Ojai City Council Special Meeting

About ready to start. Hi, Steve. Ready to go? All right. Here we are. Welcome to the special meeting, Tuesday, June 17th. Mr. Montgomery, will you please

Thank you,

and

will

you lead us

staff report and a recommendation for action. Are you talking about like just adopting them now? Because I think we have to do the...

We

talked about this, the Mayor and I spoke about this earlier today. We know that we have to bring something, a policy back, and anything that we're spending money on, we would have to bring back to Council for public Thank you very much. At the next meeting or in a meeting soon that we can agree as a council to say, this is really important and let's bring this up for consideration sooner rather than later. So let's move forward with the things that we can move forward, that kind of a low-hanging fruit. And then really thinking about it in terms of long-term, short-term, immediate, short-term, and long-term goals or strategies.

I concur 100%. Mr. Harvey, any objections to that?

It's your meeting, Mayor. Absolutely not.

It's our meeting. Okay. Well, before we start, and Ms. Mang, I would love you to take the lead on that. Let's do the public comments while we're here, before we get into it. So let's start with Larry Steingold, Lanny Coffer, and then Sylvia Falstich. Hopefully, I'm pronouncing that correctly.

Good evening. So what I understood to say was that there is some low-hanging fruit. There are some things that we think that there will be a majority, if not a supermajority vote on. We think that it will need to come up today. We will suggest that it come up next week, be put on the agenda, and discussed next week for a full-blown public comment, etc., etc.

So move it forward today to go on the agenda for the 24th. Sorry, now

with that, I'm going to have to say, wait, no, we can't do that. One of the directions I received from the council is to speed up the posting of the agenda. And we are really shooting to make this next agenda, that agenda. We'd like to post it on Thursday, no later than noon. And so we're in the finalization process of that right now. So I can't take on any additional agenda items for next week at this point.

But we can say as soon as possible or...

You can say that, yes, but I'm just telling you that it will not be on next Tuesdays because next Tuesdays is already baked and ready to go.

Oh, and this just goes on and on. So, if it's not on the agenda for the end of June, and we have a new fiscal year starting July 1, how do we reconcile that? Is it because the budget is a living document?

All right. Then we only have one meeting in July. The second meeting is when we're taking our time away. I did want to say,

though, the point that you're making right now, Ms. Rule, is that's what I was trying to say is we're going to approve the budget, presumably understanding that is definitely going to change with things we're going to bring forward. No question about it.

Great, okay, thank you.

Okay, thank you for

waiting, Mr. Stengel. Because of everything that's in here and all these things, it would be nice if there was interaction or other minutes provided to the public because as you have your conversations, there will be more questions and more ideas and more suggestions. Anyway, Housing Commission, explore it, just create it, the Housing Commission, and get on with it. You want to find a housing trust? Just do it. And it needs to get funded, okay? And thankfully, we dodged two fires. Right? The wind was going in the other direction. But what if the wind was coming here? Are we prepared? Don't you think because the budget is a living document, you can pencil in half a million dollars for a fire safe council? Wouldn't that be nice? Then we can just do it and get it done and move forward because the city and the employees and the staff, all well-intentioned, do not have the expertise, the time, or the desire to do what needs to be done.

And quite honestly, you know, why not? I mean, let's be proactive. That's what planning is. That's what city councils are. Let's try to be there before it hits because fire is so goddamn awful. How about a parking commission? Parking and Traffic Commission. So lots of small cities have lots of committees to provide resources, data, information, and talent, whatever, to the city councilors.

So why not use it? I mean, we have a lot of ideas. You guys can't do it all. You know, there isn't that much time, and you certainly have other lives. Some of you do. Some of you don't. But this is, oh, and for the Sheriff's contract, we need to find an alternative. I don't know if the City of Ventura has been asked, or somebody, that we can use leverage against the Police Department. No disrespect.

But without leverage, there's really no negotiation. It's sort of take it or leave it, and leaving it is undesirable. This looks good. I hope we all get stuff done. But the fire thing is important. 2017 was the Thompson fire. That was my first fire. I really don't want to have to evacuate again because we didn't do our job here. So please just pencil the budget in so we can get it done. Thank

you. Thank you, Mr. Steingold. Lanny Koffer, Sylvia Faustich, and Christine Golden.

Thank you, Council, for this opportunity to speak to the value of including Cluff Vista Park, Ojai's native plant demonstration garden, in the City's goals and plans. Botanically, culturally, and environmentally, Clephasta Park is unique among the city's properties and deserves special attention in any plans revolving around environmental concerns and climate resiliency. The park's native plants evolved with Ojai's climate, soil types, and wildlife. The indigenous Chumash people of Ojai literally have thousands of years of co-evolution and relationship with the native plants. In addition to Chumash-inspired art installed in the park, Cliff Vista Park provides a rare canvas on which to paint a picture of the Chumash and the rest of us, interacting with the edible, medicinal, and otherwise useful native plants of Ojai.

From an environmental perspective, Cluff Vista Park serves as a demonstration garden with important benefits. To name just a few. Saving water. Once established, many native plants need minimal irrigation beyond normal rainfall. Low maintenance, less water, little to no fertilizer, little to no pesticides, less pruning, freedom from pesticides. Native plants have developed their own defenses against many pests and diseases. Since most pesticides kill indiscriminately, beneficial insects also become targets. Reducing or eliminating pesticide use keeps garden toxins out of our creeks and watersheds. And wildlife viewing. It may seem obvious, but research shows that native birds, bees, butterflies, and other pollinators prefer the native plants they've co-evolved with for millions of years.

I would love to take the Council and City staff on an herb walk at Cluff Vista Park so you can experience firsthand what I'm trying to put into words here. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Copper. Sylvia Faustich, Christine Golden, and Renee Roth.

Good evening. I kind of get shy talking in public, so I kind of wrote my notes down for

you guys. Don't worry

about it at all. Okay. My name is Sylvia Falstich. I'm a recent retiree from the NBC Naval Base at Point Magoo as a flight test engineer. I've lived in Ojai for 36 years. I've heard through the grapevine today that the Ojai trial Trolley might be removed, and I just wanted to discourage removing this great public transportation when Ojai is getting busier. The trolley has been around for 35 years, and I think it should continue to exist for the following three main reasons. One, it's a unique form of transportation that makes people smile, helps kids, seniors, disabled, and others. Two, the only form of transportation within the community since the Gold Coast Only Travels on Highway 33 and Downtown. And yeah, the other one, the trolley can travel through streets that the Gold Coast is unable to travel.

And thank you for your time.

Thank you. And just to let you know, our intention actually is to increase it, not to take it away.

Oh,

great.

Yeah.

But thanks for being here. Christine Golden, Renee Roth, and then Randy Coggins.

Is this good? Okay. First of all, thank you very much for this opportunity to make my point again, because I did send all of you an email, and I appreciate if you've read it through, because I'm not going to get into all the things I put into the email. What I want to bring to mind is that when Clough Vista was established or founded or built in 2001, the city made a commitment, and I have it in writing, That it would maintain, I'm quoting, it would maintain the site and the completed improvements in a first class condition, end quote. And that it would, quote, maintain the site's landscaping on a weekly basis, end quote. So I just want to bring to mind that you're the next generation. You may or may not have been here when the park was founded.

You may not be aware that, as I put in the letter, it's a who's who in Ojai of all the people that contributed to the founding of this park. And it has gone to something in a handbag. And we've been working really hard. This is not about the public art. I'm glad that Rachel asked that. This is not about the public art. This is about the native gardens. But they can't stay the way they're going to be put back in order, but they won't stay that way unless you budget money. And this is not an unusual request. Back in 2016, then Public Works Chair, Greg Grant, asked City, City Manager and City, If they would please give him a budget, a monthly budget, and they hired Orion Landscaping to come in and do what the city workers cannot do. So that's what we're asking for you to do, which whatever goal this fits into.

And I want to extend the invitation, Lanny has agreed to do it with me, is to give you a tour of Club Vista Park. I will include the public art if you come on that tour because I think you'd be just absolutely astonished at what's up there. And Lanny will do the native plant bits. So, Ben, if you'd be willing to work with everybody, I think Lanny needs this to happen during the weekday, during a weekday morning when it's nice and cool, figure about 45 minutes, and we'll give you a tour of Cleft Vista Park. And you really do need to see it. I also want to thank Ben and Lindy Palmer and Bridget Mara and the staff. It's just been incredible. They have met with me and with Jessica Thompson from Green Goddess Gardens, and they have been so supportive and so wonderful.

And now the ball is in. You've got the ball. So thank you, everybody. Any questions? I'm available, Ben, if you want to ask questions. There's a relationship here with the Land Conservancy, which is a little tricky, but as I said, I've got documents, and I'm happy to answer questions. So put it in there, guys. Thank

you, Ms.

Golden.

Thank you. Renee Roth, Randy Coggin, and then Bill Miley.

Good evening, Mayor Gilman, Council Members, and Mr. Harvey, and staff. Great teamwork. I love seeing that teamwork of people working together to build a collaborative group who can support our parks and our community. So tonight's meeting is about setting priorities, but I want to raise What I think is a critical question, how can you really prioritize effectively if you don't know the budget constraints, the staffing capacity, and funding tools available?

And we also know the city manager is short on staff right now. And there's some transitions going on with staffing. So I think you're going to have to leverage a little bit here. So let's take, for example, wildfire safety, something I've been speaking about often. A priority we can't afford to postpone. I submitted a public comment. I don't know if any of you had a chance to look at it or go to any of the links. There's a lot of information in those links. And I was urging you to adopt a Zone Zero defensible space standards. Those are coming from Gavin Newsom per executive order by December 31st. So let's be ready for them.

Update our codes and develop formal partnerships to get this work done. So what I didn't include in the letter, but I want to emphasize right now is that California has already invested heavily in the exact tools we need. Stephen Hawks, with the Insurance Institute of Business and Home Safety, testified at that April 24th hearing. There's $185 million available from Cal Fire's Wildfire Prevention Grants Program. There's $135 million allocated for home hardening retrofits right now with California wildfire mitigation program. A $25 million set aside for defensible space financial assistance. So the state of California is committed to this. There is grant funding for this.

These are funded through Prop. 4. Do we remember Prop. 4 that was approved last November? Ten billion dollars in general obligation bond funding. That means we have to step up and ask for that funding. They're not going to give it to us. So we also need help defining high fire risk areas within the city and surrounding neighborhoods. So we also have to remember right place, right plant in the right place at the right distance with the right kind of support. And I'm really asking for the city to support that right now. We have strong partners like the Ojai Valley Fire Safe Council, the crew, they're already writing grants and working with the community. But the city needs to step up and appoint a liaison, a line pri- Thank

you Ms. Roth. Randy Coggin, Bill Miley, and Anita Hendricks.

Thank you, Mayor and Council. Thank you. I'm here this evening as a board member of the Ojai Valley Fire Safe Council. Shortly, you will be prioritizing your goals for the coming fiscal year. Our hope is that wildfire safety and risk mitigation will be your number one priority. As most of you are aware, the Fire Safe Council has submitted a proposal to the City to perform the work required under that priority. The Fire Safe Council is prepared, and most importantly, capable of professionally and expertly performing that work. Now is the time to act. In fact, we're kind of behind the curve. We're in fire season now, with Ventura County Fire responding to brush fires on a daily basis, Some of you, some of which have been in or near the Ojai Valley.

As some of you may be aware, just yesterday they responded a full brush fire response with 150 firefighters to the 60-acre Maria fire in the Santa Clara River bottom in Santa Paula. And less than three hours after that response, they had to respond to a second full brush fire response with 140 more firefighters To the 34-acre Howe Fire in Piru, the required mandatory evacuation.

My concern is that if your intent was to approve our proposal and next week's agenda is already baked, then the discussion of that approval could not occur until your July meeting. And you only have one meeting in July, which means that if a public service, a professional services contract was going to be developed, that probably could not come back to you until August.

Even if we were to start the work next month, we could have some impact on this fire season, but there was still much to be done. However, one fire season is the harbinger of the next, and at least we can begin getting the city prepared for what's coming. If you approve our proposal, my hope is that it's not just an agreement between the City and the Fire Safe Council, but that it's also the beginning of a lasting partnership between us. A partnership that will serve to benefit the City and its residents now and well into the future. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Coggin. Anita Hendricks, Bill Miley, and Carolyn Goldwasser.

I have a question, first of all. The other part of the agenda here, are there going to be time for comments from us when you guys are going over all of this?

That's what we're doing

now. Oh, I thought I was in public comment time.

This is just general, but tell us what your comment is.

Public comment. The trolley still only has three drivers, and apparently there's one woman who fills in on the weekends. So if a friend of mine was going, who doesn't have a car, was going to an event, she had a ride over, but there could be a post if somebody's on vacation or sick, and she would not have a ride back because there was no one to fill that. The Supervisor. I came a few weeks ago and asked for, I wanted to get more information about what was going on. I was referred to the man who is now not here, who I guess had been accused of taking city funds. So I didn't get a good answer from him. And I'm aware that the real supervisor is somehow on leave, an indefinite leave. Maybe, if somebody can verify this, he's still getting paid, but he doesn't get to act as a supervisor for the trolley.

This is disturbing to me, when these people really need to be. This system is flailing right now. They're doing the best they can, and I have to admire them for their efforts. We need to get better benefits, better pay. They're part-time so they don't get any benefits. Why aren't we getting? Have we had any applications? Because I know somebody said they're taking applications. Have you had any applications since the last meeting? And we need to look on creating better work conditions. Have there been any notices in the paper and other places that we need workers?

Very frustrating because there are people who rely on the trolley and it doesn't seem to be moving forward. Students, elders, low-income, disabled, etc. rely on the trolley service. Please, please act expediently and get us some more drivers and if we've got a fiscal budget here to deal with, let's get some money out there and put more energy into creating an attractive situation for drivers to be in.

If that's truly the answer and why we don't have sufficient trolley drivers. Thank you.

Thank you. Bill Miley and then Carolyn Goldwasser.

Hello. Is this about the goals?

Yes.

OK. But to begin with, I wanted to say that my family was here when Coff Park was a shale gas station.

Mm hmm.

and among others we contributed to. So, these are kind of refined new suggestions for some of the goals. One, affordable housing. Consider using housing trust funds for aiding low-income homeowners of older uninsulated houses to insulate them, especially the exterior wall. Consider allocating a portion of the TOT revenues for ongoing support of city homeless prevention rehab services, including onsite housing and casework.

Wildfire Safety, please consider adding barricade gel, which I have bought from my house, product, to be sprayed on the structures and the trees and such, to prevent the fire from burning it down beforehand, before the fire. Six, Diversifying Economy, Tourist Management, please develop an ongoing survey for tourists For, Their Needs, Their Wants, Their Demographics, Expectations, Suggestions, To find out who's coming here, why, what they want, and what they don't get.

Deal with the Chamber and the tourist vendors, motels, hotels. Climate Resiliencies. Please consider creating a low- or no-cost program for house and building owners to have an energy audit to determine energy-saving improvements. SCE does that, like the one we're doing for our own buildings. It will provide motivation, in my opinion, for such improvements. It's important to know exactly what exists before deciding what to add, remove, or change.

And then consider implementing the Sierra Collective Biobasin idea a couple of years ago. And last, under Communications, consider crafting an annual report to the public on city government added to the financial report. This will increase citizen understanding of what the city does, how it does it, where the money goes, and why it's important. And last, please modify the tactic of taking audio recordings of closed sessions. Thanks.

Thank you, Mr. Miley. And Carolyn Goldwasser.

Hello, Mayor and Council. Thank you very much. My concern here is regarding the goals for the future, and I have only lived here nine years, but I've been visiting Ojai for many, many years. I'm concerned about the garden. Behind City Hall that could be renovated and made to be a recreational, educational, useful asset instead of just a place you have to weed whack the weeds away from.

Right now, there is a composting part of the garden that is operating, a man named Brian, I don't think he gets paid, I think he's doing it as a volunteer position, but he's there many mornings and he'll help you put your kitchen scraps in the right bin and put some, you know, give you some compost to take home for your houseplants or whatever. The cities I have lived in, in between visiting here and now living here, one of them was Portland, Parks and Rec administered the waiting lists and the fees for the community gardens in Portland. It was considered a recreational, educational pastime that people could do. In community, learning from each other. You have that plot, I have this plot, I learned something from you. Sometimes we have educational presentations.

The sign down at the garden says, I believe, Ojai Community Demonstration Garden. It's completely piped. I'm not sure the state of the current hose is, although I did water a mulberry tree down there recently. There was water and there was a hose that worked. I used to have a pot there, actually, quite a few years ago. But it could be renovated in a way that would be beneficial to everyone involved and beautiful. People could grow flowers or vegetables or herbs or whatever.

And the space is there. The Recreation Department has a catalog that comes out every year, and they say these are the recreational activities in Ojai, you know, would you like to participate? Always, in every place I've ever been part of a community garden, a fee is charged to cover the cost of the water. It's standard, so that can be done easily, and the city shouldn't be out any money for doing this.

Maybe the Green Coalition would like to help organize this, but I think the Parks and Rec would be your best bet, and it's right down there, and it's already, some of it is in beds, some of it is not too well organized yet, but it used to be a functioning garden, and I hope you'll put this on your goal for the future. Thank you very much.

Thank you, Ms. Goldwasser. And just to let you know, the Green Coalition is working on it right now, so we'll forward these ideas, too. Thank

you.

Mr. Montgomery, anything online?

Yes, Mayor. We currently have one raised hand for our City Goals item, and it's Starchild. Starchild, you can unmute, and you have the ability to speak.

As Pirate Burns and Santa Paula Smolders, we stand united. We're all NIMBYs when it comes to fire. But just as fire can erase the Ojai we love from our valley, so can losing our values, the foundation on which our community stands. Justice and courage, inclusivity and respect for individuality, compassion, community, family. One of the primary purposes of civilization, and certainly, Its primary strength is the guarantee that family life can flourish in unity, peace, and order. Said Attorney General Robert Francis Kennedy as he spoke out against the racist immigration policy of his time. Today, our policy is hardly any better. Immigration raids have brought our neighbors anguish and torn apart families.

By hunting nonviolent undocumented immigrants at their places of work, and on their way out of immigration hearings. Federal agents tear at the foundation of our civilization. Driven by impossibly high quotas to achieve the largest mass deportation in history, they bring terror and havoc to our community. They desecrate our founding principles. All men are created equal. Robert Francis Kennedy, a senator, said, Our attitude towards immigration reflects our faith in the American ideal. We've always believed it possible for men and women who start at the bottom to rise as far as their talent and energy allow.

Neither race nor place of birth should affect their chances. And President Reagan said the promise of America, and I would believe surely the promise of Ojai, is a shining city on the hill. Open to anyone with the will and heart to get here. If you believe in these values, if you believe that the American dream should be universal, eternal, a dream that will never die, then have the courage to stand for your values, stand for justice, and declare Ojai a sanctuary city as your top priority at the next meeting. And don't let it be said that you spread along other priorities, like giving the city manager a raise, and made two existential threats to Ojai, fire, and the loss of our values, a priority that could wait until next season. Instead, call a special session, address fire, address this threat to our values, make Ojai a sanctuary city, and make Ojai fire safe, and do it this month.

Thank you. Thank

you, Starchild. No more raised hands,

Mayor. That's all. Thank you. Okay. Excuse me, you have something else to speak about, about the goals? Okay. We don't have public comments at a special meeting, but say something quick, but please don't snap next time, but say what you need to say.

Okay. I just wanted to say a couple of things. In the financial section, we had a recreation director who didn't work out. I don't know how much the severance pay was for that. Does anybody know how much he was paid when he left?

We're not going to do back and forth, but go ahead and speak.

Okay, we have an Assistant City Manager, I believe, I don't know what his official title was, who apparently may take off with a bunch of money. These are costing our city a lot of money. I don't know how much a severance pay is. I would imagine tens of thousands of dollars, but I don't know. I think we need to have a different, another oversight committee on hiring or else we have to have an extra person checking on hiring and on the finances. We can't afford these kinds of errors. We can't afford it. You're looking at finance, very important. We need to throw money more into our trolley system and getting some competent drivers. For housing, very low, extremely low, and senior housing.

Community Pool at Soule Park. Let's go for it. It's way overdue. I don't think we need to emphasize tourism anymore. So much of our housing is impacted now. We don't need more people coming here and our streets and everything. Thank you for taking the extra time to accommodate me because I did not understand the way that this was divided up. Thank you. I hope you take my concerns into consideration. Of course.

Okay, so how about a way of starting, because I liked the chart that I was seeing

there.

So maybe, and I'm ready to hear from other people. So we're starting on Goal 1.

Starting on Goal 1, we had, on this sheet, 1C was number 7 in our original. Yep. 1D we had is number 10.

1E

was 4 and

9. 1E, Identify Opportunities, Create Workforce Housing was 4 and 9. Great. See, you can see that they did consolidate. Right,

exactly.

1F

we have number