City Council — 2022-12-13

Uh, call to order please. Can y'all take your seats and come to quiet please? Okay uh we have a quorum may we have the roll call please Weston?

I think for the next 20 minutes

Welcome all to the December 13th meeting of the Ojai City Council. Bill, will you please say the pledge? Sure.

as the oldest lawyer in California. He was really proud of that wasn't he? Yes! After his move to Ojai in 1951, Jack quickly moved into volunteering within the city of Ojai, appointed to the Planning Commission and serving as chair trial by fire. Several years later, Jack was appointed the city attorney in the 1960s from 1970 and 1982. He served on the Ojai City Council serving as mayor three times for a total of five years 1975 to 1980. Jack was president of the Ojai Civic Association for many years Supervised many capital projects in Libbey Park, which were financed by the Association. I'm told that Jack turned down a judgeship from Governor Reagan so he could continue his work in Ojai. Jack also served on the Ojai Tennis Tournament Board of Directors for 35 years while on the City Council Keep in mind these.

Well, on the city council Jack worked closely with Jim Lobel who by the way they butted heads on politics. I heard that laugh. I see them reaching over. Issues that came before the City Council then are not that different from today. They worried about new businesses and whether they were right for Ojai Go figure. They worried about keeping Ojai semi-rural and it not being overrun by subdivisions.

No building here. Growth was a major issue at that time also, he felt that at the time Ojai was made up of two groups environmentalist and super environmentalists. There are certain projects that Jack and Jim worked on that at that time that impact us to this day. Jack and Jim made it their job to keep in touch with the Fred Smith family who owned the Smith-Hopson house now City Hall and Ojai landmark number 23 They knew Fred Smith and his family wanted to donate the land, and worked with the family to make it happen. Even in receiving that fortuitous donation by these wonderful historic families there was still taxpayer backbiting! Can you imagine?

Why would we want Why would we want this property? How much is it going to cost to maintain? Jack and then proceeded to spend $100,000 maybe 10,000 more to fix up the property. They eventually made another key improvement in the council moving forward with the construction of Little House where help of Ojai has done such an amazing job in serving our seniors. Again the naysayers asked why the city should aid the seniors Senator Alan Cranston sent out representatives to review all of California's city halls. They came to Ojai and after review, they were flabbergasted saying this is the most unique city hall in the state of California.

Sorry, I don't live in town. Another key project Jack and Jim worked on was the Ojai downtown redevelopment. This time the back of the arcade was terrible. I've seen the photos you wouldn't have wanted to go there in the daylight. There was new state legislation that allowed the city to generate a development tax which would go straight to the city coffers enabling the city to redevelop decaying areas and develop them into something in which the city would be proud to be used by the public. Take a walk today behind the arcade and you too would agree worth it Once again, strong opposition was met. Folks felt the redevelopment agency would use their power to condemn and take private property.

Jack and Jim met with anyone and everyone—groups, boards, folks on the corner—and promised they would not condemn powers. I think I've met all those people in the last year. And now we have this beautiful area for all to enjoy, I can personally relate. Another major project was the new police station. At this time the city had already voted to retire their own police and moved to the county sheriff for Ojai Police. Again fierce opposition arose with folks equally split equally. Jack noted that once folks realized that the sheriffs had more capacitive staff, their own detective, their own lab and larger holding facilities, the naysayers became supporters. Go figure! In Jack's time going east-west in the city of Ojai was a hot topic You know where we're going on this?

They solicited a solution from the public who came up with seven different solutions. They watched every one of the solutions and it became apparent that losing residential housing to the north, or parts of Libbey Park to the south was not going to work. This apparently was to be the city's part of a freeway coming from Carpentria to Santa Paula. It was a no-go.

In closing, perhaps the farthest reaching effect of a project Jack was involved in was when Jack worked with Ethel Percy Andrus, president of the National Retired Teachers Association and insurance writer Leonard Davis in putting together the American Association of Retired Persons. Yes, AARP started here in Ojai. Remember that when you see their commercial? I always point it out no matter where I'm traveling.

That started in Ojai. Jack first met Ethel in the council chambers when he was representing a client to put in a mobile home park just below Grand Avenue. He read the room and withdrew his proposal. Ethel Perciandres was one of the folks opposing this project. The next day she called Jack, and Jack became her attorney for the rest of her life. She asked Jack to meet with her and some other folks for dinner at the Ojai Valley Inn, I believe. It was six people, Ethel Perciandres, her assistant Leonard Davis who was the insurance writer, his two folks and Jack as Ethel's attorney. The rest is history. Jack got his fees. Ethel never won for money died within a state of less than $100,000 and Leonard became a very rich man.

Just remember that insurance. As he was the only one authorized to write this new insurance geared to those 55 and over. Jack's wife, Marge, was a force for her own serving in the city of Ojai. She was on the planning commission for 18 years and very involved in the tennis tournament volunteering at the museum on the grand jury and volunteered for other civic duties.

So Kathy we thank you for being here to represent your father and your family and I'll turn the time over to Mayor Sticks

Thank you for being here, Kathy to represent your family and your father. And clearly we understand how he was the oldest working lawyer in California because his resume is a mile long. That is really impressive. What a dedicated member of our community and we're so lucky. So thank you so much for being here.

I just want to thank all of you. My dad loved this city, and he would be honored and humbled to have received this award. Thank you.

And thank you, Brian, for those presentations. Really lovely. Did you want to take one more picture with them up

front? Yes. I warned

him. Did

you notice that we got the short version?

You want to come up here and we'll be able to get everybody behind. Here.

We're going to be in it too? Do you want to go in there, Brian? Yes. As soon as it gets lost. It's OK. I like that. I'm sorry if I'm sorry. Are you able to get everybody?

Let's see.

Thank you. Very inspiring. Thanks, Brian. We will move on to commission reports. Any commission reports? No commission reports. All right then we will move on to public communications and just a reminder these are items not on the agenda and because they're not on the agenda we cannot discuss them. We can agendize though for the future so we'll start with James Beck then John Drucker and then Brian Akins

Good evening, Mayor Sticks, council members, Mr. City Manager and Council. My name is James Beck, Director of Operations and Maintenance for Gold Coast Transit and proud resident of Ojai. I'm here in a couple different capacities as a resident. I want to thank the outgoing council members for their service to Ojai. It's much appreciated And then as Director of Operations and Maintenance for Gold Coast Transit, I just want to thank Councilmember Haney for his years of service on our Board of Directors.

Mr. Haney was an engaged board member. He served as our chair and vice-chair. As far as being a director of operations and maintenance he provided a lot of input on our Zero Emissions Planned for Gold Coast, we've been working with the City of Ojai as well. We appreciate your letter of support for our FTA grant we got for $12.1 million which will deliver hydrogen fuel cell buses to Ojai in the year 2025.

And just a shout out to your public works department, a great group of people. I've been working with them in conjunction we'll be filing jointly for the California Air Resources Board zero emissions plan. Randy thank you so much. You're an awesome director and we appreciate your service. Thank you James.

Thank you, James.

May I run to James just before you leave? I was going to say something later but just because he's up here. This gentleman is the driving force behind zero emissions in Ventura County and we need to applaud you for that for leading it and championing it, and being the head of Gold Coast VCTC. Any form of transportation in this community, this man, this gentleman is leading us.

Just thank you James. Thank you.

Yes, thank you. I think we have some more time.

Thank you James. Next we have John Drucker and then Brian Eakins.

Good evening, everyone. My name is John Drucker I'm an attorney here in town But you all probably know me a lot better for my giant slingshot aimed at slowing down traffic on Creek Road No way yes At any rate? I'm here tonight on behalf of myself and a sizable number of Ojai residents And I'm here to demand that mayor sticks recuse herself on closed session my item number one as well as all meetings Any meetings concerning the lawsuit filed by Simply Ojai on December 1st for the following reasons.

Ms. Sticks was the lone vote against a decision that this lawsuit seeks to overturn. Number two, in October she gave a written statement demonstrating her bias against the project before even hearing any evidence. Ms. Sticks has well-known ties to the plaintiff in that lawsuit, Simply Ojai, as evidenced by her recent campaigns for mayor being staffed by principals of Simply Ojai, Leslie Hess and Tom Francis.

Fourth, Ms. Sticks lobbied the city to intervene on behalf of Simply Ojai Mindful Citizen to obtain a state fire grant for almost $500,000. In sum, Ms. Sticks has a direct conflict of interest rendering her incapable of defending the city in this lawsuit. Furthermore we request that Ms. Sticks for future purposes disclose any and all associations with Simply Ojai Mindful Citizen. Thank you.

Thank You John next we have Brian Akins

Hello, current council and future council. I'm here both as the chair of the Historic Preservation Commission also as the president of the Ojai Valley Museum to take my last grand look at this council that we've been with from four to eight years. We were talking about when you came on in the Ojai Valley Inn and the Neff Lounge kind of started off a little rocky there but We made it up. But so I want to thank all of you and each of you for your support, especially for the museum in making that move on the budget and recognizing too that each of you were supporters of the museum even in It was only a disagreement on how it came, and I explained that to our museum board so that they understood.

That you are supporters of the community and supporters of the Ojai Valley Museum. So as president, I thank you. Ryan, I saw you were there Friday night. I just couldn't get to you. You're surrounded. Thank you. But again, thank you for your support over these years. I really appreciate that. And then as Chair of the Historic Preservation, I want to thank you for your patience.

Everything takes a lot longer during COVID and summers and elections. And on that, I want to thank you for your support from January till now for being again patient with us in trying to go out and take on a project that we felt was important to us. It has been 99.9 percent of the time a pleasure and again what you do here is Unimaginable, the amount of effort that you not only come here for sometimes very long council meetings but also on all of the other commissions that you go. Not only are a part of but also go and support. I see people at the Ojai Valley Municipal Advisory Commission or Council often there too so again thank you very much.

And for those that are coming back another fun four years Except for Betsy. We're going to make good use of the two years together, huh? Thank you.

Mayor Sticks, I'd like to make one support comment. Brian, I wanted to say I always will remember sworn in brand new council member and oh by the way we're gonna have special meetings over their Christmas holiday period with all kind of heavy hitters from all over the country to argue things in front of us that you know We were kind of on a steep, blurbing curve to get on top of. And I just want to, you know, it was, in retrospect, it was great to see the immediate dedication and concern of this community on things as important as historic preservation, right out of the chute. I'll never forget that so thank you.

Okay well you're welcome we did have a betting pool going on in the very back corner on who was gonna vote for one odds were kind of sketchy because you guys were all new so anyway thank you.

Thank You Brian Weston any public comments on Zoom?

No raised hands indicated

okay thank you very much alright we will move on to the consent calendar is there a motion to approve

Mayor, I'll have a motion to approve it. I'm going to pull H.

H. OK. I'll second. OK?

I'll move to approve consent items 1A through G. OK, all

right. Could we have all in favor? Aye. Aye? OK. All right. Randy?

Well, because of the The recount, I'd like the city attorney to speak to it and just address the audience in the community and to the best of his ability explain it. And then after that, I'm going to request a couple things from you Mayor.

All right, Mayor, Council and community members. The city understands that a recount request has been filed in the mayor's race not in the other races on the ballot. The recount is processed through the county we will get an outcome of the recount if the result changes uh the county has a statutory timeline to do so must begin within seven days of yesterday and then continue daily until the recount is completed or until the people who are the proponents of the recount do not make the daily required payment of the county's fee to continue the recount.

That does not affect tonight, however. There is no statutory basis to delay the election certification pending a recount per Elections Code section 10263 Which in part states, upon the completion of the canvas and before installing new officers, the governing body shall adopt a resolution reciting the fact that the election and other matters as enumerated. With the county certification result, the council tonight has a ministerial duty to certify the election results as submitted by the county certification with the seats as they are now.

If a recount is completed And that results in a change in the mayor's race, then the county will certify those results as new recertified results. That will then in turn come to the city through the city clerk to then come to the council, for the council to then recertify the election with that change in the mayor's race. At which point we would swear in a new mayor and if the recount is completed and there's no change in the result but the ballot, the number of votes for or against changes, then we'll do a recertification although there would not be a change in the mayor at that point.

And that's per elections code section 15632 Which states in part, in lieu of the returns as reported in the official canvas upon completion of the recount showing that a different candidate was nominated or elected. There shall be entered the result of the recount and each precinct affected which results shall for all purposes thereafter be the official returns to those precincts for the office slates are measured.

Then so that would mean that if the recount changed the result then the county, the council would seat a different mayor. Any actions however that are taken under the current council and the new council with the mayor who would then be unseated, remain valid. Under the apparent officeholder doctrine also known as the de facto office doctrine which is a judicially established rule that acts taken by public officials while in any public office sitting under color of law by election are valid if otherwise compliant with applicable law even if the official is later found to no longer hold that office C, Supreme Court case from the state Marine Forest Society versus California Coastal Commission from 2005.

The citation 36 Cal 4th 1 5455 and so the net effect thus is the council will certify the result tonight as presented by the county with the races as set in the certification documents. The recount will proceed through the county if the recount results in a change That will come back to this council to recertify, and then we will re-seat. All actions taken between now and then remain valid, and there is no statutory basis to delay or pause certification. Thank you.

Thank

you Matt.

So Mayor, this reminds me of something that occurred eight years ago. Councilman Wyrick and I were first seated, and Bill would start discussing something and take five minutes to explain to us what he was trying to achieve. And it took me about five seconds to repeat to them what just occurred. So what just occurred? The mayor is the mayor until the mayor's not the mayor.

And any decision that the mayor makes while being the mayor is. And if the mayor's replaced, then the mayor is replaced and the new mayor takes over. Thank you Ryan, Arthur, thank you Matt. So yeah, because it's interesting. There's a lot of there's so much stuff going on out there swirling around but so mayor I have a I know that there's some form of order tonight regarding how we're going to leave this dais but past councils have always taken the opportunities the ones leaving to thank the community for electing us and allowing us to be of service And to reminisce a little bit about the good things.

Some people reminisce about the bad things, I remember when Betsy Clapp left she read a five page paper and just... She was a really unhappy person that night. I don't think there's going to be any unhappy people up here. But I would like to take a couple minutes and James had some things that we had accomplished over the eight years. Councilman Wyrick has a couple of things, I have a couple of things. I'm sure Mr. Blatz has something.

So if you could indulge us for maybe it is looks like 25 to seven? Maybe give us 10 minutes if it's your call.

Sure, of course. James and I both have some nice things to say about you so what if we did that? And then you get your award and then do you want to speak after that?

I'd rather speak before because I don't want to be up there. The three amigos and the amiga, I don't want to forget our Sousa. If we just give us a couple minutes here, I think it would be great. Thank you.

Yeah let's do it now. A few minutes. All right. It'll be their call. Do you want to start?

No, I'm going to let James start. He's got a couple things that he was going to share with us.

Let's

just do us. Okay, yeah

well how about I'll start with the accomplishments we'll give the council members an opportunity to speak and then that will allow you to have your speech while handing them the plaques so let's do that okay thank you Thank You Okay, and so I just wanted to say thank you on behalf of the staff and the community to Councilmembers Blatts, Weyrich and Haney. And as we started to think about the last four years for Councilmember Blatts and eight years for Councilmember Haney and Councilmember Weyrich, we started to think about all of the things that we've done And so I wanted to thank them and highlight some of the accomplishments that have occurred during that period.

And so I'm just going to kind of start with that so Councilmember Blatt's over the last four years, we thank you for your accomplishments in which are numerous. You were a leader in the city's review of the sheriff's contract, which working with myself and Councilmember Wyrick has left us in a position where we are working positively with the Sheriff's Department moving forward.

And I think we're getting to a positive position with that project. Ryan was also critical, sorry Council Member Blatz was also critical in helping provide guidance. A lot of this is maybe behind the scenes but in particular Ryan was helpful in providing guidance when we went through our hotel tax increase which in my opinion is still one of the biggest projects that we have done in the last few years that's going to have positive impact for the city for many years moving forward Ryan actually no one probably knows this but He wrote a frequently asked questions document for that project To try to help us communicate to the public with why it was important and not do so in such government speak And I think his help was invaluable on that project Ryan also, you know I think on your gravestone it will say Ojai Flow and Ojai Water Guru.

So, I think we thank you for all your advocacy in working on all of those water-related issues and Ojai Flow. Ryan has also been a key part of several city negotiation teams and was always a valuable person willing to dedicate his time to helping us with that And then lastly, a phrase that we use in law school is issue spotting. And Ryan's the issue spotter whenever he calls me and says you got something going on here I stop what I'm doing and listen so he helps us spot issues where things maybe aren't going right or where something is going off track.

So thank you Councilmember Blatz for your hard work for the community over the last four years. And so do we want to just start with that and then?

Can I jump in? Sure. Thank you, Ryan for your four years of service. I have really learned a lot from you. You're very skilled at boiling down topics to their cores and synthesizing a lot of information in short order. So I guess that's the issue spotting. This skill has been so helpful to the city and to the council. Your love for your hometown is evident, it's really beautiful and you're really funny which is always a plus.

Well thank you first of all it's been a pleasure to work with all of you. My family's had a spot up here for a long time, and there's not gonna be a blast on the city council anymore so somebody can be happy about that. The, I, you know it's funny I. I feel like I'm on year 16 in a row working for the city. Before I was on the City Council, I was an attorney for the city on water-related issues.

Before I worked with Bill, Randy and Sousa, I was actually meeting with them in closed session regarding water issues back before I was even on the council. And it's really been a pleasure. I'm very thankful for the opportunity to make a difference in my hometown. I hope I can continue to do that. It's been a long, long... You know, I've spent my entire pretty much post-college adult life involved directly with issues in front of the city and it's meant a lot to me being able to do it. I especially want to thank James.

James is a huge reason why this city works. I know that's a weird term, but you have no idea how complicated things are that you don't see. Watching council meetings is just seeing the tip of the tip of the iceberg. The rest of the gears that are grinding away on a day-to-day basis. It has truly been a pleasure to work with you, James. I've really enjoyed it. I think the city's in the best spot it's been from its staff standpoint in a long time, and a lot of that has to do with his leadership. And I really appreciate that. Matt, same to you. I really appreciate working with you. You're a fantastic attorney. It's been really wonderful working with you. And to my fellow council members, I've known a lot of you for a long, long time. Bill Randy, I've known and worked with from the Ohio Flow Days.

And Sousa ran against my dad when I was in high school. For City Council believe it or not back. I want to say in 98 ish right around there Maybe ninety eight two thousand something like that. I remember being in a picture in the newspaper Wearing a t-shirt going what is this for? And he ended up losing the Sousa so It was a long time ago And Mayor Betsy, congratulations on winning and it's been a pleasure to work with you. And I look forward to seeing what you're going to do the next two years and thank you for everything that you've brought to us. So it's really been an honor and I want to not lastly yet but I want to thank the public. I really appreciate all the input, all the people I've gotten to meet, all the different things I've been involved in.

It's also been a pleasure especially and I know Matt LeVere is here our supervisor from the county Today we had my last air pollution control district meeting. That is something that the city has to agree to kind of have you be a representative, and then you still have to go to another board to have them offer that to you. It's been a real pleasure being able to represent the City of Ojai as far as I know the first council member from Ojai to represent our city on the Air Pollution Control District Board so that's been a real pleasure Along with stints on VCOG and SCAG and all these other things that we do that a lot of you don't know about, but it's been a real pleasure to get an opportunity to do that. And then lastly, congratulations to the new council members!

You guys...you know? It is... You end up having to jump in with both feet, running full speed. They don't brief you on a lot of stuff. I remember coming in my first meeting and going, what? What? I have no idea. And I was like, wow, you know, I really actually kind of know more. I was happy. I knew more about it from listening to my dad and being involved in stuff than I thought. But don't be afraid to ask questions. Remember that no matter how weird it feels at, you know, do what you gotta do. Rely on James, learn to meet the staff now that COVID's over every once in awhile come to the building walk through say hi to everybody. It'll help you get your feet underneath ya and meet everybody And you got to remember that this is just the board, the organization's much bigger and the whole organization that is us is really the city of Ojai.

So get out there and talk to people. That's one of the best ways to be a better council person but I really thank you for the opportunity. Thank you for working with all of you and it's been my pleasure and I hope to see y'all around.

For Councilmember Wyrick over the last eight years, again for I should take a step back. For all three council members one of the things I always have to remind them is they're not supposed to be full-time council members but they've worked full time with full effort so Councilmember Wyrick over the last eight years It has helped or has provided leadership on many projects including streamlining and reducing the costs of the city's second unit compliance program, which helps residents legalize second units. He's also provided leadership for pushing the city's accessory dwelling units beyond the state requirements including last year or maybe it was the year before now adopting our tiny home program And those projects directly are trying to provide more housing options to our residents.

Councilmember Weirich also was a key part of lifting the suspension on the enforcement of short-term rentals within the City of Ojai. Provided leadership on installation of several traffic calming measures. Advocated with Councilmember Haney for the reopening of the Ojai Valley Organics Collection site at Baldwin Road, which we are hearing is moving forward and we should be hearing about shortly.

He also led the effort to partner with the county on Sewell Park, to enhance our parks and recreation programming and improve access to that facility. He was also part of the leadership team that helped the city exercise its standing in the City of Ventura water lawsuit, and to help advance the overall Ojai Valley's interests in that matter. He also initiated the hotel tax audits and sales tax audits for the cities, both of which have resulted in positive fiscal returns for the city.

He backed and participated in improvements to Ojai's public arts ordinances and procedures, led the effort to destigmatize and rationalize cannabis dispensary and manufacturing options And one that I always kind of get a kick out is he led the effort to adopt the beekeeping ordinance in the city. So, that shows just the breadth of topics that Councilmember Wyrick worked on.

Many of these examples also led to changes across the county, across the unincorporated area and other cities and helped us serve as leaders for the community on several of these projects. Thank you again on behalf of the community and the staff, Council Member Weirich for your hard work.

Thank you. Thanks James. Thank you Bill for your eight years of service clearly you're an extremely hard-working person and inspiring about that. You possess an amazing ability to research the details of a topic and this skill has so often helped the city and City Council make tough and necessary decisions You know more acronyms than any other human being that I have ever come across. I don't know how you do it, but that's pretty amazing so thank you very much for your dedication and service.

Thank you. What an honor to serve in this position of a City Council person for eight years. And what a pleasure, you know through all of the difference of opinions which we know is a very proud tradition in Ojai to have And the passion behind these disagreements or differences of opinion is because of how much this citizenry cares. How much we are so invested in the character of this valley, it needs to be protected and continued and managed into the future.

So it's been an incredible honor. I want to say there's three areas that I think are so important, that I think they organized a lot of our efforts. One is that we are blessed with the staff that accepts and embraces what I would call active oversight on the part of the City Council. A partnership we have in this culture and our community, in our governance culture that is actually fairly rare.

You see a lot of councils that really don't have the active inquiring mind that all of us have and they have a staff that doesn't resist that, that actually embraces that. It's just wonderful. And James and Matthew are real treasures. I'm so happy they're with us, and I hope we keep them happy to continue because it really is a great governance culture. So that active oversight part of our governance culture is really valuable One of the anecdotes that I want to share real quickly is that if you go around to other council meetings and they say, well how many people show up at your council meetings? Cities that are ten times the size of ours. Bigger. And oh we might get three or four people.

You know, we get a level of citizenry engagement that's nowhere else in Ventura County. It's really wonderful. The other thing I think it's important to keep in mind, and the city manager James touched on it is advocating for the whole valley. The structure of the Ventura County recognizing each municipality within a larger area around it to be an advocate in different levels for the character of the valley.