Voice of OC (https://voiceofoc.org/tag/santa-ana-police-union/)
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.
The recall campaign was largely funded by the city’s police union after Iglesias opposed controversial pay raises for police officers last year. It’s one of the city’s first recall campaigns in years that’s been successful enough to go forward with an election.
Santa Ana’s police union has backed recall efforts against two council members: Juan Villegas and Ceci Iglesias, who vocally opposed the scale of $23 million in controversial raises granted to police officers last February. Now the union wants both off a public safety board, which could be disbanded or restructured by council members today.
Councilman Juan Villegas, who also works as a special officer at the Orange County Sheriff’s Department, is publicly alleging that one the key people behind the controversial 2525 N. Main St. project admitted to him their involvement in a dark money campaign to influence the 2018 Santa Ana city council elections – which involved hiding $320,000 in campaign money through a shell company.