Santa Ana City Council members made a splash Saturday to celebrate a new aquatic center at Memorial Park, publicizing photos of themselves alongside local kids enjoying the city’s new public pool just weeks ahead of the upcoming Nov. 3 election.
Yet it’s not clear when residents and those kids will get the same chance again.
“Staff told me their hope was November for open swim. We shall see!” said Councilman David Penaloza, who is running for State Assembly, in a Tuesday text message. “We all know how slow government moves.”
City officials won’t answer repeated questions on when the pools will open again – even at a contentious council meeting this week that finished early Wednesday – saying their focus is on planning programming for a center that’s been at least three years in the making.
That’s raising all kinds of questions about whether the opening was politically motivated to help incumbent campaigns.
And whether it could complicate the unveiling of an accompanying historic Chicano mural.
According to city officials, Santa Ana politicians were working with Gov. Gavin Newsom to get the governor to join the event before the November election, but Newsom ultimately didn’t join.
Penaloza said in a text to Voice of OC he hoped the facility would open in May ahead of the summer but there were construction delays.
“Public Works then told us the EARLIEST They can get it completed by was October of 2026. The October 17th date was decided MONTHS AGO. We had been in communication with Governor Newsom’s office since May/June to try to get him here for the dedication and ribbon-cutting, and they needed a firm date,” he said.
Yet the timing of the ceremony so close to the election is raising concerns from some elected leaders and local artists that officials rushed the ribbon cutting while leaving artists in the dark about the progress of restoring the mural.
Councilman Johnathan Hernandez publicly questioned City Manager Alvaro Nuñez on when the pools would open, after Voice of OC reached out to him Tuesday and he said the mural and aquatic center should have been unveiled together.
“I’ve never seen us have an unveiling where it’s actually not available to the public,” he said at this week’s council meeting. “My concerns are that this unveiling was prematurely pushed by people on this council who are running for re-election and some who may be running for assembly.”
Penaloza said Hernandez jumped in the pool during the ribbon cutting ceremony and seemed to enjoy himself.
Nuñez didn’t say when the pools would be opened and denied that any elected official directed him to ensure the ribbon cutting was held this month. He also echoed Penaloza’s remarks about the city wanting to open the pool at the start of summer and the Newsom invitation but there were delays.
Councilman Ben Vazquez, who is running for reelection, said it seemed like staff wanted to open the pool before the election.
“The opening day and completion of the pool were too close together to allow the rehabilitation artist to come in before the opening. City staff wanted to open the pool …I guess before elections,” he wrote in a text message Tuesday
“City staff are now stating they think that mural deserves its own day.”
Mayor Valerie Amezcua and Councilmember Phil Bacerra, who are both running for reelection, as well Councilmember Thai Viet Phan did not respond to Voice of OC requests for comment Tuesday. Nuñez also did not respond to a request for comment Tuesday.
Bacerra later publicly said he enjoyed the ribbon cutting event, adding he underestimated the speed of the water slide.
“Because it is campaign season, it was inconvenient that it was open during this time,” he said at the meeting.
Amezcua said at the meeting city executives told officials to save all their Saturdays for ribbon cutting ceremonies.
Cutting A Ribbon to a Pool Still Closed to The Public
Elected officials in 2023 started to solicit proposals for designing a new aquatic facility at Memorial Park – nearly 70 years since the original pool and community center was built.
By the Fall of 2024, the city awarded a construction contract for the over $29 million aquatic center including a 25-meter competition pool with spectator seating, a recreational pool with a water slide, an all electric building powered by solar panels, locker rooms, a community room and pool deck seating. The project was also supposed to include the restoration of the mural.
MuralColors, the organization hired to do the preservation, only completed the first phase of the restoration, shaving the mural and creating a foundation, but artists say phase two – painting it and preserving it – was delayed.
An agreement for Phase two was just signed by Nuñez on Oct. 12, days before the ribbon cutting ceremony. The estimated work was initially slated to be done by Oct. 10.
Carlos Rogel, CEO of MuralColors and art conservationist, said it became apparent that the date for the ribbon cutting ceremony was being politicized after speaking with local community organizers and city staff.
“We saw the email exchanges happening. We weren’t aware that they were tied to elections until community organizers started to kind of voice their concerns and saying is this being politicized? Is this being connected to elections?” Rogel said.
“It became apparent because we heard from the parks team that major elements of the construction side were also not completed, and so the park isn’t fully functional and certain areas may not be open to the public,” he said. “It’s unfortunate because it was a very, very well thought-out mobilization effort, more than eight months in advance. We were left waiting to grab the baton, and it never arrived.”
Artists said the new work environment can throw a wrench in conservation and create a need for more safety measures to protect the mural from potential damage, adding the agreement was done with artists believing the park would still be closed.
Alicia Rojas, a Memorial Park resident and founder of Santa Ana Community Artist(a) Coalition that worked to save the mural from destruction, said holding a separate ceremony for the mural could cost taxpayers even more money in a city struggling with a structural deficit and officials haven’t been transparent with artists.
Artists like Rojas raised concerns two years ago about city officials destroying the iconic mural painted by Emigdio Vasquez, the godfather of Chicano Art, in 1987 and failing to preserve other Chicano murals in Santa Ana.
After a Voice of OC article in 2024, city officials announced they would try to preserve and restore Vasquez’s mural.
But that hasn’t completely happened yet.
“We were very disappointed,” said Rosemary Vasquez Tuthill, the daughter of mural creator Emigdio Vasquez, in a text message to Voice of OC, when asked about the delay in unveiling the mural.
Penaloza, who represents the ward in which the historic art is in, said he doesn’t believe the mural was supposed to be unveiled with the pool, adding it was a shame artists like Rojas didn’t attend.
“It’s a shame they couldn’t be there to celebrate with us…. Also, this thing took two years to build. Definitely was not rushed in my opinion, or if you asked any resident that lives nearby,” Penaloza said in a text message.
“Everyone was happy and enjoying this until Alicia Rojas decided to send emails that were clearly written with AI, and it’s unfortunate,” he later said at the meeting. “It’s political season.”
Rojas pushed back on Penaloza’s response, saying she reached out to him several times about the mural.
“This is not about me, and it is sad he is making it about me; this is about Emigdio Vasquez. I worry about my neighborhood,” said Rojas, who lives in the Memorial Park neighborhood Penaloza represents.
Penaloza also said the artists haven’t finished the restoration.
Rogel said there was sufficient planning to finish phase 2 before the ribbon cutting ceremony, but officials didn’t give the greenlight for them to proceed with their conservation.
“Elected officials and leadership were given all of this information well in advance,” said Rogel.
Councilwoman Jessie Lopez, who is running against Penaloza for State Assembly, said the mural is significantly important to the Chicano community and said the team of artists restoring the mural have been reaching out to city officials asking for clarity about the project.
“They’re the ones that have been consistently emailing us and saying, ‘Hey, we need clarity. Hey, we need updates. We were told one thing. Now something else is happening.’ Again, the mural needs to be protected,” Lopez said in a Tuesday phone interview.
“I just want to be clear that this isn’t because they haven’t done their part of the agreement and beyond that, again, I think that the prioritization here was the pool.”
Julie Leopo is Voice of OC’s director of photography. You can reach her at Jleopo@voiceofoc.org.
Hosam Elattar is a Voice of OC reporter. Contact him at helattar@voiceofoc.org.
