An update from Santa Ana City Manager Paul Walters

UPDATE FROM CITY MANAGER

September, 2011

COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT AGENCY

• Business Attraction – Potential Aerospace Manufacturing Company – Economic Development and Planning staff will be meeting with a potential new business looking to occupy over 300,000 sq ft on Dyer Road. The aerospace manufacturing company is currently evaluating other Orange County sites as well and staff will be marketing its Enterprise Zone and other valuable business incentives to attract this company to Santa Ana.  This could potentially bring over 300 new jobs to the City.

• Recent Enterprise Zone Outreach Visits – The Santa Ana Enterprise Zone provides tax relief to companies involved with wide variety products and services.  For example, during the last weeks ED staff has met with the following companies to review the EZ program and help them lower their cost of doing business. 

Allstage Pro, located on Occidental Street is one of the most successful full service event production companies in the country.  They supply the best in audio, video, lighting, staging and décor.

Cole Instruments, located on S. Croddy Way manufactures quality switching solutions meeting stringent demands of nearly all commercial, aerospace and military applications.

Comfort Inn Suites, located on Hotel Terrace Drive offers fine hotel accommodations to visitors to the Santa Ana area.

Companies both large and small have taken advantage of the tax incentives offered through the Enterprise Zone.  During these challenging economic times this tax program helps our local businesses stay competitive by freeing up funds to invest in new equipment and hire additional employees.

• Recruitments – Three Recruitments are currently taking place at the WORK Center. They include:
• Hands For Africa – An International Non-Profit corporation assists victims of the various civil wars occurring in Africa.  This company is looking to hire 30 community outreach specialists to speak to potential donors and increase awareness of the plight of the victims. The position will pay between $8 and $15 per hour depending on experience.
• KDS Marketing – is hiring 30 product demonstrators to work at various retail outlets within the county.  The position will pay $10 an hour.
• Sigmac Corporation – will be moving into Santa Ana any day. Their product will include the assembling and production of televisions and LCD screens. They will directly compete with VIZIO. Sigmac will be the only company producing this type of product in the United States.  The firm will hire 20 people within the next two weeks for their production line. They will eventually use the WORK Center to fill up to 150 positions, including white collar jobs.
• Business Services – SED de Saber Kits – The Santa Ana WORK Center is in discussion with the Chamber of Commerce to co-promote the lending of the Center’s SED de SABER English learning kits as a free service to our local businesses. The kits teach workers “shop English”. The intent is to increase English communication skills among the City’s monolingual workforce.
• Cypress Generation Fashion Show –Designer Victor Hugo Ayala – The fashion show Saturday, September 3, 2011, was held on the promenade in the Artist Village in conjunction with the First Saturday Art Walk. The event was co-sponsored by CSUF Grand Central Art Center and seven additional local business sponsors, supporters, staff and Downtown Inc. The Cypress Generation Fashion Show highlighted the designs of Victor Hugo Ayala, a local Santa Ana student/artist and graduate of Santa Ana High. Victor has grown up in the Artists Village and since the age of 10 has been coming to the Art Center for afterschool outreach courses, mentoring and creative support. Victor spent more than a year designing and producing his men’s and women’s fashion line and handbag line. The fashion show featured more than 25 models wearing Victor’s creations. All the models were local Santa Ana youth and friends of the designer.  They performed seamlessly for the crowds of onlookers and the fashion show was a great success.

CLERK OF THE COUNCIL

• REVISED RESOLUTION ON RULES AND PROCEDURES FOR CITY COUNCIL MEETINGS (DECORUM) will be agendized for the September 19, 2011 City Council Meeting.  The amendments will include a set time for Regular Open Meetings at 6 p.m. and clean-up language related to public comments.

PLANNING & BUILDING AGENCY 

• Staff Team Kicks Off Circulation Element Update – On September 6, 2011 staff in the Planning and Building Agency met with the consulting team from IBI to kick off the Circulation Element Update project.  IBI is the firm recently selected by the City Council to prepare this comprehensive update and ensure that the City’s Circulation Element is compliant with State and Federal “Complete Streets” policies.  The project, which has an estimated 12-to-14 month schedule, will involve extensive public outreach.  Staff will provide the Council with regular updates as the project progresses.

• Lyon Homes – Lyon has submitted for plan check for its 304-unit multi-family project located at 100 E. MacArthur Blvd., in the vicinity of Main Street and MacArthur Boulevard.  This project includes three luxury multi-story residential buildings, a six story parking structure with amenities and commercial spaces.  The city is working closely with Lyon to accelerate and facilitate their plan review.  They hope to be under construction in early 2012.

PARKS, RECREATION & COMMUNITY SERVICES AGENCY

• City’s OC Film Fiesta for this weekend: Friday, September 9: “Paraiso for Sale” (Documentary) @ 5 p.m. at Calacas (324 W.4^th St); Saturday, September 10: Spoken Word and Wine Reception @ 4 p.m. at Vietnamese American Arts and Letters Association (1600 N. Broadway) and the screening of “Touch” (Vietnamese-American Movie) @ 6 p.m. at the Yost; Sunday, September 11: “The Longoria Affair” (Documentary) @ 2 p.m. at the Yost and “The Harlistas” (Documentary) at 4 p.m. at the Yost; Thursday, September 15: “The Harlistas” (Documentary) @ 7 p.m. at Original Mike’s; Friday, September 16: “The Storm That Swept Mexico” (Documentary) @ 3 p.m. Santa Ana Senior Center (Third and Birch); Saturday, September 17: “The Three Caballeros” (Feature-Length Disney Favorite) @ Noon at the Main Library and “The Mark of Zorro (1940 Movie) @ 2 p.m. at the Yost and “The Fugitive (Movie) @ 4 p.m. at the Yost and “The Storm That Swept Mexico” (Documentary) @ 6 p.m. at the Yost; Sunday, September 18:  “White Knight” (Movie) @ 8 p.m. at the Yost.

• “State of My Heart” Art Exhibit (El Estado De Mi Corazon) VIP Reception @ 6 p.m. at the Mexican Consulate (828 North Broadway Street).

• Fiestas Patrias Street Fair (4^th Street) Saturday and Sunday (September 17 & 18) Noon to 10 p.m.

• Fiestas Patrias Parade Sunday, September 18 from 4 p.m. to 6 p.m. 

PUBLIC WORKS AGENCY 

• Bristol Street ROW Status:  All required right-of-way for the Bristol Street Widening Project: 3rd to Civic Center (Phase II) has been acquired except for 5 properties that will require condemnation.  Negotiations with each of the properties started last year.   Of the 5, 3 are residential and 2 are commercial.  Staff plans to present a Resolution of Necessity for each property to Council beginning on 10/3 through 11/7.  2 properties are scheduled to go to council on 10/3:
• The Thrifty Oil site located at 704 N. Bristol – The latest offer was submitted on 8/11 for $785,000.  No response has been received from the property owner.
• A residential property located at 514 N. Bristol – This property was foreclosed this year and now is owned by US Bank. The latest offer was submitted on 8/8 for $280,000.  No response has been received from the bank.

Staff will continue to make every effort to reach a settlement with these property owners. Although negotiations will continue, staff is requesting adoption of this resolution of necessity and initiation of condemnation proceedings in order to maintain the Bristol Street widening project schedule and to commence construction in summer of 2012.

• First Street Bridge: – This week, the contractor was able to set 10 of the 15 girders of the bridge structure during road closures on Tuesday and Wednesday.  During the closures, access was maintained for all businesses and residents and the detours were uneventful. Unfortunately, due to the heat, SCE was not able to provide the required de-energization on Thursday to complete this work.  To complete the girder erection, an additional street closure is required.  The next available window is set for Thursday, September 15 from 5:30 AM to 1:00 PM.  Notifications similar to the previous closures will be handed out today to the adjacent businesses and residents.  Detours will also be similar to the previous.

• Graffiti Abatement: Maintenances Services staff has been implementing the new City wide graffiti abatement program with our contractor Graffiti Protective Coatings (GPC).   To date GPC has hired two Santa Ana residents to work for the program, established a facility within the City and is purchasing their supplies from Santa Ana businesses.  For the first three months of the contract GPC brought in an additional employee at no charge to the City to expedite improvements in the color matching program.  GPC provides five regular employees with equipment for the City on an ongoing basis.  GPC has exceeded the contract requirements for square footage removed by approx. 100,000 SF per month.   Additionally, GPC has developed a Smartphone application allowing residents to forward graffiti information directly to PWA’s Graffiti Dispatchers.  Once staff receives the incident report, GPC’s field staff gets the information within minutes.  This new application has resulted in 56% of reported graffiti incidents being removed within eight (8) hours rather than 24 hours.   As a result of the contract with GPC the Graffiti Abatement Program has saved approx. $1,000,000 in program costs annually.  Staff has received numerous compliments about the new improved program from residents.

• Mayor’s 800 New Trees Initiative: Maintenance Services staff has been working to achieve the Mayor’s goal of planting 800 trees in 2011.  To date, 683 trees have been planted throughout the City in various locations.  The majority of the trees have been planted in vacant sites throughout the city along with 197 plantings in the city’s medians.  Additionally, staff participated in the Earth Day Fest and conducted seminars about the importance of trees and the care of trees and gave away 100 trees to participants.  At the annual Arbor Day event staff gave away 70 trees to students and residents.  The remaining 117 trees will be planted in late October to early November when the weather cools.  The trees will be planted in vacant sites requested by the property owners as a result of the Santa Ana Green article and in the West End of town.   Staff is working on a location and date in November for a media event for the 800^th tree planted.  Recently staff worked with SCE to obtain approx. 250 free 15 gallon trees that will be nurtured to our standard 24” box size for future plantings. 

• Fixed Guideway/FTA Visit and Tour: National and regional officials with the Federal Transit Administration (FTA) came to tour the two local fixed-guideway projects being sponsored by OCTA’s Go Local program.  The FTA officials were given a tour and a table-top presentation, which was followed by a question and answer session.  The FTA officials really benefitted from the tour and presentations, and project staff found the Q & A session to be very beneficial.  FTA offered to work proactively in reviewing our documents ahead of time, instead of their past practice of reviewing the final document and offering comments at that time.  They were very supportive of the Santa Ana/Garden Grove project.

Art Pedroza Editor

Our Editor, Art Pedroza, worked at the O.C. Register and the OC Weekly and studied journalism at CSUF and UCI. He has lived in Santa Ana for over 30 years and has served on several city and county commissions. When he is not writing or editing Pedroza specializes in risk control and occupational safety. He also teaches part time at Cerritos College and CSUF. Pedroza has an MBA from Keller University.

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