Ojai City Council Regular Meeting

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and government cheese is back. And then our kids programs, we have some incredible Kids Farmers Market and Kids Kitchen where we actually have a nutritionist go to boys and girls clubs after school care programs. The nutritionist does a little bit of an exercise lesson with them shows them what a healthy plate of food looks like should look like and then sends that food home with them with some recipes so they can recreate it with their family and great news this had Prior had always been kind of a grant funded program and we would do this as we got grant funding in. And we had a donor came in and said, I want to make sure that you can do it all year round so this year will be able to do it all year round and make sure that kids all over Ventura County have access to this which is just so fabulous And then the need continues, I kind of teased this a little bit of our capacity issue.

We are 46,000 square feet but in three different warehouses. Last year we had to turn away 8 million pounds of produce because we just did not have the capacity. But we absolutely have the need to be able to get it out to our community. So with our visionary board and some really intelligent people where I'm just tell me how much is gonna be. We are building a brand new food bank in the city of Oxnard. We break ground in a couple weeks, you were all invited I hope you got the information for the groundbreaking fabulous.

But we are proud landowners this is 12 acres of land in Oxnard just off of Woolsey and Rose it's a beautiful industrial park there with surprising undeveloped land and so about four years ago we purchased this and have been well on our way to designing the food bank of the future And so we are going to be building an 85,000 square foot facility all under one roof to be able to serve our community for decades to come.

This building has the capacity to house and distribute 40 million pounds of food, so truly doubling our capacity by the year 2040. Does the need increase in Ventura County? Of course not but even if our number stays at 254,000 maybe we can give out two bags of groceries instead of one This facility allows us to do that and to stop saying no to food and having to turn it away.

It's a really incredible project, and the community has rallied behind it knowing the importance of it. So $50 million project real estate in California is as you know quite expensive. So with this $50 million project proud to say we are at 91% of our goal and have currently raised $45 million. So I'm here today to ask you for 5 million. We're getting there, the community again has really rallied behind us to support this project.

You will absolutely come to the groundbreaking and then in two-ish years I'm hoping that the ribbon cutting and grand opening ceremony of our new food bank But really beautiful design, really built it as food bank for the future. Making sure that we can serve all of our neighbors but we also have to ensure that we can accommodate the 4500 volunteers that we get on an annual basis and the next part that we're doing in really inviting the public to support us with this is our paver program As you can see kind of right at the entrance, all of that will be beautiful pavers for our neighbors or for our supporters, our communities, our partners to come together. And so we have these amazing options available on our website but I wanted to share it with you in case the city of Ojai wanted to kind of mark their legacy as this because we are all in this together and we couldn't do it without partnerships and that's really what has helped build this new food bank for the future.

That's all I got. This is Leah, say hi to Leah. Any questions?

I want to hear from others of course. I guess what I'm wanting to ask is besides the pavers or those kinds of opportunities that you mentioned do you have any barriers in Ojai that we could assist you with more immediately?

Thank you for that question not that I'm aware of. We have already a partnership with Vons as that kind of solo retail store they're incredible partners of ours And then we are constantly asking our pantry partners, what could we do better? We deliver food for free as well. So I didn't know that kind of that barrier of the travel to Oxnard especially for some of our smaller agencies that don't have the transportation capacity and they're just kind of showing up in their Prius and sticking what they can in the back of it.

So we started delivering. We also have trucks for agencies to be able to use for free if that's ever a barrier but thank you for that invitation should anything come up I know who to call.

Yeah, yeah. Any other questions? Yeah.

I have a quick question. What does the food bank of the future look like? Like how is it different from the food bank

present? No that's a great question. One is the capacity so we're doubling in size and so to be able to serve more food accept more food. We're tripling our cooler capacity and doubling our freezer capacity because again we've had to turn away specific food for those areas because we haven't been able to accept it in the past And then we've also designed it, I'll kind of show you a little bit if we can. The back side of the building looks kind of just like a grass area which it is. It's a water retention basin which backs up to Wooley Rose but the way that we've built it on this piece of land there say in the year 2040 we get to that 40 million pound capacity and it's just not enough That land has room for a 45,000 square foot additional expansion should we ever need it.

Well into the future, well into my retirement in food banking. So when I say food bank of the future this is truly our forever home and we've designed it and built it as such to ensure that future leadership is set up well and the community is set up well to be able to continue to serve them. Thank you very much. Yes, my board chair please. Yeah come on.

As the board chair, our focus is to leave this food bank for generations into the future for our community and for the community members that need food assistance without any debt. With resources to go forward and with a facility that's gonna carry us into the future without worry. We're trying to leave this in a perfect kind of legacy situation. We've even gone so far as this facility will have a commercial kitchen in it.

So that we'll be able to have education programs and provide flash frozen meals that can be reheated and distributed throughout the community, primarily for seniors I would think. But we've also been focusing on disaster recovery during the fires, during pandemics, during floods. This organization has made me so proud because they've been able to scale with all the restrictions and limitations that they have to serve our neighbors that were struggling through these events. We're building this facility so that it will be optimized to be able to address those needs going forward. So there's gonna be another disaster, could be an earthquake, could be something.

It's gonna be awful probably but we'll have to deal with it. We're building it as a future food bank. Building the resiliency for us.

You're building the food resiliency for us come bad times.

Exactly, we're all in this together. Hunger is something we've dealt with since the beginning of time and we can deal with hunger and make sure people have food but we have to have the resources to do that and do it well and do it for our children and grandchildren and their grandchildren.

Yeah, this is fabulous. Thank you for the vision. It's really great. Thank you.

Can

you see why he's our board chair? Yeah, yeah.

Well placed. Thank you

so much. So much. I appreciate

it.

Thank you so much.

Wonderful. Incredible. Inspiring. All right. Do we have any commission reports tonight? No, we do not, Mayor. OK, city manager's report

No report.

Okay, we'll move on to public communication. These are items not on the agenda and I have Brian Aikens. Tim Kraut is it a public comment or do you want to comment on the item that's going to be on the discussion? Okay and then Larry Stengelt

Hello, everyone. I'm Brian Akins. I am currently on the Historic Preservation Commission for the City of Bovai. I am also on the Oakview Neighborhood Council which we held a rousing meeting last night. We were happy to have Chief Police there to keep us somewhat quiet. It's probably why he sat in the back row. And Mayor Gilman was there, he was in the other corner in the back row but we were happy to have him there. A lot of different things I figured 50 people showed up because they had the question on everybody's lips when are they going to fix the bridge there below Oakview and Casitas Pass? And so as both these individuals know, they're shooting for the summer of next year or maybe the fall. But the thing that's holding it up the most is, of course, water flowing under that bridge and with El Nino coming, who knows when it'll get fixed?

Just giving you again answer to one of the things you've been asking most. And we're very happy to have them. Atticus was there representing Steve Bennett, other things. I've used Oak View School as quite an example over the years on closing down schools. Well, the bad example is when the County of Ventura moves in and takes over which is why we had 50 something people who have been I do want to, in a little bit, I want to thank the help of Ojai. In case you haven't heard there's that gentleman I can't banks who the corners have now determined that he did pass away in the RV fire that took place.

He has been going to help of Ojai who are a wonderful, wonderful organizations. I took him on Wednesday mornings. I missed talking about the weather with them but they're doing remembrance for Ken Friday in the afternoon so I just wanted to get that information out and thank again that fine organization We also had Ron Solanzaro there last night. When it comes to Oak View, he's got to be a little less polite and kind of raise his hand and say hey I have something important. He got away before I could call him back down but again things are happening in Oak View lots of good things some things that we're still struggling with so just a benefit to that So again thank you all for all that you do. I enjoy being here.

Thank

find out they're not in control. But there are people that are coming in, and so we talked about that last night too. Just different things. I do want to... In a little bit, I want to thank the help of Ojai. In case you haven't heard, there's a gentleman

you. You have one question. Yes come to the meeting so. So the school that is under discussion is Sunset Elementary Is that correct? No,

no. Sunset actually they've just looked at shutting down Ventura schools. Sunset is not one of those.

Okay that was my question. I'm talking about the

original Oakview school it's the one that my kids went to

okay

so right there on Santa Ana Boulevard as you cut down going

to... So I know that Ventura County Unified is in discussion with yeah shutting down schools but not Sunset. This is just Ventura County.

Ventura County parks and resources OK, not Ventura County Unified School District.

OK, so I get it. That's what you were talking about. And as far as you know, Sunset is not on it. Well, every school is up for discussion that much. I do know. So I was just I just wanted to clarify

this. But it was reported to us last night that they weren't not on the list.

Great. Thank you.

OK, thank you.

Thank you, Tim Kraut, please. And then Larry Stengel.

Good evening Council staff, Mr. Mayor I have with me a report on this campus that's about three years old and I just want to say thank you for taking care of some of the trees that's been mentioned in this report There was 28 hazardous trees mentioned in this report. You've taken out I think two, you've done some other major work on some of the others, you've improved that but I'm still concerned about those others and I'm hoping that you will maybe spend some more money on that and take care of some of those trees before you do something with the grounds. So that's what I'm here for tonight then thank you for doing some of that there's a lot of trimming that needs to be done if you walk out Canopies over canopies, and this report is very valuable if you just take some time and look at it.

But thanks for the work done so far.

Thank you Mr. Crabb.

Larry Steingold please.

Larry Steingold as myself. Good evening Mayor and members of the council. A 360-degree performance review is an invaluable management tool. When done properly, it gives this Council an objective clear-eyed assessment of executive leadership by collecting candid feedback from subordinates, peers, department heads and other people who may want to contribute. Think of it as a professional sport report card, but for a report card to hold genuine integrity two baseline rules must apply. The grading must be strictly impartial and the student cannot choose the teacher This contract reflects a continuing attitude that relies too heavily on sole source shortcuts.

This isn't about dollars and cents, it's about governance, culture, public trust. Just because an exemption is technically legal under our municipal code does not make it the right thing to do. Just because you can pick the person doesn't mean you could. The law sets the minimum floor but good governance demands a higher standard of stewardship When relationship routinely treats a legal exemption as an automatic default, it bypasses the accountability that competitive processes are designed to protect. Awarding contracts without a public scored RFP process especially when initiated through closed session discussions Inevitably creates the perception of inside dealing loosely defined scopes and diminished credibility. The contract raises three critical questions, why this firm sole sourced instead of openly evaluated?

Second true independence. The principle of this firm is a former city manager while municipal experience is valuable it creates natural peer empathy and sympathy because they've all been there they all have the t-shirt As our city manager has prior professional dealings, organizational ties, personal connections. What concrete safeguards guarantee an uncompromised objectivity? I support transparency. Please go out for someone else or at least try. I support conducting a 360 review. I've had them done.

They aren't fun, but public trust demands a standard. Open competitive valuation routine shortcuts full disclosure of prior relationships an independently compiled participant list how many will these employees or friends of be chilled because they everyone knows who everyone works for and people talk the way they talk complete council access to unfiltered results Let us ensure this framework is rigorous and transparent so the findings serve as an authentic leadership tool, or as the staff puts it, go for it. Try.

At least make the attempt.

Thank you Mr. Strangold. Ms. Burgess tell me if I'm incorrect in what I'm about to say. We actually reviewed several proposals. We evaluated them carefully and selected one. So we didn't sole source anything? Okay just to be clear Okay. Wonderful. Yes, I'll

just add that it was a pretty detailed discussion as a very selected one of the multiple proposals that was in court in front of us. I know we can't go into details about what that was. Just listening. I was not going there but it was A very thorough conversation. Thank you though.

Did you have a public comment? Okay.

Are you aware that your website is down And you cannot, you're not being recorded. I went online to the city's website couldn't get on anything and I thought not tonight surely not tonight

Even right up to when I left. It's on right now for me as well. It's on now?

Well, I don't know if it ever stopped being

off

for at least here. Okay. I can

confirm it's on and Ms. Rothman we are happy to help you at any time with

access. All right. I just wanted to make sure... Thanks for the alert though! ...that this important meeting is being recorded.

Thank

you.

Appreciate it.

Anybody online? No,

Mayor. We have no raised

hands on Zoom. So we're going to continue with what we tried to start with last time which is we will ask for any public comments on the consent calendar before any council members want to remove anything from consent I do have one card from Larry Steingold on item seven. And if anybody else has a consent calendar item they'd like to address, please fill out a card and give it to Mr..

Hi. Hello. Three weeks ago, I was limited to three minutes for three and I understand why. I fully do. But the question came up later.

Just just a quick point of order. You can't be limited just so you know that. Fair enough. And I apologize for

that.

You can't be limited.

Oh OK. The other question was, which was more a question concerning Atherwood. Was that this list is for items that are not controversial? Okay, that's what I was told the consent calendar so if there are item who chooses that who says they're not controversial

Keep

talking. No, that's the question. I understand. So this

is the place for you to talk and

a council person

can engage with you if they

wish? Right. OK. So the question is, if the consent calendar is for things that are not controversial, who puts them there and decides they're not controversial because then they're not discussed until they're pulled or somebody has them in it or whatever it is. It's a different format. And it's just a question. Thank you.

Mr. Just tell me if I'm incorrect here basically items that would come back for let's say a second reading that would be a candidate

So generally the purpose of the consent calendar is for the consent count is it's a portion of the agenda for things are routine and Generally not as complicated or likely to be controversial so you typically will see things like minutes I'm The city managers in consultation with other city staff and the mayor as well will evaluate the items on the agenda. If we anticipate that an item is likely to require significant discussion, we will not put it on consent. We can't always anticipate that in advance so sometimes an item will end up on consent and then get pulled for discussion

That's the

liberty

though of the council people,

what might

be uncontroversial to one may be controversial to another and they have full authority to bring it up.

But I think if the council wishes, you know, we didn't have an in-depth discussion of what should be on consent as part of the agenda tonight. But if that's a topic for – of interest to the council, we could certainly bring that back as a future agenda item.

Thank you. I would say that we're relatively aggressive and confident about pulling things off

if we have things to say about the item. Nobody seems shy about that. Right agreed and they shouldn't there's no reason to be there's something to talk about talk about it

But also is just the point for clarification as City Council in the same way that city council can establish limits on public comment or general public comment and comment for regular agenda items on the discussion part of the agenda Council, you know the council rules established that The public may comment for three minutes on on any particular item that council is taking action on so with respect to the consent calendar It's it's legal and appropriate or the council to say that Members of the public may comment for three minutes on a consent calendar however if that's a topic that counsel would like us to revisit we could also bring that back as a future item I

I would happily talk about that if people want to. Anything online on the consent calendar, Mr. Montgomery?

Yes mayor we have one raised hand from Bill. Thank you. Mr. Miley. Mr. Miley you can unmute and you have the

floor. Okay did you hear me?

Yes.

Good this is item seven. The grand jury report. I read each of the grand jury statements I noticed the response of City Council voted to submit at its last meeting. I support all the conditions statement, principally agree. I remember the grand jury's report describing wrongdoings but it focused on the future. It did not require a redo. It said something like in the future you shall I support the city attorney's formulation of the City Council's response.

It's good, thank you.

Thank you sir. That's all Mayor. Okay moving on to the consent calendar are there any items that any council members would like to pull?

Yes.

OK, so number four.

Number four?

Yes.

Oh yeah. So this is just

or let me go through and ask if there's any more so number for any others. That's OK. Anybody else

I'll move to approve one two three five six and seven.

I second

that.

Just just for the record

it's five three five six three five six seven sorry

yes two three five.

Thank You Miss Burgess on number seven bringing that back so well okay now we'll go on to the warrants number four

Yes, so if we could look at page 49. We will see four from the bottom. CalPERS retirement ACH July 26th payroll expense for 28,000 and change. Then we see on the next page, three down. CalPERS retirement ACH July 26 payroll expense $612,420. Then we see three down from there, CalPERS retirement ACH July 26 payroll expense for 30,000. Now, and I'm sure that they're just parceled out in different ways. But I'd like clarification on that because actually when you look at the total under the payroll and benefits, they're all added incorrectly.