New Santa Ana | Category Archives: Miguel Pulido

Why is the Santa Ana City Council messing around with the Mayoral elections?

Posted on November 4, 2013 by Art Pedroza Posted in 2014 Elections, Civic Affairs, David Benavides, David Cavazos, Michele Martinez, Miguel Pulido, Politics, Sal Tinajero, Vince Sarmiento 4 Comments

Is it desperation? Santa Ana Council Members Sal Tinajero and Vince Sarmiento placed an odd 85 A item on tonight’s City Council agenda:

DIRECT CITY ATTORNEY TO PREPARE NECESSARY DOCUMENTS TO PROPOSE A CHARTER AMENDMENT ESTABLISHING A PRIMARY ELECTION FOR MAYOR SEAT TO BE CONSIDERED BY VOTERS AT THE 2014 GENERAL MUNICIPAL ELECTION – (Mayor Pro Tem Tinajero and Councilmember Sarmiento

If I am reading this correctly it looks like a proposal to make the Mayoral election in November, 2016 a Primary Election, with a General Election to be set at some later date. This is completely crazy! The only good news is that the voters would have to approve this in the November, 2014 election, as it is a change to the city’s charter. Continue reading→

Poll: Will you vote for Reyna or Pulido for Mayor in 2014?

Posted on October 16, 2013 by Art Pedroza Posted in 2014 Elections, Carlos Bustamante, David Benavides, Miguel Pulido, Politics, Santa Ana Leave a comment

Roman Reyna and Carlos Bustamante

Multiple sources have confirmed tonight that Santa Ana Councilman Roman Reyna will be running against Santa Ana Mayor in 2014.

Who will you vote for? Be sure to vote in our poll, above. Continue reading→

Will Councilman Roman Reyna challenge Mayor Miguel Pulido in 2014?

Posted on October 16, 2013 by Art Pedroza Posted in 2014 Elections, David Benavides, Elections, Miguel Pulido, Politics, Roman Reyna, Santa Ana 10 Comments

Santa Ana City Councilman Roman Reyna, who was elected to his first term, in Ward 5, last year, is apparently going to run against popular Santa Ana Mayor Miguel Pulido in 2014, according to a city insider.

Reyna, who touts that he is an “Orange County Department of Education Case Manager,” on his city bio, has previously worked at the Santa Ana Parks and Recreation Agency, the Santa Ana Boys and Girls Club, and the Santa Ana YMCA. He served one term on the Santa Ana Unified School District’s Board of Education, before running for the Santa Ana City Council, when longtime incumbent Claudia Alvarez termed out. Continue reading→

Updated: Adios Jill Arthur

Posted on October 7, 2013 by Art Pedroza Posted in Civic Affairs, Dave Ream, Miguel Pulido, Politics, Santa Ana Leave a comment

UPDATED: The Voice of OC is now reporting that Jill Arthur is possibly working in a volunteer capacity for Santa Ana Mayor Miguel Pulido. We have no problem with that. Who the Mayor opts to work with is up to him and apparently the taxpayers are not on the hook. That sounds like a good deal for the people of Santa Ana.

Jill Arthur, Santa Ana’s former deputy city manager accused of wrongdoing at the city’s unemployment office, is no longer employed at City Hall after a city investigation into the incident, Voice of OC has confirmed.

We might never know why in the world Arthur offered to use her influence at the city’s work center to help a young man named Marcel Alvarez to find a job after she backed her vehicle into his car but apparently that is what she did. Continue reading→

Mayor Pulido is trying to bring back redevelopment

Posted on September 26, 2013 by Art Pedroza Posted in Miguel Pulido, Santa Ana 5 Comments

Santa Ana Mayor Miguel Pulido is heading up an effort to resurrect California’s controversial redevelopment agencies, working with the public relations firm Forde & Mollrich to solicit donations from cities to fund a ballot initiative that would reverse one of Gov. Jerry Brown’s signature policy achievements, according to the Voice of OC.

City contributions would go to a nonprofit setup to draft the Jobs & Economic Development Initiative – termed JEDI – for the November 2014 ballot, which would allow cities to once again capture tax increment revenue, the central component to what was formerly called redevelopment. Continue reading→

Large crowd shows up to watch the Santa Ana 2013 Fiestas Patrias parade

Posted on September 15, 2013 by Art Pedroza Posted in Arts and Culture, Civic Affairs, Independence, mexico, Miguel Pulido, Santa Ana 2 Comments

The 2013 Fiestas Patrias Parade was held this afternoon in Downtown Santa Ana. This annual event is always well attended and despite the heat today there were a lot of people lined up along the parade route, which stretched along a route that ended on Civic Center, by the O.C. Courthouse. Click here to see the pictures that are included in the video slideshow above.

The usual politicians showed up to ride in the parade including local elected officials such as Santa Ana Mayor Miguel Pulido and Santa Ana Council Members David Benavides, Michele Martinez and Vince Sarmiento. There were also several legislators including State Senator Lou Correa, former Assemblyman Jose Solorio who is now a Community College District Trustee, Assemblyman Tom Daly and U.S. Representative Loretta Sanchez. Continue reading→

Poll – Who is the worst Santa Ana City Council Member?

Posted on August 14, 2013 by Art Pedroza Posted in Angelica Amezcua, Civic Affairs, David Benavides, Michele Martinez, Miguel Pulido, Roman Reyna, Sal Tinajero, Santa Ana, Vince Sarmiento Leave a comment

We recently took a look at the official City Calendars of each of our Santa Ana City Council Members. Now it is time to vote! Which one of our Council Members is the very worst of the bunch?

Continue reading→

A look at Mayor Pulido’s official calendar shows a full time schedule

Posted on August 13, 2013 by Art Pedroza Posted in Civic Affairs, Miguel Pulido, Santa Ana 1 Comment

Our family vacation interrupted my series of articles about the Santa Ana Council Members’ City Calendars, which are posted for public review on the City’s website.

We have looked at all of the Council Members – and found that most of them were either barely active at all, or were active mostly in wards other than the ones they were elected to represent. Now it is time to look at Mayor Miguel Pulido’s calendar:

He attended the John Aguilar Plaque Unveiling Ceremony on Monday, July 1, 2013, at the SAPD’s headquarters. Later that night he led the Santa Ana City Council meeting.
On Friday, July 5, Pulido participated in the AQMD Governing Board meeting, in Diamond Bar. Continue reading→

Adult Baseball fight breaks out, with Tinajero and Pulido in the middle

Posted on July 11, 2013 by Art Pedroza Posted in Baseball, Miguel Pulido, Sal Tinajero, Santa Ana, Sports 2 Comments

“A dispute involving adult baseball leagues in Santa Ana is providing yet another backdrop for the ongoing political battle between Mayor Miguel Pulido and the current City Council majority, with Pulido going so far this time as to advise the leaders of two leagues to sue the city over the use of baseball diamonds, according to the owner of one league,” according to the Voice of OC.

Here are a few more excerpts from the Voice of OC article: Continue reading→

Mayor Pulido addresses the public employee pension fiasco

Posted on June 23, 2013 by Art Pedroza Posted in california, Miguel Pulido, Politics, Santa Ana 3 Comments

Pension costs: Pushing cities to fiscal disaster

By San Jose Mayor Chuck Reed & Santa Ana Mayor Miguel Pulido, The San Diego Union-Tribune

The skyrocketing cost of public employee retirement benefits is one of the greatest challenges facing cities and other government agencies across California today. Annual taxpayer contributions to CalPERS, the state’s main retirement system, have jumped from about $2 billion to nearly $8 billion over the past decade. Many non-CalPERS agencies have seen similar retirement cost increases as well.

Despite these rising contributions, the state’s retirement systems are significantly underfunded, with their collective unfunded liabilities for pension and retiree health care benefits totaling hundreds of billions of dollars. Continue reading→

Mayor Pulido to deliver his annual State of the City address on 6/19

Posted on June 15, 2013 by Art Pedroza Posted in Business, Civic Affairs, Miguel Pulido, Politics, Santa Ana 2 Comments

Mayor Miguel Pulido will deliver his 2013 State of the City address on Wednesday, June 19, 2013, to the members of the Santa Ana Chamber of Commerce.

Pulido was challenged last year by Councilman David Benavides. Pulido beat him soundly just as he defeated criminal defense attorney Alfredo Amezcua in 2010. Pulido has been our Mayor since 1994. Continue reading→

Pulido garners praise as he works to shut down SONGS and save the fire pits

Posted on June 7, 2013 by Art Pedroza Posted in Alfredo Amezcua, David Benavides, Miguel Pulido, Politics, Raul Godinez, Santa Ana 6 Comments

It has been a tough ride for longtime Santa Ana Mayor Miguel A. Pulido since his successful re-election last November. He easily defeated Councilman David P. Benavides in that election, but Bneavides came out on top as part of a City Council that appears to be united in their pettiness towards Pulido.

The City Council fired City Manager Paul Walters, although he saved the city from a massive budget deficit by outsourcing our expensive Fire Department to the Orange County Fire Authority. And someone on the Council leaked damaging information to the Voice of OC about the embarrassing investigation of Deputy City Manager Jill Arthur, who has always been loyal to Pulido. She will almost certainly retire and not return to City Hall.

But despite all the attacks on him, Pulido has been in the news, a lot, because he has been heavily involved in two regional issues. Pulido has been leading the charge to save the fire pits on our Orange County coastal beaches. He has been doing so in his capacity as a member of the Southern California Air Quality Managment District’s Board of Governors. Even OC Weekly editor Gustavo Arellano, who has no love for Pulido, has to begrudgingly admit that he is rooting for Pulido: Continue reading→

Santa Ana Political Chismes – Sarmiento for Supervisor?

Posted on June 3, 2013 by Art Pedroza Posted in 2014 Elections, Alfredo Amezcua, Angelica Amezcua, Civic Affairs, Claudia Alvarez, Elections, Janet Nguyen, Michele Martinez, Miguel Pulido, Politics, Sal Tinajero, Santa Ana, Term Limits, Tom Daly, Vince Sarmiento 9 Comments

I had a long talk this afernoon with a Santa Ana insider who had some amazing chismes for me. I was expecting that perhaps Santa Ana Mayor Miguel Pulido would run for the Orange County Supervisorial seat that is currently held by Janet Nguyen, but apparently Councilman Vincent Sarmiento has decided to run, and Pulido is not going to oppose him.

But the biggest shocker was that Measure D may be in trouble – and that it could be reversed if it is challenged in court. That was the measure that extended the term limits of the Santa Ana Council Members by four years, from 8 years to 12. That measure was on the ballot in a special election but apparently it should have been put in front of the voters in a general election. What this means, if it does get wiped out, is that several Santa Ana Council Members will be termed out – including Michele Martinez and Sal Tinajero. Continue reading→

Why Rocco’s misguided recall campaign against Mayor Pulido will fail

Posted on May 9, 2013 by Art Pedroza Posted in 2013 Elections, Civic Affairs, Miguel Pulido, Politics, Santa Ana, Steve Rocco 3 Comments

Steve Rocco

We reported back on March 21, that Steve Rocco, the perennial candidate who appears to be a few sandwiches short of a picnic, had filed paperwork with the Santa Ana City Clerk to begin a petition to recall Santa Ana Mayor Miguel Pulido.

Now the Orange County Register has reported that Rocco’s paperwork has been approved, so he can start collecting signatures in order to try to put his Pulido recall on the ballot. Continue reading→

May Day at the Santa Ana City Council meeting on May 6

Posted on May 5, 2013 by Art Pedroza Posted in Civic Affairs, Civil Rights, Entertainment, immigration, mexico, Miguel Pulido, Santa Ana Leave a comment

Join the OC May Day Coalition this Monday night, at 5:30 pm, at the Santa Ana City Council meeting, as they come together to share their stories and demand that the Council Members and Mayor Miguel Pulido stop the contract between the police department and ICE. Their message is to stop deportations!

There are only two immigrants left on our City Council today – Mayor Miguel Pulido and Councilman Vince Sarmiento. David Benavides, Michele Martinez and Roman Reyna are however fluent in Pocho. Continue reading→