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Welcome everyone to the Tuesday, October
Roll call — called by Kim Mang
Show transcript
Agenda Discussionitems moved / continued / pulled — click to expand
And approval of the agenda, please, or changes?
I'll move to approve it.
I'll second that. Any objections? Okay, wonderful. So now we have two presentations first. First, the Ojai Valley Green Coalition to provide an update on the City Hall Campus cleanup progress. Kathy, you ready? Oh yeah, you gotta get your clues from Brian there. Thank you. Nah, super. Thanks for being here.
Okay, well, thank you. Mayor Gilman, council members and staff, I'm Kathy Nolan, I'm with the Ojai Valley Green Coalition, and I'm here just to give a progress report on the latest and the greatest. I wanted to let you know that we, this last, during October, we've had two cleanup days in the creek, led by Scott of PAX Environmental, and Jerry, Mary Newick, who's been working with the Green Coalition.
And I think the first one we had about 14 people, and I think there were 10 on Saturday. I also wanted to say that in November, so November 15th and 22nd, we are working on having two more Well, actually, they're not going to be cleanup days. They're going to be collecting oak acorns and planting. And that will be with our same crew, Scott from PACS and Jerry from the Green Coalition.
And we are reaching out to the different schools in the community and hoping to get that worked out. And on the same day, we're going to also have scheduled two site tours. So if you are interested in going or being part of any of those, you can actually go into our website, and I'll say it now, but I'll say it at the end. It's OjaiValleyGreenCoalition.org.
And then I also wanted to report on Saturday, this past Saturday, October 25th. So we had the cleanup day in the morning. It was 8.30 to 11. Then we had a site tour that actually started at 10. It was only supposed to go for 45 minutes, so we went for an hour and a half. And we could have gone longer, but I had to cut it short because I needed to be back in the conference room for the open house. I was running late.
But we had close to 40 people show up. And some people I had never met before. It was really exciting for people to come and see the property. Once again, a lot of people don't even know it's there when they started seeing it, walking around. People really lit up. And we were also really fortunate to have three people, one of them was attending actually the tour.
And then two other people that happened to be on the site. And so the first one was Brian, Brian Eakins from Historic Preservation Commission. And it's always great to have Brian because the property's landmark, we have the landmark buildings, of course, the pickleball court, there's the tennis court, which is landmark. So Brian was able to, you know, I turned it over to him and we talked about that in certain areas. And he was able to share and give some very important information to the people on the site tour.
Then we also had Scott from PACS Environmental, and he started sharing everything about the restoration area. including about the eucalyptus that I happened to hear Mayor Gilman talking about, and the 200 gallons. And, you know, we got to share that, you know, there's water in that creek now where there wasn't, including even in the summer in August. So it was really exciting to have that. And then as we continue our walk through the property, David White, who does the composting program, happened to be there turning compost. So I asked him if he wouldn't mind sharing a few words And of course, people were very interested in the composting program.
And like I said, it was an hour and a half, and it was only supposed to be 45 minutes, and it could have gone longer. And so basically, what I did share with the people on the tour is, you know, please come back. We're going to be having more site tours open to anyone. And of course, anybody can walk through the garden at any time, but it's really fun for them to ask questions. I don't know everything, but what I do know I could share. We can always get back to them with information that we don't know.
And it was just really... Thank you all for being here. Okay, so I don't want it to be redundant, but I'll just do a quick kind of go through, but we have added, for the most part, more information to a lot of the slides, and then there's a new one at the end, which was our concept plan, which was our latest achievement on the way to the master plan. And then please feel free to ask any questions if you want to, but this is just our vicinity map, you know, where are we, where is the property, And I'm just going to go through it. You saw this last time. This was our site analysis, like what's out there, what do we have.
And then this one we've actually added more information to. There's a project narrative, our overall concept strategies about respecting the native habitat, educational and exploratory opportunities, sustainable building practices. I'm not going to read through all of this, but once again, I don't want to take up too much time here, but you can see that we've gone into more depth, and I think that's the one thing I wanted to point out, that we're trying to be very thorough in our findings, so to speak, and the direction that we want to move forward in.
And one thing that did emerge, Thank you very much. Two years ago, and basically what we've done, we've done some breakdowns here that shows, you know, the total number of trees, which ones are native, which ones are non-native, which ones are invasive, the health of the trees we kind of broke that down to. I'm just kind of doing a little skim over here. But, and then if you look down at the bottom left corner, there's a plan, you know, showing the creek going through it. And the trees that are in dark green, I've mentioned this before but I'll just mention it again, we took Jan Scow's initial assessment of the trees and the trees that he had marked that were either a disease or hazardous or even invasive, we marked those in green in the areas that we feel are a high use zone area.
So it potentially could be a phase one removal for fire protection, for reducing the amount of trees that are actually reseeding, potentially be a problem back in the restoration area, which we spent a lot of time and money on, so a reason to possibly take those out. And then I did mention this last time when I was here. What we'd like to do, to the best that we can, instead of saying, oh, that's, you know, it's a dead tree or a branch, that's a waste material, turn it into a resource where we can use it for what I would call kind of primitive or natural site furnishings, like a bench or some rounds. And you can see the photos up there, there's a bunch of, you know, a group of children sitting on tree rounds or climbing on logs and what have you.
And then, of course, the mulch can go back and be used on the trails and a couple other things we have in mind, too. So I'm hoping to continue that conversation and work with the City on doing that. Those are our potential use areas we had defined before. This slide was shown in August. And then last August, we also had two schematics. We had Option A. And option B. And truthfully, the real difference between the two is just really the location of what we were calling a garden house, which happens to be an orange rectangle. Unfortunately, I don't have a pointer, but it's kind of down in the bottom right quadrant.
And that potentially would be a building, an actual building for use. But essentially everything else was pretty much laid out the same because we're working with a lot of the existing conditions. So we're not proposing, you know, to bulldoze the whole place. It's to work with what's there and to enhance it and add a few things. But I just wanted to state that.
We did have a survey. We had an online survey. We had about 40 people that responded. And this option A actually had the most votes. And probably the two biggest reasons that were indicated were it's a little bit further from the pickleball courts as far as like down during the day. Thank you very much. But it's a rectangle located on the right side, middle of the land.
So it was a little closer to the pickleball courts
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and didn't have the view. So option A was the choice. This is a new slide just showing some of the possibilities. We kind of looked at programming areas. There's a children's core associated in the vicinity of the carriage house. And there's actually more than that, but that'd be the predominant area. The riparian core, which is already established with the restoration project. Kind of a social core, and this has to do with, I mean, we've got pickleball court on the right, we have children's garden, and a little bit more of a formal garden with a pond that was part of the original estate.
And then the demonstration core is actually pretty much where the demonstration garden is right now. And you can see some of the pictures of some things we're envisioning. Here's our design strategy and the pedestrian and vehicular circulation. So our goal is, to the best that we can, is to have an ADA-accessible primary path. That would be that orange line with an arrow at each end that would actually allow someone in a wheelchair to go through the site.
We've done some preliminary calcs with the grades, and we think it's going to work. There's a couple areas we might have to do a little bit of a switchback, but predominantly it looks pretty good. And then there's secondary trails or paths that are already on site that we've identified need some modifications to make them safer. Which, you know, we're proposing that as well. And then the other big thing that we're looking at is on the bottom right quadrant, it says proposed street parking, and there looks like two asterisks.
If we're having an entrance there, and the AD accessible, we're looking at possibly adding some parking that would be AD accessible. Otherwise, you know, the parking is the city, those city lots, at some point in time, the tent town area, several years down the road, and then, of course, on the street. Our stormwater catchment, I believe we showed this last time. So the only thing we're proposing to do potentially with City Hall, Little House, or the Oak Tree House, or any of the buildings other than the Carriage House, of course we wouldn't be touching any of them, but there is already downspouts and there's an opportunity to capture that water instead of letting it run down. If you've ever been here in the winter, there's some kind of eroded, foggy, soggy areas.
But to actually channel it into a rain garden, it would just slow it, spread it, sink it, you know, essentially we'd go back down to the creek, you know, through the groundwater. But it's a really good learning opportunity and educational opportunity, and just to keep the site a little bit less muddy in the winter. Here's a sample of some rain garden plants and what have you.
And then this is our, and we're calling it the Eco-Center right now, but we know the City Council ultimately will name the park, but it's kind of moving in that direction. So with all that information we gathered, with surveys, we have the schematics, this is the next level, and this is our concept plan. I don't know that I'm going to go through each and every item. I think that might be a little laborious.
And I don't, I guess you can let me know. I don't know if you can read it from where you're sitting. It looks a little too complicated for me. Andy, can you see it? But basically, you know, if I started over on Ventura Street where the compost area is located, which was number, it should be 14. Let me double check. That's the head screen. Compost, 15. Okay.
We have a primary entrance coming from the street, and we're showing that ADA parking on the street. And then you come in, and there's a proposed building there, so this would be kind of a meeting workshop hall. We are showing a small portion that could be a kitchen. We'll see. But this area becomes kind of a prime meeting area, and this is where we're proposing to also do, like, the fire safe garden.
So this is where we would show the fuel modification zones, the defensible space zones. So it becomes a big learning opportunity. And then the same thing with the planting. Once we get past it, it's a little more challenging to do the firescaping. We definitely want to show it as a demonstration, and that would be a prime area to do it. 23 and 24. 23 is a restroom that we're proposing, so it should be for everyone, pickleball players, anyone who's using the park, welcome to use it. And then you'll see a bunch of circles, number 24, that's an orchard, and then right next to it, kind of a community garden area with a shed.
And then as you move along the path, which is actually kind of the footpath of the Deer Path, I guess you could call it, that's there right now, kind of following that same path. We have some carve-out areas for some children's nature-based play. There's some fabulous views. And then, of course, when you get up to the top left, which is number one, it says Flex Spaces and Amphitheater, and that's where the Carriage House is.
So basically, and I know I've mentioned this before, but I'll say it again, when we originally received a grant from the city several years ago, We were told that potentially we could use the carriage house. We still have it on the plan. We know it's landmarked. And the big question is, or what we are proposing, we need to get a structural engineer probably to check it out.
Right, Brian? To say, yes, it could be used or not. And then, of course, we'd have to follow the landmark guidelines. But it's actually a really perfect location to do like a children's A little mini museum, nature center. And or for art, art classes could be held there. But so anyway, I'm just, I'm bringing it up again. And then let's see, if I went back down that trail, and I was back to the right of the Kent Hall, Little House is number seven. There's one of our rain gardens. We also have a rain garden behind City Hall, all the downspouts.
We're looking at, once again, looking at the trails in the past. They're upgrading it. And then on the upper right, right opposite of City Hall or the old Council Chamber, there's a lawn there with two Canary Island date palms. And we thought, you know, it's kind of underutilized. Everyone pretty much looked at it. But it could be a small, like an event. So just some minor changes, but That's what we're proposing there.
And of course, the restoration stays, and I'm going to point out on the bottom left, you're going to see number 28 and 32. So number 32 would be a new trail. So this is opposite the creek, on the other side of the creek. So we are looking at, and I know this is a little, you know, it would take a little work, but proposing a bridge across the creek We have a little bit more of a trail system. And then Upward 28 is a really fabulous view. I haven't had a chance to go over there. There's also a protected native plant species there that potentially we could cordon off, have some signage. And I will say that there's an opportunity throughout the entire site to have not only directional signage but educational signage. That really becomes a learning part.
And I think that's my, oh yeah, I'm gonna show one more thing and then I'll open it up if you have any questions. I know this is just a report, but we also on Saturday had a survey. And these are just photos of surveys that we had spread out. And people had a chance to come in with dots and post-its. Some people actually wrote some things on their comments. I'm not going to go through this all tonight. I just wanted to show you what we did on Saturday. But I did want to say that this survey is absolutely awful. And it's going to be online until November 30.
And then we're going to tally everything up until the next time it comes up. It's about programming, so it's, you know, what would you like to see at the parks? We have things like education, public gardens, wildlife habitat, children's area, I'll call it for now. And then there's a series of questions. But, you know, like bird watching and art and, you know, children's play. Workshops for adults about nature, about gardening, all kinds of fun stuff, so you have a chance. I encourage you to go on and please take the survey.
And then I'll just once again say, if you'd like to do that, go to OjaiValleyGreenCoalition.org. If you have any questions, I'm happy to answer it. Otherwise, I think that was my last page. Oh, somehow this got at the end, but this was our historical background that I showed before. But there's a lot of good information there. Yeah, there we go. Okay.
Thank you so much.
I just wanted to say it's astounding. I know it's incredible. It's incredible. I mean, I'm just thinking you, the Green Coalition, Jan, all of this work done as volunteers under the Green Coalition.
Thank you very much. Well, thank you. So, hopefully, you know, this was a taste of what happened on Saturday, and you got to see it, and Mayor Gilman showed up, and we got to see it, and we were pretty pleased, and a lot of people showed up. So, we've got some really good results. So, thank you.
Echo what was said. Just 100%. Incredible. It's going to be so wonderful to see this come to pass.
Okay. Well, we'll keep coming and sharing, and letting you know what the progress is.
Thank you.
Thank
you. Wonderful. Thanks. All right, that was like the best part of the night. So now, an introduction of our new finance director, please.
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Good evening, council members. So tonight, it's my pleasure to introduce Brenda Cho, our new finance director. Brenda is a certified public accountant with a master's of science in accountancy from California State University, Northridge, and a bachelor's degree in business economics from UC Irvine. She brings a wealth of experience in municipal finance and public sector accounting. Most recently, she served as finance manager for the city of Agora Hills, where she oversaw daily financial operations, managed audits, prepared city budgets, and ensured compliance with all reporting requirements. Her leadership was instrumental in maintaining fiscal responsibility and transparency for the city. Brenda's career spans roles in both city government and education, as well as private sector accounting and banking.
Her expertise in financial analysis, audit coordination, and budget forecasting makes her a valuable asset to our city. And Brenda is committed to fiscal integrity, collaboration, and serving our community with excellence. Please join me in welcoming Brenda Cho to the City of Ojai.
I know, right? It feels like a clap.
Thank you, Kathy. Good evening, honorable mayor and council members. My name is Brenda Cho, and I am very excited and grateful for the opportunity to join the City of Ojai team as its finance director. Looking forward to getting to know the people and working with everyone here to achieve positive impacts and contributions. And I'm available for any questions if you have any for me tonight.
Any questions?
Welcome to the team.
Thank
you. I'm sure
we're going to have many more questions as the days and weeks come along.
Of course.
Thank
you. Thank you.
Thanks very much for being here. Wonderful. Oh, great. What a great start of the meeting. All right. Any commission reports? No, Mayor. Okay. City manager's report. Mr. Seibert.
I'm just reporting that I'm stepping in here tonight for Ben, big shoes to fill. For those who don't know, I'm the Community Development Director for the City, but I am acting in the role of City Manager tonight.
Thank you, appreciate that. I'll move on to Public Communications. I have two cards at the moment. Brian Akins and Larry Steingold, please.
Nice to note that the first applause coming was from the finance guy. Congratulations. Brian Akins on the HPC. I first heard about the Green Coalition and started going to their meetings because I try to go to everything that's historic. I know Kathy Well, as she and I are the commissioners that actually came to Council meetings repeatedly over the years, and I wholeheartedly appreciate and endorse all of the work that Kathy has done.
I did go to the meetings just so I could put that red circle on their big beautiful map on the three parts that are called out in the landmarking. The whisper there was the fact that I had an update from Public Works Director Lindy Palmer. I had gone on the tour Saturday. I've been watching this in the past, and I called Lindy for a couple things. One was to compliment her and her people, Ruben and the crew, for the cleanup that they've done in the back. It's beautiful. As I told her, it's fun to walk through and to be able to see the expanse of it rather than weeds everywhere, like it was for so many years and like it was when I talked to you before. I also wanted to comment on the Arundo that's right outside the conference room. I just walked by it today.
One match in this building is gone. And she said, yes, Ribbon will be looking at that. And what I was telling Kathy was that Lindy also told me that the Ojai Valley Land Conservancy either has or is close to getting a grant from Fish and Game to eradicate Arundo in the whole valley. So that was good news. I just wanted to pass that on to Kathy. The other reason I was on the tour was, of course, to point out the miniature golf course that's just over here, just for fun. But we had a good time. Other cleanup that's taken place, I mention this because it's near and dear to the mayor and myself. Three weeks ago, we were down in Stewart Canyon cleaning, helping people clean out. I saw a lot of people that were hacking the weeds, so I decided, well, I'll just carry everything that was cut uphill.
And Monday I had poison oak, so for two weeks. But again, cleanup that's going on. Appreciate that. Appreciate Lindy Palmer and the group that are looking at this. It is beautiful. Go over and just sit and watch the pond flowing. We have a pond. We've had a koi pond for 20 years. It is the most peaceful thing in our backyard. So again, thank you all for your support and your attention and onward.
Thank you, Ms. Jenkins. I just wanted to say thank you. I did go take the tour myself today, and the pond was lovely, and it just was like, it was beautiful. It was so beautiful, and I wanted to mention that David from the tent town was there hauling up broken branches and leaves from down to up, so he worked a good couple of hours, and I love that it's such a community process.
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The other thing on future tours is, in talking to Kathy and some of you have been on it, is in that tour I wanted to get included a tour of the Carriage House.
Hello. Even though I'm a Red Sox fan, it's 2-1 Blue Jays, and you should have moved this evening.
There's never a good night.
Please, on the internet, the free internet, nothing is ever free, so there's got to be some cost and payback for that, whether it comes out of the city proper or it comes out of the customers. Because, you know, there's a cost to the connect, there's a cost for the, you know, so is it really free, but also if we're giving a franchise, that makes us the franchisor.
So are we supposed to get a piece of the action? Just a question. I mean, cities do profit on these activities. Recording closed meetings. Why can't it be on the agenda to have a discussion? Because everybody's talked about it for years. I've been here eight years now. And it's like, oh, this is a problem. That's a problem. We can do this. We can't do it. It's a reason. Shouldn't do it. Why?
Put it on the table, have a discussion, and move on. I mean, if they can record in San Francisco, which is probably crazier than here, there's no reason why we can't. So, anywho.
Yeah, just a couple of responses. Most people now consider the Internet to be basically, you know, a utility. So, as we pay for lights for the street, you know, so that will come up. So, those are very good questions,
very, very good questions. And it's not that this is better than... Yeah, for sure, for sure. But it's a fiduciary you need to like, oh, How is it going to benefit the citizens to make you all look good? You have public speaking on the agenda, you talk about it, you discuss it, then you vote on it, but there are other people in the audience who go, oh, wait a minute, that's a good idea, I should add on, I can help there.
Why can't there be a second time to, and maybe have more? Now, granted, it can't be on everything, but maybe test it on a few simple things? See if there's a real dialogue, people care. And the other thing, in no disrespect, can you abstain on everything without explaining? Robert's Rules of Order, I'm just curious. I just don't want to
have a big, gigantic conversation right now. Thank you. The answer is yes. Yeah, but let's, I don't want to have a big conversation right now.
Okay. I just, people are asking.
Yep.
Okay.
Anyway, thank you. Have a nice evening. Thank you, Mr. Steingold. Anything online? Yes, Mayor, we do have one raised hand in our hybrid model, and our raised hand is from Zoom user with the name Zoom user. Okay. You have the ability to unmute, and if you'd like to state your name, you may speak
now. Okay. My name is Anita Hendricks, and I have several things. One is, I thought tonight, somebody told me they were going to be discussing a park near Mallory Way. Is that correct?
Not tonight.
Okay, thank you. Next one is, it would be really nice if at every meeting we could have an update on what's happening with the trolley. Some of us are very concerned. I don't know if you do that kind of thing or would consider it, but it would be nice. Third item. They were talking about removing trees. I feel that we need as many trees as we can get. For one thing, it's really helping our climate, and it's important for climate and for aesthetics and for all sorts of things. So please, please, please, try not to cut down trees. And also, if you do, leave – they say – I was reading that if you leave the stump, there are still critters that use the stumps, and so it's actually beneficial for the wildlife.
The Boyd Center. They have some wonderful programs there. They have a wonderful senior program where they have games and puzzles and billiards, and they have excursions, they have hikes, they have visits to various interesting and scenic places. One of the things is that the excursions tend to be a little on the high side sometimes, and I'm wondering if they could have some kind of a scholarship for people of lower income.
But overall, I just want to say thank you all for allowing us to have this wonder resource in our community. There's a great gymnastics program and other sports activities. But for seniors, there's really some cool things going on, which is what I was trying to emphasize. Puzzles, et cetera. So thank you all, and I hope other members of our community partake of what's available there. Thank you.
I appreciate that. And just to point out, the meeting last week, there was a nice report out from the city manager on the trolley, and also this body acted to increase the benefits for our trolley drivers, to attract more drivers. So, in the works. Yes, but thank you for bringing that up. Anybody else?
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No more, Mayor.
Okay. Wonderful. Thank you so much, guys. Yes, go. Please. Oh, do you have something to say? Oh, yes, bring your card up. Yeah. Thank you. No, no, good. Thanks. Nope, I was being too speedy. Not at all. Thanks for coming.
Good evening. My name is Adam Smith. I'm here to discuss the conduct of the Ventura County Sheriff's Department here in Ojai, specifically the conduct of Sergeant R. DeBlau, badge number not provided, and Deputy Castellanos, badge number also not provided, on the morning of Saturday, October 25th. Between 9 and 9.40 a.m. on October 25th, I was riding my bicycle to complete a door dash delivery. My drop was in the 200 block of Ojai Avenue, so I moved onto the sidewalk. And pulled out my phone in order to figure out which suite number I was supposed to deliver to. I reached the end of the block and decided to park my bike near a parking lot in order to approach my delivery on foot. And this is when I acknowledged Sergeant DeBlois parking and exiting his vehicle.
Sergeant DeBlois said hello to me and I replied, hey, what's going on? As I continued to conduct my business, Sergeant DeBlois says to me, you were riding your bike on the sidewalk while approaching my path. I replied, okay, my bad. While passing Sergeant Dublow, and it's at this point he decided to grab me by the back of my collar. Dublow asked me where I'm going and I replied, to finish my delivery, why are your hands on me?
It's at this point Sergeant Dublow released my neck and replied, because you're being disrespectful and we've had complaints about bikes on sidewalks. I was unaware that disrespect and complaints were crimes worthy of being assaulted. But it is at this point that Sgt. DuBlau asks for my ID and begins my detainment as Deputy Castellanos comes pulling around the corner for backup. I moved back over to my bicycle and called my DoorDash customer to explain the situation. They came out to get their food and Deputy Castellanos snatched it from me in order to hand it to my customer. It is at this point that I started to film my interaction with these two officers. I don't think I have time to show the video, but I'll just explain. In the video, I asked for the officers' badge numbers and informed them that I am filming from my seat.
Both officers tell me that they aren't going to provide those and even tell me it doesn't matter. DeBlois asked me to stop filming, so I put my phone down, but it's still recording. It is at this point that Deputy Castellano chooses to further mock me about my request for their identification. I ask the officers if I'm being detained, and when they reply yes, I tell them I would like to speak to a lawyer. Sergeant DeBlois tells me to go ahead, so I reach for my phone to contact Council. This is when both officers tell me to put down my phone that I cannot consult contact. Contact Council, and this is where the video stops.
After this, the officers threaten to take me into jail or write me a ticket. They can't decide which. I keep requesting that they figure it out so that I can contact council and go on with my day. Deputy Castellanos tries to provoke me further by asking if I do drugs and then saying I reek of weed. After this, he throws my ID on the ground and both officers tell me I'm free.
So, this is what brings me here today. I would like to ask this council if they think this behavior is acceptable. I am not arguing that I broke a municipal code. This I understand. I'm an adult. I can stay off of the sidewalk. Okay? But my question is, was any of this necessary? What do these officers do when they see children riding their bikes on the sidewalk?
You know?
I have to ask you to stop, but we will follow up, and I would love to get your contact info if I can, if you would leave that with Mr. Montgomery. Thank you. Thank you, and please leave that as well. Thank you, sir. Sorry that happened. Is there anybody else in the audience that I missed? Okay. Thank you, Mr. Montgomery, for getting that information. Okay, so moving on, we'll go on to the consent calendar. Does anybody want to pull anything from consent?
And I'm checking in with staff here. It's so small because we've been meeting so frequently. Am I correct in that? Correct. Okay. Because
we
did 14 last time. I know. I just want to make sure that's the
reason. There was a logjam, I think, a week ago, right?
Yes. OK, great. If there is a motion to approve the consent items. Mayor, was there any public comment on that?
Sorry, any public comment on consent? Thank you. No raised hands. I should have checked. Thank you. OK.
All right. I'll move to approve.
I'll second. Shall we? Thanks. Council Member Rule.
Abstain.
Mayor Pro Tem Lang.
Yes.
Mayor Gilman. Yes. Council Member Mang. Yes. Council Member Whitman.
Yes.
Motion
passes. Thank you. Okay, moving on. Discussion item number five. Help of Ojai Rental Assistance Program.
0:38 – 0:4619 turns
Thank you. I'll give a brief report here. This was a concept review, I think, in the beginning of September. So this went forward as a concept review. What we're looking for is to move forward with an agreement to support the Homeless Prevention Rental Assistance Program. This agreement, and I believe Jane Walters is in the audience tonight as well, I see her.
And what this basically would do is it would allow for and authorize the city manager to enter into an agreement on behalf of the city with help of Ojai to fund the Homeless Prevention and Rapid Rehousing Rental Assistance Program for a one-year term to the tune of $100,000. So the other piece that wasn't identified within the recommendation but is identified within the staff report is the next step, which is help of Ojai, which we've already talked about in the concept review. Thank you. Ms. Walters, do you feel capable to come and speak? Thank you. On this item?
Ms. Mang was asking, you certainly can go if you wish. Sorry, I
misunderstood you.
If I might ask, so you've read this, I presume, well, and is it meeting the needs as you see it?
Ensuring it's what you guys want and kind of ensuring that whatever requirements or limitations you guys want on this funding is very clear to us. I think I addressed this last time, but we've done this for a long time. We've had various sources of funding that have had different limitations and requirements. So I think, you know, we're happy to move forward with whatever you guys are requesting.
But you see this as written useful? Yeah, absolutely.
Applicable? Yes, absolutely. And I think you and I spoke about this, but we just finished our HHAP grant, which is our county funding, which was $50k. So we effectively have $0 in rental assistance.
Okay, any questions for either? I just have
one thought. When they're facing eviction, is there like restrictions like, you know, are they facing eviction because they violated what the lease was? Did they have too many people? They didn't maintain, you know what I mean?
Right, like are they breaking some sort of a rule in the lease? Yeah, so what we require is a pay or quit and so that's the notice given from the landlord. So that is because you haven't paid your rent. It has nothing to do with breaking rules, etc. So that's the tool we use to determine the at-risk of eviction piece.
But if I understood you correctly, in some conversation, I mean just to try to fill in, because it's a valid question, you are assessing this candidate before you to say, is this a person that is experiencing something short-term that this is going to help them be on their feet? So, I mean, that's chronic or something.
Right. So, we look at sustainability, right? That's a big part of how we process applications, who is awarded. So, we're looking at a timeline in which there is, and I think it's in, it is in the paperwork you guys received. We're looking for like a life event, right? Something that has impacted some, a household's ability to pay their rent. Otherwise, though, they would be considered sustainable.
And that doesn't mean there's tons in savings. People are still on the cusp, but they're at least still making it, right? If you are on the cusp and you have one bill, right, that's unexpected, that can impact what happens in terms of when you pay your rent or how you can pay your rent. We're highly concerned right now with SNAP benefits being frozen and families not having access to CalFresh and how that will impact them in terms of We're paying rent, we expect to see an increase, so it's kind of an unchartered time with that, but we, you know, our intent is to engage in support via an intervention and support that household ongoing through case management.
So, yes, it's a, it's not a chronic, ongoing, or we look at whether it's chronic in terms of the need, but it's not an ongoing assistance.
I would hope as well that in your reporting that you offer to us, that you would also give us a snapshot of the environment as you see it. So if you see SNAP benefits being taken away, what's this doing, we want to know about
that. Sure. Yeah, the reporting we do for the county is pretty data driven, like it's numbers really and percentages. But if you guys are wanting more anecdotal info, we can absolutely add that. Yeah, happy to share that.
More questions for staff? Yes, please.
Oh yeah, so I just wanted to get a sense of what the turnaround time is when someone comes in and knocks on your door and says, I'm in trouble. And you say, well, we need this and this and this, and then we need this and this and this, and then we need to do this and this and this. I'm just curious, like, what generally that turnaround time is, and how do you deal with the fact that sometimes these are urgent?
Yeah, absolutely. It's often, they're almost often always urgent, a three-day pay or quit, right? So for us, and I think what's really beneficial for us to have this funding, if we were to refer you out maybe to the county to help with rental assistance, you're going to get in queue, that'll be long, and you likely won't be served that quickly. You would still be served, but it might take longer, and so that's what's really nice when we have access to the funding and we can issue it. So we can, I mean, we will turn a check out, you know, within one or two days. We do require paperwork, right? We have to have the landlord sign documentation. We are looking through bank statements and looking, you know, reviewing your case, right? But in our practice, we understand it's urgent, and therefore, case managers, when they get these applications, it really is like you're dropping everything else you're doing and focusing on this because we know this could be, you know, the thing that makes someone homeless or not.
In terms of the paperwork load, I would say, again, depends on the funding source, right, and what is being required of us, but we are going to do our due diligence always to really deeply investigate and ensure that there is a need. We absolutely, as trauma-informed staff, do not want to make this more difficult for people, and I would say if anything, really serve as the supportive person who will help. Kind of get all the paperwork and get the things that you need in order to move forward. But we're super conscious of that and we understand, you know, it's difficult and it's difficult even to say, I need help with this, right? And so I will say, you know, we're prepared for that and we know what that looks like.
And so I have, you know, faith in that and people feeling comfortable coming to us for that support too. We definitely don't want to make it harder for people.
Right, so what I'm hearing is that you understand and it's a balance and you are able to get into rapid response mode when you need to and you will. Yeah. And we did not make it too difficult to basically help people that are in crisis. Absolutely. You know, because these one-time events are things that just drop in your lap, you know. Okay, thank
you. Thank you, Ms. Rule. Anything else for staff until we go to? Yeah, please go.
0:46 – 0:5852 turns
Thank you. So one of the reasons that we're doing this is that it's part of our housing element, right? It
is.
That's good. I'm just wondering mechanically, I mean, how did that get in to the housing element? Was that something that HCD asked for? Was it something that you brought up with the prior city council or how?
So the way in which it got So it folded in from the fourth and fifth cycle. So it was already a part of the fourth and fifth cycle. The interesting thing is it wasn't specifically identified the metrics by which it was going to be satisfied. So here we're actually meeting that metrics. So I get to report out through our APR leading into 2026 that, I think it's program 18 or 19, one of the programs that we have here.
Let me just check here. 16. So program 16, I get to report out that, guess what? We've checked this box as one of the 19 that we're obligated to follow through with. And that gets shelved until we work towards, we're in the housing cycle six as we lean into seven coming
forward. And how many cycles are we going to go through before we're It is infinite at this point. Every eight years it comes
forward
again.
So
2021 is when it went forward to City Council, 2028 is when it bookends, and then we start the new seventh
cycle in 2029. 2027 is when we're going to start seeing methodology and all those fun things. Sorry, I'm getting too much into the housing, but that's it's just education.
I just wanted to put it into context and then for Ms. Walter, you mentioned the reporting that you do and as opposed to the data-driven I am interested in the anecdotal so that we understand who it is we're helping. Not understanding, I'm assuming you can't give us personal details, but you can give us
situational details. So we have a tool that does exactly that. We report two things to the county every month with the funding we did have, and it includes like a narrative, right? Like, tell us a success, tell us a challenge. If you haven't issued any funding, what's going on? And we can, so we just intend to do the exact same thing with this, if that's what you guys want.
Okay. I think we do.
Cool.
Right. Yes. Yeah. I'm sorry, I did this last
time too.
Have you ever denied
anyone? Yeah, absolutely. And it's difficult. And denial
bases would be such as they were evicted due to their own fault?
No, they're not sustainable. If we were to issue funding for you, you wouldn't be able to pay your... I mean it's not like... Generally, it's a conversation before it turns into an application, if that makes sense. So, generally, if someone approaches and this is the situation, we do some sort of other intervention before saying, like, come to us, go through this process, right?
So, it's not, I wouldn't say, like, super common. But we're, and this should be in your report too, is using this funding for rapid rehousing, which is what we're like really thrilled to be able to use this funding for. We haven't had funding for that in a long time, so our folks who are evicted and become homeless, we wouldn't have funding to help them become rehoused with a deposit or first month's rent.
Once they're ready, once they're, you know. But we are constantly scrutinizing, maybe sometimes even more than we would like to, the sustainability factor. We really want to see people be successful and we want them to become housed and stay housed, that's our priority. So it's not like a stamped deny, it's often a conversation before the applications go through.
And just to follow up on that, I assume that when you're denying, it's because there's limited funds and you want to give the best benefit to the community
based on the funds that you have. Absolutely. So right now, if people were to call us and say, I have an eviction notice, we wouldn't consider that a denial, but we would immediately refer And we would do it similarly if, like, we've had months, right, where we've had multiple people apply, right, historically, not this specific grant cycle, where we know, like, we don't have enough, like, we don't have enough funding for that, and that's when we really rely on things like our vulnerability index and really assessing family need. We prioritize people. Households that have children or aging adults.
So there's, yeah, there's definitely a methodology to it. Because we don't, it's, we don't want to be in a position where we're having to make sort of like emotional decisions about it either. We need it to be very direct in terms of how we do things. And again, it's, it's clear for us in terms of the priority of the population.
Did you have a question? Yes,
please. So when someone receives assistance, do you help them over consecutive months? Just
one month. It's one payment usually, again, depends on the funding source. If we can do more based on whatever the restrictions are, we often will try to, but it's pretty uncommon. It's usually just one month. Okay, thank you.
I just wanted to say that, once again, thank you. I'm very proud that this Council has chosen to do that and that we have you guys to be able to help us implement that. I would say that the need is so much greater and I hope that this Council will Revisit this and and see what else support what other kinds of support we can do whether it's the snap whether it's you know immigration Catastrophes, but I think it's incumbent upon us all to step up and step out and we have you guys Thank you, which is awesome. Just awesome.
Thank you councilmember.
That's really
nice. Thank you so much
Let's go to public comments. I have one card Larry Stangle, please. I Thank you, Ms. Walter.
Good evening. Hello. This is wonderful. OK. But if this is part of our housing element and this is going to be an annual event. Then why not just give them a five year deal? Automatically renewed based on their monthly report. And call it a day, and they don't have to come back for five years or something. I mean, because this should have been in the housing element three years ago, five, whatever it was.
So take the opportunity, do it, and that's the end of it. The SNAP thing, if that's part of some element, make it part of the deal and do it anyway now. It just solves the problem because they're going to come here and they're going to go, we need a hundred grand, and you're going to go through the process. And until that gets straightened out nationally, federally, whatever, statewide, we take care of it.
And my question is, the people who can't save the deposit because they're busy spending money on something else, Can they give back the deposit, $10 a week, $5 a week, something, repay the money? Because the only reason they can't find a new place is they don't have the deposit, which is two to three times whatever the legal is. So that would be my question, and I think it's a good thing.
Thank you, Mr. Steingold. Anything online? Nothing on Zoom, Mayor.
I do have a follow-up question for Mr. Seibert. Given that the housing element is an eight-year cycle, and given that this is an element, number 16 in our housing element, Yet we are only committed for one year and we will forget the two previous housing The elements that you know, we had this in but but so is it I mean we're committing for one year yet This is an eight year my that's my main point. So
the specifications will be identified that it's for the one year I would almost call it a pilot pilot program to a certain degree and then revisiting and after a year
So I guess my question more generally would be, when you have those boxes to tick, you can tick them for just one year as opposed to having to tick them for the entire span of the housing element. That's my real question.
Yeah, the nice thing is that we get to piggyback onto that for years to come. Identifying, hey, during this one year or multiple years, whatever this council ends up choosing to go with, this is the progress that we've done at this point. Because it doesn't specify that it's to be done every year. It's identifying how we can support, so.
And then I had one other question. What is APR?
I'm sorry, sometimes I use the exact
annual
progress report.
Okay, great. Thank you very much.
And Mayor and Council, if I could add, on the term component, at the next year's budget process in May, June, the Council could look at the situation between now and then and decide this is working well, this partner is doing well, let's go ahead and extend it at that point. And then you could extend it through the rest of next fiscal year and thereafter and revisit the budget question as you go. That's my intention.
Is there anybody online? No, Mayor. Wonderful. Any more questions or comments?
Yeah, I have a couple of comments. I like the fact that we're doing this as a pilot program because although I think that what we're doing is good, we need to do it, it's an immediate need thing. I really think we need to spend some time thinking about, well, how much money As a City Council, can we budget for affordable housing and homelessness? And then, how do we get the most bang for our buck in doing that?
So, I think this is one piece, and a lot of other things that, you know, we need to, so what's the total amount of money from our budget that we can invest? And then what are the highest priority needs that we can fulfill from that budget? And I think because, was it goal number one or two? I can't remember if fire was number one. But it's something that I expect that we're gonna be talking about as a high priority for city council.
And, you know, I think hopefully we're going to engage in those conversations. I agree 100%.
Anything
else? I, you know, I'm happy to put a motion on it. Do
it,
yeah. To authorize the city manager to enter into an agreement with help of Ojai.
And will you add the reporting to that piece?
Yes, and add the reporting to that piece. Yeah.
Second
that. Yeah. And thank you to help Ojai for filling this great need in our community. Absolutely. And Jane.
Roll-call vote Passed 5–0
Show transcript
0:58 – 1:039 turns
Motion passed. Thank you. Thanks for being here.
Yes, wonderful. She's ill. Okay, so we'll move on to number six, the first reading, adoption of the 2025 California Building Codes. Mr. Seibert, please.
Thank you. I'll provide the introduction. I do know that I have... Myra should be on. Can you double check with that?
Not on, Mr. Seibert.
Good evening everyone.
I'd
like to provide a brief summary of what is a pretty expansive code, obviously. And it relates to really wildfire resiliency and then summarizing updates coming into, so we had the last update in 2022, we're looking at the updates for 2025 for our building code. And those will be going into effect January 1st of 2026. First, from the local level, the Ojai Municipal Code already includes really kind of a strong requirement for Class A roof coverings. And really what that means, if you drill it down a little bit, is when there are existing structures that require modifications that are within the 10% rule, that requires the Class A roof to be basically replaced with a Class A roof.
The state requirements identify a 50% threshold, which is obviously less stringent than what we have within our code. We're taking that forward from the 2022 and reapplying that to 2025, so it's not necessarily a change. It's just saying, hey, that standard continues to work. We're moving forward with that standard for the 2025. There are areas within our local ordinance which could be strengthened or aligned, and that is really what is being discussed tonight and brought forward tonight, which one in particular, which is the one that everybody's kind of been made aware of, and that is the California Wildland Urban Interface Code, or what's referred to as the WUE code.
Specifics to that local code explicitly include things such as detailed vent requirements, mesh size limitations, prohibitions. Wait, hold on a second, which one am I talking about?
Yeah, I think you're talking about seven. No,
this is building code. Yes, this is building code. This is building code. Okay, great. The next one is also within that same framework as well. Thank you. Okay, so continuing. And I know Eric can certainly speak to some of the details as you may have questions. Some of those other requirements are speak to eaves, soffits, underfloor enclosures, and then obviously provisions, or maybe not obviously, but including within these 2025 regulations or provisions addressing accessory structures and decks, and that really relates to distance requirements.
So from a summary standpoint, the 2025 California Building Code introduces significant updates aimed at enhancing sustainability, fire resilience, and safety. These updates include mandatory heat pumps, strong ventilation standards, expanded solar and battery storage requirements, electric-ready infrastructure, enhanced fire resilience standards, updated seismic design, as well as the hard work that this body went through that got adopted in August, which is the adaptation of the FlexPath provisions, which were recently adopted. So it's taking those provisions, what's got adopted as part of the 2022 standards, applying them for the 2025 moving forward. So all that stuff is covered within what we're seeing as a part of this ordinance for first reading.
So in summary, these changes reflect a broader wide or statewide push towards really kind of electrification, safety, sustainability, and then obviously the wildfire resiliency. So with that, I would ask for that this introduction to the ordinance adaptation for the 2025 California Building Code be introduced, and then obviously there would be a second reading. So at this point, I'd open it up for questions.
Okay, so there is, what page is that on? I would state that on page 27 of 31, there was a typo, which is the E15, which states incorrectly a section, which is sections 110.3. That should actually be 110.2.
1:03 – 1:0814 turns
The question I have is that, as we, I mean, this was a lot to digest, obviously, and I'm sure we all tried, but if there was something that we were questioning about a particular piece about this, it wasn't clear to me what kind of flexibility was there to bring that up or talk about it.
So, for instance, what question would you have?
I actually don't have a particular one, but I was actually thinking on the next item, but if I understood correctly, it appeared that these are things that are in place that the building code has brought up for us to receive, so I'm taking it as we're receiving what has been approved, essentially, by others. Correct.
The other interesting thing, and I think Eric can probably speak to some of this, it's been in three-year cycles. This January 1st is moving to a six-year cycle, so essentially it won't be updated or reviewed or analyzed for updates for essentially six years. Well, there's a little bit of lead time, like with everything, but it's a six-year cycle instead of a three-year cycle now.
I don't have any particular problem. I was just trying to understand what our role is here today. Thank you, sir. What I
would
add on that is
that the city has the power to not adopt the local amendments. Staff recommends maintaining the same local amendments we had the last several cycles, but that's really the power. The default building code is adopted for you, whether or not we adopt it. Staff recommends adopting the building code with the local amendments, but the only thing that we have any power over on this is the local amendments, with the other asterisk, the reach codes that was previously passed.
or FlexPath, rather, that was passed in September. We got it under the wire on that. But otherwise, everything is fixed for the next six years.
That's clear.
Yes. That was my understanding, too, and actually one of the questions I had. So am I correct in saying that we can make it stricter, but we can't reduce any of the codes that are in place from the state? Correct.
And the important piece is, is if those pieces which have been carried over, for instance, from the 2022, if you want those to remain, it's important that we take action.
Right, which this building code that you included has. Correct. So those are all in there, and we're adding the new language. Correct. Okay, great, thanks. I just had to make sure. No, this is good. Between this and the fire. I
do have a question, and I think maybe it goes to the mayor's question. We've got the California Fire Code and the wildland urban interface. Coming up next on the agenda. And, you know, there is a lot of kind of uncertainty, like at the county, about what exactly they want to do in terms of adopting, and they're asking for more flexibility in terms of addressing individuals. So, in the context of what we're saying, this is already law.
And is what the county is involved in right now, I assume you're familiar with that, but the Board of Supervisors basically just went through the same exercise. We are, as far as I can tell. So, is it about the rulemaking and the manner in which you're enforcing, but the laws are still going to be there because they were adopted by the legislature?
What I actually think it is, I think it's a broader understanding of what applies and how you become compliant. I think that's the thing that I keep hearing over and over again is, well, how does this impact me specifically as an individual, right? The Wooly Code pieces are new, somewhat confusing to a certain degree, and you need to unpack some of that, right? So there, and this is really kind of for both of these items. I know there are two individual items that you'd be taking action on tonight, but there is some education that may be necessary to kind of help under, it's the same thing that we've had conversation on regarding, for instance, FlexPath, which is before this body as well for tonight in terms of carrying over to 2025.
If there's questions, and it's something new in terms of what we're exploring, there may be a need for something beyond just saying, hey, these are the standards, you've got to live with them. Maybe there's something else out there, either through a landing page or through a workshop to help educate. Because a lot of times when stuff like this drops, then it's picking up the pieces in terms of what standards really have an impact.
1:08 – 1:1414 turns
Right. So just following up on my question, I don't know how many of our residents have read what's in the fire code and wildland fire, you know, revisions, what's in Zone 0, Zone 1, Zone 3, and how much it's potentially going to impact them given their particular property. I mean, I've already tried to do all the Zone 0 stuff for my own home. But there's going to be people, and I think this is part of what the supervisors had concern over, is that there are going to be people who, when they look at their property, they might be looking at tens of thousands of I'm okay with those standards being in place as long as we have some flexibility to say, okay, this person, because of their special circumstances, we're giving them five years instead of one year.
Or whatever, you know, whatever that mechanism is to be
flexible. Eric, could you come up and speak to some of that?
Eric Simonson, Building Officials, City of Ojai. That piece is actually the fire department's piece. That's defensible space that we're talking about, not necessarily the building code requirement, but the fire requirement. So those are fire separation distances that the fire code and Cal Fire is going to come up with. So what we're seeing up in the north part of the state is the open space inspectors for the fire department are now enforcing all of this stuff. to come and have neighbors and everybody get all their defensible space in line. So as far as the building code, that is the next step, but right now what we're adopting is the wildland-urban interface, which also protects you both inside and outside, protects the home from the outside for its rating.
It also protects fire spread from the inside to the outside because the house is actually either sprinklered or rated on the inside. So for what you're speaking to, it's not necessarily worth the building code. We're going to have the defensible space for the five feet around. But zone one is fire.
So
that really
ties to the next item. If I could jump in here. It does. The question essentially is the county has asked the state CAL FIRE to delay the implementation of zone zero. CAL FIRE has not yet acted on that. I believe they made that request last week or the day before.
Yeah, just
a week ago. Cal Fire is receiving those requests from a number of agencies around the state, as the reality is Zone Zero is both unfunded, as to the requirements for the fire departments to inspect, and to then unfund it is to the residents and the business owners and the community members and public agencies. This building doesn't meet Zone Zero right now.
to comply with Zone Zero, that is also unfunded. What is unknown is what CAL FIRE will or will not do in terms of delaying it. The ask on the next item, which the Fire Chief will speak to in much greater detail than I could, is to adopt a set of requirements that would apply for Zone Zero. There's one set of requirements for new buildings and a slightly, still stringent, but slightly smaller requirements for existing buildings.
Those would be, the county ask is to adopt those, and then they would apply unless extended by CAL FIRE. But that is the next item.
Right. So if I have concerns about those provisions, not that we aren't going to adopt, you know, something eventually, but there might be some things that we, you know, ask for. What happens? I mean, if I if I approve, including Those portions of the code, you know, being adopted on the ask for agenda item six, am I kind of like then done on item seven because I've already adopted it?
It almost seems like a chicken and egg situation, but maybe I'm not understanding. The
zone zero component is separate from item six. The provisions you're concerned about, I think, are the Zone 0 requirements specifically. Those are in Item 7, not Item 6. You can safely adopt Item 6 as proposed. And more to the point, Item 6 will be adopted for the City anyway.
Because
it's state law
and
it's going to be applied. Item 7, the Council could refuse to adopt or delay pending further study, perhaps, would be a choice that does create some potential challenges with the Fire Department. I'd suggest before we make any choices there, we talk A, take public comment, B, staff report, and C, the fire chief's comments.
1:14 – 1:1918 turns
With the idea that by adopting item number six that we still have the flexibility to look at item seven and how those things are going to be implemented.
I think I'm only here to speak on Item 6, so I don't want to speak on Item 7 because they're two separate items. Item 6 is adoption of the building codes, and in the building code is going to be the wildland-urban interface. And the wildland-urban interface is going to have protections of the building and requirements for the building on top of the building code. Now, Zone 0 is not part of that.
Yeah, and you said that's The fire department's role, which is Cal
Fire. Yes. Not Cal Fire. Ventura County Fire. Ventura County
Fire. But there is going to be more to say because I have a few things to say on the subject. I do have the county's letter in front of me as well that I was looking at.
I guess I'm just... No, no, well, they're very conflated. I'm just a little bit, you know, leery about... It seems almost like a leap of faith. Okay, we adopt these... But I don't, you know, I don't have the time to, you know, run through all of this and understand, you know, completely what's going on. So, we had to...
Essentially, we put forward the same amendments that were already existing. The only ones that we took out were the ones that went out of the building code. Chapter 337 of the residential code went away, completely went away. So I had to strike all of your amendments. That spoke to that. So I struck all of those and then led, and you'll see in there, I led to Chapter 5 of the Wildland Urban Interface Code, which is where everything from 337 ended up landing. So all of the fire code stuff is now in one location instead of spread out through the code for residential, commercial, and everything. It's now in the Wildland Urban Interface Code.
And for everyone's reference, that's on page 14 of 31 in the ordinance and it starts at letter P and it goes through letter S. And there isn't—Zone 0 is not a part of this one. It's a part of the next one, but this one does have things that you mentioned before, like the fire retardant treated wood shingles and shakes, and exterior windows and glazed doors.
So those are all the items that lived in 337. The state moved all of that stuff into the wildland code, so it still exists for you. The only thing I carried over was your 50% roof covering. It is 10% by the state. You're more restrictive, so we just carried that
one over. And as you pointed out, our flex path is in here, so the places that we are exceeding are there. Otherwise, we are taking what has been already
adopted. Correct. And the other element where that's seen is on page 19 of 31, section 12, where we simply adopt the fire code as is, updating from 22 to 25.
Let me take a public comment here. I have Larry Steingold and then Renee Roth.
I came here for the same, asking the same question. If this is the state, why do you have to approve it? I mean, it's by law, right? But then they mentioned the amendments, so now I understand. Does that mean you can take off amendments now? Before you re- out of curiosity, I don't know what amendments you would take off, but is that a possibility? If you wanted to change something, would you do that now and then approve the whole thing? Or just slice the amendments off and then look at them, come back, review them, and then vote on them?
I'm just out of curiosity, because it's like you have an opportunity to do something that you may or may not want to do, good or bad, I don't know, but it just, you look at those amendments and say, hey, hmm, to me, how many of them, is any of it grandfathered? Are there any new triggers, like upon sale, if you turn the screw here, do you have to rewire this? Is any of that done in the building code?
I don't
want to
engage in a conversation. This is just for you to make a
comment.
Right. Okay. Well, it's just nice to know if one of these changes, not so much for the code itself, but what changes affect my doing something that I thought I could do and couldn't do. Like it's grandfathered or it's not, like fire and wiring. And at some point, is anything else going to be mandated in the code? I don't know if there's any changes there. I don't know because I haven't had much done
other than do front door. So, thank you. Thank you, Mr. Stengel. Renee Roth, please. Thank you.
1:19 – 1:2512 turns
Good evening, council members. It is confusing. There's a lot of technical things to go over. And I appreciate your taking this on. My question has to do with page four of thirty one in the document. And the letter that I sent earlier. Makes reference to I'll let you get there, page four of thirty one down at the bottom. It says the city adopted their general plan and it somehow goes to air quality and energy and consumption and energy efficiency and air quality goals, but it just completely misses the safety element of the general plan. And the safety element of the general plan is really where building and fires go together.
And according to state laws now, when you update your housing element, you should also be updating your safety element. So you were way behind on updating the safety element because safety, housing, and fire all go together. So I really hope you will consider adding that as a priority and including an update to your safety element, which is going to add some additional requirements for evacuation planning and emergency setups and access roads for high, you know, areas that are blocked off. So there are some additional requirements that I think you really, I really hope you take the safety element and update it.
Also, Mr. Whitman, I know for several meetings you and I have been wanting to see something about trees and plants and what's safety, what plants are safe and what plants aren't safe. And I really do think, as Lucas was saying earlier, Adding a page that has information on it, that's educational information, such as the fencing materials. If we are not allowed to do wood fences, what are the options? Let's put some pages out there that show the fencing options.
Let's go out there and show the fire maps and let people know when they're in these hazard areas, they're going to have some vegetation management requirements that Ventura County Fire is going to be enforcing. There's a big educational leap, and I'm glad the Fire Safe Council isn't on board, and they're going to be putting a landing page together. But this is a chance to put the building and the fire and the safety and the...
Thank you, Ms. Roth. Anything online? No raised hands on
Zoom, Mayor. I did have the similar thought, which was to Ms. Roth's point, that if we put together, assuming this gets approved, really easy, digestible information for our community, that would be wonderful. I realize that that's a little bit of a hole there, but
like a like a like an FAQ or an informational Andrew Whitman, Ben Harvey, Bethany
Burgess, Kim Mang, Leslie Rule, Lucas Seibert, I think going to Mr. Whitman's point earlier, the more we get to the home hardening with options and we look at those things, I know the Fire Safe Council will at some point even offer recommended vendors and all that kind of stuff. So the more information we have there, the better, it seems to me, where people can feel less confused. Collaboration. Yeah, collaboration, yeah.
I had a question about that, too, and that is that, you know, it looks like the code books are pretty expensive. Is there an online format where folks can look? Okay, there is. Okay, I'm seeing a nodding head. Okay, yes. Okay, great, great. Yeah, I think that would... I mean, then also we will have our own set here that people can come and use, but... Great, thank you so much. I was like, $1,600 for...
Yeah.
Okay, thank you.
I personally would not want to revise any of the things we have brought forward at this meeting today. So we brought them forward through a lot of labor, it seems to me. If we're happy with what we've done and the rest is from the state down, then I'm not sure what the conversations are for number six, but. I think I
agree with that. But like I said, I'm like only 90% convinced that that is what, I think that's enough. Because you
had
100 pages to digest. You know, but I think, I guess I'll ask this question. For, you know, for any provision that we become aware of that we decide is draconian. We can look at that and see if there's a path to lightning enforcement or whatever it is.
1:25 – 1:3034 turns
On a
case-by-case
situation, with a hell of a lot of factual development we don't yet have, we can take
a look at any particular situation. I don't even know that there's anything in those codes that I would be upset about. Here's what I would say.
Through the 19 cycle and maybe even leading up to the 2022 cycle, if we're looking at, for instance, BAB and what they've looked at in terms of appeals through the building officials' determinations, that tailored off leading into 2020, where I haven't really seen where there's been confusion or upcry or outcry regarding the way in which the standards are being either interpreted or enforced.
So I think there's already flexibility built into the standards themselves, because if there wasn't, I would think we would have a lot more appeals going through BAB.
That's interesting.
And I assume then that the building industry and consumers have all had the opportunity to comment on what the state was adopting, so that all of this stuff has been vetted.
I would turn to Eric as to how much vetting...
Although now
the state...
Eric,
can you come up here?
Six years. Six years from now. Okay. So what we have, the adoption of the code, the state of California decided with many rules, as we've seen in ADUs and other rules throughout the state, they didn't like the way building construction was going, as fast as it was going. So the ADUs, we took those, we made those ministerial, we've done a lot of work with those. So they've now said, well, the building code and the adoption of it every three years is cumbersome to everybody. And so this argument came, and it went around the state, and they've decided that six years. So for six years, we're going to stick with the code cycle that we adopt today. Instead of doing every three years, we'll have a six-year. And they're only testing this once.
This time, we may go to a six-year cycle, but we may very well go back to a three-year cycle. As far as amendments, there aren't any that are allowed, unless they're life safety, or you can find that there is some harm that's going to cause your community. You can go back to Building Standards Commission and make your arguments then. But as for the amendments we're bringing forward, those will be in effect for six years. And
just to piggyback on what Eric just said, the standard by which we took forward the previous flex path is the same standard and process we're taking forward again. So it's going, once the second reading comes forward, then we'd also be doing the same thing, taking it to the Building and Standards Commission for their sign-off and then Energy Commission as well.
And the FlexPath components are the exact same as already adopted under the legislative exemption for the specific timeline with the one type of correction.
And I'm hearing you say, and I'm very happy for this, every time the community needs something like a workshop or some community exposure to clarify, I'm hearing you say you're willing to do that.
I've been willing to do it in the
past. Well, I don't want to make assumptions, I guess, but I'm assuming that when a need presents itself, we'll meet the need. Sure.
And we can also post explanations, written explanations as opposed to...
I think on the landing page, I'm not going to sit here and pretend that it's going to be only these little tiny things, right? It's one of those things that kind of evolves as the need suggests.
Can I try to sum up here? Basically, we are adopting things that are California standards, which we don't have any choice, and the other things that we're adopting are things that we've already adopted. And so, and we are saying that it might be confusing to people, but of course, all building codes are confusing to people. So there's nothing new there. Well, you know, I'm being a little bit flippant here, but it's not unusual for people to come in and say, I don't understand this. It takes help. Right. So am I understanding where we are here?
I think that's exactly what
I
said. Okay.
All right. So that's where we are. Great. Okay. Let's move forward, if we could. Thank you.
Is that a motion? Is that the motion?
I'm not going to make that motion, but somebody can.
So I'm happy to do it. So that the City Council introduce Ordinance Number 25, I'm seeing the underscore there, to adopt the 2025 Building Codes with amendments to Chapter 1508 of the Municipal Code. Is that sufficient?
With the typo correction, yes. With the typo
correction.
Thank
you.
Yes. Thank you.
All right, I'll second it. OK.
Roll-call vote Passed 2–1 · 2 under review
Show transcript
1:30 – 1:3312 turns
And the reason for the no is that I voted no for the flex path and the other things have already been approved. So actually, I'm going to change that to abstention because I think I abstained on that one on the flex path. So thank you.
Council Member Whitman? Yes. Council Member Mang? Yes. Motion passes. Thank you.
All right, on to number seven. All right, take a
deep breath. Nick, I'm sorry. Hold on, Nick. I'll introduce it and start it, and then we can have the Q&A then, OK? Well, Nick, come on up here just real quick.
Hi, everybody. Nice to see you guys. I'm going to start off first by, sorry that prevention's not here. The original schedule was the 18th of November, and we moved it to the 28th, and we were double booked. So the fire marshal's at a Cal Chiefs conference, and then Ryan Cry, who's going to speak tonight, has another speaking engagement. You want me to go over kind of what the gist of it is? Because again, I think it's very similar to what you guys discussed. Some of the stuff's already adopted, whether we want it or not. And then the three things that we're going to discuss tonight are the more stringent things that need to be adopted individually by each city if you guys choose to do that. Is that fair? Or do you want to go over it?
I mean, I can I can briefly go over them. I'm going
to lean again. I'm not I'm not from the prevention office. I'm a division chief in the operations side. So we lean on our subject matter experts. I'm prevention here. I knew it'd be awesome, but I'm going to lean on Lucas and Matthew for some of the legal stuff. So try to answer the best I can with what I know.
Yeah, to Nick's point, there already is that fire district code that has been adopted. These three pieces that are being discussed tonight are at the discretion of this body. Meaning, if you adopt them, one, two, or three, all three of them, or one of them, or two of them, that is up to this body. That is up to discretion. Every jurisdiction within Ventura County has that authority, right?
Can I stop you? Just to be clear, so we're talking about, in the big document, pages 61 and 62, or pages 1 and 2 of the staff report, we're talking about the automatic fire sprinkler systems.
For all occupancies. For all occupancies. Which is Article 3, Section 903. Thank
you. The fire flow requirements, and then the combustible fencing. Those are the only three things we're talking about tonight. Those are the only three. Thank you. Correct.
Tell me again what the second one is.
1:33 – 1:4027 turns
It's the fire flow requirements, which is Article 3, Appendix B. So you'd be adopting the entire appendix.
Yeah, but what is fire flow?
So if you look at the fire flow piece, it's actually on page 30, page 104 of your packet. So Appendix B talks about areas without water supply. So for information regarding water, I'm just reading it verbatim here. Supplies for firefighting purposes in rural areas in which adequate and reliable water supply systems do not exist. The fire code official is authorized to utilize NFPA, which stands for 1142 or the Ventura County Wildland Urban Interface Code.
Added to read as follows, which is B103.4, inadequate water purveyors. I think that's actually the point that we were looking at. Okay, so new buildings and uses requiring a water demand. I'm reading it verbatim once again. Domestic and or fire flow shall not be permitted.
So I asked the question before we started the meeting about that exact section, which is B103.4, and so Cliff notes is, it's stating a new structure being built that increases the demand on an already inadequate water system will not be allowed. Casitas Municipal Water is an adequate system, so more than likely will not be an issue in the City of Ojai.
Thank you for saying that, because you could read it as, no new building is allowed. But that's incorrect. That's clearly not what it's trying to say.
It's trying to say, so if there's already an inadequate water system, we don't want to approve a new structure that's going to put more demand on that system. But being within the City of Ojai, Casitas Municipal, they don't foresee that issue occurring.
And could I just do a quick follow-up question? Casitas has to give a will serve, correct? That remains the same, correct? That's correct. Thank you.
And we would recommend a slight adjustment of language to match that intent as the council moves forward.
So the thing, just so we're clear, the thing about the Zone Zero that the supervisors were bringing up was that, from their language, there would be something like on the order of 60,000 additional parcels that would have to be reviewed, and there's no funding or staffing for that at the moment. So, Mr. Whitman, I was Thank you, Mr. Mayor.
The standards that you're seeing today are the standards that you're seeing today in terms of making the determinations. If they end up moving the goalposts, then that's what we end up seeing moving
forward.
I had a question about the automatic sprinkler systems. Do those tax the overall water supply if every new building has a sprinkler system, or are we talking about sprinkler systems just for group or multifamily units?
It's for every new building. It's all new. Yeah, it's all new construction. I would say they don't tax the system as long as all the heads aren't going off. No different than hydrants being open, your garden hose, bathtub.
Mr. Seibert, I'm trying my hardest to remember. I'm pretty sure I was in the room, but I can't for sure remember, but why was this not approved in the past? Do you
recall? Because there were questions and concerns as to the fire flow question. Thank you very much.
16 was over two or three applications that were on the table at the time and a series of jurisdictional power fights between then city leadership and then county leadership over specific projects drove the conflict in those days. That was resolved with political change at the council in 2020. Hence, the 22 adoption proceeded smoothly.
And I have a quick follow-up question and I'm sure that this has come up and it's been answered. I know, what about ADUs? So they're considered, is it under 500? What about ADUs?
Are ADUs exempt
from this?
300 square feet. Anything over 300 square feet has to be sprinkled. But I'm not going to go into
that. The state adopted a certain ADU sprinkler exemption, and they just amended it again. That takes effect January 1st of next year. And I confess I don't have the new amendment in my head, but I'll take a quick look and see what
I can confirm. It used to be that if the House wasn't required sprinklers, then the ADU wasn't required sprinklers. But I have this feeling that might have changed, and so I was just checking. There
are changes coming down the pipeline starting January 1st.
And like I said, they just rewrote the ADU law yet again. I haven't memorized the new law yet.
But it's a state law, so it is what it is.
Whatever it is, we weren't proposing any amendments to the ADU rules. Right,
okay. Thank you.
1:40 – 1:4934 turns
Sprinklers though, and I will bring this up, I talked about this with Lucas when we were kind of chatting yesterday. Unfortunately, there was damage to the Ojai Farmhouse, but when you think about the response and the amount of apparatus we have in the Ojai Valley, Oak View, the sprinklers do keep that fire smaller until the apparatus can get there and actually find out where it's at. And that was a unique fire that was in a void space, and if it wasn't for that sprinkler system, I think the damage to that farmhouse would have been significant. The inn recently, you're talking
about. Correct. Mr. Cleary, is it your recommendation that we accept it as proposed?
I would recommend that we, we're not trying to, it's not a money scheme, we're trying to protect and make things safer, and by implementing some of these things, even just the fence thing, it was already approved, we're just changing it from perpendicular to five feet, they took the perpendicular out, so now if there's a small side yard that runs, a fence runs five feet away from the building, it doesn't say perpendicular, so it's not talking about the gate, it's talking about the fence in general, within five feet. I'd recommend it. Again, it's totally up to you guys, and if you don't accept these ordinances, then we can't enforce them in the City of Ojai, which makes it weird for the prevention officers, but I think we're all in line with trying to increase the safety, the values at risk, save lives.
I think these are small things that I think are super important for when it comes to fire suppression, from us responding to it, and then also assisting with our prevention officers.
Can you answer from that perspective that you just mentioned? Because, you know, one of my concerns is that we have continuity between county and incorporated in the city, have, you know, relatively similar standards, unless there's a good reason not to. Are the things that we're being asked to adopt tonight already adopted
for the county? The county adopted these on the 14th, and Santa Paula City adopted it last week. The other cities have not had it addressed yet.
The answer sounds like yes, then.
That's where we're at when I ask those questions. So last week, Santa Paula adopted these in the county on the 14th.
So what the county was doing with the Board of Supervisors last week was a completely different issue than what you're, that we're being asked
to do tonight. These three number 34 ordinances, the ones that I listed, were adopted by the county on the 14th. Right,
it was the general zone zero requirements that, their language was, they're looking for more than the one size fits all.
Yeah, which I think us as a department are still trying to figure out how we're all gonna address all these.
Right, so if I understand correctly, The city doesn't have an enforcement officer who would go out and do this. We rely upon the county to do that work. So, you know, those issues that a lot of the Board of Supervisors had a problem with, you know, which was the idea that they didn't have what they thought were, you know, There was concern about the financial resources to enforce 60,000 homes.
We don't have that issue. Is that correct?
I mean, we do have co-compliance. We have one and a half officers, essentially. But the problem is, the challenge there is the educational piece. They're not experts from that standpoint, by any stretch of the imagination. So
we're going to address the zone requirements at some future date. Part of that's going to be law, but how you enforce it hasn't been Thank you very
much. And I look at it like this. I was talking about him. When we look at the Zone Zero and landscaping options, using your city facilities as an example is the perfect way to start educating along with doing community meetings or seminars. But if you could take the buildings around here and start Zone Zero and have examples with fences, you're using your facilities to set the example and give people options of what they could look at. I've been talking about this with homeowners associations and then start the community meetings and getting more people educated with the Fire Safe Council in conjunction to go out and do those home inspections. I think it's going to take a team to do this, which includes the fire department, community members, cities, to kind of make this kind of go forward, honestly.
Because we talk about the financial for just having inspectors to do it. We already have a hard enough time completing our 100-foot inspections with how many we have throughout the county. And then you talk about the funding that each resident's going to have to come up with to figure out the Zone
Zero. Okay, so one of my big concerns in reading through is that there was a lot about trees, and I'm thinking about oak trees, and, you know, like there was a A rule about the canopies needed to have separation and I, you know, my first reaction is I want to hear from our arborist and I want to hear from Ojai Trees, which is a non-profit here in town, and is this, you know, healthy for those trees and what do we do about that?
Is that in front of us tonight or is
that negative? It's not in front of us. The three things that we're talking about tonight that we want you guys to adopt are the things that are more stringent and what's coming out from the state
fire. So can I try to figure this out again? All of this stuff is de facto. We need to adopt it except for the three things that we're being asked to look at. Is that correct?
Everything is going to be adopted whether we want to adopt it or not. These three items are
the most
stringent.
They're the supplement. So we can, yes, we don't want to, you know, yes, it's confusing. Yes, we don't have money. Yes, people aren't going to understand it. Yes, we don't have inspectors. The state is getting all of this feedback, but the way it stands is this is the regulations and it will be up to the state. To take all of this feedback and decide if they're going to adhere to it or fix it or rewrite, you know, there's the cleanup laws that always happen after you have an initial. So, but that's not our purview. That's not anything, I mean, we could write a letter.
We could, we could, you know, basically put our own opinions to the state. But we can't in any way change this, neither if we say no, we're not going to adopt it. Is that even possible? Right, it's adopted. It is, it is, right, okay. You're saying
no to these three.
Right, it's just those three things. If we have problems with everything else, the only thing we can really do is write letters or make protests as the Ventura supervisors did, as probably many places in California will do, to bring forward the difficulties in implementing this. But as far as adopting it, it is not within our choice to adopt it.
And I appreciate that. We're as confused and trying to understand how it's going to be rolled out. And I could see that this still might be effective with some more lag time to get...
Yeah, yeah, yeah. And they always readapt. Cal, you know, the laws always get readapted. There's cleanup laws. They didn't foresee things, blah, blah, blah. And I know that, I mean, having talked to you, having talked to many other fire experts, you're as confused as everybody else, and you don't have the money to do it, and there are all those problems that need to be brought to the state, but that does not preclude us or give us the option not to adopt them.
We got it.
Also, one thing to your question about the oak tree, I actually saw in, I can't remember, I can't find it in all of my notes and underlines, but the oak trees, it's my understanding that the oak trees They're considered, actually, that was one of the positive things about the code is that it does protect the oak trees, that oak trees are considered okay.
They're considered fire-resilient. I think the trees is a density, and so when we're looking at canopy to canopy, it's no different than a ladder fuel is getting into a tree and it runs no similar to a house-to-house that happens in the Palisades. It's thinning out the density of those canopies. It's not removing the tree, it's just the density. How closely connected are they?
It's page 123. Existing protected oak trees shall be trimmed to provide a minimum five foot clearance above the roof and five foot to the side of any new building or the additional portion of an existing building. But we're not adopting that.
No, I'm just pointing it out. It's part of our information packet that has me totally blank. Well, we were all doing that. There was
a lot of information. Part of it is that's what has already been adopted by the county. It duplicates state law.
So before we get into public comment, can we just go one more time through the three things that were asked to adopt? In the staff report?
You want me to read my cliff notes, Lucas, or are you going to go line by line?
1:49 – 1:5539 turns
Yeah, so
I'll check and
read from the staff
report.
It's a summary, yeah. So Article 3, Section 903, adopts building standards related to automatic fire sprinkler systems. Article 3, Appendix B, adopts building standards related to fire flow requirements. And then Article 4, Section 604.11, adopts building standards related to combustible fencing. And as Nick had mentioned, it's more about the connection piece than it is
about... Let's take a... I have one public comment card, and it's Renee Roth. Oh, she left.
Anybody online?
Okay.
Yes, please
go. So, I'm assuming the city is going to have to do some work to be in compliance with this, is that correct? That we're not in compliance with this code?
You mean the city's buildings
as a
landowner? Yes. Yes, we'll have to make some improvements. I would note most of this applies to modified buildings as opposed to existing buildings, but we are in process of continuously assessing our own fire compliance. And beyond minimums, how to be more resilient. That was your question
about
our own property,
the city's properties. Because I read some retrofit pieces in here as well. And so, I mean, I'm sure that will come back in another conversation. But I'm just aware of that there will be costs in terms of what we need to do to be in compliance.
The interesting piece to your question, I think it's a good question, I think it also leads to what Nick was talking about as being an example for the community to a certain degree, could feed into that workshop piece as well, is anytime that we're doing any of these retrofits, the budget's gonna come to this body for review and consideration. So at that point, we can really start honing in on why and where and how, in terms of how we're looking at that.
And to sort of bring together our tree ordinance and the sort of regulations and or descriptions for how we look at the oak trees here, we should, I think, dovetail those so that, I mean, we can just so that each is pointing back to the other.
Yeah, that's a good point, because I know I've been working closely with a local arborist on revisions and updates to the code as his body had asked for. And I think after reviewing this, I'm probably going to bring him back on and say, let's take a closer look at some of these other fire-related matters.
Yeah. And obviously, you know, we're always welcoming to be more stringent if possible. But it's a different kind of thing here because... Yeah, anyway, it's not exactly, you can be more stringent, you know, but you have to be... Anyway, thank you. That's all I wanted to say. Processing standards,
that's what we're all about
here. Yeah, thank you.
Mayor and Council, I can add to the prior question about fire sprinklers and ADUs. Subject to a quick review, well, our memo is forthcoming, the new rule is that the same as before for ADUs and junior ADUs now added, if the primary dwelling requires sprinklers and the ADU shall have sprinklers, the primary dwelling does not require sprinklers, then the ADU need not have sprinklers.
Which generally maps to is the house existing or not. All new houses require sprinklers, so if you're building a new house and ADU together, will be sprinklered. If an existing house and you're only adding ADU and you're not otherwise modifying it, then you probably don't need sprinklers. I say probably, not certainly, because there are a number of factors about what else is going in the project that will be the detail. And perhaps our building official could add more on that front.
I
believe
that it's still at 1,200 square feet, no matter what. If the ADU gets 1,201, trigger sprinklers, but you're adopting sprinklers no matter what. Isn't that... For
modifications... Yeah,
modifications are 1,000 or 50%.
Right. If an ADU is under those two triggers,
then...
So the
ADUs still don't fall under the every building rule?
Yeah.
Right. Okay.
It's new construction and it's sizable modifications that are greater than how many square feet.
That create a trigger, exactly.
Yes. So otherwise, sprinkler rule remains exactly the same.
It sounds like it, and that would be the same rule that was adopted in 2016.
And the only difference in the state law is it extended the protections to J to use 2.
1:55 – 2:0119 turns
Yeah,
thank you guys.
Oh,
prevention.
Well, let us vote on it. We don't know what's going to happen. Don't listen
to me. I'm not the
prevention officer, so I appreciate it. Thank you. Thank you so much, Chief. We
appreciate you. Thank you.
Yeah, very much. Well, I move that we adopt. Let's see. I want to say three guys. Articles three of Section 903, Article three, Appendix B and Article four, Section 604. Is that sufficient?
I'm just going to make one comment. A lot of times I complain that we didn't get enough information. It's probably good that I have this information, but it took me down a path we didn't need to go.
It confused the issue, actually, for me, too, because I spent a lot of time thinking about zoning, about the Zone Zero. Second. Okay.
Roll-call vote Passed 5–0
Show transcript
Motion passes.
Okay.
It's 7.56.
What else do you want to
talk about? We talked about this last time, but council member reports, I know I have a couple things that are small, but happy to hear other people.
Yes, go. So I have one, and that is that next week I will be attending the transportation conference and learning all about Different transportation options and how to enhance public transportation in our community. So I'll come back with lots to report, I'm sure.
Just a few things. As I mentioned before, there is a student council that meets here. The next meeting, I believe, is November 12th. All are welcome to attend. We are involving lots of other schools in a Martin Luther King event, which will be January 19th in the Bowl. First time in the Bowl. That's really great. But a lot of nonprofits and all the schools will have some participation in that. There was a great storytelling festival that just happened this past weekend, and Taste of Ojai.
Thank you very much.
I think I requested that we get be more proactive about reporting what we're doing on boards. And so I'm on the Ventura Regional Sanitation District Board. The biggest issue there is that the toll and landfill has a life expectancy of about 10 years. That's based upon the current flow of trash. But, and, the state has basically taken a position, they're not permitting new landfill. So, somewhere down the line there's going to be a big decision about that.
But we are conducting a study about whether the next canyon over from Toland can be annexed There's all kinds of environmental stuff that goes into that assessment. But if it's successful, if it meets criteria, it's potentially 30 more years above and beyond the 10. On the OIA Groundwater Basin Board, the biggest issue we've been dealing with is that we're a little tiny district.
We get our money from people who have wells. But the state has all these huge reporting requirements, and we have a pretty stable basin, and we're trying to get relief from the state to say, if we can demonstrate that we're a stable basin, do we really have to spend $25,000 every few years to provide documentation? And then the other thing is that we require anyone who has a well within the basin to have not only a permit, but monitoring devices.
And not everybody has complied, so we spend some time on enforcing compliance on folks who have not reported or don't have monitoring devices. And then finally, I'm on the Air Pollution Control District Board, and We spend a lot of time, you know, updating codes and all that kind of stuff, but the really cool thing we do is we have money available to us where we're providing grants to different places where they're going from diesel fuel machinery to either Greatly improved air quality or going to electric, like, for instance, electric tugs in Wainimi
2:01 – 2:029 turns
Harbor.
And lots of farm equipment is being upgraded.
Thank you. Anything else? Wonderful. And then future agenda items. Anyone? We have a long list, of
course. Leslie and I are in ad hoc with the HPC, and they were told that they were going to be the budget for their new report. Remember, they were saying that that was going to be on the agenda, and we looked through, so I hope you're aware of that. Right, the HPC, their new report. Right,
the windshield survey, the structures of. Right,
right,
right.
They were told it was going to come or whatever, because they want to get going, because I guess they're just finishing with Ventura now, and they want to be in the, you know, in the queue to get it going.
So, it was hopeful that it would be for this meeting, but I can assure you that it's going to be for the next meeting. We're finalizing the report. Meeting adjourned.