Ojai City Council, Regular Meeting

Thank you. Welcome, everybody. This is very fun. Welcome to the Tuesday, December 9th regular meeting of the City Council. And we're missing Ms. Rule. There she is. Okay, roll call, please. Mr. Montgomery.

Yes, Mayor.

Thank

Thank you. All right. Thank you. Okay. General.

Got it. Thanks.

Please go ahead.

I just wanted to give a huge thank you to our former city attorney, Matt Summers, and I didn't get a chance to thank you for all of your service and for holding the institutional memory of our city and all that we've accomplished and who we are. I know you're going to carry that with you, and I look forward to finding new ways to work together. Thank you. And also thank you so much to Chief Jenkins as well. It's a sad night of goodbyes. Two greats for this community. So really, you've left an indelible mark here. Thank you.

Thank you very

much. I just want to say to Matt, one of the best things that I've ever done was the elephant's right to liberty, and you were instrumental and with us on that 110%, and I can't thank you enough. That is something that is beyond words for me, so thank you.

Thank you, Matt. Yes, thanks. All right. Wow, what a meeting. Okay, we'll move on to commission reports.

Yes, Mayor, we do have the Chair of the Arts Commission, Smithy West, here to provide a

report. This is just a commissioner report, which is really quick, but tonight we have an agenda item number 15, so we look forward and we have some people here from the arts community I think will make public comments at that time. But I just wanted to say happy holidays and thank you guys. December's one of the busiest times, especially for the performing artists in this community, so I hope you guys are taking in what you can from our art organizations here in the Valley. Last week we had the 40 girls from Croatia, a little choir came, and we took them to eight different schools, and they did a concert Thursday night. And then the community choir did a packed holiday, two concerts this past weekend that I saw, too. So I hope you guys take advantage of that.

It's a busy time. All right, but what I wanted to report tonight, well, I wanted to give a special thanks to all you Council people for, well, to the Mayor and to the Manager for getting this on the calendar since I've been on the Commission and applying to the Commission for grants before that. We've never done it so early. So we're taking tax money or whatever and we're getting it right back out in the community into our creative economy where it can grow instead of waiting until, you know, January, February, March when arts organizations are making their plans. So thank you, thank you, thank you. There's a great holiday present and it really helps fiscal planning because most of the organizations are on our calendar fiscal year too.

Next, we're heading into our, oh, we're also, we've opened up applications for commissioners. We're looking for new arts commissioners for next year as people do their service. I have three-quarters of a term left. Thank you for that, but, you know, I'm building a succession plan, too, so every time we can We can involve people not just straight to commission work, but in our ad hoc committees, in our mural ordinance committees. Anytime we do that, we're showing the creative economy how the people can see good government doing good things that help.

Things that are clean, things that don't add traffic, things that are inclusive, you know, everything you guys know about the arts, too. And then we'll head into our strategic... I want to get new commissioners in place before we go into our five-year plan update and our strategic planning right after that. So I look forward to seeing you at item 15. Thank

you. A very quick question for you. When does your strategic planning start? I well, when you get the commission, I get my commissioners. All right. So so we'll need to figure out I'm up next. And so we're getting that prepared. I don't know who is after me, but maybe we can start.

We have two that expire in May. Right. And so and we have five now. Right. We're allowed to have seven. So I'm just going to go ahead and get some, you know, and whether they replace people or people stay or not, we're going to have room for them. We're acting fast. We're going to have some great choices, and I'm looking for great commissioners, not, you know, just people who know art. You know, I want people that know how government works to help people. So, thank you for your help, because I think we have you.

Yes, yes,

we do.

This week. Yes, this week. Thank you.

OK, ciao.

Wonderful. Yay. All right. Any more commissioner reports? No, Mayor. Wonderful. City

manager's

report?

With all the things going on, I'm just going to probably mention one thing, and that is that our Finance and Budget Committee is meeting this Thursday in two days in the Council Chamber at 2 p.m. So if you're interested in that, please be there, and thank you very much. Thank you.

I'll move to public comments. Nick Oatway, please, and then Nancy Oatway after that, and then Eric Reiter, please.

Nicholas Oatway, pleasure to be here, good to talk to you all. My only comments this evening are related to the desire to see an expanded public transportation system in Ojai. The comments I've heard most are very positive on a fellow who has been put on leave, which I would urge the City Council to overcome whatever resistance they may have, either from their City Manager or from yourselves, to reinstate him.

It's Antonio, Anthony Palacios. And the reason being is it's good for the public to feel that the elected officials of the city are interested in supporting someone who has only illustrated public energy in his work. Thanks.

Thank you, sir. Nancy Oatway, please, Eric Reiter, and then Bill Miley.

I wanted to thank the Council and everyone responsible for restoring service on Sunday. A major accomplishment and important to the community, and both Nick and I are interested in an expansive trolley system, just what it would do to visitors, the traffic, that they could, and it would be valley-wide, I mean, people would go to the lake, they could go to the oil, Because there's a need for it, and you certainly could entice people.

I grew up in Santa Monica, and we had a ranch in the Ojai Valley, and so since 1957, I've been relating to this community. And you've seen it grow in wonderful ways, and you've seen traffic, and you've seen the issue of more traffic. And one way of dealing with that is entice people to park their cars and take the trolley. And so that's why I'm here. And thank you again for Sunday, because you just heard the pleading of people, and it's like they're stuck, you know? So thank you.

Thank you very much. Eric Reiter, please, Bill Miley, and then, hard for me to read, but it looks like Lisa, possibly, but anyway, we'll call that in one second.

Hello. Hi. This city has had continued money and legal problems, and they're intertwined, in some ways, for mysterious reasons. And the time is up. Because we've had an opportunity to take positive action to mitigate both the financial and legal exposure that hang over our city, Ojai City government. And that is, the time is up on your investigation, Mr. Harvey. Clearly, you have found no evidence in nearly nine months that Anthony Palacio did anything less than perform his duties for Ojai City government in an exemplary fashion.

Anthony was wrongly accused at the least, and arguably was knowingly falsely accused. And ever since, there's been extensive struggles within the very department he was suspended from, with seemingly the only bolstering of the department's operations coming recently as a result of the Ojai community itself pushing back hard in response, and able to somewhat address the resultant damage.

It's yet another example of your actions in misalignment with your words, I would say, Mr. Harvey. Transportation is a fundamental service California cities provide for their communities. And yet, it's as if you have unilaterally decided no mocks for Ojai. Yes, you say the city wants to support the local community it serves and is a central component of by helping to create jobs.

By hiring locally in order to benefit locally by those new Ojai job holders, putting those wages right back into our own economy. It could not be more straightforward, could it? Yet your actions after talking the talk were to walk all the way to Fillmore and do the exact opposite. Farming the work, the trolley driver work, out to Thank you very much. All as you speak to money issues to justify service cuts, while the biggest taxpayer, the Ojai Valley Inn, part of a multi-billion dollar corporation, owes Ojai City hundreds of thousands of dollars that began rolling up 14 years ago, with seemingly no effort on your part to collect.

Why are we actively undermining Ojai City's financial sustainability for a multi-billion dollar corporation when on top of it all, such a large percentage of our overwhelming money obligations are

just... Thank you, Mr. Ryder. Thank you. Thank you. Bill Miley, please. And then it looks like possibly Lisa Marie, but I must be misreading that. Thank you. Great. Okay, Bill.

Hello. This has to do with the timeline, which has extended over eight months for former Trolley Supervisor, Anthony Palacio. Briefly, he was placed on administrative leave earlier this year with pay, following differences of opinions and disputes between his position and city administration. I understand the issues are being looked at by the city administration, for I assume a final resolution.

I request your council urge the city administration to place this unresolved issue matter up to a higher priority. Remember, it's been over eight months. Mr. Palacios has requested he be reappointed to his former position as Trolley Supervisor. Issues at dispute, as I understand, are potentially resolvable under a joint agreement. Setting a timeline resolution date seems the essence of a fair resolution. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Miley. Lisa Marie, please.

Mayor, Council, I am honored to be here. I landed Ojai 13 years ago, and this city saved my soul. I am here on a matter that most people don't want to talk about, and that's missing children. Okay, and I'm going to give a, I'll stay right on point, but I'm going to ask for a meeting with all of you. You will see over at the Rainbow Bridge, there is a poster. You'll get one of these posters, and you will see six questions for every parent.

I'm not going to read them off to you. But these six questions is what keeps parents with deer in the headlights by the time they're done, right? We're at a point in our world, our world, our nation, is in a dire situation. And thank you for what you do. My son is a deputy sheriff and I actually ran for sheriff. So I'm actually not a political person. I run for all the highest elected positions federally. I'll be running for governor. And I am a mommy on a mission.

All right? So here's the deal. I went to each one of your businesses three weeks ago, handing out the six questions, saying that I had to become a film producer because we lack documentary films, actually, on children that go missing immediately. We lack the fact that on Amber Alert, that only goes off in one in 300 children. This isn't going to work when we have over a thousand children missing a day.

So you do remember Kylie Manley, of course. So as I went to each one of your businesses, it was just a knife in their heart going, how is this man who killed her going to get out of jail? How is he going to be released? And this is what I want to meet with you about. I have the power with people that are in my world so that you can choose if you would like for him to stay in jail. It's not your choice, but if you get enough people together, they can voice this. You know, we do have the power.

And if he's released, then he sees thousands of people standing up going, what is going on here? I don't want to take too much more of your time. What I can say is, a killer of Ojai teen, Kaylee Manley, to stay in prison for at least five more years, but this was in 2022. And lastly, in 2024, what number really concerns me, I'm from Idaho by the way, I was born in California, you had 63,000 children.

I do encourage you to schedule meetings with all of us. We'll take them. Thank you. Thank you so much. I appreciate it. Don't forget your phone. Anything online?

Yes, Mayor. We do have three raised hands. Okay. First, we'll have Deshawn, followed by Carolyn, and then Jay. Thank you. Deshawn, you now have the ability to unmute, and you can speak. Daysan, you also have the ability to unmute again. I'll tell you a second time before we move on. Okay, we'll move on to Carolyn. Carolyn, you have the ability to unmute, and you have the floor.

Okay, thank you very much. I am sitting with a friend who is sharing my screen with me. We are both senior citizens, and we would both like to comment. My comments are mainly regarding The trolley service, which I use often. I don't have a car. I do walk all over town, but I am 80 something, and I would really prefer to have them go every half hour. I do remember before COVID, the trolleys did go every half hour, and I think that it might be time to try having Trolley A and Trolley B, you know, every half hour so that more people would ride it if it was more often, I do believe, and there would be a lot less traffic if people were more, more people were riding the trolley. Also, if there was the evening routes, which are Trolley B routes, and I know that would require hiring more drivers, but I heard someone, Bill Wiley, I think, saying hire local drivers.

I don't know how many of the drivers are local or how many are not, but local drivers sounds like the great thing to have here. It would encourage people to be able to stay at some kind of event at the art center or something a little bit later and go back to their hotel or go back home if there were the evening trolleys running 7, 8, 9 o'clock at night, like there used to be.

The last time I was on the trolley, there was a whole pack of kids got on in front of the high school. They were going home. It is ridden. The trolleys are ridden by people at various times, but in a general sort of way, Having that, you know, if you miss a trolley, you only have to wait a half hour to get the next one, instead of waiting a whole hour, which changes your whole plan for the day.

So I think that's pretty much my comments about the trolley. And my friend who's sitting right next to me here will We'll talk in a minute. And would like to have her own three minutes to talk. She just happens to be

here. It's fine. I

have Peter with me here. Go

ahead.

And she also is a person without a car and who is a senior citizen, so go ahead.

Thank you.

All right. Good evening, City Council Members. First, I just want to say, Matt Summers, thank you for your excellent work with our city. Really appreciate it and have high respect for you. Over the, for numerous months, our trolley system has not been functioning up to par. I'm really, for a town of this caliber and people of this caliber, you know, there were times when the trolley didn't even come some days.

It was, we had diminished routes, we have diminished staff. So it's so understaffed that there were times when somebody just didn't have a substitute and we didn't have service. It has improved somewhat because they have hired a few more people, but we're still not up to the 12 people that were on the budget. I think it's roughly that number, nowhere near that. And somebody told me one of the reasons is because we are not on par with other places in terms of our pay and we don't hire people full-time. So somebody cannot get benefits and they cannot get A really substantial pay to earn a living. So, you know, everybody, other people in the in the city get full time work with benefits. Why don't our trolley drivers? You need to make it really secure for them.

The other thing is, I've heard that, well, also our evening hours. Tonight I'm with some friends. I can't get home on the trolley because it's not running late. It used to run later and it's not now. We really need to look at the needs of our community and do better. Apparently, Anthony Palacios, who I've only heard the best things about, he said he had excellent expertise with his job, he was a manager with heart, is on some kind of a temporary layoff, and meanwhile, there's another person who is the acting supervisor, so we are paying salary for two people, both of whom are leaders of the trolley, but Anthony apparently is an exemplary employee. And I highly urge you all to reinstate him. There is no need for two people on the payroll for a trolley director.

I don't understand why he was laid off in the first place, judging from what I had been told about him. What else do I want to say? Yeah, we can do a whole lot better with our trolley service, and it's a wonderful, charming thing for our community, but also it's very utilitarian. It's extremely utilitarian. Let's not overlook the needs of lower-income people, people who just want to ride the trolley for fun, kids who are going back and forth to school. Please expand and make this trolley really a model service. I mean, we certainly can do that. We're a very capable community. Thank you. My name is Anita Hendricks. I could not get on using the regular, you know, the regular tablet, and my phone either worked. So thank you

for your time. Yes, go ahead.

I actually, I just want to mention something for all of those who have mobility challenges and some of you, Anita and Carolyn and others who have spoken today, that Gold Coast Transit District, they have a mobile app and they have all kinds of programs. They have Safe Rides. They have Access, which is paratransit. And different options for transportation in this area if anybody needs it and the trolleys aren't running. I just wanted to direct your attention to that because it's a great service.

Well, and just one additional point is that we have been meeting, it seems like almost every meeting, something about the trolley where we've improved the pay and the The recruitment and also it's in our plan to try to double the hours, so it's definitely in our high priority list, but thank you.

Anybody else online? Yes, Mayor, we have one more raised hand from Jay. Jay, you have the ability to unmute and speak. Thank you.

Yes, thank you, City Council. My name is Jay Simons. I was a prolly driver for 18 years, so I am somewhat familiar with this, and I want to specifically focus on the Anthony situation because Anthony was not the supervisor. I resigned before that and I resigned basically because of the, I don't want to call it incompetence, but it was, it was obvious to me the city staff had no one really supporting the trolley at that time. I know you've made great strides in that and I'm totally supportive of that.

Now, Anthony, I ran into sort of incidentally because the former Transit Supervisor, Drew Lurie, and I went in to speak with Carl because we were extremely concerned. It was very obvious to us that the direction that the staff was going was to ship this thing out, you know, to not staff it appropriately. So that all happened. So we happened to run into Anthony.

And had a chance to talk with him. And, you know, to me, he is a victim, I guess, of what you saw extensively in the forensic report from your consultant, you know, that there was just so many ways in which the city was not And, you know, we were not adequately supervising, planning, whatever. And so Anthony was put into a situation where he went and he tried to do the best that he could, and he really had the best interests of the trolley in his approach. That was my opinion. It was Drew's opinion. You know, it was pretty obvious, you know, but that that was running very much a counter against what the staff, Carl, We're implementing at the time.

So I would encourage you City Council members to not necessarily accept the standard explanations to really look into, dig into the detail, find out what happened with Anthony. And I think you will find that he really had the very best interests and was really a I just, I can only encourage you to do this. You've heard some of the needs for the trolley. You've done some wonderful things. We're really happy. I'm happy for that. It does my heart good having spent so many years trying to support it. But anyway, I would encourage you to look into the situation with Anthony, and I would encourage you that if it's supported, that he should And he should be put back in that position so he can do, I think, what he loves to do and will support the city.

Thank you very much.

Thank you. Try not to clap if you can, please. No more raised hands. Thank you very much. OK, moving on, we will now go to the consent calendar, which does have many items. I don't want to pull this out of consent, I just want to highlight it, which is, recall that we're reappointing the Area Housing Authority Commissioner that Mr. Mason has brought back. I just want to highlight that and acknowledge and thank that service. And secondly, there is the midterm vacancy for the Historic Preservation Commission, and that is Catalina Neeson, who does come to you unanimously.

The application is there in your packet, so just highlight those two and thank those folks. But does anybody want to take anything out of consent?

What? I just have a couple questions on item 11. Okay. And is it 12? And 12.

Okay. And I have a question on the warrants, so that would be item three. Okay.

I believe.

Okay,

item 14? 13. 13, okay. So I'm going to read back what I'm seeing. We want to pull three, 11, 12, and 13. Did I miss anything? Okay.

I'll move to approve the rest of them.

Thank you. Second?

A second.

Cool. You want to do a roll call on that? Yes, please.

Motion passes.

Now, I guess I want to take any public comments on the consent, which I do have one, which is 11, but I could do that. Actually, I should have done that beforehand. Actually, we know 11 we're going to call, and that's Mr. Miley. I'll do that in one moment, I guess. So we'll pull number three, the warrants. And what was the question?

Yes, the question is on page 10 or attachment A3 of 7, there is a charge for $10,064.75 for Liebert, Cassidy and Whitmore, September 25, 2025, internal investigation. And I'm not sure what that internal investigation was for.

Well, as you might suspect, that's a personnel matter, so I can't get into details of what that is, but I can provide counsel with a separate briefing that's confidential.

Okay, thank you. So it was a personnel investigation?

Yes, that law firm does personnel work for the City.

Okay, great. Because it wasn't even clear that it was a law firm. Understood. But yeah, thank you.

That's all? Yes. Any other questions? So is the most efficient thing is to maybe go through number three, or should we do all the collected ones at the end? Ms. Burgess, what do you suggest?

You could do either way. I'm not sure if the vote will be the same on all five items, if it may be simpler to just approve one at a time. Let's do it. Approve them each at a time, yep.

I move that we approve item three on the consent calendar, the warrants.

I'll second it.

Okay. Roll

call.

Yes.

I just had a question. Oh, did we have a public comment?

Oh, we do have one. Thank you. Good public comment. Mr. Miley, please. Oh, yes. Thank you. Sorry.

Hello. This has to do with IRS Rule 457 for deferred compensation and the opportunity to double up during this year. What seems strange is the beginning starting limit for employees in the city starts at $145,000 wage and above, especially for Roth IRA contributions. And this allows increased contributions into the 457 Deferred Compensation Program for this year.

So, I've read the Mission Square page, which is the one the federal government uses to process this whole thing, they're the administrators, for 2026 contribution. And I did not find any limitations, high or low, for employee participation according to wage. So I'm going to state that in my comments, in these comments, it appears the $455,000 annual wage was chosen by city staff as a starting point.

Looking at this July 25th city salary schedule with all of the employees, not by name, by position, there are only eight positions that have wages over $70 an hour, which gets you to $145,000 and above. That's working 2,080 hours total. There are two additional ones that are CalPERS special positions. So this is my opinion about the policy, which in summary is it should be applied to all employees receiving benefits.

And if it's not, it should be withdrawn and not awarded in what I would judge to be a biased and unfair policy. Thanks.

Thank you. Any other comments online on that item? No raised hands on Zoom, Mayor. Am I understanding the question about that is because I'm looking at page 58. Oh, yeah, please come up. There's the see, I'm going to try to answer and I should just go to you. Go ahead.

So the $145,000 It's not a limit. The Secure Act of 2022 by the IRS established a baseline for catch-up contributions. Currently, our 457 plan, every single employee has the ability to participate to the full extent that they can. What the law did, is that if we as a body fail to amend our plan to allow for these Roth provisions, those employees that earn over $145,000 will be prevented from taking advantage of the catch up contributions based on age.

That's how I read it. Yeah, thank you. I appreciate that. Any other questions? OK. Yes, please.

Yeah, can you repeat that? No, I'm just trying to understand just generally. So I understand the 457 deferred compensation plan, but employees earning over $145,000 in 2025 will be required to designate At any age, 50 or age 60, catch up contributions as Roth contributions starting in 2026. Do I need to know that? I mean, I don't understand that.

So every employee can contribute up to a maximum per calendar year, just by the nature of doing it. Once you hit age 50, you have a special opportunity to contribute more. And then when you hit age, I believe it's age 60, between age 60 and 63, there's another additional opportunity to contribute more.

And that's to catch up if you didn't contribute, or they're just calling it that.

It's just a special age. Just by the nature of turning a certain age, the government says, go ahead and throw more money in the plan if you'd like.

Okay, so it's not really a catch-up, it's just a, it's an, you know, no cap limit, you go. Well, there is a cap. Okay, well. Thank you very much.

The catch-up contribution on your final three years of employment, if you did not contribute the maximum, you can then basically double your contributions during your last three years. But that will continue on regardless of what this body does tonight. That particular one, if you decide not to go forward with amending our plan document, those employees that are age 50 and older and age 60 to 63 will not be able to take advantage of the additional contributions.

Okay, thank you.

Well, I didn't develop the guidelines until I knew that you guys were interested in doing that. So that is a very standard provision amongst 457 plans. It's just a way for employees to be able to take money out without incurring any penalties for early withdrawals. You can't really take a withdrawal while you're still active, so this gives them some of the ability to take the withdrawal, but they're paying themselves back. There's no cost to the city for that. The employees draw down their own money. They pay themselves back the money that they borrowed. If they happen to separate from the city before they pay it all back, then it's considered taxable income in that calendar year that they separated.