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UNION PACIFIC RAILROAD COMPANY Lupo Valdez 13181 Crossroads Parkway North, Ste. 500 Sr.City of Industry, CA 91746 Director Public Affairs August 30, 2019 Clerk of the Council City of Santa Ana 20 Civic Center Plaza- M-30 Santa Ana, CA 92701 Dear Clerk of the Council These comments are for Notice of Public Hearing, Tuesday September 3. 2019 at 5:45 P.m. UP recognizes the presence of encampments on its property is an ongoing problem and UP must do a better job of addressing them. However, to keep the Santa Ana situation in perspective, please note UP operates on roughly 10 miles of track in Santa Ana, approximately 3,300 track miles in California, and over 30,000 track miles in its entire network. The scale of UP's total footprint makes it more challenging for UP than for many property owners to respond to the kind of increase in trespassing and encampments we have seen recently in California. Notwithstanding the challenges presented by the scale of UP's network, in Santa Ana alone since the beginning of 2018, UP has spent significant financial resources on fencing and clean up efforts. During this time, Union Pacific has completed 78 days of clean up activity within Santa Ana. Unfortunately the efforts by UP to date have not prevented recurrence of the problem. Notwithstanding the almost immediate recurrence of trespassing and encampments following UP's clean-up efforts, the City also approached its efforts on UP's right of way in the same fashion, now with the same unfortunate result. Also, as UP has previously indicated to the City, UP objects to the City's engaging in these types of clean-up activities on UP's right of way without coordinating with UP. For safety reasons, flagging or other protective measures must be taken on the right of way, where a train may arrive at any time. UP is now working to develop a revised, more comprehensive strategy to respond to encampments on UP right of way, with the objective of a more permanent improvement on the right of way. UP and the City will need to work together if the approach is to be successful. To that end, we would like to meet with the City this month to discuss what UP proposes and hear the City's willingness to work with UP toward achieving a better outcome for everyone. UP is interested in hearing from the City about the City's further progress on establishing its plan of action to address homelessness within Santa Ana. The City's residents are the persons trespassing on UP's right of way and causing the various problems, which are the subject of complaints by neighbors adjacent to the right of way, others in the community, and the City staff. When UP or the City completes a clean-up effort, very few (often zero) of the trespassing persons are arrested or elect to accept an offer of shelter in available supportive housing. What the City's plan does not address is how the City is dealing with or plans to support the hundreds of Santa Ana residents who are homeless but not accepting the offer of supportive housing. These are the persons that continue to trespass on UP's right of way, and UP's new, more comprehensive strategy will only be successful and meet your expectations if it is informed by the City's plans for these residents. Related to the City's clean-up efforts along portions of UP right of way, UP has received and is reviewing the City's invoices with the itemized charges for the City clean-ups on UP right of way. UP has questions about some of the details underlying the charges and would like to discuss them with the appropriate person. Once UP has had the opportunity to discuss its questions with the appropriate City representative, UP can advise the City whether UP objects to any portion of the invoices. We look forward to clarifying details on the invoices and further discussions on acting together to address this complex problem when we meet. Sincerely, www.up.com BUILDING AMERICA!