What a night. I really did not expect much from the Santa Ana Council Members at tonight’s City Council meeting, which was a good thing as the results were rather dismal.
As expected, a ton of people showed up to speak on behalf of our co-blogger, Thomas Gordon. They included Art Lomeli, who owns a very successful dental practice in downtown Santa Ana; Tish Leon, a Parks and Recreation Commissioner; Julie Stroud, who serves with Tish on the Parks and Recreation Commission; Nelida Yanez, who ran for the City Council last year; George Collins, who also ran for the City Council last year, and who filmed the meeting; and many, many others, including our former co-blogger Ryan Trabuco, who is on ETAC. Trabuco’s fellow ETAC Commissioner, who also used to write for us, Claudio Gallegos, also showed up to speak on Thomas’ behalf.
But it was all for naught. Santa Ana Councilman Sal Tinajero sat there and said nothing. Then, when the people were done protesting, he moved the motion and Claudia seconded it. Only one Council Member voted against the motion – Councilwoman Michele Martinez. There was no discussion. Obviously they had made their decision before the meeting even started. And just like that Thomas was a former Commissioner – and the new leader of the Santa Ana revolution.
Later in the evening, the Council fumbled again when Martinez brought up her 85 A agenda item, which would have compelled the City of Santa Ana to film all of it’s City Council meetings, and place them on an online searchable archive.
The comments from the City Council were laughable! Santa Ana Mayor Miguel Pulido explained that he was against the measure because the Council is full of young people who get nervous in front of the camera. Of course they were not nervous when Collins filmed their last two “Study Session” meetings.
Councilman Vince Sarmiento also spoke up. He said that holding all the Council meetings in Chambers is too rigid. He said that it would be nice for the City Council to take field trips. Can’t they just to go neighborhood association meetings if that is what they want to do?
And Councilwoman Claudia Alvarez went off! She explained that the reason the City does not have its meetings online is that we don’t have the technology to do this. Of course I explained later that Collins does this IN HIS HOME, on his website.
And I explained that the City of Albuquerque has won awards for the way they stream their council meetings. They do not use outside vendors to put the meetings online. And they only spent about $5,000 to put their meetings online.
But Pulido and company voted not to televise all of their council meetings. Cowards.
Interestingly, the only public citizen who called for Thomas’ ouster and who spoke out against Martinez’ agenda item was wife-beater Stanley Fiala. He was ecstatic of course. How sad that on an evening when so many city leaders showed up to petition the Council, Pulido and company ended up doing the will of a complete nut case.
Did anyone see Ryan go after Sal, Claudia and Carlos tonight? This young guy nailed them to the wall and spoke the honest truth about these people. They all need to go, NOW!
Well one fatso down two more fatsos to go.
How much power that wife-beater Stanley Fiala has?…… Only one speaker and council went his way.
Now Martinez will will be reminded every meting that she is paying for your company.
No one on the council will support her. (85A) was good example.
So Pedroza keep playing.
Watch me to force council to pay Chamber $85K. Today I have planed the idea in their head.
Stan, if your so smart why can’t you learn to speak the language?
See the story at the Register as well.
http://www.ocregister.com/news/gordon-meeting-commission-1934540-council-tinajero
I want my city TV.
I think the reason for not televising the second meetings are weak.
Kind of a low blow for Gordon, but what do I know.
What did you expect from a city and school district run on intimidation, greed and power grabbing. Tinajero, The meek, mild High School teacher once glorified with honors for his teaching has his taste of power and is now one of the fat cats in more ways than one.
Seems to all boil down to a food fight over who is in charge, the majority of the elected officials on the Council or outspoken community activists. Score – elected officials 1, activists 0.
You said, “Santa Ana Councilman Sal Tinajero sat there and said nothing”
In defense of Sal I believe your readers should know that he was wolfing down a double double cheese burger during that agenda item and felt it would be rude to eat and talk at the same time. He had just arrived from his teaching job and picked up some In & Out burgers, frys, and a vanilla milk shake on his way to the meeting. You seemed to have left that fact out of your report Mr. Pedroza!
I thought Ryan was smooth as silk as he ripped Claudia and Carlos and Sal a new one last night!
#8, he was quoted in the resgiter this morning and he’s right! Thomas is our city’s “caped crusader.” I hope all of those council members are removed from office either next election or through recall.
Thomas is our city’s “caped crusader.”?….. did you want to say vigilante?…. 12/02/2007 9:43 AM
I think this fight is over really nothing. meetings are televised and no one watches them. As long as the audio is available online and you can get a copy of the video to watch then that is about all you can expect. Where is the uproar over spending $5,000 to go online instead of putting it into potholes?
Can’t make up my mind if this is great drama or just bad politics!
I still haven’t heard a good reason for removal of Commissioner Gordon. Was it really just a motion and vote?
You guys need to hook into YouTube and start posting videos of these guys. If the videos are half as good as they sound this would be a big hit! Many more people in Santa Ana use YouTube than the city’s website or Cable TV to check up on happenings. Someone should work with Mr. Collins to do a best/worst of Santa Ana…
S
Sal and Carlos know that the attention span of most bloggers and gadflys is about 30 seconds and you will be moving on to the next issue soon. Expect Sal to try to do something to get in the good graces of you all and make you forget about old…what’s his name again? I mean the guy they emasculated last night!
S
Thomas Gordon for Mayor!
Sal took one for Pulido last evening.
This exercise was not about removing Thomas Gordon from EPIC; it was a message to ALL commissioners to button up or be removed. Pulido, Bustamante, Sarmiento, Beneviedes, Tinjero and Clownia do not want strong and independent thinking individuals as their commissioners. They want people who are submissive and loyal to them alone.
Tinajero place in jeopardy his political career because he is not up for reelection next year and he’s counting on the voters to forgot this unfortunate incident.
Voters will not forget. This blog and any others that crop up will make it their mission to remind the voters that Sal Tinajero is a turncoat.
I’d be willing to walk, collect signatures, and throw a couple of thousand dollars toward recalling ever single one of these council people.
The voters in Capo Unified did it, so why can’t we? In a special recall election in this city with a LOW voter turnout, there is a statistical chance these fools WILL NOT be re-elected. Anyone game?
Public uproar????? Are you absolutely crazy? Do you really live in your own little world?? 13 speakers in a City of over 300,000 combined with the bloggers here does NOT constitute an Uproar! People in my part of town all thought it was “goodbye to nutcase”.
#17
Neighbor – A recall requires lots of money, time and volunteers. Orange bailed on Rocco’s recall and I don’t believe Capo was successful in their recall effort.
Voters take heed:
VOTE NO ON MEASURE D
-and
Do not vote for the following next November:
PULIDO
BUSTAMANTE
SARMIENTO
Let’s save the dollars to boot Pulido, Bustamante and Sarmiento.
And don’t forget to neutralize Claudia Alvarez and VOTE NO ON MEASURE D this February!
Good post. but to be honest, it was not much of an uproar. at the beginning I thought all the people that turned out were because of Gordon. Council Chambers was pretty full. But after the employees were recognized about 50% of the audience left. Then when the awards were given out another 25% or so left. there couldn’t have been more than 70 some people there and only a few spoke out. The paper said 13, I do not remember that many, I thought it was more like 8-9. Most were the usual suspects (written in a loving way) on the blog.
Trabuco was good, I thought. And so was Fiala. He usually sounds like a mad man but not last night. He basically said, that while people might not agree with the dismissal, that Tinajero had the legal right.
I believe when Fiala was speaking, Art Pedroza spoke out loud and told him to get off the stage or get out here…something like that. It was either him or Claudio but the way Art giggled, it looked like it was him. I thought it was kind of embarrassing.
I felt good for Gordon, he had the respect of his peers. That much was certain. If it was me and people said such wonderful things about me I would have felt good.
Carlos,
Everyone in the room was snickering at Stanley. But I don’t yell out anything at meetings. Not sure who you might have heard.
I was busy last night working on what I was going to say during the public comments. I spoke three times…re Thomas, re the 85A item, and at the end of the meeting. I never use notes, so I have to memorize what I am going to say.
As for Fiala, please know that no one takes him seriously. The man is an indicted wife beater. And he is known for his virulent racism against Latinos, specifically Mexicans. Take from that what you will.
Yes, Sal has a right to remove Thomas, but as Thomas has said, Sal never spoke to him about this before the meeting. The agenda item was Sal’s big surprise. But it certainly backfired on Sal.
Carlos, I appreciate your sentiments regarding my speech from last night.
I, like Art, spoke three times regarding Thomas, 85A, and during public comments. By the end of the meeting, as I’m sure everyone noticed, I was extremely disappointed with the entire council.
I still regret nothing about what I said last night to Sal, Claudia, and Carlos Bustamante.