This week’s Santa Ana City Council meeting agenda includes item 25H – Approval of the Agreement to hire Raul Godinez as our City’s new City Manager, as we wrote about earlier in the week. You can read the staff report regarding Godinez here.
The Santa Ana City Council majority, comprised of Council Members Michele Martinez, Vince Sarmiento, Sal Tinajero and David Benavides, is going to vote to pay Godinez a package worth over $500K a year. Continue reading
The Santa Ana City Council is conducting a Special Closed Session Meeting on Oct. 2 at 2 pm. The meeting agenda only has one item on it – the appointment of a new City Manager.
The current Acting City Manager is Cynthia J. Kurtz. She has over 26 years of local government experience including previously serving as the City Manager for the City of Pasadena for ten years, as well as the Interim City Manager for the City of Covina for six months. Continue reading
City Manager David Cavazos will be relieved of his duties but will receive a severance payout, council members decided Tuesday just a few weeks after he was placed on paid administrative leave by a new council majority, according to the O.C. Register.
The good news is that even though the City will have to pay Cavazos over $315K to take a hike they are replacing him with Gerardo Mouet, who has been running our City’s Parks and Recreation Agency for years. Mouet is already on the payroll so this won’t cost Santa Ana an extra dime. Continue reading
If you live in Santa Ana then it should come as no surprise violent crime increased in our city during the first half of 2016, according to a new FBI report.
Violent crime also increased in Orange, Costa Mesa, and Irvine, but it dropped in Anaheim, Huntington Beach and Garden Grove. Continue reading
Gerardo Mouet, the executive director of the Santa Ana Parks, Recreation and Community Services Agency, has been named Santa Ana’s acting City Manager, according to the O.C. Register.
Mouet was appointed after the new City Council majority voted on Wednesday to place our overpaid and oversexed city manager, David Cavazos, on administrative leave. Continue reading
Santa Ana residents got a late Christmas present today as our overpaid and oversexed City Manager, David Cavazos, was placed on paid administrative leave after a 4-0 City Council vote Wednesday afternoon, according to the O.C. Register.
As one might expect Cavazos’ allies on the City Council – Sal Tinajero, David Benavides and Vince Sarmiento, complained about this because they were not at today’s special meeting. Apparently they are all on vacation. Oh well! Even if they were here they could not have stopped this as Mayor Miguel Pulido had four votes on his side. Continue reading
Overpaid Santa Ana City Manager David Cavazos
Do you remember when Santa Ana Council Member David Benavides called for a special City Council meeting back on Dec. 27, 2012, so he and his Council colleagues could fire our former City Manager, Paul Walters?
Apparently the editors at the Voice of OC have forgotten about that as they are now having a cow because Santa Ana Mayor Miguel Pulido has called for a special City Council meeting for the middle of the workday Wednesday with a single agenda item that could lead to the ouster of City Manager David Cavazos. Continue reading
While the Democrats are completely stunned this morning by the loss of the White House to Donald Trump here in Santa Ana another big upset has occurred as our embattled Mayor, Miguel Pulido, has not only won his reelection campaign – he now has regained control of the Santa Ana City Council.
The election last night of Jose Solorio in Ward 3 and Juan Villegas in Ward 5 has given Pulido a firm City Council majority as he can now count on Mayor Pro Tem Vince Sarmiento in Ward 1 as well. Sarmiento owes Pulido a huge debt as there is no doubt that Sarmiento only survived his battle against Jessica Cha because of Pulido’s support. Continue reading
A new campaign mailer was delivered to Santa Ana voters this week that absolutely slammed City Council incumbents Roman Reyna and Vince Sarmiento for wasting $479,615 of taxpayer money by overpaying our City Manager, David Cavazos, and handing out needless raises and bonuses to Cavazos and his fellow city executive cronies. Continue reading
Last night at about 11:25 p.m. SAPD police officers were in the area of 800 N. Harbor Blvd. when they heard 6-8 gunshots fired immediately east of their location, per SAPD Case Number 16-24695.
The police officers responded to 800 N. Figueroa Street and located 8 .45 caliber casings in the street and on the sidewalk. They also located one live .38 caliber round. One vehicle was struck. No homes or people were struck. There are no suspects or witnesses at this time. Continue reading
Early this morning, shortly after midnight, Santa Ana police officers responded to the area of 1300 South Magnolia on a call of a shooting. Minutes later, an adult male victim arrived at a local hospital suffering from a gunshot wound to the leg. A vehicle that was parked on Magnolia Street was struck by gunfire through the windshield.
Ironically, this comes the day after our overpaid (and oversexed) City Manager, David Cavazos, and our inept and inexperienced SAPD Police Chief Carlos Rojas released a ridiculous puff piece stating Santa Ana is one of the safest cities in the United States – yes, but that was way back in 2011! Continue reading
Violent crime continues to increase in Santa Ana at an unbelievable rate, yet police staffing remains far below minimum staffing levels. What is inexperienced SAPD Police Chief Carlos Rojas doing to address this? Nothing. What is our overpaid City Manager David Cavazos doing to address this? Nothing. Why do they refuse to staff “Patrol Officers” to their recommended levels and the levels they have been budgeted for? And why doesn’t our City Council take action? I mean besides giving bonuses to Cavazos and his fellow city executives.
There are serious safety concerns to families, children and the business community of Santa Ana. Since Rojas took over in 2012, shootings are up 556%, according to a new report that I looked at today (which is about how much Cavazos is overpaid!) In 2012 in a six-month period (from January to June) there were 32 shootings as compared to the year-to-date in 2016, when there have been over 200 shootings in our city! Continue reading
In yet another screw-up by SAPD Police Chief Carlos Rojas, he allowed himself to be included in a picture that featured him in his uniform on a political mailer promoting O.C. Supervisor Andrew Do (a Republican from Garden Grove). Never mind the fact that Do is running against one of Rojas’ bosses, Santa Ana City Councilwoman Michele Martinez, the fact is that it is a a violation of Government Code and Departmental Policies for our Police Chief to appear, in uniform, in a campaign mailer.
The matter was investigated at City Hall and while it was determined that Rojas was “unaware the picture was taken” and Rojas claimed that he did not give permission for the photo to be used by Do’s campaign.
How can our Police Chief be so clueless that he would not observe someone taking his picture in a crowded room during an important meeting? Continue reading
Apparently several Santa Ana City Council members are scheming to get rid of our overpaid City Manager, David Cavazos, if Santa Ana City Council Member Michele Martinez is successful in her campaign for the First Supervisorial District, in the upcoming November Primary Election, according to one of our City Hall pajaritos.
The plan, which appears to be the work of City Council Member David Benavides, is to convince the rest of the City Council to replace Martinez on the City Council, should she move on to the O.C. Board of Supervisors, with Planning Commissioner Phil Bacerra. He would then join Benavides and three other City Council Members, and Mayor Miguel Pulido, in voting to fire Cavazos. Continue reading
The depravity of Santa Ana’s overpaid City Manager, David Cavazos, seemingly knows no end. A private investigation, by the law firm Atkinson, Andelson, Loya, Ruud & Romo, which was initiated after Mayor Miguel Pulido and Council Member Michele Martinez complained about Cavazos in an email to City Attorney Sonia Carvalho, on Sep. 27, found that Cavazos failed to disclose a romantic relationship with a Santa Ana employee until a year after the fact, and that his complaint of sexual harassment by Martinez was without merit, according to the O.C. Register.
While the investigative report did not indicate that Cavazos violated the city’s personnel policies, Pulido rightfully said that Cavazos’ behavior exposed the city to millions of dollars of potential liability. Pulido intends to continue to go after Cavazos, which we applaud. Continue reading