New Santa Ana | Category Archives: 2019 Elections

Why won’t our police union admit that they are trying to recall City Council Members Iglesias and Villegas?

Posted on August 6, 2019 by Art Pedroza Posted in 2019 Elections, Cecilia Iglesias, Civic Affairs, Elections, Gerry Serrano, Juan Villegas, Politics, SAPD, SAPOA 2 Comments

Following three failed attempts, the pro-recall group Neighbors Supporting the Recall of Santa Ana City Councilman Juan Villegas is seeking an order from the Orange County Superior Court that would mandate the city to accept its petition. LooA hearing on that request is scheduled for Friday, Aug. 9. Meanwhile, a petition filed by the Neighbors Supporting the Recall of Cecilia Iglesias is pending following another couple of failed submissions, leading Rosen, the committees’ attorney, to blame city officials for what he said are delaying tactics, according to the O.C. Register.

Iglesias is fighting back – she has already talked to those who signed the recall petition and has submitted to the O.C. District Attorney signed affidavits from 11 of the 35 petitioners who said they were misled into signing. If the OCDA verifies that fraud took place this will be considered a misdemeanor crime – interfering with an election.

The head of the Santa Ana Police Officers Association, won’t admit that his union is behind the recall campaigns. But his attorney, Mark Rosen, is helping the folks who turned in the recall petitions.

The POA President told the Register “The families and businesses in our city deserve a professional elected official that will work to make Santa Ana a safer place to live, visit and work. Based on the will of the voters and her actions, at this time we are evaluating this as it progresses.”

Why be coy? The POA should just admit what is damn obvious. The POA is trying to recall two great Council Members because they refused to vote for the huge raise the City Council gave to the police officers.

This is all so unnecessary. The POA got their raise. Serrano should have just moved on. Instead he and his cohorts are now trying to get their revenge on Iglesias and Villegas. It is ridiculous.

These recalls will fail. What the POA doesn’t understand is that Iglesias and Villegas have united the left and the right. The majority of our residents are happy that these Council Members are trying to stop the City Council from wasting more money.

Iglesias and Villegas support our police and are believers in law enforcement. Serrano should be working with them – not trying to undo the will of the voters.

The POA better watch it. These recalls are only going to make Iglesias and Villegas even more popular. One of them just might end up running for Mayor and if they do they will win. That will work out even worse for the POA.

Now is your chance to apply to replace Roman Reyna in Ward 4, on the Santa Ana City Council

Posted on March 7, 2019 by Art Pedroza Posted in 2018 elections, 2019 Elections, Civic Affairs, Elections, Politics, Roman Reyna, Santa Ana 4 Comments

SANTA ANA MAYOR AND CITY COUNCIL INVITE APPLICANTS FOR VACANT WARD 4 CITY COUNCIL OFFICE

SANTA ANA — The Mayor and City Council invite qualified residents from Ward 4 to submit applications to fill the City Council seat vacated by Roman Reyna as a result of his resignation on March 1, 2019. Pursuant to City Charter Section 403 a candidate must meet the minimum requirements to be considered for potential appointment and be a qualified voter:

“In the event of a vacancy in the City Council, for whatever cause, the City Council shall declare the office vacant and fill the same by appointment. In each case the person so appointed shall hold office until the next general municipal election and until his successor is elected and qualified for the remainder of an unexpired term. Such appointee must, at the time of his appointment and continuously for one (1) year prior thereto, have been and be a resident of the ward from which his predecessor was elected. If the City Council shall fail to fill a vacancy by appointment within thirty (30) days after such an office shall have become vacant, it shall forthwith cause an election to be held to fill such vacancy.”

Application materials are available from the Clerk of the Council Office, City Hall, 20 Civic Center Plaza, 8th Floor or may be downloaded from the City’s website at https://www.santa-ana.org/sites/default/files/cc/documents/Ward-4-Vacancy-Press-and-Application-Packet.pdf.

The deadline for submitting application materials to the Clerk of the Council Office is Tuesday, March 12, 2019, 12:00 p.m. noon. Postmarks not acceptable.

The City Council will convene at the Regular Council meeting of March 19, 2019 to possibly conduct interviews of qualified applicants and anticipate making an appointment to fill the vacancy or convene at a special meeting before April 1, 2019.

For more information about the application process, please visit the City’s website at www.santa-ana.org or contact the Clerk of the Council Office at (714) 647-6520, ecomment@santa-ana.org.

Adios Roman Reyna – please don’t run for office again!

Posted on March 1, 2019 by Editor Posted in 2018 elections, 2019 Elections, Civic Affairs, Phil Bacerra, Roman Reyna, Santa Ana Leave a comment

Santa Ana City Councilman Roman Reyna has resigned from the City Council effective today according to a letter he sent to his colleagues.

Reyna did not admit why he really resigned – which was due to a legal settlement with his opponent in last November’s Ward 4 election, Phil Bacerra. Reyna had to resign because he really was unable to offer up much of a defense against the allegations that he fudged his campaign paperwork, after botching a move to Ward 4.

In his letter, dated today, Reyna explained that he is resigning based solely on personal reasons and he cited the need to spend time with his mother, who apparently is ill.

Reyna’s resignation deal with Bacerra will prevent him from running for Ward 4 again, should the Santa Ana City Council end up calling for a Special Election to replace Reyna.

I don’t know that a favorite has emerged yet to replace Reyna on the City Council. To be fair the City Council ought to appoint Bacerra.

There is talk that at least one of the Council Members wants to appoint Ken Nguyen, a Planning Commissioner, out of a desire to appoint an Asian Councilman. However it should be pointed out that Bacerra is Asian as he is half-Filipino.

If the City Council won’t agree to appoint Bacerra then I hope they will consider appointing a woman to replace Reyna as there is only one woman on the City Council currently – Ceci Iglesias.

As for Reyna, he ought to lie low – for a while. Rumor has it that new O.C. District Attorney Todd Spitzer may still file criminal charges against him. Remember that the settlement with Bacerra was in a civil court, now a criminal court. Reyna could still be in very hot water.

Here is the City’s official press release on this matter:

Santa Ana Council Member Roman A. Reyna Has Resigned Effective March 1, 2019

Council Member Roman A. Reyna submitted a resignation letter effective March 1, 2019. The Ward 4 Council seat is now deemed vacant.

Candidates for Council who did not receive the highest vote counts from the November 2018 election will not automatically fill this vacancy. The City Charter provides that the Council must fill the vacancy by appointment within 30 days or call for a special municipal election. Based on election laws, if a special election is necessary it will occur in November 2019. The City Council will discuss the process at a future meeting.

Attached to this press release are 1) answers to questions we have received about the process to fill a vacancy and 2) a copy of the resignation letter.

The City of Santa Ana appreciates all members of our community that put forth effort to make our community better.

Common Questions and Answers

What process applies to filling the Council vacancy?

• Santa Ana City Charter Section 403 states that the council must declare the office vacant and fill the council vacancy by appointment. The person appointed shall hold office until the next general municipal election.

Are there any requirements or restrictions on who can be appointed?

• The appointee must, at the time of appointment and continuously for one year prior thereto, have been and be a resident of the ward. No person who has served three consecutive terms as a Council Member may not be eligible for appointment until the passage of eight years. (Charter Section 401).

What is the time frame to hold this election? (Within 114 days from the call of the special election per the state election code)

• Under current Election Code the earliest the City can call for a special election is November 2019.

Does the city have to pass an ordinance defining the time frame for the special election to be held?

• No, the City Council will be asked to adopt resolutions seeking County assistance to administer the election and call for the election.

Does the term for the person, either appointed or elected, to fill the vacancy last until the next general election in November 2020?

• If a person is appointed the person only serves until the next general election in November 2020. In 2020 the position will be for the remainder of the at-large term.

• If a special election occurs then the person serves the entire balance of the term.

May the resigning Councilmember cast a vote on the appointment to fill the vacancy?
• Once they resign then they no longer participate in decisions.

Would the special election be citywide or only District based?

• The council member for Ward 4 is currently serving in an at-large position. Since the Councilmember was elected at large, the seat would be a citywide election should there be a special election.

The SAUSD will conduct a special school board election on Nov. 5

Posted on February 18, 2019 by Art Pedroza Posted in 2019 Elections, Angie Rosario Cano, Bruce T. Bauer, Carolyn Torres, Education, Elections, Santa Ana, SAUSD Leave a comment

After two regular board meetings and four special board meetings, the Santa Ana Unified School District (SAUSD) was unable to fill the vacancy on their School Board that resulted from the election of SAUSD School Board Member Ceci Iglesias (R) to the Santa Ana City Council. As such, they did not meet the February 9 deadline under state law to fill the vacancy by appointment, and the County Superintendent of Schools must call a special election for SAUSD, according to the OC Political Blog.

The special election won’t happen any time soon. It has been set for Tuesday, November 5, 2019. The regular election for the next term for the same School Board seat will be less than a year later on Tuesday, November 3, 2020.

On December 11, the SAUSD School Board voted to hold an appointment process. Applications were due January 3. As we previously disclosed a few individuals asked for applications but there were no replies from the SAUSD.

The School Board held a special meeting on January 8 to interview the 10 applicants. During that meeting, 2 applicants were ruled ineligible because they did not live in the School District boundaries, and 3 finalists were picked from the 8 eligible applicants, including Carolyn Torres, a very liberal public school teacher, and Bruce Bauer, an attorney who previously ran for the SAUSD School Board then announced after he lost that race that he was now identifying as a homosexual.

At three special SAUSD School Board meetings in January, the SAUSD School Board Board deadlocked 2-2 on the appointee for the vacancy, with Board Members Rigo Rodriguez and Alfonso Alvarez voting to appoint Torres and Board Members John Palacio and Valerie Amezcua voting to appoint Bauer. Because the SAUSD School Board Members were unable to pick a replacement for Iglesias in time the voters will now choose that candidate.

It should be noted that all of the current SAUSD School Board Members are liberal Democrats, as are Torres and Bauer. And all of these individuals are known shills for the public school teachers’ union. However about 40% of the local voters are registered as Decline to State voters and about 25-30% are Republicans. These voters have no representation on the SAUSD School Board.

Other local candidates who turned in applications to repace Iglesias included:

Shaulyn Barban (NPP), an 18-year-old high school senior
Irma Macias (D), a Santa Ana Parks and Recreation Commissioner, who came in 6th in the 2018 election for City Council, Ward 2
Mark McLoughlin (D), a Santa Ana Planning Commissioner and former Rancho Santiago Community College District Trustee, who came in 5th in the 2016 election for SAUSD
Jesus Montoya (D), a community college counselor
Gisela Contreras (R), an insurance brokerage account manager

It is very likely that Angie Cano, a Santa Ana Planning Commissioner who has run for the SAUSD School Board three times and came close to winning in 2016, according to Ballotpedia, will run again this November. She will likely be the only pro school choice candidate on the ballot. She would be our pick to replace Iglesias.

Interestingly if the Santa Ana City Council cannot figure out by March 31 who to appoint to replace Roman Reyna, who is resigning from the City Council effective March 1, then they too will have to put a Special Election to the voters. That election will be held concurrently with the SAUSD School Board Special Election, on Nov. 3.

Let the voters decide who should replace Iglesias on the SAUSD School Board

Posted on January 21, 2019 by Art Pedroza Posted in 2019 Elections, Bruce T. Bauer, Carolyn Torres, Cecilia Aguinaga, Cecilia Iglesias, Education, Santa Ana, SAUSD 1 Comment

When Ceci Iglesias got elected to the Santa Ana City Council she had to give up her seat on the Santa Ana Unified School District’s Board of Education. Now her vacancy must be filled but the SAUSD School Board has bungled this.

Early on in the process I emailed the SAUSD Superintendent and asked for an application to fill the vacant SAUSD School Board seat. I never got a reply. Santa Ana City Commissioner Cecilia Aguinaga did the same and was also blown off. It is clear that the SAUSD School Board Member application process has been rigged from the start.

There are now two candidates left that remain in consideration to replace Iglesias on the SAUSD School Board. They are Bruce Bauer, a lawyer who lives in the Floral Park neighborhood and Carolyn Torres, a school Teacher and community activist who grew up in Santa Ana.

Bauer contacted me after he lost an SAUSD School Board race a couple years ago to tell me that he had decided to come out of the closet. He was married a few years ago and he and his former wife raised two kids. Now he has become very vocal about standing up for the LGBTQ community. He is also very closely allied with current SAUSD School Board Chair Valerie Amezcua.

Torres is involved with Chicanos Unidos. She is, as mentioned above, a teacher. She has no previous experience running for office. Some in the community prefer her over Bauer because she is Hispanic. She is said to be opposed to charter schools however so is Bauer. She is also very liberal in fact she posted recently on her Facebook page that the U.S. Government assassinated Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Snopes debunked that notion. Can you imagine what crazy notions will come out of Torres’ mouth if she gets appointed to the SAUSD School Board?

The next School Board meeting will be held on January 22, when they could select a Provisional Appointment to replace Iglesias.

A Special Election should be held instead so the voters of Santa Ana can elect a person of their choice to take the vacant seat. The School District would have to pay up to $300K to hold a Special Election. That would be a small price to pay in our estimate to sustain the rights of the voters in our city.

In order for a Special Election to happen supporters must gather 1,500 signatures, I believe in about one month’s time frame.