Apparently several Santa Ana City Council members are scheming to get rid of our overpaid City Manager, David Cavazos, if Santa Ana City Council Member Michele Martinez is successful in her campaign for the First Supervisorial District, in the upcoming November Primary Election, according to one of our City Hall pajaritos.

The plan, which appears to be the work of City Council Member David Benavides, is to convince the rest of the City Council to replace Martinez on the City Council, should she move on to the O.C. Board of Supervisors, with Planning Commissioner Phil Bacerra. He would then join Benavides and three other City Council Members, and Mayor Miguel Pulido, in voting to fire Cavazos.

This gambit will of course only succeed if there are enough votes on the City Council to appoint Bacerra to replace Martinez, who is in the middle of her current term on the City Council.

The downside to all this is that Martinez will get replaced with Bacerra, who has a long record of backing gentrification in Downtown Santa Ana. He also will reportedly have to move into Martinez’ ward prior to the appointment.

And the entire scheme will cost a fortune as our City Council gave Cavazos a contract that will penalize the city and pay him a fortune if he is fired.

I am pretty sure that Mayor Pulido will go along with this plan as he really despises Cavazos. I doubt that all of the City Council Members will be on board with this. Council Members Sal Tinajero and Roman Reyna, in particular, have been vocal supporters of Cavazos.

Martinez does have a good chance of winning in November, as she takes on the First District incumbent, Supervisor Andrew Do. She already edged him out in the June General Election. Granted at the time Do was also challenged by his fellow Republican, Garden Grove City Councilman Phat Bui. However even though Bui is out of the Primary Election it is likely that he will convince his followers to vote for Martinez, out of spite for Do.

Do used to be the Chief of Staff to our former First District Supervisor, Janet Nguyen. She moved on to the State Senate, where she replaced the termed out Lou Correa. Nguyen backed Do when he ran for the First District but they have since had a major falling out. Many suspect that Nguyen was involved in recruiting Bui to run in the General Election. While that was never proven it is very likely that she will be quietly promoting Martinez in November as Nguyen very clearly has it in for Do.

Do could also be in trouble in November because he is a Republican. The GOP Presidential nominee, Donald Trump, has angered many Latino voters who will presumably vote in large numbers in November – against Trump and his fellow Republicans.

Cavazos is not only one of the highest paid city managers in California, he also connived the City Council into giving him a raise and a bonus and he arranged for the same for his other top city executives in Santa Ana. He has been in hot water of late for a dalliance with a city employee in the Santa Ana Planning Agency.

Cavazos also falsely accused Martinez of sexual harassment. It will be big time karma if her election to the First District results in Cavazos’ firing!