CORRESPONDENCE - 65D - Laserfiche WebLink

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Orozco, Norma From: Marytza Rubio <mrytza@gmail.com> Sent: Tuesday, July 07, 2020 4:00 PM To: eComment Subject: Item 65d - Annual City Budget Mayor Pulido and Councilmembers, I was born and raised in the Eastside neighborhood of Santa Ana, where I still live with my husband. I am turning 38 next week, so Mayor Pulido has held authority and decision -making power in this city since I was 4 years old. I remember seeing Mayor Pulido out in public when I was a kid at a fast food restaurant with my dad. "That's the mayor," he said, and I remember being in awe that a mayor, something I didn't fully understand other than as a title of importance, was like us. You were in line just like us, getting some cheesy snack just like us. No suit or tie, no microphone or audience. You looked like us. I think that is what a lot of voters thought, that you and the currently elected councilmembers are like us; that on some level, your last names, your casual deployment of Spanish phrases, and your facial features form a bond. For a community that is often stereotyped and underestimated, having a council that reflected us, at least on the surface, was empowering. It is this simple inaccurate assessment —that you are like us —that has caused our city's most vulnerable residents to bear the weight of your exploitative decisions. You know that cutting the legal funds for deportation defense is going to ultimately cause irreparable harm to our neighbors. You know that it is unconscionable to increase the SAPID budget at the expense of meaningful and transformative programs like library services, after -school programs, and recreation services. You must know that consistently voting to diminish vital community services to enrich the police officers union —during an economically devastating pandemic that is disproportionately killing our neighbors, as well as a global uprising against police brutality —is an admission of corruption. You know these things. Is it that you don't understand how your budget decisions have dramatic outcomes (death, abuse, loss of housing, widening opportunity gaps for youth), or that you just don't care? Don't allow yourself to be used. The SAPID may know and appreciate each of you here, but what about police in LA? Or when you next leave the state or are on vacation? What do you think makes you or your brothers or sons immune to police brutality? Do you think that your name or votes on our city's budget will save your life when an officer considers you a threat to his life? In that moment, you are just like us: powerless and at the mercy of someone with too much power. I am asking you to look at the big picture. This is not just about you and this budget, it is about understanding modern policing as an outdated and cruel system designed to imprison and diminish communities of color. Your choices matter more than you can imagine. Consider what your story will be from this day forward. It doesn't matter what you've accomplished before today; where you went to school; how you served your country; how you are guided by faith; how much your immigrant parents sacrificed to raise you up; what amazing feats your children have accomplished; what your vision is for Santa Ana. None of that matters because you will have allowed your unique self to be flattened into a new stereotype: a bought politician. 4