Candidate for
Council Member; City of Santa Ana; Ward 3

My philosophy is very simple, don't spend money that we don't have and have an emergency fund available for unplanned events. I won't borrow against possible future earnings and will not burden the next generation of city residents with current spending.

My primary concern is our city budget and quality of life issues in our city. Safety, schools, open space, air quality and city aesthetics are very important to me. Alcohol advertising, graffiti, cleanliness, and marijuana dispensaries really bother me. These are issues that I will address as a City Council member.

CITY BUDGET

Our city is currently operating with an unbalanced budget, approximately $2.5 million in the negative. We have lost our fire department, our parking enforcement and our street sweeping. Our police department is next. Our other departments have been run down to the bare bones and can barely function. All of this is occurring, but our city leaders still donated just under $1.5 million to the Bowers Museum this year. We have donated approximately $4.8 million to the museum over the last three years! Our tax dollars being given to a business with nothing in return.

We are spending more money than we are receiving, and spending what little money we do have on non-essential programs. The city is close to filing for bankruptcy, but instead of acknowledging this, the city leaders boast that the city budget is balanced. Absolute denial until after the elections. These practices need to stop. As a council member I will stop this.

ENSURE ADEQUATE FUNDING FOR PUBLIC SAFETY AND SCHOOLS

We must, first and foremost, always provide funding for public safety, schools, and other city departments. But, we must always live within our means. This means that tough choices sometimes have to be made. Funding is not available for everything, and we must prioritize what we spend our money on. Public safety has been, and will always be, number one. We cannot have any type of quality of life if we do not live and work in a safe environment. This means providing our police department with the tools and staffing that they need to go out and take care of business.

I believe in Santa Ana schools. I am proud to say that two of my children attend a Santa Ana public school, one of two Santa Ana schools that received National Blue Ribbon recognition this year for 2011. Our schools also need our assistance. Even though they are funded separately, we have an obligation to make sure that our students have a place to go and be supervised if their parents are busy working. We must do what we can afford to do to help out with afterschool programs. We need to focus on after school programs that give our children access to computers and the internet to help with their studies. Since my children are still in elementary school, I see firsthand the impacted afterschool programs, with the long waiting lists, and the children that walk home by themselves because no one is there to pick them up. The current demand for after school care far outweighs the actual availability, and many families are turned away due to no space being available. We need to make these programs available to our youth.

We also need to invest in pre-school programs for our youth. Pre-school, not day care. There is a major difference. Multiple studies have shown that children who attend pre-school do far better in school than those that do not attend. If we can afford it, we should do what we can to make pre-school available to all of our youth.

CREATE A RECREATIONAL AND SENIOR CENTER FOR NORTH CITY RESIDENTS

We do not have a Recreational or Senior Center in the north end of our city. Why is that? We represent a significant tax base for the city, but our children, seniors, and young adults don't have a neighborhood recreational center to attend. We should not have to travel to the center of the city to play recreational sports or take music lessons miles away from our neighborhoods.

As a councilmember, I will address this issue. I have three young children and senior citizen neighbors who are always looking for extra curricular activities to do. They deserve a neighborhood recreational center to attend.