City Council — 2024-09-10

Good evening. Call to order, we have a quorum could we please have the roll call Mr. Chief Deputy City Clerk?

Yes thank you Madam Mayor the City Council met in closed session to consider one item of significant exposure litigation related to a transactional occurrence known to potential plaintiffs the Cabin Village project. The city's approval of the Cabin Village project and on that there is a report out The council has directed staff to bring forward a public site vetting process for the Cabin Village Project specific site, not a site selection process as was previously done. Now a planning CEQA analysis process vetting the Lower Public Works Yard site for the Cabin Village project which will come to a future Planning Commission meeting.

More information will be available from the City's website on the exact dates of that coming Planning Commission meeting. Thank you and with that Madam Mayor I can also make the AB 2449 announcement

That'd be wonderful. Thank you very much.

Thank you, Madam Mayor. The mayor will be participating as authorized by the Brown Act remotely in tonight's meeting under Assembly Bill 2449 which permits council members to participate in city council meetings remotely when they can demonstrate just cause and when a quorum of the City Council is physically present in the city. We have four council members present here. Mayor Stixx is participating remotely under the Just Cause exception given a medical situation. With that, Mayor Stixx will be participating using the audiovisual technology Council members participating remotely under AB 2449 are required to disclose at the start of the meeting whether any other individuals 18 years of age are older or present in the remote location and if so, the relationship with those individuals.

I'll ask Mayor Sticks can you confirm that you're the only person over 18 with you? Or if not disclose those persons over 18.

Yep only human in here.

No rules for pets on AB 2449, but we welcome all furry friends.

They're in here.

And last as required by AB 2449, all votes taken tonight will be by roll call. Thank you.

Thank you very much and I appreciate that. Thank you Mr City Attorney. All right we will go ahead and close the closed session and we'll open the open session so welcome everyone to the September 10th 2024 meeting of the Ojai City Council. Mr Chief Deputy City Clerk could we have the pledge please?

Yes, Mayor. Absolutely welcome community.

commission reports? No, Mayor. And no presentation? So we will go ahead and move on to general public comment and just a reminder to everyone this is these are items not on the agenda so because they're not on the agenda we cannot discuss them and we can't agendize them for the future I don't have the card, so it's up to you Mr. City Clerk, correct?

Yes Mayor, I'll take care of it here. First we'll have Mike Eckhart followed by Daryl Ralston and then Anita Cram.

Mike? Thanks! It's Etchart by the way, no biggie. Yeah my name is Mike Etshart and I put this meeting on my calendar last week coming in expecting to see an update on what's going on for the concert season 2025 at the Libbey Bowl And it's crickets and there's nothing that seems to be going on. I'm pretty concerned about that because the concert business is a worldwide, excuse me, it is a year-round business and lots of shows for next year are being booked by other venues and we seem to be sort of standing still at the moment And I know about this business because for most of my working life, I've been an executive in the music business at Warner Brothers and Universal Music and Capitol.

And I was also on the original committee nine years ago when we brought and recommended to the council to bring in Sterling ventures to run our, our concert business here and we've had eight years of pretty great shows. And I'm pretty proud of that. And to kind of give everyone a back history of how that came together that was an ad hoc committee that Was put forth after a couple of years after the renovation of the bowl. A lot of people came forward and said they could book shows at the Libby Bowl and for three or four years, nothing really happened. And so the then City Council and the Zen and the then city manager recognize that perhaps we should bring in. folks from the community that had music industry experience and that ad hoc committee was formed.

And we were pretty successful at vetting that, we had an understanding those of us on the committee of the players in in the business, of how the business worked what to look out for the reputations of people that were submitting. And I think in the end it kind of came out okay for the last eight years a lot of as my friend says a lot of joy from all of the concerts that we've had here And I'm hoping we're going to continue that, but right now it feels a little unsettled.

And so I'm going to sort of respectfully propose that the council consider doing that again starting another ad hoc committee based with people in the community that have experience in the music business To help everyone to help the city manager to help the City Council understand what's going on out there in the community and in this industry, and to make sure we have partners that are going to be putting on again joyful 2025 concerts for this coming year and beyond. So I would hope you consider that. Consider that and also I'd hope you also consider making sure we agendize something, an update next week our next council meeting I should say on what's going So time is of the essence and I hope we can get rolling on that. So thanks very much, appreciate it.

Thank you Mike. Next we'll have Daryl Ralston followed by Anita Cram and then we'll move on to Zoom

Mayor and Council, my name is Daryl Ralston. I'm the president of the Persimmon Hill Homeowners Association. And two weeks ago you guys made a decision that has some large impacts on many people—a decision to place Cabin Village in a residential area. As a 44-year resident of Ojai, I am asking you to reevaluate and restate your decision and look for the right place for Cabin Village.

Use a committee, find a location that minimal impact. Go back and listen to Mr. Whitman's comments about trying to create a matrix and try to look at options and try to evaluate something that helps the whole community not just the cabinet building. So I just ask you to change your decision and do something for OHA. Thank you.

Thank you Daryl.

Next we'll have Anita Cram who will move on to Zoom.

Good evening, everyone. I would just like to thank the city for publishing the Ojai Outlook. I think it's very helpful for the community. A lot of people don't know what's going on. Some say the City Council doesn't do anything and I'm like are you kidding? And so thank you. Thank

you,

Anita.

Next we'll have Starchild before we move on.

Hi, good evening. I'm coming up on my anniversary first year in Ojai and I wanted to comment a little bit about the character of the town from something that I finally think I'm beginning to appreciate. I haven't lived much in a small town and I really appreciate the community. I appreciate the farmers markets. I appreciate being able to wave to people seeing my city council members out on the street and the friendships with neighbors that I've made One thing I hear about a lot is the importance of preserving our small town character, the community. And one thing that I think gets forgotten in that discussion is another character of the community and that's the character for the people who rent here like me.

There's a certain anxiety knowing that at any time the house that you're living in can be sold, your lease can be canceled. You'll have to find a new home. Maybe you won't be able to afford the homes that are available on the market. That's happened to a few of my friends. I can think of at least three households that have been so affected. And when I think about that character of the community, that affects 50% of our residents.

I think that we do need to change a change in the character, not the part that's great about Ojai, but the part that anxiety that fear, I think can be changed for the better. We can alleviate that. The population of Ojai used to be much larger than it is today, closer to 8000 instead of 7500. We can accommodate more people here and we can accommodate more housing. We can maintain our character but we can also provide a relief of that anxiety that so many of my neighbors feel. Thank you.

Thank You Starchild.

That's all in-house and we have no raised hands on Zoom Mayor so we'll move on

Okay, we will move on to the consent calendar. Is there a motion to approve? I'll move to approve. I'll

second.

I'd like to poll item D.

D okay all right is there a um okay we'll have a roll call for everything other than D.

Mayor this is Weston here if I may interrupt we had Ron Salarsano from the Ventura County Library and it's my fault I missed him. We could have Ron come up now and fill his comment

Thank you.

My fault.

All righty, yeah thank you so much. Yeah apologies for the confusion my name is Ron Solorzano I am the regional librarian for the Ojai Valley and i just wanted to give y'all a quick update we actually are quite excited because this school year the Ojai Library started its enrichment center operating Monday through Thursday after school while school is in session so from 2 p.m to 5 p. m What we're offering now is it's more than what we used to do. We used to focus on homework help, and now we're focusing more on a wider variety of enrichment activities for students and children. Basically anything relating to science, technology, engineering, art, all these topics have a variety of activities each day.

And parents and their children are welcome to come by and join us on any of those days. We also do have a program coming up, I didn't realize this but apparently Sunday September 22nd is Hobbit Day. And so we are inviting children and their families to come to the library at 1230 on that Sunday to take part in a celebration enjoy some snacks and some activities.

The other thing I wanted to mention is that we are in the thick of our One County, One Book community reading program right now. The title that we are reading is Rough Sleepers by Tracy Kidder and we are going to have on Saturday September 28th a film screening of the 2018 movie The Public starring Emilio Estevez Which is a story about some unhoused individuals who take shelter in a public library during a bitterly cold winter.

And then we're going to follow that screening with a book discussion talking about rough sleepers and the topics therein. And then later on in October, on the 12th of October, that's a Saturday, we're going to have the Ventura County Celebration of Books taking place on the campus of CSU Channel Islands That's going to feature at 11 a.m., a panel on homelessness in Ventura County with some local stakeholders talking on that panel, and then at 2 p.m. we're gonna have a talk by Dr. O'Connell who is the subject of the book Rough Sleepers. So there's more information on all of that available through the library website and if anyone has any questions you can always come talk to me as well over at the Ojai Library. That's it thank you so much!

Thank you Mayor and Council. And we just have our last public comment before closing the period, Nancy?

Hello, I'm Nancy Fritz. I've lived in Ojai for four years. Um, I would just wanted to say if uh To make a proposal to put in a traffic light at North Korea Road and Maricopa Highway Right there is school is coming out the high school There's kids. There's people going into Vons. There's a left-turn lane the right turn lane to Ventura Avenue It is so busy And the e-bikes going by really fast.

And when I cross on my bike or with my dogs, even in strollers people just run through the pedestrian light and then there's also the 25 miles an hour for the school light. And I just want to protect our, my kids are grown but protect the kids of Ojai. It's just so dangerous. So I would like to just start getting the ball rolling here and then I think I need to go to Public Works also and talk to them but it would be great if we could put a traffic light and just slow down the people you know from going crazy to go left turn to right turn And then protect our kids in Ojai. Thank you.

Thank you, Nancy. That's it, Weston?

Yes, ma'am.

OK, and any public comment on the consent calendar?

Mayor, we have a request to cancel for one more public comment. Please state your name into the microphone.

Yes, my name is Dr. Timothy Williamson. I have practiced in this community for over 40 years both in private practice and the emergency room. Tent community cabin location, as General Ralston has told you is really poorly thought out. And if for any reason it has to be put there I would ask that the entrance not be on Montgomery but it'd be on a different street. But I don't think it should belong there at all but particularly the entrance should not be facing persimmon hill, if at all possible.

Thank you.

Thank you Dr. Williamson. That's it? Weston?

Yes Mayor and we'll state the general public comment period is closed.

Okay thank you and no public comment on the consent calendar?

Correct mayor.

Okay so we have a motion to approve the consent calendar except for D. Is there a motion? Okay, we should already have the roll call please listen

Mayor, I would like to call the question.

Which question?

The question basically, you know call the question and vote on it. This is the third time we've pulled it the fourth time so there is on Rosenberg's rules the ability to call the question. We've had the discussion over and over and over again. We had the discussion last council meeting our Council Member Lange was not able to vote Unless there's something significantly different, which I don't suppose that there is. There's no need to waste more time on this so I am proposing that we call the question take a vote and That is I am within my rights to do so

Okay, thank you. All right so Mr. City Attorney do we need a second for that?

Yeah under Rosenberg's call on the question is a motion to call the question takes a second and then it's immediately voted upon if the motion to call the questions approved then we vote on the underlying item if that motion fails then there can be debate and discussion. The only thing before we call the question or consider that I want to confirm there was no public comment on this item either? Because we would have to take public comment if there was any, before we had a call for the question. But there was no public comment on item 1D?

No public comments received in-house let's extend this further into our zoom participants. Zoom participants we are talking about consent item which was pulled 1d and I will give you the opportunity raise your hand now if you need to and give you a moment.

No raised hands so with no public comment then with the second then the uh call of the question could be voted on

okay we have the second yep

I can't make a second. That was the

question. Is there is there a second for the call to question?

OK, then. OK.

All right. Mayor Pro Tem.

Yeah and I'm not going to be very long. I think that the ordinance as rewritten should be adopted but I think it should have a time limit and I'm open to any reasonable time limit last time I suggested 120 days And if somebody wants more time than that, but I think there should be a bookend so that we don't have the situation where somebody is a district representative and their Representation of the district goes on indefinitely without residing Could be the entirety of a term as the way it's written. So

I truly want to understand why this is so important to you because basically What you are saying is that if a council member doesn't find housing, are you thinking that we already discussed that there is a time limit because that council member in this case myself cannot run unless they're living at the time that they How do I want to say this, Matt? At the time that they if they want to be reelected. They have to be living in their district. That is clear. Correct? So that's it. That is the time limit.

And I want to know, do you think that if a council member doesn't find housing, say within 200 days, two years, that they haven't tried hard enough? Why would you want to You know in a way what you're. What you're doing is your your proposal to put a time limit on a duly elected official is you're negating the voting process. Is what you're doing. Now I can speak from experience I might I may be living in the most difficult district which is District 4. I don't think that you're ever going to have the chances first of all that there's going to be another renter On the council at this point in time is very, very slim because a renter doesn't have the security of a four year lease. So you know and the reality is that we are in an extreme housing crisis I reached a point I even brought this represents two years worth of seeking OK.

I didn't bring the although everything I went through with the grand jury with the. The fair political practices. I didn't bring up all the harassment but what you're doing is you're at oh and I mean the other thing is that it what it really comes down to is this It's a choice if a council member has a dog. It's really a choice between keeping your seat or keeping your dog because if I had gotten rid of my dogs, I wouldn't have had any trouble whatsoever finding housing affordable housing that is the bottom line. Okay so you're so what you're doing is essentially saying that if a council member can't find housing in their district during their term That you know, why would you want to remove a really, a council member that's been elected? What is your reasoning because we're a small town.

Even if I don't reside in my district, I probably spend more time in my district than anybody sitting here. I have lived longer in my district than some of the people sitting here and they've lived in Ojai. You know all together during this term, I was in my district a little over two years You know and I and but. I mean that's that should be good enough. And when I moved out of my when I wasn't in my district it was like a five minute walk away from my district so I was just as much in touch with my district as if I'd had a house there. There's just this is not a huge this is not Los Angeles or San Francisco you know I meet people in my district everywhere I go. It's not it's not a problem being in touch and representing my district And as luck would have it, most of the problems we have are in my district.

The housing situation's in my district. So the homeless housing situation. So I would like to know your reasoning because it could happen that you would have someone that you really like on the council and then they'd be subject to whatever time constraint you wish to place on them. And they would then, instead of being an elected, you could use this process to remove a council member who's voting you don't particularly like and then you could appoint. It could be used in the wrong way. You know there's that potential. We've discussed the potential of a council member.

There's always going to be some You know potential problem. But I don't believe that most. I would like to think that everyone elected here to this council is honest.

OK. I'll respond your question.

Thank

you. My view is that state law says that we are to elect our council members by district There are, and I appreciate the effort to create some flexibility in how we interpret that. But I could either approach the time limit which I've approached or I could approach the idea which I view as impossible Come up with regulations on how you determine that somebody is unable to be housed in their District despite their efforts So the simplest seems to be to put an objective standard, which is a certain number of days so I'll All move and and I didn't know I did intend to keep this short. But you know all all move that we Adopt the ordinance with the amendment that The Council member needs to find a residence in their district within 180 days.

Mayor, I'd like to make a substitute motion.

Yeah. Yes, I will second that motion but go ahead.

I'm going to make a substitute motion that we adopt the ordinance as written week after week after week after week and you know just simply it's discriminatory against renters number one who have no control over their living situation. And I think that Council Member Francina has spoken truly about this, we know that Liz Campos was evicted in Ventura Council person was evicted from her home because of her political leanings at least you know that's the word and she's a very honest woman I don't suppose she would be saying that if that weren't true And so it can be used and secondarily, we're trying to get rid of districts.

The population has voted that we should try as soon as possible to remedy the situation that just does not work for us. So, for that reason I'm making a substitute motion that we adopt the ordinance as is. These what-if scenarios are endless and I just don't see them as being true to Ojai. And I would also ask City Attorney if indeed we are violating, this ordinance would violate state law.

No, the ordinance does not violate state law. State law does not prescribe the edges of what happens when a council member does not establish or has an involuntary loss of residency. That's a situation that state law does not describe what happens in that case. So the ordinance as drafted or as would be amended both are lawful.

Okay so thank you all right that is my substitute motion

Is there a second for that motion? Yes, I would like to second it but I'd like to give my reasons why. I've thought about this a lot and one thing that I think we also want to consider is that if there were to be some kind of fire or earthquake and areas of our community were damaged to the point where they were not habitable Things are taking a lot longer because of the supply chain and because of all of the effects of COVID that we mentioned here, things are just taking longer to renovate and to rebuild.

And so my reasoning is for the renters and for some of the reasons that we've established with Councilwoman Francina's situation, but also just because of the potential that any one of us could be displaced at any time.

Thank you and I can see both sides of the coin here and I think what Council Member Rule brought up is really important that we would like to get rid of districts so it's important to keep that in mind.

I wrote this down because I want to be real clear. This law was never intended to be, this law was meant to protect the rights of underrepresented minorities. If you have plenty of money and pay five, six, seven thousand a month for a house where you can have your two dogs in the backyard. You'll have no trouble finding a house under 120 days or whatever it is that you're thinking of.

This what you're you're you're you're attempting to remove a legitimately elected official. You know in my case I worked very hard the community worked very very hard. A lot of money was spent getting me elected and that is why I didn't take the easy road out. I could have quit and had plenty of reason to quit. I had so much harassment. But. This is this in a way because this council does not want to discriminate on the basis of wealth. This is your opportunity to not discriminate on the basis of wealth to protect a renter who can only afford maybe two thousand five hundred a month.

Thank

you I'll just clarify that. Harassment that she received was Preceded anybody on the council and they reported you to the grand jury and the grand jury Came back and said that you were in violation of the law That you had been for an extended period of time And they gave us an instruction that we should remove you from your seat. We didn't do that You know those folks who voted

no, you know who voted council members if I could jump in the grand jury report is not the agenda item right Okay

so The you know, so we asked for grand jury. We've asked for attorney general clarification So

You know and

But you know it wasn't my intention to have this item go as long as it has and it hasn't been my speaking minutes.

Let's go

ahead. So there

is. You've clarified that your intention is simply to obey the law. It was nothing personal OK fine.

It's not personal at all but we in fact we did not nobody ever voted from the city council to remove you

We have a motion and we have a second. Let's have the roll call.

to adopt the ordinance as recommended. Council Member Francina?

Yes.

Mayor Pro Tem Whitman? No. Council Member Lange?

Yes

Council Member Rule?

Yes

Mayor Stixx?

Yes

Motion passes 4-1

Hey all right we will move on to our, no actually we have a remainder nope I'm sorry. We're going to move on to our discussion item number two City of Ojai Traffic Motor Officer 2024-2025. We have a staff report?

Yes Mayor Chief Newman will be delivering the report this evening thank you chief.

Good evening Mayor, Mayor Pro Tem, Council Members So what you have before you is a concept that was developed carefully and taken into consideration all of our concerning issues here in the City of Ojai regarding our traffic safety. We were asked for a solution to help mitigate all of our increased traffic problems over Concern from many of our community members regarding distracted driving, stop sign violations, speeding, parking, e-bike complaints, illegal motorized bikes in the city on sidewalks and the like. And I'm sure you've heard them all.

As you know any time you mix pedestrian traffic with vehicle traffic, bicycle traffic, you are going to have an inherent risk. There's no doubt about that. And with our city streets and the areas that are in our 4.3 square miles, our city is ripe for having those concerns. And unfortunately we had two very recent incidents that occurred as a result of those concerns.

Unlike our current patrol officers, a traffic motor would be dedicated strictly to working traffic in the city. And that being said, a traffic motor is an enforcement tool. That is not the only thing that they would do while they were here. They would be an extra resource. They would provide education. They would be conducting smart start education bike safety courses at our schools.

They would be assisting public works and assuring that all of our Signage in the city is correct and within the law. And they would be supporting all of our safety planning for all of our city events that we have here. Some statistics for 2024 alone, we are up in traffic accidents 18%. That's just in traffic accidents in general. In terms of injury accidents, we're actually up by 70% this year compared to last year.

The Office of Traffic Safety, which is a statewide program that supports grant here in California for traffic enforcement, traffic safety education and those sorts of things. Ranked the city of Ojai as being ninth in traffic accidents involving bicycles out of 76 cities that have the similar population. This idea wasn't something we came up of with overnight. As you know, the city of Ojai had a motor officer back in the day. I think it was roughly between 2001 and 2005.

There was obviously an issue back then. And that's the reason why they add a motor position for that particular time. And over the years traffic has only gotten worse. We've had increased number of visitors, Vehicles on the roadway, so obviously there is still a need for some type of enforcement and education here in the city. I've heard the comment before that bringing a traffic motor officer is bringing a big city solution to a small city.

And I understand that, I live here in Ojai and I understand the uniqueness of Ojai and wanting to be the small city that we are. However, in my position seeing the things that we've seen and experienced, I can say We have our share of big city problems here in a small city in regards to traffic. So This is my concept I am presenting And with that, I'm happy to answer any questions that you may have Thank You chief Newman much appreciated any

questions from council Council Member

Branzino. Yes the other responsibilities for this traffic motor officers you said would include education, bike safety signage and all those other things but at the moment all of that can be provided by the community correct? I mean, we have the resources. I agree that we need that. We desperately need that. But we do, I believe that the public works should be handling signs, signage.

There's many, many parents and volunteers who just need some organization. Over the years there has always been a group of people who volunteer time for education and things like that. I just want to make that clear. Am I correct? Am I correct?

Yes, you are correct. Some of these things that education wise that a traffic motor would be responsible for and also conduct. Those are the things that also would go toward the possibility of receiving more grants for that specific position. And there's obligations for grants that we have to meet, and part of those are those type of educational courses. In your question about do we already provide those to the community even though we don't have a traffic motor officer? We do.

It's just a lot more difficult. We don't have a dedicated unit that does that. Sometimes those individuals from other areas, such as the stations from Camarillo or Thousand Oaks because they have dedicated traffic units and individuals that do that on a regular basis. Ojai does not. So we've had to borrow those and it has worked but with that Traffic Motor Officer that just means that they would be able to do that on a regular basis without us having to reach out to another area.

I would like to discuss that further when it comes time for discussion. My other question is, am I understanding that we had an officer for four years 2001-2005 and did they let him go because of the finances or because everything was so much better or do you know why?

From my understanding, it was the budget during the time that the city was having a little bit of a budget crunch. And so they had to eliminate that position and sell the motorcycle

to

get money from them. Yes.

So just again to clarify, the estimated cost is $325,000 a year and you know we would need what's the word? Forever, but once he gets started is if we remove him if we're dependent on his presence rather than other speed deterrence and that's my concern.

It would

be

an ongoing

cost. That's an

ongoing cost. Yes. Thank you. Mm-hmm Thank You chief any other questions from council?

Councilmember Berlang. Thank you so a couple of questions We currently have, we're currently spending a lot of money on the contract for our current officers. Is there any kind of traffic enforcement that's happening right now?

So yes there is you have two dedicated patrol officers at any given time however their priority is to answer calls for service and just in the month of August alone we had over 2,000 calls for service So that may not leave a whole lot of time for our officers to work patrol, I mean excuse me traffic enforcement. Especially in areas of communities where there are a high number of complaints or either speeding, traffic stop sign violations those sort of things specifically when you get into the area of the Arbalada for example There is no area where we can park a vehicle and do any traffic enforcement because there is no shoulder on the roadway. So, a traffic motor officer could do that much easily but again to answer your question, we do do traffic enforcement although it is limited because our priority is to answer calls for service.

Thank you. I have one more question, and that is we had the speed study that was done on the slowdown drown initiative. And did we ever have findings from that? Or was there ever a report that came out? Because I remember in previous conversations, we talked about how the speeds were being reduced because of the interactive speed signs. But is there any, yeah. Do we have a report or any kind of finding that came out from that?

To my knowledge the information that came out of that was there was a speed, I'm not going to say violation but there was a maximum what's

Increase

decrease. You know a certain degree of speeding but it didn't, it wasn't in excess of like five miles per hour on that particular street. What we did find was that it was the volume of traffic was the main concern because there There's more vehicles traveling on the roadway, giving probably perception that there are more cars that are speeding. But there was no evidence to indicate that there was speeding in excess of five miles per hour.

I believe it was James who said, James Vega who said that the interactive speed signs that they had evidence that they slowed down the traffic. That they were actually working to reduce the traffic by certain speeds. Are you talking about the flashing?