Voice of OC (https://voiceofoc.org/tag/jose-solorio/)
The union in a memo to the council last month criticized Villegas and Iglesias and requested their removal from the public safety board, questioning their commitment to the city’s police officers and their ability to make key public safety policy decisions.
Council members initially approved the project last year, despite a push by some against the much-disputed 2525 N. Main St. apartments in the city’s north-end Park Santiago neighborhood.
Residents of both the Santa Anita neighborhood and Park Santiago neighborhood agree the Council has ignored their opposition to development near their homes — but residents of Santa Anita, a lower-income and predominantly Latino area, say they weren’t listened to as much as residents of Park Santiago, which has more white and higher-income residents.
The new city manager, Kristine Ridge, said the budget increase is no longer needed to cover the costs because the Police Department is reducing overtime and other expenses. City Councilwoman Ceci Iglesias said staff have not been transparent about how they found the money.
Santa Ana is now set to get a new city manager May 1, but will hold a special election this November to fill the vacant City Council seat formerly held by Roman Reyna.
Santa Ana is moving ahead to open a new 200-bed homeless shelter by the end of the year, following unanimous Santa Ana City Council approval of a one year operations contract. The location hasn’t been announced.
Santa Ana City Attorney Sonia Carvalho adjourned Tuesday’s city council meeting in the middle of public comment while people were still waiting — some for four hours — to address a half-empty dais.
City officials say they need the extra $63 million to maintain existing service levels and fix aging infrastructure. Most of the increase apparently would go toward maintaining existing services and the pension cost increases for the existing workforce and retirees.
Most of the council moved toward placing a sales tax increase on the November ballot, but didn’t explain what the tens of millions of extra dollars would be used for.
The suit seeks to ban the city from holding any more at-large elections for City Council members, and require the city to adopt “fairly constituted districts” that don’t dilute Asian American voting power.