decisions regarding the soccer field usage. So I just wanna be very clear, my job is to advise on the Brown Act, the city has not violated the Brown Act. With respect to the California Public Records Act, I am told that the city did receive a request and that staff has responded. There are many exceptions to the release of documents. One of those exceptions is when a city is negotiating or has accepted a proposal, proposal, and it is staff's responsibility to evaluate that. In those exemptions, I understand that there was a response that was given, and I commit

Sonia R. CarvalhoItem 3

to you and to the speakers that came forward this evening that I will work with staff to make sure that any documents that were withheld are accurately withheld under the exemption. And then finally, I just want to mention, because I didn't hear this tonight, but we We had many speakers come forward to talk about the very, very unfortunate officer-involved shootings that have occurred in our community. The Orange County District Attorney's Office and the California Attorney General's Office are investigating these matters. So they too are taking a look.

Sonia R. CarvalhoItem 3

And I don't think there has been any public comment by the city in any way whatsoever that says that the city has taken a position on these unfortunate incidents. We had speakers tonight who have said that the city has already decided that these shootings were within policy or didn't violate law, and that just hasn't happened. There is a process, and I think that people need to understand that the Orange County District Attorney and the California Attorney General's Office, Department of Justice, independently review these items. When that is done, there is an internal process that will go forward.

Sonia R. CarvalhoItem 3

So I just want to make sure that everyone understands that it's not just the city who reviews this, but we have outside agencies that are currently reviewing. And if there's a delay, I personally have to say that I think that's a long time in delay, that we all need to be calling upon those other agencies to hurry and look into the investigations.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 3

Thank you, Madam City Attorney, for clarifying that and sharing very important information. So, Madam Clerk, we're going to go back. before hearing public item number 28. Madam Clerk, please provide instructions to the public who would like to make a comment on this public hearing item only.

Jennifer L. HallItem 3

Members of the public joining us by way of Zoom or conference call who would like to make a comment for public hearing item number 28 only, the Village Specific Plan, please dial star nine from your phone or select raise hand from Zoom now in order to be called once the public hearing is opened. Thank you.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 3

Thank you, Madam Clerk. Item number 28 is a public hearing for the village specific plan. Does the council want to hear the presentation? Are we ready to move forward? I'd like to hear it, thank you. Excuse me?

Jessie LopezItem 3

Do you want to hear it before public comments?

Valerie AmezcuaItem 3

Excuse me, Mr. City Manager, go ahead.

Alvaro NuñezItem 3

Assistant Director Ali Pizzasher from Planning and Building will make our presentation for the city.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 3

City. Thank you very much.

Alvaro NuñezItem 3

Excuse me. Executive Director.

All right. Thank you, Mayor. Good evening members of the City Council. Up for discussion tonight are various entitlement requests for the Village-specific plan here at 1561 West Sunflower Avenue. Tonight's proposal is complex, similar to the related Bristol project with the Council heard back in October 2024, so So this is a pretty robust PowerPoint presentation, but we'll get through it pretty quickly for you.

So the request is by South Coast Plaza for an amendment application which is a zone change, a development agreement and a vesting tentative track map which would facilitate redevelopment of a site generally located at 1561 West Sunflower Avenue in Ward 4 into a mixed-use village that I'll describe in further detail as we advance through the presentation. presentation. Tonight's PowerPoint will go over a discussion on the project, followed by an analysis, and then what the Planning Commission discussed, and wrapping up with discussion in the public hearing. So firstly is the project discussion components.

The location is a 17.2-acre site generally bounded by Sunflower Avenue and Bear Street, transected by Plaza Drive. Again for context, this is directly to the west of the related Bristol specific plan that was approved by the City Council in October 2024. Some properties to the south and west are in the City of Costa Mesa. The rest is in the City of Santa Ana. And throughout the review process, City staff have been in regular communication with our counterparts at the City of Costa Mesa as well.

For context, the site which is highlighted by the red arrow here is located in the South Bristol street focus area of the land use element. So according to the general plan, this is an area that is respecting a gateway into the city that's intended to produce opportunities to transform existing auto-oriented sites into walkable, bike-friendly, and transit-friendly urban villages. The site could be developed with a floor area ratio of up to 5.0 and up to 125 dwelling units per acre. These are the most intense development standards anywhere in the city.

This imagery, just sample imagery from the city's general plan showing what types of developments are envisioned for the area.

In terms of engagement, the project went through the standard Sunshine Ordinance process by holding two community meetings, first in August 2023 and then a November 2023 second meeting. There was also a scoping meeting in accordance with the California Environmental Quality Act and then a Planning Commission hearing about a month ago on August 11th. In addition to that, there was a study session with the Planning Commission in June 2025 and communications with residents, businesses and other stakeholders in the area, a frequently updated City Project webpage and of course notifications through mailers, newspapers

and through our partners in Comlink and the neighborhood associations. The applicant has also held over 150 community meetings of their own, including attending and presenting at neighborhood association meetings that I mentioned earlier, small group meetings, phone calls, emails, other forms of correspondence. And the applicant has also maintained their own project webpage as well. So as an overview, this is a proposal for a specific plan that would allow about 1,500 800 residential units, 80,000 square feet of commercial retail space, 300,000 square

feet of office space, about 13.8 acres of public and private outdoor recreation space, and over 3,000 onsite parking spaces.

This is the conceptual ground level plan. So it shows basically the red colors representing retail commercial areas concentrated in a a sort of village core along Plaza and Sunflower, surrounded by mostly residential and office uses as well as structured parking and the open space areas, which are shown in that faint green color. This image shows the conceptual upper level plan. So in the upper stories would be mostly residential, but again, with some multi-story retail and the office building that I described earlier. earlier.

So as a breakdown, the project again proposes up to sorry, as a parking breakdown, the project proposes 1,583 units as a maximum, parked at 1.3 per unit, which through parking management could be increased to 2.0 per unit, commercial at 80,000 square feet, so that would be 4 per thousand, and a rate of 3 per thousand square feet for office rates. These are standard parking ratios for these types of uses. And again, about 3,400 parking spaces, which could be increased by about 950 spaces through parking management.

This image shows the publicly accessible open space layout with areas such as a promenade, paseos, strolls, restaurant patios, art features, water features, and a pocket park. of note this came up during planning commission but in consistency with the phasing plan the majority of the open space and commercial areas would be built in the first phase of the project and a phasing plan showing the overall phasing and sequence of the project is going to be presented a couple of slides ahead this image shows the proposed circulation network so Plaza Drive Sunflower Avenue and Bear Street would be maintained in their existing locations but

but the project in order to create user-friendly pedestrian scale development would be broken up into blocks. And those blocks would then be developed with buildings. And to sort of slow down the vehicle traffic through the development, there would be a series of stop signs, bicycle paths, pedestrian walkways, as well as bike paths and pedestrian walkways along the perimeter of the project site.

These illustrations that are on the slides ahead show conceptual renderings of the project. So here we're looking at the urban commercial core of the project where the majority of the shopping and restaurants would be located. And then in the background are the residential buildings which would sort of frame that core of the project. Again these illustrations show looking north along Plaza Drive. So the majority of the most intense development would be located closer to the south of the site with the medium scale development toward the north.

And again, another conceptual rendering showing the sort of pedestrian-scaled single or two-story commercial spaces framed by residential, the landscape plan, and then the office building, and any other mid- or high-rise developments in that southern part of the project site.

So to wrap all this up in terms of what's being proposed, it's a specific plan which which contains the minimum components required by the California Government Code. So there's a framework mandated by law into what a specific plan has to contain. There's introduction, vision and guiding principles, a plan for the development. So those are the actual development standards and regulations in Chapter 4. Permissible uses. Chapter 5 would contain design guidelines that the project would abide by. And then 6 is administration and implementation, how to sort of carry out each project and building in this plan area.

There is a thorough implementation section that addresses how to administer the project. It contains a lot of overlap with the adjacent related Bristol project site. So it talks about staff review processes, property maintenance, how to deal with vacant parcels on the site. As proposed, individual phases would be submitted for staff review and there would be certain thresholds for planning commission review such as uses called out in the use matrix

There's also a truck route and traffic control plan required as well in implementation to ensure that through construction and operation that the impacts to the surrounding existing communities are minimized. And a maintenance plan would be required for the overall project, again, to ensure that if there are periods of vacancy or the buildings are demolished and there's a vacant lot, that they don't become attractive nuisances for the surrounding community. So I described earlier there's a phasing plan consisting of five phases of the project. that are anticipated for the project.

The first phase would see the majority of the retail and open space areas developed in that darker orange color, followed by Phases 2, 3, and 4. And then Phase 5, that yellow color in the middle sort of enveloping and concluding with the last middle portion of the project.

So now taking a look at how this project fits in with City's overall goals and visions for the area. So as I mentioned earlier, it's located in the South Bristol Street focus area. This is an area that the city envisions through its general plan as having the most intense development in the city. The project could go up to 125 units per acre, but what's being proposed is 93 units per acre. A floor area ratio of 3.0 instead of 5.0 and building heights up to 25 stories, which are no taller than what's allowed by the general plan. And again, as I mentioned earlier, the South Bristol Street focus area already contemplates

this type of development. This type of application is an implementing measure of the General Plan. It's a way of taking the broad goals and vision of the General Plan and making it reality project by project.

In terms of scale and compatibility, again, the General Plan envisions a dynamic mixed-use village in that area. This is part of that along with related Bristol right to the east of it. The general plan, again, calls out for this level of intensity and development in terms of number of stories, density of units per acre, floor area ratio. All of the sort of components proposed by this project are consistent with the general plan.

So taking a look at how the project would fit in with the existing development pattern. So one can see in this rendering that the sort of mid-scaled buildings would be located to the north and west of this site. Those are adjacent to existing residential communities in our city as well as Costa Mesa. And then the most intense development parts, those high rises that you can see, are concentrated to the southeast. Those are adjacent to the related Bristol specific plan and the South Coast Plaza existing development. And just for context, the related specific plan also concentrates its most intense development

in the same area so that it would be away from these existing residential communities.

So the specific plan also has been evaluated against our own municipal code. And as I mentioned earlier, there's already a plan in this specific plan for distribution of the land uses, the open spaces, the infrastructure improvements that are needed to support this type of development and the criteria needed to evaluate projects in the area and implementation measures, programs and other infrastructure financing measures, all that are covered by the specific plan. And as I mentioned earlier, this is all in accordance with the California Government Code and is addressed by every chapter in the specific plan.

So it meets those required components. There is a zone change being proposed, again, from the existing specific development. So it's already a special plan area. area called a specific development SD number 48 which was established by the City Council in 1989 for the purposes of creating the South Coast Plaza Village the area that we're discussing tonight is highlighted in yellow in the lower left of each one of those images so the proposal is to rezone that teal color to that blue color making an establishing specific plan number six

so if approved it would be right next to specific plan number five which is related Bristol that was was approved in October 2024. The approval of the requested zone change is consistent with the general plan because again this is an area that's intended to produce projects of this type of scale and compatibility.

The applicant has also requested a Vesting Tentative Track Map. So this is basically a subdivision to subdivide the site into development parcels. That is governed by Chapter 34 of our Municipal Code as well as the Subdivision Map Act. And the request for the subdivision is fully consistent with the Subdivision Map Act and the City's Chapter 34. So that application again, consistent with the general plan as well as any other ordinance requirements.

There is a development agreement requested by the applicant. The development agreements in a nutshell, those are contracts negotiated between an applicant and a public agency that basically guarantees sort of protections for various entitlements in exchange for public benefits. So in order to evaluate the terms that were proposed by the developer, the City Council formed an ad hoc committee in March 2025 that was comprised of three City Council members. members. And while the review of a development agreements draft terms are private contractual

process, the sort of conversations were based on priorities of the community and the general plan that provided the framework for how those terms were negotiated. And so the resulting development agreement that's been included in the packet is consistent with the general plan of the city.

So as key terms of this development agreement, it would include one 20-year term and an opportunity for one five-year automatic extension. That automatic extension would take place if the developer constructed an initial 50,000 square feet of commercial retail area. So that's 50,000 out of the 80,000. That's the majority or more than half. And 360 dwelling units. No building permits for residential units above 360 could be issued unless there's the permits obtained for at least that 50,000 square feet of retail commercial area that I described earlier.

This is similar in structure to other development agreements just for the City Council's awareness, like Main Place Mall, which has a development agreement that sort of releases residential units in tranches depending on the amount of commercial square footage that is constructed in phases out there. And the development agreement would also propose a community benefit payment to the city of $9.3 million that would be paid in four payments.

The development agreement also would specify that the 7.5 acres of publicly accessible open space on the site could satisfy the city's park provision and fee requirements to the extent that those calculations work out, and that those 7.5 acres of open space would be perpetually accessible to the public through a public access easement. Again, this is very similar to the related Bristol project that ensures all members of of our community, not just shoppers, not just residents of that site, but anyone can come and enjoy these 7.5 acres of open space.

And it's important to contextualize right now this site is a parking lot with a commercial building. There is no formal open space on this site. So redevelopment of this site would include from zero to 7.5 acres of community accessible open space.

The project's development agreement also has a negotiated rate of $5 per square foot of habitable space in the residential buildings. And so in context, according to the City's Municipal Code, the fee is as high as $15 per square foot for projects of this scale. There is a sliding scale for projects using skilled and trained labor that can bring down that rate to $5 a square foot. The Municipal Code and the AHOCO, the Affordable Housing Opportunity Creation Ordinance, do do have provisions that the rate could be negotiated through a development agreement,

which is the vehicle that's being utilized to bring that rate to $5 a square foot here tonight for the Council's consideration. So if that $5 rate is approved, the estimated in lieu fees for the project are estimated to be $7.1 million. So again, for context, $7.1 million in affordable housing fees, $9.3 million in other sort of community benefit payment to the city. And then of course there's a sort of valuation of 7.5 acres of community accessible open space that would be provided by the project.

In terms of economic impacts, again it's an existing site so there's no one-time impacts currently happening. But if the project were to move forward, it would result in about 85, 8600 city capture jobs. So these are jobs that result directly from construction as well as the services needed to result in construction like architects engineers designers materials providers all that resulting in about 700 million dollars in labor income and about 1.1 billion dollars in economic output from the project there are estimated right now to be about 280 jobs on the project site

the redevelopment would result in about up to 1167 city capture jobs so again these are an increase of 887 jobs from having all the new development on the project site. And then improving the jobs housing balance of the city too to make sure that basically there's opportunities for individuals to not only live in Santa Ana, but have jobs in Santa Ana that reduce vehicle miles traveled and also help us capture the economic benefits in our own community.

This fiscal benefits table walks the reader through the fiscal impacts of the project. project. Basically the total annual site revenues to the city are anticipated to increase by about $5 million in net change. Total annual expenditures would go up to about 2.6 in terms of net change. And then the net annual site general fund fiscal impact to the city would be about a $2.3 million annual change.

So as part of the request tonight, because this project falls into an area of the city that is under the jurisdiction of the County Airport Land Use Commission, this project had to go to the John Wayne Airport Land Use Commission. On June 19th, the ALUC, as it's known, voted to find the specific plan inconsistent with their land use plan. plan. This is standard practice for the ALUC on most projects in Santa Ana that fall in that area. So according to the Public Utilities Code, the City Council will need to overrule their action to find it inconsistent by a two-thirds affirmative vote this evening, should the

Council desire to do so.

And of course, a project of this scale is subject to the provisions of the California Environmental Quality Act, or CEQA for short. So the project entitlements require the City Council to adopt a resolution certifying the Supplemental Environmental Impact Report and everything that comes with it, statement of overriding considerations and adoption of a mitigation monitoring plan. We'll get into that in more detail in a second. That draft Supplemental Environmental Impact Report was made available for a standard review period for the public between April and June of this year.

And the final version of that document was released on April 4th of this year, including a full response to comments. Mitigation measures have been incorporated in the EIR to address any impacts of the project on the physical environment. And again, a statement of overriding considerations has been prepared to support the City Council's certification of the final SEIR. It should be noted that during the public review period of the draft document, eight comments were received.

So, the Supplemental Environmental Impact Report looked at all the topics required by CEQA and found that there'd be less than significant impacts in the categories shown in the left-hand column. So, those are energy all the way down to utilities and service systems. There'd be less than significant impacts with mitigation measures on topics like air quality, cultural resources, geology and soil, noise, and tribal cultural resources. and there'd be significant and unavoidable impacts in recreation. This is because the city's general plan update from 2022 that the city council adopted has

an aspirational goal of having three acres per 1,000 residents of open space. And because we're not there as a city, these projects that come through, they are not sort of flipping that and getting that number to be attained. But what they are doing is providing the onsite open space as a means of sort of compensating for that deficiency in open space. So this is, again, exactly what resulted with the related Bristol's environmental evaluation. But again, a way of sort of compensating for that is to get that easement that allows perpetual public access to the open space areas as long as the project is around.

The Planning Commission reviewed the project on August 11th and unanimously recommended that the City Council approve the requested entitlements and development agreement. agreement. They did also have some discussion on including a native lands acknowledgement on the project site, discussion on how the project interfaces with Bear Street, and discussion on the hotel use permissibility, whether hotels should be allowed, allowed by right, or allowed with a CUP. And the City Council staff report that was prepared for this evening includes a discussion on those three topics. topics.

So culminating all this is the recommended actions to adopt a resolution for the certification of the final supplemental environmental impact report. And adopting the environmental findings of fact and a statement of overriding considerations for the project. Adopting as I said earlier, mitigation monitoring and reporting program. And of course approving the project. There's also the first reading of the ordinance approving the zone change to establish the specific plan as I discussed earlier, a first reading of the ordinance for the development

agreement, a resolution approving the Vesting Tentative Track Map, that's the subdivision that I described earlier, and a resolution overruling the ALUX determination that the project is inconsistent with their plan. I do want to wrap up by just saying that the City has a full team of staff and consultants here that can help answer any technical questions, as well as our specialized legal counsel for CEQA. The applicant is also present here with their design team. And any comments that were received prior to today's cutoff time for public comments have been responded to and those responses have been posted to the packet to complete

the public record for the project. And with that, thank you and I'm happy to answer any questions at this time.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 3

Thank you very much, Ali. Really appreciate it. I now open the public hearing for members of the public that would like to provide their comments in person and virtually. Madam Clerk, do we have any speakers?

Jennifer L. HallItem 3

Yes, Mayor and City Council, and as a public hearing, we would initially start with the applicant followed by members of the public in person and on Zoom. If the applicant would like to come forward for initial presentation, Justin McCusker.

Jennifer L. HallItem 3

You have 10 minutes.

Thank you very much. Thank you, Ali, for the presentation. We don't have a formal presentation tonight, as was presented in the presentation, over 150 people were held. And I commend the city. During that time, as we were working through the process with the city collaboratively as a partner, there was, you saw the outreach model for the city, which I commend you for, go from 500 feet, 1,000 feet to 2,000 feet. and we wanted to honor that through the entire process. So this is one of the most thoroughly vetted projects with outreach to the community. Part of the outreach the family does

as a neighbor within the community is many times they'll come before you, and part of my job is to try to not bring problems for the company or the family, but it's not to bring you problems as well. It's to sit down with the people that we think will be impacted, ask them those questions, and get that feedback from it. Not a critique of tonight. the amount of issues that you have to deal with, having most respect for what comes before you tonight. But we did have members from communities and neighborhood associations coming here tonight who were not able to stay from Republic Homes, well beyond the 2,000 feet.

We worked with all the neighborhood associations, make sure we bring you a project that you can be proud of. The family feels that they are part of the community. They wanna honor the community with staying involved, both philanthropically and from a business standpoint. And we hope to partner with you on this exciting project, which is going to bring, I think, well over, as you talked, the amount of jobs coming into the community, but our partnership with labor, we're incredibly excited in that partnership with LiUNA and with the Carpenters. And many of you voted in support of the South Coast Technology Center, not even a year ago.

The families partnered with five separate labor deals on two projects within 18 months, because they believe in Santa Ana and they believe having jobs in Santa Ana and quality projects. And we hope tonight to earn your support through our outreach and work over the year. So I'll let the rest of the public hearing go. And obviously I'm here to answer any questions that you might have through the process. So thank you so much, Mayor, honorable members of the council for the opportunity.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 3

Thank you.

Jennifer L. HallItem 3

Mayor and city council, we do have several additional speakers for this public hearing. Before calling the in-person speakers, I'll note for the record that by 2 p.m. today, we did receive 49 e-comments related to this public hearing item number 28. Those were distributed to the city council, made a part of the record, and posted online for the public to review. I'll call speakers here to line up behind the podium. Speakers will have two minutes for their comments. Adrian A. Esparza, Jimmy Elrod, Carlos Castellanos.

Thank you. Good evening, Madam Mayor and esteemed council members and city staff. My name is Adrian Esparza. I'm the business manager of Labor's Local 652 right here in Orange County, Santa Ana. This has been the home of labor since the 1930s. We have always had a very large number of members that reside here in the city and they stand here true today. On behalf of over 4,000 laborers of local 652 members, not just the ones from Santa Ana, I ask you to support the Village Project. This project will give all of our brothers and sisters an opportunity to go work closer to home and build something they can really be proud of.

working so close to home they can spend more time with family and join the city putting money earned back into the city and its local businesses so again please approve this project so we can put all our skills and display and build something great for this already great city thank you so much for your time and God bless thank you

Sorry, that's a little short. Good evening, Mayor and Council members. My name is Jimmy Elrod and I'm here on behalf of the Western States Regional Council of Carpenters. We represent about 1,200 members who live here in Santa Ana. These are hardworking men and women who raise their families in the city, shop at local businesses, and contribute to the community every day. the village project represents the kind of responsible development santa ana needs it will create good paying local jobs for our members bring new economic investment and provide

lasting benefits that families in this city can count on just as important it is a project our members your neighbors will be proud to help build this project has gone through a thorough and an open process with input from community members, labor, and city leaders. We believe it reflects what is best for Santa Ana's future, and we respectfully ask for your support. Thank you.

Good evening, Mayor, council members, and staff. My name is Carlos Castellanos and I serve as the Vice President of Facilities for Santa Ana Pony out of Riverview Park. We are the largest baseball league in the city. I want to take a moment to recognize the Seegerstrom family for their longstanding support of our league and local youth programs across the city. Over the last several years, they have helped fund special event permits and provided resources resources for essential safety equipment, allowing us to offer hundreds of kids a safe and positive place to learn teamwork, leadership, and sportsmanship through baseball.

While our league does not take a position on development proposals, I want to acknowledge that the Sigistrom family has a valued community partner who has made a meaningful difference in the lives of our young athletes and their families. I also want to take this opportunity to thank city staff, both in the public works and parks departments for all their hard work and dedication to maintaining some of the smoothest fields in all of Orange County. So thank you very much.

Jennifer L. HallItem 3

Next speakers. Mark Montanaga, Long Nguyen, Senorina Estrada. Can you please come forward?

Jennifer L. HallItem 3

Mark Long, Senorita, followed by Chris Reese and Jonah Breslau.

Good afternoon. My name is Enorino. I have been a hotel worker for 10 years. Soy miembro de United Here 11, local 11, vivo en Santa Ana, distrito 68.

Este proyecto podría traer más de 1,500 nuevos hogares, pero no se garantiza ninguna sola unidad de costo accesible. at the same time, would open the door to right-wing hotels, without study, without proposal, without public participation. That is the opposite of what we should be doing, families like mine.

We need accessible housing near work, no more hotels that no one asked for. Thank you very much.

Jennifer L. HallItem 3

If you could please wait a minute, sir, for the translation. Thank you.

My name is Severino. I've been working in hotels for about 20 years, Local 11 Santa Ana, Ward 68. and this project proposes more than 1,500 homes, but it doesn't guarantee accessible or affordable housing or low-cost housing for families. And this opens the door to other hotels by right, and it doesn't have public access like that. So this is contrary to what we need for our families. we need accessible and affordable housing and this does not do that.

So, and thank you for that.

Good evening, Madam Mayor, Council Members and City Staff. My name is Long Nguyen. I'm a Santa Ana resident. also a parent of three students at Santiago Elementary School here in Santa Ana I'm here tonight to express my sincere gratitude to the Sigurdsson family for their extraordinary support of our children's performing arts program several years ago this unique program the only elementary school performing arts program of its kind in Orange County based elimination due to to lack of funding. The Siegertram family's generous contribution provided a lifeline at a critical moment.

Their support not only preserved the program, but gave our community the time to secure grants and long-term funding to ensure its future. Because of their generous donation, hundreds of children, including my own, continue to develop confidence, creativity, and collaboration skills through the arts. These are lessons that extend far beyond the stage or classroom. They shape young lives and strengthen our community as a whole. The Seegerson family's commitment to arts education exemplifies the very best of civic partnership. They have invested not just in a program, but in the future of Santa Ana's students and families.

The Village Project continues their legacy of investing in our community. community. On behalf of the parents at Santiago Elementary School, I extend our deepest thanks to the Sigurdsson Family Foundation for their vision, generosity, and lasting impact. Thank you.

Good evening, Mayor and Council Members. My name is Jonah Breslau. I am here on behalf of United Here Local 11, the hospitality workers' workers union and on behalf of our union I want to raise concerns about this specific plan which would allow hotels including extended stay hotels as a by right use the reality is that this project site has no vested right uh for hotel uses today under the current zoning hotels are not permitted by right or even conditionally the draft seir also confirms that there are no existing hotels

hotels on the site but even more important the applicant is not proposing a hotel and the seir did not study hotel impacts there is no analysis of hotel traffic water use air quality or greenhouse gas emissions and sequoia requires a clear and accurate project description by listing hotels as a buy right use without a proposal or environmental study the plan creates confusion and understates potential impacts. If hotels are ever seriously contemplated for this site, they should come back as a separate proposal with their own environmental review so that the public and decision makers

can see the impacts clearly. We respectfully ask the council to direct staff to remove buy-right hotel uses from the specific plan until a specific project is proposed and properly studied. Thank you for your time.

Good evening, Mayor, members of the council. My name is Chris Reese, I'm a Santa Ana resident. Come before you most importantly as a proud father raising two girls here in town. A very proud father of the community that we live in, of the work that we have done to raise our children here here and to see the support the Segerson family brought to our school. The schools, Santiago and Orange County School of the Arts, have benefited greatly from the family's investment. And as my fellow parent Long mentioned, we were coming out of COVID. We didn't know how we would survive.

The family stepped in without ribbon cuttings, without press releases, without fanfare, without any interest other than keep the arts in our community. and their long-term investment in this community is so important. Supporting the Village Project is supporting that investment, the economic vitality, the housing that my children might be able to live in one day and stay here. Perhaps I can have grandchildren that are raised here one day. It's critical to us, and I love this project. Happy to support it. I ask for your support. Thank you.

Jennifer L. HallItem 3

Next three speakers. Next three speakers, Emilce Pineda, Jake Saranana, Mark Montanaga.

Jennifer L. HallItem 3

Emilce Pineda, Jake Saranana, Mark Montanaga. If you're here, please come forward.

forward not in a hotel crisis. When we lived in Santa Ana, it was difficult to find an economic housing. We had four people in a room and we paid $1,400 per month.

We had to look for independence, so we decided to look for a house. But we also had to share it because we paid $4,200 per month. mensual el plan especifico propuesto permitido permitido a hoteles por derecho automaticamente aunque el desarrollo no está proponiendo ningún hotel y tampoco se estudiaron hoteles en el análisis ambiental eso significa sin revisión ambiental sin participación pública sin oportunidad para que el consejo decida

a C1 hotel is a provider for a la comunidad por favor eliminate los usos de la tel de este plan y mantenga en el enfoque en la vivienda de las familias trabajadoras de Santa Anna necesitan con urgencia gracias Jake or mark good evening my honorable city council members my name is My name is Emil C. Pineda. I've been in the hotel business for over three years with United Hill, Local 11. And Santa Ana has a housing crisis, not a hotel crisis.

When we used to live in Santa Ana, we used to rent low-income housing. We couldn't afford a place of our own, so we rented a room for $1,400 per month. and we look for something bigger we had to go out and still had to share a house because the rent was $4,200 per month this specific plan allows hotels by right and the developer doesn't have to does not propose hotels and doesn't have any CEQA approvals or public participation and the City Council

council doesn't have to approve that. So please take out the portions of hotels because what we need, what the families need urgently is housing.

Jennifer L. HallItem 3

You can go ahead.

Hi. My name is Jake. I'm also a member of Unite Here Local 11. Santa Ana, much like the rest of the state, has a dire need for housing, especially affordable housing. And while this city has made strides in adding housing, it is concerning that this village proposal, the specific plan, plan allows for hotels by right, which means that the public would not have any access to make a comment or decide whether or not a hotel proposal added to this would be good for the community or good for the city. We really, really, really should be focusing on making and building affordable housing as much as possible throughout the entire state.

And this is a good opportunity to guarantee and add affordable housing for Santa Ana to make it a much more affordable place to live. So please, please, please remove the hotel use and the by right language from this specific plan and consider requiring affordable housing as a part of this to help your residents as well as really everybody that lives and works here. Thank you.

Mark Montanaga.

Jennifer L. HallItem 3

Here in City Council, that concludes the speaker cards that are present. Councilmember Peñalosa, is there anyone at your location to speak on this public hearing?

David PenalozaItem 3

No, there are no speakers in my location, Madam Clerk. Thank you.

Jennifer L. HallItem 3

Thank you very much. We'll move now to the Zoom speakers. Zoom speakers, when called upon, please dial star six from your phone or select the microphone icon to unmute from your device and proceed with your comments. You'll have two minutes. First speaker, Jared Lindo. Please unmute and make your comments.

Hello, this is Jared Lindo. I've had my hand raised since 535 to speak on item number 10 and I was missed. So I'd like to address that. To begin, my name is Jared Lindo, Ward 5 residents of Washington Square. Washington Square is home to more than 6,200 residents and 930 housing units, yet we have no park in our public green space. I'm here in support of a park in our communities. Our families and children are left with no choice but to play in parking lots and long, busy streets. Two schools are located in this community, Heroes Elementary and Wilson

Elementary, together serving over 865 children. But once the school day ends, those students are released into a community where they will find no public outdoor space. In a neighborhood this distance, the absence of a park is not just noticeable, it's detrimental. The city has already acknowledged this in the park's master plan as Park Gap Area 15. Washington Square is one of the most park deficient communities in Orange County. Our neighborhood is also recognized by the state of California as a low-income and disadvantaged community burdened with higher

levels of pollution and fewer public amenities. That makes the need for a safe, accessible green green space even more urgent. The people who live here understand this best. The message is clear. Our children, families, and seniors need a safe, welcoming place to gather, play, and thrive. This is a rare and timely opportunity. I respectfully urge you to act while the space is available. Creating Washington Square Park will bring equity, health, and safety to Santa Ana. Thank you again for your leadership and for giving the sons and daughters of Santa Ana a voice. That's all. Thank you.

Jennifer L. HallItem 3

Next speaker on Zoom, last name Andrews. Please unmute and make your comments on public hearing item 28.

Good evening, Mayor Ameswa, council members, and city staff. My name is Chantel Andrews. I've lived in the city of Santa Ana for 62 years. I've been a homeowner in Ward 4, St. Albans community for 29 years. We share a property line with the Sagerstrom's village property. The Sagerstrom family has consistently demonstrated what it means to be a good neighbor. They have maintained communication with our HOA, responding promptly to our concerns, and have shown a genuine respect for the character of our neighborhood.

We have had the pleasure of working with Maris de Pascual throughout this process, and our experience has been nothing short of a high level of professionalism, accessibility, and transparency. Based on this history throughout the process, we are confident that we will continue to be, that they will continue to be, an outstanding neighbor.

I support the Village Santa Ana project. It has the potential to invigorate the South Bristol corridor, transforming an underutilized area into a vibrant mixed-use destination that benefits all of Santa Ana. It is important to recall that the Sagerstroms led the way with a successful South Coast Technology Center ahead of the proposed Village project, creating local jobs and setting a standard for thoughtful development.

That project included agreements with labor, and the Village has agreements with the Carpenters and Leona. That means thousands of local jobs for Santa Ana residents. An area of particular importance to our community are our schools and our students. This project has the potential to stabilize and increase student enrollment. Chantel, your time is up.

Jennifer L. HallItem 3

Next speaker on Zoom, phone number that ends in 477. Please unmute and make your comments.

yeah this is dale helvig 35 year resident of ward 3. these are challenging times and i just want to thank the mayor the council members the city staff for all that you're doing uh it's really appreciated uh just an interesting fact uh last tuesday on september 9th marked the 175th anniversary for the state of California. So we're all for that. I support the Washington Square getting a park. I also support fixing downtown parking to revitalize the downtown business center. And on to the point of supporting the

Segerston project, the village of Santa Ana, it's a quality project that will be an asset to the community it'll it'll uh revitalize the area and along with the related briscoe project that area is going to be just fabulous so i hope to see you guys adopt all five recommendations from the planning commission thank you very much mayor and city council that concludes the speaker

Jennifer L. HallItem 3

the zoom speakers that were in the queue at the beginning of the public hearing at this time the The applicant can return to the podium to provide rebuttal comments if necessary.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 3

I'm going to call on the City Council at this time to make comments. Would you like to wait, Mr. Brinks? Okay.

Jennifer L. HallItem 3

Would you like to close the public hearing?

Valerie AmezcuaItem 3

Yeah, we're going to close at this time. And I'm going to open up to the City Council and then if you want to come up and make a comment. So, yes, I know you want to speak. So if you want to speak, please raise your mic and then I will call on you. Before I do so, I just want to give a little information here that many people come up here at different meetings and always talk about affordable housing. I just want to make something really clear, and it's wonderful news as far as I think for all of us that are in here. Santa Ana has not only met but exceeded affordable housing requirements. Let me say that again.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 3

We've not only met, but we've exceeded. It has been reported that the City of Santa Ana exceeded its housing goals by over 2,400% in the last RENA cycle and has met more than 50% of its goals in the current cycle. This was in 2023, so now we're in 2025, so we've only done more housing now, so we're better. We have Heroes Landing, Orchard, Casa Querencia, Legacy Square, Depot de Santiago, Santa Ana Arts Collective, Estrella, Wise Place, Crossroads at Washington, Westview House, FX Residence,

Valerie AmezcuaItem 3

where did I miss one? La Placita. I'm sorry we have Habitat Humanity doing additional housing so we have I mean we are the we're the charm when it comes to affordable housing and we've met with the state of California and they have congratulated us and I asked them in a meeting that Councilman Becerra and I were sitting there with the Attorney General's office actually because they thought we had done something wrong they call it the Santa Anna loophole which when they left there was no more loophole and I asked them is there another city that has done affordable housing and housing better

Valerie AmezcuaItem 3

than Santa Anna they said no city mayor but Switzerland has so well I guess we're gonna go on a trip to Switzerland so we can follow their model and no we're not going on a trip to Switzerland though but I yeah we could I guess we'll We'll have to ask the city manager to give us funding. But I just want to be clear, and that's how I want to start my comments, is because I support this project because Santa Ana's gonna look like, I know when I go to Irvine Spectrum and other areas in the county, I can walk, there's splash pads for kids, there's stores, there's restaurants, there's just amazing things.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 3

And we can have the same here in Santa Ana. And it can be a beautiful place.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 3

So, thank you. And I say that because this is the only comment I'm going to make on this whole project because I 110% support it. Because I want our members to live here and work here. I want people to come in here and spend their money in our city. I want to generate revenue. Let me say that again. I want to generate revenue because in Measure X Sunsets, the first time at Sunsets, people remember we're going to lose $30 million if we're not doing something about this. So this is going to be a great project. It's going to be beautiful. Then we're going to have related as well.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 3

I want Santa Ana to look beautiful and that people are going to come here. And I say that passionately because I think sometimes people in the community act like we don't deserve this. Pobrecitos. We're poor. No, we're not. We deserve this. We deserve it. And for those of you that are here from the Carpenters, Leuna, thank you for being here. Thank you.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 3

And thank you. And for the parents, the parents that came out to thank Segerstrom, the family, they do a lot for our community, and there are many more families and people that can come out and talk about what they do. And no, they do not do ribbon cuttings. They do it very quietly, and nobody needs to know. But they do a lot for our community. And so I am looking forward to this project. So let me go now to council members. Council Member Sarah.

Phil BacerraItem 3

Thank you Madam Mayor. And thank you everybody who came out to our chambers tonight to share your perspectives on this project. I also want to thank the applicant for attending what you said over 150 community meetings both large and small, many individual one-on-ones. And I got to tell you a lot of folks in my ward and the surrounding community have shared with me their appreciation that the applicant made themselves available. and returned countless phone calls and emails and I specifically want to thank Maris and Justin for all the work that you put into this. So as was already

Phil BacerraItem 3

stated this project is going to redevelop an underutilized 17 acre site on the south side of town in Ward 4. Now although Antonello and the other amazing restaurants are still a draw down there, the project still will turn this site into an exciting mixed-use urban village across the street from an international shopping destination that being South Coast Plaza. So we're going to see over Over 1,500 residential units, 80,000 square feet of commercial space, 300,000 square feet of office space, and 13.8 acres of outdoor and recreation space of which 7.5 acres will be publicly accessible.

Phil BacerraItem 3

Our city needs quality economic development, and that's what this project will deliver. Today, the project site generates $525,000 in annual general fund revenues. news. When this project is developed, our city will see over 5.4 million per year. That's an increase of over 4.9 million or ten times more than what our city receives annually today. This project is being developed by a family with deep Santa Ana roots. For those of you that don't know, Henry Sagerstrom was the valedictorian of Santa Ana High School back in 1939, where he also served as the class president. He attended Washington Elementary School and Willard Junior

Phil BacerraItem 3

High right here in Santa Ana. Now the Segerstroms are partnering with Heinz who have quite an impressive resume themselves. The Segerstroms have been known to have outstanding architecture in their developments. In fact, what the guiding principles contained in the specific plan are iconic architectural design and foresighted architecture. So speaking of foresighted architecture, the Planning Commission raised an issue of how the proposed project interfaces with Bear Street and that the frontage is facing Bear Street should include enhanced architecture and pedestrian oriented elements so that it

Phil BacerraItem 3

creates an active and functional building and public realm interface. So another guiding principle that's also included is for new residential and commercial buildings to be oriented toward the streets so that they provide easy access for pedestrians. So in figure 3-1 the conceptual land use plan plan contained in the specific plan, you have blocks A, B, and C that are on the Bear Street side, and they currently show parking as a ground floor use. So one thing that I'm going to ask of the applicant is that, or I'm going to ask my colleagues actually, that we approve, that we indicate on that figure that at least 50%

Phil BacerraItem 3

of those blocks will have either residential or retail commercial facing Bear Street on the ground floor of those blocks. Another issue I want to address is that according to the staff report, construction of the proposed project would be implemented in five phases to account for market conditions and that completion of the project may take up to 20 years. So figure 3-5 within the specific plan shows the circulation network and indicates the installation of two new traffic signals along Bear Street. And I know that the Sagatram and their partners are committed to the quality of life of the

Phil BacerraItem 3

the surrounding area today as well as in the future. So installing those traffic signals along Bexar, especially with the dedicated left turn onto Wakeham, sooner rather than later would go a long way. So I'm hopeful that the applicant will agree to install those traffic signals within the 18 months after the effective date of this approval, should it be approved. Speaking of transportation infrastructure, I absolutely appreciate the inclusion of the class four bike lanes and the layout of the sidewalk and landscaping along Sunflower. So much so that I would like to see that same

Phil BacerraItem 3

treatment and configuration along Bear Street as well. So what I'd like to see is the configuration along Sunflower that's shown in figure 3-6B implemented along Bear Street as well. So rather than the current configuration where it looks like it could probably provide some sort of conflict with the pedestrians and its circulation. I would like to see Bear Street with the same configuration of Sunflower which shows a sidewalk, landscape, class 4 bike lane, and landscape. In fact, I would even be open to reducing the size of the existing 15-foot traffic lane along Bear to 11 feet in

Phil BacerraItem 3

order to provide enough room to accommodate the configuration shown on Sunflower. I do actually I actually have a question for the applicant, Mayor, if I may ask the applicant. Why is, so in Figure 3-13, it shows commercial loading areas along the northwest portion of the site facing bare. And so my question is, all the other commercial loading areas kind of face more of an interior?

Mayor Redekopalse, I'm going to need to see what...

Phil BacerraItem 3

Okay. Does staff have that available? I apologize.

Sonia R. CarvalhoItem 3

No, no. And Council Member, may I just make a comment real quick? Because I know we closed the public hearing. We may want to just open it because this, if he's going to testify, you may want to have that information into the record.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 3

I'm going to open it back up, clerk, because Council Member Becerra has some questions, and I don't know if any of the Council Members will have questions for him. Then we'll continue with comments.

Sonia R. CarvalhoItem 3

Yeah, we can just keep it open and then close it before, when you get to the deliberation stage.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 3

do that go ahead councilman sir your time's almost up so oh wait hold on we got

what i've been told is there's no commercial loading on bear okay great because that that

Phil BacerraItem 3

would be something i would ask that we not do so go ahead and ask for that figure to be amended so that it shifts it a little east so we don't see anything fronting along bear perfect so i want to thank mayor mesqua thank you justin i want to thank mayor mesqua for allowing me to serve on the the ad hoc committee regarding this development agreement alongside with Mayor Pro Tem Vasquez. Our city will receive $9.3 million in community benefit funds over the construction of this project. Mr. City Manager, it's my understanding that the community benefit funds will be paid in

Phil BacerraItem 3

four payments correlated to each phase and the funds must be paid prior to the issuance of demolition permits for each phase. Is that correct?

Alvaro NuñezItem 3

Yes.

Phil BacerraItem 3

Okay. Okay, and also the community benefits funds, they will be appropriate during our very open and very public city budget process, is that correct?

Alvaro NuñezItem 3

That is our intention, yes.

Phil BacerraItem 3

Okay, thank you. So speaking of community benefits of this project, I'm happy to see that the Sagatrims and Hines are going to have laborers from Local 652 and the Carpenters, of which my grandfather was a carpenter. Yeah! building. I'm happy to see you guys, happy to see my union brothers and sisters here tonight. I'm going to be part of this project. This project will create 9,000 new jobs and $700 million in city captured labor income. A thousand of those jobs will be reoccurring along with $133 million in recurring city captured labor income. So Santa Ana is the capital of Orange County.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 3

and a thriving... Council Member Serra, if you can wrap it up for me, please. All right. Thank you.

Phil BacerraItem 3

Santa Ana is the capital of Orange County and we're a thriving capital city, but every thriving capital city needs to have a balance of uses. Our city is on pace to exceed its state-mandated affordable housing and other residential development requirements, far outpacing any other city in Orange County. In the latest housing element annual progress report, Santa Ana issued over 4,400 permits for housing units across all affordability categories. This project provides housing while also providing much-needed commercial spaces. Santa Ana cannot thrive or survive by only providing the housing for other

Phil BacerraItem 3

city workers and other cities economic engines. Previous city leaders did not cultivate this level of economic development. Instead, they chose to force higher sales tax on our residents. There have been plenty of commentary about whether a hotel should be included in this development. It was my initial understanding that a hotel was not a part of this proposed development, but the prospect of a hotel though is exciting and should be welcomed and encouraged. The best kind of taxes for our city is not the kind that our residents pay, it's the TOT taxes that come from visitors staying at our hotels

Phil BacerraItem 3

that will help fund our city services and ease the financial burden on our residents. When other cities propose and approve hotels, they They aren't protested. They're not opposed. Heck, they're celebrated in other cities. Meanwhile, Santa Ana will continue, no matter what, to be a leader in housing. But Santa Ana deserves more than just nice things. Santa Ana deserves the best. We are the capital of Orange County, and hell, there wouldn't even be an Orange County if it wasn't for Santa Ana and its leaders and its pioneers like William Spurgeon and James McFadden. So it wouldn't have continued to grow

Phil BacerraItem 3

without the investment of folks like Henry Segestrom and his family. So tonight we have a proposal from the Sagerstrems for one of their finest developments and is not only located in our city but it's also located in my ward and my community and so with that Madam Mayor I'm wrapping up with I would like to go ahead and make a motion if I could. Now do we need to close the

Valerie AmezcuaItem 3

hearing to do it? Yeah we haven't closed it yet. We haven't closed it because it depends on whether other council members have questions. I can still make a motion Council Member Lopez. It's okay. Yes but we would keep the public hearing open. I'm trying to say thank you Madam City Attorney. I got this. We haven't closed it, so let's not make a motion yet. Okay. Councilman Hernandez, you're up. And hopefully you stay within some timeline. Absolutely.

Johnathan Ryan HernandezItem 3

I'll be very respectful of everyone's time. Thank you, Madam Mayor. And thank you to members of the public and our city staff for doing their due diligence to make sure that this was a transparent process where the public was included. I wanna thank the Segerstrom family for going out of your guys' way to ensure that our residents were met halfway 150 community meetings speaks volumes to the commitment to hearing out our residents and that's why this project is is a reflection of the needs of the community over 13.8 acres of public and private outdoor and recreation space in a part of the community that lacks green space

Johnathan Ryan HernandezItem 3

there's going to be community benefits community benefit payment of nine $9,300,004 payments. Mr. City Manager, could you give us an idea as to what type of community benefits

Johnathan Ryan HernandezItem 3

could the community receive in terms of these $9,300,000? Where could this be invested?

Alvaro NuñezItem 3

I think it'd be premature to actually outline where we can deliberate on that fact.

Johnathan Ryan HernandezItem 3

JUST SO THE PUBLIC GETS AN IDEA OF WHAT A COMMUNITY BENEFIT MEANS AND WHAT THESE DOLLAR AMOUNTS EQUAL.

Alvaro NuñezItem 3

SO THE REALITY THAT ALLOWS US TO YIELD THAT FINANCIAL ASPECT BUT IT'S SOMEPLACE ALSO IN THE CITY. SUCH AS LIBRARIES, PARKS.

Alvaro NuñezItem 3

PARKS, SOMETIMES STREET IMPROVEMENTS AND EVEN HOUSING IN CERTAIN PARTS OF THE CITY. SPLASH PADS. WE WANT SPLASH PADS.

Johnathan Ryan HernandezItem 3

SPLASH PADS AND THAT IS DECIDED THROUGH THE BUDGET PROCESS WHICH IS AVAILABLE TO ALL MEMBERS OF THE PUBLIC. RIGHT. Right. Wonderful. There is also inclusionary housing. The in lieu fee for the project is estimated to be $7,100,000. Could you tell us what does the City of Santa Ana do with those inclusionary housing funds totaling $7,100,000?

Alvaro NuñezItem 3

We'll allow for housing developments here in the City of Santa Ana.

Johnathan Ryan HernandezItem 3

So that will be the City investing $7,100,000 back into the community to build affordable housing? Correct? Addressing the need for affordable housing? Yes. And that is coming from the City of Santa Seegestrom family.

Alvaro NuñezItem 3

As part of this development approval.

Johnathan Ryan HernandezItem 3

Wonderful. I also am very supportive of seeing that the Planning Commission brought forward a discussion including the following topics. I'm supportive of seeing the native lands acknowledgement. We are on the Hatchiman Tongva land. Long before we had our local governments, this was native land. So I think it's important that we do highlight that and we include it in the project. The project interface with Bear Street, I'm also supportive of. I support the amendments made by Councilmember Becerra, and I am 100% supportive of the fact that the Segerstrom family brought forward a project

Johnathan Ryan HernandezItem 3

that is going to include skilled and trained workforce, union jobs. Over 1,000.

Johnathan Ryan HernandezItem 3

Over 1,000 union jobs. I wouldn't be sitting at this dais, I've said it many times, my grandfather was a member of Labor, local 652, for over 40 years.

Johnathan Ryan HernandezItem 3

And my uncles are also members of the Carpenters Union. And so I am a reflection of organized labor. And I know that when we have skilled and trained workforce and union agreements, we're able to keep our families closer together. I am supportive of seeing, if there is going to be a hotel built, I only want to see a union hotel be built. that should be built by union members, by members of our community, and the workers that work inside that union, the workers that work inside that hotel should also

Johnathan Ryan HernandezItem 3

be union. They should be members of Unite here. And so with that being said, so that we have equity for all of our workers here in Orange County, I want to strike the hotel use permissibility and ensure that we have a full transparent process that allows for them to go through full discretionary with the planning commission to ensure that there are no gaps in any development projects that accomplishes a commitment to skilled and trained workforce and a commitment to union jobs. Equity for all of our workers in Orange County, and I'm looking forward to seeing this project move forward. Thank you.

Benjamin VazquezItem 3

Mayor Pro Tem Vasquez. Thank you so much. I think a lot of council members have said so much. thank you mayor for mentioning all the affordable housing we have we do deserve this project we do deserve affordable housing and we do deserve for every santanero to have a safe and affordable place to live we've done a lot but we have a long way to go let's keep working together to make sure those things happen and uh continue the work it's it's hard work this is going to bring a lot of union jobs to Santa Ana and I appreciate the local laborers. My dad as well was a

Benjamin VazquezItem 3

local labor union member. Our family was built on the union. We are four out of six of us are union members and I have a you know we're all Santa Ana educators and union members so we respect that as well. At this time and I appreciate the the work that you did for the outreach for 150 meetings, that was beautiful, but at this time, a hotel has not been proposed and the community deserves the chance to weigh in before any such is considered in their neighborhood. Any future proposal for a hotel should come back before the council with the full opportunity for public input.

Benjamin VazquezItem 3

This is an amazing project, but we do have to make sure we go through the process each and every time. And the work that Seegers Firm does, I don't see any problem pushing forward a hotel in that area. Thank you.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 3

Thank you very much, Mayor Pro Tem. Council Member Farron, please.

Thai Viet PhanItem 3

Hi. Question for Director Pradesh Kapoor. Can you explain why the hotel use is included in the specific plan? I'm sorry if I missed it.

Thank you, Councilmember. So the applicant has included several uses in their use matrix permissibility, senior care, congregate care, hotel, that are not part of the immediate plans for development for the site. So by including hotel in these other uses that I mentioned, it creates an avenue for them to develop that should market conditions change and there's a ripeness for hotel and

and demand for rooms in that area. So by including it as a permissible use, the applicant is proposing that basically if a hotel were to be viable economically in that area throughout the build out of the specific plan, that it would come to staff and go through a staff level review through the city's development review committee and be evaluated subject to the development standards and design guidelines that are contained within the draft specific plan. The request to have it be subject to a CEP would still still entail that process I described, but would result in going to the Planning Commission

for a public hearing instead of being subject to staff approval.

Thai Viet PhanItem 3

I'm sorry, will you repeat that last part again about the CUP?

The CUP would still require a staff-level review of the project. So staff would look at the design, the development standards, also for like a comparative CEQA analysis as well to make sure that the scope of what was evaluated from an environmental standpoint applies to this project as well through like equivalency factors and and then at the conclusion of all that the only difference is that the CUP would require then the project to go to the Planning Commission for a public hearing as opposed to if it were allowed permissibly then still staff reviews still CEQA evaluation but then approvable by staff. Got it and if

Thai Viet PhanItem 3

additional is so good there were some comments that stated that a hotel use was not adequately, how do I say, analyzed as part of this EIR. But in that case, if there is a request to build a hotel, if necessary, you just do a supplemental, right?

Well, one would look at the CEQA checklist and the CWRD guidelines. So in one scenario, again, depending on what is proposed, right, it's all hypothetical, could be a supplemental EIR if it were something totally blowing out some of the assumptions in the document all the way down to an addendum or other type of document. So CEQA gives a menu of options for that. But if there's a desire for more precise CEQA guidelines, our legal counsel from Best Pests and Krieger is here as well, Hannah Park, who could help answer that technically as well.

Thai Viet PhanItem 3

No, that's fine. And my follow-up question is for applicant. Yes, Justin, will you please?

Valerie AmezcuaItem 3

You should just stay up here because I'm gonna call you, thank you. You can do it.

Thai Viet PhanItem 3

So, you know, for this hotel use, I guess the goal is, right, with any business, you want to see if the market changes, you could convert, would you convert something into a hotel or would you not build something to build a hotel instead?

So it's an important question. If you were here, the NIDA Planning Commission, you were as surprised as the Planning Commissioners the nature of the discussion.

Unite Here, I am a native of Detroit. My stepfather was a 30-year UAW worker. My grandfather was a teamster. And what I believe is not as important, it's what the Sikorsham family believes, which is to partner. And you are owed the respect of timely outreach and communication. And in this situation, Unite Here never reached out to us one time because a discussion about a hotel that's not contemplated that's not planned this may have been able to be addressed and put to bed before so what i'll offer councilwoman

fan and to the others who have made this is that it's to show being transparent to you as i've been through this process as the family has been is we are not building a hotel so if part of this motion needs to be to strike the hotel use from it so that it is not an option for the city or for us then we will support you in that manner i i need to be truthful and i don't fully understand because we were never communicated to not a single time by unite here we've talked with multiple labor groups over two projects over 18 months they never reached out they never talked to us

So if that's what you need to do, and I respect that, and they need that language, then we would support you striking the language from it.

Thai Viet PhanItem 3

That's helpful to know. I guess I have a follow-up question. And obviously you're working with some of the construction trades in order to build aspects of the project. And maybe this is still in the hotel thing, but if there were to be a hotel, is it something Is that something that the Segerstroms have typically done to continue working with these different labor groups? Or is that something you've done before?

So one, I respect the question. It is a hypothetical. Yes. So what I will say is that promise is made, promise is kept. I made a commitment to you and to your colleagues, both on South Coast Technology Center and on this project, that we would not bring you a problem. We would partner, and why? Because these workers here and the three groups that we agreed with on south coast technology center they do quality work but we also committed to you to bring you a quality project and there are not endless dollars and resources to do that so you've asked us to partner with you in bringing a project of great quality across the street

to the village we're going to do that and the same we're going to partner with labor on this So I would say to you, I don't know a scenario where we have not. And standing before you, we've done it now two times in a row in two years.

Thai Viet PhanItem 3

Yeah, that's really helpful. I think I understand the desire to have something like this already be in the specific plan because as the economic environment changes, we want to be flexible. We don't want to have, because time is money, right, especially with changes in tariffs and all of those other delays. So that's really helpful. I guess the last thing I'll ask is, you know, when you're doing this community outreach, did you find any concerns regarding the density of the uses or anything like that?

So very good question initially. So we had been going through the process for some time, and I should say it early and often, we're supportive of related Bristol. We think it's going to be an outstanding project. As was noted in Ali's presentation, there's already been collaboration in putting density in different places. One of the issues with that density being placed there is we did a shade and shadow. And kind of my baseball statistic on that to deal with this density issue is one parking space with a stall gets shaded for one hour, one day a year. So no one's house, no one's backyard is being impacted.

But to bring it into that discussion, the related Bristol project, again, and I want to keep saying it in support of it, they have maxed out their density. So we were uncovering that level of concern within the public because we were going so far beyond the outreach that was required by the city even at 2,000 feet. People were asking us about those questions. The family had made a decision which was not prompted by related Bristol nor by the members of the community, meaning we did not scale back the project. Well, we wanna bring you with under 1600 units, a reduced FAR, an increased parking ratio,

is to make sure we are that great quality partner for the city and for the neighbors in the community. So we uncovered it, but it was mostly at the time in discussion about related, because at that point related had moved ahead of us. And there was, there was a, I don't know, a famous moment because I've been doing development for almost two decades. Ali may have been there for this presentation. And a gentleman got up at our first Sunshine meeting. And he got up and he said, this is just another developer building every square foot and every inch they can possibly get.

Then we gave the presentation and he was stunned. And he said, well, you're not building out. well it was almost like the switzerland loophole like there has to be something that you're doing no developer builds less than their density the sagerstrom family only wants to build timeless quality they're going to build what they think they can deliver and make a commitment to you on nothing more and nothing less so the density issue has fallen back as we've been out in the community and that's why we wanted to spend extra time is making sure we address that

that and to make sure that the public knew we're not maxing the density on the site. And there's been great support for that.

Thai Viet PhanItem 3

»» Thank you. I think this question is for staff. It might be for housing staff. So I see that we have $7.1 million in in lieu fees, right? And that $5 per square foot in lieu is less than the 15 that we would typically charge per square feet. But that's because there is going to be the use of skilled and trained, correct?

The $5 a square foot is a result of the development agreement being the vehicle to renegotiate a rate. So in 41-1900, SEMC section 41-1900, that's the AHOCO ordinance, it says that certain projects are exempt from the WHO or may have different rates and development agreements are one vehicle to negotiate a different rate. So it's two different topic matters.

Thai Viet PhanItem 3

The two different exceptions to the rule. Right.

Right.

Thai Viet PhanItem 3

And part of that is because we're also getting a community benefit of over $9 million. But the $7.1 million, because I know there are a lot of conversations or comments about affordable housing. And I do understand that we are on track to far surpass our RENA requirement. But I think we all know there's the standard that's imposed by the state, and then there's also the need, right? I think there's a lot of confounding factors, but the $7.1 million would be used for affordable housing, right? Or something like that. We've used the $7.1

Thai Viet PhanItem 3

million to help with the rental board, rental registry, Habitat for Humanity. We've used it for... Am I correct in this?

Alvaro NuñezItem 3

Generally speaking, yes.

Thai Viet PhanItem 3

Okay. So I guess I do want to just alleviate maybe some of the concerns saying that there's no affordable housing because right there's the option of either building it on site or paying the in lieu fee.

Thai Viet PhanItem 3

I think that's all the questions I have right now. Thank you so much.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 3

Councilwoman Lopez please.

Jessie LopezItem 3

Thank you Mayor. I don't have any questions for you Justin. Thank you. The Councilwoman asked a lot of what I was going to ask so thank you. But you know you can well I don't have any other questions right but oh got it thank you. And first I think I want to start with affirming that Santa Ana is beautiful. It's why people choose to live here and do business here and I'm I also want to thank our city staff and the applicant and the family of course and every single person that I may know of and people that I have never met who have brought this

Jessie LopezItem 3

project forth in front of us and have gotten it to this point. And I also want to thank all the workers in the room whether you help clean hotels or whether you build the housing that we desperately need in the state and the laborers thank you for for being here, thank you for being involved, and I especially want to thank you for living in the city of Santa Ana. That is very meaningful to me, and I know that it means a lot to this council. And I also just want to thank, again, the family for recognizing that times change, and that we can make better use of some of these plots

Jessie LopezItem 3

that exist in the city, because every time I'm in the area, you know, I see it half empty, and so I do want to thank folks for recognizing the partnership that can exist here in terms of economic development, bringing jobs to the city, and ultimately the long-term vision of providing a need that our residents have asked for in terms of housing. And so I do look forward to seeing this ultimate product be finalized, and I also again as you know Councilman Fan asked some of the questions that I've spoken to folks about in terms of the language that was brought up during the

Jessie LopezItem 3

Planning Commission and that we've heard about here today right you can go one way or the other here but I do think that that idea is a good one in fact and so I'm going so so on the project itself those are my comments I do want to say I would like to see us move away from that. This is the second time that a massive project goes through the ad hoc with the same members. And for me it is much more better for this process to encompass all seven members. Have all seven members deliberate publicly about the benefits that can be a part of

Jessie LopezItem 3

our future of the city. And I know that this has happened in the past. Right now we're with different projects so that's what i would like to see be considered by members of this council and our by members of this council but again thank you everybody i know it's 9 33 you've all been waiting for a really long time um and i'm i think from what i hear people are ready to vote

Valerie AmezcuaItem 3

okay so before we move forward i'm going to give you the updated march 2025 housing fact sheet 5,130 housing units were issued building permits from 2021 to 2024. So when we're talking about affordable. Permanent supportive housing, there's a whole list of them, including La Pesita. And so 2024 groundbreaking openings, there is one, two, three, four, five. Over 6,200 residential units are currently in construction, development, project review, or permitted. So I just want to again stress the fact that Santa Ana, the city of Santa Ana has great projects going on

Valerie AmezcuaItem 3

for affordable housing. I see you nodding, Mike, so thank you. And for permanent supportive housing and housing in general. And so I am so happy that we're bringing now this project. So Councilman Becerra, I believe you made a motion and I will second your motion, go ahead.

Phil BacerraItem 3

I hadn't made it yet, but if I may.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 3

I'm sorry, let me close. I'm gonna close the public hearing. And then if we could just comment. Oh, I'm sorry, Councilor Panalosa, there you go, go ahead. I'm still here.

David PenalozaItem 3

Of course, thank you. And I also want to thank you.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 3

I didn't know you were there, I apologize.

David PenalozaItem 3

I announced my attendance in the beginning of the meeting, Mayor. I wanted to bring up, Justin, if you can, I just had a question regarding this hotel stuff. And Justin, you know that from the very beginning, one of the main requests that I had as going through this project is my desire to want a hotel as part of this project because of our you know desire to generate revenue through tlt tax and i want to thank councilman becerra for making that comment earlier about the the generating revenue with transportation with transient

David PenalozaItem 3

occupancy tax but i i you did say that you guys had no intention to build a hotel so i just wanted to get clarity on that is that something that you could um just clarify on why that that language would be in there if you had said that there's no desire to build a hotel it was multiple options

and in ali i don't want to get over my seas but if you'll help me it's pivoting off of kind of the city's visioning for the south bristol corridor available options that are there so while we did I'm trying to orient myself to where I think David might be right now. So sorry if I look like my head is moving around.

David PenalozaItem 3

Just look up and pretend you're talking to yourself.

You told me your voice would be coming from the heavens. Okay. So it is. Don't give him that much credit. No.

So the best way I can address it, and going back with the transparency before that, it's not contemplated, is that in any large-scale development over years you want to have options and you want to be able to meet the demand the market demand for that area i think ali listed at least six or seven other options that i think also pivot off of kind of the vision of what could be used in the south bristol quarter as a potential option so it's really nothing more than that um so i i wish i could provide you council member with more clarity other than there could be a potential option in

the future that we don't foresee at this time we operate a hotel in Costa Mesa and I feel if we were truly incentivized we would be having those discussions with family members right now and it's simply not happening and it is just not part of this project now if that was something that you

David PenalozaItem 3

guys would consider in the future let's say you know 5, 10, 15 years from now whenever the market does change um what is that something that you'd be willing to come before the city council at the

time whoever that may be um for approvals i mean if if the market demands it and the family would like to address that on site then then yes um you know to to to have the crystal ball for 10 or 15 15 years, I can't say for certain, but I think bringing this back full circle, perhaps a lot of this confusion could have been bypassed if Unite Here would have communicated what their thoughts, what their concerns, what their worries were, and they just did not. And I'll be clear with you, in some form or fashion, I'm having some difficulty tracking it.

And I think the simplest, you know, sometimes the most simple solution is what the solution And in this case, we're not contemplating a hotel. There could be a lot of hypotheticals around it. So we would just suggest that you strike the language. I know that's an impact for the city as well. But I'd be hard pressed with the other issues to address here to fight for a project component that we did not contemplate.

David PenalozaItem 3

Thank you for answering that question, Justin. I think that that would be probably, in my opinion, the best course to do is to strike the language just to give the communities a peace of mind and comfort because, you know, it's about just having a transparent process in the future for whoever may be in these seats. no matter what I know that 15 years from now none of us will probably be on the City Council will be a completely different one so I'd love to offer whoever that may be the opportunity to make that decision and make that call when that comes but aside from that I do want to thank before I move on to thank

David PenalozaItem 3

you I do want to I do have to say that I want to agree with my colleague councilmember Lopez on I wouldn't put it so much on on the Union that came in to to speak about this, but more on the ad hoc model. And I wanna thank Council Member Lopez for bringing that up because I agree, we should move away from the ad hoc model city staff. That is my request for any major projects that come before us because every time that these projects of this magnitude and size come before us, it is the same ad hoc members. And we do fall into this dance where numerous entities come to us at the 10th hour

David PenalozaItem 3

and saying, hey, we didn't know about this. And we're all caught off guard and surprised. So I would hope that we move away from the ad hoc model in the future. And then us as a city council do have the ability to not move forward with an ad hoc. So I would definitely be supportive of that, moving away from that in the future when it comes to this. But I do want to thank you, Justin, and the Sego Shum family and South Coast Plaza for bringing this project to our city. It's something that's transformative and it's an investment that our city deserves.

David PenalozaItem 3

And I know that just walking through South Coast Plaza, I know that you guys do quality work and you don't do anything on the cheap. And the Santa deserves this type of investment. And I want to thank you for using the skilled and trained workforce. And I know laborers 652 are in the house and the carpenters are in the house. And I want to thank you guys for coming out tonight to speak in support of this project and know that you guys are going to have a bite of this apple.

David PenalozaItem 3

So with that, I would see, I don't know if I could ask my colleague, Councillor Becerra, if you would agree to that amendment to striking that language.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 3

Yeah, we're not there yet, Councillor Penalosa. We're getting there right now.

David PenalozaItem 3

Okay. But Justin, those are the only question I have for you is I do want to thank you for bringing this project to us. And thank you for your very, very intense outreach that you have done over the last couple of years. I know you brought this project up to me, I want to say like five years ago, about this idea. So I know it's been a long time coming. So thank you.

Thank you.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 3

Thank you, Councilor Penalosa. Justin, would you like to speak?

Thank you so much, Mayor, honorable members of the Council. Going through this process, you know, it's surreal to be here tonight, and it's incredible to hear your comments and your support on behalf of the project. I never take lightly how a large project like this impacts others, and I just think it's going to be another exciting phase for the family and the company to be partnering with the city of santa ana when i first joined the company almost 20 years ago i was already hearing please work with us across the street bring something to us and this was exciting 10 years

ago to come to that point i do if i could would like to address just a couple of the items which i perceive to be in the motion and if they're not i apologize uh for that i believe council member becerra your initial motion at the beginning i haven't made the motion yet but i think you have some idea of some things that will be included yeah yeah may i address them sure mayor thank you um first uh ali would you mind pulling up two slides we did provide the city specifically because of the question and discussion that happened at planning commission and council

member becerra they're directly related to one of your questions and comments and i hope to have that discussion with colleagues

so the applicant did provide some supplemental imagery this is one of the slides that was provided by the applicant showing what a typical section along bear street would resemble once built out so this is this is the pedestrian walkway this was part of our discussion with the city we did not use all the slides and i think to some degree the slides that were used um up up through Planning Commission left the idea that the majority of that frontage was parking structure. And as I've had comments with some of you through the Processing Planning Commission, is that we do not perceive there to be

a front or back to this project. The architecture, the design will come out on all sides of this project, including the landscaping, the setbacks. We do have Mark Montanaga here who was called to speak but he's on our team i think he wanted to make sure he was ahead of the game but he can address part of the landscaping and the architecture as we have an architect here as well but there is another slide that based on the concern and the discussion from planning commission we wanted to bring that up ali do we have the second slide so this is the actual view And we had this internally, but we decided to provide it for this.

So to be clear, this is not a parking structure facing Bear Street. And then on top of it, you do have the center medians, which don't exist today, which will be landscaped. We want to energize this part of the project, walkability, engagement, and aesthetically pleasing to both the city and to the members in the community. So that brings to the first, which may or may not be a part of the motion. And in the robust discussion with the ad hoc, there was a good back and forth. And in one of those scenarios,

we felt comfortable that we could deliver South Coast Plaza quality retail at a clip about 50% of what we ultimately agreed to. We went up to 50% in phase one. Is that correct? I want to make sure I'm getting the numbers correct. That was, in an open discussion, that was concerning. And we would hope that you and your colleagues would believe that we do have some level of expertise in making sure you bring quality retail, the right tenants across the street. and we are having discussions with tenants who want to be on the Coastal Mesa side,

and we are pushing, prodding, negotiating about them coming over to the Santa Ana side. I don't like to speak in hyperbole, exaggerate, but I would have to say right now, as I said at Planning Commission, right now agreeing to 50% retail frontage on that side can't happen. And I fully respect every bit of the concern and the worry, and I am going to ask you, council member, and your colleagues to trust us that there is not a backdoor to this. And as I commented to Commissioner Escamilla

at that hearing who brought it up, is down the road, we have to have the density. And we already feel that we're probably putting in more in phase one than is probably good for the project, but we believe we can handle it. And we understood why the request was made, is to get sales tax moving immediately. So we really need your support to focus on getting that right grouping of stores and retail in that center. They're not going to want to be pushed out to the outside. They are going to want to be together and build that momentum.

And then what I can commit to you, I just can't commit right now with the structure of those buildings right now, is that down the road, when this project is up and successful, that perhaps the type of uses that we have along Anton, at the back of the parking structure, where Pizzeria Ortica once was, those are real options. Why do I say that to you? It goes right back to what Councilwoman Fan had mentioned before, because we can show you we've done it, right? There's a clear intent to continue to invest and make those decisions. But I am told by people way smarter than me right now,

is that we cannot commit to that 50% frontage. And I ask you with great respect of you, is that if the concern really is activation, walking and architecture, we will bring that to that side. We just cannot commit in this hearing to retail along Bear Street as part of the agreement.

Phil BacerraItem 3

Mayor, if I may ask. So when I was describing earlier, I was asking for either retail or residential.

And residential does front that.

Phil BacerraItem 3

No, no, no, but not on the ground floor. And that's my concern. So right now, what I see there, I respect it. And I get it, you've got great architects, you guys are trying to do it. but at the pedestrian scale, a long bear. I see people walking, that's not pedestrian scale. And with all due respect to the folks in Costa Mesa, what I see south of Sunflower over towards, I'm gonna say Avenue of the Arts, the newer stuff, the ground floor is not pedestrian scale. And I don't want that.

So I will have to admit then to you that I am not authorized nor do I have the ability to redesign a building at this point to make that commitment to you. I can look to see if I have any of my colleagues that can talk about the reason why we perhaps can't meet that in a discussion here today and I apologize to you, Councilman.

Phil BacerraItem 3

Well this is a conceptual plan, right? So in other words, I'm not asking you to tell me who the tents are gonna be or what the exact specs are gonna look like, these are all conceptual plans. If we were to reduce that percentage, maybe say 25% per those blocks, it's just having some sort of presence along that stretch there. We're not trying to suck away the density of commercial within the project, it's having some sort of presence. 25% of that space is not that much.

Not, you know, and again, I would love to say yes. I'm not an architect, I didn't design the building, I didn't get a well maybe. be i got it we can't so i'll look now to see if there's perhaps someone else bryce do you want to know right the structure of it i apologize councilman jim

yes uh good evening my name is bryce osborne uh i'm the director of architecture and planning for cj sagerstrom uh at the moment the reason residential wasn't considered along bear street street was about creating a sense of community. We want the community to be inward to the village, that the front yard for these residential tenants is looking down into an activated area. The concern has been if we put residential kind of on the perimeter like that, it won't be well activated, it won't be comfortable, it won't feel like you're a part of the community.

And the whole key here is to create a village environment, a community where you see your neighbors where you engage with that so that was kind of the fear is if we put resi on the corners and on the periphery uh that it it'll just be kind of not a part of the project or won't feel a part

Phil BacerraItem 3

of the project but you know what that tells me as a neighbor of your project it tells me you want to turn your back to me and my neighbors and that's i mean i'm going to say it's borderline offensive i i and i think that's where you know i initially said 50 if we can even scale it a little bit just just to have some sort of presence along that stretch. I don't think that's a terrible ask. It's one thing to say 100%, right? Because if we're talking about the, I forget what you said, the pizzeria. Or teacup. Yeah. So that whole stretch there is all commercial, right? That from one corner to the other corner is pure commercial.

Phil BacerraItem 3

I'm not asking for that. I'm not asking you to slap commercial up against that

Phil BacerraItem 3

parking for that entire stretch. I'm saying, can we pepper it just so that there's a presence, so that folks walking along Bear don't feel like their backs, or they're seeing the back of the building. And I get it, it's going to be landscaped, it's going to have all those things, but at the end of the day, having that presence along the ground floor helps the pedestrian scale along that stretch. And you guys are doing such a good job on other parts of the project, it would really be helpful to have that along Bear as well. Again, without having

having people far smarter than me interjecting there is never an intent to offend this is been years of analysis as to what would work and what would be quality and if we look at that second slide again i don't find anything offensive now you represent the public and i think you are a good arbiter of that but the intent is to bring that type of architecture across the street from from what is now a parking lot. And I'm told that that is not part of the design and that's not something I'm authorized or able to negotiate here tonight.

Phil BacerraItem 3

So you came in tonight, absolutely. It's either our way, 100% or nothing.

No, we had given up a number of things through the process. No, I mean tonight.

Phil BacerraItem 3

You guys came in with just, that's it, 100% or nothing.

I was told that that is something that we simply cannot do.

Phil BacerraItem 3

So you guys could not add anything on the ground floor?

I'm told we cannot.

Phil BacerraItem 3

100% cannot do it.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 3

Okay, so they cannot, they said three times. Okay, no, no, I wanna make sure

Phil BacerraItem 3

because I've done what they do.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 3

They said it three times.

Phil BacerraItem 3

I know, and I've done what they've done before, and typically you don't go in and say all or nothing. But it's asked and answered.

Let me be clear, if anything, if I would be given just the grace of that, our communication, my communication to you and your colleagues has never been that. And I would ask you to take into account the way in which, this is not drawing a line. We are not fighting you. I am told that this has had many hours with architects, consultants, design, that that is not something from the microphone, that after years of design and planning, that they can commit to. And I don't have the ability to commit to you. Then other things, I mean, I've removed the language of a hotel.

I think we're known for being quality hotel. And I just would say, Councilman, this is not meant to be in disrespect. It's not meant to be adversarial. It's a design element that simply we believe does not work.

Phil BacerraItem 3

Okay, well then let me ask real quickly just a couple more questions. And so we'll get off the facade there for a second. Are you able to amend the cross section along Bear when it comes to the class four bike path to reflect what it looks like along Sunflower.

Yeah, so I think that is part of a discussion we can have. I was told that it was inconsistent with the city's bike plan. And I don't know if that's...

The city's mobility element shows a bike path and our acting public works director can get into more details coming down Bear Street to the property line for this project, and then from the property line south to Sunflower, there's actually no bike path shown on there, leaving it up to the sort of implementing projects to design. So if Acting Director Rosas has any more detail to add.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 3

Thank you, Rudy, for coming in.

Good evening, Mayor, Council. That is correct, Ali frames that just right. I would say from my perspective, there are some details to work out with council members' requests, but just looking at the cross-section, there's no sort of fatal flaw into that. So if the applicant is willing to entertain that change, that's something we can work out in the specific approval of the street improvement plans.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 3

So that can be worked out at a later date? Correct. Thank you.

Phil BacerraItem 3

So Justin, is that acceptable?

Valerie AmezcuaItem 3

It is acceptable.

Phil BacerraItem 3

Okay, and then we already talked about the loading zones. As far as the two traffic signals. Yes. Are you okay with installing those in 18 months?

So generally, yes. The only thing is we don't foresee with the work that would come ahead being able to put a shovel in the ground for two years. And we do think there might be some level of a concern about changing bare street, putting in lights and traffic. At that point, it could be half a year prior to even commencing construction. construction. The Planning Commission hearing I did talk about saying it's about two years from approval to put a shovel in the ground, not taking into consideration potential impacts within the economy. So I would love to say, yes, we can do it, but I would offer, Councilmember,

if you think, as I committed, which was the request of the Planning Commission, that in phase one, that would be dedicated and confirmed as part of phase one.

Phil BacerraItem 3

So how about 24 months?

Phil BacerraItem 3

All right, perfect. All right, so I'll go ahead, thank you. Can we close the hearing and I'll make a motion?

Valerie AmezcuaItem 3

No, because now you've opened up more questions.

Jessie LopezItem 3

Council Member Lopez. Yes, thank you.

Jessie LopezItem 3

And this is again why I asked for us to move away from the ad hoc model because to me, some of these issues should have already been finalized and I don't understand the purpose of trying to redesign. In fact, I feel uncomfortable trying to do that from the dais. And so I do wanna thank Councilman Pernalosa for supporting my request. And Justin, I just wanted to circle back and thank you for offering to strike the language from what is before us today. And I recognize that you and your team don't have to offer that up. So that's why I wanna thank you because I really do appreciate partnership and I value honesty.

Jessie LopezItem 3

and you are, what I'm seeing is that you are putting into practice what you said earlier, right? Not putting this council in a difficult position. And I just wanna thank you and your team for doing that here. So those are gonna be my final comments and I'm ready to make a motion.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 3

Okay, thank you. So, Justin, thank you so much for answering all the questions and Mr. City Manager, I'm actually a Madam City Attorney as far as the ad hoc, I have no problem not having ad hocs when it comes to, because it's a lot of work to set up meetings and then it will need to come here before the council because unless we're gonna call special meetings and sometimes council members cannot make special meetings. So I have no problem having just council meeting the entire council. So we could talk about that. I'm all for that. So I support that 100%. All right.

Sonia R. CarvalhoItem 3

And just tell me as under the Brown Act, you can appoint an ad hoc at any time. Correct. Under the Brown Act. And one of the things we could talk about is you know, maybe it's the consistent reporting back to the council for the transparency, right? That I think maybe what I'm hearing some of the council members say that it happens and it just shows up one night and they didn't have an opportunity to know what was being discussed or what's going on.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 3

And that information can come from the city manager's office. It doesn't necessarily need to come from us. It can come from the city manager's office. So thank you, I appreciate that. So at this time, I'm gonna close the public hearing. There's no other comments. There's no further discussion. Councilman Becerra made a motion. I second the motion. Let's do a roll call.

Phil BacerraItem 3

I haven't made the motion yet.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 3

Oh Jesus, again.

Phil BacerraItem 3

Yeah, I'm sorry. Let's keep it accurate. All right, so I will go ahead and let's see. All right, so I'll make the motion to adopt the resolution for the final supplemental EIR and the environmental findings of facts and a statement of overriding considerations for the project, adopting the mitigation, monitoring, and reporting program for the project, and approving the project, adopting the vesting tentative track map, adopting the resolution overruling the Orange County Airport Land Use Commission's determination, conduct a first reading, and adopt an ordinance approving Amendment Application 2025-01,

Phil BacerraItem 3

and approving the zone change for the project site from Specific Development Number 48 to specific plan number six with the following conditions. First, amend table 4-1 for hotel to go from permitted to requiring a conditional use permit. Second, amend figure 3-8B, the Bear Street proposed cross section to reflect the same configuration of sidewalk, landscape, class four bike lane, and landscape buffer between the class four bike lane and vehicular traffic lane as shown on figure 3-6B, Sunflower Avenue proposed cross section with the potential reduction of the adjacent vehicular traffic lane along

Phil BacerraItem 3

Bear Street from 15 feet to 11 feet. Amend figure 3-16 conceptual bike bicycle network to indicate a class 4 bike path along Bear Street. Next, amend figure 3-13 the proposed loading zones to indicate no commercial loading zones along Bear Street, Sunflower Avenue and Plaza Drive. And finally, the two traffic signals planned for Bear Street indicated in figure 3-5 will be be installed within 24 months from the effective date of this ordinance. And finally, conduct a first reading and adopt an un-codified ordinance approving development agreement 2025-01. I'll second your motion.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 3

I second your motion earlier, but just to clarify, Ollie, we talked about the street lights. It was 24 months?

Correct.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 3

Okay, so I had already seconded his motion. So let's prepare to do a roll call, Madam Clerk.

Jennifer L. HallItem 3

Motion by Council Member Becerra, seconded by Mayor Meskwa. to approve, bear with me please.

Jessie LopezItem 3

You know, Councilmember, before we take the vote, given that we discussed that the applicant was willing to strike the language, would you accept an amendment to strike it completely?

Phil BacerraItem 3

So you want no hotel?

Jessie LopezItem 3

I'm saying. No, we can come back.

Phil BacerraItem 3

But that's what I said. So we've modified it from permitted to conditional use permit, which means if they decide to go for a hotel, they would go through the process, which would be Planning Commission and City Council.

Jessie LopezItem 3

They would have to come in. Right. Yeah, I'm just saying the easiest thing would be since they offer to strike it completely.

Phil BacerraItem 3

So you'd rather just clip their wings and say no hotel. I'm saying if they want to have one, they can go through the public process. It gives them the option.

Jessie LopezItem 3

Yeah, and I'm saying. If you don't want a hotel, vote no. Do you mind not interrupting me while I'm trying to offer a friendly amendment?

Valerie AmezcuaItem 3

Let her finish, please.

Jessie LopezItem 3

Thank you, I appreciate it. I'm saying that given the public discussion that just happened and the fact that they just said, listen, we don't need to have this language in here. I understand the CUP process. I understand that if you keep it, they can come back and go through the planning commission. I'm saying since the applicant has already stated that they don't need to have the language included in our motion tonight, would you be open, would the rest of the council members be open to not having it?

Phil BacerraItem 3

I'm not open to it. in fact, from hearing from the community, including the folks from Unite here, what they want is transparency and they want an open process, which is by giving it a CUP for the hotel that would allow that process. I don't understand why there would be a desire to clip the applicant's wings by saying no hotel when we can say if they want to do it, they would return at a separate time and apply and go through the Planning Commission and City Council.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 3

Okay, so let's prepare to vote. Oh, Madam City Clerk, can you conduct the roll call please?

Jennifer L. HallItem 3

Yes, this is a motion by Council Member Becerra, seconded by Mayor Meskwa, to approve a resolution of the City Council of the City of Santa Ana, certifying the final supplemental environmental impact report for the Village Santa Ana specific plan project, adopting environmental findings of fact in the statement of overriding considerations for the project pursuant to CEQA, and adopting the mitigation monitoring and reporting program. Adopting a resolution to the City Council of the City of Santa Ana, approving vested tentative track map number 2025-06

Jennifer L. HallItem 3

as conditioned for the Village Santa Ana specific plan project generally located at 1561 West Sunflower Avenue. Adopting a resolution of the City Council of the City of Santa Ana overruling the Orange County Airport Land Use Commission's determination that the Village Santa Ana specific plan project generally located at 1561 West Sunflower Avenue is inconsistent with the airport environment's land use plan for John Wayne Airport, including supportive findings. Introduced for first reading an ordinance of the City Council of the City of Santa Ana approving amendment application number 2025-01

Jennifer L. HallItem 3

to establish the Village Santa Ana specific plan and to approve a zone change for the project site generally located at 1561 West Sunflower Avenue from specific development number 48 to the Village Santa Ana specific plan SP6 as amended per statements by Council Member Becerra for sections 4.1, Hotel Uses Requiring a CUP, Figure 38B related to sidewalks, landscaping, bike paths on Bear Street, figure 316 related to the bike paths on Bear Street, figure 313 relating to loading zones, and two traffic signals on Bear to be installed within 24 months of the effective date of the ordinance, and conduct first reading of an ordinance

Jennifer L. HallItem 3

of the City Council of the City of Santa Ana approving development agreement number 2025-01 for the Village Santa Ana specific plan project, generally located at 1561 West Sunflower Avenue between the City of Santa Ana and South Coast Plaza at California General Partnership. Council Member Becerra. Yes.

Jennifer L. HallItem 3

Council member Hernandez. Yes. Council member Lopez. Yes. Council member Penalosa.

Yes.

Jennifer L. HallItem 3

Council member Phan. Yes. Mayor Pro Tem Vasquez. Yes. Mayor Meskwa. Yes. So the seven ayes, no nays, motion carries. Ordinances will return at the next meeting for a second reading.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 3

All right, at this time, we're going to take a 10 minute break and then we're going to come back and go through the consent calendar. Thank you.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 3

Recording stopped.

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Jennifer L. HallItem 3

You can go ahead, Mayor.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 3

Thank you, we're about to go to the consent calendar at this time. Items four through 26, removing item seven, we've already covered that. Council members, please announce any items that you will be abstaining from due to conflict and if there are any requests to pull an item consent calendar for further discussion. Mayor Pro Tem.

Benjamin VazquezItem 3

Items eight and nine.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 3

Eight, nine, thank you. Council Member Lopez.

Jessie LopezItem 3

I am going to be abstaining from item 12, I believe. And. 12 for sure? Yes, 12 if I'm not mistaken, that's the Mills Act item. Thank you. And that's it. Abstaining from item 12. No, not, yes, abstaining, thank you. So if the item is pulled, I'll leave the dais, but I'm gonna abstain because I work for the Office of Supervisor of Southern New York.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 3

Correct, okay. Okay, Council Member Phan.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 3

I'm sorry, you wanna recuse yourself from the whole thing and go home? I'll join you. We should all go home now, it's about 10.30 almost, so we only have 30 minutes to do this. All right, nothing? No abstentions. Wow, we're gonna document that one. Council Member, I'm sorry, Council Member Panellosa.

David PenalozaItem 3

Thank you, Mayor. I'm gonna announce my abstention from item 15 due to campaign contributions from Metro or one of the towing companies, which is Metro, I forget the actual name.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 3

Okay, I'm gonna pull that item, so when I do, you can abstain from that.

David PenalozaItem 3

Okay, how do I, Madam Clerk, do you put me in the waiting room? Can I just mute myself? How does that work?

Sonia R. CarvalhoItem 3

You can listen, but you can't influence through your facial expressions anyway, so I would just stay on board and don't comment or talk.

David PenalozaItem 3

Perfect, thank you.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 3

Okay, Council Member Becerra.

David PenalozaItem 3

Item nine.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 3

Alrighty, I'll make a motion for the remaining items. I'm pulling item 15, I apologize.

Phil BacerraItem 3

Second your motion.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 3

Mr. Predator, roll call, Madam Clerk.

Jennifer L. HallItem 3

Motion by Mayor Mesquita, seconded by Council Member Becerra to approve the consent calendar items number four through 26 with the exception of item number seven already approved and items eight, nine and 15 pulled for separate discussion and consideration. Council member Becerra.

Phil BacerraItem 3

Yes.

Jennifer L. HallItem 3

Council member Lopez. Yes. Council member Penalosa.

David PenalozaItem 3

Yes.

Jennifer L. HallItem 3

Council member Phan. Yes. Mayor Pro Tem Vasquez. Yes. Mayor Meskwa. Yes. Six ayes, no nays with a current absence by Council Member Hernandez and a reported recusal on item number 12 by Council Member Lopez. Motion carries.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 3

Great, thank you. Okay, go ahead Madam Clerk.

Jennifer L. HallItem 3

First item pulled is item number eight by Council Member Mayor Pro Tem Vasquez.

Benjamin VazquezItem 3

We have the staff report on that. Do you have a report on it or report out why we canceled or sent back the funds?

Mr. Towns?

Alvaro NuñezItem 3

Just correction, MPT, you mean in addition to the staff report you want to?

Oh, it's in the chart.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 3

He would like a presentation, Mr. City Manager.

Alvaro NuñezItem 3

Okay, we can do that.

Alvaro NuñezItem 8

Assistant City Manager Cat Downs will Thank you. make a presentation.

All right, whenever you're ready. Thank you, good evening, Mayor and Council Members. members. So this particular agenda item is an informational report with a recommendation to receive and file. The city applied for state funding for an after school child care program and the state issued a report.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 8

I'm sorry, can I hold on one second? We're having problems with our mic, please.

Jennifer L. HallItem 8

Yeah, we're checking on it right now.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 8

Thank you. You want to hold on one second? Sure. and they'll give us the okay.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 8

It's because the chief said he next to you. No, I'm just kidding.

Good, okay. So the city applied for state funding for an afterschool childcare program and the state issued a proposed award. The proposed program was to provide service for 515 children at seven city locations. The state would reimburse the city for program spending compliant with CDSS terms and conditions. Now that's an 81 page document that lists compliance requirements.

This is a quick overview of the timeline from application submittal to proposed award May 2023. 23 the city received a local agreement from cd cdss for startup funding dated july 1st 2024. on november 19th of last year the city council's consent calendar included a recommendation to accept the first year of funding between that time in april we learned much more about the program program requirements. To comply with the local agreement, the city would have needed to stand up the program

and operate it for 12 days during fiscal year 24-25. Based on the identified concerns, city management did not believe it was feasible to do so by the May 12th deadline. And therefore we issued a relinquishment letter to CDSS on May 2nd.

So the concerns were discovered by reading the CDSS terms and conditions and having discussions with staff and during a site visit to the City of Le Havre which operates a CDSS funded program. These concerns included compliance with a series of federal regulations as well as California Title V and Title 22 regulations addressing educational requirements and health and safety issues. Although staff had discussions with Santa Ana Unified School District regarding food distribution, the city had no written guarantee of SAUSD performance.

The city's original application proposed a staff to child ratio of 1 to 10, requiring 52 qualified employees for a 515 child program. program. The actual program requirement would necessitate at least 37 employees based on those CDSS terms and conditions. The City of Le Havre has a separate department for their program. Considering the staffing numbers, it seems that's something we would have had to look at for Santa Ana as well. We would need medical training for staff and teaching There are specific insurance requirements and numerous policy documents necessary to

operate the program and protect the children's safety. There are very specific requirements for enrollment, attendance tracking and other administrative activities. We understand that it would be difficult to comply and pass audit without a specialized computer system. system. Most all of the city's computer systems take many months, if not years, to implement. We also understand the state audits come with a high level of scrutiny. Because we do not have the institutional knowledge to comply with the CDSS terms and conditions, we would

be placing a significant amount of trust in a new site director to guide the city through through implementation of a highly regulated program. We understand that if CDSS cut funding and we have contracts with families to provide service, the city would potentially need to honor those agreements without that CDSS funding. We discovered that most all of the awardees are organizations with existing resources and facilities to comply with CDSS terms and conditions. Very few awardees are cities and the City of Le Havre developed their program over the course of 30 years.

We also didn't have a fiscal analysis factoring in all those compliance requirements so we don't really know if that initial $915,000 award would be sufficient. Nor did we know whether the ongoing funding would cover the city's cost to operate the program. Upon learning that we were planning to stand up a program in several months, La Habra management highly recommended that we immediately hire an attorney and a consultant to help us navigate the complex compliance requirements. These concerns led city management to its decision to relinquish the award. That concludes our presentation and I'm ready to answer questions.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 8

Thank you. I'd ask the city council if you have any questions to please raise your mic. Councilmember Panellosa are you online?

David PenalozaItem 8

I am here.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 8

Okay. So if you'd like to ask any questions I can start with you or would you like me to come back?

David PenalozaItem 8

I'm okay right now. Thank you.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 8

Okay. Thank you. Mayor Pro Tem.

Benjamin VazquezItem 8

I was really disappointed that we gave this money back and I would rather wish that it came back to the council so we could send it back and have this discussion.

Benjamin VazquezItem 8

I felt that this could have been an investment in our centers for us to build out. Usually you don't have enough money to sustain the grant, you'll get it to build out. And this was a, I felt this would be more an investment in infrastructure to meet Title V and meet Title 22. And then we would get other grants in the future. But was it a time thing that we were, it was, were we caught up? on the 24, 25 year or why did we not go forward? Is it a time thing or was it just, we felt was too much work or?

It was actually a combination of multiple factors. So the primary factor was all of the complex compliance requirements that we just were not prepared to tackle. This was beyond our scope of institutional knowledge. That was the primary reason. The timing was a secondary reason, but also very much part of the decision.

Benjamin VazquezItem 8

But there was money to build out infrastructure here and to create?

I'm sorry. The initial first year award was $915,000, and that was to get the program up and running. And, you know, with some of the compliance issues, such as providing bathrooms, different bathrooms for adults and children, you know, with different sized fixtures and everything, considering the costs of most of our construction projects at our community centers, I just don't see how that initial award of $915,000 would have been sufficient for the capital facilities and equipment.

that we needed to start up the program and be operating for 12 days during that initial time

Benjamin VazquezItem 8

period. Thank you. So you kind of eyeballed it because we didn't know if that was going to be enough. We didn't. There was no study, but you kind of eyeballed it. You've been in this work

Valerie AmezcuaItem 8

for a while. I appreciate it. Thank you. That's all I have. So thank you, Kat, for the presentations. I'm sorry, Assistant Madoff-Downs. Thank you for the presentation. I really appreciate it. And so So I have all these things that I, all this information that I've highlighted, but I just wanna ask a couple questions.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 8

Coming from the school district for eight years,

Valerie AmezcuaItem 8

I understand very clearly Title V, Title 22, Title 45. The guidelines are just crazy. So you use an example of like the bathrooms. So we would have to have one separate bathroom for children, one separate bathroom for gender, all gender, and then one for adults, correct? Yes ma'am, I believe so. And so, and I remember when this item came forward, I first got elected, and I just remember getting approved. We were super excited. So it was before our current