City Council — 2024-12-10

We have a quorum. Could we please have the roll call? And thank you, Ms. Mora for filling in for our Chief Deputy City Clerk Weston Montgomery who is ill tonight so we're sending him healing vibes. Thank You Weston

Actually I want to pull two

items.

I want to pull Item B

and

also pull Item D.

And we do have five public comments on that, on the consent so we'll go ahead and take those first. First we have William Wyrick, Larry Steingold and then William Wyrick again so that's on D&E Bill, then Larry and then Jeffrey Starkweather.

On the nominees for Park and Recommission. You know, part of regular order used to be that anyone who completed an application and go to order was interviewed. We've gotten away from that, and I hope we get back to it because it's a way of showing basic respect to all of our citizens who take the trouble to think about volunteering for public service. Thank you.

Thank you, Bill. Next, we have Larry and then Jeffrey.

Larry Steingold. I would like to, if they do come back for nomination which I hope they do, Robert Munich and Mr. Ellison are very well qualified. I also would like to see a new protocol where everyone who applies is interviewed within a month of their application Because one month, two months, three months, nine months, ten months and an arbitrarily not being read or not being met or not being interviewed puts everybody on an unfair playing ground.

Every person who comes here who wants to volunteer should be interviewed. Look I assume the fix is in. I assume that everybody gets their own city council, their own commissioner. That's okay that's part of the deal but at least interview everyone And then if you don't want to have them, don't have them. But don't don't ignore people. Don't say, oh, we're short of prospects and then a flood come in and we ignore them or have the staff bless their heart said that we shouldn't have a tree committee because we don't have enough volunteers.

And I think that's not right. So interview everyone. Thank you.

Thank you, Larry. Next, we have Jeffrey Starkweather

Two different items, so can I you want me to speak them one after another? Okay. I'll go with B the warrants In the warrants we have substantial fees for attorneys. One for our regular attorney, I think $93,000 something. I don't have it in front of me right now but and for an attorney we hired or a firm to give us advice about the Brown Act. This leads me to say that I think we need to have an evaluation of our attorney contract Evaluation of our closed meeting policy.

We've had rulings after rulings which I think go way beyond the intent of the Brown Act for closed sessions on anticipated or potential litigation and there's so many things that you don't have to go into that question that you could be discussing in public. For an example, when you have an ordinance or you have a existing one or new one and there's potential litigation, that's something the public should know about because we're the ones who are going to pay for that litigation. We're the ones who are going to be lobbying you whether to approve or disapprove that ordinance. To say we should take out a provision. To give the perfect example was the Reach Code I came before this board at least twice saying we need to eliminate restaurants from the code because Berkeley, which our ordinance is the same was sued by the Restaurant Association.

If we got rid of them, we wouldn't have that litigation problem. But that was never discussed in public. I think the manager needs an update and training on the Brown Act, the serial meeting he had on the location of the encampment where he said in public that he talked We talked to several members who said they didn't want to rezone it. That should have gone back to the City Council to decide, that was a public decision of theirs not of the managers plus his cutting off a speaker the other night I don't think that's his responsibility either So I think that it would be advisable to look over these policies, to look over our litigation strategy and to make sure that we consider what we've been doing. Maybe even putting this out the bit or one more thing.

I think we need to separate the advice we get from our city council at these meetings. Thank

Thank you, Jeffrey. And now you would like to speak on D?

Sorry about that. I haven't spoken a long time so make enough for it. Okay this is about of course the item is the election result. But I'm morphing from that into something else, which the election results of 2022 when we voted. I think 56 or 7 percent of the city voted to go to at-large district. We also included ranked choice voting. Now there were legal issues but I've looked at the Voting Rights Act and there is no way we would lose a case under the Voting Rights Act. The two standards are racial voting, we've never had racial voting. We have 15% Hispanics. The one Hispanic who ran, ran citywide and got elected, Severo, he ran twice for mayor against a prominent white person and he almost got as many votes so there's no racial voting.

And the second is creating a majority minority district which would be impossible with 15% of the population spread out It is causing all kinds of problems. We had an election, one of you won by seven votes and one of you won by I think 21 votes? I'm not insulting anybody! And we just had an election unfortunately Kim Mang who's great that she stepped up but we had no contest in election four and plus we had the problem with Sousa not being able to be in her district And my understanding, I could be wrong that somebody actually checked with this law firm. They're going around threatening anybody and they might be willing to consider given that this is actually working backwards on us.

So the statistics, and I worked with the ranked choice voting people on looking at what kind of numbers could increase the chance of a minority getting elected? Well when you have three people running and you have 15 or 16% minority, the potential goes up to like 30 or 40% that you're gonna elect a minority but when you're doing single district voting The odds in any one district that a minority would get elected is extremely small. So our system discriminates against minorities and I think it's time that we move forward and change our, now I agree ranked choice voting may be a legal barrier now but doesn't mean we can't go back to districts.

So I would appreciate that you all, the new board, the new mayor and city council member, that you consider moving forward. And besides Andy promised him when he ran that he would push for that so I'm gonna hold into it. Thank you.

Thank You Jeffrey any other comments online Bridget?

Sorry, I do have Mike Donahue online right now.

And just to confirm, Mike, this these are comments on the consent calendar, not general public comment. General, I wanted

I want a general public.

OK? Well, we'll wait then. Please lower your head. Thank you.

OK, that's it. All right. Thank you. And just to confirm council member rule pulled B and D. So is there a motion to approve A, C and E?

Oh, I'll move to approve. Second. All

in

favor.

Okay. Council Member Ruhl, you want to talk about B?

I do. So, I am pointing out on page 1B-4 basically the legal fees for Myers Knave a professional corporation October 24th Legal Services Brown Act guidance $38,547. I need to discuss with the city attorney and or the city manager that was not Brown Act guidance So we need to, and this is an official document. And we've heard the members of the public believe that it is. It was Brown Act guidance, and it wasn't.

I want to also point out that this same firm in October charged us $10,792, and it was noted as general legal costs. In November, this same firm charges $20,441. Noted as legal services and in December they charges 38 547 noted as Brown Act guidance So this is an official document. We need to clarify that I don't know if that's done here. I don't know if we don't Approve the warrants. I'm not sure on what the procedure is, but that needs to be corrected to be accurate

Mr. City Manager

sure we can take that as council direction if that's the pleasure of the council

And we may ask the question. Sure, of course. Can we approve everything except for those two items? Would that work?

So you've got two options. One will be to change the framing for item seven on page 1B-4, the Myers-Navaj bill, uh, to reflect something other than Brown Act guidance if that's the pleasure of the council. It may be simpler to approve the warrants and simply frame it as legal services and delete the Brown Act guidance which doesn't require replacing it with another phrase as there may or may not be disagreement among the council on another phrase.

That may be simpler.

I think what the public, from what I've heard and what I as a soon-to-be member of the public would like is a more detailed explanation to our way of thinking exorbitant charges.

So a more detailed explanation of the legal fees from my firm and Myers-Nave, the one that was questioned. That can be provided. I don't think we have that information before us tonight but that can be provided with more information in hand and some sense of where the privilege lines lie. So the council could move to approve the rest of the warrant register minus item seven on page 1B4 would be another choice.

Okay motion for that?

So just I'll comment just quickly, or ask a question. So the label Brown Act guidance is that Myers-Navis description of the work that they did? Or is that our description? In other words, the city's description. It's the latter?

This is a good question and I don't know. I suspect it's probably a city description on that one that's inaccurate is my feeling.

Okay well yeah, I wouldn't want to change an attorney's description of his own work but I'm fine with the idea of changing the description to legal services.

Would you like to make a motion?

Yeah, I'll move that we change item 7 so that it reads in place of Brown Act guidance legal services.

And is there a second for that motion?

I'll second but I also want to ask if this is what Councilmember Rule had in mind since you pulled this item

Yes, so I mean this it is at this point totally appropriate to go as general as possible But I will point out as our city attorney said there is privilege here So I am hoping that when the new council is seated That the new council will waive privilege and we can actually discuss this openly. I'm not going to ask this council to do that but I think that the public has a right to know what these charges are we are now at Almost $70,000 for this firm and we still have a bill coming in So I believe that the public has a right to know that but yes privilege is keeping us from discussing that so Right now. I am fine with just keeping it general But I will be coming back to new council to ask to weigh a privilege where we can actually discuss it So yes, I'm fine with that With that caveat.

Okay? We have a motion and a second could we all in favor? Aye Okay, wonderful. All right and then you also pulled D councilmember rule

yes And this is going to go over like a lead balloon but As I was talking to Susie Taylor the chairperson for the park and recs committee and I was setting up My interviews and by the way, I will be interviewing everybody who's still there Who's still on the list? I won't be You know, just interviewing one person. In talking to her it came to my attention that the interview process was not done all three of you together.

And if you turn to page, which is by the way one of the major requirements that we fought for for a year was that the three nominating committee members would meet together and interview the nominee. That did not happen And if you look on page 1.d-6, number 3, the nominating committee shall interview each applicant under consideration together virtually or in person before selecting a nominee for the City Council confirmation. Unfortunately for Mr. Ellison that did not happen So as I see it, his nomination cannot go forward because it does not follow the ordinance for the City Council.

I spoke with council member Francina yesterday and I spoke to the city manager today about this and let them know that I would be pulling This consent item. I was not able because of Brown Act and Brown Act buddies to speak to any other council members So, I apologize if it is indeed a shock to anybody Councilmember Francina was on that nominating committee so I am gonna have to make a motion that this particular Nomination not go forward and I am sorry about that. I wish it weren't the case but That we fought for that for a year. So there we are

Just okay, so we have a motion. Is there a second for that motion? I'm just one sec Okay, well go ahead.

I am going to set to second even though I came in here hoping that we could Ratify the nomination because I've been texting with chair the Park and Rec Commissioner Chair Susie Taylor and she is not comfortable That she didn't follow exact code requirement. She was not aware of that and shall we I would like to just briefly explain what happened. We interviewed Andrew Ellison And Chair Taylor, looking at the resume and I think she also texted with his wife. She approved our appointment.

So when you say we, Sousa Hoodie? Who are you referring to as the people that interviewed Mr.

Ellison? Oh, we interviewed the mayor, Betsy Stix, myself as a council member and the chair. So all the all the appointments are according to the new code, which I do believe needs some tweaking. I'm acutely aware of that. Are interviewed by the mayor. The mayor interviews everyone. The chair of the commission And then it's a rotating among the council members. That's correct right.

Yeah yeah you did that you did the other interview. The other and we can ratify that one right.

But I'm not to. The way you just described it it sounded like there were three people well present. Can I add.

We had a we had a zoom meeting scheduled Andrew was in Wisconsin so. The three of us were scheduled to Zoom with Andrew and our city clerk, and the chair did not show up to the Zoom meeting. We didn't know why. So we talked to Andrew, and Council Member Francina said I'll talk to the chair afterwards.

And

I spoke to the chair afterwards, and she said she was very happy with the nomination. Now

she's clearly texted that she does not want to go forward with it. Okay interviews in person

Well, then let's go ahead and vote on this motion. That makes sense. Yeah

Okay,

and I just want to say and to Andrew Ellison sorry about the glitch and we will continue and talk to you or the new council will talk to you and

Yeah. Yes, I'll have to do it. I just want yes so I'm. I understand that Susie is not comfortable so you do not have a unanimous. You do not have a unanimous nomination but I want to point out even if she were comfortable it goes against our ordinance. So I'm glad that it's an easy way out that we don't have unanimous vote but Trickier still is that we're moving forward ignoring our ordinances Understanding it's a glitch, but that's just a fundamental That's just a fundamental part of the nominating process that I know everyone on this council knows Anyway that having been said I am certainly ready for a vote and I apologize to Andrew In some ways I wish that I hadn't had that discussion with Susie Taylor, but I did.

And we look forward to interviewing you again with the new council.

Okay so this is just a motion about Mr. Ellison correct? Not the other two? Yes this is just a motion about... Correct. That is correct. All right roll call

My tongue is twisting

today Sorry Andrew

And then we also need, we need another motion to about the nominations of Sage Intner who is Council Member Lange's choice who is a reappointment and then Robert Munich who Council Member Whitman. I'll

move to confirm both of those appointments.

Is there a second? I'll second it. Okay roll call please.

thank you.

Thank you and congratulations to Sage and Robert. Welcome Robert and we are grateful for your service very appreciative. Councilwoman?

And I just wanted to add for all the other applicants that we are still in the process of interviewing and appointing And so I know that some of you with whom I've spoken are wondering where we are in that process. And so just know that is something that is ongoing and thank you to all who applied and to those who were nominated.

Thank you. All right, we will move on to the show. Presentation of the reorganization of the City Council and Mr. Assistant City Manager taking over, right? I have to look at

my script. Here's my script.

And once again, I'd just like to, Weston if you're watching our city clerk he worked tirelessly to organize this event and was so attentive to all the details. So thank you Weston and we all miss you. And we're happy you're here Carl, thank you.

Thank you, Mayor Sticks. So we'll be recognizing four individuals today to departing City Council members and our departing city clerk who could not be here today she is also unfortunately ill And also a departing Planning Commissioner, Mr. Quillacy who will also be joining us in a new capacity So we have beautiful plaques for each individual that the mayor would like to present To them that our city attorney is modeling here We have to

stand up immediately And we can't come back, so we have to take our stuff. Well, during the break it says. I'm going to leave this. I don't want to spill it. We're gonna

be bad.

This is not a roast either, so don't worry. Steve do you want to come up here? Thank you. Well, it's a real honor to be able to honor Steve and Cynthia and Sousa. Steve Quillacy was on the Buildings Appeal Board for a year before serving the last eight years on the Planning Commission. The last four as chair. Steve's experience as an aerospace engineer, where he spent 35 years reading government contracts made it easier for him to dive deep into municipal code and continue to dive over and over again.

For that we are grateful Steve I so appreciate your dedication to Ojai and attention to detail as well as your civil respectful and polite demeanor key attributes for effective leadership in getting things done Steve always worked hard at following the law and finding a compromise. A compromise that both applicants and the city could live with, which is not always easy. In fact it's often quite challenging. You've always approached these challenges with grace and level head. Thank you Steve.

Fun Fact! Steve and I actually have a lot in common. We both love the color red, clearly. We both are cardinals. Steve was in the engineering department and I was in the School of Ed. They were very far apart. And Steve's children went to the same high school that I attended in Cincinnati where his wife Judy taught computer science. What are the odds of that?

From Ohio to Ojai. And we sure are glad that you landed in our fair city. Ojai is lucky to continue to benefit from your expertise and eagle eye through your new role as the City Clerk. Congratulations, and thank you! We look forward to seeing you at City Hall in your new function. In fact, we're going to get to see you in action tonight when you swear in the new Council Members. Much appreciated, Steve.

Thank you. Thank you. Very briefly, I have appreciated being on the Planning Commission in particular and in particular with this set of commissioners that we have right now. They're dedicated, they're detail-oriented and they're very reasonable. We've always tried to come to the point where we could find a yes in a case whatever the terms had to be to get there And I'm particularly proud of the fact that we have done a lot of cleanup on Title 10, planning and zoning.

This council approved more than 200 changes to the municipal code to clean it up, clarify it and so. And so onto the next. Thank you very much.

Thank you, Christy. Beautiful. Unfortunately, our city clerk Cynthia Burrell could not be here with us tonight. I'm going to read her tribute. Ojai is so grateful for Cynthia's 40 years of service. Wow. Cynthia has spent half her life working at for the city that must be some kind of record She worked for the city staff as city clerk until 2000 and then came back as elected city clerk in 2004.

When I spoke to Cynthia earlier today, she was very succinct and heartfelt. She said, it's been a joy. We're a great city. How true? She also told me that Steve Quillacy reminded her that she served as interim city manager twice. That's a big deal, Cynthia! She is such a wonderful example of an individual stepping up to help her community in whatever way is needed, and Cynthia knows what's up. We appreciate her willingness to pitch in and her easy and contagious laughter and smile.

And she's a world-class knitter which we've seen at meetings, very impressive. Thank you Cynthia for all you've given for all these decades, and we will miss you. Here's your plaque.

Cynthia, did you want to speak?

Nope, thank you except I just enjoyed my life in the city. And it was Steve Olson that reminded me that I was-

Sorry, wrong Steve.

Yeah. Thank you all. I thank the voters for keeping me in office for 41 years.

Here's a story that maybe some of you don't know. Like so many residents, Sousa did not pay much attention to what went on in City Hall until something happened in her neighborhood One morning in the early 1990s, she woke up to the sound of people using chainsaws to cut down a grove of trees to build a parking lot. Not knowing what to do, she turned a hose on the workers while yelling at them to stop.

That was before you could send a photo and complaints to the My Ojai app, right? When one of the workers called the police, Sousa fled on her bicycle and hid. Where did you hide? Downtown. Hid downtown, okay. As fate would have it around the same time Sousa met someone who worked for Governor Jerry Brown, Dale Hanson. Where are you Dale? Hi Dale! Dale planted the idea in Suze's mind that she should run for city council so she could help pass laws to protect trees, open space and wildlife. And do cool things like legalize straw bale buildings and tiny houses, ban poisons and leaf blowers, and make Ojai a model bicycle and pedestrian friendly community.

Sousa was elected in 1996 to a four-year term. Some of her many accomplishments included working on the creation and adoption of Ojai's first bicycle and pedestrian master plan, and cofounding the Ojai Bicycle Coalition that helped initiate bicycle safety programs. In 2000, Sousa served as mayor and became nationally known as California's Mayor Without A Car. Nice!

I'm sure it's true. She made all trips under four miles on an old school non-electric bicycle and carpooled to county meetings, a great example of walking the talk or in this case riding it. Sousa was reelected in 2016 and again in 2020. During these two terms she worked hard to, among other things, limit short-term rentals, ban gas powered leaf blowers and other gas powered tools, served on the Complete Streets Committee, supported Caltrans and Public Works to reduce the four lane highway in front of Nordoff to two lanes along with safe protected bike lanes Helped produce Earth Day and other events with the Ojai Valley Green Coalition.

Approved regulations for three cannabis dispensaries on Bryant Street, passed a city spay and neuter ordinance, legalized tiny houses, served as liaison to Ventura County Animal Services and worked with rescue groups and volunteers countywide Served on the Ventura County Transportation Commission and the City Parking Committee. Approved affordable housing projects, animal rights and welfare ordinances, and a Rights of Nature ordinance. And worked on the Earth-Friendly Management Policy that is before our new city council tonight!

that you want the council to support, correct? Yes. Good. Sousa plans to continue advocating for projects initiated during the last term of the Council including strengthening the tree ordinance housing for the tent town residents, the bike trail extension to Soule Park Calming traffic on Creek Road, a 25 mile per hour speed limit citywide ordinance, bicycle education in the schools and regulating e-bikes.

So this list translates to the fact that we're going to be looking forward to seeing you at the podium, right? Great. And you're probably looking forward to making your comment and then leaving to go let your dogs out and get to bed at a decent hour. Thank you so much for your 12 years of late nights and for your love of our beloved community. Oh I am so grateful to you for your service. Thank you.

Well, this is nice. Oh, you get another flag. Where will I put it? With your

other

flags? Can you see it Steve? Yeah. OK. Thank you. So. Well, I think I can sum it up by saying that this has truly been a consciousness expanding experience. And long before I sat on the dais, I was an advocate at the podium so I will go back to that role and everything that Betsy listed That's just really the tip of the iceberg because I got up at three and it was like a memoir. It was like a life review.

Yeah, she edited it. She left out some really juicy parts but what I want to say is that none of that you know you never do any of that alone and I'm very grateful Through the past I've worked, I think with at least four, no six city managers over the course of time and four public works directors. And you know, I'm grateful to all my colleagues on the council and it's very sobering to realize many of them have passed away. That's how long I've been here in time.

I really, there's so many people that I want to mention and thank. I definitely want to thank Bill, I can't possibly, you know there's like hundreds of people I want to express my gratitude to but especially Bill Miley who is like the most model public citizen and I don't know if he's even here tonight where is he? Where are you Bill? So I want to recognize him for his many years. And then, I also want to acknowledge this is just a few of the many people I'd like to acknowledge Ruth Miller.

I remember when she called me up about two years ago and I had known her before through various... She was a volunteer for the Humane Society. Oh, she was also a photographer for one of my books. How could I forget that? But anyway, she says to me that she's retired now and she has the time to work on the homeless situation And you know many many people call me with great ideas and it and I wonder The first thing I think well, I'll you know, we'll get started and we'll see how this goes but Ruth She never gave up. She just stayed with it and our initial meeting with just the two or three of us, the meetings grew and grew and grew I think that was about two years ago right? And we have a lot of work ahead and I look forward to supporting the new council in any way I can to accomplish what we need to do.

And I think that's all. Otherwise, I'll be here all night and we need to get the new people seated. Thank you. So this is my first and only act as Mayor Pro Tem.

I am really honored to represent the City of Ojai in thanking Mayor Betsy Sticks for her service to our community. Over the course of my time on city council, it's become clear to me that Betsy, you love Ojai. You took your role. Yeah, that's right. You sacrificed a lot in service to the community. You do what you believe is right And you've protected Ojai through some difficult circumstances and made the lives of Ojai residents better.

I now can say, you know after two years on council that to perform your duties as mayor. You had to not only attend the city council meetings but attend commission meetings, attend county-wide committee meetings, attend hearings all sort of public meetings and liaison meetings and public events And we also were always prepared. And that meant reading, you know, sometimes hundreds of pages.

So I want to go through some more specific accomplishments that Betsy was a part of as mayor of Ojai. So during her tenure, she kept regular working and retired Ojai renters from being priced out of their homes by leading the way passing rent stabilization and rent eviction protection In addition, the council took meaningful action on climate. Approved truly low-income housing.

Addressed assistance to the unhoused. Passed animal protection ordinances. Strengthened the city's plastic pollution and tree ordinances. Betsy is primarily responsible for that portion of the ATP that Creates a pathway off of Highway 33 so that our Nordoff students and bicyclists can ride without being on the highway. Betsy was our mayor during the COVID pandemic Ojai was in a health and financial crisis.

And Betsy's leadership allowed us to come out the other side of that healthy. In fact, during Betsy's tenure the city achieved a longstanding goal of being able to reserve the equivalent of an entire 12 month budget And not only that, we'll stay tuned. There might be more than just that 12-year reserve. Betsy served on the state Clean Power Alliance, was Ojai's voting representative to the California League of Cities.

She was our representative to SCAG, the Southern California Association of Governments. She was the city's representative during negotiations over the Ventura River litigation and she also founded the Mayor's Youth Council Betsy ran two 100% positive electoral campaigns and Betsy had 100% attendance at every council meeting. And chaired that meeting during the entire tenancy, her four year of service.

So I don't know if this is your background as a yoga teacher or teaching young people But you had amazing grace and calm. You set an example for all of us by choosing to turn the other cheek rather than respond to your detractors, From my seat on the dais, I was constantly amazed that no matter how vile somebody's comments from the public were towards you, you always had the same trademark response.

Thank you! To Betsy and Sousa, you have more than earned a break. But we will still need you so please continue to give us the benefit of your wisdom and experience. To Rachel and Leslie who are returning and newly elected Mayor Gilman and Council Member Mang We have big shoes to fill. Thank you for your willingness to serve and what you are about to undertake.

I am hopeful that we can demonstrate that 7,500 people can actually get along make sometimes hard choices and respect each other despite our differences. Finally, at one point in my wife's long and varied career she faced a lot of adversity in the organization that she was working with. And the head of that organization pointed out to her that they don't try to tackle you if you aren't caring at all.

Excuse me. Thank you Betsy for successfully hearing them all.

Thank you and I love the football analogy. Can I read my

thing? I feel like throwing a football. Kim's kids and my kids played football together, so we're used to it. First, I want to thank the Council and staff for all their hard work, dedication and expertise. There you are. We all know that this is a difficult job and an act of selfless service, so thank you so much. It has been such a pleasure working with staff and getting to know you.

We have a great team here in Ojai, and we all need to do everything we can to support our small and mighty force, so thank you very much. It's been an honor working together. Thank you. I want to thank Michelle Pinheiro and Andy Gilman for running for the mayor's position, and for their willingness to serve. I commend Michelle and those who volunteered to help her with her campaign for keeping it positive.

This is what Ojai needs. And I appreciate Andy Gilman for taking on the role of mayor. It's not an easy task, and I wish you all the best moving forward. I also want to thank Kim Mang for her willingness to serve Ojai Council District 4. Go, Kim! You got it! I am hopeful that we all come to see that we really want the same thing, a society at peace with itself.

While peace may not sell newspapers it is the way and peace begins right here in each one of us. We reach peaceful ends through peaceful means which translates as focusing on policy and not personality. That is why we are here and why I ran for mayor. During the last four years, I worked hard to protect the environment and animals and to help people of lesser means in Ojai.

Our democratic government provides protection for those who are struggling and for the earth and all its residents including the trees and the plants. I look forward to the council continuing to hold the line on land use Yep, and to protect the commons and all living beings. While the mayor runs the meetings, the mayor is only one vote of five. This is a really important piece of information to keep in mind.

The council is a team. Although as individuals we may disagree, ideally we do so civilly. Each vote on the dais counts and it really matters who sits in the five seats. I want to encourage the council to take care of those who need it the most and to take swift climate action now for our children and our children's children. On that note, Council-to-be Would you please consider passing the Earth-Friendly Management Policy and moving forward with the Energy Efficiency Ordinance tonight? Two wonderful initiatives. Thank you."