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Santa Ana's top news & views blog

Tag Archives: nelida yanez

Mayor Pulido is leading in early election results as are Council candidates Solorio and Villegas

Posted on by Posted in 2016 Elections, Santa Ana 2 Comments

The early 2016 General Election results are in and as we predicted Santa Ana Mayor Miguel Pulido is cruising to an easy victory over his ultra-liberal opponent Ben Vazquez. And we are very excited to report that Santa Ana City Councilman and high school dropout Roman Reyna is losing right now to his opponent, Juan Villegas, in Ward 5, by about 1,600 votes. Meanwhile over in Ward 3 Jose Solorio is leading a large pack of candidates with over 44% of the vote and in Ward 1 the incumbent, Vince Sarmiento, is barely edging out his challenger, Jessica Cha, by about 1,300 votes.

The bad news is that Measure PP, which will hand the City Council a 700% pay raise, is easily winning, by a margin of two to one. The good news is that if Reyna loses he won’t be getting this money. Continue reading→

RSCCD Trustee Yanez will face off against Gordon and Tapia again in November

Posted on by Posted in 2016 Elections, Education, Nelida Mendoza-Yanez, Politics, Santa Ana, Thomas Gordon, Tony Tapia 3 Comments

Rancho Santiago Community College District Trustee Nelida Yanez will have her hands full this November fending off two challengers in the Primary Election, in Area Three.

OC GOP Central Committee Member Thomas Gordon, who works as an asbestos inspector for the L.A. Unified School District and Anthony “Tony” Tapia, a local resident and member of a construction labor union, both filed to run against Yanez. Continue reading→

A loss for the people of Santa Ana as Planning Commissioner Sean Mill exits our city

Posted on by Posted in Civic Affairs, David Benavides, Phil Bacerra, Planning, Santa Ana, Sean Mill, Thomas Gordon 1 Comment

Did you know that former Santa Ana City Commissioner Thomas Gordon maintains a second home in Denver, CO? He has in fact served in City Commissions both in Denver and in Santa Ana. Yet Gordon today is attacking former Santa Ana Planning Commissioner Sean Mill, who resigned from his city post after Gordon and Liberal OC blogger Dan Chmielewski paid a private investigator to tail Mill to see if he was living in Santa Ana, according to the O.C. Register.

As it turns out both Gordon and Chmielewski have been caught red-handed previously by Mill. It was Mill who discovered that Chmielewski was running a business based in Santa Ana, a few years ago, but he had not at the time acquired or paid for a Santa Ana city business license. And of course it was Mill who brought up Gordon’s own residency issues when Gordon was a Santa Ana City Commissioner. Continue reading→

RSCCD Trustees vote to stop violating the Brown Act while negotiating a PLA

Posted on by Posted in Education, Jose Solorio, Labor, Politics, Santa Ana 2 Comments

Measure q

The Rancho Santiago Community College District’s (RSCCD) Board of Trustees met tonight and the biggest issue on their plate was allegations that they have violated the Brown Act by negotiating PLA terms in closed session.

A PLA is a Project Labor Agreement.  These agreements typically ban non-union contractors from bidding on public works – in this case we are talking about the $198M bond measure Q, that was passed last year to fund construction projects at Santa Ana College. (This after millions of our dollars were wasted on the previous RSCCD Measure E – when that money was mostly spent on the campus in the Orange Hills.  A PLA delayed Measure E projects and drove them over-budget).

Trustee Phil Yarbrough, who is a Republican, accused the Democrat-dominated RSCCD Board of violating the Brown Act by negoiating PLAs in closed session.  Continue reading→

Will the RSCCD Trustees vote for a union-only PLA on Measure Q projects?

Posted on by Posted in 2012 Elections, Claudia Alvarez, Education, Jose Solorio, Labor, Nelida Mendoza-Yanez, Santa Ana 6 Comments

Will Solorio lead the charge for a union-only PLA on Measure Q projects?

The Rancho Santiago Community College District’s Board of Education will be quite different once their new Trustees are sworn in.  For the first time that I can remember the Board will be majority Latino with only two holdovers in Phil Yarbrough and John Hanna.

The rest of the Trustees are Latinos – Arianna Barrios; Nelida Yanez; Jose Solorio and Claudia Alvarez.  Three of them are Democrats. Barrios however is an independent who is very tight with the Orange County Republicans – and she does public relations work for Anaheim Council Member Kris Murray, another Republican. Continue reading→

Our SAUSD School Board and RSCCD Board endorsements

Posted on by Posted in 2012 Elections, Art Pedroza, Cecilia Iglesias, Claudia Alvarez, Dave Chapel, Education, Jose Hernandez, Mark McLoughlin, Myriam Tinajero, Santa Ana, Tony Tapia 6 Comments

After hearing SAUSD Board of Education candidate Ceci Iglesias affirm her support for the Dream Act at last night’s Santa Ana School Board forum, I have decided to endorse her after all.  I am also endorsing Myriam Tinajero and  Jose Alfredo Hernandez.

Iglesias is a single mom and a social worker.  She ran for Congress as an independent a few years ago.  She is against tax increases and a firm believer in our kids.  Tinajero is also a social worker and she is the sister of former SAUSD Trustee Sal Tinajero.  Sal is also currently a Council Member here in Santa Ana.  Lastly, I am backing Hernandez, who is an immigration lawyer, because of his support for our current SAUSD Superintendent, Thelma Melendez de Santa Ana. Continue reading→

Revealed – Pulido busted Palacio’s unethical mentor back in 1990

Posted on by Posted in 2012 Elections, Alfredo Amezcua, David Benavides, Education, Elections, John Palacio, Lawyers, Mark McLoughlin, Miguel Pulido, Nelida Mendoza-Yanez, Politics, Rudy Montejano, Santa Ana, Valerie Amezcua 94 Comments

SAUSD Trustee John Palacio

To understand why SAUSD Trustee John Palacio hates Santa Ana Mayor Miguel Pulido so much you have to understand that Palacio is still mad that his best friend and mentor was booted off a local school board some years ago.  Wait a minute – I am not referencing the recall of former SAUSD Trustee Nativo Lopez, but rather the fall from grace and eventual resignation of former Rancho Santiago Community College District Trustee Rodolfo “Rudy” Montejano.

Long before Lopez was causing trouble in town, Montejano was the man.  An attorney, who graduated from UC Berkeley, like current Council Member Vince Sarmiento and Council candidate Eric Alderete, Montejano was quite the player back in the day – and Palacio was his number one lackey. Continue reading→

Mayor Miguel Pulido endorsed by the Democratic Party of Orange County

Posted on by Posted in Alfredo Amezcua, Democratic Party, Elections, Labor, Orange, Orange County, Politics, Santa Ana 2 Comments

Santa Ana Mayoral candidate Alfredo Amezcua brought his whole gang to tonight’s Democratic Party of Orange County meeting, at the Teamsters Hall at Marks and Chapman in Orange, but it was all for naught.  Santa Ana Mayor Miguel Pulido got the endorsement of the DPOC!

Amezcua’s mob lost their minds, according to a pajarito, and DPOC Chairman Frank Barbaro had to threaten to escort them out of the room, after they started screaming that not all the votes had been counted.  Amezcua’s supporters at the meeting included a Republican, Art Lomeli, as well as Albert Castillo, and Zeke Hernandez. 

 

As one might expect, the increasingly unhinged Gallegos is now alleging that the DPOC created fake votes and took votes away from Amezcua, over at his fading Liberal OC blog.  Gallegos even went as far as to compare DPOC Chairman Frank Barbaro to Iran’s President, Mahmood Ahmadinejad.   

This endorsements means that Pulido will be appearing on all DPOC walk pieces, door hangers and slate mailers.  Obviously this is a huge blow to the underfunded Amezcua campaign, which has been touted heavily of late on the Liberal OC blog, which has also been attacking Pulido mercilessly.

Here are the DPOC members who allegedly voted for Amezcua, courtesy of the Lib OC:

  • Mohammed Amin
  • Mani Kang
  • David Sonnenborn
  • Marti Shrank
  • Giovanii Jorquera
  • Ken Burke
  • Zeke Hernandez
  • Ken Arnold

It should be noted that Ken Arnold is running for Congress against Dana Rohrabacher.  Why he would side with Amezcua is a real mystery.  Also not a good move on his part. 

You cannot win the DPOC endorsement without significant support from organized labor, and Amezcua has utterly failed in that regard.  Pulido recently got the COPE endorsement from the Orange County Central Labor Council, and he has the support of the Santa Ana Police Officers Association and the Santa Ana Firemens Benevolent Associations as well.

Pulido really scored with the trade unions a few weeks ago when he strongly supported the One Broadway Plaza project.  Amezcua showed up to the City Council meeting, when the top item of discussion was a request by the OBP developer for changes in the development agreement.  Amezcua slinked out of the room without supporting the project.  The union members who were there took note of that. 

Pulido will be at the Labor Day event at the Santa Ana Zoo.  I wonder if Amezcua will bother showing up now that he has lost the support of labor and his own party?

Yanez family hosting a fundraiser for mayoral candidate Alfredo Amezcua

Posted on by Posted in Democratic Party, Elections, Latinos, Miguel Pulido, Politics, Santa Ana 8 Comments

When Nelida Yanez ran for the Santa Ana City Council in 2006, she enjoyed the support of Santa Ana Council Members Sal Tinajero and Claudia Alvarez.  Yanez lost, with 34% of the vote, according to Smart Voter.

Now Nelida, and her husband Joe, have turned on their former allies and are supporting the mayoral campaign of Alfredo Amezcua, who is challenging incumbent Mayor Miguel Pulido.

The Yanez family is hosting a fundraiser for Amezcua on March 27, from 3-5 pm, at 1125 South Sullivan, in Santa Ana.  See the graphic above for RSVP info.

To further convolute things, the supporters of the guy who beat Yanez in 2006, David Benavides, are now supporting Amezcua as well.  These supporters include Thomas Gordon, who is also running for the Santa Ana City Council this year. Continue reading→

Senator Lou Correa honoring 101 women making a difference on March 18

Posted on by Posted in Latinos, Lou Correa, Politics, Santa Ana, Veterans, Women 3 Comments

Senator Lou Correa and the United Mexican-American Veterans Association are celebrating the 2010 Women’s History Month with a “Women Making A Difference Awards and Tea Reception” on Thursday, March 18, from 4:00 – 6:00 PM at the Rancho Santiago Community College District headquarters, located at 2323 N. Broadway, in Santa Ana.

Maria T. Solis-Martinez is being recognized as the Woman of the Year, by Senator Correa.

  • Maria retired from the US Air Force.
  • Is on the Board Member for American GI Forum, and
  • Is a long-term Member of UMAVA (United Mexican-American Veterans Association)

The following outstanding women are getting recognized by CA State Senator Lou Correa as “Women Making a Difference” alongside other outstanding women of Orange County: Continue reading→