Santa Ana Council Votes For Closed Government

Last night I read Art Pedroza's post about that evening's Santa Ana City Council meeting, where they deliberated the fate of EPIC Commissioner Thomas Gordon and Councilwoman Michele Martinez's proposal for broadcasting council meetings; and this morning I called the Santa Ana City Clerk's office to verify the roll call vote on those items.

I really am astounded at the contempt Santa Ana councilmembers -- with the bright exception of Michele Martinez -- apparently hold their constituents.

To refresh readers memories, Martinez wants the council to televise every council meeting live on cable and over the internet, and archive meeting videos for five years in an online searchable database.

Her motion died for lack of a second -- which conveniently spares the following councilmembers from having to go on record against making council actions more open and available to the people whose votes they ask for and whose taxes they spend:

Mayor Miguel Pulido
Mayor Pro Tem Claudia Alvarez
Councilman Sal Tinajero
Councilman Carlos Bustamante
Councilman Vince Sarmiento
Councilman David Benavides

If these councilmembers don't want their constituents to have a video record of their actions, at least have the intestinal fortitude to second the motion and go on record against it.

The reasons these six councilmembers advanced aren't laughable. They're pathetic.

The Alvarez Excuse
Let's start with Councilwoman Claudio Alvarez, the would-be supervisor. Her excuse was the city doesn't have the technology to put meetings online. Thank you, mistress of the obvious. But neither did Anaheim, Irvine, Costa Mesa, Newport Beach or Mission Viejo before they implemented their systems. Hence, Councilwoman Martinez's initiative to have the city acquire such technology.

I hope Councilwoman Alvarez's courtroom preparation is more thorough than her prep for this item was.

Councilwoman Alvarez might be surprised to learn there are actually companies that specialize in doing exactly what Councilwoman Martinez is requesting. The County of Orange implemented just such a system this summer. It's estimated yearly cost is $410,942, and it's a more feature-loaded system than what Martinez requested.

If you take out certain components of the county's program -- such as closed captioning, online government channel and promotion announcements/PSAs -- the cost drops to $305,000 a year.

The Santa Ana Council recently spent $1 million painting a new slogan on their water tower -- but doesn't have $300,000 to expand the universe of voters who can see what they're up to?

Maybe if Martinez also requested broadcasting council meetings on a Jumbotron mounted on the water tower, she'd have gotten more votes.

The Pulido Excuse
Mayor-for-Life Miguel Pulido maintained, apparently without a hint of embarrassment, that televising all the council meetings -- including the "study sessions" -- wasn't fair because so many of the councilmembers were young and might get nervous and self-conscious from being on camera.

Is Pulido running a city council or a day care center?

Leaving aside that it is the youngest councilmember who is pushing this proposal, let's remember these tender, fragile souls whose self-esteem Pulido is so concerned about wanted to be councilmembers. They stood for election in order to get their positions (with the exception of Vince Sarmiento). If conducting the public's business in front of too many members of the public makes them nervous, they're in the wrong line of business. Elective office is for grown-ups.

Not to mention that study sessions are governed by Brown Act, just like a regular council meeting. City business is conducted at them, just like a regular council meeting. They ought to be broadcast -- just like a regular council meeting.

The Sarmiento Excuse
This one is a peach, too. Follow me through this one. Vince Sarmiento objected because he think the council meeting structure -- you know, meeting in the same place and everything --  is too rigid. He wants the council to have meetings out amongst the populace. Fantabulous. Very proletarian.

But, Sarmiento thinks it would just be too hard to broadcast such meetings. In other words, he doesn't want more residents to watch the city council meetings because he wants to have city council meetings amongst the residents. And apparently, Councilman Sarmiento doesn't watch TV, or else he'd know they can broadcast from just about anywhere. The LA City Council manages to do it during their quarterly council meetings out in the various districts.

But I think it's pretty clear these are ridiculous reasons because they are bogus reasons. They're the kind of rationales elected officials offer up when they don't want to divulge the real reasons for their vote. And in my opinion, those six councilmembers -- Pulido, Alvarez, Bustamante, Sarmiento, Tinajero and Benavides -- must prefer running Santa Ana city government like a banana republic, with minimal public scrutiny.

Comments

[Gustavo Arellano]

No money to broadcast council meetings? Please. All SanTana needs to do is pay some kid in pizza to film the meetings, then upload them on YouTube.

[seems to me]

If the public wanted the meetings taped, the public would elect a council that promised to tape the meetings. Has any member of the public been there to demand it?

Sounds like grandstanding to me.

[Ryan Trabuco]

Jubal, thanks for this post. The more exposure this council gets for what they're doing -- or what they're not doing -- gives any curious politico an insight into how out-of-touch this council really is.

I just hope we have some really good candidates to run against the bunch we have here. As you said, it's just pathetic.

[redperegrine]

"prefer running Santa Ana city government like a banana republic,"

Interesting metaphor. Whenever I hear about SA I start thinking about "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest."

[Jubal]

Seems to me:

As a thought experiment, apply your standard to every single agenda item enacted by every local government. How many of them are specific to a campaign promise?

[Dan Chmielewski]

This is a crying shame.

Those on the council who wouldn't second this proposal should be ashamed of themselves.

Why isn't Liberal OC posting anything about the terrible decisions made by the Santa Ana City Council Monday night? I hope that Liberal OC is not being quiet because they do not want to attack Democrats, but even this blog has gone after some bad Republicans (Capo School Board).