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Case 8:23-cv-00504 Document 1-4 Filed 03/20/23 Page 2 of 10 Page ID #:144 <br /> February 8, 2023 <br /> Via Hand Delivery hare <br /> Han. Valerie Amezcua, Mayor Our <br /> Hon. Members of City Council Selves <br /> Ms. Normal Orozco, City Clerk <br /> City of Santa Ana <br /> 20 Civic Center Plaza <br /> Santa Ana, CA 92701 <br /> Re: Proposed Ordinance 2022-03 <br /> Dear Mayor, Members of the Council, and Ms. Clerk, <br /> I currently serve as the chairperson of the board of directors of Share Our Selves <br /> ('SOS"). On behalf of SOS, and medical providers impacted by this matter, I would <br /> respectfully request that the City Council not proceed today to provide final approval of <br /> Ordinance 2022-03 (the "Ordinance"). <br /> For the reasons stated below, we at SOS believe that the Ordinance is flawed and <br /> needs to be sent back to staff for further review and revision to eliminate its unfair and <br /> discriminatory treatment of federally funded, non-profit community health centers, such <br /> as SOS and the predominantly Hispanic and Latino individuals it serves in Santa Ana. <br /> In this regard, I would kindly ask that the public hearing on the Ordinance be reopened <br /> so that I and others supporting SOS be allowed a meaningful opportunity to present our <br /> concerns regarding the Ordinance to the Council. As explained below, SOS does not <br /> believe that the public notice for the Ordinance was adequate because, among other <br /> things, the notice did not alert either non-profit or for-profit medical offices in the City's <br /> Professional district that they might be considered to be "government-subsidized" <br /> entities that would be subject to the new CUP requirement in the Ordinance if they <br /> accepted any federal funds for treating patients on Medicare, for example. <br /> We believe that, if that message had been communicated to the public at large, there <br /> would have been a lot more people speaking in opposition to the Ordinance on January <br /> 17, 2023. As it was, not a single person from the public spoke either in favor of or in <br /> opposition to the Ordinance on January 17. That underscores the fact the notice was <br /> deficient and helps to explain why representatives of SOS were not in attendance at the <br /> hearing on the 17th. <br /> Although we believe that the Ordinance should be reworked to eliminate the <br /> deficiencies listed below, it should, at a minimum, be clarified to provide that it will not <br />