As Irvine officials move to look at starting a child care program for residents, their counterparts in Santa Ana are increasingly facing questions on why city staff quietly returned a nearly $7 million state grant intended for the same purpose.
[Read: Irvine Might See Child Care Grant Program for Children Ages 4 and Below]
The grant Santa Ana city staff rejected would have funded the type of programming that law enforcement leaders say can prevent juvenile crime which often peaks around the time the school day ends in California, according to a 2020 report by Fight Crime: Invest in Kids.
Questions about the money come after LAist reported earlier this month that city staff returned the $6.7 million grant in May without informing city council members as they expect to face a $30 million deficit in four years due to the sunset of Measure X, a sales tax measure.
The 2023 grant from the California Department of Social Services would have been used to provide after school and childcare services for 500 kids across seven facilities in Santa Ana – a city where about 12% of people live below the poverty line.
Last week, city officials for the first time publicly questioned and discussed why staff gave back the multi-million dollar grant intended to help the youth in Santa Ana – one of the youngest cities in the county in terms of population age.
Officials explained that they gave the money back for a host of reasons, including a lack of experience and resources to comply with health, safety and education regulations and the impending projected decrease of their sales tax measure.
[Read: Santa Ana Approves ‘Last Big Budget’ Ahead of Larger Deficits]
Mayor Valerie Amezcua repeatedly thanked staff for returning it, arguing that it could have ended up costing the city money it didn’t have as they look to tighten their belts and that the Santa Ana Unified School District should have applied for it.
“I would highly recommend Santa Ana Unified apply for this. They have the expertise, they have the experience, they have the teachers. They have directors. They understand the safety around children,” she said at the Sept. 16 meeting.
“We don’t have the financial ability to do that. It’s just not in our wheelhouse.”
According to the census bureau, about 17% of kids under 18 in Santa Ana live in poverty.
Councilwoman Jessie Lopez pointed to poverty statistics from 2021 and said a lot of families could have benefited from the grant and it could have been an opportunity to partner with the school district, which she said wasn’t able to apply for the money.
“It’s important for everybody in this chamber to understand that even if five-year-olds or 10-year-olds don’t have lobbyists, it is our responsibility to ensure that we do anything and everything that we can to provide the services that they need to live a fulfilling and fruitful life,” she said at the Sept. 16 meeting.
Lopez also said there was a lack of communication from staff about their decision to elected leaders.
Amezcua, who sat on the local school board for years and has often criticized the district, said she was initially excited about the grant but reminded council members they have to be fiscally responsible.
“I think this is great if we could afford to do it, but we cannot,” she said, adding that she looked forward to city staff bringing other grants to support the youth in the city.
“There’s too much liability for us as a city.”
Amezcua also laid out a hypothetical situation.
“Can you imagine if we would have fed a child a lunch that they were allergic to, they choke and they die because we didn’t have the proper staff,” she said “Oh, let’s talk about the check we’ll write for that one.”
She also worried that an adult would pick up a child that wasn’t their kid – something she said happens at the school district.
Councilwoman Thai Viet Phan said she understands staff was trying to protect city coffers, but added the decision should’ve been made by council members.
“Money comes with strings and the reality is we have to figure out how we are going to ensure that the programs we have now can be sustained based on the fiscal cliff that we’re looking at,” Phan said at the Sept. 16 meeting.
“I think that with something like this – it’s just so far outside the realm of something that we typically do.”
Councilman Johnathan Hernandez said it was a big grant and it could have helped the city’s youngest residents.
“When you prepare children for the first five years of your life, you prepare them for the next 80 years of their life and education is a social determinant over a person’s lifetime,” he said.
Like Phan, Hernandez said council members should decide on large grants.
“If we ever have a grant of this size, any decisions that should be made should be made here at the dias, publicly, especially when it comes to millions of dollars.”
The money was returned to the state a month before officials approved allocating about $161 million or 38% of the general fund budget – the biggest portion of their discretionary money – to the police department.
Child Care & Safety in Santa Ana
On Tuesday, Assistant City Manager Kathryn Downs said staff gave back the money because they had concerns with complying with federal and state health, safety and educational requirements.
She also said it would have created a need for extensive staffing and training and they were worried the state could end up cutting the funding amid the state’s own budget outlook and constraints.
Her reasoning came after City Manager Alvaro Nuñez informed city council members of the decision in an August email – months after relinquishing the $7 million in May.
In the email provided to Voice of OC by Councilman Ben Vazquez, Nuñez said that the city lacked the necessary infrastructure, resources and experience to launch a child care program and the grant came with regulatory constraints.
He also said there were liability concerns related to children safety and pointed to the city’s financial outlook arguing that they may not be able to maintain the programming on their own long term.
“Given these fiscal uncertainties and the associated risks, we have determined that the City is not in a position to proceed with the program at this time and continue to maintain focus on its customary programming and City Council priorities,” reads Nuñez’s email.
“We remain committed to exploring alternative opportunities to support after-school programs and child care services in our community and will keep the Council informed of future initiatives.”
At a debate last year, Santa Ana kids questioned how city council candidates planned to protect youth programs and prevent their peers from joining gangs.
[Read: What Does Santa Ana’s Youth Want Out of Their City’s Future Leaders?]
At that 2024 debate, Councilmembers Vazquez, Phan, Lopez and Hernandez spoke on the importance of community centers, libraries, parks and youth programming to keep kids safe.
Amezcua didn’t attend that debate.
The rejected grant would’ve paid for the type of afterschool programs law enforcement leaders say reduce youth crime and gang violence.
Meanwhile, a 13-year-old boy was shot and killed on Susan Street earlier this month and three other teenagers were wounded.
According to a news release, police believed the shooting to be gang related.
Amezcua pointed to the boy’s death at the Sept. 16 meeting.
“We have gang violence with our youth,” she said. “Can we fix everything? No, but there are some things that we need to have as priorities.”
She also said she would love to tackle stopping gang violence.
“How do we keep our kids from dying?” Amezcua said.
“That’s very important too.”
Hosam Elattar is a Voice of OC reporter. Contact him at helattar@voiceofoc.org or on Twitter @ElattarHosam.