Remarks by Benjamin Vazquez
21 remarks on the record, newest first · Page 1 of 1
- Play at 1:40:00
“THANK YOU SO MUCH. WE HAVE THREE COUNCIL MEMBERS UP HERE BECAUSE WE WERE TRIPPING OVER EACH OTHER TO SAY WHO WOULD HONOR SEBILLE AND DO THE WORK AND TYVIA ALLOWED US TO JOIN HER. IT'S IN HER WARD SO I APPRECIATE HER. The work that we saw, we all saw Cebelle do. Tonight I'm honored to recognize Cebelle USA for its outstanding contributions to our community and its continued commitment to uplifting individuals and families throughout Orange County. Since founding in 2012, Cebelle USA has worked to create a community of support for immigrants, refugees and other underserved populations by…”
City Council · Sep 15, 2026
- Play at 3:06:45
“Thank you. And, you know, many times often I said my dad raised his family as a laborer, as a union member. Four kids now, a few grandchildren are in the teacher union. which I represent, I'm the Vice President of the Santa Ana Educators Association. That being said, I'm also a victim, I was a victim of wage theft in my junior year. I went to a construction site and was hired to do work under the table, cash, never paid for months of work. So this is real and how people are affected and their time and their dignity is taken from them. So we wanna make sure that we do right by the workers here…”
City Council · Sep 15, 2026
- Play at 3:25:00
“Any, Council Member Vasquez, is that, you wanna speak? Yes, please, I'm supportive of this item. When we get our new updates, we don't know how long we're gonna speak to it or push it forward, and there's a problem of anything getting passed, and we can extend it, like the city attorney said, to 115 days, so this is just a precautionary, that it is precautionary, it's a moratorium, so I'm gonna say I'm with it. Mayor Pro Tem.”
City Council · Sep 15, 2026
- Play at 3:31:59
“Sorry, I should have asked when you were up here.”
City Council · Sep 15, 2026
- Play at 3:42:19
“Thank you so much. I want to end this meeting by dedicating it to Scott Sink. I'm deeply saddened by the loss of my friend Scott Sink, who passed peacefully with his friends and family by his side on August 15th. Scott is a long time high school teacher and community organizer. He was also a creative, releasing work under the name Scott Celtic Knot. Scott lived with both an extraordinary curiosity about the world and an equally extraordinary commitment to making it better. He was a tireless advocate for justice, the arts, and the environment. He encouraged people to think more critically,…”
City Council · Sep 15, 2026
- Play at 3:02:05
“Yes, thank you. 20 and 30, and I'm on no on 27.”
City Council · Aug 4, 2026
- Play at 3:07:33
“Thank you. I'd like to ask the Council if they could very much help me out with this. We have four vendors on here, and one's from Costa Mesa. But there was five vendors, the fifth one who raided in the 90s as well, so an A. 7th Street Garage Inc. is actually in Ward 2. And it's part of our economy and part of the supports our families in Ward 2. They're one mile from the BD. They're on the 800th block of Walnut Street. So I'm gonna motion to add 7th Street Garage Inc. onto this list of five, that is a Santa Ana vendor, and it is a family-run business, and especially, if you can help me out,…”
City Council · Aug 4, 2026
- Play at 3:19:28
“I'm gonna second Councilmember Hernandez and I am worried with surveillance. There are capturing images regardless of what department is holding that information. The federal government has ways and we've seen it across and we've seen studies not only in California but across the country of people being tracked down by camera use and its data. I don't believe right now is the right time. Our residents are not trusting of these cameras. Our families are not trusting. This is the ICE, STREETS AND STILL COMING OUT AND THEY ARE GETTING MORE INTO MORE DATA AND JUST USING THAT DATA TO PINPOINT…”
City Council · Aug 4, 2026
- Play at 3:48:20
“THANK YOU SO MUCH. WHEN THIS PROJECT FIRST CAME OUT, I DID GO TO THE FIRST SUNSHINE ORDINANCE MEETINGS AND THERE WAS A PROMISE TO HAVE AMPLE PARKING IN THIS AREA AND I WAS WORRIED FOR SANDPOINT PARK AS I VISIT SANDPOINT PARK EVERY SUNDAY. and I visit my mom and we see Watermark and other buildings over there come and park two streets over from Main Street and take up all the parking and now we see that there's much less parking than at first promised and I asked many questions and they tied the pole and threw glitter on it and promised us skilled labor as well through these conversations that…”
City Council · Aug 4, 2026
- Play at 4:05:55
“I would love to, but I nominate Councilmember Hernandez.”
City Council · Aug 4, 2026
- Play at 4:11:32
“Okay, then I'm gonna go along with it and I'm gonna do it in honor of my historic commissioner, Janelle Hardy. Happy birthday, Janelle, this one's for you.”
City Council · Aug 4, 2026
- Play at 4:29:49
“Thank you, so summer's over and teachers go back to work tomorrow. The kids come in on Monday. I want to thank all our classified staff, as they do every year. They take care of our classrooms and our facilities and they look amazing. As we walk through Valley High School especially, which I love so much, I will not be returning to Valley. I am now gonna be the vice president of the Santa Ana Educators Association full-time release. Thank you.”
City Council · Aug 4, 2026
- Play at 4:30:27
“And we're there to protect the teachers and make it a better place for Santa Ana Unified School District to work at. We hope to make it a district of choice for teachers, for classified, for anybody who works for the district as we support everybody around. And welcome back to the teachers and to the students. We'll see you on Monday when you come back to school. Thank you.”
City Council · Aug 4, 2026
- Play at 5:01:49
“Thank you so much. And I want to thank the chief for the work that you put in and the police department. And we've brought down crime in Santa Ana. This is all true. But what I would want to see is the evaluation of each piece of equipment through the police oversight and see which ones we want to bring back and which ones we want to not use anymore. You want to evaluate the use of the public safety with each one. Some of these, I'm not going to paint a broad brush on it, but I would want us to see through the police oversight, evaluate each piece of equipment we have and how we can make…”
City Council · Jul 21, 2026
- Play at 5:50:30
“Council Member Vasquez. Thank you, I'll be brief. Thank you, staff, city manager for bringing this forward. Thank you for all the work to our council and mayor and I'm gonna be in agreement with you. I support this item. I have visited Yale Center multiple times and they had given us promises, good neighbor policy. The first time we went, it was a hot mess. I went back and it was cleaned up on the outside and I asked the staff what happened. The city took care of it. We cleaned up the good. We were the good neighbors. So that's why I'm in support of bringing this to Santa Ana. Thank you very…”
City Council · Jul 21, 2026
- Play at 5:54:38
“Wow, I'm gonna brag about a resource fair me and my staff are organizing, but I wanna thank all the council members for bringing the resource fair and having an event, Black and Brown Unity. Everybody's been organizing, including the council member, Jessie Lopez, who's having one at Santa Ana High School. I'm having it at Jerome Park, June 23rd at six o'clock. We're gonna have the Santa Ana Teachers Association are gonna be giving backpacks, United Across Borders food boxes and clothes, Suavecitos are gonna have free haircuts, we're gonna have immigrant defenders, Cal Optima, Santa Ana…”
City Council · Jul 21, 2026
- Play at 3:04:39
“I don't think there's an issue with having this person sit. It's just that he's a candidate now. That we have a planning commissioner who has served over years But years, they were doing this for the love of the city, for the work, for putting in time. And many times over, we do get people running for office from our commissioners. They do get trained in how to be at a meeting. And this happens. But using this seat... To push yourself forward in a campaign, I just find a very little, no integrity in that. Just using this position for your own benefit, not for serving the people of Santa Ana.…”
City Council · Jul 7, 2026
- Play at 3:33:24
“Thank you, I as well would like to support this item and taking it to the voters of Santa Ana. We have seen how we run the city in the last two years. We've had less money, I believe we've done more. And we've reduced the houseless population. The graffiti is cleaned off the next day. I asked my students, what's wrong with Santa Ana? They're like, there's potholes everywhere, I'm aware. Tell me, and I'll use the app and it'll be gone tomorrow. Just tell me where, and that's part of what Measure X gets us. And you see vacant lots that are clean, that are taken care of, that are used. We get…”
City Council · Jul 7, 2026
- Play at 4:12:30
“Thank you, Mayor. And I come from a household of six and we feel the hurt. We feel the pain and paying those electricity prices is really high. So I'm going to be in support of this item. Thank you.”
City Council · Jul 7, 2026
- Play at 4:19:53
“Thank you, Mayor. I want to thank the Mexican national team for bringing unity and joy to the people of Santa Ana. It was a beautiful run for the team. And I and all of Sanana, we were here for it. You know, we got together. We celebrated in downtown, and we united with our Korean friends, our Arab friends, our Vietnamese friends, our Hawaii friends, and they were all loving it and wearing green and supporting the three. I celebrated every go with you all. And this was a huge contrast from last year. We're being chased in the streets and being down in the streets of Santa Ana when we were…”
City Council · Jul 7, 2026
- Play at 4:27:48
“If you see Councilmember Phan on the dance floor in downtown Santa Ana, quiero volar. Quiero volar.”
City Council · Jul 7, 2026