City Council — 2020-03-10

We'll call the meeting of the Ojai City Council. We'll call the meeting to the Ojai City Council, to order. Will the clerk please call?

Mayor Johnston?

Here.

Mayor Pro Tem Blatt? Here. Council Member Francina? Here! Council Member Haney? I'm here. Council Member Wyrick?

buses. Yeah, correct and that's

what we

intended. And then the bigger question is I mean do we need signs like that all over town? You know, did we ever address the you know what like what happens that bus is idle some of them all day? Did we address that

so we had talked about it in the parking committee and talking bringing back a recommendation So yeah public works director and I talked about it in this context as well. Um So we'll bring back something more focused on, I think that was more focused on the downtown in particular. Yeah. So we'll bring that back at a future meeting but this item in particular was trying to be responsive to the signal

street concern. Yeah well it's wonderful you did it so quickly. Thank you. They appreciate that yeah.

Yeah so we'll bring back one to talk about... One of the ideas we had raised was you know having a designated parking zone in

the lower Libby parking lot. Okay so we will try to do that before there's another festival.

Okay, Ryan. We discussed this at Air Pollution Control District today and they did say that one thing in other communities because it wasn't exactly a bus kind of a trailhead but they had situations where cars were idling whether it was near school or other stuff they were able to not only have rules in place but then they were very vigilant in enforcing them and we're walking you know would go out to the places handout tickets and they were talking about how that has been an important part of also air pollution control districts mandate to lower the pollution So I think we have some broad scope there and if we, if we do run into a question about it APCD might be a place to start.

Cool. I'm really glad, may I chime in once more? I'm glad you brought that up because I was sitting in front of Rainbow Bridge and a big old SUV drove up and it idled. I kept wanting to stand up and I thought No, she's going to leave. But it went on and then I became curious how long... And it was still idling when I left. So, I mean, it is rare but it's disgusting when it happens. It's

not all that rare particularly like with the buses because what they're doing is the air conditioner to get themselves cool. Maybe we should offer them an umbrella or something and ask them to sit under a

tree. Just to add onto this, so what are Can you give us, maybe not tonight but give us some information on what are our rights to stop all individuals from idling their vehicles in town as you know can you do that?

We'll bring back a report. The one we were starting to work on was focused on buses, so that's what we're

looking at. I just heard SUVs which are not a bus or large vehicles and so I just want to know that we're gonna open up this box where is it going to end?

Well, you know one reason there's a problem is because people get they start looking at their iPhone and then they lose track of time it seems.

Okay so staff will report back at some point okay? Do I have a motion to approve on the consent agenda? Move approval.

Second.

Okay moved and seconded thank you any objection if not okay consent agenda is approved We are now on number two, active transportation project status update. Mr. City Manager.

Thank you, I have a brief report on this and actually we'll bring an image up just to kind of show it. This item is a follow-up from the February 11th meeting in which we presented the 35% design of the active transportation project which includes The lane reduction of Maricopa Highway and it included a couple of curb cuts and changes to the layout there. When we brought that back to council on February 11th, we noted that because one of the new curb cuts which is right next to the football stadium on screen there, one of those curb cuts that was being proposed would The school district had indicated a preference to avoid the change if possible because it would trigger additional requirements from the state architect's office or could trigger additional requirements from the state architect's office.

So at that time we brought what we called the alternate design and so That wouldn't affect the required changes to the parking lot. At that time, council directed staff to meet with the district and prepare a proposed design that does include the additional curb cut and even broader look at possible improvements that we could make. So we did that on Friday and the agenda, we put an item on the agenda because we're moving very quickly with some deadlines so we were trying We had an item if we needed to make any decisions at this point.

We met last week with the district, and our staff discussed a revised design. It would include the curb cut, it would include a left turn... Is there a pointer? Can you make

that

full screen James? Yeah. There's a couple key points here. Then Jeremy, can you make it full screen? Let's see. So we'll pull this up here but let's see.

I don't know if he can.

And I've officially caused all kinds of

problems.

Down the rabbit

hole. I actually know which button it is. So

what

we're

referring to is the curb cut here that would require traffic to come in and would require some change to the parking lot. And then also a left turn here into the faculty parking lot, which will reduce the need for people to make U-turns further on and reduce some of the traffic back up. So, we worked through that design. Our consultant is preparing a design to return and the school district at that time committed to reach out to the state architect's office to determine if they could submit the design and if you recall their concern was that if they submitted a design and the state architect imposed some requirements that would be costly, they were afraid that they'd be locked into it. So they've reached out to the state architect this week who confirmed that they can submit the design and revoke it without any penalty if need be.

With those steps out of the way, the next step at this point is we will continue... We'll have a meeting with the consultant next week to lock in the design. My expectation is we'll bring that design to the district but then also to council the following week for a decision on whether we want to move forward with submitting that design. Yeah, and then one last point that I'll mention is there likely will be The school district noted that to submit the design to the architects office. There's expected to be a $3,000 application fee so we'll be working with them but just as they You know as a note there may be some costs associated with this design Okay

May I have a question for this? I told you, I'll keep them short tonight. Is there any way that we can try and do a joint session with them regarding this? Can we reach out to them and do a joint session versus someone going into there and presenting something at their board if we can find a place that we can actually have that discussion so that the community can see their input and see our input our concerns their concerns

Well, do we need that at this point? I mean if we can come to an agreement. I think that James made some progress saying you know, we have an obligation and the school district has an obligation. Part of the problem is caused by the general community with traffic. Part of the problem is caused by the traffic that's coming to the school. And so together we should be able to come up with something that would make it safer for the students and safer for the community and keep the flow of traffic moving That's, I mean that's the goal and if they can get an agreement at least at the staff level then we see whether or not maybe if there is controversy at that point where we're not in agreement then maybe a joint session is in order.

Well I'm just saying the joint session would make them make that decision publicly And I just think that's something that should be done sooner than later. Let's say we all agree and then it goes to the state, what's our timeframe then? Three months, four months, six months a year? We don't know.

Yeah, yeah, I think at one point they had said three to four weeks but I'm not 100% sure of that so we can get clarity on that.

Could we maybe, taking the Mayor's point on this, maybe wait until we see what design the staffs agree on and then bring this up again for discussion about whether we go onto the joint session? One of five.

Okay.

Are they are the only two options that I mean is the cut out near the football stadium is that still an option on the table?

Yes, so that's an option. I

just wanted to make sure. Yeah they're willing

to

try to submit it to the state. Will you point to the employee?

So that's a staff parking lot over there.

Yeah yeah

so be a left turn here

That's what it is now? Well, that wasn't what it was when I went there. It used to be out in front and when they said they wanted a left turn lane into there, I thought they meant into that

parking lot.

No, they mean here. So who parks in the front now?

Is it students? My understanding is its permit parking for students.

Don't be mean.

Okay, so do we need to give you any direction or is this just a minute? Sousa I'll come back to you.

So the plan right now is we will have the consultant prepare the design and return with it as long as that is acceptable where we can move forward.

Are there any public comment cards on this?

Yes, Susan.

I wanted to wait to make my comments after we hear from the public. I just wanted to make sure you weren't moving on. I'm not

cutting it off. I am just trying to give a little order here okay?

Well I haven't even

said anything yet. Okay, I do have one card from the public. Is the council asked all of the questions of staff? Okay. Russell where are ya?

Welcome back to Ojai.

Did you go to the UK? I did, yes. Don't go there again soon. You're

using Russell's time. I also went to Amsterdam and Utrecht so you guys are in real trouble. Obviously, my name is Russell Sidney. I'm working with the Ohio High Bicycle Safety Team which is supporting the Complete Streets Committee and Safe Routes to Schools. We've reviewed the two options under discussion and we are very clear that the one safe place for traffic coming down from the Five Points area to enter campus is immediately at the athletic field where it ends before the parking lot.

If we can bring bicycles in there, bring them down next to the athletic field so they can access the campus housing that would be the safest way to get bicycles onto campus. If any changes are made that encourage vehicles to get closer to those bicycles and to use that street next to the field more often that will directly endanger bicycles. The existing driveway is inadequate for the purposes of bringing traffic on campus and it's one of the reasons why we have extensive backups in there because it's only wide enough to have two vehicles at any given time. Improving that should be relatively inexpensive and easy, and we support that option.

The other thing that you can see on this map is that the bicycle path has been moved away from the curb to allow right turn traffic to enter the campus next to the curb. That puts bicycles between the right turn traffic and through traffic on a highway. Protecting them in that position is very difficult to do, and it's happening before the bicycles can turn into campus. So students would not be protected in getting onto campus if we go with the design the way you see it here.

The objective from our point of view is to get the bicyclists along next to the curb with a nice protected parking lane between them and traffic, get them onto campus so that they can get safely into the buildings before they have to interact with cars. This is pushing bicyclists away from the curb and they're going to have to then go out the other side of the right turn traffic and have to cross it to get back into campus I don't know how this is an improvement.

Because

I want to make sure because I don't think that was correct Russell so I want to make sure right Greg you're back there shaking your head too, so I believe and correct me if I'm wrong and Greg you're listening too. Russell the cutout there next to their will oh we there's no question it will be there for at least bicycles and students okay maybe also vehicles now I believe in some because I can't see this for a while But it should be that bicycles coming down regardless of whether there's a separate car entry or not We'll have a bike ingress egress there before that lane goes to the left And if you see above where

the hand is, you can see those hash marks Yeah and you can see the lines that move away from the

spot if you're coming south on there for a Bicycle to come into campus before having to be to the left of the cars turning

What that indicates is a place where the bicycle lane is being pulled away from the curb. The hash marks are so that the right turn traffic can cross that bicycle path and make the turn into campus. That's what that plan represents, I don't know if that's what anybody had in mind but that's what we're looking

at. And to be clear this isn't the design? This isn't the design. The design is being drafted as we speak. We're

doing another one to address these concerns.

We were talking about the concerns that we're addressing. Can

I make a clarification?

I

would like to make

a clarification. Sousa, come on guys. Let's do one at a time. Sousa you are not chairing the meeting please. Russell are you finished? I feel like I have

used too much of your time already.

No you haven't. It's all right. Thank you. We appreciate your comments okay. Souse would you wait until I call on you then that will make it flow better. I'm not ignoring you okay Now, Russell, Susan may want to talk to you. So proceed.

Yes. Thank you. OK. What I want to say, Russell is that at the Complete Streets meeting last Wednesday we focused solely on the parking lot. That's all we talked about. And Dave Rogers was present and then we called in James and Greg Grant and we came to agreement As to what was in our educated opinion the best design for both getting rid of that bottleneck that happens 15 minutes, 20 minutes in the morning and again when school is out. And that keeps the kids away from the cars so perhaps Greg Grant will come and explain it to you know clarify You were in Europe, so it's understandable that there may be some confusion. But I want to assure you...

Maybe I should leave town more often. Russell,

I stayed in America and I'm confused

too, so don't worry about it. Yeah. So if this is not...

Yeah, it's confusing. This is seriously scary. Yeah, but thank you because I agree with your concerns. But I feel like we did iron them out.

Oh

good.

So you're just doing this to get me excited? Yes.

Right.

Welcome home. Okay. Thank you.

Okay anything else Susan?

I'm gonna wait until if Greg Grant are you going to explain it something are you? Yeah, and I want to wait until all the speakers. Good evening

very briefly I think this is you can see the data on this is February 2019 So I think the intention was that James can see This was back when we were working with a school on some layouts in the park a lot so I think the intention Was just so James can describe the situation where the entries are and so on yeah That's not The things that Russell brought up are not the existing design it is the bike lane stays tight at the curb throughout that whole area

Thank you

Thanks Greg.

Okay,

you have more?

Yes I wanted to wait until they were done.

Well who's done?

The speakers.

We had one card it was Russell he's finished. Okay, well tonight we're not designing it Russell and I would suggest get to in touch with the city manager and these Get the latest ironing and again. I'm sure that they will take that into consideration

We're still waiting for a design

Okay next item I

didn't get to speak I Wanted to ask James some questions

Please

proceed. When I spoke before, it was in response. Just ask your questions. I wanted to know James when you said school district that Dave Rogers was present at the meeting correct? Yes. And he was present at the complete street so then he would have conveyed I believe what we had intended. I just want assurance of that. You know,

so he was at the meeting. I'm not sure what? I'm not sure what he discussed that the complete streets meeting. So I'm not sure He was at this meeting that I was at with the school district

OK. And the other thing I wanted to say is that on Thursday, and it's related to this, on Thursday at 11 o'clock what was supposed to be a one hour meeting about the demonstration project ran almost three hours. It was probably the best meeting I've ever attended in both my terms on the council. And there will be a public demonstration project meeting where they will explain all of this, answer questions that the public has.

And they have experts, they've done this type of project in communities all over the world. I think several hundred projects like this and we discussed that the success of this demonstration project pretty much hinges on this parking lot and the bottleneck in the morning. If we can demonstrate that we can improve both the traffic flow and the safety of the cyclists, then this project will be a success. We have to get rid of that bottleneck.

Thank you. Mayor,

just one quick question. First of all, was this meeting open to all the council people that you attended?

As far as I know, I don't know.

Can Greg respond to that? Greg were we all notified of this meeting that Sousa attended?

The meeting was laid out it's a technical advisory committee and the community advisory committee they had two committees so the consultant Under the skag, you know, remember skag is administering this grant so they had a cross-section of the community for the initial meeting was just to get a feel for issues and In take a look at this site. It's kind of a kickoff

meeting answer

the question So the next meeting is the one that's fully open to the whole public

were we notified as council people of this meeting? I don't believe so Okay And there's only reason why we weren't

No, but we talked about it at the meeting. We talked about this technical advisory committee apparently was set up years ago and so Greg and I talked when we found out about this that we need to get more people involved and get council involved in these meetings moving forward. So this was the first one. It was set up based on the original project a couple of years back.

So again, my concern is that none of us were invited or were made aware of And I don't know how and if it's open to the public why the public wasn't made aware of it So I just

misspoke. I misspoke. I want to clarify. Oh, I would just

like you please ask to be recognized We're never gonna get out of here Like

in the future Yes for these meetings for us to be notified so that we might attend the public be made aware of these meetings So they might attend and then I'd like a status update on this committee. Who are they who's on it? How long has it been going on just Again, it sounds like a committee that we don't know. We have a committee of okay. Thank you. Yeah understood

And then we have Brown Act issues if we start running the technical committee meetings as City Council meetings. But, we understand you would like to be notified on anything that has to do with this project. Well

more importantly is why weren't we given that as a council preference versus this committee? We're the ones that are making these decisions these committees are just advisory.

That's correct And when they send their reports to us, that's when we weigh in we don't parallel them on everything That is that happens but I understand your concern and I think the staff is now sensitized to it Okay No. We are going now to public comment, and I have four cards. Two more? I got six.

Okay.

Dr. Neal, you're up first. And I've got Ron Solorzano, our librarian on deck. Hi, Dre.

Hi!

Can you all hear me?

Okay guys, let's please one meeting at a time.

So I don't normally read things but i'm going to because this is an update from the Ohio Valley Fire Safe Council. We wanted to tell you how excited we are about the passing of Measure C. It shows the commitment of our community to projects that are part of the core values of the Ojai Valley Fire Safe Council fire mitigation and climate change mitigation Chris Danch is, sorry he can't be here today. He's representing us at the Protecting Your City from Wildfire Conference where civic officials, fire responders, regulators, utilities and more will be discussing wildfire resilient communities We would like to update the City Council on some of our progress. Since December, we have submitted two grants that include broad stakeholder support over $400,000 in grant support and $300,000 in in-kind support and donations.

We are very thankful for the city's support in these efforts to help create fire and climate resiliency for the Ojai Valley. We hope to be submitting a third grant on March 18th with the city's support. Measure C is an important key to helping leverage existing new funds for fire mitigation and climate change mitigation. We would like to remind the City of the importance of these projects, like mental health preparedness for disasters, prescribed grazing, fire vegetation management, and assessment of new climate fire resiliency programs like our Community Disaster Evacuation Centers or CDECs.

We would like to remind the City of the Ojai Fire Safe Council's commitments to these efforts and capability to both manage and run these efforts for the City of Ojai and the Ojai Valley, both as a contractor and through the Ojai Valley Fire Safe Council's initiative. And we really want to thank you for your time and your support for the Ojia Valley Fire Safe Council and for our community in these efforts.

On a note, water has become quite a topic. So I have a small suggestion that from now on water be named when it's dealing with fire natural organic liquid fire

retardant. Ron you're up and Ron number two, Ron LaCroix your next on deck

All righty, thank you. Thank you for designating me Ron number one. Good evening members of council I'm Ron Solorzano the regional librarian for the Ojai Valley. I just wanted to give you a quick update on some of the events we have coming up at the library in the month of March and I want to start by saying we have California Lutheran University's community counseling services coming by the library on Saturday March 14th at 1 p.m. to lead a mindfulness workshop They're going to be discussing a variety of tools such as meditation and grounding techniques, which will allow one to become fully present and take a nonjudgmental outlook on life.

Later on we have on March 18th, that's a Wednesday at 6 p.m., Vina Lustado is going to visit the library to present a lecture on tiny houses design and living. Vina has decades of experience designing spaces and will be discussing strategies for utilizing tiny spaces in a way that is comfortable and even luxurious. Then we're going to have Dr. Arthur Vander visit us on Saturday, March 21st at 1 p.m., to present a talk titled Intestinal Microbes and the Brain in Health and Disease, discussing research into the possibility that intestinal microbes can exert important influences on the brain and other organs.

Later on we have Ross Kerr, March 25th giving a talk Music and Animation Wilfred Jackson and Disney Films. Mr. Kerr is going to talk about the development and use of original music composed for classic Disney films. We're talking 1928 through 1965 or so. And then Opera Santa Barbara is coming back to us at the library to present a free concert at noon on Thursday, March 26th.

All of this is in addition to us doing two more weeks of our Monday matinees. Those are 1130 AM showings of movies from this past awards season coming up next Monday the 16th we're going to have Once Upon A Time In Hollywood and then our finale will be March 23rd Joker And that's it for now in addition to all of our normal events, our story times, our ukulele club and all of that stuff. Any questions you have please just reach out to me at the library. Thank