City Council — 2022-01-11

Thanks James.

Thank

Thank

You Gail welcome to the January 11th 2022 meeting of the Hawaii City Council. James will you do the pledge for us please?

No commission reports.

Okay we'll move on to public communication and beginning of the year is always a nice time for reminders so a reminder that this is time for public to comment on items not on the agenda. So council will not be commenting, we're not ignoring you, we are listening intently though And a reminder that it's a three-minute limit, and please out of respect and fairness to everyone if you could stop talking at three minutes. That would be greatly appreciated.

Any public communication Gail?

I will, for anyone who is here on the Zoom call from the public if you are here to speak in public communications not on any of the other agenda items. If you would use the hand raise function in Zoom and I'll go ahead and call on you. So we have Ron from the Ojai Library and I'm gonna, Ron I'm gonna go ahead and unmute you if you can You can go ahead and speak now it's Ron Solorzano from the library.

Thank you so much Gail am I coming through okay?

Yes, you are.

All right, wonderful. Good evening members of City Council. My name is Ron Solorzano and I'm the Regional Librarian for the Ojai Valley. And I just wanted to provide you tonight with a quick update on the Ojai Library's operations. So on Wednesday, last Wednesday January 5th all Ventura County Library buildings closed to the public for a planned period of three weeks as a precautionary measure to slow the spread of COVID-19.

Now during this time, all library branches including the Ojai Library will continue to offer walk-up service to customers who are picking up holds. Walk-up hours are going to be available during our normal hours of operation which are Monday through Thursday from 10am to 8pm and Friday through Sunday 12pm to 5pm. Library materials, including our computer kits with hotspot internet access and our home energy kits are all available to place on hold and to borrow.

Also online library services continue to be available 24 seven through the libraries website. These include ebooks research databases virtual story times live homework assistance and more. The library is also continuing to offer its in-person outdoor story times during this closure. Locally, those include the program at the Ojai Community Farmers Market, which we do at 3.30pm on the second Thursday of the month.

And also the weekly program at Miners Oaks Elementary School, which happens every Friday at 1030am. Both of these are story times that are still available. We do ask that folks wear a mask and social distance but those are still happening. So for a full list of Ventura County Library branches and hours of operation or to visit our e-library, please visit our website. And that's www.vencolibrary.org.

And that's all I have. Thank you so much for your time. And if you have any questions, please don't hesitate to contact me or the staff at the library. Thank you.

Thank you, Ron. And if there's anyone else in the Zoom waiting room who wants to speak in public communications, if you would please use a hand raise function. I'll go ahead and call on you. And nobody else is raising their hand.

Okay great thank you Gail. All right we'll move onto the consent calendar. Is there a motion to approve?

Harmon Zuckerman, PB – He, Him, His): Mayor could I quick quickly just know there was a comment and I think the participant or the person is in the meeting, there was a comment about the. Item 1G, the written policy for Records Act requests. I haven't had a chance to really dig into the comment but it's not time sensitive. We were trying to adopt just a policy to provide clarity so I would suggest that the City Council pull that item and it'll give us some time as staff to review the concerns that the person raised And bring that item at a future meeting to make sure that we're all on the same page.

So I would recommend pulling Item 1G from the consent calendar for today. All right, thank you. Susan?

I'll move to pull Item G.

Okay, I'll second that. Oh sorry go ahead Bill.

May I suggest, Susie, your motion be to approve the consent calendar except for item G?

Oh of course. I knew that didn't sound right. Okay my motion is to approve the consent calendar except for item G. Thank you Bill

and I'll second that. Great thank you.

Okay, great. All right it's 615 so we have the public hearing at 630 so let's move on to number three nomination agenda item number three nomination election of mayor pro tem James are a staff report for this

Just a very brief staff report. Every year in January, we nominate and the City Council nominates and elects a council member to serve as mayor pro tem for the next year. We typically do that early in the year and the person who is elected this is more information for the public but the person who's elected is essentially able to perform the mayor's duties in the absence of the mayor and do things like preside at the City Council meeting if the mayor is unavailable or represent the city at ceremonial and civic events. So today, the staff report notes that we've had a pretty standard process beginning by having the mayor ask for a nomination and then we have the simple process Have the council vote on that nomination. And so with that, I will turn it back over to the mayor to open it for nomination and election.

Are there any questions from Council first? I have a question. Okay, I saw Bill's hand first. Question Bill?

No question. I was gonna make a nomination.

Okay,

Susan. My question is if we were doing this on a rotating basis. Does anyone know whose turn it is?

Yes so in 20...I'll read over the last five years to now. So in 2017 Council Member Weirich served as Mayor Pro Tem. 2018 Council Member Haney If there's anyone in the Zoom waiting room from the public who would like to speak on this item, if you would use the raised hand function. I'll go ahead and call on

Nobody's raising their hand. Okay, thank you. All right.

Thank you. I'd like to nominate Councilperson Haney for pro

tem. I'll second. Okay wonderful all right may we have the roll call please Gail?

You got it neighbor.

Thank you yeah easy just meet me on the corner. All right it's 618 can we move on to number four And then at 630 we can, we can stop and go back. Is that all right with everybody? Okay. Item number four is selection of council representatives to local county and national boards.

So

yes, regional boards. Oops. Thank you. staff report and I just so it's in terms of process if how about once James gives a staff report and we get public comments and questions if we could just you know for happy with what is we just leave that as-is and just raise whatever changes we want to make. Okay, James any staff report?

Just very brief, very similar to the last staff report. Similarly in January of each year we, the city council will review the different local county and regional boards that we have appointees to and determine if any require change. We have four Ojai Valley based boards, the OBGMA, the Ojai Unified School District, the Ojai Valley Sanitary District and the Ojia Valley Green Coalition And then we have 10 county and regional boards, which are listed on the staff report. And so in the attachment, we know who is the current representative.

And yes, I would just recommend that if council wishes to make any changes to a board that we discuss those. I will track that. And then at the end of kind of that discussion, we can have one motion to approve the total list. So I'll read back the list of who's on each board. So with that, I'll turn it back over to the mayor to lead that discussion.

Thank

you, James.

Any questions for staff? Any public comment on this item? Thank you,

Gail. If there's anyone in the Zoom waiting room who would like to speak on this item if you would use the raise hand function I'll go ahead and call on you. And nobody is

raising their hand. Thanks, Gail. Okay. Would anybody like to make changes? So what? Randy?

I would like to make a trade with Sousa I will choose it if you're willing to do so. I've always wanted to be on the Green Coalition and every year I've asked, I've never been on it and I would like to trade you for the EDC.

Where's the EDC? I mean where on the list is it so I can think about it for a second?

It is on page attachment A page 204 in the middle of the page just above OBGMA and under the Animal Services Commission. So they have, EDC has a monthly meeting on the third Thursday at 3 30 p.m.

And those have been pretty much zoomed And then while you're thinking about that, just for me last year I think I took on BCOG because Ryan had difficulties getting to their meeting. So I'd like to stay on that and I'm on Gold Coast. I have no problem staying on that unless someone wants it. That was the only change that I see for myself. I don't know if that's how we're doing this but I'm comfortable with everything else.

Okay, here's my response. The Green Coalition has hardly been meeting but I think it would be great if you connected with them and told them that you're the new representative so that when they go back into action they'll contact you.

And can you forward me all their information?

Yes, yes I'd be happy to do that because i'm still in touch with them. Not as regularly as I was but pretty much in touch and I'm looking at this monthly third Thursday could I post could...I'd be happy to do it but I can't do it this month? Could I wait until February Would that work? Is there an

alternate to the EDC? There is an alternate listed as council member. Why don't I be her alternate?

Yeah, why don't i withdraw from that? Why don't I withdraw from EDC and the two of you set up as primary and alternate?

Right so Susan will be primary and I'll be the alternate and I'll take your meeting this month Susan

Thank you very much. Okay, and where is this located? Where's the meeting? Is it virtual?

Yes.

Oh I can do it this month if it's virtual. Yeah so I might as well get started. I thought I had to drive and drive and I'm just too swamped to do that. Okay all right that's great okay happy to do that

Yeah, I'm happy to step down on the alternate position. The two of you would be good on the EDC. It's a good way of knowing a lot of people in the county. I'd also like to suggest that I'd be deleted as alternate on the Clean Power Alliance. I think that Mayor Sticks and Michelle Ellison do a fine job with that and I don't think we need two alternates on that.

I'm sorry, what are you saying that you would like

to... On the Queen Power Alliance? I don't think we need two alternates on that anymore. So I'd like to withdraw as alternate on that at SW and Michelle Ellis and be you be the representative Mayor Sticks with Michelle as alternate.

Okay. I'll check in with Michelle, I'm sure she would be happy. She wants to stay on.

Can I ask

a question James? Do

you then

contact the EDC

or am I responsible for

We would contact the EDC. In fact, I think I was emailing with Bruce Stensley today so i'll follow up with him as soon as you know tomorrow morning.

Okay great

wonderful okay. I would like to be on OBGMA and I'm going to read a brief explanation why I deeply appreciate my council colleague, Mr. Weirich who has substantial knowledge and has served on the OBGMA over the past year. We have however different beliefs on how best to increase our water reserves. I would like my colleagues on the Council to consider a few facts when deciding who should represent the City of Ojai on the Ojai Basin Groundwater Management Agency.

Established tradition was for the mayor to serve in this position. I was elected mayor with 64% of the vote. Last year, some of my council colleagues voted to have Council Member Wyrick serve in this position. While Council Member Wyrick has immersed himself in the details of what is happening with our local water supply and how best to win the water supply fight with our neighbors in Ventura, I've been researching what is happening with water supplies both locally and in the Western US.

What I've learned is that climate change and the resulting aridification are impacting our ability to capture and store water in surface reservoirs. Though over the past weeks, we have been blessed with rain and above normal snowpack in the Sierras, scientists are telling us that drought is long from over and that we will likely continue to experience extended drought and aridification in the Western U.S.. Unlike extended drought, aridification is permanent.

Over the past year while serving as a representative on the OBGMA Council Member Wyrick voted to allow two new water wells. I would not have done that. It is clear that the two of us fundamentally differ on how best to manage our water reserves considering the fact that the 20th century was anomalistically wet and that our local and regional water supply and demand systems are predicated on this wet time in geological history, I'm deeply concerned about increasing water demand until our water reserves are at acceptable levels.

I believe that whatever water we gain through conservation and increasing water capture in our watershed should be committed to increasing our water reserves in this valley rather than serving new urban or agricultural demands. It is clear that we have surpassed geophysical limits in the western US. Our water supply and reserve system are failing over the past year Lake Mead, which is along the Colorado River and the largest water reservoir in the country reached its lowest level since the Hoover Dam was built in the 1930s In the Central Valley, farmers are fighting with one another over who gets what little water is left in aquifers.

Our approach to water must radically change. The City of Ojai and many other interests rely primarily on the Ojai Basin for water when it does not rain, water levels in the Ojai basin go down quicker than Lake Casitas. We rely on water from Lake Casitas as a backup water supply when the Ojai Basin levels are low. Therefore, during extended drought these two water reserve systems are inextricably linked. Considering that even after the recent rains Lake Casita's water levels are at 35% and that is in the best circumstances it would take decades for it to fill back up. Ojai Valley Water Reserves are tenuous at best For these reasons and in the interest of honoring the will of Ojai voters, I respectfully request that I serve as City of Ojai representative for the Ojai Basin Groundwater Management Agency.

I propose that Council Member Wyrick be my alternate so he can continue his great work at the local level as I would like to collaborate with him and rely upon his institutional memory and expertise during these difficult times. Thank you. So that's

where I am there. Susan? Well, it's 630 and I would really like to hear everything that Bill has to say and not try to squeeze it before...

No, yeah. It's 629 right now so how about we switch back to the public hearing and then James is keeping this list. What

are we doing right now at

630? We have a public hearing at 6 30. That schedule

If I could jump in briefly, Mayor and Council. The issue is under the new laws governing redistricting we have to set these redistricting hearings at a precise time as opposed to the usual we'll get to it when we get to it in the order so with that my recommendation would be to pause this item take up the redistricting item and then come back to this

thank you yes I just need to know that

Okay, thank you. So we will come back to number four and we'll move on to the public hearing which is number two. So go ahead and open the public hearing number it's the third City Council Redistricting Public Hearing Introduction of Draft Maps and where we was received input from city council so James do you want to give a presentation on this?

Sure thank you and yeah we do apologize about the scheduling it's a little Strange where we have to set the precise time, but it is once every 10 years. So it's not it's not the worst thing in the world, but um we We have today and we have made available on our website and a couple of other locations. The two Kind of first draft maps. And so today will be kind of walking through the process how we got here how those maps were drawn And then it'll provide an opportunity for the city council and any members of the public who want to comment on, to be able to provide feedback on those maps as well. So, and then allow the City Council to give some direction moving forward on modifications or things like that.

So we have Kay here today from Redistricting Partners who is our partner in redistricting in the process And so I will turn it over. Kay has a PowerPoint that briefly explains the background and then dives a little more into how the maps are drawn. So, Kay, I'll turn it over to you.

Awesome. Thanks so much. I'll pull up the presentation now. All right, so my name is Kay Mount Pleasure. I am a project manager with redistricting partners and we are going to go over our draft maps for the city of Ojai today.

Okay, sorry to interrupt but I forgot to mention we do have translation available in Spanish for anybody who's watching and needs Spanish translation You just click the interpretation button at the bottom of your Zoom screen. And so I'll turn it back over to you, Kim.

Thank you, James. So first we'll just go over the agenda quickly. Um, so we're just going to go over some basics of redistricting and then go over some potential new maps for the city of Ojai. And so this presentation is a draft maps presentation. So we will not these aren't final maps. We're going to be taking feedback tonight. And we'd love to hear from all of you your feedback on these maps. So we're going to be going the over Fair Maps Act criteria our two draft map revisions and go over next steps in the redistricting process. So first, we'll go over the California Fair Maps Act and our redistricting principles that we follow with all of our clients. So first of these traditional redistricting principles They're ranked, and the first of these is that each district has to be of relatively equal size.

And when we talk about size and population, we talked about people not just citizens or voters. So when we look at census data, we're looking at a total population. We also need to make sure that our districts are contiguous. And so what that means is that districts do not hop or jump or another way to look at it as they are drawn with one line They also maintain communities of interest.

And a community of interest is really subjective and open-ended, so the way that we describe it is that it's a group of people that would benefit from being maintained in a single district. They also follow city and census designated place boundaries And we make sure that districts are compact in both appearance and function. And so when we talk about compactedness and appearance, I'm sure that when most of you think of redistricting, you think of gerrymandering in those long snaky districts, we want to make sure that we don't have districts that look like that. We're keeping them as square or circular as possible.

You know, going past different populations to pick up populations elsewhere. And when we talk about compactedness and function sometimes communities can look like they're right next to each other but maybe there is a freeway or a river that separates these communities and they don't actually feel that connected. We want to make sure that we are considering that when looking at compactedness as well.

So with more cities and counties using community-based redistricting, we are moving redistricting out into the public with maps driven by testimony from the community. So we take input from the community and it drives the process with different ways for the public to engage. We also have rules for the process that emphasize the importance of traditional criteria and minimizing divisions in neighborhoods And we also released maps for feedback. So today, we'll be seeing plans to spark more public engagement.

So we have two plans to review tonight. We have Plan A and Plan B. Each of these plans has an overview, a data table, individual district pages, and HTML web-based maps so you can really zoom in and look at where those boundaries are And they've been provided to the district and they are available on the redistricting website. So first we're gonna take a look at the current lines, so these are the lines as they stand right now.

And then we also have the data table for our current districts. So in District 1, we have a deviation of positive 5%, District two, negative 4.9% and district three, negative 8%. And district four positive nine point or 7.9%, excuse me. So the district as a whole, the city of Ojai has a total deviation of 15.9%. And we need to make sure that our deviation is 10% or lower so you will need to see some changes to make sure that we get under that 10% deviation.

And we also have individual maps of each of the districts and they're in your packet and can be brought up on the screen at the end of the presentation if you'd like. So first, we're gonna go through Draft Map A And our first map was created based on public submissions on the district or online tool. So we have listed here the IDs of those two maps that we use to help us draw a draft map, okay?

And this is what Draft Plan A looks like. So both of these districts are submissions, they moved to the northern part of District 1 into District 2 and also extended District 1 Southwest into District 4 along North Ventura Avenue. And District 4 also picks up some of District 1 and 2 in the center And District 3 maintains the same lines and the boundary along District 3 and District 4 stays the same.

And here we can see the data, we have lowered those deviations to make each district more equal in population for a total deviation of 9.3%. And draft map B is a minimum changes map. And really our focus here was just to balance population, to get under that 10% deviation. So here we can see it looks pretty similar to our current lines and it was minimum changes. So really there was only one area where we changed and that's the Eastern area of District 4 going into District 3 The original boundary was along Gridley Road and our proposed boundary is on East Ojai Ave.

So here we can see again the deviations are lower in this plan. Can I ask

a question?

Absolutely!

Can you go back, you said something about Gridley What did you say about Gridley and Ojai? Instead of it ending, instead of District 4 ending at Gridley where will it end now or what is the suggestion here? Yes absolutely.

So the current lines have District 3 and 4 boundary at Gridley Road this proposed draft map just has that changed in order to balance populations And that change just keeps it along East Ojai Avenue instead of going up Gridley Road.

Okay, so then where on East Ojai Avenue?

What street? So the boundary along 4 and 3, it was already along East Ojai and instead of going up Going up Gridley Road, it's just extending along East Ohio.

Until the city limit you mean?

Yes exactly.

Okay so and where is Gridley going now what district?

Um, so it'll be in this

hotel right but I can't really

tell. Yeah, so let me actually. So this is the draft map three on the screen is the proposed boundary here and then go. Actually we can see that right here that change in District four and three So it used to go up, Gridley Road goes north to south. So the original or the current lines has it with that north to south on Gridley Road as the boundary and so just this draft map B is proposing that we just extend and move that area into district three.

That makes total sense. I always wondered about that little piece of gridley in District 4, that makes sense thank you. I wanted to be clear on that okay

and so as you can see here we lowered the deviations on this plan as well for a total deviation of 9.8 percent And so we're just gonna look at these draft maps again to kind of see the differences. Again, we extended that area, the district one going down and taking a bit of four and keeping three and four, the boundary there are the same and also two taking some one And then in draft B, we have everything staying the same except for three taking that portion of four on the eastern side.

And so for next steps, we have some options what we can do with this and identify tonight's We can identify preferred plans, what you all would like to move forward with and make edits on a plan that you would prefer. Again this is a draft map so all of this is a draft. So we'll take any feedback that you give us to make edits also suggesting possible changes. You don't have to just pick one plan. We can make changes to both of those plans see what we like at the next meeting and also providing direction for the preparation of new draft maps to be put out for public input and further review.

Finally, considering new draft maps that a public hearing scheduled for the next regularly scheduled council meeting. So these are our options tonight and I am happy to take any feedback that you all have or any

questions Thank you so much, Kay. Much appreciated. Questions? Bill?

Yes I was wondering...I have a comment on uh i think a problem with both of these maps with respect to communities of interest is it would it be better for us to take public comment and then get to that comment that I have? You think we can open the public hearing and then discuss amongst ourselves?

Let's take the questions and then public comments and then can we get to your comment Okay.

It's kind of a comment question, a combination of comment and question regarding I think a problem with communities of interest being neglected in one important way by both of these maps but I'll get to that later after we have our public hearing.

Any other just brief questions for Kay before we move on? Making sure I can see everybody. Nope. Okay, great. All right let's move on any public comments on this issue Gail? Item?

If there's anyone in the Zoom waiting room who would like to speak on this comment on this agenda item if you would use the raised hand function and let me know that you want to speak I will go ahead and call on you. And nobody's raising their hand

Thank you, Gail. Okay we'll go ahead and close the public hearing. Bill, do you have a comment?

Yes. We have actually years of multiple studies defining communities of interest going back to first the Sargentown planning exercise even before that in terms of the general plan They've been popped up in our looking at our urban forestry plan that we're in the process of revising. And in each of those exercises, the area more or less defined by the village mixed use zone The sort of downtown mixed-use core, most people think of it as just starting on the other side of Kenyatta and going east especially to Montgomery or to Drowne is defined as a very well identified neighborhood with certain characteristics.