Two-person dorm-style cells remain clean and tidy, with dark blue tables, mint green bunk beds and doors with glass windows rather than cage-like metal bars. There is clean, blue and beige carpet to muffle ambient noise and large areas where inmates can mingle, watch TV, play board games or hang out in a recreation yard.

Santa Ana’s city jail, a state-of-the art design attached to a new police headquarters at the tail end of a 1980s and 1990s crime wave that boosted demand for inmate beds, has aged well.

But the four-story facility now stands as a symbol of changing times in incarceration: it’s nearly two-thirds empty, with an uncertain future and millions in remaining construction debt.

A number of factors have helped drain away inmates. Crime rates are lower today than when the jail opened; the state is working to cut the number of non-violent criminals it incarcerates. And, most recently, Santa Ana declared itself a sanctuary city, moving to undo a roughly $11-million-a-year contract to house undocumented detainees for federal immigration agencies.

“Obviously, it’s not nearly as busy as it used to be,” said Santa Ana Jail administrator Christina Holland, as she walked by vacant jail visiting rooms on a recent weekday.

In addition to what was hailed as a cutting-edge concept for jail management, the 512-bed facility was characterized as a model of creative fiscal management. The city could market lockup space it didn’t need to other agencies and help pay off Santa Ana’s portion of borrowing for the $107.4-million construction cost of both the jail and police headquarters.

However, the inmate population hasn’t come close to the facility’s capacity for four years, Holland said. That’s partly because those arrested in Santa Ana for felony offenses are taken to county jail, operated by the Orange County Sheriff’s Department, and increasingly misdemeanor offenders are simply booked and released at the city jail.

With fewer inmates, jail staff also has been reduced. “There simply isn’t a need because the population has dropped,” Holland said.

But the jail facility still costs close to $16 million a year to operate and maintain, and it only generates $4.8 million in revenue, Santa Ana police Cpl. Anthony Bertagna said.

A new low was reached last month with the removal of the last 10 detainees – all transgender women – held in Santa Ana on behalf of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

As of Tuesday’s count, only five of eight housing modules—holding 179 arestees held under contracts with the U.S. Marshals Service and the Federal Bureau of Prisons – are still operating, plus two dormitory units housing pay-to-stay inmates and others that must be segregated.

The sharply divided City Council is wrestling over the wisdom of past decisions, what comes next, and how to reduce the strain the jail’s ongoing costs imposes on residents and the city budget.

The city sold $80 million in bonds to help finance the jail and police headquarters, and will continue to incur $3 million annual debt expenses for the jail—one-third of the $9 million total in debt payments for the entire building—through 2024. Council members are aware the jail operation is contributing to a projected structural deficit of $14.4 million for fiscal year 2017-18 and $19.5 million for the following year, according to city staff.

A formal study of potential future uses of the jail is due to be completed in August.

“I don’t think at the start there was even an intention to convert it into anything other than a jail,” Holland said. “But it’s a different world today.”

Council member suggestions have included: creating a mental health center, the funding for which isn’t clear; cutting operating costs in half by converting the jail into a smaller-scale booking facility; or ramping up efforts to grow revenue by securing new contracts to house inmates for outside agencies.

Late Tuesday, June 6, council members were scheduled to consider a staff recommendation to convert part of the jail to a short-term holding facility in the 2017-18 fiscal year. But they decided to continue the item for two weeks.

“By transitioning to a holding facility, two of the four floors at the jail would become available for the city’s consultant to provide various use options,” Santa Ana spokeswoman Alma Flores said.

Councilman Jose Solorio said he’s optimistic “there might be additional federal or state departments that might have an interest in our facility to mitigate the losses to the city jail budget and our general fund.

“I think we need to keep all options on the table.”

But Mayor Pro Tem Michele Martinez and Councilman David Benavides have said the city erred in building the jail. Closing part of the jail and using the remainder for a booking operation is probably the better, more financially sustainable option, they have argued.

“Clearly what we’re seeing now in retrospect is that we shouldn’t have gone into the jail business,” said Benavides, who was part of the council majority that advocated for phasing out the federal ICE contract.

When the jail and police headquarters were unveiled in January 1997, top Santa Ana officials said it represented a smart investment in public safety and a commitment to the peace of mind for residents. At the time, violent crime rates were high. Just a few years earlier, the city hit a peak of nearly 90 homicides.

“This is, I believe, the best possible investment we could make as a community to ensure our long-term future,” Mayor Miguel Pulido said at the ribbon-cutting ceremony. “The beauty of this is that we did it right.”

In the two decades since, crime has fallen—there were less than 25 homicides last year—along with the inmate population.

The political makeup of the City Council also has shifted.

In May 2016, the council majority voted to phase out the federal ICE contract that financially covered close to 40 percent of the jail’s beds. On the way out of office after an election setback, members of that same majority voted late last year to declare Santa Ana the first sanctuary city in Orange County. They also put federal immigration officials on notice that the city was reducing the jail beds available to ICE. In February, ICE notified the city it was terminating its contract.

The current council is split on a number of key issues, including whether to pursue new law enforcement contracts to help fill the jail.

Pulido, who has remained Santa Ana mayor, hasn’t wavered from the decisions he and his then-colleagues made two decades ago. The city should try to increase the inmate population, including restarting talks with federal immigration officials about housing undocumented detainees, he said.

“When you go back look at some of those early years and look at the (millions) … that used to go into the general fund, why?” he said. “Because we had 500 beds” occupied, he added. “Take 500 beds, multiply times $80 a day, whatever number you want. When you have that many beds and they’re full, then everything works.”

Pulido said he believes there’s potential to put the jail back in the black—housing inmates.

“We can try. We won’t know until we try,” he said, before acknowledging the political challenge for council members. “We’re deadlocked.”

Whether past contracting opportunities with immigration officials can be revived is an open question. To offset the loss of Santa Ana jail beds, ICE recently moved to expand its contract for jail space with Orange County officials.

“Right now, what have we done?” said Pulido. “We said no to ICE, they moved across the street” and they are offering Orange County government what amounts to a multi-million dollar windfall, he said. “Meanwhile, we have empty beds and we’re spending money on a reuse study. It was never intended to be empty – and that’s the real problem.”

But Martinez reiterated that the city should not be in the jail business because “it’s not a core service” for residents.

“I understand a holding facility, but am not sure how we ended up” running a longer-term, full-service jail operation. “That makes no sense when the county jail is next door,” she said. “As for the ICE going across the street, that is a policy decision on the county side” where the sheriff’s department must maintain a much higher-level, more costly jail operation.

The Santa Ana jail doesn’t have that obligation, she said.

https://www.ocregister.com/2017/06/06/santa-ana-ponders-new-future-for-its-futuristic-jail/

In a letter dated Wednesday, April 19, to Acting City Manager City Manager Gerardo Mouet and obtained Thursday by the Register, Rojas noted he had served the city for more than 27 years. He called for the appointment of an acting police chief to “allow for a seamless transition as I separate from the department.”

The action comes amid recent criticism by some City Hall elected officials over a rise in shootings and an ongoing discussion by a sharply divided City Council of the department’s performance and leadership. The November city election, which focused in large part on crime and trends in shootings, reduced Rojas’ support on the council.

Also on Thursday, the Santa Ana Police Officers’ Association announced it was moving forward with a vote of no confidence on Rojas. The police union agreed to proceed with the vote last week, the group’s president, Gerry Serrano, wrote in an email to city officials.

Newly elected Councilman Jose Solorio, who had police union backing in the November election, said in an email to the Register Thursday that “maybe the POA won’t need to do a vote of no confidence.”

Councilman David Benavides, a Rojas ally, expressed gratitude for the chief’s service to the city, beginning as a patrol officer and ending as the city’s first Latino chief.

“I believe he was a strong and effective leader. It’s unfortunate that the police union leadership and its allies on the City Council have made the police chief’s job difficult over the last several months, and I can understand the chief’s decision to go to a place where he might be allowed to be more effective.”

In a statement, Serrano, the police union president, thanked Rojas for his service, adding: “Now we need a Chief with a new problem-solving and community-oriented policing strategy to address the spike in gang shootings and morale at the Santa Ana Police Department.”

The agency was “once recognized as a leader Nationally in Community Oriented Policing,” he said, and “with the right leadership can once again make the city of Santa Ana a safer community for the families, business stakeholders and city employees to work in.”

City police Cpl. Anthony Bertagna said Rojas “is not currently discussing his employment status.”

A source close to the police department said Rojas is expected Friday, April 21, to be named police chief of BART, the Bay Area transit agency. The San Francisco Chronicle, citing multiple sources, reported Thursday that Rojas would be appointed chief of the BART force leading a department with 227 sworn officers.

Mouet said he received the resignation letter Thursday morning and was beginning meetings with personnel officials on a process for selecting an acting police chief. He said he believes there are “a lot of individuals internally” who may seek the job, but the search could be opened to external candidates, as well.

The police union email to city officials on the no-confidence vote, provided to the Register, says the union tabled plans for a no confidence vote more than a year ago, “in fairness, to allow Chief Rojas to address the issues.”

“A year has elapsed and gang shootings are up to historic numbers, mismanagement of resources and the morale at the police department has worsened to near unrecoverable levels,” Serrano wrote. “There has been no change in all of the areas of concern, and as new issues arise, the association has decided it is now time to move forward.”

The new development comes days after council members directed city staff to pursue, at the chief’s urging, what was characterized as a multi-pronged holistic approach, involving community groups, to combat shootings and gang violence.

“Gang prevention is a big challenge for us,” Rojas told the council. “With that comes the increase in shootings we’ve seen.”

“We can’t arrest ourselves out of the problem,” he added.

Mayor Pro Tem Michele Martinez, who had called for Tuesday’s discussion on gang shootings and violence, said she wishes the city could have continued efforts to reduce crime with Rojas.

“We had a good working relationship and appreciated his efforts to change the culture in the [police department] and hold his officers accountable, and his willingness to partner with the community,” Martinez wrote in a text message. “A big loss to the city family.”

There were 55 shootings in the first 50 days of 2016, a five-year high for Orange County’s second-largest city. Shortly afterward, the police department stopped releasing the number of shootings – which include attempted murder, assault with a deadly weapon and firing into an inhabited dwelling or vehicle – citing problems tracking from multiple databases.

Figures released by the police department last month showed shootings in May and June last year exceeded the pace of shootings in the beginning of the year, and that the trend eased before climbing back to about one-per-day in January of this year. More broadly, shootings increased 183 percent from 2013 to 2016 to 292 incidents, according to the report. Many were gang-related

The surge in shootings and the department’s handling of crime data became an issue in the council campaign later in the year, with the police union spending nearly $300,000 to help elect candidates who voiced concerns about the strategies and leadership of the department.

After the election, Rojas’ allies claimed publicly that the union wanted candidates it supported to remove both the former city manager, who agreed to depart in January, and the police chief. Serrano, the police union president, has said such decisions rest with the City Council and his association’s involvement in the campaign wasn’t unusual.

On Thursday, Benavides said that “everything that was suggested, that there were promises made, is all coming to fruition as was said, so it’s difficult to think otherwise.”

He added that it is now “very important for us as a council to provide clear direction to the acting city manager. That focus is the safety of our community, quality of life and that we don’t [fall into] allowing politics to drive decisions of the police department or city.”

In his email, Solorio noted the chief worked many years for Santa Ana “and we are thankful for his service and commitment to our city.”

Rojas was named the 20th Police Chief in May 2014. He served at the rank of corporal, sergeant, commander and deputy chief. Rojas developed the Homeland Security Division after the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, according to the city’s website.

Rojas is a Medal of Valor recipient from the United States Customs Service, Santa Ana Police Department and the Federal Bar Association. He has a Master’s Degree in criminal justice from Chapman University and a Bachelor’s degree from California State University, Long Beach.

https://www.ocregister.com/2017/04/20/amid-controversy-over-rise-in-shootings-santa-ana-police-chief-resigns-says-he-has-new-job/

Over the next 24 hours, two more men were killed in gun violence a mile apart in a gang-plagued area already targeted for special enforcement by police and prosecutors.

The four shootings in the first five days of 2016 grew to 55 over the next 45 days, a spike in violence not seen in decades in the city that dubs itself Orange County’s downtown. As broken families held vigils for the dead and wounded, investigators pored over near-daily shooting scenes and residents peered warily from their homes, law enforcement leaders, elected officials and researchers struggled to pinpoint the cause and determine if a new era of bloodshed was dawning.

And then, according to Police Chief Carlos Rojas, the spasm of violence receded. How much isn’t completely clear because the Police Department stopped releasing shooting totals, which had helped fuel headlines in the first weeks of the year. Instead, Rojas noted that in February, major violent crimes reported to the FBI dropped 24 percent from the previous month and remained at roughly that level through the remainder of the year.

But community concern and the political repercussions of the surge of shootings became a central focus of the November City Council campaign, which highlighted public safety and reset the balance of power at City Hall.

POLICE UNION’S ROLE?

One political winner was the Santa Ana Police Officers Association, which criticized the leadership of Rojas and the city manager and spent nearly $300,000 supporting a slate of candidates that included the longtime mayor, Miguel Pulido. Three of the four candidates backed by the union, including Pulido, were elected, unseating an incumbent council member for the first time in decades.

Three weeks ago, in one of the new City Council’s first actions, a majority that included three lawmakers supported by the police union placed City Manager David Cavazos on paid administrative leave, citing performance evaluations and concerns about a City Hall personnel matter involving him. The allegations harked back to a Pulido-initiated investigation of Cavazos’ relationship with a subordinate female city employee that resulted in his censure by the International City/County Management Association.

The move against Cavazos signaled a partial reversal of the 2012 election results. In that so-called Santa Ana Spring election, voters installed a slate of candidates that promised greater City Hall transparency and responsiveness and unseated a majority allied with the mayor. That group fired the previous city manager, who was supported by Pulido, and hired Cavazos. Rojas was hired under the new administration.

In the runup to the election, officers union President Gerry Serrano attacked Rojas’ management and policing strategies, which in part emphasized assigning officers to neighborhood beats where they would get to know residents, in lieu of beefing up specialized enforcement units.

In an email to the news media and city elected officials last summer, Serrano released figures showing a more than 550 percent increase in shootings for the first half of the year compared with the same period four years earlier, when Rojas became chief.

Specifically, Serrano criticized Rojas for reassigning officers to the neighborhood beats, cutting back on resources allocated for gang suppression, and failing to reinstate a police strike force that had been used to respond to crime hot spots.

“Violent crime continues to rise at an unbelievable rate, yet patrol staffing remains below minimum staffing levels,” Serrano wrote. “What is Rojas doing to address this? Nothing. What is Cavazos doing to address this? Nothing.”

Since Rojas took over, Serrano added, officer morale is down and many are retiring early.

CRIME STATISTICS

Pulido said in an interview that the realignment of the City Council will help ensure a return to successful policing strategies.

Violent crime prevention in the city “kind of went backward,” he said. “We need to continue to make progress. Going backward and even holding our own is not acceptable.”

Responding to the police union’s portrayal of rising crime, Cavazos released a report showing Santa Ana had a 74 percent reduction in murders, aggravated assaults, forcible rapes, robberies, arsons and property crimes from 1987 to 2012, based on moving three-year averages.

Rojas cited 2016 overall crime data, reported to the FBI, which showed violent and property crimes peaked at 871 incidents in January and dipped into the 600s and 700s thereafter.

“It does appear to be slowing down a little bit,” Rojas said, “which is good.”

POLICE UNION MAILERS

In the months leading up to the election, records show the police union provided hundreds of thousands of dollars to help fund mailers and television advertisements endorsing its slate of candidates and attacking council incumbents. The expenditures included the majority of contributions to an independent political action committee, California Homeowners Association, which spent nearly $100,000 opposing council members Roman Reyna and Vicente Sarmiento, a Register analysis found.

One of the PAC’s mailers carried a headline asking: “Want to know who to blame for Santa Ana’s rising crime? It’s Reyna and Sarmiento!” The mailer also included a reproduction of a Register article on Cavazos, the city manager, which noted that he received a bonus amid allegations of misconduct and highlighted a reference to “a romantic relationship with a subordinate city employee.”

The police officers association’s independent spending far exceeded that by a police union-endorsed candidate, Orange County sheriff’s officer Juan Villegas, who unseated Reyna.

Council supporters of the police chief and Cavazos, who clashed with Pulido over various City Hall projects, see the election results not as referendum on the city’s public safety programs but as a power grab by the police union, which among other things is seeking raises for members and more officer hiring for patrol shifts.

Reyna, who grew up in a gang-infested community near El Salvador Park, said at a recent council meeting that the spike in shootings early in 2016 appeared to be tied to a struggle involving the role of a top gang leader and not deficient city policing tactics.

“The other gang members all wanted to sit in that leadership position so they fought literally with guns to see who could get that position,” Reyna said.

DIFFERING VIEWS

At the first meeting of the new City Council last month, Councilman Sal Tinajero, Cavazos’ most vocal supporter, complained about what he portrayed as political strong-arm tactics by the police union. He alleged that Serrano, the group’s president, “met with different folks, saying: ‘If you fire the chief of police, we will support you. The only way to get to the chief of police is to fire the city manager. We are going to raise over $400,000 and those who support this, we will support, and those who don’t, we are going to run someone against you,’”

“He asked me … ‘So Sal, are we going to throw a body out the window?’” Tinajero continued. “This (police union) is who’s just taken over our city.”

Tinajero also defended Rojas’ leadership, saying: “You see for the first time in our city, officers are being held accountable. … We need to help our community be safe and being safe means that we need community policing. We need a relationship with our police officers.”

Serrano said evaluating the city manager is the job of the City Council, not the police union.

“It’s not our issue,” he said. “Why Councilman Tinajero wants to include me in it, I have no idea.”

And his union’s involvement in this Santa Ana election was “nothing out of the ordinary,” Serrano said.

“All unions invest when it comes to election – that’s what we do, we look out and try to support elected officials that are supportive of labor unions,” he said. “I look forward to working with our entire City Council and being part of moving the city forward.”

CHANGES COMING?

Pulido said he expects that the new City Council will revive a gang suppression unit.

“Part of it is we have to go back to basics. … We need to work closely with the community and do many of the things we’ve done in the past,” Pulido said. “We know what works, and it’ll work again.”

Similarly, Jose Solorio, another police union-endorsed candidate elected in November, said bringing down gang violence and shootings will require restoring gang unit officers and more transparency of crime statistics.

“It’s time for the city to step up and do something about it,” Solorio said. “I think with the addition of myself and council member Juan Villegas, we both have very strong pro-public safety backgrounds.”

Councilwoman Michele Martinez was the swing vote, siding with Pulido and his two newly elected allies to place Cavazos on leave. The councilwoman supported Cavazos’ hiring, but her opinion shifted after he alleged Martinez sexually harassed and made romantic advances toward him. A city-ordered external investigation found that his allegation was without merit.

Martinez said she’s not aligned with either City Council camp and doesn’t vote based on their agendas.

“I’m very independent. I think in both sides, it’s all political and the city manager is right in the middle,” she said. “I will be working with anyone who is willing to set good policy.”

Pulido has said talk of an alliance between him and the police union is irrelevant, and the election results are what counts.

“Do people who work harder sometimes gain more votes? Yes,” Pulido said.

FIRE THE CITY MANAGER?

While the shooting-per-day average from the beginning of 2016 hasn’t been the case for the first weeks of this year, last Saturday night was the most violent in recent memory, with six people shot, according to Santa Ana police Cpl. Anthony Bertagna.

On the political front, it appears the reverberations of the November election are just beginning. Cavazos supporters say they are committed to checking the political power of the mayor and police officers association at City Hall.

“We have a strong, solid team in the council” that among other things supports the current police chief, Councilman David Benavides said.

Five votes are needed to fire a city manager, who has the authority to appoint and remove the police chief.

The sharply divided council is expected to revisit Cavazos’ employment in closed session before today’s council meeting.

https://www.ocregister.com/2017/01/18/how-a-violent-month-in-santa-ana-set-the-stage-for-council-infighting-election-angst-and-jobs-possibly-lost/