You can judge a campaign by looking at who is supporting it. Measure G, which is the latest effort by the Santa Ana Unified School District (SAUSD) to increase our taxes, is co-chaired by Al Amezcua, who is a Trustee for the Rancho Santiago Community College District, and by Mark McLoughlin, a wealthy backer of Santa Ana Mayor Miguel Pulido, who lives in Pulido’s Floral Park neighborhood.
Al Amezcua? Are you kidding me? Al, who desperately wants to be our next Mayor, when Pulido gets tired of fleecing the people of Santa Ana, is a criminal defense lawyer. I am told that his specialty is defending gang bangers. You can read more about Al at this link. Be sure to check out what his ex-wife had to say about him, in the comments.
Al and his cohorts are having a meeting at Libreria Martinez in Santa Ana, on Wednesday, April 30, from 5:30 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. Be sure to ask them about the rumors that Al wants to put the bond money in his bank. That is the bank funded by George Pla, whose engineering firm is going to get millions in return for designing the unnecessary street car system to Garden Grove that Pulido is backing.
Who else is backing Measure G? Well, most of the SAUSD School Board that has led the SAUSD into financial ruin is backing G, including Rob Richardson, Audrey Noji and Jose Hernandez. No surprise there. Rather than deal with the problems THEY created they are trying to distract us with Measure G.
And the Santa Ana Chamber of Commerce, which is headed by Pulido ally Mike Metzler, is also backing Measure G. Metzler has never met a new tax he didn’t like. I wonder how the business community in our city feels about having their property taxes raised again?
And we know that Santa Ana Mayor Miguel Pulido found a job for Council Member Michele Martinez, running the Measure G phone banks. Naturally the entire Clowncil is backing Measure G, including worthless Republican Carlos Bustamante.
State Senator Lou Correa and Assemblyman Jose Solorio, who have stood idly by while our city erupts in a gang war, are also looking to increase our taxes, by supporting Measure G.
Orange County District Attorney Tony Rackauckas, whose “31-year-old plumber son and daughter-in-law were arrested, she on drunk driving charges, he when police found him near Irvine Park
All these bond have beneficiaries. And all the supporters involved stand to gain in one way or another from the passage of these bonds.
Any and all current and future bond proposals are just more slop in the pig trough. The coummunity is the least to benefit from any of these local bonds. Unfortunately it is the community that is burdened by costs.
What Santa Ana needs is a better educated voter base. The City’s history shows is that all you need to do is to send out enough glossy mailers out to the voters and they will elect any stiff no matter how worthless they may be. Enough shiny mailers and you can get them to pass idiotic measures (“D” comes immediately to mind).
Unfortuately, it won’t be until we get independently wealthy individuals to run in Santa Ana elections the City will continue to be run by the “good ol’ boy” network. I challenge anybody to prove otherwise.
It also seems that Mr. R Martinez has blown through his half a million dollar grant already. How sad for him. Can’t beat free publicity for supporting this bogus cash grab of a Bond, eh Reuben?
I’ve been to his bookstore on a few occasions and there really is nothing that appeals to the regular SA resident. He should change his business plan rather than “support” this fleecing of the very comminity he needs for his business. One question Mr. Martinez. How is the general public expexted to buy your overpriced books if they can barely pay their rent/property taxes? My suggestion is for you to move your business down to South County and cater to all the “Hispancs” Maybe you can fool them into buying into your contradictory business philosophy.
The ‘other’ blog is for the measure, claiming it will improve the schools. I guess throwing money at a problem is still the liberal M.O. after all the incompetence they’ve seen. Time for some new solutions guys.
SMS
Art, seems like you are one of the few people against this bond…If it’s so obviously bad, why are you the only one to realize it? Can’t you convince anyone to oppose it? What are you doing in an organized way to stop this thing? Where is Ben Gabriel? Where are the Strouds? Where is Florence Leech? Where are those to whom we rely for efforts like this?
#3,
I have a feeling there are a lot of people who are against Measure G, but they have yet to organize, and they may not. This bond needs a super majority of the vote to pass. Getting there, in the midst of foreclosures, job losses and recession, won’t be easy.
BTW, the mailers for the bond are not going to Republicans or independents. Just to Democrats. At least so far.
Who is getting the truth out to the Spanish Press???
CQT96
It’s been nearly three years since I placed a special order at Martinez bookstore for two items totaling about $50. I have yet to hear from them if the merchandise is available for me to purchase.
Since that episode I have not set foot in the bookstore. I prefer spending my money with someone who values me as a customer and R. Martinez needs a good lesson in customer service. He should think twice about pandering to the political hacks in Santa Ana.