Santa Ana officials are formally opposing county leaders’ plans to convert a juvenile rehab center to a halfway house for ex-inmates in the northern edge of town, with two council members arguing the city is not a “dumping ground” for such services.
City leaders say county officials have been quietly moving forward with the proposal for years without ever reaching out to them to get their input and engage with them about putting a coordinated reentry center in Santa Ana – the county seat.
Now, city council members are publicly questioning if they can trust county leaders to listen to the concerns of residents and say the move is the latest in a pattern of ignoring city officials and constantly having Santa Ana carry the brunt of their social service programs and facilities.
“That’s definitely something that is a never-ending and reoccurring episode that we see here in Santa Ana with the County of Orange and their continued dumping, literal dumping on our city and our residents of all the social services and and these types of programs that exist out there,” said Councilman David Penaloza, who’s running for Assembly, at Tuesday’s city council meeting.
That night, city council members voted unanimously to direct the city manager to draft a resolution to formally oppose putting the planned reentry center in Santa Ana despite county leaders saying they haven’t approved a location for it.
[Read: Santa Ana Looks to Formally Oppose County’s Planned Halfway House]
Mayor Valerie Amezcua said officials are not against rehabilitation programs but the city is already home to many social service facilities like the county shelter as well as the county jail and courthouse.
She also said county leaders never bothered to inform them of their plans.
“We cannot continue to allow Santa Ana to be the only city where these sites open. There are 34 cities in this county. We need to make sure the board of supervisors understand that we’re not the only show in town,” said Amezcua – a former probation officer – at Tuesday’s meeting.
“We are not the stepchild. We’re not the dumping ground.”
Last week, county spokeswoman Molly Nichelson said they have been working for years to diversify where they put critical social service programs in the region and officials thought it was important to renovate and convert the almost 60-year-old facility.
“Operations began at the facility in 1967 and the County found that it would be prudent and fiscally responsible to modernization an existing facility to meet our anticipated needs for our coordinated reentry clientele. At this time, this project is in the planning phase but needs to come before the Board before final approval,” she wrote in Friday email.
The coordinated reentry center would temporarily house and help former incarcerated residents reintegrate into society, with county officials saying it would also serve homeless people willing to get substance abuse treatment and mental health services.
Nichelson also said county officials have tried to meet with city officials but haven’t been able to due to city leaders’ scheduling conflicts.
Santa Ana City Council members say an initial attempt to contact them came at the 11th hour before county leaders set aside tens of millions of dollars for the project.
Councilman Johnathan Hernandez said Santa Ana should not be excluded from decisions that impact Santa Ana and echoed his colleagues’ opposition.
“There should be no decision made without Santa Ana’s input,” he said at Tuesday’s meeting. “That is not a decision that the county should unilaterally make. If the city of Santa Ana wants to see a reentry center be brought here, there should be a dialog.”
At the same time, Hernandez said elected leaders need to understand why county leaders keep looking to Santa Ana to carry the brunt of these services and a reentry center like this could reduce crime by decreasing recidivism rates.
“The reality is children get shot in Santa Ana, not in Irvine. That’s a very difficult reality for all of us to face, one that hurts every single one of us. We contribute a higher percentage of inmates to juvenile halls, jails, and prisons than most cities in Orange County,” he said.
“We have more gangs in Santa Ana than any other city in Orange County and also because this is the county seat.”
On Tuesday, city council members also directed City Attorney Sonia Carvalho to evaluate any legal actions they could take to prevent the center from being built in Santa Ana.
Carvalho publicly questioned if the county properly conducted their environmental impact review on the project and said the impacts to the city were not mentioned – an issue she said she plans to investigate.
“We need to look into whether we received notice, whether we were given the opportunity to comment, and what’s more is whether the document itself is defective, because if in fact the project did include the site here, it wasn’t analyzed in those documents,” Carvalho said.
The formal opposition to the proposed reentry center in Santa Ana comes after OC Board of Supervisors set aside $21 million for the project during budget discussions last month, having to use $75 million in reserves to balance their books.
[Read: Santa Ana Officials Rally Against County’s Quietly Planned Halfway House]
Nichelson said even with the allocation, the reentry center still needs approval to be built and it does not lock in the Santa Ana location.
Elected Leaders Push Back on Reentry Center
Councilwoman Jessie Lopez, who is running for state assembly against Penaloza, said county officials excluding city leaders and residents from discussions on the reentry center is indicative of a pattern of how county leaders treat Santa Ana.
“It’s a structural failure in how the county handles city decisions of this scale and our residents have every right to be upset. Members of the council have every right to be upset because this is not about rehabilitation services,” she said at Tuesday’s meeting.
“This is again about not being taken into consideration when it impacts the city and, moreover, really the equitable distribution of services.”
In a letter Tuesday to city council members, Supervisor Vicente Sarmiento – former Santa Ana mayor – reiterated county officials have yet to make a final decision on the reentry center and its location.
“To be clear, at this time the Board of Supervisors have not approved construction of a Reentry Center at this location, nor has it approved funding to renovate the former Youth Guidance Center for this purpose,” he wrote.
“While County staff have completed preliminary conceptual design work to evaluate what the site could potentially look like, no construction has begun, no construction has been authorized, and no funding has been approved.”
During county budget discussions in June, Sarmiento also raised concerns about county officials not engaging with Santa Ana leaders about the planned halfway house and surrounding residents.
Despite county leaders promising to engage with city officials on the center, Councilmembers Phil Bacerra and Thai Viet Phan questioned what meaningful dialogue would look like, with Bacerra noting even after previous push back they still put a homeless shelter in the city.
Phan echoed Bacerra’s remarks and said the county has let the city down when it comes to the Yale Homeless shelter.
“It is not our fault that we can’t trust the county when they have, in fact, failed to provide the funding necessary, the security necessary and the staffing necessary to take care of Yale, take care of the businesses around Yale and take care of the residents who live around Yale,” Phan said.
City officials and Sarmiento aren’t the only ones to raise concerns about county officials not consulting with Santa Ana elected leaders and residents.
Congressman Lou Correa, State Senator Tom Umberg and State Assemblyman Avelino Valencia also sent letters to supervisors urging them to work closely with Santa Ana leaders about the concerns.
Penaloza said they cannot let up their pressure on county leaders.
“The minute we take down the temperature as a city, that’s when the county screws us over time and time again.”
Hosam Elattar is a Voice of OC reporter. Contact him at helattar@voiceofoc.org.
