HomeMy WebLinkAboutCORRESPONDENCE - 55BMitre- Ramirez, Norma
From: Huizar, Maria
Sent: Monday, April 14, 2014 1:44 PM
Cc: Cavazos, David; Lawrence, Mark; Carvalho, Sonia R.
Subject: Letter of Support - Agenda Item 55B (AB2325)
Attachments: Letters of Suppot.pdf
The following correspondence has been received and entered into the record
From: Madeleine Spencer [
Sent: Monday, April 14, 2014 1:36 PM
To: Huizar, Maria
Cc: cynthiaftcccopico.org
Subject: To Be Placed on Public Record
Dear Maria,
In compliance with measures of transparency, going forward SACReD would like to put all letters of support
issued per request of Council members, Commissioners or other staff on public record.
Attached below are two letters that SACReD has written per request of Council members which we agreed to
support, believing it to be in the best interest of Santa Ana residents: One was sent this past year on May 10,
2013 regarding issues with the OC Water Board. The other was sent Yesterday on April 13, 2014 regarding
IDEA funding. Thank you.
Please get back to me if there is any questions related to this request
Sincerely,
Madeleine Spencer
714 - 815 -2653
SACReD
CCM 04115/2014
Correspondence -55B
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To Whom It May Concern:
We, the Santa Ana Coalition for Responsible Development (SACReD) & Santa Ana Building
Healthy Communities (SABHC), would like to extend our strong support for the Individuals with
Disabilities Education Act and its potential for improving Special Education programs in our school
system. As residents of the City of Santa Ana, we understand the important role that our public
schools play in the success of Santa Ana's youth, and the impact that education has in the overall
health and well -being of their families and communities. We envision public education as an
equitable and accessible institution, and we believe that funding for the continued improvement of
our schools deserves support.
Much too often, special needs students are left without the proper support. It is worth noting that our
special needs programs have already dropped in funding, leaving destructive gaps that limit
resources for early intervention, and disrupt the capacity to measure performance data, review
teacher preparation, and oversee cross - training of special education and classroom teachers.
We at SACReD & SABHC recognize that IDEA programming and funding would greatly help our
schools correct some of these deficiencies. IDEA funding has the potential to create learning
environments where parents, teachers and children have an active say in educational processes,
resulting in higher rates of college enrollment and fewer high school dropouts. Without such
assistance, we believe that our youth with special educational needs who are already left with serious
lack resources will have even fewer opportunities.
We endorse IDEA as a step toward improving special education in Santa Ana Schools.
Sincerely,
The Santa Ana Coalition for Responsible Development
& Santa Ana Building Healthy Communities
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SANTA ANA COLLABORATIVE FOR RESPONSIBLE DEVELOPMENT
Building Healthy ColabolahVo de Santa Ana pva el Desarrollo Responsable
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City Hall of Santa Ana
20 Civic Center Plaza
Santa Ana, CA, 92701
Dear Mayor Pulido and Councilmembers Benavides, Tinajero, Amezcua, Martinez, Reyna, and
Sarmiento:
We are writing this letter to let you know that SACReD supports SB 658 which will clarify that the
Orange County Water District (OCWD) has the right to recover all costs from polluters to clean up
the contamination they caused in the Orange County groundwater basin.
During its groundwater monitoring and testing activities, OCWD detected the presence of
pollutants, commonly referred to as Volatile Organic Compounds or "VOCs," in the northern and
southern portion of our groundwater basin. A plume of VOC contamination in the groundwater is
migrating towards parts of the north basin that supply drinking water, and three drinking water
wells have been removed from service because contaminants were approaching elevated levels.
VOCs are known to cause a variety of harmful impacts to human health and must be effectively
remediated in order to preserve and protect public health, public safety and local economic
stability.
As residents of Santa Ana, this issue is of particular importance because a large portion of the
southern contamination has been found within our own city. We believe that is unjust to force
water rate payers, rather than large wealthy businesses, to foot the bill for cleaning up this
pollution in our city.
The California Legislature provided OCWD with the right to file suit to recover from polluters its
reasonable costs to investigate and clean up contamination of the groundwater basin.
Unfortunately, some polluters are attempting to exploit perceived legal loopholes to escape the
financial responsibilities of their contamination by shifting the cost of the clean up onto blameless
ratepayers and hampering the clean -up process.
Remediation of pollutants is critical for safe water supplies and the community at -large should not
have to pay to clean up contamination caused by others. Polluters alone must be held responsible
for their actions and pay the full cost to address the impacts of their behavior. As such, SACReD
and our five core organizations supports SB 658 and looks forward to working with your office and
OCWD to ensure the bill's passage.
Sincerely,
Community Leaders with SACReD 46ACR@®
SANTA ANA COLLABORATIVE FOR RESPONSIBLE DEVELOPMENT
Colaborati vo de Santa Ana para el Dcsarrollo Responsablc