New Santa Ana | Tag Archives: budget crisis

City Council to hold a special meeting about State’s demand for $56 million

Posted on December 20, 2012 by Editor Posted in California, Civic Affairs, David Benavides, Democratic Party, Entertainment, Governor Jerry Brown, Politics, Santa Ana, Tom Daly 12 Comments

Does Benavides have a clue how to fix this mess?

The Santa Ana City Council is holding a Special Meeting on Friday, December 21, from 11 am – 2 pm, to consider how they are going to respond to the demand by Governor Jerry Brown’s administration that the city pay back $56 million dollars of what used to be redevelopment funds pegged to affordable housing.

The meeting will be held at the City Council Chambers, located at 22 Civic Center Plaza, in Downtown Santa Ana.

Click here to read the meeting agenda. Continue reading→

Sacramento Democrats are demanding $56 million from the City of Santa Ana

Posted on December 20, 2012 by Editor Posted in Affordable Housing, California, David Benavides, Democratic Party, Lou Correa, Redevelopment, Santa Ana, Tom Daly 4 Comments

“Santa Ana city officials are scrambling to address a $56 million demand by the state due by Friday,” according to the union-funded Voice of OC. The State of California is run completely by Democrats now, from the State Legislature majority to all of the State’s elected leaders, including Governor Jerry Brown. And now they are trying to bankrupt our city!

“The money is to come from what’s called low-and-moderate income housing funds. Redevelopment agencies were required to set aside 20 percent of their property tax increment revenue – the funds that cities had diverted from going to other local governments in redevelopment zones – for affordable housing programs,” according to the Voice of OC. Continue reading→

Should Santa Ana consider outsourcing their police department to solve budget woes?

Posted on June 30, 2010 by Editor Posted in Civic Affairs, Crime, Public Safety, Santa Ana 1 Comment

Two California cities have made the decision over the past week to essentially fire all their police officers and contract with other agencies.

One city, Maywood, went as far as to fire all their city workers and contract them out, according to Publicceo.com. You can also read about it at Publicceo.com.

And the city of San Carlos, in the Silicon Valley, recently made a move (4-1 by the Council) to contract out its police force. The move will eliminate the jobs of 32 officers and save the city $2.5 million a year, according to Bloomberg Businessweek.

The City of Santa Ana has quietly outsourced a lot of jobs over the past two years, because of our own budget crisis. But no one at City Hall wants to consider outsourcing our police department to the Orange County Sheriff’s Department. But it makes a lot of sense. We are critically shorthanded in our police department.

Could we outsource and add more cops in the process – while still saving a ton of money? Shouldn’t we at least consider this and run the numbers?

The O.C. Sheriff’s Department is already located here in Santa Ana. They already provide services at the County Hall of Administration and they are on call when our own police need help, via a mutual aid agreement.

Don’t get me wrong, our police do a fine job for the most part, although I still think they target minorities and immigrants with their DUI checkpoints. But our city is broke. Shouldn’t we consider all options in trying to resolve our budget crisis?

And the O.C. Sheriff’s Department already provides police services throughout much of Orange County, as you can see in the graphic above. In fact they are the cops in some of Orange County’s wealthiest areas! Surely they could do the same here?

Now if it turns out there are no savings to be had, well then forget it. But at the very least we need to put this on the table…