Santa Ana Council Member Michele Martinez did a very brave thing at tonight’s Santa Ana City Council meeting. At the end of the meeting, during public comments, she spoke up and asked the question that has been on everyone’s minds – why isn’t the City of Santa Ana looking at outsourcing the Santa Ana Police Department?
The City of Santa Ana is looking at a minimum $30 million dollar annual deficit. Of that, $25 million is paying for retirement funds for public employees. And about half of the city’s general fund is spent on our police department!
Santa Ana acting City Manager Paul Walters, who is also our Chief of Police, has said he is willing to outsource just about every city department, including the Fire Department – but the police are off limits apparently. The Council won’t even vote to consider outsourcing the Police Department.
Now it might be that there is little to be saved in letting O.C. Sheriff Sandra Hutchens take over our city police department. But why not at least ask her?
Martinez also asked that we roll back the executive pay raises that were handed out this year (I agree!) and ask the union cops and firemen to pay their fair share of Calpers fees. Bravo!
Predictably, Councilman Carlos Bustamante defended the raises. He got busted earlier this year, at the County of Orange, for accepting massive raises that were not approved.
Kudos to Martinez for daring to question these expenditures!
“Santa Ana Council Member Michele Martinez did a very brave thing at tonight’s Santa Ana City Council meeting”….. Hmmmmm
It is one thing to be “brave”, it is another thing to think that she is smarter than I.
Nobody cares if she is smarter than thou Fiala. The question is, would a privitized police force be as accountable as a municipal one? How bout them Black water contractors in Iraq/Afghanistan. Accountable?
Outsourced to the OC Sheriff’s Department.
So You agree Admin. The police forces, county, city national, international, need to be watched and scrutinized by the people and independent media sources such as your self and the Fullerton blog that was responsible for highlighting the Kelly Thomas murder? The L.A.P.D. did a remarkable job this afternoon letting us seize the streets from City Hall to the Financial District and back. They were smart to stand back in stead of the N.Y P.D. that chose to arrest and pepper spray activists. Highlight of the day, walking past the L.A. Jewelery Mart, and B of A and giving them the unanimous fist and finger. Most of us are 99% Now. and if not just yet, soon enough. Life on Earth deserves more because it is capable of more.
“Nobody cares if she is smarter than thou Fiala”…. Hmmmm
You care if I am smarter than you are.
As the white European male, beside being humble and modest, I have superior IQ in the blog sphere.
Look how smart I am to get extra funds for the city:
I am planing to merchandise Santa Ana Council’s Baloney with the signatures of all council members including the Police Chief and City Manager. Similar like Chines fortune cookie except it would be filed with bullsh*t instead of bull carnita.
Brilliant huh?
Everyone would buy one nation wide.
Same like pet-rock.
The big pension organizations have been eating up millions, and sharing the wealth with Wall Street as their partners. Are they willing to share the pain? Hell no, they want even more now.
The cities, counties and states and the feds, plus big and small businesses and individuals were told by these money changers that all was great, increase benefits beyond belief, you won’t have to pay for it cause the big pension companies are now perpetual money making machines incapable of failing.
The city councils and county supervisors all over should be demanding that the state and federal law makers suspend the mandatory contribution to the pension funds. (let the pensions use those saved assets)
During this break, consolidation should occur to eliminate the grossly over managed local government systems. The consolidation need to be mandatory because President Obama’s multi trillion bailout of states and local governments over the last two years was squandered by the local governments.
I can see outsourcing the fire dept – but not the SAPD. The PD needs to be closely aligned with the community, more so than the FD – especially in Santa Ana.
INCREDIBLE TO HAVE IN THE BUDGET 4.6 MILLION FOR PUBLIC WORKS. NO WONDER THE CITY’S INFRASTRUCTURE IS FALLING APART.
COUNCILWOMAN MARTINEZ IS RIGHT. FIRE AND POLICE NEED FINANCIAL RESTRUCTURING AND THE SAVINGS REDIRECTED …..LIKE TO PUBLIC WORKS.
SEE BELOW WHAT PUBLIC WORKS HAS TO ACCOMPLISH WITH 4.6 MILLION.
We Are Public Works
Whether we are building new projects like a new police administration facility and detention center, or simply filling potholes, Public Works staff serve as the stewards of Santa Ana’s infrastructure. We are responsible for building and maintaining all public streets, storm drains, sewers, and water facilities. In addition, we coordinate the collection and recycling of refuse, sweep public streets, landscape the public right-of-way, trim trees, and remove graffiti. We ensure that the community enjoys high quality drinking water and is able to travel around the City efficiently through the use of our state-of-the-art traffic management system. We also work with neighborhood associations to resolve speeding, parking, and traffic problems and with developers to ensure that City development standards are met.
The Agency is organized into four divisions and employs a professional staff of 205 full-time and 47 part-time employees.
Raul Godinez II,
Executive Director
20 Civic Center Plaza, M-21
Santa Ana, CA 92702
Emergency Repairs After Hours
714-834-4211
General Maintenance and Repairs
714-647-3380
Project Bid Information
714-647-5680
Public Works Information
714-647-5690
All city employees know Walters has hated Santa Ana FD and tried to crumble them for years. No way he would take orders from The OC Sheriff. His ego is too big to fall under Command of a female and especially the one that beat him out for the job he has tried to get for years.
The issue is beyond personal conflicts. The reality is do it or the city goes bankrupt and you end up outsourcing any way.
Personal conflict between SAPD and OC sheriffs the reason for Bankruptcy???? Will the Santa Ana Residents take this selfishness at their cost???
As a non-Santa Ana resident, but longtime Orange Countian, I’ve noticed the Sheriff’s Department gets a lot of bad press (recently, thanks to Corona). But compared to other Departments (notably Fullerton), your SAPD is rarely in the mainstream media. No evident controversies, no obvious corruption, no body getting beat up and killed. That says something, and as I recall other Departments also use your jail.
Of course Walters doesn’t want to outsource it — he’s smarter and far more politically savvy than Sandra Hutchens.
Martinez deserves no credit for bringing this up. It’s a no-brainer and has to be explored. But I’d love to see how the Sheriff can do it cheaper. We could all learn from that if they can do it for the same service level.
“Without all those taco fryers we don’t have many fires!”
You mean Wok fryers are safer? Or ….what are you saying?
It’s not just a matter of cutting pensions. We need to end police and FD overtime in this city. Hire reserve forces to cover overtime needs and we won’t have to pay time-and-a-half. And please, please, please get rid of Walters. He did a good job as police chief, but there’s no way he can be unbiased when making budget recommendations. The $ we pay to fight crime in this city is not commensurate with similar cities.