State of the City highlights Orange’s triumphs, while also exposing areas for improvement
Orange community members gather to celebrate this year’s wins and to hear Mayor Dan Slater provide information on the years to come. Photo by EMI THOMAS, Staff Photographer
On Oct. 6, Chapman University presented the annual State of the City at the Musco Center for the Arts. The event included Chapman highlights as well as the 2022 crime report for Orange and future projects in the city.
At 2:12 p.m. the hum of “hellos” and handshakes in the sea of suits and blazers faded as Orange Chamber of Commerce (OCC) Executive Director Elizabeth Holloman took the stage for the call to order.
Miss Orange, Madeleine Chocholaty, sang the national anthem to begin the event.
OCC Chair and Chapman’s Vice President of Community Relations Alisa Driscoll recognized the dignitaries, OCC board of directors and State of the City committee. Driscoll mentioned that it was the “biggest State of the City yet.”
Chapman President Daniele Struppa delivered his “Chapman and The City of Orange” presentation for the attendees, where he discussed the new Chapman rankings.
“Maybe the one I'm most proud of is that we rank number 64 among private institutions,” Struppa said. “That's a really high bar, and when you look at undergraduate education, we are really at the very top.”
“Maybe the one I’m most proud of is that we rank number 64 among private institutions. That’s a really high bar, and when you look at undergraduate education, we are really at the very top.”
Struppa mentioned the $10 million gift from the Argyros Family that Earvin “Magic” Johnson announced to the Argyros School of Business and Economics, ranked top 60 in the nation.
Struppa then raved about Chapman expanding its various housing options for students during his time as president, including The K Residence Hall, Chapman Grand and Chapman Court.
Other building projects Struppa highlighted include the new Sandi Simon Center for Dance, the Hilbert Museum expansion and the Killefer building renovations. Struppa is the “most passionate” about the Killefer project.
“Superconductivity is one of the big promises for the future of energy at a low cost, so it's very important work,” Struppa said. “This is gonna be mostly a research operation, so you're not going to see traffic or anything like this related to this particular operation. It's gonna be a group of about 15 faculty and scientists accompanied by the graduate students that work with them. I think it's going to be a really phenomenal institution.”
Struppa shifted the spotlight onto how students interact with the Orange community. He declared the City of Orange as a top employer of Chapman students. For instance, health science students are working closely with the Children’s Hospital of Orange County (CHOC).
Chapman’s men’s water polo team was also mentioned for conducting a clean-up at Hart Park, as well as other students for volunteering their time at the Youth Center of Orange and local high schools.
“When you look at this facility and the kind of people we bring in, you see the potential that we have to be a service to the city, and we'd like to continue to do that,” Struppa said.
“When you look at this facility and the kind of people we bring in, you see the potential that we have to be a service to the city, and we’d like to continue to do that.”
Following Struppa was Rebecca and Rick Martinez to honor participants graduating from the Leadership Orange program. The city’s first Duke of Orange, J.C. Cortez helped hand out the awards.
Leadership Orange offers eight sessions over a four month period that gives participants a behind-the-scenes look at Orange’s inner workings. Since 1991, the program has graduated 389 people. Mayor Dan Slater was also a graduate of Leadership Orange in 1994. The next session will commence in February 2024.
Moira Singer, who won Orange Citizen of the Year in 2021, then announced this year’s Citizen of the Year: Teresa “Tita” Smith.
“She was in the first freshman class of UC Irvine, and she received her master's degree from (the University of Southern California) in 1992,” Singer said at the event. “Tita has followed her heart down a path of helping those who are in need. The city of Orange, which she affectionately calls ‘sweet sweet Orange,’ has benefited greatly from Tina's tireless work. Tita became involved in city government nearly three decades ago when she co-founded the Old Town Preservation Association (OTPA) to prevent demolition of the historic neighborhood.”
Smith has an impressive history in Orange as a fifth-generation resident and as an extremely active community member. She has been heavily involved in city affairs and was mayor pro tem of Orange from 2009 to 2012. Smith has always been eager to lend a hand, evident through her 33 years of volunteering at the Orange International Street Fair and other extensive volunteer experiences.
She is no stranger to awards either. As early as 2000, Smith was honored with OTPA’s Spirit Bold Town award.
As Smith made her way to the stage, the crowd gave her a standing ovation, accompanied by applause. Her bright, white hair tied with an orange ribbon further emphasized her young spirit. During her acceptance speech, the audience would often laugh at her clever remarks and utter, “I love her.”
Driscoll and the Duke of Orange made their way back onstage to present the 2023 Business of the Year Awards, beginning with the Largest Business of the Year, Green Cheek Beer Co. The gardening store, The Potting Shed by Carlisle, won Small Business of the Year. Nonprofit Mariposa, which offers family mental health counseling, won Nonprofit of the Year.
Driscoll also honored Cathy Seelig, the president of the Friendly Center, with a surprise Legacy of Service award.
Then, Slater presented the 2023 Mayor’s Address. He noted that the OC Register stated Orange has the best downtown in Orange County.
He highlighted efforts recently made by the city manager’s office.
“In the past year, we have been awarded over $8 million in grant and earmarked proceeds with $1.6 million in federal earmarks pending approval,” Slater said. “Since they're here today, I want to acknowledge Congresswoman Young Kim (CA-40), Congressman Lou Correa (CA-46) and also our supervisor Don Wagner for your help in some of these important city projects.”
The 2022 Crime Report was announced next, pausing the positive atmosphere of the afternoon.
“Although Orange is considered a safe city, the 2022 crime report, in all honesty, came back a little bit mixed,” Slater said. “Violent crime, which is homicide and sexual assaults, were down. Robbery and aggravated assaults were up. Property crime had increased, also. These numbers are for the calendar year ending in 2022. This year, we are making concerted efforts to combat crime and keep our city safe.”
“Although Orange is considered a safe city, the 2022 crime report, in all honesty, came back a little bit mixed. Violent crime, which is homicide and sexual assaults, were down. Robbery and aggravated assaults were up. Property crime had increased, also. These numbers are for the calendar year ending in 2022. This year, we are making concerted efforts to combat crime and keep our city safe.”
Slater continued: “The Orange Police Department now has the highest staffing levels in our city's history with 161 sworn officers and an additional six going through the academy.”
Slater stated that Orange also needs more parking enforcement officers. The audience laughed when Slater mentioned the $1,000 signing bonus for the position. When he noted his seriousness, the attendees laughed even louder.
Orange was also mentioned in another publication — the San Diego Tribune — because San Diego’s vendor ordinance will be modeled after Orange’s. This was met with applause.
“This is how we did it,” Slater said. “14 impoundments of food, utensils and equipment. 11 impoundments of just food. Six closures of unlicensed mobile food vendors or trailers. We contacted over 160 sidewalk vendors on city streets and parks. There have been 451 Orange 24/7 app submittals since June of 2023 when new tracking classification was created.”
Slater encouraged the audience to download the Orange 24/7 app to report “anything and everything.”
“They made over 180 telephone calls to our hotline — or calls were made — and over 121 calls were returned to citizens who provided contact information,” Slater said. “There have been a total of four inquiries for sidewalk vending applications, which you can get, but not one application has been turned in.”
According to the mayor, the Police Department has kept 116 individuals off the streets and provided shelter. However, homelessness continues to pose its challenges.
Slater highlighted the HUB Resource Center and played a video for the audience, detailing the HUB’s mission as well as a touching story of father and son. The HUB helped John and his son Amari get back on their feet, even supporting Amari’s aspirations of playing baseball. Attendees involved with the HUB as well as John and Amari stood to be recognized by the audience.
Slater then shifted gears to speak on Orange’s fire department.
“The fire department responded to a total of 17,792 accidents in 2022, an 8.8% increase of the prior year,” Slater said. “They completed 8,864 inspections. They responded to 18 fires throughout California and Oregon.”
Slater also mentioned Orange’s water system consisting of 445 miles of pipelines.
“Orange has 12 wells: seven are active wells with 75% of our water coming from groundwater,” Slater said. “We purchased the other 25%, and it comes from Northern California or the Colorado River. As a city, Orange has also successfully reduced our water consumption from an average high of 29.1 million gallons per day in 2014 to an average of 20.1 million gallons per day now — an almost 30% reduction.”
He also noted the effort to restore Santiago Creek by the Santiago Creek Greenway Alliance. The creek is a watercourse running through Orange County, through Villa Park, meeting with the Santa Ana River.
Slater then moved on to Orange’s financial standings and community development.
“It's no secret the fiscal year 23/24 budget required us to make difficult decisions,” Slater said. “We're facing financial challenges in the years ahead. The adopted fiscal year 23/24 budget represents the general fund structural deficit over $5 million that was balanced by deferring select capital projects, holding certain positions they get and transfers in from the Capital Project Fund.”
Slater stated that new strategies will be implemented to combat financial obstacles and that the city council will continue to be transparent in their discussions.
“And in the spirit of promoting transparency, I would like to share with you a 10-year general fund financial projection for the city, which was just presented to the city council this week,” Slater said.
Slater continued: “The city is projecting a significant general fund operating deficit through 2032. Now, it should be noted this projection represents … an estimated operating deficit without the current budget ballasting measures. The city is already employed to ensure a ballast operating budget for fiscal year 23/24. This demonstrates that under our current circumstances, existing city service cuts would have to continue to better shore up but not eliminate the city's structural deficit.”
To diversify Orange’s revenue and to fund city services, businesses such as Popeye’s and Jim’s Original Hot Dogs are opening up on Tustin Street.
Large developments are also happening, such as expanding Orange’s local hospitals and building warehouses.
The company Prologis received the green light from the city council to build a warehouse space that is 52,900 square feet along with an office and maintenance space that is 10,400 square feet. These new spaces will be located on West Struck Avenue.
Mayor Slater stated that property sales tax revenues are projected to increase due to this project by about $212,000 in property taxes, $800,000 in development fees and $216,000 in sales taxes. Upon completion, Prologis’ spaces will create $80,000 in total taxes recurring annually.
New car washes are also in the works as well as affordable housing projects in Orange.
74 units of affordable senior apartments are also coming to Katella Terrace and East Katella. Valencia Garden has 64 affordable family-oriented apartments under construction on West Struck.
50 affordable senior apartments will become available with the help of Mercy Housing. Three historic old town bungalows at West La Veta and Parker are being revitalized by Homemade Orange County to create six affordable spaces.
On East La Veta and South Tustin Street, 166 affordable senior apartments are arriving as well.
Additionally, the City of Orange will also be getting two new parks soon.
“The challenges that lay ahead of us all are clear and while on the surface these challenges may appear daunting, Orange is and always has been resilient,” Slater said in his final remarks. “We are a city rooted in community and bolstered by meaningful partnerships with first rate hospitals, schools and community groups. Together, I'm confident we'll persevere through these challenges and continue to show why Orange is the premier city in Orange County.”
“The challenges that lay ahead of us all are clear and while on the surface these challenges may appear daunting, Orange is and always has been resilient. We are a city rooted in community and bolstered by meaningful partnerships with first rate hospitals, schools and community groups. Together, I’m confident we’ll persevere through these challenges and continue to show why Orange is the premier city in Orange County.”
Greg Goodwin, a partner with Friar Tux, dressed The HUB’s John and Amari in suits for the State of the City. Goodwin has lived in Orange for 38 years with his wife Karen, whom he attended the event with.
“I learned a lot because I had no idea about all the amazing things that are being done, and I was really intrigued by some of the future things that are happening in the city,” Goodwin told The Panther. “And so, it was a total package of just things that have happened in the past, some great efforts that have been being done, but then also a forward look.Tthere also were some parts of it that were a little bit to the point that certain parts of crime are on the rise and things like that, so it was just really neat.”
“I learned a lot because I had no idea about all the amazing things that are being done, and I was really intrigued by some of the future things that are happening in the city. And so, it was a total package of just things that have happened in the past, some great efforts that have been being done, but then also a forward look. There also were some parts of it that were a little bit to the point that certain parts of crime are on the rise and things like that, so it was just really neat.”
