HomeMy WebLinkAboutCORRESPONDENCE - Non-Agenda Orozco, Norma
From: Lori Karaguezian <lori@karaguezian.com>
Sent: Tuesday, December 21, 2021 5:47 PM
To: eComment
Subject: Public Comment
Hello Councilmembers,
I am writing to express my concern about how things went down with the award of the City's trash franchise
agreement.
I was surprised when Council moved away from the staff recommendation to award the contract to Athens. The
reasons Councilmembers provided for their decisions to shift toward Republic Services didn't seem convincing
or compelling to me. During the motion to award,the contract to Republic a Councilmember said that Waste
Management has done a great job for 16 years but it's time for a change. Change for the sake of change is
simply not a good reason. A Councilmember said Republic Services offered great benefits to their employees.
Well, we recently saw how their employees staged a strike so they probably weren't too happy with their
benefits. Another Councilmember said that Republic was the only one whose employees were unionized, but
other bidders had offered to allow their employees to unionize. A truly progressive Council would have jumped
on the opportunity to create more union jobs but you passed on that opportunity which could have been part of
your legacy. Republic wasn't even the most "green" of the options so I simply walked away from watching that
Council meeting unable to understand why Republic Services? I wondered if something else was at play here,
but since I respect and trust this Council and your decisions I didn't go digging until recently at a community
event I observed how chummy a Councilmember was with employees from Republic Services. After that day I
did do some research and I was beyond disappointed to see that a number of Councilmembers had in fact
accepted campaign contributions from Republic Services.
Now I get why you all ignored the great work Waste Management has done for 16 years, I understand why you
ignored how green CR&R is and I see why you ignored staff s recommendation to select Athens. You were
supposed to be better. You were supposed to be different. I took the time to reach out to a couple of you
individually about this matter. Unfortunately, neither of you took the time to reach out to me which solidifies
my belief that you know what you did was unethical. Choosing to award such a hefty and lengthy contract
based on who lined your pockets wasn't what I expected from this Council. I implore you to accept this huge
misstep on your parts and do better by revisiting this matter and choosing the hauler that's best for our residents,
businesses, and City while you still have that opportunity.
Thank you,
Lori Karaguezian
Morning Sunwood resident
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Orozco, Norma
From: Chelsea Boyle <cboyle1221 @gmail.com>
Sent: Tuesday, December 21, 2021 4:12 PM
To: eComment
Subject: Santa Ana deserves to be healthy and safe
Dear Santa Ana City Council and Mayor Sarmiento,
Our community is being impacted on a daily basis by environmental hazards like lead and fossil fuels. We need to treat
this like the emergency it is and put in place protections for all Santa Ana residents. The resolution brought forward by
Councilmember Lopez is a good first step and roadmap for actions our community can take to resolve these pressing
issues.
Fossil fuels don'tjust exacerbate climate change, but also poison people. Study after study has shown that extracting,
transporting, refining, and burning fossil fuels harms environmental and human health—and new evidence shows that
toxic air pollution from fossil fuels also makes people more vulnerable to poor outcomes from COVID.
We must phase out fossil fuels from our daily lives—whether it's gas stoves causing asthma, tailpipes blanketing our
streets with smog, or gas stations poisoning water supplies and spreading cancerous chemicals like benzene. It's clear
we must start moving to clean energy systems—and soon. Our community should be running on clean, renewable
energy no later than 2030.
But it's not just fossil fuels that are harming our community. Many neighborhoods in Santa Ana suffer from
disproportionately high levels of lead in their soil,which can lead to serious developmental and health issues.The city
must do more and protect our residents.
Addressing these issues won't just improve our health, it will also improve our local economy.The Biden administration
is investing money in green infrastructure buildout, and we need to make sure we have shovel ready jobs prepared.
What's more, cleaning up environmental pollution and converting our energy systems are massive job opportunities that
could bring family-wage jobs to thousands of people in Santa Ana.
I'm writing to you today to ask you to please implement the contents of the climate and public health emergency
resolution that calls for an end to fossil fuel expansion, clean renewable energy choices that save money, actions that
will reduce lead and other environmental toxins in our neighborhoods,family-wage jobs, and an endorsement of the
Fossil Fuel Non-Proliferation Treaty initiative. We can reduce pollution that is cooking the planet and poisoning our
communities while improving the quality of life for every Santa Ana resident.
Please please follow through with what this resolution promises and start taking local action by passing policies that
stop fossil fuel expansion, speed up the clean energy transition, reduce local pollution, and empower our local
community and economy.
Thank you,
Chelsea Boyle, 92604
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