Candidate for
Council Member; City of Santa Ana; Ward 5

Lisann Martinez is a lifelong resident of the City of Santa Ana. She is probably best known as a frequent speaker at Santa Ana City Council meetings. She became involved with civic issues facing the city after her 10-year old son Justin was killed by a hit and run driver in 2004. Wanting to make a difference in the memory of her child, she started working with the Safekids Campaign to help bring safety instruction to the kids of the Santa Anita Neighborhood in collaboration with Carrillo Elementary School in Westminster. She also helped neighbors near 5th and Jackson to get a traffic light installed at an intersection that was a sight of several pedestrian fatalities.

In 2006, shedding light on the crime of identity theft, Lisann exposed the ease with which criminals could obtain others' social security numbers on court documents. She had repeatedly observed people scanning private information with their cameras onto their laptops but the politicians would not listen to her warnings.

In an operation covered by Telemundo's Martin Plascensia, she boldly walked into an OC Clerk-Recorder's office and helped him to purchase four identities, which they then surrendered to Senator Lou Correa, prompting him to author SB 644, which protects individual privacy rights by replacing the entire Social Security numbers of judgment debtors and assesses with only the last 4 digits on Abstracts of Judgment and Decrees.

Ms. Martinez never thought in her wildest dreams that she would be running for public office despite her history of activism and the fact that she has been recognized by state First Lady Maria Shriver for her work, but this year, this election, this crucial point in our history provides Lisann with her best opportunity yet to provide honest, transparent representation to the people. She feels that the city of Santa Ana is ripe for change, but that the only way to truly bring improvement is to protect the interests and rights of the majority of community members while making it so.