Yeah, you read that right.
The City actually hired a recruitment company to find a new Community Development Director – somebody who lives four blocks from City Hall.
Which begs the question: were Joe Felz and his crack assistant Nicole Bernard so busy they couldn’t have conducted this recruitment themselves through the HR department? Continue reading
Karen Haluza, the Interim Executive Director of the Planning and Building Agency at City of Santa Ana, is leaving Santa Ana on December 15, for a new job in the City of Fullerton, in their Community Development department. Haluza lives in Fullerton and she ran unsuccessfully for their City Council in 2008. While she did not win in that election she did garner over 16,000 votes, according to Smart Voter.
Haluza has done a good job in Santa Ana, where she took over the Planning Department after their longtime director, Jay Trevino, retired at the end of 2013.
City Hall insiders say that Haluza was reportedly pushed out of her current job in Santa Ana by Councilman David Benavides and his Planning Commissioner Phil Bacerra, who were both embroiled in a scandal this year when Bacerra steadfastly refused to fill out and turn in communication disclosure forms that are mandated for our Planning Commissioners. Bacerra finally buckled after facing removal from the Planning Commisison. Continue reading