Santa Ana's top news & views blog

Santa Ana's top news & views blog

Tag Archives: Vince Sarmiento

The Santa Ana City Council majority will try to change our ward maps before they term out

Posted on by Posted in Ballot Measures, Civic Affairs, Elections, Politics, Santa Ana 1 Comment

The Santa Ana City Council majority

The Santa Ana City Council majority has voted to start drawing up plans to place a measure on the November ballot to change our City Council elections to a ward-specific model.

But that’s not all. Most of the Santa Ana City Council majority is going to term out in November. But now they want to change our ward maps before they leave City Hall. The last time they did this Councilman Sal Tinajero made sure to remove Asian voters from his Ward. What shenanigans will they be up to this time? Continue reading→

The Santa Ana City Council majority is going to try to redraw our wards to remove their opponents

Posted on by Posted in 2018 elections, Politics, Santa Ana 2 Comments

The Santa Ana City Council Majority

The Santa Ana City Council meeting set for this Tuesday night, April 17, at 5:45 pm, will finally reveal what our City Council majority really intended by trying so desperately to change our election system from an at-large system to a ward-specific one.

Council members David Benavides and Vince Sarmiento have placed an 85 A item on the agenda to “Proceed with Ward Re-boundary process to be prepared for adoption before the start of the 2018 Candidate Nomination Period.” Continue reading→

The Santa Ana City Council’s latest attempt to extend their term limits got punked again

Posted on by Posted in 2018 elections, Ballot Measures, Civic Affairs, David Benavides, Jose Solorio, Miguel Pulido, Politics, Sal Tinajero, Santa Ana, Vince Sarmiento Leave a comment

The Santa Ana City Council Majority

The Santa Ana City Council Majority – which now includes Council Members David Benavides, Jose Solorio, Vince Sarmiento and Sal Tinajero, tried once again yesterday to illegally extend their term limits by trying to place a last-minute district election measure on the June ballot.

They were previously punked by Santa Ana Mayor Miguel Pulido when he refused to sign off on their vote to place the measure on the June ballot. A judge recently forced Pulido to finally sign those papers but the June election ballot submission deadline had already expired.  Continue reading→

The Santa Ana City Council majority will sue to illegally extend their term limits

Posted on by Posted in 2018 elections, Civic Affairs, Courts, David Benavides, Jose Solorio, Miguel Pulido, Sal Tinajero, Santa Ana, Vince Sarmiento Leave a comment

The Santa Ana City Council Majority – David Benavides, Sal Tinajero, Vince Sarmiento and Jose Solorio

The Santa Ana City Council majority decided at their last-minute special meeting today to sue Mayor Miguel Pulido for not placing their illegal district election measure on the June Primary Election ballot, according to an inside source.

Apparently our City Attorney, Sonia Carvalho, hired an outside counsel to help her aid the City Council majority, which is currently comprised of Council Members David Benavides, Sal Tinajero, Vince Sarmiento and Jose Solorio, come to this awful decision. Continue reading→

The Santa Ana City Council majority will try again on Monday to illegally extend their term limits

Posted on by Posted in 2018 elections, Civic Affairs, David Benavides, Elections, Jose Solorio, Miguel Pulido, Politics, Sal Tinajero, Santa Ana, Vince Sarmiento 1 Comment

The Santa Ana City Council majority – David Benavides, Vince Sarmiento, Sal Tinajero and Jose Solorio

The four clowns on the current Santa Ana City Council majority are going to try again to illegally place a district election measure on the June Primary Election ballot this Monday, at a last minute special City Council meeting set at 1:30 p.m.

The agenda for this meeting notes that this will be a conference with legal counsel regarding a threat or anticipated/potential litigation. Well that is true as the City Council majority got caught violating the Brown Act last week as they secretly texted each other to discuss the special meeting that was supposed to be held on Friday. Continue reading→

The S.A. City Council majority got caught trying to illegally place a district election measure on the June ballot

Posted on by Posted in 2018 elections, Civic Affairs, David Benavides, Elections, Jose Solorio, Juan Villegas, Michele Martinez, Miguel Pulido, Orange County, Politics, Sal Tinajero, Santa Ana, Vince Sarmiento 1 Comment

The Santa Ana City Council majority proved once again this week that they are a bunch of clowns as their efforts to illegally place a district specific elections measure on the June primary election ballot failed miserably, according to the Voice of OC.

The City Council majority, which included Vince Sarmiento, Sal Tinajero, David Benavides and their new pal Jose Solorio, voted on Tuesday, this week, to place this measure on the June ballot. But they once again underestimated Mayor Miguel Pulido, who proceeded to punk them in royal fashion. Continue reading→

The Santa Ana City Council majority is trying to sneak through a major change to our local elections

Posted on by Posted in 2018 elections, Civic Affairs, David Benavides, Education, Jose Solorio, Juan Villegas, Michele Martinez, Miguel Pulido, Roman Reyna, Sal Tinajero, Santa Ana, Vince Sarmiento 2 Comments

The Santa Ana City Council majority is up to their old tricks again. This time they are trying to sneak through major changes to our local elections ordinance without much input from the public.

They are going to consider, at Tuesday night’s City Council meeting, placing a ballot measure on the June Primary Election ballot that will change our City Council elections to district-specific elections instead of the current at-large model. Continue reading→

Did the City of Santa Ana ask you to approve a $1M subsidy to the Auto Mall?

Posted on by Posted in Civic Affairs, Crime, David Benavides, Michele Martinez, Sal Tinajero, Santa Ana, Vince Sarmiento 1 Comment

In November 2017, the city council approved a million dollar “loan” to the Santa Ana Auto Mall to build a new digital billboard next to the 55 Fwy. This million dollars would come from the city’s reserve fund meant to be used when the city doesn’t have enough money to operate which has happened the last 2 years. City Council members called it a “sales-tax loan” and said the million would be re-paid to the city by sales tax revenue from an increase in vehicles being sold at the Auto Mall over the next 10 years, according to the Voice of OC. Continue reading→

The Santa Ana City Council majority will vote to overpay a sub-par new City Manager on Tuesday

Posted on by Posted in Civic Affairs, Politics, Santa Ana 8 Comments

This week’s Santa Ana City Council meeting agenda includes item 25H – Approval of the Agreement to hire Raul Godinez as our City’s new City Manager, as we wrote about earlier in the week. You can read the staff report regarding Godinez here.

The Santa Ana City Council majority, comprised of Council Members Michele Martinez, Vince Sarmiento, Sal Tinajero and David Benavides, is going to vote to pay Godinez a package worth over $500K a year. Continue reading→

An armed suspect robbed a Santa Ana Verizon Wireless store last night

Posted on by Posted in Crime, Santa Ana, Vince Sarmiento Leave a comment

An unidentified armed man is suspected of taking an undisclosed amount of cash and electronics from a Verizon Wireless store at 1730 E. 17th St., in Santa Ana, at 9 p.m. last night, Aug. 10, according to the O.C. Register.

The suspect pulled up his shirt to reveal a handgun in his waistband, when he entered the store, according to the SAPD. He then ordered the store’s employees to go to the back of the store and demanded that they open the store’s safe. Continue reading→

A woman was shot and wounded at Santa Ana’s Guest Inn & Quality Suites this morning

Posted on by Posted in Crime, homeless, Santa Ana, Vince Sarmiento 1 Comment

Guest Inn and Quality Suites

Do you remember when the Guest Inn and Quality Suites, located at 2151 E. First St., was converted into the first large-scale permanent supportive housing project in Santa Ana for the homeless, last year? Well they are in the news again as the SAPD is now investigating a shooting that occurred there early this morning in which a woman was wounded, according to the O.C. Register.

When SAPD police officers arrived at the Guest Inn, after getting a phone call about a woman being shot, they found a woman with what looked like one gunshot wound to her upper torso, according to the SAPD. Continue reading→

Two minors were injured in a drive by shooting early today by Madison Park

Posted on by Posted in Crime, Gangs, Santa Ana, Vince Sarmiento 1 Comment

The brief break in reported shootings in Santa Ana appears to be over as two minors were wounded at about 12:45 a.m. this morning at the 1600 block of South Evergreen St., by Madison Park, according to the O.C. Register.

The victim included two males and a female, who were apparently walking along the street when a vehicle pulled up and an armed male suspect got out of it. He began to fire multiple shots at the victims. One male and the female were injured in their lower extremities with what were described as non-life threatening wounds. The remaining male was not injured. Continue reading→

Santa Ana man convicted of manslaughter after stabbing another man to death at Underground DTSA

Posted on by Posted in Crime, OCDA, Santa Ana, Vince Sarmiento Leave a comment

Juan Angel Rivera, 23, a Santa Ana resident who stabbed a fellow concertgoer, Nathan Alfaro, (a 23-year old resident of Westminster) to death during a March 2016 punk show at the Underground DTSA was convicted Monday of manslaughter, not murder, after jurors found that he acted in the heat of the moment, according to the O.C. Register.

Rivera is still looking at a prison term of up to 12 years. But if he had he been convicted of first-degree murder he could have ended up in prison for 26 years to life. Most likely he will not serve a full term as the State of California routinely lets inmates out of prison early. Continue reading→

An SAPD police officer was injured today while pursuing an auto theft suspect

Posted on by Posted in Crime, Santa Ana, Vince Sarmiento Leave a comment

Los Cristales Bar

An unidentified man led SAPD police officers on a short car chase today after he fled from a traffic stop, in a stolen pickup truck, at 5:50 p.m., at McFadden and Grand Ave., according to the O.C. Register.

During the police pursuit the suspect intentionally rammed the pickup truck into a police cruiser. He then fled from the truck on foot and ran from  the police for a few blocks. Continue reading→

Mayor Pro Tem Martinez reacts to the effort to recall her pro-gang City Council colleagues

Posted on by Posted in 2018 elections, Civic Affairs, Michele Martinez, Politics, Santa Ana 8 Comments

Santa Ana Mayor Pro Tem Michele Martinez reacted to the announcement that efforts are underway to recall her pro-gang colleagues on the Santa Ana City Council, in a rambling post on Facebook today:

I am being told that various members of the Santa Ana City Council are being threatened by a recall because of recent actions taken. I have also been informed that if I don’t get on board with the program, I to will be recalled. If they wish to recall me for protecting the city from bankruptcy and protecting the residents interest, so be it. The city is not in the position of hiring any new employees or giving raises. We have no surplus…. It is facing a 15- 20 million dollar structural deficit that I have been speaking of for years. With the increase of pension and health care cost this year and the next few years , it will only create a bigger burden on the general fund. We have to manage expectations but unfortunately, some of my colleagues want to give raises after they have been told that we are not in a position to do so. This is reckless and irresponsible and I will not be silent or threaten because I am trying to do the right thing. Continue reading→