Santa Ana City Councilman David Benavides, who failed badly in his attempt to beat Mayor Miguel Pulido last year, is trying to appoint planning consultant Phil Bacerra to the Santa Ana Planning Commission, according to the City Council’s agenda for tonight’s meeting.
Bacerra is no doubt qualified for this position but his presence on the Planning Commission would be a major conflict of interest. His company, Jacaranda Enterprises, was retained by Downtown Inc., the non profit that oversaw the spending of the PBID tax proceeds in Downtown Santa Ana, according to his contract, to:
- Propose a Downtown alcohol and entertainment policy for Downtown Inc. to submit to the City for consideration
- Analyze and recommend actions regarding City-proposed policies that would impact alcohol and entertainment in Downtown Santa Ana
- And do any other tasks that would lead to favorable policies for alcohol and entertainment uses in Downtown Santa ana.
City Commissioners are supposed to represent not only the Council Members who appoint them but also the people of our city. It is pretty obvious that Bacerra’s main interest is in advocating for alcohol and entertainment policies that will only benefit a select few.
How do we know for sure that Bacerra won’t use this appointment to get more work or to shake down those who are trying to get planning approval for their projects?
The City Council should reject Benavides’ attempt to appoint a planning consultant with obvious conflicts of interest to our Planning Commission.
Well, do you know if Benavides ran this by the City Attorney as to potential conflict of interest?
Who cares? It’s not right no matter what the City Attorney has to say about it.
Not right according to you.
Hopefully Phil does a better job as a planning commissioner than he does as a bar patron.
This dude is NOTORIOUSLY cheap, when it comes to paying his own way. Back in the day he was called a “mooch”. I’m sure David has no problem paying for his buddies FREE drinks if he gets his way
This could be a conflict of interests for sure. David and Phil should be more careful about the way this looks. It kind of looks like power laundering purchased by $$.
a) Chase funds Davids run for Mayor and future council run.
b) David agrees to push for appointment of Phil to the Planning commission.
c) Phil knows were his company’s bread is buttered and continues to vote for Chase agenda and Downtown Inc. vs. the wants of the Businesses that did not have the capital to purchase representation on the City Council or the Planning Board.
ABC. How money corrupts the political process.
Folks will see how this scenario plays out when it comes to decisions about future 4th street construction, such as whether or not a Streetcar system should run on that street or on 5th Street.
I saw this coming long ago. And yes it’s a total conflict. They’re buddy buddies they even went to see Dita Von Tease at the Yost together.
I think the street car will probably run on 5th street headed east and loop west on civic center. That’s the second option.
The first one is to have it head east on 4th.
For the record, I’m not against either option.
I wonder if 4th street should have all parking removed and have the whole street turned into a walkway.
Cars would have have to pass north to south on broadway or Main Street but no longer through 4th.
They should also rip out the parking lot in front of the Yost and make it into a real public square.
Ok I’ll stop now before that sycophant Bacerra reads up and steals more of my ideas.
Sorry. The street car tour we went on a few months ago-unanimous vote for 4th street. It makes more sense. Using 5th street is not appealing at all. Who wants to look at the back of a parking structure? Yes, curb appeal does matter. At least to a certain group of people.
Wait are you guys saying the Grass Roots FACEBOOK campaign of Pablo David Benavides is simply………..BUSINESS AS USUAL?
Next thing you know, he’ll be covering up an affair, straddling the fence on social issues like Christianity and Same Sex marriage.
OH Wait….that was already covered. Welcome to EAST LA.
Bacerra replaces Turner-who is a paid developer. Your personal prejudices are showing.
And there are paid real estate brokers and paid architects on the commission.
None of them are planning consultants and neither was Turner. And none of them was paid to advocate against the Planning Commission’s own alcohol and entertainment policy.
There is little to no difference – developers, real estate professionals and architects all advocate for their clients before the City.
You just have a hard-on for Baccera.
It sounds like you have a man crush on Bacerra.