Voice of OC (https://voiceofoc.org/tag/miguel-pulido/)
The Santa Ana City Council again delayed deciding if city voters in November will get to vote on whether they want to switch from at-large city council elections to district-based elections.
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.
U.S. District Judge David O. Carter two months ago called on south county cities to identify and develop additional shelter beds, and gave them until Wednesday to identify locations.
The judge, David O. Carter, pointed to Santa Ana and Anaheim residents and businesses who, he said, are grappling with hundreds of homeless people who formerly lived at the Santa Ana riverbed but now are in their cities due to a shelter shortage.
The move could grant U.S. District Judge David O. Carter the ability to follow through on his warnings about banning enforcement of anti-camping laws if city officials, particularly south county mayors and city managers, don’t make progress in picking one or more shelter locations.
A joint task force between the Orange County District Attorney’s office and federal law enforcement agencies aimed at cracking down on local political corruption fell apart last year, after years of festering distrust between local and federal officials, according to an investigation by the Los Angeles Times.
The council also may ask voters to change the city charter to add punishments for a mayor if he or she doesn’t sign ordinances and resolutions approved by a majority of the seven-member council.
Santa Ana council members and residents have said the three cities’ refusal to accept emergency shelters revealed a double standard: It’s okay to put shelters near poor kids in Santa Ana but not near kids from wealthier families.
The effort to have district elections in place for November seems to have been killed, according to Councilman Vicente Sarmiento, who supports the proposed voting system change.
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.