City Council — 2022-03-22

Thank you, Gail. And welcome to the March 22nd

2022

meeting of the Ojai

City

Council. Bill, do you mind saying the pledge for us?

public comments on it 38 and there will probably be a lot of number of speakers and so just to be conscientious for the speakers it doesn't make sense to make them sit through items that they have no interest in so Let's go

ahead and do that. Would you mind repeating?

I'd like to move item number six, which is the last item on the agenda up to item number three because there are so many public speakers, I would assume because we've had 38 letters on that item, the valet.

Well, I don't know how to respond to that.

I have a question to the city attorney.

Yeah,

um i would like to pull item six so how do we do that if there's a conflict on one moving it up and one wanting it pulled? How do we resolve that?

So the resolution would be as i understood it the mayor made a motion that hasn't yet received a second to move item six up to be item three hearing no second that motion may have died for lack of a second if so

It's taking me by surprise. I need to process it

for a moment. Let me add another

comment. Assuming

from a second that motion to have item six move up gets a second as it may, a substituted motion could be made to pull item six entirely. That would then need a second If so, then the substantive motion is voted on first. Majority rule will control.

I want to say something if i may. My concern is that some of the speakers are maybe planning to speak later in the evening. That's my concern such as the you know the interested parties at the El Roblar Hotel and they might not be aware that we're Putting this at the beginning. That's my concern, one of my

concerns. Items number three four and five will probably be pretty quick so that was just I think just to be conscientious to the speakers

Well, then why don't we just go through this in the order that it is.

So no

second?

I haven't heard a second to the mayor's motion move it up then that would mean no motion on the table unless Mayor Pro Tem Haney you make your motion.

Okay so my motion would be to approve one through five and table item six. I will second

that

okay uh can we have a roll call

I would like to know what your train of thought is. I mean, I know you don't owe us an explanation but what is the reasoning?

It would be in order for discussion of whether to have the item on the agenda and if so, at what time. But the discussion cannot be a discussion of the merits it has to be should it be had I realized that's a bit of a fuzzy line and just one additional point. If the item is removed from the agenda anyone who came wanting to speak about it can still speak a general public comment because it won't be on the agenda. So the public's not silenced they can still speak a general public comment if it's removed from the agenda

May I ask a question? They would be expecting that the general public comment would be at the beginning. So say if they come at nine o'clock, will they still get to speak?

At that point, it would be up to the council's discretion to allow additional general public comment. I would recognize that there may be expectations about the timing but the agenda is clear that all of the order is subject to change so that expectation while it may be held is not supported by the agenda.

Well, and I'm just confused by why this item would possibly be pulled when we've had 38 written comments. So if we have 38 written comments, we surely have many comments that people are waiting out there to speak tonight. So it doesn't seem very respectful of our community to pull that.

So are we voting?

Yeah, can we have the roll call please?

I'd like to know as well. I'm happy to have a debate

about it and talk about it, but if we are really going to just

≫ I think it's worth having an explanation on why we're going to do that. I do agree with the mayor in that, and I don't want to just say we're tabling it with no explanation and no conscientiousness that it is an agendized item that there's been a lot of communication on. But I do agree that I think the end result should be allowing the process that started to be completed, because that's the purpose in undercutting our planning commission by sending a message that you put in all this work but we're just gonna steamroll you at this late moment doesn't make any sense to me either. So I don't mind the end result but I do think it's worth some explanation and now I appreciate the ability to have given mine.

Okay, thanks. Just want in response to that since I did put it on the agenda and I appreciate your comments right i don't think we're steamrolling. I think we're supporting the planning commission and once again this is a community issue so I think it's really important that we Listen to the community and clearly from the numbers, the community has some really strong opinions about this. So to disregard just let me finish please. To disregard that I think is a really really disrespectful as I said to our community and to all the people who really care about our community.

Mayor.

I actually said

first

what's disrespectful she was okay

Sorry, I was first. I think that we should...I'm not in favor of tabling it. I'm in favor of using this as an opportunity to put forth what the issues are because a lot of people do not realize that there's private property involved, not just public property and we need to clarify that for the public.

What's disrespectful is not respecting the process and that's what's happened here. We have a planning commission It is a public process that anybody can raise issues and discuss with. It's about to be on the agenda. This is highly irregular and inappropriate for the council to get involved in a planning commission deliberation, whereas Ryan outlined in detail there's plenty of reason and opportunities to bring up issues before the established public process that we have in place.

This commission is a council commission And if something is missed or people don't like the result, then there's ample opportunity for it to happen in terms of further discussion and bringing up the issues. But to interfere with the process in the midst of deliberation that's what's disrespectful.

I appreciate your opinion, I totally disagree. I think that we're supporting the Planning Commission and that more importantly we're supporting our community. And once again back to the numbers, the sheer numbers of responses of people who

I think we're back.

Can

you hear us?

Yes, I can.

That's it. OK, so.

Your mic is live.

Okay. Oh, you can't hear me. Did you hear when I was? Yeah.

James Hahn and James Vega, your mic is live.

Yeah, we can

do that.

Okay. We can't hear her. So we'll have to do the roll call here. Okay. Okay. Okay. Yeah. Why this? Welcome to Canada. We are proud to welcome you to the City of Kingston. And as a quick reminder about the new protocol, please raise your hand and I'll keep all of them on my top five. We're back to the chair. We are going to continue to raise hands at common. Please be brief and discreet. Stay on topic. We need to discuss what we're doing for the time being.

Please retain this comment that the legislative session will resume at noon I just am getting us there. Make sure that we're there. This is what's going out and make a comment, we really appreciate it. We all can't wait to hear from you. One more public comment for the minute is there are many teachers in the test kit. So we're going to stand up there and put our report back into that system to make sure it's still showing. We're not recording this. We're not sharing it on YouTube or anything like that.

So that's what we're supposed to do. This is what's reported. Let's check. We'll be able to do that. Okay. I'm here to tell you about a project that was started That's why I'm going along with a promise to give you a $20 climate budget. You all are invited, and my friend, Chris Young, he has all of the information that you need for that. So that is what we're about to do next week.

It's about climate. It starts fall. Thank you very much. Thank you. Okay. Okay.

Okay, so watch right here. It looks like it's picking it up. James

your mic is live

One more time. Thank you very much. I don't have it right now.

Gail, can you repeat yourself?

I said the good news is, I can hear you guys. But the bad news is Susan your mic is live.

Let me think what did I just reveal? You

didn't say anything. Nothing

bad. That's right. I'm not worried. I am a memoir writer.

It's good to hear everyone again. It's kind of like talking to the space station tonight.

Can you hear me, Ryan?

All right, we should be back. Apologies for that the internet at the site dropped out. We were trying a backup option and then the internet came back so

Okay, great. We have Cindy Convery and then Gail Matica and then Wendy Larner. Thank you. Thanks

for your patience. Ready for me? Cindy Convery. Oh hi. I have three things to say maybe I'll get an extra 20 seconds. First the good news. I'm gonna start a little fun to redecorate City Hall it's killing me. I don't want to go back in there the way it looks and in the spirit of Sheila and Don Clough, Clough Vista Park, Alan Raines and The Pergola, I think we can as a community Get that city hall looking better and I'm willing to make the first deposit. So that's the good news, second request I have is will you please please revisit the 25 mile an hour speed limit. I was crossing at the post office yesterday at four o'clock, I almost got hit as soon as I stepped off the curb. Thank God that person stopped. I walked five more feet and somebody came flying around signal and turned on to Ohio almost obliterated me, and this happens all the time.

I was driving here tonight, I passed at the four way stop at Bart's and a truck just blew through the stop sign 30 miles an hour didn't even stop. You know it has to do it starts with a steep speed limit it has to do with many other things you know better crosswalks etc but Somebody's going to get killed. I'm just giving everybody notice now, I really don't want that to happen i know three people have been killed in crosswalks here, just in the crosswalk so please please 25 miles an hour and third comment is valley parking.

I really strongly suggest that you as a body consider hiring a city planner who specializes in this type of thing to work through what this could look like in the next 10 years for Ojai. I looked at Carmel and how they deal with valet parking, they have one hotel that does have on-site valet. You know there's just it's a very complicated issue and it is not something that I think We have been educated to deal with. I think we need somebody who is educated in this world to step in, and it'll really alleviate a lot of the pressure on the Planning Commission as well because this isn't in their wheelhouse. I mean, we haven't done it before and others have. Others have negotiated it with style so I really request that this body look into hiring that city planner who can do that for us and save a lot of pushing and shoving

Thank you. Thank you, Cindy. Next we have Gail Matica and then Wendy Larner and then Jeffrey Starkweather.

Hi, I agree with Cindy. I think we need a more innovative solution to the valet parking. And if there are people we can hire or put together to come up with a better solution, I'm all for that. So I'm against the offsite valet. Thanks.

Thank you, Gail. Next we have Wendy Larner then Jeffrey Starkweather then Karen Snyder.

Good evening. Thank you for allowing me to speak. I just wanted to Give you some general information or share some resources with you. One is Michael Moore, an Eagle Scout and left-wing activist according to Wikipedia those aren't my descriptions of him has produced a film called The Planet Of The Humans I don't know if you're familiar with it But in it, he exposes how environmentally shameful the attempts have been to provide green energy. And he unveils the financial motives of many of the producers aided by government grants and NGOs.

Also I wanted to ask how many of you have heard of the wind blade graves? As the blades are retired from even the relatively small numbers already marring the scene, millions more to come. There is no feasible plan for their disposal recycling or regeneration Currently they're trying to bury them. However, the burial sites if you're familiar at all with what the things being shown on the internet are showing piles of unburied corpses of these windmill blades.

The windmills also slaughter birds and bats in alarming numbers which affects our balance of nature. There's a noise factor when there even in any proximity to where people live, giving neighbors headaches. There rarely is the electricity output as advertised. They're most likely to fail when they're needed most in the hottest and coldest weather. This doesn't even begin to explore the problems with offshore farms which are being considered Actually, projects are in process but even worse consequences. Check it out.

The cost in land for landfills alone is going to be huge. Just the cost for the end user is going to be quite stunning and it is regressive all these moves without really thinking through and planning and having feasible options are going to be very expensive for those who can least afford it. Thank you.

Thank you, Wendy. Next we have Jeffrey Starkweather then Karen Snyder and then Cindy Jones.

Good evening City Council and fellow citizens. I'm Jeffrey Starkweather I want to talk about indirectly item six, but I had planned to come in public input because I want to talk about a term that our mayor used in her justification for this issue. Cause I don't really have an opinion on it at this point. I don' know enough about what's being proposed to even have an opinion, but she used the word on just another form of gentrification I think that term needs to be explained and how it's really operating here in Ojai. But before I do, I just want to say I'm a big believer in sustainable communities that includes economic sustainability environmental social justice livability you have in your goals Encouraging a vibrant tourist community, but at the same time balance it with small town character and encouraging diversity of lifestyles which I considered to be somewhat incomes and different types of people.

And I think we can make a town that does all those things, makes it livable for all. We do not need to have a trade-off between environmental protection or small town character and making it livable for all. So what is gentrification and how does it apply to the Ojai Valley? Gentrification is a geographic economic concept which means essentially People, the community, the character of the communities change by the influx of more affluent people that buy houses and raise the price.

And what are the characteristics? What we call a rural gentrification. It tends to be places that are lifestyle communities, places that are beautiful like Ojai. People want to come to it. Places that have amenities like arts, Walking outdoors, the lands we preserved. And obviously here a spiritual center people have come here for that reason. And now most recently this is a phenomenon of economics and phenomenal technology. We have a lot of young- Two minutes.

Thank you, thank

you

Jeffrey.

Young wealthy people that have come here because they can afford to come and they can afford to work here. Thanks,

Jeffrey. We have a lot of speakers tonight. Excuse

me people have talked a long time and I haven't

got to my point yet. Could you make your point and then finish? Because people have spoken for two minutes they haven't spoken longer than two minutes.

Well let me just say there is only one cause of gentrification in the Ojai Valley Eric Wilde made that clear, the Board of Realtors basically said we have artificially suppressed the supply of housing. And when you have an increased demand for housing and no increased supply, the price of housing is going to go up. And in 2021, the average sale price of a house in the Ojai Valley was 1.5 million.

Okay. Thank you, Jeffrey. I'm sorry. I have to cut you off next. We have Karen Snyder then Cindy Jones and Lise Martin. We have two

minutes.

Can you hear me? Thank you, I'm going to talk about and ask the question what is an emergency And according to Black Laws Dictionary, an emergency is a situation requiring immediate attention and remedial action. It involves injury, loss of life, damage to property or catastrophic interference with normal activities. It is a sudden unexpected or impending situation.

That's the end of the quote. We have been under emergency status for going on three years, which by its very definition no longer qualifies as an emergency. The CDC itself says that going forward we're just going to have to live with COVID. That certainly doesn't sound like an emergency to me. So I suspect that maybe one of the main reasons for this state of emergency keeping being renewed is that so the vaccine manufacturers can still be under an emergency use authorization, thereby making them free from any liability for adverse events such as death and injury.

The latest VAERS, which stands for Vaccine Adverse Events Reporting System, which is a government website said there was a total of 1,183,495 reports of adverse events from all age groups following COVID vaccines including over 25,000 deaths and over 208,000 serious injuries as of March 11th 2022. And again, according to Harvard study, this is only 1% of the actual cases that could be reported to VAERS. So I ask that you have the courage not keep renewing this emergency status. We need to confront our governor as to why he keeps renewing this emergency. It was originally supposed to be two weeks. To flatten the curve. Again, the CDC says we're just going to have to learn to live with COVID.

I dare say just like we learned to live with the flu. It starts here in this town one town at a time. We cannot keep going along with this it's a threat to our civil liberties. We could just say no and i just want to leave you with this thought as you contemplate renewing this emergency status again next month. I recently saw it on a bumper sticker Your compliance is prolonging this nightmare. Thank you.

Thank you, Karen. Next we have Cindy Jones and Lise Martin and then Cindy Kalmasan. Can I

have a quick point of order? Are all the agenda items two minutes?

Pardon me?

Are all agenda items two minute limit speaking?

It's three unless we have a lot of speakers and then we go to...

First of all, I'd like to preface what I'm about to say with the fact that I really appreciate all of the long hours and attention that the council members put in to this city on a daily basis. And to me, that means that you care deeply about Ojai. So on that note when I'm really angry and frustrated as I have been for like the last almost two years I tend to, my mind doesn't focus. So I have my notes but today I went to yoga and normally that's a good place to focus and I normally don't invite negativity into my practice but today I did and it helped me to focus on what I needed to talk about tonight which is the lie which is the emergency The State of Emergency Declaration that continues to go on and on and on. This state of emergency is what you're basing every month your resolution on, that you all vote on.

And there's not a state of emergency. In fact, in California the numbers have gone down according to the CDC. So every month when you vote on this resolution about how to hold your meetings and tonight is a great example of why you need to be holding them in the chamber, in the council chambers. Do you not think that tonight it would have been much easier to have them in the council chambers?

Anyway, so when you vote on this resolution, you're continuing this masquerade of an emergency. I'm not going to continue with all of the things I needed to say because we don't have the time, but Ojai is a special place to live and I'd really like to keep it that way. We're seeing venues requiring proof of vaccine cards. What? In Ojai? Discriminating in Ojai? You need to not let that happen. Please do not let Ojai be gobbled up by fear, ignorance and money. You can do this.

Thank you,

Cindy. Next we have Lise Martin and then Cindy Kalmasan and then Anita Hendricks. Yes.

I haven't heard of any business requiring that you have to show a card to enter. And I know we haven't discussed that in council, can we look into that and find out what is going on?

We can. I think the quick, easy answer is right now if a private business does it we don't have much ability to regulate that but we can reach out and see if there are businesses doing that.

And I'll add that at this time there is no city imposed requirement for anything regarding a COVID-19 vaccination. Any decision that's being made to require vaccination proof or not is a decision by those private businesses. There has been no city requirement to do so. Thank you Mayor.

Is it Liz or Lise? It's

Lise, like I have a new Lise on life. Lovely.

Okay,

Lise! Thank you. My name is Lise Martin. I'm here to speak on kindness tonight. I want you to know that, I apologize to you council members and everyone else that the last time I spoke publicly here. I was so furious and angry and I was angry about the three minute limit being pushed to the two minute limit which has happened again tonight. I was angry, I was caught off guard.

And I'm caught off guard again that I don't see an image going into the feed of the person speaking but I see this seconds ticking off and I find that pretty traumatic. So I'm here to tell you that I'd love to see my constituents speak. I'd love to see that on future videos where I can get to know my community better. I would love for it to be more personable And I had an instance recently when mask mandates were dropped, you know with some variations but of being accosted in my place of work for continuing to wear my mask and told that it was traumatic to the person.

So I reached deep inside of myself and I thought how can I Not attract that kind of energy because the next day it happened to me again with a coworker seeing me remove my mask and then saying, Oh you're actually really pretty. And then when I put my mask back up being told that ruined everything. So I just want you to know that I'm here to speak about kindness and to apologize to you. I'd like for us all to be the change that we want to see in the world. And I'd love to see peace. Thank you.

Thank you, Lise. Next we have Cindy Calmeson and then Anita Hendricks and then Bill Miley.

That's Calmesom. It's okay that's my Hispanic name. Now I'm here to bring up an old sore subject just because if we're looking about climate change in the big picture, we should also be very concerned with this self-reflection in the small picture. And I'm here to say that there's been a lot of improvement on what's going on in our little neighborhoods regarding The gardening situation. If you don't have time to do it yourself and you hire somebody, I understand that and we should all have a similar protocol and expect the same from all the gardeners. Many of them have stepped up to the plate and it's a lot better with the electric. It's not perfect but it's what is now required of them however there are still some that are They are above the law, I guess because they're still using it.

And what they're doing is they're undermining the transition for those that have begun to use the electric and of course a broom and a rake is great too but um I feel that this is over 20 plus years old now and there's still a few of them out there thinking they're above the law and that nothing I can do or say has any impact I've called the city. You know, when I go out there on my bike, I talk to them. I want to see who it is now. I don't engage with them because they get that they know exactly what I'm going to say and and and I don't want to engage in it. I would assume there's some kind of internal system that would work for me. But I think if you do not reach out to the homeowner and make them just as responsible As the gardener, we're going to just continue with this series of abuses to our land.

I mean there's so many missed opportunities all those leaves could be mulched protect the soil from the harsh sun in the summer and i see missed opportunities it's such an easy thing There's only a few people that are abusing the law, but they seem to think they can get away with it no matter what. And it is maybe looking small on this big picture, but actually every little drop in the bucket, you know there's a certain drop that will cause the bucket to overflow and so that one drop is let's just do this right and let's finish the job. And I'm willing to help any way I can as a volunteer, but you gotta make the homeowner responsible. Thank

you. Next we have Anita Hendricks, then Bill Miley and then Tara Jeffrey.

Good evening I was just at a meeting and someone told me that the Antarctica in the past week had a temperature 70 degrees higher than been average 70 degrees and the North Pole has had a higher temperature as well. The IPCC, which is the International Panel for Climate Change, which is a part of the UN has declared that we are in code red that we have a dire, urgent call to humanity to address the climate crisis.

The climate crisis to me far exceeds COVID. It could affect every single one of us. Every animal, every plant, our oceans, our land, the magnitude of it is unbelievable And unfortunately, we in the West and the United States and other developed countries are contributing more than any other segment of the world population. We have a very high level of consumerism, of creating more and more goods.

In our solutions to climate change let us try to minimize the waste Let us look to low tech and no tech solutions. The indigenous people lived with very simple technologies, and they had the least impact on the environment. Please folks, this is a time to move from a crawl to a supersonic speed in addressing this very dire reality of a climate crisis. Thank you.

Next we have Bill Miley and then last speaker on public comment will be Tara Jeffrey.

Good evening, for the record my name is Bill Miley. My family and I have lived here a long time. I'm talking about the composition of the Planning Commission. I want to speak about the membership framework for the Planning Commission specifically to the factor of age. Youth young adult adults older age and senior adult should be honored My principle logic is based on the demographics of our city, and it needs adjusting.

One example is a youth member. Tarkin Recreation has one. Ohio Unified School District has one. It seems reasonable and needed to have a commission which has major responsibilities for the built environment of our city, which will last for years and maybe a lifetime way beyond my life right now. And if my recall is correct most planning Commission memberships have been adult, older adults and senior adults.

I want to suggest that the City Council study the value of restructuring our Planning Commission to include designated positions for youth, younger adults and youth using census data for the age categories. It would certainly bring a wider viewpoint for our city's future. Thank you.

Tara, Jeffrey? I guess she's gone. Do we have any public comments on Zoom?

Yes, we do.

If there's

anyone in the... Oh I'm sorry Mayor Sticks go ahead you were saying

something? Okay so thank you.

Okay if there's anyone in the Zoom meeting who would like to speak please use the raised hand function now and whoops one moment okay we have 11 people um so I will uh bring in Leslie Hess Leslie, if you're there you can go ahead and speak. If you're muted please unmute yourself. Hi can you hear me? Yes we can.

So I want to speak about the ordinance to allow only on-site valet parking in Ojai. There have been so many drastic changes in downtown and one of the biggest changes in the past 10 years has been the traffic and the most vulnerable three block area of our downtown. Offsite valet parking doubles the number of car trips for each visitor coming to Ojai. Here's the example, car trip number one a visitor drives to Ojai to dine at a new popular restaurant. Car trip two, the valet parker takes the visitors' car and drives it to a parking destination Car trip three, the valet parker retrieves the car and drives it back to the restaurant. Car trip number four, the visitor drives back out of town. We have enough tourist traffic now without doubling it.

We elected officials, the residents in the city of Ojai have the right to decide if we want to do this in our town It isn't about one business. It's a domino effect and if there's not enough parking, which has always been accessible to all of us who live here, it will end up harming the other businesses downtown and it will cause more people to want a valet park for their businesses. This needs to be thoroughly investigated and we definitely need the ordinance. Thank you.

Thank you, Leslie.

Next we have Clara Brynne. I apologize if I'm mispronouncing your name, Chiara. If you're there and seem to be unmuted, go ahead and speak.

Hi, yes. My name is Kira Byrne. I'm 25 years old and I was born and raised in Ojai. And I wanted to share that I also support limiting valet parking in Ojai to on-site only. Ojai's longstanding tradition of making parking equally available to all regardless of economic status is part of the Ojai experience. And although I do support tourism in our town because it is good for our economy The needs of those of us who lived here should come first, and offsite valet parking will worsen congestion in our town and impact all residents. So I just wanted to share that and reemphasize that I support limiting valet parking in Ojai to onsite only. Thank you for your time.

Thank you, Kira.

Next we have Larry Steingold. Mr. Steingold if you're there, you can go ahead and speak. If you're muted please go ahead and unmute yourself.

Yes, thank you very much. Obviously I think public if somebody wants to valet to a public street in the public lot the answer is no. If they want to go Valley to a private lot that they have control of. That's fine. I guess, but it obviously will cut into other people's parking so every venue every restaurant cannot have any less parking than was required. I mean and by their license and usage, but this all begs the question okay nobody wants to talk about this come up with housing that's affordable on the eight and a half acres put in a damn garage because either the town is successful and we generate sales tax Or we have to come up with another way to pay our income for taxes, for services. The town lives on sales tax.

You want to make the town less desirable? No problem! Let's raise everybody's taxes somehow because you can't do it by real estate because that all goes to the county and regarding the gentrification I mean, the idea of somebody buying a home and then having to spend $200,000 to renovate versus buying it from a flipper and still paying the 800 is a financing issue.

Okay, that's not you know the gentrification of people coming in and buying. That's again that's a sign of ours the town success we've been here for four and a half years I love Ojai. I don't want to see it turn into Martha's Vineyard or Nantucket well coming from this guy that side of the coast or Catalina or some other very crowded place but we have to deal with the parking So an underground garage and housing that's affordable, not affordable, that's limited only to Ojai Valley residents and OSUD employees is not a bad idea. But we need to have this conversation. And this valet parking triggered it. They're a successful hotel. They've got to park someplace or kill their business.

Thank you.

Next we have Marcy Tosher. Marcy, if you're there you can go ahead and speak. If you're muted please unmute yourself.

Okay thank you. Okay could you hear me?

Yes

we can. Okay great um hang on I had my notes sorry okay Ojai has to become proactive, to protect quality of life for its residents as more and more businesses come to town bringing style tastes and accoutrements of where they're coming from. The rare and unique term of Ojai degrades bit by bit one block at a time. Our Ojai City Council needs to act proactively where it can to anticipate these degradations before it becomes necessary to scramble to offset I would like to start by saying that we are in a time of crisis.

It's a pleasure to be here with you. Thank you for having me. Add to the overproliferation of alcohol-related businesses and OI, the unwise mixture of eager for tipped valet parkers zipping around through residential blocks. And the situation seriously affects our quality of life as residents. City Council must ask itself at what point has the city bent so far to accommodate new alcohol and event businesses? And they're mostly out of town visitors. Good morning, everyone. Thank you for joining us today. I want to start by saying that we are so grateful to all of our partners that life in our small town has forever changed. I remember seven years ago when a business wanted to open a brewery on Ojai Avenue council applied the not one more car trip into town generated rule and didn't green light the business.

Do No off-site valet parking, period. We locals find parking on the streets and we walk. If visitors want the full Ojai experience let them find a parking spot and walk. And let new businesses not intrude into residential neighborhoods behind the confines of their own properties especially if they eliminate existing parking spots that won't suffice anyway okay thank you thanks

Next we have Megan Berquist. Megan, if you're there, you can go ahead and speak. If you're muted, please unmute yourself. Okay. Oh, there. Can you hear me? Yes, we can. Go ahead.

Thanks. Our streets are a... This is about the no off-site valet parking Item, what was the item? Number six. Our streets are a modern day element of what has traditionally been known as our commons due to the doubling on the number of car trips offsite valet parking puts more traffic on the streets of our community. Our streets or stated another way, our commons are already overburdened by tourism Please protect our community commons by saying no to offsite valet parking. It's just not worth it, thank you and thank you council.

Thank you Megan.

Next we have Steve Kolamei. Mr. Kolame if you're there you can go ahead and speak if you're muted please unmute yourself.

Good evening. I'm gonna change gears here a little bit and report very briefly on the greenhouse gas emission inventory that was produced for the city of Ojai, that was conducted by the Climate Emergency Mobilization Committee while still reporting to council. Council Member Blatz was instrumental in getting the Ventura County Air Pollution Control District to assist in this technical effort.