Santa Ana Mayor Responds To Bass (09/09)

0:00This is an I Heart podcast guaranteed human. KFI AM640. You're listening to the John Cobalt podcast on the I Heart radio. KFI AM640 live everywhere on the I Heart radio app, John Cobalt show. And we continue on from three to six in an hour after six o'clock, you, whatever you missed, you can hear on the podcast. John Cobalt show on demand on the I Heart app. We are live on YouTube live on X. You can enjoy our video. There's even a chat room on the YouTube page. Earlier in the show, we played you a clip from a podcast that Karen Das went on. And I was they met thing. Scotty and friends where they asked about ask Karen Bass, why doesn't she do what the Santa Ana Mayor Valerie Amesco is doing? When we had Valerie Amesco on the show after she went public and said, you can't sleep on the streets anymore in Santa Ana. You got to get the drug or mental health treatment or help you get back to see your

1:05family or we're going to put you in jail and we're going to keep doing it until you follow a better path. And Karen Bass gave kind of a gibberish answer. Can you play that again? Do you see the mayor of Santa Ana? They were saying like they'll go out. They'll offer you services. If you don't want to service, they'll put you in jail. I know. And I think she criticized me and said, why don't you do this? First of all, if you talk to Sheriff Luna, who's in charge of the jails, he will tell you that I had a room. Right. So you can't do that anyway. And the majority of the people that are in jail today at Twin Towers are mentally ill. Yeah. So what we've decided to do is the society instead of taking care of them, we lock them up. That costs more money. They get less services and they cycle in and out of jail. For her to criticize you and say, I didn't know she criticized you by the way, but I see it's like you. You're the mayor of LA is different. This is a different ballgame.

2:05You can't just say, why don't you do this? Cause it ain't you this ain't that like this ain't Santa Ana's no disrespect. Santa Ana's his thing, but like this ain't the same. And so I don't like what Santa Ana is a tiny city anyway. But he could put Santa here. Oh, Gito. You could put Santa Ana in a neighborhood. Yeah. Okay. And so we are the nation's second largest city. As you said, 3.8 million people. We are a complex city where this system to deal with homeless. This is a combination of the city and the county. I don't think you should be that anymore. The city needs to have complete control. I frankly want to break away from those bureaucrats that say, it's okay for you to be on the street. But when the people on the street look like me, I'm sorry. The people on the street that thinks it's okay for me to be on the street. I don't know what she means there makes no sense. Let's get. Let's get Valerie Mesco on the mayor, Santa Ana. How are you, Valerie? Hi, John. I'm doing good. How are you? I'm all right. So you're a teeny tiny little city.

3:06That's why it's easy for you to get the homeless off the street. Yeah, I think what she said for Gito, I think she was trying to say, Boquito. And so I guess speaking Spanish, but we're not a small city. Yes, we're smaller than Los Angeles, but we are the county capital. And the census will tell you we have 318,000 people, but we have about 400,000 people. And so, you know, I do have some comments, but I just want to be really clear right from the Gekko. I never criticized her. I don't ever criticize other elected officials or other mayors on what they do in their city. I take care of Santa Ana, you know, with the leadership here. So I want to be really clear on that. So I don't think she watched all the videos or heard the news correctly or maybe her staff did not inform her correctly, but I never once criticized her. Can she do what you're doing? I think we can do anything that we really put our heads to it. You know, yes, she talked about the second largest city, 3.8 million dollars, you know, budget,

4:09you know, in Santa Ana before I was elected, there were some work that was, they were trying here, right? And then new leadership came on board and working with Santa Ana PD, as I indicated before. And what we call a quality of life team under Chief Robert Rodriguez, as long as well as our city manager, a little new news. We're working with, you know, Salvation Army. We're working with Team Challenge, other nonprofits and Team Challenge and Salvation Army is not costing the city anything. And I want to be clear when people say we're arresting them for being homeless. No, we're not arresting them for being homeless. I don't want people to get lost in the narrative. We are taking care of the homeless, but we also need to take care of our businesses. And there's hard economy that are losing business because you have people naked or shooting drugs or sleeping on the porch or defecating or scaring, you know, they're people are going into into do business. We have children walking to school. We have families living in Santa Ana and that is a priority. We have about 15,000 people who come to work here every day. It is a priority for me and the council members that I work with and our city leadership to clean up our city.

5:15We cannot allow that and we can't, I mean, I can send you pictures of people that I come in contact with and, you know, their legs are falling off. Basically, the then section is eating it to the bone. It's inhumane for me as a mayor to turn my face away and say, well, I'm going to leave that as it is and you know, I have no business taking them to the hospital. No, I should be taking them to hospital. So we call the fire authority. They come out and take them. So we're not arresting them because they're homeless. We are arresting them because they have warrants. They have fentanyl on them. They're breaking the law. They're trespassing. You know, they're committing crime. They're assaulting people. You know, and the formula that we're using, it works for Santa Ana. And I hope that other people look at us and they we've been contacted by the cities, other states to say, what are you doing? What is different? And I think for me, it's different that I'm not afraid to say, hey, I work very close to the Santa Police Department. I work with nonprofits. I work with the city leadership. We work together because and we work with the community.

6:17I meet with community leaders once a month and they say the same thing for four years that I've been here. Mayor take care of the homeless. You ran on public safety and quality of life. And that's what I've been sticking to. And so again, you know, I, you know, people tried, oh, what do you think about you know, Mayor Bath? I have nothing negative to say about her. But what I will say is that she should watch the videos correctly. And her staff should inform her correctly because I never, ever, ever spoke ill of her. And I am offended when she says my city's book keeps on. She uses Spanish because we do have a very large Vietnamese population as well. And so she should probably learn some Vietnamese. Can you stay on another segment? Yes. OK, got to do the news and we'll continue with Valerie Amescu. The mayor of Santa Ana. You're listening to John Cobalt on demand from KFI AM640. Can't buy AM640 more stimulating talk radio John Cobalt show. We're on from three until six follows on social media at John Cobalt radio.

7:19I'm on CNN tonight. Alex Michael should show these stories twice between nine and 11 with Gloria. All right. It's tonight on the CNN nine o'clock. All right. Let's continue with Valerie Amescu, who is the mayor of Santa Ana. And Karen Bass says that she can't do what Valerie is doing because there's no place to put them in Sheriff Luna's jails. I don't know if that's true. But I think Valerie, what Valerie does is the homeless are giving a choice. They have to go to mental health treatment or drug treatment or they could be reunited with their families or they can't be arrested. Now, when you get somebody who refuses treatment help and doesn't want to go see the family, doesn't want to leave. You do put them in jail, don't you? That is the last resort, but it is an option on the menu if they reject everything else, right? If they are breaking the law and they're trespassing,

8:23loadering, possession of drugs, you know, they have a warrant. They are going to jail. Yes. Okay. So that covers that covers most of the homeless because they are avoiding if they're camping out of the sidewalk there by definition. Well, I, my community does not want them defecating on the streets in front of their children or their businesses. My community doesn't want them running around naked, doesn't want them screaming and behaving in that way because they do need help. Right. I would love for the county board of supervisors to give us additional funding for social workers and for additional housing so that we can house more people because, but I will share with you, Santa Ana leads the way with permanent supportive housing, affordable housing, veterans housing, we have a shelter, 200 bed shelter in city, Santa Ana runs. We have a 400 bed shelter in our city at the county of Orange runs. So yes, we're very different from LA, but I think people get stuck on, well, there's nothing we can do for them. And I don't believe in that.

9:24It's very personal to me, you know, in I lived in the city my whole life, my family's here, my friends are here, people I love and it's one of the reasons I ran for mayor for years ago because you drive around in what you were seeing is not okay. You can't, you can't be okay at a street light watching a gentleman or a guy masturbating on the corner when you have children in your car. It's not okay. So when I became mayor, that was one of my priorities and it will continue to be. And jail is not the answer, but it's a start. If you're okay, how many times you've got to go like domestic violence, John, we talked about this. How many times before you get called out before somebody takes assistance for domestic violence, right? You leave the relationship or leave that position you're in. So when I went out last month, I ran into a young lady named Joanne. And when I went out last week, I ran to her again and she said, okay, man, I'm ready to go. I'm tired. And she went to the program. And so I know I'm not the only one's contact tutor. Our quality of life team contacts her on a regular basis, you know, salvation army team challenge, but it just happened last Tuesday.

10:31She looked like she was tired and she looked like she needed to help desperately and she said, I'm tired, I'm tired. Take, yeah, I'll go. And then I, you know, I'm very pleased and very pleased. Ian, a 30 year old guy on the street is, leg is, you know, it's infected. It's eating itself to the bone. You know, he wouldn't go to the hospital and I chatted with him for like 30 minutes and finally, you said, I'm now going to the hospital, you know, and I hope he got the assistance he needs. But I personally, and those that I work with here in our community, we can't turn a blind eye. It can't. Yeah. That's a thing. I don't know how to keep it very long. Yeah. That there's so much cruelty in letting these people literally rot and die on the street that I just can't, I can't stomach. Most of the political leaders in this city because that that's what they're allowing. Well, John, they are rotting in dying on the street and that's very sad. The best day and age here in our country, we're allowing them. So whatever works in your city, whatever approach or plan or formula that you have that works for you, please use it.

11:33But in Santa Ana, we're trying to balance the universe here, you know, keep a budget that we approved a budget. We don't have to dip into our reserves. We can have to do furloughs and we're still able to provide these services. We're still able to do it. And so, you know, again, we offer detox beds. We offer shelter. We offer drug programs. You know, we have 50. We have detox beds that we pay for with opiate money that we get. We could have picked that somewhere off, but we said, no, we're going to create detox beds. Yeah. I mean, and a lot of the stuff you're doing is working. And whatever they're doing in LA, virtually none of it's working. Thank you for coming on again. I think people really need to hear you because there's almost nobody who's standing up for all the other citizens of the city. Remember, John, I don't do this alone. I do with the community leaders. I do with families. I do with the city manager. I do with councilor and the fair. I'm there for 10,000. I do it with, you know, people who want to help out in community team challenge, you know, Salvation Army.

12:39We all got to come to the table and we leave our egos outside and we said, how are we going to do this? All right. We do this. How do we miss? Valerie Mesquid Mayor of Santa Ana. Thanks for coming on. John, you have a nice evening. You too. You're listening to John Cobalt on demand from KFI AM640. More stimulating talk radio. John Cobalt show going to be on CNN tonight after nine o'clock. Two segments with Alex Michael. Sin the story is and glory already. We're going to reunite. So that's CNN tonight after nine o'clock. Voice line. We got vacancies always happens after a holiday weekend. You lose your fight. You lose your passion. 877, voice 86, we're giving you plenty today. 877, voice 86, you're using the talk back feature on the I heart radio app. Another chapter in the always entertaining Steve Clubex story.

13:43Remember Steve Clubex had him on the show a few times. He ran for governor for a short time as a Democrat. Spent a lot of his money. He's a billionaire. He's got a couple of billion dollars. It was a time share owner of Las Vegas time share thing. And then he dropped out and through all his support behind Eric Swalwell. Swalwell was living in Clubex house until Clubex threw him out after all the women went public and said. Start telling stories about the sexual assault and the rape. And the rest also along the. One same type period. He had a fiance. I've a lobby. Who's under multiple charges for running scams. She'd go online to date older men go over their house and steal their stuff.

14:45She'd also steal stuff from women that she encountered as well. And she's now in jail awaiting trial. A Clubex ended up getting arrested because he started calling up Adva's clients and prosecutors say he got too belligerent with the clients trying to get them, I guess, to drop charges that it qualified as witness tampering and interference. So those charges are still active against Clubex. The charges still active against Adva Lavi. Swalwell's not in jail, but he's waiting to see what's going to happen. So what's the latest chapter? Clubex has made the maximum $39,000 donation to Steve Hilton, a Republican. I remember asking Clubex and he said, Oh, yeah, I know Steve. I like Steve.

15:47Because Clubex after all that nonsense happened with Swalwell, said publicly, F you Democrat party on a libertarian now. And he's going to change his party registration. And now he's given $39,200 to be exact to Steve Hilton's campaign. Uh, that that collection though, Adva Lavi, Clubex and Swalwell all in the same house together. Oh, I missed this story yesterday. Why didn't miss it? We just ran out of time. This is for your benefit. I'm going to ask you a part if you want to see the photos. I'm sure I don't. California Post says they have nauseating video showing a newborn rat squirming around a woman's lunch from a restaurant in Hong Kong. Oh, God. And I see it. It's pink.

16:48It's hairless. It looks like a little alien. It's eyes not open. And uh, Post said, if you look at the video, it's wiggling its arms and legs and trying to breathe. Uh, in the takeout container. Oh, God. From the Wajur restaurant, uh, the customer ordered, uh, the beef rice noodle meal for $5.40. I don't know what they charged for the baby rat on the side. The baby rat was writhing in the, uh, the poor baby rat. In the set day sauce. I feel bad for the rat. Yeah, I don't think the baby. I don't think the rat got cooked or microwaved or how it really made it. I'm sure it's dead. Well, it was still wiggling around in there. Somebody killed it. Trust me. Um, the, uh, uh, a newborn, uh, it was definitely a newborn.

17:52And it's very smooth. It's kind of cute. Yeah. Uh, so she put the video of the meal online. Why? So how did it end up in the food container? And nobody noticed. Um, health department has seized the container for testing. Uh, and get this, uh, the health officials showed up at the restaurant and found unsatisfactory hygiene conditions. No. That's a shocker. They're conducting an investigation. And, uh, they don't want to jump to conclusions on how the baby rat got into the food. Uh, the, where's the mama rat? That's right. There should be a mama rat that gave birth. That's right. Because that baby rat couldn't jump into the beef and noodle dish. No. So maybe the mama's in somebody else's food. I didn't think of that. That's why you have me unless, unless somebody put it in there on purpose.

18:52A baby? Was it like born on the floor of the restaurant and one of the workers picked it up and tossed it? It couldn't, it couldn't crawl or jump in there. I think so. It couldn't stand up. Let's mom gave birth in the container. Maybe. But, off. Um, said you don't look so good left. The, the owner of the restaurant says, uh, yeah, there are occasionally rodents in that part of the city. But that they cleaned the restaurant every month. Every month. Yes. Yes. Every month. All right. Got another one here. The serial butt sniffer. He's only getting 170 days in jail for the latest round of butt sniffing. This is the guy who crouches down next to people in public at stores. And he sniffs the lady's butts. By the way, did you see the muck shot in this guy? I did. Did you see the set of air set of ears on this one? What the hell happened?

19:53No wonder he's crazy. He's been walking around with those ears. He looks like he could take flight with those things. Those like like wings. Do you know he's got more than, he, here's the issue. He's obviously insane. He's been arrested 40 times and they keep letting him out. Well, who's insane then? 40 arrests. And he keeps cycling through the system. His name is Kalisey Crowdery's 39 years old. This guy's pushing 40. And he keeps getting caught for butt sniffing. I know. Who does that? Why would you do that? And then why is he out? Why is he, why was he roaming the streets to do it again? A lot of women smell really nice. But you're usually not back down there. You smell nice all the time.

20:53I linger in your, in your news booth. Well, no, you're perfume. Yeah, that orgasm perfume and juice. What? You know, I really like your perfume. I know you do. I know. I don't crouch down on the floor there. I know. If you did, there'd be a big problem. So, um, it was a store on West Glenaux Boulevard in Glendale. And he would hunker down and I guess crawl around and do the sniff. Also, he was, um, a clock doing this at a Marshall store. Home goods, big save. He's been ordered to stay away. Now, he served 99 days for this in 2025, 105 days in 2026. And he got out and he got caught. Now it's another 170, which is the limit on a parole violation.

21:58He's a registered sex offender. That's a shock. And he's got a history of doing this going back to 2021. This can't be the only thing they can do to curtail this guy. They, they, his 40 arrests include burglary robbery. Here's another one in decent exposure. The system is really busted. Um, they're blaming Prop 47 and Prop 57. Because a lot of the crime she's committed has been downgraded, as well as the drug crimes. And so early release is easier. Prorol release is easy. Violations are capped at 180 days for a violation. So I guess this is the rest of his life and the rest of everybody else's life. Yeah. You know, every six months he's going to come out and he's going to be, uh, sniffing up your leg.

22:58Better not sniff up mine. Somebody has got to just start kicking the crap out of him. Don't you think? Well, was it Ray that wrote in our group chat that somebody should just fart? I think it was. That would be Ray. That would be you. I know what would not. I know what I mean. What would be you know, I think it was. Yeah, that's Ray. That's, uh, you know, he's getting married in a few days. I know. You imagine that. It's the second time around. I know. There's two women that actually wanted to marry him. Yeah. Wow. Um, we love you Ray. We're just teasing. Well, we're going to all get to go to the wedding. Yes, we are. It's Monday. Monday should be very entertaining program. You're listening to John Cobalt on demand from KFI AM640. KFI AM640. We're stimulating talk radio. John Cobalt show. Ron from a three to six. Moist line is 877.

23:58Moist 86. We have vacancies. 877. Moist 86. So you can talk back feature on the I heart radio at. I'm going to tell you now about, uh, the race for the democratic nomination for Rhode Island governor. And you're probably saying why I don't care. Well, in Rhode Island, they're doing something. The voters that I wish we'd do here in California. Is that when you have a big screw up for a governor, you get rid of him. And in this case, uh, his own parties voters have gotten rid of him. The Rhode Island governor, his name is Dan McKee. He's a Democrat, heavily democratic state. And uh, it looks like he's losing 6337 in the primary to another Democrat, Atlanta folks. You know, uh, what the issue is, there's like one overwhelming issue. A bridge.

25:01This is their version of high speed rail in Rhode Island. McKee started this bridge project in 2023 and said it would be done by this summer. It's a bridge along interstate 195 across the Seaconc river. 70,000 vehicles go over the bridge every day. McKee said, all right, it'll be done in three years. Well, you know what happened. Now the project is going to cost an extra $59 million and he said it won't be completed until 2028. Delays in fighting between state officials and contractors. And more than anything else, the voters are punishing him for not getting the bridge done. That is one of the main routes in Rhode Island. It's the Washington bridge.

26:01And he's late, he's over budget. He's also got these annoying electronic signs that thank drivers for their patience. And according to a union president, Patrick Crowley, that really irritates people. They're sick to looking at the sign blinking at them saying, thank you for your patience. They want the damn bridge completed. Well, it's not getting completed. And he's out of office. He's done. He's well, because there's, I'm just looking at 84% of the votes in. And he's losing 63 to 37. That's what you do with a screw up. That's what you do. You don't reelect them three times like we did with Noosam. Because remember, there's a recall. And the high speed rail is only one of many, many, many issues that he has effed up. Isn't that amazing? I couldn't believe it. And they didn't even switch parties.

27:02It's like, no, you are bad at what you do. You personally stink. You're gone. They're sticking with the same party, but they're putting somebody else in. Who says, I'm going to do something different. We're going to get the bridge built. Not like the Sarah saying, no, no, we'll keep doing the same thing. Just once I want to see that mistake, just once I want to see somebody punished for being an incompetent corrupt boob. All right. I'm done. I'll be on CNN tonight, 9-11. Alex Michelson showed with Gloria. So watch tonight at 9 o'clock. The podcast is coming out in a matter of minutes. I go to the I Heart Radio app. John Covell show on demand. Conway coming in next. Michael Crosier has the news live in the KFI 24-hour newsroom. You've been listening to the John Covell show podcast.

28:04You can always hear the show live on KFI AM640 from 3 to 6 PM every Monday through Friday. And of course, any time on demand on the I Heart Radio app. KFI AM640. AM640. More stimulating talk.