Voice of OC (https://voiceofoc.org/tag/santa-ana-city-council/)
Santa Ana City Council members granted raises to police officers and sergeants totaling $25 million over the next two and a half years, without the ability to actually pay the $4.3 million cost for this fiscal year.
Reyna was facing the likelihood of sworn testimony, in public, by other city officials and one of his family members regarding allegations he falsified residency documents. His resignation sets the stage for a potential shift in power at City Hall.
Santa Ana City Council members will vote Tuesday on the largest pay raises for the city’s police officers in more than a decade, totaling $25 million in taxpayer money over the next two and a half years and adding $12 million per year going forward in additional costs. The raises amount to a 13.6 percent to 19.3 percent increase in base pay for each officer and sergeant between now and July 2020, according to the city. Officers and sergeants with 15 to 19 years in law enforcement would receive raises totaling 16.5 percent, and those with 20 or more years would receive 19.3 percent in increases. Before the last set of raises in 2017, the median compensation for a Santa Ana officer totaled about $213,000 per year, including $111,000 in pay before overtime and $88,000 in benefits, according to city data published by Transparent California. The city staff report doesn’t offer an explanation for the raises, beyond saying they resulted from negotiations between the police officers’ union and City Council.
Santa Ana residents and community organizers Bulmaro Vicente and Ben Camacho write about the need for transparency including public access to exclusive police records of misconduct and internal investigations in their city.
The city councils’ action struck down hopes for a park between two park-poor cities and stirred opponents’ fears developers will turn the property into an urban hotspot and price working-class families and Latinos out of the surrounding neighborhoods.
The talks apparently include the possibility of Roman Reyna stepping down from the council.
Roman Reyna is accused of being ineligible for the seat because he was living outside the ward during a city-required residency period and falsified his election paperwork, which Reyna disputes. The outcome could affect the balance of power on the council.
But City Hall’s day-to-day leadership remained in limbo.
Council members vote Tuesday on a nearly $400,000 separation agreement ousting City Manager Raul Godinez and decide on a replacement for longtime City Clerk Maria Huizar.
The Santa Ana City Council, in a move with long-term implications for a dais that changed by three members Tuesday, has a new ward boundary map.