Did the Santa Ana City Council violate the Brown Act at tonight’s City Council meeting? Eyewitness accounts report that the Council may indeed have stepped in it when they voted unanimously to give embattled, and enfeebled, City Manager Dave Ream a fifteen percent raise at tonight’s meeting – which was held at the Santa Ana Police Station’s community room.
The raise was NOT on the agenda for the meeting. We have been promised by the Council Members that they would NOT take any official actions at the meetings held outside of the Council chambers. I am told that Councilman Sal Tinajero objected when Santa Ana neighborhood activist George Collins asked if the vote was an official action. Yet one must ask – why wouldn’t doling out a monstrous raise to the City Manager be considered an “official action?”
Now we know why this Council continues to insist on holding meetings outside of the Council Chambers. Oddly, the Council had three cameras at the meeting, and they aired the meeting, after it was held. So why move the meeting in the first place? Was the meeting moved to try to head off opposition to giving Ream a raise?
Why does the overpaid, under-performing Ream deserve a raise in the first place? Particularly a huge 15% raise? Is he having problems paying for his meds? I am told that the Council argued that Ream deserved the raise because other city managers in Orange County make more tan he does. Maybe – but Ream’s performance, for lack of a better phrase, sucks! Santa Ana is the joke of the O.C.! Why did the clowncils give this man a raise when they ought to be showing him the door?
Lets see how the Times and the O.C. Register end up reporting this story. To me it seems a clear-cut Brown Act violation. The vote to give Ream more money should have been on the agenda!
Wasn’t the Council supposed to write a Code of Ethics with the passage of Measure D? If anything, they are acting even MORE unethical now!
A final note – Collins will have video footage of this Council meeting up on his website, Santa Ana Insight, in a couple of days. He does have the audio of the meeting up now. Click here to listen to the Council as they illegally vote to give Ream a big raise.
Obcene!
This action turns my stomach.
How much was promised to each councilmembers’ accounts?
The council has declared that its OK to have offsite study sessions because they don’t do any business there.
A raise for the city manger involves a contract adjustment and a budget item, both of which would normally be declared on the regular meeting agendas, but didn’t show up on this study session agenda.
According to my pajaritos, Michelle Martinez was one of the few council members who spoke up in support of this raise. Looks like she may no longer be supporting the peoples’ interests above her own political goals.
didn’t he just get a raise. 15% is a lot. Too much. Give him just a cost of living but 15% is pure politics to me.
I am beginning to notice a pattern here. Art simply ignores Michele’s actions, in this case cheerleading for Ream’s raise, and attacks Sal Tinajero on ridiculous issues.
Congrats Pedroza on giving this blog no credibility whenever you write something.
You really need Thomas and Claudio to write more otherwise your blog will be completely in the toilet.
This “spiking”of pay is common just before someone retires. It will boast his retirement pay.
I watched my first Council meeting in quite a while last night on cable t.v.I don’t know much about the City Manager issue but I was quite impressed by the council. I have been reading this blog and had some time and have heard mostly bad things about the council. Some of my neighbors don’t like Martinez so I was watching her and the others. My impressions were quite surprising. I watched the part about the housing plan. They all seem to be in pretty close alignment on most issues. They all seem thoughtful and Ms. Martinez and the rest seem to get along fine and don’t disagree much and vote as a unified block. I’m glad the division on the Council is gone and they seem to be getting along and doing the peoples work without a lot of acrimony.
Hey, this guy Ream is a good back scratcher and that is why we scratched his back at this meeting.
That young one, Martinez, is starting to get it. I was getting a little worried.
Don’t we get any credit for televising the meeting at all, even if it wasn’t live like the ones in the Council Chambers?
Sometimes, you voters want way too much!
They gave that doddering old fool a 15% raise!?!?! Unbelievable! Classic Santa Ana. He was already earning over $200k a year to drive the city into the toilet and they up and give him another $30k per year for his efforts? Michelle Martinez has always been moist for Ream…she’s young and doesn’t know any better and has been taken in by his charm. Art shouldn’t give her a pass just because he’s her biggest chearleader. She’s complicent in this debacle.
#8,
Art will surely give her a pass, because that is what Art does.
Any article written by Pedroza is slanted towards Michele’s favor. That is just how Pedroza rolls.
#5, you might be on to something. I don’t believe for one second that Ream hasn’t had a pay raise since 1989. His contract is a closely guarded secrete and it takes an act of congress to get a copy of it. Don’t forget, this is the same council who voted to give all employees an enhanced retirement benefit that takes effect in January 2009. Sounds to me like the old man might be spiking his retirement by asking for a monster pay raise. Hopefully, this means that he will soon be out the door and moving into the retirement home.
Pension spiking, an American tradition among government employees.
What a great country
While I wish that most of you could spell better, the content of the article is even more ridiculous. Either the council (including Michele Martinez) thinks that the city manager is doing a great job to deserve a raise, or they believe that he deserves something better for retirement (including Michele Martinez). The question is not whether we believe either scenario, but whether Art is man enough to see that even Michele can vote for something that goes against his grain. Art, since you are such a big fan of conspiracy theories….tell us, was she mistaken, mislead, or corrupt in this action?