With three City Council seats, along with the mayor, on the ballot, November’s election could determine the Santa Ana council’s majority for the next four years.
In Ward 2, incumbent Councilmember Benjamin Vazquez is facing a challenge from Selica Diaz, a real estate agent and former parks commissioner; and in Ward 4, incumbent Councilmember Phil Bacerra is facing Sandra De Anda, director of policy and legal strategy for the Orange County Rapid Response Network.
A new face is guaranteed in Ward 6, where Giovanni Chavez, a lawyer and housing commissioner, and Isuri Ramos, CHISPA executive director and a planning commissioner, are competing for the seat incumbent Councilmember David Penaloza passed on running again for to instead focus on his Assembly race.
Incumbent Valerie Amezcua, a retired supervising probation officer and former SAUSD school board member, is running for re-election against challengers Dan Shimell, 40, a senior associate attorney, and Dwayne Shipp, 51, a caregiver and community development commissioner.
The Orange County Register asked the candidates questions about housing, city finances, transparency, and more for its voter guide.
WARD 2
When it comes to housing, Diaz, 51, a property manager turned real estate agent, said Santa Ana “has met and has exceeded its housing requirements” and wants to build on that progress.
Her pitch focuses on homeownership: a diverse mix of condos, townhomes and affordable units on vacant lots and along transit corridors, streamlined approval for projects that meet city standards, and maintaining infrastructure, parking and parks to keep up with growth.
“We should streamline projects that meet established standards,” she said, “while maintaining local input and thoughtful planning.”
Vazquez, 55, who has spent 25 years teaching history and ethnic studies at Valley High School, said he disagrees with the state’s findings that Santa Ana has met its housing requirements. He argues the city has been behind on affordable housing for 30 years — falling school enrollment is proof that families are being priced out, he said.
Tenant protections and transit-oriented development are at the core of Vazquez’s housing pitch – development can be done without tearing apart neighborhoods, he said, and he’s “fought for rent stabilization and just-cause eviction protections because families shouldn’t lose their homes just to make room for new development.” He also credits that work with helping bring homelessness down by 15% in the city.
When it comes to managing the city budget, both Diaz and Vazquez said they want to see reserves built up and pension debt paid down. Diaz said the city should “live within its means while investing strategically in its future,” while Vazquez promises to keep “paying down our pension liabilities and building up reserves so Santa Ana isn’t caught off guard the next time the economy turns.”
Both candidates say they support cutting wasteful spending and back local economic development to bring in tax dollars. Vazquez said he’d rather make “big developers and corporations pay their fair share” than touch parks, libraries or community services, while Diaz warned against “continually increasing the burden on residents.”
WARD 4
Of the three Santa Ana council races, Ward 4 may offer the sharpest ideological split, with De Anda, a 32-year-old first-time candidate, challenging incumbent Bacerra, 49, an urban planner who has served on the council and chaired the OC Fire Authority board.
De Anda described Santa Ana as a city in crisis that needs to rethink who the government works for, while Bacerra said the city is largely on the right track but needs to protect its budget.
Asked how Santa Ana can best meet housing demands and state mandates while preserving local control: Bacerra pointed to the city’s 2022 General Plan update, which he said directs new housing to areas “where it makes the most sense” while “protecting the character and quality of life” in existing neighborhoods.
He argued Santa Ana has already done its part and exceeded the state’s housing requirements, adding that compliant cities “should be rewarded with greater local control over where and how housing is built.”
De Anda argued that preserving quality of life should also ensure new housing remains “affordable, well-planned, and paired with the infrastructure and services a growing population needs,” and the process should incorporate more community participation.
Housing should be treated “as a human right” instead of a commodity “left to the market alone,” she said, and she supports affordable, publicly funded housing at scale rather than “relying on developers to voluntarily include a handful of affordable units in exchange for density bonuses.”
Both Ward 4 candidates said the city needs new revenue — the source of the money is where they differ.
Instead of taxing residents, Bacerra said Santa Ana should “dramatically increase revenue that is paid by visitors.” He argued a stronger visitor economy — Anaheim is the ultimate example — could wean the city off what he calls “one of the highest sales tax rates in Orange County.” Bacerra said he’s also willing to “trim more fat” off the city budget to prevent future deficits, a decision Santa Ana officials had to grapple with earlier this year.
Measure N is also on the November ballot, asking voters to decide whether to make permanent the local 1% sales tax created by 2018’s Measure X.
When it comes to revenue for the city, De Anda said corporations, developers, and large property owners that do business in Santa Ana should “pay their fair share.” The question is less about where to cut and more about who gets asked to contribute, she said. “Budgets are moral documents, and how we answer this question reveals who this city values.”
“Balancing the budget on the backs of working-class residents should never be on the table.”
WARD 6
The two vying for the open seat share striking parallels in their personal stories.
Chavez, 31, is “the son of two hardworking immigrants, a product of public schools, and a first-generation college graduate.” Ramos, 33, who was raised on Minnie Street, called herself “an example of Santa Ana-grown leadership” and “the daughter of Mexican immigrants who were resilient despite losing their housing.”
Chavez framed Santa Ana’s housing issue as an “unprecedented affordability crisis,” one in which residents “are being priced out of their own communities.” He said the issue should be addressed by building more affordable housing, cutting red tape, enforcing renter protections, and expanding housing assistance.
Chavez also called for city investment in “small businesses, parks, public safety, after-school programs, and other city services,” so residents can “not only live but thrive.”
Ramos’s response got more technical, reflecting her background chairing the city’s Planning Commission. She called for “upzoning in the right locations, near transit and existing infrastructure,” but always “paired with affordability requirements, so density benefits the working families who need housing.”
Legacy Square, which is “100% affordable housing with 3-bedroom units sized for the multigenerational families common in our neighborhoods” is proof, she said, that “community-driven development works.”
Both candidates also offered tenant-protection credentials.
Chavez was appointed to the Rental Housing Board in July, “where I work directly to enforce the city’s rent stabilization and just cause eviction ordinance.”
Ramos said she was “a core member” of the 2018 rent control effort and is “proud of the city’s rent control and just-cause eviction protections, and I will continue working to preserve those protections and proactively enforce both.”
Mayor
The mayor’s race mirrors a similar split seen amongst council races. While Amezcua, 59, said Santa Ana is fiscally sound and making progress under her leadership, her challengers argued that City Hall needs to change course.
When it comes to the budget, Amezcua said the city has “tightened the fiscal belt,” trimming $4.4 million off the 2026-27 budget “without laying off staff or cutting services.” She promises to keep bringing revenue by recruiting businesses with “the red carpet, not the red tape.”
Shimell, 40, on the other hand, argued the city has become overly reliant on Measure X sales tax revenue, which was “marketed as a temporary increase” in 2018, but has been spent “as though those revenues would be permanent.”
He warns that if Measure N fails this November, the city could face an estimated $30 million drop in annual revenue as early as 2029 — and would require “strategic cuts” over the next two years. Regardless of the outcome, Shimell argues that the city still needs to diversify its revenue sources.
Shipp, 51, said the city should “handle its money the same way a responsible household does,” by auditing every department, contract and consulting expense. “We should cut waste and duplication before asking residents to pay more,” he said. “New taxes should not be the first answer.”
Asked to define the city’s biggest need, Amezcua said quality of life, public safety, housing affordability and addressing homelessness. She credited the city’s Quality of Life Team, which operates under the Santa Ana Police Department, as well as detox and shelter beds and nonprofit partnerships, for helping reduce the city’s unhoused population.
She also highlighted the resources created under her leadership to provide support for residents and loved ones impacted by ongoing immigration enforcement, including funds for legal defense and utilities.
Shimell touched on affordability, but identified immigration enforcement as a defining issue, and pledged to “stand with and stand up for our immigrant community against the jarring overreach we’ve seen from the federal government since January 2025.” That includes pursuing “all lawful means to deter future ICE raids,” he said.
Shipp said he wants to focus on addressing the economic hardships facing local Santa Ana residents — the “biggest need is making sure working families can still afford to live and build a future here.”
“Too many residents work hard but continue falling behind because housing, food, transportation, and everyday expenses keep rising faster than their income,” he said.
The city can’t build its way out of every problem, Shipp added, and housing growth should also come with job training, apprenticeships and paid opportunities for young people.
Read more of the voter guide, including what the candidates said would make them good leaders and how they would represent the city’s diverse community at ocregister.com/voter-guide.