Supporters of Santa Ana City Manager Paul Walters are expected to turn out in large numbers at this Monday’s City Council meeting, on Jan. 7, 2013, at 5:45 pm, at the Council Chambers, at 22 Civic Center Plaza, in Santa Ana.
Walters has come under fire as the current Santa Ana City Council majority has decided to come after him even though he saved our city from a budget fiasco last year and is even now our best hope to resolve the State of California’s demand for the return of some $56 million dollars in redevelopment funds.
The Council Members in the majority, which include Santa Ana Mayor Pro Tem Sal Tinajero, Vince Sarmiento, David Benavides, Michele Martinez and Roman Reyna, have admitted that their attack on Walters is just more revenge against the Mayor, Miguel Pulido, for reasons known only to them.
I am told that Tinajero freaked out when 15 Walters supporters showed up at the closed-door, last minute Council meeting during Christmas week. Imagine how the Council cabal will react when the Chambers are packed with Walters supporters?
Reportedly the Council majority wants to appoint Gerardo Mouet, the Santa Ana Parks and Recreation Agency Director, to replace Walters as City Manager. But does Mouet’s education and experience really make him a better option as City Manager than Walters?
Here is Mouet’s bio, as provided by NALEO: Mr. Gerardo Mouet oversees a City Agency that handles parks, trails, recreation centers, senior centers, a stadium, libraries, and a zoo. He began to work for the City of Santa Ana in 1990 and has held a variety of positions including nine years in Personnel Services, where he worked on the City’s Workforce Diversity Program and the Public Business Academy, two years in the City Manager’s Office as Assistant to the City Manager in operations, two years as Assistant Director for Parks, Recreation, and Community Services and in 2004 as Executive Director for this agency. Mr. Mouet grew up in Tijuana, Mexico, and attended UC San Diego and CSU Long Beach for his graduate studies in Public Administration.
And here is Walter’s city bio:
Chief Walters graduated from Santiago High School in Garden Grove, CA. He attended Orange Coast College before his four-year (1966-1970) tour of duty with the United States Air Force during the Vietnam War. He was nominated for Airman of the Year in 1967.
While raising a family and working full time as a police officer, he attended night school and earned a Bachelor of Arts Degree in Criminal Justice from California State University Fullerton (CSUF), a Masters of Public Administration from the University of Southern California (USC) and a Doctor of Jurisprudence from American College of Law. He is also a graduate of the California Command College Class II and the Senior Management Institute for Police (SMIP) Class IV, Police Executive Research Forum (PERF), Washington D.C.
Wow. Who knew that Walters had a MPA from USC and a doctorate degree as well? Mouet has an MPA too, but it is from CSULB.
Beyond that, Walters led our police department very well for a long time – dropping crime levels to record lows. He even oversaw the construction of our police headquarters and city jail and found ways to make the jail profitable by leasing cells to other public agencies.
Going after Walters has been a new low for the Council majority – and they are clearly doing it now as they won’t have the guts to do this closer to the 2014 elections, when Tinajero, Martinez and Benavides will be up for re-election.
Stand up for Walters this Monday! Let your voice be heard. This Council of bullies needs to be put in their place!
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To the members of the Santa Ana City Council and the citizens who voted for them.
It is shocking and disappointing that our elected officials are attempting to remove Mr. Paul Walters as City Manager when he successfully salvaged the city budget preventing bankruptcy. Mr. Walters is an extremely valuable asset to Santa Ana on many fronts including his years as Santa Ana's Chief of Police. As Chief he made Santa Ana a safer which makes the city a more desirable place to buy homes, build homes, and open business. The Statistics are facts that speak for themselves. (See below statistics)
Santa Ana residences are entitled to an explanation as to why the Council members are trying to fire Mr. Walters because as of now we don’t understand why they are doing this to Mr. Walters and the City of Santa Ana. And if there is no explanation then the people of Santa Ana must start a recall effort of ALL City Council members:
It’s no secret that City Council wants to fire Paul Walters because of personal vendettas towards him NOT because he can’t do the job.
Please e-mail or call the following Council members and voice your opinion.
- Ward 1: Vincent Sarmiento
- Ward 2: Michelle Martinez
- Ward 3: Angelica Amezcua
- Ward 4: David Benavides
- Ward 5: Roman Reyna
- Ward 6: Sal Tinejero
Respectfully,
Joseph Nasser
Facts and statistics during Chief Paul Walters watch.
Single-family new house construction building permits:
• 1997: 15 buildings, average cost: $108,100
• 1998: 40 buildings, average cost: $233,500
• 1999: 62 buildings, average cost: $229,100
• 2000: 55 buildings, average cost: $137,700
• 2001: 25 buildings, average cost: $96,900
• 2002: 92 buildings, average cost: $154,200
• 2003: 140 buildings, average cost: $278,700
• 2004: 100 buildings, average cost: $345,600
• 2005: 79 buildings, average cost: $194,400
• 2006: 643 buildings, average cost: $196,700
• 2007: 99 buildings, average cost: $192,900
• 2008: 13 buildings, average cost: $205,200
• 2009: 7 buildings, average cost: $214,800
• 2010: 8 buildings, average cost: $243,500
• 2011: 42 buildings, average cost: $256,300
Read more: http://www.city-data.com/city/Santa-Ana-California.html#ixzz2HKPKOfeq
Crime in Santa Ana by Year
Type 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011
Murders 15 17 24 23 17 25 17 26 23 30 25 28 13
per 100,000 4.8 5.4 7.0 6.6 4.9 7.2 4.9 7.6 6.8 8.8 7.4 8.2 4.0
Rapes 97 86 55 66 76 73 74 73 65 66 77 88 62
per 100,000 31.2 27.2 16.0 18.8 21.9 21.1 21.4 21.3 19.1 19.4 22.7 25.9 18.9
Robberies 865 889 942 871 739 565 644 787 779 842 869 719 591
per 100,000 278.6 281.3 273.6 248.6 213.0 163.1 186.7 229.2 229.0 247.9 256.2 211.3 180.0
Assaults 851 837 823 970 956 1,195 1,110 1,112 1,080 788 755 675 647
per 100,000 274.1 264.8 239.1 276.8 275.5 344.9 321.7 323.8 317.4 232.0 222.6 198.4 197.1
Burglaries 1,226 1,247 1,396 1,225 1,110 1,238 1,194 1,074 1,013 1,097 1,160 1,116 1,067
per 100,000 394.9 394.5 405.5 349.6 319.9 357.3 346.1 312.7 297.7 323.0 342.0 328.0 325.0
Thefts 5,826 5,324 6,263 6,485 5,932 5,442 5,515 4,956 4,684 4,348 4,165 4,189 4,222
per 100,000 1876.7 1684.4 1819.3 1850.8 1709.4 1570.7 1598.6 1443.1 1376.7 1280.1 1227.9 1231.2 1285.9
Auto thefts 2,287 2,052 2,563 2,398 2,686 3,226 3,583 2,600 2,100 1,535 1,473 1,275 1,286
per 100,000 736.7 649.2 744.5 684.4 774.0 931.1 1038.6 757.1 617.2 451.9 434.3 374.7 391.7
Arson 247 256 203 159 121 131 156 88 120 125 94 139 101
per 100,000 79.6 81.0 59.0 45.4 34.9 37.8 45.2 25.6 35.3 36.8 27.7 40.9 30.8
City-data.com crime index (higher means more crime, U.S. average = 319.1) 335.1 317.2 317.7 311.7 299.3 311.9 319.0 306.2 286.6 264.2 262.4 242.7 222.2
Read more: http://www.city-data.com/city/Santa-Ana-California.html#ixzz2HKPaTc54
Dear Art,
Please tell all your readers the MUST attend tonights Santa Ana city council meeting. If they only attend one meeting in their lives, this is the one. The New Gang of 5 Council majority is trying to turn our city into Bell or South Gate. We cannot let them fire our good honest city manager Paul Walters. He is one of the only honest people left running our city. They want to replace with with a guy who grew up in Tijuana and we all know about politics in the border towns. He wants to bring Tijuana politics to Santa Ana. We must speak as one voice tonight. There will be mini-buses vans available to take neighbors to the Civic Center tonight. Just call you neighborhood leaders for more information.
Paul Walters has always been there when we needed him and now it's time for Santa Ana residents to stand up for him.
Everyone reading this email must call 10 friends right now. Tomorrow may be too late. I beg of you all. Come. Don't let the Gang of Five have their way with the city of Santa Ana and all of us.
The note below was sent to me by some friends from my school. It adds more details.
"SAVE SANTA ANA
On December 27th, your council majority took the first step in what will be a disastrous decision for the city, its residents and all the good people who work and visit here. In an effort to remove City Manager, Paul Walters, from office, they held a secret meeting two days after Christmas as a way to 'evaluate' Walters' performance. Walters, who was asked by the council to take on this position in addition to remaining Chief of Police, has done nothing wrong. In fact, he saved the city from bankruptcy by eliminating $30 million in debt, created a reserve and is now working to keep the state from taking another $56 million from us. Experts told Walters to hire a bankruptcy attorney because there was no way he could get Santa Ana out of this.
The whole time they were trying to prepare him for termination, the council majority repeatedly told Walters how appreciative they were of everything he has done for them and the city and how much they liked him. They told him that it was 'nothing' personal.
Indeed, nothing was wrong with his performance, they only wanted to seek revenge on the Mayor, Miguel Pulido. Ever since they figured out that they could not win in a mayoral race against Miguel, they began plotting how to get rid of him in other ways.
No matter whose side you are on, if the council majority continues to make decisions for the city based on revenge and their own personal gain, everything you loved about Santa Ana will deteriorate. Even if you live in the surrounding cities, you have to worry about how erosion in Santa Ana's quality of life and safety will effect you. Their are no gates at city borders.
Paul and Mary Walters have 20 immediate family members that live in Santa Ana, some for as long as 50 years and they truly care about this city and are dedicated to its future. Paul Walters has given almost 42 years of his life to our town and has been one of the most recognized and awarded leaders in the nation for keeping our community safe during difficult times with fewer resources today than the city had 35 years ago.
If you are at all concerned about the random, self-serving decisions your council majority will be making in the future, please SAVE SANTA ANA and attend Santa Ana's city council Meeting on Monday, January 7. 6:00-
if you cannot attend please call city hall at 714-647-6900"
But Walters no longer lives in SantaAna
He likes to ride horses. Our city isn't zoned for that. But he probably spends more time here than at his house.
We need ALL New Santa Ana readers to be there tonight to help Paul. We are trying to have small flat screens set up in the Lobby to keep up on Notre Dame vs Alabama. Light refresments will also be served.
Come one come all!
What's Notre Dame?
What happened at the Council meeting tonight regarding Paul?
Why doesn't he live in Santa Ana is a good ?.......let you decide .....
Why didn’t Santa Ana have a fair and open City Manager search?
A 9-month search was started, but abruptly ended after a month. WHY??
Below is a link to a story about the City of Newton’s City Manager search. Notice how a Law Enforcement official made it to the top 3 finalists:
http://www.newtoncitizen.com/news/2013/jan/15/top-three-city-manager-finalists-announced/
Like Santa Ana, Newton respects it’s police, yet doesn’t subvert a democratic process to find the best City Manager candidate.
We can do the same. Santa Ana deserves no less.
Lets prove once and for all WHO is the best choice for our City Manager.
RE-OPEN the NATIONAL SEARCH or at least file an OPEN RECORDS REQUEST to see what happened with our City’s previous attempts to find a successor to our beloved David Ream.