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