Santa Ana’s public budget is in deep trouble.
This November, there’s a host of local politicians who say they can fix it.
Recent cuts include trimming roughly $5 million in vacant positions and part-time employee spending, nearly a million on park maintenance, about half a million from a police-run after school program, five city commissions and a 15% reduction in Arts & Culture programs.
These are just a few of the cuts Santa Ana city officials made to balance their budget this past summer – slashing more than $11.5 million in expenditures before a majority of city council members decided to turn to voters and ask them to extend a temporary sales tax increase indefinitely in November.
Some elected leaders say keeping the Measure X sales tax increase – which was expected to decrease in a couple of years before completely sunsetting in 2039 – indefinitely is necessary if residents don’t want emergency service responses to take longer.
The city’s finances was one of a handful of issues that was brought up in a lively mayoral & council candidate debate last week hosted by Com-Link, a group representing dozens of neighborhood associations in the city.
At the forum, six city council candidates and three mayoral candidates fielded questions on issues like the city’s budgets, homelessness, public safety, development and planning and rent control – with each candidate getting a different question.
That approach caused some attendees to heckle and criticize the moderators’ questions as being biased during the forum with some arguing publicly that selected candidates were getting easier questions. The approach triggered so many public comments that at one point, Jeffrey Katz – one of the moderators – told attendees if they didn’t like the questions they could speak to candidates after the forum.
Katz, who is listed as an advisor to the Com-Link board on their website, unsuccessfully ran for city council two years ago and his failed 2024 campaign was endorsed by both Mayor Valerie Amezcua and Councilman Phil Bacerra, who are both running for reelection and attended the forum.
Tonight, the Santa Ana Chamber of Commerce will be hosting another candidates forum at Santa Ana College from 5-8 p.m.
Mayoral Candidates
Amezcua said if voters don’t approve Measure N, the ballot initiative to extend the sales tax, city officials would start making cuts across the board.
“The council’s digging deep into where do we cut and that will be raises that other organizations, unions will not get because we have to cut and positions will not be filled,” said Amezcua, who voted earlier this year to place the measure on the November ballot.
“We understand that when we say we have to do cuts, that we are all in agreement that the cuts are going to go across the board, not just one department in the city, but across the board.”
She did not respond to a request for an interview Friday.
Dan Shimell, an attorney running against Amezcua, said city leadership has become too reliant on Measure X dollars and like his opponent said the cuts would have to hit every department, adding they should start with “big ticket items.”
“Some that have gotten increases in the past years are going to have to see those increases go away if we’re going to be able to keep providing all essential services as a city,” he said in an interview after the debate,” he said.
Dwayne Shipp, President of the OC Heritage Council and a Community Development commissioner, said if extending the sales tax increase measure fails, officials should review their spending and try to secure more grant funding.
“Let’s open up the books from the past three years and three years before, and let’s see what we can move around,” he said in an interview. “Let’s figure out what federal funding that you guys have for us. Everyone else has it. America is so fast to send money to other countries. Send some money to Santa Ana.”
Ward 2
Councilman Ben Vazquez said at the forum he called for an economic development committee – an idea which he said led the city manager to start hiring more economic development employees – to help bring in new revenue and the city needs to be more business friendly.
Bacerra countered Vazquez publicly saying the city already had an economic development department.
In a follow up phone interview, Vazquez said he supports the measure extending the sales tax increase and believes any cuts should be balanced and he again pointed to his idea of an economic development committee as a way he proposed of bringing in new revenue.
“Now we have a full-blown department instead of an economic development person to make sure that we have people with vision to fill up empty lots, fill up the empty buildings, create revenue,” Vazquez said.
When asked what the economic development department accomplished so far, Vazquez said officials are still waiting to receive a report from them but noted a failed attempt to attract a Costco to the city.
His opponent, Selica Diaz – a realtor and a former Parks & Recreation commissioner appointed by Amezcua – did not respond to a request for an interview last week nor was she asked questions about the city’s financial situation during the forum.
During the forum, Diaz applauded the mayor’s approach to addressing homelessness and proposed expanding the city’s quality of life teams to have one in every ward in the city – something she said county leaders should cover.
“What we can do is create more quality of life teams and send the bill to the county at the end of each month. We need to hold the county accountable. The county has a responsibility with us, and we have not been seeing that,” Diaz said at the forum.
Ward 4
Councilman Phil Bacerra said he opposed extending the sales tax measure increase indefinitely saying it will bring a bigger structural deficit to the city despite voting to put it on the ballot earlier this year.
He also said he is pushing officials to bring in more hotels to Santa Ana.
“Rather than continuing to ask our residents to pay for more for our services, what we need to do is actually stop saying economic development and get to it,” said Bacerra, who has been on the city council since 2019.
“We need to start working on policies that will attract those businesses here to Santa Ana.”
Vazquez said the city didn’t need more hotels; they need to fix the ones they already have.
Bacerra did not respond to a request for an interview Friday.
His opponent, Sandra De Anda – director of policy for the Orange County Rapid Response Network – also said she opposed Measure N.
“I don’t believe that we should be balancing our budget off of working class people,” De Anda said of the city’s sales tax measure. “I think we have to be able to perhaps do an audit to see how each department is utilizing their funds and what their processes look like,” she said in an interview after the debate.
De Anda also said immigration enforcement has destabilized some of the city’s business corners and suggested hosting block parties to bring them business.
“I’d like to see how we can get creative about boosting those sales tax dollars, and then also just investing in those parcels that are still not utilized to have commercial businesses come and create more revenue for us,” she said.
Ward 6
Isuri Ramos, current chairwoman of Santa Ana’s Planning Commission and executive director for Chispa, was not asked about the city’s budget at the forum and didn’t respond to a request for a follow up interview Friday.
In a previous interview earlier this month, Ramos said the city needs to make more use of its underutilized assets like the city’s stadium to bring in more revenue.
“We need to think about all the vacant land throughout the city and why it’s vacant. If it’s zoned as commercial, we need to ensure that that is being used because that can bring in additional revenue,” Ramos said.
“Essentially, we need to find ways to bring in money that aren’t going to just be taxing our residents – that aren’t going to be asking them every election cycle, ‘can we continue to tax you and can we tax you more?’ That is not a sustainable way and that serves no one.”
Giovanni Chavez, an attorney, stopped responding to a request for an interview this past weekend and wasn’t asked about the city’s finances during the debate.
Chavez also dodged a question at the forum about the ethics of being appointed to the city’s rental housing board while being a candidate for city council.
He did note at the forum the city had the highest tax rate in OC.
“We have the highest sales tax in the whole county, higher than Irvine, higher than Newport Beach, and we just cut youth after school programs. Five city commissions got axed,” Chavez said at the forum.
“Our residents are being charged the most, but they’re not necessarily being given the most. I don’t think that’s a fair deal for the residents.”
Correction: An earlier version of the story stated that Jeffrey Katz told attendees they could leave the forum if they don’t like the questions. He said they can speak to candidates after the event. The story also has been clarified to state Katz is an advisor to the Com-Link Board, not a board member. We regret the errors.
Hosam Elattar is a Voice of OC reporter. Contact him at helattar@voiceofoc.org.
