It would appear that Santa Ana Councilman P. David Benavides has forgotten which Ward he was elected to serve. He is supposed to be representing Ward 4 – but let’s take a look at his official June calendar and see what he was really up to last month:
- On June 1, he did hold his regular community office hours – but then he went to theLatino Health Access “Green Heart Families Park & Community Center” Grand Opening – according to the O.C. Register that park is on 4th St., in Downtown Santa Ana – that happens to be located in Ward 2 – which is represented by Council Member Michele Martinez.
- On June 3, Benavides spent the whole day at the “Building Industry Association of Southern California – No Place Like Home Conference,” at Disney’s Grand Californian Hotel & Spa at the Disneyland Resort in Anaheim, Calif. As a realtor I am sure Benavides was happy to be there – and the City of Santa Ana likely paid the bill.
- On June 6, Benavides attended the KidWorks board meeting – very good. That organization is in his Ward. He also went to their fundraiser that night. But in between he was dealing with the Alcohol & Entertainment Ordinance – which has to do with Downtown Santa Ana for the most part, which is in Ward 2.
- He worked on a Sunday, apparently, on June 9, as he calendared the Sunsets at the Monkey Zoo – Summer Concert – but the Zoo is also in Ward 2.
- Here is an odd one – he met with Supervisor Janet Nguyen, a Republican, on June 10 – and he invited several top city administrators. Nguyen is under investigation by the FBI and the FPPC – essentially for pay to play type charges related to her campaign fundraising and her service on the CalOptima board.
- On June 13, he met with Parker Kennedy, at First American Title – and they are located in Ward 1. Why would a realtor be meeting with someone from a major title company? Hmmm….
- On June 14, he was at the Catholic Worker/Isaiah House Tour. That was in Ward 2.
- On June 15, he was at the Sender One grand opening, in Ward 1.
- On June 20, he met with Pastor Gale Oliver, Greater Light Missionary Baptist Church – very nice but that church is located in Ward 5. On that same day he met with John Lewis, Urban Strategies (Affordable Care Act) – that’s right, Benavides is apparently interested in promoting ObamaCare.
- On June 24, he met with the United Artists of Santa Ana – they are in Downtown Santa Ana. That is in Ward 2.
- From June 26 to June 30 he was at the NALEO (National Association of Latino Elected Officials) Conference in Chicago. Yep, we paid for that too. I am told the bill was over $10K for all the Council Members who went on this useless trip.
- He was also at the Santa Ana Independence Day Celebration on June 30 – at Centennial Park, which is in Ward 6.
There you go. Benavides is hardly ever in his Ward. This is of course a good argument for Ward-specific elections. He clearly is not serving the people he was elected to represent.
Everyone knows how Benavides like the downtown area….(at night) ha ha ha……….
So in other words, each elected official isn’t allowed to leave their ward without being criticized? Must be terrible if you were a city council member who represents ward 1 and you wanted to go to see a high school football game at the Santa Ana bowl because that’s in ward 5…..
If you assume that the activities Benavides reported in June are representative of what he does in general then the ONLY organization he works with that is actually located in his Ward is Kidworks. He does hold office community hours once a month. But as far as I can glean from his June calendar he does not venture out into his own ward. There are NO meetings with folks or organizations in his ward. None. No visits to local parks and community centers. No visits to local non profits and churches. Nothing. Zip. Nada. It is really quite shameless. The funny part of this is that the reason we can now see the Council Members’ calendars is because they wanted to “expose” the Mayor’s calendar. Well the shoe is now on the other foot and I would imagine they are now regretting their bogus “transparency.” Rest assured that I will be looking at all of their calendars in the next few days.
I have often wondered what Benavides fascination with downtown Santa Ana is, other than social. His among the most depressed and dangerous areas of the city. Just this summer, several assaults and murders have taken place blocks from his home.
Benavides is facing a huge backlash from his grandstanding, his advisors are asking him to ask his supporter (s) to rise above the fray and avoid controversy, in advance of his pending divorce and re-run for mayor.
We still DON’T HAVE A CITY MANAGER OR A PUBLIC WORKS DIRECTOR.
Oh, I get it. So, city council members should only help out people from their own ward, but reject the rest of the city that they supposedly represent. Gotcha, thanks for clearing that up for me.
I believe the operative word here is balance. It is very clear that Benavides is spending 90% of his time outside of his ward. That is inexcusable. If he wants to represent the Downtown area he ought to move there. It would be high comedy to see him run against Michele Martinez.
Listen my little Santa Ana Sheep.
Benavides is going to run for Mayor again because that is what Pulido and Pedroza want him to do. They send out the Chickens for Wolf man Mill to devour.
Go beg for forgiveness from Jesus’ boyfriend Dave Gibbons.
Oh Yeah! Do you feel the LOVE?
On June 1oth, Benavides met with Janet Nguyen. Why?
It was a massage Mr. P!
She commed his hair for Crabs.
It was a one time thing.
Mind your own business!
Art could you let us know how the Mayors calendar looks like ? He should have no excuses attending any events as he is an at large mayor ( but we all know he does not show up to anything ) . Perhaps do you see on his calendar when he attended the Lincoln Clubs meeting on July 11th ?
I am writing a series of posts about all the Council members’ calendars. The Mayor will be included. That was not a Lincoln Club meeting. You are being disingenuous.