City Council - Regular Meeting

you So, I'm sorry. I'm sorry. you Thank you.

Mayor, you're good to go. Thank you so 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 connect roll call.

Council Member Becerra.

Here.

Council Member Hernandez. Council Member Lopez. Council Member Phan. Here. Council Member Vasquez.

Present.

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

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

Okay.

Sorry.

Madam Clerk, do we have any speakers for closed session? Mayor and City Council, we do not have any in-person or Zoom speakers related to closed session, but noting for the record, we did receive two e-comments regarding closed session item number three. Those were distributed to the City Council and posted online.

Perfect, thank you. At this time, we'll recess into closed session and consider the items on the agenda.

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Mayor, you're live online. Thank you very much. Let's start the meeting. I hereby reconvene the Santa Ana City Council meeting to order.

Madam Clerk, please conduct roll call. Yes, 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. This is a meeting to conduct the business of the city. There's an opportunity to call for a recess or break or even to clear the meeting room if a meeting becomes too disruptive to properly conduct business. Warnings will be provided prior to any actions being taken. We appreciate your cooperation. For everyone's safety, per the fire marshal, please do not stand or place objects in the aisles, in front of the dais, along the back wall of the council chamber, or in front of any entrances or exits. During city council presentations, guests of individuals being recognized are invited to come to the front to take photos. For roll call, Council Member Becerra?

Here.

Council Member Hernandez? Here. See you here. Council Member Lopez? Here. Council Member Phan? Here. Council Member Vasquez?

Present.

Mayor Pro Tempagnoloza?

Present.

Mayor Mezcua? Present. That is all seven members present. Thank you. Madam Clerk, before we proceed with the Pledge of Allegiance, please make your announcement. For members of the public on Zoom or teleconference to request to speak during public comments on agenda or non-agenda items within the city's jurisdiction, you must dial star 9 from your phone or click the button labeled Raise Hand in Zoom now in order to be in the speaker queue once public comments commence. This does not apply to public hearing item number 22, for which comments will be heard separately during that specific public hearing. Please hold any comments on that item until specifically called upon. Thank you.

Thank you very much, Madam Clerk. The first item on the agenda is the Pledge of Allegiance. Mayor Pro Tem Penalosa, please lead us in the pledge.

I'd be honored to, Mayor. If you could all please join me in rising and facing our flag, putting your right hand over your heart, and follow along. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.

Thank you very much, Mr. Proton. At this time, the words of inspiration will be provided by our police chaplain. Thank you, sir.

Yes. As you know, I usually have a little tiny prayer at the very end, but I always listen every single day to the people I'm around, and I came across a middle schooler that asked me a question today, and I thought I'd bring the answer I gave them. They wanted to know the difference between a peacekeeper and a peacemaker. And they wanted to know what I did. And I said, my goal in life really is to be a peacemaker. I said, but they have very important roles. I said, peacekeepers are those that work in the outside world. They work in our community. They're dealing with all the crisis things that are happening in the outside. I said, but a peacemaker, they deal with all the crisis that's going on in the inside. And I said, what's so unique when I read the scriptures, it says, blessed are the peacemakers. I said, well, why is it different? I said, because not everybody's called to be a peacekeeper. But every one of us is called to be a peacemaker. We get the privilege every single day of being around people. And believe it or not, every one of us is needed in all of our unique gifts and talents, and especially the opportunities. That's why the gathering tonight is so important. We get to always be peacemakers and lead people to agreement and bring about calm and that sense of peace. Simple prayer of blessing on tonight's meeting. Lord, I thank you for the people gathered here. I thank you for our public leaders. I thank you for our first responders, our police department, our fire authority, Lord God. I'm thankful, Lord, for all that you use. Bless everyone here. Bless our community. Please bring health and safety in the name of the Lord. Amen.

Amen. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you very much, Klusen. Thank you. Madam Clerk, are there any additions or deletions to the City Council agenda? There are none. All right, the first presentation is mine. Proclamation being presented to Yoma Karate Do Academies for 35 years. Come on up, all of you. Hi, guys. Come on in. Come here. Come here. Come in the front. You're shorter. Come in the front. Smaller. Come in the front.

Come in the front.

Come on.

Come on in the front.

Okay, you can't block it, you know. I'm so honored to do this. Good evening everyone. Today we are proud to recognize Tayoma Karadido Martial Arts Academy for 35 years of outstanding service to our community. Thank you so very much, yes. We also want to recognize the amazing leadership behind this success. I'm going to probably say this right. Shahan. Shahan? Shihan. I got it. Shihan. Rudolfo Casales and his son. Renzi? Renshi, Jerry Casales for their dedication and commitment to mentoring the next generation. And we can see that generation is up here. It's a beautiful sign. Since its founding on March 16, 1991, the Academy has made a lasting impact on thousands of families. And I've known them for a very long time, and I can honestly say thousands of families and young people. More than 35,650 youth have benefited from its programs, including studio training, after-school programs, and bulletproof workshops. We'll talk about bulletproof workshops. Bully. It shouldn't be bullet, it should be bully. I was gonna say, chief, is there something we don't know? Bully-proof workshops. Tayoma Karate Do has been recognized among the top 100 martial arts schools in the nation, an impressive achievement that reflects its excellence and dedication. The academy's mission goes beyond martial arts, focusing on discipline, focus, and strong character, helping students become champions, not only on the mat, but in life. With 57 black belt graduations and over 450 black belts earned, the Academy has built a legacy of perseverance and achievement. Its alumni continues to make us proud, serving as doctors, lawyers, police officers, architects, teachers, and community leaders. On behalf of the city of Santa Ana, we want to thank Teoma Caradito for 35 years of empowering youth and strengthening our community. Congratulations on this incredible milestone. And I just have to say from my personal experience with all of you, thank you so very much for everything that you do for the community. I've been to so many events and I just see the growth and I've seen some of the kids, because I started doing this when I was 12, so I've seen some of them now graduate and become those teachers, those architects, those police officers, those engineers, and really give back to the community. So they have touched many lives. I know there's a number I read to you right now, but there's so many more lives that they've touched because they may be working with their children, but they're also touching their families and their siblings. And so with that, I am honored to give this proclamation from the city of Santa Ana, signed by myself and all the council members, to thank you from the bottom of my heart for 35 years of service to our community so thank you all and would you like to come up and say something somebody i'm going i'm going to present this to you it's on city of san anna it's a proclamation and this is from all of us signed by myself and the city council for your your commitment, your service to our community and our youth and our families, and you've made such a difference in people's lives. You've had students that could have gone the wrong way, they could have gone to Juvenile Hall, they could have gone somewhere else, but instead, you with your family, your whole family, your wife, your children, your grandchildren, you've steered them in the right way, and that's so beautiful, and it means so much to me personally, because as you know, I worked with kids when I was younger in juvenile hall, and they could have used this, and they could have been part of your program, and it would have transformed their lives, and so thank you for everything that you all have done for our community and for our families, and thank you for the many children that you work with, and that you developed to be our next community leaders, and for that, I want to present you with this.

Thank you so much.

Okay, thank you. It's important to say we have, in 35 years, 57 Black Belt generation. Almost like over there, 400 or 500 Black Belt students. Okay, I want to say thank you. Thank you, the mayor, city of Santa Ana, okay, for your connection. Thank you for our members. Thank you, my students, families, and everybody.

Five minutes, just three.

My name is Sensei Jerry. I'm actually the instructor for the organization and this is my father who started this organization back in 1991 in a garage over on French Street where Davis is now across the street from those apartments. For the last 35 years, we've grown in martial arts. We've provided when it comes to not just bully proofing but character development of martial arts. Kicks and punches, you can learn that on YouTube nowadays. What we do at our academy is we train students to be prepared for life, whether they decide to get into another career, or whether they decide to come back and nurture some of the martial artists that are developing. We are good at, that's why we're top 100 in the nation, we are good at martial arts, we've got some great competitors here, but we wanna say thank you to the mayor, Ms. Belarresco, the board members, and everyone here at the cabinet for allowing us to be part of this community. For years they've been asking us, why do you guys still stay in Santa Ana? Why don't you guys go? But this is where our heart is, we are born and raised here, we are kids from this community. So we are glad that we are able to share this with our students. Like I tell them, you guys are the young ones. We got a lot of instructors that we're still teaching today that we told them to go teach because we got to go there. But this organization and this program would not be possible if it wasn't a tripod. So he's really the boss that says what we teach. I just tell everybody where to go. But there's also a mastermind behind this whole piece and his biggest support, which is my mother, Araceli. We don't function without the three of us together. On behalf of Tuyama, we want to say thank you, and we share this not just with our students, but with you, because aside from being his wife, you're the mastermind behind everything that has happened in this organization. So thank you to everybody, and yeah, there's a new face of Tuyama. Also, and everybody who has been part of our organization, you guys know Profe. He loves, eats, breathes, and sleeps karate. That's kind of where he likes to be at. So thank you so much for this recognition. It's not just the award and the recognition, but to be able to go ahead and leave a legacy. 72 years old, a lot of people still don't believe that he kicks, punches, and breaks, and does all kinds of stuff, and he keeps us making sure that we do our best. So thank you very much to the city of Santa Ana, and we are committed to continuing making a difference in this community for many years to come. Oh, so we brought Jerry out here. I don't have a son here. He's one of my best students. Jerry is actually a 16-year-old. That's why we keep telling him he's the face. Great competitor, but just like him, we have a lot of other students. At some point, you know, Prophet was the role model. Then I became the role model. Now we got this guy. And that's what Toyama has done, develop new leaders as the years go by. And it's crazy because sometimes they like him to teach instead of me, and sometimes it goes vice versa. So it's an organization that is planning on staying here for many years to continue through our free services, through our donation services, through our charters, through our after school program, or even our academy. And like Ms. Valenzuela said, sometimes we have kids that come to our academy, not for martial arts, but just for a better way of life, or just to simply stay alive. So we understand this community, we belong in the community, and we want to continue to make a difference along with everybody else. So thank you very much for this recognition.

All right, guards up guys.

Please. Take care, sir. Don't worry.

All right, next presentation is Councilmember Taifian with Mayor Pro Tem David Penalosa, please. Can we have the way makers come up, please?

So I'll open it up. Well, thank you for being here today. Good evening, everyone. This month marks the 25th anniversary of National Sexual Assault Awareness Month, commonly known as SAM. And the city of Santa Ana is continuing its commitment to preventing sexual violence, to supporting survivors, and holding offenders accountable by presenting this proclamation to declare April 2026 as Sexual Assault Awareness Month. Sexual Assault Awareness Month is a pervasive issue that affects individuals of every age, gender, race, and background, leaving lasting impacts on survivors, families, and communities. Survivors of sexual assault deserve compassion, respect, and access to resources that support healing and justice. However, they often face fear, stigma, or misunderstanding. which can make it difficult for them to speak out or seek assistance. This is why raising public awareness matters. Raising awareness about sexual violence and educating communities on prevention, consent, and healthy relationships are essential to ending this form of abuse. Sexual Assault Awareness Month is about creating spaces where survivors feel safe, believed, and supported. It is also about educating ourselves and others on the importance of consent, respect, and healthy relationships, in addition to learning how to support a survivor, recognizing warning signs, or standing up against harmful behaviors. We encourage every member of our community to take meaningful action, whether that means learning how to support a friend or loved one or helping shift the culture in your home, school, workplace, and online community. Men, I'm looking at you. And as a man myself, I'm proud to stand with my colleague, Councilmember Phan, in recognizing April as Sexual Assault Awareness Month, because it takes all of us to bring awareness to this epidemic that is in all of our communities, work, homes, schools. So thank you for being here, and thank you, Councilmember Phan, for allowing me to be part of this recognition.

Declaring this month as Sexual Assault Awareness Month is not merely symbolic. It's a commitment to listen to the voices of survivors and to support community organizations such as Waymakers who are doing this important work. Through education and prevention programs, they work to reduce the risk of sexual violence and to build safer communities through workshops to equip individuals with the knowledge they need to protect themselves and others. Every minute in this country, someone experiences sexual assault. Every nine minutes, that victim is a child. The statistics are overwhelming and if you read the news recently, you'll know that perpetrators are almost always someone that the victim knows. They may be people who don't have name recognition or they may be people who are very famous. Waymakers, organizations such as Waymakers, provide vital support services to survivors, helping them navigate trauma, access resources, and regain a sense of safety and stability, including working with our very own Santa Ana Police Department. Waymakers' mission reminds us that no survivor or their family should have to face this journey alone. It is also crucial for us to take action as individuals. We can start by truly listening to survivors without judgment. We can educate ourselves about consent because yes means yes, and only an enthusiastic yes means yes. and we must speak up when we see harmful behavior. We can support organizations that provide resources and advocacy, and most importantly, we can work together to create a culture rooted in respect, empathy, and accountability. Council Member, excuse me, Mayor Pro Tempagnolosa and I, and I'm sure this entire council, encourage residents, community organizations, educators, and other local leaders to observe this month through education, action, and advocacy. Together, we can honor survivors and do our best to protect each other. We can build a future where every person feels safe, valued, and protected. And with that, we are proud to present this proclamation to Ms. Ronetta Johnson and the Waymakers Organization to declare April 2026 as Sexual Assault Awareness Month. Thank you.

Well, thank you so much to the council and to each of you for helping to support this. Waymakers has been providing services to sexual assault victims for 45 years. And we've been working in both the direct assistance after a crime has occurred, but also in prevention. So we're in the schools, we're in the community all the time helping people to understand how to support people who have been victimized, but more importantly, how to prevent victimization from happening in the first place. In our programs, we definitely are appreciative of the support of the Santa Ana Police Department. We work throughout Orange County and provide services to victims of all types of crime, but the sexual assault program is where I started with Waymakers. It's incredibly important work. So we really appreciate your recognition of Sexual Assault Awareness Month. My whole team would have been here, but they are actually doing sexual assault prevention work tonight. So we're just really pleased to be here and appreciate all that you are doing to recognize this. So thank you very much.

I was just gonna ask why your team's out doing this work. I hope that if they happen to drive by our water tower, it will be illuminated in teal to recognize Sexual Assault Awareness Month. Starting tonight, yeah.

Mayor Pro Tem, can you invite some of the commanders from the San Antonio Police Department that also work with the wave makers for a photo?

Thank you.

And while we wait for the city council to come down, just as a reminder, April 29th is Denim Day. April 29th is Denim Day and we encourage everyone to wear denim on April 29th and take a picture and post about it. And for those of you who don't know, Denim Day is a day to commemorate an awful Italian Supreme Court case which held that a victim of rape could not have been raped because she was wearing tight jeans and that she must have helped her perpetrator take them off. And so this Denim Day is to fight against the stigma and the victim blaming that occurs through our legal system, our justice system, and our culture.

One, two, three, smile.

Next presentation is by Councilmember Lopez to the Arab American Civic Council. Come on up please.

Yes, so before we start with the speaking points, I would like to call up a couple people. Helena O'Day, if folks are here, please feel free to come on up. Dina Chihara, Dr. Dean Helmy, Dr. Samar Aziz, Rashad Aldaba, Reema Nashashibi, Samar Elsagey, Dr. Suhail Tubia, Amir Mertaban, Mervet Jidda, Iman Halwani, and Raida Hamida, and Abdullah Zikria.

Thank you.

Thank you.

okay well this is a very um special record proclamation actually and it's really my honor to present this proclamation recognizing april 2026 as arab american heritage month I would like to acknowledge the members and leadership of the Arab American community that uplift and promote the Arab American community and beyond, including the Arab American Civic Council, CARE LA, the Islamic Shura Council of Southern California, Sabil USA, Global Hope 365, the Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee, the Arab American Caucus, ICNA Relief, and the Arab American Business Chamber. This year is particularly meaningful as this marks the first time that the city of Santa Ana is formally recognizing Arab American Heritage Month. This moment reflects both the growing visibility of the Arab American community and our city's ongoing commitment to honoring the full diversity of the people who call Santa Ana home. Santa Ana is one of the most diverse and vibrant cities in Orange County, and that diversity remains one of our greatest strengths. Our Arab American friends and neighbors are an essential part of this story, contributing meaningfully to the cultural richness of our city, small businesses community, and the civic life of our city. Just a short distance from here, Orange County is home to one of the largest Arab communities in California, including the well-known Little Arabia District in Anaheim. officially recognized by the city in Anaheim in August of 2022. Little Arabia stands as the first designated Arab cultural district in the United States. and serves as a thriving cultural and economic hub, home to generations of families, locally owned businesses, restaurants, and community institutions. And it reflects the enduring impact and visibility of the Arab American community in our region. Through civic engagement programs, leadership development, and community education, these organizations have helped thousands better understand and participate in our democratic process. These collective efforts include voter outreach campaigns that have reached tens of thousands of Arab American voters, helping ensure that voices across the community are heard. Papers are stuck. and represented. Together, these organizations have also played a critical role in promoting a positive and accurate depiction and understanding of Arab American history, identity, and fostering unity across diverse communities and building bridges across cultures. One of the most impactful contributions of the council has been their leadership in advancing recognition of Arab American Heritage Month at the state level and at the federal level. Because of efforts like theirs, communities across California and the nation now take time each April to celebrate the rich history, culture, and contributions of Arab Americans. This recognition is not only about celebration. It is about visibility. It is about inclusion and ensuring that all members of our community feel represented, valued, seen, and respected. In a city as diverse as Santa Ana, moments like this matter profoundly. Recognizing Arab American Heritage Month, especially for the first time in our city's history, affirms our commitment to inclusion, respect, and ensuring that every community sees itself reflected in the story of our city. It also reminds us of the importance of standing together against discrimination, against hate, against bigotry, and continuing to build understanding across cultures. On behalf of the city of Santa Ana, it is my privilege to present this proclamation recognizing April 2026 as Arab American Heritage Month. We thank the Arab American community for their leadership, their advocacy, their resilience, and their ongoing commitment to strengthening our communities. Now I would like to welcome Dina, Mervet, and Rashad up to the microphone to share a couple of words. Thank you.

That was really beautiful. Thank you. Good evening, everyone. My name is Dina. I am a civil rights attorney with the Council on American Islamic Relations. And it's been my honor and pleasure to not only represent so many Arab Americans who are fighting to have their civil rights protected, but also I'm Arab American myself. And it's a joy to be here today as an Arab American celebrating our heritage. So I grew up in Southern California. I'm now a mother raising my child in Southern California. And when I was in high school, I was one of maybe two or three Arab Americans graduating in a high school class of maybe 4,000. And I was one of two or three. And I never quite felt included or even seen. And I know that so many of us who are immigrants in this country, and especially my Arab American community, We've oftentimes felt pain and loneliness, being Arab American in a society that has oftentimes marginalized us, often as a fifth subversive column in society. has exotified us as the mystical and magical oriental people. And when we weren't being otherized and marginalized or exotified, we were often, unfortunately, being villainized as the dark-faced, turban-wearing terrorists that you see in Hollywood and in a lot of propaganda. And fortunately, a lot of it today from our own federal government. But the truth that we know as Arab Americans, that each one of us knows, and that I'm so honored to be here to celebrate today, is that we are truly a people of beauty and a people that deserve to be celebrated. We're a people, as Arab Americans, we are lovers of life. We're a people whose tradition is one of poetry and philosophy. We have been the preservers of centuries of knowledge that is only available to us today and to the Western world today because of Arab scholars in Baghdad, Iraq, because of scholars in El Andalus in Spain, because of scholars in Cairo and Alexandria in Egypt. We're a people whose existence has always been built upon a moral and ethical code that we live by every day, and we're a people whose generosity you're going to be hard-pressed to find almost anywhere in the world. And how wonderful it is that we today, like so many of America's beautiful immigrant communities, can be seen for our beauty and celebrated for who we are and what we bring to this country that we are all so proud to call our home. And I just want to end by saying something that I think is very poignant for the time that we are living to currently. And that is that the strength of this beautiful country, the United States of America, that I am proud to be a citizen of, is it's never been in the identity warfare that's being currently peddled by the most base and repugnant people in our society. The strength of this beautiful country has always been in the way that we celebrate and honor one another's diversity. And I'm so grateful to the Santa Ana City Council for celebrating and honoring us. And I promise that we, in return, will always work to honor and celebrate each of you and your communities because we are all, all of us, so worthy of respect and of this beautiful, good, and decent sisterhood and brotherhood that uplifts us and does not subjugate any of us and that nurtures us and refuses for any member of our society to be destroyed. Thank you.

Happy Arab American Heritage Month, everyone. Thank you, Councilwoman Lopez, for this proclamation. My name's Rashad Aldebar. I'm the executive director of the Arab American Civic Council. And this month, I want to encourage folks to do a couple of things. One, learn about your Arab American neighbors. Learn about your Arab American culture, history. Talk to your Arab American neighbors. Visit Little Arabia so you can gain an understanding of who we really are and the beautiful culture, the beautiful people that we truly are. And educate yourself. Learn about us through... pick up a book i recommend um alia malik's a country called america especially that it has a chapter about the story of the late alex aude in that book so it's it's really important his story in santa ana so it's really important to learn about his story which is part of santa ana's history as well Finally, I would like to invite you all to attend Arab American community events. We have an Arab American Heritage Gala coming up on April 25th in Garden Grove. Check it out at aaciviccouncil.org. We'd love to have you all there. Thank you.

As-salamu alaykum and peace be upon you everyone and marhaba and buenos dias and good evening. Thank you to City Council Member Jesse Lopez and City Council and staff. It is truly an honor to be here. My name is Mervet Jura and I am the chair of the Arab American Caucus. I serve on the Planning Commission. I'm a leader, a Muslim American leader in the community. It is truly an honor to be here for this historic moment, the first ever Arab American Heritage Month here in Santa Ana. This recognition matters. It matters because Arab Americans are an integral part of the American story. We are woven into the fabric of this country, contributing to its culture, its economy, its innovation, and its spirit, from small businesses to nonprofits to owners to educators, from public servants to artists. You see all of that here and more. Arab Americans help make the United States stronger, California more vibrant, and Orange County more diverse and beautiful. But today is not just about celebration. It's also about acknowledgement. We come from many backgrounds. I'm Palestinian. There's Lebanese, Yemeni, Syrian, Iraqi, Egyptian, Sudanese, Jordanian, and so much more. And I would also like to uplift my Iranian sisters and brothers. And while we carry rich histories and cultures, many in our communities are also carrying immense pain. Across the Middle East and North Africa, families are enduring unimaginable hardship, loss, displacement, fear, and destruction. And too often, their stories and our stories are overlooked, dismissed, or dehumanized. And I hope these types of proclamations don't just stop here, that you really seek to learn, because as a community, we feel really dehumanized at times. And here in Santa Ana, this moment carries even deeper meaning. This is the city where Alex Orda, may peace be upon him, a Palestinian-American civil rights leader was tragically taken from us in an act of hate. Yet today in his presence still stands in front of the Santa Ana Library a statue that reminds us not only of loss, but of courage, dignity, and ongoing pursuit of justice and resilience. So to stand here in this city and finally recognize Arab American Heritage Month has a lot of meaning, and it's symbolic. It is healing, it is powerful, and it's a statement of who this city chooses to be. A city that stands for justice, a city that embraces diversity, a city that leads compassion, a city that believes in true inclusivity. That is why the recognition like this is so important, because to be seen is to be humanized, to be acknowledged is to be valued, and to be included is to belong. But let this not be the end, right? Let this be the beginning, the beginning of deeper understanding, the beginning of meaningful inclusion, the beginning of a more compassionate and just society, one that seeks dignity, equity, and real peace. for all people, because the true measure of this moment will not be the proclamation we celebrate today, but the humanity we choose to uphold tomorrow. I also want to give you, Reema Nashib was not able to make it today. She is actually the caucus that I chair. She founded that a long time ago, and she gives her best wishes to all of you. Thank you so much, and God bless you all. Thank you.

All right, thank you so very much, Council Member Lopez. At this time, Mr. City Manager, may we have the presentation, please?

Yes, Orange County Fire Authority, Chief Henry will make a presentation regarding the quarterly update on Orange County Fire Authority here in our city.

Hello, D.C.

Good evening, Mayor and City Council and City Staff. Thank you for this opportunity to provide this quarterly update. I'd like to start also with doing a quick overview of 2025, if you'll indulge me. As you know, the Orange County Fire Authority is committed to the community, the property, and the people that we serve on a regular basis. We believe in strong partnership with Santa Ana and focus on safety response and community. Starting in 2025, right, as you know 2025 was another busy year, over 31,000 calls that occurred. The breakdown of those calls was 607 structure fires, 20,794 calls for medical aids, 1,700 traffic accidents, and another 8,355 calls, right, of hazardous materials and other incidents. Breakdown by ward. I'm sure all of you are interested in this, right? Ward one, total of 5,000 calls. Ward two, over 3,300 calls. Ward three, 7,345 calls. Ward four, 4,667 calls. Ward five, 5,096 calls. And ward six, 5,189 calls. Again, another busy year. Call service by breakdown, right? Over the last few years, our calls have continued to go up, right, with last year being an exception. Other than in 2020 with the pandemic, right, we have not seen a decline in calls for service. These calls for service do represent the 22 cities and the unincorporated have all gone down for various reasons. In relation to the calls for service and for the entire agency, Our division here in Santa Ana still provides about 17 to 20% of the average calls for service in the entire agency. That includes the 22 other cities besides Santa Ana, as well as the unincorporated area. When we look at the top 10 busiest fire engine companies, these are our pumpers, right? Santa Ana has the distinction that four out of the top 10 fire engine, busy engine companies in the community are represented here. Engine 72, Engine 77, Engine 78, and lastly, Engine 75. When we look at the top busiest ladder companies, that's the hook and ladders, right? Out of the 10 busiest, Santa Ana has the top three. Truck 76, Truck 71, and Truck 75. Moving now towards... Our community outreach, right? Our community engagement. This is everything from public safety presentations, ride-alongs, community events, station tours, extinguisher demonstrations, school visits, right? We totaled 344 outreach engagements, 25. Investment in technology. The Orange County Fire Authority is invested in technology. Last year, we saw three Type 1 fire engines delivered to the city. Engine 71, Engine 73, Engine 74 had state-of-the-art fire engines, including new personal protective breathing apparatuses, right? We now have state-of-the-art, which are breathing apparatuses, the air tanks that our people wear. We're absolutely now able to track those people out on incidents. And lastly, new cardiac heart monitor, state-of-the-art. Community risk reduction. Each year, our fire prevention people as well as our firefighters go out and do inspections. This year, we would issue 2,000 inspections. As of right now, March 31st, 2026, we have completed 1,319 of these, which puts us on track to be done by July 1st. Now, focusing on the last three months, from January to March 31st, we had 142 fires, 5,440 more medical aides, 114 traffic accidents, and another 2,407 other types of incidents, totaling 7,807 calls. Our community engagements, like we talked about, have totaled a total of 33 as well. One highlighted community engagement event that I want to focus on, Smoke alarm event. In 10 years ago, right, the Orange County Red Cross partnered with Santa Ana and Orange County Fire Authority to go out and install smoke alarms. We did that again this year in Ward 5, right, where we installed 340 smoke alarms into three mobile home parks for people that have need. I don't need to tell you guys that smoke alarms obviously save lives. This was done by an all-volunteer group, right? And as you can see, one of our local cadets out of Station 75 partnered up with community volunteers and Red Cross to go out and install smoke alarms. In addition to that, over this last quarter we've had three major incidents. One that made the news, right, was recently in January 15th, right, we had an elderly woman, right, whose apartment caught on fire and she was rescued, right, by her neighbors and a UPS driver. Quick video for that. This was the smoke conditions that the neighbor and the UPS driver encountered, right, to enter that apartment and rescue the elderly woman. So hats off to people being in the right place at the right time. Another large event that occurred was the second alarm fire that occurred. It happened on March 6th, right, in a commercial building on South Susan Street. Crews responded to a facility that was well involved with fire, right? All crews were occupants were evacuated and fire control occurred in about 45 minutes and the fire was held to just to the roof area. We had one member that was treated by smoke inhalation. One thing to note, right, a second alarm, what does that mean, right? That means that we were able to get, we were able to get in approximately 12 minutes, right, we were able to get seven fire engines, four ladder trucks, right, three battalion chiefs to effectively put together an effective fire force to control that. Lastly, on March 13th, 2026, right, we had an incident off of First Street. Embracing technology for OCF is not new. What we were able to use was our drones. Our drones were able to fly above the incident, right? This fire occurred in a tortilla factory, and the fire had contributed and communicated to the roof. What's important to understand is by using the drone technology, we're able to use our infrared, right, to direct our crews on site to help open up the roof and find the hidden pockets of fire. As you watch this video, you will see it convert to infrared. Again, just using technology. Lastly, I want to focus on facilities. Currently, we started a remodel at Fire Station 70 that began in August of last year and just recently completed, right? I want to thank the city council for supporting that as well as the city staff in the process of recognizing that our facilities are aged, right, and need some upgrades. And so I want to show you what some of the efforts that occurred here, before and after pictures. I CAN TELL YOU THE FIREFIGHTERS ARE VERY GRATEFUL, RIGHT, SINCE THEY SPENT OVER HALF OF THEIR LIFE HERE IN THE CITY SERVING YOU. SO THANK YOU FOR TAKING THE FIRE STATIONS AND MAKING THEM A TOP PRIORITY.

THANK YOU, D.C. HENRY.

LOOKING AHEAD, RIGHT, WE ARE I MAY HAVE SKIPPED ONE HERE. LET'S SEE HERE. LOOKING AHEAD, RIGHT. We continued partnership. We are working on underground tank removal at Stations 74 and 71, and we're completing the Facilities Assessment Master Plan. Thank you for that. Upcoming events, we have our ribbon-cutting ceremony down the road at Station 70 we'd like to invite you to, and we have our Best in Bravest where many of your firefighters in this division will be honored on May 29th. Lastly, I want to thank everybody who attended our open house. As you know, our open house is an event that we do every year in the city, but we also do a big one at our facility on Joppa Jamboree. As you can see, and you watch a quick video highlight here, we had over 5,000 people apply. And I think Council Member Vasquez was his first time attending, right, and got to see some dog demonstrations as well. And so thank you for that, as well as our Board of Director, Council Member Becerra.

Kids on shoulders, red trucks lined and rolled. Stories in the sunlight, kids trying on a captain's coat. Helmets on display, today is the day.

Hope to see you all there next year. And with that, I just want to thank you for this opportunity. It's been a pleasure serving this organization and serving this community. We are committed to serving all of you and look forward to the future. If you have any questions as it relates to OCFA, please reach out to our website, OCFA.org, where you can learn about all kinds of events for drowning prevention, barbecue safety, as well as home hardening and things like that. Thank you.

Thank you, D.C. Henry. And I also want to personally thank you for always joining us with the Coffee with the Mayor. The community is always very excited to be speaking with OC Fire. I know you're always there as well, so thank you so very much. Any comments by the Council? Councilman Hernandez.

Thank you, Madam Mayor. I also want to say thank you, D.C. Chief Henry. Because for the past several years, you guys have came toward five and have helped the most vulnerable members of our community, seniors in mobile homes. And you have volunteers who not only dedicate their day to doing that, but some of those volunteers subsequently become firefighters. So I do want to thank you for creating that pipeline for Santa Ana students and families to be able to serve their community here in their backyard. for such a wonderful agency. And Santa Ana City Council is looking forward to doing more good work for OCFA. Thank you.

Thank you, Council Member Vazquez.

And I want to thank you as well, Chief. Thank you for taking me a tour of the fair we had. It was great. I had a great time and a lot of learning I had and everything we had available to us here in Santana. But once again, I want to thank your team for coming out and putting out a fire in my house as we had a tree go up in flames. I really appreciate your work, the thoroughness of the whole team, of how they took care of my family. But we sure appreciate you and Ward 2. Thank you.

Thank you. And let me end it with Council Member Becerra, who's also on the OC Fire Board.

Thank you, Madam Mayor. And I want to thank Chief Henry because your advocacy for the fire station master plan, I think, is very critical. And it's something that I think is going to have a lasting impact, you know, beyond all of our tenures here. Because I think one thing that I'm always proud of when I'm at OCFA serving as our representative on that board and the immediate past chair is that of all the agencies that are a part of OCFA, we're one of the few, I should say, one of the few that actually owns our own fire stations. And so it is important for us to maintain them, as you said, because our firefighters who are keeping us safe spend so much of their time in those stations. And so I just want to say thank you, Chief Henry, for bringing that to the attention of myself and the council and making sure that we made that a priority. So thank you for that. Thank you very much.

I'd like to thank also city staff for supporting us on that endeavor as well. And City Manager Alvaro has made it a priority as well as his staff and public works. So thank you, sir.

I want to know if you got you those comfortable recliners because I didn't see them in the picture. Because I sat in them. They're so comfortable.

Unfortunately, they're not in it very often, ma'am, here.

Well, Mr. City Manager, we need to get those recliners for them. Thank you, DC. All right. Thank you very much. Okay, at this time, Madam City Attorney, do you have anything to report out of closed session?

Thank you, Mayor, members of the council, members of the public. We did have a number of closed session items this evening. We do not have reportable action, although direction was given to staff and would like to report to the public. The item number four on the public employee evaluations was continued until the next meeting. That's all the public reporting I have.

thank you madam city attorney this is the time of the meeting for the city council to receive comments from the public on agenda and non-agenda items madam city clerk please explain explain the public comment procedures and call the first speakers thank you thank you mayor pursuant to resolution number 2025-004 speakers are requested to address the city council directly and to refrain from profane language racial epitaphs and libelous or slanderous statements that disturb the decorum of the meeting Pursuant to the Brown Act the City Council may not enter into discussion at this time. Speakers will have three minutes for their comments. Before calling speakers, I'll report the summary of emails provided as of today by 2 p.m. The city received a total of 12 e-comments on non-agenda topics. Those were distributed to the city council and posted online. We'll now hear from members of the public that are physically present in the council chamber, followed by those on the conference call or Zoom, to provide comments on agenda or non-agenda items. Please state your name and the ward or neighborhood you reside in. for the record. I'll call three speakers at a time. When you hear your name, if you could please line up behind the center podium in the aisle. Robert Florinelli, Giovanni Chavez, and Velma de la Rosa.

Robert Flonar from Tustin. Good evening, Mayor and members of the City Council. My name is Robert Flonar, and I'm here today to speak about not only of someone who ministered in Santa Ana, but also a son. My mother was 92 years old. She was independently strong and living a full life. After routine dental procedures, she was prescribed an antibiotic called kinamycin. Within days, her health rapidly declined. She developed a severe deadly C. diff infection, as known as associated with this drug. Her reporting also, Liz's reporting also highlights, let me go back because I'm kind of confused. I'm sorry.

I'm sorry, I didn't get this part.

Liz Zabel, an investigative reporter at CIDRAP Infection Disease Research and Policy, who told my mother's story, revealed that kinamycin has long been associated with a higher risk of C. difficile infections compared to many other antibiotics. Despite this, it continues to be widely prescribed in dentistry, often when safer alternatives are available. Her reporting also highlights a larger issue. Many patients are not fully informed of these risks, and in some cases, antibiotics may be prescribed when they are not truly necessary. What happened to my mother is part of a much larger national problem, one that involves antibiotic stewardship, awareness, and accountability. Dennis wrote more than 2.3 million prescriptions last year for clindamycin, a drug that has carried a black box warning for more than four decades due to the high rate of life-threatening complications. There are countless families across this country who have experienced similar loss, often without warning, without proper informed consent, and without understanding what is involved. I stand here today because I don't want another family to go through what my mother went through. I don't want another son or daughter to watch their loved ones suffer from something that could have been avoided. with better communication and safer practices. I'm asking the city council members to help bring awareness to this issue, to support efforts that educate both healthcare providers and the public about the risks of certain antibiotics, especially when safer alternatives may exist. Even a simple step, acknowledging this issue, helping share information, or opening a dialogue could save lives. A mother's life mattered, and her story deserved to be heard. So I ask you today not just to listen, but to truly hear what is being said, because sometimes the most important truths are not shouted, they are whispered. Those who have ears to hear, and some of y'all believers in here, let them hear what the servant of the Most High, the watchman on the wall, has been sent to tell you. Be receptive to divine guidance even when it's difficult to hear. If you were to go to chat.ggp and... Look up Sid Rapp, Dolores Owens, Ken Amaya, and it says, your mother's stories being over covered by Sid Rapp is a big deal. That platform is widely spread by medical researchers, public health officials, policy makers, journalists, all read Sid Rapp. That alone puts a story in front of the national and even global health audience. My friend, the Levert Group, did a song or a thing on the news for her, and it says, fans across the world, anyways, what I'm saying is this, I'm a little distressed right now, is that I want you guys to help if possible, because this is serious.

Robert, your time is up.

Thank you. Hand clips.

It'll be Giovanni Chavez, Velma de la Rosa, Michael Valentine.

Good evening, mayor and council members. I'm Giovanni Chavez, a resident of Santa Ana, and today calls for us to make a tough but necessary decision as a community. Like many of you, I was shocked and heartbroken to hear about the dark side of Cesar Chavez. I grew up idolizing Cesar Chavez, hearing the stories of how he improved the lives of farm workers. Seeing his persistence to improve the lives of farm workers only served as an inspiration to me. It was a reminder that anyone can make a difference. For many of us, the legend of Cesar Chavez transcended him from a man to an icon. As a teenager, I remember seeing his pictures in history books and thinking it is possible for Latino to make a difference. As a college student, I remember learning about his anti-immigrant rhetoric and feeling conflicted about his legacy. And now that I have heard the stories of women and children he abused, I can't help but feel betrayed by a false icon that misled us all. But the farmworkers movement was never about Cesar Chavez. It was about farmworkers enduring a 25-day hunger strike to stop violence against working people. It was about farmworkers marching a thousand miles to demonstrate the power working people have. It was about farmworkers codifying the right to organize. It was about farmworkers fighting for better working conditions. It was about respect and human dignity. As a city and as a community, we can still honor those ideals. We can still honor respect and human dignity without honoring Cesar Chavez. These values are not tied to one individual, but to our entire community. In that spirit, I urge the city council to remove Cesar Chavez's name and face from all public assets, rename Campesino Park, and change Cesar Chavez Day's name. Thank you.

Good evening, Mayor and members of the City Council. My name is Velma De La Rosa, Vice President of Housing Development with Habitat for Humanity of Orange County. I want to begin by clarifying that agenda item number 23 on tonight's agenda is not a vote to approve funding, but rather a vote to initiate the City Council initiated proposal review process. This step simply allows the city to conduct a formal evaluation of the project, including underwriting and subsidy layering analysis before any funding decision is made. The Pine Street project is uniquely positioned to move forward efficiently. The site is already zoned for residential use. A condominium map is already in place. This significantly reduces entitlement time and risk in a time when housing projects can take years to advance. This project allows the city to move more quickly toward delivering affordable home ownership. Habitat proposes to convert this existing property into 18 affordable home ownership opportunities for low-income working families. This is not just new housing. It is an opportunity to create long-term stability and to help families build equity over time, pride of home ownership, and a stronger connection to the community for families in Santa Ana. The project includes comprehensive rehabilitation of the building, including upgrades to major systems and common areas, These improvements are designed to extend the life of the property, reduce future maintenance risk, help maintain affordable HOA dues for future homeowners, and most importantly, provide families with a safe and decent place to call home. Affordable housing is not about compromising quality, it is about ensuring equitable access to quality housing. Existing residents will be provided a right of first refusal to purchase their homes. Simply put, if they can afford to rent the unit today, they will have a pathway to own it. For residents who choose not to purchase, relocation support will be provided. This project aligns with the city's housing priorities by preserving an existing housing asset, expanding access to affordable homeownership, stabilizing families and neighborhoods. Approving this item tonight allows the city to fully evaluate the project before making any funding commitment. We respectfully ask for your support to move forward with the review process. Thank you for your leadership and continued commitment to housing in Santa Ana.

Michael Valentine, Victor Mendez, Jaime Fernandez.

Good evening, Madam Mayor, Council Members. I'm Michael Valentine, I'm the President and CEO of Habitat for Humanity of Orange County, and our offices are located in Ward 6. So, happy to be there. You know, for 37 years, our organization has been rooted in Santa Ana. Our offices are there now, and we've done so many projects in this city. We, in fact, have delivered 32 affordable home ownership projects over the time, and right now we have six under construction. council member hernandez ward and we're very excited to we'll be cutting the ribbon on those in june and i hope you can all attend that so we're really grateful for this long-standing partnership with the city i've heard so many times in this chamber how much you all care about owner home ownership and i care about it deeply as well It just transforms the lives of the families in your community and that's what we want to make happen. So I'd like to speak to item 23 that Velma so adeptly shared with you all before this. And again, we're just looking for an opportunity to have a discussion about the project and hope to pursue that with you here. It's really gonna give us a chance to dig deeper into this potential affordable housing opportunity. And again, it represents 18 homes, two and three bedroom homes. And converting these existing rental units into home ownership will just transform the lives of all those families. So it's practical. It's scalable. It's a great solution for current housing challenges. It's helping families transition from being renters to owners. And we're not asking for funding. Let's just look for an opportunity here tonight. So that vote begins with the city council approving the process. And we want to reinforce our mission that home ownership is really a foundation for stability, strong families, thriving communities. And I know you all support home ownership. So we take pride in this partnership we've held with the city here for all these years. And just appreciate your time tonight and consideration. Thank you.

Good evening, my name is Johan Lopez. I am a 23-year-old cancer survivor and a recent UCLA graduate, graduated in class of 25. And I want to address this to Mayor Amezcua and the council members. We are writing to address a critical and preventable public health issue in Santa Ana, which is limited access to basic dental care. In partnership with Affordable Dentist, our community initiative provides free dental screenings and oral health education to underserved families, focusing on prevention and early intervention to reduce long-term health costs. This effort is supported by faculty from the UCLA School of Dentistry and student volunteers from Santa Ana College, University of California Los Angeles, and University of California Irvine, bringing together experienced clinicians and future providers in a unified community effort. We would welcome the, untreated dental disease remains a leading cause of pain, missed work and school, and preventable healthcare costs. By delivering care directly into the community, we remove barriers and provide immediate impact. We would welcome the opportunity to partner with the city to expand this initiative through community events and city facilities, public health outreach coordination, community awareness efforts, and we respectfully request a brief meeting with your office to discuss implementation and alignment with city priorities. Thank you for your leadership and commitment to the health of Santa Ana residents. We look forward to working together to expand access to care. I also hand-wrote letters for the mayor, Mayor Amezcua, Council Member Penaloza, Council Member Phan, Council Member Lopez, Council Member Becerra, Council Member Hernandez, and Council Member Vasquez. I wrote a handwritten letter to SO address it, if I would be able to kindly pass it out.

Thank you. That's what I was asking the clerk for, the information for the dental so that we could share with our community. So thank you very much.

Thank you so much for your time. Have a wonderful rest of the evening. Thank you, council members and mayor.

Hello. kind of an interesting segue. Just by way of background, when I was a freshman, things were a little tight in my home, and I needed dental work, and so I go to the UCLA School of Dentistry, and they provided free dental service to me. No cost, no questions, students worked on it, so if you can do something for these folks, I'd really appreciate it, because I was a beneficiary of that, and I think you guys are good people. Ben's UCLA fan, there's some good work going out there, so please try to do what you can to support that initiative. Gladly take part of my time for that, but I did benefit from that program at the school. But anyway, so congratulations to our woman at UCLA, the basketball team of the recent national championship. It was a incredible run. I watched them throughout the season. They dominated the competition. Defeating Texas and USC was just a great way to do that. And it's been 30 years since we've had a championship banner up in Pauley. And I think it's only fitting that a great group of women did it. So congratulations, and I know the Lakers are honoring today, and they're getting all types of great accolades. I know a few of them, and they're just a fantastic group of women. I'm sure you're going to be hearing more about them. More importantly to the issue here, on the sales tax extension of the budget, So your look, I think Mr. Becerra was right about perhaps not going too deep into the discussion on this measure on what the city will look like without Measure X, to some degree he's right. But for me, I think the scenario is really about how cost efficient the city can deliver and looking at that and taking some hard questions about it. I think we do a lot of great things out here. There's no doubt we deliver services very effectively, and we've got great people doing these services, so no question on that. We've got some really good work going on in economies. We've seen some good work in procurements. our debt structures, systems development. I think we could do some work on capital facilities and some other areas, but they do some good work. It's where I think you need to start asking your question is how cost-efficient we can deliver things and have those critical questions. I'm not saying we are cost inefficient. I'm just thinking that before we can start discussing scenarios, start asking for the solutions around cost efficiency. We go to the grocery store every day. People shop every day. They're always looking at how to stretch their dollars. I do it. Almost everybody out here does it. I use a credit card that gives me 6% back, so I gotta find a way to stretch my money. I gotta look for different types of deals and things like that, and how best to use my money to buy groceries. Kind of the same concept. You're trying to deliver a service, are you really making the best use of your resources? I looked at the situation, and it's gonna cost about $1,200 per person to do Measure X per household. Let's do our best on that for those people.

and just ask the right questions i know you can victor your time is up yeah i know staff is very capable of getting this done thank you mayor and city council that concludes the public speakers that are present we'll now move to the zoom speaker when unmuted please announce your name and the ward or neighborhood you reside in for the record um elise please unmute yourself yes hi you can go ahead with your comment please hello hello

Can you guys hear me okay?

Yes, please proceed with your public comment.

Okay, sorry. This is Carla. I think I had my daughter's name on there. So I am here once again on behalf of the residents of Coach Royal who have been directly impacted by ongoing displacement and the loss of homeownership within our community. We are in Ward 5, I believe, with Jonathan. We're not here to advocate for only the baseless evictions, but also to bring attention to a deeper and more serious issue that is the abuse of legal process that leads to obstruction of lawful sales of our homes and ultimately the loss of our property, real estate property. We are actually asking the city for a formal update in regards to what is our status in our case at the municipal level specifically. specifically with the Department of Justice? Has anything been brought forward at the municipal level with the Attorney General's office? What else? That state or federal level? we wanted to make sure um and just be on top of everything that is going on we would like i know that there's numerous residents um right now on zoom wanting answers in regards to this and depart um if this has brought up been brought up to the department of justice um like we've mentioned multiple times it was not a private dispute um it does reflect a pattern of conduct by this corporation that owns multiple parts not only at city level but it's a broader problem which does affect thousands of residents resulting in not only displacement but loss of equity and just total stripping of our real estate properties um so we do ask um for an update and Trying to see what else we can do on our behalf. We also wanted to see if there's anything that we can do as residents to help with the rent stabilization ordinance. We do know that that is taking about 2 months to get a meeting, which I think that this corporation honestly praise on the time and just prolonging every process. We need something done. This behavior doesn't stop and. Honestly, we do want the city to step in and see how we can escalate and proceed with all of this being taken in as the urgent matter that it is. Thank you.

Mayor and City Council, that concludes the public speakers this evening.

Thank you very much, Madam City Clerk. Consent calendar items 5 through 19 are before us. Council members, please announce any items that you'll be abstaining from due to a conflict. If there are any requests to pull an item from the consent calendar for further discussion, please let me know at this time. Councilman Hernandez.

I'll make a motion to move the items.

I'll second.

Madam Mayor.

Yeah, I'm going to do the polls right now. Give me one second. Thank you, Councilman Hernandez. Councilman Becerra?

Give me one second.

Hold on. I'll come back to you. Councilman Vasquez? Thank you. Nothing. Councilman Lopez? Perfect. Mayor Pro Tem?

Nothing.

Councilman Refan? Nothing. Councilman Becerra?

Yeah, I just need to recuse on item 14. Other than that, I'm supportive of the rest of the balance.

There's a motion and a second on the floor. Okay. It's all yours, Madam City Clerk.

I just opened the electronic voting. It was a motion by Councilmember Hernandez, seconded by Mayor Pro Tempino-Losa, to approve consent calendar items 5 through 19.

That's correct. Mine's not up. I'm going to yes vote. For whatever reason, it's not coming up here. Okay. Can you just do a roll call, please?

The vote is seven ayes, no nays. Perfect. With a recorded recusal on item number 14 by Council Member Penalosa. Motion carries. No. No, no, Council Member Becerra. I'm sorry, Council Member Becerra.

Yeah, just to state, I had a financial interest in one of the items on item 14, so that's why I'm recusing myself. Thank you.

We're good, Madam Clerk. Yes. Okay, perfect, thank you. At this time, that's the end of the consent calendar. Let's go to the business calendar, item number 20. I want to thank the city manager and his staff. I brought this item forward. It's a very important item to all of us sitting up here. I'd like to believe that. The recommended actions are to direct the city manager to initiate the renaming of Cesar Chavez Campesino Park back to its original name of Campesino Park. Direct staff to remove the name and likeness of Cesar Chavez from all city-owned public assets, including but not limited to mural signage, facilities, and commemorative displays. We have one at Jerome Park. We have the picture of Cesar Chavez at Campesino Park with his name. We have the painting at Artes y Pilar Park, which the artist has already covered up that mural, and she would like to paint that over as well. And then there is a utility box in the city that the city manager's office will be working with, I believe Edison, to figure out how we can paint over that utility box. Yeah, that one's been painted already. Santa Anita was completed by Abram on Saturday, and I want to thank Channel 7 for covering that, and Michelle Gilley from Channel 9. Abram painted Bert, I always forget his last name. Burt Corona, long, long, long, long history with Burt and especially with my family, with my dad marching with him and my uncle Juan marching with him. And then item number three is to direct the city manager to meet and confer with applicable bargaining units to amend the labor agreements to rename the observance of Cesar Chavez Day with Farm Workers Day. or replace with a floating holiday for city employees. And that'll be through working with the bargaining units. The state of California is calling it Farm Workers Day. At this point, I would hope that we would follow along with that. And the reason I brought this item forward is because It's very important, and one of the speakers shared earlier, I think many of us have been having these conversations, not amongst each other, but just with people in the community, I know I have, that we forget sometimes that the farmworkers movement was not about Cesar Chavez, it was about the farmworkers movement. It was about all of them who worked out there, you know, in the, doing hard labor. I mean, our city manager was picking grapes when he was eight years old. And so, in my family, they were working the fields when they were small children as well. But there's health hazards, there's economic insecurities, there's dangerous working conditions, there's a lack of legal protections. There were so many things going on with the farm worker movement. the movement, and I think it was caught up in the men. And not one person, including any of us up here, should become far more important, in my opinion, than what the work that we do. And so that is why I brought this item forward, and I would hope that I would have the support to make these changes in our city, because we must acknowledge the victims, the children, Women, we can never, ever downplay that, ignore it, and pretend that, oh, well, we don't know. You've seen reports where people say, well, we don't know, he's deceased, he can't defend himself. The New York Times investigated for five years. This was not a fly by the night like some of our blogs do. They do, you know, or somebody writes a story overnight, or they take a little snippet of a video of things that were stated at city council meetings, or whatever. any other meetings. This was a five-year investigation. And so with that, I would hope that my colleagues up here would also support this item. Again, it is to direct the city manager to name the Cesar Chavez Campesino Park just Campesino Park. to remove Cesar Chavez's likeness from all the city-owned public assets. And we'll work with the artists that we're, I know we're working with Bert, and we're also, we'll be working with Marina and some other artists. And then to direct the city manager to meet and confer with the bargaining units. So at this time, Let me see if anybody else has any comments and hopefully we can get through this item. Councilman Hernandez.

Thank you, Madam Mayor. I want to start by thanking you as our mayor for taking the lead as well as Councilmember Jesse Lopez. You both were at the forefront of ensuring that the city led this effort. So I want to give credit where credit is due to you both for your leadership. It is important to the city of Santa Ana stands with people who have been impacted by injustice. Women and children were harmed by Cesar Chavez. As a father to a 16-year-old daughter, I am proud to stand with those women and children who have bravely come forward and ensuring that Cesar Chavez is not uplifted and celebrated in the city of Santa Ana. Furthermore, the community has made it very clear that it has always been Campesino Park in Santa Anita. It has always been known as Campesino Park. And for us to acknowledge the martyrs of this movement, the farm workers, is to respect the wishes of Dolores Huerta. Dolores Huerta, in her first interview with Maria Inoso, was very clear when she was asked, what would you say to those who asked to replace Cesar with you? And her words were, honor the martyrs, respect and honor the martyrs who are no longer here. And this is exactly what we're doing here in Santa Ana. I'll put a motion on the floor to move this item. And I just want to thank the mayor and Jesse Lopez for their leadership on both on this.

I'll second the item. I'll second your amendment. Anybody else? Council Member Lopez, you had to put it up. I'm sorry, I didn't see it.

Yeah, thank you. I just want to thank city staff for, I think, recognizing the importance of this moment. And I also want to thank our residents who have been very vocal, and I know they've been calling City Hall. demanding action immediate action and I do want to thank all the artists as well who have not waited to hear from this body have just gone out there and taken ownership of their work and have started to make plans to bring something new to our city and you know I think it's important that The how here matters, right? And when I brought this forward to you on the 18th, I said, you know, this should be a community process. If the community wants it to be Campesino Park, let it be that. If there are other things that they want to bring forward, I'm also open to that. And so I think it's important that we include as many people in our community as we can as part of this process, renaming process, if the council desires to do so. And obviously we've talked about the mural at the park as well. It does have a layer of graffiti protection, so that's gonna be something that I think just needs to be painted over, of course, and having, I think, an understanding or a partnership with the artists. I think we also have to do our due diligence on that end. And, you know, we've talked about the floating holiday, the idea that I proposed to you. And so I know the state has changed the name. Whatever makes things easier, I would say feel free to feel empowered to bring those back. But I think it's important that so many people are able to be a part of this process because We have a lot of families that come from people that worked in the fields. I have residents that have reached out and have said, I used to pick strawberries. And so there are many, I think, lit of feelings that our residents are feeling in this moment because of their own personal histories, because of their families, or because it's bringing something up. And I think that this is really a moment for everybody on this dais and off this dais to really you know, do better and be better and treat people with respect and whether it's misogyny or abuse of any kind, I think it's important that we all figure a path forward to just be better members of our society and not hurt other people. Thank you.

Council Member Vasquez.

Thank you for those words Council Member Lopez and thank you Mayor for bringing this forward. It's always necessary to reflect on how you are raised and where you get this kind of culture of misogyny and patriarchy and how did it affect you growing up and to look inward and those are some of the things that we do look in my class and that being said, I appreciate the conversation of the leader must never be exempt from accountability. we always have to step up and be the model and in any case there should be no woman or child or victim should ever be silenced and making sure that we take into account when these accusations come up and I will be supporting this. Thank you.

Thank you, Council Member Vasquez. Are there any other comments? Excuse me. Council Member Fann, I apologize.

Thank you, Mayor. I would like to see this move forward in the, I guess, fastest way possible. I understand the need to have conversation, or the desire to bring the community in to discuss this matter. You know, I guess what I'm trying to say is whatever we have that needs to be cleaned up, let's get it cleaned up. Campesina Park was always Campesina Park. Let's return it to that. I don't think we have to make this a big, complicated process that's going to take six months. I think that we are capable of moving forward quickly. I mean, I think I called you or contacted you, and you're like, we're already on it. And I guess with that, I just... Yeah, thanks, that's it.

Thank you, Council Member Fenn. Council Member Becerra.

Thank you, Madam Mayor. I appreciate that this effort isn't a knee-jerk reaction, but this is something that, as the Mayor had already mentioned, that the New York Times had investigated for five years involving interviews with over 60 people, including former United Farm Worker members, aides, and relatives, and also included a review of internal union records, confidential emails, photographs and audio recordings from union board meetings. And speaking of those union board meetings, I think the mayor said this was never, when it came to the farm workers, was never about Cesar Chavez. It was about an inclusive movement that involved Filipinos as well as Mexican farm workers. And so I think the return of the name of this park to Campesino Park is reflective of how inclusive the farm worker movement was. and the fact that there are a lot of Filipinos that feel like they were ignored and they feel like that they were cast aside despite the valuable contributions that they brought to the farm worker movement. So I think that while this is a very unfortunate way for this to happen, the fact of the matter is that history has a way of correcting itself and I'm glad to see us come back to a term that's far more inclusive and it's far more reflective of the fact that there was no one single individual or a small group of people that made this movement but it was a very inclusive movement that included Mexicans and Filipino farm workers. Thank you.

Thank you, Council Member Serra. Final comment by Mayor Pro Temp.

Thank you, Mayor Mezcua, and I just want to thank you for moving on this. I think it's, I'm definitely supportive of it, 100% supportive of removing Cesar Chavez from the name of the park. and reverting it back to just Campesino Park, what it always was. I agree with Council Member Fan. I don't think there's a need to make this into an over complicated process, but I think if we could quickly do that, that'd be probably the best route we could take. As far as the likeliness of his face and name on property that's not city property, I would also hope that, I don't know if my colleagues want to agree, that we also send I'm thinking the most visibly one, or prominent one, is Osea School, just right down the street off of Broadway. There's a massive picture of Cesar Chavez, and I would hope that we send the letter, and the mayor already mentioned that they're already working on it, but that we send letters to, and I want to thank the school district for being proactive in moving in, and the school board members on covering up the name of Cesar Chavez High School off of, in Ward 6 off of Main. But I think that if there's any other property in the city that we are aware of that might not be ours and under our jurisdiction that we send letters, obviously we can't demand anyone do anything with their private property, but we could just as a suggestion or just make them aware of the changes that we're making on city property. And I think that, you know, there's, I'm also happy that the state of California acted very quickly and I hope that we work in good faith with our bargaining units to ensure what they would like to see. I personally would like to also consider that we work with our partners at the state and the federal level about this conversation as we move forward, how Farm Workers Day is unfortunately still on an individual's birthday. And I think that's also a reminder to many of the victims that it's still celebrated on his birthday. So maybe working and sending letters to the powers that be that we look at other dates to celebrate our farm workers and the farm workers movement. With that, Mayor, very supportive of this. And those are my comments, thank you.

Thank you and I appreciate everyone's support because I know this is very important to everyone and I'd also like to thank the city manager because the estimated fiscal impact of this is only $15,000 and what is that for? That is to pay for the artist or to help them pay for the artwork that they'll be painting over in our parks and wherever it may be throughout the city and so that's a small amount of money because we hopefully won't need more than that and if we do, you'll come back to us and so I really want to thank all of you. So there was a motion by Councilman Hernandez, and I seconded. Sure, go ahead, Councilman Finn.

If it's more than $15,000, it's still within your authority. Do you have to come back to us? Okay, thank you.

No, but I just want to make it clear. It says fiscal impact. I want to share with everybody what it was about.

If it's more than that and within your authority, can you just please get it done? Thank you.

Yes, I know your authority is $50,000. They always like to clarify things.

Can I also comment?

Sure, then this is it.

Just one suggestion. I know that as we're talking about the cost, I know that... $15,000. Yes, very little cost, but there's groups that have reached out to all of us up here on the city council to do this type of work, and the carpenters are always looking for work to do when it comes to specific projects in the city, and I think that's one that they might be interested in.

Okay, so we're looking at artists, Mr. City Manager. I think that's what it said here. All right, there was a motion on the floor, and then there was a second by myself. So let's prepare to vote, please.

Motion by Council Member Hernandez, seconded by Mayor Meskwa, to approve the recommended actions for item number 20, meaning renaming Cesar Chavez Campesino Park to Campesino Park, removing the name and likeness of Cesar Chavez from all city-owned assets, and negotiate amendments to labor agreements to modify the Cesar Chavez Day holiday designation. Vote is seven.

I'm sorry, Madam Clerk, can you also add in there the letters that Mayor Pro Tem has requested? Are you good with that, Mr. City Manager? Okay, go ahead, never mind.

Vote is seven ayes, no nays. Motion carries.

Perfect, thank you all very much, and we look forward to this, Mr. City Manager. We should be completed in about 60 days, I'm hoping. Quicker, Rudy, 30, two weeks. All right, you got it. Thank you very much. Rudy, two weeks, Rudy, okay. All right, so let's go to item 21, please, early direction for fiscal year, budget 26-27. Thank you.

Yes, thank you, Mayor, City Council. Alex Trinidad, Executive Director of Finance. Thank you.

All right, good evening, Mayor and council members. So the purpose of tonight's presentation is to provide an overview for fiscal year 26-27, GENERAL FUND BUDGET AND TO SEEK EARLY DIRECTION FROM CITY COUNCIL ON KEY PRIORITIES. WE WILL ALSO WALK THROUGH THE CURRENT OUTLOOK AND HIGHLIGHT KEY AREAS FOR DISCUSSION. So the community outreach began in January, and staff has contacted all council wards and continues to conduct meetings with neighborhood associations, nonprofit groups, and commissions. So to date, we've had over 200 attendees, more than 1,200 survey responses. So the survey is available year-round in English, Spanish, and Vietnamese. and interpretation services are provided at meetings. All feedback received through the end of April will be summarized and presented to City Council in the May budget workshop meeting. Okay, so this presentation focuses on the general fund, which is the city's primary operating fund. So the general fund accounts for unrestricted revenues such as property tax and sales tax and supports core city services the community relies on. So these include public safety, parks and recreation, library services, code enforcement, and community programs. So next is the most recent update to the general fund 10-year outlook. So the forecast includes only recurring revenues and expenditures and applies inflation where appropriate. So the key cost drivers include labor, pension, contractual cost, and including the Orange County Fire Authority contract. That 3% increase shown in fiscal year 26-27 is based on an early estimate letter provided by OCFA. And the final letter will be received in May. Additional details on all assumptions is included in the staff report. So the city's 10-year outlook previously estimated a deficit of approximately $8.5 million for fiscal year 26-27. Since that time, several updates have increased that estimate shortfall, which is now approximately $19 million before adjustments. So this is driven by expenditure growth outpacing recurring revenues. But when Measure X rate decreases in 2029, this deficit is expected to widen significantly. So as we move forward into balancing strategies, adjustments will be needed to align the budget, which will require focusing on service levels. TO SUPPORT THAT DISCUSSION, STAFF ORGANIZED PROGRAMS AND SERVICES TO HELP GUIDE THOSE PRIORITIES. THE MEASURE EXPENDING PLANT IS ALSO AVAILABLE AS A POTENTIAL RESOURCE. SO TO HELP GUIDE DISCUSSIONS, STAFF PROVED GENERAL FUND PROGRAMS AND SERVICES INTO THREE CATEGORIES. SO THE MUST-HAVES INCLUDE ITEMS REQUIRED BY LAW OR AGREEMENTS SUCH AS DEBT PAYMENTS OR BUDGET PREPARATION TO COMPLY WITH CITY CHARTER. The should haves are core services that protect the city resources and minimize risks, such as sidewalk repairs. The nice to haves are programs that are not legally required, but enhance quality of life, such as arts and culture programs. So the agenda includes a categorized list of general fund spending. So as part of the upcoming May budget workshops, it would be helpful for city council to discuss which nice to have items should be brought back for reconsideration to help balance the budget. Additional details of these categories is included in the exhibit provided with the staff report. So right now, the city absorbs credit card processing fees, including within the general fund. So all use of credit cards has increased. As credit cards have increased, those costs have also increased. So staff is proposing a 2% processing fee based on current rates to help offset some of those costs without exceeding the city's actual costs. If approved, staff is also proposing to remove the current transaction limit and provide more flexibility for users. So the agenda item also includes a comparison of other cities that charge credit card processing fees. So we're looking for City Council direction on whether to include this in the fee schedule. So the city is anticipating launching a new permitting licensing system in June 2026. So this system is expected to improve processing times, provide a more user-friendly online experience. Staff is assessing the city's options for cost recovery related to maintaining and supporting these enhanced technologies. We may return at a later date to discuss potential cost recovery options. So the city has an estimated $11.6 million of one-time general fund dollars as reported in the mid-year update. So up next, we'll go over potential options for how the funding could be used. So for workers' compensation, this is one of the areas where we continue to see ongoing pressure. The fund is below its target reserve, and the costs have been coming in higher than what was originally budgeted. So staff is recommending a one-time allocation of $2.5 million to help strengthen reserves and support this fund's long-term stability. So we're looking for city council direction on whether to include this in the proposed budget. For general liability, the fund is used to cover claims and legal settlements, and we continue to see exposure in this area. The fund is currently below its targeted reserve, so staff is recommending a one-time allocation of 1.7 million to help strengthen reserves and provide additional capacity for potential claims. We're looking for city council direction on whether to include this in the proposed budget. One area we continue to monitor closely is pension costs, which continue to be a growing cost to the city. So to help manage that over time, the city has made it a practice to set aside funds in the Section 115 trust. Setting aside these funds helps earn interest and ensure money is available when pension costs rise due to lower than expected CalPERS investment returns. So staff is recommending a one-time contribution of 1.5 million to help reduce fluctuations and offset future pension costs. We're looking for a council direction on whether to include this in the proposed budget. So the sanitation fund that supports street sweeping is currently facing a funding gap. And existing revenues aren't enough to maintain current service levels. So staff is looking at different options to address this, including improving efficiencies, adjusting service levels, potentially bringing some services in-house, and identifying other funding sources. So in the meantime, staff is requesting $900,000 in one-time general fund support for fiscal year 26-27 to maintain current service levels while these options are evaluated. So staff is proposing to set aside $2 million for high priority needs. So this includes one million in the public works for facility repairs and improvements, and then one million in the non-departmental to address unforeseen priorities during the year. The public works portion would support key city facilities as shown on the slide. So this is intended to provide flexibility to respond to issues as they come up. So we're looking for city council direction on whether to include this in the proposed budget. So this table summarizes the proposed uses of the one-time general fund resources. So as discussed, this includes funding for workers' compensation and general liability reserves, a contribution to pension stabilization fund, a one-time support for street sweeping, and $2 million for high priority one-time projects. The remaining $3 million is set aside for the May budget workshops to support further discussions on direction. So we're looking for city council direction on these proposed uses of one-time funds. Okay, so next we'll move into the recurring operating budget and recommendations as we continue to this discussion on balancing the budget. So the city charges fees for services that benefit individuals and those fees are required to be limited to the cost of providing those services. So these services are often provided by city staff, and we've seen increases in employee costs, workers' compensation and liability, as well as pension and other operating costs. To account for this, staff is proposing a 4% adjustment to miscellaneous fees in the upcoming budget to reflect the increased service costs. We're looking for city council direction on whether to include this adjustment. So here's an overview of the city's supported events, including associated costs and the attendee counts. So these amounts do not include police-related costs associated with these events. So there might be opportunities to offset costs through increased sponsorships, participant or vendor fees, and evaluating event cost structure and scalability of service. Given the current budget constraints, staff is asking for city council direction on how to prioritize or reconsider events as part of the 26-27 budget. So the city currently has 11 boards, commissions, and committees. Of those, six are not mandated by state, local, or ballot measure. So all commissioners receive a $100 stipend per meeting, and there are additional costs for staff support, contract services, and other expenses. In total, the non-mandated committee cost is nearly $500,000 annually. So we're looking for City Council direction on whether to maintain current structures or consider adjustments as part of the broader budget balancing discussion. So here's an additional details on the arts and culture related discretionary commitments. These include a range of programs such as grants, public art, community events. In total, these items represent about $965,000 in annual funding. As part of the broader balancing discussion, the question for city council is whether these funding levels should be maintained or reduced. So this slide shows current year spending on immigration-related services, so including $300,000 approved for the Universal Legal Defense Program. For the Ayuda Sin Fronteras Program, $400,000 has been approved to date across three rounds. Based on current demand, staff may return in the final quarter with a request for an additional $150,000, which would be funded from vacancy savings. If approved, total potential spending for these programs would approximately be $850,000 a year. To date, the program has served 250 households representing nearly 500 individuals. So most assistance has been for utilities with some households receiving rental assistance or both. So the city's cost for animal care services has increased significantly over the past several years, driven primarily by rising operating costs through the county's shelter services. While the construction-related costs for the new shelter are coming to an end, operating costs are expected to continue to increase. So staff will continue to evaluate options to improve the long-term cost sustainability, including service delivery and partnership opportunities. So as the county seat of Orange County, Santa Ana serves as a central hub for government and regional services. So this results in higher concentration of government owned properties that are not subject to property tax, but still rely on city services such as public safety and right away maintenance. The city also experiences additional service demands related to regional presence of social services, including impacts associated with in-house population. In addition, the city often incurs increased public safety and operational costs related to demonstrations and other organized public gatherings. So next we'll highlight a few key items outside of the general fund. So the city began providing a general fund subsidy for SARTIC in fiscal year 21-22, which is about $1.1 million annually. In that same year, $5.4 million in one-time funding was also provided for deferred maintenance and improvements to the facility. At the current level, the ongoing subsidy is not sustainable. But moving forward, staff will focus on increasing lease revenue and improving cost recovery to reduce the need for general fund support. Approximately 46% of the facility, roughly 13,700 square feet across 10 distinct spaces remain vacant. If this space can be leased, staff proposes a reduced subsidy to help balance the budget. So staff is proposing to transition the building maintenance operation to the general fund to simplify administration and reduce internal billing. The cost for non-general fund activities will continue to be recovered through the city's indirect cost allocation plan. So this is an administrative change and it's not expected to have an ongoing impact to the general fund. So an estimated $930,000 available fund balance will be transferred with staff returning with recommendations for high priority facility repairs that either reduce the cost or liability or contribute to increased revenues. So developer impact fees are one-time charges on new development to help fund infrastructure needed to support growth such as transportation, drainage, and other public improvements. The Public Works Agency is currently finalizing a developer impact fee study and will return to City Council with an update at a later date. So next steps will cover follow-up items and next steps. The next steps include reviewing the preliminary results of the budget priority survey and outreach efforts, along with a draft general fund summary on May 5th. Draft versions of the budget, miscellaneous fees, capital improvement program will be presented by mid-May. City Council feedback will be incorporated to ensure alignment with community priorities on May 19th. And then the public hearing will be held on June 2nd. And then the final budget adoption will be scheduled for June 16th. So that concludes my presentation. And staff is ready to receive your direction, any questions you may have.

Thank you very much. Let me open it up to the council at this time. So Councilman Hernandez.

Thank you, Madam Mayor. And thank you, city staff, for a wonderful presentation and a balanced budget. JUST WANTED TO SHARE A COUPLE OF POINTS THAT ARE IMPORTANT TO WARD FIVE RESIDENTS. IT IS IMPORTANT FOR US TO HAVE A BALANCING STRATEGY WHERE WE ARE ABLE TO BRING IN MORE REVENUE FOR THE CITY AND I AM SUPPORTIVE OF SEEING THE CREDIT CARD PROCESSING FEE. DO YOU HAVE AN IDEA OF WHERE THIS FEE WILL, WHERE ITS CAP IS AT?

What we're recommending is a 2.5% processing fee for credit cards. So we looked at all of our costs because we have different merchants. And so we went with the option that was the least costly, and then it's just recovering our costs.

Okay. Thank you. I'm supportive of that. I am also supportive of us investing some of these one-time monies in the amenities that the city does own. For instance, on Page 15, we have high-priority one-time projects, and we list the Bowers Museum, Eddie Westfield Community Centers and Fire Stations. I'd like to prioritize the Eddie Westfield given that We have the ability to program it where we have a little more limitations with the Bowers. Some of those priorities to me are going to be, for one, utilizing some of these monies for a long-term vision plan for the stadium. That way our city staff can work in accordance with that plan and not have to come back to the council as much. Some of the priorities that I would like to see those monies spent on is the purchase of equipment to host events. Maybe that's staff looking into is it worth us purchasing the equipment to cover the field or is it worth us, as we've had a couple of different promoters come who didn't have an issue with paying that fee, that's something I'm interested in us revisiting. Another area of importance in the stadium is going to be renovating the restrooms and the snack shacks and the locker room. The area where commonly a sports team may have a home or a way That is an area I'd like to see us invest in. The events at the stadium have been tremendously successful, so I would like to see us continue to prioritize investing our monies there. I am also supportive of the city events. I think that something that can help us with the cost offset is to implement a vendor fee strategy. If we charge per dollar amount for Santa Ana businesses to enter these say Fiestas Patrias. Every vendor should pay us a fee, and that should be revenue that goes towards the city. I'm also supportive of us having a very proactive and aggressive strategy for sponsorship. We should look to work with some of our bigger home-owned companies here. We have a number of wonderful partners that we could work you know, pick from across the city. I think that that would help us tremendously. I do want to see us continue to fund arts at 965,000. I think it's important for us to maintain that. The arts play a very vital role in decreasing violence. It's a preventative measure as well, given that it helps children develop skills that can get them to college. You know, we have UCI who has a tremendous arts program. CHAPMAN UNIVERSITY, A NUMBER OF COLLEGES WHERE A LOT OF THESE STUDENTS CAN THEN SEEK HIGHER EDUCATION. I AM SUPPORTIVE OF THE IMMIGRATION-RELATED SERVICES. I THINK THAT WHAT YOU HAVE LAID OUT HERE, CITY MANAGER, IS EXACTLY WHAT WE WOULD LIKE TO SEE IN WARD FIVE. For my first round of comments, those are going to be some top priorities. Lastly would be the area of crossing guard. I saw that you had crossing guards mentioned on this budget. It is an area of importance to us in Ward 5, particularly off of Flower Street. We're going to be bringing a new park to Tenton Flower. which is going to be shared by residents of Washington Square and Willard, I would want to prioritize ensuring that we have crossing guards. At any new locations where we're bringing parks, where there's a high abundance of student traffic walking to and from neighborhoods, and in this particular case, this intersection's 10th and Flower, whereas the larger intersection is Civic Center and Flower, but students don't commonly use that. They will use 10th. So I want us to have an abundance of caution and prioritize our crossing guards. That'll be my end of my first round of comments. Madam Mayor, thank you.

Thank you, Council Member Becerra.

Thank you, Madam Mayor. Thank you, Alex, for the presentation. So you mentioned that the city's general fund is estimated to face a structural deficit of approximately 19 million before the adjustments are made for 26-27. And that is due to continued expenditure growth, outpacing trends in reoccurring revenue. So, Mr. City Manager, I feel like we're nibbling around the edges when it comes to ways to kind of bring in some revenue, a little 2.5% on credit card fees, real bold, right? But I think we need to think a little beyond that. So let me give you an example. So Anaheim, Anaheim's TOT is at, at least their last reported, and this was in 2023, 24, $247 million. That's just the TOT. That's not any other stuff. Just TOT alone. And they're projected a slight increase to $256 million, right? Santa Ana, ours is a whopping $9.5 million, and it's been that way for the last three years. $9.5 million. So, and in 22, 23, to be fair, it was 10.4 million. So unfortunately, we're on the wrong trajectory when it comes to TOT. If we had just 8%, 8%, single digit, 8% of Anaheim's TOT, we wouldn't be talking about a structural deficit. Just 8%. So they're on to something. Now, we don't have a Disneyland, but we are the heart of Orange County. We are right in the middle. There's no reason why we shouldn't be the place where people stay. I know when I travel, I don't want to stay in a generic hotel area. I want to stay somewhere where there's culture and vibrancy, and that's Santa Ana. But we need to invest in our hotels. We need to figure that out. So I would ask, actually, as part of this whole budget process, I would like you and Executive Director Garcia to come here with an actual economic development presentation. Chief Henry did a great job talking about OCFA. I think it's important for us to hear about what we're actually doing. Credit card fees, I support the whole increase, the service fee. That's not enough. That's not gonna get us to what I was just describing. So other things I want to talk about citywide as far as investments. I agree with Council Member Hernandez, Santa Ana Stadium. And I think that we all have ideas of ways that we can improve that stadium. But I think what we need to do is look at, as Council Member Hernandez talked about, a long-term vision. So I'm hoping that staff can bring us back something where you guys... get somebody much more of an expert in that field than any of us to come back with a vision for what that stadium could be. The train station, I couldn't agree more that that place needs to be utilized. Even with the construction going on, I take the train from that station. There's nowhere to get coffee or tea. There's just nothing happening there. And there's commuters going through there day in and day out. Not just local commuters going to LA or San Diego, but throughout the region. So, you know, and One thing I was gonna ask you guys, and maybe this is Director Garcia, the tower at the train station, I know we used it as a community room at one point, could be used for so much more and it could generate so much more revenue. So I hope that you guys are looking at that, not just the ground floor spaces. When you talk about the county seat impacts, I'm gonna give you a different lens on that and say, the county seat designation allows us to audition every single day to hundreds of jurors, if not thousands of jurors, folks using the different services in the Civic Center. So shame on us if we don't figure out how to get all those folks to become repeat customers and come back to our restaurants and come and shop and dine in our city. Shame on us. That is an opportunity that most other cities in Orange County, they just don't have. We do. And so that county seat designation, which was, by the way, voted on by the voters. This was not something that we just arbitrarily picked up. That's something that, whether you guys like it or not, we're not shaking it anytime soon. same with the rest of the county. You're not taking it from us. As far as Ward 4 priorities, the Alton Bike Trail, video surveillance, proactive live video monitoring of that facility. And I know that I asked for a cost of that at a recent council meeting, so I'm hoping you can get us something maybe in the next meeting or two. The in-custody transportation vehicle, again, this is something that, in talking to Colt, this is something that I'd heard from them and other folks. It would enhance efficiency and provide a dignified means to transport folks on our streets to our shelter and other services. Streetlights at the cul-de-sacs up against Lilly King Park, just at Harvey Avenue and Carroll Avenue. Those are two of the three cul-de-sacs that dead end right at the park. They're very dark right as we speak. So if I can get one pole light at each of those ends of the cul-de-sac, that would be great. Two last things. Three-foot fencing around Segerstrom Triangle Park. I'm looking at you, Director Scott. I think we've had this conversation a while back. It's great to see that beautiful fencing along the vacant lots along Bristol, but I don't see kids playing in there, but I do see them playing at the Segerstrom Triangle Park, so if we can get some fencing around there, I think it'd be more useful there. And last but not least, I want to thank Rudy Rosas and the Public Works team for the traffic calming measures along St. Andrews between Fairview and Greenville. Right now, I think they're more utilitarian and more just there to try to accomplish the job, but they could be improved, and so I'd be asking for those to have a little more permanence, something along the lines of what we see along Civic Center Drive, you know, with the roundabouts and more of those pedestrian crossing enhancements. That's all I have right now, everybody. Again, thank you, staff, for the presentation. I'm looking forward to seeing what you guys bring back. Thank you.

Council Member Vazquez? Thank you very much, and thank you to the staff for bringing this early direction for us. I'm in agreement with Councilmember Hernandez and Becerra on the credit card processing fee, on the technology cost recovery evaluation. The one-time spending, yes, we need to pay now before it becomes a problem later. I agree with the workers' compensation fund balance general liability fund, pension stabilization fund, street sweeping, interim subsidy, the high priority one-time projects. I'm a little worried about investing too much into the bull until we know how to make money off of it. And I was so happy that we had three events, Ramadan and two concerts, and they were busy, and I'm like, they were full, and the parking lots were full, and the parking lots here were full, only we don't get any of that money. So the county got all the money, so we need to figure out how do we get in on that where we're promoting Eddie Westfield and we make that kind of money that we need. So before we invest in that, I'd rather invest in the firehouses that are outdated in our community centers and make sure we upgrade those, because that's a high priority. Those are the high priorities for me. But Eddie Westfield is working great until we know how to make money from it. That's where I am with that, and I appreciate you guys bringing that to us on the events. I love all these events. Fiestas Patras, maybe it can go private, and it could become a moneymaker for somebody. We subsidize a little bit of money. It's been private before, and they've ran it well, and folks have made money from it. So if it goes private, we subsidize it. It still happens. We still have a parade. We're still happy, happy with our cowboy hats. I know that's Councilmember Fannin's thinking. We still have our day out there, and we get to enjoy it, but make it private so somebody else can pay for it and make money off of it. Yes, with the arts and culture, we do need that funding for all the arts in Santa Ana. Immigration related services, I'd like to see a little more added to the universal legal defense program as we are now in this crisis. We're at 300,000, I'd like to see it bumped up to 500,000. this animal care shelter I'm worried about, but I need some support from you all. What are we gonna do about it? And I'm looking forward to seeing some of that work. For my ward, I think we're gonna be asking for an increase in the, Increase in the police oversight. We wanna see the fully funding of senior outings. I know it's a little bit, it's 50,000 to 100,000, but they need it and they want it, and something that I promised I would make sure we shout out to. I wanna see us activate Wilshire and Bristol. We have a green space there I keep talking about. That could be a dog park, it could have splash pods, or it could be a park. and just a space for a community to be there. That neighborhood doesn't have a park in the area. It's all housing from corner to corner, so I would like to see that happen for them. I want to support Councilmember Becerra on the transportation vehicle for quality of life team, And someone who likes to ride that bike trail, I like to see lights and cameras there as well. And as Jonathan Hernandez says, we do continue to support crossing guards across the city as long as we continue to investigate where they're best needed. I know when we first lowered them, we did that work and we continue to do it as the population is shifting where the kids are coming from and where they're going. So continue to work that out as well. And that's all I have for now.

Thank you, Council Member Vazquez. Council Member Lopez?

Yes, I would love to not be shaking while I'm trying to give you my comments. So I really need to know who is in charge of the temperature. in the chamber. It's really not funny. This is not the first time that I vocalize that it's freezing in here and that I would love some consideration for all members of the council. Thank you. So on item 21. You know, I think it's really important that our community understand, right, that they hear that it's a 19 million projected deficit that we are facing. And obviously, per the staff report, the primary drivers are labor costs increase, the CalPERS unfunded liability, the revised sales tax projections, and the OC Street car subsidy, which is now at $2 million a year. And we heard earlier about the one-time spendable fund balance of $11 million. And so I don't want to take this opportunity to tell you what I'm going to advocate for because you're giving me a list of what you want me to tell you that I would be happy to live without. So that's going to be my focus today. I will focus on my budget ask in the upcoming budget meetings. Um, And so we have remaining $3 million reserved for the May budget workshop direction. And I hope that our community understands how serious it is that we're facing a $19 million structural deficits. I certainly appreciate your transparency. Thank you to the finance team, to the city manager's team for making that as easily as digestible. and continuing to bring this to us. And so I'm most interested in thinking through about how do we balance strategies here while continuing to apply an equitable lens, which you know is very important to me, to our community. We can't just cut after-school services because we know that that will have a very deep impact on families that need and depend on after-school services. And so I... So some of the things on the nice-to-have list are, I think, I hope everybody in our community actually takes time to read through this because it's really important. You know, when I'm going through the list and I'm seeing that, I think it's like walkie-talkies, right, for officers or for the department. And I'm just like, why would that consider a nice-to-have? I would just think that that's something that's needed. But I understand. And I bring that up because... That's the point here, right? We are having to think about serious things that we have to cut because the city cannot afford it. And so, you know, one of the things that I wanted to ask that is not here is, if I remember correctly, and please feel free to correct me if I'm wrong, but last year the council voted to increase the travel budget. Is that correct, incorrect? Yes, so I advocated against that. I would say you should add that because that's something that I think easily, I hope that the council, even though they approved it, can agree that that's something that can be brought down to what it used to be. And I know that's not gonna entirely fix the deficit of this level, but I think it could contribute long term. The other thing is I'm fine with the 2.5 fee. I think it's reasonable. I would be very happy supporting and directing staff to move in that direction. But I do want there to be accessible options for residents of our city who primarily continue to use cash. And we've seen that with some of the meters, right? Some of the areas that are heavily, people still use their coins. And so I would still love for us to continue to be mindful of our residents that are cash users for whatever reason, but I am fine with the 2.5% that is being proposed. On staff recommended allocations to workers' comp, general liability, pension stabilization, I think that's incredibly important, really responsible. This is the work that we've done since 2021, continuing to tackle the pension issue that the city has and this is something that my constituents talk to me all the time about they truly are fully aware and understand this and are very very concerned particularly for residents that are retired and want to know long term how the city's finances now may or may not impact you know their own retirement and so I think it's a serious issue that a lot of people are keeping and talking about and have been for a very long time and it's why you know some of them have opposed these large contract dollars that have been approved from this dais. And so we're at the point now where it's all kind of colliding and you can't really hide behind it. And so I think that what is being proposed and so in terms of the two million high priority facilities fund specifically for our war three community, our partners are going to be critical repairs. particularly because if you don't address some of the leakage now, it's only going to get worse. It's only going to cost more long-term, and you don't want to wait for some of those repairs when you're not going to have some of the dollars that we have now. You know, I would say that we should consider, start with the the things that we can all live without, right? And I know this is going to be difficult for everybody to hear. People have put so much work and effort into being innovative, bringing new things. But I think that, you know, Cultura Magazine is one of the things that we can look at. The sister city is something that we can look at, particularly the travel. I would also like to learn more about the consolidation that it seems like staff is probably trying to signal to us within PD because every line item has its own, I think like a community outreach budgets. And so I don't see that with any other department based on the information you're providing. And so I think that's something really easy that hopefully this council can understand. It's time to streamline that, right? And so that can be something that can help save a lot of money for the city. It's right here in front of me. And so that's something that just stuck out to me. And additionally, I wanted to know, You know, if there's any recommendation in terms of the boards and commissions that you would like to discuss today, and I recognize, you know, that some of these commissioners are not taking their responsibility seriously. I've seen the attendance report that Jennifer has shared. It's also available online. And, you know, it's really unfortunate that people come here and take an oath and don't even bother to show up for their commissions. How many of those commissioners are on the Arts and Culture Commission haven't shown up? Measure X, right? We don't have recommendation from the Measure X committee that is meant to provide this council with guidance on those dollars because they have not been able to meet due to quorum issues. And so if these people that are being appointed are not going to take it seriously, then what is the purpose of having commissions that are only costing our city money and are not being productive? And so they have really brought me to the point now that I am open about the removal of some of these commissions. And they need to understand that it has been their inaction, their inability to... show up to these commissions that are making me say the things that I am uplifting tonight. And I encourage all members of this council to check in with your commissioners, to ask them to be responsible and to be respectful of our time, of our staff's time and all the work that they do because a lot of your commissioners right now are not showing up and that's really a shame. I also wanted to know in terms of increasing revenue, one of the things, city manager, that I would love to discuss again. About three years ago, I brought an item about a lot of the empty plots of land in our city. It's a shame that the council did not care to generate money then, but I think that that is something that can easily help with this issue. I see you nodding your head. Thank you for understanding the importance, and I hope that that is something that staff can bring back, and I hope that every member of this council that opposed it three years ago will reconsider their votes, because we need to generate money, and we cannot only generate money off the backs of people that are working in the city. And I think that that is important to vocalize. And so, you know, I think I have questions from you all. I would love to learn what you are all thinking about. And so I don't know that we're going to get through all of it tonight, but these are some of the things that I'm thinking about now and that I would love to discuss in depth with my colleagues.

Thank you. All right, I'm gonna take up some time here. Then Council Member Fann and Mayor Pro Tem Penalosa. First of all, I wanna say thank you for the report, Alex Catt, City Manager, thank you so much. I always appreciate this information that you're bringing forward. I'm gonna piggyback on some of the things that Councilman Vasquez and Becerra said. The Colt team, definitely supportive of that. Cameras for safety. I have the beauty of representing the entire city and not a ward, so I get to hear from all of the different wards, which I really appreciate, and members throughout the entire communities, all the communities that we serve. Council Member Vasquez, thank you so much for mentioning the senior centers. I've been pushing that since I've been here. We have a very large population of seniors in our city, very large, and I meet with them, I go to their events, and as I've said before, they ask for very simple things, nothing that's $5,000, $20,000, or a million dollars. You know, they ask for a sewing machine or some more classes or trips and it falls on deaf ears. So before your time, Mr. City Manager, so since you've been here, I know we've had conversations and I'd like that to be a discussion again. I don't know why we do not have more activities for our seniors. or why we're not bringing in outside nonprofits who either can do it, they do it for free because they get a grant, or they do it at a minimal cost. So I really want us to take a moment to focus on our senior centers. What do they need? How do we serve them? What trips are we taking them on? They're very active. Very, very active, and we can't ignore that. And so, you know, crossing guards have been brought up twice. We all know this came on, this came up when I was first elected. I don't have a problem with crossing guards. I think they're needed. But no matter what discussion we're having about the budget, again, I always say we're like Mikey, we pay for everything. Before I came on board, I felt like the city just took responsibility for everything. Santa Ana Unified has a responsibility They are responsible for the children from the moment they leave their home until they get to school. That is their responsibility per the Ed Code. And then from the moment they leave school to get home. They are responsible. So if we're gonna look at crossing guards again, fine, I will support it, as long as Santa Ana Unified is also paying a portion. We've asked them to split the cost, I believe, a couple years ago, and at that time, they said no. So hopefully with a new superintendent, she's willing to work with us, maybe we can get her to split the cost, I believe it's about $7 million. to go back to where we were with crossing guards. She's willing to split the cost. We can maybe find the money cap. We'll figure it out, right? And so, you know, there's a couple things, but I do want to thank you for, you know, indicating about the $19 million structural deficit. Since I got elected, I've talked about Measure X, and it's going to sunset. And then why have I done that? Because I don't want to be here years from now or even sitting out there or sitting up here and saying shoulda, coulda, woulda, Why are we having these conversations? Why are we going bankrupt? Why are we getting rid of this service or that service? And thank you because we're being very proactive. And this is what a budget is about and this is what city leadership does and the council. And we all have what we want. It's kind of like at home. It's what we want and what we can afford. So it's when you budget your home and those of us who manage a home and a mortgage and children and bills and groceries and phone bill and gas, it takes me $90 to fill my tank with my car right now, $90, 95. So I understand that our community works, some people work one job, mother, father, or some people work two jobs, some people work three jobs. I'm very supportive of our community. Been here, I understand that. However, we as a city cannot pay for everything. We cannot. And with the budget survey, Kat, can I ask, do you know how many people have completed that budget survey as of today?

I know it's over 1,200. Does that sound right, Alex?

Yes, so we have more than 1,200 responses, so this is more than we had last year. Last year we had 1,100 survey responses.

Oh, I'm keeping track, I know. So, Alex, can you go back to the slide where the schedule is for the budget, please? So May 5th is the prelim results, another date to be determined, May 19th, June 2nd, and then June 16th is the second reading to actually adopt the budget. Mr. City Manager, I'd like to ask you, for looking at the budget survey, Can you please meet with your staff and find a way, I believe our PIO staff now has three or four people who work with him, we've hired additional staff, or just all of the different departments, how can we get that survey out to people more than we already do? I know we do it on social media, I think we've sent something out. I see it all the time. I post it all the time. I put it in my newsletter. I think we've all done it. But there has to be something more that we can do because we really want people to fill out that budget survey. What do they want? You know, people sit up here and say, well, it's the community. Well, since I've been sitting here, two things, I say it all the time, that the community asks for. What are they? Public safety, right? And the other one? What's the other one? I'm sorry? Right, public safety, public safety, public safety, public safety. And so, yes, we want after-school programs, but we have a school district that is losing students. I think they're a little, almost 30,000, if not a little less, and they have a budget that they're also losing money. So what a great time to work in a partnership with the school district. Garden Grove Unified comes to us all the time. Matter of fact, Garden Grove Unified pays for a police officer to be an SRO officer. I mean, they pay us for an officer. because it's a partnership that we have with them. And their superintendent, Dr. Moffey, is amazing that she comes and says, how can we work together? As far as the county, you know, somebody mentioned, I think it was Councilman Vasquez, I don't mean to be picky on you, but you said that we had two, three great events at Eddie Westfield, but we didn't make any money. How much money did we make? It's a question. Well, how much money did we make with those events? Give me, not an exact, give me something. We had three events, correct? Yes, ma'am.

For both those events, we brought in over $100,000.

Okay, so what events are we talking about?

Talking about the Ramadan and then the two concerts.

So for those three events, we brought in only $100,000.

Yes, those are based on the fees that were approved by you guys.

And Director Hock-Scott, how much did we spend to put on those events?

It's minimal on staff, but I can get you that number.

Could you come back when we're doing the budget numbers? Absolutely. I'd like to see that, please. Thank you so much. Because Mr. City Manager, if we're having events, but we're not making any money, ni modo, why do we have them?

I think it goes, and forgive me if I sound a little defensive.

No, no, you can, yeah.

But it's like Council Member Lopez says, there's been ideas that have been presented that have never been worked on. So I think the Eddie West is a perfect example, right? And the Eddie West events are a perfect example. If we had moved on the concession stand previously, then we would have made money off the concession stand. It would have moved earlier on our, I can't remember, Hernandez said on the locker room and the bathrooms, right? we wouldn't be here. We would be making a little bit more money, right? When you go to the pond, when you go to other events, the forum, when you go, right, the, whatever the split may be, but most of us, you know, when you buy edibles, when you eat, drink, and spend money, it stays with the event. It doesn't go to the promoters. Here we don't have that. because we don't have that foundational aspect. When Council Member Vasquez mentioned this whole thing about who makes the money, I mean, think about it. In previous leadership, we own the land, where anyways people park, but we don't make the money because it's a partnership with the county. We often say we stand on the jolts of giants, but that's the action that we're taking now, right? Your frustration is our frustration. That's the key. Council Member Lopez said, you know, three, four years ago, you know, we toyed with the idea of charging vacant properties where developers use it as a tax break, you know, and tomorrow have the growth conference, so it might not go as well. but where people, you know, don't develop. And so here we hold hostage. And I get, you know, we can say it's the market, it's private business, but we as a government also have to think as a private business sometimes. How do we generate income? How do we make money? And that's the thing that we're doing now. If you look at our budget percentage for early direction, right, we need to present a nuts and bolts type of approach. liability, sidewalks, cleanups, pension life aspects. When we talk about what do we do with the commissions, we have the ones that are required by code and the ones that are not necessarily required. But at a moment where community input is needed, where transparency is the key, here we're talking about how do we don't continue to do that because people don't participate. Well, I'm frustrated too, right? I mean, that's the whole point. An article recently came out of our immigration stance. We spend over a million dollar on immigration support. quietly, but tangible money spent from the general fund to our community. We are helping. And so, today, as solemn as it sounds, as we're making very strategic type of aspects, Council Member Rosado says, what are we gonna do with the TOT? Well, yes, we have to make sure that our hotel quarters are safe, so we address the homeless issues, so the people come to our events. And that's the key. Again, tomorrow, whoever attends the girl, you'll see that we are making strides. We are bringing quite a bit of business, different kind of components in addition to, of course, housing. So this is the key. We're dealing with hard, hard issues, hard cases, because we have a foundational type of approach which just came for us to address. And I think you're going to see a very serious approach that perhaps has not been discussed very openly. So I do appreciate the comments from all council members, but that's the key. We're really having to address things that weren't addressed three, four, five, six, seven, 10 years ago.

Thank you, Mr. City Manager, and you say it, because we say it, you know, we sit on the shoulders of giants, right, and the decisions were made previously, and now we're paying the price, and so who would have thought, you know, 15 years ago, you know, somebody should have said, let's build a really nice hotel here in Councilman Becerra's ward, maybe, or somebody else's ward to make some money, generate some revenue, but instead, we don't. We have lots of smoke shops. which, and I'm gonna say it with you. When you said edible right now, I know you weren't talking about cannabis edible, right? You were talking about food. I just wanted to be clear on that.

I was talking in the events, like the pond, the forum.

Yes, okay, perfect. Food. So when you're talking about concession stash. There will be no edibles sold at our concession stands. I just want to be really clear on that. So, okay. So let me go back here really quick. And thank you because, you know, it's like when I sat on the school board, I used to say, we're a Fortune 500 company here. And that's what we are. It's the city of Santa Ana. We are a Fortune 500 company. That's how I look at it. And you have to balance the budget and be very transparent. And the community, bless their heart, they want some things. And they do. They really do. But again, when the budget survey comes out, it's always about public safety and the quality of life. That's what they're looking for. They want to feel safe in their home. If you recall, we met with a developer about a hotel in our city. You, me, and the chief. It's on my calendar. There's nothing to hide. And what did he ask you, chief? He said, what is crime like? How much crime? Has it gone down? What are you doing, Chief? How do I know that if I build a hotel here that people that stay will be safe? And you explained everything that you're doing at the police department. And then, Mr. City Manager, you did as well. So, I mean, those are the conversations that I know I've been part of to say, can you please build a hotel here? And then when he, that person pushed back to say, well, how safe will my people that stay at my hotel be? Because we have to get rid of that reputation that we have because our city is no longer full of homeless people and all this criminal behavior by them. And I'm not trying to be disrespectful to anybody, but if you drive around our city, our cult team has done a phenomenal job of working hard seven days a week, cleaning it up, and I don't think we say it enough to them to say thank you. And now they're actually also taking people that they make contact with to the hospitals for SB43, thank you, I'm looking at DC Andrade like I know you know. SB43, so now the hospital that we're working with, they're saying, hey, we'll create a unit for people that you pick up under SB43. So there's things happening that the community may or may not know about, and that's not gonna cost us money other than CULT that we already pay for. So I just wanna say there are some really good things happening here, and I have some other things I wanna address. Did you wanna address SB43?

No, I just want to, because I just recalled, you mentioned about senior, the community centers. We're working with the congressman. He's requesting on our behalf $2 million for our senior community improvements. Yes, he is. So we are working with congressmen like never before.

Yes, and we also need to be reaching out to our assemblymen and our senator to get money. Yes, so we definitely need to. Let me go to the street sweeping here. It says here staff is exploring. And again, thank you guys for all of this. And I'm just asking questions because I know that I personally meet with you and we set up meetings so that I don't have to ask all these questions up here and take four hours and pontificate and spend, and it sounds like I'm scolding you, because I'm not, because I meet with all of you in person in the conference room and say, explain this to me, why are we doing this, right? So just for clarification purposes. Sanitation fund. And this is one, Kat and Abro, that I'd like to discuss further with you. You're exploring a range of options to address the funding gap. So adjusting service frequency, so I know we do street sweeping once a week, so I think we're looking at maybe possibly changes. I have some concerns, I'm not saying don't, I'm just saying I have some concerns. And when it comes to saving money, if it's gonna save us money to do it Every other week, again, those watching at home, I'm not saying that, I'm just saying what are our options at this point? And you don't need to answer unless you want to. Because let me finish my other question. And then providing services in-house. That really caught my eye because like you hire those 10 staff to do projects that are moving things along very quickly under Rudy's shop. And thank you Rudy for all of that. We brought it in-house so we were able to save lots of money. And so is that what we're looking to do with street sweeping? Yes. Thank you. I just wanted, because it says $900,000 you wanted in one-time funding, so if we can bring it in-house, I know the businesses probably will not be happy, but it's going to save us money in the long run.

So, again, better control, bring it in-house, you know, SEIU jobs, and the ability to actually safeguard some of our opportunities here.

And it also brings membership to SEIU.

That's what I said, yes.

Oh, did you just say that? I'm sorry, I'm looking for something else here. I apologize. Okay, let me go to the immigration. And I'm very happy that we're doing this. And as you know, I brought the item forward for a million dollars right up front. But I'm glad we're now at $850,000 for the immigration-related services. And I think it's cute that other cities want to jump on the bandwagon. And I thank them, but they want to get all the patty on the back, like, oh, we're doing a great job. We were the first. We're always the first. I say that proudly. We were the first to do this. And it says here 250 households were served but with 487 individuals, right? That's key. That is very key. It's very important. And then the Legal Defense Fund. If we were to increase that just hypothetically or some, like give you some idea, where would you get additional funding? Because I believe with this funding you went across the board.

Yes, this was Saturday savings.

Okay, so we'll talk about that also when we come forward because I'd like to know where that's going to come from. So animal care shelter, I know it's very important. I have my fur babies, I think all of us up here, except for maybe two of us, Ty. Council Member Hernandez, you have a fur baby? Okay, good. Council Member Tai doesn't have a fur baby. So... So animal shelter. So we pay the county. We pay them a lot of money, Kat, is that correct? So how do we get out of that? Is it also an in-house, are you thinking in-house? Are you thinking working with a non-profit? I just want some sort of idea.

So we'll explore options. We're just laying out what literally has been almost our contract with the county. So we're literally at that option, do we continue, do we look for elsewhere? I've mentioned it to city managers, they wanna have site discussions, but this is one of those issues that we have to address because we can't continue to do $4 million on a yearly basis.

That's correct and that's why I'm glad that you have it in here and so then this will be my final thing for this go around and hopefully we're almost done here because I know we're gonna have five or six more meetings on this, right? And so the county seat impacts, thank you Councilman Becerra because you brought this up. We've had many conversation about being the county seats, how do we save money, how do we make money, what can we charge the county for or how can we get additional funding from them? I would hope that you'd be, I know you're working with our supervisor because he has discretionary funds, he spent quite a bit on immigration which I think is wonderful but at some point we should also be getting some money for the needs that we have in the city. We're his largest voting base and so we really want to tap into some of that money. So it says here that we have impacts of homelessness due to the county jail and social service facilities in the city. Well we know we're not gonna get rid of them. They're not going anywhere. So how do we work with them? And that's why, like for example, I'll use the probation department. I've asked many times to get a list of all the homes that they have in our city, whether they're sex offender homes or sober living. I think, Ollie, now you have a list because what are they paying us to have those homes in our city? Why not have a fee? I'm sure CAT can create some sort of fee and you can bring it to the council. I don't, I don't care, let's pick a, let's ask. I was gonna say pick a five, but we won't. Because, again, it's grab money. There's money. They get money. and they house them, it's paid for, like AB 109 pays for some of the housing, am I correct, Chief? We pay for some of the housing for AB 109 offenders or clients. So we have to get creative in how we do this. And so the other thing it says, increase public safety costs to support safety and traffic management. Well we know, again, we're MICI, we pay for everything and we take care of everything. My concern as an OCTA member, and I've verbalized it with OCTA and I've verbalized it with you and with the police department, and I know that DC Andrade's been meeting with them, and thank you DC Andrade for meeting with OCTA. When something happens on that streetcar, Santa Ana PD will be the first to respond. We all know it. And so they have, I believe, six deputies, six sheriff deputies. And D.C. Andrade, can you come up and share really quick, please? I don't want to give the wrong information. I believe it's six deputies and two sergeants. Yes, I'm going to say something that may not go over very, may not be very popular, but it needs to be said. Sorry. And yes, I'm an OCTA board member.

Good evening, Mayor, City Council. I believe when they rolled out the streetcar and I didn't have the documentation in front of me, they added six deputies and an additional sergeant to their existing OCTA overall staffing model. So those were six deputies added in addition to what they already had in place. Again, I want to estimate that they're in the high 20s to 30-ish for their overall OCTA policing model.

So do you see when an incident will occur, not is it going to occur, it will occur on the streetcar, who will be the first to respond?

It would be whatever agency gets our first, and if we got the 911 call, our people would be responding as well as OCTA, but very likely it would be us.

Thank you. Thank you very much. And so that is why I bring this up, because... We've had conversation, I believe you've had conversation with the meetings about paying for some Santa Ana police officers, is that correct?

Yes, Madam Mayor.

And you're still meeting with them?

Yes.

Thank you. Mr. City Manager, that has to be a priority, and I will keep pushing it on the OCTA board, because Santa Ana PD cannot be all to everybody. So if something happens on the streetcar, let's just say a homeless person gets on there, stabs somebody, God forbid, or hurts somebody, Santa Ana PD's gonna respond, they're gonna get there, Maybe the sheriff gets there at the same time. Then what do you do, D.C.? You both arrive. What do you do? You say thank you, it's yours now, and we walk away?

depending on the incident, but if it's on the streetcar, it'd be their responsibility to handle. If it's bled out into our community, we're gonna do what's best by the individual member who's involved in whatever the incident may be. So always do what's best by the case, and we'll sort out the logistics on the back end.

Correct, and thank you for saying that, and that's where I was going. No matter what, our officers are not gonna walk away and say, oh, ni modo, I don't need to touch it. It belongs to the sheriffs. They don't do that. They say, we're gonna take care of you. That's how we roll in this city. And so it is going to cost us money and time from our law enforcement. There was an incident already, and what was shared with me was, it was a phone call on a Sunday afternoon, Mayor, there was a little traffic incident, streetcar, la, la, la, crashed into whatever street in Santa Ana, I think it was in your ward, Councillor Hernandez, and they said, well, Mayor, Santa Ana PD's handling it because it happened on your street. well then everything's we're going to handle everything because everything's on our street so again where is the money coming from thank you dc i appreciate it so i want us to go to the table with them mr city manager and you're what do we have an mou with them are we working on out here we now we're kind of sort of trying to work that one out they have to understand there's a cost So if somebody comes in our city, whether it's the county, whoever, there's a cost to do business in our city. And we need to charge people appropriately because our constituents deserve that. They deserve the best quality of life, just like Irvine and every other city. You would not see a streetcar going through Irvine. You're just not gonna see it. Why? Because the person sitting here before me, twice over, agreed to that streetcar. And then the council voted on it. Not this council. But I just, so now we're eating that. We're eating our businesses on 4th Street. So, and then Council Member Vasquez, thank you for bringing a Fiesta Patria, but I wouldn't support it being privately because they'll come after us and they'll charge, they'll fill up the whole council chamber. But we can charge more. We can charge more. Because if you look at what we have, and let me just pull this up so everybody knows. So it says arts and culture organization, $300. Educational social service organization, $300. Downtown bid members, $300. Santa Ana businesses, $500. Businesses outside of Santa Ana, $1,200. Restaurants, $2,000. We can increase those prices. So it's not on the backs of our constituents. So I'm gonna stop there because I know that I'll privately meet with you all and we'll go over this. And I know you're addressing the workers' comp issue. I know that we are as a city. And so thank you, I really appreciate that. I do support the arts and culture. I think it's very important. It says here that Santa Ana Unified Collaboration to Provide Mural Arts, Instruction, Career Development. So we're giving Santa Ana Unified $100,000. It says in here. But we already are part of the Art Walk, which is part of Santa Ana Unified. Oh yes it is, I was a board member for eight years. Yes it is, unless they've changed things, it is. because our kids go out and perform and show their artwork and whatnot. So I'm not saying I don't support it. Again, I would just say, we have partners, they call themselves our partners, whether they're businesses, developers, school districts, county, they call themselves our partners, but then they want us to foot the bill. And we don't have the funding. And again, as we get closer to Measure X sunsetting, we need to, and you said this last year, and Kat said this as well, we will be tightening the belt. So I know some people will not be pleased, and some people up here will not get what they want, and some people in the community will not get what they want, but we have to tighten the belt. So thank you very much. Councilman, Mayor Pro Tem, Panelosa? And then Councilmember Fannin will call it a day.

Thank you, Mayor. Thank you, city staff, for putting this together and bringing this presentation to us and staff report about the, obviously terrible situation that we're in financially i mean it's a sad reality and it's one that i know is shared with many cities up and down this state and across this nation and uh you know i know that our structural deficit is approximately 19 million dollars correct cat which is a lot of money and uh We should be tightening up our belts and I'm happy to see that. And we should have started doing this the minute Measure X passed back in 2018. And I'm just happy to know that we're taking proactive steps and measures to do that now. With the commissions, I realize that the, why is a historic resources commission such a huge expense compared to the others? Just, if you could briefly describe. Because if it's costing us $100,000, now the question is, is that a commission that could be absorbed by the planning commission? the work that they already do.

Thank you, Mayor Pro Tem. The Historic Resources Commission application fees are subsidized by the City Council. So initially the fees were about $5,000 for a listing and $5,000 for a Mills Act. I want to say about 10 years ago in an effort to stimulate folks adding their properties to the register, The City Council adopted subsidies to bring the cost down by about half in one application and by about 90% for the other. So whereas the Planning Commission, there's a full cost recovery because what developers pay pays for the staff time. For the Historic Resources Commission, there's not a full staff recovery because the fees are subsidized and kept lower. Therefore, it's a subsidized rate. It's $100,000 cost.

Okay. Yeah, and then I think that's something that we should definitely revisit as a city council. I don't know what that means yet, but we should definitely revisit because when somebody goes through the Historic Resources Commission and puts their property on the Mills Act, guess what? They're saving a lot of money in property taxes, which then is less money for going into the city's coffers, the county's coffers. And so I think it's important to revisit and have that conversation again. because I know that applications are coming in frequently. So what that looks like, I don't know yet, but that's an area where we could definitely look into, and that's something that I'd be supportive of. I'm looking at the many city events, and thank you, Ali, that we have at the... So for the... Like, and to Councilmember Becerra and Councilmember Vasquez, and we've all mentioned it up here about the, we're looking at little pennies here with the credit card fee and in the grand scheme of things, it's pennies that we're trying to look for, right? I look at the, thank you for the good faith effort in the reductions in these events. Now, Oh, never mind, I was thinking, so the events and attendee numbers, so for the 5K, 10K run, where $93,000 cost, is that what that means? And then is it saying, is this saying that there's, it brings in 3,500 people or is it less?

So yeah, that represents a number of attendees for those events. So for the 5K, it was around 3.5 thousand people that attended that event.

Okay. Now, the little negative minus sign was throwing me off. How much are we currently spending, or not spending, charging for the 5K and 10K run?

So currently for the 10K, we are charging at the early bird, 25, and it goes down to 15. So for this year, we brought in, there's 2,815 runners. So I don't have the exact number, but on fees alone, we brought in over about 55,000. And with the selling of the shorts, we're over 60 right now.

Okay. And then for the 5K?

It's about $5, $10 less, depending on if it's early bird or regular bird.

Okay. And is that the same amount that we charged last year?

No, we did raise it. Yeah, so we first started, this is our second year, now charging for the 10K, and now the 5K, this will be our first year. So there's room to bump it up, and we have talked about that.

Yeah, I think that's something that we definitely need to do. But, Councilmember, that's a good point, right? Last year, literally our first year here, was the first time we even charged. We charged, correct. This year, we went and committed a little bit up. Next year, we'll probably go up, but that's the key, right? Our residents and participants, you know, want to attend, and the irony is, you know, when people paid, which is what, you know, Directors Scott and we discussed, is that people took it more serious, right? And that's the key that we're trying to build, a serious run, a serious commitment, and to you know not afford everything just the general fund yeah

Yeah, I think that we definitely need to, there's wiggle room there as well for improvements on what that looks like. And even just looking at 5Ks and 10Ks in neighboring cities. I mean, they're charging, I'm not saying we gotta charge $80, but they're charging, you know, 50, 60, 70, $80 for a 5K. And there's wiggle room there to look at the average countywide and see what we could charge so that at least that event we break even, right, and we're not, obviously we don't wanna make a profit, but if we could break even, that's all that I would hope that we could do So there's wiggle room there, and that's what I mean by looking at these little pennies. I wanna wholeheartedly agree with all of my colleagues on the investments that need to be made at our Santa Ana Stadium, and not just our Santa Ana Stadium. Six years ago, I was shown a presentation, or I had a brief meeting with our previous, previous public works director about our Civic Center. And then that just has been dormant. I never heard about it again. So I think that's another area that we need to aggressively push because guess what? The city of Anaheim, obviously we don't have a Honda Center, we don't have an Angel Stadium, but OC Vibe is marketing itself as downtown Orange County. That is the tagline they're using. Because they're investing into their surrounding areas, and guess what? It's becoming the downtown of Orange County. I know that my colleagues love to express how cool it is that we are the downtown of Orange County, but what do we get from it? Absolutely nothing. So we need to take a serious look at revitalizing this entire civic center. And I've said this before, and I know this is a conversation for another day, but I hope that staff really takes an aggressive approach at how we could reshape this entire civic center here in downtown Santa Ana. We talk about the investing of millions of dollars that are probably needed for the San Antonio Stadium, the restrooms, the snack bar, the ticket booth, all of the above, the seating. Sound barriers are going to be needed to protect the neighboring neighborhoods. But guess what's around the San Antonio Stadium? County jail, the city jail. And that might not be the best place, right? So if you look at an aerial map of our Civic Center, and I've said this before, I know that there's effort from the county to completely rebuild their courts. Guess what, look at that footprint. It's the same footprint of the size of the stadium and the court system. Would it make sense to talk, have serious conversations with the county to do land swaps about, hey, build your county court system over here by the jail, by the police department, where it makes more sense, and then we could look at rebuilding a really nice stadium on this side of the street surrounded by a new city hall and housing and retail and restaurants. I mean, these are things that we need to really think about if we want to generate revenue and make some real investment into our city. I would hope that we work in really beefing up our economic development department. That I know we have one, but it doesn't seem like there's much coming out of there. I'm going to be honest, there really isn't. Because we're talking about cutting pennies here and cutting pennies there. but no real conversation of how are we gonna fill in that revenue without looking at a tax increase or raising water rates or depleting services on the street sweeping. So those are serious conversations that we also need to have. There was one more point that I wanted to, oh yeah, the TOT taxes. So what is our current TOT rate, Director Downs?

Yeah, it's 11%.

Or Assistant City Manager Downs, I'm sorry.

Or Director Trinidad.

Or Director Trinidad, yes.

So right now it's 11%.

11%. And what's that, do you know off the top of your head what it is in Garden Grove and Anaheim?

I don't have that, but we can bring back that information in the next meeting.

Okay. And I say this because, you know, there's... WHETHER IT'S A CIVIC CENTER, WHETHER IT'S WILLOWETT GOLF COURSE, ALL THOSE THINGS HAVE BECOME DORMANT AND THERE'S OPPORTUNITY FOR OUR CITY TO REALLY BRING IN INVESTMENT INTO THIS CITY. I bring up Great Wolf Lodge in the city of Garden Grove. Great Wolf Lodge alone brings in $14 million a year in revenue. Just Great Wolf Lodge. That's it. I'm not talking all the hotels. I mean, these are assets that these cities have looked into. But every time we want to invest into... Willoway Golf Course, you know, it's, oh, we can't because, you know, it's going to make everything more expensive. And it's like, well, if we want to invest in our community, you know, there's ways where we could invest in our community and offer those protections to the surrounding neighborhoods. But we need to take a serious look into the investments we want to make to make sure that our revenue keeps up with the expenses that it takes to provide these services to our residents. So I would hope that as we're having these conversations, we also look at all these areas that are just sitting dormant without any investment happening, because we need that investment in order to bring in, continue to fill in those gaps where it's happening. With that, I hate to see the service frequency of the street sweeping depleted, but again, those are if, You know, we've looked at the city council budget. That's also tripled since I first got elected. Not in our pay, but in council aids. And I hate to say that, but if we want to have a serious conversation, we've got to look at ourselves in the mirror and look at all these extras and remind ourselves that the buck stops with us. And maybe it's where we look at the mayor because she's citywide. She keeps her contracted aid. I don't know, but if I, and apologies Madison, if I need to give up that contracted aid, that's something I'm willing to do. Again, we all sit up here and we talk about the travel budget increase. Yeah, I agree. If council members and people up here want to travel for the sister city, you know what? We should look. You've got to pay your own way. Like the city manager, you pay your own way to Sahuayo, so thank you for that. Which is great. And those are things that this council needs to realize, right? If we need to, if we wanna go spend the summer at Harvard, guess what? Each council member has to pay for that, not come out of the city's budget. So these are things that we really need. We can't just talk and not walk the walk. So I would hope that we all think about these investments City Manager Nunez, these are areas where we really need to focus on if we really want to bring in that revenue. And the reason why I was asking for the TOT tax is because there's room there to increase it. We could raise our TOT tax. I think, don't quote me on this, but I want to say that city of Anaheim was a little over 14%, almost 15%. Yes, they have state of the art hotels that we don't have, but there's wiggle room there to raise it. Assistant City Manager Downs, you were gonna?

Yeah, each percentage that you would raise, TOT, would only get you maybe about 900,000.

But I mean, yeah, it's definitely a long ways from filling that $19 million gap, but by looking at investments in areas like the Civic Center, like the stadium, like revitalizing this whole, like Willowick Golf Course, that that's possible. It's possible to have those million dollar increases in revenue. So with that, that's it, Mayor. Those are all the comments I have.

Thank you. Before I have Council Member Fan finish this out, I just want, I forgot to mention, I don't know if you, Mr. City Attorney, and Mr. City Manager, or our City Attorney, but we have proactive debt collection that we're supposed to be working on, or CAAT. People owe us money. Individuals owe us money, certain people owe us money. Are we collecting? And if we're not, we should be. I don't care if it's pennies.

Yeah, there have been actions taken and I understand that your city attorney's office will be providing you with a memo shortly.

And when will that be, Madam City Attorney?

I can get out to you an update. I think recently had updated you on one very significant payment that was being made to the city. And as soon as that escrow closes, I can give you the exact dollar amounts.

So Mayor Pro Tem, thank you for talking about pennies. I mean, I get it. We sound like we're talking about pennies, but pennies add up. And so Madam City Attorney, if you can give us a list of those debts that are owed the city.

and how much so we can be sure to give you an update on any type of code enforcement matters that have been referred to our office we would know but general debt so to the city unless they're reported to us by the individual departments or from finance department we we don't generally get that information but what we control we can get you an update on not only what's out there but what we've collected in the last you know one two three five years

Well, I'm very interested because we have people who owe us money. And so I want to make sure that money is gathered. Yes, Mayor Prichard.

And just for the public's aware, I think this is due to a former council member that committed election fraud then forced a special election that cost us over half a million dollars that is still owed to the city. So I hadn't even thought about that, but Madam City Attorney, if you could please find out what the status on that is, I'd appreciate it.

About two weeks ago, I sent you guys an email with the update and had informed you that we did make a demand on escrow, and so we are going to recover the maximum amount that we can from the sale of that property. So yeah, I can resend the email.

Thank you very much. Please resend that. Mayor, excuse me, Council Member Fann?

I'll go by NPT. First off, I would never support making Fiestas Patrias a private event. That is the premier event in the city of Santa Ana. I would much rather remove all other events to continue having Fiestas Patrias. You cannot convince me to bring that back as a private thing. I think that it is an incredible experience for anyone to be able to attend here in the city of Santa Ana. And I hope that we can continue to make it larger and even more of a regional type of event, much like the UVSA Tet Festival, which brings in Vietnamese people from all across the country and the world for a three-day event. So that's one. That was top of my list. Director Pradesh Kapoor, for purposes of the Mills Act and really all applications in the city that is related to planning, I would like to see full cost recovery. Other cities that I work with do full cost recoveries. I don't see why we shouldn't. Someone who has a Mills Act application is benefiting immensely from a tax break with the city of Santa Ana. our staff and other residents in the city should not be subsidizing people with multimillion dollar homes. Secondly, it should be noted that the city of Santa Ana's property taxes are extremely low. I think a third ACM downs of what other cities collect just due to the age of the homes or when they were purchased. And so it should be noted that if you own a home in the city of Santa Ana, you are probably paying a much, much lower amount than people in other cities. And that is a big reason why we don't have the level of service that a lot of other cities have. If you want to fact check me on that, Director Downs can give you the numbers regarding the city of Irvine because I hear people always saying, why can't we have what Irvine has? Because someone in Irvine bought a house in 2000, they're paying a lot more taxes than someone who bought their house in Santa Ana in 1975. The second thing I'd like, excuse me, the third thing I'd like to address is the stadium and just a lot of the conversation regarding investments and economic development and infrastructure. I understand the desire and need for large-scale change. It is great that by the end of this year, somebody up here is gonna be at the state assembly and they can usher through a bill that will help fund large-scale investments in the city of Santa Ana relating to infrastructure such as state buildings, state parking lots, forcing counties and other agencies to pay and work with the city of Santa Ana because we are the, quote, county seat. So I will put that out there for anybody who ends up on the state assembly to push through such a bill. But at this rate, the city does not have the funding to do those large-scale investments. Unfortunately for us, it costs money to make money. And right now, what we can do are the incremental changes that can start generating revenue right now. And in discussion with you, Mr. City Manager, the stadium is ripe for investments. I understand that we've only had two, three events, Director Scott, but... They are proof of concept. It is something that we can do. This means that we can have events every month, maybe once a quarter to start, every other month, and then we can start really generating programming there with private organizations or whoever else who wants to book it out. So I look forward to those investments, especially because they can be done maybe just at restrooms today. In a year, you do something else. I will let you handle that. I think maybe one thing... we might want to look at, and I'm so sorry if we already have, I know we have a CIP as a general matter for the city. I don't know if we have something similar for, maybe like a strategic plan for economic development, or facilities, investments that will generate revenue, including the train station, stadium, we even talked about the Civic Center, et cetera. Yeah, community centers, exactly. I know Council Member Lopez brought up the vacant lots, and I don't know if she brought up the storefronts, too, but that was another thing, right? There are businesses that are just closed four days out of the seven days of the week because they can. I think that's an issue, right, for us, because they can afford to do so, but it creates a sense of... I guess it creates the feeling of vacancy, even though they're not technically vacant. I will leave it to staff to look into that issue and see how other cities are addressing it. But part of creating a sense of space is having activation in these areas and bringing people in. The other thing I'd like to discuss is the development of industrial space in both wards six and one. We have a lot of those. I want to know, you know, I see a lot of these buildings being built. I saw Andrew come in already. Yay us. or not, depends on where you're at, but either way, we're getting leases, we're getting property taxes, we're generating revenue. I want to make sure that we are continuing to pursue those opportunities, especially when it's clean manufacturing, and they pay workers well. So let's continue to focus on aerospace, clean manufacturing in our city, because it's really, I think, it's just really what we're moving toward, I think, as we continue on. I had some comments, oh, about the commissions. I don't see why we couldn't combine the Historic Resources Commission into the Planning Commission. I just don't know. I believe we even had a planning commissioner represent us on the Historic Resources Commission. I'm perfectly fine combining them. I'm so sorry to my Historic Resources Commissioner. But that would be one thing. Because it's not just the, it's having the meetings. It's the taking staff out of whatever else you're doing in order to staff this meeting, right? So that's another issue. The council aides. MPT, you are free to not use any dollars of your council aides. Not my problem, but at the end of the day, you're always free to do that every year. You don't have to have a council aid just because the rest of us do. But what I do know is that as an attorney and with my full-time job, I appreciate my chief of staff and my council aides for being able to attend events. For example, like attending the Fitz Open House, the middle school that Jasley and I both attended because I have work. Or being able to attend the... in Riverview West Neighborhood Association meetings because they hold it while I have a council meeting. And our council aides have been able to not only activate Ward 1 more, but we have had dozens of volunteers from Los Amigos High School. We had a youth forum to actually talk to students about issues affecting them here in Santa Ana and Ward 1 in areas that historically have not been had any attention paid to them, providing resources, and responding to residents. And so these are the services that we provide with our council aides and the work that we do. And I fought for this program. I created this program. And I am happy to continue to fight for this program. especially because I am helping to employ another Lobo. And my previous chief of staff, Liz Beth, is now in law school, and she's a Santa Ana grad. So I'm just very excited to continue to do this work to elevate Santa Ana residents. The other thing I guess I would like to say is I support all of the different recommendations by staff, including the credit card processing fee. I don't know why we wouldn't just increase it every time we have an MOU negotiation if it's not already being addressed. I think anything that is going to be increased due to CPI or increases to staff should be automatically increased whenever possible. So I will let staff figure that out. We shouldn't have to have that conversation every time. The increase is, it should be automatic, it should be adjusted to any other cost because it is not money that is just going to the city's general fund. It is actually directly related to the cost of service. Right? Let's make that a habit. I will die on that hill. I don't mind it. But we have to make those hard decisions now because it keeps getting, well, the can keeps getting kicked down the road. The rest, I think I am supportive of the rest of it. As to Ward 1, staff have been doing an incredible job actually investing in the facilities in Ward 1, New Hope Library, Santa Anita, the dog park, Centennial Lights, the skate park, you know, I don't think Ward 1 has ever seen this level of investment since in the last 50, 60 years, since former Council Member Nelly de Mendoza learned how to swim at Santa Anita. So I remember, she was a Lobo. And so I guess my point is, you know, in Ward 1, all we want is the... everyday maintenance, right? Let's fix those sidewalks with the money that we have. Let's fill those potholes. Let's clean up New Hope. And finally, this is really an ask for PD because Commander Gutierrez was at the youth forum with me at Los Amigos High School, and the number one issue that the students asked Well, there were two issues. One was regarding immigration, which we are addressing and I support. And the second issue was public safety and the rise in gangs in Ward 1. And a huge part of that is due to COVID and the lack of programming that's available to a lot of students because they don't know about a lot of these programs. So I'd like to see investments or more activity by the police department in gangs and in patrol in Ward 1. I don't really know. That's a budget issue, but related. So thank you.

Thank you Council Member Phan for mentioning that because if you, I know we all read our SIG alerts, there's a lot of activity and I don't want to say more than normal, but there is activity with our gangs in our city. And so I appreciate those SIG alert emails that come out to us. And Mr. City Manager, I agree with her that, again, the schools should be doing some after school programming, but at our community centers, with our police departments, with our PAL program, we could be doing a lot more as well. I know we'll have to, you know, what is a priority to us as a council up here? You know, some things are priorities to others, but look at the budget survey. I'll say it again. I sound like a broken record. Quality of life and public safety. People want to feel safe and they want to have a good quality of life. And we don't ever talk about the young people that are getting shot or killed in our city. It's kind of like a discussion. So thank you, Council Member Pfau, for bringing that up. All right, I think we're good. You have any comments, Mr. City Manager?

Nope, thank you, Mayor.

And you're meeting with every department to look at their budget?

Yes.

Every department?

Yes.

So I'd like to have a conversation about that next two weeks, please.

Sure.

Thank you very much. All right, let's go to, we're good, item 20. Jennifer, we're done with that. So we're gonna go to item 21 at this point.

No, that was item 21, now you're moving on to public hearing item number 22.

I'm sorry. End of business calendar. We're going to open our public hearing. Before hearing public hearing item number 22, Madam Clerk, please provide instructions to the public who would like to make a comment on this public hearing item only.

Yes. For a member of the public joining us by way of Zoom or conference call who would like to comment for public hearing item number 22 only, which is the Santa Clara Avenue zone change, please dial star 9 from your phone or select raise hand from Zoom now. If you do so, you will be called upon once the public hearing is open following the staff presentation.

Thank you very much. Item number two is a public hearing related to the amendment application number 2026-02 for Santa Clara Avenue zone change. Mr. City Manager, we do not need a presentation. We don't need the presentation, Kat.

Okay, thank you.

Are there any questions about the council? Any questions from the council? Seeing none, 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?

Mayor and City Council, we do not have any in-person speakers. Noting for the record, we did receive one e-comment related to this public hearing, item number 22, that was distributed to Council and posted online. It does appear we have one commenter on Zoom. So speaker on Zoom, when unmuted, please state your name and the ward or neighborhood you reside in for the record. You'll have three minutes for your comments. Mr. De Dios.

Hello, I'm not sure if you guys could hear me.

Yes, we can hear you. And this is for public hearing item 22, please.

Perfect. I'm in ward three. It's nice to meet you all. So my name is Miguel De Dios. I am an owner across those Santa Clara homes. Just a little bit of background on myself. I was born and raised in the city of Santa Ana, Winifred's Intermediate, Segerstrom High School, Santa Ana College. I have a small little growing family, two-year-old and a new baby coming in. And I'm here to talk about and oppose, you know, changing the zoning designation from agricultural A3 to commercial. The reason why is it's, you know, looking at this area where the two houses are, there's already a lot of traffic congestion there. And not only that, but If we do change that to commercial and we add a business, it's not only going to bring more traffic congestion, but it'll increase the risk of more accidents. As a father and walking on those streets consistently on the weekends with my little ones and a lot of other families here in the Woodland North condominiums, you know, safety is, you know, very important to us. So, you know, if you guys do end up changing that designation, you know, it's gonna negatively affect us. So I know, you know, Jesse Lopez, you know, you're our council member for Ward 3. You know, I know that based off of your presentation or for the budget that you're about, you know, the community. You know, I hope that you will see, you will help us and the community in Woodland North, especially the new generation, the smaller generation families, you know, that You know, it definitely will affect us, so I'm just here to talk about that and to oppose it. You know, I understand that we are in a deficit, you know, 19M dollars. I heard the whole. You know, the whole presentation, but I feel that community should always come 1st at the end of the day, especially for the children and for the little ones. So that's why I stayed on the call for so long, even though it's like 935. Because I feel like, you know, it needs to be shared. So yes, thank you very much. And I appreciate all of your guys's efforts. Thank you.

Mayor and City Council, that concludes the public speakers this evening.

Thank you very much, Madam Clerk.

No further comments. I hereby close the public hearing. Do any council members have additional comments or questions?

Is there a presentation?

Yes, we're not going to have that because nobody really wanted it. You would be the only one.

Oh, I think it would be beneficial because my understanding is this change actually already happened during the general plan. Correct? So I would love for you to explain that to the public, Ali, if you're...

second your motion if you want the do we need a motion for that for the presentation so who wants this presentation so do we need to have a vote otherwise um yeah just answer the question please yeah thank you council member lopez in 2022 when the city council adopted the general plan update the site's land use designation was changed to commercial so the action tonight is simply to clean up the zoning to match the general plan designation

Thank you for the clarification, Ali.

Thank you. Any other, Council Member Serra?

Thank you, Madam Mayor, and thank you, Councilmember Lopez. That was just clarification I wanted to make sure that everybody had was because we put a lot of work into the general plan, and so I did not want to have staff just arbitrarily coming to us with changes to the general plan. Again, given all the work that you did, all the input that we received from the community, and the general plan is doing great. So thank you for that clarification. With that, I'll go ahead and move the item.

Perfect. Hearing no further discussion, there's a motion and I'll second. Let's prepare to vote.

Motion by Council Member Becerra, seconded by Mayor Mezcua, to approve the recommended actions for public hearing item number 22, which is to adopt the environmental determination for amendment application number 2026-02, finding that the project is within the scope of the 2022 Santa Ana General Plan EIR and exempt from further environmental review pursuant to CEQA guidelines sections 15162 and 15061B3. and introducing an ordinance of the city council of the city of santa ana approving amendment application number 2026-02 amending the zoning for the properties located at 2101 and 2109 east santa clara avenue from general agricultural to arterial commercial council member hernandez yes photos seven eyes no nays motion carries ordinance is introduced and we'll come back for second reading at the next meeting

Thank you, at this time we're gonna end the public hearing and we're gonna go to the council member requested item. Item number 23 was requested by council member Vasquez. Council member Vasquez, the floor is yours.

Thank you, today I'm gonna call on the council to discuss and consider providing direction to the city manager and community development agency to conduct a review of a proposal by Habitat for Humanity affordable home ownership project at 502 East Pine Street, including evaluation of potential affordable housing funding to support the project. Habitat for Humanity of Orange County has requested the city council review the proposal and approve a sole source award funding allowable under the adopted affordable housing funds policies and procedures utilizing the city council initiated proposal review process. The proposal involves acquisition and rehabilitation of an existing 18 unit condominium complex located at 502 East Pine Street, which currently operates as a rental housing. Habitat proposes to rehabilitate the property and convert the units into permanently affordable home ownership opportunities for low income working families in Santa Ana. Plan improvements include interior rehabilitation of the units, upgrades to plumbing and electrical, and improvements to shared amenities, such as a courtyard and laundry facilities, elevator and parking structures. The estimated total development cost is approximately 13.07 million, and Habitat has requested six million in city affordable housing funding to support acquisition and rehabilitation of the property. Habitat anticipates completing acquisition, rehabilitation, and resale to qualified first time home buyers within approximately 24 months after funding approval. SAN ANA CONTINUES TO FACE ONE OF THE MOST COMPETITIVE HOUSING MARKETS IN CALIFORNIA, WHERE RISING HOUSING COSTS MAKE HOMEOWNERSHIP INCREASELY OUT OF REACH FOR MANY WORKING FAMILIES. WHILE THE CITY HAS MADE PROGRESS IN SUPPORTING AFFORDABLE RENTAL HOUSING, OPPORTUNITIES FOR AFFORDABLE HOMEOWNERSHIP REMAIN LIMITED. THE PROPOSAL REPRESENTS AN OPPORTUNITY TO EXPAND HOMEOWNERSHIP OPPORTUNITIES FOR SAN support working families building generational wealth, preserve and improve existing housing asset within the community, stabilize neighborhoods and help prevent displacement, leverage a proven nonprofit housing model that continues public investment, volunteer labor and home ownership partnership. Initiating a review of this project will allow staff to evaluate its feasibility and determine whether city participation could advance Santa Ana's goals around housing stability, affordability, and long-term community investment. So request scope of reporting and hearing direct the city manager and community development agency to request a complete proposal from Habitat for Humanity, review and determine if complete proposal has met minimum threshold. If minimum threshold is met, project to undergo an underwriting and subsidy layering review analysis by real estate advisor selected by the city to be paid for by Habitat for Humanity. After the analysis has been completed, staff will present the real estate advisor's analysis and proposal to City Council for direction without any recommendations from staff on funding or not funding the project. Thank you.

Thank you, Council Member Vasquez, really appreciate it. Mayor Pro Tem.

Thank you, Mayor Mezcua, and thank you, Council Member Vasquez, for agendizing this item. I first off want to thank Habitat for Humanity for coming in here tonight. You guys do fantastic work throughout the city. Very big fan of all your projects. And any time that we get an opportunity to create homeownership opportunities in our city is something that I'll always be supportive of. However, with this item, I'm... it has nothing to do with Habitat Humanity or the project or the, this is just simply policies and procedures. It's something that I've always kind of followed and really took seriously and I just, and I guess the question would be if, Council Member Vazquez, was this, did you consult with the city attorney about this project or this item?

Yes, I did.

Okay, and so, City Attorney, the question I have here is, the council, I just get pause because I want to make sure that we're not violating the city charter by having this conversation because the council requested item says discuss and consider providing direction to the city manager and the community development agency to conduct a review. So here we have a council requested item that is asking for the city council to direct not just the city manager but the community development agency to review a proposed Habitat for Humanity project. So I just want to get clarity on the rules because I don't wanna have this conversation and then we, by just having this conversation and direct the community development agency or city charter, like we're, so how, would this not go against our city charter? Is the question.

Yes, okay, so to answer your question directly, yes, the specific direction to give direction from the city council to anyone other than the city manager, we're a city manager form of government. The rub here is that separate and apart from that, the city council has adopted a policy that pertains to these affordable housing monies that you have. And that's set forth in the affordable housing funds policies and procedures which has been attached to this agenda item. That policy and procedure manual was originally adopted back in March of 2018. There was direction. I don't think any of you were on the council. Maybe some of you were on commissions at that time. And then it was amended in August of 2020. Very interestingly enough, after we consulted, I consulted with our council member, I did mention that the only concern I had was this kind of rub between what the recommendation was and what was happening here. And if you will just give me a moment to explain. Remember these items that are council generated come from the charter. It says that every council member can put an item on the agenda. And then this policy actually says that there is a process by which they can petition directly to the council for a sole source designation. So I tried to understand how we could work that together. I did express some concerns to staff. And as staff said, well, we're following the policy they adopted. I want to put on the record tonight has nothing to do with this applicant, has nothing to do, you know, with council member. But I would recommend very strongly that the city council revisit this 2018 policy and the direction that's given and here's why. I don't think in any circumstance you would ever want a policy that says to your professional staff, whether that's me, your city clerk, or your city manager who are appointed by you, that you don't want our recommendation, especially when it comes to an expenditure of $6 million. That's just one thing. And again, this has nothing to do with Council Member Vasquez. I mentioned this when we had our consult. It has nothing to do with the applicant. But when I first arrived as a city attorney, and it was almost April 17th, 14 years ago to the date, there was an 85A item that came to this council. It was prepared by a consultant developer. It was in the form of a staff report asking the city council to sole source the sale of property. And I expressed concern at that point. We worked very hard to stop those types of things from happening. Different scenario, nonprofit developer here. But I do think that you want to consider the policy. I think it was proposed by Council Member Phan when you guys decided how you're going to handle 85A items. And you may want to put an exclusion in there. for dealing with real property. I just say that from experience as a city attorney, that you never want to have developers sole sourcing to you, because maybe in this instance you have a great nonprofit, great history of the city, awesome, but next time it may not be a nonprofit person that does that. So that's just my advice to you, completely separate.

Okay. And thank you for that, Madam City Attorney, and I'm happy you said that. Again, Council Member Vasquez, this has nothing to do with you or Habitat for Humanity. I am a big fan of Habitat for Humanity and all the projects they do in our city. And this is a project that I could agree with, but I just, it's that... that gray area where this council adopted policy contradicts our city charter. And I'm looking at the language now. Page 10, a developer may submit a request for a sole source reward for funding directly to the city council and at least one council member must then submit a written request to staff to review the developer's proposal. That is completely contradictory to our city charter and by us doing that, I personally feel that I'd be in violation of our city charter and potentially be charged with a misdemeanor and that's something I don't want to do So I'm not even comfortable having this conversation right now to direct the Community Development Agency to move forward on this. So I would, since we are having this conversation, Council Member Vasquez, I would hope that we could maybe agenda, and I'm happy to agendize it with you as a co-council requested item at the next council meeting to take a look at this policy, if that's what we need to do. But at the moment, I'm just not comfortable with the conversation at all because of how it's written and because this policy that's attached that was adopted by the city, which I don't, the other question I wanted to ask the city attorney but we could talk offline is how this policy is adopted and then readopted in clear violation of our city charter. So with that, those are the comments that I have. Again, I can't emphasize enough to Habitat for Humanity how much I adore the work they do and am supportive always of seeing any Habitat for Humanity project in our city, but this isn't about the project or Council Member Vasquez, this is just about the policy and the way it's written. With that, those are my comments, Mayor. Thank you, Council Member Vasquez, for agendizing this.

Thank you, Mayor Pro Tem. Let me just piggyback on your, and Councilman Vasquez, I also am very supportive of housing, as you know, and Habitat for Humanity, great work, not a problem with the work. I know, I think there's a ribbon cutting coming up soon within projects, so we're looking forward to being there. Madam City Attorney, I'm gonna piggyback here. Thank you, Mayor Pro Tem, if you're gonna bring this back so we can discuss it or however we're gonna do this, but we need to look at this. And I also don't wanna have an in-depth discussion because I don't want to be in violation of any law. But Madam City Attorney, when this was written up again, and you're exactly right, I was not the mayor at this time, It was originally adopted March 20th of 2018, and then the first amendment was August 18th, 2020. I understand, as the council, you know, city charter is what we live and breathe by, or it should be. So Mayor Pro Tem, panelists have covered a little bit. One of the real concerns I have here, it says, after the analysis has been completed, staff will present the real estate advisor's analysis and the proposal to city council for direction. without, let me say that again, without any recommendations from staff on funding or not funding the project. If city council requests a second real estate analysis to be conducted, the city will pay for the second analysis, not the developer. So I, I, I'm not okay with this and so we need to really take a step back and look at what was approved in 2018 and 2020. Whoever was sitting here thought this was a great idea and I wanna make sure that we are within the city charter and we're in compliance. And no project, in my humble opinion, should be without recommendation from staff, the city manager, his team, and it should not be, I mean the council gives direction but it always goes through the city manager and all the staff and then there's meetings and Ali's involved and Rudy and Mike and everybody because then they tell us if it's a good project, bad project or yay, nay. So I can't support it under this, the city council initiated proposal review so that's all I will say but if Habitat for Humanity is going to build in our city, I will support it but not with this, with one council member can submit a request for this developing proposal. So with that, Councilman Becerra.

Thank you, Madam Mayor, and thank you, Mayor Pro Tem Penaloza, for your comments, because those were very much similar to what I had concerns with. So, just right out of the charter, Section 408, except for the purpose of inquiry, the City Council and its members shall deal with the administrative branch of the City Government solely through the City Manager or their designated deputy, and neither the City Council nor any member thereof shall give orders to any subordinates of the City Manager. So... I'm not gonna go on to say whether Habitat's good or bad, because to me, if there's any uncomfortability as far as having a conversation about a project, I wanna wait to see a full application before me. And usually those applications come with our professional staff making recommendations and having done an analysis. I probably have more experience in development than anybody on this council, and even I wouldn't want to see an application come before us without our professional staff analyzing it and vetting it before we all considered it. So I do have a concern with that, but I do want to thank Councilmember Vasquez because I think this policy is terribly written. It's awful the way it's written. It has conflicts left and right, but I appreciate Councilmember Vasquez, rather than trying to exploit the deficiencies of this policy, bringing it forward to us. So I really do appreciate that, Councilmember Vazquez, because I think this is a healthy discussion that we all need to hear. So the mayor brought up some of the language on page 10, but literally one page before it, proposal submittal, All proposals for program funds shall be submitted to the Housing Division and shall be reviewed and recommended for approval to the Community Redevelopment and Housing Commission for its review and recommendation for City Council or Housing Authority approval through a transparent, open, and competitive selection and review process as established in this section. DOESN'T SAY BY THE WAY, SEE OTHER SIDE OF PAGE WHERE IT SAYS FORGET THE WHOLE PROCESS, JUST COME STRAIGHT TO THE COUNCIL. SO THIS IS OBVIOUSLY GOT SOME Policy has been in place for some time. But, you know, when we as a council approve resolutions or ordinances, there's a portion that has a severability clause. In fact, just recently, we were challenged, we, our city, were challenged in court over an ordinance. I believe it was the rent stabilization ordinance. And there was a portion of that that the court bound to be invalid. So what happened? Did we throw the whole thing out? No, we SEVERED, HENCE THE TERM SEVERABILITY. WE SEVERED THAT ONE PORTION. SO HERE WE ARE WITH A POLICY THAT IS JUST LITERALLY CONFLICTS ITSELF FROM ONE PAGE TO THE NEXT. I WOULD HOPE THAT, YOU KNOW, WHEN COUNCILMEMBER VASQUEZ I THINK IN GOOD FAITH AND GOOD EFFORT CAME FORWARD AND SAID, HEY, YOU KNOW, HERE'S HABITAT FOR HUMANITY. THEY'RE TRYING TO FIND A WAY TO Obtained funding for this project which by the way, whether it's Habitat for Humanity or whoever's doing it I support creating affordable housing homeownership opportunities actual homeownership opportunities, but I'm not going to go so far as to say that Whether it's developer a or developer B because again, we should be seeing proposals that have been vetted by our professional staff not just developer to council member. That just reeks. I don't like that at all. I don't think anybody would appreciate that. But again, thank you, Council Member Vasquez, for bringing it the way you did. I think we do absolutely need to review this policy. We had a chance to review this policy not too long ago. when we were talking about whether we should circumvent our own general plan and zoning code. So that's why I don't wanna talk about certain developers because projects were brought before us where the general plan designation and zoning code were not taken into consideration, but asks for money were given. So I think it's very important that we go through our professional staff. I think if we're going to bring this back for any sort of review or any amendments, I would also like to bring back the idea that we would actually follow the general plan amendment, or I'm sorry, the general plan and the zoning code before we start making recommendations to give money. because it just seems, like I said before, cart before the horse to okay funding, but then have properties not have the proper land use designations. So with that, I think Mayor Pro Tempaloza was talking about bringing something back. I would support bringing back the policy to see what we can do, but as far as any requests right now, I would just say for me, I'm not comfortable with that because, again, this sort of thing should be vetted by our professional staff. Thank you. Thank you. Councilman Hernandez?

Thank you, Madam Mayor, and thank you to my colleagues for their diverse opinions up here. I think all of us share the same sentiment that Habitat for Humanity is an organization we value greatly, an organization we look forward to supporting, and we want to continue to support in our city. Given the limitations that we do have within the city's charter, I do want to be emphatic that I want to work with our city manager's office and my colleagues here at the council to see a Habitat for Humanity project come before us. I know that we have six homes that are coming to West Washington and Artesia Pilar. Not only did they bring this project to us, but they worked with our partners at Santa Ana College to make the information accessible on a number of different occasions. They were always a readily available partner. That's the type of partnership that I want to support. given the limitations that we do have in front of us, city manager, I am supportive of you working with our city staff to bring this back to the council. And perhaps we find that this is a project that can move forward. But given the limitations that we do have right now, I do want you to work with your staff to see what possibilities do exist with respects to the transparency and the processes that we do have in the city I respect that we have to follow those, but I just want to be on the record that I am 100% supportive of Habitat for Humanity. And if this is the project that the council decides is going to be the one that we move forward with, that process will begin with your office. So I support this item. You know, coming back to us, City Manager Nunez, and my support is with Habitat for Humanity to continue to do good work in the City of Santa Ana. Thank you.

Thank you. Council Member Lopez.

City Attorney, it's a little unclear to me. Hypothetically, if the council helps advance this request, are we in violation of the charter?

If the city council gave direction solely to the city manager and said, city manager, we'd like you to explore X, Y, and Z, we'd like you to evaluate giving money to Habitat, or if you said, city manager, we'd like the housing department to put out an RFP in accordance with the policies and procedures, That would not be in contradiction to the city charter because you're giving the direction to your city manager. But unfortunately, the way this policy and procedure reads, it is directly kind of circumventing the way that just that one paragraph is written. It doesn't do that. It's basically like, hey, we, the city council, are gonna go do this and do that. There is history here. I think if you wanna work with the manager, we'll be able to give it to you. I don't know that we want to get into those details tonight other than to simply say there was a lot going on with the use of millions and millions of dollars in 2016. We lost staff because of it. There were allegations that went to the district attorney's office because of it. And this policy was originally adopted in that date of 2018. If you look at the original staff report, which is what we've had a chance to go back and do, there was an interim director in the CDA. And the staff report that was submitted to the city council at that time was signed by the same person under the interim and the director. So there's some irregularities in the policy adoption process. And none of you were here. Lots of our staff wasn't here. We can look at that. So I just wanna let you know that that's what I think is raising the concerns. No one's saying, and I want it to be very clear, no one at all is directing this at our council member or the applicant because the policy says what it says. I think that when we've looked at it. So if the request was, hey city manager, we the council, well, if the request was to agendize a discussion about sending out an RFP for these funds, that would be totally consistent with your charter. And to your point, the policy allows for this. The policy allows for this, but in order to implement the policy, you would be asking some of us as your appointed officers to not comply with the charter. Correct. Right. Can you remind us, when was the last time that the policy was adopted? So the policy was adopted originally, like I said, in 2018, and then it was revisited, but this section was never changed. So the policy was originally adopted in March 20th of 2018, but it resulted from a conversation that had occurred in 2017, which was sort of the 16-17 time was when there was a lot of controversy over the use of these dollars. Mm-hmm. and how they were being distributed and whether people were coming in like a side door to get to them or not. And so this policy was adopted in 2018. Then in 2020, there was a subsequent staff report. At that point, that staff report was, I believe, under our former city manager, Ridge. It was connected with a zoning change. It was kind of combined into one staff report, but no changes were made to this section on page 10. Got it. Okay, so that's the two times it's been reviewed.

Okay. Okay, so this is like a very nuanced, little bit technical, which I appreciate, enjoy. And I guess what I would say is that completely understand the concerns. I was on this council in March of 2020, other members of the council were. But I think it's important to also say out loud on behalf of the office that I represent that you know, we're not always gonna agree with staff recommendation, right? And so that's what I hear that, oh, this should be vetted by staff, et cetera. And we're not, I'm not always gonna agree. And so I think I like the option of the council having this in the policy. However, it would have to be amended via the voters. It would have to be, given to the voters, right, in order for it to be consistent, as I understand. And I think that's important because, you know, everybody wants to talk about we support affordable projects, affordable homeownership projects, but there was an all-affordable homeownership project that never got to be discussed publicly, right? Because sometimes we do, people will work with staff to ensure that those projects never get discussed publicly. And so it's easy for people to sit here and say, oh, I support this, but then they work against the communities back to ensure that those opportunities are never brought forward and discussed. And the LA Times wrote about this, so this is not new to anybody. And I know, Council Member Becerra, I see your facial expressions. And so I think it's important that the council have the ability to always also be some sort of checks and balance when a city staffer says, well, I don't want this in my city, or I don't want to build, or whatever the sentiment may be. It may not even be their own sentiment, right? It might be that they're relaying the sentiment of an elected up here. And so I think for me, I would love to know more, city attorney and city manager, about can there be some sort of happy middle here as we look to the future in terms of having a business relationship with developers in the city? Because it sounds like... Even if a developer approaches me, I don't have to bring this forward. I don't have to put it on the agenda, right? It's always like, hey, go talk to staff. That's the best practice. That's like the layer of, I think, separation that exists. But I also think, you know, I think that when things are done responsibly and in good faith, it doesn't hurt for the option to exist. Because again, sometimes we're not always going to agree on things.

So if I may, City Attorney, then you can give your legal opinion. But as far as reference to an article, I can say this. I never spoke to a newspaper, I never met with Hermitage Humanities, and I never refuted a process or even a proposal that was actually submitted through staff. Because I think part of the issue, and when we talk about things like this in general context, and then there's misrepresentation of some of the facts. So, me, I'm supportive of what the council, the policy makers, in essence, require in Juana's policies. I think the issue here, and this is a perfect example because it did come up, that whole discussion, and so when there's an unofficial RFP proposal, then at least it allows the staff to review general context, general plan appropriation, land use, and you're right. The whole aspect of the process is sometimes it allows for the city council's final, ultimate review of all denials or approvals. Right, that's the key of the process. And so if you notice, and this is our discussion with Council Member Vazquez, we literally adhere to the policy that was, again, adopted in March of 2020, reaffirming, reaffirming, excuse me, adopted in March of 2018, reaffirming 2020, and discussed three, four months ago. So we're nothing more than supportive what the policy directs the majority.

Thank you. Thank you, Council, I just want to make sure, What is interesting to me, and we can go back, because it's been 2018 when this was originally adopted, and as I said, there was a lot of interim staff at that time, and we'll go back and see if there's anything in our office which would describe how this language got into this proposal. But if you look at the proposal, the policy itself, Section 3 talks about proposal submittal and review procedures. And it's all about going through a competitive process. It's all about an RFP process, which I do believe, and I would recommend to you, that that is the proper way to distribute millions of dollars of fees. I mean, these are generated by the developers, but that's probably the best process to ensure compliance. that you are not having, and I'm just gonna say it, quite frankly, some of the things that I saw when I got here 14 years ago, which we do not have here anymore at all. That's what's amazing, I express that to staff. Everyone who was at the executive staff meeting knows that, because I was actually quite passionate about that point, that hey, we don't do this anymore, like we have processes. But what's interesting to me is in this policy, it's right smack in the middle of a proposal submittal, and then there's a section on city council initiated proposal review, kind of just put in there. It's not like at the end where it says, hey, there's an exemption to this whole policy. It was kind of submitted here. So I would like to go back and kind of figure out where this came from. You know, if we can put the legislative history together just to find out who proposed this. Why did they propose it? Maybe there was a great, great reason for it. And maybe there is still enough room for a policy that allows council input. Because I think that's what you're saying. You're saying, well, can the council have input on this? and do we have policy, but I do, I just want to caution you that I will always firmly believe this, that having a developer submit a request for a sole source is not the best way to make policy or distribute millions of dollars of funds. And regardless of whether it's a nonprofit developer or not, it just is not the right way to do things. Because you guys may be really good, I think you guys are highly ethical, but that may not always be the case, and it hasn't always been the case with members of the council. So that's all I wanna say.

Thank you, Madam City Attorney. I just want to clarify, Council Member Lopez said some of us were on the dais when this was taking place. I was not. I want to be really clear. I've only been here, so I don't know who was here. But I think Council Member Vasquez and I were not here. So just to clarify that. Council Member Becerra.

Thank you, Madam Mayor. And just to respond to some of the commentary from my colleague over here, As much as I'd like to believe I could just walk into the city manager's office and unilaterally ask him to do things and then have him do it, that's not the way this works up here. I think it's insulting of our staff to say that they are just answering to one of us. For them, they're following what's called the law. I mean, you didn't even understand the difference of zoning and general plan earlier. They do. And as far as the input of staff, the reason why I want it, it's not because I'm just going to unilaterally follow what staff puts before us. That's why we're a discretionary body. Do you understand that? We're a discretionary body. And so when staff provides their professional input, it's just like when the public comes in and says, well, we don't like what staff said. We think you guys should go a different direction. That's okay. That's the whole process. That's the beauty of this democratic process. So for me to want to have our staff weigh in That's not saying that they're going to twist our arms and make us go a certain direction. That's just relying on what we pay for. We as the council, the community, we pay for professional staff to give us that advice. And as far as what you're talking about, as far as certain projects not making the light of day, staff self-corrected. Staff recognized that a certain proposal did not meet general plan requirements. zoning designation that's on them and good on them for doing that instead of putting us in a very questionably difficult situation so thank you for that staff so I just would appreciate if you didn't accuse staff of not doing what they're supposed to do which is professionally vetting project proposals that come before us I want to thank you staff I don't want to accuse you of answering to one of us I want to thank you for what you do because I find what you do very valuable I Now, we're not always gonna agree. I may go my own direction and say, no, you know what, you're just flat out wrong, or I just completely disagree with your approach, but I do want your input. In fact, when we bring these council member requested items forward, that's the whole point of having the consultation with the city manager and the city attorney, to get their input. Now, we've had some items that I've brought forward that we're not 100% all in agreement on, but that's okay. It's important to have that professional input. So please don't be critical of our staff for just providing their professional input. Thank you.

And if I may, Mayor, when we met with Council Member Vazquez, we checked the general plan, we checked the land use, we checked the zoning, and we feel that this project meets the general intent, what this policy was made for. This is why we presented it also.

So it looks like there's no more comments here. Council Member Fenn? I guess you do have a comment.

Thank you, Mayor. Look, I'm supportive of us. I've spoken about, I'll support any policy that helps keep people in housing, build more housing, help people buy housing in the city of Santa Ana. That is my very, very simple policy on housing in this city. Now, I understand the need for processes and guardrails. I think I understand that better than most people. It's my job, and I understand when we talk about what is best practices and what is not. In this case, it doesn't seem like there's anything illegal regarding this request. It doesn't seem like any direction to the city manager would be in violation of our charter. So let's do that. Mr. City Manager, go take a look if the proposal is good. If they're gonna pay for the real estate evaluator and all that other fun stuff, great. And then do what we need to do, which is review the proposal. I guess maybe I'm just tired and it's been a long day and I'm not fully understanding all of the nuances of why this is a big problem, but you know, I guess I do, I don't agree with not having staff coming back with a recommendation, right? I am always gonna want a recommendation from staff. I have agreed and disagreed vociferously with staff, and that's okay, but we rely on our city staff or professional team to do the professional job that you're here to do. And so, I guess my, request or recommendation would be have you go through the process, review the proposal, and see if it meets those standards. If it does, give us your best recommendation. And if there's a desire to change this policy and take away this opportunity or the option of bringing a sole source contract, then let's bring that up. City staff, bring us a recommendation. You know what you want to change, If it is a problem, bring it as an agenda item and we can discuss it as a business item. That's all I have tonight, thank you.

Thank you. Yeah, you're usually lively, you're probably tired today. So I'm gonna go back to page nine and then we're gonna stop it here. So the city attorney made it very clear. Proposal, submittal, and review procedures, and thank you Council Member Becerra for bringing it up. The competitive selection process will begin, la la la la la la. There was no competitive selection process. Then you go to the next page, and then it's a city council-initiated proposal review. And then, Madam City Attorney, you were here in 2020, so you can, at another time, or privately with each council member, give the history on... I can't see you because the council member has flowers, but give the history of... Yes, very pretty flowers. Of how this came about, because I'm assuming you were part of writing this, or you were... I would assume in 2020, so if you weren't, we can talk about that later so we don't take up a lot of time. But I do wanna just say, Mr. City Manager, it sounds like you have some direction. Council Member Vasquez, I support the housing, I'm all about it. Can you bring it back in 90 days so we can review it? Because we're in the middle of the budget and so I'd also like to, I don't want this to, $6 million, hello? Can't wait to get that money. So if you can come back, if not before that, with something to change this City Council initiated proposal and make some changes. Because again, you just go to page nine, there's a RFP process. Let me finish, let me finish. And I'm not quite sure where the comment about who you work for or what you work for, but I know that only three people work for me and all of us up here, city attorney, city manager, and city clerk. So I have never gone to a city staff and say, I want this proposal, make it happen. I go to the city manager and say, can we discuss this? And can we do this? And then if I call, like I called Rudy the other day, excuse me, Director Rosas, and I said, I spoke to Avital, it's okay to call you. Because I have mad respect for the position of the city manager. and your role and their role. So if I want, hey Rudy, can you check this out? I already checked with Alvaro. Hey Mike, can you tell me about this? I already checked with Alvaro. That's how I do business. I don't know how everybody else does. That is not my business. But I've been around a long time, county baby, 30, I understand the process. So this just doesn't sit well with me. Thank you Mayor Pro Tem for bringing this up from the get go. If you can come back in 90 days with this, and we can change it, discuss it and go from there.

So if I may, Mayor, so one, me and Council Member Vazquez followed the policy, right?

We're not asking about that.

I'm going to be clear about that. And so we are going to try to meet the intent. So we'll ask staff both from community development and planning and building to meet with Habitat for Humanity because obviously we want to make sure they get through the process as quickly as possible. With an RFP process. Right, the process, right? And then three, we'll meet with the meeting conferred with the city attorney to see how we can... mitigate any type of negative impacts within the policy and still bring the policy back as fast as we can.

Thank you. All right. Go ahead, Mayor Pro Tem. Let's move on to this.

And I hope that we could, you know, if it's something that we amend this policy and fix it and get rid of that language, but to Councilmember Lopez's point, maybe it's a report that you give us every month of what projects were submitted through staff that we know about. And if there's one that we like, we could probably nudge you and say, hey, we like this one. Why was it denied? Maybe bring it back. So there's wiggle room there. I just want to add to that, Mayor, because I don't want us to close off.

No, I agree with you, I think that's great, yeah. Mayor? Yes, go ahead, Councilman Orozco.

Thank you so much, I want to thank the six of you for your input and what we just did, and I'm looking forward to working with Councilmember Penalosa and creating some boundaries in the process and how we move it forward. We have a lot of input, I want to make sure that when we consider this, I'm saying I would like to amend the direction only to the city manager and not the staff, and I appreciate the city manager taking this on and working with the staff to move this forward, but we should clean up that policy if those things, and thank you for the history, City Attorney Carvalho, for the information that we got, and we know where we ended up, but you know, not everything has as an RFP, like the flock cameras came to us with no RFP, and it was just through us here at the dais, so I'm looking forward to seeing this process go through, thank you.

Thank you, you were gonna be the last comment, but Council Member Fan over here saying I wanna talk, I wanna talk, I wanna talk, go ahead.

Well, as a former planning commissioner, we do have monthly development reports available online here at the City of Santa Ana. We have major project maps and monthly development reports where you can have an interactive map to check out all the lists of major planning projects and where they are in the process, as well as a full list of accepted development project applications. So I encourage the public and all of my colleagues to go check it out if you're interested in what applications we're receiving. Thank you.

And I'm proud to say that that came because of my time on the planning commission.

All right, here we go. So thank you Council Member Fan and Council Member Becerra for everybody up here, but I think Mayor Pro Tem Penalosa is asking for some sort of report and I'm good at that.

But some don't ever even make it on there because they don't get past the planning. So that's what I'm saying is that if there's an initial, a lot of times, Developers get churned down just for a basic poll.

No, every planning application goes online.

Not even the ones that go to planning.

All right, let's move on.

We're moving on. We're moving on. Thank you very much, Mr. City Manager. We're good. Thank you, Madam City Attorney. I don't need you to answer, Mr. City Manager. We're good. All right. Okay, so no further comments. I'm closing the public hearing. Let's move on. I'm sorry, no, it was. It was Council Member Item requested.

I'm sorry, go ahead, I'm tired too.

Mr. City Manager, do you have any comments? I'm tired too, like Council Member Fenn.

So Parks and Recreation is going to have a hiring fair this Thursday, April 9th from 1 to 5. Again, the Parks and Recreation is going to have a hiring fair this Thursday, April 9th from 1 to 5 at Jerome Recreation Center. In addition, don't forget this Saturday, Rain or Shine, we're going to have the fun run, right, at the Santa Ana Stadium. We're expecting quite a bit of people. I think Rain or Shine, right, Hawk? That's right. Also this Saturday, we have the quarterly bulky item drop-off. Again, the quarterly bulky item drop-off from 9 to 12 at the Bobo Corral, 900 West MacArthur and Jerome Park, 2115 West McFarland. This is free and open to Senate residents who need to dispose of bulky items such as furniture, mattresses, carpets, clothes, bedding, books or toys. On April 18, we're gonna have our annual community tree planting on seven different park sites, celebrating Arbor Day and Earth Day. Again, on April 18, Saturday, community tree planting. Seven parks, 18 trees. And then also Saturday at Piedra Plaza, we're gonna have Dia de los Libros, Dia de los Niños, here with the Santa Ana Public Library. I want to thank the Workforce Center. This past week, we had over 1,000 people attend an apprenticeship career fair. Again, over 1,000 people attended an apprenticeship career fair. We actually had nine unions big unions, regional unions in Orange County where we actually had them present and offer opportunities so that people here in the local area, not just Santa Ana, Orange County, people came from other counties just to get an opportunity to be part of the apprenticeship programs at some of those unions like the laborers, the carpenters, the IBW, and many more. So we're very happy with the attendance and I wanna thank the Workforce Center folks at the Community Development because they really laid it out. Thank you.

Great, thank you. All right, council members, comments. Council Member Vasquez, please.

Thank you so much. I just want to add a few things about Eddie Westfield and how we can improve and some of the things that Council Member Becerra keeps talking about is that TOT money and how do when we have a concert, an event, we also send in Travel Santa Ana Their logo should be on everything that has links to our hotels. So we fill up those hotels. And when we have a concert on Saturday and the following Saturday, how do we fill in Thursday, Friday, and Sunday? Because a country music festival would have been great. right about there to fill in a grunge festival, a punk festival, R&B festival. It's already set up. It could have been fit in, and we could fill up our hotel rooms. Just like my idea for the Sahuayo Expo, to fill up and get that TOT money and expand it beyond Sahuayo, maybe the region, but expand it beyond just Santa Ana, Orange County, but Southern California and the whole southwest of the United States. to come to this expo so we fill up our hotel rooms and get that TOT money that we need. We need these events and places and for people to want to come to Santa Ana to fill up those hotel rooms. So start creating and thinking with the business development project department how we can do those things. You know, I got an email, and I really upset residents of the houseless issue we have on Sullivan and Ettinger. And she was mad because I'm a teacher at Valley, and there's a lot of houseless people. And so what I did, I called her. She had her number there, so I'm like, let me call her and have a conversation. And she was worried about the houseless issue. She was blaming a new taqueria there by Stater Brothers. for attracting it's just attracting a lot of people so it looks like it's attracting houses but it's not them they're great it's amazing tacos go eat tacos there uh we just have a houses issue in the area and uh when the shopkeepers including stater brothers calls the city doesn't really say they can't do much so i want to create with you in my office i want to create a letter that gives them all the resource they can do on what they could do about encampments. And she also told me there was three families sitting there, living at the Stater Brothers parking lot. So if we could reach out to those families and get them housing, that would be great. As soon as we start helping people off the streets and into shelters, it just cleans up a little more at a time and it doesn't look, doesn't feel as bad and people are safer walking to school and walking in that area. going shopping at Stater Brothers or getting your tacos. So I would really want to help with the Quality of Life team to get all this work done, you know, because we do a great job, the Quality of Life team. But now we have a focus there that the community is asking for. We do have... And moving on from that, we do have a bulky item drop-off this weekend at Jerome Park from 9 a.m. to 12 p.m. Please come bring your bulky items. You do need a proof of residence to drop stuff off. We will be at the Santa Ana Fun Run, Rain or Shine. It's most likely rain, but we're going to be there running in the rain. There is a Viet Book Fest at the Bowers Museum. We're looking forward to visiting there. And Thank you to the Parks and Rec. Thank you, Scott, for the dog park that we have. And thank you to my peers here on the dais and Council Member Penalosa for pushing for this dog park. And I spoke about my child, Donatio, as a dog mom. And I got the dog when she was three weeks old. He was three weeks and I held him. Now he's 110 pounds. But he looks at me, and he looks at me, and in his eyes, he's saying, Mama. Because, you know, I was feeding him milk. It is what it is. But I didn't mention my other dog named Sochi, and she's been upset with me for a week. So Sochi, I'll take you to the dog park tomorrow. Everybody, thank you for listening in, and I appreciate it. Have a good night.

Thank you, Council Member Vasquez. Council Member Lopez.

Well, thank you, everybody. And tomorrow, April 8th, we're going to be hosting another park cleanup with OC Habitats from 2.30 to 4.30. And we encourage anyone that is available to come and help with our efforts to keep our public spaces clean and clean. THIS SATURDAY THERE'S A LOT OF EVENTS. YOU ALREADY HEARD ABOUT THE FUN RUN. WE'RE GOING TO BE THERE. AND ALSO I WANTED TO INVITE THE COMMUNITY TO EDNA PARK ON SATURDAY, APRIL 18. WE ARE HAVING OUR TREE PLANTING CEREMONY AND WE WILL BE, YES, WE WILL BE PLANTING three trees and you know we're also going to be honoring one of our constituents who passed away who is was a coach with the youth lightning run club who was really involved in different spaces and so we invite our community to help us plant a tree in his memory in their memory and thank you for all the work sarisa i look forward to seeing you at the next meeting thank you

thank you council member fan please thank you mayor um i was at the league of california city's policy committee meeting with our city manager we're both on the governance committee talking about pending legislation and all the bills coming out of the state and how that's impacting cities so we're working with the league of cities to really do our best to advocate for local control and, you know, whatever programming that can help our local city here in Santa Ana. The Swayo Business Expo was just so wonderful. I missed it last year, but I was really glad to be able to come. I hope that it continues to grow. We continue to have more artisans and local artists come. I think it's just really wonderful, and for any of those that we can bring back for Fiesas Patria, because I'm so tired, that would be wonderful. The Ward 1 team, we had our annual Los Migos High School Youth Forum, I think this might be the fifth year in a row, I've done it every year, and it's just really wonderful because, thank you to Ms. Alba, Mr. Solis, and Mr. Nguyen, At Los Amigos, they are part of the Los Amigos Civics Club, and they organize an event every year for the students to work on different policy matters. The students at Los ask the most wonderful, in-depth questions. The vast majority of them are from Santa Ana, and they are asking questions like, what are we doing about the gang issues in Ward 1? How do we get safer buses because they don't feel safe taking the bus? And of course, I refer them to OCTA. What can we do to make campus safer for students because they don't feel safer? They're worried about transient individuals coming on campus. What can we do to address the cost of rising rents and housing and then educate them on rent control? And there are also interests of us up here who grew up in Santa Ana, went to schools in Santa Ana, so I encourage all of you, if you're not already, although Council Member Vasquez is in the classroom every day, but for the rest of you, doing these youth forums have been incredibly wonderful. Two of my junior council aides came from Los Amigos High School, and one of them is off to college, the other one is a senior, so very excited about that. I did want to, I guess wish everybody good luck this upcoming weekend for the 5K and 10K. I will not be able to make it because I will be out of town. And just as a final reminder, and I'm sure we'll remind everyone again at the next council meeting, that April 29th is Denim Day, and we encourage all of you to wear denim to show solidarity with those victims and survivors of sexual assault. And for any of you looking to learn more about the resources that we talked about tonight, you can check out Waymakers here in Orange County, as well as the resources at Santa Ana PD. Have a good night.

Thank you very much. Councilman Hernandez, please.

Thank you, Madam Mayor. I want to start by thanking our city staff for today's city council agenda, members of the public who tuned in and shared their public comments. I want to begin just by giving a PSA that the Orange County Sanitation District is going to start construction the month of April this month. In the city of Santa Ana, the Santa Ana Trunk Sewer Rehabilitation Project will rehabilitate portions of the Santa Ana trunk sewer in the cities of Santa Ana and Costa Mesa. The project is going to reline almost three miles of existing sewer line to extend its service life. As part of this effort, over a dozen manholes will be rehabilitated or replaced, and bypass pumps will be needed to reroute sewer flow and maintain service to the community The work will take place along Alton Avenue, starting at Bristol Street, and it will traverse across MacArthur Boulevard, Harbor Boulevard, Highland Avenue, and Sunflower Avenue. For more information, please visit Orange County Sanitation. The construction has begun the month of April of this year and will continue till about next year, spring 2027. The hours of construction will be from Monday through Friday, 9 a.m. to 3.30 p.m. Occasional extended work may require 24-7 continuous work to safely complete certain operations. There have been over 9000 postcards sent to residents who are in the area where construction will be taking place. They were distributed in English and Spanish to the project area during the week of March 19th. They were also shared with Santa Ana, Costa Mesa, and Segerstrom High School. Parents received a presentation on March 23rd. It's important that our residents are up to speed with construction happening in the city. I also want to uplift the residents who are continuing to send in petitions to the city manager's office and CDA related to the mobile homes on Sullivan. It's a very difficult time for those residents. I want to continue to uplift their voices and implore them to work with our city of Santa Ana to get your petitions in. That'll help the city really get a robust picture of what is going on and how these residents are being impacted and affected. I also want to highlight and thank Parks and Recreation, the city manager's office for the successful events, the weekend of events that were back-to-back at the Santa Ana Stadium. This is a good example of what is possible for the city. We have Alexis Rocha, a boxer, who just recently fought at the Honda Center. They had 18,000 fans that could be here at the stadium. Not 18,000, but we could bring 12,500 fans. So there certainly is more that we can activate in that stadium. And I think that these events certainly open the door for that. And so I want to implore the city manager to work with Parks and Recreation to make that a priority. We also have some mixed martial arts fighters. Richie Miranda, who's a world champion with LFA, Legacy Fighting Association. He's somebody that we met with the promoters at the Yost Theater about a year ago, and as well as the stadium. This is a world champion athlete. We could host a fight here in Santa Ana. The connections are already there. I certainly want to make that a priority and reemphasize that to you. Earth Day is going to be April 18th at 9.30 a.m., My office will be joining Parks and Rec at Campesino Park, where we'll be having Arbor Day. Last year, we installed a number of fruit trees at El Salvador Park. This year, we'll be in Santa Anita at beautiful Campesino Park. I want to close the council meeting respectfully, Madam Mayor, in honor of three residents from our city. who were tragically killed in a car accident in Pomona. The residents' names were Mark Trejo Saldivar, who was 26 years old, his wife Jennifer Loera Zarco, who was 25, and their unborn child. They were all residents of this community. Their father, Tony T. Rock Trejo, is a business owner in the city. They have a business that's been here for 10 plus years. Very tragic story. I know all of us here at the Santa Ana City Council mourn with this family, and God bless them. We are with you through this tragic loss, and I'm sorry for the family as they're going through this.

Thank you, Councilman Hernandez. Councilman Becerra.

Thank you, Madam Mayor, and thank you, Council Member Vasquez, for bringing up that Stater Brothers Shopping Center. That has been a sore spot for that surrounding area for some time, and I'm looking over at our City Manager and our Director of Planning and Building. We could talk offline, but I know that there's been a lot of work done over the couple of years when it comes to that shopping center, Rod's Liquor, and some other businesses that have not always been the I just say they've attracted quite more nuisances than they have customers, so we could talk offline about that. I want to congratulate staff, and I want to actually congratulate Mayor Pro Tem Penaloza on the dog park, and I'm singling him out because this was something that he really championed and pushed through, and I Appreciate your persistence. I joke about Grisette being able to function as a dog park, but it definitely fails in comparison to match what's going on over at Centennial. It was great. Stanley, I'm proud to say, was the first one to mark one of those poles. I'm very proud of my little Stanley pup there. I want to thank the Asian American Senior Citizen Service Center for joining me at my office hours this last Saturday. So after the Dog Park opening, we were over at Adams Park, and those folks had brought in, did like a training session for naloxone. something that all of us should be aware of and trained in because it is something that if we are experiencing somebody having an opioid overdose. Mayor, you have four still. Yeah, no, no, no, it's unfortunate, you know, we lost a couple of council members.

Thank you, Council Member Vasquez, for always staying. I really appreciate it, and the rest of us stay, so yeah, go ahead.

Yeah, so I just wanted to thank them for the naloxone presentation. Again, it's a substance that one could use to save somebody who's having an opioid overdose. Happy 20th anniversary to Seggestrom High School. I attended their event just this past week where they had a lot of old teachers and alumni, the first principal of the school was there as well. And I want to congratulate our city attorney's office and Min and Ali for the big win on the case involving 2525 North Main Street. That is a huge win, and it's for a variety of reasons, but just a couple I'll touch on. One, I mean, it stinks, because sometimes something bad can rally a community for something good. And in this case here, this was a project where a developer had zero respect for the community, zero respect for politics. When you talk about dark money, this is exactly who is the type of person that was purveying this in our politics. And so to see them lose in court isn't just satisfying for myself, given how rotten and dirty they were, but the fact that the community surrounding that project site had fought so much. I mean, I remember them canvassing the entire city in opposition to what that developer was trying to do. And so for them, this developer, again, zero respect for the community, decided to try to circumvent our own city processes to try to shove a project that was completely out of scale for that area and for them to fail in court. And the reason why they were able to fail in court is because our planning staff did the legwork to make sure that our city's local control was upheld. You know, the state gave us an inch and we took that mile because a lot of times they take a mile out of us. But you know what? This was one of those situations where, and I say this all the time, the city of Santa Ana is going above and beyond when it comes to housing. And so for the state to treat us like every other city, even the ones that sue the state so that they don't have to build housing, it's not fair for Santa Ana. But again, thankfully, there was an off ramp in some of the legislation. Our staff was able to take advantage of that to protect local control. We continue to build housing. It's not like we took advantage of state law and said we're not gonna build housing. It's just a matter of retaining local control so we can try to right-size development, try our best to make sure it fits where it's proposed. That developer could care less about the surrounding community And so I'm very proud of the fact that our city attorney's office and with the help of our planning and building folks and our city manager's office were able to prevail. So I think that's a big win for a lot of folks. While I'm here getting excited about that, unfortunately, I'm going to go a complete different direction. In addition to the three folks that Councilmember Hernandez talked about, I'd like to ask that we also adjourn tonight's meeting in the memory of Helen Moraga from the Logan neighborhood who passed away at the age of 100. She was born and raised in Logan and she was a part of the group of women that started hosting potlucks in Logan that would eventually grow into those annual reunions we all know and celebrate today. I'm personally glad that she lived long enough to see this council vote unanimously to change the industrial operational standards that will improve the quality of life in Logan for generations to come. With that, good night, everybody.

Thank you, Councilman. Mayor Pro Tem.

Thank you, Mayor Misquan. Thank you, Council Member Becerra, for those comments on our city's win against the property owner at 2525 North Main Street. I also want to just send a huge congratulations to the Parks and Tiago neighborhood to finally be able to put this behind you I mean, I think back to seven years ago when I saw them walk into the city clerk's office with over 19,000 signatures of residents in this city and to be able to respond to the will of the voters that way and be able to now look at our staff and have a very successful win and so proud know done so uh beautifully i mean i know it's been years but but congratulations to all of you and thank you for your work uh uh around that that project with that said uh i know i mentioned it uh my whining about this dog park but now i'm celebrating i really really cannot emphasize enough how grateful and thankful I am for each one of, every one of you, the city manager, but especially my city council colleagues, all six of you, Councilmember Vasquez, Councilmember Lopez, Councilmember Phan, Becerra, Hernandez, and the mayor for consistently, unanimously voting to approve and support this project for now seven years. I mean, I remember back, early 2019 with me and former councilwoman iglesias agendize the conversation and it i i still don't understand why it took this long but i'm happy that it's finally open and i want to just paint this picture to all our our staff um again i know i sound like a broken record but after the ribbon cutting was said and done on saturday morning and after everyone packed up and left Around 6 p.m., I drove my wife and my kids after dinner back to Centennial Park, to the dog park, and we parked in the corner of the parking lot and creepily just watched the dog park. And I say that because it was the most beautiful thing. Family after family after family after family pulling up in their car, in their minivans, With the packed car with kids and two, three dogs at a time. I mean, literally with excitement jumping out of the car to head to this, to use this beautiful asset that... I also drove by yesterday and I just, it's full. I mean, it is full with dogs and families and kids running around. And I just want all of you to be so proud of the work that you all did our parks and recs director, public works director, especially our city manager for really pushing for this, for completion of this and, and lighting a fire, uh, in, in getting this project done. I mean, it's a really beautiful asset for our community and, and, I know everyone's really excited about it. And so again, just can't thank you all enough. I hope that we, I know we're trying to split a penny a million ways through this budget cycle, but there's a couple little things that I'd like to see added there. And I know the, you know, maybe some shade and, some water features on the, I know the mayor wants to see some water features in the small dog area, and I do too. So anyways, with that said, thank you, thank you, thank you. I hope everyone had a wonderful Easter weekend.

Are you done? I'm done. All right. Dog park, amazing, yes. I want agility course and water in the small and medium dog area because only the big dogs have it, and it's only a few pennies, okay? We could get it donated, I'm sure we can. Yeah, we'll take it from MPT's council fund, because he's not gonna have staff anymore. Okay, so speaking of Eddie Westfield, Mr. City Manager, I think I've shared with you Legado 7 wants to have a concert there, please have staff. You directly need to reach out with him. He said he wanted to speak to you directly. And the OC Soccer Club wants to have an event. I don't know who they are. I just, I'm not advocating for any soccer, specific soccer club, because I don't want nobody coming here and yelling at me. They always are in Irvine. They actually asked to come to Eddie Westfield. So if you personally can reach out to them, and that's what I asked them to do, to contact you directly, so we can have events. So the trades event, the apprenticeship career fair, second annual, I remember when you and I and Deputy City Manager Sylvia Vasquez met about this with the carpenters and the laborers. I brought it forward and said, would you have it? You said yes, they said yes, and now we had nine different unions here on Friday. Wonderful thousand people. I was out there. It was wonderful people looking for work. So I'm very happy about that, looking forward to another event just like that, and I wanna thank all of the workforce staff, because they did a phenomenal job, and so thank you very much, but yes, that was just an ask, and you guys made it happen, so thank you. The fun run, everybody's mentioned it, see you at 7 a.m. in the morning, 7.30, is it 7.30 or 7 a.m., Mr. City Manager? 7.30, so thank you. I also wanna mention that from Congressman Correa, we celebrated a $2 million check presentation for Chepa Park, so thank you, Congressman Correa, and we're looking for some additional money. On April 18th, Coffee with the Mayor's also going to be Dia de los Niños, with Mosaic, they're gonna have a quiet Oasis space. We're having an event at George Upton Park for families with special needs children, but all families are invited, and we'll also be planting a tree that day. So very excited about that, that's April 18th, Registration's already been full, but we're still encouraging people to come out because we'll have food and some entertainment. The police department will be with us, the fire department will be with us, the labor federation, there's just gonna be a bunch of organization. The food truck on Covenant Main, . There you go. They're going to donate some food to Mosaic. So there's some good things happening on that day. And it's also coffee with the mayor. I also want to thank, actually, I want to encourage everybody to take that budget survey. So please, if you're watching at home, please take the budget survey. It will not take that long. It takes just a few minutes, right, Kat? Was it like three minutes? Under five. Okay, so we need to take it so that we can get past the 2,000. There's almost 320,000 people that live in the city. Well, then nobody can complain when the budget passes and their item was overlooked or we didn't see it because with over 300,000 people who live here, we gotta get people to fill out this budget survey. So please, please ask everybody. And I just wanna say thank you to the staff tonight. Really thank you for the budget discussion. These are always the hard discussions to have. I really want to thank you. I don't want anybody writing or blogging that, oh my God, Santa Ana's on the brink of bankruptcy, because we're not. We are not. Kat, are we? Can you say that, please, again?

No, we are not on the brink of bankruptcy. Thank you. We just need to make a few adjustments.

Thank you, because I've read it somewhere, and then I want to say something, but I don't speak to the blogs because sometimes they're ridiculous, but we are not... We are not on the brink of bankruptcy. We are tightening the belt as we should. A smart city with smart leadership, smart council members, we're up here, we're gonna tighten the belt. That's what we're doing. It's what you do when you have a home and kids and families and you wanna go on vacation, you wanna buy a new car, whatever, you tighten the belt. Like right now, everything is so expensive, food, gas, people are tightening the belt, and that's what we're doing. And so I also want to just say thank you again, because these are very difficult conversations to have. And so we'll get the budget passed, hopefully on time. And then Council Member Serra, I think, touched on it as well, as I think a couple people up here. Economic development, Mr. City Manager, you hired three additional staff for economic development. I don't know their names and I don't need to, but you hired three additional staff. I'm sure they're wonderful, but we need to do more in economic development. There needs to be a presentation. What is the plan? How are they recruiting? Because I go to you all the time and say, hey, this business wants to come over here. Hey, this business, we meet with the businesses quarterly. So what are we doing? And I agree with the council members up here, economic development should be a priority. We hired staff. I don't know what they do, and I'm not being disparaging, I'm not negative in any way, shape, or form. I'm sure they're doing something good, but are we getting more businesses in the city? I don't know, I don't know. So I also would like a presentation from Economic Development. What are we doing? What are we doing? What? No, he's going to go first. You're right. Yes, he is. Yes. Next meeting, Chief. And next meeting, the Chief will give a presentation on the 2025 outcomes for the entire police department and an update on what he's doing at the police department, the changes that he has made. And with that, thank you all very much. Meeting is adjourned.

Thank you for watching.