Arianna Barrios for Orange

Wow! Huge congrats to Hometown Boy Freddie Freeman El Modena Grad, for hitting a Walk Off Grand Slam to win Game 1 of tonight’s World Series for the LA Dodgers!

Now that’s

Looking for an opportunity to give back to Sweet Orange? How about showing our city some LOVE?

Home We are excited to highlight the heroic efforts of ordinary citizens, aka your volunteers! Look, down on the corner! Is it you? Is it your neighbor? Who will be the next Orange Hero of the Month?

Violence is NEVER the answer!

There’s been A LOT going on in our fair city, and so many people have called, emailed and stopped to speak with me about what is wrong at city hall. So I thought I’d take a moment to provide some insight.

If you’ve just heard that the city council cut all community events, I’d like to start by saying this isnt a new problem. The Council has been grappling with a looming budget crisis for over a year. We’ve been posting, meeting, educating and working on the issue during that entire time. In addition, we’ve cut and cut, and cut some more.

In January, despite everything we cut and everything we’ve put in place to grow our economic prospects it became clear it wasn’t even close to being enough. In fact the city had a serious budget deficit and ridiculous structural deficit that had been built up for at least a decade. You can see a lot of the historical data at www.protectorange.org.

In March, we knew it was insurmountable. We could keep cutting, but we were close to killing the patient.

So now we are faced with the ultimate dilemma: do we keep cutting (and I mean amputate whole sections of city services, lay-offs, facility closures, stop infrastructure repairs, etc.) OR do we ask ask the voters if they are willing to tax themselves???

There are no easy answers.

So a few hard facts:
- Orange has less employees today then we had in 2008. Almost 50 less, so we aren’t bloated.
- Orange employees are paid, on average, 15-20% less than their counterparts at other cities. We have 40+ vacancies now and the number is growing fast.
- Orange has had no legitimate economic development program since 2012 (when the state took away $40M in redevelopment funds)
- Orange has used its strategic reserves to stop the bleeding again and again and again. We have only just been above water for the past 10-15 years. Without growing revenue the problem has ballooned to where we are today.
- Orange has used, patched and duct taped its facilities until they just can’t go on (exp: when the firefighters moved out of the old station on grand the building flooded and had a catastrophic power failure a few days later.)
- Orange has failed to keep pace with raising cost of providing services (exp: we haven’t raised Hotel taxes in well over a decade…we’ve been at 15% for 20 years while everyone around us is at 18%)
- This Council has already raised some fees, cut services, implemented new economic growth programs but it’s not enough and/or won’t come to fruition for a few years.

Tuesday the council failed to come to an agreement on whether or not to ask voters for a new sales tax. Not IMPOSE a tax, simply ask the question. Only the voters can decide and it’s an important community discussion. Something this big can’t be decided by just 7 people and a spreadsheet. And EVEN if we ask the voters there are no guarantees…we will have to abide by the will of the people. PERIOD.

So, barring a decision, we had to start cutting again. And this time people noticed. And it hurt. Defunding city events was soul crushing, but it had to be done, as will many more painful decisions yet to come.

Why? It’s pretty simple actually. Because I want police to be there when you and I need them. Because I want paramedics, Orange paramedics, to answer when my mom or your child is in jeopardy. Because I want code enforcement and graffiti removal to keep our town beautiful. Because I want building inspections to crack down on slum housing and shoddy construction. Because I want homeless encampments stopped before they start (it’s bad enough in my neighborhood…how’s yours?). These aren’t luxuries, they are the basics. Many of them we had only just started to improve after a decade of mismanagement.

So if a few concerts have to go, it breaks my heart but I’ll do it. You see, my job is to ensure the health and safety of every single resident in this city. I’m not here to be popular or an ideologue, that’s ridiculous. My job is to do the hard work, the unpopular things, make the tough choices. And I choose public safety and quality of life. I also choose vision and partnership…but those take some time.

We have another crack at it Friday (6/28) at a Special Meeting of the Council at 4:30 PM.

How would you vote?

Budget Crisis - Protect Orange | City of Orange, CA Orange is a full-service city that provides essential services across a variety of areas including fire protection and 9-1-1 emergency medical response, police patrols, property crime and gang prevention and investigation, safe and well-maintained streets and sidewalks, parks and recreation, communi...

In the news (x2) this months edition of the Foothills Sentry features a guest editorial I authored discussing the City’s budget issues. I’ll post a text version shortly but you can read the pdf version online by clicking:
https://img1.wsimg.com/blobby/go/44d2f1bb-21d0-4fc1-b5a7-1d3904ec8830/Foothills%20Sentry_MAY_16Page-web.pdf

First significant Santa Ana Wind 💨 event of the year, please stay safe neighbors! To check on outages, scheduled safety shut-offs, and 🚨 info, SCE has 🗺️ maps and resources available.

https://www.sce.com/outage-center/outage-information/psps

Public Safety Power Shutoffs Public Safety Power Shutoff Class name left-box-content Expose as Block No Get AlertsReport OutageView Outages Expose as Block No Class name sce-ot-main-title Expose as Block No What is a Public Safety Power Shutoff?> The threat of wildfires in California is real and growing. With one-quarter of SCE...

What a wonderful few days celebrating all that is best in Sweet, sweet Orange. Mayor Slaters first State of the City. Former Mayor Tita Smith honored as citizen of the year. Good friends named small business of the year The Potting Shed By Carlisle. And hundreds of amazing volunteers participating in Love Orange Day taking on projects all across the city. AMAZING

Proud to stand with Mayor Dan Slater and Orange’s amazing police and fire teams as we remember the 22nd anniversary of 9/11.

Orange County EOC: Tropical Storm Hilary Warning - Expect dangerous flash flooding, strong winds. More information: ocgov.com/hilary & on social media

Hurricane Hilary / Tropical Storm Hilary | Orange County Storm Safety for Orange County Residents Follow us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram for additional updates from the County of Orange.

Congresswoman Young Kim will be hosting a public event for Seniors this Saturday at the Orange Senior Center. 8 AM to 11:30 AM on August 18. Drop-in or RSVP at youngkim.house.gov/august-senior-resource-fair

A Very Orange Lunch Break: 1 hour is all it took for our dedicated City of Orange California - Municipal Government code enforcement team, our wonderful orange city firefighters and a couple of random councilmembers to clean a residents front yard.

The elderly occupant had received a citation and contacted Jon Dumitru, City of Orange Council Member, District 2 that it was too much for them. My colleague alerted Orange City Fire, myself and Code Enforcement so off we went…weeding, cutting, chopping, raking and bagging. 20 bags of weeds later, this Orange team made a huge difference in one grateful residents life!

Enjoying meeting the minds behind Core Burger Grill which is hosting its grand opening today! Come on down and enjoy some amazing samplers!

Fun Fact: this is the three Core partners first restaurant venture and they estimate they looked at 200 locations before settling on Orange!

Thank you guys for becoming part of our community!

ICYMI: OTPA hosted its annual Old Towne Forum last week and the program is now available on YouTube. Lots of great information about issues that impact District 1.

OTPA 8th Annual State of Old Towne Forum Featuring:MAYOR DAN SLATERMAYOR PRO-TEM ARIANNA BARRIOSINTERIM CITY MANAGER TOM KISELACHIEF OF POLICE DAN ADAMSCHAPMAN VP ALISA DRISCOLLLEARN WHAT’S GOING ON...

How are you getting your Irish on tonight? You have about an hour 1/2 to enjoy amazing Habit Patty Melts and Pilsners at Chapman Crafted in Old Towne served up by my good friend Wil Dee!

TRAGIC: Last year the City Council approved an aggressive “hardening” of Plaza Park with crash grade bollards among other improvements…sadly, it comes too late. At 5:30 am this morning, yet another driver crashed through and significantly damaged our historic Plaza Fountain.

One of my favorite things about Orange is watching the generations of families who call this town home - we grow up together, go to school together and watch each other’s children grow in turn.

So I am super excited to head to the The Streamliner Lounge to see Gavin Braun Music perform! Gavin is an amazing talent and his parents and I are OHS alums. Always fun to watch the next Gen do there thing.

Doing the hard work to keep our residents safe…thanks OPD!

Joined Old Towne Preservation Association for their Annual Membership meeting on Sunday evening. What a lovely chance to meet so many District 1 residents and provide city updates with Mayor Dan Slater and Interim City Manager Tom Kisela. Attendees had the chance to see the fully renovated Shannon Mortuary reimagined as The Richland hotel and event space at the corner of Maple Avenue and Orange Street. Photos courtesy of Orange Review - thanks guys!

I'm incredibly grateful to my Council colleagues and our new Mayor, Dan Slater for allowing me the honor of serving as Mayor Pro Tem for the next two years. Looking forward to getting to work for our residents!