City Council — 2023-05-09

Call to order

we have a quorum may we have the roll call please Weston.

Yes thank you Mayor. Please join me in standing right hand over your heart ready begin.

commission report from Brian Aikens Chair of the HPC historic preservation

That's us Commission. Thank you mayor. Thank you all I just wanted my report is that tonight? I think it's item number I in the consent calendar councilmember Whitman has recommended Craig Walker to Become our fifth member to the Historic Preservation Commission. I have my wholehearted endorsement with Craig, I've been around long enough that I was on the commission with him when he was on it prior and then he had to drop off for Certain certain reasons and I think I have offered called him every time there was a vacancy that happened since then And so I'm happy happy that he's being recommended tonight. And again, I give him my full endorsement Would be happy to work with them again. Thank you very much

Thank You Brian

** I don't think we

voted to approve the agenda.

** Oops, sorry. Okay good. And a second? **

I'll second the motion. ** All in favor? **

Aye. ** Thank you James. We will move on to public communication and just a reminder these are items not on the agenda and because they're not on the agenda we cannot discuss them. We appreciate your viewpoint and we can agendize them for the future. Just a reminder that public comments are three minutes You'll hear a chime and in the spirit of equity, please stop talking when the chime ends There's no giving away time to another speaker. And if you're an agreement with the previous speaker just please say ditto So we will begin with Ron from the live with our library report then we have Bill Miley and then Chris I think it says Chris Ines

All right Thank you members of council. My name is Ron Solorzano, I am the regional librarian for the Ojai Valley and I just wanted to come here tonight to give you a general update on our programming over at the Ojai Library. And I want to start by saying that this year's summer reading program is going to begin on Monday May 15th. The year's theme is Find Your Voice And this is a time when readers of all ages are going to be able to participate in this program by logging their reading time online. You can get started on our website and there's some links that will be active as of May 15th for that.

We're gonna have some programs throughout the summer, a kickoff event, a closing event and then in addition For those who enter the time they're reading, they'll be entered to win some prizes, fun prizes throughout. Children and minors are going to be logging the number of minutes they read whereas adults are gonna re-log the number of books that they read and yeah go to our website for more info on that and the program runs through August 4th is when it concludes I also want to mention a special event coming up at the library this weekend. At 2 p.m. on Saturday, May 13th local author Leslie Rinchen Wongmo is going to visit the Ojai Library to talk about her new book which is titled Threads of Awakening an American Woman's Journey into Tibet's Sacred Textile Art.

For 500 years Tibetans have created stitched fabric artwork of sacred images And Leslie will share her experience with this ancient needlework tradition and the Buddhist values embodied in it. She is a textile artist, a teacher and an author whose artwork has been exhibited internationally. Also at the following week, 2 p.m., on Friday, May 19th, staff from the Alzheimer's Association will visit the Ojai Library to deliver a presentation titled Healthy Living for Your Brain and Body.

So you can come to the library to hear about research in the areas of diet and nutrition, exercise, cognitive activity, and social engagement, and to learn about some hands-on tools to help you incorporate these recommendations into a plan for healthy living. All of these events are happening in addition to our usual offerings which include story times, ukulele jam sessions, fiber art classes, our after school homework center, book discussion groups and more. You can visit our website again www.vencolibrary.org for more information on everything we have going on and that's all I have for now thank you so much.

Thank you Ron.

Ron are you aware that our mayor is going to read to the kids tomorrow?

Yeah, tomorrow. Gosh that'll be 1030 at the Ojai Library and yeah special guest. We're excited to have you. Thank you.

Next we have Bill Miley then Chris Inas and then Ruth Miller.

Good evening. The theme is a quick look at our homeless problem, the countywide program which is called Continuum of Care System. A rental assistant program is the principal element of helping folks who fit into the continuum of care program who are likely to be unhoused or unhoused and homeless. Through the Continuum of Care program, folks in the Illini Valley can get some help depending on funding.

Rental assistance is a formal term in the state placed within the continuum of care system and coordinated by the County of Ventura and other counties in California. Many know it involves assisting individuals, households and families with limited and vanishing incomes to stay in their homes or residences as long as possible through the Rental Assistance Program. A caseworker establishes by working with a vulnerable individual household or family the risk of losing their residence.

The person must be able to participate willingly and cooperatively otherwise the caseworker can't do that Once the housing habitat is lost, folks become very vulnerable to unmanaged forces which can damage and bring increasingly dis-health to those involved. Such folks then become much more difficult to find and establish a working contact with them. Intervention to help get rehoused now involves much more focused work.

Short-term funding to prevent shelter loss can be prevented if caught before the housing is lost. In the 50s, 60s and 70s one income wage earner could generate enough income to provide a house and support for a family with children. We did that. Not now. Once the residence is lost, the situation becomes chronic especially with limited or no rental vacancies.

In summary our family shelter program in the winter certainly helps. The main organization trying to help with a homeless unhoused who are about to lose their homes is the Help of Ojai on a very small budget. Currently they have $10,000 in a grant from the Ojai Women's Fund. The need is great. The budget is very small. More funding is crucial.

Thank you Bill. Next we have Chris Ines then Ruth Miller and then Carolyn Goldwasser.

Good evening, council members of the community. My name is Chris and this is my friend Daniel. He's autistic and he's written a speech for you

Hi, my name is Daniel. I live on 510 Drown Avenue. I do not like when people speed on my street. They speed all the time and we need speed bumps on my street so people can slow down. We cannot base out of Back out. Out of our driveway because of speed or someone almost hit us and he will help me put speed bumps on my street so I can play safely on my street, thank you. Anything else?

2 minutes. No

Thank you, Daniel. Thank you Chris

Mayor I could probably just know related to that item so we did install the Humps that we were Testing it's the first time we've done something like that. We're testing them out on drown I'm thinking what one thing we can do coming up We can do sort of a report back after a few months and see how they're working and see Sort of what the thoughts are for next steps

If I could comment on that too and Daniel, I would just invite you to right north of Grand. Is he out there? Is he right there? Okay great Just north just north of grand We have a test test speed humps And and so I invite you to see what those let feel like and see what those look like and we are doing a study and I met with the group the slowdown drown group and Last Saturday, and they're noticing a positive difference even though they agree with you that it could be better. So cool

Thank you Thanks Next we have Ruth Miller then Carolyn Goldwasser and then David Wyand

Hi, thank you for letting me be here tonight. My name is Ruth Miller I'm a part of a team of Ojai Valley residents with the purpose of improving the lives of the Ojai homeless and ultimately through collaboration and cooperation efforts create a year-round homeless shelter We see a need for truly low-cost housing, income based rentals and a year round supportive transitional shelter which could be a central point in providing services to the homeless in Ojai.

According to Jane Walters, Executive Director of Help with Ojai, Ojai's largest homeless population is working mothers with their children living in cars and couch surfing. Ojai is also seeing more elderly displaced because of raising rents, most of whom are living in cars. Most of the homeless in the Ojai Valley became homeless while living in the Ojai Valley.

These are our neighbors and I printed out some Posts from the Ojai Housing Facebook. Good morning, this is not an easy post to write but I am in immediate need. I've been living in the Ojai Valley for eight years in the same apartment for seven years. I've never been late on my rant. I have raving reviews from my landlord. I urgently need a place to call home.

Still looking for a place to stay, anything. Can also do some remodeling et cetera if needed. Semi-retired contractor. Hello Ojai we just got our 60 day notice from our landlords who have decided to sell my husband and I will need a new place to call home by June 1st or sooner. We currently pay twenty two hundred a month which is about as high as we can go Still looking for a two bedroom house for rent. Been looking for awhile now, for myself my husband and our four year old son we have two small dogs. We've been at the same place in downtown Ojai for eight years. The landlord raised the rent and we can't really afford it anymore.

I unexpectedly need to leave my apartment by the end of this month. My landlord needs a space for family. I'm in my late 30s, I have two senior dogs that are well behaved and housebroken. They sleep most of the time. I have now joined the many residents of Ojai that are being displaced. My landlords are turning my home into two rental properties, open to any rentals in the valley. I have a 30-pound Queensland healer that goes to work with me.

We think that Ojai needs to be, excuse me. We think there needs to be a coordinated partnership between the city county help of Ojai, the Ojai Valley's family shelter service organizations and churches. Our team is energized willing to do whatever is needed we just want you to know we're here and we're looking forward to working with you.

Thank

You Ruth. One more came out Sunday I have lived in Ojai for most of my life and am homeless for the first time ever. I need to find a room for rent please in Jesus almighty name Amen. She went to Nordoff High School and she's 64 years old.

Thank you,

Ruth. I think it would be good to mention that we're meeting next week with Kay Wilson Bolton who's president of Spirit of Santa Paula. She's agreed to meet with a core group of Ojai homeless advocates to give us a better understanding of the opportunities and obstacles in working toward a year-round homeless shelter I just want to express my great gratitude for Ruth. She's been, I think working on this for about three weeks now full time. I had to find...I can't do it. I've got too many things on my plate but she you know it's always risky teaming up with someone because you never know if they're going to drop the ball and you've wasted all these hours on the phone But Ruth, God bless you. You're not dropping the ball. You're going full speed ahead and I'm very grateful.

Thank

you a lot of help. And I appreciate all the people who are here and some of you guys in the community in general. It's been really, really gratifying. Thank you. Thank you

much. Appreciate it. Thank you, Ruth. Next we have Carolyn Goldwasser then David Wyand and then Carl Hindman.

Hello, thank you. My name is Carole Engel Blosser and I live in Ojai and I am here to speak mainly regarding the homeless housing issue And I'm glad to be part of that team with Ruth and Susa and help of Ojai and Whole person care in Ventura and many other My specific focus on what I want to say is that many of the people that I have personally talked to who are homeless or nearly homeless, like some of the things that Ruth just read from Facebook, Thank you very much.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. without getting tickets for doing that. That's great, a good step for many people but for some people especially maybe elderly women who've just been in the hospital or something like that may not be the best choice. The ability for people in Ventura like case managers from Whole Person Care to connect with a homeless person that kind of wanders around and stays in the library half the day, and maybe sits at the park for part of the day. It's hard for them to connect with someone for an appointment even though they say I'm going to be here next Tuesday at 1030 The previous Wednesday or whatever, the person may not remember. They may not get there. They don't have a phone or whatever. So it's a difficult job that these people have who are trying very hard to help homeless people and quite successfully in many cases but the cost of having someone in and out of hospitals of course is borne mainly by Medical insurance is of one sort or another, probably Medicare, Medi-Cal, whatever.

It's not borne by the city but it is where people end up if they are in too bad a shape from sleeping on the ground or being cold or being wet or being hungry or whatever. And I would suggest that maybe having a small boarding house or two in town might be helpful, especially for some widows with small pensions who would like to continue to live here. Who can't? Who are some of them on the list that she read and maybe some other kind of concern for people who may need some kind of supportive care. Some people don't need supportive care, they just need a place to live.

So thank you very much and I appreciate being able to be here.

Thank you Carolyn. Next we have David Wyand and then Carl Hindman and then Leah Hindman.

Good evening everybody. I'm here to speak on the homeless issue as well. Last time that I spoke, I spoke about the gazebo being you know people in the gazebo and it being too close to the playground Since we have got the people moved out with the help of the sheriffs. The last survivor there was a 70 year old woman, she's deaf, she's in a wheelchair. Ruth very generous person got her a tent that she could stay in and we helped remove all of her stuff.

I'm looking forward to being a part of anything. Yeah, I'll do any research that you want me to do on helping the homeless. A tiny home village, I've been researching prices on tough sheds and different pallet homes and stuff like that. And I'm just wanting to help the homeless. So I was homeless at one point I've recovered from, I'm recovering from alcoholism and drug addiction. And I'm glad to say that last Wednesday during the planning commission, I had a chance to walk out and talk to one of the homeless gentlemen out here that was in real bad shape.

And I saw him on Friday and he said because of the talk that I had with him He contacted his family and he went to treatment Monday for three months, nine months, something like that. I'm just here to say that I'm here to help in any way.

Thank you. Thank You David Next we have Carl Hindman then Leah Hindman and then Jeffrey Starkweather

Wow, that was good. I was going to talk a little bit about that but I'm going to follow up on two weeks ago and I'm going to focus on shoplifting and the demise of the retail in this state and the erosion of the rule of law I used to live in San Francisco. So I see what's going on up there and I noticed last night or two nights ago former councilwoman Angela Alioto said that it's unlivable and I My concern is that it will spread and we have a great great city here, but it's inevitable It's happening Shoplifting is happening in Oxnard and they're starting to lock up the drug stores.

So I think we probably should be looking into some plans of how we're going to deal with this. Since I was here two weeks ago, we had noticed that Nordstrom, two Nordstrom stores are closing in San Francisco and one Nordstrom Rack. So this means in the last couple of months there were 17 closures in and around Union Square. The stated reasons for closures are Operating losses, shrinkage through theft and they cannot guarantee the security of their employees and patrons.

These are some of the companies Office Depot, Disney, Marshalls, H&M, Crate & Barrel, Abercrombie & Fitch, Whole Foods just three weeks ago, Banana Republic, Amazon Go, Anthropologie, And that's the total of 17. I don't know if anybody's been there but these these stores are boarded up I Think it's it's appropriate that we do look at this. I think there are solutions. I think we need a plan Some of the things I think we could do is just raise awareness in Ojai We can Ella we could always elevate shoplifting to agenda items and the City Council We can let the world know that Ojai does not tolerate shoplifting and we will enforce the laws which do allow up to six months.

of jail time and a fine of up to $1,000. They are now misdemeanors they're no longer felonies so they're not pursuing him in San Francisco you know they don't have a large enough police force again I think a lot of some symbolic efforts we take here would really help I mean we could have a 5-0 vote condemning shoplifting is making a statement that it's not welcome here We can do a lot of little things right now before it increases. And I don't know if any of you have been around the state, but it's atrocious.

L.A., San Francisco, Sacramento, San Diego and of course if you want to go to Portland try that one. There are more stores closing there than anywhere else. These stores tend to be... this is not a victimless crime.

Thank you, Carl. Next we have Leah Hindman, then Jeffrey Starkweather and then Klaus-Peter Fleischmann.

Hi I'm Lee Hindman. So I trust you'll hear what I have to say tonight, and hearing is more important than listening. We're all blessed to live in this paradise valley and in our town of Ojai. And so here we're all connected in a sort of family way. A big dysfunctional family actually. Some have gifts, all have flaws and shortcomings. This meeting is like we're all sitting at a big dinner table with the extended family overflow in the back of the room and we argue and we disagree and we're self-righteous and it gets messy.

And at the core of each of our desires is to express what we believe is the best for Ojai. The voices here tonight are of many who care enough to stand up for the good of our family. You all sitting at the head of the table have the responsibility to represent us and weigh carefully all issues placed before you. You are not granted our power You are granted the position to hear our voices.

We in the back of the room, we hold the power. There's one council member I want you to carefully think about tonight and that is Leslie Rule. The lawsuit thrust upon her is ultimately your responsibility. You all created this. You are to treat her as your family. You are to support her, as you would any other member of this council. So step up, cover the costs of her defense should this frivolous lawsuit proceed or better yet use your back channel contacts to stop this. It's a waste of our time and resources. We have things to solve like homelessness.

Betsy I think you're responsible for much of the shenanigans that have occurred in this council over the past bunch of months. I used to not be involved until I started hearing stuff. If you step down, you'll spare yourself a very unpleasant year because the numbers are ticking up and they are showing that the tide has turned against you. I don't know if you see it but everybody else does so please do not underestimate the power of this large family.

We're just getting started. Thank you.

Thank you, Lee. Next we have Jeffrey Starkweather and then Klaus Peter Fleischman and then Renee Roth

Mayor City Council staff public I want to just kind of follow up on that in some way but in a different different vein. I think we need to start working on stop inviting lawsuits and trying to avoid them An example we're going to have tonight is the housing element issue. We received a letter on February 13th From HCD saying we're not in compliance raising some issues about the Becker properties of Cabrillo parts. My question is why didn't we act on it then?

Then we get a letter from California's for homeownership and March 29th, and they're gonna sue us on May 29th I think it is if we don't get our housing element under control Why didn't we act on it then now we're talking about getting consultants to start working on it We'd have done it then I think we would be less likely to be sued. Another factor here is mentioned about homelessness, we have continually put in under the anti-displacement section of our housing action plan funding help of Ojai's rental assistance program. It is much better to prevent homelessness which is their goal than to have to ameliorate it.

If we don't want to be sued, we should be funding them. The other one is the Reach Code. We know that Berkeley's which is very similar to ours had to do with pumping in gas into buildings and how that violated federal law. I won't get into details of that but it seems like we could be vulnerable to a lawsuit as well but we could solve that problem pretty easily.

The organization that would sue, that would only have standing to sue deals with commercial kitchens. So if we eliminated that requirement on future commercial kitchens, current ones we've exempted, they couldn't sue us because they'd have no standing to sue. Secondly, we could do like the state of New York's doing and just require energy hookups or we can do incentives And third has to do with what was just talked about, this dispute going on about the closed door meetings and suits going back and forth and people complaining to the DA and all that sort of stuff. We're wasting in my opinion a lot of time on that and we could solve that problem really easily to waive the privilege on what happened in those closed door meetings and to implement what the DA asks us to do, which is to tape record our meetings in the future.

That, you know, whoever is at fault or not at fault, that would be past us once that's done and we can start actually working on projects. But are we going to spend the next several months fighting that issue? Let's get it over with. Thank you.

Jeffrey, I have a question. I'm sorry, Mayor. Are you suggesting that we basically own what happened in those closed sessions publicly?

Yeah, let chips fall where they may. That's what I'm suggesting.

Okay, thank you.

And just to confirm we council decided to have a memo produced correct unit

Yeah, council requests the production of a memo regarding the various allegations for product violations etc and Council also requested a workshop to be held on public transparency which is currently scheduled for May 22nd

Great. Thank you Matt. Okay now next we have Klaus Peter Fleischman then Renee Roth and then Clifford Hill

Hello. A lot of hardworking people in front of me here, a lot of reading, a lot of agony again. I don't envy you but I have something that I hope can unite, I hope can unite people and that's if you remember from last time when I was here my topic is safety, safety for pedestrians, safety for bicyclists For people with limited mobility, I think we have way too much traffic on the weekends and people are speeding a lot.

That young boy that was here is one of my neighbors and it's really dangerous at certain times I spent a couple of hours actually going into Rachel Lang's neighborhood and I talked to almost all the people about the speed bumps. They work, we don't need, James, we don't need month. It's already established they work. They're wimpy. People go over them. They avoid them because they're not the real speed bumps but they are better than nothing and a lot of people would like to have them to have safer neighborhoods And I asked you to do some soul searching. What can each one of you do to make a difference in terms of safety?

So, in that sense, I think that would be a beginning and then stop signs. I ride a bike everywhere. I have to stop for the roads. It should be the other way around. The bicycle lane should be the right-of-way and the car should stop first. Things like that would make a difference. So I'll keep coming back and feed you ideas. I think safety is something we should all be able to work together on, there shouldn't be a dispute about it.

Okay thank you.

Thank you

class I just wanted to thank you for your comment and also to let you know that when I spoke with the slow down drown group They had amazing suggestions for ways that we can improve safety So I will be following up on I have my I have a whole list of marching orders here. So this is something I really am concerned about and I feel like I'm not alone so Next

we have Renee Roth and Clifford Hill

Good evening members of the council and staff I'm here tonight to kind of talk about overlapping issues One of them is just to reiterate what has already been spoken about We are facing a housing crisis of proportions that I didn't even know were possible. We've had people come up here and talk about having their children, being afraid for their children if they go and play in the park behind City Hall.

because of the homeless population that is there. We've had people come and talk about how they're concerned about the people who are living in their tents behind City Hall, where do they go to the bathroom? Where do they get showers? Where do they put their stuff? How do they get the help they need? I've been doing some research And thankfully, I've gotten some information about this MOU that Matt Levere mentioned and I mentioned it at the last City Council meeting. I mean at the last Planning Commission meeting and Rachel Ling was there and I was appreciative that she was there.

I was made aware of this MOU that the City Council has actually approved and Mayor Betsy Sticks has actually signed. And in that MOU it was passed as a consent item, 33 pages long consent item and it talks about the responsibilities of collaboration and cooperation with Ventura County And their continuum of care. So you've already signed on to it, I was happy to see that, I was happy to read that and James put that on the agenda as a consent item way to go James but does anybody know about it? Does anybody look at it? Is it even acknowledged to exist and in that continuum of care it does say That the city has a responsibility to do certain things in that continuum of care. One of them is to commit to actively participate with the Ventura County Continuum of Care, Another is to develop a crisis response system which includes emergency housing resources for those who present as homeless in their jurisdiction.

The third item, pursue permanent housing units across the continuum of care including transitional, permanent supportive and extremely affordable as enumerated in their housing element of their jurisdiction, of their general plan. So I'm bringing this to your attention because you've signed it. You've put it into law. It is part of what should be the city has a responsibility to provide. Right now, I don't see it in the budget. I don't see a staff person providing those services. The only people I know who are doing it are Help of Ojai. Bless them. Thank you Renee, but I would like to see the city step up and do more I would like to see items in the budget for staff and responsibilities To join and cooperate in meeting our housing needs Thank

You

Renee

and just to clarify for the public the continuum of care receives Funding from the state and the federal government and and they fund help of Ojai So that's how we end up getting it James. You want to

clarify? That's what I just wanted to explain as well so Ventura County, because all the cities are relatively small compared to maybe like a county in a city situation like L.A., almost every city in the county I think except for maybe Oxnard has joined the continuum of care with the idea that it's a regional approach to address homelessness because the reality is that Most of those cities are too small to solve it on their own and don't get funding to solve it on their own. The city does not receive funding, and you know, it's not unusual for a city the size of Ojai, and there are cities like Port Hueneme, Ventura, Santa Paula, Simi Valley that have also signed onto this for that regional approach.

By the city signing on to this MOU, that is what allows Help of Ojai to get funding. So that is how we are helping do our part but I think I'd be careful maybe to sort of caution everybody about the narrative that the city should be funding that. That's not the way it's been set up. The city could always choose to go above and beyond but we are doing our part by meeting all the requirements of the MOU and allowing The agencies in our area to then also be part of that process. So

Thank You James next we have Clifford Hill

I want to talk about being disabled in Ojai and Public restrooms here basically pretty good The public restrooms on the backside of the arcade are in dire need of push buttons, as is the front door of The Duchess which is otherwise a very handicap-friendly restaurant. Rains is a very handicap-friendly store. Bonnie Lou's wish it could be handicap friendly but they'd have to tear down half the building and put in the right bathroom so I guess y'all letting her go for that The push button on the crosswalk at Blanche and Ojai Avenue on south side of the street is beyond my reach.

It's supposed to be flush with the curb, it's not supposed to be 18 inches back from the curb. The Ojai Valley Trail, the signal of Ojai, the place that it is. You walk out the front gate of the Ojai Valley Inn What's the minimum room right now at the Ojai Valley Inn? Six bills a

night?

And in the first 300 feet that guest walks toward town, oh there's about 100 feet of cracked up pavement and shit that they could break an ankle on or whatever. And as you proceed on down the trail between Signal and Ventura it's If you're not paying attention, you're going to trip and fall especially if you're old or whatever. Heading further west the stretch through the park is pretty damn nice and the next stretch down towards Fox is very nice.

But once you get to Fox, there's a culvert at the bottom of the grave when you go down. The surface getting to the bridge over the culvert on both sides is garbage. It's dirt, it's irregular. I've almost tipped there a couple times. Proceeding east on the Ojai Valley Trail just before you get to Bryant, I believe, There's about 25, 30 feet of busted up stuff that's all painted with yellow stripes and stuff.

None of this stuff is expensive to fix. I don't understand. And especially that stretch outside of the Ojai Valley Inn. You got these long dollar people coming here, you want them to spend money? Oh remember they're gonna sue the city because they tripped on the crosswalk. What else can I say? We've got 10 seconds. Ojai is the most beautiful place I have ever lived in my entire life, and I've been...

Thank you Clifford. Any comments online? Weston?

Yes Mayor we have one raised hand. Becky? Becky you have the floor.

Thank You Weston can you hear me?

Yes, go ahead.

Thank you. In response to the woman who wants to defend Leslie Rule and seeks to point the finger of blame at Mayor Sticks, the lawsuit by citizens to protest Leslie Rules potential violation of the Brown Act is not frivolous and it needs to be heard in the court of law rather than in the court of public opinion such as the Ojai Valley News social media and city council meetings.

Contrary to the previous speaker's assertions, the majority of citizens do not support Ms. Rules' unruly, uncivil and possibly unlawful behavior. She may have put the city and taxpayers at risk, and if she has she needs to be held accountable. She is not the hero she and others want to paint her to be. The city and taxpayers may in fact, be her victims. It is inappropriate for the city to agree to pay for her legal expenses before the matter has been adjudicated in the courts.

If she has broken the law, paying her legal bills is akin to asking an assault victim to pay for the legal expenses of her perpetrator. I look forward to the Brown Act workshop on May 22nd and hope everyone will attend. I also look forward to the matter of rules alleged violation of the Brown Act being heard in the courts rather than allowing her and others to manipulate minds in the court of public opinion. Thank you.

Thank

you, Becky. Anything else, Weston? No

more, Mayor.

Okay, we will move on to the consent calendar. I have several public comments on the consent calendar. Anything like to be pulled?

I'd like to pull H but can we see, can we pull all the items that there's

a comment on? Yeah, we have comments on B, G, H and I.

So shall we approve?

Yeah.

I

would

like to pull B.

OK all right we just OK so we're going to pull B, G, H, I and H and take public comment on those. B,

D, B,G,H,I.

All right. We'll begin with item number B. We have Larry Steingold Item B is the city of Ojai warrants.

Regarding the invoice for legal fees for Mr. Summers law firm, is it possible to see the breakdown of the invoices? To see which one is for each one for which legal issue. Is it for simply Ojai lawsuit? Is it for the closed session? Is it for a lawsuit on daily, whatever they're forth because they're broken down obviously the $30,000 is broken down something something something something It's not just a blanket invoice I'm assuming because most law firms are 11 and a half minutes or whatever they do here based on that. So if that's possible, or do I have to go to a public records request to see what invoices make up the 30 grand every month versus what they're applied to? Such as the things that we're being sued for, all these activities. Who do we blame for all the legal bills Because he's defending and he's also Helping you people avoid issues and write laws and do all these things.

And that's great because that's So is it possible to do that or how do we do that?

Yeah, mr. City Attorney, do you want to comment on that I

So the bills in full are available to the council without redaction in full. As to the members of the public, the council could direct by majority vote providing an item-by-item summary X thousand of this lawsuit, x thousand of that lawsuit. The full bill is attorney-con privilege because they detail slip by slip what I do for the council and my colleagues.

The Public Records Act request can also be filed but note that again that will redact off anything that's privileged which includes for a lawsuit that is pending under existing Supreme Court case law the amount of money spent on the lawsuit is privileged and protected because it would reveal strategy. A high bill in one month before a big deadline reveals to the plaintiff or the opposing party what may be coming.