Mistrust in Santa Ana City Hall brews within City Council over questions about canceled state contract

Three councilmembers are raising concerns as to why the city of Santa Ana may be withholding records tied to its decision to quit a nearly $7 million state contract that would have provided free or low-cost childcare to hundreds of the city’s most vulnerable youth.

Santa Ana was awarded the first state contract in 2024 with approval from the City Council, only to return the money six months later without informing elected officials.

As LAist first reported in September, the decision has led councilmembers to question why the city gave up on the much-needed funding and why the decision was made behind closed doors.

Now, city officials have new questions concerning the city’s response to LAist’s records requests about the grant after Councilmember Jessie Lopez discovered hundreds of documents — flagged by city agencies as responsive — were deleted from the portal by the Santa Ana city clerk’s office.

The city told LAist the documents were deleted to allow for review and redaction. To Lopez and other members of the City Council, the deleted documents suggest the city is not forthcoming about the decision to return the grant money.

“If you're withholding records that you don't want the public to see, what do those records show? It does not matter if it puts the city in a bad public predicament,” Lopez said.

The discovery has Lopez questioning not only the decision to return the contract money and the city’s explanation — which Lopez finds unsatisfactory — but also shakes her trust in city management.

"Think about that. I am a current councilwoman telling you I cannot trust the leadership of the city,” Lopez said. “That is so, so concerning, not just to me as an elected [official]. It should be concerning to our constituents."

What happened to the funds?

In 2023, Santa Ana was awarded a $6.7 million contract from the California Department of Social Services (CDSS) to set up seven childcare facilities and programming, serving more than 500 kids. The money was supposed to be used by the Parks and Recreation Department to pay for new staff, licensing, training, program equipment, community engagement and state-required facility upgrades.

In the city’s bid to the state’s Department of Social Services, the city’s parks department said the program would relieve parents who otherwise cannot afford after-school care or similar programming.

Santa Ana Mayor Valerie Amezcua highlighted the award in her 2023 State of the City address.

“It’s almost $7 million. What are we going to do with that? I have a list,” Amezcua said.

According to Councilmember Johnathan Ryan Hernandez, Amezcua met with the Parks and Recreation Department to discuss how the city planned to use the funds.

Hernandez said city staff told him that Amezcua had requested that a portion of grant funds be transferred to the police department’s Police Athletic and Activity League, a youth sports program led by officers.

Documents released to LAist do show the city was considering a partnership between the parks department, the police athletic league and the library. The records show the state rules would not allow the city to transfer funds outside the Parks and Recreation Department, except for supplies and personnel specific to enrichment activities.

Hernandez said when staff informed the mayor and city management that transferring funds was not allowed per state rules, the city manager’s office instructed the department to give up the grant.

Amezcua declined to answer LAist’s questions about meeting with the department. City spokesperson Paul Eakins told LAist that Amezcua was the only elected official to request a meeting to discuss the grant.

After that meeting, and six months after accepting the grant, the city quietly canceled the contract and returned the money. Members of the City Council told LAist they were surprised by the decision.

“It’s our responsibility, and not the city manager’s responsibility, to give back money, especially because we all voted yes [to accept the money],” Councilmember Benjamin Vazquez said.

In a Sept. 16 staff report, the city manager’s office said the council was informed of the decision to give up on the grant in individual meetings. Councilmembers Lopez, Hernandez and Vazquez, however, said that’s not true.

Assistant City Manager Kathryn Downs appeared before City Council on Sept. 16 to publicly explain the move to the council for the first time.

Downs said they gave up on the program because they didn’t believe staff could handle the state’s licensing and contracting requirements and that the initial $915,583 contract award wasn’t enough to jumpstart the program.

The city manager’s office also told the council the city would have had to spend millions on building toddler-sized bathrooms and other ancillary costs.

Downs also cited Santa Ana’s tightening budget as it faces slowing revenues and the looming threat of losing federal funds. The city is looking at a $35 million budget deficit in the next four years.

Lopez said the explanation provided by the city manager’s office didn’t make sense to her because she knew the city didn’t need to build smaller bathrooms, and the initial state contract was to start with building one facility, not all seven at once.

“At that point, I already knew that they were withholding information from me. I already knew that they were lying to me,” Lopez said.

Amezcua has expressed frustration about the continued discussion of the canceled grant.

“This whole CDSS grant keeps coming up. It’s like they don’t want to let it die,” Amezcua said at the Oct. 7 City Council meeting. The mayor accused members of the City Council of spreading lies about her role in returning the grant money.

“I do not have the authority to give back $6.9 million,” Amezcua said.

Concerns over public records

LAist has submitted a total of four records requests related to the state grant.

One request filed by LAist on July 9 asked for a copy of the city’s contract with the state and any related expense reports. The next day, city staff responded, saying the program was never implemented, so “we do not have records related to your request.”

The request was closed days later without releasing a copy of the state’s contract, which was provided in a later request.

The city has provided some documents in response to LAist’s requests. Those documents include emails, newsletters, FAQ sheets about the grant program and the state contract that was initially withheld. The city also released email exchanges between Library Services Director Brian Sternberg and staff from the city of La Habra in which Sternberg asks for a tour of their childcare facility tied to the same state grant program.

The documents do not provide any more insight into the decision to give up the money. Two of LAist’s requests still are pending three months after the requests were submitted.

Lopez followed up on the requests because she believed there were more responsive documents that the city wasn’t providing. She accessed a portion of the city’s public records system portal that is only available to city officials.

The portal shows an index of hundreds of responsive files uploaded by staff from the library, parks and recreation, human resources and police departments between the opening of the requests and Sept. 30.

Most of these records were deleted by the city clerk’s office and not released, according to a printout of the public records system Lopez provided to LAist.

The contents of the documents are not available in the system Lopez accessed, only the file names. File names of deleted documents include “Recap Meeting CDSS Library PAAL” and “Discuss CDSS Startup- Next Moves,” which seem to be relevant to the city’s decision.

Lopez believes the deleted documents include information the public should see.

“There's a lot in these documents that clear up some of the misinformation, some of the blatant lies that were said to the public, on the record,” Lopez said.

California law requires government bodies to turn over public records when requested, with some exceptions.

What was the city’s explanation?

The records go through more than one round of vetting, according to the city.

City Clerk Jennifer Hall, in a statement, told LAist that potential records uploaded by staff were removed from the system for review and redaction.

“Review is then done to determine that the identified records respond to the request as submitted, including relevant parties and the date range of the records sought,” Hall said.

Records are then added back to the system and released.

Eakins and Hall did not respond to LAist’s request for the city’s written public records policy.

Lopez said she asked the city attorney if deletions like this are a normal practice when responding to open records requests, and the city attorney said no.

"It leads me to ask questions like, who told the clerk to delete records?” Lopez said. “It tells me that conversations have happened where these records were vetted, uploaded, and then somebody went into this portal and deleted them."

Councilmember Hernandez echoed the concerns shared by Lopez.

“This is an item of public interest, so I expect our city manager's office and the city clerk to be fully compliant with state law as it pertains to public records, and that is, release them all,” Hernandez said.

City Manager Alvaro Nuñez and council members Phil Bacerra, Thai Viet Phan and David Penaloza did not respond to LAist’s request for comment.

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