Laserfiche WebLink
Salas, Diana <br />From: <br />Maria De Jesus Zacarias Torres <mdzacari@uci.edu> <br />Sent: <br />Tuesday, June 16, 2020 3:01 PM <br />To: <br />eComment <br />Subject: <br />Public Comment <br />June 16, 2020 <br />Santa Ana council members, <br />Good evening. My name is Maria Zacarias, I am a resident of Santa Ana. I live in ward 6 in the Eastside <br />neighborhood. I would like to address the council about three matters. I would like to see the 140 part-timers <br />from the city that got laid off reinstated. Since the city budget is not finalized yet, I would like to see how city <br />council can work towards reallocating public safety funds from the proposed budget into community services <br />and youth programs. Lastly, I would like to see city council adopt a mandatory stance on face masks until our <br />city's COVID rates drop to an acceptable rate. I am hoping that our city council can take the concerns of <br />residents and take the necessary action. <br />I was one of the part-time city employees that got laid off during COVID. I was under the impression <br />that we would get called back to work as soon as we would be able to return. I was completely caught off guard <br />when I was given the phone call. It also happened during the middle of my spring quarter at UCI which added <br />stress to the end of the quarter. I had just gone on my Sib year as a city employee and was proud to have been <br />working for the community garden program which I also helped start. I started working for the city when I went <br />back to school at Santa Ana College in 2015 where I was able to start the community garden program. Working <br />part-time let me be able to focus on school where I was able to transfer to UCI in 2018. I am about to go into <br />my final year at UCI and I do not know how I am going to be able to be financially stable because I am <br />unemployed. There are other creative ways that we could have been able to do our jobs during this time. We <br />were just never asked. By laying off 140 part-time city employees, you are also affecting the community <br />because most part-time workers are also Santa Ana residents. <br />