City Council — 2023-10-10

Call to order, we

have

a quorum.

Could we

have the roll call please

Weston?

yes welcome

everyone and welcome to the October 10th 2023 meeting of the Ojai City Council.

And then we had a staff art jury who, next slide please. Decided on the winning design Ohai Day by Dennis Wood. Next slide please. And that's the winning design.

They're

in person as well.

Very nice.

It's beautiful. Yeah

yeah.

So just a brief update. Ojai day will be October 21st on Saturday. We will be having it on Ojai Avenue from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.. The road will not be closed overnight. It'll be closed starting 6 a. m. that day reopening at 8 p.

All right. Thank you so much, Christy. Looking forward to it. Appreciate it.

Thank you. Have a great night.

You too. All right. We'll move on to commission reports. We have a commission report from Chair Aikens.

So let me I'm Brian Akins. I'm the chair of the Historic Preservation Commission. My head is exploding, but lots of things happening. Head is exploding, but lots of things. And so is my phone wondering why the HPC item got pulled and I'll explain it to you. So as you know, we've been working for that. One of the things we have... I made a comment, I think, a month ago that the outreach in the newspaper I felt was lacking.

I went back and double-checked that. There was an advertisement June 9th for Parks & Rec's and a youth commissioner June 23rd Ventura Parks and Rec in Ventura, California. The next advertisement that was in the paper was actually last Friday and that's when the Historic Preservation Commission advertisement for the position that Cindy Convery vacated September 14th was finally advertised for. And so we as I've mentioned in the past we have been doing Our own recruiting reaching out to candidates. I do want to clarify something so people are talking about the four applications that are out there This is one applicant she put it in at the beginning of the year June 7 or January 17th Mayor sticks met with her thank you for doing that Here's another applicant.

She put it her application in January 11th Here's the third applicant a non-resident put her commission her application in March 1st and our fourth Applicant also a non resident put her application in April first so Again, and this is just I came to you on the priorities before we even lost our commissioner and said that our commissions are not able to meet for various reasons. So that's where we are in our commission. We thought we had candidates in place.

In fact, that changed this afternoon because of a family health issue on one of our candidates that we're looking forward And so we will just postpone and do what we can when it comes in November. For Ojai Day, we will reach out to Mara our staff liaison and have her reach out to the commissioners so that were staffed for Ojai day and I'll be dusting off my gel stripes in my crazy hat So that's where we are. We are waiting to meet, we're anxious to meet.

The other thing that if we had actually a meeting in September which is when we were planned it got canceled just before that and I've mentioned this before some rumors going around that the structures of merit Which came about nine years ago, my first meeting in the HBC in September 2014 was actually talking about the structures of merit between Craig Walker and Terry Hill.

So when Craig came back on the commission he asked that item be brought forward to the commission. We did that again I was on the commission with Craig before That there is some crossover between the structures of merit that we brought up in the joint meeting We had with all of you and with a downtown historic district So I am here because we we didn't get to have that meeting on September 14th. That would have clarified that do again clarify that for those that are listening That the Structures of Merit is an independent initiative. The Structures of Merit is mentioned in the code session, city code. It is something that is suggested by the historic preservation that they find and they put forward.

If we had brought it to you by now which I hoped we would have done, that would have actually been the third time that it came before the council. All of those the first two times he got punted so go figure But the structures and merit even though there's a slight overlap to that is not being put out as a Backdoor wait for the HPC to get control of your properties. I Don't live in this city.

I Not indebted to anyone or I give all I can so I have All I want to do is keep Ojai the beautiful Ojai that it is. The downtown historic district, we had planned to bring out the new map in October but may not be able to meet in October. Hopefully we are. Well, it is October now. Sorry once months going too fast I said my head had blown up so again I want to thank all the many people that That helped us. I had a new phrase that said sometime the magic happens after the closing gavel bangs and I saw some of those magic, and since Matt was there, I will tell you none of that broke the Brown Act in any way at all.

If we had have, Mr. Summers would have reminded us that we were out of turn. So anyway, I appreciate everyone's support and your efforts in trying to enable us to meet, Large agenda that we put in place for our September 14th meeting And again, just a plea for the other commissioners that we bring them applicants as much as we

can So there's four applications but the the qualifying person has to live in the city limit Correct. So there's only two yes qualify and so my question is are they are we still taking applications or OK, so the public needs to know that. All right? I hope

so.

Yes. Yeah.

And again, I'm sorry.

The application form is available at city clerk's office and I assume on the website.

Correct. And again, yes, four applicants two of which were residents. Two are non-residents because with the new rules we can't bring in a non-resident they weren't interviewed but the other two were again by Mayor Sticks so. Okay

thank you Chair Aikens much appreciated. Thank you. 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 on the agenda we cannot discuss them. We appreciate your viewpoint and participation and we can agendize them in the future Just a reminder that you have three minutes and at the end, you'll hear a chime. So please stop speaking when your time is up.

There's no giving away time to any speaker and if you're in agreement with a previous person, please just say ditto. And there's been a request to say your name and address of course that's optional. We will begin we have half an hour so we'll begin with our first 10 which are in my hand and then we will continue after the first item. So let's begin with Ron Solarseno from the library, David Bell and Colin Jones.

All right thank you so much members of council my name is Ron Solarseno and I am the regional librarian for the Ojai Valley here to just give you a little update on what we have going on at the Ojai Library this month First, I want to mention that on this coming Saturday, October 14th, we have an author, former FBI and Department of Justice Special Agent Kenneth Strange, who's going to visit the Ojai Library to talk about his newest book, which is called A Cop's Son, One G-Man's Fight Against Jihad, Global Fraud, and the Cartels.

During his career, Strange served with three U.S. government agencies pursuing criminals and bad actors including some of the most heinous criminals on the planet. This book draws on true crime investigative stories accrued over a remarkable career and includes a posthumous homage to Strange's father's storied 38-year NYPD career. So local author coming on Saturday October 14th Then the following week on Thursday, October 19th, the Ventura County Regional Energy Alliance is going to be joining the Ojai Library to celebrate Energy Awareness Month. You can come to the library at 5 p.m. to learn about electric vehicles at an exciting event that's perfect for families and EV enthusiasts of all ages. You can join in for an Electric Vehicle 101 presentation, you can explore an electric car in person at the library And you can enjoy a fun craft activity we're gonna have set up for kids.

These special events are happening alongside our usual offerings, we have of course our Monday morning ukulele club, we have our Wednesday morning story times for children's age zero to five and then we have our knitting and fiber arts workshops on Sundays as well as many other activities. For a list of all of our programs please visit our website vencolibrary.org That's all that I have for now. Thank you so much.

Thank you, Ron Next we have David Bell then Elle Caldwell and then Colin Jones And just a reminder that I'm sorry and these these this color card are for events and organizations

Yes, I'm an event in an organization. Thank you.

Wonderful!

Thanks for listening my name is David Bell and I am a member of the Ojai Film Society so we're the people that put the free movies on at Libby Bowl. I know a lot of people have been coming out this year was the second year. I know that the Ojai Film Society goes back a long ways but it's been kind of revitalized Re-whatever, animated and I think it originally started with a group of people that during the pandemic they're like hey why don't we show some movies in Sarzotti Park and it'll be great. We can be outside and I think it was actually the city that said why don't you guys use Libby Bowl? And so you know we did. I got involved that last year by going to a movie and saying like well I'd like to do this We had like a blow up screen and it was all kind of put together, and now this year we've got just a giant screen.

It's a fantastic place to see a movie. We've had over 4,000 people come, and it really feels like it's becoming You know, the idea is like we want it to become a thing in Ojai where people can come see these great movies for free and that it gets sort of branded. That people are sort of like hey, it's the Friday night movies right? And so the reason I'm here is we're having a bit of an issue with the city in terms of getting the dates that we need for the Libby Bowl and it's kind of an important thing that we actually have Certain specific dates because like it has to do with like the time the sun sets and things we you know, because we got to be out. We got over by 10 so I have it here the dates who've been looking for and like I say the city's always been great they've helped us a lot But I wanted to get out here and put it on somebody's radar, whether we can possibly get those dates either kind of legacied in for the Film Society.

It's a great event. It's completely free for everybody in the town. It really was a major success this year. But if we don't have the dates sort of locked down, it becomes kind of difficult to sort of commit to doing it. And I do know that the last movie we did was Friday, last Friday and Monday, yeah. It was great and Sound of Music we did, The Princess Bride, so many great movies but on Monday we were meeting to basically plan for next summer. That's how quick it's gotta... It doesn't seem like a lot to just show a movie in the park but it takes a lot of getting your ducks in a row. So if I might, to just pitch it to the City Council. The dates we need for next summer are July 26th August 9th and 23rd September 6th and 20th and October 4th and that sounds very specific but literally if we can't get those dates it just might not work out.

It might not work out for the sun We can't really do two weeks in a row because it's just too much to kind of pull together, so it's sort of like every other Friday. For any help the City Council can give us we appreciate everything you've done so far and thank you very much.

Thank you Dave. at a future time. Thank you very much, appreciate that.

And thanks too for all the work that you've done. This summer series was incredible and it was really a fantastic event. Thank you David.

Next we have Elle Caldwell then Colin Jones then Barry Rabe.

Good evening Council and Mayor Sticks I'm here, I should say now for something completely different. I'm here to ask each of you to thoughtfully question who you are here to serve. Do you serve the majority of opinions of speakers and email senders on any particular issue? I wholeheartedly ask you to listen to and consider every opinion expressed but we do not know who or how many people they represent.

Your tally of pro and con comments is a questionable premise to base your votes on. It seems to me the same is true in the case of the number of voters who sign a petition. Again, I assert you should listen and be informed by the numbers but should you base your votes on that? Do you serve the people of your district or at large in the mayor's case who supported you in conversations with funding, time, energy and their votes?

This is a very important question when an election as close as the recent races have been. And because the district system was forced upon us. Again, the more folks you listen to and constructive ideas you consider, the better But are those opinions what you should base your votes on? Do you serve only the people who live inside the Ojai City limits who can vote for you, or do you consider the impact of your decisions on our whole community, the people of the whole Ojai Valley, our neighbors, our friends, our families.

I ask these questions based on statements some of you have made in past council meetings I suggest that each of you should represent every one of us, our whole community. I want to trust that each time you vote, you will base your vote on community input and more importantly on your own research, thoughtful consideration of what will create a community that works as well as possible for everyone. Thank you.

Thank you, Al. Next we have...

Can I

make a quick comment to Al?

Al?

And just a reminder Council, generally we don't comment on public comment.

I'll just comment here. As we move forward with our whole process, thank you for bringing that up. I think it's very important that we all understand how decisions are made and I think it's really important that we also have a process for that So thank you for bringing that to our attention. It is something to discuss for us, for sure. How do we make decisions? Thank you.

Next we have Colin Jones then Barry Rabe and then Bob Kemper.

Colin Jones, East End. I have a little poem about current events Judge Coates was not fooled. He has cleared both Drucker and Rule. He says they did not violate the Brown Act, that they were merely stating fact. In Ojai, there is a group with a technique that wishes to strangle our ability to speak. To intimidate us into silence is their plan using frivolous lawsuits free speech to ban but the wicked strategy has failed now they're the ones getting nailed attorneys fees they must pay or how they will rue the day when they thought the way was paved to destroy the freedoms we all crave, by threatening our First Amendment rights to make us all afraid to fight.

For all of this who is to blame? Who abused the Brown Act without shame? The judge said in a secret meeting it was the city council who was cheating. We now know who caused the conflict, it was Whitman Lang and Sticks. The judge said of Whitman's declaration that he misrepresented the truth in his citation. And what of Mr. Summers? Did he not claim that Leslie Rule broke the Brown Act again and again? That should give you something all to chew when he comes up for his next review.

How much time and energy and money is this all cost? How much faith in this council has been lost? How many voters need to be upset before we hear one word of regret. The judge said in his evaluation, Lesley Rule did not disclose confidential information. Yet you three would not give her two red cents to help her in her defense? Do you feel no shame leaving her alone to take your blame?

Mayor what kind of counsel do you present? You are in this office, and it's our town's lament. And who exactly do you represent? And who and where do you derive consent? Is it simply Ojai that you put first, leaving truth and justice in the dirt? We're all so tired of hearing you three whine we're presiding over Ojai's decline. This town of ours will never align until you, you, and you resign. Thank you.

And just a reminder, if you can hold any kind of noise. I'm going to make a statement and I'm sorry, Barry, just one moment because I think it's important that the public needs to hear this. So here is what I think is happening at City Hall. There is a small group of people who in the last election supported four candidates who lost two council seats and the mayoral seat.

This group chose to engage in an unprecedented, unrelenting and vitriolic negative campaign. They have continued their personal attacks on those with whom they disagree. Excuse me, I'm going to ask for a point of privilege. No, I am going to finish. The public needs to hear this and I have the floor.

One of the privileges recognized under Rosenberg's it would be in order to see what the point of privilege is and then deal with it as needed.

What did you just say?

Councilmember Rule called for a point of privilege. Rosenberg acknowledges points of privilege, typically like a personal privilege point. I would suggest that may be worth resolving.

So I'm going to continue

Well, this is you have to deal with the point of privilege before you continue and I'm

not sure

what the point What

is your point

my point of privileges as I recall? You just admonished me and said that we shouldn't be speaking back to To public comment yet here. You are not only make speaking back on a public comment. You're making a statement Well, and I think that is out of order it's inappropriate And it's not on the agenda

Well I would

let's see sticks in there but it is me excuse me. You're asked about my point of privilege mayor Betsy sticks declaration of how she sees this is not on the agenda and it is inappropriate for you to be stating a proclamation. It's inappropriate and so I'm going to make a motion that we stop this right now. This is not appropriate. It is not on the agenda. Is there a second

for that motion? All in favor?

Okay, let's

discuss. We can just vote and who is in favor of that motion?

The problem is it feels like you're speaking for all of us.

No, no, Suza there's a motion on the table so motions allow discussion.

If I could just take a moment and remind everyone that Pluto just stationed direct and that we are headed toward an eclipse and Mars and Pluto have been square one another. I'm just trying to be unpredictable here.

Okay, well here's a there's a motion and there's a second we can have discussion eventually whenever roll call so is it you've already had time to give your statement. And

if you make a statement that there has It's not possible for you to make this strong of a statement that we don't, then you have to open it up for discussion. And it's going to take a lot of

time. By the time we have taken more time discussing whether or not she should make a statement, she could've just made the statement. Okay let's just vote. Can we have

a vote? Let's just vote. It's a matter of process and procedure and it is always It's always.

Excuse me, let's be

polite. You know process and procedure is good until it comes to you.

I'm going to ask for the roll call on this motion. We have

Do I get a chance to make a statement? Just vote, please. Yes. I would like to make statements

as well. Mayor Pro Tem Francina. Yes Council Member Whitman No

Okay, I'm going to continue and then we'll keep going. This is the problem right here. Excuse me. This approach has led to unnecessary... God please not! Here's what's

happening at City Hall. Point of privilege again. We have an audience member shouting from the back which she does

often. This approach has led to unnecessary and destructive discord at City Hall This destructive approach to political discourse is playing out in the U.S. House of Representatives and is being mirrored in communities all over the nation. I went to two workshops at the League of California Cities Conference a few weeks ago in Sacramento, which focused on communication and specifically the toxic political dialogues on social media, print media, and at council meetings For example, the Sacramento and Ventura City Councils recently banned Zooming due to outrageous and unacceptable comments.

Though I put a very high value on the importance of people being able to express dissent at council meetings, the unrelenting personal attacks damage the process and the community. It's painful to be at council meetings. The negativity drives kind and thoughtful people out of the process, and in the long haul discourages community members from running for office.

Who would want to serve on the council if that potentially means continual attacks from a few people who might disagree? The good news for our children is that despite the hostility and several years of delay by the previous City Council majority, this council was able to bring forward local climate action that passed with a unanimous vote. Not long after in an effort to provide relief for Ojai renters whose wages could not come close to keeping up with rent increases I introduced rent stabilization that passed with a vote 3-2.

I vote in support of what I believe is in the best interest of our community. Could I have quiet please? Sometimes special interests don't like that. We can, though, all be the change we want to see in the world by moving forward, stop questioning colleagues and community members' motives and practice unconditional, excuse me, quiet please, quiet, unconditional positive regard.

Each of us has a responsibility to lead with compassion not fear and stop the attacking so that we can work together The finger pointing is the problem. It's time to be part of the solution, we need to work together for a better future for our children. Thank you for listening and thank you Mr. Ray for your patience.