After persistent reporting by Voice of OC, Santa Ana officials now say they will open up the pools at Memorial Park on Halloween following public scrutiny for holding a ribbon cutting ceremony featuring the city council.
At least two city council candidates also showed up for the pool reopening ribbon cutting – Giovanni Chavez and Isuri Ramos.
All before it actually opened it to residents
Now the pools are actually opening to residents this Saturday – something a couple of elected officials thought would happen immediately after the unveiling.
The pools, however, won’t offer as many hours a week of swim time for kids as public pools in other OC cities do.
Santa Ana officials rolled out the new weekly schedule for the pools Wednesday evening that will allow kids under 16-years-old a chance to swim for five hours every Saturday and older residents about 13.5 hours of pool time.
Maria Zacarias, a former Santa Ana Parks and Recreation commissioner, said limiting the pool hours won’t keep kids engaged in outdoor activities.
“We’re missing a good opportunity to keep our youth engaged in activities,” she said in a Thursday text message. “Increasing programming for youth is beneficial to our city and creates lifelong memories that will impact them in a positive way throughout their adult lives.”
Hours after Voice of OC’s last article on the debacle highlighting how local kids were turned away from the pools at the ceremony and a persistent communication problem at city hall, city spokesman Paul Eakins sent a news release saying the pools will open Saturday.
“The City of Santa Ana is excited to begin programming at the new Memorial Aquatic Center on Saturday, Oct. 31, gradually expanding programs to achieve full service in spring 2027,” reads Eakins’ Wednesday evening news release.
“Programming will be available except on observed holidays and for inclement weather.”
Forecasts for this Saturday – the opening day of recreation swim at the aquatic center – show a 75% chance of rain in Santa Ana.
Starting next week, the pools will host two different programs for residents 16-years and older – Lap Swimming and Water Walking.
To view the pool’s weekly schedule, fees & to sign up for the programming, click here.
The city also posted part-time lifeguard positions the same day it sent out the news release announcing the limited public swim hours.
The job posting comes months after city officials cut $11 million in spending to balance their budget including $5 million in vacant positions and part time spending as well as several city commissions including the Parks and Recreation one.
While the pools are reopening, it remains unclear when the city will unveil the restoration of an iconic Chicano mural at the center that officials almost destroyed a couple of years ago, but reversed course after outcry from local artists.
Part Time Swim
The pool has been closed for at least one year as the city overhauled the aquatic center, leaving nearby residents dry for the summer.
Yet the reopening is spurring questions over just how long the pool should be open for the working class community.
City Councilman Johnathan Hernandez said there should be more hours for kids to swim in the pool.
“I do have some very strong critiques about the most accessible day, a Saturday, being subjected to simply five hours, I think that that can be extended. It should at least be covering eight hours minimum,” Hernandez said in a Thursday phone interview.
“I would prefer to see our pool open as early as possible on a Saturday – 7a.m. and I would love to see our pool open till about 5 p.m. or 6 p.m.”
At the ribbon cutting ceremony, kids were allowed to swim for an hour.
Hernandez said some of his colleagues jumped into the pool before the kids invited from Washington Elementary and their families at the event and he joined in later with residents, adding kids not from the school shouldn’t be turned away and told to come back later.
“It’s not a representation of how they should have been treated,” Hernandez said. “We should be consistent with how we treat every single child who walks through there.”
The event, according to the city website, was from 12:00 p.m. to 2:30 p.m. on Oct. 17, with the public allowed to swim starting at 1:30 p.m.
Councilman Ben Vazquez, who is running for reelection, said they have limited staffing.
“Five hours a week is what we can offer right now, and most likely that’s why you see we’re looking for more lifeguards to fill positions,” he said in a Thursday phone interview.
At Pearson Park in Anaheim, kids had 7.5 hours of public swim a week this past summer from June 5 to September 6 – for free.
At Woodbury Park Pool in Garden Grove, family swim is currently being offered four days a week allowing kids 10 hours of pool time – for $2.
At the William Woollett, Jr. Aquatics Center in Irvine, recreational swim was offered for a month this summer Monday through Thursday for seven hours a week.
In Fullerton, the indoor community center pool offers two hours every Saturday of recreational swim from September to May.
The outdoor pool, Janet Evans Swim Complex, offers 18 hours a week from June to August then it drops down to six hours a week for most of August. The fee is $2.
It will cost residents in Santa Ana $3 for adults to use the pools at Memorial Park, $2 for seniors and $1 for kids. Nonresidents will be charged more.
Questions Remain About Memorial Park Aquatic Center
As officials scramble to open the pools, most still refuse to answer a host of questions spurred by the faux opening of the aquatic center earlier this month right before the November election – a move that many residents see as an effort to help incumbent politicians.
Eakins, the city spokesman, ignored a host of questions emailed to him Wednesday about the pools, the ribbon cutting ceremony and the restoration of an iconic Chicano mural at the center that artists say will face complications due to the rushed opening.
He and City Manager Alvaro Nuñez did not return a request for comment Thursday either.
Mayor Valerie Amezcua, Councilmembers Phil Bacerra, Thai Viet Phan, David Penaloza and Jessie Lopez did not respond to a request for comment Thursday.
Amezcua and Bacerra are running for reelection on Tuesday. Penaloza and Lopez are facing off for a state assembly seat.
Pool Politicking?
Roberto Herrera, former chair of the Parks and Recreation Commission, said city leaders rushed the grand opening for the pool for political purposes.
“Political decisions to rush the timeline on a ‘grand opening’ of an unfinished pool undoubtedly came from the very top, at the discretion and direction of the City Manager and Mayor. In a very hotly contested race, it would benefit David Penaloza taking credit for the pool especially because the pool resides in his ward,” Herrera said in a Thursday text message.
“What I interpret from all of this is that the public was lied to and the Memorial Park Pool was used for optics ahead of the Nov 3rd election.”
Both Hernandez and Vazquez said the premature unveiling was done to benefit or appease incumbents and political candidates on the city council.
“They were just trying to get it done as fast as they can, and I think, a lot was to support the incumbents,” Vazquez said, noting it was to benefit all the politicians on council dias including himself.
“I think they wanted to show support for the current people in office.”
“I believe that this aquatic center opened prematurely to benefit these politicians,” Hernandez said about Amezcua, Bacerra and Penaloza – colleagues he frequently clashes with on the dais.
“This here is a reminder to the city of Santa Ana to ensure that any amenity that is opened to the public is not for show, but that is truly to benefit the Santa Ana families that we are elected to serve.”
Vazquez didn’t have many definitive answers about the unveiling, the pools or the murals on Thursday, but said the delay was over concerns about the warmth of the water and the chlorine balance was off.
He also said engineers and parks and recreation staff were in disagreement about opening the pools.
“Parks and Recs had some issues with opening it without having it up to their standards, but our engineers were saying it was good to go so there was an inner staff conflict,” Vazquez said in a Thursday phone interview.
Hernandez said the delay to the opening of the pools – expected to have year round programming – was caused by a staffing issue, particularly a need for lifeguards.
“They should have prepared to program it,” he said.
Zacarias – the former parks and rec commissioner – said she can’t remember a time city officials held an unveiling for an amenity that wasn’t actually open.
“If a project wasn’t 100% complete, they would set the date back and if they finished a project early, they would push the ribbon cutting to an earlier date,” she said in a Wednesday text message.
“Sometimes it was construction issues holding up a project or funding but I don’t recall doing a ribbon cutting when the project wasn’t ready and I’m also pretty sure we would have advocated to hold off on a ribbon cutting until the project was completed.”
Hosam Elattar is a Voice of OC reporter. Contact him at helattar@voiceofoc.org.
Julie Leopo is Voice of OC’s director of photography. You can reach her at Jleopo@voiceofoc.org.
