Eye on Santa Ana

I was a bit surprised to see that the O.C. Register ran a small blurb about tonight’s Santa Ana Epic (Early Prevention and Intervention) Commission meeting. This is the anti-gang commission that Santa Ana Mayor Miguel Pulido renamed so that the word “gang” would not be utilized.

You can read the meeting agenda online. The meeting will be held at Kid Works, at 1902 W. Chestnut Ave., just west of Raitt. The meeting starts at 5:30 p.m.

A friend of mine on the commission told me that the commissioners asked the city to promote their meetings to the media, and it looks like the Register was happy to help out. The meetings are open to the public.

While we are on the subject of gangs, on June 11 there will be a “Walk for Peace and Unity,” starting at 7 p.m. at Madison Park, which is on the corner of Edinger Ave. and Standard. The walk will end at 7:30 p.m. at St. Anne’s Catholic Church. Councilwoman Michele Martinez will speak at this event. The goal of the walk is to end neighborhood violence. There will also be a candlelight prayer for peace service at 8 p.m. inside the church. For more information contact this email.

I hear that O.C. Register reporter Amy Taxin has been asking the City Manager’s office for a small desk to work from at City Hall, so she can be right in the thick of it and get the news out even faster. She is of course getting the runaround. No surprise there. Santa Ana City Manager Dave Ream is no fan of public relations – because of him the city is the largest city in southern California without a PIO (public information officer).

Folks in Santa Ana often complain that Mayor Pulido is invisible. He has however started to come out of his shell this year. I for one was amazed that he showed up for the recent basketball exhibition. While that event was free, it will cost you $35 to hear Pulido speak at the 2007 State of the City event put on by the Santa Ana Chamber of Commerce.

You can make a reservation online. Or call the chamber at (714) 541-5353, ext. 10. After June 1, the tickets go up in price to $50. The event will be held at the Bowers Museum, at 2002 N. Main St. Registration starts at 7 a.m. and the breakfast and program will take place from 7:30 a.m. to 9:15 a.m.

There has been chatter lately that the merger of real estate powerhouse Grubb & Ellis with Santa Ana’s NNN Realty Advisers, means that the new company might eventually move into developer Mike Harrah’s white elephant, the OBP (One Broadway Plaza) tower. I can’t see that happening. The building is landlocked in downtown Santa Ana – it is too far from the local freeways. The tenants will also be regularly mired in heavy traffic. Talk about a hard sell!

The City of Santa Ana finally put their whole proposed budget online. Miracles do happen! You can read the city’s proposed Capital Improvement Plan at this link. Who would have thought that my old neighborhood, Artesia-Pilar, would be the top recipient of CIP funds at $5 million?

You can read the actual budget items at this link.

The budget is full of interesting items – such as the city giving away $2 million to the Bowers Museum. It is truly unbelievable that a city with so few libraries (one library and one “learning center”) would be spending money so spuriously. Has the Bowers revised their policy of allowing city residents to visit their facility for free? No. They probably never will – not when the city is already paying them all this money.

Speaking of money, the Santa Ana Unified School District (SAUSD) wants more of yours. District officials are visiting local schools to talk about their “Facilities Master Plan.” The next meeting is tonight at Century High School, at 6:30 p.m. My sources tell me that the real reason for these meetings is to pitch another school bond. Just say no! This district blew most of the first bond – and they recently dropped over $35 million on a what amounts to a storage warehouse. The trustees at Capistrano Unified are going to get recalled for blowing that kind of money, and their old Superintendent looks to be going to prison.

Here’s an idea for SAUSD – the trustee majority ought to resign and the Superintendent ought to be fired. These people have proven they can’t do the job – more money won’t fix that. They already lost $2 million this year due to class size reduction fraud.

The Times is reporting, in a story about deported immigrants who have returned to demand back pay, that “Luis Miguel Ortiz Haro, the Mexican consul in Santa Ana, helped the four Orange County workers file a complaint with the Department of Labor and said he was determining whether there were more California workers who could demand wages from RCI.”

Apparently the workers were seized and deported mere hours before they were supposed to get paid – and now they want their money. Can’t blame them for that.

UPDATE:

Help Santa Ana’s Jim Thorpe Fundamental School Class Win the TV show Animal Planet Contest!

Vote by Wed., May 30th

Press Release: Mrs. Skipper-Spurgeon