City Council — 2020-07-14

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

we are pulling him into the webinar.

Okay and Council Member Weyrich?

Here

public comments at 7 30 so we are now on consented calendar and Randy you want to what? I just wanted to

poll Jay the reappointment of incumbents to the commissions

okay do we have a motion on the balance of the consent calendar?

I'll move to

approve. Was there a second? Second All right, second. Okay moved and seconded uh any well I guess without objection so approved okay Randy you're on with Jay

yeah you know Mayor the only um the only issue that i have in it and it's um I want to make it clear it's not personal because I don't know the gentleman but that's one of the problems that I have with Suze's nominee reading his application I didn't have a sense that this gentleman has any idea of what the planning commission does. And I don't know if he's attended meetings, I don't know if he understands Title 10. I just have a lot of concerns that we're just putting someone on a planning commission because we needed an applicant. So because of that, I can't support this applicant, I just wanted to say that.

Okay, well, I don' know Mr. Trent personally but He was engaged in community meetings regarding the lot on Montgomery that the council inherited from the state for affordable housing unit. And so I think he is somewhat familiar with what the planning commission, the city does but other than that, I don't know.

So- Bill? I was thinking since Susan nominated this gentleman we might wanna hear from Susan.

Yeah, I'm waiting to speak. I nominated him because I felt that he, first of all, he grew up in Ojai and he graduated from Nordoff. He's a little younger than the rest of the planning commission. You know, he has two children ages 15 and 11. He expressed an interest in planning and projects that are compatible for Ojai. He is eager to learn. I'm definitely willing, I'm the liaison to the planning commission. He's extremely enthusiastic about learning the ropes and jumping in tomorrow evening if we Approve his nomination.

I was also interested in, you can go to his... Assume that you've read his qualifications. One of the biggest complaints in Ojai is speeding traffic. He has a good background in traffic calming. He was very successful in his neighborhood in Ventura His mother-in-law is Colleen McDougal. I really like that he had deep Ojai roots and he is very, very concerned about the future of Ojai. I think that's as important as the technical aspect. He doesn't have a conflict of interest or anything of that nature.

And the Planning Commission isn't supposed to be a panel of professional experts. We have a staff for that, so I think that any citizen that has a reasonably good understanding of the community as a citizen makes a good candidate. So I would support it. Are there other comments? If not, do I have a motion to approve the two nominations?

I will move to approve.

I'll second. That will be both, both nominations.

Right

okay

any further discussion?

I just would have hoped that if Randy had concerns that he would have taken time to meet with John Trent.

Well no let's don't get into that Susan we're not evaluating each other everybody has the opinion i think you've done a nice job.

Okay

Okay, so city attorney we don't do we need a roll call on this or is this a by acclimation Oh, a voice vote is sufficient for this one. Okay, all those in favor aye. Aye. Those opposed. Okay, we have one day. The motion carries. Okay, we are now on discussion item and we put this number one because we have about 24 members of the community who wish to address the council regarding the policing services And I assume the Black Lives Matter issue and other related topics of which Ryan had asked us to, well, I think you were, was it Bill? You and Ryan were the ones that requested this to get the input from the community. So unless there are questions for the council, I think we can proceed. We have 24 on the list if we stay with our three minute It looks like we can handle that.

I was going to cut it back a little bit unless the council wants it reduced to a lesser time, we'll go with the three minutes.

Okay. Can I make a suggestion? Because there's no way we can finish this right at 730. I don't know how many people are waiting to make a public comment but could we do that

Now,

just a thought so that we

can okay. Is there any problem with that Matt? If we just go ahead and

legally no because the stated time on the agenda is a target time not a requirement. So we can take public comment early.

Okay did we get written remarks from Ron and from Michael Shapiro or are they going to call in?

They're going to call in And looking at James to see if they are currently on

hold. They weren't expecting until 730.

OK, they are they are on the line so we can take them now.

Great. OK. We'll take those two first and then that has occurred to see. OK? I guess it's Ron's up first.

Hello

there.

Thank you all, wasn't sure how that was going to work. Good evening members of council my name is Ron Solorzano and I am the regional librarian for the Ojai Valley. I just wanted to take this opportunity to provide you all with an update on the current status of the Ojai Library following our recent period of closure Since our partial reopening in the beginning of June, the Ojai Library has been offering walk-up service for the pickup of items on hold.

With this new service model customers can place holds on books, audiobooks and movies online through our catalog and can also call the library during our open hours for assistance. Current hours of operation are Monday through Friday 1 p.m to 6 p. m and Saturday 10 a.m to 3 p. Those visiting the library to pick up holds must wear a face covering in accordance with local public health guidelines and are asked to observe social distancing when interacting with library staff.

We're also excited to report that customers of all ages are able to participate in our summer reading challenges this year by visiting our website. You can enter yourself or your kids to keep up with your reading over the summer and to get a chance to win several fun prizes. The Ventura County Library is also offering grab and go STEAM activity kits at our branch locations, which include the Ohio library.

Finally, we have a wide variety of online services available including virtual story times and sing-alongs on our YouTube channel. Live homework assistance through our eLibrary and an expanded selection of eBooks and other digital content. So please visit our website at www.vencolibrary.org to learn more about what your library has to offer in these interesting times.

And that's all I've got.

Thank you so

much.

Okay and next up is Michael Shapiro.

Hello there, do you have me? Yeah.

Good

evening, everybody. Thank you for this opportunity and this unique process here. I just want to say on two items that you're going to be discussing tonight my first comment about the Maricopa Highway beautification plan You know, April 21st of course. April 24th 2019 Edith Rubaloff of course was killed trying to cross an intersection in Herb Walker. September 24th 2019 one of my dear friends Norman Remm was driving his Mini Cooper when a car sped out of one of the exits at Nordhof Sideswiped him. The car was completely totaled and flipped over.

Police came, were about to use the jaws of life to get him out when they were able to open up the hatchback in the rear to get him out. His car was totaled. He sustained a lot of injuries that required a year of rehab. And of course we all remember Dr. Fred LeFar's 14-year old son was killed and struck and killed there as well. If the Maricopa Highway beautification plan was in place or had been in place way back then before any of these, I absolutely believe the mode of the way people traveled on that road would have been such that all of those would have been prevented. I don't know how many more there are, but there were others that we know about. It's certainly close calls so there's no doubt and I have an op-ed that's about to appear in the Ojai Valley News that expresses some of the other reasons why I think the beautification plan and the traffic calming is a win-win for everyone not least of which is also you know I've had a lot of personal lengthy experience with our county's planning division, and they're somehow in love of approving huge industrial truck traffic coming down Highway 33 from industrial projects up in the Los Padres Forest.

And the most recent one is coming soon is a uranium mine that was defeated years ago at White Rock, Piedra Blanca. It's back on the drawing boards. I don't know if we'll ever see the light of day in time But it is being seriously considered. I believe this plan would make it almost impossible to be approved, trucks of any kind through that road. And finally with regard to the police contract you will be discussing later, I would like to see written into the contract the absolute ban on police chokeholds and a ban on any racial profiling of minorities anywhere in the Ojai Valley. And those are my comments on those two items that I know you'll be discussing later this evening. And I thank you for the opportunity to speak with you.

Okay, thank you Michael. You bet.

Okay, those are the only public comments we have. So now we are going to go to discussion item number two which is Ventura County Sheriff's Office review of services contract policies and procedures and by way of background that the council did a point subcommittee of Ryan and Bill to work with the city manager Review the performance of the sheriff, the results and outcomes of last year's crime statistics as well as the contract itself. So we'll go around the table. Does the council have any question of staff or anything? Or should we jump right in and let the public tell us what they think?

I just prefer jumping in hearing from the public personally

Okay, I would agree. If there's no objection to that then let's get started with number one is Emma Bailey.

Go ahead.

Emma you're on.

Emma can you hear

us? I need an interpreter.

OK, we'll try coming back to Emma. We'll go to Ryan first and then we'll try Emma again next. Ryan Bigler.

He hasn't signed in yet.

OK, who's next on the list that signed in?

Aaron Snyder.

OK.

Aaron, you're up.

I'm here. Can you hear me?

Yes, we can hear you.

Okay hi my name is Aaron Snyder I'm a longtime resident of Ojai lived here for 15 years one of the reasons that i love living here so much is the atmosphere here this sense of community it's one of the safest places in America by just about any measure we've got a quiet population minimal crime and yet we're spending really a really large portion of our budget on policing with an organization and the Ventura County Sheriff's Office that really couldn't care less what our community wants or needs. The police forces are supposed to protect and serve their communities, to work with their communities to find the best and healthiest ways to keep everybody safe healthy and happy together.

The VCSO does not work with the people of Ojai. It's appalling to me that they won't even negotiate their contract I understand that they haven't meaningfully engaged in updating our contract with them in 40 years. You all, as our elected officials, you have no say over our community's law enforcement practices. The Sheriff's Office refusing to allow independent oversight in the form of subpoena power?

That isn't acceptable. This is our city. We should have the rights and determine how it's policed. We should band together with other communities like Camarillo and others in the region with similar concerns to ours, and we should force the VCSO to negotiate if they won't do so on their own. We ought to have transparency to be able to accurately assess the real value of the services provided by the VCSO, and we shouldn't settle for what appears to be a take it or leave it kind of an offer without exploring our alternative options really deeply and thoroughly.

I want to see Ojai spend much, much less than $3.5 million on policing. I believe we should expand the definition of peace officers to include mental health and medical professionals, social workers and victims advocates, and incorporate that into our budget for peace officers. By doing so, we could stop asking the police to do all these things that they aren't trained to do. We could get people the help they actually need, and we could do our part to curb the national trend of using guns to solve problems that require words and empathy.

I really believe that Ojai deserves a say in its own law enforcement, and I call on the City Council to ensure that we gain self-determination in the very near future. Thank you very much.

Thank you Aaron. James, I'll let you decide who's next in the queue because my list of whoever is called is not matching up.

It's not matching up quite. We'll try Emma Bailey.

Are

you out there? She's not showing on the list.

Okay, can you go to the next person on the list?

The next one who is showing on the list is Carolyn McDonald. Okay. One moment. Promote to panelist?

Hello. Hello, can you hear me?

Yeah.

Yes, this is Caroline.

Yeah okay you're

on. Okay thank you. So when we're talking about where money should be allocated for the health and safety of all of our citizens living here I think we need to look at options that aren't the police officers because according to several sources including racecounts.org Ventura County is the most racially disparate in terms of crime and justice in California And there are ways we can reform our police force, but I think investing in other ways of helping our community is ultimately going to be the best solution.

Particularly pertaining the homeless community here in Ojai and in California. There are a lot of ways we can invest in resources to help people without homes because that is a lot of what our police officers deal with and they're not trained resources that don't exist. You know, how can you help homeless people if you're trying to give them resources that don't exist?

So if we were to spend some of the 3.5 million dollars allocated to the VC Sheriff's Department on focusing on helping people in our own community by creating things like a homeless shelter, a crisis center I'm focusing on social workers who have been trained in helping people with mental health crises. The police officers would not have to be as involved in our community because the issues they would be dealing with, would be helped by other people who are more trained to deal with those issues.

I understand there are some cases where we need the aid of police officers. But similar to Aaron, I think that those individuals helping us should be members of our community and take a serious interest in our community. So I greatly understand and respect the need for law enforcement but there are ways we can invest in it that are at less of a cost to our citizens and our community.

Okay, is that it?

Oh yes, that's it. Thank you so

much. Okay well thank you for being very succinct. Who's

next? The next person I have showing present is Lynn Francis

Jay.

Is the audience at home also looking at this giant timer on the screen?

Yes, that is what the audience is seeing.

OK, there's no way to get rid of that? At least not tonight. I

don't

want to hold up the meeting. I'm just asking if there is a simple solution.

Not really a simple one, no. So we're, I guess we're asking everybody to bear with us first attempt to try to get the public participation here.

Thank you.

Is Lynn out there?

I'm here. Can you hear me? Yeah,

we can.

Hi. I come to you as a homeowner in Ojai for the last 36 years. Our home is in Taramina and over that time period, I imagine that I personally have through my property taxes are probably paid for several officers salaries. I'd like to see my tax dollars go to more pressing needs Needs such as victims advocacy, social workers and other mental health assistance for our homeless or services and activities for our young adults who really have nothing to do in town except for kind of hang out.

And then there's always the big issue on the table which is our deficit. So the idea of the ability to reduce our deficit by reducing the amount of money that we're spending on for this sheriff would be another wonderful benefit here I think we need accountability for and a say in the most costly line item on the city's budget. To spend $3.5 million on a service for which we have no say seems an inappropriate use of our funds.

The other thing I want to talk about is just the quality of the policing that we receive here. Excuse me, I'm sorry my phone decided to ring. It seems to me and it's always seemed to me that Ojai is the training ground for the Sheriff's Department's new officers. We have this rotating door of young officers which results in over-policing and overzealous policing And it causes problems for our young people who can't even live in their town without being harassed by police.

So I just would like to ask us to, I'd like to ask the city council to take this opportunity to ensure that the Ventura County sheriffs are accountable to the city which is their customer. Unusual to have such a large service for which the customer really doesn't get to choose what they want. So I think there was a lot of value in Ojai working with the other cities that are using the Ventura County Sheriff's Department services in order to come and force them to come to the table and negotiate a contract that would be affordable for our city, and that would really give us the services we need. So, I'm asking the City Council to please Take this as a serious request from members of the community to insist that the Sheriff's Department come to the table and renegotiate.

Thank you. Okay,

who is next up?

The next person I am showing present is Eric Fruth.

Where is Eric? Oh okay. Eric are you there? I am. Can you hear me? We can.

Excellent. Um, well good evening honorable city council members. Um, my name is Eric Pruth. I'm a lifelong resident of Ventura County over the past couple weeks. I've spent upwards of 30 to 40 plus hours compiling data across the past three fiscal years for all the cities in Ventura County. In doing that, I saw that every single city allocates over a third of their discretionary funds on police departments In Ojai, we allocated $3.3 million to the police last fiscal year. 3.3 million dollars is a very powerful amount of money.

That amount of money could erase the student loan burden of over 100 people. It could pay for five educators salaries for half a decade. It could triple the amount of money... Sorry, it can triple the annual amount of housing vouchers issued in Ojai to families in need of support and the city of Ojai wields that amount of money on an annual basis I understand that the Sheriff's Contract Review Committee has been tasked with looking at the 43-year-old VCSO contract, and I very much commend that action.

I'd like to highlight the specific importance of two things and then share what I think needs to be done moving forward. First, the Sheriff Ojai's discretionary spending allocated towards the police is way too large. It's an entire third of the general fund. Second, the rates at which services are provided are very high For example, a halftime captain position cost the city over $200,000. Those service provision rates have been extremely difficult to for both public and other City Councils to find out and are not directly expressed in the Ojai annual budget documents or in the budget documents of other VCSO contracting cities.

The fact that those service provision rates are not transparent and included in budget documents Seems to me like deliberate obfuscation to hide the huge amount of money spent on an inherently violent and racist institution. So moving forward, um, the review process that the city is conducting needs to solicit input specifically from black and brown communities that are targeted by militarized police terror to determine if we as a community feel comfortable allocating six figure salaries to officers within the VCSO which has a failing grade on policescorecard.org The review process also needs to continually make all documents that it obtains regarding police service rates and other budgetary totals open and accessible to the public. And those are all my comments for the evening, thank you.

Okay,

thank you Eric. Gail who's next?

The next person I have listed is Nuri, I'm going to mispronounce this Ronahi. I'll unmute you.

Nuri, are you there?

One moment.

Yes. Hello. Hello. Yes. This is Nuri Ranagi. My name is Nuri Ranagi, a resident of Ojai. I demand that police be abolished And Ojai provide emergency health services to people experiencing mental and emotional stress and domestic problems. Health professionals should come to an incident without an agenda to arrest or punish people. I also demand that volunteers be given access to the local jails to support people who are brought into those dehumanizing places.

In 2015, I was 75 years old driving my husband to the hospital. We were having an argument. I became agitated and pulled over in a business parking lot. The store owner offered to call the police and I accepted hoping that they would help me to calm down and continue safely. However what happened was far from healing. Three police cars with six police officers arrived quickly at the scene, they were prosecuting us separately to... They were pressuring us separately to charge against the other while neither of us wanted to complain. I told the officer I was disturbed by their large presence of police, so they arrested me.

My experience in the Ventura County jail was heart-rendering. The procedure are designed to humiliate people. My arrest had nothing to do with being armed or carrying a banned substance, yet I was strip searched and ordered to bend over so that police could look into my anus. After this procedure, I asked the lady officer if she found what was she looking for. Rather than me, she was enraged.

There were about 10 young... I'm sorry. Oh, Ellen. There were about 10 young detainees Ten young detainees, mostly mothers in a small holding cell with me walking moaning and crying arrested for minor infractions being besides themselves with worry about their children. They were pacing back and forth and in tears I did my best to be that soothing presence all the women I spoke to where

Thank you Neri for your remarks.

The next person I'm showing is Noah Lashley.

Noah are you out there?

Noah, you're unmuted. You should be able to talk.

Hi can you hear me? Yes Hi, so I am mostly just going to echo sentiments that have already been said. I think the lack of transparency with the Ventura County Sheriff's Office is pretty egregious and back to the contract hasn't been updated in over 40 years is pretty indicative of a system that is not working well and it's already been said before but I feel like if we are going to spend such a huge amount of our city budget on something like the police force, I do feel like the officers or that like the police should be...

Sorry. I'm trying to catch my breath here. I am sort of flabbergasted that an entire third or almost a third of the gross budget of the City of Ohio is spent on the sheriff's office and that the Ventura County Sheriff's Office has little meaningful relationship with the greater community of Ojai. I think that, like it's already been said a huge portion of that amount of money can be reallocated towards social services that might better protect and prevent our community reallocating funds towards like the public library for example or You know, I feel like there's a lot of things that can be improved in Ojai that would benefit from that kind of care.

And so I think I'm going to yield the rest of my time but I implore that you please advocate for our community and Yeah. Thank you. Okay,

thank you Noah. Gail next?

Next is Amanda Lezra.

Okay Amanda you're on.

Hi can you hear me?

We can.

Hi. Good evening, my name is Amanda Lezra. Tonight I am speaking as someone who calls Ojai home. Ojai spends $3.5 million which is 30% of its budget on law enforcement in a town with an elderly population and minimal crime. That said, I'm going to share an experience my mother had with the local law enforcement to provide insight into what happens when residents do interact with the police.

While sitting in a local bar, my mother told the owner that she thought America was becoming fascist. He firmly disagreed and then called the police. Two officers showed up. They told my mother to accompany them. When she asked why she was being arrested they slammed her face onto the wood counter and handcuffed her. She was then taken to a cell where she sat by herself for 20 hours. She was denied food, water and medication. When she didn't answer my calls all night you can imagine that I imagined the worst. She was denied a phone call until the next morning at no point was my mother told what when what she was being arrested for or when she would be released. When they did release her they didn't give her a court date or a fine It was as if nothing happened except for the bruises on her face and arms that turned purple, green and yellow.

I have pictures. Ojai spends $3.5 million which is 30% of its budget to do what I just described. The integrity of this decision is contingent upon the idea that citizens are protected with this money. My mother's experience demonstrates that they are not. We need trained mental health professionals to respond situations in which there is psychological emergency.

Is that my time?

No, you have time keep going.

We need de-escalation tactics to be taught and for the use of force to be severely and transparently reviewed it disclosed and called into question. The City of Ojai attempted to review its contract and services with the Ventura County Sheriff's Office multiple times over the last several years our patience was demanded however patience is earned only when there is good faith that adequate measures are being taken In this case, the only adequate measure is to rewrite the contract with the Ventura County Sheriff's Office to protect and reflect the actual needs of residents. Thank you so much for your time.

Thank you Amanda. Gail next?

Next is Nicolette Walker and I'll unmute you.

Nicolette you're on. Hi

can you hear me?

Uh-huh

Hi, my name is Nicolette Walker-Itza and I'm speaking as a third generation Ojai resident. I'm also a local preschool teacher and I'm the mother of an elementary student. Like I said, my whole family has grown up here for generations and my personal experiences with the BCSO here in Ojai has been limited and it's also changed over the years A lot of my interactions have been very short and cold. And when I have been bold enough to speak up and ask questions, either in person or by even just calling the office, I've always felt dismissed and met with defensiveness.

And I am a white woman. And so my experiences differ completely from the black and Latino community members and friends that I have who live here who have been stopped and harassed Even taken out of their cars. I feel like our elected officials should have a say in what law enforcement practices we as a community want, and the budget spending needs to be transparent and overseen by community members for accountability.

I think that the amount that we spend is enormous especially when thinking about all the resources we lack in other areas. Our schools are being forced to cut more and more every year We're placing the burden on the working families who have to make up the difference with fundraisers, PTO. Or they have to choose to suffer the inequities if they're unable to pay those extra costs for music, art, extracurricular activities, language and health services, quality food or even onsite childcare for their children.

And in speaking about youth services I feel like I've spent time in the streets Marching and a lot of the people that are there are the youth, and they want their voices to be heard. And when we went to the police department in Ojai, nobody would address us there and nobody came out. Nobody would listen to the teenagers who were there wanting to be heard. So I feel like there can be a better use of our money. It can go to homeless services Social services that would address the widening wealth gap in our community.

And it would also relieve the duties of police and Ojai to the necessary. Also, I feel like drug rehab could be a big use of our money because a lot of the arrests that I see are for minor drug infractions. Thank you.

You're welcome. Thank you.

Next is Jill Manfredi and I will unmute her.