Santa Ana Mayor Miguel Pulido and Santa Ana City Councilman Vince Sarmiento are campaigning together this year as the “leadership team” as I previously reported. Now I have a copy of their flier. Click here to read it. Below I am reproducing an excerpt from the Pulido side of the flier:
How does Pulido find time to be Mayor when he is so busy serving on so many boards? How is his work on a Fullerton bank board relevant to serving the people of Santa Ana? How is his work on the Irvine Great Park relevant to us when we are so short on park space in our own city? If he is on the Boards of the Bowers Museum and the Discovery Science Center how come he has never lobbied to give our residents MORE free days at those facilities – particularly when we pay the Bowers $2 million every year and we own the land they sit on – and we gave the Discovery Science Center the land they sit on?
No wonder this guy is almost invisible in our town. And even when he does show up it is only for scant minutes. When he rode in the Fiestas Patrias parade a few weeks ago he was perched on a stagecoach, like a robber baron, and as soon as he finished the parade route he jumped in a limo and sped off. Nice.
I have nothing personally against Pulido – but he is simply an awful absentee Mayor. This is leadership? No, I don’t think so. He gets paid a small fortune to serve on most of those boards. This is not about leadership, it is about stuffing your wallet at the expense of the people of Santa Ana.
Now let’s dissect his priorities:
- He says he wants to reduce crime. But we have LESS cops on the street today than ever before. Heck of a way to fight crime there Mr. Mayor!
- He says he wants to increase home values – but we lead the county in foreclosures. And much of Bristol has been lying fallow for a long time as the widening of that street keeps getting pushed back. The city also owns a lot of land bought with redevelopment money – much of it is vacant as the city plays games with these properties. In many cases they are trying to swap tracts so they can have luxury condos and town homes built in some areas, pushing the blight to other areas. One more thing to consider – Pulido is known for pushing for expensive home construction. If he wants to increase home values for the rest of the properties in town he needs to get a handle on crime.
- He says he wants to increase business licenses. That is good – but did you know that folks have to pay hundreds of dollars to get a business license in our town? Other cities in Orange County charge as little as $50! Why does Santa Ana charge as much as $600 for the same thing? And how did banning hookah bars, massage/spa services and tatoo parlors increase business licenses? Those businesses ALL exist in Irvine and Anaheim – but they regulate them instead of banning them.
- He says he wants to revitalize our infrastructure. Good! But why did he allow City Manager Dave Ream to defer maintenance on our streets, water and sewer systems for 20 years? Now they are in awful shape – and that is why Pulido raised our water rates twice in one year. Why didn’t they maintain this infrastructure in the first place? Why did they let our city decay?
- And he says he wants to expand our social and cultural values. Really? So when is he going to start supporting Latino and Asian businesses? When is he going to propose a resolution against Prop. 8? Why does he support politicians like Rosie Avila who are against Latinos? And why in 20 years has he CLOSED libraries instead of opening more branches? Why does the City of Ensenada, Mexico, have six library branches while we get by with one branch and one learning center? Los Angeles has 72 branches and learning centers! Does Pulido simply not get it? Does he simply not give a damn?
If you want to read more lies from Pulido check out his candidate’s statement at this link. He says our crime rate is amongst the lowest for a city our size. We lead Orange County in violent crime! Does this guy have no clue? Does he think the voters are stupid? Amazing.
Pulido is trying to lie to the people of our city. Let’s not let him get away with that! Urge your friends and neighbors to vote for either Michele Martinez or George Collins. Either one would be a better choice than Pulido. He has had 20 years to fix these problems. Now he wants our votes even though he has done nothing to solve these problems? No way Miguel!
Isn’t it a surprise that the DPOC decided not to endorse Pulido? Pulido is so backward that he doesnt represent the ideologies of the Democratic Party anymore. I’ve spoken to business owners in the Artist Village and they are extremely upset at the hoops they have to jump through to establish their businesses here in Santa Ana. They are so regulated that even the most die-hard Democrat would cringe at the size of the city’s regulating hand.
It is also shocking that he supports Avila who is running against Loretta Sanchez for her congressional seat. Cultural values? Does he even know that Rosie is against speaking Spanish? That is not preserving cultural values if you ask me.
Avila is more famous for her parrot-like support for “traditional family values” and a major player in the controversial Proposition 8; banning same-sex marriage by writing it word for word in our state’s constitution. Are you kidding me? Get with the times Pulido.
Why didn’t he mention education? They have misspelled investment council wrong.
This is why it is so important for them to put our children first not money, if they cannot spell, they probably cannot add either.
The listed priorities are comical and insults the intelligence of the city’s voters.
Comical in that what the Mayor has accomplished in the last 20 years as councilman and Mayor are the complete opposite per line item.
Insults the city resident’s intelligence by asking for their vote based on his listed campaign priorities while having a history of actually producing the complete opposite during his last 12 years as Mayor.
How insulting is it to to ask for your vote on issues that he has clearly failed to produce.
Can a leopard change his spots?
Pullido reminds me of McCain trying to style himself as pro regulation when his entire history has been to champion the Republican concept of deregulation as the way to save Americans money through lower prices thanks to the competition deregulation will bring.
If what you did is contrary to what you said you did then that makes you a LIAR. We are paying the price of several decades of believing these guys because they look good and seem like common men. They are neither and its time to stop casting good votes after bad votes, and realize these politicians are bankrupt in every way.