City Council — 2021-05-04

We're on. All right, call to order Ojai City Council May 4th 2021 we have a quorum. Gail may we have the roll call please?

I don't believe I saw any commissioners signed up today, but I'll ask Gail to confirm that.

Let me see. I had no one sign up. I had someone call me about speaking, but they haven't signed up. No.

Yeah. No, I don' t think anybody's signed up. So no commissioner comments at this time.

Let's move on to public communication. Gail, any public communication tonight?

Yes, we have eight people who've signed up for public comments. And I am going to try to call on them in the order that they signed up because we had the special circumstances with a meeting from last week rolling over to this week and want to give everyone a chance who signed up last week to speak first so we'll see how this goes. The first person I have is Wendy Larner.

Wendy let me see hold on one moment. I'm going to go on mute for just a moment. I'm just going to. OK, now we're ready to go. Thank you. Yeah. And so Wendy, you should be able to speak if you can. If you're muted, please unmute yourself here. OK. Go ahead. You can go ahead and speak when the. Is she there?

I thought I saw her mute herself

again. I

see her. I see your

name. Wendy, are you there if you can unmute yourself and go ahead and speak? Well, we'll come back to her.

Sorry there

there you are okay go ahead.

Apologize, I'm not familiar with this format.

That's not a problem go ahead we understand.

Hello thank you for allowing me to speak. I am referencing the April 13th City Council meeting and would like to first speak on discussion item six which was recommended from the Climate Emergency Mobilization Committee The recommendations were to request a U.S. post office and to begin planning electrifying the city vehicles, buildings and equipment. And also action item K, the adoption of resolution to request federal and or state money to be matched by city to the tune of $110,000 or $88,000 for new electric trolleys.

I would agree with the extra expense Thanks for electrifying Ojai. To both the city and to the public here, the citizens. If the science was verifying all the climate change hysteria but it is not there are several considerations most importantly it has been reported in and from studies that the climate models that the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change IPCC have been using to drive this climate crisis narrative are flawed, unreliable and inconsistent leading to gross errors in predicting temperature changes across the planet.

There is no hockey stick rise in temperatures over 36 years of monitoring actual temperatures and comparing those to the models The predictions from models have been consistently and remarkably wrong. There is also no settled science on the percentage of human causation for the much slighter than claimed in certain circles warming, certainly nothing to justify the expensive and life altering energy choices being pushed everywhere even here in Ojai where we can I would be happy to provide documentation before costly and unnecessary decisions are made. There are other reasons why starting down this road is unwise, the personal economic impact on the most vulnerable which includes the poor and the middle class. Secondly, the missed opportunities for clean and less expensive fuel alternatives.

Thirdly both Elon Musk and Akio Toyama Yeah, that are admitting there's not enough current energy to fuel mass conversion to even electric vehicles much less everything else and especially not with renewable energy finally I think the most in compelling reason that we ought not go down this yet without further investigation is the loss of local control it portends ultimately cities to counties counties to state states to regions. that will be manned by non-elected authorities, regions to countries and countries to world government.

Thank you, Wendy.

I really appreciate that.

The control being promoted is not constitutional and it does not protect the American ideals of liberty and justice. Thank you for your attention. Sorry, I had to talk so fast. Thanks for coming.

May I ask something? You bet. I couldn't hear some of, is it on my end or was there a disruption for everyone? I think it's on her end.

Yeah. Okay next Gail. Next we have Tina Mayer and just for clarification, I'm going down the list of people who've signed up but that are actually in the list because not everyone who signed up is actually showing in the queue here tonight And let me remind all the speakers that comments are limited to three minutes, unless Mayor Sticks determines a different length of time. So I'll go ahead and bring in Tina.

Tina you should be able to speak if you're muted please unmute yourself and you can go ahead. Thank you.

Thank you. My name is Tina mayor, and I am a new resident of Ohio who just bought a house on drown Avenue as a plaintiff side attorney, I am shocked to see the lack of safe pedestrian access in my new neighborhood. I watch daily as disabled neighbors are left to fend for themselves against speeding delivery trucks dropping off liquor or food to the many shops and restaurants on Ojai Avenue. In fact, while I was thinking about the lack of safety for pedestrians and the propensity of vehicles to speed in my neighborhood, our neighbor's 13-year old dog, Oso, was tragically hit and run by a speeding SUV which did not stop Last week around 8, 830 p.m., I had to watch my new neighbor weeping as he choked through tears and grief to explain the events to the police and I can still feel his pain and loss as our whole neighborhood has felt.

As I helped wash the blood and internal organs off the street right in front of my new home Conversations began with neighbors and I learned that this issue of pedestrian safety against speeding traffic in our neighborhood is nothing new, but has been well known for some time. In fact, this council has approved speed bumps recently on Brown Avenue through the work of resident Moss Vidal and Council Member Haney, but the project ultimately stalled due to funding Speed bumps are a safe, speedy and economic solution to our fatal problems in and around Brown and Fulton avenues. They are not permanent and can be removed later if the city finds a better solution such as bike lanes one way streets or roundabouts.

The cost for a set of speed bumps is $3,000 and Brown Avenue would need two sets which is only $6,000. I understand the city has been struggling since the Thomas fire with finances, but this is a situation where I would hate to see the city be a penny wise and a pound foolish. Especially when lives are at stake. Therefore, I strongly urge the Council to make this a priority for next session so that more residents can tell you what this means to their lives and even tell you how we've come up with a variety of crowdsourcing ideas to fund the project ourselves if needed. We hope that you will hear us today and take action to protect us for tomorrow Lastly, I strongly support a traffic calming study which is a term they use in Europe to create streets where cars do not dominate street life by including bike lanes roundabouts and other methods including one-way streets.

I used to live in Belmont Shore in Long Beach and there are many one-way streets and bike lanes that have dramatically improved life there it would be amazing if Ojai got on the green carbon reducing life enhancing course of calming traffic And increasing bike lanes to make it a better and more hospitable city for everyone. Thank you.

Thank you, Tina for calling in and sorry to hear about the dog and welcome to town.

Next scale. Next we have Rich Anderson rich, you should be able to speak go ahead and unmute yourself if you're muted and you can begin.

Great thank you, dear Council. In the past this council has approved speed bumps be installed on drown Avenue. My understanding is that resident mass for doll worked with Councilmember Haney for this approval, but that funding was the issue that stalled the installation as a resident of Ohio I respectfully request the council approve to fund the installation of speed bumps on drowned and Fulton Street.

However, I want to also move this council to invest in a speed and traffic calming study to be conducted and implemented for Drown, Fulton, and Oak Street. It is well known cars speed down Drowne and Fulton while people and pets must duck out of the way in between parked cars due to the lack of sidewalks. Tragedies have already struck. Yes, speed bumps will help slow cars but cars will continue to dominate the mode of transportation I would like to talk about the use of speed bumps.

Instead of cars deterring walking and biking and putting men, women, children and animals in danger there could be a kind of equilibrium among all the uses of the streets so no one mode dominates at the expense of the other while keeping residents and pets safe. This solution could include converting These types of improvements would encourage walking and biking and force motorists to slow down and exercise caution.

As such, I request the Council move for a speed and traffic calming study for both Drowne and Fulton Street to recommend specific speed and traffic calming recommendations and implementation before tragedy strikes again. In the meantime, I request the Council approve to fund speed bumps for the streets. Please set these items for the future agenda. Thank you for your time.

Thank you, Rich

for calling in. Next, Gail? That is actually all the people we have. We have other people signed up but they're not showing in the queue.

Okay. All right. Thank you very much. All right. We'll move on to discussion item number two, the sheriff's contract. So just really great that we're all here discussing it together and grateful to Assistant Sheriff Dunn for coming James.

Yes, thank you know I'll start with just a brief overview and I'll ask the city attorney as well to walk through the draft that we prepared. We've spoken about this issue several times at Council but it has been been a while so I wanted to give an overview and note that the agreement with the sheriff's office is the largest agreement that the city of Ojai has with any agency.

The city purchases approximately three and a half million dollars in police services annually, which accounts for in a normal year 35 to 45% of our budget on a year like this year it's closer to 50% of our budget And the agreement has not been updated since it was amended in 1980. Although as noted in the staff report that lays out kind of the timeline, the Ventura County Auditor Controller's Office did recommend an update back in 2012.

Since that time the city of Ojai several times throughout the year has requested an updated agreement. Most recently, the city submitted a formal request for an updated agreement on July 9th 2020 Since July 9, the city's ad hoc committee contract review committee met with the county executive officer staff and the Ventura County Sheriff's Office staff several times to work towards an update.

Those meetings culminated in a letter from the CEO and sheriff's office on December 30th 2020 indicating That the county would work with the city towards updating that agreement. To start the process of the city prepared a draft agreement which is included in the agenda today and that draft I'm going to ask the city attorney to just walk through some of the highlights.

With that city attorney.

Thank you, Mister Vega so on the table is a proposed new share of services agreement As noted, the existing agreement was entered into in 1976 and amended in 1979 and 1980. It is accompanied by a lease for the police station. The Ojai Police Station building and grounds are owned by the city and the county has leased them also since 1979. That lease was further updated in 1987 and then extended and updated slightly in 1995 The proposed, so the existing agreements are as noted rather dated and in need of updating.

The proposed sheriff's contract has a couple of key points I'll just cover eight briefly. The sheriff will be granted the authority to and agree to enforce state law and the Ohio Municipal Code and other city ordinances. Of course Sheriff always has the power to enforce state law but it would be further enforcement in agreement to enforce the City's own codes The minimum level of service would reflect the status of the city as the smallest city in the county by population, about half of the next largest city.

From the county determination, the minimum number of deputies rather would be that needed to provide 24-hour service by two deputy sheriffs within this city reflecting its size. The city would have the right to recommend a chief of police to be appointed by the sheriff from two qualified candidates provided by the Sheriff's Office The county would be required to provide an annual report covering service calls, crime statistics and labor costs justifying the cost incurred for each year. And as a basis for the counties I'm sorry, the city's renewal of the services costs for each next year. So council would have an annual opportunity to review the costs and agree or disagree or negotiate with the county over the cost of the coming year.

The proposed term will be five years to take effect July 1st of this year through June 30, 2026 with an annual right to terminate for each party. The contract would further require that the city not be billed for overhead costs attributable to general county services including the Sheriff's Administration and Command Staff, the District Attorney, Custody & Jail Services, Bailiff or Coroner Services.

The contract would provide as to cost that the City's annual services costs be calculated taking into account as noted the City size but also that the City is roughly A quarter of the population of the total service area served by the Ojai Station. And further, that the city would be charged for a quarter of the chief's salary, a quarter of a detective's salary.

The salaries of six and a quarter of the 25 deputies that currently serve the Ojai Station and a quarter of the sheriff's cadet salary with provision for those percentages to be updated as the city's population changes relative to the population of the area served by the Ojai Station As noted the contract is a proposal and the city, well staff invites comment from the council, from the public, the county and all with interest in this matter.

Thank you.

Thank you Matt. Any questions from Council?

Mayor do we have any public comments on this?

I'm going to ask Gail any public... We do have public comments.

Yes, we do. We have four people to speak on this.

And Mayor prior to that did the is it officer Dunn? Did he want to say anything before comments or after comments what was what was what would he

after comments James? Yeah

I think so let me note too we have 19 written comments that were provided to the City Council today on this topic and then uh My recommendation is to take those comments and then council can then ask the sheriff's office for their comments.

Okay, great. All right first one Gail please.

The first person we have is Angelo Haynes. Angelo you should be able to speak if you could go ahead and unmute yourself you can start.

Hello good afternoon or good evening Ojai City Council I'd like to first start off my comment by stating that the sense of urgency around police reform does not seem to be present in the discussion that I'm hearing amongst the City Council. It seems to be predominantly a discussion about fiscal responsibility and conservatism, and not about protecting the rights of the citizens of Ojai. And I strongly urge even the more conservative members of the council to think about that as a priority first, instead of being a bunch of bean counters focusing on saving money.

The main thing I want to also focus on are making sure that police services because they're able to enforce quite a bit now, now that you've mentioned these key points is we need to have oversight We need to ensure that all the deputies that are serving in the city of Ojai have body cams, so that we have accountability. I've heard nothing of the sort in a majority of what was talked about in this contract negotiation.

There's no way any modern city in America right now should be having a discussion about police reform without any of these things in this contract. And it's quite frankly, extremely disappointing that all we're talking about is money. We need to see the release of all the documents. Now obviously you mentioned there was a letter that was given to you guys by the sheriff but we need to see all the documents between the ad hoc committee and the Sheriff's department for complete transparency Because you guys went completely underground last summer after that first thing. And the second thing, when the community gives you input it needs to be more than just a recommendation. It needs to be a directive. We need to see more urgency with how we're tackling this issue.

We need to see a formation of unarmed crisis intervention teams to specifically deal with calls related to mentally ill subjects. And if people are concerned about fiscal responsibility and saving money, if we use non-sworn personnel to tackle some of these issues rather than relying on people with a badge and a gun that'll also save the city money. We need to see...we also need to see if we could push the Sheriff's Department to reform some of their jailing practices Because there are people in the current jails right now, 99 cases of COVID-19.

The first person to die of COVID in the state of California was an elderly inmate in San Diego County and people continue to contract the disease and die behind bars. I need to see this city council talk about the rights and protections of their own citizens first before putting money and profits over people. Thank you and I yield back my time.

Thank you, Angelo.

Next, we have Bill Miley. One moment and I will bring him in. OK, Mr. Miley, you should be able to speak. Go

ahead. I am unmuted. You are? Can you hear me? Yes. Good evening. I've looked at all the pages of the administrative memo, with most of it being background historical information on the 1979 contract and audit. I've also looked at the agreement to provide law enforcement services between the County of Ventura and the City of Ojai for a three-to-five year period.

I support the proposal. In responding to other gentlemen before me I don't remember any newspaper articles or any city council discussions in the last year or so describing police bad performance in the Ohio Valley. Last year, when there was a voice to reform police budgets, I wrote the council expressing my belief that our sheriff's department uses the county mental health services crisis team and situations that involve behavioral problems Before we change the contract, we should look at all the behavioral episodes that law enforcement were involved in in the past to see how they were done.

Because I believe they're being done OK. Maybe they can be improved but at the moment, OK. So I support the present proposal. Thanks.

Thank you Mr. Miley.

Next? Next we have Nicolette Walker. Nicolette, you should be able to speak. Oh wait one moment. There we go. If you're muted please unmute yourself and you can go ahead and speak now. Hello

my name is Nicolette Walker thank you for taking our comments. I guess i'm coming to the council a little bit frustrated but i'm also appreciative that we're having this discussion. I feel like a lot of times when we give public input it is just a one-time meeting and then there are no steps that are taken after to implement the suggestions, to actually include the public in the process, We're given our very sparse and for the past two months, I've been trying to get public comment and public awareness around this issue. And the ad hoc committee elected to go into closed session to further their discussions and their negotiations so While I'm happy to see this item on the agenda, you know, I want to remind everyone of what has happened before.

I feel like this needs to change and part of that change, the first step is that we need the commission that is negotiating this contract to be made up of community members that are diverse in background and skills and ethnicities and to actually shed light on experiences that are had by different people here in Ojai And while I respect the gentleman before me, I don't think that he represents everyone here in Ojai. And I don't think that he can speak to all of the experiences that have been had by people in Ojai with the Ventura County Sheriff's Office.

There was a fatal shooting just last year in Oakview so we are talking about issues that affect our community it's not just nationwide problems that don't affect us. We're not in a bubble. I think that the majority of calls are given to VCSO are related to substance abuse, to conditions of poverty such as theft and homelessness and that is our issues where we need to invest money in our community and into care and to culturally competent mental health resources And not continue to rely on officers that do not have the training and who also are causing more stress and trauma to the community that they're attempting to serve.

These officers are not part of our community, they're not from here. Many of them don't even speak more than one language. I really feel like we really need to focus on this commission first and including the community

Thank you, Nicolette. One more, Gail?

Yes and next we have Andra Belknap and I'll bring her in. Andra you should be able to speak if you're unmuted please unmute yourself and you can go ahead.

Hi, everyone. I assume you can hear me? Yes. I know most of you. I'm an Ojai resident. I want to thank Councilman Wyrick for his diligence and commitment on this. He's been a great public servant through the process, and I appreciate it. I read the draft contract. I think it's a great start. So I want to begin with some general comments about the Ventura County Sheriff's Office The data I'm citing comes from Project Zero and the US Census Bureau. So during the years 2013-2019, VCSO made more than 30,000 arrests. 80% of those arrests were for low level offenses. 30% of those low level offenses relate to drug possession. Of those 30,000 arrests 6% are related to violent crime. So we're paying a third of our city's budget to arrest and cite generally low level offenders.

Keeping those numbers in mind I appreciate that the draft police contract includes a stipulation that the city will set preferred enforcement priorities and goals. I hope the public will be involved in the creation of those enforcement priorities. I personally think that we should consider deprioritizing the enforcement of loitering, vagrancy and drug possession laws.

As has been mentioned positions like addiction and homelessness are not improved by VCSO A few additional comments. I appreciate Councilman Weirich's investigation into minimum service levels, I'd love to know exactly what minimum service entails and if it's appropriate for a city of our size also i really like the idea of volunteer service it reminds me of the great work being done by Upper Ojai Search and Rescue. Finally as we discuss this contract we need we really need to reflect upon the role of the police in our community The truth is that police do not indicate safety to black, brown and low-income people. They present a threat so I think that we need to reevaluate spending a third of our budget on an organization that is not keeping us all safe.

Thank you. Thank

you, Andra. Right? Is that it Gail? That's it. Okay let's open up for discussion please.

Could we Unless the Council objects. Oh, am I muted? All right. Okay. I'm okay. Can we hear when do we hear from Chris Dunn officer?

I'm ready whenever you like.

That'd be great. Thank you. Thank you for coming.

It's my pleasure. Good evening Mayor Sticks and Honorable council members city staff Thank you for the opportunity to address the City Council and the residents of the city of Ojai regarding a draft contract prepared by city staff between the city and the Ventura County Sheriff's Office. As a past chief of police for the city of Ojai, and the current assistant sheriff with executive oversight of the operations division I am especially concerned about the safety of the citizens of Ojai and the greater Ojai Valley Providing the highest level of service possible to the citizens of this city over the past 40 years has always been a priority for the Sheriff's Office.

We take great pride in the level of service we provide to all of our contract cities and the unincorporated areas we serve. Our long-standing relationship with the City of Ojai leadership, staff and residents has been a source of pride for our agency and staff. I and the sheriff understand the desire to enter into a more current contract, and we have been working towards that. And I think one of the things that's missing from this conversation is a little clarification on how we got to the point that it took this long to get this far And that is several years ago, the contract cities and I know this is before this council was in existence. But Susie you might remember these this time, the city managers got together and decided that one city would spearhead this project that city being the City of Thousand Oaks.

And they would expend their staff time and resources on developing a base contract. When I say base contract, it's the basic terms of agreement But does not set a level of service beyond that, which is said to be the minimum. Anything above that comes off of what we like to generally refer to as a menu of services, which the city then prioritizes what they would receive. So if you were to look at some of the larger cities, as an example, they have officers on motorcycles things of that nature doing enforcement because they have a much larger public safety issue with traffic issues.

So to that end, I believe it's important. And as one of the public speakers brought up that the citizens need to have a better understanding of what is included and albeit a very dated contract, but a contract that has worked for the last 40 years, be quite honest. Currently, the sheriff's office provides the city And the city is charged for 50% of one captain. Now having been the captain at that station, I know that the lion's share of my day was spent on business that weren't revolved around the city. 50% of one detective which is a senior deputy rank, that one detective, the lion's share of their business is on city cases.

There are nine patrol allocations and a post factor of 4.411 While post recommends a post factor of 4.448, Ojai is built for 8.8 positions and I know we're kind of getting down into the weeds here but to run two cars, two 12 hour cars 24 days, I mean, I'm sorry, 24 hours a day, seven days a week, 365 days a year it takes nine positions so that we can have coverage due to time off, sick call-ins, vacations Training, things of that nature.

It takes eight just to fill those allocations assuming no one is ever off shift or takes time off or has a family emergency. It takes eight the current contract that's being proposed only offers up six so we wouldn't even be able to cover the minimum for those two cars in the city The current status of the contract is 50% of one cadet. That cadet takes care of a lot on day shift, especially the movement of administrative paperwork evidence general equipment maintenance that would otherwise take up a deputy's time and with only two cars per shift that significant.

50% of one administrative aid, now that's a city position and we reimburse the city through the contract. And through the monthly billing for 50% of that position, that position has been vacant for awhile so that's been a cost savings over the last year whether or not that position exists in the future or not, that's up for discussion. The city is charged for .37% of one sheriff's service technician. Now this position is in the front office right now with administrative aid vacancy, but also is capable of taking reports freeing up the deputies from taking routine reports and that position currently as I understand it is City COPS grant funded And to be very clear, the city is not charged or required to provide funding for allocations assigned to the unincorporated areas of the county that currently work out of the Ohio station.

And those units may at times come in and assist with calls for service as needed. And the city cars may go out to the county areas in emergency situations as needed. It's been a great partnership that way with To this day, as far as I know the city has always been on the winning end of that receiving more services than having to give up. But it's been a great partnership especially in emergency situations so that your citizens don't have... Uh oh!

That wasn't our canine.

Mayor? Chris are you finished Chris? No i'm not. What? Can I interject something into here? Well,

how do

we let me just make Chris your posture seems to be defensive. And I don't I believe personally that's not what the goal here is tonight you're you're jumping into the nuts and bolts which I'm sure is informative, but listening to the comments that came in from the public and a majority of the comments that we've received through emails. Can you talk about cameras and oversight and crisis intervention and health services?

And what you believe the police department or the sheriff's department can do in those areas Mayor, if you don't mind me asking that question.

Chris can you respond to that?

I do have more just to say about the contract that's being proposed but if you'd like me to spend the time on that right now I can. I'm more than happy to and I don't mean to sound offensive it could just be my...I want to make sure everybody hears me so maybe I'm speaking too loudly into this microphone. Do

you want to finish your presentation and then you can answer Randy's question?

Sure Councilman Haney, I'll definitely circle back to that. I'm happy to touch on that. Thank

you Chris.

But I think it's important as one of the public speakers brought up that they were not aware of what is currently considered to be the minimum and as a sheriff's office we do believe that that is the minimum to provide basic needs for your citizens Including some of the rates or the shared supervision with the county. So it's a cost savings that unlike if you had your own police department, you would have to have your own supervisors which we consider a sergeant rank.

That is shared in the allocation costs with the county at a cost savings to the city. The county provides civil liability protection and administrative due process Professional support is built into each allocation that includes and is not limited to dispatch services, crime analysis, clerical staff, computer support supplies and services which I won't delve too far into but definitely getting down into the weeds there.

As I said earlier, Ventura County Sheriff's Office, County Council and the City of Thousand Oaks have been working on a standardized contract for For the last couple of years now during this last year, I can understand the frustration. We were anxious as well but that became a lesser priority for that city and their staff and also with their staffing out like everybody else with the COVID restrictions and things like that. It went to a back burner but we're very close to coming up with what Based contract that is collectively in everyone's interest.

So there are several things with the contract that we take issue with as being proposed by city staff and there's far too many to deal with right now, and I think it's better done between city staff and us in offline conversations but just to identify a couple of them We're adamant that the sheriff has the ultimate responsibility to determine the minimum level of allocations to provide a sufficient level law enforcement and emergency services to any community we serve. And, we believe that the city of Ojai receives a minimum level service unless a formula will require the county to subsidize services.

The 25% model provided in the document is insufficient and only guarantees the county subsidizing Limitation on any rate increases for the next three fiscal years is unacceptable, and we can't sign off on that because we don't know what any future contract negotiations might entail. We also don't know what any pension liabilities might entail in the future. But as an example this year, the city saw a rate decrease of over 3%. So we always pass that on.

Transparent about that with the city and we always try to find ways to save the cities and ourselves funding. Limitation of any rate increase in subsequent years to those first three years to a 3% is unacceptable for the same reason stated above, we can't predict what contract negotiations The varying unions that represent these employees and therefore, we have to find ways to recover our costs. I think it's important that the public know this is not a for profit venture for us.

All we're trying to do is recoup our costs for providing those services and to be quite honest, we provide far more services than we charge for. Again, reduction of the post factor to 6.25 from 8.822 is unacceptable as stated previously. So I had more to say but I think you get the general gist here and I think we can meet offline and discuss these things. But I will circle back to Councilman Haney's request to discuss some of the community concerns in it. I think we all remember the eight can't wait documents that circulated after the summertime.

Most of those items were already implemented by our agency and had been for several years, things like body worn cameras, all your deputies have body worn cameras. So maybe we need to do a little more public outreach for this kind of detail But and we can, and we're happy to do that and assist with that. Because I think it's important that the public knows that we do take these things very seriously.

All of our deputies go through crisis intervention training. And we have a partnership with County Behavioral Health, and they help us monitor that and develop the training. We also yes, The Department of Mental Health or County Behavioral Health's crisis intervention team as well to help assist us. We have in a couple of our contract cities, deputies that are assigned to work with them and they do outreach in the field on a daily basis with the homeless population and our population with mental illness.

And helping them get these wraparound services that are necessary. So it is a more holistic approach, we are not the same agency and I think law enforcement in general and especially in California is not the same as what it was 10-20 years ago. We've made a lot of strides to improve in those areas. And I hope that's clear and if there needs to be any more detail regarding that, In a public forum, and I do it. Councilmember handy did I hit all the areas you wanted me to

Yeah, right. Well, the last one is oversight. Is there an actual and oversight board that functions out of the county level or does each city have the ability to create their own? Because that's what I'm hearing from our citizenry as they like some form of oversight. And I'm just wondering if there isn't already a level of that at the county. And if so, how does it work and how does a citizen from Ojai interact with that?

So, in the county we have the grand jury and that's our primary oversight group. And the grand jury just met with the sheriff regarding their most recent investigation into our agency and they do it on a regular basis. So they'll put out a report here shortly regarding their findings. So with regard to the county and the County Sheriff's Office services, and our processes, yes we do have the grand jury that has long standing been an auditor of our practices.

As far as what cities would like to do I think in this might be something that City Council can weigh in on. The more involvement you have in those and setting those parameters, the more liability you take on as well. So it's kind of a double-edged sword. And as the actual employer for our staff, we're the ones that are on the line for any of these practices that we implement.

And I think that that's a decent way of shielding our contract cities from any increased liability Is that to say that there couldn't be more oversight? That's something that's up for discussion, for sure.

Bill and then Susan.

Yeah I'm going to treat this just as a question because i think when we get into liberation I'll have more to say but just from the standpoint of a client relationship would you commit to marking up our contract As the next step are not our contract, but our draft in terms of a specific markup as an as a way of moving forward in a organized way.

You know, Councilmember Warwick, I appreciate that and I appreciate the effort time and effort that went into that contract. But there are a lot of issues with that contract that I think might be more quickly resolved once the contract we're very close to finishing with county council is released. I can't commit to a date, but I am telling you that we are extremely close

to... Look, I was just wondering whether you would mark up our instrument because just to amplify a little bit, I thought you were a little disingenuous in blaming the delay on COVID. The controller auditor requested updates of contracts in 2012. The Sheriff's Department at that time said it would be done in three years We started inquiring in 2014 and we're told that it was gonna wait, please wait for the standard contract with Thousand Oaks. That started in 2014 so it's been a number of years.