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Speakers urge Santa Ana to hire independent police oversight director after years of delay
Summary
Residents and advocacy groups told the City Council the Police Oversight Commission cannot start without a permanent director and urged the council to reject law‑enforcement‑aligned firms in the candidate pool.
Dozens of residents told the Santa Ana City Council the city’s civilian Police Oversight Commission cannot begin meaningful work until the council appoints a permanent oversight director.
Speakers at the public comment period connected to closed‑session items said the position has been vacant despite the commission being approved years ago. They urged the council to hire a director with a civil‑rights background, not a law‑enforcement affiliation, and to move quickly to prevent complaints from expiring under state deadlines.
The public comments were made at the start of the council’s May 20 meeting during a block of public testimony the clerk said was related to closed‑session items. Balmaro Buumado Vicente, political and policy director for the grassroots group GSPA, said the commission was approved “nearly three years” ago but has had no director, leaving complaints uninvestigated and some likely to expire under state law.
Autumn Overton, a faith‑rooted organizer with CLUE (Clergy and Laity United for Economic Justice), told the council the commission “cannot begin its oversight” without a director and that many of the publicly proposed candidates are unsuitable. Several speakers cited two names in the candidate pool — JL Group and IntegraSure LLC — and urged the council to consider directors “who are not from law enforcement.”
Other speakers asked the council to appoint Sean Garcia Laez, whom multiple commenters described as the only candidate with a community‑based record of fighting racial injustice. David Pulido, a member of the Community Service Organization (CSO), and Rain (Raine) Mendoza of CSO OC urged the council to reject candidates with law‑enforcement ties and to pick a “pro‑accountability” candidate.
Speakers also described the consequences of delay. Sandra Deanda, network coordinator for the Orange County Rapid Response Network, said family members and residents are “losing faith” as complaints remain uninvestigated. Tanya Navarro, a Santa Ana community organizer, told the council the commission was “born out of years of demands” and that appointing law‑enforcement‑aligned vendors would undermine civilian oversight.
The council recessed to closed session later in the meeting; when it reconvened city attorneys reported there was no reportable action from closed session that evening.
