The abrupt departures of a longtime city manager and police chief who claim the police union – one of the biggest spenders in local elections – have a tight grip on some elected officials took center stage this week in the race for Santa Ana’s mayoral election.
During a debate hosted by the local chamber of commerce on Wednesday at Santa Ana College, Ben Vazquez, a current councilman challenging incumbent Valerie Amezcua for the mayor’s seat, put the blame squarely on Amezcua for the city having to quietly pay out former city manager Kristine Ridge $600,000 to settle a claim alleging workplace harassment related to her resistance to bowing to union requests.
[Read: Why Did Santa Ana Pay Out Over $600K to Settle a Claim Alleging the Police Union Runs City Hall?]
At Wednesday’s debate, Vazquez also publicly called out the police union and their former leader Gerry Serrano, who parted ways with the city last year.
“We know what Gerry Serrano wanted. He wanted an illegal raise, and he put people in office and supported people to give him that raise he wanted. He said, ‘I will burn this city down,’” said Vazquez, who ultimately voted to settle Ridge’s claim.
“In the midst of all this, there’s investigations going on for what happened to the city manager right now, right? so not all special interests are the same.”
That triggered a strong response from Amezcua, a police union backed candidate.
“You took the first shot,” Amezcua responded. “I was going to be really very gentle tonight.”
Amezcua spoke to the issue publicly for the first time since Ridge’s claim went public and said she wasn’t on the council when Serrano said he was going to burn the city down, stressing that she is being beholden to anyone.
“The only thing the council and those running against me or want me out of office talk about is the investigation of the city manager. It’s all they ever talk about,” she said.
Ridge also accused Amezcua of creating a hostile workplace environment for her by making discriminatory race and gender based remarks to her – a white woman.
This flare up comes against a backdrop where officials expect to lose $30 million in revenue in five years with the decrease in Measure X, a sales tax increase approved in 2018.
It also comes almost a year since former Police Chief David Valetin announced his retirement citing “corrupt and compromised politicians” and “compromised staff” seemingly warning of the police union’s political reach over elected officials and city staff in town.
Weeks after Valentin’s exit, Ridge would leave the city and in her claim – one that city officials tried to keep hidden – accused some elected officials of going to bat on behalf of the police union to boost the pay and pension of Serrano.
Earlier in the debate, Vazquez said his campaign was powered by residents and “not backed by special interests that want to put our city for sale.”
He also said there were special interests trying to prevent rent control who helped fund an unsuccessful police backed recall election against Councilwoman Jessie Lopez, the sole councilmember to vote against settling Ridge’s claim and who is also up for reelection.
Amezcua replied saying special interests groups are not only backing her but everyone – pointing to the United Food and Commercial workers union.
“There’s so many people that give money to campaigns so I just want to be clear, when we start to talk about special interest groups, there are people from all over San Francisco, New York, you name it, they’re giving money to campaigns,” she said.
Vazquez said not all special interests groups are the same.
“The police union, the POA, is a little different and so is the California Apartment Association,” he said, adding that they want complete control of candidate’s votes.
Keeping Santa Ana Safe
Beyond Ridge’s payout, Vazquez and Amezcua also had a chance to address how they would make Santa Ana safer – a city that is spending 40% of their general fund, about $163 million, on the police department.
Vazquez said rent control and creating park spaces are vital to protecting the community.
“We need a park because 15 people in a house brings anxiety and stress and violence. The kids need to get out and when they walk out of the house and there’s not a park or a library or community center, they go into the alleys, they go to the streets, and they find trouble,” he said.
Amezcua said she supports a statewide measure dubbed Prop. 36 that aims to increase punishment on certain drug and theft crimes and is expected to significantly increase costs for state prisons and courts
“I don’t like going to CVS and having deodorant locked because they’re afraid that it’s going to get stolen,” she said. “We shouldn’t have to live like that.”
Amezcua also points to Santa Ana’s quality of life teams, which address homeless related issues in the city, to help keep the city’s residents safe.
In Ward 3 the northern part of the city, lawyer Jeffrey Katz, who is backed by the police union, said keeping residents safe is about equipping police with the right tools like Prop. 36.
Incumbent Jessie Lopez said she voted to hire more police officers and equip them with tools like body cameras and said the city needs to fill vacancies in the police department.
Lopez was the lone council member to vote against settling Ridge’s claim, beating an unsuccessful police backed recall against her and voting against a resolution in support of prop. 36.
In Ward 1 the western part of the city, incumbent Thai Viet Phan said prevention like youth programs to keep kids out of the street life and funding police, fire, libraries, parks and recreation centers will help keep the community safe.
Her opponent, Julie Tran, who owns beauty boutiques and spas, did not show up to the debate Wednesday.
In Ward 5 the north central part of the city, Incumbent Johnathan Ryan Hernandez said public safety can’t be done exclusively by one department and that he wants to increase code enforcement officers so cops can focus on emergency responses.
Chair of the city’s Environmental and Transportation Advisory Commission Mario Alvarado, who is backed by the police union, said the city needs to strengthen community policing and focus on mental health and youth prevention programs.
Homelessness
Alvarado said to address homelessness the city needs to expand affordable housing and take advantage of government development loans
“That includes actively looking for the developers that help with affordable housing. We need to be friendly to them,” he said. “We need to bring those developers back into Santa Ana that are doing it elsewhere outside Santa Ana.”
Hernandez said the city needs to collaborate with social workers, nonprofits and emergency and medical personnel.
“We need to do street medicine. We need to increase our foster care services relationships. We need to focus on reentry, drastic violence resources and family reunification,” he said.
“Police are not going to help us solve this problem, but they are part of the equation.”
Katz said the city should take a zero tolerance approach to homeless people who sleep or urinate in front of a local business.
Lopez said the city should invest in mental health resources and detox beds, and prevent people from being displaced from their current homes, as well as build homes to meet the demand of the community.
Phan said she believes in helping people get off the streets but also holding them accountable for their actions.
Vazquez said the city should educate the people on rent control and sue the Sheriff Department for dropping off homeless people in their city.
Amezcua pointed to the quality of life teams in the city.
Rent Control
Voters in Santa Ana will also decide on a host of ballot measures, including affirming the city’s rent control ordinance, allowing noncitizens the right to vote and making Santa Ana politicians full-time by increasing their pay by $66,000 dollars
Vazquez, Hernandez and Lopez said they support rent control.
“If we’re talking about making the city affordable, you have to give people the opportunity to stay in the city and not only that, you have to work towards mitigating displacement,” Lopez said.
Katz said it was too soon to enshrine rent control in the city charter.
“Doing that at this point with a law that is less than two years old would be ridiculous,” he said. “We need, as a city, the agility to respond to whether or not this rent control is working.
Amezcua said she supports the ability for everyone to have a place to live.
Alvarado said he supports tenant rights.
Phan said they need more homes built, to help people buy homes and to keep people in their homes.
Non-Citizen Voting
Phan, Lopez, Hernandez and Vazquez said they support the non-citizen voting measure
“We and the city of Santa Ana can legally, constitutionally allow our non-citizen residents to vote in local elections, because all of our voices matter,” said Phan, who is an immigrant herself and became a citizen.
Alvarado said there needs to be immigration reform.
Katz and Amezcua said they were not supportive of the noncitizen voting measure.
Full-Time Politicians in Santa Ana
Amezcua and Katz said they don’t support making elected officials full time, saying it’s about serving the public.
Vazquez said he would support full-time council members if the raise went into effect after all the current council members term out.
Phan, an author of the measure, said she supports the pay bump to allow everyday residents an opportunity to serve on the city council.
Hernandez said he did not want to share his stance on the measure but said a pay raise would allow more working class residents to serve the city. Like Hernandez, Lopez said it will be up to voters to decide on the measure.
Alvarado said he’s against the measure and said asking for a raise amid the projected decrease in revenue was insulting.
Next Debate
Santa Ana council candidates are expected to host a forum tonight at 6 p.m. at a Communication Linkage general meeting at the community room next to the Santa Ana Police Department.
Next week, there will be a forum moderated by Santa Ana high school and college students on Oct. 3 from 6-8pm at the Kidsworks’ offices.
Hosam Elattar is a Voice of OC reporter and corps member with Report for America, a GroundTruth initiative. Contact him at helattar@voiceofoc.org or on Twitter @ElattarHosam.
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