City Council — 2024-06-25

And call to order we have a quorum could we please have the roll call Mr. Chief Deputy City Clerk

yes mayor thank you welcome public

Thank you Bill. Next we have Sharon Mahari and then Bob Kemper

Good evening My name is Sharon Meharry. I've lived here in the city of Ojai for 22 years, but tonight I'm representing the Ojai Valley Board of Realtors. As we all watched the derailment of the project, the Dignity Moves Transitional Housing Project Last week it occurred to us that we could help in ways that possibly no one else can. Bob Kemper, a well-known broker in town called me yesterday to discuss how we could help keep this project on the right track by offering our services and the location negotiation and purchase of a good site for the project We propose that we form a realtor task force under the auspices of the Board of Realtors and put our professional property sleuths on the job to find the right property.

There are over 200 realtors in the Ojai Valley, I don't know if you realize that, and a good many of them belong to our board We wholeheartedly support the Dignity Moves project. We want it to be the most successful one in the state of California and beyond, but we think that our personal and professional expertise could help get us there. So what we'd like to do is offer our services Free of charge.

There would be no charge for this. This is what we do every day. So, what we would do in this case, we would consult with the city in locating suitable locations for consideration. We might even find a landowner who will donate their property for a great tax write-off. It's not out of the question. We'd like to reach out to property owners regarding their willingness to sell for this purpose. We know a lot of people, we know their real estate and we know them personally in what their situations are so there may be people out there that haven't come forward that we can bring to the table We would reach out to those property owners regarding their willingness to sell for this purpose.

And we'd bring the vetted locations back to the city manager and the council for selection. Then, we'd use a certified appraiser to help determine the fair value of the identified property. We'd write and submit offers on the City's behalf, negotiate the transaction, and shepherd the deal through escrow. We'll be following up with a letter to you. With the formal offer of this kind of community cooperation and thank you for your time and attention I think we could really help out and make this smoother and easier for everybody. Thank you.

Thank you Sharon. Next we have Bob Kemper.

Thank you. My name is Bob Kemper. I live in Miners Oaks, and although I've spent much of my 25 years in the Valley working on behalf of various nonprofits and many civic causes to benefit our community, often when I'm here, I'm here to complain about something what hasn't been done or what should have been done but not tonight, I come at peace. And in fact, I am amongst a group of other community members some of whom you've already heard from some of whom you will still hear from Uh, who are offering to participate or recommending an ad hoc committee to hopefully be appointed by the City Council either tonight or at a special meeting for the sole purpose of assisting with the location purchase lease construction and development of essential services to ensure its ongoing.

And long-term viability we have done as much research as is possible from available public information including the grant application budget discussion with help of Ojai and other stakeholders We're here not to go over missteps or talk about what could have been done or should have been done, but more about what we can do going forward. I think that's the point.

So I think getting the entire community involved is absolutely essential. There is power in this community, as you heard and again you'll hear more. We believe that the majority of the community will support a solution for our unhoused population assuming they can have adequate input into the process And I figure, and I think most will say that without such adequate input the city will run into further roadblocks and lose this opportunity. We cannot afford to lose this opportunity.

We do not want this to happen. I implore you to carefully listen to what is being offered to support the city's effort and to accept this offer for assistance. As Sharon Meharry just said we have 200 realtors in this town way too many trust me They know every single piece of property. They know owners who own properties that may be looking for tax write-offs. They know owners of properties, pocket listings in the vernacular that you don't even know exist that might be possible without enlisting the realtors and we're not gonna make any money on this so this is not a sales pitch it's it is a sales pitch do the right thing accept the help let us help you okay so we can all win all be successful thank

Thank you, Bob. And we appreciate your enthusiasm if you could please hold your applause. Thank you. Next, we have Barbara Bowman and Jeff Kroll and Jeffrey Starkweather.

I'm happy to stand before you today, Barbara Bowman because we all agree on something for a change. What a pleasure. I mean, I'm looking at all of you and I'm not in disagreement with any of you because we all want the same thing. We want the unhoused community to be housed and we want them to be housed as part of a community effort. That's the only way it's going to work. We don't want them in sheds that don't have air coolers or heat or plumbing. We all want it to be done right. And we want to find a site that If the community's involved, most people can get behind it. And I think if they see the community behind something you can get everybody behind it. So we're all here with you so I'm really here to encourage you, really encourage you to create this ad hoc committee let it go forward with your approval that we can report to all of you research all this information and get this thing done right as a whole community what a wonderful project for the community Particularly if everyone is in agreement, and I know every one of you want to get this done.

So help us help you to make this happen. Thank you.

Thank You Barbara next we have Jeff Kroll then Jeffrey Starkweather and then Bill Miley

Hi, how are you? I'm Jeff Crow with Shangri-La. We're also known as Ojai Cannabis Company. First off, I want to apologize because I know that most of the public comments and what's being discussed is certainly very, very important for the unhoused. But at the same time I made a promise to some of the shareholders, owners of Shangri-La shares that I update the community on some of our plans in the future.

As many of you know Paul Blatz was a big supporter At the time that he was mayor and when we were issued our business license in 2009, it was no other city in California had issued a business license for delivery service. We also made a promise, I made a promise to the community and also to Paul Blatz and the supporters of Shangri-La that I would inform you as to because I've been getting a lot of calls from why do we change our name.

I'm so tired of answering these calls The fact is people had a hard time spelling Shangri-La in the internet and it really hurt our web presence. Once we made the change to say where we are and what we do, we had a 30% increase in our web traffic. So I know that seems crazy but that's the reality And the fact is, I think we're at a turning point in this industry that we're about to have schedule three. We don't know when that's going to happen but it will allow us to write off expenses.

When the voters of Ojai voted 70% to approve recreational, they also approved a payment or fee structure. A lot of people and I still have this on our receipt it says with the 3% city taxes. I get asked all the time are you able to write that off? And the answer is no. Until Schedule 3 happens, I'm not able to write off any expenses except the actual physical cost of what I buy from a distributor to put in my counter.

Everything else is not a write-off for us so it's been really a challenge for all three of us over the last since 2018 and of course you probably have heard it is a struggle. The industry is not doing well in the retail trade I'm no different. So, I just wanted to inform you that we did get our micro license. We got our micro license in February. It is so rare to be issued this license for manufacturing and distributing. One of my promises to Paul Blatt was to create...

Thank you Jeff. Thank you. Next we have Jeffrey Starkweather then Bill Miley and then Larry Steingold

Good evening, been a while since I've been here. I didn't plan to speak but since Mr. Haney wasn't able to complete his presentation, I'm gonna read it and I had nothing to do with putting this together but I support it. So this is continuing on. The committee will have 45 working days to investigate, clarify, determine and vet through open and transparent ad hoc meetings a comprehensive I guess recommendation to the City Council to move the city of Ojai forward with the permanent supportive transitional housing facility.

The committee will facilitate development of a 30-unit, or it could be less or more, supportive transitional housing facility within the City of Ojai along with the permanent housing. Provide non-congregate shelter through motel vouchers with wraparound services and housing navigation. Facilitate street outreach service which will provide assistance with documentation assessing To help assessments to help the prioritize this first time I read it. Sorry participants through the coordinated entry system for permanent housing opportunities facilitate other related components of highly productive and Caregiving facilities such as site procurement and development securing proper facility management securing contracts with entries Entities whose sole purpose is to administer enhanced community outreach, incorporate the lived experience of the homeless in the planning and design at the site and operations coordinate outreach and wraparound services provided by the County of Ventura.

Establish partnerships with the City of Ojai, help of Ojai Continuum of Care Homeless Management Information System and the Coordinated Entry System for Pathway. That's a bureaucratic number pathway for permanent housing review long-term facility management of traditional facilities cost revenue required And along with uh revenue streams and develop future needs and involvement in the county So I'm just finished it. I just wanted to make one comment Based on what I read in the newspaper, and Mr. Harvey was describing the four criteria which I guess those are required by state law but I was a little bit uneasy with the way he described number four which was concern about NIMBYS being against it I think we need to be very careful with those words.

I think when you're looking at a site, you need to describe it in detail what the design will be to the neighbors, how it's gonna operate, the nature of who's gonna live there, the onsite services, the supervision provided and of course the neighbors and the residents of the city should have an opportunity for input now and ask questions. When that's done, and all the questions have been

answered... Thank you Jeffrey. Next we have Bill Miley and then we have Larry Steingold.

Hello my family and I have lived in this valley in this city for 56 years Here are some questions about the grant program for homeless encampment at City Hall. They can't be answered because it's not on the agenda, so they're really addressed to our city manager Mr. Harvey. 1. Are the homes or units transitional or permanent? 2. Are the Dignity Moves buildings, are they movable and will the City ever own them?

3. Are the Dignity Moves buildings, are they described as sheds, cabins, small houses, tiny houses, or what? Four, how can a tiny shelter house without a toilet, without a sink, without a mini kitchen be described as a permanent structure? Five, why is Dignity Moves getting $10 million out of the $12 million grant. Six, how much money will Help of OI get to provide casework for all 30 residents?

How much money will the city of Oai get to do all the daily service work to keep the village clean and safe? How much will the sheriff get to provide security? Nine. How many residents will be transitioned to more suitable housing as part of the rehab effort? Ten. How will aberrant behavior on the part of one or more residents be handled? And last, What criteria will be used to screen potential residents to assure they will be suitable for the village?

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

Mr. Harvey, can I give you this list please? Get this off your plate and give it to a committee of people in Ojai, please. Because there's a lot of people here. We need this. Okay? We need it for the 40 or 45 people there. The question I have is Mr. Gattas said 90 people. That's 30 every four months. Well, if we have only 45 here are we going to become a catchment area? Are they going to be bringing in homeless to go into the transition centers so they can fill an empty slot?

Good nights to know. OK, so but to me it's get it off your plate. Let do what Ron Haney, Jeff Starkweather for a change. I'm on the same page with him. OK? And everybody else we need this just do it right. We're all NIMBYs to some extent. We're all NIMBY about something, right? I don't want a dog kennel next to my house. I'm a NIMBY about dog kennels. Okay, we're all NIMBYs so that's a misnomer and I think that's wrong.

Can you people institute a budget committee tonight to be reconstituted? It hasn't been eliminated just put out a call for people to help you with the budget tonight Please, I mean we're all here. A lot of people in town help you get off the plate moving along other than that. I think the roads are getting paved, even though it's taking longer than they should. Stripes are getting painted and did they do a street study for the stop signs?

Did we have a study because as Mr. Whitman said many years ago, last year I believe, we need to study for all traffic because we don't want to be liable. Great! Did we have a study for the stop signs? They went up all the time because when I asked Chief Fryhoff about stop signs, he said oh there haven't been enough deaths or fatalities or accidents on Pleasant and Drown to get stop signs.

Well, why'd we get stop signs? There had to be a demand. Can we now get speed bumps all over the city as a test? Take $100,000, put speed bumps everywhere and where they work, they work and where they don't work, they don't work but do something. Stop signs you did something. Please, we talk about the traffic, we talk about parking, we talk about speeding and that's all it is, is talking. Is the police officer gonna be 24-7 Okay, that's a nice thing if he is. For 300 grand we should get 24-7. Are we putting cameras up in the arcade for the young men and young ladies who are riding on electric bikes in the arcade? You want to ride on the street, you want to do wheelies down the middle of the road fine go ahead be a hood ornament okay but let's do something in the arcade please thank you.

Thank you Larry

One more card in House Mayor Devorah Cutler and we do have a raised hand on Zoom.

Thank you, esteemed committee. I appreciate all the work that you do to make our home a better place and everything that you've contributed in your lifetimes. I am a recent transplant from Los Angeles to Ojai, teacher USC 15 years. One of my wonderful most favorite jobs was working as a public affairs specialist And I worked with the unhoused community and worked in development of programs that were successful, and monitored what was unsuccessful.

One thing that I do want to say that is super important both that happened with me as a teacher at USC and also working with that particular community is that there would be times as a teacher for instance where somebody would go off their meds And it was very hard to monitor. So speaking to our gentleman back here about criteria, even if you have a criteria there does need to be constant monitoring of behavioral changes, life attitudes, we're not gonna go as deep as DNA.

I'm just saying that it's super important and I'm sure you're aware of this just Rather than speed up the process or slow the process, but have a some sort of criteria checklist where you are prioritizing mental health and the well-being of the community as it intersects with the mental health. Now there are I mean people could say hey you're crazy sane Devo I mean, we all are debatably challenged especially post pandemic. But I especially think we need to have the caregiving and the money set aside for not just help of Ojai or people or security but just people to really like the VA does help people improve through new technology. And we might even be able to raise some money If people are willing to be part of experimental programs with either medication or behavior mod, you know for instance tapping or there's a lot of other technologies that are new out here that have been proven to actually affect and impact improvement and more well-being.

Thank you for listening I know I'm just harping on the same point but it's about criteria thank you.

Thank You Devorah we have one comment online

yes mayor we have a raised hand from Starchild Starchild you have the floor

Thank you. I wanted to say thanks to Ben Harvey for including the community to find a location for the unhoused encampment. It seems like everywhere we look there are perceived negative impacts from living next to the encampment or having a business next to the encampment. I do agree that we shouldn't call these people NIMBYs. They're concerned for their family, they're concerned for their business Sometimes they're concerned for their safety.

And to be truthful, even the city has some of the sentiment that they wouldn't like the encampment being on City Hall property, that it's a working campus and that it would somehow disrupt operations. I don't think any neighborhood, any neighbors, any business owners in Ojai deserve the negative impacts of living next to an encampment but I do think the city It has to take some responsibility.

The city has a restrictive housing policy that's contributed to the unhoused crisis, and I think if there is going to be an unhoused encampment anywhere it should be in City Hall So that the Planning Commission and City Council, and the city manager can be reminded every day. That when the city has a policy that restricts affordable housing. Restricts market rate housing makes it so that there's not enough housing for everybody who lives here. That on house that people become unhoused and that's what I wanted to say tonight.

Thank

you very much. We will move on to the consent calendar. Is there a motion to approve? I'll move to approve, but I'd like to pull item G. Okay. There's a motion to approve everything. Is there a second? Item

G is a request for services for Ventura County Animal Services. And as most of you know I've served on the animal services commission since 2016 and I just want to assure the public that's following the saga of you know we're we've been seeking a new director for Quite a long time that the city manager and I are going to meet with the assistant CEO Mike Pettit. To address our concerns and.

So that all the you know for the last eight years I've been. I am. I'm in touch with all of the most of the volunteers and rescue groups and again want to assure them that even though we're going to approve the level of service the funding and all that. Is that for me? Okay, let me gather my thoughts here. I'm going to vote to approve the request for services but at the same time I'm going to continue to address the concerns and also with the understanding that even if there's Questionable as to whether Ojai is paying too much for our share.

The way I see it what happens in Oxnard impacts all of Ventura County including Ojai so you cannot address, you have to look at the whole county when addressing the terrible problem we right now have of too many animals that are unwanted there are We're living at a time when there are thousands of adoptable, healthy animals being killed. We call it euthanasia but euthanasia is mercy killing and this is actually killing animals that become deranged from staying in the shelter too long. The public has to understand the magnitude of the problem and the only way we can never have shelters big enough, we can never fund enough, the only way to solve the problem Is spaying and neutering. And I'm proud that the city of Ojai is one of the few city cities in the county that actually has adopted a stay and neuter spay and spay and neuter ordinance done.

Thank you

council

member

listening

so we need a motion to approve.

Yeah, I just wanted to if I could through the mayor support Councilmember Francina in her comments. And while I also will support the funding or our funding level, I also have deep concerns and am appreciative that both of you are with Mike Pettit are working towards that there are great concerns and I know that that you know them and that you're working forward on them And at some point, I'd love an update on the new director at your convenience.

At the end of the meeting when we go around?

That would be great.

Council member updates.

Thank you. All

right. Would you like to make a

motion?

I'll move to approve item consent calendar item G. Okay in a second?

Second.

Okay all in favor?

All right, thank you councilmember Francina taking care of the animals We will move on to discussion. So

Good evening, Mayor Council members. So I am here tonight to ask the city council to award a construction contract to grant construction and a construction management agreement to TransTech for the construction of our ATP project. We are there. So we we designed the project began design on the project in twenty nineteen. Here we are six year four or five years later And we're there. So I have just a couple of slides, I just wanted to show you and also whoever's watching just what we're talking about. So we're talking about only phase one so that's Maricopa Highway and that's from five points to just west of Vons.

Here is the area we're talking about. The project includes two class one bike lanes on the south side of Maricopa Highway and a class two on the north side and handicapped ramps and flashing flashing beacons for pedestrian safety. So we're here it took a lot of time it took a lot of effort. We've got tonight with us we have Keith Lanou Keith Wave he's with he's with Avant Garde and then we have Heather Miller Heather Wave with VCTC So they have been with the project a lot longer than I have. I'm very familiar with the project. I've been around for a lot of it, as we all have.

So I just wanted to show a couple of renderings of what it's going to look like in case you haven't seen it lately. So this is the south side. This so this is right in front of Nordoff And we've got the bike lanes in both directions. And we've got a nice crossing, some nice ramps and will be creating a lot of safety features there. So I can answer questions if I can't, Keith or Heather can so we're open for questions.

Thank you very much any questions from council?

Yes. I guess this is a question We're going to bring up discussion, right? I'll wait for discussion.

Yeah. Okay all

right

thank you very much Ms. Palmer we will move on to public comment then uh we have William Wyrick

Thank you. Back when I was, another part of my life managing capital projects for a public agency university we actually had a schedule, a percentage schedule for construction management services that was part of our policies And those, and I actually got on the internet today and looked at some other universities in their percentages for construction management services.

And the percentages back in the day when I was there started around eight or nine percent for smaller projects and then declined for bigger projects below that. I checked some other universities just because that was something I knew to look up hasn't changed. This construction management services and inspection services contract is 15.8% in terms of authorized expenditures.

I have never seen anything that high. I was just involved in a private construction project, the construction management services was 3%, and everyone was quite happy. I wonder why this was the case and I also happened to notice that part of the construction management services is public relations, which I found interesting. We recently upgraded the public works position to a full-time position.

Obviously we have a city manager, deputy city manager. Perhaps that explains why the percentage seems to be at the absolute high end of what you normally see for this kind of thing, based on the references that I cited. The other thing I want to just mention really quickly is it's interesting that we have for phase one Who knows about phase two? Additional $454,000 in general fund money to complete phase one.

At one point I want to remind this council that the council guidelines for this project back in the day years ago were one designed to stay within the budget for phase 1 and phase 2 Have the high risk pedestrian crossings that are now in phase two and with no particular guidelines for when that might happen were a priority over phase one because of the risk to pedestrians in the high density areas.

And it just seemed like those were what the guidelines were, in terms of priorities which obviously this council is your right to do so to change those priorities. Change that parameter of design within budget, not use general fund money. That was part of our guidelines that were passed years ago unanimously by the council. So this council has taken a different path on this project and I just wanted to say for the record for the community to highlight those differences. Thank you.

Thank you Bill. Any comments online Weston?

No raised hands on Zoom for item two Mayor.

Okay let's move on to discussion who would like to begin? Yeah.

I don't really have a specific question on the phase, you know, on the matter at hand but it's related and we've brought it up many times. We do not need CalTrans permission to post a sign at the Y intersection so instead of it saying bike trail ends or bike lane ends It points people to the bike trail. You know what I'm talking about? Because newcomers may not realize it and then they end up on the highway.

We don't need their permission, I don't know what this council needs to do to make that sign happen because it's been asked for four years. Not under your watch, of course. Mayor would

you like me to answer that question? Yes the Public Works Council member, the Public Works Director and I have discussed this as part of the project we envision what we would call a few field modifications and that would be one of them that's de minimis, that's logical and that will be Very apparent once the project is complete and you're right because I ride the path And I know exactly what you're talking about unless you specifically know You might turn onto the highway instead of just simply crossing the street in accessing the Ojai Valley Trail, so that is part of what we'd like to do. Thank you for that assurance Yeah We think that's again Like I said de minimis and that's something that Caltrans will understand that we can address with them