Sayonara Serrano! Santa Ana “Retires” its nightmare cop Union Chief.

All the scuttlebutt caroming throughout the Santa Ana Police Station this weekend was that the City of Santa Ana has “retired” its Police Union, I mean Association, President Gerry Serrano – on what basis we hesitate to speculate or type (for fear of violating HIPAA.) I’ll be trying for a lot more details tomorrow (Monday) if I can get a hold of City Manager Ridge.

Two questions immediately spring to mind:

1. The City can do that? Fire a union boss?
2. Then, what the hell took them so long?

As far as the first question, apparently, yes, “if an officer is unfieldable,” and this state of affairs arises due to the recent SAPD contract with the City, the contract which provoked Serrano to launch the Jessie Lopez Recall, the contract that forces him to spend some of his time doing ACTUAL POLICE WORK (and be physically able to do police work) in order to keep collecting his wage and pension.

Second question, yeah, what the hell took so long? They shoulda done this a long time ago. This is the union boss who:

• said he’d “burn the City to the ground” if he didn’t get his way on things.
• Led a successful recall of Ceci Iglesias for being the ONLY Councilperson to vote against the unaffordable 2019 contract.
• Is now wasting nearly a million in city money trying to recall the fine Councilwoman Jessie Lopez.
• Has launched so many suits, unsuccessful suits, against his enemies in the City, the department, and more, all with the aim of getting HIMSELF more money, that it’s hard to keep track of them all. In fact, here’s the latest City press release:

Court dismisses lawsuit brought by Police Officers Association against City of Santa Ana

The Santa Ana police union has paid the City over $68,000 in another case.

SANTA ANA, Calif. – A judge has dismissed a lawsuit brought by the Santa Ana Police Officers Association (SAPOA) against the City of Santa Ana, while in a separate case the SAPOA has paid the City over $68,000, including interest for late payment.

On July 18, 2023, Orange County Superior Court Judge Erick Larsh dismissed, with prejudice, a lawsuit brought by the SAPOA and “Doe Officers” against the City. Judge Larsh’s ruling comes after the City won a motion attacking the allegations in SAPOA’s complaint, meaning that SAPOA’s entire complaint was defective and that there are no facts to support it. This follows the earlier dismissal of Police Chief David Valentin, City Manager Kristine Ridge, City Attorney Sonia Carvalho, the Santa Ana Police Department, and Santa Ana City Attorney’s Office from this lawsuit.

In the lawsuit involving payments from the SAPOA, the City and Chief Valentin prevailed on their Special Motions to Strike (also known as an anti-SLAPP motion). These motions were brought on the grounds that City officials were doing their jobs by communicating on issues of public interest relating to their official duties. The City argued that these are protected activities and that plaintiffs’ claims based on them were frivolous. The Court agreed, dismissed the claims based upon protected activities and awarded the City its attorney’s fees and costs.

Since then, due to the plaintiffs’ failure to pay the award for over four months, SAPOA ultimately paid to the City over $43,000, including interest of over $1,400. The court additionally awarded the City over $25,000 for Chief Valentin’s attorney fees for prevailing on his separate anti-SLAPP motion, bringing the total paid by SAPOA to over $68,000.

This follows the dismissal of Santa Ana City Manager Kristine Ridge, City Attorney Sonia Carvalho, Police Chief David Valentin, and Director of Human Resources Jason Motsick from that lawsuit.

The SAPOA and SAPOA President Gerry Serrano are still facing the City’s request for over $20,000 in monetary sanctions for their failure to properly respond to the City’s discovery requests.

Despite these legal victories by the City, Mr. Serrano recently filed yet another lawsuit. In response, the City filed a motion in this lawsuit arguing that plaintiff’s naming of the Santa Ana Police Department as one of the  defendants contradicts the law and previous court orders in other lawsuits involving the SAPOA where it was determined that the Santa Ana Police Department is not a separate entity capable of being sued. Further, the City has argued that, despite being on notice due to determinations in other lawsuits involving the SAPOA that certain claims are required to be brought before the California Public Employment Relations Board, the plaintiff again brought such a claim in this lawsuit.

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Officer Manny Delgadillo comments:

If it’s true that Serrano has been retired by the City, it does not come as a surprise – look at the above press release and how much this president has cost us. SAPOA Members feel we are hemorrhaging money and attorney fees. First Serrano’s eternal pension issue, then the frivolous Anti-SLAPP lawsuits, now dues had to be raised.

There’s been a lack of communication among SAPOA Members, and a lack of accountability. The SAPOA is now a shell of what it was in years past.

Let’s pray the SAPOA doesn’t rehire Serrano as a consultant as that would affect future negotiations. Contracts in the past were three-year contracts and our negotiation team was fighting for benefits.

Our Santa Ana Police Officers need to clean house. We need a new POA president, a strong e-board and probably a new legal counsel. 

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Final Vern thought – how might this development affect the Jessie Lopez recall, which is already in progress? No doubt it has its own momentum, but who will be running it now, with its implacable driving force removed? This is probably a great development for Jessie, for Santa Ana, for democracy, for rent control, and for police accountability. But we shall see….