Diana Vargas, a lifelong Memorial Park neighborhood resident, said her children were excited to jump into the pool and ride the slide after seeing a flier for the unveiling of the new Memorial Park Aquatic Center this month.
But that excitement was stripped away when the kids were turned away and told to come later.
“It’s only for VIPs, and it’s only for certain Washington Elementary kids. You will be able to go in at 1:30 p.m.,” recounted Vargas in a phone interview about what was told to her child at the unveiling.
“My youngest son goes, ‘Mom, it’s okay, Mom. We could go to the other pool’” says Vargas. “I’ve been taking them to other cities and other pools, and the kids are like, ‘It’s okay, Mom. We could go to the other pools–they won’t say anything.’”
While Vargas’ kids didn’t get to ride the slide at the event, elected officials did – taking advantage of the opportunity to stage numerous photo opps with some select candidates also getting in on the action.
City Council Candidate Giovanni Chavez, with help from Congressman Lou Correa, also posted a video promoting the pool as an example of expanding city services on his Instagram.
Right ahead of the November election.
Yet despite the unveiling, the pools – meant to have year round programming – are not fully open to the public. Artists also say the rushed ribbon cutting for the pool has complicated restoration of an iconic Chicano mural at the center.
The fake opening ceremony continues to spur a host of questions for city officials – which they refuse to answer, even for city council members.
When will the pools actually open? Will they be free to use? Why aren’t they open now? Who was invited to the special event and was the unveiling engineered by city leaders to help select incumbent campaigns?
Some elected officials in turn said they didn’t know the pools weren’t going to stay open after the unveiling, while Santa Ana’s ruling majority, the city manager and the city spokesman won’t answer questions about it.
The issue keeps raising concerns about a systemic lack of transparency at city hall under the helm of City Manager Alvaro Nuñez.
On Monday, City Spokesman Paul Eakins refused to answer questions over the phone about the pools insisting inquiries be sent through email, adding he was on the way out to lunch and the reporter had a lot of questions.
Eakins also did not respond to the emailed questions either.
Nuñez also did not respond to a request for comment Monday.
In an email to city council members shared with Voice of OC by Councilman Ben Vazquez, Nuñez said staff is investigating the lack of clear communication surrounding the pools.
“We recognize the importance of clear communication and timely community access. The concerns regarding staff communication, program planning, and delays in activating the aquatic center are under review through the City’s internal personnel process,” said Nuñez in the Monday email.
“That review will determine appropriate corrective measures, including disciplinary action if warranted. Our priority remains ensuring that the facility serves the community as intended.”
Vargas said it’s clear to her that the unveiling this month was just a photo-op for elected officials.
“You go to other cities and they handle this professionally. No special treatment for a certain group. I’m your neighbor, I live down the street, and my kids couldn’t go. That’s disappointing. If they had said it was only for certain groups, they should have said that on their flier, and I wouldn’t have sent my husband with my kids only to have them turned away,” she said.
Councilman Ben Vazquez said he wishes Eakins and Nuñez would answer basic questions about the pools publicly, adding kids shouldn’t have been turned away from the unveiling and instead their parents should have been allowed to sign any necessary paperwork at the gate.
“They should just be open and transparent and say this is what we did. They didn’t see it coming, and part of it was the Emigdio Vasquez mural not being open on the same day, so they were kind of thrown off with that,” he said about the city manager’s office, adding last he heard the pool will open in May.
Mayor Valerie Amezcua, Councilmembers Phil Bacerra, Thai Viet Phan, David Penaloza, Johnathan Hernandez and Jessie Lopez did not respond to requests for comment Monday.
Amezcua, Bacerra and Vazquez are running for reelection. Penaloza and Lopez are running against each other for state assembly.
Persistent Communication Problems at City Hall
When Santa Ana residents have hard questions about the public amenities and programs they help fund like community gardens or public pools, city management seems to clam up and go dark offering no real answers to the taxpayers that fund their salaries.
The pool debacle is only the latest example of the issue.
Previously, when residents advocated to preserve and protect Chicano murals or historic trees, city officials met concerned groups with silence, inaction, or sometimes misinformation on whether the city can help.
Earlier this year, signs went up at a couple of the community gardens in Santa Ana indicating that operations at the gardens would be reduced, sparking questions from both residents and elected officials on the issue.
City leaders chalked up the signs to a mistake but refused to elaborate further about how such a mistake was made, revealing they quietly paused programming at the gardens.
The signs went up shortly after officials approved $11 million in budget cuts, slashing millions on vacant positions and part-time staffing – which help run the gardens.
Amid those cuts, officials allocated over $937,000 in spending on their public information office for this fiscal year.
On July 27, Voice of OC started to reach out to Santa Ana city officials and council members regarding the future of the gardens after residents raised concerns the city was closing them down but Eakins said the gardens were staying open.
Emails and text messages between city management and Parks and Recreation staff obtained by Voice of OC shows city executives scrambling to get answers from the parks and recreation department that they never shared with the public to help clear up the confusion.
They also show that while the gardens weren’t closing there was going to be a change in how they operated due to reduced staffing.
Programming like gardening workshops would be paused and staff would just focus on opening the gates to the gardens and watering the plants – changes officials refused to thoroughly and publicly explain to residents or reporters when asked questions.
City emails reviewed by Voice of OC show Assistant City Manager Kat Downs questioned Tim Pagano, the deputy director of Parks and Recreation, about the signs informing residents of a reduction in operations.
“Alvaro has sent me pictures of signs at Jerome and Madison, and he wants to know who authorized the signs being put up,” Downs wrote to Pagano on July 28.
Pagano said he greenlit the signs to inform residents of the changes and they would be removed.
“I authorized the placement of the signs based on how we have historically communicated with community garden users. Because the gardens do not operate through a registration system, we have traditionally relied on posted signage to notify the public of operating hours and program changes,” he wrote to Downs on July 28.
“Our team is working through the transition in how the gardens will operate. While we are following the direction provided, we are still refining the operational approach as we shift to a model focused primarily on opening, watering, and securing four of the five garden sites,” Pagano continued.
“I recognize that the phrase ‘operations will be reduced’ did not convey the message in the way we intended.”
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.
