City Council — 2022-09-13

Call to order. Susan

wrote songs. But we just wanted to thank you so much. This really means a lot to us.

Thank you all. All right, well we will move on to commission reports. Any commission reports James?

I do not believe we have any commission reports today. No, we do not.

All right, we'll move on to public communication and just a reminder these are items not on the agenda and normally public comment is three minutes and we'll hear a chime at the end as a gentle reminder Please respect each other's time and stop talking when the chime sounds. Thank you very much. All right, we will begin with Ron Solorzano. Did I get it wrong?

Almost.

We get in our heads when we start thinking about the two options. Thank you members of council. My name is Ron Solorzano and I am the regional librarian for the Ojai Valley. I'm here tonight to talk with you about Ventura County Libraries fifth annual one county one book community reading program One County, one book aims to unite the Ventura County community around a common narrative.

Throughout October and November readers will have a chance to attend numerous special events related to the themes of the selection. One County, one book is sponsored this year by the Ventura County Library Foundation This year's selection is Tastemakers, Seven Immigrant Women Who Revolutionized Food in America by Mayuk Sen. Tastemakers was named Best Book of 2021 by NPR and is one of the Wall Street Journal's favorite books of 2021.

This debut work relates the stories of seven extraordinary women, all immigrants, who left an indelible mark on the way Americans eat today. From World War II to the present, the book includes deeply researched portraits of figures including Mexican-born Elena Zelayeda, a blind chef, Marcela Hazan, the deity of Italian cuisine and Norma Shirley, a champion of Jamaican dishes.

One County, One Book culminates this year with a special event featuring Tastemaker's author and NYU adjunct professor Mayuk Sen on Saturday, November 12th at California State University Channel Islands Grand Salon. In addition to the free event, the Ventura County Library Foundation is hosting Passports, a lively discussion with local food influencers at noon in the Grand Salon.

A discussion of topics ranging from county food trends to local and worldwide food issues will be led by CAPS Media Executive Director Patrick Davidson. One County, One Book is further sponsored by Premier America Credit Union, the Ventura County Community College District, Ventura County Star, Conejo Valley Lifestyle Magazine, Mustang Marketing, Montecito Bank & Trust and the Ventura Friends of the Library.

Additional partners include the Museum of Ventura County, California State University Channel Islands and California Lutheran University. As part of One County, One Book, Cal Lutheran will present a panel of professors and alumni who will talk about the role of food in American history and culture. This event will take place in Cal Lutheran's Lundring Event Center at 7 p.m. on Thursday, October 20th.

Readers can participate in One County One Book by picking up a copy of Tastemakers from one of our library branches or our mobile library. Once you've read the book, you'll be ready for our October and November events. Visit www.vencolibrary.org slash OCOB Or contact me directly for more information about this year's program. Thank you all so much for your time.

Thank you, Ron. Next we have Reno Rolay and then we have Chet Hilgers and then Melanie Hilgers.

My name is Reno Rolle. I've lived, voted, paid taxes and raised my family here in Ojai for 20 years. I came to Ojai for a career opportunity back in 2003, but it wasn't until the Thomas Fire in 2017 that I finally understood why I love this place so much. You see during the Thomas Fire, Beck became something of a gathering place for our community. Our family was able to connect with so many neighbors who all shared the same fears and uncertainty during this unprecedented disaster.

It was then with our backs against the wall, facing terrible adversity that we saw the absolute best in people. We experienced acts of kindness and charity so profound that it impacted our lives forever. We fell in love with the people of Ojai. This in my humble opinion may be our single most precious resource. Perhaps as precious as water itself are the loving, compassionate, respectful and law-abiding people that truly make Ojai what it is.

There are sadly some very bad actors in Ojai as well. For many years our leaders have been played like suckers. Manipulated and corrupted by bullies and miscreants, leveraging their financial influence to plow their way through our town. Forcing their selfish agendas down the throats of our good people. Their empty promises designed merely to distract us so we don't see the true nature of their immoral intent.

Well, The Beast becomes the product of what you feed it. Years of selective interpretation and random enforcement of the code by city officials has created almost irreversible conflict and crippling inefficiency. It's no wonder intelligent people, perfectly capable of following instructions dread showing up at the counter here in City Hall where even pulling a simple permit is like pulling an abscessed tooth.

They'd rather chase you away confused with your tail between your legs than actually help you. What are they afraid of? What are they trying to hide? Why would they intentionally bury appeals forms and block the public's access to due process? Why would they issue and then rescind vested entitlements on a whim, as if they mean nothing to the people who work so hard to earn them.

I've struggled for years to understand this before recently coming to the painful realization that there is much more at work here than incompetence alone. While everyone talks about sustainability, this is not sustainable. This will ruin our town. This will destroy everything that makes this town so special. We can't just sit back and shake our heads anymore.

We need to end this depravity before it ends us. Call me crazy but I believe the good people of this town deserve more, much more.

Thank you Reno. Next we have Chet Hilgers then Melanie Hilgers then Cliff Hill.

Good evening, Council staff. I'm here to speak about the treatment of me and my family in regards to the non-enforcement of my conditional use permit and ADA by the city. My tenant has hired a city councilman. The problem for us is that along with many other businesses, property owners and renters is where elected officials have created a system of directing city staff to either enforce or not enforce laws codes or permits.

City government isn't working for the people it's working for special interests How can the mayor call a special meeting to create new rules regarding parking and then have zero enforcement of my CUP rules? I have no idea how the city attorney is able to keep track of all the different side deals. Meanwhile, you pass laws forbidding the use of certain gas-powered hand tools for people who can least afford to buy new equipment making those same people pay for permits and threaten those people with fines if they don't comply All this while some City Council members trade favors or money in exchange for helping others in the community avoid following rules of any kind.

That's bad! You threaten people if their fences are in the wrong place or their hedge is too tall. For those of you seeking re-election, it's not too late to turn it around. Your only special interest group should be the people who live in this community Matt, you could write me a letter and nothing flat. Wouldn't that be the impartial thing to do? I've never seen the city so dysfunctional and divided. I thought I'd seen it all when building the skate park which by the way none of you were here during that time.

This is my conditional use permit obtained in 2013 Prove to the community you want to be impartial, follow the law and enforce my CUP and ADA law now. Early voting starts in October. Election day is eight weeks away. At the next council meeting I'll give the community an update. Until then if there's anyone listening that's had problems with the city please reach out to me.

Thank you Chet. Next we have Melanie Hilgers, then Cliff Hill and then Wendy Hilgers.

Good evening Mayor, Council and staff I'd like to read a couple letters to you this evening on September 6th of this year my attorney Keith Feichelman wrote this email to Lucas Siebert copying Matt Summers and James Vega HCD has recently made clear that enforcement of the CUP issued by the City of Ojai is solely the responsibility of the City of Ojai. Furthermore, pursuant to official guidance issued by HCD, HCD is not responsible for enforcing violation of Americans with Disabilities Act ADA CHCD Information Bulletin number 2017-4. It's located on their website.

This responsibility also rests with the city of Ojai. This would be a great opportunity for the city to act in an impartial manner. I understand that many in the community already questioning whether the city is beholden to special interests based on recent actions taken regarding the Bocuse Adamson's El Robles Becker groups et cetera properties with regard to zoning and rules.

Indeed I also understand that a member of the Planning Commission has even indicated that they believe the reason the city is chosen not to enforce this CUP here is due to a certain councilman. My clients again request that the city take the appropriate actions to enforce the existing CUP for caravan outpost and enforce applicable ADA requirements. Now a letter from Kevin Hoopman of HCD dated September 1st of this year Good afternoon, Chet. I received your message with regards to the park operating outside the scope of the Conditional Use Permit, CUP.

The CUP and the conditions mandated by the CUP are under the jurisdiction of the Local Enforcement Agency, LEA. That's you guys. When a park is first built, the LEA establishes how many spaces allowed, the land use restrictions etc. and then issues a CUP based on those restrictions or guidelines. Once that is submitted to HCD then HCD will issue a permit to operate a PTO with the number of spaces identified in the CUP If the conditions of the park's CUP are ever violated, then the LEA has jurisdiction to take enforcement action.

I hope this clears this up. Kevin Hoopman, administrator two codes and standards housing and community development. Yes indeed. I hope this helps clear this up once and for all. Thank you.

Thank you, Melanie. Next we have Cliff Hill and Wendy Hilgers and Emmy Hilgers.

Hi. My name's Cliff Hill, and I've been a resident of Ojai for four years. I've been a visitor at Ojai for 40 years. I've always loved this place. Always thought that one day I'd live here. Well, here I am. Obviously you can see that I'm pretty seriously disabled. Mostly do, I think, but not admitted by our government as caused by Agent Orange. Thank you very much Vietnam.

And getting around as a disabled person in this city, and I am out here every day. Everybody in this room has seen me cruising this town. I'm everywhere. And I have seen kindness and generosity. And I have seen voracious attitude. I've had as many as nine cars Pass in front of me at a crosswalk on Ojai Avenue. Nine cars and I'm sitting there in the crosswalk.

People blow by you, ask somebody to open a restroom door. Most of them will say yes but every now and then you get that special guy who just doesn't want to do it. So that leads us back to this guy. This guy operating this thing called The Outpost. Nice place! Really nice place. Chet, Melanie, some of the kindest people I've ever met. They're my friends. Chet asked me to go down there and try and rent a room.

It's nice. Real nice. There's a trailer parked there with space next to it all marked out in blue. I asked the young lady there, well how am I supposed to get up in there? That's your problem. That's your problem. I said, well maybe if you solve this problem, I can inundate this place with handicapped business. Handicapped people are looking for accommodation all over the seven-letter world.

And that's all I want. I want this man to realize that he spent far more money Fighting compliance, then it would cost him to comply. And not only that if he's worried about caring for handicapped people on his property there are a dozen Nursing agencies that would flock to his aid. Hey, Betty Sue, I got a new guest over here. He's not doing too well. Can you come over and spend some time with him? He says money is no issue. He has the card.

It's not that hard. It is not that hard to have a better world.

Thank you, Cliff. Next we have Wendy Hilgers then Emmy Hilgers then Leonard Claife.

Hi, I'm here tonight speaking with you because this is the only place where my words will be heard and my family might be helped. My son Chet and his wife Melanie hold a conditional use permit for the operation of a business on their property on Bryant Street. Situations arose there which prompted Chet to try to resolve them by reaching out to the tenant but then turning to the city regarding enforcement of the CUP but that did not work and he did not get that help Instead the past three years have been costly and frustrating to our family while business goes on as usual at his property. What is the meaning of a conditional use permit if its conditions are not enforced? To us, to our family it has no meaning at all except that the city allows the tenant to just carry on with no concern about oversight leaving Chet and Melanie with the liability.

This has to change. Thank you.

Thank you, Wendy. Next we have Emmy Hilgers then Leonard Claife and then Robin Gerber.

Hello everyone. I apologize for having to read off of my phone but it was a bit last minute. OK first I want to say thank you to all the members of the council for your dedicated service to Ojai. My name is Emmy Hilgers and that is my dad Chet and my mom Melanie and my grandma Wendy. My family moved to Ojai in 1968 when a freeze in Santa Cruz caused their flower business to crumble.

Since then, they have proven themselves as pillars of the Ojai community. My family has done so much to help Ojai from fundraising and building the Ojai Skate Park to building the beautiful outdoor amphitheater at San Antonio Elementary. Betsy, you came to us asking for support and my family worked together many supporters for you. And maybe they weren't able to donate a lot of money but in my opinion what they gave was worth much more because the Hilger stamp of approval means a lot here.

My parents have been fighting this battle since I was your French class it was in your French class in high school You have the ability or should I say responsibility to do something about it. You are someone I have always looked up to and I remember at one point saying that I wanted you to be my personal life coach because of your wisdom, serene nature and attention to truth.

All my family wants is to be able to live their dream of once again running their small hotel caravan outpost. They have helped support so many dreams in Ojai, including Betsy's to become mayor and all I'm asking for is that Ojai will do the same for them.

Thank you. Thank you Emmy. Next we had Leonard Claife then Robin Gerber and then Larry Steingold

Good evening, everybody. Leonard Clay 412 North Fulton Street. Before I start my remarks, I wanted to offer a tip of the hat to Nate's family. It can't be easy for them having lost a child to become public people in support of their son's legacy. Thank you. I was here two weeks ago speaking about the cavalier, at best way that the electric company treats our trees.

And two days after that an oak fell on the fish place in Miramonte according to the Ojai Valley News caught from a arborist it was caused because the tree had been topped And if you drive down Highway 33 and you look to the left and you look to the right, you will see topped tree after topped tree after topped tree. And that's good way to kill trees. We have... I'm extraordinarily fortunate that my wife has loved trees for the last however long she's been alive We have 10 giant trees on our regular-sized lot in Ojai, and we don't need an air conditioner.

Trees help the planet, help keep us alive and comfortable. Something needs to be done about what's being done to our trees in terms of their being topped. Oh, the other thing about trees in Ojai is over the last few weeks I have twice seen people cutting oak trees in Ojai. I don't know whether they're trimming them or cutting them down but the truck that's working on it has no identification whatsoever.

When I see a truck from Oscars or Crane or any of the other Ojai businesses, I assume they have a permit and I assume they know what they're doing When I see a truck without any identification whatsoever, I assume they're not licensed and they don't know what they're doing. So I would urge people if you see a truck with no identification cut in oak trees call the compliance officer at City Hall. I did that last week. I have no idea what happened or what the status was But I'll do it again and hope to get some kind of result, but I don't know why you can't pass an ordinance Are you talking about doing something passing an ordinance or revising the ordinances with that with respect to? The electric company perhaps you can add something in there requiring tree trimmers to have signs on their trucks.

Thank you

Thank You Lenny next Robin Gerber and then Larry Steingold Hi, I'm Robin Gerber

I want to take just a couple of minutes to talk about good governance. We don't have a pure democracy, we have a representative form of government. We elect you to represent us rather than having everyone in town vote on every issue. We expect you to learn about the issues by reading the materials, the staff reports and all the rest. Perhaps reach out to experts on things like water or fire, talk to residents basically Do your homework.

Then we expect you to show up at meetings, ready to listen to public comment and each other, to ask questions of staff or your colleagues, to deliberate and then decide with your vote. That's it! Learn the issues, listen, deliberate, decide. But I'm disturbed that at two recent sessions where two important issues were voted on, community grants and affordable housing.

A member of council read pre-written statements with apparently predecided decisions and did not engage in substantive discussion. This does not show a command of the issues or a council member who's listening to the public or colleagues or deliberating It shows a closed mind and a dismissal of new ideas that might just show up in meetings. This was especially true of the affordable housing debate where we had terrific comments from the public, and it was very enlightening.

And colleagues to your colleagues on the council worked very hard to bring something to the council however much people might disagree with it Going forward, I would just ask that every member of council now and when new members arrive show the respect of listening with an open mind and heart. People who show up to comment have put a lot into their comments give them the courtesy of consideration and for the sake of representative government and democracy engage in deliberation be open to shifting your opinion even if you don't Show us that you've done your homework by asking questions, by engaging in a robust debate on key issues before casting your vote.

Thank you. Thank you, Robin. Next we have Larry Steingold.

Good evening. Thank you very much, Larry Steingold, citizen taxpayer and thank you all for the rain. Whichever there was. And I'm sorry for your problems. Also, my wife's an occupational therapist and we are all temporarily abled. We will all become disabled at some point in time. Regarding water, has anybody contacted the Crown family and actually asked them to recycle water or take care of their groundwater or something like that? I don't know if anybody has. It may be somebody at Casitas Water but I think it's more important that somebody from Ojai Whether it's a committee or a group or one person, whatever. Contact the Crown family and ask them because contacting management here is a waste of time because their budget and their profits are based on their income and their expenses.

So please contact Crown so we can get on with the water issue. Either we have too much water, we have primary water, we have subprime water, whatever it is. But everything seems to have come to a standstill around here because of water. So if they can produce more water, why doesn't somebody ask them? They have a huge philanthropy. The crowns are worth what $20 billion. This is chump change and they look good. They also have a philanthropy. And I believe it's James Crown and Pauline Crown. So, either somebody here should do it officially or somebody out in the town or the city should do it. Otherwise we're just barking up the wrong tree.

Thank you.

Mayor? Thank you

Larry.

Larry, I can respond briefly to your comment. I do know that the Inn has just recently hired a major landscape architectural firm and that they are in the process right now of redesigning the entire golf course and turning it into Well, I'm not sure what they're going to turn it into. I can't use the word links because that's not the appropriate term to use but I do know that there are going to be a major reduction in turf and a tremendous amount of money that they're gonna be spending reducing their water consumption on site. I'm waiting for them to actually come out and let us know what it is but I do know that they have just recently hired that golf course architect

Thank you, Randy. Good news. Appreciate that. Yes. All right, we will move on to the consent.

That's the last speaker. I do want to respond if I may to a couple of the comments.

Thank you James.

Oh OK.

Any one on Zoom? Gail?

If there is anyone in the Zoom queue who would like to speak on public comments please use the raise hand function now No. James? Okay,

so I just wanted to respond briefly. Obviously we are limited in what we are able to say about active code enforcement cases or code enforcement cases in general but as several comments raised concerns about code enforcement cases some of the cases discussed were years long complicated issues so it's gonna be... We aren't really able to get into a full debate of them or discussion of them at this meeting But I do want to confirm that we stand by the planning and code enforcement programs.

The Code Enforcement Program works transparently, in response to complaints that we receive and investigates and works on those appropriately. Anyone with concerns about those may contact myself or the Community Development Director, Lucas Seibert. And most of the decisions that were mentioned have been transparent decisions, have been a lot of decisions that were mentioned were made at public meetings and in compliance with the law. We stand for good governance and against corruption. So I just wanted to make those points.

Thank you James. All right, we will move on to the consent calendar. A motion to approve?

Six. Oh, yep. I'd like to pull item G for discussion, separate discussion.

OK. All right, anything else?

Move to approve.

OK, second?

Second.

Okay,

and

then

item G?

Yes I have some questions about item G Excuse me The funds in the budget were for supporting arts programs, and the request of the Commission is to reallocate funds for support of arts programs to a consultant to be a trained facilitator to lead the Arts Commission in a discussion of strategic planning. I guess I have some questions because we... First of all, that wasn't the intended purpose of the budget in the first place.

And second of all, I guess I have some questions where we, I think put a fair amount of care somewhat controversially at time into choosing members of the commission to represent different parts of the arts community to hopefully talk with one another And I guess I'm just a little uncomfortable reallocating budget from supportive arts programs to basically a facilitator to help these people that we've appointed on the commission to talk with one another. I don't understand why they can't at least start a discussion with one another as different representatives of different parts of the arts community rather than bringing in a facilitator and spending money, $2,500 that could be used in support of arts programs in the community. So I want to raise that question and see if anybody else has some questions about this appropriation.

change in the budget.

I think you bring up a good point. Although there's nobody here from the Arts Commission to talk about it. I think that's the problem I Would defer to whether they would prefer to spend I mean, it's their budget do they would they prefer as a commission to spend that money on strategic planning or Strictly on the rest of the arts budget I'd be curious to see what they have to say. I assume that would be an appropriate middle ground. I know that Yeah, I don't think it's a surprise to anybody in the council. The public probably isn't as aware but there has been some difficulty in their interpersonal communication we'll call it on the Arts Commission so maybe that's what this is to facilitate was there was this normal James or was this something new this year because of things that have occurred?

So, it's a couple of things. I think you hit on a couple but so by as Council Member Wyrick mentioned by City Code the Arts Commission is supposed to prepare a five-year strategic plan they have not done it at several years overdue so that's coming due and it's coming due at a time where as you just mentioned there were several changes we had I want to say four new commissioners appointed in the last year to that Commission So there's a couple elements where I understand. I think we, you know, we kind of said gave the same feedback that typically that funding is used to support the arts in the community.

I think that the commission felt that there was value and creating that five year strategic plan value worth identifying some funding for it. What we can do is we can go back, bring the concerns that you just raised. I could ask the chair of the Arts Commission to provide a response and if it's all fine, we'll bring it back or we can ask him to attend one of the upcoming meetings to speak to it.

And just this is their request.

This is a

request

from the Arts Commission. Yes and again if I may make one other comment there it's like again to me it's a special concern and said services would include gathering information individually from commissioners these commissions are supposed to operate as a group Not have a facilitator come in and talk to them individually, and then report on what they were all told individually. They're supposed to operate as a commission.

And I just have a concern.

Randy?

So I think it's interesting that this is on the agenda and that in the commission reports we didn't have any commissioner from the Arts Commission come and at least speak to it. We're taking $2,500 away from the community. That's how I look at it. And I spent eight years on recreation and parks. We never had a planning session. We had to plan in-house, we had to make our decisions as a group on the commission and that's what's nice about The bodies that we've appointed people to and how they deliberate, that it's public. And as they're deliberating on what they choose to do and how they choose to do it the public has an opportunity to come in and weigh in.

If they do it privately then the public has no vetting process. They have no opening until it's made and then it's vetted. So one I couldn't support the expenditure James, I think it was four in the last two years if I remember correctly. So it's a new body and I get that. In fact as I was listening to Councilman Weyrich, I was weighing the struggle of having almost a whole new group of people but you know what? Every one of them is gifted Every one of them is bright, every one of them brings some unique aspect to the table.

I think they just got to figure out how to get along. It's no different than this body, we have our ups and downs but the bottom line is that the public expects us to sit up here and conduct the business of the community in an open forum, listen. One of the things a coach instilled me at Nordoff was look, listen and learn. and just interact with each other. So again, I like to have them come, I like to have them really clearly explain to us what they need this for and then I'd be more comfortable weighing in but we allocated those funds to be given to members of the community not to be used on ourselves or on themselves

So for purposes of moving on, I'll just move to continue this item until we get further explanation.

And James, will you do

that? I'll second

it. We can do

that.

Do we need a roll call on that, Gail?

I don't

think we

do. It's just no action to

approve. Consensus to continue is fine.

Okay, great. All right we will thank you very much We will move on to the discussion item number two the community debt disaster guide So I'm just want to say I'm so excited to see this come to fruition and a huge Thank You to James Vega and city staff for making this happen Robin Godfrey much appreciated James you were told four years ago that it couldn't be done And you did it It's been a real honor to be involved in making this happen. Many stakeholders have been integrally involved throughout this process, so I just want to big thank you to California Fire Safe Council co-chair Bob Roper, retired Ventura County fire chief John McNeil. Hi John!

Ventura County Fire, hi Barry. Ventura County Office of Emergency Services, Ojai Unified, the Humane Society, Ojai Valley Firesafe Council, Chief Rivera, Ojai Valley Amateur Radio Club, the Ojai Valley Community Hospital, County Supervisor Matt LaVere and other stakeholders and community members for contributing to this plan. So this process has been a great example of community collaboration and teamwork And tonight we'll have the opportunity to review the document and make suggestions to the disaster council for their next meeting.