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Salas, Diana From: Luis Aleman <Luis@oclabor.org> Sent: Tuesday, June 02, 2020 3:52 PM To: eComment Subject: Comment on Item 65B My name is Luis Aleman and I'm a resident of Santa Ana and the following comments are on Item 65B in opposition: Mayor and Councilmembers, My name is Luis Aleman and I'm a resident of Santa Ana, a proud union member, and a Parks and Recreation Commissioner. Today I'm speaking out against Item 65B. Eliminating 176 jobs as a cost cutting measure is detrimental to our city. Our city employees take pride in the work they do to keep our community running. Parks and Recreation employees work hard to make sure our kids and students have safe and clean parks, afterschool and summer city programs, renovated city pools, an amazing public library and much more. This COVID 19 epidemic has shown how vital public services are at keeping our community thriving. We cannot balance our budget on the backs of our hard-working city employees and the programs our working-class families use. Permanently cutting 176 jobs means 176 families losing their source of income and it means thousands of Santa Ana residents losing access to vital city services. Since the recovery of the Great Recession, we have asked city employees and the community -at -large to bear the brunt of budget cuts and reduced services. We cannot continue down that road. These employees are not expendable, they are the lifeblood of our city, and the work they perform on a day-to-day basis shows how much they love Santa Ana. Our budgets must be an extension of our values. When we talk about public safety, we have to remember that parks, libraries, pools, mobile hotspot programs, community afterschool programs, and other city services contribute to a safe community. Let's rise to the occasion, roll up sleeves, and make sure we don't put livelihoods and the health of our community to the side in the name of budget cuts. 1 taL4