It looks like the old Claudia Alvarez is back. The Santa Ana Councilwoman was honored by Santa Ana Mayor Miguel Pulido at Monday night’s City Council meeting for her work in helping to identify funding for more gang enforcement police officers.
When she made her comments, she said that this had nothing to do with the current City Council, but was due to the efforts of the last City Council. That was an obvious slight at the current Council newcomers – Michele Martinez, Sal Tinajero, David Benavides and Vince Sarmiento. Smooth move Claudia – great way to make friends on the Council.
She also said, after Martinez referred to Generation Y and the great things that the young people of this city are doing, that it is really about Generation X, or something to that effect. This too was a clear swipe at Michele Martinez. I wonder if Alvarez knows that Santa Ana has more young people under the age of 18 than any other city in the O.C.?
My sources tell me that Pulido is encouraging Alvarez to run against Janet Nguyen for the O.C. Board of Supervisors. Of course! He will support her all the way as doing so prevents her from running against him for Mayor.
That explains why Alvarez is turning on Martinez, who has befriended Nguyen. How petty.
Of course this will all backfire on Alvarez now as she will fewer and fewer supporters by the time the Supervisorial election rolls around.
I am so disappointed. Alvarez showed last year that she was starting to mature and get things done, but now she has regressed to her old curmudgeonly self. What a shame.
Alvarez should by the way be applauded for her work with the police department, but Martinez tried to read the names of those hurt or killed this year in our city by the eruption of gang violence, during her closing comments at the Council meeting. The other Council members prevented her from doing so – including Alvarez.
City staffers and the Council members, sans Sal Tinajero who left early due to a death in the family, piled on Martinez, saying that by reading the names of the victims she was inadvertently honoring gang members. Are we to believe that the three year old shot this weekend was a gang member?
Kudos to Martinez for standing up against violence and for the victims of it. We know where she stands, and now we also know that Alvarez and the others on the Council, including Pulido, have no clue.
The O.C. Register covered the latest Santa Ana Relay for Life. They reported that, “the Santa Ana relay raised more than $32,000.” Congratulations to all who were involved in this effort to raise money to fight cancer.
Firefighter Appreciation Day. Santa Ana Neighborhood Communication Linkage Forum invites you to participate in Firefighter Appreciation Day. A special ceremony will take place at Fire Station #5 – 120 W. Walnut Street from 10:00 a.m. – 11:00 a.m. Santa Ana fire stations will also be open to visitors on May 23rd from 9:00 a.m. – 11:30 a.m. and 1:30 p.m. – 5:00 p.m. Please use this time to stop by the stations to show your appreciation for our local fire fighters with homemade goodies and cards of appreciation. Please refer to the attached flyer for additional details or contact Mary Gozman at (714) 953-4191 guzmar@peoplepc.com.
General meeting of Communication Linkage Forum (Com-Link) at the SAPD Community Room. Social and networking starts at 6:30 p.m. on Thursday, May 24. Program for the evening begins at 7:00 p.m. For additional details contact the Neighborhood Improvement Office at 714.667.2260.
Summer Youth Resource Bash for Santa Ana Youth and Parents. The BASH will provide a forum fo ryouth and their parents to address summer youth services and programs. The event will be staged from 5:30 to 8:00 p.m. at the Santa Ana City Hall Council Chambers. Parking will be validated. Refer to the attached flyer or call 714.647.6900.
Councilwoman Michele Martinez is hosting the First Co-Ed Softball Tournament at Memorial Park in Santa Ana on Sunday July 1, 2007. This event was established to raise money for the Pio Pico Elementary School Summer Program.
SAUSD has gone to a traditional school schedule and it will put many kids without a place to go during the summer. The Pio Pico Summer Program will offer kids a safe place to learn and have recreational opportunities while their parents are working. Without the necessary funding, this program can not provide arts and crafts, sports activities or field trips.
We are soliciting sponsorships for the softball event with monies going to the program. Sponsorships cost $250 and the name of your business will be identified on each of the t-shirts we will be giving to each participant of the tournament.
Checks for sponsorship can be made payable to OCCF (Orange County Community foundation) Tax ID#330378778
Send to City of Santa Ana C/O Councilwoman Michelle Martinez
P.O. Box 1988 M-30
20 Civic Center Plaza
8th Floor
Santa Ana , Ca 92701
We are also collecting donations of food/drinks for the BBQ we will be hosting during the tournament. We are having a traditional menu of hamburgers, hot dogs, chips, nachos, and drinks. If you are interested in donating any items we can use in our food booth, please contact Lynnette Verino @ (714)878-1047 or e-mail lverino@sbcglobal.net
Thank you again for your interest in our fundraiser. The event will run 8am until the championship team is identified. Feel free to stop by and enjoy the fun and watch a game or two and have some delicious food. This is all in the name of giving to our youth in Santa Ana.
Dammit! Just as I was starting to warm up to Claudia, she has to pull this crap! My goodness, when will she learn that it helps to have friends?
So was her “new and improved Claudia” gimmick just that? Has she only begun voting like an actual Democrat again just so she can curry our favor when she runs for… Has she finally decided on an office? Well, if she now intends to be Pulido’s best lil’ DINO corporatist friend to curry his favor so she can run for Supervisor, I can’t support her any more! Even as much as I’d like a Democrat back in that Supe seat, I can’t support someone who can’t be trusted to stand up for basic Democratic values.
Dammit. If Claudia Alvarez can’t clean up her act, then we’ll need to find better Democrats to run for Supervisor AND Mayor. Does any one know any good Dems in this town who want to run for these offices?
Well it looks as though one has not thought this out. Alvarez is a DA. She has been tight with law enforcement for some time. Maybe, the vigils that are being held involve gang members and that is why pulido is being so careful. We all remember what happen to Ted Moreno. others might want to be more careful before going down the gang member road.
THank God Claudia is back!
With the new immature council member wreaking havoc with staff and Sal being more invisible to the community than the mayor ever was, it’s good to know that someone is still representing the residents instead of trying to play politics.
Pajaritos say Tinajero and Martinez are both looking to run for higher office, and that’s a pretty good indicator that they aren’t here for the long haul. Looks like Santa Ana residents lose again, as what is supposed to be a leadership position is nothing more than a stepping stone for personal gain.
At least Claudia can be trusted to understand and represent the side of the residents, and she’s willling to stand up for what is right for the long term good of the city.
Her contempt for youth goes back to her adversarial relationship with Tim Steed and the Young Democrats. They have always backed her opponents over the years- Umberg in 04, Verino in 04 and de la Libertad or Solorio in 06. Each time they would volunteer people and time to defeat her. In fact, before the last Assembly primary, she was making statements that if she was elected to the State Assembly, she was going to royally screw over the Young Democrats. I heard her make these comments myself.
So her contempt for the youth is really abour her continuing grudge match with the YD’s. apparently that is the one grudge she has not gotten over yet.
Prediction – Supervisor Nguyen will distance herself from Councilwoman Martinez.
Poster#2 would you please explain what you meant by your comment:
“We all remember what happen to Ted Moreno. others might want to be more careful before going down the gang member road.”
Ted Moreno was never involved with gang members. Are you confused or is this another attempt to attack Ted Moreno?
The council’s effort to silence Council Member Martinez’s effort to honor the victims of gang violence reminds me of the Bush administration’s tactics to censor the news media outlets from displaying photos of the coffins carrying our dead service men and women from Iraq.
How easily we “make people” disappear when it makes us feel uncomfortable.
Bravo to Council Member Martinez for holding up the mirror of angst that is plauging our community. She is wise beyond her years.
Shame on Pulido, Alvarez, Sarmiento, Benevides & Bustamante for dismissing the lives lost to gang violence in our city.
My reference to Ted Moreno was that people need to be careful on who they are running with. Ted got caught when the investigation was really focused on others. Those involved in vigils and other things like it may want to look at who they are keeping company with.
#7,
I’m as deeply involved in the organizing of the vigils against the shootings as anyone (the next of which will be at Main and Chestnut, Sunday May 27, 7:30pm), and I don’t know who you are but you must not have been at last week’s vigil, when Vince Sarmiento came out with Michele Martinez. I don’t think it fair to heap “shame” on him in this forum. Sarmiento personally expressed condolences to each of the two families of victims present. And he spoke well, even eloquently, in English and Spanish to the 45 people gathered at Bristol and McFadden. It was the first vigil in his ward, and he was there. When we were in Sal Tinajero’s ward, he was there. Michele Martinez… she’s always there because this is one of the issues she’s working hardest on.
james
Art, you never cease to amaze me. Six months ago, Claudia was your hero. You couldn’t say enough good things about her. Now, she’s a bad guy.
Poster #2 is correct. Some of the people killed in the recent violence have been gang members and the City Council doesn’t want to honor them. If they leave those names off the list, there will be questions about why they were left off? Then what? There would be a whole new flap about who deserves to be honored and who doesn’t and why the Council did what they did and on and on.
Thankfully, the majority of Council members were smart enough to realize the potential for this happening and decided to stay out of it.
Morning Coffee
I am stunned that Sarmiento was involved in trying to silence Michele for talking about an issue no one else wants to discuss.
Art mentioned Sarmiento is supporting Edwards for President and he is a candidate who is centering his campaign on issues no one else wants to talk about, issues such as poverty and its consequences. Gang violence is a consenquence of poverty. Sarmiento should take a cue from Martinez and most importantly from Edwards and behave like the maverick he supports.
The problem with Claudia is she doesn’t know how to be a friend. Serious issues here of never being number one. Wow. Maybe she should do a Nadia Davis, get pregnant and hope they guy marries her. Actually, getting a dog or cat can probably satisfy the unconditional love she craves.
poster #11 and everyone else.
There was no issue about silencing Martinez from talking about the gang problem or those who have died because of it. The issue was about adjourning the Council meeting in honor of all those killed. Some of those killed were GANG MEMBERS and the majority of the Council felt that it would be wrong to adjourn the meeting in their honor.
Rather than making a public distinction between gang members and non gang members by mentioning some names and not others, and thereby opening up a whole new can of peas, they decided not to do it. It was a good decision and everyone, except Martinez, understood the ramifications of doing what she wanted done. That’s it..that was the flap…
The people recently killed in Santa Ana were human beings that left behind families and it is their blood that stains our streets. They had mothers & fathers, sisters & brothers, grandparents, nieces & nephews and so on. Where is the Council’s compassion for the heartbroken families? Is the current council so focused on their next political race that they are desensitized to the murders happening in Santa Ana? Who on the council is deciding which constituent’s life is worth recognizing? Shame on you Santa Ana Council. You should be rebuked.
#13. The murdered children were teenagers(13,14,17 years of age)and a three year old girl.Beign gang members or not is an excuse, conscious by some ignorant by others, to minimize the importance of addressing this social problem.It was not to honor gang members it was to publicly humanize these victims.Your position is the reason to humanize this issue.You are justifying no mention of names because they might be gang members?Your logic then translates to-eliminate individuals with social problems from society and to ban mentioning them from media and any other form of documentation.The argument is ridiculous.
During Michele’s presentation the Mayor asked P.D. to see if the names in question were gang members.This information was then used to lobby the council members using the argument you pose.The reason for lobbying the council members by the Mayor was politics.Minimize the issue because it is spearheaded by one Council member.The others went along with it consciously or not.
These were children,Michele was doing the right thing in referring to them without labels.
Children or not, the council should not be recognizing anyone from the dias who is a gang member.
If Martinez wants to recognize these people and glorify the gang banger lifestyle she once supported, she should find a different way that trying to force her fellow council members to get behind it.
If the rest of the council decides to be responsible and choose not to recognize gang members from the dias, more power to them.
If Michelle Martinez had checked with the police department about doing this before just springing it at a public meeting, maybe they wouldn’t have had to stop her this way.
#16.
It is all about the children.They are our most valuable natural resource.Developing this resource is our most important responsiblity as Humans.Addressing social issues concerning them without labels is the first step in solving problems.
There was no attempt at recognizing gang members and glorifying the gang banger lifestyle.She did not place force on the council.There was lobbying by the Mayor , she choose not to argue the issue.You are absolutely misrepresenting Michele’s motive.This is the argument you and others that opposse her have decided on in order to slow down her work on the gang problem.You wish her to fail for political reasons.Solutions garner public popularity – this is threatning to her opposition.The community she is reaching out to understands this.Attempts to slow down work like the gang problem will not work,because the community supports her.