CORRESPONDENCE - 25D - Laserfiche WebLink

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Flores, Dora From:Manuel Escamilla <manueljescamilla@gmail.com> Sent:Tuesday, August 18, 2020 9:04 PM To:eComment Subject:Comments for 8-18-2020 Council Meeting Dear Mayor and Council, My apologies for the connection issues during the call in phase of the meeting. I attempted to call back in but the call in line has been locked. Please work with staff to ID the technical issue so that our residents are able to address the Council. Though this email will reach you after the decisions have been made, I still wanted to share my thoughts and observations on the following items. 20A - I'm supportive of this, thank you for bringing back the book mobile. We need to do everything we can increase literacy access in our community. 22B - I do not believe that this item will provide any additional value to our city. I recommend that the Council and Mayor ask the Police Chief if we have enough hazmat suits, decontamination units, mobile testing facilities, and other emergency response materials. As the pandemic has shown us, we have had to scramble for basic supplies to fight an ongoing biological threat. We should spend our federal grant funds on other supplies that add to our ability to save lives in case of the unspeakable. 25A - I understand that the expense of restoring a historic structure like the YMCA will be substantial and that it will be beneficial to get the property restored and back on the property tax rolls before a disaster like the one that occured on Santa Ana blvd a few months ago. However my concern is regarding whether or not the purchaser will be able to honor the timeline being described here. As it stands there are 4 other major projects that they are involved with but have shown little progress. I would recommend that the City proactively seek out alternative bids if Caribou Industries is unable to uphold its obligations under the terms of the sales agreement. 25D - Maybe this is the most innovative cost-effective program available but I’m seeing red flags. Why did the staff report just copy and paste the promotional material from the America on Track website? There was a sentence where the staff report just changes the point of view from first person to third person. The drug program descriptions on the organization's website referred to were from a controversial 'weed and seed' program. This program was studied and found to be ineffective and counterproductive according to a 2005 study in Criminal justice Review. America on track's website also included out of date statistics from a government agency that hasn't been around since 2012. Our contracting decisions should be guided by the idea that the City can use these types of smaller contract opportunities to grow local institutions. Are we really saying that in the nonprofit center of Orange County we were not able to find any local organizations with an ongoing presence that would be able to tell kids that drugs are bad? 55C - Thank you and the Public Works team for their efforts on expanding these safe routes to school. We need to continue the City's efforts to emphasize safety in all aspects of our transportation network. 1