A National Day of Action against Police Brutality is set for this Saturday, Oct. 22, at 12 noon, in Santa Ana, at the corner of Bristol and McFadden. The event will include a march.
Santa Ana Mayor Pro Tem Claudia Alvarez and the City of Santa Ana are hosting a “Community Forum on Cultural Diversity and Conflict Resolution.” The forum will “focus on the Jewish – Latino experience as it relates to their shared history and common desire to promote social justice and economic prosperity.”
Here is the invitation that Alvarez emailed to her constituents this week:
Please Join Us As An “Agent of Change” For Our Community
I would personally like to invite you to attend a Community Forum on Cultural Diversity and Conflict Resolution, hosted by the City of Santa Ana, on Thursday, October 27, 2011. The Community Forum will be held at the Santa Ana Police Community Room located at 60 Civic Center Drive, Santa Ana from 10:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. Continue reading
WELCOME!
Welcome to the first City of Santa Ana E-News Update, an electronic newsletter established to connect, inform, and engage the Santa Ana community. Through this newsletter, we will provide information on the topics and issues that matter to you most. Please share the news and encourage others to subscribe today!
Sincerely,
Paul M. Walters
Interim City Manager
A CLOSER LOOK: SANTA ANA’S BUDGET STABILIZATION PLAN Continue reading
Is it Sandy Nalle time in Santa Ana’s Ward 3?
Santa Ana Councilman Carlos Bustamante is now facing the threat of a recall, according to a source who is tight with the Santa Ana City Council majority.
I am told that Bustamante will ultimately resign rather than face the embarrassment of being recalled. And here is the odd part – the City Council is considering replacing him with a non-Latino Republican! Who says they don’t appreciate diversity?
The supposed candidates to replace Bustamante include: Continue reading
The Liberal OC blog’s Chris Prevatt feels that it is an FPPC violation for Council Members to vote to appoint themselves to municipal commissions and boards that pay a stipend. Prevatt, a high school grad who did not complete college, has purposefully misinterpreted Government Code §§ 87100 which states:
No public official at any level of state or local government shall make, participate in making or in any way attempt to use his official position to influence a governmental decision in which he knows or has reason to know he has a financial interest.
The question is whether or not a stipend constitutes a “financial interest.” Does it? I don’t think so. This law was meant to stop people from getting onto boards so they could vote in a way that would benefit them financially. Getting compensated for your time does not, as such, constitute a “financial interest.” In fact, I can prove that Alvarez and Sarmiento LOST money by serving on these boards. Continue reading
2010 – 2011 Comlink Board
Unless you’ve been in a coma or under a rock somewhere you are well aware of the fiscal crisis facing our community. Municipalities are being asked to do more with less and tough decisions need to be made as to where budget cuts should take place. According to our acting City Manager, Paul Walters, the City of Santa Ana is even considering outsourcing a number of services, including fire dispatch, the public library and even the Santa Ana Zoo.
Of course the last area we should cut is public safety (even though we do need to make sure our cops and firemen aren’t getting sweetheart deals), but there are areas of the budget that should be cut in order to save during this fiscal crisis. One of those area’s city officials should cut immediately is the funding for neighborhood associations and Comlink. Continue reading
The City of Santa Ana has entered into negotiations with the Chivas USA soccer team, with a goal of relocating them to the Willowick Golf Course – with perhaps a temporary home at Eddie West Field.
According to a City of Santa Ana press release, “the potential move to Santa Ana would include their Major League team, reserve division, youth teams, and their non-profit foundation, which focuses on community service projects and programs.”
“In these trying economic times, I am pleased that a Major League Soccer team would consider relocating to our city to bring much needed resources. Chivas’ presence would create recreational amenities and programs for youth, bring economic development opportunities to our businesses, and revitalize areas within our city,” stated Mayor Miguel Pulido. Continue reading
According to a new anonymous letter that was sent to the County of Orange and to the Orange County Register, Bustamante and one of the four women named in the new letter “met more than a dozen times a month for more than a year either in his office or her palatial quarters he built for her.” The letter writer also promises “steamy, erotic pictures” of the sexual encounters will be soon posted on social media.
The new letter also “accuses another high-ranking male county employee of having sex in his office.”
I am also hearing that the City of Santa Ana may have to start their own investigation of Bustamante – which could turn up even more cases of alleged harassment. Continue reading
Twin devils of deception
Embattled Ward 3 City Councilman Carlos Bustamante likes to portray himself as an anti-tax crusading small government Republican, but is he?
At last evenings Santa Ana City Council meeting Bustamante, who is currently on paid leave from his county job due to sex allegations, played to the crowd of “Usual Suspects” and anti-Chivas NIMBY’s by saying that he would fight any attempt to use tax dollars or raising of taxes to help bring Chivas USA to Santa Ana. A few hours later, at the same meeting, Bustamante sat with a disgusted look on his face as Mayor Pro Tem Claudia Alvarez spoke out against PBID, a tax, which many call unfair and illegal, on downtown business owners.
The Santa Ana City Council voted unanimously tonight to support a potential move of the Chivas USA soccer team to the Willowick Golf Course (that’s right – Usual Suspects fave Carlos Bustamante voted for that too!), but my sources insist that this deal simply is not going to happen.
The real news is the budget report that our City Manager, Paul Walters, posted online today. In it he references a report prepared by a consultant, Management Partners, Inc. They took a long hard look at the City budget, which features a $30 million dollar deficit, and recommended several painful fixes, including: Continue reading
UPDATE FROM CITY MANAGER
September, 2011
COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT AGENCY
Does Santa Ana Council Member Carlos Bustamante realize he is up for reelection next year? He sure isn’t acting like it. He went off on the Latino residents and businessmen who showed up to yesterday’s City Council meeting. But that wasn’t all. Here is a review of Bustamante’s strange utterances at the Council meeting:
The Santa Ana City Council just voted on the 85 A item that was put on the agenda tonight, by Council Members Carlos Bustamante and David Benavides. They said they weren’t trying to punish Mayor Pro Tem Claudia Alvarez, but that is precisely what they were trying to do.
The Council voted 4-3 for an alternate motion submitted by Council Member Vince Sarmiento, condemning Alvarez’ comments last week, when she used a Hitler analogy in talking about Jewish property owner and developer Irv Chase.
Surprisingly, Council Member Michele Martinez sided with the “B-Boys.” However they could not get four votes. Indeed, they got punked. Council Members Pulido, Sarmiento, Tinajero and Alvarez voted for the substitute motion. Continue reading
I am covering tonight’s Santa Ana City Council meeting – which figures to be an epic confrontation between Republican Council Member Carlos Bustamante and his sidekick, David Benavides vs. Mayor Pro Tem Claudia Alvarez. The “B Boys” have put an 85 A item on the agenda to punish and maybe even ask Alvarez to resign from the Council.
This all came about as a result of an analogy made by Alvarez at the last Council meeting, when she compared developer and property owner Irv Chase to Adolf Hitler. She has since apologized. Continue reading
The Park Santiago Neighborhood Association is hosting their Second Annual Summer Concert tonight, August 27, from 5 to 10 pm. at Santiago Park, at the Baseball Field.
The event will feature an open air concert by cover band “Hey, That’s my Bike.”
Although the concert is free, donations are appreciated to defray costs, and vendors will be on hand selling food and craft items. Plan to bring a canned-food donation for Grandma’s House of Hope and a blanket or chair to sit on. Meet at the ball diamond (Santiago Street north of Park Lane). Walk if possible, but if you must drive, First Congregation Church at Santiago & Virginia will allow you to park in their parking lot. Click here for more info. Continue reading