Ojai City Council Regular Meeting

Mayor, we're ready to start.

Okay, give me one second. Welcome everybody to the July 14th regular meeting of the Ojai City Council. Roll call please, Mr.

No.

Great,

I'll move to approve it.

Second that okay no objections wonderful we have two presentations first members of the Ventura County Fairs Junior Fair Board to present the 2026 Ventura County Fair announcement and poster please come up

Hello my name is Shayla Valena and I'm a 12th grader from Santa Paula. We are members of the Ventura County Junior Fair Board. The Junior Fair Board is an organization for high school students throughout Ventura County focused on youth leadership development and community engagement. During the fair, we put on classic games like watermelon eating and karaoke. We are here on behalf of the Ventura County Fair to present the official 2026 fair poster.

Over 300 young artists submitted their artwork for consideration for this year's Youth Poster Contest. We have seen a remarkable increase in submissions over the last few years and can attribute that to the elimination of any fee to enter the competition. The incredible artwork created by Ventura County youth never ceases to amaze us. Submissions were judged by a panel of community partners and fair team members, the winners are announced as... In third place, Simone Shapiro, a sixth grader from Simi Valley. In second place, Micah Sanchez, a 10th grader from Ventura And this year's winning poster was drawn by Annalise Cohen, a ninth grader from Camarillo.

We are excited to share that the grandstand concert lineup for the fair is July 29th, Bush. July 30, Marshmello. July 31st, Arshon. August 1st, Jake Owen. August 2nd, Herencia de Patrones Feat. Panda Magee and Panda Toro. August 3rd, Ashanti and Bow Wow. August 4th, Switchfoot and Hubshank. August 5th, Nate Smith. Three days of rodeo, August 7 through 9 and we will have special admissions days on Wednesday July 29th $5 before 5 p.m., Friday August 31st Youth Day Tuesday August 4th Senior and Persons with Disability Day Wednesday August 5 VCCU Member Day 6th Community Heroes Day, Friday 7th Food Share Day. We would also love to see you at the Junior Livestock Auction on August 5th I mean 7th where myself and Carson and hundreds of other Ventura youth exhibitors will be selling our livestock projects we hope to see you all at the fair!

Thank you so much wonderful mayor would like to invite the council into the center of our horseshoe here where we will accept the poster for this year for the city Thank you.

Wonderful. And don't get too comfy because our next presentation is a proclamation honoring July as Parks and Recreation Month, and the Parks and Recreation Commission and the committee so just a few words. And it's really almost goes without saying the role that the parks and recreation plays in our community that it has a coherence that it brings people together its physical emotional mental, it sustains our natural resources protects our habitats And so we would like to proclaim that this council on behalf of the city hereby proclaimed this month of July Parks and Recreation Month in the city, and extend recognition and gratitude to the parks and rec department and the parks and rec commission for their dedication of service to the community.

And we have Christy here to receive it. Can we I think we also do we have a commissioner? Oh, perfect. Please come up. Come on. Thank you. I didn't see please come up. Yes. And one more picture guys if you're willing. Yeah, let's do it.

Thanks for

everything you do.

I was at Sarzotti this afternoon, and it was incredibly hot. And it was wonderful to see people just sitting and sort of half snoozing in the shade. You know, probably they don't have cool places to go and they bike to the park and they just rest there. And it was a beautiful site, it was a beautiful park so I was much appreciative that it was there for our community.

Thank you. Yeah yeah okay wonderful. Thank you so much. Wow, that's fun. Is there any commission reports for tonight? None received Mayor. Okay then we'll move to the City Manager's report

Thanks Mayor. Just on the topic of trying to keep cool, I wanted to piggyback on what Councilmember Rule said. This room is open now as a cooling center. We're keeping it open from 830 to 5 but we will extend that if the weather does require that. We're kind of taking it one step at a time to see who's in here and who needs it but just so everyone is aware there was information in the newspaper. There has been a social media post so spread the word.

Then I just have a couple other items from the weekly update. I wanted to mention our Aquatics program continues to go Swimmingly, I just want to give you some numbers Let's see attendees June 28 33 July 5th 42 July 6 20 July 7 37 and July 8 39 so we're holding steady and our staffing levels have proven to be sufficient So thank you council for your support.

I also want to mention that we are moving forward through our federal lobbyists on a pathway to secure $25 million grant for storm drain funding, so this is going to be a process and will continue to keep you updated but it's now going through committee and things are looking very positive which would be great for us because we have a lot of storm drain infrastructure improvement need as you know.

And I think one more thing I want to mention Yes, I'm seeing at least a couple Public Safety Commission members in the audience our inaugural meeting is Monday August 3rd at 1 p.m so Yes it will yes and it will be in the historic council chamber just like all of our other commissions So come on down Thank you.

Thank you appreciate that We will move on to public comments.

all familiar with, the Audited Financial Statement that our accountants put together. The bad news is that both of those are going to be much later this year than they have in prior years. According to the Finance Director, she's expecting the California Financial Transaction Report to be done by the end of this month which will make it 181 days late. And according to the state statistics, only 2% of the cities are that late. So we're kind of not in a good spot there so hopefully that'll get better. With regard to the audited financial statements, the city manager updated the committee that he expected that not to be done until sometime in October And last year it was done in May, and so October is a pretty big delay compared to what we've had in the past.

I will say parenthetically the school district who we all know is challenged on various levels somehow they have a magic wand and they got their financials done in December of last year. In fact as second year in a row they got it done in December. So something's working over there at Matilija. Anyhow, the reason I'm bringing this up is I did volunteer to help Brenda with in some way that I might be able to with talking to the audit firm.

No, you're good. I was trying to ask Carol not to speak because we

can't hear

well.

That's okay. Thank you. Anyhow, so I did volunteer. It's a question how much help I would be. I have done many, many audits over the years. I've worked with auditors. I could potentially accelerate a few things or understand where some blocks are. I'm not heard back from Brenda in the public saying, Brenda wherever you are if you want me to help I've got time. I won't get paid that minimum wage but at least I might be able to help. Thank you.

Good evening Mayor and Council. Tonight's not a night for politics, this morning I think you might have all awoken to the news of the ice raids in our valley that one of our community members was taken for Miner's Oaks at least one Perhaps you saw the reporting in the Ojai Valley News where there's a video of a store clerk at the hardware store. He was too scared to leave his store seeing an ICE raid happening right outside.

You might have seen another video that VC Defensa put out in Ventura of a monitor being stopped in the freeway exit ramp by an ICE officer who parked blocking the way, then exited their vehicle, walked towards that monitor who was reversing and then sprayed at the car battering that monitor with their pepper spray. And then waving the monitor forward, I suppose towards the ramp that was blocked by that ICE officer's vehicle.

These injustices, these crimes in our community are not acceptable. They shouldn't be tolerable to this council or to any of our community members. They shouldn't be tolerable to our chief or to our sheriff. I don't know what the answer is but I do know that we need to work to try and find one So I want to invite everybody To our meeting of the Ojai Valley Democratic Club this Sunday from 430 to 630 so that we can discuss what can be done in this valley whether you're a Democrat or not Whether you're part of our club or not, whether you believed in any of our other resolutions or not.

I think there's something that we can do and I'd like to figure it out and And so I hope that you'll work with me and that anybody in the community who cares about this issue will work with us to find a solution.

Thank you. Yes?

Yeah, I just wanted to mention that I think it is going to be the first town hall that we're having as part of our goals will involve exactly this question what is happening what can happen with ICE and with enforcement. We're gonna have the chief, we're gonna have the sheriff, potentially I would like to have the DA as well to find out more deeply about what laws there are.

Anyway that is August 22nd as I am pulling this date out of my brain hoping it is the correct one but the city is aware of this, It is an important issue that the community needs to discuss. We need to get clarification. It ebbs and it flows. This is just another example, and I think it's a community-wide discussion that we need to have. It has been agendized for a town hall. So I will invite everyone to come.

The correction is August 26th. Thank you

so much.

So it's the 26th and it will be a community discussion on just this issue, and we will be asking as well for questions that you would like to have discussed. So perhaps I will come to your meeting on Sunday and get a sense of what the community is talking about right now. Thank you.

I appreciate that. Thank you so much. And then one more of Sudip Monte Polly route, please Yes

Thank You members and staff and community members I'm here to share Oh, my name is Sudeep Motupelli Rao. Thank you. I'm here for two things and two reminders to the citizens of Ojai. One is an insurance workshop, insurance for wildfire prepared homes. And I have extra flyers in the back for anyone that would like that. This is, of course, funded by the residents and also approved by the city council so This is an important insurance workshop, insurance for wildfire-prepared homes. So it's not like the traditional insurance companies that have just stepped back and said we are not going to insure you. This is actually insurance companies that are saying that we want to assess what kind of Changes and risk mitigations that you've done and we want to give you a premium on your discount So these these this is the new world of insurance.

So we are actually asking them come Prepare to speak to our residents about and this is going to be facilitated by the Agora Foundation Thank You Andy The date is Wednesday, August 5th from 3 to 5 p.m., and the panelists are Tom Pratt from D-Loss, the insurance company, Andrew Engler, CEO of Rock Rose Risk, representatives from Mercury Insurance and Farmers Insurance, Our executive director for the Ojai Valley Fire Safe Council, Christopher Dantzsch is also there. So we are bringing some new opportunities for residents to ensure their homes and be prepared so this is a good workshop. The next one is On August 17th and 18th, it's a two-day workshop for those who'd like to become familiar about everything about home hardening and home ignition zone, fire escaping your yard.

So it's once again free. This two day workshop is also held at the Ojai Valley Women's Club I don't know if I mentioned, and I apologize for the insurance workshop. The insurance panel is going to be held Wednesday August 5th 3 to 5 p.m at the St. Thomas Aquinas Church at 185 St. Thomas Drive so I apologize. The two-day workshop is going to be held at the Ojai Valley Women's Club And the sign up information is here. We will also have it on social media But I thank you for to the City Council and also the residents of Citizens of Ojai for supporting this so please come sign up. Thank you very much. Thank you

Mayor we've had no raised hands during this. Okay. Thank

you, and that's the last card wonderful We will move on to the consent calendar Does anybody want to pull anything out of consent?

I'll move approval. Yes,

yes no I was just making sure everybody was good okay a motion in a second are we sure? Okay all

Yes thank you Mayor and I think I'd like to call Kathy Nolan forward. Kathy we're going to give a presentation I believe so let's cue that up. There she is. We'll start with the presentation. Council questions afterwards. I'm happy to answer any questions as well, thank you. You all set Kathy?

I think so.

OK, very

good. First of all, I want to Kathy Nolan here representing the Ojai Valley Green Coalition and the Ojai Valley Green Coalition actually produced this master plan. But I wanted to thank City Council, the staff, all the community members in the valley who participated in us putting this document together for the support and providing pertinent information. So here we start Calling it an ecological hub in the heart of Ojai and this is the Ojai City Hall campus landscape master plan And I just wanted to point out the photo was during one of our site tours obviously in the winter.

And what I've done tonight is, well first of all I'm hoping you had a chance to read the 101 page document I didn't even print it out tonight for myself because it was too many pages. And so, um, I'm going to be sharing as I go along but don't have it in front of me except for the preliminary cost analysis which I thought somebody might ask me on a number but it's so small hopefully can read it.

So anyway, so yeah let's get started. And so we started off here with imagine paths and trails to access nature children's nature based play areas and programs with local education. Nature inspired offerings including talks workshops classes and more revitalized estate and demonstration gardens creek side habitat and other open spaces preservation of a wild urban wild land Excuse me, I can't even read my last word there. I think it says threshold, thank you.

And rehabilitation of a historic landmark building and that would be the what's often known as the carriage house or the Hobson barn but basically that was a lot of the input that we received generally from the community and what kind of drove this project We started with an executive summary. I'm not going to read the entire thing, but I wanted to point out that we had key goals and we wanted to align with the city's goals, the city's policy goals. And we met seven of nine of those in addition to the goals of the Ojai Valley Green Coalition And then if you look to the right under the photo, which was one of our workshops that we held. We have the master plan goals and objectives which included valuable resources, community activity, park management, which we think is vital to the longevity of the project, and of course ongoing stewardship.

We also looked at future benefits, like why would you want to do this? And basically there are a lot of benefits but it becomes a guide for the next 15 to 25 years if it becomes adopted. And it's a master plan, so it's the big idea. It's the big vision and there's more work that needs to be done but it can be broken up into projects and it's something that could potentially guide the city not only for approving a project or bringing a project folder but how much is it going to cost? What are all the ramifications?

Oh lovely, thank you so much. I was going oh what if they asked me something and I don't have it in front of me? I was gonna say I'll have to get back to you which I might have to do too but so anyway risk mitigation cost efficiency and then also community cohesion and sustainability and then regulatory clarity and consistency I mentioned this when I started, but a big part of this project was the outreach. And we're not going to read through all of this, but it's just a sample from the document. We started off in 2022 by receiving a community service grant that the city offered at the time they no longer offer that and I actually met with James Vague, the City Manager at the time and we talked about this And interestingly enough, and I'm just going to throw this out there.

We looked at the value of start to finish what would the estimated cost be if you hired a consulting firm to do this project? And it was somewhere between $280,000 and $380,00. So I wanted to say we bring some value because we did the entire project for just about 100,000 and a little over 100,000. We think we gave you a good deal, but it was a labor of love and commitment from us. It's a gift. We wanted to mention that.

But in our outreach, we reached out to community members including our Chumash elder Matthew Vestuto. Of course all of the staff, the council members were possible. We took many of you on a private tour of the property and then we invited the public in We did a series of workshops, not only with that community service grant but even when we got the contract to do the master plan.

And at the end of 2024, we continued to do workshops. We had online surveys, we did site tours and then outside of our contract because we're so committed, we did volunteer days along with some of our partners like PAX Environmental and The Crew To do maintenance, keep things as fire safe as possible and to educate the public. So basically we did gathered all this information collected the information tallied it and then you know that was the drive for the project The emergent themes generally were to keep the campus, essentially not to overbuild it but keep it exciting as an educational resource and to restore the historic gardens. The demonstration gardens and that would be like a nature park.

We would consider maintenance and expansion of the Middle Stewart Canyon Creek restoration project and a natural sanctuary in place for workshops events and gatherings for all ages including children And so that was our drive and you can see a couple of photos of our workshop, our open house we did on the left. Then one of our site tours in front of the Courage House or the Copson Barn.

I have come to you in the past with a concept plan and a lot of other plans, which we included in this final document so you would have it for the record. But this last score ran, I would say like the last three or four months, we actually started putting everything together what we would call like a master plan package. Starting with the, here's one of the plans. This is a historic landmark elements plan. I did end up giving tours. I met privately with Historic Preservation Commission commissioners, presented to them at the commission, got feedback and of course when the planning commission got feedback and there was definitely a desire to the best of our ability Thank you very much.

But the entire site is landmarked, including vaguely some of the historic elements which of course include I think I've got it on the next slide but the carriage house or the Hobson barn. Of course the city hall building, the tennis courts which are now the pickleball courts and then there's an arbor our picnic area which is actually number 17. There's an old badminton court remnants of a miniature golf course And even some old historic, a sidewalk and a wedding arbor.

So those are all identified. And so the considerations that we had were, you know, the valuable resources. Once again, the community activity park management and stewardship for the entire site. I have a lot of photos in here just because I thought the photos were so beautiful and really depict the community interest and the beauty of the site. And you may not remember this, but when I was here probably in October and in January and presented we identified what we call kind of four sectors. And up at the upper left of that plan or map is the Discovery Corner.

That's where the Carriage House or the Hobson Barn is located. But we were looking at that concentrating and being an area for kids where that structure if down the road it's you know, we can use it. We're not sure yet could be a living museum for children. And a small little amphitheater for reading stories and playing music, pollinator garden and a place to do outdoor classes.

On the bottom left is the big circle and that's the restoration area. And as you all well know we, the restoration project took place I think it started I believe 2019 but went to 2024 although we're still doing volunteer weeding and planting in that area. But we're looking at that area can be expanded The area up on the hill to the west could certainly have a trail system, a bridge to cross the creek which we know is not an easy thing to do because you have to go through regulatory agencies but it's doable.

And then also replanting with and extend the native planting and of course the ongoing maintenance. And then up on the upper right, the historic gardens and that's part of the original estate. I actually talked to Historic Preservation Commissioners. I went to the museum and then I thoroughly went through those photos the best that I could and I was able to identify some plant material that's here now from the original estate even before they retrofitted it. So we have that listed in the document So we did our best to do that and then to kind of figure out what was there in the past. And it's changed over the years, but there are some things that could actually be rehabilitated or I don't know if I want to use the word restored but close to being restored.

And then on the bottom right is the workshop hub and then that's the area where the present Demonstration garden is and that would be a new entry into the site off of Ventura Avenue with some a little bit but a small amount of additional parking including an ADA van space and Potentially up to two to three parking spaces with a new entry. And then what we're proposing is a A new structure that we're calling the Garden House, of course it could be renamed but it seemed appropriate. We've got Little House and Oak Tree House so the Garden House felt appropriate. But that would be an area basically where it could be rented out for a wedding or other events. It could be rented out to local organizations for workshops and labs and films and what have you.

So it's a gathering place We did include a small commercial kitchen and a restroom, and then kind of a covered shade area and terracing. So it would be adequate. And then within that area we also have a small orchard and community garden, and then a whole series of native plants including firescaping. So once again becomes an educational... actually the whole park becomes educational Because we're also looking at doing, or proposed rather not only directional but educational signage throughout.

So okay and then this is our actual what I would call the master plan sheet there's many several sheets involved but this one plays off the concept drawing that we had shared earlier And it just kind of gives you the general layout of all the items and they're all listed there. And I pretty much went over them when I just showed you the previous slide. Another real key element, and I did meet with the Community Development Director and we spoke about this.

Presently this property falls under the Libbey Park Master Plan. The master plan not only includes what we know as Libbey Park but it includes some of the I wanted to share with you a little bit about what we did here. So this is the public works property or a portion of it and then this city hall campus and it was called area G, the section here. And so what we did here as we compared the recommendations that was done in 1993 There's a lot of overlap. And some of it is because it's just obvious, like where do you put the paths? Pretty much in the same place. They had recommended to do a parking lot where the tennis court is so basically now it's a pickleball court which is OK and that's what we said.

And then basically I think the drive or the thing that we really looked at was we brought the 1993 plan forward into present time They didn't have anything about a restoration. They did have a bridge to cross the creek, but now we're really expanding on native plants, climate-appropriate plants, firescaping and expanding in maintaining the canyon and the creek.

All right, and then back to the, this is a little bit more on the historic structures. And the picture on the left is the old badminton court. And so throughout the document we went out and did thorough site analysis many times as we walked the site. So for instance at the badminton court it's a great space but the concrete is broken and so we made a recommendation that you either resurface or replace that but generally keep it as it is So all the stonework, unless there's stone that's fallen and needs to get minorly repaired but not to rebuild it. And so once again it becomes a new usable space because it's safe and more functional.

Here is the carriage house just for fun and I wanted to say, I don't know if anyone has walked back there recently But the fence on the left has come down that was part of tent town. And actually there were a lot more weeds there just a little bit ago but the crew actually went in and did a cleanup I think they're finishing it up so you can actually see that wonderful carriage house.

And here's the back of City Hall and you can see the historic steps, the plinths with the planters those are all from the original state. Yeah pretty cool. Of course those would stay And then just a look, this is just looking to the south. I am odd even just looking at the picture, but every time I walk there and I walk down the trail where the restoration is, I turn around. Can't see City Hall. I don't see a single building and I just go oh my gosh! I'm in downtown and it's absolutely gorgeous.

And I do want to say since the restoration, the water is still running down there and it is amazing to see how much the plant material has grown in and of course the wildlife count has increased. And then the other thing we looked at was circulation. So this is a circulation plan through the site, ideally we wanted to make the main pass ADA accessible I think that's really important for somebody in a wheelchair or sight impaired, or even a mom with a stroller or a person with a walker could actually go through the site.

But what we did is we color-coded—I'm not going to go through each one but on the right it's color coded whether it's a primary access and what the materials would be And then you see there's a P, a big yellow circle with a P. Those are what we call primary entry or exit points where people could come in and there's signage and generally parking nearby. And then secondary entrances and we have like bike parking etc.

I'm going to go back because I don't have it on here and I didn't include the side but we also do like a parking analysis. Because other than those few spaces on Ventura we're not proposing new parking so we did we did account, we did observations, we came out at different days of the week you know how could this work? And it may need the hours may need to get regulated if there was an event because of that and the timing but we did make note of that. So we just wanted to let you know because I know that's always An issue in Ojai. And then we get to maintenance and it's like, why maintenance? We're just presenting a master plan now but the maintenance is the key to longevity of any especially outdoor landscape project and this shows the trail that goes down into the restoration area But we bring it in and we reference the earth-friendly management policy that the city adopted.

And what could happen here, and who could do it so to speak? But just how important it is when you're considering a project, even though I didn't include long term maintenance in our preliminary cost analysis which we'll get to, I want to emphasize that it's vital The other thing is programming. I mentioned earlier that, you know, the community and staff and the commissions weighed in amongst other people. And generally it was a nature-based park where the people want classes, they want education on this site, nature based play for children.

What I would call it more like a passive park. So we're not saying we're putting in soccer fields, this is the place where somebody could just they could go and do yoga by themselves if they wanted to or the Parks and Rec department could have a yoga class there. But I have a list of things of some different possibilities our partners of course the City of Ojai Parks and Rec Department, the local non-profits and organizations that community partners how it could work, Community Stewardship Partnership And then of course at the City of Ojai could actually rent different areas for different events. So there's different opportunities for different types of weddings, for instance. So it's kind of fun and cool that there is a lot of choice.