Laserfiche WebLink
squeezing the rest of us. For this city to once and for all get its house in order, it must kick the SAPD habit and <br />begin making amends to the communities that have paid for it so dearly. <br />We're in a racial justice, health, and budget crisis. Your own projections anticipate the city will be running a <br />deficit of $20 million next year, growing to a $35 million annual deficit in just two years. All of this coming <br />right after we passed Measure X to fix a decade of budget shortfalls. This mess can't be blamed on Covid or <br />shutdowns, it's a matter of misplaced priorities and principles. <br />Cutting social programs, tapping reserves, raising fees and taxes, and hoping for federal or state bailouts won't <br />get us through this and set the stage for a real recovery. It didn't work ten years ago and it's the wrong path <br />now. <br />The best tool to dig us out of this ongoing manmade disaster and to build a better Santa Ana is to defund the <br />Police Department -- the primary driver of this deficit. Just returning the SAPD budget to its 2018 (pre - <br />Measure X) levels would be an instant savings of nearly $25 million -- enough to fill this year's budget gap with <br />enough left over to adequately fund alternative community safety measures such as youth programming. <br />Please consider these thoughts, and think hard on what side of history you'd like to be. You can help fight these <br />injustices, or keep perpetuating the same mistakes that have done nothing for your citizens over and over again. <br />Thank you, <br />Kayla Saadeh <br />