A few folks in Santa Ana have been mighty perplexed about the current City Council majority. I would definitely include failed Santa Ana Mayoral candidate Alfredo Amezcua in that number, along with former Mayoral candidate Thomas Gordon, and many former Santa Ana City Commissioners – who were give the boot by the current City Council majority.
You need four votes on the City Council in order to get anything done. Currently the majority on the City Council is made up of Mayor Pro Tem Claudia Alvarez, along with Council Members Michele Martinez, Vincent Sarmiento and Sal Tinajero. Mayor Miguel Pulido primarily goes along with the majority, although at times they differ. Council Members David Benavides and Carlos Bustamante are sitting at the little kids’ table – utterly bereft of power and influence at City Hall.
But that could change in 2012. Alvarez will be terming out. I am not sure what she intends to do at that point. She could run for Mayor, or for the SAUSD School Board. Or she could walk away and concentrate on her job as a O.C. Deputy District Attorney.
Current SAUSD Trustee Romany Reyna is an ally of Benavides. Reyna previously ran for the Council seat held by Alvarez and now all he has to do is wait for her to term out and run again.
I have however heard that Reyna is having second thoughts, as well he should. If he runs for the Council in 2012, he will vacate his School Board seat. If he loses his Council race he will be done in local politics. I don’t know that he is willing to take that chance. It depends on who ends up running against him for Alvarez’ seat on the City Council.
If Reyna does run for the Council, and he wins, and Bustamante is re-elected, they will surely team up with Benavides and likely with Mayor Pulido – and the new City Council majority will be quite different from the current majority.
Both Reyna and Benavides are religious conservatives. Bustamante is a Republican. Pulido is more moderate than that bunch, but he has been pulled to the left by the current Council majority. There is no telling what this new right-leaning majority might do, once empowered.
Pulido will also face a few challengers in 2012, including the aforementioned Amezcua. Past Republican Assembly candidate Otto Bade also told me recently that he intends to run for Mayor in 2012. Bade lost his concession this year at the Santa Ana Zoo, where his La Perla restaurant will be replaced by a Knowlwood’s restaurant.
I think Amezcua and Bade would ally with the new, conservative faction if either one of them were to prevail against Pulido.
I also think that failed Mayoral candidate Charles Hart intends to run again in 2012. Hart was recently appointed to the Republican Party of Orange County’s Central Committee, representing the 69th Assembly Caucus. If he were to somehow win in 2012, perhaps as a result of a Latino vote split, I think he too would end up allying with the new, conservative faction.
To make matters worse for Alvarez and company, Councilman Sarmiento is likely to be running for Assemblyman Jose Solorio’s seat in the 69th Assembly District. Sarmiento will be tough to beat. As such, he will be vacating his City Council seat – and the Council majority will have to find someone to fill that spot. That will happen after the November election, so if the new faction takes over, guess who will be appointing Sarmiento’s replacement?
And that’s not all. I fully expect at least one or more of the other Council Members to run against O.C. Supervisor Janet Nguyen. Either Sal Tinajero or Michele Martinez would have good odds of beating Nguyen, unless she redistricts her seat and adds more Vietnamese voters to it, while weakening the Latino vote, which she just might do.
So where does all this leave the people of Santa Ana? It leaves us two years for our Council majority to get the job done, before they dissolve and/or get replaced. That is a small window and it is closing fast.
If the majority fails to replace itself, the fact is that many of the ousted and bitter former City Commissioners will be back and business as usual will return to City Hall. Imagine that – in two short years our progress might well be stopped and reversed. That is a chilling thought.
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I love reading Hans Christian Andersen.
I would expect that the council members from wards 1, 3 and 5 would run for re-elect in the next election.
All 3 of them are serving the first of 3 possible terms provided by measure "D".
But it is interesting speculation
I will run for the Council seat held by Claudia Alvarez. I hope I will count it with u vote!
That's awesome Juan! The only way we can make a difference is if we get involved. Please do keep us posted and send me your bio so we can start getting your name out. My email is artpedroza@gmail.com.
O.M.G. Fiala is cracking me up. Pedroza is so creative. Fear the left! Fear the right! Bow down to the Status Quo!
You make it sound like if Bustamante or Benavides came up with a good idea, all of the others are just going to line up in lock-step and oppose everything they ever suggest. That, of course, is not the way things are happening. To say they are "utterly bereft of power" is plain false. Oh, you might get someone like Alvarez acting like that, because it's more important to her to be divisive and disagreeable, but your understanding of the working dynamics of this bunch strikes me as more than a bit exaggerated.
You like to highlight the votes where these factions you describe line up, but a simple review of ALL Council votes finds much more agreement than disagreement.
Anon,
I cannot recall the last time Benavides or Bustamante had a good idea, but yes they do generally go along with the majority.
Art, the simple truth is that there is far more philosophical unity on this Council than there is disunity.
Which begs the question...why do you insist on highlighting discord and division?
The two groups do have distinct differences. I am sure we will see that emerge over the course of the year.
Right now the major disagreements have been over at least one commissioner.
The fact is that the B boys have no chance of getting four votes on anything.
The city, city government, is run by the city management office and the employees of the city.
The Mayor and council main job is to make sure the cities management is doing their job and not ripping off the residents.
One thing about that councilmember who went to jail years ago that I respected. Was he was always questioning city management on what they were doing and spending money on. He was a real pain in the side of the majority before he took the money and went to jail.
Currently there has been a lot of flaunting of city management with praise and money. By some and all of the council. Then followed with criticism of their job performance as they quit or retire, the city management employees, who then carry two suitcases full of money on the way out the door.
So if paying out of the taxpayers treasury large bonuses and perks for bad job performance and costly mistakes is what the council majority stands for. I would say, keep the 2 who stand alone and toss the others into the discard pile and draw another 5 from the deck.
Cook,
It should be noted that the B boys have gone along with all the actions you referenced.
The Council majority is acting to undo and clean up the messes made by previous Councils.
"And that’s not all. I fully expect at least one or more of the other Council Members to run against O.C. Supervisor Janet Nguyen. Either Sal Tinajero or Michele Martinez would have good odds of beating Nguyen, unless she redistricts her seat and adds more Vietnamese voters to it, while weakening the Latino vote, which she just might do."
MQ says:
OMG...Art, you are all about bloody race. The vietnamese and the Hispanic bow and arrow fight and where are their mud huts!
Can anyone see as well as I WHY Mexico, Santa Ana and Vietnam are third world dumps!!!!!
The pick their leaders based on if they have the same looks!!!!!!
Silly Michelle, my two older kids are both dating Vietnamese Americans.
Considering that there is 20 months until the vote. I would hope that the canidates, bloggers (from within and without the voting area) concentrate on some of the more important issues that face our community.
I for one visited a killer furniture shop today on Ediger, transplanted from TRIANGLE SQUARE. I also watched a SAPD BERATE THE SHIT out of a crazy pan handler on Standard.
TO BE CLEAR: You would never witness this from the cheap seats in Norhwood(Irvine) or The Liberal Mecca of Long Beach, from where our county PAID employees commute from. But, it it's the real deal that Michelle, Sal, Miguel, and everyone else needs to face.
dkmfan,
Indeed. They have less than two years to deliver results. I am betting they will - but if they don't there will be Hell to pay...
"Silly Michelle, my two older kids are both dating Vietnamese Americans."
MQ says:
God Art it's your wet dream they are not white! least you have a wee bit of color!
You are obsessed with color Michelle, not me. And I am probably whiter than you.
We should judge people by who they are, not what they look like.