City Council — April 22, 2026

Meeting of the Camarillo City Council Sanitary District and Library Board to order on April 22nd, 2026. Will the clerk please call the roll?

Thank you. And I just also want clarify for the record that we did have this special meeting so you're also opening the special meeting as well. In addition, on the regular closed session we have three other items. The first one is existing litigation pursuant to 54956.9 D1 which is the OPV coalition versus Fox Canyon groundwater management. We have a second real property matter related to the property at 2222 Ventura Boulevard And the last item is an anticipated litigation matter subject to government code section 54956.92, one potential case and if there's any reportable action I will make that report.

We'll reconvene the Camarillo City Council meeting, Camarillo Sanitary District and CLB for April 22nd 2026. Let the record reflect that all council members are present and I'm going to ask Council Member Susan Santangelo to lead us in the Pledge of Allegiance.

Please stand hand over heart ready begin

with liberty and justice for all. Thank you Councilmember Santangelo And we will move on to the approval of the agenda. Are there any changes to the agenda? Hearing none, we will move forward. I'm going to call on Mandy our Director of Library Services for the City of Camarillo to talk about the Career Online High School graduates that we're going to honor this evening.

Thank you, Mayor Tennyson. Before I introduce the graduates, I want to give some background about this amazing program. Since July 2023, Camarillo Public Library has been an active participant in the Career Online High School Program offered by the California State Library. Career Online High School enables California adults to earn a high school diploma free of charge through our Adult Literacy Center.

The library has 13 active students in the program and we are proud to announce five new graduates who have received career certificates in the fields of office management, manufacturing, commercial driving and general career preparedness. And today we are fortunate to have three of our graduates here with us. I'm going to ask them to stand when I call your name Elias Acuna, recently received from Career Online High School who focused his studies on introduction and manufacturing.

Elias pursued a high school diploma because it would give him better opportunities with his job and will help him with this everyday life. He plans on going to university next so thank you. Our second graduate, Lori Lank focused her studies on commercial driving and we're really proud of Lori. Already she has taken some college courses and has earned college credits.

Our third graduate, Cynthia Noriega focused her studies on office management. She enrolled in Career Online High School so she can find better job opportunities. As she began to work toward her diploma it motivated her to continue her education. She will soon earn her AA by fall 2027 with a focus on addictive disorders. We have two additional graduates that were not able to attend this presentation, but I would like to briefly announce who they are.

Hi-Fai Shang focused her studies on general career preparedness. She is a new resident in Camarillo and pursued a high school diploma so that she can find employment. And Christina Lopez graduated with a focus on office management. She pursued this program because she wanted to apply for jobs with higher salaries and better benefits. In addition, she wanted to be a good role model for her family.

We are just so proud of all of our students who have prioritized their education, while also maintaining their full-time jobs as well as their busy family responsibilities. Most people who have enrolled in this program have heard of this through word of mouth. I encourage any adult who is interested in obtaining a high school diploma to come by the library's Adult Literacy Center and enroll. It takes about 11 months to complete the program.

And that concludes my presentation. Thank you, Mayor David Tennyson for the opportunity to speak about Carrillo Online High School.

Thank you Mandy and I'm going to ask you and the three graduates present to meet me up in front of the city seal right over here You know, I have this height issue with a daughter two inches taller than me and a brother like 18 inches taller than me. So now I feel good. Thank you for standing beside me! Number one, I am proud of your accomplishment. I know what education means. I know what it means to pursue it while you're working raising a family. I went through a trajectory like that and you should be proud of yourselves for your accomplishment. I'm glad our library offers this opportunity to just about anybody that wants it. Now I'm going to put you on the spot I'm going to hand you each the mic. And the question is, what did you get from this program?

How has it benefited from you? And you have about 12 seconds and then I grab you off the mic.

Well first of all, my name is Lori Lang and I'm a graduate this year. And I just appreciate the fact that we had this opportunity to get my diploma. And thank you for that. And I feel great.

You should feel great. Elias! Elias, yeah. I said it, Elias. What has this meant to you, Elias?

It was important because it's helped me to be more improved with people. Helped me on my job to communicate with my supervisor and all the people around me so it's been good. Good. Congratulations. Your name?

First of all, my name is Cynthia and I just want to thank the Camarillo Library for giving me the opportunity to get my high school diploma. I just wanted to show my kids it's never too late to pursue what you want to do and actually is helping me going to college and finishing my AA. Thank you!

And let's get a picture. Once again, ladies and gentlemen please recognize the outstanding achievement of these three individuals plus the two that couldn't come with us. Education is a lifelong journey and they're proving that to us. Fellow council members I'm going to start with Council Member Susan Santangelo

Thank you. I just want to say congratulations, I know it takes a lot of hard work to go back to school and to finish these things off so good for you. Congratulations and thanks for taking opportunity that we have at the library.

Vice Mayor.

Congratulations and thank you so much for taking this step forward. I know in many of what was mentioned, you talked about being a role model for your loved ones and the reality is you're also being a role model for so many people in our community, people who are watching right now who are going to be motivated to be in your steps. So thank you for being that leader and we really appreciate you. Thank you.

Mr. Kildee? Just congratulations, it's going to be beneficial to you folks not only economically but I think emotionally and socially as well and it's really important for all of you to talk this program up Because there's nothing like a graduate that has been in the program to talk about the benefits of this. And like you said, it is never too late for any kind of education and I know when you work and when you're raising a family how difficult that can be but give yourselves a pat on the back job well done congratulations Mr Tremblay

Ditto to what all of my fellow colleagues have said and especially Councilmember Santangelo, congratulations and great work.

Mandy how many graduate classes have you dealt with? What are your impressions of the people you've seen come through this and what do you hope from it?

I want to echo, I think Council Member Kildee is right. It seems like you can't do it and so if you guys did it in our last class did it and I hope that next year we have another bigger great graduation class. So please tell your friends anyone in the audience if you know someone who's looking to get their high school diploma we could do it at under a year and it's for free so please come see us.

Thank you now open up your certificates because we'll have a photo op. Get closer together like we like each other. Another round of applause for these people that have shown perseverance and tenacity, congratulations! And next, unless the city clerk calls me out we'll go to speakers on any item not on the agenda.

There are now five speakers requesting to speak. If you'd like to speak but haven't submitted your name, please see the clerk staff and in the foyer each speaker is limited to three minutes. The City Council will receive general public comment for an initial period of 20 minutes Speakers who sign up during the initial 20 minute public comment period but are not heard within that time will be given an opportunity to speak following the completion of action on all other agenda items. Your time will be displayed with a video on the displays When your time is up, the microphone will be muted and

Welcome, Spencer.

Hello. Hello. All right. Hi, hi. I'm Spencer Ritchie and the topic of my public comment today will be once again, excuse me, the city's still quite appalling and disappointing treatment of how ICE is treating Camarillans and other people in Camarillo. I don't know what really there is more to say besides, um, I do not like that. You know, the city is, um, it's still letting, letting the VCSO, you know, protect ICE vehicles and pick up its targets directly from our jails. I do not like that. Um, Cortez circle is, you know, still a pit of horrors.

And I also really do not like my taxes being used to keep funding the flock all per cameras in our town which by the way we've known for you know weeks now that you know no matter what That, you know what they capture stays within our state. In reality all the Flock All-Per-Camera images taken here can be seen by law enforcement agencies across the country including ICE so I'm just not happy about that and so to that effect here are The most recent numbers as of 11 o'clock AM on Monday, April 20th. So far ICE has kidnapped 1,879 people from the entire 805 area code. So Ventura County, Santa Barbara County, San Luis Obispo County, 905 people from Ventura County and 476 people from Camarillo. So that's a lot of people that city councils like yours who refuse to do anything meaningful whatsoever against the ice plague You know just.

Letting you get, you know scooped up and said who knows where by you know masked thugs who by the way are not basically the ruling was like something a judge rule against that new law

Diane Winthrop followed by Evan Traffickin.

Welcome, Diane.

My name is Diane Winthrop. I live in Camarillo Parks and there's trees behind my house behind the wall And I've been asking them for a long time to please trim the trees. They're hitting my house.

Could you speak a little closer to

the microphone? Sorry,

yeah. You can bend it down.

There's trees behind my house and I'm asking that managers said please trim the trees and they refused to do it. I got pictures if you want to see them.

Well we can't see him but where do you live again?

I live in Camarillo Mobile Parks in space 13

Okay, well we'll ask city staff to look into this.

Okay thank you.

You're welcome. Thank you Diane.

Evan Trafican followed by Addie Fox.

Welcome Evan.

Before we begin, I would like to thank the City Council for the opportunity to speak today and on behalf of the Teen Civic Engagement Club. We are very appreciative for the city of Camarillo's acknowledgement of public opinion and receptiveness. My name is Evan Traffikin. I'm a Rancho Campana sophomore and I'm current active member in the Teen Civic Engagement Club at the Camarillo Library.

Recently, over the past few weeks me and some other members have been discussing the idea of a youth advisory committee or Youth Council which would be comprised of a potential mentor from the city government and a number of elected teen youth leaders who would be able to work with the city and also represent teens across Camarillo for potential activities could include conducting surveys or finding out interests of teens and bringing those up to the council.

I believe this would be a very effective way to give teens experience and leadership opportunities, and also engage teens with the community more than ever. And thank you very much.

Thank you. I just have to point out real quick that I had an opportunity to appear before this group of young students and I asked them to rate my presentation after about an hour and a half, hour and 45 minutes of dialogue And only one person was courageous enough and honest enough to give me a three out of five because I talked too much about myself. So thanks for that, Evan. I've tried to learn from it. I appreciate that input and I look forward to seeing you in the future. So please reach out to Mandy and she works very closely with the rest of city staff. And obviously that was one of the goals of this council two years ago. And I think it's come to fruition with Bright Promising young people like you, so keep moving forward. Thank you for showing up tonight.

Thank you

Excuse me Addie Fox followed by a sunny big nummy

Welcome Addie

I cannot see this, hold on. Good evening members of the council. Believe it or not, I'm also appearing on the behalf of the Teen Civic Engagement Club and I am also proposing the idea of the Youth Advisory Committee. I know in days past there was also a Youth Advisory Committee and many may remember what the committee accomplished. It gave young people a seat at the table, a real voice in the decisions that shaped the city And the results spoke for themselves. The skate park the teens advocated for didn't just create a place to ride, it created a place to belong.

It gave our youth somewhere to go, something to do and a sense of ownership over their community. But beyond tangible projects, the Youth Advisory Committee did something even more important. It introduced a generation of young people to civic life. It showed them that politics isn't something that happens to them. It's something they can participate in, shape and lead.

Since the committee was disbanded, that pipeline has gone quiet. We have a generation of young people such as those who participate in the Teen Civic Engagement Club at the library who are capable passionate and eager to contribute and we are not giving them the opportunity to do so. I'm asking the city to change that let's bring our youth advisory committee back let's invest in our youth the way we did in the past let's give the next generation the same chance to leave their mark on this city.

Thank you very much well said

Sunny Bignami.

What was the name, Sunny?

Yes. Welcome, Sunny. Hi Mayor, how are you? I'm well. Hello everybody. Good afternoon, good evening. So my name is Sunny Bignami. I am a long-time Camarillo, former Camarillo resident. I've been here to see a lot of changes that the city has undergone, specifically its growth. I am now a real estate professional And with that, I've had the opportunity to meet many people from all walks of life, many backgrounds.

I am here to show my support and to stand in solidarity for my request along with many others to please pass RSO, the Rent Stabilization Ordinance.

Sonny, I'm going to stop you now

because

this is for items not on the agenda and

that will

be on the agenda shortly after this.

I appreciate that. Thank you.

Madam clerk.

There are no more speakers,

thank you very much we will move on to the library activity updates by Mandy.

Good evening Mayor David Tennyson, library trustees. I am honored to be here today in time for National Library Week which is celebrated from April 19th to 25th. The theme this year is Find Your Joy, and at Camarillo Public Library we find joy every day with our dedicated library staff members, our connection to library patrons and the many services and programs that we offer.

As you saw moments earlier, we celebrate library joy with our incredible Career Online High School graduates. And now with an accredited high school diploma in hand their future is going to be brighter. I have another Library Joy announcement, which is our newly formed Teen Civic Engagement Club. Led by our teen librarian Naomi Wolfrey, the Teen Civic Engagement Club was created last October and they meet twice a month.

The idea of the Teen Civic Engagement Club is to engage youth regarding issues that concern them and develop future leaders, which is outlined in the city's strategic plan and council goals and objectives. When we met with the teens last fall for a focus group, the teens identified a few goals for the club this year. And these goals include one learning about their local government to meeting the mayor and three attend and speak at a city council meeting so they can be involved.

In 2026, the Teen Civic Engagement Club hosted nine meetings and we met with city staff leaders in various departments such as Community Relations, Public Works, Economic Development and Community Development. These learning opportunities provided our Teen Civic Engagement Club with how their local government works. The Teen Civic Engagement Club had the opportunity to fulfill their second goal and meet with Mayor David Tennyson and Library Board President and Council Member Susan Santangelo.

On March 31st, seven teens used Dial-A-Ride to take a field trip from this library to city chambers here and they met with city clerk staff. Staff provided a tour of City Hall and created a mock city agenda and afterwards teens had the opportunity to practice talking on a microphone to prepare teens for public comment at a future City Council meeting and they just did that.

So the Teen Civic Engagement Club will continue until the end of June, and our next steps will be to plan for engagement next year. We've asked Assistant City Manager Carmen Nichols to meet with us next month for vision planning. And in addition we invited HR Director Wendy Levy who will share information about the city's internship program if they want to pursue that in college.

That concludes my presentation and I'm happy to address any questions.

Any questions from Council? One quick question, Mandy. Is there anything else special that's gone on at the library in the last few weeks?

We had this guest speaker for story time last week. We actually had two special library story time readers and you know, I think they're gonna be my backup so yes we, I think Mayor David Tennyson, Vice Mayor Dr. Martinez-Bravo, you did an excellent job celebrating National Library Week and doing our story times. And I'm gonna call you if one of us gets sick, so be prepared. All right.

We'll be there for you. Sick or not

sick, we'll be there.

Yeah, we'll be there for you. And anybody else in the audience that wants to take advantage of that, there is nothing more special than reading to a group of preschoolers and just a little bit beyond preschool. To share the joy of reading and the joy of learning through reading and the joy of travel through reading so I'd encourage you to look at the library website and if there's opportunities for volunteerism. I'm sure Mandy would consider all of you people coming in and being guest readers for these preschoolers, and a little bit older than preschoolers. Thank you Mandy.

Thank you so much.

Normally we don't encourage audience participation. We did it for our graduates but if you could keep your applause or your negative comments quiet that way everybody feels free to get up and speak when it's their turn. Next up, we have our report from Chandler Asset Management. Mr. Mark Uribe, our finance

director? Yes, thank you, Mr. Mayor and members of the City Council. Just for benefit of the public, we are currently as a city working on the budget for next fiscal year beginning July 1, and the city's investment advisor Chandler Asset Management provides a quarterly economic update to the city's Finance Committee. And each year around this time, we ask Chandler to present an economic report to the full City Council to provide some context for the economic conditions that may impact the revenue and expenditure projections that are going into the city's budget development process. So now I'd like to introduce Jason Schmidt, Co-Chief Investment Officer with Chandler Asset Management to present that economic report.

Good evening everyone and Councilman and Mayor. So we're gonna talk a little bit about the economy today Sure, I can and you know look at some of the highlights. So just if you look at the economy today in 2025 GDP grew at 2.1%. If we look at 2026 the consensus is for similar growth at 2.2%. One of the big risks that's out there today is the conflict that's going on in the Middle East, which has essentially driven oil prices higher. I'll show you a little bit more information on that.

And with that, there is an expectation and inflation also may move higher over that same period With that in mind, thinking about interest rates in the Federal Reserve, the Federal Open Market Committee or the FOMC held rates steady at 3.5 to 3.75 at the March meeting. Chances are Looking at the labor market, definitely rebounded in March. We added 178,000 jobs. The unemployment rate is relatively low at 4.3%.

Labor market today is pretty much holding steady. The big one that's an outlier out there is really inflation, and CPI stands for the Consumer Price Index. That's a broad measure of prices. And so for the month of March it jumped 0.9%, and on a year-over-year basis it's 3.3%. And so I would say that that is probably what the markets are focused on today and what most economists are focused on today relative to one of the risks there is that we will get higher levels of inflation.

The other piece of that is looking at the other financial markets, not that the city would ever buy stocks but looking at the S&P 500 as potentially a barometer of what's going on in the overall economy and we're now seeing the S & P 500 hit a record high. This was only a few days ago and also we continue to see strong corporate profits in the first quarter This is looking at energy markets. So on the left-hand side, it's really looking at oil prices. I look at two sets of oil prices. One is Brent, so think of that as the global oil price and then one is WTI or West Texas Intermediate Crude. And what you can see there, look at both of those lines, that was actually trending downward until we had the conflict start in the Middle East and now both of those numbers were at this point time, this is as of March 31st I'm going to go ahead and show you a graph of what we're seeing right now.

We're seeing oil prices above a 100, we're seeing it kind of bounce around close And so you can see the dash line down there is really the gasoline price. And then you can see that green line there is actually the diesel price. Why do we put diesel in there? If you think about the trucks and things like that, that are really delivering the goods and services that we need, what a lot of them burn, they're burning diesel fuel. So that's why that makes it very important component of that. This is what economists are looking at as far as looking at the overall inflation rate and what potentially could drive that higher And of course, that has an impact on interest rates and it also has impact on looking at what the Federal Reserve also may do with the federal funds rate.

Looking at inflation, left-hand side is the CPI. So you can see the headline there is in the green. The dash line there is in the core. What do I mean by four? By core is economists a lot of times like to look at the inflation rate except or excluding food and energy. And so they'd like to look at the core rate. But what you can see is that they've diverged. That core rate, of course, excluding food and energy has kept relatively flat there. And what you saw is that big jump that we had in the month of March because we had such a large increase On the other side, this is the Federal Reserve's preferred measure which is the personal consumption expenditures. Again, the headline number is in the green. The dash line is that of the core number and that orange is that flatline.

That's where the Federal Reserve's target is. Notice that they're above their target and so that is probably going to prevent them from decreasing interest rates at least until later this year. Looking at the employment so you can see here the non farm payrolls, the green line there is the month over month. And then that dashed line is a 3 month moving average it just shows The unemployment rate on the other side, the green line there is the one you should focus on. That is the headline unemployment rate has been migrating up a little bit here more recently and then we have the dashed line being the underemployment rate which is essentially those folks that might be working part-time that would like to be working full time So, I would say that the labor market is pretty normal right now.

We haven't seen a whole lot of weakness there and so that is definitely something to think about as the economy started off on very good footing before the conflict started. These are survey based measures these are the folks that are buying the nuts and bolts. That are basically building our desks spilling the goods and also providing those services anything above 50 is an expanding sector, anything below 50 is contracting the green line there is manufacturing. So you can see that's above 50, and then you can also see that dashed line which is the services side. You can also see that's above 50. So definitely what we've seen more recently is that the economy continues to roll on as basically being very resilient. We'll have to see kind of what happens as we make our way throughout the year.

This is looking at GDP. This is looking at the last four quarters in 2025, so the table on the left-hand side there shows you those quarter over quarter changes. If you look at the graph, you can see the green line there are the quarter over quarter changes and that maroon line there is that year over year change. Notice it's around that 2% mark is what we've been looking at. That's what the forecast is but remember the forecast is definitely susceptible to change depending upon what's happening in the economy.

Let's look at some of the local data. And so what we did here is we looked at a table, and in that table you can see there different factors. We have the Riverside County, Orange County and Los Angeles County looking at some of those different numbers. Looking at population growth one of the other things that we really looked at is looking at median household income and also looking at that five-year average there. And so your median household income has been growing about a half a percent there If you go below that looking at your unemployment rate here in Ventura County, 4.7% definitely doing better than Riverside and also from the state of California's perspective Orange County really being one of those places that has had and continues to have a very low unemployment rate.

Looking towards the bottom there looking at CPI or consumer price indices, looking at the U.S. and California and looking at Ventura County 3.4% that did increase on a year-over-year basis by 0.4%. And then finally looking at the very bottom there, you can see the medium home prices there. California of course is some of the highest home prices that we have if you look from the United States relative to just California in general and also the other counties there, you definitely see a very high home price there. Notice that they've kind of leveled out there and some of them are even at a negative level on a year-over-year basis. And also, they don't spend much time in the market these days too if you look at that every number there is below 20 and also below the national average at the same time.

This is looking at bond yields, left-hand side. The dotted line there is the two year treasurer note. The dashed line is the five year and that dark green line is the ten year treasury note. Notice if you go all the way to the right hand side of that graph in that time series that more recently interest rates have risen. That's because you have inflation expectation that it's really finding its way into the market. What I will point out on the left hand side is that green line That is really looking at the U.S. Treasury curve, the yield curve. The bottom there are the terms on the left-hand side are the yields. What I really want you to focus on is we have what we call a normally shaped yield curve today where shorter term rates are lower than longer term rates all the way out the yield curve.

This was somewhat surprising. We didn't think that we'd see this until later this year but really some of those higher inflation expectations have driven some of the longer term rates higher. And with that, that concludes my presentation. I can answer any questions that you may have.

Thank you Jason and I believe Mr. Kildee and Ms. Santangelo sit on the investment committees so I will ask you if you have any questions for Jason?

I always look forward to you being here and you do, in my opinion, you do a great job for our city. Can you shed a little bit of light on our investments and how our investments are doing in today's economy? They're

doing exactly what they're expected to do. Remember, our primary tenants for your investment portfolio are safety, liquidity, and finally return and yield. The investments are safe They're liquid. And basically, if you needed to raise any cash out of that portfolio, you'd be able to do that by either letting securities mature off or potentially even selling those securities and you would receive a very fair prices for those securities. In fact, more recently we've seen the portfolio actually go up. So when we looked at the portfolio more recently, you saw the total return meaning that the value of the portfolio continues to go higher A it earns interest Councilmember Santangelo?

Jason, thank you so much for being here. I like sitting on the investment finance committees because I really enjoy your presentations and I always learn so much from you. So thank you for being here tonight so that you can share all your information with our community. We have so many people here tonight it was perfect but I don't have any questions for you just thank you.

Great

no questions but thank you as always. Thank you.

No questions. Thank you very much Jason. Thank you very much. Next we will go on to council comments and I'm going to exercise the mayor's prerogative. Normally, I go last but this time I'm gonna go first so that the vice-mayor can't steal all of my thunder. But I'm gonna introduce something that she will then steal my thunder from Vice Mayor and I had an opportunity this morning to attend the National Crime Victims Week celebration that's hosted annually by the District Attorney's Office.

A touching tribute to crime victims in Ventura County, today especially touching for me because it impacted an early experience I had as a Sheriff's Deputy in Thousand Oaks. In 1980, a call of a deceased female victim in the north parking lot of Westlake High School. And that deceased female victim went known as Jane Doe. She was five months pregnant, Jane Do for 45 years.

Eventually through new technology which didn't exist in 1980, they were able to identify DNA from a suspect. And the suspect ended up getting arrested and was tried for two Jane Doe homicides, one in Ventura County and one in Kern County. and was convicted on both counts, even with no known victim. We had a human body in the human body but no names and was sentenced to two sentences of life imprisonment without possibility of parole.

The sad thing is family members had no idea what happened to their loved ones And eventually, maybe two or three months ago through this new technology and the public DNA database they were able to identify both victims. And two months ago the sheriff of Ventura County and the district attorney had a press conference out at the Thousand Oaks station, East Valley Sheriff's Station.

And the family members, the siblings of our Jane Doe were present for this. And so after 45 years The siblings got closure. They knew what happened to their sister, they knew what happened to her and the sad thing is the brother of our victim Very emotionally said, mom wondered until the last day of her life. The last breath of her life what happened to her little girl and being a person of faith I think he knows they were reunited before we knew her name but we now know her name so today the Ventura County Sheriff's Office cold case unit was honored by the district attorney for National Crime Victims Week celebration. The Ventura County prosecutors that prosecuted this case, which was really unusual having a case prosecuted from two counties without a known named victim and what they looked at was trying to humanize these victims Even though nobody knew who they were.

And then the eventual identification, who these victims were so that their loved ones could finally have peace and bring them home to let them rest in peace. And I was especially touched by today's ceremony. It was impressive. They also granted an award for resiliency and they had the family members of surviving family members of our Jane Doe and I'll let Vice Mayor Martita Martinez-Bravo, say her name. She'll say it much better than me.

But the family members were present today and got the resiliency award from the district attorney's office because they never lost hope. They always wondered. They always worried but now they have closure. They know where their loved one is. Now on a happier note We also got the opportunity to present certificates of recognition on behalf of the City Council and this is always a fun part of the job. We visited a senior facility, a residential home in Camarillo and were able to honor Ruth and Phyllis Now, I'm not sure if Phyllis deserved to be honored. She was only 87. She was a youngster. Ruth turns 100 years old on Saturday and these two ladies were so touched that Vice Mayor Martinez Bravo and I showed up and they were just absolutely happy and brilliant and engaging and I remember going home and telling my wife and she said how are they?

And I said well the hundred-year-old was really sharp and a lot younger than the 87 year old. And I know what it feels like to be old because Vice Mayor always points out that her dad's younger than me, but I think the vice mayor has something to share on this today so it's your turn Martita

Oh, thank you. Would you like me to just start with Council Communications? Sure. Okay. Thank you Mayor. So April 2nd I did attend the library story time for National Library Week which we talked about and engaging with toddlers and preschoolers was really fun. Your granddaughter was present at my event too. April 13th I attended the Public Safety and Emergency Preparedness Committee meeting with Council Member Kildee And then April 13th, I also attended the West Ventura County Business Alliance Business Advocacy Committee. I provided a brief informational report on the city's rent stabilization ordinance which is in process today and invited any input from the business alliance as well as we always welcome diverse perspectives.

And then April 15th, Good morning, everyone. I want to thank all of you for participating in this. Another interesting data point that was mentioned from Sheriff Fryhoff's breakfast was that there is this nonprofit group called the Disability Rights California and what they go around and inspect And here they inspected the jails and they checked the programming for incarcerated people, access to exercise and recreation, mental health care, medical care, discipline housing and administrative separation housing. And they found the Ventura County Jails to be substantially in compliance with all federal and state laws. So that was really good news to hear that especially coming from that nonprofit.

April 16th, I attended the Economic Development Collaborative meeting and April 20th. I attended a traffic concerns community meeting at Camarillo High School with some constituents residents who live around the high school and also Oxnard Unified High School District staff including Dr. McCoy Principal Peck, Mr. Urias and OUHSD trustee Dr. Maria Estrada, our chief of police Eric Tennyson and our assistant city manager Carmen Nichols were also there and participated. And so we listened to the concerns that were brought forward by their residents and discussed next steps and listen to some potential solutions.

April 22nd, as mentioned I attended the National Crime Victims Rights Week ceremony. The event was put on by the District Attorney's Office from Eric Nazarenko in memory of Maricela Rocha Parga and I did have the honor to share some time with the family members, with the sisters who were there And one sister mentioned she was very young when this happened. Maricela had stepped out to buy a birthday cake and she said she felt it in her gut that she wasn't going to come back, that something bad had really happened.

And she said when she was gone, one of the things that she really missed about her was she missed her cariño. And cariño is not necessarily a word that we can translate, that directly translates but it's a combination of care and love. And so she said she really, really missed that and I offered my continued prayers for the family as you can imagine after 45 years There is some peace that has been brought.

At the same time, there's just still so much trauma and loss for this young woman in the family. On April 22nd, I attended the 100th birthday of Ruth and then the 86th of Phyllis. And that was really fun. April 22nd today also, I attended the second annual Fair Housing Forum. It's a fair housing equity forum put on by the City of Ventura and also hosted by the Ventura County Coastal Association of Realtors.

I couldn't stay there for the entire, it was like a half day event. I couldn't stay there for the entire thing but I was able to attend a couple of their sessions and one important data point that I really learned and that was, it was very interesting, was that five to 10 years ago, there was a real crisis around US veterans who were experiencing homelessness And there was a true concerted effort, especially here in the state of California to attend to that need. And because of that now veterans have not only a place to live and stay but they have many options which is really wonderful.

But unfortunately one of the increases that we have that they have also seen is an increase seniors who are experiencing homelessness and so that was really concerning to hear. Right after the forum I reached out to Deputy Jason Havelka, who leads our Project HOPE team here in the City of Camarillo and you know I explained what I had heard and wanted to get his feedback as to what he is seeing here in this city as well and he said 100%. That's exactly Councilmember Santangelo.