Foothills Sentry July 2023

Foothills Sentry Page 2 July 2023 714 282 0828 | jadtec.com aco 4202 Protecting your home and business from burglary, fire and medical emergencies. jadtec.com $ 15 95 /mo as low as SECURITY JADTEC DON'T GET CAUGHT WITH YOUR HEAD IN THE SAND "El Modena" continued from page 1 went unanswered. The best she could gather is that, “HUD makes the maps.” Penciled out “I saw the map in January 2021,” she reported at the May 9 city council meeting, “and El Modena was on it. Rick Otto told me that it was going to change in July, that El Modena wouldn’t be on it. And it did change. Half of El Modena was no longer on it. How did he know it was going to change?” Gutierrez says she enlisted the help of Sammy Rodriquez to find out what was going on. He filed a formal complaint with HUD, and the agency subsequently met with city officials. Ana Gutierrez was not invited to the meeting, or alerted that it was taking place. When she found out after the fact, she contacted the city manager and asked him to remedy that error by inviting HUD to return and, this time, meet with her. “I find it offensive that they came to my neighborhood, and I wasn’t invited,” she said. “We had a second meeting, and I finally got some answers. Two and a half years. That’s how long it took.” HUD did not draw the inaccurate map in July 2021. The city did. The map is drawn by the city’s GIS department, based on data supplied by someone in Orange Community Development. Apparently, the data supplied was incorrect, but no one seems to know how that happened. But, Gutierrez stresses, Rick Otto knew in January that it was going to change in July. Missing in action Otto is no longer with the city, nor is Gary Sheatz or the employee who provided the 2021 map data. City staff now say the map should never have changed, and it was a mistake. The map has since been corrected. Rodriguez has asked the city for a detailed explanation of the process used to create the CDBG map, and was told there wasn’t one. “The city admits a mistake was made, but won’t explain how it happened,” he says. “We want to know how the map got redrawn incorrectly. The public has a right to know.” This year’s CDBG funding has already been allocated. The city is quick to note that the El Modena Basin is getting restroom facilities paid for by $300,000 in CDBG funding. “That’s great,” Gutierrez says, “those restrooms are long overdue. But we should take another look at how CDBG funds are allocated. Paying for street rehab may help our general fund, but that grant money is intended for low- to moderate-income areas. Not just El Modena, but throughout the city.” Meanwhile, Sammy Rodriguez has been advised by HUD that the City of Orange has hired an independent mapping consultant to “clear up any confusion or possible mistakes made on their CDBG eligibility map.” HUD also explained that compliance and program requirements are monitored by a limited staff, but citizen complaints are factored in. The city is completing a report on the map error that will be presented to the council this month. Landscape fees go up for Santiago Hills The landscape assessment for Santiago Hills will increase by 3% for fiscal year 2023-24, following city council approval on June 13. Single-family residential fees will rise from $255.60 to $263.27; condos, from $181.48 to $186.92. Those fees are on top of the original assessment of $369.44 (single family) and $263.27 (condo) that commenced in 1987. That original assessment did not keep pace with rising costs, and community landscaping suffered. In 2015, Santiago Hills voters approved an overlay assessment to cover the increasing costs of landscape maintenance for common areas. Annual increases are tied to the Consumer Price Index. The City of Orange manages the landscape contracts as part of the original Santiago Hills development agreement. Santiago Hills is one of two communities in the city with common areas maintained in this manner. The Santiago Community District pays $25,106 as its portion of the assessment. Combined revenue for 2023-24 is $926,336, which will result in a $3,543 surplus. That excess will be rolled over into the landscape reserve fund. Resident Jeremy Livermore, speaking at the council meeting, asked if that surplus could instead be used to buy new leaf blowers for the contractors who service Santiago Hills. He reported that the leaf blowers operate at 70 db, and the noise is an unpleasant disruption to neighbors and all who use the common areas. Seventy db is currently the legal limit in Orange. He asked that the city earmark excess funds for lower-noise blowers, require blowers rated 65 db or less, and consider any violation a breach of contract. He was told that the city could not buy new equipment for contractors or change the terms of the contract, but it could specify the use of 65 db blowers when the contract comes up for bid in 2025. In the meantime, the “city could have a conversation with the contractor.” “We don’t have a new city leaf blower ordinance,” Mayor Dan Slater mused. His colleagues had rejected an amended ordinance reducing leaf blower noise to 65 decibels at its last meeting. (See Orange Council rejects, page 5.) The Community Development Block Grant map was redrawn in 2021 cutting El Modena in half. The corrected map restores the Barrio boundaries.