Voice of OC (https://voiceofoc.org/tag/jose-solorio/)
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.
A proposed June ballot measure on Santa Ana district elections appeared less likely Monday to make it to the ballot, with Mayor Miguel Pulido increasing his legal action against it and little time left for the City Council members who support the measure to ask the courts to put it on the ballot.
It was unclear Friday whether the measure will go before voters in June. The ruling left a potential door open for further round of legal arguments by city officials and the mayor.
“What we saw with…the hysteria from Irvine, is this: It’s simply a class-based argument that if ‘I pay enough for where I live, I shouldn’t have to deal with my homeless problem. I should shift it to some other city,’ ” said county Supervisor Andrew Do.
The city is seeking a court order to force Mayor Miguel Pulido to sign paperwork allowing a June ballot measure in which voters could change Santa Ana’s election system to district-based voting. The case could be filed in Superior Court as soon as Tuesday.
The county’s chief elections official rejected a last-ditch effort to put the district elections on the ballot, after the mayor refused to sign the necessary paperwork. A majority of council members also apparently held an illegal strategy meeting via group text messages.
After an emotional and contentious debate Tuesday, council members voted 4-3 to put the districting issue to voters in June. Mayor Miguel Pulido, who opposes the measure, apparently has refused to sign the paperwork needed to put the measure on the ballot.
City Council members appear likely to place the question on the ballot during their Tuesday night meeting.