Voice of OC (https://voiceofoc.org/author/bpho/)
Irvine City Council members are looking at filling a vacancy on the dais through a complicated appointment process in an effort to avoid a special election that’s still on the table, though it could be costly, according to city officials.
All work and construction on a new homeless shelter has stalled in Santa Ana, as city and county officials continue to point fingers over an apparent lack of public input on the effort to relocate homeless people from the Courtyard shelter in downtown to the new location on Yale Street.
Buena Park City Council members found a new homeless shelter site in a more industrial, east-end part of town, after taking heat from the public for considering a location that was closer to neighborhoods and a number of schools.
A proposed set of council ethics policies introduced by Westminster’s newest City Councilman Tai Do has put him squarely at odds with most of his council colleagues.
Irvine will grapple with a City Council vacancy when Mayor Pro Tem Christina Shea succeeds former Mayor Don Wagner, who resigned Tuesday after winning a special election to become a County supervisor.
Santa Ana city officials, fearing a downturn in local commerce amid a recent voter-approved 1.5 percent sales tax increase, are trying to encourage residents to shop locally, and they’re helping car dealerships first, through a $1.7 million subsidy.
Two key city leadership positions in Santa Ana could be filled at a special City Council meeting this coming Friday night – though movement on solving Santa Ana’s leadership vacuum has so far been stalled by deadlocked council members.
Santa Ana City Council members will vote Tuesday on appointing Kristine Ridge as the new city manager, as the city faces a leadership vacuum that began three months ago with the deputy city manager leaving for another city and City Manager Raul Godinez pushed out by the mayor and other council members.
Irvine city leaders are cracking down on college students who board up with multiple roommates to afford steep rent prices, to the support of city homeowners concerned with neighborhood character and objection of college students who argue this will force many of them into homelessness.
Council members opted this week to send 23 of the city’s 88 undeveloped, public land parcels out for private real estate bids — continuing a years-long battle between city officials pushing for commercial growth through development and affordable housing advocates who see a built-out city already feeling the effects of gentrification and lack of community spaces.