Mayor Dan Slater (center) with (clockwise from top left) Mayor pro tem Arianna Barrios and Councilmembers Jon Dumitru, Kathy Tavoularis, Dennis Bilodeau, Ana Gutierrez and John Gyllenhammer
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Have you ever wondered what goes on at Orange City Council meetings?
Important decisions to better our city and announcements about our community are made at these meetings. In this column provided by Mayor Dan Slater, we look at the highlights of recent meetings.
November 2023:
1. Recognized Cathy Seelig on her retirement as Executive Director of The Friendly Center, an Orange nonprofit serving the less fortunate, which will celebrate 100 years of service to the community in 2024.
2. Extended the agreement with Orange Home Grown to use Palm Avenue for their weekly Farmer’s Market.
3. Approved an agreement with Cal Trans, whereby they will contribute $130,000 to help with cleanup of Santiago Creek. Cleanups occur the second Saturday morning of each month.
4. Approved 19 new Mills Act contracts to encourage historic preservation, both in Old Towne and in our unique Eichler tracts.
5. Adopted meeting conditions and criteria for the newly formed Santiago Creek Commission. If anyone is interested in serving, please go to the city website and apply.
6. Approved two new residential neighborhood permit parking areas: an area in the neighborhood south of Walnut and east of Wayfield Street, and an area of the neighborhood south of West Chapman and west of Main Street.
7. Agreed to update the City’s Strategic Plan.
8. To promote better transparency, adopted a new ordinance requiring private lobbyists (to city council members for projects and causes) to register their activities.
December 2023:
1. Approved having our staff construct new restrooms at the El Modena Basin (next to the El Modena Library), saving Orange taxpayers approximately $200,000.
2. Authorized allowing Chapman University to create a Sustainability Plan for Orange—at no cost to taxpayers. Cities normally spend up to $500,000 for similar plans.
3. Received a report from City Manager Tom Kisela, reporting that illegal street vendors have almost been completely removed. He also reported that a recent concerted effort to eliminate illegal Short-Term Rentals has also been tremendously successful, removing 264 of the illegal 285 reported. As of December 14, there were only 21 remaining, and they will also soon be gone.
4. Approved a new residential neighborhood permit parking area on Ryals Lane, east of Rancho Santiago.
City Council Meetings
2nd & 4th Tuesday / 6 - 8 pm
Agendas are available the prior Thursday.
