The Santa Ana City Council members make new commission appointments

The Santa Ana City Council members appointed themselves to various commissions at their meeting tonight.

There was a struggle behind the scenes in recent weeks as Councilman Roman Reyna, who has struggled to maintain a real job aside from his part-time City Council job, lobbied for commission appointments with fatter paychecks.  He seems to have won as he did end up receiving two very plum appointments.

Here are the new commission appointments:

• Roman Reyna – the OC Water Board and the OC Vector Control District Board
• Angie Amezcua – the OC Fire Authority Board
• David Benavides – The Toll Roads Agency Board (TCA)
• Sal Tinajero – the OC Sanitation Board

Councilwoman Michele Martinez appears to have been left out in the cold.  Mayor Miguel Pulido already serves on both the OCTA board and the South Coast Air Quality Management District Board.

The city’s former representative on the Vector Control Board, Cecilia Aguinaga, was not reappointed to that board.  There was quite a bit of controversy last year when the Vector Control Agency tried to spray the backyards of homes in some of Santa Ana’s poorest neighborhoods.  They argued that this was necessary to stop the West Nile Virus even though the only people actually getting that disease have been the homeless, as they sleep outside and are more exposed to mosquito bites.

Aguinaga eventually opposed the spraying but the Council Members were inundated with phone calls and emails, after we broke the story.  Now she is off the board.  Let’s see if Reyna, her replacement, drops the ball with regard to spraying this year.

Reyna, a high school dropout, may have a hard time keeping up with the information that he will be receiving as a member of the OC Water Board and the OC Vector Control Board.  He is also going to get into hot water given that water rates are going way up and he is facing reelection in 2016.

I would have preferred that Martinez be appointed to the Vector Control board given her activism on health issues.

In related news Santa Ana Mayor Pro Tem Vince Sarmiento got caught voting against transparency when he voted, as a member of the OC Water Board, against televising their public meetings, according to the Surf City Voice.  Sarmiento better straighten himself out as he is up for reelection in two years and he barely defeated an unknown schoolteacher who spent no money, back in 2012.