2012-07-16 Regular - Laserfiche WebLink

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• My next issue that I wanted to talk about, and I know it has been since April, since our Fire Department has transferred to the Orange County Fire Authority and I just wanted to see maybe at the next Council meeting, Paul, if we could have Mr. Thomas, Chief Thomas, probably give us an update, just to see how we're doing especially with 4th of July coming a lot of things are different and I just really think that we should really get and update and I know that Mr. Benavides sits on the OCFA board and possibly if he can provide us with and update just so we know what's going on and that our residents know that we still have the same levels of service. I know a lot of the phone numbers changed and I need new business cards because when I called that phone number it was no longer in services but I'm glad that there was a message that gave us the right number, and we do have the right numbers online. There've been a lot of changes, a lot of administrative changes that sometimes may bypass us so sometimes some of these updates are really good for not only us here on the council and the staff but for the residents. I think its very important so if we can get that next month that would be great. • 1 know you've been on the job for over a month now and we still have our vacancy and I think moving forward with the Chief of Police, what are those next steps, Manager Walters, and as well we still have these other two positions of Assistant City Manager, what are the steps that we're going to be taking so that we are able to inform our residents and we'll be moving forward with the Sunshine Ordinance and wanting to be more transparent and having open government I think its very important that we continue to share these kinds of things with our residents at the end of the day I think if we're able to do that there'll be more trust with our residents and as I was in the back room hearing the testimony from various people you can hear the anger, the distrust and I believe it is a new day here in the City of Santa Ana but change sometimes doesn't happen overnight, we want it to happen very quickly but I believe that we have great staff here, people that really want to make a difference and we have to take small steps and I believe that we are taking those initial steps and when we have our full team I really believe that at the end of the day when we have the right people to lead this city we have the passion of our residents we're going to be able to move this city forward and lets stop looking at the bad things that happened in the city look at the great things and we need to get back to that. Every time we look at the negative energy, everybody being so upset it just doesn't get us anywhere. If we talk about the solutions and what we need to do, what are the steps to get us where we want to get and with those solutions we're really able to get them done then I think at the end of the day we can meet common ground. But at this time there's various issues that we're facing that many us even on this Council we're divided but at the end of the day many of you at home if you're married with your children sometimes on issues you're divided but we all have the right to have our opinion and we all have the ability to share that opinion whether its right or wrong but just as long as we're able to share that and I think that's what important with the public coming here and addressing the issues that we have that CITY COUNCIL MINUTES 22 JULY 16, 2012