UnGovr Transcript
iHow this transcript is madeUnGovr transcribes the official recording with automated speech-to-text, separates speakers by voice, and matches voices to the seated roster. Names and attributions are AI estimates and may contain errors.Verify any quote yourself: click anywhere in the transcript and the official video jumps to that exact moment, so you can check any quote against the recording.Scheduled start 6:00 PM · clock-time estimates pending review
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Everyone, a call to order. We have a quorum. Could we please have the roll call? Weston.
Roll call — called by Weston Montgomery
Show transcript
Thank you, Weston and welcome everyone to the May 23rd 2023 meeting of the Ojai City Council. James will you please say the pledge for us tonight?
Yes. Thank you, Mayor. Please join me in standing right hand over your heart. Ready to begin?
Agenda Discussionitems moved / continued / pulled — click to expand
A motion to approve the agenda.
Move to approve. I'll second the motion
Okay, all in favor? Aye. Okay great. Could I make a request for quiet in the audience we've begun so if you could stop any ambient noise because it's really hard to hear up here when people are talking in the audience appreciate that and before we begin I just want to say a big congratulations I'm gonna embarrass you Weston to our beloved city clerk can I make an announcement It's too late now.
Don't do it.
He's
already red. I know. Go ahead, I didn't call for this. Weston is getting married on Saturday. Thank you. We're just really happy for you, Weston and we're just so lucky to have you here and you're such a great member of the staff and so supportive and helpful and so thank you. Thank you
very
much. And I'm sorry, I'm sorry for embarrassing me. I
bless
you easily.
You
gave me a look like
don't do it! Very happy to be the interim deputy city clerk.
All right, well we do have a presentation tonight exciting one. A video preview of the new City of Ojai website so take it away James okay
thank you and we'll keep it brief I know we have a long meeting so we have a one minute video that James Han's gonna pull up uh we announced a couple meetings ago that we were launching our new website. I would say where we definitely were in a test period and I think we probably still have a couple more weeks of testing We're getting emails on occasion of people saying that things that used to be somewhere aren't there and trying to figure those things out. But overall, I think response has been pretty positive. I think it's definitely easier to read and just kind of more aesthetically pleasing. And I do think easier to use once we get used to it. And so with that, Kiara our events and public information coordinator has put together a one minute video.
And I will let her speak for it. So take it away James.
Hopefully it works. Let's explore the homepage. Use the tabs at the top of the home page to navigate the website. You can also use the search bar to find what you're looking for.
The
icons can help you access some of the city's most visited webpages and subsites, like ohirec.com and ohitrolley.com Get the latest City news and stay up-to-date on upcoming meetings and special events right on the homepage At the bottom of the homepage, you'll find the City's contact information and some additional important links. Check out our new website! Visit ohi.ca.gov
Okay, that's it. We've kept it short and sweet. But a couple points in there that I think are important. We used to have different websites that all look different like the REC page, the Trolley page, the Arts Commission page We've pulled those together under one kind of canopy, and so now they look alike and they're easy to use and easy to find. And then the events calendar at the bottom is very cool. I actually didn't even know until it launched It has our city meetings and things, but it also has a button for special events. And it's pretty populated with special events in town so it's definitely worth checking out. So we just wanted to announce that and remind everybody to get on and check it out and test it out. So thank you.
Thank you James
beautiful
work. Thank You Kiara much appreciated really wonderful update looks nice photos too yeah Yeah, all right. We will move on to
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Commission reports We have two one from Brian Aikens the Historic Preservation Commission and one from Valerie Freeman for the Arts Commission Take it away Brian. Thank you I
So this commissioner report's just a little bit tough to do. About 10 years ago, my good buddy David Mason was the museum rep on the Historic Preservation Commission. He always had great stories so I came and sat right there. With him were people like... With David were people like Patricia Clark Dorner Rose Boggs, Terry Hill and we even had Craig Walker who we finally got back on here.
I want to just mention that Terry received the HPC annual award in 2007 and then 2018 he received the lifetime achievement award There'll be more on Terry Hill, I think in maybe a future meeting. But I just wanted to let you know that the man that we all loved very much and appreciated and looked up to passed away this last Saturday at 11 o'clock so... I talked to Claire today an obituary is being worked on by one of the daughters and they're putting together Their plans for what will take place, but a wonderful man. And I know I know Councilmember Whitman had a very special relationship with them So thank you
Thank You Brian so sorry to hear that Valerie
That was a great event last night. I'm here on behalf of the Arts Commissioner. I am Valerie Freeman, Arts Commissioner at Ojai City Residence and this is long overdue. Ojai Magazine did a complimentary walking tour of our East City Tour of Public Art. I submitted this back last year in September, and whenever they said they would just put something in when they had extra space. And so I'm very grateful that Ojai Magazine... This is their spring issue, so it's long overdue. I think there are summer issues coming out. But it has city public art and public art. Everything in here isn't city public art but it's a fabulous tour.
And I've been appointed to be head of grants And that's a huge thing for Ojai because we have such an abundant creative community and a lot of people, organizations applying for grants and not enough funds because we have a limited budget. So the idea came to do a grant writing workshop where we educate the community and creative groups and creative people how to research and find other grants that are outside, that they can use to complement the OHAI grant. So they're not coming to us for 100% of their grant.
And so Pam Grau, Commissioner Grau put together a grant writing workshop and it's Thursday June 1st From 2 to 4 p.m., it's at the Ojai Valley Museum, and it's free. And so the City of Ojai Arts Commission and the Ojai Valley Museum are excited to announce a grant writing seminar Designed to equip attendees with the knowledge and skills needed to effectively secure funding for their projects.
Through this expert-led session, participants will gain a comprehensive understanding of the grant writing process including identifying funding opportunities, crafting compelling proposals And navigating the submission and review process. And the instructor facilitator is Heidi Whitman, and we're just so excited that she's going to be doing this. And on another note with the website hopefully our Ojai Arts Grant applications will be available in June for the public to download or swing by City Hall to pick up.
Make sure those get posted.
Thank you.
Much appreciated, Valerie. Great news! The tour looks beautiful and wonderful to have grant writers. Grant workshop. Exciting. All right we will move on to public communication and just a reminder these are items not on the agenda and because they're not in the agenda we cannot discuss them We appreciate your viewpoint and participation, and we can agendize them for the future. And public comment is three minutes.
At the end of the free minutes you will hear a chime as a gentle reminder that your time is up. Please respect each other's time in the spirit of equity and stop talking when the chime sounds. There's no giving away time to another speaker, and if you're in agreement with a previous person please just say ditto. And I just want to add, please be respectful of other people's opinions. Even if you don't agree with them, please respect their right to express an opinion. That is the bottom line of democracy. So I'm going to ask the audience to just refrain from any side comments or conversation because once again, the ambient noise makes it very challenging for us to hear up here and we need to be able to make decisions and hear everything.
Okay, we will begin with Brian Aikens John Boetti and Carl Hindman
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And that's why we get here at 530 Thank you good point Public comments so I can talk about anything and so I will talk to you today with a different hat that me You may not know about. I am the treasurer of the friends of Oakview Park and Resource Center just Go off subject just for a minute. Oakview Park and Resource Center is where the former Oakview Elementary School was.
They closed that school, both our children went through it. It was looking like it was going to be sold for developers and the community said yeah no way. And so they put out feelers to all of the people that were in that area of influence and we bought the school. We bought the property And now it is the Friends of the Oak View Park and Resource Center currently has a YMCA group, a Boys and Girls Club there. They have all kinds of activities going on all the time. The other thing that we're kind of famous for is our wonderful Memorial Day Parade in Oak View. It goes all the way – I still got to get over there and measure it but it's probably half a mile if I'm stretching It goes from Oakview Avenue and Old Ventura Road all the way down to Oakview, or not.
Old Ventura Road in Oakview Avenue down to Old Ventura Road and Park Road which is where Greg Grintz knows. Everybody knows Greg. So that is coming up this Thursday. We have a new person Mindy McQuillan who's been working on this. Remember The Fallen Soldier? All of the different things that are going to take place, it's very touching. I think she even negotiated with Smokey the Bear to pass out the flags rather than just sit in the fire at the end of the parade. So again and our own Harry Hunt Jr is a Grand Marshal so we will have his information as well as his father's information mentioned in that. So again Monday 10 o'clock You can go on either end you want but it will the parade will come in from the north end. Okay, thank you all
Thank you very much Brian John Boettie then Carl Heineman then Marion Niglio
Good evening Council. I just want to thank you, I mean last night you were in session for four and a half hours tonight who knows five hours maybe a total of ten we really appreciate it so on behalf the community thank you So, on May 4th 2023 a report by the Ventura County Grand Jury into whether Councilmember Francina violated the Ojai Municipal Code's residency requirement for City Council members was issued.
Their investigation determined that Ms. Francina had not, quote, maintained a permanent fixed domicile within the district from which she was elected since December of 2021. It goes on to say that her seat on the council, quote became vacated 30 days after violating the requirement. In other words, Ms. Francina has been serving on the City Council illegally since January of 2022 or for a little more perspective on that she has served on the dais for approximately the last 30 meetings illegally.
Beyond the moral and ethical implications associated with Ms. Francina's transgressions are the possible ramifications to the city of votes she has cast During the time that her seat should have been vacated. As far as I can tell, her votes at the last 30 meetings should be invalidated. Miss Francina had no more right to vote on City Council issues than I or any other citizen would have.
One extremely important vote that comes to mind is the vote to send the referendum on the Becker Agreement to the voters in March of 2024. She was in the majority of a 3-2 vote approving that decision. Without her vote, it's a 2-2 tie. With someone else in her seat, the vote quite possibly could have gone 3 to 2 against. Mr. Summers, I would like to hear your opinion on this matter but before you do in addition I would like to ask why she continues to sit on the council and in particular why she is serving tonight when the grand jury on May 4th said her seat was vacated 16 months ago?
Thank You John. Mr. City Attorney any comment
I'm happy to comment very briefly, as I think folks have seen. The grand jury report is not itself a declaration of vacancy. The grand jury does not have the power to remove a council member from office. Only a court sitting in a court of competent jurisdiction on a final non-appealable judgment has that power. No court, to my knowledge, has ordered that the seat of Mayor Pro Tem is vacant.
Obviously if a court order is issued, the city will comply with any court order or appeal as applicable. The City Council has scheduled the matter for the next regular meeting on June 13th to consider the city's response as an institution to the civil grand jury's four requests for response. The council will decide at that meeting what response to make. End of comments.
Oh, and actually on the last one. There is an existing doctrine of office or doctrine of law called the apparent office holder doctrine that provides in some that if there is a question about an office holder having or not having the right to sit in the office, the decisions that were made while they were in office with the apparent authority of the office are valid even if they're later held to not have had the office. So even if the mayor pro tem is declared later to not have held the seats as of Whatever date the court find its finds it vacant that doesn't invalidate the decisions made by the City Council before Those will stand.
Okay Thank You Matt Okay, next we have Carl Hindman then Marion Niglio then Larry Steingold
I Just want to say first off that I understand Ms. Francina has not had the best time finding housing in this expensive city, so I wish you the best and I hope it works out. I don't want people...I'm going to speak tonight about the family of Ojai and your part of the family and I think all these things that are going on are just driving me crazy. I want to make some general comments about lawsuits and what Occam's razor says is usually The simplest solution is usually the best. And you know, this can be solved very easily if you know these lawyers, if you know them personally. I've heard people say that you know them. I don't know that it's a fact. Just call them up and say drop the lawsuits. Right now I've heard of two and there's a group called Simply Ojai.
They seem to have a lot of attorneys working for them. I'm going to talk about two...I'm going to define two terms I'm not a lawyer, but this is what they use right now in this country. It started with the left and now both sides are using it. One is called lawfare. Lawfare. The use of legal systems and institutions to damage or delegitimize an opponent wasting their time or money or to deter individuals' usage of their legal rights.
So it's pretty, I think it's pretty easy to file a lawsuit. It's cost the city, I believe $29,000 so far that didn't have to happen. They could've dropped the lawsuits. A second term S-L-A-A P SLAP. SLAP lawsuits stands for Strategic Lawsuits Against Public Participation. Lawsuits intended to censor, intimidate or silence critics By burdening them with the cost of legal defense until they abandon their criticism or opposition, it is a form of strategic litigation. Do we really want this in Ojai? I don't think we want this in Ojai. Again, Occam's Razor, the simplest solution is usually the best. We can all as a family, we can simply not do this. Why are the taxpayers paying $29,000 legal defense? It doesn't make any sense! It doesn't make any sense to pick on this young lady because she can't find housing.
I mean, these are political moves that are not important. I think we need to get together. My advice? Let's just drop the lawsuits. Thank you.
Thank you Carl. Next we have Marion Niglio then Larry Steingold then Jeffrey Starkweather.
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Tonight I will address three questions Why have more healthy young people been dying and becoming disabled since 2021? What are the findings of the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, and what are the findings of hundreds of published papers? And why is this important to employers and employees? First, why have more healthy employed young people than ever before been dying and becoming disabled since 2021?
In 2021 Edward Dowd a Wall Street analyst brought international attention to the fact that healthy working age Americans were dying and dying suddenly at an alarming rate not seen before. His research as follows answers the question why have healthy employed young people been dying and becoming disabled since 2021? Second, what are the findings of the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics and what are the findings of hundreds of published papers answering that question?
A study conducted by Bureau of Labor Statistics confirms that beginning in 2021, the number of employed Americans who became disabled increased from 30 million prior to 2021 to almost 33 million. Mass COVID vaccination began in 2021. Furthermore, there are hundreds of published papers on COVID vaccine-induced cardiac injuries to young people. Many of these published papers are posted on the government website and findings of serious adverse events came from the papers published in the Pfizer and Moderna COVID vaccination trials.
Finally, all-cause mortality in the U.S. and Western Europe as exposed by the insurance industry has increased 40 percent beginning in the third quarter of 2021. These findings are extraordinary and were unprecedented before mandatory vaccination of employees began in 2021. Third, why is this information important to employers and employees? Business owners. Do you own a business that stipulated that employees must be COVID-19 vaccinated to continue working at your business?
Are you still enforcing such a stipulation? Are you aware that a claim as a trespass by way of extortion could be made? How much could a business be sued for If their employee or employees were injured as a result of the vaccine, or worse yet died from the vaccine. Employees did your place of employment stipulate that you could lose your job if you didn't get vaccinated? Did you experience a serious adverse event from the vaccine? Or were you disabled from the vaccine and can no longer work? Do you know someone at your work who died from the vaccine? If so, get legal advice immediately if this applies to you. Thank you.
I was going to talk about something else, but Sousa Francina needs a home and everybody here talks about affordability. And we're jumping through hoops for rent stabilization and building housing or not having housing or converting housing. The coin of phrase I would say is she the poster child for the problem of OI? Solve it. If we're gonna solve it, solve it for her.
Everybody else needs it. That being said, OK? We need money. Last night I asked Mr. LeVere for $3 million. He's running for re-election. Use it! Mr. Bennett, Ms. Lamone, we need three million dollars otherwise we're going to raise the sales tax and we're gonna raise the TOT and affect a million people coming here so they can have nice roads so that we can live better. So that we have nice roads and we have nice things and things that are not deferred and maintenance and things get done OK, just ask for the money. It's either that or raise the tax. Why don't you propose to raise the tax tonight? Put it on the agenda and say let's propose to raise the sales tax in the TOT $5 million a year.
That'll get their attention. It'll get the end's attention. It'll get everybody else's attention. Then they'll either come up with the money or we raise the tax. We have no other choice. Where are we going to get the funds? So do something because it's eventually going to happen. So why not just ask them? They can say no, and then it's an election issue.
Thank you Larry. Next we have Jeffrey Starkweather, then Wayne Maynard, then Jeffrey Snyder.
Mayor, can I speak to that real quick before the timer starts? Just as a reminder, so the council did ask the staff to bring back a report in the next couple of meetings related to tax options that the council could consider And just as a reminder, almost any tax option that we could think of would have to go through a Prop 218 vote which then means it will take some time until we have the next elections in 2024. So they are options in the future but they are not necessarily immediate options so we'll bring that report back soon.
Thank you for the clarification James
Good evening Mayor, City Council members, fellow citizens. I want to make a little announcement first as the president of Ojai Democratic Club, Ojai Valley Democratic Club and also as a committee member of the Housing Task Force we're going to jointly co-sponsor a homelessness panel on June 11th at Kent Hall, assuming it's available, Weston. And it will be from 3.30 to 5.30 and we're focusing on prevention of homelessness And long-term transition and housing for homelessness. Those two things, so we have three groups all local that are doing great stuff here in Ojai. So we want to talk about one is MESA which is doing the for foster kids And it's a homeless prevention program. We have Help of Ojai, of course, that's in our housing element.
I hope we fund them for helping people stay in their homes through their... I forget what it's called but it's payment program to help people stay in their homes and they do other stuff with homeless and Cabrillo which has a new development. I'm not talking about the one here in Ojai, but the one in Miramonte, which is, I think it's 40 units and 20 of them are homeless people with actual disabilities and serious problems, but also they're gonna have a really low income one for low-income workers.
So all of them are gonna be talking about strategies for helping homeless. Second thing is, I appreciate Matt's clarifying about the issue of the grand jury because the grand jury is no different than the DA's statement to this city which you've all rejected. So I don't know why someone would think that that's law but it Is what Susan is facing essentially is the result of not, in my opinion, not building houses and homelessness.
And I am reading which I'm going to use as part of this seminar a brand new book called Homelessness is a Housing Problem. They show statistically that it's about lack of housing, And finally, if we had not gone to districts, Susan wouldn't have an issue. We passed a referendum to go to at-large and rank choice voting. I know there's a legal problem but I noticed the City of the County of Santa Clara has a local bill by their legislators to allow rank choice voting in districts, I mean non-districts so I have Contacted Steve Bennett and said we would like to have our local bill as well So we could go to at-large and get away from district because there was no My opinion, thank you.
Thank You Jeffrey Sure I
wanted to make a brief comment if I could just to clarify one point the council's actions last night in the workshop and on item number two did not reject The district attorney's request for the unconditional commitment to not repeat product violations instead The council deferred the consideration of that request to the next meeting on June 13th
I don't think I said that they rejected it, but maybe I did. You said exactly that phrase. That's why I'm correcting the record. At least the council has not said that we violated—they denied that we violated so far.
And as noted, the unconditional commitment response per the statutory language does not include an admission nor acceptance of guilt. It simply says without admitting nor accepting liability, the council commits to not repeat the violations. That's again on the future meeting agenda.
I understand that.
Was not rejected.
I have two things. I very much look forward to the June 13th meeting of a statement. I'm greatly relieved that I can speak to it at last because I was not allowed to speak about it, but now I can. But secondly more important we had a citizen task force meeting of 10 people last Wednesday morning and we had the Santa Paula homeless director I'm not prepared. Kay Bolton, you know she's had an exemplary program for about 15 years and she was on speakerphone because she was helping the homeless as she spoke but I'd like to contact you tomorrow to find out if we can have a little time.
Okay sure and by the way you're all invited yeah and you know We welcome you coming and making statements, asking questions. We're gonna try to organize it so that people hand in questions but we certainly will recognize any city council members or staff or anyone to speak on it because this is an issue that we all should be tackling together in unison in my opinion thank you.
Thank You Jeffrey and I do have a clarifying question for the public really for you Matt Sure. So the grand jury has findings, the DA has opinions, right? And so they're different. Can you just elaborate a little bit on
that? Briefly yes. The district attorney issued a letter asserting that the district attorney believes the Brown Act was violated in various ways discussed last night and asked the city to issue an unconditional commitment to not repeat those violations if issued that prohibits litigation by the district attorney on that issue. That's his opinion. It's a district attorney opinion Further statute then triggers a process. The grand jury issues findings of fact and issues recommendations and requests for response also per their separate statute, and the city has X days to respond to that request for responding to their findings, and they have specific recommendations that they've made that the city has to respond to, and also one for the city clerk to respond to.
Okay. Thank you, because the DA is not a judge and I think there's some confusion about that.
And most importantly none of those folks are judges. The district attorney is not a judge. The civil grand jury is also not a judge. Right. Judges are judges. Okay thank you very much.
All right. Since you brought it up I'll make clear that the grand jury at the interview told me all they can do is harass me. We were joking about it because they totally understood my situation, they wanted documentation which I provided and this I'm not going to say again because several times, I thought I had housing. But this time, I'm not going to announce it until I've signed all the paperwork and the place is really vacated. But you should know that a number of times, I thought I had housing. I've lost countless deposits but the people didn't move because they themselves could not find a place. It's like musical chairs And the public needs to understand that. Nobody who hasn't walked in my shoes has any idea what I have been through in the last 18 months, but you'll hear the full story now that I can finally speak.
You should be ashamed of yourself, the rest of you criticizing me.
Shameful.
Thank you very
much. It's Wayne then Jeffrey Snyder then Anita Cram.
Wayne Maynard a resident of Ojai and I really want to say again how much appreciated last night's meeting and what I learned And it got me thinking of a couple things when I got home. And first was last year there was a Commissioner attendance report that was given and at that meeting, I requested that the The procedures be revised to where? Commissioners that are not available for a meeting which causes the meeting to be canceled due to lack of a quorum, let those be considered absences.
One of the commissions I follow is the Arts Commission. The last two regular meetings have been canceled due to lack of a quorum and I don't know how to look up which commissioners were not available. I think that's important for transparency. Following up on that, several Council meetings ago there was a handout given to the Council on the five-year plan for the Arts Commission and that's a subject I've been following. I went to their workshop but there hasn't been in any public arts commission meeting to discuss a five year plan because I have some concerns on some of the things I heard at their planning meeting that I would like to address Another issue is I noticed that the Arts Commission budget increased in the budget.
And there hasn't been any public hearing or meeting at the Arts Commission discussing their budget request to the city. Last year, I was able to have some comments about that. This year it wasn't. So with everything we learned last night, I think we need to make sure we're looking down at the commission level And the commissions are aware of all the Brown Act implications, including this chain part that I learned about last night. Because I kind of think that might be how business is being done right now.
Thank you much.
0:35 – 0:4320 turns
Thank you, Wayne. Next we have Jeffrey Schneider then Anita Cram and then Balanced Sanctuarian.
And Mayor just on that point real quick I'll follow up with the staff liaison and make sure that the Arts Commission they've had some changes in some new members So we'll make sure that they're aware of the Brown Act. I had understood a lot of that came out of their workshop which was noticed but it will make sure that that's happening and make sure that That that's clear
Thank you, James.
Okay. Council, citizens, very interesting workshop last night. A lot of things got aired. I came across this quote by Edmund Burke, the great 18th century British statesman Who noted the tendency of politicians to attempt to force cultural change that cannot be won at the ballot box. I think the mess we find ourselves in today is a direct reflection of that tendency.
Seems very clear to me, that the council majority and most likely the council legal This person has sacrificed transparency in order to serve their ambitious social and environmental goals. History provides us with many examples of utopian dreamers who feel zealous justification to seize power at any cost, believing that the ends justify the means they take to achieve those ends.
This philosophy always ends badly May we learn our lesson, lest we repeat it. Transparency and truthfulness are always the answer. Admit what you have wrought. Seek the truth. Thank you very much.
Thank you Jeffrey. Next we have Anita Cram and then Balance Sanctuarian.
Good evening and thank you to city staff, mayor, council members for all your work. First of all I'd like to bring up the tax issue and maybe this isn't possible but I hope you have looked into taxing houses that sit empty for six months and one day Because I think this is a huge problem with the housing problem is that more and more houses are bought up, and they're not lived in and they're basically taken out of the community. Housing element or whatever you want to say. And next I just have to say something about the indemnification discussion.
As we know the district attorney of Ventura County Yeah, but it doesn't say there's a public comment on that It didn't say on the agenda that there was a public comment period for
item number seven. Yep.
I saw nowhere on the
The items discussion items don't specifically state that but there is a public
okay So that's why I was here because it was not in it was not notated I apologize to everyone in the audience because I'm going to start a filibuster now.
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Thank you balance. Thank you balance time's up thank you very much appreciate it. Well, I'm sorry. Mr. City...
State law guarantees that if you continue to disrupt the meeting after having been warned that you're being disrupted then the police chief may remove you. This is your warning. I defer to the council.
I'm sorry, Mr. Balanced. Thank you, Chief. Weston, any comments online?
No raised hands on Zoom Mayor.
I have a quick statement. Yeah,
can we have quiet please? This is completely non sequitur but one thing he did say was harmonic conversion and I got married on the harmonic conversion of 1987. It reminded me way back in the day.
Mayor we have one raised hand since. Okay
go
ahead. We have Becky. We have a little technical. James Han, could you please give me access to allow our Zoom guests to speak online? All right. Becky, you have the floor for public comment.
0:43 – 0:5010 turns
Thank you, Weston. Good evening everyone. I'm grateful for the transparency workshop last night. I might have learned more had it not been for the continued interruptions, repeated false accusations about others and overall disrespect for the presenter, the other council members, the staff and the public displayed by Leslie Rule, Susa Francina and their supporters.
Since this Council's first meetings and beginning in earnest at the January 24th meeting, Ms. Ruhle has disrupted virtually every meeting, talked over other speakers, insisted on speaking out of turn and failed to yield the floor to others when requested by the mayor as chairperson. She has bounced on her ball, looked at her phone, rolled her eyes and made other dismissive gestures when others have expressed divergent opinions or have taken time to carefully select their words.
Like a toddler she demands that she must be heard now without listening attentively and respectfully to others in turn. She and Sousa can often be seen and sometimes heard on a hot mic talking between themselves, smirking and chuckling derisively at others. This kind of conduct is unprofessional and unbecoming to city council members, and it reflects poorly on the other council members in the community.
Council member Lang spoke last night about how the divisiveness engendered by Ms. Ruhle has negatively affected her life. Yet rules disrespect continued throughout the meeting, even in her insistence that the way she wants the law to read is how it should read rather than the way the highly qualified presenter informed us that it does read. Democracy depends on following the rule of law and the ability to engage in civil discourse in order to find the strength inherent in our diversity. Yet both Ms. Rule and Ms. Francina show an utter disregard for the rule of law, insisting that what they want should be the law and that they are somehow above the law Yet still entitled to expect others to support them financially. People complain about the council not getting enough done, if you cannot agree to behave according to the rule of law and the rules of order and other protocols established for the council meetings how can anything productive ever get done?
It's time for you to both stop wasting everyone's time and clean up your acts thank you
Thank You Becky quick comment, please I just wanted I wanted to thank Becky for that constructive criticism. I will take it to heart and I Will hope to do better in the future So feel free to come back anytime and give me an analysis of how I'm doing. Thank you
We have one more raised hand on zoom Renee Renee you have the floor
Hello everybody You know, I looked up some terms and I think they're really appropriate for what we're hearing lately right now. Derogatory comments or opinions are statements that express a negative or disparaging view They typically involve disrespectful, offensive or demeaning language or attitudes. Derogatory comments can be based on facts such as race, ethnicity, gender, religion, sexual orientation or other characteristics.
But derogatory comments are often intended to belittle, insult or demean individuals and they can have a harmful impact. On other people's reputation or sense of belonging, such comments contribute to a toxic and disrespectful environment. Perpetuate stereotypes and can promote discrimination or prejudice. It's important to foster a culture of respect and understanding Where individuals are treated with dignity and equality. I would hope that our city council members are engaging in such kinds of respectful and understanding conversations, and social discourse.
Engaging in thoughtful and constructive dialogue, avoiding derogatory comments or opinions and promoting empathy and acceptance are key to maintaining a positive and inclusive society. Thank you
very much. Thank you, Renee. That's it was
that Tommy?
Okay, thank you very much. We will move on to the consent calendar Is there we have actually three public no two public comments on this one, so we'll take those first First we have Larry Steingold on 1b and then William Wyrick on 1h And you're gonna I have a yeah, when
do I tell you that? Yeah, I'm gonna pull Certainly want to pull B. Okay, and I want to pull D okay, and
also pull H H okay Alright, so we'll first have Larry Steingold on B which is the warrants Thank You Larry
We have a legal bill of $47,000 and change. That's a run rate of about $560,000 which is about $200,000 more than the budget. What isn't going to get done? We already know it's stuffed. We're already going to be light on the budget, so if we can get ... Know now what's not going to be paved? What is going to be deferred? Because these legal bills are not going to go away and they're going to keep getting higher.
So what are we going to give up? Can you make that determination now because I know Mr. Vega in public works is certainly going to know what we're going to have to give up if we're short money. So Mr. Vega please.
0:50 – 0:5810 turns
Is that the end of your comment? Sorry, I don't want to stop your time. And just to speak to that you know we've had a series of budget workshops and we talked about the choices we have to make and if we need $200,000 more for legal costs then it means there's $200,000 less for something else so anybody can go back and re-watch the budget committees Budget workshops where he went through those we did go through those in detail and we'll have one more budget hearing after tonight to Talk about it again just to answer. Mr. Seingold's question. So
Thank You James next we have William Weirich on 1h, which is the potential septic system issue. I
First of all, yes please approve this. I just want to speak about something entirely different and that is that I think that in this entire problem first we need to recognize it's not a potential septic problem it's a problem that's been going on for decades. It's been known to go on be happening every time the water level rises when we have a large rain event And the climate change scientists tell us that we're in this part of the world, we're likely to have a more regular type of delivery of rain and large episodic events rather than in long-term averages.
So this is a problem that's not going away but it's known to be predictable problem every time we had a big rain event. And the water table rose. This is not new, but we have an agency problem and that's what those of us in the economics world called a problem with incentives in terms of achieving the best practice, the best design for the situation. You talk to old timers in this valley and they say you know we really could see this valley dry out When we changed the way that we treated our effluent to not be reused and recharge inside the valley, but in say discharged outside the valley below Foster Park. Clear additional drying out of the valley. We don't want to make that mistake again as a best practice. We need to address the septic problem in 200 plus homes But we should do it in a way that doesn't further dry out the valley.
In other words, just put it into the existing system and have it discharging below Foster Park. Best practice I would contend, think about, consider is that we have a scalping plant arrangement Where we can displace the use of potable water for irrigation in, say, the Ojai Valley Inn, Villanova School, Ojai Valley School. We address the problem with infiltration of E. coli contamination of our groundwater and We could also set it up for greater recharge and surface flow support for our habitat restoration. The problem is, what agency has the motivation to think about that best practice?
We really don't have one. And I would urge, I would think that the best approach for staff to think about is to consider filling that vacuum, trying to achieve the best practice. Maybe partner with some private sourcing financing as well as government financing and to think about perhaps we need to form a new type of arrangement like we did to buy our private water system and make it public maybe we need to consider a community facilities district to achieve this I think partners like the OIVAN could be also solicited to help pay for this.
I also, things like for example capacity charges that are usually assessed on new sewer connections could maybe help to finance a proper best practices approach to reuse of effluent. And I think it's a golden opportunity for us to maybe have further effluent treatment For recharge and displacement of potable water use for irrigation beyond just the 200 ohms that we need to fix for septic So I just wanted to offer those thoughts from my perspective. Thank you.
Thank You bill any comments online Weston
No, mayor.
Okay. Thank you. All right. Well councilmember rule you pulled BD an H. Oh
I did. And funny enough, the speakers have mentioned exactly what I was going to mention about the legal bills. I think we need to get them under control and the last month was 36,000 so we need to figure out We either need to put more money in the budget and be realistic about what it's going to be or we need to start keeping a better watch on how the funds are spent. For instance, I think that we ended up in litigation with Tully, the approval of the council with an estimation of maybe 10-15-20 and where are we now?
Just question, you know, I mean we're double at least that. We started out with litigation on Pine Mountain for 10 or 15 and we're at least double that and these are still things that are, you know, they're still live so I think I just want us to focus our efforts around the budget on figuring out and being a little bit more cognizant of what we spend legal fees on, and talk to our community about potentially not suing us. At every particular turn because we have no option but to respond and spend money that could be used in other ways so for every time we get sued by anybody. It's going to cost us minimally Five thousand and that's if nothing occurs from it. So I think our citizens need to know that, and we need to keep better track. I would hate for us to spend over half a million dollars on litigation because it will be what else don't we do?
And I see these warrants every month, and it's a huge amount of money. I know that I am not aware of how the money is really spent. I have only a vague knowledge of what lawsuits are where and where they are in process, and how much we might continue to have to spend on them. You know in unless you know that you don't have enough information to come back and potentially say.
No more good money after bad we're not going to change that particular situation what are our other options litigation goes on forever so it's a big concern of mine and that's what I wanted to bring up by pulling this particular warrant if you look at the other Costs and I did have another question actually Just really briefly. What is the $86,000? Reimbursement how does that work it says it says if you go here It's 86 thousand grant reimbursements. So did we get the money
no so this is this is the payment to the designers of the ATP project and So the design engineers, Steve who was at the meeting who presented this is the payment to them. I've asked the finance department to note any time that it's a payment that we're making that we expect to be reimbursed for just so people understand that's not out of the city's pocket. Great, that was my question what
does that mean? Thank
you
0:58 – 1:1315 turns
And D?
Mayor Council, if I could briefly comment on the legal bills. So certainly we're aware that the bills are trended high. I'm happy when my litigators are in their cages And I get to focus on advisory which is my heart, passion and soul. Obviously we have been sued in a number of recent cases and the council's aware and we're happy to make the council further aware of the details but we're certainly cognizant of the need to cut costs and the need that every dollar spent on lawyers is a dollar not spent on paving, a dollar not spent on parks and we'd like to minimize those as much as possible. City Manager and I have had conversations about shaving off on the edges and then looking at as opportunities arise to the council To take a lawsuit and make it not a lawsuit, mindful of what that might mean on the back end.
We bring those discussions to council in closed session as appropriate. And we'll continue to look for those opportunities.
Thank you, Matt. Thank you for your thank you for discussing it and bringing it to the floor. Thank you very much. And then D. Just really briefly James, I was wondering if you could Explain to me in very simple and you know very quick language What is I mean? I think I understand what the annual GAN Appropriations limit is. You can only appropriate what you tell me
Yeah, it's funny because when we do our tax report this is going to be a topic that people aren't going to want to hear about. But we were waiting until that time to really talk about it but we do it every year this is where it is but in short a long time ago a law passed to try to limit the ability of cities to just keep taxing people And I think the average resident would say that's a good thing for us trying to run a city, maybe not so much.
Especially when we're in like a weird situation, a unique situation where like in Ojai taxes were historically low and so when a limit got put on us that can only adjust by inflation, we're essentially locked into we will have lower taxes than you know other There are some ways sort of around it that we'll talk about when we bring the taxes back. We can have taxes for specific purposes if they fit into certain categories and those wouldn't count towards our limit, but the reason it's on the agenda tonight is because every year we basically have to adopt a resolution saying we are taking that inflation adjustment so that now we have a new limit But it is an interesting thing. One thing for us is with the hotel tax increase and with hotel prices increasing so much we are probably Getting close to a point where we're gonna have start thinking about this whereas in the past It was like never even a concern that we might hit the limit We're watching it now, and we're prepared to like come back to council and talk about that as it occurs but So we'll go more into it at that meeting like I said for the purposes of tonight.
We're just taking the What's allowed by law the inflation increase so? Tonight's item is very minimal, but it's an interesting Law with interesting backgrounds
Thank you
one additional point. Is that reserves created to fund qualified capital projects and do not count against the Gantt limit. So if the city sets aside a portion of Measure C's revenues in one year to pay for capital project paving or whatnot the next year, that doesn't count against the Gantt limit. It's one of those things where you've got details on both sides of the calculation. What adds up to proceeds of taxes and what adds up to appropriations taxed against or counted against that limit?
And so that also allows for some flexibility.
Great, thank you. And then H. Yeah, I actually some of my while the Arbolada is not my district, I do have constituents who have friends and family who have been emailing me about kind of what is going on. And I have been unable and I'm just unclear as to really what is going on. And as I read through this once again, I just wanted and thank you Bill Wyrick for that explanation. It was very helpful, it's actually kind of what I was looking for and I know that there are options. I know nobody really wants to talk toilet to table because it's a scary- who would? But you know if my question was really how deeply are we delving into solving this problem with an eye towards a water you know, with a lack of water or the system that we talked about.
You know the huge drownings that we're gonna get things like that?
Yeah with this item the intent is basically to get the council to approve for us to try to start those conversations because you know the comment was there's essentially a vacuum where there's a lot of agencies pointing their fingers at each other I would caution everybody that's not a reason the city of Ojai should say we'll take on a $200 million liability, which that number is out of thin air but it might not be far off from what we're talking about.
And there's a reason why when residents pay taxes to certain agencies and pay fees to certain agencies those agencies need to be held responsible for the service they're supposed And I do think in Ojai, you know it's worked because we're small and everything but we tend to say like well they're not doing it so let's do it. This is going to be a very expensive let's-do-it if we go that way. So the point of this item is not for us to say no one else is doing it so we're taking it over. The point of this item is to say We want to get people talking and figure out who should be the person doing it, who should be responsible. And make sure that they're talking because I think when we started to get letters out and things like that, we took some sort of urgent action.
I wouldn't call it emergency action but when the rain hit, we took action because nobody else was and we notified agencies. Did not get the impression that it was really on people's radar So we're sort of taking the first step to start those conversations and getting it on the appropriate agencies radar. So so from there We'll come back. That's all this is at this point. This isn't, you know creating an assessment district It's not You know us creating a department that's now gonna do this because we don't have the money to do that And it's not in the budget This is the start that process and then as we sort of start figuring things out, we'll come back with regular status updates
So basically this I'm sorry. This is basically us giving you The go-ahead to spend some time in right to start the process of figuring things out and talking to other agencies
exactly and we Like I said, we started that under sort of an urgency. So this is a little bit of a ratification. When the rain was hitting and we saw the E. coli report, we acted quickly. I'm getting the council's okay to A, ratify that and B, to keep talking to those people.
Great thank you.
All right is there?
Oh, sorry Commenting on H again I debated whether to pull this item also and I decided as I have all along To allow James to keep pulling this issue for us forward as in his discretion about how to handle things, but he and I have been talking about this issue for I think about three months. We did very early on bring Matt LeVere into the loop because each of these...I'm going to call them seasonal strains, but if you drive around the Arbolada there's little gullies and pathways Most of them originate in the county, with county residences. So it's a tremendously complex issue to take two different jurisdictions and get them both involved.
James very early on spoke with County Public Health because as a little city We don't have a public health department, so we rely upon the county when we have a public health issue to give us advice about where are we and how close are we to the threshold. A little bit of history is that about 15 years ago, this same issue was brought up with bacterial findings and a district, a neighborhood district formed in the lower Arbolada.
Mostly along Paseo Del Mar and they pooled together to fund an extension of the sewer system to their neighborhoods. And I have looked at a bunch of different communities that have been faced with this issue, and one of the solutions is the state comes in and says you can't continue to operate through septic tanks. And they issue all kinds of draconian orders Costs everybody a lot of money Other communities have anticipated And not wanted that to happen and they have come forward to voluntarily work on funding for extending the sewer to neighborhoods and I Those have been funded in part by grants from the government and funded in part by individual homeowners paying the cost of getting their sewer line to a new sewer, and they may end up paying part of that new sewer cost too, the sewer main.
I spoke with Salud Carbajal, our congressman. He has a water analyst on staff and she was very generous spending time with me. She said that one, she's ready willing and able to come and attend a meeting and talk to us about what funding is available. She talked to me about a potential source of funding and then got back to me to say yes you would, she was concerned So I think this is even in the report, but Ojai oftentimes misses out on federal funding because the federal funding is targeted to communities that are in need.
And we're not viewed that way, although we may sometimes feel like we're in need. But in any event... She indicated that there are federal department of agriculture loans, not wait let me back up. Federal Department of Agriculture grants that would pay for about 40% of new sewer line installation And then there are federal low-interest loans available to fund the rest of the sewer main.
And then the rest of it would, she said, typically be picked up by the homeowners who have to convert from the septic system to the sewer. She thought it was a very good idea to have a community meeting and that she would be happy to come and talk about it. I think that what the community needs to understand is All of those people who were on septic tanks potentially are looking at a expense. And although those homes in the Arbolada look like They've got to be extremely valuable, there must be abundant money available. I don't know that that's true and so it's a scary proposition to say hey let's do this when we're potentially throwing a big bill in the laps of a whole bunch of homeowners But it's so it's a very difficult situation that we're dealing with.
I'm very confident in how James has been handling it so far, and I would just say that if people want to take affirmative action, and get ahead of it, I would say that it would be a good first step to talk to Salud Carbohol's water analyst. Her name is Wendy Moda and she is extremely receptive to hearing and helping us
Thank you for that Andy, yep.
Yeah You know every 10 years or so we discuss if there's residents that want to become part of the city And I heard you say that it would be it's more difficult because there's two jurisdictions Working on this is part of the conversation Is
1:13 – 1:2418 turns
No, no that's not part of the conversation and it's actually it's more than two jurisdictions. It's several entities because I think people kind of turn on the TV this is my theory and I'll get on the theory a little bit but when you turn on your TV and you see the news and it usually the city of LA and the city of LA provides every service to its residents And people will go, well I'm sure the city of Ojai is like that. We're not.
We don't have a water department. We don't have a wastewater department. We don't have our own trash department. Um we contract all those things out or there's other agencies that do them so you know i think in like if you're watching the news and you're watching in LA and they say there's a wastewater problem or sanitary district problem or sanitary problem Usually you hear that the city is handling it. We don't have a water department or a wastewater department So there's actually multiple agencies involved this what I think the primary agency that we have contacted That the letter that we sent to them is in the packet is actually the LA Regional Water Quality Control Board and That the Arbolada is partially city, partially county. So we're also involved and then there's the sanitary district so they're also involved and then there's the County Environmental Health Department.
It's more than just that it's not an annexation conversation at this point and I don't see it going that way but that's ultimately you know that's almost a separate conversation that the council can choose to have
And if I could make
one further point,
the Los Angeles Regional Water Quality Control Board is a state entity. The state has a water quality control board that's the whole state. There are nine regional boards. The Los Angeles region is LA and Ventura counties, I think a little bit of Orange County. That is a well-funded state entity charged in part with regulating septic systems and entities that don't have a local agency management program which we do not They have significant funding for this purpose that they have so far chosen not to use. So in the coming conversations, one of the key questions to the state is you are funded for this. You have power to solve this.
What's up?
Okay, thank you very much. Thank you.
One other comment. I'm
sorry.
Go ahead.
I just had two quick questions that weren't that... Number one, how bad was it? I mean, I'm just curious because you hear varying stories. Just sort of how bad was it? And then my second question is just an infrastructure question. Are there tanks in... Is their septic system right now tanks, buried tanks? What is their septic system? Yeah, just a... Just a buried tank. Okay, all right.
Okay. Thank you.
So how about it was the County Environmental Health folks who looked at it when we called and said there may be an issue Said that's an issue. It needs to be solved, but they didn't view it as an emergency issue
Thank you if I could speak a little bit to that because I think Sort of what though this the issues like this that you hear There are emergency issues are typically areas that people either drink or swim in And so you'll hear about You know and I've heard a lot of people say like these test levels are equivalent to beaches closing right? Because people swim in the water and get it in their mouth You know, these are not situations anybody was drinking water swimming in it. So I think, I don't wanna put words in their mouth but I think the county's like so what's the deal? Why is this an emergency and they didn't view it as an emergency.
Okay thank you.
And I think the answer there is that you don't let your kids go play in the stream that has formed after a rain during the rainy season And they used to lifeguard at the beach and we had to deal with that all the time because you know, these sloughs would form and You know, we had to let people you know don't swim in there because the bacteria levels are really high but I also wanted to point out that I think Bill has a good idea that we should be thinking about how to save our water.
But one thing, unfortunately for us is that and Bob Dowdy talks about this all the time is that there's a cap of clay throughout most of the Ojai Valley, and that does not allow us to effectively do settling of water. back into our system, but there are all kinds of ways that you can treat water before it hits the Ventura River and use it generally agriculturally.
And they have these micro plants That could potentially I mean, I would assume that somewhere in all of that grant money. That is available that there is some smart person who can Analyze what we might be able to do and not just let all of our water flow to the ocean
Rachel
yeah, I would agree with that and And also, there is all kinds of new research about certain kinds of plants that digest and fungi that digest bacteria and waste to filter water. Councilmember Whitman and I serve on the sanitation district board, and I've learned so much about water. It's really fascinating. I love it But but I would really be interested in starting a conversation actually if you'd be open to it bill About what kinds of solutions we could come up with
Great. And thank you, James for being so proactive on this and communicating and council for being proactive also Andy for reaching out to salute. Much appreciated. Thank you Bill. So let's collaborate and work on this. Okay. So is there a motion to approve the consent calendar? I'll make a motion to approve the consent calendar. All in favor? Aye. Wonderful, all right we will move on now to the public hearing this is item number two the levying collection of assessments for landscape and lighting And thank you Lindy for being here
So we have a long agenda so I am going to do my best to try And the brief version, this is an annual item. We do it every year. In the past it's been routine. Hopefully it's routine. But the city has three districts. Two are lighting and landscaping districts. Making it more complicated already, but it's actually the same district twice because the costs went up. So there's a landscape and lighting district and then an overlay of that. And then there's Plaza Maintenance Assessment District which is... The Landscape and Lighting District is citywide. The Plaza Maintenance District is the plaza.
And so every year as part of our budget process, as part of requirements to comply with the requirements for assessment districts. We have to come forward to the council we have a process where we have to have multiple agenda items leading to the public hearing which is tonight and the public hearing is to actually adopt the resolution that orders the work and levies the assessments and so this actually makes it official for the next year And so just quick background, the Lighting and Landscape District pays first for street light expenses through the city. And then any remaining funding can be used for curbs gutters and street trees. And then the Plaza Maintenance District is for maintenance of the plaza. So this is how those projects are funded And so with the staff report, there's an engineer's report that breaks all of this out and gets into detail and shows every zone and how much each zone pays and all of that.
But at a very high level we go through that process every year. We've gone through the process this year and we are recommending adoption of that resolution to order the work and levy the assessments I think the question that comes up every year, and we haven't really ever answered it. And Lindy and I are committing to try to answer it in this coming year is every year there's a chicken or the egg question Are people happy with their service and do we need to increase the costs to give better service?
And I know when, when I started, I was asking that question and it was always the chicken or the egg. You'd say well you know are people happy with the service? Well it's the best we can afford. Well would they pay more? Well no because they're not happy with their service. And so you kind of got stuck in this spot I think we've started to hear over the last two years more complaints periodically about people saying that it would be nice to get additional repairs and improvements, particularly in the Plaza Maintenance District. So this resolution adopts it basically at the same level it's been but Lindy and I have committed and we actually included it in one of the reports along the way We recommended actually this year hiring somebody to analyze that and then make a recommendation as part of next year's budget process, essentially to tell the community we can do this higher level of service and here's what it costs.
And then we can have that public conversation and see what people think. So we're committing to do that over the next year but for now we're recommending adopting this to cover the service for this year.
Great, thank you James. Any questions from Council?
1:24 – 1:3644 turns
I actually have a what would better service look like? Brighter lights, longer times.
What would that look like? It's the second piece because the first thing that these districts pay for is the lights. If there's money left over we could do additional things like sidewalk improvements, curb improvements, gutter improvements even things like trash can improvements of the plaza and increased service levels I think the comments we heard last year, somebody who said we used to leaf blow the plaza a couple years back and that went away at some point. And it probably went away because basically the number, the dollars we collect every year stay the same and as costs go up, I think over the years people have cut out things that used to be there.
So the better service would be kind of restoring those things.
Okay, and I'm assuming, I'll just ask a quick follow-up question. I'm assuming that this isn't where we talk about more lights?
So this item is just to approve paying for the ones we have But but that's something you know, it's always something that could be added as a future agenda item
Yeah, just as an FYI. I also hear that quite often Safety lights those kinds of things. Okay. Thank
you Any other questions from council?
I do have a question. In this budget, is there any plan for climate-related
No, no. And so this was not updated since basically 2012 in 2012 they adopted kind of like the five year rates and then nobody's ever adjusted them since then. So at that time there was no plan for that. It was solely paying for keeping the lights on essentially, so no it doesn't include any of that I'm not sure offhand what we would be able to charge to that measure see the hotel tax was passed with that as a Category that we where we could use measure see funding for those projects so I think We can look at that as part of the analysis and then at the end of the day it might be if we can Include some of that in here, then that would be one option or the other would be prioritizing measures.
See Yeah, I was thinking that adding like shade trees, you know having solar
yeah
lighting
Yeah, I think that some of those some improvements. Some improvements that could be made to the plaza, for example, could have those benefits even if this isn't specifically for climate projects. But adding shade trees, that is something that can be done
here. Thank you. Very good. OK.
All right. Well, we will go ahead and open the public hearing. We have one public comment. Wayne Maynard?
Hi, Wayne Maynard. I'm a resident. I live on San Antonio Drive. It's one of my houses and we had a neighborhood dinner party a couple weeks ago and about six the neighbors got together. It was a great event Whatever reason, the topic of streetlights came up.
That sounds like a
boring party. So San Antonio is a cul-de-sac off of Grand Avenue and it is fully illuminated. And at night in the summer I can't open my window and get air in because well not that I can open my window but I have to leave the blinds down, the blackout so I can fall asleep Too much light. And so I was kind of nominated to represent the community, our little group and come and see if there's anything we can do.
Thought we had is if there's a process in the city where we can get some shades installed. I've seen it done in other communities where it directs the light down and reduces the amount of glare light that comes out from the sides. So I'll probably be talking to Public Works folks about that, see if that's an option that we can do. And if it's costing, I'm sure our neighbors will pitch in to help with the cost on that.
But another option would be to turn the lights off. We do have a dark sky ordinance, and non-compliant lights are supposed to be turned off at 10 p.m., and I think when you look at safety and people walking and stuff, maybe that's an option. Maybe we can turn the streetlights off at 10p.m. And save some electric costs. So that's my comments.
Thank you, Wayne for your... I just want to say thank you, Wayne, for representing your neighborhood. Really nice of you.
Think it's great. You brought that up, but have you talked to the city about it? And
my plan was to go talk to the public works folks Yeah, there was a way we could get some shades put on the lights
Yeah That should be definitely happening because it doesn't sound like it's compliant with the dark sky ordinance
I assume that the city exempted themselves from the Dark Sky
I don't think we did. Yeah, I don't think we did so let us know kind of where you're seeing them if it's in a particular area We do I was gonna answer but I think councilmember Francina mentioned We have a dark skies ordinance and so we do typically require people to angle their lights down So if that's an issue Let us know about it
Okay, thank you very
much.
Also just I'm your counsel you're in my district and so just like the drown the slowdown drown crew if you have any concerns Please feel free to reach out to me I'm I love I love connecting and I love helping so okay
Thank You Wayne um any comments online Weston no mayor No Can you address? Well, I think Council yeah,
if we've done the public comment finished
Yeah. Well, we're still in public comments yet. Yeah
So I was on the Green Coalition's dark sky a group that advocated for the unincorporate areas and in the process We looked at the towns And what we saw was very lax in terms of regulating. So as I recall, it did not require people to actually go and change out. It's only when their lights ran out or they had to retrofit them. Where we made a more aggressive move in the unincorporated areas, even though we got some resistance from some county supervisors. But you might want to look at that ordinance because my recollection was it did not require... It just was anybody new installations had to do dark sky things. So that may be why Existing lights are not Not compliant with dark sky, so it would be a good survey to do particularly with city property.
Thank you
Thank You Jeffrey that that's it Weston yes not on zoom okay We will close the public hearing now and move on to discussion And
I'm just gonna make a quick anecdote for mr.. Baynard I Understand that sentiment completely. I've got a neighbor well 20 years ago, I had a neighbor next door whose house was very close to the street and there was one and only street light across from his bedroom. And he would shoot out the street light every time they replaced it. And so I that they, the new owner of their property long ago built a guest house in the back and when then when they're there they live in the back but.
So it's not an issue anymore but it is I bring that up more than anything just to say There you know, that's that's a two sides of the coin issues. There's always going to be some people who want more light and then there's gonna be some people who want less light and So I Guess that's why we're here
Well, I'd like to just put a motion on the table first That we adopt the resolution ordering the work and levying the assessments for landscape and lighting and direct city clerk to transmit documents to the county I'll second. Any other comments? We need a roll call.
Roll-call vote Passed 5–0 motion on the table first That we adopt the resolution ordering the work and levying the assessments for landscape and lighting and direct c
Show transcript
thank you All right,
we will move on to item number three the commission composition introduction of an ordinance modifying the size and structure of the Historic Preservation Commission And Parks and Rec Commission and discussion of appointment process for all city commissions.
I have a quick question just oh Never mind We have a
staff report, James?
Yeah, this is round two of the conversation. We had the first part of the conversation April 11th where we brought back the requests from each commission about whether they would prefer to be five or seven members. We brought that back to council at that time there were two commissions that wanted to be considered to go to seven members, Historic Preservation Commission and Parks and Recreation Commission The language regarding all that is in the ordinance, so we noted at that time that we'd have to bring the ordinance back for adoption due to make that change. So this agenda item is intended to include to make that change.
And then second, at that time the council also asked for the opportunity when the item came back to talk about the appointment process for all city commissions and so that can be discussed as part of the item but the ordinance because the ordinance wasn't drafted to make that change yet. So whatever direction would come we'd then bring forward, we'd bring back as an ordinance So essentially we're talking about the five or seven members for HPC and Parks and Rec, and what the appointment process is for any and all commissions. Thank you James.
Are you talking about two different ordinances? Or adding both items into one
ordinance? No so the ordinance as of now that we've drafted is specifically related to The well, it's related to the number. It's related to the HPC and the parks and rec so those can be discussed pretty fully under that ordinance And then if there were other commission changes Then we would need to bring an ordinance back with with that direction
a separate
ordinance. Thank you
Question So if this ordinance passes and another commission or committee would like to expand, is that going to be a relatively easy thing to do? In other words we might be able to put it in the consent calendar. Or will it have to be this whole process again? I'm
just curious. The language is in the code which is what triggers all of the formalities So the language is in the code, so we have to amend the code by introducing and adopting an ordinance. I'll let Matt answer if there's a simple way to do that, if we could do it on consent.
1:36 – 1:416 turns
Legally, this kind of an ordinance can be done on consent both introduction and adoption. We usually put adoption on consent. Introduction sometimes requires a public hearing like the zoning ordinances. So planning commission for example would be a public hearing because that's in the zoning ordinance. The other commissions could be introduced on consent. The other thing I would note is the current protocols require that there be expressed affirmative direction from council at a meeting on an agenda to draft an ordinance So right now it's three trips to council. Direction, draft and ordinance then introduction then adoption. The last two exist by state law the first one exists by council protocol. Council can amend the protocols delete the first trip and just have future agenda item drafted ordinance and then that would be two and then three would of course be to put it on consent and adopt it.
Thank you. Any other questions? We will move on to public comment first we have Brian Akins and then Valerie Freeman
Hello, hello, hello. So now I'm before you with my Historic Preservation Commission Chair hat on. As I noted, well first let me know in case you haven't picked it up over the many years that I've said so. I am a resident of Oak View. I have been a resident of Oak View for 42 years. I like the view. I love my neighbors. So, I was going through the new website.
I went through commission vacancies, commission documents, historic preservation commission requirements and I came up to this document which is dated actually June 17th 2015 And it says, no more than three. It says there is hereby established a City Historic Preservation Commission consisting of seven members who shall be appointed by the mayor subject to the approval of the council. No more than three members of the commission shall be non-residents of the city. Four members of the commission shall constitute a quorum again June 17th 2015.
I then looked at the information that is in your package. Going to page 3-2, Historic Preservation Commission says all kinds of different things but to compare it against the June document it says four members constitute a quorum however no quorum shall consist of a majority of nonresidents of the city So all of a sudden, and I noticed that there seemed to be some thing that was changing.
And this when I first met with Council Member Lange December 31st in the Visitor's Center she had the you know the fact that we didn't have enough came up and she relayed to me some of the instructions that she received and I said what? That's not how Yeah, there's something that's changed so again what we're seeing here is This added to the June 15th. However, no quorum shall consist of a majority of non-residents of the city We we brought this subject up in our March 9th HPC meeting we had quite a discussion on it at the end of that lengthy discussion and Vice Chair Convery made a motion, vice chair Convery then made a motion to revise the section 4-8.03 of the Ojai Municipal Code to allow any three present members of the HBCU to form a quorum without regards to residency.
Commissioner Basachi has seconded it. It was unanimously approved. My question to the council is when did, because you are the folks that nominate the commissioners. The commissioners don't nominate themselves. So when did the direction come up that said that by interpretation, by declaration, that the council wants all decisions to be made by a unanimous group of leaders?
The non-residents basically are coattails.
Thank you Brian. Okay, what's the answer?
It was when the code was adopted. So that language was changed by the council when the commission went from seven to five members. My recollection of it, and I you know it wasn't on my radar to talk about today but my recollection is the council simply made a choice that at that point they felt that I think for the Planning Commission and the Historic Preservation Commission That it should be residents because they're making decisions on property rights of our residents. So those changes were built into the code so all of the background was correct, you know in 2015 or 17 that wasn't in the code. It was added to the code. It's now in the code Today there's an ordinance in front of the council so the council can decide whether or not that opinion still stands Thank
You James
1:41 – 1:5014 turns
So is it possible to have language Because I'm very concerned when some Commission doesn't meet for three months and that's not acceptable Can't we have some kind of language? It says that the commissioners can meet but not make a category of decisions that affects property owners. Is there some language that allows them to meet?
There's probably some language we can, we can come up with. Yeah I think the first question is like the philosophical question you know the council doesn't have to say that there's a residency requirement at all and if there wasn't an intent to be one then there's a lot of language in that code section that didn't need to be in there But it it is in there currently and I think even the Parks and Rec Commission or
Before you go to the other good two parks and rec the council can define what quorum means for any commission traditionally Roberts Rosenberg's any rule of order quorum is 50% of the body plus one So for council, half of council is two and a half round up to three because you have to have natural integer people. So seven-member body quorum is usually four. So the council can define a lower quorum. Council can define quorum, a higher quorum sometimes some agencies require two thirds of the body to be present to meet It's up to council to define what qualifies as a quorum. Council can also choose to have quorum tested with residency, as it is now in some commissions or test it without regard to residency all commissioners equal those are all valid policy choices and as noted by the city manager The council can also decide whether to allow non-residents to serve on commissions or not, or if the non-residents are allowed to serve on commissions, to set a numeric limit for non-residents or not.
All are valid policy choices. I would note that under existing Rosenberg's rules, less than a quorum of a body can always meet because the Brown Act doesn't define that as a meeting. So two members of council could meet at any time But it's not a capital M meeting with staff time and support and able to make decisions. The Brown Act also defines what is a meeting, which is tied to a majority of the body or more. So the council could define quorum at a higher level, let's say five of seven.
And it wouldn't count as a meeting for city purposes If there weren't five out of the seven, but it would still mean four, it's a Brown Act meeting. For ease of everyone's life, staff highly recommends that quorum be kept at the Brown Act standard for a meeting which is majority of a body. So four of seven, three of five.
So I guess a question I have along those lines is so we have, let's take the five person commission and we have two. We have a resident absent and we have two non-residents and two residents. Would they form a quorum? Yeah,
yes under the language is proposed because the language is proposed requires that a No quorum shall consist of a majority of non-residents. So two residents and two non-residents is equal, it's not majority non-resident. So in this scenario, two residents and two non-residents could meet and act in all cases. What would be prohibited by that is in the same scenario we have a five member commission, three residents, two nonresidents, two of the residents are absent.
So three is still quorum, but under this rule and this has happened in the past in the planning commission at least that quorum of two non-residents and one resident could not meet per that rule. So that's when it would kick
in. Okay. Can we finish public comment? Next we have Valerie Freeman then Wayne Maynard and then Jeffrey Starkweather
I'm here to speak about the commissioners selection procedure. I recommend for each district City Council person and chronological order a To recommend all new upcoming commissioner vacancies beginning with district one. I assume since the majority of existing commissioners have already been previously recommended by a mayor, I recommend each city council person to recommend a new commissioner for vacancies when it is their time to do so.
When two or more commissioner vacancies are available for the same department, I recommend that interviews of each applicant to be conducted simultaneously with the chronological multiple city district council persons making the recommendations. That's what happened when I had my interview as Arts Commissioner. When only one vacancy is being filled And interviewed by one city district council person, then I recommend the mayor to also be available during the interview.
From my own previous history with commission application interviews, I recommend each commission department with vacancies To submit in writing a list of recommended candidates that have submitted applications for the positions for the City Council persons to consider. I recommend for the interviews to only be between the city council persons making the selections For recommendation and the applicants with at least two members from the City Council present during the interviews Thank you. Can I
thank you Valerie?
Yeah, I'm sorry. This is so important. So I want to be clear Are you? I thought I heard you say contradictory things. But are you saying you want only one person, the city council member present at the interview? Or are you saying that... You know, I'm used to the process where there's three people present. The chair, a city council member and the mayor.
So my recommendation is you always have two members from the city council but not the chair.
What is your, may I ask what your reason is?
I prefer to say positive and be kind. But there was a lot of problems with my appointment and it's been difficult being on the Arts Commission because of that.
Okay so that's based on your experience. And then the other thing you said When it's that council members turn, I heard you say that. Now did you mean a newly elected member? It's their turn or did you mean when there's a vacancy? So someone has
expired. Okay, so there's when so right now there's two vacancies because you're going to from five to seven So and there's two different like departments or commission. So that's four. So if you start with district one Both district 1 in district 2 would meet for the interviews You're not recommending that When there's a new council seated
1:50 – 2:1039 turns
That they are allowed to, if they prefer somebody else. If they prefer a different commission that they are allowed to fire it.
No, no, no. Only when there's a vacancy. Only
when there's a vacancy? Thank you that was
my
question.
And just go in chronological order so like one and two would maybe do parks and recs or we'd do the next one and just keep alternating like
that. Thank you Valerie. I have a quick question. So when you were interviewed there were two council members potentially the mayor and a second council... Thank you. Thank you appreciate it thank you next we have Wayne Maynard then Jeffrey Stark weather
Wayne Maynard, a resident of Ojai. Several years ago I volunteered to be on the Building Appeals Board and I was interviewed by two council members. I was recommended to be appointed to that board and went to the City Council and it was a horrible experience for me and it had to do with politics between the divided council And so I chose not to volunteer for that kind of stuff anymore. And now, I'm working for the Ojai Fire Safety Council where I'm getting some stuff done.
So anyway, but my point is this alternative option. I'm not sure if this in the staff report is only dealing with six and seven positions or for all future positions. But my comment is that I consider this the Rolodex system. Okay, so you have the mayor district 1 district 2 district 3 district 4 and as a commission appointment comes up You go to the Rolodex and whoever gets the pick they or they I'm assuming there get to make the recommendation This dude gets interviewed. I'm not sure really how that works But and then their name goes to the back and then the next one okay The problem with that is that if I was a council person, I would want to have some influence on all of the commissions.
And so you almost need Rolodex system for each commission so that each council person gets an opportunity to make appointment for each of the various commissions because you could have a couple or just the way it works out Probability you may not ever get a chance to like appoint somebody to the Planning Commission because your turn didn't come up So that's just a comment because I've done this kind of work before so Thank You
Wayne next we have Jeffrey Stark weather
I'm not here to weigh in how you pick people cuz I'm on the commission, so I don't want to get into that and I very much support the idea that a majority of the board, at least in the planning commission, so we do affect property are local residents. And I've been on there since June and we have not had a problem and we meet unlike other commissions twice a month.
So I think in a way That and I don't want to speak for others, but I think that may be an incentive to get people to come to meetings. Because we take our role very seriously and people think about that. We talk about it as everyone's going to be here. And I was interviewed actually by two commissioners and by the chair which I thought was great. What do you
mean city council members?
Two city council members and the chair And of course, we've got a great chair in Steve Quillacy. But I could see where you could have the community development director be the interviewer because it's then... So far on our planning board or commission, we have no politics being played. We've reached almost unanimous decision Rachel's been in our meetings on every boat and we like to work collaboratively so I think the fact that we feel responsible for to get there and I would like to keep that system where you have to have a majority of the residents at the meetings. Thank you
Thank You Jeffrey Weston any comments online
no raised hands me,
okay
Thank you. I'm Heidi Whitman, I'm a resident of the city of Ojai. I think the language is super important so as a city resident I would like to see a majority of not local residents but city residents I feel very unrepresented sometimes when there is not a quorum and a majority of city residents. I vote in the city, I expect my council members to represent me and I feel better represented by people that live in the city and are experiencing the same thing that I experience as a city resident So I'm gonna just share a little story. So we come from a very big family, the Whitmans and it's pretty unusual because Andy's parents had five children they were all raised here and then when they got married We all chose to move back to Ojai because it was so special.
We chose to move back to raise our families here So for a while, there were like 22 of us. And Andy and I were the only ones that chose to raise our family in the city of Ojai. So we'd have dinner conversations at family gatherings and there was always a very diverse number of opinions on all kinds of local issues but I thought it was great that most of Andy's family really said oh yeah well You guys actually live there. So I think it's super important that this council really consider having a majority and not just looking for whoever will fill the seat, but this is also a great opportunity to recruit young people that then could fill your roles at some point in the future. And if we don't start doing that in Ojai, you know, we're looking very gray, and I would even look gray, but I'm...
So I just would like to see more young faces and commissions are such a great way to do that. So maybe we need to look at when the commissions meet or how we can get more young people involved, or even reach out in colleges with younger people so that we get some younger opinions. So thanks very much.
Thank you Heidi. A point of clarification. Already the majority of commissioners. It's my understanding They're already city residents But it
would be great if I mean, I've I've had the pleasure of working for a
number of small cities I want to clarify well that point well that already The on all of the commissions, the majority if they're safe there's five. Is that not true? If it's not true I want to know that.
So right now each of the commission that has a residency requirement it has to be a minority of the commission non-residents. Yeah. But I hear Ms. Whitman adding one further step that every quorum has to be majority residents That is different than the current rule which requires quorums to be either majority resident or equal resident and non-resident. I understand Ms. Whitman's request to have the council adopt a rule that all quorums must be majority residents.
Okay, so the drawback of
that... And no, the Planning Commission, if I could clarify that. The Planning Commission's current ordinance is not that a quorum be majority residents. It allows a quorum to be equal resident and non-resident.
Are you finished? Well, I just want to address your point So I think we should be striving for 100% Ojai residents, and we are so fortunate to have a lot of talent in this valley. And so I see where it can be a benefit but I think it's super important that we look for Ojai residents first. So I had the pleasure of working for a number of small cities and counties in the Tri-Counties area, and I can't think of a single one that has so many people that don't live in the city or in the county. I've just never even heard of it! I wonder if we're like the only one in the whole County Ventura? So anyway, I would just encourage let's look for city residents first and and I think it's important. Thank
you. Just a quick question Heidi so Miss Whitman just a quick question. So your suggestion would be that we prioritize City residents if it's possible to do so, but you would be okay with If we only had you know There's one there's one place open and that and you know It wouldn't throw off the balance if we had only Valley, you know Ohai Valley resident or
I think there's a big difference depending on the number of Commission seats.
Okay,
and and so I went back and looked at all the videos in the past Mr. Wyrick was very involved in And what I thought was a great back, I think in 2019. He led a great discussion about this at that time and it's unfortunate that you don't have the benefit of that history but yeah, I think that ideally it would be city residents and and at least a quorum because it's often Different I went to a Planning Commission meeting and really I questioned even whether there was really a quorum because it There were more people. There was a majority of people that weren't From that didn't live in the city
Thank you. Thank you, Heidi. All right, we will go on move on to council discussion. So
We're on discussion
so we just finished public comment who would like to begin?
I would love to begin. So, I would say the critical question when we interview people is in order to have that kind of quorum and not be delayed three months because we don't have that kind of quorum is that we have to ask can you commit to attending on a regular basis? Because we never miss okay most I mean I've served 12 years I think I missed once if that and I was on a zoom meeting. I was on a zoom meeting, the time that I did miss because I had a cold. I've never missed and most council members never miss so we want that kind of commitment on our commissions because then we could have this the majority They're already elected. There's already a majority of citizens, of Ojai City residents selected. However having said that I don't feel as strongly, I do feel that our borders are artificial they were created many many years ago and I welcome the input because in truth everything we do impacts the whole valley Many, many wonderful potential commissioners no longer live in Ojai because the housing is so much more expensive especially if you're renting.
So we have to be careful that there's not, you know, if Ojai becomes more and more expensive, more and more elitist, you will no longer have diversity on your commissions That's another very important consideration. I mean, that's going to happen on the City Council as well because we are the full the whole city council is going to consist of You know a certain Diversity a demographic yeah, so thank you for that help My other question I'm not going to talk about the interview process now because I want to get through the resolution, the ordinance. Excuse me. Okay Mr. Summers you know as I'm looking at this and I'm thinking about the future and how things change Couldn't we simply, I don't think there'll be support but this is my train of thought that I want to go on record.
Can't we simply state in the ordinance that the number of each commission whether it's five or seven is up to the individual commission because needs change? And a number of commissioners available, things change. And so is there a way to get around going through this whole? The
council could delegate to the commissions the power to select the size of the commission Yes, that is legally possible. If I could provide legal advice, do not recommend that because it may leave a situation where it's difficult for anyone to determine what is the current size of a commission if there is a disputed expansion by a commission that then leaves it uncertain as to size. It is critical to know what is the exact size of a body so we can understand how to test the Brown Act's requirements.
Okay, I agree
get it
yeah
also couldn't do that but I don't recommend it. I reckon the council simply make a choice
Yeah, thank you. I agree. I agree. Thank you Other council
members
Yeah, I have some comments So I don' t agree that City borders are artificial because the city borders is Create a big distinction in terms of whether you are paying taxes and whether you are paying for the things that are happening in the city. And I have always felt and have always wanted the idea that I would be represented by somebody in any of our commissions or on city council, of course.
By somebody who lives here and pays taxes here. And so the other part of why borders are not artificial is that You either live here and experience what's happening in the city or if you don't live in the city then you don't necessarily experience and understand. So, if you live on the west side of the unincorporated Area of Ojai, maybe you never go farther than bonds and don't really experience what's going on downtown.
And I think of that more specifically. For those commissions that involve property rights, so planning and HPC. I would Prefer so when I was on planning in 2005 and my memory is not good, and I couldn't find I Mean my memory's not perfect. But what I recall the all of the commissions at that time were seven-person commissions And the rule was that you could have two Commissioners who were not city residents if they were needed to fulfill fundamental requirements.
So you couldn't So you couldn't give preference to a non-city resident unless you were missing some essential component of your commission. We would sometimes be unable to find an architect to serve on planning, which for many years we would traditionally have at least one architect on the Planning Commission and so it would be okay to go outside the city to find an architect. And I think that we should go back to that idea, I also think that it's important That the selection process involves each council member selecting a commission member.
And I've been kind of back and forth on whether that would be every commission or just the ones involving property rights, But I heard tonight a suggestion that we should do that for all the commissions. It's a way for the voter who's brought somebody into office to connect with their council member and to have some influence on the commissions. And it's a way for the council member who is elected, um, to have an influence on the people who are going to be implementing advising policy.
And just in my example For planning, which is something that I have a lot of interest in. If the current commissioner serves out the entire four-year term then I will not make an appointment until five months, until I'm either deciding to run for re-election or not. And I don't think that's... I think it's very important that we have council members selecting their commissioners And my thought about the Commission composition is that if there's five, there should be one non-resident and that assures that you're Always having You know at least three residents making a decision and that if there's seven It would be at least five So there could be two non Residents and then the other thing is that The Planning Commission ordinance says that we should have a Professionals serving, somebody who's got licensure and training in land use issues.
And the ordinance lists what those are. And I don't know that we have any that fit that criteria.
2:10 – 2:1711 turns
That's why I gave you that resume. I hope you read it. Well, are you finished? He said he doesn't know. I'm sorry for interrupting. I do want to respond to all the things that were said when it's my
turn. So those are my comments. I think that it's just kind of a fundamental part of democracy That the planning commissioners would be, or that all of the commissioners would be selected by the people who have been voted into office. And that the commissioners who were appointed by people who have chose not to run or maybe didn't get elected, lost in the election? I don't understand the logic.
We're there commissioner would stay on if the person who was elected wanted a different commissioner
Well, we're gonna take turns Rachel or Wesley
I'd like to respond First of all remember that this cuts both ways If there's another council elected when we're not here. I They can do the same thing. I mean you're political you're suggesting that That there's a possibility For a commissioner not to be able to finish their term if I'm if I'm understanding you, correct are you saying that you would like a process where Because you won't get a turn until unless you run again for the Planning Commission That you would have the power to fire a Commissioner who's working very well with the whole body That's you would like that that power to do that. Is that what you're asking?
It's not firing Sousa,
what is it?
It's selecting a commissioner to serve for my district,
but I'm asking are you? Suggesting that that could happen before there's a vacancy.
Yes Okay, I think it should I think it should happen when the you know at some period just beyond the election
two more points, okay Rachel would like to speak wait. I want to respond to everything that he said and Secondly, okay just remember that cuts your proposal cuts both ways. Okay secondly and there's a lot more I could say about that but secondly the question the issue of residents And their contribution to and their experience in the city Comes up all the time and you would if you had if this had been advertised you'd have every business owner in town here You know pointing out how much they contribute to the city Although they don't live in the city for various reasons, often because of the expense. So we have to keep in mind that we need to acknowledge that Many, many business owners and many of the volunteers. There's so much that the whole fabric that holds our town together is the volunteers.
If they're a volunteer working at the museum seven days a week then we don't care whether they live in the city or whether they live in Meyers Oaks. So when I said there was an artificial border I did not mean that there wasn't an actual border with taxpayers and all of that I meant that the borders were created a long, long time ago and things have changed since those borders were created. And I can assure you that the business community would be highly offended at being characterized That they're not contributing or experiencing the city in a similar way. I mean, I've lived here 67 years. I've lived in the city outside the city. I've lived all over you know that's often a normal thing and anyway so there's that and then Okay, I'm going to wait for my colleagues to speak and then Rachel.
Thank you
So I actually I really Resonate with your point about business owners and people who are not residents taxpayers of the city. I Think that is something I am open to You know, I'm going to take this out of the political context of current commissioners. And one thing that I see about the appointment process is looking at state politics, looking at national politics when a president is elected they choose their entire They don't come in, you know, Biden didn't come in and keep Trump's appointees.
And even though we're obviously not on the same level as that I feel that one of the, you know, one of the, you know, we are elected into office to serve the people that we represent And if, and I think that it just goes with the position that we would be able to appoint our own commissioners. And in particular, I have one resident who comes to every single meeting in my district. He's a neighbor of mine. He speaks a lot and you know, if I wanted to appoint him on the Planning Commission or anything else, I would really want to have the opportunity to do that I'm not suggesting that we need to kick anybody out, but maybe looking at the next election cycle being a time when we could start fresh or start with having our own appointees. Leslie?
2:17 – 2:2822 turns
I am really trying to stay away from being political, but that is what it's going to look like. I mean just because of what has come up previously and the disdain that certain council members have shown for certain citizens I would like to make a point of clarification that this is not the first time that we have So I personally think in a place this small, you don't have a great pool from which to choose.
Waiting in line for the planning commission. I mean it's it's hard to get people and serious people who volunteer so that to me It's a very small pool that we have especially if we decide that we're going to limit it to folks that live in the city, and I also agree that I would I think if we default to Exclusivity rather than inclusivity in the valley we started a really bad precedent I feel like we would start a very bad precedent.
It would make, to do this now and I love your suggestion perhaps of allowing it happening next council or grandfathering or something like that because in the end It's gonna look like that we were petty and vindictive because we didn't like somebody. And whether or not it's true, that will be the perception. I have to say that and it will make all of us look that way.
Can I- So I'll just point out that I did not bring up anybody's name
Neither did I.
Yeah, but there is a two-way street and you can have commission members who feel like it's their job to denigrate councilmembers and so I'll just leave it at that, but it's not my thought process that we don't acknowledge everybody who contributes to the community. But I've been here long enough to see what happens when we talk about say let's expand the recreation district to a valley-wide district It's come up many times Guess what?
The people who don't live in the city don't want to pay for it And I'm gonna just let me finish my comment We've looked at annexation oh and Overwhelmingly, the people who do not live in the city do not want to be annexed into the city because it's more expensive to live in the city. So I think if the people who live here and vote here and pay taxes here are going to bear the brunt of expensive programs, I think it's important that the residents—I haven't suggested that we have no out-of-town Town residents, I'm suggesting in a five person commission that we'd have one non-resident and in the seven we'd have two. And that at least assures that in any decision made That the majority voice would be residents because it's, it's residence money that we're dealing with.
So
I know it's my turn. I'm going to say, um, I think a really important point that you brought up council member rule is the truth versus perception and you know, we are here to make hard decisions And we were elected to, and we all ran on policies. We all had platforms. So I mean for example, I know that the last planning commissioner appointment there were three or four other people who applied who some of them were resident, I think all of them were residents, who are very qualified so there is a pool out there.
And we're not talking about kicking anybody out. I love your point about you know the president chooses the cabinet because You know, and this is our job. We have a hard job to represent the people and represent the policies on which we ran. So I think it's really important to focus on policy. It's not personal. You know I mean the Planning Commission makes a lot of decisions about land use and we need to be, you know we were elected so our policies need to be reflected there. And I don't feel that they are at this point across the board.
I agree that it's important to realize who's paying for all this. The taxpayers, that's a really good point. Who's paying for this? And they would like to be represented by someone who lives here. I've heard that over and over. These are also people who vote which is most important. They voted us in to represent them so it is our hard decision to figure out how we are going to best represent them.
And
could I ask you a question? Just because I'm confused. So, I am confused on the idea of they pay. I mean, I don't know who pays what. What are you talking about? They pay property taxes. They pay sales tax. I just,
I'm unclear. Miss Whitman and Andy both brought up the fact that they these people are paying taxes in the city, right? And they are also voting in the city. They want to be represented by I just needed
clarification Thank you.
I didn't
I didn't get that and they have a connection between to the money that's going to be part of our next agenda item, that people who are not residents don't have the same connection to our budget.
So could I make a comment? Leslie, that's true. They don't but I don't have much you know, I mean who knows but Gosh I lost my train of thought there. Please go
ahead. Go ahead
Susan
I think if you took a survey As many people, like who shops in Ojai? Is it the people that live here? I mean many of them go to Trader Joe's. I know that for a fact and to Costco and then I know people that live in Meyers Oaks who spend a fortune shopping locally you know in the city at Westridge and Rainbow Bridge so that's a lot more complicated and it's not so black-and-white as far as you know the flow of money into the city
Yeah, and I think the more important point though is policy. Are we as electeds being represented on the commissions? Our policies because we promised the people, the voters of our town to do that. I
have a couple of questions. I mean, I know that property taxes are actually a significant portion of our revenue. Is it one-third? Is it quarter?
Offhand, I think it's like $2.5 million of our budget. It's one of our big three taxes and property tax to the point about sales tax technically could come from whoever we don't know who it's coming from Property tax. If you live in the city, a portion of your property taxes come to the city. If you live in the county, no portion of your property tax comes to the city. So that's probably the one that is the most black and white. Sales tax if you live outside the city you might shop here. If you live in the city you might shop here. Hotel tax if you're a resident you might stay in a hotel. If your resident you might never stay in a hotel in the city So the other ones maybe aren't so clear as far as the big three, but there's also other fees.
The commission that makes rules has to follow the rules. If they require a permit for residents and it is something we do here, residents will call us and say, well, they don't live here, they don't have to get the permit. So there's a lot of arguments, but ultimately it comes down to a policy choice. But so those are some of the things that we've heard over the years.
Thank you. One is because one of the things I'm thinking You know just in reflecting on residents versus non-residents is you know when I When I talk to the people of my district what they care most about are the roads are you know and and so I think And so I think that the residents would have very different ideas of what's needed in terms of the budget than the non-residents. And if I could ask a point of clarification too about, to Council Member Whitman, about the Parks and Rec Department, the expansion that you just mentioned? I'm not familiar with that.
Yeah, Parks and Rec department we talked about doing a countywide parks and rec district. And there's not an incentive if you live in the county there's no reason you'd want to sign up to pay more, but our residents don't get that choice they just have to pay, you know they have to pay, pay the costs. And then similar with annexation, it's one of the challenges.
I pride myself we provide pretty good service so we get a lot of calls from county residents. They don't have to pay for that. The taxpayers, the residents pay for that. But then if we go to them and say, now you're benefiting. Do you want to pay for it? The answer is why would I pay for it? I get it for free. So those are sort of common things we hear. And so the difference is if you're in the county, you get to choose.
If you live here, you don't get to choose. You just have to pay. So there is just a difference. I do think we have sort of like a one valley perspective, but there are some obligations that come with living in the city.
Just to move things along thank you James woods would a council member like to put up motion on the table Thank you, thank you it's very good question. It's protocol often to put your eyes on the could I finish without being interrupted please
sure?
Thank you Yeah, I'd make a motion that we
2:28 – 2:4530 turns
Well, actually so I don't want there to be any perception that there's this idea that there's going to be some wholesale changing of the guard. And I'm very much open to the idea of having some type of staggering if a new council member wants to make a new commission So that it doesn't happen like, you know, but I'd also point out that So first of all we currently have a rule that three council members Can vote any Commissioner off at any point in time?
And I'll just point out that At no point in time have I raised that I wanted to bring Any particular Commissioner forward to be removed by a majority? The I Think that Every council member should have the right to select their commissioners and that the only way that the majority should be able to remove somebody is if there's cause and we should set out a, I'm not talking about the original selection. I'm talking about once somebody's been appointed that the majority of the council shouldn't be able to say no You just because we don't want that person to serve There that but we should have provisions for cause and you know, we talked about doing a code of ethics We should we should create criteria that constitute cause for For Dismissing or replacing a commissioner and I don't know,
I'd ask. We can develop criteria for cause and take a look at what other cities have done. This is always very much an inherent policy choice. Some cities allow if there are individual council member appointments the individual can remove the commissioner at will making it a direct one-to-one match policy to policy. Some city's allow for single councilman make the appointment Without ratification by the council other single-member appointment with ratification by Council and then on the removal side Yeah, we can find some examples and put together some criteria for cause typically be something like malfeasance in office gross misconduct that sort of list
I do have a concern about Commissioner relationships with staff But what I'm talking about is that if, let's say we have a 4-1 majority on council and there's that one council member. Under our current system they would potentially never appoint anyone and that does not reflect what the voters did. So if... I'm
not following what you're saying.
Okay, so if I'm
honestly I'm not
okay. So if If if you just do majority rule which is what is in our ordinances right now the the majority can remove Any commissioner?
I was completely unaware of that
it's
that I thought that it had to be caused such as too many absences or
The current ordinance allows the council majority on an agenda to remove any commissioner at will. And that power, as noted, could be used to prevent a minority council member from ever having commissioners. The council has never done that and that's what Commissioner... I am proposing... But it is in the... It is a power that exists for the Council. Okay.
I'm proposing that we codify that if you know that each elected council member Has protection of their commissioners that they want to implement their policies unless there's some cause. You know, and we'd have to define what that is. And so I'm not in. So the other part of that would be is that if I decide when I get elected that I want a specific person on planning because I know that that person's thoughts about planning align with mine there's no reason why whoever I bumped off some other Councilmember could say oh, you know, I really I like that persons and Select them It just just to be clear there. This is not an unusual Set of circumstances, you know, I think I don't know if it's a majority but very many City councils have that one-to-one selection process with the city council member and the So here's what I'm going to propose as a motion, and that is that we amend for all of our commissions.
That if you have a five person commission there will be one no more than one non-resident on the commission. If you have a seven person commission you have no more than two, that we specify that each council member will have the selection. And we're gonna get some language before we... That would identify how the new council member makes that selection of their council member, and that we include a provision that each council member shall have the right to have a commissioner on each commission unless that specific commissioner is discharged by cause.
Is there a second?
I would second that motion. The issue with the Parks and Rec solidified for me, and also thinking about property taxes solidified for me the majority.
And I would just like to echo councilmember Whitman's Suggestion that we have some kind of ethics or protocols specifically for interacting with staff and how Commissioners communicate with staff and how often and I What kind of things are acceptable to discuss? Is it okay to denigrate residents in an email for a commissioner to do that? Let me finish my sentence, please.
You know, I want to be careful with my words. But how are staff addressed? Are staff being addressed with respect and decorum? I think that is super important because our staff works so hard and we have such a great staff. And thank you so much James for Bringing everybody together And Matt, thank you for all your work much appreciated and I think it's really important that we nurture this staff and take good care of them and not let them in any way get Abused by Commissioners and I think that is a really really important point as to As a safety measure and and I'm not you know, I'm not We are look we're talking about policy here. It's not personal its policy, but there's an occasion That that there's
been abuse or
right? I mean,
I don't understand what you're saying I mean, I've not heard the city manager would immediately immediately handle I thought there already was a protocol for how commissioners approach staff. I mean, it's not just lapsidacical where they can be rude and just walk into the office. There is a process.
There's a process which doesn't mean it doesn't occur and which doesn't mean I don't have to address issues. So if the idea is to codify what is okay and what's not so that then we can If we can implement that, then I think that's sort of what is being suggested. But without
implying there has been wrongdoing? Has
there been
wrongdoing? We've addressed
issues. There was a public records request and here is a stack of emails from a commissioner to the staff over a period of 10 months with 140 demands on staff And they're not simple demands, they are complicated which requires a huge amount of staff time. Here's a stack over the same amount of time attacks on residents people who live here and vote here and this is public record so anyone can see it I don't think that's appropriate for a commissioner whether it's in an email or online or in public To be criticizing and attacking residents.
And the commissioners don't work for staff, and so it's always Maybe maybe that's maybe the idea but there's always that Tension of I can tell them that when I don't think they're acting appropriately But the council is their boss
And my aim in bringing this up is so that our staff can function and get all the important work that you have to do done. This, in my opinion, is too much.
If we create objective standards that the commissioners are to adhere to then there shouldn't be a problem
I think Leslie was before you providing information What's wrong the staff does not? I mean, are you providing information shows enthusiasm for them at four subjects. I mean I get I get those same emails I don't always have time to read them but it makes me my Response is very different. It makes me feel like that Commissioner really cares and
They're appropriate to the council and this is people have seen my emails. I think it's a hot topic right now but I'll often reply because they're asking the staff to do research that the council hasn't asked the staff to do and I'll often reply and say we cannot do that research pending Council direction and then they'll say well, I think it's really important and And that leads to an awkward situation because the staff don't want to say no So I usually end up saying no, but it's it's not if the commissioner thinks it's important It's whether the council thinks it's important and then tells the staff to spend the time on it. So so that is an issue That occurs frequently. I think there's a few email requests that have gone out that show several emails along those ways but To your point, they can do that to the council.
They work for the council. They can tell the council, hey we think there's a topic that you should tell the staff to work on but it's not supposed to be how it works with the staff. The staff takes the direction from the council.
I understand. I think it's good to clarify that.
Councilmember will yeah, I was gonna say um. I think it's fine to have you know a Code and and strictly adhere to it. I mean when I call James or I call you know He or Lucas will tell me you know I need council direction You know to spend any kind of time Thank you very much. I think there's also a way to set the stage for that. Whether it's to go in front of them and have them understand the way the process works once we actually have it codified, and to get an agreement that everyone understands how it can work, how it should work. That staff, they're not direct-to-staff, they're appointed by us and they should come to us, and we can take care of that. That's our job.
So I don't have a problem with that at all. I remember what I wanted to say, If we don't allow non-residents to be on boards, we don't have a Kathy Nolan. We don't have a Gail Childress. We don't have Ray Powers. We don't have Brian Akins. We are our community members who have spent a lot of time devoted and made this town what it is. Gail Childress does not live in Ojai, yet she put up all of the civic art. She started that when she was head of the Arts Council, right? Kathy Nolan started The Green Coalition. She was on the planning board. Yeah, so I'm just saying when these are actual examples of people who have not lived in the city who have by virtue of the volunteer by their time and their energy and their experience I would vote for inclusivity all the way down down the line.
That having been said it's a council decision on but that is where I stand and I certainly would not. I would not vote to at this point in time. I'm next up on the Planning Commission. I am happy to give my appointment to you so that you will have it in 2024 if that would serve as a way to at least placate you and we can figure out a way to work. It may not, but it may! So I don't want to wait till 2024
2:45 – 2:5324 turns
All right well we have a
23 now.
We have a motion, we have
a second.
I'm
not ready to vote though.
Madam Mayor before we take a vote staff does have one critical question for the commissions that have seven members how will the last two be appointed? Five council members get one appointment, each is five. There's two more commissioners and staff would ask how the council wishes those last two to be appointed. Options would include mayor makes two further appointments. Mayor and mayor pro tem each make one further appointment. Council majority upon nomination by anybody makes the two further appointments or any other method as the council may choose.
Do you want to add something to your motion Andy?
Can we, but do we have a right if it's our turn to give our turn to somebody else? Well of course we
can. The council could ratify that appointment yes.
I do have a question could the motion be repeated it was a 20 minute motion.
Yes. As I understand the motion, and I'll look to the maker of the motion to correct me if i'm wrong. It would be direct staff that drafts an ordinance that would amend all commissioned ordinances to have for five member commissions a maximum of one non-resident of the city for seven member commissions a maximum of two non-residents of the city each council member would get to select a commissioner All council members would get the right to have a commissioner unless removed for cause by the full council.
And the open question is what about the extra two? And as I also understand it, it would be to have seven member commissions be the Parks and Rec Commission and the Historic Preservation Commission leaving the others at five.
Okay, so I'll add to my motion that Where we have a seven-person Commission that the appointment is made by a three person committee The chair of the commission along with the mayor and the mayor pro tem
Okay. So we have a motion. We have a second Susie you have a final comment before we vote
Yes I'm a little bit concerned about something that you said about representing the voters. Let's remember that the voters are a huge diverse group and they don't necessarily agree with every single one of our policies only two people. You know there I was elected in 1996 When there were six or eight people running for two seats, we haven't seen that in years. We no longer have a wide choice of people running. We only had you and someone who was new to the Valley.
That the voters had this huge diverse choice to elect someone that was closely aligned with all of their values. I think, in my opinion, I agree with what Council Member Ruhl said about diversity. Over and over again, I see that when you have a diverse commission, even if you don't necessarily agree with every single thing, every decision that each commissioner makes In the end, there are better decisions made. More holistic and that's how you represent the people by diversity not exclusivity. I just feel like we're going down a path where it's more almost like a dictatorship rather than a democracy. I'm not happy with this direction at all.
And I'm for codes of ethics And all of that and I'm in favor of some of what you said, but I'm extremely worried about. You know that the commissioners need to reflect the policy of the council when I ran each time there was only one other person running. You know, it's not like the voters had a huge choice. So I'm worried about that.
I understand where you're coming from, Sousa. I do though think that we have a commitment to fulfill our platforms and our policies and our promises You know, we all ran and talked to a lot of people. And I take that commitment very, very seriously. So I think it's really important that the people on the commissions reflect the policies that are held by the elected officials.
So we do have a motion.
Can I make a final statement? As was noted in the lawsuit, I won by 17 votes. That's 2%. You won by 1%, Betsy. To think that you have any kind of mandate or as people have pointed out to me numerous times That we have any kind of mandate or that you know, there is this huge divergence between the people in Ojai. I just think that what we are doing here is once again going into narrowing our approach, narrowing our thinking and not taking into account and not valuing those people that are our community even if they don't live in Ojai I think Rachel, I think I know the person that you were talking about.
He doesn't necessarily reflect your thinking. He is an active and engaged citizen, which is more valuable than reflecting our opinions in my opinion, someone who will commit, who will think, who will engage. I don't necessarily believe that... First of all, I think we're this far apart, you know? And we fight a whole bunch in there but it's really this. So in the end, that's my final comment on it. I would hate to default to cutting out that amount of community and once again just narrowing our approach on who can come into our little world.
Can I say one thing? Not the word mandate, I said the word commitment. I think we have a commitment to follow through on our promises So at this point we have a motion, we have a second.
I'll just make one final comment and that is that at this point we do select our government by voting and you have every bit as authority with your 17 vote margin as I did with my 160 vote margin And that's the system that we have and it's called democracy. It's not, you know, dictatorship that the person who gets elected... I take that
back. That was too strong.
Okay? Don't put that in the paper please! I don't mean it. So, I think it's important Like I said, I think it's important that the elected officials are involved in selecting who is going to push policy forward and under the current system its people. You know, I think I pointed out that there is only one person currently on the Planning Commission who was appointed by anybody who is sitting here Rachel
yes, I just wanted to clarify that That you know we have an Incredible population of people in the city with so many skills and so much incredible background. I mean right now I can think of three people in my district who have very specific planning experience and who are highly, highly qualified. And so I don't think it is actually—I think we still are keeping a position open for someone who's outside of the city. So it used to be two for five and you're reducing it one four
five I can't vote for that so one one four five and two
four seven And I also think it will give people in the community who are
2:54 – 3:027 turns
You know, who are young, who are up and coming, who want to have a way into city government. I think it would give them an opportunity and maybe engage them more. So I actually think it would be really good.
And it might make us work a little harder to find Ojai residents to serve each of us
individually. We have a motion and we have a second so let's go ahead and vote.
Can I clarify one point which is, I think the, I heard a concern from a couple of comments and then I think for a couple council members about the language, which sort of complicates it about no more than three members shall be non residents but then four members have to And then how many members needs to be a quorum and all that. That language can drop out now with this because it wouldn't be possible if there's not more than two commissioners on a commission of seven who are non-residents or one on a commission of five, so I would recommend just dropping that language out cause I think it just causes confusion. I agree with that. James? Okay.
I would like to make one critical point before you vote Remember that many, many people, especially young people do not live in the city because it's so much more expensive. It's just not possible. They're living in Myers Oaks, Oakview, the River Bottom, Upper Ojai, East End. Are they really living in the city? The people that work here? Just remember that when you vote and that's why I'm not voting for
them. Can we have the roll call please Weston?
Roll-call vote Passed 3–2
Show transcript
Okay thank you very much we will take a short adjournment and then we will be back to for item number four the Valley Parking Initiative thank you Yeah.
3:06 – 3:1112 turns
Please.
Okay, we are back. Thank you and before we begin item number four could we all just wish Mayor Pro Tem Francina a happy birthday tomorrow? That's going to be your birthday present okay.
We'll move on to item number four the Valley Parking Initiative the parking committee recommendation and future parking committee direction Do we have a staff report, James?
Yes, very brief. We've talked about this recently as well so I think people have an idea but the gist of it was that there was an initiative filed to regulate valet parking. The initiative was rejected by the city clerk due to failure to file proof with the city of the publication of the notice of the petition And so at that time, a lawsuit was filed against the city.
And we came forward to the council to ask the council what path would be taken on that process? We had noted that the City Council could take no action and essentially let the lawsuit play out. The council could direct staff to draft an ordinance amending the municipal code to regulate valet parking That the Council could consider adopting or the Council could direct staff to essentially go through the process to submit the matter to the voters.
And those were three options when we presented those to the Council, the Council asked for the Parking Committee to review the matter And provide a recommendation. So the parking committee has reviewed the matter and at their meeting last week, and they provided a recommendation. I'm trying to remember if that was in the report or if it... I think it was the last thing we were getting into the report so I think it is in here but where is that?
Oh here it is.
Okay,
thank you Thank you. Yes half on one page so So the parking committee recommended that the council direct staff to proactively include language in the code Because currently there is no language in the code related to valet parking And so they recommended we proactively include language in the code, which could be developed by the community development director through the planning commission that would define valet parking and require that any valet parking be reviewed by the planning commission with the idea being that it's reviewed in public in a public meeting with objective standards that must be met.
It would ensure public review, it would ensure objective standards appropriate conditions for any valet parking proposal. The committee also recommended asking the initiative proponent to present information at a future City Council and or Planning Commission meeting regarding their concerns related to valet parking so that their concerns may be considered. So, that's the recommendation from the Parking Committee and so that is returned to the council We do have the matter still pending. I think that we got a date, updated date and it's on June 22nd that the next court conference is on this matter so we have this meeting and potentially one more meeting for it so we don't have much more time to review it. So we're recommending that the council direct staff on which action to take if any on this matter.
And if I could add one more point, I conferred with council for the petitioner yesterday. Today's Tuesday? Yesterday to confirm that their settlement offer still stands and the offer that stands is if the council were to adopt an ordinance substantially similar to the ordinance that they submitted via the initiative process or were to submit an ordinance substantially similar to the ordinance that they submitted to the voters, either of those actions would result in the plaintiff dismissing the suit.
Other actions they would assess further.
Thank you. Okay it's time for questions from Council.
No, that was a conversation
the city attorney
had yesterday. Oh yesterday.
So after the agenda deadline to confirm after the packet came out and the committee had met where the plaintiffs were and they that offer stands if one of those two things is taken is done. And I could jump in briefly. I believe the plaintiff's counsel is present by Zoom. I'm not sure if I'm sure they put a card in or will raise their hand for public comment. They can further comment if they want.
I believe the lawyer for the plaintiff who is suing the city is in the Zoom and can comment if they have, if the council wants.
3:11 – 3:2228 turns
Microphone please.
Still on questions.
Yeah, but I Heard James say that something about a future meeting But my recollection is that we want to hear from Leslie Hess and others today
This language was the language that the committee agreed to in the meeting, so I can't comment on it. If that wasn't the intent then maybe there's a mistake but we also just to point out, so the committee can make a recommendation but they actually can't do it until the council says too, so they couldn't have done it in advance.
It would take the council to ask Ms. Hess to come and speak to the council. But again, I think her lawyer is present and may wish to speak for her. I also don't know if she's present or not, I don't know.
So remember we're on questions right now. What are the chances, in your opinion Matt, what are the city's chances of prevailing if there were a lawsuit?
So at this point the city itself hasn't taken a position on the lawsuit yet.
If it were you know how much would it cost if we ended up
If the matter is litigated in full, to conclusion and the city prevails somewhere between $15,000-$100,000 because recall the city's paying for two lawyers. One for the city myself and my firm for the city a second lawyer Olson Ramachow and Kristen Rogers for the City Clerk who is separately represented because she is separately elected. Ms. Burrell is separately elected.
The council if the matter were litigated the council could choose for the city Whether or not to take any action and actually spend any money on the case, and simply have the clerk defend her decision. And the plaintiffs challenge that as they likely will, that would cut the cost in half. The council could also choose to align with the plaintiffs in support their side of the case and do so cheaply or expensively by doing a simple brief for doing a full court press.
It's a little bit difficult to provide precise handicapping of all of it. We, as previously noted, we did not find a case directly on point that considers this exact piece of the Elections Code. The Elections Code is very picayune. Every subsection has a different set of requirements and the requirement here that was, as the clerk found, not followed is to file the proof of publication with the City Clerk's Office within specified time.
The proposed initiative was published We found no case that analyzed that exact question, so it's an open question. Substance of the rules followed that would be the challenges whether substantial compliance will be extended by the court to cover the situation here where the Ordinance was published, but the proof was not filed and That's about as much as I'm would want to provide the council an open session.
Okay? You're not willing to say who you think would win I
do actually have a question and
perhaps the city attorney can help me on this and I'm waiting for the hate.
What about recusal? We have the plaintiff was the assistant treasurer for the mayor on both her campaigns and has campaign contributions. We talked about ethics, we talked about code of ethics. We don't have anything in writing yet but I think we need to at least understand that the plaintiff was the assistant treasurer on both of the mayor's campaign and donated to her campaign And that might be a reason for recusal.
I mean, I'm just saying when would I make that statement? Really is it questions- You may make it right
now as
you have done so. Is it questions? Yeah.
I can respond if you'd like.
No, it really was when can I make the request to the mayor? Now. Mayor, I would like you to recuse yourself because the plaintiff Leslie Hess served as your assistant treasurer on both your campaigns and substantially contributed to both your campaigns. And because of that, I do not think that you will be able to look at this matter impartially. I have no choice but to say that.
Mr. City Attorney could you please address that? You and I have had this discussion in the past
And has been had in this space in public in the past a couple of times. The Levine Act amendments that were made effective at the beginning of the year under Senate Bill 1439, as codified in Government Code Section 84103 and change Provide that campaign contributions may trigger recusal requirements if over $250 and if the campaign contribution was paid after January 1st, 2023. Per the FPPC's written advice or written decision to that effect, to my best of my knowledge there were no campaign contributions to any campaign of any of the five council members after January 1st 2023. To the best of my knowledge there is no legal requirement forcing the mayor or any other member of council to recuse from the consideration of this lawsuit.
Correct, thank you. And just another clarifying question. So Ms. Ravel last night was quite clear on when people need to be recused. Could you repeat what she said or reiterate it? Because I think it's really important for the public to understand when people need to be recused and when they don't.
To summarize it, recusal is legally required if there's a conflict of interest under one or another statute. There are three, four ones that kick in. In the Senate Bill 1429, the Levine Act which was just discussed does not apply in this case because it only applies to elected officials for contributions after January 1st 2023. The past election cycle does not legally apply.
Second is government code section 1090 and the ones that follow. 1090 in a nutshell prohibits a public official from being interested in a contract that they are making or participating in making on the government side and have a financial interest on the private side. So far, there's no contracts at issue here. And if a contract were to be issued such as a settlement agreement that entailed payment of money by the city to buy out a settlement, to the best of my knowledge subject to confirmation if the facts are wrong, the mayor nor any other council member have no financial interest in simply Ojai and would not receive any of that money. None of that money would flow back to them so there is no government code section 1090 violation. Next is the Political Reform Act of 1972, Government Code Section 87-100 and change.
And that's the one that Ms. Ravel summarized as if there is a financial conflict of interest in which a council member has a financial interest in a matter distinct from that of the public at large then the council member cannot participate in the city's decision on the matter unless one of many exceptions applies to the best of my knowledge based on facts I understand subject to confirmation Or correction if the facts are wrong, the mayor nor any other member of council do not have a financial interest in Simply Ojai and would not benefit from any money that were ever to be paid to Simply Ojai or its council should any of them prevail in this lawsuit. So there's no recusal required under the Political Reform Act.
The last is the common law bias standard that applies when a party has a due process interest in a neutral decision by the city, such as a conditional use permit. When a homeowner seeks a permit of existing facts to existing law and the benefit of that existing law and has a right to a neutral decision maker, that does not apply in a fundamental policy choice which is the present choice.
So in a nutshell there are no grounds for me to recuse on this issue?
Recusal is not legally required. No,
okay Thank you very much and I just want to clarify it You know, I think it's really important and I brought this up in the former Agenda item for all of us to fulfill our commitment to represent the voters And that is my commitment and that's what I'm going to do Any other questions? We're still on questions.
I know, but we're in a conversation so I would like to follow up without breaking the conversation if we could agree
to that. I would prefer to finish the questions and take public comment because that will affect our discussion and then move to discussion. Well, my request
I'm it's it's a follow-up to the request. It's a clarification I asked you to recuse yourself out of an ethics and out of an impartiality not out of illegal I didn't I didn't ask Matt for a legal opinion I asked you to recuse yourself Because of your connections to the plaintiff and you can within your rights refuse to do that but this was the fundamental question around a code of ethics is And if we looked at codes of ethics, which don't have to do with what you can do legally because as I said last night this is never about money in Ojai. It's not about are you going to benefit from a decision? So I am asking you as a fellow council member to recuse yourself for the reasons that I've stated and also because I don't believe that you could be impartial to this.
You love your friends, you love your friends and that's the way it is so you are free to say no but I want it on the public record and you know I want you to say honestly to all of this that you are able to be completely impartial and not love your friends
I am able to be completely impartial and continue to love my friends. Any other questions from Council?
3:22 – 3:3111 turns
Just so I'm clear, and I assume this is correct that the issue that is being litigated is substantial compliance
That's the plaintiff's primary argument is that in their complaint, the substantial compliance doctrine means that the clerk overwrought her discretion when she refused to certify the initiative. So
I've done a bunch of work in defending public entities, and the Tort Claims Act comes up. And if you've failed to file the claim that is required by the government code in precise detail, the courts nonetheless will say, yeah you met the intent of the legislature by doing as much as you did if even if it wasn't complete compliance. Is that a fair summary?
Yeah, exactly. Another way to phrase it is in the substantial compliance doctrine in the elections context if the intent of the statute is fulfilled and the voters are not prejudiced then the court can find substantial compliance and waive a technical violation And here the plaintiff's argument that may succeed is that the ordinance as proposed was published.
The proof of the publication was not filed with the city within the required time, it was filed nine months late or six months late? Six months late but the ordinance was published so if the idea is were the voters prejudiced well they could have seen it in the paper but they were not able to There was no proof of that publication, which the other point just to finish the puzzle.
The clerk's council and others may argue in response that the failure to file the proof did create a prejudicial effect in that it didn't allow the voters or others with an interest to know that the signature gathering that was apparently happening at the time was real and would be valid signatures as opposed At the time, some may recall there were signature gathering happening and folks said oh it doesn't count. They've never filed a proof of publication. Well now they're arguing that those signatures should count and there wasn't an opportunity to do counter campaigning.
My impression in the cases that I've worked on is that Judges are pretty strongly inclined to give a person their day in court when we're talking about the Tort Claims Act. And so I wonder if there's, I would like to ask your opinion if that same kind of deference is extended by judges. Actually, I have to back off for just a second because when I was a young attorney, I was so enamored with judges.
I thought they were godlike and And they knew how to dispense justice. And what I've learned over 35 years is that you don't want a judge deciding your
fate.
Judges are humans in the end. What I can say, to answer the question there if I could jump in, is the elections cases have a fairly strong preference for let the voters vote. When in doubt, let the voters vote. If there's one strong preference that runs throughout the cases it's that and that would augur on one side of this issue but as noted I didn't find a case that particularly considered this exact code section issue. Okay.
Let's move on to public comment first we have Bill Miley then William Wyrick then Jeffrey Starkweather Bill's here.
This is shorter than most of my speeches. Good evening, Bill Miley. I'd like the recommendation of the Parking Committee It allows some flexibility based on city general plan elements, as well as public input. It also generates a process through the Planning Commission and the City Council for contemporary community development as vehicle use changes over the years.
And I especially like the last sentence city manager read, the committee also recommends asking the initiative proponent to present information at a City Council meeting or Planning Commission meeting regarding their concerns related to valet parking so that their concerns can be considered. That's a key part of all of this and I think that's really important, very democratic. Thank you.
Thank you Bill. Next we have Jeffrey Starkweather and then John Drucker and then Bianca Rowe.
Thank you. I had the pleasure of serving on that committee. I thought we did an excellent collaborative process to come up with a solution. I actually spent considerable time on the internet trying to find other ordinances And I virtually couldn't find any bans in cities. I found plenty of places that regulate parking, and so that was the approach we took because almost every city has some process and the idea was that valet parking would be put into the planning code, not valet, valet parking would be in the planning code As an option that someone could pick, and we would have objective standards that we would have to judge on not subjectively. And anybody in the public could come in that seemed to meet the public interest now as to the petition.
I didn't actually see the petition until the clerk ruled it invalid. Because guess what? They didn't publish it in the Ojai Valley News, they published it in the Starvy Press because they didn't want people to see what was in it. That petition would shock me and I've mentioned In the beginning, had nothing about ballet parking. It was about the soul of Ojai. It was about protecting the preciousness of the town. You know we're getting out of control. It didn't never mention the parking problem or the traffic problem.
We know that almost all people in the traffic industry will tell you about 20% of traffic in a downtown is from people looking for parking places Valley parking is considered a sustainable strategy to keep people off of the main roads. And in the case of the El Roblar, literally they're keeping off of Ojai Avenue because they would be going down North Ventura into the parking space. They would park and then when they get ready to leave the place that would go down Metellaha come down Signal Street there's a light there and they would turn immediately and go into the parking place so almost no driving at all. So I think that is a good thing and the final thing My experience, and I was a litigator. I sued cities, I sued counties, I sued governments.
My experience is that cities and businesses don't settle. Why? Because they don't want to invite litigation. So you could say what this one's going to cost but once you start inviting litigation you're gonna get more and more lawsuits in the long run it's gonna cost you more. I would say if you're not gonna consider this ordinance then let's send it to the voters I would not just do a ban. Send it to the voters, I'd be happy with that. I think this would lose so thank you.
3:31 – 3:366 turns
Good evening. I wasn't planning on talking about this because valet parking is really not an issue in town There's no valet parking to ban, but the only reason it is an issue is because someone is suing about it so You know if it's going to cost $50,000 the city it's gonna cost $50 thousand dollars to her. I say make her blink and you know take your chances I would also suggest as a 35-year litigator that things like time limitations are very strictly enforced by courts. They're not loosey-goosey, you know, the idea of substantially complying with a statute of limitations is not a legal doctrine. Courts are pretty happy to enforce those kinds of time limitations very strictly I guess in the vein of what you're talking about before, I would even be willing to volunteer to draft a motion for summary judgment on this issue on behalf of the city at a substantially discounted rate.
What's more, on a substantive level I think a ban on valet parking is bad for the environment because as was pointed out earlier, people just drive around endlessly polluting the streets, polluting the air of our town. Secondly, a ban on valet parking is ableist There are a lot of elderly people. There are a lot of people who are not so ambulatory, who require valet parking and for us to just go out and ban it now when it's not even issue is just...
It's insane in my view. Thank you.
Thank you John. Next we have Bianca Rowe.
There are some landmines on this one. I said there are some landmines on this one. I'm going to leave litigation alone. The reason that I'm here is because I think that we're missing a singular word which is opportunity. And I think there's an opportunity for us to evaluate valet parking, because we have an issue with traffic and because there are immeasurable issues within the infrastructure of town. While we don't see valet parking today, it doesn't mean that if we don't create some formatting by which it should operate that it won't be there tomorrow. So we've got a lot of vacant restaurants in town right now.
We have no idea who is going to come in and take on those opportunities And it is very possible that very quickly we might see new business owners, and this is just in theory but it is the potential of why we should address this. Facilitating new businesses with valet parking Friday Saturday and Sunday in order to accommodate tourists. So the issue that I have you know being a business owner previously for 10 years on Main Street is that we have so much traffic and if you don't regulate what's happening on Main Street, specifically valet parking I think is going to be a nightmare. So you've got parking on one strip and you've got the second strip for through traffic. If you all of a sudden have tourists coming into town and they say okay this brand new restaurant on Main Street has valet parking fantastic!
I'm just gonna sit here in the middle of the street with three cars behind me Because I have a right to wait. And then all of a sudden in the middle of the town, we're bottled necked and we're congested. for a decade, this is important. You might not see it right now. It doesn't mean that you won't see it tomorrow and what we've learned from the chain stores is that it's really important if something comes to your attention and there's a loophole there let's just take a look at it. Let's take a look at it, let's shore it up, let's have a look at the big picture And let's take a pointed opportunity and don't miss it. Don't kick it to the sideline because this is what we're here for, is to keep the flow, the infrastructure, the beautification, the operation of our town intact.
So I wanted to just talk on valet parking. Good luck with the other stuff and I apologize.
Thank you, Bianca. Weston any comments online?
Yes mayor we have six raise hands so far first We'll have Beverly followed by Renee and then Jamie
Fleming I Thought we were going to hear from before we go to zoom I thought that I still don't know what the issues are and why Okay
3:36 – 3:4953 turns
Mayor council members, thank you for your service. I Just want to read some read some comments Though high is legally defined as a city those who live and visit here experience Experience it as more as more of a rural town than a city like our cities ordinance prohibiting chain stores The proposed ordinance prohibiting off-site valet parking is an effort to allow Ojai to continue to be its unique and quaint self.
Some ask, we don't have an off-site valet parking problem so why do we need an ordinance? Therein lies the point of our ordinance which is to proactively establish what we want or don't want just like we did with our chain store ordinance 10% of Ojai voters signed this initiative because it is a question they would like answered before, not after we experienced the potential problems with off-site valet parking could create such as increased traffic congestion and prioritizing parking access for the wealthy.
Setting policy that clearly defined what types of stores we did not want has relieved the City Council, city staff, local residents and business owners of the ongoing burden of having to fight each proposed chain store as it came along. We want to do the same to avoid having to fight each proposed valet parking kiosk as they are requested over the coming years and instead support equal access to parking for all regardless of economic status If the council were to agree to pass an ordinance that achieves our goals, our town would gain the following benefits.
One, eliminate the expense of putting the initiative on the ballot. Two, gain the opportunity to amend the ordinance in the future via council majority approval rather than having to go back to the voters to make changes if it goes on the ballot and the voters pass it. Three, eliminate risk to the city of having to pay tens of thousands of dollars of attorney's fees should plaintiffs prevail in litigation.
Though some might say that allowing chain stores or off-site valet parking will not destroy Ojai, what we can all agree on is that keeping our town from dying a cultural death of 1,000 cuts is worth the effort. Please pass an ordinance that takes big city style off site valet parking off our local menu. Thank you. Thank you,
Tom.
Can I ask questions? Is there like a spokesperson for the people bringing this forth? Are you the spokesperson or Leslie Hess? I'm still not understanding.
I'm pretty sure they're the lawyers making a public
comment. And I want to understand the exemptions.
So
do you want me to comment on
these
exemptions?
Huh?
Exemptions in which documents, Mayor Pro
Tem. During the parking committee didn't we discuss that the Ojai Valley Inn is exempt, that El Roblar is exempt, elderly people their private parties are exempt if you have a wedding at the top of North Foothill you can rent you can have valet parking at the Presbyterian Church I mean there are exemptions
And
it's in the report. We noted in the report that the initiative as proposed would not apply to non-commercial events at residential properties, the initiative would only apply prospectively moving forward so it would not impact any of the approved projects such as El Roblar Hotel.
And it only applies to off-site valet parking that involves the vehicles crossing public right of way or being parked in a location other than that which they're dropped off at, which effectively exempts the Ojai Valley Inn because their valet operation is kept within their property.
That's in their initiative?
That's in the initiative as proposed, yes.
So wait, it's what we're proposing?
No, no, staff has not proposed any ordinance. It's in the initiative that's proposed by Miss Hess and her followers and those voters who signed that petition. Staff asked for direction from the council Whether the council would like to submit that ordinance to the voters or something like it, or adopt that ordinance or something like it. Or do something different. But staff has not proposed an ordinance that's beyond our power at this time.
But how can we do that if we don't have a copy in front of us? I mean, I'm not as prepared as I would've liked for tonight but-
The council was previously provided a copy of that. I confess I didn't realize it wasn't in tonight's packet. I had my own copy but the council was previously provided that full document
Well, maybe Wes can make some copies. We could take a five minute break that might be productive. Let's finish the public comments. Yeah, we need to see it.
Okay back to our Zoom participants. We'll bring in Beverly Grossman-Palmer. Beverly you have the floor?
Thank you and as indicated I am counsel for proponents of the valet parking.
Beverly, I'll ask you to pause for just a second and see if James Hahn can increase the volume for our Zoom.
I can speak up as well. Is that better?
We might restart the clock Madam Mayor, given that she is a litigant. Can we
restart the clock Weston
please?
It's a little quiet Beverly but we're going to restart the clock and please proceed.
Thank you. I'm speaking on behalf of Leslie Hess, the proponent of the valet parking initiative as well as Simply Ojai. And I'm here to make clear their objectives in circulating the initiative and obtaining the signatures of more than 500 City of Ojai registered voters. The goal of this initiative is to avoid more traffic congestion and keep parking available to all regardless of their economic status.
It's not to prohibit valet parking on site, and it's definitely not to get into litigation with the city The primary objective of the initiative is no big city style off-site valet parking in Ojai. These regulations do not apply to special events obtaining City permits, that's another exemption so long as the permit applicant does not hold events at the same location more than six times per year nor to events at residential uses that utilize valet parking non commercially The initiative petitions as you've heard were rejected by the city clerk for technical noncompliance with a deadline for submitting a proof of publication. To be clear, the required publication was completed in a publication that is authorized or the publication of legal notices like the notice of intent to circulate.
There is no dispute that this notice was properly published More than 500 voters signed the petition to let the council know their opinion, that the council should either adopt the measure-
Beverly, can we just pause for a second? We're having trouble hearing you. Is there anything we could-
Let's see. I think I've had some weirdness with my
camera.
Can you hear me better now? Let me just check my audio settings. Ah! I think I fixed the problem. Is this better?
Can you turn ours down now?
Beverly, we missed quite a bit it was hard to hear would you mind beginning? Can you start over? I'm sorry to have to ask you that. Can you hear me? Uh-oh. The volume was really low, so...
Sorry, I keep losing either the hearing or the microphone but now can you hear me?
Yeah, will you please start from the beginning of your statement? Sure, I will. Thank you so
much. Thank you and I'm sorry for having these technical issues tonight.
No problem. Thank you. So
I'm speaking on behalf of Leslie Hess, the proponent of the valet parking initiative as well as Simply Ohai And I'm here to make clear their objective in circulating the initiative and obtaining signatures from more than 500 City of Ojai registered voters. The goal of the initiative is to avoid traffic congestion and keep parking available to all, regardless of their economic status. It's not to prohibit onsite valet parking like the Ojai Valley Inn, and it's not to get into litigation which was never anticipated. The primary objective is No big city-style offsite valet parking in Ojai. To speak briefly to exemptions, the regulations do not apply to special events obtaining city permits as long as the permit applicant does not hold events at the same location more than six times per year Nor does it apply to events at residential uses that do not need commercial valet parking.
Beverly, we lost you again. I'm sorry. Oh my
gosh. In the published initiative?
Can you hear me, Beverly? I can hear you, yes. Yeah, we lost probably your last two sentences.
It's very strange and I'm sorry. Let me get back to that then. So as I was saying, it does not apply to special events that obtain city permits and do not host them more than six times per year at the same residence or same location. And it does not apply to residential uses that are non-commercial. But the initiative petitions were rejected by the clerk for technical noncompliance for a deadline to submit a proof of publication But the required publication was completed in a proper publication for legal notices.
There is no dispute about that, more than 500 voters signed the petition to let council know that the council should either adopt this measure or put it to the voters and that's why the proponents had to go to court to enforce the rights of those 500 voters of the city of Ojai. The initiative right is one from the constitution. It's reserved by the people in the state constitution That means courts are instructed to preserve the exercise of this right whenever possible. That is why the doctrine of substantial compliance, which Mr. Summers has talked to you about applies to technical defects. That means a court will not invalidate all of these 500 voters' exercise of their initiative rights just because of a technical error that did not frustrate the intent of giving public information about the initiative, its purpose and its objectives.
And those things were not frustrated by the delayed submission of the notice, the proof of publication. Proponents are quite likely to prevail in this case and if they did so, they would seek to recover attorneys fees under the doctrine of the private attorney general doctrine which allows for the recovery of fees for the enforcement of important public rights and election law cases are inherently implicating such important public constitutional rights. If the city wants to avoid incurring this cost, the city can adopt the initiative outright or an ordinance that substantially mirrors the initiative or it can put the matter on the ballot itself.
Thank you and I appreciate your patience.
Oh thank you Beverly we heard you appreciate it.
Next we have Larry Steingold followed by Tina Bremond and then Anita. Larry you have the floor
Yes, Larry Steingold citizen taxpayer and actually resident here not unlike some of the others who have talked. This is like kabuki dancing or smoke and mirrors I mean the reason that the only people who really need valet parking are those who are required to have parking that they don't have because they can't open their business Now, I don't know if that applies to the property at Suzanne's or the one next door or the Lagos. Can't remember the name over on
Ojai Avenue. Larry, we just lost... We can't hear you.
Mayor and Council might be wise to take a brief recess. There's some serious technical issues.
Okay. We will take a break and we'll be back. Thank you.
All right.
3:49 – 3:5631 turns
Larry, we will restart your clock after a brief recess.
The name parties are Lesley
S. individual versus Cynthia Leslie Hest is not named in the suit. That
was
a
surprise. There's no rule about when you can start items. Someone asked me that. No, the City
Council has protocols that doesn't allow new items after 1030. Oh okay. I didn't know what it is. It seems like I've been here longer than that. And we can get
around them by starting...
Check, check, check. James Hahn? Keep talking.
Check, check, check. Syllabus.
Hello? Yoo-hoo.
Check, check, check. Keep talking James Hahn, Ojai City Council.
We're having some issues, so.
Okay, we're ready.
Larry, I'm going to ask you to unmute. Can we please do a test?
Thank you. Great. How's that better?
Yeah, we won't start your time yet. Just keep talking for a few seconds.
Yes. Oh, I can. That's easy. I've been the Toastmasters everybody should come starts at 630 St. Andrews.
Thank you, Larry. Sounds pretty clear. We'll get started in just a moment here.
Okay.
Larry, could you keep talking for just a minute? How was your day?
My day was great. I went to the athletic club and I biked over town and it was drizzling.
How's that sound Kimberly? Does that sound okay from both sides? Okay. Thanks Larry. Ojai is a wonderful place.
Okay. You're on Larry. Are we ready? Thank you
very much.
Yes.
We all set?
We're back. Great. Now we'll have Larry Steingold.
Thank you. The idea of rolling over for a lawsuit, for a friend or a backer or supporter is bad business. It sets a precedent and just the idea of rolling over for any lawsuit is bad. Okay? That's number one. The idea of banning valet parking completely underscores the reason why you have their businesses in town that have parking, that are not allowed to maybe reopen because they've changed parking regulations and now they don't have the right parking because they haven't been grandfathered.
Those businesses are going to have problems. They may never open, is that what we want? Do we want blighted businesses? Change the parking regulation so they can open and then we can go back to thinking about valet parking on Ojai Avenue. That's not going to happen. You don't have enough parking, you don't have enough spaces, you need three spaces to do valet parking.
So make a ban on valet parking on Ojai Avenue Okay, or someplace but put it through a process. Make it so that it's available but you have to prove it. You're going to prove that it's not going to cause a problem. I mean this is bizarre. I mean you're doing it to prevent problems You want to go back to rural, you want to go back to 6,000 people in the population. It's about the wealthy doing valet parking?
I'm not wealthy and I'll go to valet parking if that's what it is for a fancy occasion or we're out for dinner if you have to or I'm handicapped. What are you going to do about that? Every process, we need a process. Have it go through the permit process. There's nothing wrong with that You're not going to allow a kiosk on Ojai Avenue. It's not going to happen.
I mean, let's be practical about it. You allowed the Ranch Hotel to open or have venues because they had to go out and tie up some parking lots around their operation, their hotel. That's okay. They're not doing valet parking? No, the patrons are running back and forth. Are they stoned? Are they drunk? Okay this at least controls that portion of it but that's beside the point to have a ban it's another no why not just say yes and we have controls isn't that what you want we have plenty of regulations this is just more of them this is an easy one let's move on Tell them to go away or let them sue, or let's have a referendum.
Or put it in law and let them sue and let's go forward but don't roll over. Thank
you.
Next we'll have Tina Berman followed by Anita and then Jamie Fleming. Tina, you have the floor?
3:56 – 4:0618 turns
Hi, thank you. Really I'd like to say that this issue of valet parking does not address the elephant in the room and the elephant in the room is that on many weekends we are too packed patrons of businesses don't have anywhere to park community residents can't go to the grocery store and I would like to make it extremely clear I am so unhappy with that last vote And with the stance of two council members and one mayor, because look at the end of the day Ojai is shaped like a donut.
You people that live in the city have a huge impact on us at the county. We have an extremely diluted voice and we have worked very hard to have a seat at some of those tables for council member seats or not council member seats, excuse me but for planning commission and things like that To have a seat removed is absolutely ridiculous and it flows into this same issue of valet parking. We have issues on La Luna, Village through the Arbolada all over town because there is this continued need to overdevelop this town beyond the capacity of the infrastructure that's available We have two hour parking signs that's not even enforced. We have no residency stickers or any timed things so that we can get to the grocery store on busy weekends. You all know where I stand on Creek Road, it is a freeway on every weekend that you all throw your events that are permitted through the city and guess what?
You're taking away our voice It is unfair, it is exclusive and it needs to be expanded not contracted. And if you all need to deal with one rogue person, deal with him but you do not put the rest of us at risk and take away our voice especially for how hard we've all worked to get each of you elected and for how hard we all participate in the betterment of this community. Thank you.
Next we have Anita, followed by Jamie Fleming and then Renee. Anita you have the floor?
Hello good evening you can hear me okay
yes
okay so I just have one quick comment on the valet parking discussion that i haven't heard and that's the practice of valet drivers driving cars around until there's a parking space available And you know, it happens a lot. And especially if we're looking forward into the future because they also know who's parked where, how long they've been there and they say oh that guy has got to be getting close to finishing I'm just going to drive around awhile. So the carbon impact can be significant from that part of it so that's all. I just wanted to mention that since I had not heard it addressed. Thank you.
Thank you Anita.
Next we have Jamie Fleming followed by Renee. Jamie you have the floor?
There
we go.
I just wanted to echo what most of the previous speakers have said. From my observation, one of the key sentiments that came from the recent parking committee meeting was that a blanket ban did not seem to make as much sense versus looking into strengthening the process an applicant needed to go through to obtain a valet parking permit which would include adding review by the planning commission I think it's a good process.
I don't really agree that things should ever just be completely blanketed with bans. So, I think it's been a really good recommendation that we have this process that strengthens what a person has to go through so there's a lot of people with eyes on it. That's what I...I'm just hoping that the suit will go away because I think this is a good solution that addresses actually everyone's concerns.
Thank you Jamie.
Next, we have Renee followed by Megan Smith. Go ahead, Renee.
Hey. Hello. Thank you very much. I actually agree that The, the bigger issue really is the lack of parking in our town. And I think Rachel was going in the right direction on this one and referring it to the planning commission and getting the planning commission to take some action. And if we can actually work with Simply, Ojai and Leslie has to say what can we do to make sure we're never going to be backing up the main avenue. We're never going to be putting people at risk of losing parking pace places are driving around.
To try to find parking places for people. So there's many layers on this issue, I really hope that we can get to a point with Simply Ojai where we can sit down and say let's work together. Let's work together. I wish we could stop the referendums, I wish we could stop the blackmail of your being blackmailed and if you don't do this we're going to do this and the whole discussion about strategic lawsuits and lawfare those concepts are really appropriate for what we are experiencing in our town and i really hope the city can set a tone of wanting to work together, wanting to do public engagement for the public good. Listen to everybody concerned and find a really good compromise on this issue. I think it can be done.
Who don't want to see a whole bunch of more limited parking possibilities. But at the same time, there are people who may need or want it on certain big occasions or big events. So I think there's many nuances here. I think we should work together. Let's try to sit down at the table and work together and compromise on this one. Thank you.
Last raised hand we have is Megan Smith. Megan, you have the floor?
Thank you. Rachel, can you hear me?
Yes.
Oh great I just wanted to check. Well it's really nice to follow Beverly, Bianca, Tom Francis. I think they all have a relationship with you Andrew. And I would just like to say that Bianca, when she spoke about our town Ojai, she referred to a main street. It's actually Ojai Avenue. She also referred to chain stores of which we don't have any. So I would just find those comments a little bit disingenuous.
I live in downtown Ojai. I live on North Ventura and Summer Street And actually if you consulted with the police department, it's a thoroughfare. It's a racetrack and so I welcome valet parking. It's a beautifully landscaped place. I have no issue with it. I welcome the El Roblar Hotel as a source of local employment for our teenagers. So before you say that valet parking is bad Or that the El Roblar Hotel is a bad issue. Why don't you survey the residents, your constituents?
And I would save for the cabal which is simply Ojai, Betsy, Rachel, Andrew. Your constituents know what's up. We're reading the papers. It's Sabrina, it's Gary Schwenke like the seven plaintiffs named in the lawsuit. We're not dumb we're following it And so I just suggest that when you think about valet parking, get to know your constituents. You only won by a dozen votes and I suggest you just do a study to find out what a real issue valet parking is and perhaps you should look at the situation regarding traffic and parking at Nordoff High School and also the number of Memorial monuments that have gone up through the Arbolada on Cuyama Street.
And so if you decide to outlaw valet parking, what it will do to the neighboring streets? Thank you.
Thank you, Megan. That's all me. That's it. OK, we will move on to discussion who would like to begin. I'd love to begin.
4:06 – 4:1831 turns
Microphone please.
Speakers stated that the bigger issue is lack of parking, but of course the even bigger issue is too many cars in our small city or two-lane highway or some of our very narrow streets and you know truth be told I not only would like to ban valet parking, I'd like to ban cars coming into the downtown core at all But I believe that at this point in time, we're ready for a reasonable process.
I'm on the parking committee, I'm on Complete Streets Committee so I don't recommend looking at any aspect of traffic In isolation, you have to look at the whole picture and I completely agree. I don't want big city type infrastructure in our overcrowded downtown core But what I would like to avoid is the lawsuit and going to the voters. I'm willing to spend days talking to discussing all your concerns and finding a process through the planning commission through the city council through regulations some process to handle all your concerns There has to be a way and not do a lawsuit or go to the voters. I was reminded during our parking committee meeting that if it goes to the voters, as I think Tom Francis already stated and other speakers and our city manager, whatever the voters do in order to change that We cannot change it.
We lose complete control, we have to wait for the next election to make any changes so I would like to avoid those two options and meet and find a process that we can all be happy with and I'm very happy to compromise. I don't really have a personal stake in this. I just walk to town usually under normal circumstances or ride my bike
Rachel
yes, I would like to share with Mayor Pro Tem Francine's perspective we both served on the parking committee and And you know, I think the ordinance as proposed actually has some of the exceptions actually make sense. I think it does make sense to protect our town from what happened in Santa Barbara for example where the local residents' streets are now valet parking stands and they're trying to redo what they had They're trying to do away with an ordinance that it's harder to prevent something once it's been implemented.
And I will also say that this is a complex issue, in fact, I'm reading this book right now called Pave Paradise all about parking and I'm learning so much about parking law but and so we are and actually to your point One of the things and points in the book is that That cars have more rights than people in in a lot of in a lot of towns And and so I want to also just say that the parking committee is you know aims to address issues like creating additional parking and you know, I know That's been a big issue And so I am willing to negotiate something that would be a win-win for everyone.
I also agree that we didn't have the ordinance printed out again. A lot of things made sense to me though, and it seems like a reasonable ordinance.
Andy?
I am not ready for a valet parking ban And so but I do think that the planning Excuse me, the Parking Commission Came to a sensible conclusion Which is that we should regulate? valet parking and if we can come up with a A way of regulating that puts an end to the lawsuit and which my understanding is that if we, if the voters get the, if the voters vote and it passes then the only way we change that law is if it goes back to the voters again.
So someone referred to this as an opportunity, I think we do have an opportunity. My biggest concerns in terms of what we should be regulating is that we should not have We should avoid the slowdown in traffic that would happen on Ojai Avenue if we had valet stands on Ojai Avenue. And so, that would be a big objective of mine is that it would have to be off on a side street to have a valet stand and then my other objective would be to not Valet Parkers.
Parking the valet cars on city streets or in city parking lots So they would have to find some type of private property For their parking and you know, I'm I'm interested. I'm open to any other Suggestions about how to handle it But I'd like to make sure that if we're gonna regulate it that we at least achieve those Those would be my objectives.
Leslie? I also agree that if there is any way to find common ground and to address concerns, um, that we should work towards that. I want to appreciate you Rachel for your suggestion at the very beginning when this came up to take it to the parking committee. Um, I was skeptical but I think it was a great call and I think you guys did a really good job So that's great. I think this is a classic case where we should be able to find a solution. Most, and I will say most valet parking, you know, you can't park on city streets.
You can't park in public lots. There are really standards around valet parking. They don't take parking. If you're skirting the law, yes you might park. But valet parking they don't park on the street so and yes OHI-AB has to be it has to flow but on the other hand we do have handicapped people that would benefit from being able to know where they're going or in some way to have a drop off point And then as far as, you know taking it to the voters if we can't find common ground then I'm going to say let the voters decide that would be my vote and You know It may be a year before we could put it back on the ballot but it's not like it's a huge deal to put it back on the ballot because we don't need to get the signatures and We could just, as a council, decide to put it back on the ballot if we weren't able to find consensus and we don't want to get into a huge lawsuit.
This would be lawsuit number four from Simply Ojai depending on how you look at it. And I also agree at some point, the lawsuits from Simply Ojai have to stop. But this is an issue we can accommodate. This is a fair issue to accommodate and so I would really like the plaintiffs to find a way to come to the table and figure out and find a way to yes. and find a way to make it work for all of us. None of us want, you know, this... the look and feel of Ojai to change but there are some things that we need to take into account. And I'm with Susie, you know? As soon as we can get that envisioning those cars are going to park before they get into town.
Can I add just a quick question, Claire? What are those four lawsuits?
Well, there is the lawsuit against Matt. There's a lawsuit against... Wait, so it's like Matt? Yeah, Matt is... I've not been sued. Well, the city has... So there's Cynthia Burrell and... Is that not you? Are you not being... Who's being sued? I've never been
sued, no. Okay,
so who's being sued with Cynthia Burrell?
Cynthia Burrell and the city.
Okay, so the city. So there's two lawyers there. So split hairs if you want but we have two attorneys on that particular case Well, it's one lawsuit two attorneys so One case two attorneys. You know my point is it's about dollars It's it's more about dollars okay, so it's one. It's one case. It's two attorneys This the valet parking we heard the attorney say Leslie has since simply oh hi maybe she was incorrect she was their attorney I don't know And
well,
I think it's important to clarify
is that I don't think
Simply Ojai is not a party to this lawsuit. The lawsuit is Leslie Heston individual versus Cynthia Burrell in her official capacity as City of Ojai city clerk, City of Ojai Municipal Corporation and DOES 1-100. Okay, so that's
right.
Well okay, so you know yes, maybe so but their attorney said so and then You know Sabrina Vinskis I mean I Don't want to justify it we have a lot of suits from there Sabrina Vinskis is suing me and by suing me you know We'll leave it at that. But that's not... It depends on the government code that you look at and how you look at it, but that having been said- That is the next agenda
item.
Yes, that's
the next agenda item.
Well
somebody asked me a question so I just answered it. But that's not Simply Ojai. I'm confused. Right, I'm confused. So there's only one so far?
No, you haven't named one. No we have the Simply Ojai against the Becker Agreement as well. There
was one suit against the city as an institution in which Simply Ojai is a name plaintiff.
Okay
so that's this lawsuit challenging the Becker and change development agreement.
So it's one not four?
Same people, same people call it what you will. It's fine I retract that statement because I don't want to argue about it. I retract that statement and I let it go and I apologize for having made it but the point is the point. So I don't want to argue about it we got better
some clarification yeah
4:18 – 4:2421 turns
Excuse
me that's
point of order no
point. Council for it can we hear some clarification? Okay, okay good
I think
we need to take a vote on
it. We need to
take a
vote on it.
Let's have some decorum here.
Decorum, please. I would like a voice roll vote on this.
Madam Mayor, I'd recommend taking a vote on the question of reopening public comment to hear from Mr. Francis.
All in favor? Yes. Aye. No.
for the opportunity to respond to a few things that were stated. I think the most important one is that the ADA requires every city in the entire country, it's a federal law, requires cities to accommodate disabled people. We have no intention whatsoever to get in the way of the city's ability or a business' ability to accommodate disabled people Never was our intent. It is not our intent now for example the business Wants to has a you know as a member of the community or someone that's visiting here That's that disabled and needs help and needs their car parked we support that Okay, so we're not out to Create problems for anyone that has a disability or any special need of any sort that would deal with their car No intention to do that The second thing is the Simply Ojai did sue the City of Ojai for Regarding the Becker development agreement Due to based on violations of the California Environmental Quality Act.
I'm sorry, I'm really emotional So my voice has messed up but just let me try to relax and anyway, my point is That lawsuit is discussed ad nauseum by members of the public that like to disparage Simply Ojai. And the fact is, that lawsuit, please listen Ms. Ruhl, that lawsuit has stayed and it's stayed based on agreement between the developer, the city and the plaintiffs, okay? The lawsuit has stayed. And the reason it stayed is because we're waiting for the outcome of the referendum process And so there's all this discussion about simply Ojai suing the city and it costing the city money. It's costing the city nothing for two reasons, one, the lawsuit is not active, it has stayed until the referendum is completed. Two, the other reason that doesn't cost the city any money is even if it was active, guess what?
Based on the development agreement, the developer pays all the expenses, the developer indemnified the city. So stop spreading misinformation about us costing the city money based on that litigation. It's not true at all, okay? Second point and I'm sorry I'm raising my voice but I'm tired of simply Ojai and myself being disparaged and people making claims that we're costing the city money when we're not, okay? So the second point, the other lawsuit
I have been watching the clock, although the timer's not on. It has been three minutes.
Okay. Okay, I'm done. Thank you. Thank
you. All right. Based on what I was hearing, I will offer a suggestion that the council can ignore if they choose to, but I heard feedback that the group was pleased with the parking committee's recommendation. Perhaps one path forward would be having the two council members who are part of that parking committee, Council Member Lange and Council Member Francina, sorry for volunteering To to work with maybe myself and then we could meet with the proponents to get their feedback on their concerns and talk about a proposal based on what I'm hearing and see if there's something that could be negotiated.
And if I could add to that, the parking committee actually asked me to do that to actually negotiate with Leslie and I said I did not feel comfortable doing that Because I didn't want it to look like there was a you know, any kind of backdoor. That's right. Yeah, we wanted to be transparent so We
recommend to be two council members and necessary stuff
And then we can bring that back to Council.
I would just like to make a brief comment. I think, you know, a couple points that are really important to understand that rather than taking it to the ballot passing an ordinance there'd be no expense. That's number one. That's really important And the fact that, and actually the most important point I think is that if we pass an ordinance versus taking it to the ballot as you mentioned Mayor Pro Temp, we can change at any time. So anything that comes up, we have control of that and I think that is super important.
And there's no risk of litigation. And the other issue is that 550 voters sign that. That's one-tenth of our voters. That is huge and then it's certainly nothing to discount I think we really need to listen to that So I would make a motion to direct staff to draft an ordinance that mirrors the initiative that was signed by 550 voters
4:24 – 4:3537 turns
With what that means, you know, I would love to second that. I just don't have it in front of me But but with the understanding that there's still when we meet together That we can make changes would that be acceptable? Changes if they're all acceptable to everyone The parking
committee came up with are we no It's not. So we're basically saying let's draft an ordinance, let's pass the ordinance that simply Ojai has put in front of us. I thought that we had just talked about trying to come to some sort
of... No, no, we're going to meet. Let's clear all this
up. The motion that was just made was not to do that. Right, exactly. Just so everybody
understands.
But could the motion be that we'll draft an ordinance that's similar, and then we'll meet to negotiate? Yes. I have a point
of order. It's been stated a number of times by council members that you don't have a copy of our initiative in front of you which is what 550 voters signed. I think it's imperative before you guys make a decision that you actually get a copy of that ordinance and take a look at it So you know what we're talking about when we offer to you, or when there's a motion made offering you an option to adopt your own ordinance that mirrors the language in the ordinance that was proposed in the initiative process that was signed by 500 voters. I think you guys should take a look at that.
First of all, I just have to say a point of order. This is not an open general comment situation where the audience members can come up and say what they want and respond either we're gonna have Decorum and order or we're not so let's be clear about that Yeah And
also, you know if we need clarification
You would like to open
the public
hearing that would be that I have
no disagreement with that whatsoever Well, let's go back to councilmember Lang you are going to oh
What I was going to propose is that we direct staff, basically a friendly amendment to your motion which is let's direct staff to draft an ordinance that would be similar to the one they sent and then use it as a negotiation tool.
There were sort of there are two different concepts being discussed. There's the initiative which is summarized in the in the paragraph here Which is maybe more it's a broad prohibition and then what I heard the council talking about was something that was different, which was a Limiting it from Ojai Avenue and limiting it from using public parking And so what I understood what I had understood was that would be sort of what we try to work through and put together as an ordinance but When we draft an ordinance, I guess the question is are we drafting an ordinance that mirrors the initiative?
Which is kind of a total prohibition Perspective like moving forward or are we drafting? The one that we talked about of off Ojai Avenue and off of public parking.
Well Can I say if it doesn't make more sense to? Mirror the initiative and then
Negotiate your policy Okay Yes, so here's here's my concern
The word mirror. I would like that there to be at least some, so mirrors, I guess mirrors have imperfect reflections. If we're talking about the idea that the draft is going to be something close based upon what this Like the idea of James and Sousa And I'm sorry, I've been instructed that I need to say councilman Francina and Councilmember Lang III like that idea if you know if I'm also open if we can't, you know do something that To do it to adopt it the way that it is. But I think that when I've heard from the public what I've heard from the parking committee and What I've heard from most of the council members Is that we can do something here?
And and so before we get down to let's adopt a exact mirror image, let's look at where we can find a common ground that Makes sense for the community.
I think with that it's councilmember Francina councilmember Lang and and staff meeting with the proponents and seeing if there's a negotiation that would satisfy everyone or you know an option that would satisfy everyone and And then if there is, we draft that. We bring it back for consideration. If there's not then we're back here and the council will decide whether to consider the initiative or
not. Or whether to
adopt the ordinance that comes out. A possible outcome would be Mayor pretend Francine and councilmember Lang come up with ordinance that meets their arrest estimation the city's needs The council could adopt that ordinance and then the plaintiffs act as they act So if the if the city in the plaintiffs can't come to an agreement The council could still adopt that and then the places will do what they'll do
but the goal our goal is definitely to come into agreement and And to have some kind of vision for the future because the whole Thank you. You know, some kind of measured regulated valley parking would be part of that. We don't want to have any type of valley parking that encourages more congestion in the downtown. I think it'd be a really fun challenge to see what we can come up with.
James, can you make that motion so I can make it? Can you say that motion so I can make it?
Yeah. So the motion is to authorize Council Member Francina and Council Member Lange and staff to meet with the proponents and determine if a draft ordinance can be prepared and brought forward to council in the future.
I make that motion. Second.
Good. Roll call please.
Roll-call vote Passed 5–0 motion. Second. Good. Roll call
Show transcript
Thank you very much. Okay, we will move on to, well it's 1035. Is there a time frame? Look at James' face, I'm sorry.
Yeah and I can keep the housing element to two minutes if we can. There is a state deadline running so that's the challenge with it and I would love to postpone it but that's We can, but the council has to make that choice. Can I ask you
a question? What is the state deadline?
So we are out of compliance on our housing element as we talked about last time so every day we postpone this we are out of compliance longer.
Which in part puts us at risk for not being qualified or high priority applicants for grants.
I understand that my concern is that this is huge, and we've talked about having a housing workshop so that all of the council members can understand. The ramifications of all of this and understand the housing element and how the state plays into this. And I think it's really, really, really important. We passed it very quickly, not really understanding because we were trying to make a deadline and here we are five months later out of compliance with no real understanding either. I think you know I don't know how much the council knows about the housing element and about where we are in this but it's hugely important That the council understands so that having been said if you believe that you need to have That kind of approval in two minutes I would just my concern is is that once again?
You have a council that doesn't understand most. I mean, I'm sure some people do the deep ramifications Of what this actually means
and I couldn't I can try to explain that in two minutes and then if not Continue it So first is we met with HCD today sort of to speak to some of those points. We met with HCD today and they encouraged us to submit as soon as possible, and the positive I think that we got out of this meeting with HCD is that we discussed the ability for HCD to actually provide technical assistance to us but we have to submit to do So essentially the reason why I want to submit is because the minute we submit, we are in line to get technical assistance from HCD to then work through it. And then we would bring back what I expect to have happen is have some modifications come back that they identify. We bring them back to council and that's you know that's that.
So let me just finish. So that lays out why this, uh, why getting it in today is important and then the, um, sorry I lost my spot there. The second point that I just want to make The issue right now, there's clarifying the housing element and then there's also the second piece of it that is a new piece that we hadn't had before which is that ultimately the state at this point wants to see the city actually approving projects that are on our housing overlay. And so we will still do our best to get the housing element adopted. We will work with them and I think we can take care of that part, the second part that's gonna depend whether or not we get this certified and get into compliance I think is gonna depend on if they feel we are acting in good faith on that process.
So I can't guarantee that part yet.
The other key component is HUD has a 90-day statutory deadline to respond if we submit We'd like to get that clock running for HCD. Got it. And if we submit it, then that triggers that clock.
OK, so we need to move forward tonight? That's
right. But it also won't be the last time because we expect based on HCD statements they're going to want further changes. So without guaranteeing it, we expect a further bite at the apple.
OK. I suggest we move straight to public comment at this point. First, we have Bill Miley then Jeffrey Starkweather.
4:35 – 4:4727 turns
Hello. Wow, this is a
large revision to Read and Digest. 174
pages
with multiple edits. There are two
versions.
One is
the old one And the second one is the new one with all the red lining and yellow lining. My process for understanding such revisions of council recommendations is to have a first review by the planning commission I stopped reading about halfway through when I realized this requires more consideration than just reading by interested citizens, and past reviews have shown limited participation.
I strongly support your council referring this to the Planning Commission even if they have to convene a special meeting to get the review accomplished so you can meet Unfortunate deadline we had last year, but we kind of let that go. From reading about the dilemma we're in with the State Housing and Development Department, getting this done seems very emergent.
But it needs to be done well. And doing it well, in my understanding is processing it through the Planning Commission which developed it. You didn't develop it. So if I were the state, I would look at the level of review and support in seeing whether the city of Ojai passed it through the planning commission or they arbitrarily sent it in because they were scared of the time date. Thank you.
Thank you Bill. Next we have Jeffrey Starkweather.
Thank you. Yes there are a lot of suggested changes And what I heard about the process, my question I guess is what is going to be the role of the Planning Commission when you go to this next phase? Because number one there's all kinds of suggestions in there. things that we didn't do, which is about the subjective criteria on the code, barriers in the code, which we've been trying to talk about. So is this what the consultant's going to do? Do that work because that's pretty detailed legal planning work number one and number two I can sense now why they put in you put in some of these prospective developments An example is the Becker project which is continually mentioned in here and yet we have it on for initiative. It was voted down, we can't very well tell HCD that we're carrying out our mandate and I was a little surprised that since Becker has actually applied for SB 330 developers remedies that wasn't mentioned at all and also we have an application in from The Bryant Street project, which would include 50 units and that application has been submitted already.
So I just was surprised that those two were not included because those are actually attempting to move along quicker in actually meeting our goals so thank you.
Thank you Jeffrey any comments online Weston?
Yes Mayor we have one raised hand from Renee. Renee do you have the floor?
Thank you, Weston. Good evening. I do agree this should go back to the Planning Commission. I do believe that the ability to address some of the zoning and overlay things need to go through the Planning Commission first. The city has been dragging its feet on development. The city has been lagging behind on acknowledging where and how to get more housing projects in here, you need to be more aggressive on it. You need to say yes to housing for Ojai. We haven't heard it. We've heard no to housing for years and years and years. I want to hear the City Council and the Planning Commission say yes to housing, and here's where it can go. And it can go everywhere we can make this happen. And that's what HCD wants to see. And you haven't said it. You haven't been willing to say it.
I hope this is going to put the fire under your bottom to say we're going to do it. We need, we know we need to start doing this and we're gonna do it and we're gonna do it now and we're gonna get it done but I'm really sick of it. I'm really sick of it that you have been put in this position and in some way there's a part of me that says let the builders remedy go to town. Let them work with the state and let the state come in here and see what they have been up against trying to get something approved It's ridiculous. It really is, so please let's have a change of heart. Let's go with what HCD says they want to work with you. They want to tell you what they want to see in the report get it in the report and get the Planning Commission on board too.
Thank you
Thank you, Renee. We'll move on to discussion and just a reminder that we did just say yes to Habitat for Humanity so that was pretty exciting. Yay! And
the Mecca Project is pending voter approval and not denied. Okay great
all
right uh so we're in discussion now yep I just wanted to thank James and the team and Matt also i don't know but i know that you have been on this every day talking to them Trying to work your way through what they actually want and how the goalposts changed And why why that's on us, but it is and I just want to appreciate you so much for sticking with that like a good city manager would and also a Good City Attorney would and I know that it every it's been every day for you. I know so thank you I just want to thank you because it's above and beyond and
Thank you. And quickly to speak to Mr. Starkweather's point, we brought some of those projects up with HCD on our call today and they said that's complicated. We need to work together So there is no easy guide to this. The answer is we need to get in the room with HCD and work through it, so...
And I think it's important to remember, it's actually not 40%, it's more like 50% of Southern California housing elements have not been approved, correct?
Something like that for the SCAG region. Okay.
Is there... Well moving along, would someone like to propose a motion?
So I wanted to make a couple of quick comments. I don't disagree, I don't agree at all with the last speaker that the City of Ojai is refusing housing projects. You know that I talked to Johnny Johnson at length about Where the habitat for humanity project is going that piece of property was like available for donation to any. Affordable housing group that wanted to build it and it fortunately we finally found You know habitat for humanity, but there were efforts to develop that property and I think that Also just to address concerns by you know People who want to see this reviewed by planning.
I think we need to First of all at this point, you know, we're basically being dictated To a certain degree by the state. I understand that This huge packet that we're receiving and it's going to be submitted to the state is largely coming from HCD telling us what we need to have in our planning element if we want it approved. So, it goes and then there is no prohibition After we get in compliance with the HCD that we revisit components of it where we think we need to expand, but we would be in a lot of trouble.
If we restricted thing, this is my understanding if we restricted things that they HCD had required for us to bring into compliance. So I Don't like the you know, I don't want there to be any suggestion that they were not following a proper process because I hundred percent Believe that we are following the right process and I have ultimate faith in James and Matt in guiding us through that So motion would be to approve The submission to HCD and keep our fingers crossed
second Okay, great. All right roll call please Weston
Roll-call vote Passed 5–0 motion would be to approve The submission to HCD and keep our fingers crossed second Okay, great. All right roll call
Show transcript
Okay wonderful all right we yeah so we will six seven and eight will come some other time right okay let's move on to council member reports quickly anybody Just I just want to huge shout out to Louise and the parks and rec Department and Saturday was a really great event the open house. It was really Family-friendly and great community event great energy So thank you Louise if you're listening and everyone who works at parks and rec it was a beautiful. Ojai day Yeah,
it was
great.
I think they had 300 to 500 people as what I heard
some city managers report
4:47 – 4:499 turns
We are going to put some information out and invite out to the council and also to the public that we are planning, we don't have the details yet but we're planning June 1st to have our flag raising for the pride flag for our first ever. So look for that in the next couple of days, the information to be posted And I will be following up individually. I did have a conversation with the DA's office today, and I think it's too late to talk about it But I'll be following up individually with everybody about next steps in that process so
great Thank you, and we'll move on to future agenda items I would recommend that we not add anything at this point because we have met You know we need to get through more items, and um we have a Some carryovers so
and I can usually read those off. So right now right now without anything changing We have the grand jury report discussion Which I know is a hot topic and I think we should talk about sooner rather than later plus we have to respond The district attorney's response We have the budget workshop carrying over from today And then the two pending requests the indemnification request in the rental rate disclosure requests So that's a full agenda and when we're pushing a couple items back from June 13th to the
27th. So that would be five on the next
one? Yeah, and that's about our max lately. Let's
make a personal goal or a group goal rather to get through all five next time by 1030.
The cannabis will be later in June?
Yeah, that was on the list but I just had to move four back so yeah, probably right now it's penciled in for June 27th
Okay, well thank you all for a productive meeting and I appreciate it and we are adjourned.