UnGovr Transcript
iHow this transcript is madeUnGovr transcribes the official recording with automated speech-to-text, separates speakers by voice, and matches voices to the seated roster. Names and attributions are AI estimates and may contain errors.Verify any quote yourself: click anywhere in the transcript and the official video jumps to that exact moment, so you can check any quote against the recording.Scheduled start 6:00 PM · clock-time estimates pending review
0:00 – 0:001 turns
Welcome everyone to the Tuesday September 15th City Council adjourned regular meeting adjourned from September 18th moved to today Thank you for being here roll call, please
Roll call, called by Weston Montgomery · 2 under review
Show transcript
Agenda Discussionitems moved / continued / pulled, click to expand
just want make sure everyone can appreciate that thank you
on the approval of the agenda I know there's two things one is to postpone so not take up today item 14 The general plan update proposed survey questions regarding climate. That's a staff request?
Yes, please.
And the other is also a staff request and that is to move up number 12 to number 1, the security corporation agreement contract so that those staff need not stay. Any other changes to the agenda?
We would be moving that to number 8.
Yes, thank you. The first item of discussion. Thank you for that. Any objections to that or any other changes? No. Okay. Yes? Ms. Will, are you okay? I'm good. Okay, thank you. So we will move forward then. We have a presentation first, a quarterly progress update and presentation on finding of the City of Ojai's targeted forensic review. Hello!
Hello. And I'm waiting for my PowerPoint to come up. But in the meantime, Honorable Mayor, members of the Council, I am Christy Billings and I'm providing a second quarterly update on the progress made by the City for the findings within the full report. Paul was hired to perform a targeted forensic review which presented to the city in December of 2025 and included in that review were 23 findings, which were broken down by key areas of observation.
And the list of the findings and their status has been provided as an attachment to the administrative report. So there were 23 findings within the report, 16 of those tasks I am pleased to report have now been completed. Four remain in progress and three are in discussion. As an explanation to the status provided, these are city staff terms. In discussion means that staff has begun meeting on the task working towards a solution and has not quite come up with the process yet.
In progress means that full implementation hasn't yet been observed so it's already moving forward but not quite there. And then completed means Complete, we've met the goal. Within the next few slides I'm going to walk through all the tasks by area of observation which is the same order they're listed within your packet so let's take a look what this means because some of the tasks were discussed during the last presentation I'm only going to comment on those tasks that have a status change.
So within the area of accounts payable there were three findings since the last quarter all three have been completed And as you can see, if it's something that changed, that's written there in the bull print where it says completed. So as of the last update these were reported to be in discussion but we now have consistent descriptions so the task is complete.
We've also prepared procedures for accounts payable. So we're marking that complete and the purchasing system is implemented I must confess we're not quite using the purchase orders yet but staff is meeting on that and they should be coming around the corner Accounts receivable, two findings. One was completed last quarter and one is in discussion. Staff is working with software and coordinating with deposits and we will have more progress on this task in our next update.
So it's the review of aging of accounts that one is still in discussion. Budget management The need for stronger oversight was noted and is now complete. Better oversight is in place and staff is monitoring the budget. Claims progress process. Within this area there were two findings, one in progress and one is now completed. So the one has moved from in discussion to in progress and that's beginning the process of documenting the repair costs so that we can send them in for claims but the formal claims process we now have a contract with Carl Warren & Associates who will handle any of these kind of things on our behalf Digital security, this one was in place last time so there's no update.
Employee management, two findings both are complete. So we are running audit reports for payroll so that we can ensure better ensure that employee changes are reviewed and record remain accurate And we are now doing frequent employee list reviews and making sure or reviewing for fraud or mistake made with an employee separation. We have moved that from in progress to complete, we now have a checklist to outline steps for employee departure.
Grant management, two findings one completed one in discussion. We have put together a centralized grant listing that was in place the last time the grant tracking improvements still working on it that's just something that's going to take a little bit more time and coordination among the department. Hiring process, we had one finding and it was completed as of the last time. Mail receipt and distribution, one finding which was completed the last time.
Physical security this is one that's changed. We now have a way to ensure we are storing our checked stock as well as our other monies that are within the city so we've improved that security. Positive pay. This was completed before and positive pay, I know we talked about last time but this is where the bank verifies the payee and the amount before a check is cashed so that system is in place.
Record keeping. We needed a standard for making sure that the general ledger was better, more standardization on that input and we are in progress still with getting that exactly like we want. We want to see a few more renditions of it but all the staff we have up and running now I think that went close. Vendor management, we had four findings. So the ones that have changed the master vendor list maintenance this is a little bit bigger task than we envisioned so it's in discussion. We're working on it but it's not complete yet.
And you can see that the system-generated onboarding and the conflict of interest reviews have moved from in discussion to in progress, so we're making steps. We just need to observe that they are indeed up and running. Our vendor... So overall here we are, we are now at 70% complete with these tasks. 17% are task in progress and 13% are task in discussion.
Are there any questions for anybody?
Go ahead.
I just have a couple
on page 27 with the employee departure finding.
I think it was completed in the last four months or so. Ms. Holman provided me with a copy of the checklist, so then I was able to state it was done. So not quite when we did our last review but finished now.
I am hopeful
that we can get things completed
in the next quarterly update. I will tell you that some of the tasks are a little more onerous than we realized, such as the vendor master update report. We have not found
way to delete the old vendors, for instance. Globally we're having, the only way we're seeing right now is to go in one by one. I have hope and faith that there's a better way to get this done. So some of that is going to take a little more effort on it. Not that we're not working on it, it's just that we are getting roadblocks with ideas we have of let's do it this way and then it's not quite there.
I am hopeful that you only have to have one more update from me and then this will be behind it.
Thank you,
appreciate it.
0:10 – 0:2131 turns
Yes. So it was the same as Mayor Pro Tem Meng mentioned, the employee separation, the employee departure checklist. I'm wondering if there is an exit interview in that and if there isn't can there be? And because I think it's a really good process sometimes it's an easy one sometimes it's not but it generally gives a lot of insight into processes etc etc so that's my question.
We can, I don't know that the checklist specifically requires it. It is a best practice as you indicate and we normally do that but what we're not doing probably to full advantage is gleaning some of the things we can learn when somebody leaves us so I'll follow up. I'll take that as an action item and work with Ms. Holman on that.
That would be great and I think um you know when appropriate and that might be always uh you know for the City Council also to get a sense of it gives us a sense of workings as well so
It's not a question, sort of a question but it's more like a statement. I hope that in the midst of this work which we really appreciate with some staffing changes and you returning in more effort that you would be clear, I hope with the staff to say if more resources are needed don't be shy and it's something we would definitely want to step forward to and say it's a priority.
So thank you for that support. I think that staff does feel the support of City Council and we've it's reflected in in the progress that's being made despite a lot of staffing changes We're still everybody's still rolling forward and everybody wants to see the best For the city and this or the city to be in its best light, so thank you for that Thank You
anything else I did have actually one last question. Sure. Classes, so on employee management, employee listing management review employee list more frequently. More frequently you spoke to that a little bit but what does that mean? What employee lists and what are you looking for and what is the review meant to tell you or not tell you?
Without going into specific details, Council Member Rule because I wouldn't want to stand here in a public forum and state the exact process that we use. I can give you a global idea of what that process is. So when you have for instance in payroll you have a listing I'll say 20 employees. It's a, it's a method of going through that and making sure that is there not a ghost employee that has appeared on the list? As somebody you know inadvertently rolled in there that shouldn't have or somebody that was terminated still getting paid you hear those horror stories at organizations So it's having a third process within the organization, not just the people that are doing the input but somebody outside of that input. Reviewing and making sure that everything is in place.
Great thank you, that
makes sense. And for obvious reasons we don't want to say precisely what we're doing because-
Yeah no, I was unclear on the concept. No I'm not, thank you.
Thank you Ms. Billing, we appreciate it. Okay, moving on to commission reports. I know we
have at least one. Yes, we have Brian, Commissioner Brian Aikens of the Historic Preservation Commission. Welcome.
Thank you very much. My name is Brian Akins, I am a 12 plus year historic preservation commissioner. I'm here as a commissioner with sharing this report at the direction of the HPC and staff tonight we issued his proposal for an award that honors one of the most important figures in the history of Ojai Edward Drummond Libby more importantly It certainly honors the spirit of beauty and preservation, community and civic pride that he helped establish here more than a century ago. Edward Drummond Levy came to the Ojai Valley in the early 20th century and saw something extraordinary in this place. He recognized that Ojai was not simply another community to be developed. Thank goodness. It was a special valley whose natural beauty and architecture and sense of community deserved to be protected and enhanced.
Libby invested in Ojai in ways that shaped its identity. His vision helped give us the architecture of the Ojai Arcade, the pergola, the post office... And many of the distinctive features that make OI recognizable today. But Libby's greatest contribution may not have been any single building, it was the idea that a community could deliberately create beauty and that beauty could strengthen a community. Love that. That idea became associated with what was known as the City Beautiful Movement. In Ojai, that philosophy became uniquely connected in the valley's landscape architecture and quality of life. The proposed Edward Drummond Libby Ojai City Beautiful Award would carry that philosophy forward. The purpose of this award would be to recognize an individual organization project or contribution that has demonstrated an exceptional commitment to preserving Enhancing or celebrating the beauty and character of Ojai.
It could recognize outstanding architecture, landscape design. It could recognize someone or group who has protected an important piece of Ojais heritage. Or it could recognize a person whose work often quietly and without recognition has made Ojai more beautiful welcoming and meaningful place. And there is an important reason to create such an award today. Every generation inherits Ojai But every generation also has the responsibility to decide what it will pass on. As Ojai continues to grow and change, we face the challenge of preserving the qualities that make this valley special. The Libby legacy reminds us that progress and preservation do not have to be opposites.
Throughout development, thoughtful development can respect history. Modern improvements can complement historic character and civic pride can inspire people to care for the community they call home. The proposed award is therefore not simply a tribute to Edward Drummond Libby it is a tribute to Ojai itself It says that beauty matters and the people who dedicate themselves then and now to make Ojai a beautiful place deserve recognition. Tonight I hope we can begin a conversation about establishing the Edward Drummond Libby Ojai City Beautiful Award as an enduring Ojai tradition, one that honors our past, recognizes those serving our community today, and inspires future generations to protect and enhance the remarkable character of this valley.
In doing so we would be remembering Edward Drummond Libby and continuing his beautiful vision. A graphic that I put together on what an award might look like, I went and found one of our Other words, it was seven inches by nine inches. I said I love that size and this is seven inches by nine inches. This is the older Libby first one they put out was a younger Libby when I was doing this.
Guy looks younger than I am. So, I did this but the other thing in here that's on here as you can see here it says education. This talks about the Little Brick Schoolhouse. What we did was we selected themes different things that we focus on and so education was key without education were stupid and arguing I just wanted to put this out and talk to the mayor and give it to Weston so that you can look at it.
Again, it tells great things about the little brick schoolhouse which is lavender red now. Thank you all very much.
So thank you for coming. The text of the award, the HPC has already drafted and it's part of what is being submitted? Am I hearing that right?
No. The text in here basically recognizes why we gave it to them. Understood. Okay so beyond that no texts.
No thanks and we have a copy of that. Yes, we do. So that would come up then as an item a future item to bring up as part but you're just starting the conversation. I'm just planning this. Love it. Any questions? I bet you have a lot
of support
for that, I
suspect. Go ahead. I like what you said. Yes,
it's wonderful. Thank you very much. Thank you.
And thank you for doing all that you do as a part of the commission, for really preserving the history and honoring and celebrating those who have made Ojai what we love today.
Truly, truly. Thank you very much. Thank you all. Yes,
and I'll just point out you have a unique Perspective that's strictly Brian's and it's always nice to hear it. Yeah, thank you very much.
Thank you All right. I've been in this valley my wife's grandparents came to Miners Oaks in the 1920s So yes, I love Ojai. I tell people I Love all things we go where whatever says story can historic We find out before we go there so again. Thank you.
Thank You sir Wonderful, so we will bring that forward as an agenda item in the future. Any other Commission reports?
No Mayor.
Okay so we will move on to the City Manager's report
Yes, mayor as I like to sometimes do. I'm just going to read 1 brief blurb from the weekly update that I sent out to you all this past Friday. Just 1 bear with me just for a moment. This is in regard to the annual audit updates this past week staff continued close coordination with our audit team to keep the fiscal year 2425 audit on schedule As previously communicated, our auditors have reaffirmed they are targeting delivery of the final draft by the end of this month which is September.
The City remains actively engaged providing requested documents and responding to follow-up questions so that they can complete their work Further City staff alongside I'd Bailey are also making steady progress towards the fiscal year 25 26 year and close We remain on track for audit fieldwork to begin in November And the finance department understands that the importance of meeting both timelines The fiscal year 2425 audit as well as a fiscal year 2526 year-end close.
We know that this supports financial transparency and provides Assistance to you in your policymaking Thank You
Thank you.
Appreciate
that. Okay, we'll move on to public communications. I have three cards so far and let me bring up Tim Kraut first please.
0:22 – 0:278 turns
Hello? Good evening Council, staff, Mr. Mayor I've got a couple of things here I'd like to read to you First is an admin report from Ben Harvey and Bethany Burgess dated August 25th, 2026 A couple of comments down here I'd like to read some of the things that they had put in this report Wait a minute. I need to back up.
OK, no problem.
Could we please pause the timer? Thank you.
Mr. Kraut, would you like somebody to go first and then you come next? OK, Larry Stengel, please.
Hello, hope everybody is well. Larry Steingold. There's been discussion about charging a fee for attacks on homes that are not someone's primary residence. Just recently four days ago a California appeals court upheld the decision striking down San Francisco's vacant home tax. The court found that it conflicted with state law because it effectively pressured property owners to rent their homes. I'm not saying that Ojai can't do anything, I'm saying we need to know exactly what we can legally do before we create another policy that ends up in court.
What can Ojai legally do? I'll leave that up to Ms. Burgess. They do have in San Francisco a fee on commercial buildings That would help incent owners to be more flexible in their leasing and their disposition. But that also comes with a permitting process that becomes now 30 days, because if you can't penalize somebody without giving them an off ramp. And I think we should look into that because too many properties have sat vacant too long for a whole host of reasons, none of which obviously is pricing. And if we're going to do some sort of economic diversity, we need to give people an opportunity.
Sales tax. I don't think based on what I've been talking to people, Thank you, Mr. Chairman and members of the committee. I'd like to start by saying that this is a very difficult time for all of us. We're in the middle of a pandemic right now and there's a lot going on around the world. on a continual basis so that you can look at what our budget is, what our numbers are on a daily basis. It would be more helpful to you so that you can see where things are going and then onto something else.
The idea that we should be pushing more income when we should also be looking at what we're spending and why is important. And I don't think that eventually, we want to do something to help create a better economic environment. In one of the mayor's interviews, he mentioned participating with the building or business going in at Pacific Bank. I don't know how that shakes out. I'm not necessarily against not participating in a business because cities and governments participate in economic development all over the place but it's in the details, the percentages, the exit strategy where we're going with that and what happens So I look forward to
that. Carla Fronte, please. And then Tim Kraut Are you ready to go? Okay, you'll go next. Okay.
Thank you City Council, Mayor Gilman, city manager. Pleased to be with you for a few minutes to share another event that we're bringing to you from the Chamber of Commerce if you can kind of see this with the television audience I'm not sure where the camera is. We have Vintage Ojai which is a new event for Ojai it's going to be this Saturday in Libbey Park We wanted to share that with the community, invite everyone to participate. We will have vintage trailers on display, vintage clothing, vintage jewelry, our regular vendors and we're very excited for the car buffs out there.
A 1960 Shasta, known as the canned ham original for those of you familiar with trailers. We also have a 1967 Cardinal so we have quite a few treasures from around the Ojai community what I wanted to express was my gratitude and appreciation Not only for the city staff and the Ojai Recs Department and Public Works helping us put this together, but also collaboration with the other events in town. As you know this weekend is going to be very busy with the mountain film tours at the Ojai Valley School lower campus as well as the Big Thief concert with the OVM collaboration on Libby stage So we're all working in partnership to make sure that our public spaces are used by a variety of different endeavors to bring Enrichment to the community through the entirety of the weekend.
So we look forward to your support Look forward to seeing you and Libby on Saturday. Thank you.
Thank you Tim crowd, please
0:28 – 0:3318 turns
And mayor will restart and give him a full three minutes plank thank you
If I apologize, I grabbed the wrong notes. All good. All right. So my comment tonight is about e-bikes As all of you are aware, they can be very dangerous when not driven properly just as vehicles are if not driven properly. I've seen kids texting and eating while driving these bikes. They run stop signs exceed the speed limits weave in and out of traffic, all of which is dangerous.
We need to do something to stop this. Um, I was hoping maybe the chief was here tonight. I was gonna ask him maybe he and some of his um Traffic people could come up with something to slow this down. One solution could involve mass notification to all the schools, then allow some time before enforcement starts. Then when caught in a violation, the kids and their parents would be warned and then if caught again, their bike is confiscated with a fine to the parents and require the child and parent to complete a bike safety class before the bike is returned I've been thinking about this for some time, and I just feel that as a community we need to do something right away before someone gets hurt or killed. Thank you.
I can tell you or tell the group that the Public Safety Commission is taking this as one of their items. Also, the chief did reach out to OUSD to extend the education there too so it's something maybe we can accelerate it but something that definitely thinking about and it's been. Randy Coggin please?
I'm hoping that I'm not going to show my aid tonight, in fact that I've already said some of this. So as if my plate wasn't already full enough, I was recently asked to join the Ventura County Fire Department Historical Foundation. Established in 2003, the VCFD Historical Foundation is a non-profit funded entirely by private donations. Their purpose is to collect, preserve, share and promote proud history of Ventura County Fire Department, history built on courage, sacrifice and unwavering service to our community.
As described by other local fire departments we're here to restore old fire engines and old firefighters through behavioral health We're humbled and excited to share that we've begun preparations for a really monumentous occasion, A Century of Service. The 100th anniversary of the Venture County Fire Department which will occur in 2028. We are going to have a number events leading up to that.
We've already had one major fundraiser in Thousand Oaks We are looking for donations, we're going to be having a big dinner which will be selling tables to organizations to be at. We also are as part of this we are going to be building at the old Santa Paula fire station an actual museum that will Uh, showcase a lot of the old memorabilia as well as the original fire engine will be inside that museum.
That originally served Santa Paula so. Um, we're just going to stay in touch. Each of us has been assigned to kind of be a liaison with city councils and obviously I got you all but I did want to make you aware of it and ask you to, you know, be on the lookout for fundraisers that are going on and I'll make sure that I keep you advised through our activity but I'm really proud to be on that group and excited so...
Thank you so much! Thank you. Wonderful That's the extent of my cards. Is there anybody online?
Mayor, we have a few participants on Zoom with no raised hands and I'd like to tell our Zoom participants that this is our general public comment period and just give them a moment. And we can move on.
Okay so we'll move on to the consent calendar and as we are trying to adapt a new little policy are there any public comments on the consent item before we potentially pull any items or discuss Okay, still no raised hands on zoom. Thank you for that. Does anybody here want to pull any consent?
I just wanted to pull item number six, just to congratulate our commissioner.
Yes, I don't think she's here because she coaches this night, I'm told. So I said do not come, stay coaching. But Catherine Donwin, of course some of us know her through other work and I'd like to congratulate
her as well. She's a wonderful choice. She is absolutely thrilled to have to have her.
Yeah,
I'm glad you. Yeah.
Yeah. She was my top choice for parks and rec, but they we didn't end up having seven members. So yeah, so I'm happy that she's got a role.
And she's eager to participate.
Right?
Great. So with nothing then I move to approve our consent calendar.
I'll second.
Do we do a roll call on
Roll-call vote Passed 5–0 move to approve our consent calendar. I'll second. Do we do a roll call
Show transcript
0:33 – 0:3816 turns
Wonderful
okay we'll move on to our discussion and then will we're bringing forward item number 12 to now be item number 8 Secure all security corporation agreement contract extension and not to exceed.
Excuse me Mayor, just one thing too. I don't know if there are people who know that we're moving the conversation about the El Roblar to next meeting? I didn't know if anybody in the public was looking at last week's agenda and thinking that we were going to replicate it this week.
Thank you for saying that. So for anybody, if you were here for El Roblar and needed to be publicly noticed as we did in the paper, that is coming on next week's agenda so that's not tonight. So if you're here for that, that's not
it. Mayor? Yes. It may be worth noting now, we did continue... We did not continue that item which is Item 7. Everyone should be seeing the same numbering of our discussion items here for ease of discussion so there should be no complications there. There's no Item 7 on this agenda
I have also noticed that on the printed packets versus the electronic file, it's one page number off before we get to... Let's see which number. Anyway, it's not a big deal but I'll be calling this out but it might not match exactly our printed documents so we'll see how. No big deal? Okay. So we are onto... Thank you for bringing that up. We're onto number 12 now move to number eight Secure All Security Corporation.
Good evening, Mayor, Council Members, staff and the community. Thank you for bringing this item up. I was worried it's been moved a couple of times and I wanted to make sure that it got heard tonight because the last agreement was already over. So the City of Ojai is presenting amendment number three, the Professional Services Agreement with Secure All Security Corporation which provides contracted security services at Kent Hall parking lot and unhoused encampment also known as Ojai Tent Town SCURA has delivered reliable overnight security since June 2024 with one uniformed officer on site seven nights a week including weekends, holidays from 4 p.m to 7 a.m.
This amendment increases the cumulative not-to-exceed contract amount to $767,000 to cover anticipated operational costs for fiscal year 26-27. and corrects a prior reporting error in Amendment No. 2. It also extends the contract term through June 30, 2027 ensuring uninterrupted security services and aligning with the anticipated completion of the Ojai Permanent Supportive Housing Project.
All other terms remain unchanged and SecureAll continues coordinate closely with city staff and the Ventura County Sheriff's Department. Staff recommends approval of Amendment No. 3, which directly supports City Council Goal No. 5, public safety by maintaining a stable and familiar security presence and ongoing support for the unhoused community here at OTT. And I want to stress the part that it's familiar if you know they've been here, the participants know them They know how to interact with them. They know their personalities, so they built a good rapport with them.
Two questions. Yes, the first is the numbers are slightly misleading potentially but we're talking about a $14,000 increase in my I'm doing my math from when I look at the 40 to 542 400 and then the correct amount should have been 572 what's being asked tell me if I'm incorrect here what's being asked for is really a $40,000 increase from the current
So what happened with the original contract was $30,000. Amendment number one did not carry that $30 thousand into the NTE so it was reported wrong as 217,500 when it should have been 247,500. So that was the error back in the amendment number one. So we're just correcting it. We found that mistake here when we were looking at amendment number three and we're correcting it so that the numbers are correct.
But aside from, excuse me, the number disparity. The important thing is we just need this contract to be extended until the end of OTT and hopeful transition over to Permanent Supportive Housing Project.
Correct. What is the total time frame that is encompassed by the 767?
It the contract originally started in 2024. So it's what we're three years going on now
The numbers there, it's July. It's July 1st 2024 under the discussion. So I interpreted that number to be from that
Yeah, okay. So its roughly three years and roughly 260 or something like that for
cumulative yeah
per year I just had
0:38 – 0:4417 turns
a question. Just going back, I know that we've been working with them for awhile but I just wanted to ensure that we had an RFP process for this security firm and there were competitive bids for it?
We did not have an RFP process. This was put in place as an emergency measure, really at the time it was installed. We have since continued it. As Ms. Mara indicated, this is something where I think there would be some harm caused potentially to participants and possibly the city with a disruption of the providers that we have.
Because they're familiar with the population?
their vulnerabilities, and what we've seen is when we change any type of service within OTT even if it's seemingly for the right reasons. Any type of change can be problematic and so we try to keep continuity if at all possible with everything.
And when we move into the permanent supportive housing it will go out for a bit?
Well this okay so just to clarify that part We and Councilman Whitman is aware of this. We are working on an RFP for the operator for the development in the direction from council, that's why we have the ad hoc committee is to work on that RFP but we're looking for local contracting and we're looking for an all-inclusive type package. Thank
you I was not aware of that part sorry it's okay I didn't know included the security yes
well
yeah so the goal is that we'd have a contractor They would handle operations of the new community, and those operations would include the provision
Yes, and the other huge difference is that we talked about this a bit before. It's a very different environment going from a campground in a parking lot to a secure facility with a wall logging doors. The security needs will be very different there than they are here. You don't have the vulnerabilities that we have here.
I'm taking this to be, this is the end more or less if everything goes on track. This is the last time we would do this and then we transition. Yeah, we're hoping it all aligns.
I just was going to follow up with Council Member Lange's inquiry. Is there a carve out? What are the legal ramifications around doing an emergency RFP and then continuing? And is there a carve out for special circumstances like we just heard which are obviously special circumstances?
So this contract is a little bit, I know some of the context for this question, I think probably stems from the civil grand jury report and all of the discussions related to that. And some of the other comments that have come to city council about competitive solicitations. Um, you know, so this particular contract is not governed by the provisions of the California government code that require, um, You know, a qualifications based award through a competitive solicitation process. So this is exempt from the statutory requirements.
It would be subject to the city's local purchasing ordinance requirements related to professional services. But there is a provision in the Municipal Code that allows the City Council to approve non-competitive contracts by exception, where you make findings that that's appropriate. So in this case it's also a little different when you're amending a contract versus awarding a new contract.
There aren't specific requirements in the purchasing ordinance for contract amendments I think as a practical matter, my office would always recommend if you were not in a situation where you needed this service for 12 more months while you complete the permanent supportive housing project. We would probably recommend not just amending a sole source contract over and over again but I think here there is sufficient justification to support a one-year amendment given that any new contract, you know we would need to go not only through a competitive process but we would end up needing an extensive transition period um to ensure that you know the services for the residents are you know the transition is as seamless as possible and that we have as few negative impacts to the residents as possible so With that being said, I think here it's justified and warranted to do an amendment rather than a new competitive process for ultimately a service provider who would probably only be providing the services for a few months before we would transition to something different again.
And just a process question. When you talk about findings and making a finding of an exception, is that something that you overtly need to do just for
future reference? If we were doing a new contract, that would be something that we would ask you to do but again because this is an amendment it's sort of outside that process. Thank you.
So what is the circumstance that makes this contract outside of the government code?
Because it is not for professional design engineering, landscape architecture, construction management services. It's security services. What they call the Little Brooks Act and the government code only applies to those specific categories of services identified in the statute and this is not one of them.
0:44 – 0:5640 turns
I have no public comment cards on this item?
No raised hands Mayor.
Okay. Well, I would move that we accept the amended amount.
I'll second. Okay.
Any more discussion?
Roll-call vote Passed 4–1 move that we accept the amended amount. I'll second. Okay. Any more discussion? Roll call · 1 under review
Show transcript
Motion passed.
Thank you, Ms. Maher I appreciate it. Okay moving on we are now on item number eight resolution appointing a voting delegate an alternate voting delegate to the 2026 League of California Citizens.
Thank You mayor yes through the city manager I was passed with this item This is an annual item to appoint a voting delegate and alternate to the League of Cal Cities event. It's fairly simple and routine item that we do annually. This year, we have in attendance Councilmember Lange, Councilmember Ruhle, and Councilmember Whitman. So those will be the three councilmembers up for deciding by you, the council.
I will prepare a resolution that the League of Cal Cities needs to participate. And it's noted that the General Assembly is the last session on the last day of the conference, so those who take that commitment are committed to that at time period as well. Anything else to add Mr. City Manager?
Well done.
Yeah go.
So I did it last time, but I'm happy to and I will be there on Friday. So I'm happy to either nominate Councilmember Whitman
Yeah, so I've gone each year
Mm-hmm
haven't been a delegate yet. I'm interested in the resolution So I'm really interested in being the delegate this year
Great and I would second. I mean, I'd make a nomination that it be Councilmember Whitman
And I can be an alternate if for any reason you can't be there but I think you'd be an excellent choice to represent us
Right.
We have emotion in a second. I pardon me. I was dealing with a public comment card Was there an alternate? Thank you
We also need to take public
comment. Okay, sounds good. Mayor sorry to make you repeat could I just have a repeat of the motion maker and the motion
is that Councilmember Whitman will be the delegate and that Lang will be the ultimate.
And council member Rule made the
motion.
Thank you for
taking
that. Any objections to that? You want do a
Roll-call vote Passed 4–0 motion. Thank you for taking that. Any objections to that? You want do a roll call just to be official yes do it Roll call. · 1 under review
Show transcript
Okay,
sounds good Moving on to number nine Authorization to release a request proposal for owners representation construction management services for the permanent supportive housing project
Thanks, Mayor. This item is an RFP where we're looking for your review input and or approval so that we may solicit proposals for an owner's rep for the Permit Supportive Housing Project. This will be a third party who will interface with the contractor in Dignity Moves on behalf of the city making sure that the progress meets its Milestones moves forward. Questions are addressed, problems are solved and then provides reports on a quarterly or more frequent basis to the council in the community.
I've heard from a couple members individually as to slight tweaks they might want to see in the RFP be happy to entertain that you know and either make those adjustments tonight Currently this role is being served on a de facto basis by myself and the Community Development Director. We both are very supportive of this proposal, and I'd be happy to answer any questions you may have. Thank you.
Yeah, I have a question. So I'm interested in having I like the construction management component of this because I think our city manager has plenty of stuff to do. And maybe this isn't exactly what he was trained to do, but I'm also interested in having a component of this and maybe it's a different person Um, and that's where my question is coming from it with the idea that they are going to be. Our advisor as to.
The contractual relations that are taking place between the builder, the city. So essentially being the owner representative basically and giving us independent advice. One of the reasons that I want to see if we can do that is There, there's been a lot of scrutiny of our relationship the city's relationship with dignity moves and I think having bringing somebody in as a second kind of independent thing to handle that.
kind of administrative component and working with us and giving us advice. And then the next part about it is that I would want somebody in that position to do everything they can to bring the project in for budget, and to find savings, and all of that. That would also be better served by somebody independent as opposed to our city manager. And I also believe that he, our city manager has so much stuff to do that it would be good to take it off the plate. So my question is, is that feasible under what's in front of us tonight?
Is it feasible or appropriate to have Look for one person. I've done a little bit of research on that doesn't sound like one would fit both Would fit both roles so I
was gonna ask if you look at page 121 at least I hear what you're saying It looks like both of those components are at least listed out here. Now, if that's unreasonable, that's a different question. But I'm looking at the contract administration and F quality assurance, the budget management. So at least at least on paper it's asking. But your point might have been you're not your one person.
Right, I think I think that the the person who has the construction management skills that we would need Is not necessarily gonna have the same skill set but I mean, that's what i'm asked really
You're both wrong you're both correct. I think it just depends on your read of this We could be more explicit and we can certainly add that tonight we could add a maybe perhaps we're seeking a firm With bench depth to provide, you know at least at least two identified roles if not more to complete this Project something like that so that it's clear that we're not asking one person to be everything We see a division of labor if you will it, you know full disclosure and this is obviously I think Apparent to you councilmember. It may it may increase the cost of the proposal slightly but I understand the concern And you're looking for somebody who can really talk construction versus somebody who's more of a contract administrator type, who understands milestones and things like
that. Yeah I was going to say
the city attorney
because
Yeah, having had a lot of experience advising clients on major capital projects and programs of work. What I anticipate we may see would be some sort of an engineering firm or multiple engineering firms hopefully who would be responding to this RFP And I think most of those, at least the larger engineering firms who work in this space would have the ability to provide both the kind of day-to-day construction management project like field management of the project as well as the contractual support.
The change management support. I think one thing in response to your question that is not explicitly listed that we might want to add to the list Responsibilities would be that value engineering component. And a lot of those firms do have estimators and other project engineers who could assist with value engineering, and I think what we would be looking for with the RFP would be a team that they would propose so you would end up with people who are fitting multiple roles there.
And I and just to also highlight we do have specifically included in here that one One aspect of the project administration services that they would be performing Would be providing regular updates to the City Council So that you know, the City Council would have the ability to receive The direct report out from from whoever is selected if the council decides to move forward with this RFP Eventually the award of a contract
So you're just to say, I want to ask you again. Um, so you're saying the city council would also weigh in on the award of it?
I think that's no, that's not what I said is they would be reporting out to the council if council as a, as a separate question council would like. Thank you to be a part of the selection process. That's also something that the council okay, um the council could request as
But I clarify the ward it started jumping is coming back to the count Size of it requires instead
0:56 – 1:0430 turns
And then just a point of clarification. And maybe this is just adding to the skill set, but. I'd prefer somebody in that position who had the experience of. Uh, going to city council to ask questions about. You know, contracting and so somebody with maybe like the quasi city manager experience but. Good focused on the construction.
I don't know that you would have someone who has like the city manager type experience, but I will say again a lot of the firms that do this work for public agency public works projects would be accustomed to providing. I mean, I represented a former client that would have their kind of program manager for one of their major capital programs regularly providing the updates to City Council
And then as I understand it, so we'd be focusing, we'd be targeting firms and then we'd be asking them to give us the biographies, CVs of the individuals who are gonna take lead roles. That would be a way for us to assess how they provide that skillset to us
I don't know that the RFP specifically calls for that, but we can insert that. What I wanted to touch on really quickly-
We do have that as item number five under this section dealing with proposal submittal. One of the things that each firm will have to submit, they're actually it's item two and item five, they have to provide the information regarding their personnel verification details about their general qualifications but also provide Resumes of any staff who would be part of the team that they're proposing
but going back to a prior question under the project scope and specification section there is Section G pertains to meetings and this lists out construction meetings on our architect meetings funding agency meetings utility coordination progress meetings have been quality Excuse me quarterly City Council progress presentation. So it is within their I would suggest that we maybe add in a section K for value engineering or
something like that. I would probably recommend that we either add that to, it could be added under contract administration where we talk about change management. Sure, that's fine too. It could also be under budget management because it's sort of an element of that as well.
So we'll let, that would say value engineering?
Yeah, we will
just
add
that.
So this seems like we're kind of veering into discussion. So I don't know that we want to do that, but I have a question that veers into discussion that I can hold back or add it either way. Go ahead and ask the question. Yeah, so I also want to acknowledge that you and I have spoken deeply about this matter. So your experience in having dealt with exactly this I trust that you are on top of this. My question is, if we're going to do this, we talked about having sort of a case study or a deep dive into process from the beginning and what occurred. Would this be a place to have or hire someone to do that while they are doing this? Or is that just in a different world because-
I would probably recommend that that would be separate from this. Okay, because that's almost more like an audit of yeah. Yeah
okay but then you know this would be folded into that as well because you want to have something for the entire process you know from beginning to end including where you inserted a you know a manager and owners you know an owner's representative if you'd want to see that in there as well but okay thank you
And question, I don't know if this is the right time. Like I think it would be nice to have a council member be a part of those meetings and all that because transparency has been an issue. I know we're flipping things changing but to have a council member go to attend all of these meetings so they have some kind of knowledge in or in the loop and all that. I think it could be a nice look beneficial.
So I think there are kind of two questions I'm hearing and we'll hold the discussion for the discussion portion. But I think the questions are, one question was again can there be a council member who participates in the evaluation and selection? And the answer to that question is yes. In terms of whether you would have a council representative who stays a little bit more engaged in the project, I think if that's something that the Council would like, almost like a council liaison for the project.
The council could do I think the one caveat, I would give is that under your municipal code. The contract administration functions of all city contracts are really delegated to the city manager so you know we would want to make sure that the role at that council liaison is very clear right but I think if Council wanted to have an individual council member more involved you could
Seems like there would be a frequency question. Are you available every day?
I think that yeah, I worry about that. I think that maybe a better solution would be having you can increase the report out that this individual provides the council It doesn't have to be could be weekly update could be something like that
monthly or every other month There could be more instead of quarterly
it would be unusual to have a council member in that role We can change that to whatever you want. If you want weekly, daily or whatever we could make that part of
it. The City Manager report could have that addendum as well and then they come here?
Well I see the concern like I would want this person to be reporting directly. I'm gonna be in the loop obviously but you know if Council wants a weekly update on the project so be it mm-hmm make that a requirement from the RFP
Why don't we go to the public comments, because then we can keep talking. I have no comment cards on this, but let's check on mine.
Mayor, we have no raised hands for item nine.
And actually before we move to public comment, I know Mr. Vontaze was going to mention this. We did note that after the agenda was originally published that thanks to a public comment we received that there was... We do need to make one revision in the first sentence of the scope of services. It had inadvertently As you may recall in the original agenda, we had both the property management and supportive services, the operator contract for permanent supportive housing and this RFP on the agenda. In the same meeting so there's a correction we need to make in that first sentence.
Page 120 in the packet. It's the first sentence of
it. So we'll make that correction in the final version.
So that I have no public comment cards and nobody's online.
Okay, so so I have a question That's kind of following up on what we were ending up. So City attorney Mentioned that there's provision within our minutes as the city manager I'd like
1:04 – 1:1419 turns
Invoices, contract approvals. Obviously for changes that would result in a change in a contract amount the city manager would bring those types of changes back to City Council because the contract value here will be above his signature authority but in terms of the day-to-day practical, the documentation and document management of that would be a city manager function
Right, and so I'm envisioning a relationship with this firm where they're supplying somebody who's going to be playing that role. As that, you know as the role that we have in our municipal code. So could we do the agreement in such a way that it delegates that? I'd still want the city manager to receive the reports and be aware of what's going on
but- Do you mean, and apologies for interrupting, but do you mean the administration of the Dignity Moves Contract or Development Management Agreement
Really, anything involved with moving from where we are today to the completion of construction of the project?
So what I would anticipate with this firm is that if for example Dignity Moves were to request a budget amendment for the development management budget. That this firm would review that request and they would review the change that was the basis for that request And then they would provide a recommendation for city staff. So, and if you look at the list of services that they would be providing, where that fits under this list would be under paragraph D, where it talks about reviewing the construction costs including the drawdown requests via progress payment packages, change orders, allowances, contingencies, applications for payments. So they would be reviewing that but ultimately in terms of exercising any approval authority by the city, that would still be someone on city staff But they would be reviewing it and providing a recommendation to city staff.
I would not be in favor of removing the city's obligation to finally oversee it to the firm, but I'm I would be looking to the firm to take on the duty because it seems like it's an enormous task.
Right? And part of my concern is that as I want And this is as much for the city managers benefit and. The, our operations in general is that I don't want. As we're going through this process to have. The community being concerned that. You know, somebody who the grand jury called out is like, you know, not keeping the proper arms length distance from the developer. I'm not saying that that happened. I am just saying that concern is out there and we've heard plenty of it. Uh.
I'd like to do as much as we can with this kind of. Get that issue out of the way and provide the community with confidence that we're getting advice on how to handle this from this independent source.
If I could jump in, I think with the reporting that you're going to be receiving, you know, the frequency of that type of reporting that you can receive it. You're you're going to be able to have that. I'm not going to be doing these duties if this is put in place. But from a real practical perspective and the council manager format under which we operate, it's not feasible to cede this to somebody else really or to cede it to the council would either have to meet every day or every year body So as your delegate, I would need to be interfacing with this firm. But I'm going to be sensitive to what you said of course and I consider it myself. Basically any type of major decision is gonna be coming for you, any type of major update. I don't envision myself unilaterally with this structure in place being in a position to make those because you've hired a firm to do that.
So if I could just follow up on the same, the same issue. The reporting by our advisor is not just going to the city manager, but no. No, it's good. We're getting yes we're getting copied on those reports and then any one of us I don't necessarily envision myself doing this but anyone of us who sees something that raises a concern for them then will have the ability to dig in deeper with
Yes, and that's exactly what I was speaking to under G meetings. I mean you can see under G that lists out all different types of meetings but you could change that to one in project reporting too. G and I can both be tweaked To whatever frequency or cadence and we can also add specifics in there too. We could simply say these reports are going to be delivered, you know to the City Council now I would always ask as with anything that you receive that i'm included in there because invariably you have questions I need to follow up on that but I appreciate you
highlighting. Yes, go ahead. So what I'm envisioning is something like the Kroll reports. That level, that detail, that sense of expertise, our confidence that we're actually getting the real story. I think that we have a past history with Dignity Moves at least on my perspective that we were never really getting the story and that was concerning and I think it led us, at least it led me to a place that I was not comfortable with.
And so I understand the desire to make the communication more direct to the council, something like Kroll. But I also trust, you know, I mean, I'm laying a heavy burden there on you Ms. Burgess but I trust Ms. Burgess also to be a gatekeeper around these types of contracts And, you know, she and I discuss things at this level during our meeting. So I would think that any one of us could meet with her and discuss things at that level. I see her level of experience and expertise to we could hire her to do this is what I'm saying. And so we have her on staff.
You don't want me doing the financial or
no, but the overview
or her hourly
rate. Right? Well, We might end up paying that hourly rate you never know But that's the way I think that's a compromise way to handle it but yeah having a detailed presentation where we are confident That we're hearing what we need to hear in the way. We need to hear it And then asking, you know asking deeper questions with to whomever it seems most appropriate
and then I would also understand that the purpose tonight is Is is is to get the language out there for the RFP and that fine tweaking. of the internal reporting can come as we go.
I would say with one caveat that if, you know for purposes of the scope of services here so what we're asking for council direction on or approval tonight is to move forward with either issuing the RFP or not and then if there are any changes that the council would like to see to the RFP scope of services And as has been brought up, whether the council would like to have a member or two members of council who would serve as members of the evaluation committee.
Because this will come back to you after, procedurally we will issue the RFP, We will receive proposals, we will evaluate proposals and then the evaluation team's recommendation will come back to City Council for consideration and approval of an award of a contract. So those three things. Do you want to move forward at all? If so, are you comfortable with the scope of services?
And three, do you want to add any additional requirements to the RFP process such as including a council member or two on the evaluation team? I think in terms of the scope of services, the question so this is responding more directly to your question Councilman. If the council would like reports more frequently than quarterly it would be better to go ahead and make that change to the scope today just because that may be something that would affect price and so you know that's a performance expectation as far as the frequency that they will be reporting So I would recommend that we go ahead and make that change, so whether that's monthly or every other month. It says
monthly right now?
Well right now it says quarterly in terms of the meetings. So if you want them to attend a meeting more frequently than quarterly with council, we should add that.
1:14 – 1:2132 turns
I think just something along the lines
of what Ben gives us weekly. Like an emailed update. A progress report, so maybe add that into the Our expectations is we're going to get a weekly summary of progress,
non-detail. So Ms. Burgess if you see under I, project reporting provide monthly and quarterly reports including? It seems to me you can add weekly.
We can absolutely do that.
But so here's the changes that I noticed tell me if I'm missing anything one was adding a bullet point of value engineering
We'll take a look to make sure we put that in the right place. Okay, yeah
Then you had removed the first sentence under scope of services on page 120 and
revise it
Oh revise it Thank you And then I would propose that two council members are part of the evaluation committee I
agree with that
and if I would be so bold I would suggest Miss Mangum this rule This was miss rules original idea to bring this forward if you were interested if you're not don't worry about
I'm happy to do it if someone else has a burning desire. Um, I like learning about this stuff But you know, all right miss mang. I mean pretend mang. It's you and I baby
I was suggesting you because this is actually your
idea. It is my idea Yeah, and I'm interested so that's
just and the two of you have been the grinders on the Honor I've drawn a blank
hood
No honor honor
And then
I had one other issue and I don't know if It requires you know to spell out this idea that we're looking for these, you know two roles one construction manager the other more owners representative.
We do talk about the types of tasks we want accomplished, but we can go through that I think and just make sure that it's very clear.
The second sentence, the full scope of both functions is described below but you're gonna rewrite the first sentence. So at least you could denote that there's kind of a couple of general umbrellas.
Yeah and I would say that maybe another tweak we would make going back to that paragraph under scope of services it states lead applicant and that lead applicant could mean an army of one but we could also embellish that a little bit To make it clear that you know, we're our firm submit. Yeah, we're looking for a proposal that's robust, that covers all these areas and it may require multiple individuals in order to fill all the roles or something like that. It
is a team that would
have to. Maybe team is preferable. That might be sounds good. Team is preferable.
That sounds great.
Yeah, that's great.
So if I if it's easy enough, I would offer what with those five edits propose that we execute, we initiate the RFP request Is that clear enough? Yes. It's clear for us, I think. I'll second it. Motion
Roll-call vote Passed 5–0 Motion understood. Okay. Roll call
Show transcript
How is everybody feeling five minute break are you okay want to keep going We've only been at it an hour and a half. We can keep going? Okay, let's do it. So item number ten, City of Ojai policy for commemorating naming and donations.
Yes, this item has been discussed for some time and has not been discussed recently. But as we were bringing this project forward it became clear that the city needed a policy in which to be able to review and accept donations. This doesn't just only apply to the Permanent Supportive Housing Project. This applies to the City and other projects and facilities in general so Very comprehensive policy that can cover almost any type of donation that we may receive. It's particularly helpful, however for the Permanent Support for Housing project we may have the opportunity where firms or individuals or organizations want to donate and receive recognition in certain ways this puts the framework in place so City Attorney, I'd be happy to answer any questions you may have on this.
But this is just another step in bringing things forward so that we can accept donations in a manner that's understood what the rules are and then we can also share this with prospective donors so that they understand these are our requirements. This is our policy. Thank
you. And one other thing I would add is that since this was first presented to the council, I believe possibly in December of 2025 there we did make a couple of changes in section it's Roman numeral three Section C under donations, under procedures. If you look at paragraphs 2 and 3, previously in C1 we had this language at the beginning that said except where a donation is made as part of a formal fundraising campaign Approved by City Council, but we had lost that concept in paragraphs two and three. So in this version that is coming back before City Council one update is then at the end of section two We have added this unless otherwise approved as part of a formal fundraising campaign approved by the City Council. And for item three, we added the same type of language at the end.
And the reason for that is like if for example, the council approves a list of donated items those are technically earmarks if someone makes a donation for that specific item So we wouldn't necessarily want all earmarks to have to come back to council if you've already approved a list of specific donations that would be allowed. But again, the premise here is that you have council approval of the framework for that particular fundraising campaign or project.
That's what's resting on formal fundraising campaign?
Yeah so that's something that would come back to council.
1:21 – 1:2827 turns
I had a question. So just making sure that this would also include something like public art with this
We have we have some other provisions in place for public art. Okay, we can follow up I don't have a I know that we have other provisions in place and I'm reticent. I think that this interplays with that but I know that there are also other requirements to I wish Miss Morrow is still here she knows it inside and out
And also last week at the HPC meeting, they were discussing donations and stuff. And we didn't know if there was anything in place so that's another thing. So I don't know if it would be a different angle like you said for art with HPC with the trail plaques and all of that stuff. So that's definitely a concern of theirs as well.
Sorry just hitting on that is The concern was that the donation of the plaques or was it other things related to the plaques are going to be placed. It was sorry I can watch the meeting myself
right now. It's other things what
Mr.
He's gonna come up
in public comment in one second,
yeah.
Okay.
Mm-hmm okay
I have one more question too. So, I know that this policy gives us the right to give the city the right to deny or withdraw any kind of recognition. Do we need to be more explicit about how that process would work? For example saying you know Shall the rights be, shall it be deemed that they are to be withdrawn? A committee will or they'll come before council. Do we need to be more explicit about how we withdraw that to avoid potential problems where a donor gets their feelings hurt or gets offended or we have a controversy?
We
could put that here but for naming rights, which is where you're really going to see that come into play. We will also have an agreement and those would have to come back to City Council any time there was going to be an approval of a naming right So, you know and as opposed to simply embedding that in the policy we could just include that in our form of agreement.
To be candid we don't I don't know that we have that naming agreement prepared yet because but before we would ask City Council to approve a naming right we would bring that back to council so I don't know that we need it in the policy but we would certainly want In the agreement that we would enter into with someone. That we were, you know, who was making a significant contribution that warranted and naming right? Great Thank you.
And just to say that what I'm seeing on the public art donation, just so we're clear at the Arts Commission 1st gets is authorized. And it's the committee to approve public art would look at that as a public art piece. So that does have a whole process.
Sure. And, um, just one other question. Uh, so we've got The naming agreement, but do we also have a gift? So like someone's making a gift. Are we do we have like a formal document and agreement related to that gift doesn't include maybe
So we wouldn't necessarily have an agreement for that. What we would probably do, or what I would recommend and what I've done in the past is that we would just provide an acknowledgement letter acknowledging that we received the donation or gift and you know if it's a If it's a donation of substantial value, they may also request that we approve the IRS form just acknowledging receipt of the
donation. It's in what you brought up under procedures one and two. Yeah. It says basically any gifts or donations that's part of the formal fundraising campaign would fall under the protocol but if it was out of the formal campaign it would be different.
So if it's a gift that is for unrestricted cash or tangible personal property, not part of a formal campaign. If it's within the city manager's signature authority, it could be approved by the city manager and if it above that, it would come back to City Council? I don't know if that answers your question, Councilman.
I think it does, that you're not doing a gift agreement unless it's a naming.
It would be more of an acknowledgment of receipt.
I would imagine most gifts would not have any request attached but some would.
Most of them probably won't. It would be larger, more significant gifts that might be considered. And if you were to do a project where you wanted that kind of significant contribution it might even be something that you would want to solicit donations for and give more than one person an opportunity to provide such a substantial gift and receive some naming recognition.
Why don't we go to public comments? I have one card, Brian. Oh, for number 10. Okay. That's number two, maybe I'm missing it. Okay anyway go ahead.
Hello Brian Akins again HPC hat on hello um so the as a councilwoman mayor pro tem sorry to have my glasses uh Maggie was just mentioning we were talking about the fabulous ad hoc group and proposal and the signs that are going to be along the railroad right away I'm doing a great job. Beautiful, beautiful posters. And so the discussion I brought it up Council Mayor Pro Tem.
So it came up there and the question is, so these plaques, the information's getting out. I know Chamber of Commerce mentioned it to me she was gonna do it. People want to sponsor the sign so if I have a business, I love the railroad and I wanna sponsor this sign how would I do that?
Yeah,
so I think what I would recommend for that is that we would bring that back as another one of these like formal campaigns that could be considered by council. In this case maybe with some input from the HBC. Well right
this is a recommendation from the HBC
Roll-call vote Passed 2–1
Show transcript
1:29 – 1:3625 turns
so again you know sponsoring people want to support some people just want to donate because they love the science they love to see it and some people just want to make a gift so thank you look forward to that the guidance from the council
thank you thank you Mr Stengel I had number 11 but you wanted also 10 11 okay okay anything anybody online
No raised hands on zoom air.
All right. A lot happens in the questioning, so yeah.
So I talked to somebody who knows something about organization and gifts And they said that there's a big advantage to having a gift agreement, even if there's not naming rights attached. It's typically just a form that a person giving a gift would fill out and has some essential details. In addition to that, there's then a process for accepting the gift that's formalized. And the reason we're doing that is that then you don't have misunderstandings in the future about what was intended by the gift or Or a problem when a decision not to accept the gift is made and you can go to the process and say, well this is how we do things. So it doesn't appear that we're doing something arbitrarily.
So those are my thoughts, that we should add that policy. That we have a form gift agreement and that we also have a process for approval and acceptance. The second we've got, the first we haven't.
We do contemplate here, except that we have again this carve out where we have donations made as part of a formal fundraising campaign. We do have this concept that a donor completes an application that gets submitted to the city I mean, if we're thinking like a very simple form. That could be something that we... Yeah and that could be something that we embed into that application form that describes the donation and as a place where city staff would document whether we're accepting or rejecting the gift.
The language under procedures number one? So I guess we just don't have the content.
And we could, I mean and you could make the application form a part of every donation as opposed to just. You know and I still think it's probably beneficial to have some financial threshold but we wouldn't even have to do that.
Well, I guess that was going to be one of my other questions or comments is that we would need to define the threshold by which the city manager can use his discretion to accept it. And I think we talked about the idea
So we have in paragraph two there, we have the note that city may or the requirement provision that City Manager may accept donations of unrestricted cash or tangible personal property if the donation is in compliance with this policy and also complies with applicable state law. And that gifts in excess of the city manager's signature authority shall be submitted to the City Council for approval unless otherwise approved as part of a formal fundraising campaign. So, for example if council approves you know a fundraising program where you want to allow the city to solicit or accept donations of something that is going to cost $100,000 That would have to come back to council unless it's part of this approved program. So if council says, and for example with the next agenda item that you want to allow staff to accept a donation of not to get into the substance before we get there I'm just trying to provide an example of sewer connection fees for example That's going to be more than $30,000.
If you approve that on the list then the city manager could accept that donation without coming back to City Council first because council has already approved it. Otherwise a donation like that would have to come back to City Council
But you're saying that as long as it's under the 30,000.
If it's if it's under the $30,000, it would not need to come back to Council under any circumstance. If it's over $30k, it would come back to City Council unless Council has already approved The campaign with that list of items.
To me, it sounds like we're trying to build a system where we could all be comfortable but that every single donation is not comfortable for us. So what's the thresholds that we're comfortable with not having everything?
And again, the recommendation here was 30,000 would be the normal amount. Because the city manager has authority to expend up to $30,000 to go acquire property it seems that it would be reasonable for him to accept personal property of up that amount. And when I say acquire property, I mean personal.
Yeah.
But can
I ask? But yeah, so let but let's say their shell oil for this is the example we used last time. But let's say Shell Oil says gives us twenty five hundred dollar gift and that doesn't come before us. And it and some of us think, well, that doesn't align with our values. Could we as a council
But I'm, I'm required to also follow the policy. And so I need to under D and the right to reject, I need to make sure that whatever I accept that's within my spending authority, you know, it states here a city burden.
That's what I wanted to make sure. So I have to follow this too. Thank you. Thank you. I wanted to make sure of that, that there would be some kind of measurement by which you would accept or reject a gift.
It is subjective though, I mean in some
sense.
Well and so I will double down on that and you've seen this before sometimes I bring things before you that are within my spending authority I can go out and purchase them but I want you to be aware of it would be the same type of thing if I had any type of concern I would come to you but some of them are gonna be I hope most of them aren't this way at all then there might be something
like here's some solar panels for the tent town Yeah.
That was very easy, right? And free.
Did you have a question? Okay.
1:36 – 1:5119 turns
I think the only question I would have is whether you want us to make very clear that an application would be required for all donations, regardless of dollar amount or maybe above some particular threshold. And whether you would also direct us that that would not just be an application but it would The basic agreement regarding, you know the commitment to provide the donation and acknowledge the city's acceptance because we could do that all in one. That could be that agreement if you want it to be an agreement not just an application
make it painless like you know like we don't want to yeah Yeah, yeah just like you know the city reserves the right to give you your donation back You know But thank you very much we appreciate it deeply but you're
saying painless you're saying
I mean don't make someone really have to go through jump through We don't want them
to hire an attorney in order to interpret the document but Can you can you bring back a form or I'll try to solicit some forms that other organizations have used?
We can do that. I mean, we'd be happy to either bring if council would like us to bring it back. We can or if someone has some suggestions and you're comfortable allowing staff to prepare that with city attorney review, we can we can do that.
If we're waiting on donations for this policy to get approved, I would not wait for the application if that's the case personally. But it would be in an application.
We can bring the application back. That's not...I think we can probably do that maybe not at the next council meeting next week because we have a pretty cool agenda but we can bring the form back in October. I think that's reasonable.
Okay, I guess I'll make a motion to approve this. Approve
the
policy? Approve the policy.
Approve the policy pending the-
The application.
Pending the approval of an application.
That's what I was suggesting
not to do. Yeah that's kind of what I heard too was-
So I would say approve the policy and then we could review the application at a second meeting if there are donations ready to be offered I'm not seeing the application.
My motion would be to approve it and approve it as is. And direct staff to bring back the application.
Roll-call vote Passed 5–0 Motion understood. Roll call. · 1 under review
Show transcript
Okay, we'll take a five-minute break and come back in for our final items One two. Ready to go? Yeah, okay so we with by good suggestion I think if the council agrees we will change the order of our last two items. We'll move number 13 forward that would be the The pickleball tennis Libbey Park issue and then we'll move number 11 to the final if anybody. Okay, all right so we're moving on to number 13 introduce ordinance amending Article 5 of Chapter 3 of Title 4 of the Ojai Municipal Code prohibiting the use of Libbey Park tennis courts for any activity other than tennis with limited acceptance
1:51 – 1:5813 turns
Okay, uh yes mayor um I think uh going to Actually, I was not at this meeting. So I might ask if I city attorney who was here could handle this one. I'm sorry Okay on the spot
so We are here tonight with the reintroduction of ordinance number 974 amending article 5 of chapter 3 of title 4 of the Ojai municipal code To add section 4-3.511 prohibiting the use of the Libbey Park tennis courts for any activity other than tennis with limited exceptions, as the council may recall we brought a draft of this item to the council at the second meeting in August There was discussion amongst the council and a question regarding whether we could amend the proposed ordinance to allow or provide an exception for alternate uses as part of the city's Ojai Day festivities. And so what you have before you is a revised ordinance And in the packet, we've actually included a clean copy as well as a redlined version. But if you look at the redlined version what you would see would be those revisions that were made and so specifically we've continued to allow Closures of the tennis courts at Upper Libby in connection with a permitted event at the Libby Bowl or otherwise in Libbey Park.
But we have added this paragraph C that allows the city manager or designee to approve a temporary use of up to two Upper Libbey Park tennis courts During the city's Ojai Day event and in advance of approving any such temporary use, the City Manager would solicit and consider the input of the Ojai Valley Tennis Club regarding potential impacts to the tennis courts and recommendations for specific mitigation measures.
It does require the tennis club to respond to any requests for that input within two business days so that city staff can continue with processing the permit request. And then it also includes language that makes clear that the City retains the sole authority to ultimately approve or deny the temporary use contemplated during Ojai Day. But with that, that would be the only change substantive change that we made to the ordinance.
That's clear. Any questions about public comment? Yes.
Just clarifying, just so that I'm making sure that I'm getting this all right. So if Libby Day, if on Ojai Day an organization wants to use the tennis courts, with each event Uh, that would go before the tennis court. So the tennis court would each year look at a proposal or look at an option and then decide?
Yes so in advance of...so each permit is issued individually we wouldn't issue permits for multiple years So whenever the city staff receives an application for the temporary use as part of Ojai Day, upon receiving that application they would refer that to the Ojai Valley Tennis Club for the input on the impacts to the courts and any mitigation that might be needed.
And then based on that information staff would approve or deny the request with any other requirements that they may have.
And a qualifying piece. The staff, hypothetically there's an Ojai day and people come forward with ideas for what to do on the court. The staff person would want to work with the applicant to bring something forward. There is nothing in automatic hearing just because they want to. I'm making that assumption.
It would so it would be there wouldn't be an automatic hearing if if staff denied the approvals Theoretically that could be appealed right to City Council But otherwise, that would be something that would be made a decision at the staff level
And this is just for Ojai Day, correct? The
exception for use would be just for Ojai Day. The exception for non-use would be for any kind of Libby Bowl event or if there's some other activity within Libbey Park that necessitates non-use of the court. So if you had another city festival that, you know in which there was some reason why it made sense to allow a reservation for non-use of the court. That might be permitted.
And if our Park and Rec Director Christy, if they wanted to offer some kind of programming on Ojai Day would that Would that Sort of take precedence over any other permitting requests that comes in
so I think in terms of prioritization We would probably I would recommend that we handle that the same way. We currently do for permit and other uses where It's you know, basically on a first-come first-served basis if there's you know already a court reservation You know that would I mean, so in the same way that if the city issued a permit, the next person who requests a permit would not receive it. We would handle those requests on a first come first serve basis.
Okay, moving on to public comments. I have Leslie Gash probably pronouncing that wrong? Okay great! Thank you. Hello.
Okay so I'm here to support the City adopting As written. And, um...
1:58 – 2:0412 turns
Oh, thanks. OK. Appreciate
it.
Thank you. All
right. This dispute we're talking about arose from a pickleball group wanting to use lower Libby courts for a tournament by exploiting a loophole in the current city ordinance. So let me state once again that there are 13 pickleball courts total in the valley at Soule Park City Hall and Lake Casitas. And the Valley has only eight tennis courts free I'm saying free for public use, which should remain reserved for tennis only.
And that's because the USTA teams, Katia's Tennis Clinics, these courts are busy, they're busy every week during the prime hours and at the meeting in August Council Member Rule said the courts were available at Nordhoff and Village And I just want to clarify that. There are courts at Nordhoff that are open to the public during non-school hours, and they require payment at $50 an hour.
That's quite steep. The courts at Village, OVS, Oak Grove, Ojai Valley Inn, OVAC, and the Weill Academy are all private courts. And Matilija has courts, but they are unplayable. So this just leaves the eight Libbey Park courts for tennis only and they're free to the public. So I really urge the City Council to adopt this ordinance 974. Thank you.
Miles Strasbly.
Good evening, Council Members. My name is Miles Stroud and I'm a senior at Nordoff High School. I am here tonight to ask you not to adapt Ordinance 974 as it is currently written. I understand that the goal of it is protecting Libby Park's tennis courts and making sure tennis players can actually use them. But I think banning every activity other than tennis goes further than necessary and has unintended consequences for people like me and my friends.
Every Sunday night, my friends and I meet at Libbey Park to play small-sided soccer games. and have brought together people from different schools, ages and backgrounds. It's something we look forward to every week but there is an important distinction. We play at night when the courts are normally empty. We aren't kicking tennis players off the court. We aren't asking tennis players to stop playing. And if a court is being used for tennis, we don't use it.
We simply are using a public space that would otherwise be sitting empty. You might reasonably ask, why don't you just play at Sarzotti? The answer is simple. Lights! We play at night because that's when people are out of school or work and with winter coming it's gonna get dark earlier and earlier. Without a lighted place to play our Sunday games become extremely difficult almost impossible. Libby works because it gives us a safe well-lit place where everyone can meet after their responsibilities are finished I understand that concerns about pickleball and other uses may have led to this ordinance, but soccer games aren't creating a conflict with tennis. That's why I don't think the solution should be a blanket ban on every other activity.
If the concern is protecting tennis access then regulate the actual problem – people interfering with tennis. Don't prohibit responsible use of an empty court just because it isn't tennis. To conclude, public parks should bring people together and our Sunday games do exactly that. We're not asking you to choose soccer over tennis. We're simply asking you not to ban responsible use of an empty public park.
Please reconsider Ordinance 974 as it currently stands. Thank you.
We could ask Mr. Fairbairn if that's going to come up.
Hello. Hello. I want this ordinance to pass tonight, in the future First of all, for many years I have been a member of our citizen group. A sound for a sound pickleball policy as you probably know. So I want this ordinance to pass tonight. In the future. I'm going to advocate. For removing the exemption. With the OIJ Pickleball play The reasons that I've been expressing
for years.
Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Miley. Katrina Reischmitt please? Hello.
Hello, good evening Council and staff. My name is Katrina Rice-Schmidt and I'm the Executive Director of the Ojai Tennis Tournament. I support the ordinance as written. It responds to and reflects to the many many meetings public hearings and discussions ad nauseum across the years. The ordinance is a nod to the historic tennis tournament now in its 125th tournament year and the historic tennis courts at Libbey Park The ordinance, if one reads between the lines, emphasizes the significance and importance of having quality purpose-built tennis courts at Libbey Park.
The ordinance also represents an acknowledgement of the sweat equity in public donations of support for quality championship tennis courts at Libbey Park for hopefully another 125 years, at least, of tennis tradition. Thank you.
2:04 – 2:0911 turns
And then I have Katerina Matasevac. Am I saying that right? The last name? Thank you very much, I appreciate the correction.
Thank
you. I know, we're high tech around here these days.
Thank you.
Thanks.
Hello everybody how are you guys doing? Good. Okay, hello. I am Katerina Malasiewicz and a neighbor of the Libby Tennis Courts. I support RULE. Number 974. To prohibit the use of Libbey Park Tennis Court for any activity, only tennis. Other sports like pickleball are loud and disturb us as neighbors. They don't belong on the tennis courts. Just last week, three guys were playing pickleball on the upper course for two nights late from 8.30 until after 10 p.m.
It was so loud all of us neighbors were disturbed by my neighbor even called the police I ask you to please pass this rule 974 tonight. And please put up better signs to tell people not to play pick a ball. Thank you, thank you.
Thank you. Thank you. And Celeste, please.
Thanks again.
Yes, thank you.
Celeste Matisyvak and I am representing the neighbors of Libbey Park tennis courts upper and lower. I am a neighbor, and although we are not really happy about the compromise it kind of sends a wrong message to the community to play pickleball on that day. But we accept that this seems to be the compromise that will be going, we ask to pass tonight. On behalf of the neighbors, we urge the council to finally implement this from the 2023 recommendations that the Ojai Parks and Recreations Commission did after an exhaustive 13 month Study Advising against any pickleball on the courts and The all the noise the noise study that was done also during that time The the noise Nuisance of the noise was demonstrated like my sister said Three different nights, and it was over the last two weeks and its There's been some trees that fell through that the there's more access to seeing the courts and the loud noises more access to all of the neighbors coming through.
And yes my neighbor Can I say her name? Mary Kennedy. Katerina and Mary were out there, and they did call the police. And finally the police came this one night, and they had no idea that pickleball wasn't allowed on the courts. And they said well we didn't know that. We didn't see any signs. So I personally haven't gone this past week to look at the signs but as Katerina said we need better signage and I hope that the That you will pass this and I want to say like, I think it was named Mr. Miles was it?
He said let's pass it tonight you know so thank you.
Tim Kraut please. You may need to raise that up a bit.
2:09 – 2:154 turns
Well, good evening again, Council and staff. I do have an administrative report here in front of me that was by Ben Harvey, City Manager, and Bethany Burgess. And there's a couple of sentences in a couple of paragraphs here I'd like to read to you under discussion. The tennis courts are public park facilities intended to provide recreational opportunities for the community Paragraph down from that. The municipal code does not currently contain a provision expressively limiting the use of Libbey Park tennis courts exclusively to tennis.
That's in the staff report. So what the tennis community has been saying for years now, that they own those courts is not the case. It never has been. I guess if you say a lie enough times everyone starts believing it. Now I want to read a portion of the grant deed. That it shall make appropriate portions of the park or additions there too available for a tennis tournament, music festival and similar non-profit civic cultural and recreational events such as has been conducted in the past and may reasonably be expected to continue or expand in the future.
If ordinance number 974 passes, this would be a huge injustice to the wishes of the Libby estate. It would basically limit the Libbey Park to single usage. Is that what you really want? And if we the people can't use the park to the maximum utilization, as State Assemblyman Ken McDonald said of the grant money in 1976 which built Lower Libby using federal and state grants.
Why should a for-profit company be able to use the park? Does that make sense?
That's my last card. Anybody online? Yes, Mayor. We have two raised hands and it looks like we have a little more in house. First I'll have Brenda followed by Renee and then Larry.
Good evening! I've been researching some old newspaper articles and I found some interesting facts. All of you as city officials, you may be aware of this historic information. I didn't know about all of this. But the Ojai Tennis Association members keep stating that they own the Libby courts, especially the lower ones because they are the ones who spent the money to build them.
Well, the articles that I have found from 1965 through 1976 tell a different story. Apparently there were federal and state funds, grants that built these courts. There was some donated funds but the primary source were from these grants. As I understand grants and you can ask your attorney that most grants usually come with requirements that must be adhered to.
And I believe that was the case with these grants. One article from 1975, quote State Assemblyman Ken McDonald is saying the grant money must be spent to develop an urban type park for maximum utilization. Apparently maximum utilization for a park varies through the years Because in another article from the 1970s, the city council your predecessors were discussing removing the four upper tennis courts so that they could expand the activities at Libby Bowl.
So is maximum utilization of this urban type park still tennis? With eight Libbey Park tennis courts being utilized by the public, I say the public 20 to 30% of the time. I think that is not the case. I know that many of you are wanting to appease your friends by passing this ordinance and granting exclusive use of a public park to a certain group of people However, if you do this I think you will be violating the terms of the grants that built these courts.
As some of you may know if you ever walk through Libbey Park those courts are used most by a for-profit company The Wild Tennis Academy I don't think that was the intent of the Libby's, the civic organization or the requirements of the grants. The intent is for maximum utilization by the public not by one group Grants are taxpayers' money. Consequently, that is why the requirements of the grants was for maximum utilization by the public.
Do the requirements attached to grants expire? I don't think so. So you might want somebody to look up these articles for you too instead of just a
piece. Renee Roth, please.
2:16 – 2:223 turns
Good evening everybody, Renee Roth here. Before you adopt ordinance number 974 I really believe the city has a responsibility to read and cite the contents of the 1971 grant deed that gave this property to the City of Ojai from the Civic Association. Do you have a copy of the grant deed? I would expect you do. I've never seen it cited in any staff report at any time, and I've been looking.
The deed says that the transfer was intended to carry out the purpose of the original Libby grant deed. It also says that the city has a responsibility to maintain the parks. The city has a responsibility to maintain the parks Not the Tennis Association, but the city. The grant deed actually says the city has a responsibility to maintain the parks. So I was really surprised when I found this document from Steve McClary, the former City Manager And I did want to file that today with you Weston, where it does say acceptance of the lower Libby tennis court improvements and the lower Libby tennis court improvements $245,000.
Was given to the city of Ojai as a gift. To make the improvements to the lower Libby courts, it had been over 30 years before the city had done anything to the lower Libby courts. The tennis association wanted to use it for their tournaments. They said okay we'll give you the money will pay for it and in perpetuity we want to be able to use the courts for our tennis.
Events and for other youth events, and they wrote that into the contract with the city. So they have in perpetuity free use of the tennis courts for all of their events. Which has anybody ever reported on this or told you in a staff report that this is happening? Well, it was in the staff report in April 20th 2010. So to continue to this legacy I remember Mr. Whitman, you just said we have to have proper arms length from a developer.
Well, the Tennis Association is who developed those courts. And now that tennis association is saying and by the way we want exclusive use to use those courts for tennis. That is not right. That is not acceptable and it does not meet the intent of the grant deed you have to revisit and come back. Thank
you. Larry Stangle please.
It starts snowing in here soon. Hi, Larry Steingolf. I think there's a difference between giving public property to a private organization just like an encroachment permit or a director's exemption allowing a freezer on public land in perpetuity. That young man would like to play soccer once a week or twice a week or every night. Why can't he? It's not being used as the tennis court. He's not playing pickleball And I just think that the idea of prohibiting other uses and putting the tennis courts under a private organization where they tell the city, oh you can only use it for Ojai days is wrong. That's back ass words. It should be the other way around.
Should be like, hey you guys can play tennis. Go for it! Great everything has to go through park and rec or we set it up where you want to have your tennis tournaments great you reserve the courts for a week a month whatever it is that's fine and that's a good thing because we need that and there are lots of tennis players pickleball it's a noisy thing that can be figured out okay but in general just the idea of giving public property to a private organization sets a bad precedent and we really have to stay away from that because that's just not right, because if it is public property let them pay rent.
Okay, I mean reasonable rent. But that's not the issue. The issue is giving somebody else control over public land and the idea of—and I don't want to—that young lady said a loophole. Park & Rec had the right to give an organization the use of it. We use loopholes all the time. We just rolled over contracts through a loophole. We did a freezer through a loophole, director's exemption. We use loopholes all the time they don't call them loopholes they call them exceptions, they call them carve-outs, they give them all sorts of fancy names but at the end of the day you're trying to thread a needle so you can accomplish certain things because there's a prohibition so you have to have an exception and that's considered a loophole OK, it's part of the deal.
But again, the youth want to use it. They want to have soccer. They want to have other things. There's no basketball court. I mean, maybe we should do you know, do other things but don't put the tennis courts under the control of the Ojai Valley Tennis Association. They can certainly have dotted lines and certainly use it, but not control. It should be the other way around. Thank you.
2:22 – 2:275 turns
And we have our online people now? Yes, Mayor. We have two raised hands. First, we'll have Susan followed by Ian. Okay. Susan, you have the ability to unmute and you may speak.
Thank you. Thank you everyone. This has been going on for years. It's kind of incredible that we're still discussing it and I appreciate that other people want to use the court for various purposes. We are neighbors very close At 10 p.m., people were playing pickleball on the lower courts, and we could hear it as if it was a few feet away. It's a deeply disturbing element of our daily life that's already at City Hall. We just ask you to please stop. Maybe these discussions have worn themselves out, and please just pass the ordinance Limiting and restricting the use of the Libbey Park tennis courts to tennis.
It's clear that those who are caring for the course have invested a tremendous amount both in the maintenance, the upkeep. Without compromising them for other purposes, you know it sounds like we could really use a place for kids to play soccer and. And to play basketball but this these courts in such a such close proximity not just the neighbors who are wanting the peace and quiet of their home, but even people in the park to introduce pickleball I.
We would be immensely grateful if you would just put a full stop and pass the ordinance this evening as requested by so many of us, both here and who have written in to please not use the tennis courts in Libby for any purpose other than tennis. Thank you very much.
Thank you. Next we have Ian. Ian, you have the ability to unmute. You may speak.
Okay, can you hear me okay? Yep. Awesome thank you. First of all I just wanted to quickly start off by thanking the City. I was playing earlier today. The improvement with the LED lights at Libbey Park is great. You guys also installed the push button timers earlier this year. Definitely going to encourage players to be out there more and being able to play longer into the night on the shorter days throughout the year so first just wanted to start by saying thank you for that Um, you know, and one thing that keeps on coming up this, you know, everybody's kind of making this like it's the Ojai Valley Tennis Club versus the pickleball community or that the Ojai Valley Tennis Club wanting ownership over Libbey Park. That's not at all that it's just that we have a very dedicated group of people at the tennis club that are willing to show up every single night to continue to fight this fight for a lot of people.
You know, I want to start by saying I'm speaking on behalf of a group of about 20 of my friends. We're all recreational tennis players and not board members or volunteers for the tournament. They're people who play tennis. They're in USTA leagues. They can't make it in person to support the ordinance. Some of them have emailed them in ahead of last week's meeting but they all have expressed that they support a ban on pickleball at the Libbey Park courts You know, they can't make it into these meetings because we've had to fend off these attempts of a takeover of the courts for five to six years now.
They have attended multiple meetings in the past and to be quite honest like we're all exhausted fighting this fight. Many of these friends also play pickleball over at Soule Park and they've told me that they've talked to other pickleball players and that this group that continues to fight for Libbey Park is in the minority here Most of the pickleball players are playing at Soule Park, they're happy with the courts that they have. They're not asking to take over Libbey Park. There's a huge crossover of players that play both and they want to keep the Libbey Park courts for tennis. So what we have here is a five-to-six year persistent attempt to take over our courts by pretty much one very small group that has tried to create a loophole to exploit.
um you know the pickleball community got their brand new courts at Soule Park they got courts installed at lake casitas they got their city hall courts reopened all the tennis court any all the tennis players have asked for is to keep the Libbey Park courts for us for tennis which has been a non-issue for over 100 years pickleball has never been permitted at Libbey Park courts nor of any other activities but there aren't any other groups here trying to wrestle for court time and make reservations for special event loopholes or whatever. This animosity between the communities doesn't need to continue and I just ask that the council put a final stop to it because it's exhausting we're all tired of having this conversation um you know we're redefining what a pickleball or what a tennis court is at this point and you know I just asked that you vote in favor of ordinance 974 and put this issue to a final conclusion so we could You know, uphold support for our large and prosperous tennis community which this doesn't take anything away from what the pickleball players already have.
So thank you.
Thank you Mayor we have two more raised hands okay first we'll have Mark followed by Paul. Okay Mark you have the floor
2:27 – 2:3917 turns
Good evening, Mr. Mayor and members of the City Council. My name is Mark Hapik. I'm a 30 year resident of the city of Ojai and the current president of the Ojai Valley Tennis Club. Libbey Park tennis courts should be available for tennis only as we only have eight public courts in Ojai. Leslie alluded to that earlier and I spent a lot of time in and around Libbey Park Especially in the mornings and evenings, court time is at a premium.
It's especially limited in the morning and evenings during the week and through the day on the weekends. As mentioned earlier, the new Nordhoff courts are locked up and not available for public play. Or you can pay $50 an hour to play. That is not an option. Um, there's also Village and several other courts that were mentioned in the August 26th City Council meeting saying that they're available to play those are all private. So, um, that was not an accurate statement.
I will also mention that the eight Libbey Park Courts both upper and lower Libby They've got to be in pristine shape. Or we just cannot have, we can't put on the college conference or the Ojai in particular. We want to keep that 125th anniversary it's coming up. We want to keep it going for another 125 years. So it's even more reason to restrict what activities are approved that could damage the courts.
In closing The city of the City of Ojai should adopt ordinance 974 to confirm that Libbey Park Tennis Courts are reserved for tennis activities only and for no other recreational activity subject to a carve out per annual Ojai Day activities. Thank you for your time.
Thank you, sir. And our last raised hand we have will be Paul. OK, Paul, you have the floor.
Yeah, thank you Mayor and Council Members. I too heard a pickleball match going on last night at about around 10 o'clock in the evening I'd also like to ask about enforcement of the city's ruling on pickleball and signage, which i think is going to be really important. Just about everything else has already been said so I will leave it there please pass the ordinance
thank you That's all on zoom here. Hey,
when I'm checking with the city manager here when I'm looking at the CIP budget, I do see there's already part construction of basketball courts in the next fiscal year 2728. So I'm just trying to think through kind of in the spirit of having other resources available in other
places. That is on the list, I do recall that?
Yeah, no, I'm looking at it right now. So and the other thing I guess I'm inclined to say, I don't want to stop any discussion that anybody wants to have I do want to say, to have the entire discussion again doesn't make sense to me because I feel like we had it. And today is about, we have the ordinance in front of us and we are talking about the Ojai Day exemption. That's what seems like in front of us.
It seems like it's met the need that we requested so that's my two cents.
So you're asking for a motion?
Well, if somebody feels they need to say something more but I feel like it keeps being said and it seems like we have an opportunity for clarity. Please go ahead. Yeah,
I do need to say something more. Absolutely. So what is new information is this deed information? And are we – there are questions. Are we legally bound by words that were in a deed when it was transferred over to us or are we not? And that's a question. We don't even really know what those words were and what they mean, but I mean that's also a question. The other thing that occurs to me is it's always been tennis versus pickleball, but now this world has opened up to some soccer players for instance who want to use the courts. And we've talked before about single-use courts are a thing of the past It just takes up too much time. We don't need to go in again about whether or not the courts are in full-time use during prime hours, what is that four to six every day or something?
I mean we walk by those courts, we know they're not being used during a good part of the time. So claim what you will, you just simply need to walk through the park to know how used they are and how used they aren't. But I think this deed idea is very relevant and also the idea of are we going to say that this large part of a public entity is reserved only for tennis? Are we gonna say that, maybe we are, maybe we aren't. I think we also don't know, the impression is given that the Tennis Association takes care of these courts but what I just heard was the city has put in lights So we don't even know how much the city is actually investing in these courts. We've always just assumed that the courts were taken care of by the Tennis Association, I don't think that's the case but I don't know.
I know that I walked by there and if the city hasn't leaf blown it, the leaves are still there. And I used to go to Levy Park every morning and there were not people playing. There were a couple of singles players who played occasionally three or four times a week, but the courts were not being used. And is that something that we're okay with? Maybe it is, maybe it isn't. It's prime real estate and I think we need to consider that question and it's not only tennis versus pickleball.
Utilities, it's public spaces that are being really segmented for a very particular group of people and quite honestly it's a small group of people. It may seem like a lot but I respect tennis. I love tennis. I was raised playing tennis. My favorite picture is my dad and I when I was seven years old with tennis rackets and I'm in that little short skirt with the fluffy underwear.
But at some point, we really have to look at whether or not this is the best use of those courts and that space. And what is this? We have to be apprised of what the city is actually putting in to make those courts usable. There are lights at Sarzotti, but they go off at odd hours. They're on till 10 if there's an event, some soccer players or something, but there's not a lot of space at Sarzotti.
So I just think that there are other questions to ask I want to know about the grant requirements. I want to know about the money for lower Libby. I want to know when that was given to us, to the city. I want us to think about single-use courts which the Park and Rec's department did not sort of evaluate. I want to know what prime time is at City when it's claimed. I think that those lights are really important for people we've heard kids over and over say there's not much for them to do in the city well that is something so All of these are questions, it's not tennis versus pickleball. It's a huge public space that is being designated for a very small group of people but there is wonderful tradition there. Nobody denies that so it's an issue to be discussed.
It' s an issue to be worked through and I will say it's the tennis folks and the anti-pickleball people that keep bringing this back. You know, in the pickleball people in my opinion have to come here and respond. And you know that's really what the issue has been so it's those are my issues I think there were new things brought up that I would like to have looked at in concepts around public use of public facilities outside of just a pickleball versus tennis sort of mentality.
Thank you. I mean, I'm looking at some of those deeds right now. Nothing's obvious to me but do you have anything to say on the matter?
I have it open and I'm taking a look at it right now. I have looked at it. I looked at it a few months ago but I would want to look at it one more time before I
respond to that. And it has been raised many times going back for at least a couple years that there is some idea that the deed grants a use and I don't I don't think it's ever been interpreted that way and I wouldn't. This
is the first time I've heard the 1974 deed, I've heard of the Libby deed but this is the first time I've heard of maximum use.
But I think one thing about this ordinance is that it doesn't say that we're giving the courts to the tennis club. It's, I mean, it still says that they're the city's, whereas the city owns and operates the public tennis courts located at Livvy Park, whereas the city currently regulates the, so it's all, it's all, the ordinance spells out that the city owns these or the city's responsible for these.
And while the tennis club might contribute to maintaining them for their tournaments, there's nothing in here that says... The only thing that says that adds the tennis club is with regard to Ojai Day. But everything else says that the city owns them. So that to me fits within the deed, the language of the deed
I have to say, it does feel like we have a chance to just keep. This issue turns into the base foundation conversation again. I don't think it needs to so I would be prepared to accept this as is right.
Yeah, I just have one comment and It goes to the mayor's comment earlier about Sarasota. I did get a comment from somebody involved with one of the youth sport leagues that they would benefit greatly from nighttime lit areas because we're starting to get into a time of year when. And so I would love to see Parks and Rec take a look at what we can do in terms, I'm not saying light up the tennis courts so that we can have other things going on there.
There's lots of places in the city where we can provide a place for either organized or disorganized nighttime lit opportunities. And I also, final comment and I agree we don't wanna re-litigate everything but go back to making a huge investment of city money in pickleball courts at Soule Park So that we could put an end to this, but there was never a thank you.
2:39 – 2:4529 turns
I heard plenty of people say thank you to Lindy every time she showed up on the court.
Please, I would love to not do this. Let's just focus on
what's needed. But I do have to say something. Sarzotti has lights so it's just a matter of turning them on. They have lights and they're on for when they have nighttime events they're on till 10 but then if there's not nighttime sporting events organized they go off at 8 or 8 30. So I'm just saying the lights are there if we want to have them turned on that's all I'm saying. That's good. And that is true I would love that to be in our control. There's our director right over there.
And maybe if any of the, if any of our young soccer players want to talk to the Parks and Rec department we will make it possible for you to be able to play at nighttime, I promise. We
can also try
to accelerate our timeline. There she is! She's right there And she's raising her hand right there.
There are people, there are young people playing soccer in the dark every night. So if you go to Sarzotti, you could probably get a pickup game. Seriously, there are kids out there practicing in the dark their kicks. You know, the field goal things are right there. They roll them out. There's always a handful.
But we'll figure out lights. We'll figure out lights for you and we're going to have a basketball court. And so there will be plenty of opportunities because we all value healthy living and recreation and fun.
We do we do have leagues that you know yeah there's a nominal cost with that but they do play it at night, there are leagues currently.
Yeah they do in the days that they don't you know the free you know let's have fun people show up yeah let's have some good time in the grass
I'm going to move that we accept the ordinance out.
I'll
second that okay
Roll-call vote Passed 4–1 move that we accept the ordinance out. I'll second that okay roll call
Show transcript
Motion passes 4-1. No need, no
need. Okay we'll go on to our last item of the day which is um oh yes the number 11 furnished by owner and installed by owner items
Thanks, Mayor. I'm going to give Mr. Seibert a more comfortable seat just for a few minutes since he's been here all evening. He may have a few items he wants to add to this list. I just thought I'd bring you up here for fun, Lucas. Thank you for numerating me. Next. The furnished by owner, installed by owner list for the permanent supportive housing project. This has been out there if you will for a while. You may recall we first talked about this back in 2025 when there was the design presented for the project. One of the concepts that the developer mentioned was that it was common in the non-profit development housing world to have a list of items that weren't included in what the developer provided to the client And, you know, this was, you know, things like appliances and window covering and doormats and beds anyway.
Council heard this in the direction was, you know, please, please develop this list and bring it back to us long time coming here we are finally with the list but. In concert with an earlier item, this is also the potential of the Council wants to be the initiation of a fundraising campaign to seek donations for these items. I have just a couple quick housekeeping items It is a little bit confusing if you look at the list because you see some things related to utility connections. And these are included in the budget for the project, however we were hopeful and that's why they're on this list to buy down that amount if you will.
And the thought was if you buy down some of these amounts notably the sanitation district charge is extraordinary. You could have money for other parts of the project Some items are consolidated, so like if you look at number two it says desk closet chair bed nightstand. I mean okay maybe that should be split out individually but that's what this is. So Mr. Seibert did I forget anything about this that needs to be mentioned that you can think of?
This list is relatively the same list that we had seen about a year ago. But to Mr. Harvey's point, 32 is kind of an interesting one because we're working through those various groups right now having those conversations early on as to what those fees are. We're seeing kind of the writing on the wall what those fees are going to be and trying to figure out a way to draw down some of those.
And we've enlisted our city attorney on effort. She has a lot of experience in this area and she's been very helpful, so she's part of that team as well. Anyway, we're happy to take any questions you might have.
One question is and I think I know the answer but I'm trying to ask publicly so other projects that are similar that Dignity Moves has also been a part of this is a normal part of that process there's nothing unique about Ojai in this regard?
This is not unique and we have had some informal interest from folks wanting to be a part of the project and specifically interested in particular items Yeah, I think people are aware that this is part of the effort.
Okay.
Other questions?
Yeah, and I think I know the answer to this too but just for the record also Dignity Moves would it be correct in saying that Dignity Moves has procured these through fundraising efforts for other projects? That's correct. For example, I know in Thousand Oaks they had IKEA donate furniture. That's right. And in previous meetings they've said that they would go through the same process of seeing if they could procure some of these for us. Is that correct? Okay thank
you. Other questions? Yeah.
I don't know if it's, are we going to have public comments?
Yes but this is just only if you have a question.
Oh and if I could just add one more thing. One other feedback we've received and we're happy to do this. This is not a prioritize or monetize list and we could put some pencil to paper and try to determine amounts and that might be helpful for those who want to make a donation so we could we could do that
I think that would be helpful because it says what's not funded from here comes out of it. Sure.
Okay, yeah. Okay. I have one card Larry Stengel.
2:46 – 2:5116 turns
What do you think? Larry Steckel, I think Councilman Rule who suggested we do a post-mortem on this entire project is probably something that you should do because you've got to me two parts. You've got the people part which we've taken on as an obligation or responsibility and that's what we're going to do no matter what happens and that's going to go forward but it seems to me that we sort of are running a assisted living facility. We're going into the business of that And all the things that we're looking for donations are consumables.
These are things that are going to be wanted all the time, the sheets, the lights, the bulbs, the broken refrigerators, everything. This is an ongoing operation so I don't know if we're going to be begging forever or it's just gonna be part of our working operation expense. The fact that Dignity this is how they financed this project and this is how they planned it Oh, they're going to build a building. They get half a million dollars to manage it, sort of. We now have to go out and hire a manager to actually put the whole thing together.
And then we still have to go out and pay for things and beg for things to hook up the water, to hook up the sanitation, the sewer. That should've been part of the real estate deal to begin with. It should've been the whole part of it. Here's the project that's done." The solar, that was a big deal. Don't we want everything to be solar? What is it net zero where we don't want anybody to consume electric? We're going to have EPP plugs but now we don't have solar panels because oh it's too expensive nine and a half million dollars and we now have to go find beg for solar panels and plug-ins I just think that this whole project is either a very bad learning experience or something that we're all just gonna have to learn to live with because we've taken on this obligation and responsibility.
But the consumables, I mean this is gonna be on forever which is, that's part of it okay? So I just think we need to build that into our budget and keep it on because they keep going out and looking for sheets and things is not the right way to run this thing. It's just gonna be a mess And it's continually looking and asking, are we going to get all the old sheets from the Ojai Valley in? We're going to get blankets from El Roblar. Where are we going to get all this stuff?
So I think we just build it in and just accept that. So thank you. Thank you.
Anybody online? No more Zoom participants. OK. Just to remind us, like just as a kind of context, MESA, as a case in point, just finished the $6 million fundraising campaign successfully. I'm only bringing that up to say, to have a project where you are soliciting donations even in an ongoing way is exactly how things work in these realms. So it's not absurd to think that we would also be doing that.
So I only bring that up to say it is part of the ethos, it seems to me, not only of our valley but of philanthropy.
I was wondering too if anybody or would they reach out with a state recruitment list with heavy duty so you can't go yes, you can get a good deal at IKEA for 30 beds but how long are they going to last? Or if we had something more of an industrial spring type furniture It would probably like you may spend a little more I don't know but The extension of the item would probably take us further than replacing every With cheaper more affordable and one other thing to bed on this list
Well, they're actually that was kind of what I was getting at. If you look at number two or excuse me three desk swash closet chair bed nightstand in the unit so what i was saying is yes it probably would be when we revise this to break each one out and we can specify uh to your point you know commercial grade you know so that we're looking for items that are sturdier
And then also, I don't know out of this list how many items do we have to have all of these before we can have a move in date? No. Okay so that would be kind of nice.
So for instance you know I would argue you don't need Bike racks, you don't need umbrellas with a base. Would it be nice? Yes and that'd be great but not all the more appropriate.
If it was organized in that way that might be useful besides monetizing you would say nice
to have,
need to have.
Yeah so that's that was the comment that I got earlier was prioritize and monetize. Okay
and then like maybe perhaps you know like electrical the pre-wire for EV and stuff and you don't have to go through just like you know hit and miss or whatever
Sorry clarify that one please. I was
wondering like with the EV chargers, I don't know what the price is but could you do something have the electrical have it pre-wired? Like have it there but then when the money comes in to go ahead and do it instead of having it right from the get...I don't know if that could be an option
It's an Edison question. I don't know how much of that I'd have to be
like solar.
And then the other thing would be, you know, how many so how many EV chargers? How many dryers? How many washers? I don' t know. I guess I'm assuming with washers and dryers once again it will have to be industrial because if you have 30 people but I don''t know how many.
2:51 – 2:5626 turns
Washer and dryer just as a reminder. We do have we do have those contemplated in the construction plans And so they're part of the drainage fixture count So those there's it wouldn't be 30 washers and 30 dryers, I think it's It's
it's one central location. Mm-hmm
But the other thing washers and dryers is gonna be one big issue
I think
it may be two or three.
Yeah, yeah there would be a like not a commercial laundry room but a laundry room that has you know large a large like high capacity washer it's in the construction plans I don't have Lucas may
not remember exactly
If I recall correctly, there's eight in total. And one of those sets are going to be industrial so that you can do larger sheets and such like that.
Seems to me what you're asking for is basically setting the stage so that we can start soliciting these donations.
That's what we're asking for and the desire to further clarify the list, split it out, monetize it, prioritize it would be helpful with that effort obviously.
Would so I'm aware, I mean just some of the things like we were talking about like art decor welcome mats. I would imagine that some of the residents would want to pick out their own sheets or you know have pick out decorate their spaces. Have we consulted with any of the case managers or with help of Ojai to see
This kind of fits in with the other effort that's ongoing now to develop the other RFP for the operator. These are all leases with individuals, and so the thought was have the units move in ready but you're right I mean there's going to be a lease and the person is going to be paying a third of their income to live there it's their space Certainly they don't have to accept the items if they wanted to use their own furnishings. And I don't necessarily agree that we're on the hook to provide all these items forever going forward. I do think it would probably go with the project, that you would want to have things available obviously as things break and needs arise. But it's certainly not my, it was never my expectation that forever forward every unit is immediately including everything that one could need.
That's sort of what I was getting at, too. And like with some lease circumstances you have coin-operated laundry and
things like that. And that's important too. You're probably aware this. Sorry to step on you but there are programs in town currently at least one laundromat that I'm aware of that our participants use currently where they're able to go over certain days of the week and use machines at a reduced rate. And I would think that would probably continue.
Okay, thank you.
Well I'm a little surprised that like the sanitary hookup, the water hookup, the SCE connection and the associated fees Those weren't part of the original
contract. No, so those are and that's what I was saying those are in the budget. Those are included what we're hoping to do. So take for instance the sanitary hookup. I think the quote that we got is $272,000. We've we're working with the sanitation district currently. that they're not using the correct formulas to determine that number. So we were hoping that there could be some folks that want to buy down those amounts, if you will. That's why they're on here.
They'll probably be as I'm prioritizing the list, I'd probably keep those on the bottom because I don't think that those are gonna be as attractive as somebody who might wanna provide microwaves or pillows.
Right. I was thinking that it would be potentially, you know, a marketing type of approach to say, you know, X will supply one room. Yep. No, that's a great idea. So, you know, 10 whatever just draw a number out $10,000 you furnish a room.
Let's take it further let's say if you want the Andy it's 8,000 if you want the Rachel it's 14,000 well that's
no I was heading for that with the idea that you could...
I'm kidding
No on the one hand you could just do you know bed desk dresser Or period, but you can ask for another level where they get curtains and that type of thing. You
sound like you've been talking to somebody who knows this type of thing.
All kidding aside, I have contemplated
what you're talking about. Here's
what it includes. I think it's a terrific idea.
2:57 – 3:0433 turns
I mean, just to say it seems to me this goes back to the naming convention. If you had somebody like a solar company donate all the solar panels and they put up a plaque similar to what we have in Libbey Park or something like that, we're all ears. Great, let's work with you on that and that makes good sense. So it does seem like a really wonderful marketing opportunity for people like that.
And I'm just with the solar panels. Is there like a certain wattage or whatever that you're looking at? I know it varies, right? It's because you want it all the same.
Yeah, there's a base rate. So they do an establishment of base rate and then it goes to higher. That would all have to be. Right.
Means there's a lot of detail. Right? And if any of you individually would like to be involved, we would welcome. Mm hmm. Be great.
I am Interested in the EV charger. I'm assuming maybe incorrectly that none of our residents will be EV owners, but I could be incorrect.
Not true. Yeah.
We're talking about bikes.
Well, we both we actually uh, we have until recently we did have a participant who did have an EV vehicle I think you had to get rid of it But we do certainly have those with bikes and we do certainly have some with golf carts another
and so do we have a rejected number of EV chargers?
No, I need to come up with that and that should be part of the list as well. And as Mayor Pro Tem said you know maybe we not maybe let's figure out what's the pre-wiring that is required so that if you get that donor it's plug and play just like the solar panels. We need to make sure it all
comes
into
what we need. That'd be a great donation for Edison
Well on that note, sorry because I've been talking to them. Unfortunately they're very fixated or fortunately every look at it on fire Harding efforts and they have gotten away from historically they used to donate the projects like this and now that they're all about how does it reduce fire? And can you show us that? So if you think of a good idea or an angle, tell me please.
I can think of one. We're undergrounding all the utilities. They weren't impressed with that. That seems like a logical one. Say that again Mayor Pro Tempore?
Yes,
exactly. We should get a donation. That would be hysterical depending on how you look at it.
So you're looking for an approval of the list and then you've got
to look at that. Well, I think we're taking the feedback. We need to refine this further. And we're happy to bring it back again. That's totally fine with those details. But we also would like your permission to initiate the fundraising campaign.
Yes. Yes, let's do it.
OK. Thank you.
Can you be creative with the workrooms in the outdoor?
I really think it's awesome. That's actually a great way to build interest.
And I've run capital campaigns before, so I'm happy to contribute. Would you like to move? I'll make a motion to move forward with this and to have staff come back with those changes. A reprioritized list.
Right, with additional description and numbers needed. And things split out. We'll make it much more detailed.
Great.
Second.
Roll-call vote Passed 5–0
Show transcript
Thank you everybody.
Any council member reports?
I have one thing to say to you as well, go for it. So I'm the chair of the Gold Coast Transit District Board this year and thank you Mr. Miley and we have our long-term planning meeting on October 7th and so I want to invite any members of the community if you have desires that you'd like to see for public transportation More bus routes, more connections to different parts of Ventura County. If you are a bus rider, if you are a paratransit rider and are looking for more access to safe rides or to paratransit rides I would love to hear your feedback before we go into our planning session. So that's happening on October 7th, and I welcome any feedback or any public comments if you'd like to zoom in or to write a comment or even come to the meeting.
My quick announcement is that Thursday, October 1st the City of Ojai Student Council will restart again with the new school year. That is at the rec center from 6 to 730 with pizza provided and some stuff to drink and some chips and all that we end up getting usually students from about 5 or 6 high schools And the 2 things that are kind of on the agenda. 1 is planning a, a valley wide dance of all the schools. That's 1 of the big things that we're looking at and then also a booth that Ojai day so the student council group may have a booth that I'll hide it. So you're all welcome to come. Um, and again, it's in the rec center in the main points where the games are Thursday, October 1st 6 to 7.
So I have a couple of future agenda items if we're to that
point. I have one report out if you want to continue with that then, so I just wanted to give an update on the Ventura County Animal Services Kind of what we're doing. We're reviewing the bylaws Just to let you know that that we have been paying only for services. We've not been paying for capital improvements the county has been Shouldering that burden and they no longer wish to shoulder that burden So and they are looking to build a new shelter. So that burden will now be shouldered by the individual cities. So VCAS is going around to every city to renegotiate the contract, to add to capital improvements. In other words 100% coming from cities no longer it was I think the county was handling at least 50%.
The advisory board right now, I mean the commission board right now is advisory only. We meet once every three months for an hour and a half so we're re-looking at the bylaws to see if that does indeed need to change as the cities will now be providing all of the funds so perhaps there's a governance structure rather than an advisory structure. So that will be something that I'm working on Mayor Pro Tem, I think you are the alternate, are you not? If you'd like to work through the bylaws with me or thinking about that. You got a money mind so we need to think about that. So anyway, that's my update on that.
3:04 – 3:0910 turns
I'd
like to Future agenda items.
Yeah, so I'm on the liaison to planning and they just, I think last week or last meeting had a project that involved tree removal and the inability to replace them on that lot. So we have an in lieu of fee system and it came out that we have a $33,000 balance So I would love to see us take a look at what we should be doing with that money, probably connect with Ojai Trees.
Maybe crew and come up with a plan of the best way to use the money to sustain the community forest concept that we
have. Just as a quick thing, Ojai Trees is now integrated with the Green Valley Coalition so they're one in the same.
Lovely. Yeah, I'm looking for staff to bring it back to us with ideas because I don't I think as opposed to letting the money sit there, make sure we have a plan for using it to its best potential. Super. The other future agenda item is I'm going to bite the bullet and do my own town hall. And what I want to do is address What I hear frequently is the, is this concern.
What are we going to do? What's the plan for when we have a disaster and I'd like to have the city manager speak to the city components of that. The police chief speak to their operations there's actually a lot Resources that we can look to but I think it'd be helpful to walk through it and give people a better understanding that. I mean, I've spent a lot of time in the last few months because of People's expression of concerns and and I'm very impressed with how much is in place But there's a lack of communication of that to the community. And so I think a town hall is a good way to do that, and then we'll maybe have an hour or so of open questions from the community. Sounds wonderful.
I'm glad you said that because I had been thinking the same thing after the last town hall. This is one of the biggest topics of conversation that I hear too, so thank you for bringing it up and I fully support that.
So for an agenda item, I'd like an update on the million dollars that that nice foundation has offered us and any other monies that we might be having coming in that we'd like to hear about. Let's get some money going. The other thing is, is that I am also planning another town hall. I'm having the county DA Eric Narosenko come up who's going to talk about election integrity and what that's going to mean. And so he, I think we have a tentative date scheduled. I think it's going to come up as our Resolution or agreement is it comes up for the council approval. So we're going to try to put that on the consent calendar for next meeting, and I think we have scheduled for October 14th he's going to come up and talk about election integrity which i think is really important and I think that people are worried So it'd be good to find out what those laws are and, you know, what our rights can be and might be.
And also options for doing grassroots protection of integrity.
Other people brought this up and that's great that you're doing it. That's super.
Just come to me. I'll do it
now. Super great. OK. Meeting adjourned.