The City of Santa Ana held its annual “Celebrate Santa Ana” event last night – and the turnout was not bad. I got there a bit late, about 7 p.m. I ran into several of the local politicos, including Santa Ana Councilwoman Michele Martinez, Rancho Santiago Community College District Trustee Alfredo Amezcua, former Santa Ana Councilman John Acosta, former Assembly candidate Armando De La Libertad and last but not least State Senator Lou Correa. I also saw Councilman Vince Sarmiento and his fellow Council Member David Benavides.
Chisme has it that a 13 year old was recently shot in front of Santa Ana Councilman David Benavides’ house. I am guessing he won’t be celebrating that. Any bets on when he moves to Irvine and rents a place in Ward 4?
Correa walked in late, with his cell phone pressed to his ear. A small crowd immediately surrounded him – just in time for me to say that I thought State Senate Leader Don Perata had locked him out of the event. He was not amused. I tried to make up for that by saying that I could now vote for him in the next election – alluding to the fact that I am no longer a Republican. His reply? “You didn’t vote for me last time?” Classic.
I also met three of Assemblyman Jose Solorio’s staffers. Very nice young ladies. One of them said she spoke to Santa Ana Mayor Miguel Pulido in French earlier in the evening. Oh that Pulido – he is such a Francophile. I wonder how he feels about a conservative winning the French presidency? Sacrebleu!
One of the guys at Liberally Drinking told me later that night that he and his friends are thinking of dressing up like Solorio for Halloween. The mustache lives! Should be a scary sight indeed. But oh so friendly! Like Casper the Ghost…
I also met one of Correa’s staffers. I think his name was Jose Lucero, but he ran out of business cards, so I am not quite sure about that. He said he used to be a P.R. guy for Honda and he took a pay cut to work for Correa. Hey Lou – pay the guy a living wage! LOL It was refreshing to meet a guy who is working for a legislator but is not a political flak.
Santa Ana Fire Chief Phillip Garcia turned in his resignation, according to the O.C. Register. Here is the backstory you won’t read anywhere. He now will draw pensions from his former employer, Culver City, and from Santa Ana. He is retiring but will now head up a fire department in Sonoma, according to my sources. Once he retired from that department he will be ready to triple dip. Nice. Watch Santa Ana City Manager Dave Ream spin this into “we need to pay our people more so they won’t leave.” Sure Dave.
Que Milagro! The Santa Ana teachers union settled with the Santa Ana Unified School District on a new contract, according to the O.C. Register. But my sources tell me that SAUSD Superintendent Jane Russo recently told Dave Barton, the head of the teacher’s union, that she wants to cut the teacher’s pay to make up for the $2 million she bungled when the district engaged in fraudulent class size reduction. No se puede Russo! What a joke. Why doesn’t she try firing a few overpaid administrators and cutting her own pay instead?
I can’t read Vietnamese, but a source told me to check out this link. Allegedly it depicts a gaggle of folks who will be involved in the OC GOP voter registration effort. The picture that accompanies the article includes a bunch of Democrat local elected officials from the City of Rosemead. And is that Trung Nguyen in the back row? Weird.
A pajarito tells me that the City of Santa Ana’s public works flak, Jim Ross, wants to float a bond worth some $50 to $60 million to pay for the badly needed fixes to our streets. Nothing like moving the debt to a future generation Jimmy! If he had properly maintained our streets in the first place we would not be in this fix. It sounds like he needs to pull a Garcia and retire, pronto.
Last but not least – this story is too much fun to pass up. A bunch of surly Reeps in Utah recently held a convention where they ended up “debating Satan’s influence on illegal immigrants.” Now that is a new spin on the usual GOP hatred of Latinos. Here are some more excerpts from an article in the Daily Herald:
Don Larsen, chairman of legislative District 65 for the Utah County Republican Party, had submitted a resolution warning that Satan’s minions want to eliminate national borders and do away with sovereignty.
In a speech at the convention, Larsen told those gathered that illegal immigrants “hate American people” and “are determined to destroy this country, and there is nothing they won’t do.”
Illegal aliens are in control of the media, and working in tandem with Democrats, are trying to “destroy Christian America” and replace it with “a godless new world order — and that is not extremism, that is fact,” Larsen said.
Well, there you go. Bad news for the Utah Reeps – we’re not leaving anytime soon! Maybe we ought to send a few of those Jose Solorio Halloween masks to Utah…
About the Utah crowd, this was my favorite part:
At the end of his speech, Larsen began to cry, saying illegal immigrants were trying to bring about the destruction of the U.S. “by self invasion.”
self invasion…..?? Lmao!
Jane Russo either has no idea how many liars and game players surround her or she is the biggest gamer herself.
Pretending like retaliation tactics against whistleblowers would never happen under her watch, all the while trying to intimidate Union reps who have (finally!!) began to stand up to all the illegal shortcuts done by lazy administrators who would rather steal than do their well-paid jobs in an ethical manner.
That nasty letter she sent to Jennifer Isensee and David Barton was instructive of just how hostile and unfocused SAUSD “leadership” operates. The message was clearly: Shut up, you teachers! Look what I am willing to do to your union leaders – you’ll never stand the wrath of Jane Russo. So if you value your job, you’ll just shut up and do what ever immoral act I demand.
Trouble is, is that teachers were made to sign those false rosters for the previous two years. This year’s embarassing scam is nothing new – it just was finally exposed. This year, teachers had had it and pushed back on the illegal scam.
You can only guess what kind of resentment is building up in all those other teachers who were “taken” the last couple of years by being forced to not only commit fraud, but were doubly punished by having excessive class sizes.
Jane is also convinced that the union put those teachers up to contacting the news media in the first place. Wrong. They got tired of all the dodgy waiting on her part. And if she thinks that intimidation and whipping the teachers with additional punishments with their pay is the plan for success, she’s dead wrong.
She has yet to prove her “support and service” promise. So far, she’s been full of excuses and threats. *Yawn*
When do we get someone who can actually do her over-paid job and start dumping the failed administrators in her offices that have nothing better to offer than plot out illegal scams and mean retaliation tactics against teachers and the community’s student population?
She’s either listening to a lot of bum advice or she’s the source of some pretty stupid mistakes already. Which is it?
“Chisme has it that a 13 year old was recently shot in front of Santa Ana Councilman David Benavides’ house. I am guessing he won’t be celebrating that. Any bets on when he moves to Irvine and rents a place in Ward 4?”
Art, I happen to be a close friend of Mr. Benavides. You, on the other hand, are not. Your loss. But this comment of yours is just plain gross and lacking in credibility. If you REALLY knew Mr. Benavides, you would know of his immense committment to improving the neighborhood he lives in now. It’s a dangerous neighborhood and he could have left LONG before any recent incidents. But he hasn’t. If you care to know the REAL Councilman Benavides, rather than casually cutting him down, then I’d suggest just talking to him and getting to know him. Now THERE’S a concept.
But then maybe that would require you to end up eating crow and you wouldn’t be able to continue engaging in rank speculation and character assasination.
n2whatever,
I have yet to see anything even remotely resembling a new idea or leadership from Benavides. He appears to be nothing more than a Pulido puppet.
The new council member who has shown tons of leadership and new ideas is Michele Martinez, not Benavides. Even Sarmiento has been far more impressive than Mr. Not Ready for Prime Time.
If you choose to be amigos with a political hack, that is your business. I am a lot more discriminating in my choice of friends.
“I have yet to see anything even remotely resembling a new idea or leadership from Benavides.”
And so because you don’t agree with Mr. Benavides politically, this logically leads to the conclusion that he would move out of Ward 4 because of a shooting?
Do you not see that utter and total disconnect?
You are further gone than I thought.
n2justice
I am yet a closer friend of David and you failed to answer the question – was a youngster shot in the near vicinity of his residence?
n2justice,maybe you can ask david why he promised voters mayoral term limits and then once elected has chosen to ignore that promise.
are all your friends liars or just david benavides?
#6
I never even addressed the veracity of that fact, so I fail to see why you think it’s my responsibility to comment on it. I didn’t question that part of Art’s post…I questioned how he could POSSIBLY come to the conclusion that this might cause Mr. Benavides to move out of his neighborhood when he doesn’t even KNOW the man.
In his response to me, he chose to change the subject, not address the baselessness of his comment, and then insult me–a common tactic among REAL political hacks.
Now would YOU care to address the rank speculation of his original comment?
#7
Changing the subject won’t obscure the obsurdity of Art’s original statement. Nice try though.
David Benavides holds regular office hours at the city’s community centers to make himself more accessible to the residents. Making time for the people you represent and hearing their issues firsthand? That’s good leadership.
Martinez on the other hand gets her input from a cabal of back room “advisors”, pays back favors by dishing out commission appointments, and uses a team of blog authors to constantly spin and hype her activities.
Which person here sounds more like a political hack?
Poster 9,
If Benavides wants to be accountable he ought to start by doing what he said he would do – backing ward specific elections and mayoral term limits.
As for Michele Martinez, she makes herself available at City Hall and at MANY community meetings. I would hardly say that she is not accessible.
Benavides is a Pulido puppet. Until he proves otherwise that is what he will remain.
n2whatever,
Baseless? There is a long history of carpetbaggers in the OC – have you forgotten Tom Umberg already?
The bottom line is that Benavides opposed the gang commission until Pulido backed it. Now gang violence has erupted in his own front yard. Benavides needs to become part of the solution – not part of the entrenched city administration that has so badly handled this issue.
When it comes to gang violence, the solutions are known – after-school programs, jobs for teens, and better housing. That’s it.
Benavides needs to support opening more libraries, getting rid of the SAUSD board, more after-school activities and more affordable housing. Will he? I truly doubt it. His master Pulido won’t let him.
“The bottom line is that Benavides opposed the gang commission until Pulido backed it.”
Art, the shooting only proves that the commission is failure so Benavides was only correct member on the council to oppose it.
The commission is Michele’s and Sal’s stupid idea same as their SA health program promotions. They are bots fat pigs telling others to live and eat healthy.
Poster 12,
Hey now, let’s not start picking on big people! BTW, Michele is in great shape – I have no idea what you are talking about.
The commission is not a failure. Our city administration is. We need more activities for our youth, more jobs for teens and better housing. What part of that don’t you understand?
And no, Benavides was not the only one to oppose the gang commission, at least initially. His road trip buddy Carlos Bustamante also was against the commission. They both changed their minds when their master, Pulido, voted for the commission. Good doggies!
anonymous nitwit # 9
“pays back favors by dishing out commission appointments”
are you stupid or just dishonest.benavides and martinez have each had the exact same amount of commissioners to appoint.
What favors was benavides paying back?
I have to agree with # 12 a bit because I too thought it ironic that Martinez was talking to kids about health & excercize while her roll squeezees over her 2 sizes too small jeans. Gawd they look uncomfortable.
Poster 15,
OK – let’s get back to the issue at hand. A child was gunned down in Benavides’ front yard – and he ran off to DC to hang out with Bush and Cheney during Cinco de Mayo. Michele would not have done that.
Benavides ought to have rolled up his sleeve and gotten to work, but instead him and Bustamante headed for fun times in DC. Figures. No that’s a hack!
n2justice –
Let’s cut through the c*ap. Was a youngster shot in front of and/or in the vicinity of David Benevides residence?
Did this shooting take place just prior to Benevides departure to DC with Bustamante?
Art if everyone stopped what they were doing each time someone was gunned down in SA no on would ever do anything. Kids are gunning each other down in Sa everyday. I doubt that whether benavidas stayed or left would have made a difference in the investigation…he’s not a cop he’s a councilman. And just because he went to washington does not mean he does not care.
Art Pedroza said-“Benavides needs to support opening more libraries, getting rid of the SAUSD board, more after-school activities and more affordable housing.”
Art- When are you going to understand that the City Council has no say over SAUSD? The only people who can get rid of those Board members are the voters! And the voters continue to re-elect the same Board members over and over again.
As for more low income housing, Santa Ana has more than their fare share of low income housing. The last thing Santa Ana needs is more of the same. It’s time for other Cities to step up and build the low income housing they have wiggled out of building. Poor people need to be able to live in different parts of the County so they can be nearer to their jobs, like everyone else. Their children deserve to go to school in other school districts so they have a chance for a better education. We need to reduce the concentration of low income families in Santa Ana, not increase it.
#17
Apparently the shooting happened on Monday May 7, 2007, after David Benevides visit to DC. As of Tuesday the boy is in the critical but stable condition.
So this is the way Art’s mind works. Let me spell out the equation very clearly for all of you who want to change the subject. And by the way, Mr. Benavides lives in a neighborhood where MANY shootings have taken place, and he IS engaged on the issue, despite Art’s uninformed opinion. But on to the mind of Art….
“I don’t like Benavides”
+
“Hey, a shooting happened in his neighborhood”
+
“Hey, this could be an opportunity for me to cut him down”
+
“Hey, I’ll suggest that he’s so weak and frightened by this event that he moves to Irvine and starts renting a place in Ward 4”
+
“This is what other politicians have done, so that MUST mean he’ll do it. Hmm, yeah that’s logical in my world.”
+
“When confronted about the fact that I’m utterly uninformed to make such a statement, I’ll just resort to my usual bag of tricks…change the subject, don’t confront the statement I made, insult the critic.”
And that, folks, is the way the mind of a very small person indeed works. You can change the subject and disagree with Mr. Benavides on policy all you want, and you have the right to do so, but that doesn’t erase the ridiculous pettiness and totally uninformed nature of Art’s original statement.
And for 16 and 17…
The shooting Art refers to happened Monday evening, May 7. Mr. Benavides received a call about the shooting as the council meeting was letting out. It didn’t happen the previous week and cause Benavides and Bustamante to run to Washington, despite Art’s petty innuendo to the contrary.
The shooting, Art, did NOT happen in Mr. Benavides front yard. Get your facts straight. It happened on Townsend street. Mr. Benavides does not live on Townsend Street.
And we’re supposed to think you are a credible, informed source of information?
NOW can all of you see that Art simply used this event to spout off like a little child?
And lastly, since Art likes to take bets, any bets on whether or not Art will retract is baseless comments and blatant falsehoods?
A person of integrity would do so. A political hack will let it slide, hoping that since it’s buried in the comment section of his blog, nobody will notice.
Michele Martinez has accomplished nothing. She’s spinning around in several different directions, doing high profile public meetings, and there has been no end result, except newspaper stories about her. Did we really need public meetings to figure out why there are gangs in Santa Ana? Did these meetings bring forth any new information? Did they bring forward any new solutions? No!
We all know why there are gangs in high density, low income areas. While I’m certainly in favor of after school programs and more libraries, we all know those things will only help a very small percentage of children stay out of gangs. Until you change the root cause, things will remain the same. Look at any similar area around the country. It’s exactly the same story in parts of Los Angeles, D.C., New York, Chicago, etc..
Until you find a way to break up these pockets of high density poverty, nothing will change. And Martinez, Sarmiento, etc. will only make things worse by encouraging more low income housing in Santa Ana. Our entire City Council needs to be screaming at other Cities to build their share of low income housing, so Santa Ana is no longer the dumping ground for people who work in those Cities.
About the Fire chief-
He is only going to be double dipping. Both Santa Ana and Culver City are part of the PERS retirement system. His time in Culver City + his time in Santa Ana now allow him to retire with 90% of his current salary. Sonoma is not part of PERS, so he can work there, become part of their retirement system, then retire with another pension. Also, while he’s working in Sonoma, he will collect his PERS pension *and* still earn a salary that is about the same as what Santa Ana is now paying him.
Also, FYI, the only person trying to get him to stay here is Claudia Alvarez. She called a special closed door meeting last Wednesday to try to get the Council to offer him more money to stay. Yep! The same Claudia Alvarez who is is against raises for the other management team members.
Concerning Mr. Benavides and his community center events. He made the first one and missed the second one, which was a friday, Saturday event as he was out of town with councilman Bustamante. Therefore he is one for two or 50 percent.
n2justice
After reading your comments on this thread I’ve come to the conclusion you lack reading comprehension skills.
Art penned … “Chisme has it that a 13 year old was recently shot in front of Santa Ana Councilman David Benavides’ house.”
You do know what chisme is, don’t you? Mr. Pedroza never claimed it was factual.
Stop blowing hot air. One of Benevides campaign promises was mayoral terms limits and he weasled out of that one. Rehashing his tap dance performance about the anti-gang commission Council Member sponsored isn’t worth the keystrokes. He was pathetic.
He goes through tap shoes as quickly as Brittany Spears does men.
Well it looks like the Van Tran group uses Viet Media to skirt the Mainstream press yet again to do what they want in the Viet community. When will the GOP learn that they are alienating the viet vote and don’t care if it ruins the GOP’s goals. Go work with more dems. LOL way to go Scott Baugh. I’m suprised nobody has posted this.
A little parajito just told me that Dina Nguyen is going around solicating support for Trung Nguyen to run for supervisor against Janet Nguyen next year. So I guess we will now have a Supervisor Dunn.
n2whatever,
“Baseless comments and blatant falsehoods?” Yes, that would be chismes. Get off your high horse. This column is meant to illuminate but also to have fun in the process. And yes, the Register cribbed one of our stories from our last column. So some of the chismes turn out to be more than meets the eye..
#27
How unfortunate that you chose not to quote the WHOLE “chismes”…you know, the part where Art engages in idle, unilluminating speculation about someone he doesn’t even know.
And if you go back and read my original comment, I never even addressed whether or not the shooting part was factual. But since Art chose to spout off complete falsehoods about the event and what Benavides and Bustamente did afterward, I did a little thing called fact checking and found that he had it all wrong.
Now what part of all that don’t you understand?
Now Art is backpedaling and saying “This column is meant to illuminate but also to have fun in the process.” The problem is he did neither. I’m pretty sure Art would claim to be a credible, informed source of information. He’s shown himself to be otherwise. And he’s now shown himself incapable of retracting a factually incorrect statement.
Pathetic.
And 27, this also…
I might make the same observation about YOUR reading comprehension skills. Did you not read THIS nugget from Art?
“OK – let’s get back to the issue at hand. A child was gunned down in Benavides’ front yard – and he ran off to DC to hang out with Bush and Cheney during Cinco de Mayo.”
That, my friend, is NOT a “chismes”. That is someone who claims to be a credible source of information making a statement that is COMPLETELY false. There is not one iota of truth in that statement.
You can’t REALLY defend that, can you?
n2whatever,
Are you disputing that a 13 year old was shot in front of Benavides’ house? Or that I got it wrong when I said it happened before he went to DC? The latter might be wrong, but my point was that this guy is preoccupied with power and its perks and he is not doing his job.
Let’s see what he comes up with in the next few weeks and I will be happy to revisit this issue. Again, I have seen nothing even remotely resembling a new idea coming from Benavides. The guy appears to be over his head. I assure you he won’t be in office more than one term.
Art, you apparently didn’t read one of my previous comments. I’m disputing ALL of what you said…the latter AND the former. The shooting didn’t happen in front of Mr. Benavides house AND it didn’t happen before he went to DC.
I challenge you to issue a retraction…and not buried here in the comment section, but on this blog’s main page.
In the world of blogs and instant “news” one must be very careful what one reads and, more importantly, what one believes. I encourage the readers of this blog to take what Art states as “fact” with an extreme grain of salt.
And Art, you say this…
“but my point was that this guy is preoccupied with power and its perks and he is not doing his job.”
THAT was not the main point of your original comment. THAT was the “switch” part of your bait-and-switch where you change the subject.
In addition to being incorrect, you’re dishonest.
And there’s this curious “admission”…
“The latter might be wrong…”
MIGHT be wrong?
No Art, it’s not “might” be wrong.
It is defintely, unequivocably wrong. It’s as wrong as wrong can be.
Even when you “admit” something, you can’t fully step up to the plate.
n2justice, did a kid get shot near the benavides home or not?
In post 22 you stated that benavides got a call just as council was wrapping up.you failed to mention that the call was from his wife emily.why the failure to disclose?could it be that emily has had enough of david’s failed social experiment?
#36
The shooting happened in Mr. Benavides neighborhood. So what? Many shooting have happened in Mr. Benavides neighborhood and he has not moved out. Don’t you get that? Mr, Pedroza didn’t state that the shooting happened in his heighborhood…he said it happened in front of his house…then he said it happened in his front yard.
Wrong on both counts.
And what does the fact that his wife called him have to do with anything? I had a responsibility to disclose that? Did I have a responsibility to disclose the temperature that day too? Oh, I get it…revealing that fact allows you to engage in rank speculation about a person you don’t even know.
Another bait and switch. Nice try though.
PBS’s Frontline did a great 4 hour program on the history of the Mormans and I’m not sure when it will be repeated. Eventually you will be able to see it on line like the other past shows. Until then some might be interested in the FAQ they posted on Mormanism.
http://www.pbs.org/mormons/faqs/
“revealing that fact allows you to engage in rank speculation about a person you don’t even know”
how do you know if i know him or his wife or not? your word is as good as mine, and your failure to disclose facts will be percieved as youpossibly lying. further, the fact that benavides has made promises to the people of santa ana and failed to follow through on said promises, like term limits, shows he is not a person of character, and we all know the saying about birds of a feather.
#39
I know that you don’t REALLY know Mr. Benavides because if you did, you never would have engaged in defending a person who made this ridiculous piece of conjecture;
“Any bets on when he moves to Irvine and rents a place in Ward 4?”
If you don’t think I know him, then I’d suggest that you talk to someone who truly does and then get back to me.
Since when does not mentioning a totally irrelevant fact constitute “lying”? What planet are you on?
And then everything you write after “further…” is just more bait and switch, change the subject.
#39
Better yet, talk to Mr. Benavides himself. Ask him if he knows about this original post. Ask him if he he’s aware of the comment thread. Ask him if he knows “n2justice”. He’ll say yes to all of the above. That’s because we discussed it when I was at his home last Friday evening.
n2justice,
Thank you for adding your voice to the discussions here.
Does Mr. Benavides have any solutions to getting these kinds of violent crimes under better control?
I agree with you, that community members should not taunt and turn on each other and new leaders such as David, out of frustration and assumptions that the problems are newly spiraling out of control.
A young shooter just turned himself in. Maybe he was the one involved in the shooting in question. He is only 18 – much too young to have a gun and be making those kinds of emotional decisions in a community that deserves to be safe.
Prevention and deterance are important. Has Mr. Benavides discussed what he sees might help our community?
Thanks for any insights.
#42
I assure you he’s been intimately involved with this issue for years. He is very engaged with the people in his Ward and working closely with the council and police chief to develop new solutions and strategies.
But you don’t have to believe me. Just contact Mr. Benavides. I’m sure he’s be glad to discuss the issue with you.