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Paul Gonzales March 12, 2018 Santa Ana City Council 20 Civic Center Plaza Santa Ana, CA 92701 To the Honorable Members of the Santa Ana City Council, I am writing to you as a citizen of the City of Santa Ana regarding Item 65A on the agenda for today's Special Meeting of the City Council. Unfortunately, given the last minute and inconvenient scheduling of this meeting, I am unable to attend in person to speak during the public comments portion; therefore, I ask that you accept my comments in writing. I respectfully request that the Council take no action on this matter and cease efforts to force a Special Municipal Election in June to decide the question of whether the City Charter should be amended to move to a district -based system of electing City Councilmembers. I spoke at the March 6th City Council meeting and warned that the Council is moving forward with undue haste in this matter. The events that have transpired since—from the Council majority's questionable tactics in allocating assets to fund a Special Election to the Council's submission of incomplete documentation to the Orange County Registrar of Voters—have only served to reinforce the concerns I expressed. A move toward district elections may ultimately result in City Council elections that more accurately reflect the diversity of this great City. However, the fact that the Council has not proactively engaged the public in this process and has not attached to the proposed Special Election ballot measure any detailed plan for how district -based elections will be carried out, do not demonstrate good faith by this Council to the public its members serve. Given the Council's failure to consider this issue in an open and deliberate manner, as well as its failure to present voters with a fully developed plan, moving forward with a Special Election in June would introduce confusion and disorganization into the City Council elections in November. The City Council has an opportunity to serve the public interest, both with respect to ensuring that all voters in the City are fully enfranchised and to acting as responsible stewards of the public's tax dollars, by deferring this matter to the November elections. This would allow the process to play out in a manner that truly engages the public, that lays a thoughtful and solid foundation for district -based elections, and that demonstrates prudence with respect to the City's financial resources. To be clear, district -based elections are an important component of fair and democratic municipal elections and the City of Santa Ana appears headed toward this model. However, more important than expressing support for the democratic principles that this election model may represent is introducing the model in a manner that is clear and transparent to the general public. While standing on principle makes for good political optics, careful planning and public engagement demonstrate a deeper commitment to those principles by yielding solid policies. I hope that the members of this Council will demonstrate their principles through the policies they develop as well as by the words they express from the dais. Toa* you for your consideration, Paul Gonzales v