City Council — April 6, 2026

Okay.

Thank you. We'll move to the roll call,

and I will be doing the inspiration this evening so thank you all for being here tonight and I'm looking around to make sure that my words are going to have be directed some of our to some of our leaders and our staff and then others in in the room tonight so So as we gather here to start the month of April, the month recognized as Stress Awareness Month. I know this topic is something I reference a lot because sometimes I have difficulty in taking time to recharge and rejuvenate.

So I'm going to just share with you some things that I have been thinking about myself this weekend and hopefully we could all move forward and take the time for ourselves Again, I'm so glad to be sharing this topic in the room with so many of our city leaders. Those that are here in the room and then for those who are not here tonight. This observance, Stress Awareness Month should remind us all of something deeply important.

That while we work hard to build improve and serve our community, we must also take time to care for ourselves and to care for one another. In today's fast-paced world stress can be often unseen and yet while unseen it impacts our health in sometimes long term, our families and the ability to serve and thrive so if we will listen for this month we should pause Some of us will, others will say we can't and won't.

But at the very least we should check in on ourselves. We should extend grace to one another. We should prioritize well-being not just as individuals but as a collective. Here in Port Hueneme I believe we pride ourselves in being more than just a city. To me this is observed through the work of our leadership Of our staff. Of our employees, our community members, volunteers, partners and even the philanthropists that we rarely get to see but they're out there helping us further our community in our city.

Whether it's through supporting our neighbors creating self safe and welcoming spaces or simply offering a kind word we each play a role in reducing the burdens that others may carry So let this month serve as a reminder that strength is not only found in what we accomplish, but also in how we care for our minds, our body, our health and how we care for each other.

As we continue the important work before us this evening may we do so with patience understanding And a shared commitment to foster a healthier and more balanced community for all. So again, thank you for being here and may we all continue to lead with both purpose and care. Thank you. All right. So we are going to move on to public comments.

Yes first up is Becky Bruni.

Good evening Mayor, Mayor Pro Tem, Council, staff and audience. I'm here tonight representing Royal Guppy Outdoors and we have our annual Surf & Turf Dinner coming up the 31st of next month. Tickets are $70 it's from 4 to 7 at the Channel Islands Yacht Club and I do have tickets if anyone is interested thank you

David Scrivner

Good evening. I'm here tonight to ask for some help with homelessness on the beach We've been having a bunch of people kind of migrate in here These appear to be treatment resistant people, I'm sure The homeless liaison officer has offered them lots of help they see Officer from seems very good at what he does but we got people who are basically sleeping there for A month.

Also, there are people down living in the rocks that have been there for a couple years. I know the city has really made a lot of attempts to deal with this including taking backhoes and filling the rocks up where they live and then just move another hundred yards down the beach and start up again so I'm asking for some sort of help with this. I don't know, I'm sure it's a problem for everybody.

My personal belief is if a person is homeless and down on their luck they're willing to accept some sort of help. I think we should give it to them and encourage them to get better but if they just want to turn down treatment and live on the beach and do drugs, I don' have any patience for it. Very clearly, PHPD's done a fantastic job in dealing with the west side of the city which has been worse except when Ormond Beach overflows our way.

We're about to have that hit us because every year about this time we start getting influx of people coming to the beach to live for the summer And I don't know if you, I'm sure most of you have seen what's happening down in Ormond Beach. Ochnard is sending everybody out of Central and North Ochnard down to Ormond Beach. There's hundreds of people living in dilapidated conditions with trash every place.

Last time I drove it through there. There were at least 100 RVs I have no money how many people are now back living on the slag pile, but When when Oxnard finally does do something about this they're all coming here. That's what's happened in the past so Like to bring that to your attention and ask for help Thank you.

Thank you Greg Ross and mr. Rollins. You'll be after mr. Ross. I

Good evening Mayor Pro Tem, Mayor, esteemed City Council. First of all I'd like to say that I've lived in three different cities in Ventura County since 1970 this is by far and away the best. Love Port Hueneme. Do have a question I don't expect an answer to with these city council meetings when do you guys eat dinner? Before or after? Because I don't miss many meals, okay. As you can tell. All right so getting down to the nuts and bolts of what I want to talk about is first of all this city is so responsive and tonight I want to highlight the police department because I can think of three instances very recently where someone was doing donuts out in the pier parking lot They nailed him.

DUI, took his car. That's fantastic. Then we've got truckers that are speeding down Hueneme Road and there's a PD cruiser right there slowing them down. Love that! We just this is responsiveness that we don't expect in other cities that we get here and thank you for that so what I'm really here to talk about And you have a little handout there, I hope, about the fire department from Ventura County.

Right here. Along with the responsiveness of this city, the Ventura County Fire Department is very responsive. They've done so many studies with so many different weather stations and what I've got here is a map that was given to me by Chief Williams These are lithium ion batteries, okay? These are only going to get more and more prevalent on the port. These are dangerous and we're at the mercy of whatever country be it India, China wherever they're being produced so if they don't do a good job of making them secure so that were protected we're in harm's way This is the map down here of where the plume would go if there's a fire.

I say if, it's really more like when there's a fire. This map is really dangerous because it will put in harms way 15 to 25 thousand residents of Port Hueneme and South Oxnard so it's an important thing to think about. These fires can't be put out as witnessed by many, many other situations. And Chief Williams, Deputy Fong, etc., they're all saying—Chief Gardner—they're all saying the same thing. Can't put them out!

So what can we do? Please don't just say Amber Alert because I agree that maybe that's not enough. Maybe we need a really loud siren from the port. Thank you.

Rich Rollins

Good evening staff and City Council tonight. I'm here to show you my shirt My shirt represents the sizzling seniors who have been in operation for over 25 years or 25 years and What's neat about the program is that it provides a great opportunity for seniors. Now, seniors start at 50 years old here but they go all the way to 95 years old and every Monday, Wednesday and Friday over at the Carpenter Center there's close to 75 people there exercising and what's more important is not only are they're exercising but one of the things that our mayor talked about is dealing with stress. They get to socialize, they get to share their experiences and their pitfalls and things like that so they don't feel all alone And so it's a really neat program.

It's run by Sharon Claris, who's been doing it and she's got like if you all know her she's got like unending energy and I just wanted to kind of mention it because it's the 25th anniversary. That's it.

Great thank you. Brian Schumacher?

Good evening Mayor McQueen-Lejeune, council members and staff. My name is Brian Schumacher and I serve as the Advocacy and Community Impact Manager for Autism Society of Ventura County. I'm here this evening on behalf of our dedicated advocacy committee and the many autistic individuals and families who call Port Hueneme home. We're here tonight to offer our strong support for your proclamation declaring April as Autism Acceptance Month.

Thank you for demonstrating your continuing commitment to affirming the autism community here in Port Hueneme, and thank you also to Easterseals Southern California for your decades of service to our community, and congratulations on receiving this honor tonight. So this recognition truly matters. It sends a clear message that autistic residents of all ages are seen and valued and recognized for their contributions as part of the fabric of this community.

According to the CDC, one in 31 individuals in the United States is diagnosed with autism here in Ventura County that represents thousands of children and adults navigating schools, workplaces, healthcare systems, and public spaces often advocating for understanding accessibility and opportunity. We also want to acknowledge that this proclamation reflects something we've consistently seen from this council. You have listened to community voices and supported inclusive playgrounds, accessible events and opportunities that strengthen connections across our city.

Those actions make a meaningful difference for families. Autism is a spectrum. Some individuals require significant daily support, others live independently, some communicate in non-traditional ways. All deserve dignity respect and the opportunity to thrive and be celebrated by recognizing autism acceptance month the city of Port Hueneme continues moving the conversation beyond simple awareness and toward meaningful inclusion In the same inclusive spirit, I'm excited to share that Ought to Run is coming up on April 26th at CSU Channel Islands where registrations are still open and you can visit ought2run.org for more information.

Please just know that we're so grateful for your leadership and for the example that you set in building a community where everyone belongs. Thank you.

Good evening, Mayor and Council Members. I'm here on behalf of the Office of Assembly Member Steve Bennett. Just want to invite everybody to an event we're having this Saturday at Oxnard College. It's a bike rodeo and resource fair so this is a family-friendly event it's free kids adults anybody can come learn practice and demonstrate their bicycle handling skills We're working with some local groups like Bike Ventura, Gold Coast Transit District, Oxnard College and the Oxnard Police Department. We just really want to create a space to promote bicycle riding but we want everybody to do it in a safe way so we'll have some safety courses, some bicycle skills competitions, helmet fittings, safety checks and inspections and will conclude with a community bike ride at the end of the event.

I invite you all and the residents of Port Hueneme, hopefully you can join us this Saturday April 11th 10 a.m.. To 1 p.m. At Oxnard College. Thank

you Great thank you We are going to move to our agenda for approval is there a motion and a second to approve the agenda?

Move to approve

Second

All in favor aye all opposed hearing none motion passes unanimously

Great, are there any conflict of interest related to any of the items on the agenda this evening? No. We're gonna move onto our presentations first we have the Fair Housing Month Proclamation. We're gonna ask that representatives from Ventura County Coastal Association of Realtors come up to the podium while Council Member Lopez reads the proclamation.

Proclamation for Fair Housing Month, April 2026. Whereas the Fair Housing Act enacted on April 11th 1968 enshrined into federal law the goal of eliminating racial segregation and ending housing discrimination in the United States and Whereas the Fair Housing Act prohibits discrimination in housing based on race, color, religion, sex, family status, national origin and disability.

And commits recipients of federal funding to affirmatively further fair housing in their communities and whereas Interior County Coastal Association of Realtors and the Real Estate Fraud Advisory Team are committed to highlighting the Fair Housing Act by continuing to address discrimination in our community, by supporting programs that will educate the public about the right to equal housing opportunities and by continuing partnership efforts with their organizations to help ensure every one of their rights to fair housing.

Whereas the City of Port Hueneme is committed to the mission and intent of Congress to provide fair and equal housing opportunities, and whereas social fabric, the economy, health, and environment are strengthened and diverse. Inclusive committees end whereas more than 50 years after the passage of Fair Housing Act discrimination persists in many communities remain segregated. And whereas acts of federal housing discrimination and barriers are equal Housing opportunities are repugnant to common sense and decency and fairness. And whereas the National Association of Realtors Code of Ethics commits all realtors to provide equal professional services without discrimination based on race, color, religion, sex, familial status, handicap, sexual orientation, gender identity or national origin.

Now, therefore the City Council of Port Hueneme California does hereby proclaim April 2026 as a Fair Housing Month and begins a year-long commemorative of the Fair Housing Act in the city of Port Hueneme and urges all citizens to wholeheartedly recognize and celebrate throughout the year. Proclaim this day 6 April 2026. Great

thank you, thank you. Over to you, please have some words.

Thank you Mayor. Thank you Mayor. Thank you City Council members and the community. We are here to take this honor we honor you too. We are here for the community. We honor this act in this month for fair housing and in fact I want to give a proclamation to Dr Martin Luther King historically he is his Being there, and unfortunately his passing and his assassination also pushed this forward.

So I want to give him some honor here too. And we are very, very, very pleased to work with you and thank you in honor to take this proclamation and support our community and support these high levels of ethics so thank you so very much. Oh, I'm Jerry Becker, I am the president of Ventura County Coastal Association of Realtors And I have a couple of members here with me, Luis Mendez and Bob Davis and Rob Leatherwood, our government affairs director. So thank you again for the proclamation. Great. Thank you. We're going to take a photo. You

know, you're going to go. Oh.

Oh I have another thing me I just take the liberty on this month April 22nd. I'm inviting everyone here the whole community we are having a fair housing summit at the county of Ventura Ventura County Museum is from 11 to 3 it is full of information and resources and we hope that you can attend with us. Thank you

One, two, three.

Okay.

Thank you. Thank

you so much. We're going to move to our second presentation, the Autism Acceptance Month Proclamation. Oh sorry. And so yes, Chief is going to come to the podium and introduce our guests. And then we'll have Mayor Pro Temp Hernandez read the proclamation.

Good evening everyone. Yes, April is Autism Acceptance Month. Your police department will be participating as we have in past years and celebrating this month by donning both patches on some uniforms, shoulder patches which do look a little unique from our current patch and some of us will be wearing a variety of our autism awareness, autism acceptance pins. Tonight for our proclamation we are inviting a team from Easter Sales Southern California, Visi Kabari Wright the Regional Clinical Director for Autism Services for Easter Seals and Leanne Colbert who's the regional vice president for the autism therapy services for Easter Seals. Do you want to come up while I'm talking?

Welcome Folks when you think of Easter sales, you got to think for more than a hundred years Easter sales nonprofit that has empowered people with disabilities through advocacy and life-changing disability and community services They have supported people with disabilities in their families at all ages and stages of life. I My own cameo, our own cameo. The police commissioner when she was a baby had received services from Ventura office of Easter sales with children with cognitive delays when they're born Especially in Cameo's case, if not for an incredible team of people at Easter Seals our children do not learn on their own to roll over as babies or to lift themselves off the ground.

It is incredible folks at places like Easter Seals that make this happen Easterseals makes a lasting difference each day by providing essential disability and community services to children and adults and their families. And this includes members in our autism community. With that, we have a proclamation for you. Do you want the video first?

Thank you. We are very honored to accept this proclamation this year Easterseals as mentioned we've been around a long time over 100 years. We are launching our campaign Everyone Belongs so our campaign last year was celebrate don't separate and this year we're really excited to step into everyone belongs and we'd like to share this video

Belonging begins when you create space for individuals with autism, so that everyone can show up and be themselves. No judgment! I like your bracelets. Thanks, I like yours too. Thank you! Belonging begins by meeting the need... Hey! Usual? ...with small gestures like dimming the lights or just serving up good vibes. to the best latte in town, Claro. Belonging begins by realizing that support looks different for everyone.

It can make an autistic person feel understood and valued because belonging isn't a one size fits all thing. It's a series of real moves like lowering our voices. It's keeping routines like

I want movie. Come on Paul

or making room for others standing together And shaping spaces where everyone with autism belongs. Discover ways to create belonging at EasterStealsAutism.com

Great, thank you. We're going to move to the proclamation.

Good evening This is the proclamation for Autism Acceptance Month, April 2026. Whereas April is designated as Autism Acceptance Month and whereas autism also known as Autism Spectrum Disorder or ASD represents a broad group of disorders that vary widely from mild to severe and is characterized by difficulty with social interaction Thank you very much. And whereas our understanding of autism has grown tremendously since it was first diagnosed, as there is no known cure for autism. Early diagnosis and the resulting appropriate education and intervention are vital to the future growth and development of the individual. And whereas a variety of public and private organizations and agencies Strive to provide quality care, support or services to children and adults with ASD.

To enable them to live as independently as possible and to reach their full potential. And whereas hope lies in a broad spectrum of treatments and in an informed public and community committed to providing support and service to individuals diagnosed with autism spectrum disorders. And whereas the Port Hueneme Police Department will wear patches and pins As an outward expression of an inner commitment to connect with our community, to create acceptance and support those dealing with this lifelong neurological disorder. And whereas we join the Southern California Easterseals or the Easter Seals of Southern California in proclaiming April 2026 has autism acceptance month. Now therefore be it proclaimed that the City Council of the city of Port Hueneme does hereby recognize and proclaim April 2026 as Autism Acceptance Month.

Great, thank you. Did you have any other comments that you'd like to make?

I just wanted to share some of the resources for our new campaign with all of you.

Okay, so we'd like to take a photo. So come on up. Is it just

one group or is it? Just one group.

One, two, three. Okay we're going

to move to our next item Chief, it seems like you're in concert tonight.

Yeah talk about stress. Stress

month to get three

presentations in a row.

So we're going to move on to the proclamation of recognition honoring your police officer so go right

ahead. The incredible Detective Roque Lopez. Should I just bring you up here now? We are celebrating the retirement, and I say celebrating because it's a well-deserved retirement of Detective Roque Lopez, aka Lopez Sr., senior. Roque Senior. And I'll explain that in a minute. When you hear this proclamation read, you will hear he started with us in the 1980s as a reserve police officer and then went on to work in the Oxnard School District and later Cal State Channel Islands Police Department But you will also hear that after his son, Roque Lopez Jr. came to work for the department over 20 years ago, Roque Sr. came back to work for us here as well, as a reserve officer again and then later as a full-time officer, later in life after his other successful careers.

During that time as a full-time officer detective, Roque was a dedicated detective working all crimes including difficult homicides However, there was a time when he handled several crimes against children investigations. And he built a reputation among his peers and supervisors as being a tenacious investigator who sought justice for his young victims. These are some of the most troubling and difficult cases to work. Anybody who's worked detectives in this field will tell you that.

And during his time as an FTO, he trained the majority of the department's current officers on patrol. If not everybody that's on patrol and our senior officers. And he has been a mentor to so many in the department. When I say mentor, I mean he is the only person left in the department who started here in the 80s before me. So, for that he has also been a mentor to his police chief.

He worked with people that some of them were gone before I got here a few years later so the institutional knowledge and his work in the community and his work with young people in our community and I talked about somebody who came out of the school district world to come back to police full-time. He volunteered for school district duties, student attendance board and other things like that because he cares.

So as we lose senior Detective Roque Lopez has left an incredible mark on this Police Department and he will be greatly missed. We appreciate you so much brother. And. And presenting to him his department plaque for Detective Roque Lopez in recognition of over 20 years of dedicated exemplary service to the citizens of Port Hueneme and For your unwavering loyalty and commitment as a member of the Police Department Your dedication as a reserve officer police officer field training officer and detective will never be forgotten We wish you the best on your retirement. It is with sincere gratitude that we present you with this token of our respect and esteem

Great. We're going to have Council Member Gama to read the proclamation and then we'll come back to you for words, Officer.

Thank you Mayor. City of Port Hueneme Proclamation honoring Police Detective Roque Lopez for his service to the city of Port Hueneme whereas Detective Roque Lopez began his distinguished law enforcement career from 1985-1987 as a reserve police officer for the Port Hueneme Police Department And whereas Detective Roque Lopez returned as a reserve police officer with the Port Hueneme Police Department in 2006. During his reserve officer time, he worked as a full-time police officer with the California State University Channel Islands Police Department. Detective Roque Lopez then decided to dedicate all of his service time To the Port Hueneme community by transferring to a full-time police officer position with the Port Hueneme Police Department in 2011 and whereas during his police officer tenure he served as a patrol officer, academy instructive, reserve officer program coordinator, Hueneme School District Attendance Review Board member, Ventura County Peace Officers Association board member, training officer and detective.

And whereas during his tenure as a field training officer was known as a dedicated trainer and mentor to most of the current officers in the department. And during his tenure, as a detective he was known for his reliability and strong work ethic especially in the many crimes against children cases he investigated seeking justice for the young victims. And whereas Detective Lopez has received numerous letters of commendation and awards during his service to the community including Peace Officer Association of Ventura County Investigator of the Year in 2022 and whereas his colleagues known Know him as a dependable teammate and friend who takes pride in his work with the community and our youth, and who is always ready to lend moral support or helpful hand when needed.

And whereas Detective Lopez has improved the quality of life for the residents of the City of Port Hueneme during his tenure with the Police Department and will be greatly missed. Now, therefore be it proclaimed that the City Council of Port Hueneme hereby recognizes and honors Police Department Roque Lopez for his over 20 years dedication commitment and service to our community and wishes him well in his future endeavors. Proclaim this 6th day of April 2026. Congratulations sir

Well, one of the things that I have never been is a big public speaker. So bear with me on this. There's a lot of people that I need to thank for my success and some of them are standing right back there right now. They put in the hard work. For me it was kind of easy. Some days you pull my hair out but they came through. Just joking. Leaving for that amount of years and coming back, you can imagine that the world keeps going and things change.

This department has evolved into one of the better that I've been associated with, not talking bad about the college or You know, anywhere else. I mean they all have their unique abilities there and their officers are great as well. Being here has given me the opportunity to work for a few chiefs who have come and gone but I have to say that working for Chief Federico has made the biggest impact on me.

His treatment of his officers, his staff from even the janitors. Anybody that walks through the PD, I've never experienced that. He champions his officers. He challenges us to do our best and to keep moving forward. Which many of them have and they will be or I'll come back and hurt them. But it's been my pleasure to be able to do all those things. Certainly being a detective was an honor for me, especially since it involved small children who were abused and stuff like that. And I was able to have effective impact on the non-human people who were hurting those children. So if this man is in charge of this department for a few more years, it's just going to be incredible here And again, I haven't been paid to say these nice things about them.

You can ask some of the officers that I've trained that I don't usually say things that I don't mean. Sometimes it's a little strong worded stuff when I feel like they were going to get me in trouble or hurt, but it's all part of the training. So to them my gratitude to all the young men that are back there. From the dispatchers to even the explorers. They're all great kids Hopefully they all continue their journey and become police officers because and hopefully it's here Because if they do then this city is going to be well covered for a long long time And again, my hat's off to Chief Federico.

As I said the other chief brought stuff to the department It's a matter of opinion, I guess whether some was good and some was bad. But there has been tremendous difference between Chief Federico's tenure here in the past 20 years He truly has at least opened my eyes when he first started here is that he really cares about his personnel. He'll go the extra mile to make you feel comfortable at home, make sure you're fed. It's probably not a good thing but I mean it's a nice gesture.

But it's hard to find chiefs that have that ability to nourish and be sensitive enough to listen to their officers, and to actually give them advice that's helpful rather than just suck it up and get out there. Which I did experience at another department but I won't say which one. So in my opinion This man is working my own miracles here. The officers that are, again some of them are back there that we hired for whatever reason their other agencies they applied for didn't take them that was their loss because we gained millions by hiring them and having them here so in training those officers it just made my job really easy because They're a lot smarter than I am.

So if you live in Hueneme, rest easy. You're well protected. Well protected. And as I said it's the chief steers the ship and he's done an incredible job of doing that these past years. And he's motivated the staff here like I have never seen before. Yeah, I'm a little sad because – well not a little, a lot. Because I won't be a part of that anymore. In spirit yes but to be able to watch it and experience it was incredible and something I will never forget.

And certainly I won't forget the guys back there, the good ones and the bad ones or not bad ones. They're not bad ones. Just the ones where I maybe pull my hair a couple times on some things that happened, but nothing really that bad. I joke. I'm sorry. So anyway it's been my pleasure to be here all these years and to have a hand in protecting the citizens of this city.

Staff too because we have each other's backs so thank you for letting me stand up here and talk

Great, thank

you.

Give us just a couple of minutes

I Just like to extend Extend our gratitude for your dedication to our community the city of Port Hueneme Your service In your dedication, thank you for coming back to us. Your fingerprints are all over the place and you will be remembered through the training of our officers which is great. You have been a cornerstone of our community and I just want to take this time to thank you.

Yes, I think our mayor started off with something really important that is probably appropriate. Stress Awareness Month and you retiring and being able to be at ease and not have the stress that comes with the job behind you although I know you miss it and still figuring out what you want to do in your retirement but I'm sure your wife is happy To have you home and safe and not have to deal with that, but maybe we'll see about that. If I know the Lopez's, you might be driving your wife crazy.

But thank you for your service and thank you for your commitment to our community and thank you for a job well done in everything that you've done so we appreciate you Thank

you. Yeah, thank you very much and I got to know you at Oxnard High School where you were there every day protecting students being at football games and then it was a pleasure to see you come over here and then to learn that you had worked here before and you're coming back and here we are in our old age. I don't think you'll retire. I don't know if you know how to sit around.

I can see you being active and there's plenty of things And so stay in touch, get involved. We're here and I really appreciate the service that I look behind all these wonderful officers behind you and they're young very young compared to me and you and I think we were in good hands and maybe not your fingerprints but definitely your influences here in the room and thank you so much.

Detective Rokey, thank you Lopez. Thank you so much for all your years of experience every time I'm out I always see you there's not I can't say that about the other officers but I see you all the time here your mainstay in this community and You're always friendly always professional at least to me When I see you out in public, so thank you again for your many years. I hope we continue to see you out in our community.

Thank you.

Great and I think everything's been said just so glad that you were able to serve our community and it's nothing like retirement for those of you who have been able to be retired like myself and a couple people But hopefully you won't be like me and be more busy in your retirement than you were at work. And the final thing is, you said that you're not a public speaker but I beg to differ. You did really well so thank you for all your service and being here today.

One last thing is this, I can't say enough about Chief You know, having been here all these years, it's night and day. Staff is actually happy to come to work. There was a period there in the past where it didn't look too good but now it seems like everything On the right path, way to go. And I attribute it to the chief because he set the tone.

Thank you. We're going to do two things. We're going to take a photo with your family and then I think... Do the officers want to come and take a picture as well? Second? Okay we'll do two. We'll do the family and then we'll have the officers come down.

And when Roque was saying the good ones and the bad ones, I think he didn't mean bad. He meant the difficult ones to train. See retired Sergeant Perez, Rick Perez for the list of people that he's over there mumbling.

One, two, three.

OK you all want to come down? You all want to come?

One, two, three.

Thank you. Thank you. Now we are going to move right along to item D our Port Hueneme Police Department annual report back over to you chief

Just a little taken back by somebody going out the door not trying to test for promotion. Makes you want to cry, he's a good man and we're gonna miss him. Good evening again, everyone. I'm going to be presenting your 2025 year end report and we'll touch on some things that we've accomplished over the last couple of years and I will touch on some things that are coming up in 2026 while I give this report but as you hear the accomplishments and what's happened in here it's because of the folks that just walked out of this room.

We run with a motto that none of us are smarter than all of us in this department And that, you know, public safety is teamwork and it's not just teamwork within the department. It's teamwork within this community. One of the best things about a smaller city because I worked in bigger cities is that Love to hear where residents talk about us being responsive, but when I can meet with all the members of All my HOA coalitions in a meeting We can we only have a handful of coffee houses that you could run into everybody in town It's not hard to be responsive. You just got to be present and in place and That's what happens here Whether it's coming from City Manager James Vega or your other department heads in the city, we are present.

Okay, you're in report. So reminding you of our mission, vision and values that we recently brought to the police department in the last couple of years. Brought together by the team is that our vision is leading our community's efforts in safety enrichment and engagement. And our mission serving our community with respect, compassion and courage. And you will hear respect, compassion and courage throughout the work we do and throughout the presentation.

Our values, respect, integrity, compassion, And a strong point to employee enrichment and wellness. And yes, as an agency we put that into our values. Quick note you'll hear later it's the first time ever the Portland Police Department has intended the California State Peace Officers Memorial. And I will mention that later but that is your favorite motorcycle officer. It's Anthony Martinez at attention at the memorial in Sacramento.

So staffing levels. Our total funded positions are 24 sworn officers and 13 professional staff with five volunteer reserve officers. So at the end of 2025, we had the one police chief and one commander. And in field services division, we had three sergeants with one vacancy, and one of those is a collateral traffic motor sergeant. Senior officers there's three in our field services division that's patrol and traffic with one of them being a collateral motor Of your police officers in addition to that staff I just mentioned is nine two vacancies And two of those nine are canines handlers but Keep in mind. We were very happy that we were the first agency in Ventura County to get fully staffed in the year prior to this It's not that's not easy to do when the bigger agencies have vacancies they tend to fill up before we do and We filled up first.

And then unfortunately, due to a death in one's family and they had to move back to the East Coast and another one had a serious medical issue and the family asked him to go back and run the family business which I don't blame them for doing. They did try to stay on as reserve officers for awhile but it's really hard to fly out from New York and be a reserve officer.

We had five reserves by the end of the year and one community service officer and the two parking officers that had been there for their full complete year brought back over from Community Development. Your investigative services, there's two sergeants assigned Detective Sergeant running the shop in-house and then one sergeant, Baltazar Tapia who's assigned to the Organized Retail Theft Task Force which has been an incredible success throughout the county in their accomplishments. And then if you saw our recent caper, one of their largest capers was one that started here In Port Hueneme a couple of months ago, in just having the relationship with the business and the cooperation and them calling us and looking into the case and handing it to ORT.

The two suspects in our city had already hit a whole bunch of raw stores and led to a much bigger chain and fencing That's the kind of stuff ORT does because the manpower involved in an investigation like that and the resources are tremendous. So we offer one person to help lead that team, but there's a whole handful of police officers from other cities and deputies that helped you run that case.

Again with staffing levels on the administrative side and our support staff We have our sport services division manager this first full year with a full-time Support Services Manager. It's Frank Monalongo. It's doing incredible work And then in dispatch, we have one dispatch supervisor or five dispatchers but keep in mind all of them including the supervisor have a shift to tend to so we always try to have as many on during the busy hours as we can and The least on during the slowest hours One property and evidence technician, and two senior records technicians. We have 13 explorers by the end of the year we had 13 explorers and two chaplains. And even since then we've we were always gaining explorers number 14 and up anybody wants to send their explorers to the police department send those kids 14 and That's the latest picture of your department as a whole, minus just a couple of folks.

We tried to duplicate a picture from 1985 that was on the gazebo with about half as many people. The photographer we had come up to handle that, professional photographer does agencies and military all over the world. He did individual photos of our personnel. He did that abstract stance which was different than we ever did but it's cool you can see everybody in the picture We did not pay for that as a city I funded that whole thing he was an incredible person he did it worked us a real good deal Economic development. I put him I paid to put him up in the hotel across the street holiday Express shout out and Had him come in and do this because it gave us the opportunity To have individual shots for all of the personnel in the department in their their latest class a uniform Call summary, 9-1-1 calls.