A group of kids in Santa Ana want to know how candidates vying to represent them on the city council plan to protect youth programs in one of the youngest cities in the country in terms of population age.
They also want to know how these candidates, if elected, will prevent their peers from joining gangs, address homelessness, help spur the creation of affordable housing, deal with parking shortages as well as keep local streets clean and safe.
This last week, a host of Santa Ana Unified high schools got a chance to fire off tough questions to candidates in person at a student moderated forum Thursday hosted by Santa Ana Youth Vote, Latino Health Access and Kidsworks.
They also got a chance to see which leaders will engage with them and which ones won’t.
Councilman Benjamin Vazquez, who is running for the mayor’s seat, along Councilmembers Thai Viet Phan, Jessie Lopez and Johnathan Hernandez – who are all running for reelection showed up to answer their questions in a room of over 40 kids.
Their opponents, current Mayor Valerie Amezcua, Julie Tran, Jeffery Katz and Mario Alvarado didn’t.
After publication of this story, Katz said he did not attend the debate because it was during Rosh Hashanah, an important Jewish holiday, and he let organizers know but did not hear back from them.
Diego Sarmiento, an organizer for the debate, said Tuesday that Katz did let them know early he couldn’t attend because of the holiday and Alvarado canceled at the last minute due to a family emergency.
Maria Rubalcava, leadership engagement coordinator for KidsWorks, said Oct. 3 was the only day they could hold the debate due to the facility’s availability.
The students’ questions come as officials earlier this year warn of a projected $30 million loss in annual tax revenue with the expected decrease of Measure, a 1.5% sales tax increase approved in 2018.
It’s a loss that threatens to ravage the public services many of these students care about and impact their quality of life and safety.
Thursday’s debate was the third one in two weeks in Santa Ana, kicking off with a lively debate between the two mayoral candidates on Sept. 25 where the abrupt departures of a longtime city manager and police chief who claim the police union – one of the biggest spenders in local elections – have a tight grip on some elected officials took center stage.
[Read: The Race for Santa Ana Mayor Heats Up]
Tran, who is running against Phan, didn’t attend any of the debates.
City Council Candidates Weigh in on Youth Issues
Vazquez, a high school teacher, reiterated what he said at a previous debate that public safety is not just about having police but also offering kids outlets and places to go besides the streets, adding that rent control can help prevent gang violence.
“If we have places for those kids to go instead of the streets or the alley, they could go to a community center, park or a library,” he said. “They could go somewhere where they feel safe and they don’t become part of the problem.”
Vazquez also pointed to rent control and rent protections when it comes to addressing homelessness as well as increasing the city’s quality of life teams that provide outreach to homeless people.
Lopez said with the expected decrease in Measure X a lot of city programs including those aimed at the city’s youth are up in the air and it is why students need to be civically engaged.
“I know how important it is to have an entire ecosystem around a young person to help them succeed and develop professionally and socially,” she said, adding that cutting youth programs shouldn’t be acceptable.
Lopez also said investing in people’s basic needs like housing and education as well as mental health is important to preventing teen violence.
“These are the heavy investments that I believe our city and every elected up here has a responsibility to fight for,” she said.
Phan said that when she wins she will advocate for a Park, Library, Zoo and Stadium bond to help fund those public spaces.
“Because what you’re going to see is the first thing that gets cut when the budget is short is youth programming and parks,” she said. “We need open space. We need safe places for our youth to go.”
Like Vazquez, Phan said kids need a third place beyond their homes or school to go to learn and grow in a community to help prevent violence and those who do wrong need to face consequences for their actions.
“We don’t have enough of that here in the city of Santa Ana,” she said about third places. “We have to use a holistic solution to address this issue, and not just one.”
Hernandez said the city should be investing resources, amenities like parks and libraries and programs for kids outside the school district and to address gang violence you have to invest in the people most impacted by it by funding events like the Chicano Heritage Festival.
“The Chicano Heritage Festival brought over 10,000 people who are impacted by gang violence together at a park where, instead of them being impacted by gang violence on that day, they were impacting each other, positively, uplifting one another,” he said
“We have to normalize the city, going to areas where people are experiencing hardship, and we got to call it what it is, and we have to lift up our neighbors by investing in those communities.”
What Do Kids Want Out of School Board Leaders?
At the school board level, kids want to know how Santa Ana Unified Trustee candidates plan to address inconsistent dress code policies, improve the quality and taste of their school lunches, improve old school buildings and insure students themselves have a voice on the school board.
Current Trustee Rigo Rodriguez is running for reelection and Dana Suarez – a mental health counselor, as well as Valerie Magdaleno, a community engagement director, are vying for seats on the board and showed up to answer students’ questions.
Their opponents special education teacher Brenda Lebsack, tax forensics expert Lloyd Boucher-Reyes, incumbent Alfonso Alvarez and resident Tamiko Anderson didn’t attend the debate.
Sarmiento said Alvarez couldn’t make it due to a funeral.
It comes as the teachers union, Santa Ana Educators Association, have been pushing for better pay, with members routinely speaking out at public meetings.
It also comes as trustees on the board face a lawsuit from Jewish advocacy groups alleging that they violated state open meeting laws and created classes for its ethnic studies program in secret to include anti-semitic content. District officials have denied the allegations.
[Read: Santa Ana School District Sued for Allegedly Creating Antisemitic Classes in Secret]
Magdaleno said she wants to expand community schools, expand dual language and immersion programs and expand board representation to students and more programs that will help students talk about their feelings.
Suarez said school lunches should be made from scratch, the district should focus on improving student’s reading and math skills and bring in Big Brother, Big sister type programs to help support student’s mental health.
Rodriguez said the district should prioritize counselors and mental health therapists, supported students being represented on the board and schools allocating more funding for classroom resources so students don’t have to pay out of pocket.
Another Santa Ana Unified School board candidate debate forum is expected to take place on October 15 at 6 p.m. at the Santa Ana Arts Collective building on Main Street.
Hosam Elattar is a Voice of OC reporter and corps member with Report for America, a GroundTruth initiative. Contact him at helattar@voiceofoc.org or on Twitter @ElattarHosam.
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