Voice of OC (https://voiceofoc.org/tag/police-union/)
Valentin is a longtime Santa Ana police officer and manager who has served as interim chief for the past nine months. His leadership of the police department has been supported by City Council members as well as the police officers’ union.
After months of behind-the-scenes maneuvering and brazen political moves, Mayor Miguel Pulido and his newly formed city council faction succeeded Tuesday in completing the removal of City Manager David Cavazos.
An effort led by Mayor Miguel Pulido to remove City Manager David Cavazos continues, with Cavazos’ “dismissal/release” on the closed-session agenda. Neighborhood activists are planning to show up and protest the ouster effort.
It took a surprise meeting during a holiday week with nearly half of the City Council absent, but Mayor Miguel Pulido was able to engineer — at least temporarily – the ouster of City Manager David Cavazos. Residents and community activists cried foul.
Having failed in a previous attempt, Mayor Miguel Pulido called a special City Council meeting for Wednesday to vote on whether to put City Manager David Cavazos on leave. Cavazos’ three supporters on council are out of town.
Activists helped beat back, at least for the time being, an effort involving the police union to oust City Manager David Cavazos, and convinced council members to strengthen their “sanctuary city” policy.
Sources close to City Hall say new members of the council, who were backed by the police union in November’s election, want to put City Manager David Cavazos on paid leave. Councilwoman Michele Martinez appears to be the swing vote.
The city’s police union spent heavily to gain control of the council and union-backed candidates won three seats. But it failed to oust Councilman Vincent Sarmiento, who is now seen as a swing vote on police issues.
The longtime Santa Ana mayor has put together a law-and-order coalition in an effort to take back control of the City Council. To succeed, he and his police-union backers must unseat incumbent councilmen Vincent Sarmiento and Roman Reyna.
In a departure from his past campaigns, Miguel Pulido is apparently depending entirely on independent groups to run his re-election. But there are questions about whether he’s playing by the rules.