The Santa Ana City Council “voted 7-0 on Monday night to increase the amount it charges for trash service at apartment complexes and businesses,” according to the O.C. Register.

Don’t the poorest people in our city live in apartment complexes?  And aren’t our businesses already hurting due to the Bush Depression?

Santa Ana City Manager Dave Ream also announced that he is going to lay off 45 workers.  Will he lay off any of his overpaid administrators?  Do we really need BOTH Jill Arthur AND Catherine Standiford? Which one of them is in charge of changing Ream’s Depends? Read more…

****UPDATE - MARIO TURNER UNANIMOUSLY APPOINTED TO PLANNING COMMISSION****

The vacancy on the Santa Ana Planning Commission left by the resignation of Harvey De La Torre, who moved out of the city, will most likely be filled tonight.  Item 13A. on tonights city council agenda addresses the issue and the recommendation is to, “Appoint Mario Turner to the Planning Commission”.

The appointment was continued from the December 15, 2008 meeting of the city council until tonights meeting.  Turner, who was nominated by Councilmember David Benevides, will most likely receive the support of the entire council despite calls from a tiny group of folks in the community to block his appointment. Read more…

What can Brown do for you?  In Santa Ana the Brown Act doesn’t carry much weight.  Whenever possible the City administrators endeavor NOT to involve the public.  And our City Council has famously taken certain Council meetings off the air altogether.

Now the City of Santa Ana has sunk to a new low.  The meeting agenda for tonight’s City Council meeting was posted last week behind a locked glass display window at the doors of the City Council - where they are required to be displayed, regardless of online posting of the agenda.

As you can see in the picture above, which was taken by one of our astute readers, the cover sheet of the regular agenda is visible - but not the following pages which contain the actual agenda items. Read more…

“A 60-year-old man leaving New Year’s Day Mass was assaulted by a man who was hiding in his van, police said.  The incident unfolded at 10:30 a.m. in the parking lot of Our Lady of Guadalupe Church at 541 E. Central Ave., said Santa Ana police Cmdr. Tammy Franks,” according to the O.C. Register.

2009 is looking far worse already than 2008!  Santa Ana is the county leader in weird acts of violence.  I doubt you will find such attacks in any other Orange County city. Read more…

“A newspaper delivery person was robbed at knife point this morning outside a 7-Eleven, police said.  The robbery occurred at 3:25 a.m. in front of the store at 800 W. 17th St., near Flower Street, said Santa Ana police Cmdr. Stephen Colon,” according to the O.C. Register.

This is what, the third robbery at this unfortunate 7 Eleven in the past two months?

As reported last time, this store is less than a mile from the homes of Santa Ana Mayor Miguel Pulido and Santa Ana Mayor Pro Tem Claudia Alvarez.  Didn’t they tell us this year in their campaign mailers that Santa Ana is “one of the safest cities in Orange County?” Read more…

UPDATE: Orange County Planning Commissioner says Bustamante is NOT qualified to head the O.C. Planning Department!

“Tim Neely, the county’s director of planning, is retiring and word is Santa Ana Councilman Carlos Bustamante is the heir apparent to succeed him. Carlos is currently the director of administration for the OC Public Works Department. Congrats to Carlos on the likely promotion,” according to Matt/Jubal Cunningham over at the Red-faced County blog.

I find it hard to believe that ANYONE would think that Bustamante is a good choice to head the O.C. Planning Department.  Of course Matt has been shilling for him for years, so this is part for the course.

How ridiculous is the notion of putting Bustamante in charge of anything?  Let’s count the ways…

• Bustamante was compelled to quit two state commissions after his infamous “water bra” comments.  Click here to read about his utter humiliation (L.A. Times). Read more…

In January of this year, Bowers Museum was raided by “agents from the IRS, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and other agencies.  “According to a copy of the search warrant for the Bowers Museum, an undercover agent for the National Park Service began buying smuggled Thai antiquities from importer Robert Olson, of Cerritos, and donating them to the museum,” according to the O.C. Register.

Was Dr. Peter Keller (pictured above), the President of the Bowers Museum, guilty ?  He was not indicted but he certainly WAS guilty of lax practices with regard to antiquities.

And an L.A. Times article released earlier this month indicated that the Bowers is cutting its budget by 10% by “by laying off employees and canceling or delaying exhibitions.”  The Bowers currently gets over $2 million a year from the City of Santa Ana.  Now that the City of Santa Ana is struggling with a $40 million budget deficit, how will the Bowers make up that lost revenue? Read more…

I am hearing that the City of Santa Ana budget has been cut to the bone, but this summer’s retroactive pension formula bump to 2.7-at-55 is greatly exacerbating their financial woes. This explains why they have implemented a hiring freeze.

So why did they spike their public employees’ pensions?

The short answer is that Santa Ana Mayor Miguel Pulido was facing two challengers this year. So he gave the police and firemen everything they wanted so that they would continue to finance “Team Pulido.” Well, I hope they are all happy now that the city’s budget deficit is spiraling out of control. Read more…

While the city leaders in Santa Ana appear to have no clue as to how to resolve our city’s budget deficit, our neighbors in Westminster are banking on affordable housing construction and helping their area businesses while they “ride out the storm,” according to the O.C. Register.

“Westminster will also be partnering with neighbor Garden Grove to pursue a joint federal housing grant to help the city acquire foreclosed homes and to develop low and moderate income housing.”

I cannot imagine this happening in Santa Ana, where Pulido is often heard to say that our city has more than enough affordable housing, even though that is a complete lie.

The City of Westminster also “runs a program called Business Education Attraction and Retention (BEAR), whose goal is not only to attract more businesses into the city but to help keep them in the city by offering various incentives and programs.” Read more…

La Verite or Truth 1870

Truth seems to have taken a step forward this year.   The Rovian tactics of ”He is an Arab” and a “Marxist” seem to have lost to a campaign based on hope and substantive change.  Secrecy and stonewalling are giving way to more enlightened way of governing.

In Orange County truth and justice are not necessarily the guiding principle that moves our politicians.

Miguel Pulido still wants to force out Latinos out of the east side of Santa Ana to hook up his developer buddies.   Everything is fine is the mantra, while much of the city suffers from crime and foreclosures. Read more…