Ojai City Council, Regular Meeting

Ready to go? Welcome here, everyone. Welcome to the Tuesday, April 28th City Council regular meeting. Mr. Montgomery, roll call, please.

No, I'll move to approve it.

Yeah, second. Any objections? Wonderful. Okay, and then we will go to first, we have one presentation from Interface 211, Ventura County. Welcome.

Thank you.

Okay.

Thank you.

Good evening, Mayor, Council Members. Thank you for giving 2-1-1 the opportunity to present to you today. I am Gerardo Gonzalez, Community Information Associate Director with Interface 2-1-1, and I appreciate your time. 2-1-1 Ventura County operates as a program under Interface Children and Family Services. We serve as a countywide information and referral hub, linking residents to more than 2,000 health and human services and resources throughout the region. Last year, in 2025, we received over 18,000 calls and texts countywide, and this year we celebrate over 20 years of providing two-in-one services to the community. 2-1-1 represents just one part of Interface's comprehensive mission. Interface runs 30 distinct programs spanning six core departments, as shown here.

This network allows us to connect callers directly to other Interface programs when it's appropriate. 2-1-1 stands as the county's most extensive information and referral resource for residents seeking help. Our team assists callers in locating and accessing the services they require, from housing to food programs, mental health to legal aid. We're available 24-7, every day of the year. Accessibility is central to our mission. The residents can connect with us in three simple methods. That's by calling 211, texting their zip code to 898211, or visiting our website at 201ventura.org. Our services are free and confidential.

In 2025, we took 282 calls from Ojai residents. Let me give you some context around these numbers. So about 65% of our Ojai callers reached out to us more than once, which means that the actual number of unique individuals is lower than the 282. What this shows us is that residents trust 2-1-1 enough to come back when they need additional support. Looking at those who we served, 99 were first-time callers, 10 were families with children under 5, 21 calls pertain to someone who reported they were at risk of losing housing at the time of the call, and 27 calls pertain to someone who reported they were currently experiencing housing when they reached out.

Behind each of these calls is a real person navigating a difficult situation. For example, we received a call from an Ojai resident, let's call him Michael, who had been caring for his father with cancer. His father had just passed away a few weeks prior. Michael had put his career on hold to be a caregiver, and now he was facing eviction because he'd fallen behind on rent while caring for his father. He was actively looking for work but needed help immediately. When Michael called 2-1-1, our navigator connected him to a rental assistance program, linked him to employment services to help him get back to work, and provided grief counseling resources to help him process the loss of his father while dealing with his housing situation. 2-1-1 is here to help residents navigate multiple challenges at once.

Ohio's top three needs within the context of 2-1-1, these 282 calls, were housing, individual family and community support, and income support. This tells us that some Ojai residents, at least those who are calling 2-1-1, are facing housing challenges while needing broader support systems and economic stability. This slide here shows how Ojai compares to other cities in the county. So, housing is the top need across every community for those who call 211. So, this is a countywide challenge, you know, not unique to Ojai. You know, while cities like Oxnard see income support as their second highest need and TOC's mental health, Ojai here, Ojai's second highest need is individual, family, and community support. Followed by income support, so these encompass services like low-income housing, rent payment assistance, emergency housing, the Area Agency on Aging, services like case management, holiday gifts and toys during the holidays.

And then just lastly, you know, beyond information referral, we offer several specialized programs to residents over the phone. So, for example, through VITA, we offer free tax preparation, we offer public safety power shutoff case management, so when PSPS events happen, we can support Residents during the events with things like lodging, transportation, portable backup batteries, food, all at no cost to residents. This is in partnership with Southern California Edison. Ventura vs. Hate assists residents with hate incident reports, and ECM provides case management for eligible Cold Coast Health Plan members.

Thank you for your time and for giving 2-1-1 this opportunity. If you or anyone you know needs assistance, please reach out by calling, texting, or visiting our website. Thank you so much.

Can I ask you two questions? Thank you for coming. Would you mind going back two slides where we saw this slide right here? So the 538 calls, that's over what period of time?

That's over a period of one year.

That's just the

one year? I'm sorry, it should have been 238, I apologize.

That's okay.

Over one year, 2025, correct.

Understood. Okay, got it. And then my next question is, have you seen a change in the trend at all? In other words, more or less calls over time? Are we seeing it get worse or better? Any thoughts?

Yeah, so we've seen an increase of calls over time, but it's been steady the last couple years, so we really appreciate that we could come out and, you know, remind the community that we're here.

Okay. Any other questions?

I just have one quick question. With those people that reach out to you, do you keep a log, like, how many that you were actually able to help? I'm sure some people, their situation changes or somebody can, you know, help them, but if you keep that

Yes, so one part of our work is that we do follow up with vulnerable callers, especially those who we believe will need just extra support. Unfortunately, oftentimes, we don't get to see, you know, what happens thereafter. We usually meet them in the middle. But yeah, we've learned of plenty success stories. So

thank you. And I heard you say you have a partnership with Southern California Edison, but how else are you funded?

Yeah, so we actually probably serve over 32 counties in California. And we serve Lake Illinois, which is a suburb south of Chicago. So through that, and then through the special projects that we offer through the phone. And then in part, cities, in part, some cities throughout the county support us as well.

Any other questions? Thank you for being here. Thank you so much. Appreciate it. Yes, thanks. Okay, moving on. Any Commission reports? No, Mayor, none submitted. Okay, City Manager's report?

Yes, Mayor, just a few brief items tonight. I just want to let the Council, the community know that we're in the midst of conducting accountant interviews. We had the first last week, and we'll be doing second interviews this week. And with that also, we're welcoming back Leah Palmer, our Accounting Manager, who is back this week from maternity leave, so we're very excited about that.

Switching gears, I want you and the community to know about an e-bike safety and education event that's going on via the Sheriff's Department at Serzotti Park, May 6 at 6 p.m., multipurpose room. We, switching gears again, we're going to be reconvening the Ojai Disaster Council. It's required by the code, and that is something that has not been convened for the last couple of years, so we will be making sure that the council and the community is aware of that. That's a Brown Act meeting, and so we will get that date out here shortly.

We are recruiting for lifeguard and rec leader, and we need applicants for both of those. So I just want to make the community aware. Thank you very much.

Just a quick follow-up. As I recall, you said that the city would do training at some point for those positions, or no, you're looking for- For lifeguard? Yeah, for lifeguard. Yes. Okay, so it's good to know that- Absolutely. If your interest is there, the city can put you through

the

training.

Yeah, and we'll be bringing an item back to the council to increase the pay rate. So if you see the flyer, it says anticipated to be this amount, because we're going to be coming back before you for it.

Okay, great, thank you. Thank you. Thanks for the question.

Thank you. Okay. We'll move on to public comments. I have two cards. Larry Stangle, please, and then Clay Creasy. Thank you. And there's one.

Okay. Thank you. Welcome back, which has seemed like it's been forever. Nice to see you qualified for CERT. Yay. Yay! Now everybody else can take it. And there are obviously more than 10 people here, so that's good. Maybe they'll keep coming. A couple of things. The campaign wars are about to start, and it would be nice

Other people have met with the city government members. Every other house in the neighborhood has a please slow down sign. Could we please get speed...

Let me ask you to pause now, but I would love to hear, Mr. Harvey, also Chief Abbott, I know there's been some development there. Would you mind sharing that?

We did meet with some residents of the area about a week or so ago. In fact, on my way into this meeting tonight, I reminded the fire chief that we need to convene to follow up on that meeting, so we will. There were some good suggestions that came out of that meeting, and we hope to bring some of them back.

And am I seeing an increased presence on the street? I think I've noticed that, but that's anecdotal.

No, absolutely. We're layering extra patrol, high visibility patrol, having the deputies park there when they're doing reports, and then our motor officers picked up enforcement there as well.

I know we can't engage in a dialogue right now. I appreciate that. But I want to give everybody the same amount of time. So you've had your time. I understand that. And I apologize. Trust me. So what I hope is that something can move fast on this. That's a sincere wish. Julie, can you give me a mic, please? Thank you.

Good evening Mayor, Councilmembers, staff and community, those here and those watching. We're still in the month of Earth, celebrating our Mother Earth. So as we continue on, as my family has grown up here in the Ojai Valley and our ancestry goes back to thousands of years, to villages throughout, I'm here to talk about the resolution. that was put together here in the city of Ojai. It reflects language that was written nearly 50 years ago in the general plan that states the entire Ojai Valley is archaeologically sensitive and we shall protect Indian villages. It took us three and a half years to put that resolution together. And it was not easy to do that, because there was a lot of backlash from it. Oh, those silly people, you know, they just keep, Indians just keep getting in the way, things like that.

So, it's kind of I don't know. I don't know where it's at. The current board of the Barbarino-Venturino Band, in which I started back in 2002, has a different set of rules. Their current chair, Matthew Vestuto, and council members are not from this area. They do not want, well, I shouldn't say they don't all want to, it's just that they're not trained to do the cultural resource management. They have dismissed both my brother and myself.

My brother got a notice on the public yard and the project going on. I have not been getting notices. I would like to request that where I cannot consult under AB 52, which is a tribal nonprofit status for non-federally recognized natives, but it could be under Interested Parties, Section 106, that I can continue getting notices, because my brother and I have been in cultural resources now for 40 years.

We know the valley, we know what's here, and we know what the processes are, so I would request that. Where people that are new to the valley and don't know the intricacies of archaeology or even cultural awareness here in the valley, that our culture is not in parcels, Our projects are parcel and project-specific, so where you could be inches away from a village site. You can be even further or closer to cemeteries, which we have no knowledge of. A lot of our culture has been taken away from us through colonization.

But we have found our information through archaeology, through working with the archaeologists. That's something that I'm not sure has come to pass, is that we, since John Foster retired, the city needs another archaeologist, or at least someone who can come in and help consult and continue doing what is called the PA, the Preliminary Archaeological Assessment. So that's my spiel for tonight. Thank you so much for listening.

That's all the cards I have. Anybody online?

We have no raised hands, Mayor, but we do have quite a few participants on Zoom in our hybrid format, and this is our general public comment period, Zoom participants. So it's good to make that notification to them. Still no raised hands. Okay.

We'll move on to the consent calendar. Does anybody want to pull anything out of the consent calendar?

If not, then I'll make a motion to approve it.

Yes. Want to make sure? I'll second. Okay.

Is that a first?

I'm just going to acknowledge that that may be a first. If not, it's been a while. Oh, it's been a while. Okay, we'll move on to the public hearing. Appeal of decision granting permit for facility use to Ojai Valley Pickleball Incorporated. Ms. Burgess, please. Actually,

one moment here if you don't mind. Ms. Rivera, there she is. It's going to be a tag team effort with the city attorney and also Ms. Rivera. Thank you. Bethany will start things off. I think we're going to load a presentation as well. There it is. You've got that? Okay, thank you very much.

All right, and while the, we don't need to start the presentation yet, but good evening Mayor Gilman, Mayor Pro Tem Ming, and members of council, for the public. I am Bethany Burgess, your city attorney, because this is your first appeal under Following Council's approval of new quasi-judicial procedures at the last regular City Council meeting, I'm going to provide a brief overview of the process we're going to follow tonight before we get started.

First, after I provide this overview, we will ask you to make any ex parte disclosures because this is a quasi-judicial hearing. What that means is if you've been contacted by members of the public regarding this item, It would be helpful if you could disclose what those contacts were and whether they were supportive or in opposition. And you don't have to necessarily disclose every single correspondence, but generally that you were contacted and whether people were in support or opposed.

After that, there will be three presentations. You're going to receive a presentation, as the city manager just indicated, from city staff. Following that, there will be a presentation from the appellant, because they filed the appeal, and then the final presentation will be from the applicant or appellee for the permit. After each presentation, while the speaker is still at the podium or at the microphone, that will be the appropriate time for Council to ask questions of that speaker.

And then, after each presentation, there will be a five-minute rebuttal period for each of the speakers, if they wish to use it. Following the presentations, we will open the floor for public comment, and then under normal public comment procedures, members of the public may provide input for up to three minutes per person. The last thing I want to mention is that after public comment, we will initiate Council discussion, and so as part of the Council discussion tonight, the main thing I want to mention is that ultimately, you will be asked to Make a decision regarding this appeal based on the review criteria that are established in your municipal code. And those criteria are laid out in your staff report, so they should be easy to look at and track down.

And so what you will ultimately be asked to consider is whether the requested permit meets the review criteria that are established in the municipal code. And you will basically be reviewing that information in legal terms, what we call de novo, meaning you're going to look at all of the evidence that's presented as if you're the initial decision maker. And to go with this, ultimately what you will have to do is either grant the appeal and deny the permit or deny the appeal and approve the permit. And as noted in the staff report, if you decide to approve the permit, you do have the additional option of subjecting the permit to further conditions.

And so, one other point for clarification is that the issue before the Council tonight is not whether to prohibit all pickleball special events at Libbey Park. It's limited to the scope of reviewing what was approved in the application. And the information related to that. So any future decisions regarding policy direction for use of any city recreational facilities will be a topic for future discussion.

And that would be something that we could bring back to City Council at a meeting scheduled down the road. Are there any questions for me before... At what point would you

like the ex-party disclosures?

I was

going to say,

we'll do that next.

Okay,

good. Should

we wait

for

questions till after your presentation?

So if you have questions for me on the procedural stuff I just mentioned, I would say ask those questions now. If you have questions on the staff presentation that Ms. Rivera will provide, whether they're legal questions or otherwise, we can take those questions at that time. Okay, ex parte disclosures before we get started.

Just to be clear, when you said, if there's a communication that's only one directional, like you received an email as in a public comment, that's not what you mean. You mean back and forth communication.

I would generally recommend for quasi-judicial proceedings that even if it's one way, but again, you don't need to identify every constituent who sent you an email. It's acceptable to identify that you received correspondence from members of the community in support or opposed to one position or the other. And if there are, if you did receive I would recommend that you disclose that, but as far as general public comment, you don't need to identify every single person who might have sent you an email. Does that make sense?

Because this has been going on for three years, or more, but I've been on for three years. So do I have to disclose people I've talked to about this before the appeal was filed?

No, I would say, I would say actually... Since the

appeal.

Well, I would say since the original permit was filed, and I believe the date that it was submitted was February 17th.

And so we should disclose any sort of folks who have been engaged in this process.

Again, so if you receive direct communication from either the appellant or the appellee, I would identify that. But if you receive general public comment, I would just mention that you receive general public comment either in support of or against.

I'm just, the reason I say is because there are many parties who are significantly interested, although they don't fall under either the appellant or, I mean, they don't, you know, their name is not on any document, but they, you know, are very vocal in the situation. And so, I'm just, I'm wondering if that's also something that we should be exparte-ing.

I think if you're comfortable disclosing that, I think it would be appropriate to do so. But again, if the communication was not from one of the actual parties to the appeal, You know, you're always going to receive public comment from constituents on matters of concern. So for the ex parte purposes, it's okay to, you know, if you've had close communication with members of the community who strongly support one side or the other, I guess what I'm saying is I don't want you to feel like you have to identify every single public comment that wasn't made by the applicant or the appellant.

Right, so my question is, is that, you know, documents were submitted in support of a particular position. But the person submitting those documents and who, you know, sort of enabled this process in certain ways, the name does not appear as an appellant or as, you know, as either party. So that's my question. And to say, you know, to the Council, if you feel comfortable, doesn't seem to me like that should be the standard. The standard should be, do you think you were being lobbied, you know?

I mean, that would be the standard to me.

I mean, technically, from a due process standpoint, what the due process concern is, is that if you've been lobbied by either the appellant or the applicant, that's why I'm that specific. However, because it is a quasi-judicial hearing and you're going to make evidentiary findings at the end of the process, if there's evidence that you've received that is beyond the record, I think it's important to disclose what that information was.

So suppose evidence was given by a particular person to the city to go into the packet, but the name, you know, does not appear on any of the official documents, is my question. That's really my question. I'm just saying, because, you know, it's potentially that There are other relationships or financial donations to campaigns and things like that that, you know, unless this actually comes up, one wouldn't know that.

And it seems to me to be fundamental. I'm trying to be as direct as I can be without being, you know, too direct. So I hope you're understanding what I'm saying.

I believe so. I would need to probably look at the specific material. And is it included in those comments that were submitted?

I mean, that, no, no, no. They were, these documents were submitted to the city to go into the packet.

And were they included in the packet? They were. Okay. And so what I would simply do is refer to the, indicate that you've reviewed the materials that were included in the packet. I have no problem with someone indicating that they received those materials, but I guess what I'm saying is that there's not an obligation to disclose every specific communication that you received from an individual who's not a party to the appeal, if that makes sense.

Yes. But there's nothing wrong with disclosing more if that's what you're comfortable doing. I'm not trying to be obtuse. No, no,

no, that's not really my question. My real question is lobbyists often don't emerge. You know, they lobby, but they don't emerge. And so that's really my question. So if a council member felt they were being lobbied, right, I'm wondering if they would feel, you know, for me, if I felt I was being lobbied, I would feel an obligation to say that I had ex parte communication with this particular person. That's all I'm saying.

I think if that's something that you feel Thank you all for being here.

Specify, then I will. So I will start. I had an ex parte document sent to me from Mr. Kraut, which was part of the packet that he submitted. So he sent this to me. We did not speak on it. It came via email.

Anything? I'll just go down the line.

Yes, I had just a conversation with Sage Enter, our Parks and Rec vice chair, and she expressed her support, or her opposition to the appeal, her support of the, yes, and I also spoke with Karen Quimby, who voiced her support of the appeal. I get the two confused.

Other than the package, just the general email that people received, I did meet, this was before the permit was submitted, but with Mr. Kraut and Mr. Roth about the idea. That was November. And then I have received texts from Karen Quimby not related to the appeal as much as Pickleball in general.

I've spoke with Karen Quimby, Mr. and Mrs. Kraut, and there was another woman when I met with the Krauts, and I'm so sorry, I can't recall her name. And I spoke with Sage from Parks and Rec as well. And Carolyn Burke. Those are the ones that I spoke

with. I don't think I've been lobbied by either the applicant or the I think I do recall that there were some emails that I think all of us got, and one of them made reference to A resolution that was adopted ten or so years ago related to the tennis courts and I asked somebody from the tennis club if I could see that resolution and they forwarded it to Thank you all. Yes, please.

I just wanted to clarify that Sage was in favor of the applicant and not the appellant. I think I might have confused the matter, so I didn't want to have that on record. Thank you.

Thanks. OK. All right, so we'll proceed then first with our city staff presentation. Thank you, Ms. Rath.

Hello, good evening everyone. I created a small PowerPoint just to go through the facility use approval process.

Are we starting our timer? Do we have that going, Mr. Montgomery? Thank

you.

Each one is 20 minutes. This will be very brief. Thank you. Sorry for

interrupting. Okay, there we go. So first page, a brief summary. The City of Ojai's Park and Recreation Department manages facility use applications for the Libbey Park tennis courts through a structured administrative process governed by the Ojai Municipal Code and city policies. The Parks and Recreation Director, acting as the City Manager's designee, under Ojai Municipal Code Section 4-3 301, holds authority to issue, condition, or deny facility use permits.

Applications are reviewed for completeness, evaluated against availability and existing reservations, assess for applicable fees per the master fee schedule and subject to insurance and hold harmless requirements. The director's decision is an administrative action that may be appealed to City Council under Ojai Municipal Code Chapter 1-4. So step one would be the initial inquiry and application submission.

Applicants contact the Recreation Department and they might come in person or we send the application through email. Tennis courts are available first come, first served, except when reserved with permit. Staff advises on court availability, existing reservations, and priority use commitments and considerations. Applicant completes application for facility use, identifying requested courts, dates, times, events, nature, and expected attendance.

Step two, staff review and evaluation. Parks and Recreation Director reviews application for completeness and compliance. Staff evaluates against existing court reservations and Recreation Department programming schedules. Priority use commitments are considered, which you will see on page eight. Staff may consult with other city departments if the event has broader impacts.

Step three, insurance and fee requirements. Applicants must provide proof of general liability insurance prior to the event. Insurance must be written by carrier license in California. Applicants must agree to hold city harmless for any damages associated with facility use. Applicants responsible for any damage or cleanup to facilities used under the permit.

The fee calculation is created based upon requested hours and dates. Step four, Director's Decision and Appeal Process. The Parks and Recreation Director makes final administrative decision to approve, approve with conditions, or deny. Upon approval, applicant notified in writing and provided signed permit with all conditions. Application fees are then collected. Upon approval, any person aggrieved by director's decision may file appeal to the City Council under OHA Municipal Code Chapter 1-4.

City Council may grant appeal and deny permit or deny appeal and grant permit, with or without additional conditions. This is just a summary of the process. Who looks through the initial inquiry and application submission, staff review and evaluation, the fee calculation, insurance, director's decision, and appeal. And then last page would be the priority use considerations. We do receive dates early on in the year that we hold on our calendar. One is through the Ojai Valley Tennis Club through the resolution that I believe you were speaking of earlier.

That's for the lower or upper tennis courts for the annual tennis tournament and also club-sponsored youth clinics and tournaments. The other consideration is City programming through the Recreation Department or other special events like Ojai Day and private events. And we will always keep four courts open during that time for day use. That's it.

Thank you for that brief presentation. You're welcome. Any questions? I have a couple. I'll start. I'm just asking questions now about what happens in the courts. So am I correct in understanding that sometimes the courts are closed, let's say, if there's a sound check for a concert in Libby Bowl? Correct. So there is closure for other kinds of events in the park? Especially this. That's one. And then this is an anomaly, I believe, but at the tennis tournament on Saturday, did they end up going late because of the rain? They did. And what time did it end?

I believe it was somewhere around 11.30-ish p.m. Okay,

so there was a tennis tournament that did go late. You may not know this, or maybe you do, but how did that decision get made?

about it staying later.

Well, I'm just saying normally what would happen is 10 p.m. would be the close for all events in Libbey Park. Correct.

Well, 10 p.m. the lights should go off. The lights

should

go off. So lights are supposed to go off at 10 p.m. at any time. So they did not go off, I presume. They did not go off.

So somebody left them off. Or they did not get turned off.

Yes. I did not hear about this until...

Okay.

Yesterday

and the only reason I know they're just there were People noticed and it was loud and all that kind of stuff So I'm just yeah, so I guess I want to ask though on Normal use there is exceptions in normal use. Am I understanding that correct?

Do you mean to stay later than 10?

No,

I

mean It stopped, like the courts are not used when there's a sound check.

Yeah, yeah, there's considerations made. You know, maybe there's a big event the day before, so you can't come in for an event at a certain time. There's lots of considerations to be made to an application. And, you know, we work through that, through the process.

Other questions? Yes,

please. Is this okay to ask Bethany questions? I mean, our city attorney questions. So as I was reading Section 4-3.403, I noticed that the word is shall when it comes to issuing a permit once the criteria is met. It's not may. So it's not discretionary. It shall be issued. Is that correct?