Miguel Pulido rode into political office after battling City Hall, defending his family’s muffler shop. It was a David vs. Goliath moment. And he won.
That was in 1986. Pulido’s name has been synonymous with Santa Ana ever since.
On Tuesday, Dec. 8, Pulido presided over his final council meeting, termed out of a run that lasted 34 years on the City Council and 26 years as mayor.
His legacy is a complicated one.
Supported by many – he was elected mayor 13 times – he has been praised for leading the transformation of Santa Ana, particularly the downtown and Civic Center. But his critics – and he has many of them, too – say he has forgotten his roots. Pulido, they argue, is more in touch with the power structure he once fought than the Mexican American working class community he represents.
Pulido takes the criticism in stride. Instead, he focuses on his accomplishments.
“It’s difficult to leave,” he said. “But I think I leave the city much better than how I found it.
“I also leave it with a lot of momentum.”
Applause for Pulido
Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti called Pulido “the dean of California mayors.” Former Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa dubbed his colleague in Santa Ana “a man who broke barriers and made big things happen.”
In a recent video tribute from the Chamber of Commerce, community leaders praised Pulido for his vision, passion, and a get-it-done attitude.
Representatives from the Discovery Cube OC science center, the Bowers Museum, Santa Ana College, Mater Dei High School and Mercy House for the homeless, among others, thanked him for championing their institutions.
Some, including the Orange County School of the Arts and The Link, a homeless shelter built in 28 days in 2018, credited Pulido for their very existence.
“He’s a dreamer,” said Ryan Chase, whose family developed what was once known as the Fiesta Marketplace, on Fourth Street, and in recent years redeveloped into a collection of trendy shops and restaurants.
“He’s probably done more for the city than any mayor I’ve ever known,” said bar owner and developer Mike Harrah, who has several projects in various stages of development throughout the city.
Perhaps Pulido’s greatest legacy is still in the works. In 2022, the OC Streetcar is expected to begin taking people between the Santa Ana train station and Garden Grove’s transit station.
Pulido pushed for the project as a member of the Orange County Transportation Authority, saying it will further define his city by helping residents, boosting tourism and possibly serving as a hub to future street car lines into other cities.
Critics see cultural losses
Some of the same projects touted as accomplishments by supporters are also cited by his detractors. They say Pulido has gentrified Santa Ana’s downtown by pushing out many Latino-owned, mom-and-pop businesses. They also argue that he’s grown too close to developers and the city’s powerful police union, and accuse him of using his personal business as a consultant for his own benefit.
Pulido, these critics say, stayed in office so long that he lost touch with the people he represented.
“Miguel was the darling of Santa Ana when he started his career,” said former Councilwoman Michele Martinez, who served from 2006 until 2018.
She met Pulido when she was a high school basketball player. “I was in awe of Miguel,” Martinez said. “He was my hero.”
But as an adult, when she joined the council and Pulido had been in office for 20 years, her perception changed.
“Miguel Pulido wasn’t the same activist who championed and rallied people to save his father’s muffler shop,” Martinez said. “He drank the Kool-Aid. He changed his colors.”
Vicente Sarmiento, a 13-year council member who on Tuesday, Dec. 8, became the city’s new mayor, said Pulido’s legacy will be seen as “a contrast of early substantive successes, and missed opportunities.”
“Santa Ana experienced a shift in priorities during Miguel’s extended tenure as mayor,” Sarmiento added. “As a result of serving for 26 years, he was unable to adapt to a community with changing needs.”
Those shifting priorities, he said, include a lack of affordable housing, support for immigrants rights and government transparency.
Former Councilman Sal Tinajero, who in 2006 joined with Martinez and others to form Santa Ana’s first-ever all Latino council, said Pulido used his mayoral power to extract concessions from the council for what he wanted to accomplish. At the time, council members were limited to two four-year terms and the mayor had no term limits. As a result, Tinajero said, city staff “could care less what we said.”
Martinez sums up Pulido, in part, this way:
“Miguel is very charismatic. He’s a statesman. He’s a fun guy. He’s very knowledgeable, intelligent, funny… He looks like a nice guy. Unfortunately, Miguel is very difficult to work with. He wants to control everything. He was a kingpin.”
And though supporters say Santa Ana’s redeveloped downtown and new developments are positive results of Pulido’s vision and tenacity, Martinez offers a different view.
“We have some shiny new things, but it doesn’t mean Santa Ana is better off.”
Different visions
Pulido’s legacy includes controversy.
In 2014, as part of a real estate trade, Pulido cleared $197,000 on a property he bought below market price while the owner of an auto parts store won a city contract. The Fair Political Practices Commission found Pulido committed six violations and fined him $13,000.
Pulido recently called the non-criminal violations “a lot to do about nothing” and said they were technical in nature.
Another accusation revolved around Santa Ana’s marijuana industry.
In a sworn deposition, as part of a 2017 lawsuit, former Santa Ana police chief Carlos Rojas said Pulido offered business permits to marijuana dispensaries in exchange for $25,000. In that same lawsuit, former City Manager David Cavazos testified that Pulido tried to influence which dispensaries got raided by police and which were given permits.
In December 2018, the city settled with Rojas for $350,000.
Pulido emphatically denied the allegations, then and now: “Absolutely. Never, never.” The city, he said, only settled the lawsuits to avoid spending more on attorney fees.
Legacy of peace
Pulido, now 64, noted that when he entered politics, crime in Santa Ana was so bad that gangs controlled certain neighborhoods and gunfire was common.
He said he worked with police, schools, nonprofits, probation officers and others to change that. The city, he continued, also cut the number of liquor licenses and partnered with educational institutions and nonprofits to create after-school programs. The city also built a local jail and a new police facility.
“We worked on changing the culture as it relates to violence,” Pulido said.
The mayor also was adept at using connections locally and with state and federal officials to facilitate developments. The Ronald Reagan Federal Building and U.S. Courthouse, for example, is in Santa Ana after Pulido himself traveled to D.C. more than a dozen times to testify and lobby Congress for it.
“They wanted to put it in Irvine,” he said.
His focus on downtown was intentional: “You’re only as good as your downtown.”
Among his achievements, he said, was helping create the Artists Village by bringing in Cal State Fullerton’s art department to build the cornerstone of the village. That, along with the transformation of Fourth Street and upcoming developments, like one on Third and Broadway, have created a renaissance in downtown, he said.
“It’s a hip, beautiful downtown,” Pulido said. “I think it’s the only true downtown in Orange County, with buildings that date back to the 1880s and 1890s.”
Did his focus change over the years? Did he stopped fighting for the little guy and become the Goliath he once battled?
“I’ve always been consistent,” Pulido said.
“I came on (the council) in part to fight against eminent domain. And we’ve never had another Ace Muffler since I’ve been on the council,” he said, referring to his family’s business, which successfully fought the city’s attempt to take over the property via eminent domain.
If his focus changed, he said, it’s because the initial goals were met.
“We had the luxury, the ability to do other things.”
And Pulido was a man who could make things happen. Here’s a story: In 1993, he went to a U.S. Open tennis tournament in New York and – fluent in French – struck up a conversation with some visiting French nuns. They wanted to meet then New York Mayor David Dinkins. He made that happen.
“I said follow me. I had six nuns chasing me with their habits and their rosaries.”
Next day, a photo ran in the New York Time with Dinkins and the nuns, who were in town to set up a shelter for AIDS victims. Soon after Pulido returned to Orange County, the nuns called. They wanted to talk about a project in Santa Ana. For a while, the nuns lived with Pulido and his wife, Laura. “They didn’t have hotel money.” The nuns left. But then others got involved – pastor Jerome Karcher and Larry Haynes of Mercy House, which provides housing and services to the homeless. Today, there’s a facility in the city named Emmanuel Residence, which serves 21 adults living with the HIV/AIDS virus.
“And it all started because I was watching tennis in New York and I met some French nuns.”
Termed out of his mayoral post, Pulido has plans.
A mechanical engineer by trade and a consultant who has been affiliated with different companies through the years, his goal is to focus on energy related projects, particularly large solar projects. Pulido said he also has approached the Biden administration for a post as an advisor to the U.S. trade representative, whose office negotiates trade agreements with foreign governments.
“Between my knowledge of public policy and government and my background in engineering science, I can be part of large scale solar projects…We have to green the planet or it will eventually get worse,” he said.
Santa Ana’s mayor for the last 26 years said he still wants to make change happen.
-
Miguel Pulido’s term ends this week after serving 26 years as Santa Ana’s first Latino mayor. He is pictured with the city behind him. (Photo by Mindy Schauer, Orange County Register/SCNG)
-
Acting administrator of the Federal Transit Administration, K. Jane Williams, left, shakes hands with Miguel Pulido, mayor of Santa Ana, after signing a symbolic Full Funding Agreement for the OC Streetcar in the parking lot of the Santa Ana Regional Transportation Center in Santa Ana, CA, on Friday, Nov 30, 2018. (Photo by Jeff Gritchen, Orange County Register/SCNG)
-
Miguel Pulido’s term ends this week after serving as Santa Ana’s first Latino mayor for 26 years. (Photo by Mindy Schauer, Orange County Register/SCNG)
-
Santa Ana Mayor Miguel Pulido, second from right, introduces councilman David Benavides, center, during a short ceremony marking the opening of The Link homeless shelter in Santa Ana on Thursday, November 15, 2018. (Photo by Paul Rodriguez, Contributing Photographer)
-
Santa Ana Mayor Miguel Pulido speaks at the 20th annual State of the City Breakfast held Wednesday morning, August 9, 2017, at Bowers Museum in Santa Ana. (Photo by Mark Rightmire, Orange County Register/SCNG)
-
Santa Ana Mayor Miguel Pulido speaks at the 20th annual State of the City Breakfast held Wednesday morning, August 9, 2017, at Bowers Museum in Santa Ana. (Photo by Mark Rightmire, Orange County Register/SCNG)
-
Miguel Pulido’s 26 years as Santa Ana’s first latino mayor comes to an end this week. He is Pictured in the city’s colorful downtown on Monday, December 7, 2020. (Photo by Mindy Schauer, Orange County Register/SCNG)
-
Mayor Miguel Pulido speaks during the Santa Ana City Council meeting in Santa Ana, CA on Tuesday, September 19, 2017. (Photo by Kevin Sullivan, Orange County Register/SCNG)
-
In November, Santa Ana opened The Link emergency shelter with 200 beds in a remarkable 28 days from start to finish. Above, Santa Ana Mayor Miguel Pulido, left, tours one of the large dormitories at The Link homeless shelter. (Photo by Paul Rodriguez, Contributing Photographer)
No comments:
Post a Comment