Over the weekend many voters in Anaheim’s District 3 received a survey – either over the phone or by text – which after the initial pleasantries focused on trying out different positive and negative messages about incumbent Councilwoman Natalie Rubalcava and her challenger Elia Renteria. This seems to have been from the Anaheim Police Association aka Union (political consultant the disgraced Jeff Flint.) They are Natalie’s biggest supporters and vice versa, and the text survey looks just like another survey they put out last year through the same company Qualtrics, testing the waters for a “tourist tax” (whole ‘nother story there.)
I’m not going to call this survey a “push poll” because it did include both positive and negative messages about both candidates, and it did clearly specify “The following is information about [Rubalcava/Renteria] that you may hear or see in the news or in advertisements. Select whether the information makes you more or less likely to support her for City Council.”
Fair enough. Team Police/Rubalcava wants to see what messages are going to work best in the election, and what messages they should be afraid of and ready to counter. This will work for us Elia supporters too. Not only is it nice to know they are taking Elia seriously, and not only does this help get her name out, but we’re also getting a preview of their messaging, false and true. Let’s look at each of these messages, and remark upon them, ofttimes with snark.
- “NR delivered real improvements to Anaheim, allocating funding to revitalize La Palma Park and expanding library hours so families and kids have safe places to go after school.”
Well, those sound like good things, but Natalie sure didn’t do them by herself, that was the whole council, and Elia certainly would have done all those things as well.
But I’ve got at least one complaint about how they “revitalized” La Palma Park – why the hell did they get rid of the historic German “Willkommen in Anaheim” sign? And right when both our German restaurants have vanished too – the Phoenix Club moved to Brea, and the beloved Jagerhaus killed partly thanks to JEFF FLINT who put this poll out! Erasing our town’s German history is NOT DIVERSITY!
And now I see that Gustavo wrote the same thing last year – I guess sometimes we do think alike. And then Gustavo went to Natalie because he always goes to Natalie because they went to school together, and she told him that they’ll put the sign back up SOMEWHERE in the park, and that was 16 months ago, and I’m sure the German sign is all forgotten. VERGESSEN.
THEN
NOW
That’s “revitalization?” As Gustavo wrote,
“The front of each letter is painted gray; their sides alternate between lime green and turquoise tones. That color scheme is so jarring that I thought my eyes were short-circuiting. The whole thing sits on a slab of concrete, in a planter currently surrounded by wood chips. A white sheet of paper has more personality than this weak-salsa excuse meant to greet people entering Orange County’s largest city.”
WORD, Gustavo. I bet Elia wouldn’t have destroyed the historic German sign. But okay, back to the survey…
- “NR secured the land needed to build a new fire station, and pushed to increase funding for Anaheim police, fire, and paramedics so first responders have what they need to keep our neighborhoods safe and reduce 911 response times.”
Nobody knows anything about Natalie “securing land for a fire station.” The newest fire station, “Station #12,” now being built on a corner of the Angel Stadium lot, had been held up for years because of the selfish idiocy of [now former] team owner Arte Moreno, who feared it might distract from his [losing] baseball games. Did the district 3 Councilwoman wield special sway somehow over the doddering billionaire regarding district 5 property? Unlikely.
Yes, Natalie actually did help “secure land” for a Fire Station #13 in her district. That part is true.
And the part about Natalie increasing spending on police and fire is also true, and true about the entire Council as well. That’s why the police and fire unions are backing Natalie, duh! They are the gift that keeps giving.
- “NR helped reduce homelessness in Anaheim by investing in street outreach and housing solutions, instead of just shuffling the problem from block to block, and converting old, run down hotels to help get people off the streets.”
Again, as far as any of that’s true, it’s the work of the whole Council. And Elia would have done it as well. Probably a lot better, as she has spent years helping the homeless while Natalie was spending years helping OC’s Big Businesses.
And don’t forget, if Natalie cared about housing and the homeless, she could always propose rent control for Anaheim, like Santa Ana did six years ago. She could also do something she’s promised for years now and hasn’t done, which is to have the City enforce existing tenant protection laws. Of course anyone on the Council could do those things; none of them will. Natalie and her colleagues are all funded by and loyal to landlords and developers.
- “In 2024, Anaheim voters almost removed NR from office early because of concerns over corruption and conduct in office.”
And Natalie barely survived by about 400 votes. We have mixed feelings about that Recall, because there were no good guys on either side. The hotel workers union UNITE HERE launched the Natalie Recall in REVENGE for her kneecapping their Measure A. (Which was not just a wage hike but a very bad ordinance; more below.) But in order to not look petty, the union invented other reasons to recall her, very minor silly ones taken from the JL Report. (More on that below as well.)
It was a hard choice but most of us ended up supporting the recall for completely different reasons, which we listed HERE, the first of which was Natalie’s complete surrender to Disney in the Disneyland Forward deal… and which all could have applied to anyone else on Council as well.
- “NR is a 4th-generation Anaheim resident, small business owner, and mom who graduated from Lincoln Elementary, Sycamore Junior High, and Anaheim High School before earning her law degree, and she’s fighting for the community that raised her.”
There’s the ol’ “HOMEGROWN” fetish. Some of our worst OC politicians, some of the biggest vendidos, are able to claim that they and their families have been in one place forever and never moved – as though that was a good thing. Also, Natalie may have gone to all those local public schools, but it’s not where she sent/sends her kids, and last month when there was a huge celebration – out front of Anaheim High, her alma mater, her district – over getting millions in “Community Schools” funding, she wasn’t there. My district 5 councilwoman Kristen Maahs was the only one there.
- “NR has balanced Anaheim’s city budget and prioritized fiscal responsibility, making sure your tax dollars are spent wisely instead of wasted at City Hall.”
“Balanced budget?” Natalie and her colleagues “balance the budget” by relying on on borrowed funds, reserves, and one-time revenue sources to cover a structural deficit in its general fund. Meaning that rising day-to-day costs and service upgrades have grown faster than local tax revenues. If we had a real gate tax (not the police-dictated one Natalie proposed last year that woulda gone to a half-billion-dollar APD Cathedral) we could maybe have a real balanced budget.
And when we’re finally done next year paying off the bonds we took out for Disney in the 90’s, we could maybe have a real balanced budget. I trust Elia more, to spend that extra $56 million a year wisely on what the community really needs.
- “An independent investigation [JL Group] found that NR used the contact list of a city resident advisory group [Anaheim First] for her own campaign purposes, and gave improper operational directions to a city employee [Sergio Ramirez] and investigators said she was ‘less than candid and forthcoming’ during their review.”
Those charges were a little silly, a couple of things a rookie would have done if that rookie was also arrogant. They weren’t worth justifying a recall, as UNITE-HERE pretended. But let’s not forget that Natalie tried hard for months to kneecap that city-commissioned independent JL investigation, like she had things to hide. In fact it’s been said her old employer OC Business Council gave her express instructions to try to derail that investigation.
I’m sure the things OCBC wanted hidden were WAY bigger than her using the Anaheim First contacts or telling Sergio to use OCBC. But that report was pretty well stonewalled by all the major players, and afterward THE ENTIRE COUNCIL did their best to cover it up when it was done. Never spoke about it or did a workshop. Even though you and I paid $1.5 million for it.
So long story short, JL may have embarrassed NR with a couple minor misdeeds, and it may have been payback, but she did do her best to shut them down, and why?
- “NR backed police officers even in a recent case where many community members believe police improperly shot and killed a young hispanic man [Albert Arzola.]”
Yeah. Albert Arzola. Killed for no apparent reason last December by Officer Nathan Garcia. Officer Nathan Garcia whom Natalie celebrated on her social media. So yeah, Natalie hearts killer cops, that is true.
- “NR has tackled housing affordability in Anaheim by creating a new first-time homebuyers program, increasing funding for rental assistance, ensuring tenants’ rights are protected, and creating a record number of new affordable homes.”
Yes, that is homebuyer thing is one of her projects. But tenants don’t want rental assistance welfare, they want their rents to stop going up excessively and sometimes illegally. And what has she done to ensure tenants’ rights are protected? Pretty sure nothing.
Once again: If Natalie cared about housing and the homeless, she could always propose rent control for Anaheim, like Santa Ana did six years ago. She could also do something she’s promised for years now and hasn’t done, which is to have the City enforce existing tenant protection laws. Of course anyone on the Council could do those things; none of them will. Natalie and her colleagues are all funded by and loyal to landlords and developers.
- “NR has backed businesses and special interests against working people, including when she opposed increasing the minimum wage for tourism workers.”
That first generalization is generally true, and what do you expect – Natalie RAN Orange County Business Council for many years before she got onto Council. That “minimum wage for tourism workers” is not a good example – 2/3 of the city ALSO opposed that because it was a bottle full of poison pills with a wage-increase mixed in there somewhere. But she certainly does back those big businesses and special interests. There are some who say, on the street, “You can take the chola out of OCBC, but you can’t take the OCBC out of the chola.”
- “Elia Renteria has never held elected office, never managed a budget, and never overseen a police or fire department – yet she’s asking Anaheim voters to hand her control over decisions that affect their safety on day one.”
Well, EVERYBODY has managed a budget, just not one as big as Anaheim’s. But yeah, everything said here could have been said about Natalie 4 years ago, Carlos 4 years ago, Ashleigh 4 years ago, Other Natalie 4 years ago, Norma 2 years ago, Ryan 2 years ago, and Kristen 2 years ago. What’s to make us shake in our boots about another first-time Councilmember? What next, ditch term limits?
- “Even though ER worked as a civilian employee in the Police Department, Anaheim’s police officers oppose her election to City Council because they say they trust NR best to protect public safety.”
First. Don’t call the POLICE UNION “Anaheim’s police officers.” I’m sure there are some Anaheim cops who support Elia, like those who know her and have worked with her. But the union’s love of Natalie is because they trust her to keep the money flowing, and the accountability not.
- “ER has proposed a long list of new programs and services without ever explaining how Anaheim would pay for them. She’ll be forced to either raise taxes on working families or break her promises. With the cost of living already squeezing Anaheim families, this is the wrong time to raise taxes, and we don’t need another politician making promises they can’t keep.”
Let’s unpack this. The writer is conflating “proposals” with “promises.” And if some of Elia’s proposals get no support from her colleagues or cannot be funded, is that a “broken promise?” NO. But still, I thought I’d go look for this list of Elia’s “proposals.”
Hold the phone… it does not exist! She and her husband/campaign manager don’t know what Jeff Flint is referring to. I think Flint has her confused with some other Democrat candidate, some other year. This is TOTAL bullshit.
- “For more than two decades, ER has served survivors of family violence, seniors, and families in Anaheim as a civilian employee of the APD, and she will bring that same compassion, honesty, and follow-through to the City Council.” . . .
Thank you. Well said. And true. And I think the 20+ years Elia has spent in this manner needs to be compared and contrasted with all the years Natalie spent bringing succor to wealthy big businesses while leading the OC Business Council. During those years her group fought for the Angel Stadium Heist, all the controversial luxury hotel subsidies, against 2018’s Resort Worker Living Wage, and against a Disney Gate Tax. No wonder the big special interests still want Natalie on council – she is one of them.
Come meet Elia at the Club tonight, and see if I’m WAY off!
