City Council — September 8, 2026

Okay good evening everyone and welcome to the City Council regular meeting. I'm calling this meeting to order, the time is now 6 30 p.m.. Please stand and join us for the flag salute. Thank you. Madam Clerk, please take roll.

Council Member Goma?

Here.

Council Member Lopez?

Here.

Council Member Perez? Here. Mayor Pro Tem Hernandez? Here and Mayor McQueen-Lachon?

Here and we're going to have our inspiration tonight by Council Member Lopez. Thank You.

A little inspiration, yesterday we had a day off. Hopefully everybody got to enjoy Labor Day. I know some of us still had to work but I just wanted to recognize this. Every Labor Day some of us fire up the grill, relax with family, enjoy well earned break. But this day has always meant more than just a long weekend. It is a debt of gratitude to the everyday people whose hands built this country and keep it standing.

Labor Day honors the American labor movement and celebrates the social, economic, and cultural contributions of workers across the country. Right here in Ventura County that story you can see it. You can feel it every single morning as I drive down Hueneme Road. I see the farm workers working in a field Bow down, picking rolls of strawberries or tending to citrus orchards carrying a proud legacy of resilient hard work, one dignity.

When Ventura County feeds our nation is the grit skill of the people in our fields that same spirit runs through every corner of our community we see it on the docks here at Port Hueneme where ILWU longshoremen workers guide heavy cranes to keep cargo moving across the Pacific. You see it in our building trades, the carpenters, pipe fitters, electricians framing homes and rising skylines across Camarillo to Ventura.

What really makes it home is our own public works employees at CIU keeping our parks clean, maintaining our roads and managing vital infrastructure. Our peace officers out in patrol keeping our neighborhood safe, and the nurses and healthcare staff pulling long shifts in our clinics. The teachers showing up for our kids every morning, and the civilian mechanics and military personnel keeping operational mission ready across Point Mugu and Port Hueneme.

Labor Day is a simple truth. Every job has dignity, and every worker deserves respect. Thank you.

Yes, closed session item a there is no reportable action. Closed session item B there's no reportable action.

Great thank you

Yes, first up is Martin Sanchez.

Good evening everyone. My name is Martin Sanchez I live on Scott Street and the 660 block and as you may all be aware a couple of years ago we had extensive flooding I attended a meeting such as this one after the fact, and I inquired about the contingencies that the city had to make sure that doesn't happen again. I inquired about the pump house that's on Third Side Drive I inquired if it had been retrofitted or if there was any plans to retrofit it so that it could accept additional power in the case of a power outage.

Because without the pumps, there's going to be flooding there and at that time I was informed Someone would give me that information later on. To this date, I have not received anything and perhaps I was supposed to come and inquire personally. Is there any information about

it? Yes, I believe that our Public Works Department actually had put some information together on that so we'll have the Public Works Department get back to you.

I would really appreciate that. Me, personally as quite a number of the residents in that block we suffered extensive damage. In our household we had over $30,000 in damage. The raised foundation part of the house in the front, the whole raised foundation was flooded The addition in the back, which was on a slab. The water came in through the walls. So consequently all of the drywall had to be replaced to a certain height and I didn't inquire with all the other neighbors but I'm assuming that they had similar damage as well.

And previous to that event My mistake was I didn't take the name of the person that I talked to when they were cleaning up their creek. I did inquire at that time if there were any contingency plans the city had regarding that pump and regarding in case of a power outage, what was the plan? I have some knowledge on the issues of pumps because I used to work for the State of California, the Department of Transportation.

And I was in charge of the pump houses in the state highway system. And I couldn't see any retrofit connections for a generator, a three-phase generator which those pumps do require.

Great thank you. Thank you as our city manager said someone will reach out to you from Public

Works. I

would

really appreciate it. We also have some items coming up talking about some of the storm preparation we've done in the city as well so we'll also share some of that information

but thank you for your comment.

Bobby Martinez?

Good evening Mayor McQueen-Lajon, Mayor Potem-Hernandez, City Council members of our community and our staff. I want to invite you all to our second annual fundraiser for the Hueneme Sister Cities Committee. It's Tacos Music and Games Night it's next Monday September 14th and it's from 5 to 8 p.m. At 6 o'clock, we'll start the performance from the Hueneme High School Flacorico Dance.

And we're also going to have the Ocho Estrellas Mariachi from the whole district perform right after that. We'll have games before and after and we'll have raffles. I want to invite you all and just let you know that as a way of saying thank you for letting us use the community center. I do have a ticket for all of you Council members, sorry not the attorney or the city manager. Sorry you guys will have to get your own. But hopefully you can all join us and it's for a great cause. Last year we were able to put out scholarships or you want to think of them as prizes for the kids in our community that participated in the scholarship And we want to do it again, and we want to do it bigger than we did last year. So hopefully everyone can come out and support.

I think it's a really good way to bring the community together and just enjoy some of the great things that we're doing here in our city. Thank you.

Great, thank you.

Everett Arellano and Steven Goma

Thank you. Everett's going to make a request here and I just wanted to come and stand behind him, had a longstanding relationship with his father, surfer fisherman kind of don't quite see eye-to-eye but his father was a beautiful person and I'm standing here behind him to support him.

Hello dear Mayor and members of the Port Hueneme City Council my father Romeo Oligoni Ariano passed away on March 14th 2025 Sorry, allergies. Prior to his passing while in the end stage of his life he asked to be taken to the Hueneme Pier for one last visit. While I was pushing him in his wheelchair on the pier we came face-to-face with Mr. Gamma here. The interaction followed was priceless.

My father had a long friendly relationship with Mr. Gamma going back many years They had an ongoing discussion regarding the surfers who surfed near the pier. My father would say, there's a whole beach why do they have to surf here where we fish? Mr. Gamble's response was always the same because this waves are here. The relationships he had with pier and his fishing buddies personify The connections people have with the ocean.

My father spent countless days fishing from the pier for him, fishing was far more than a pastime. It was a meaningful expression of his Filipino culture and heritage. Each visit connected him to family traditions, treasured memories and deep relationship with the Filipino community that has long been shared with the ocean here in the city of Port Hueneme. My father became part of the life and character of Hueneme Pier.

His familiar presence reflected the quiet beauty of our waterfront People gathering across generations, sharing stories, practicing traditions and finding peace beside the sea and interacting with surfers. A plaque honoring my father would recognize not only a beloved local fisherman but also the cultural history and contributions of the Filipino community in the city of Por Hueneme It would remind future generations that the story of our pier is written through a way, the lives of people who loved it and made it an integral part of their lives.

Respectfully I request that the City of Port Hueneme allow or create a way to honor the memory and legacy of Hueneme Pier fishermen Starting with my father by allowing our family to place a commemorative plaque on Hueneme Pier.

Great, thank you. You're done?

Sorry.

Okay go

ahead. Just one more

paragraph.

I sincerely hope the city will consider this heartfelt request and allow my father's memory to remain in the place where he spent so many meaningful days 40 years worth Such a tribute would provide comfort to his family and friends while preserving his connection to Hueneme Pier for generations to come. I note that there is a brick memorial near the entrance of the pier where families have bought a brick to honour their loved ones.

My hope is that a similar program can be created so a uniform and approved method can be in place to honor the many fishermen of

Hueneme Pier. Thank you. Thank you so much, thank you. Can you just say your father's last name? You said Romero? Arellano. Arellano, thank

you. Okay,

thank you so much. Okay, we're gonna now move on to the agenda approval May I have a motion and a second to approve the agenda

move to approve

Great madam clerk, please take roll

all in favor All opposed hearing none motion passes unanimously

Thanks. Do we have any members of council that have a conflict of interest to disclose for any item on the agenda? Okay, we'll move on to the presentations. We'll start with the National Suicide Prevention Month Proclamation and so I'd like to welcome Amaya Zumaya to the podium while Council Member Perez reads their proclamation.

Thank you. Proclamation is in honor of National Suicide Prevention Month, whereas September is recognized as National Suicide Prevention Month providing an opportunity to raise awareness reduce stigma promote hope and support those affected by suicide Whereas suicide is a serious and preventable public health issue affecting individuals, families and communities throughout Ventura County and across the nation.

And whereas according to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention, suicide is one of the leading causes of death in United States and every life lost represents a profound tragedy for loved ones and the community. And whereas, Ventura County Behavioral Health through funding provided by the Mental Health Services Act is supporting community-based suicide prevention by making evidence based trainings available at no cost to the public.

Whereas community partners including MZ Independent Consulting help advance suicide prevention efforts by encouraging community members to participate in free suicide prevention training such as QPR, question persuade refer or living work safe talk. To recognize warning signs and learn how to take action to save lives whereas the City of Port Hueneme recognizes the importance of fostering a community in which individuals feel valued supported connected and encouraged to help To seek help when facing mental health challenges. And therefore be it proclaimed that the City Council of the city of Port Hueneme hereby recognizes the month of September 2026 as National Suicide Prevention Month and encourages all to take part in suicide prevention efforts by becoming informed, offering support and promoting mental wellness.

The City Council further recognizes MZ Independent Consulting for its efforts in raising awareness and offering hope, support and resources to those who may be struggling. Would you like to have words? Yes,

thank you. Good evening council members I just want to thank again the city of Hueneme for honoring such an important topic and like the proclamation says we are offering these free trainings We just did six trainings today almost 400 students at Del Sol High School And we would love to partner with your city those who have businesses in this city Non-profits, we would like to partner with you so that we can also make an impact in the city of Port Hueneme.

We have saved lives through these classes and work with people to help prevent suicide, so it is making a difference But we do know 988 calls are increasing, as well as suicides in our county. So we would love for as many community members as possible to take advantage of these free classes. There's several different types at several different levels so there's something that fits everybody We also encourage the school district to participate as well. So, we're doing classes all across Oxnard Unified School Districts and we want to encourage the City of Port Hueneme to partake as well. Thank you again for honoring this very important month.

Thank You. Would y'all like to go down for a photo?

Ready? One, two, three. I want to do one for Maya's funeral. One, two, three. Let me see just in case. All right. I was like you have like

OK, for our next. For next proclamation, I'm going to go ahead and read this doesn't look like we have anyone to accept it, but I know you're going to have words after. OK, great. This is the Proclamation National Preparedness Month and 9-11 Remembrance. Whereas September is National Preparedness Month and offers us the opportunity to reflect on significant disasters we have encountered, including the September 11th attacks and recent winter storms.

And whereas during this month our community honors and remembers the lives lost on September 11th and the brave Americans who displayed extraordinary acts of courage and sacrifice. And whereas severe storms and other hazards remind us that we live in a world of constant risk, where the next emergency could occur at any moment. And preparedness can mean the difference between inconvenience and tragedy And whereas National Preparedness Month is a crucial opportunity for the residents and businesses of Port Hueneme to prepare for all types of emergencies, whether at home, work or in recreational spaces.

And whereas National Preparedness Month encourages individuals to take steps toward personal preparedness ensuring that households, workplaces, schools, institutions of higher learning Houses of worship and community-based organizations are equipped to handle disasters and reduce loss of lives and economic impact in the event of a crisis. And whereas participation in community emergency response training empowers more citizens to take action, enhancing their preparedness and understanding of potential disasters whether natural or manmade and equipping them with the knowledge to stay safe and mitigate damage. And whereas emergency preparedness is the shared responsibility of every resident of Port Hueneme, and all are encouraged to prioritize preparedness by working together to ensure our community is ready for any type of disaster or emergency.

And whereas, engaging in National Preparedness Month activities will position Port Hueneme as a leader in preparedness and contribute to the overall resilience of our nation. Now therefore be it proclaimed that the City Council of the city of Port Hueneme does hereby proclaim the month of September 2026 as National Preparedness Month in the city of Port Hueneme and encourages all residents businesses and organizations to participate in preparedness activities, and contribute to building a more resilient Port Hueneme. And further encourages all to honor and remember the lives lost on September 11th 2001, and to recognize the courage service and sacrifice of those who responded. Proclaim this eighth day of September 2026 signed by our council members over to you city manager.

Thank you mayor and Yeah, when we put this agenda together a couple weeks ago. We put the agenda out last Monday. We were thinking that we were being proactive and ahead of the curve and Trying to be prepared and remind our community to be prepared. As I mentioned earlier, we are planning to have some items related to preparedness come to Council in coming months but also we're looking ahead to what we're hearing is going to be a potential super El Nino this year and so I think we wanted to start reminding people early to start preparing This year is that it has potential to be particularly problematic for Port Hueneme with potential storm surges, king tides and a lot of rain in a short time period which is a bad recipe for us here in Port Hueneme.

So we thought we were being proactive and then right after I put the agenda out, we got a hurricane notice last week. And so luckily the hurricane ended up not hitting Southern California but it just kind of reflects that idea that those extreme weather events that used to be once in a lifetime aren't once in a lifetime anymore I think we've had two hurricane warnings in the last three years, and then between those we had one in 10,000 year level storms.

So it's definitely reminding everybody to take emergency preparedness seriously. Our list of things we're doing for preparedness is long, even just things behind the scenes that people may not know about. Things like working with the Red Cross to create a local emergency shelter which is something that we've never had specific to the City of Port Hueneme previously And some of the work mentioned earlier, even just things that may not seem like emergency related but things like removing all the debris from the creeks is done to ensure that the creeks can then move water in an emergency and that it's not going to back up.

We're really trying to build emergency preparedness into everything we do. But we want to remind our residents, as the proclamation said, it is a joint effort and it really requires everybody to be prepared and to take the steps to prepare for the next emergency so we wanted to give some reminders on that. We've also put some of this information recently in posts online and will plan to do more during National Preparedness Month But we wanted to remind people to prepare. Learn the hazards where they live, work and attend school. Plan how to evacuate or shelter safely.

Include children, older adults, people with disabilities and pets in plans. Keep emergency contacts current and written down. And practice before an emergency occurs and help your friends and neighbors prepare. With the communication plan, we have some information here on Things that should be included in the communication plans. Things like meeting places, evacuation routes, household needs such as medication and we hear every emergency that one of the key things is people realize that they need medication or food for animals so that's something else to just be prepared for And just keeping preparedness in mind and practicing and updating plans and reviewing those every year. So it's part of why we do National Preparedness Month every September.

We also remind everybody to be prepared by building a kit, having a go bag, a stay box, water and food, health and safety equipment, power and information. That's becoming more and more common now with all the public safety power shutoffs too, but being prepared and having phone chargers, battery-powered items, power banks, things like that. And then having copies of identification insurance and contact information cash and keys, and comfort items for children and food and supply for pets. We also just want to take a moment to remind everybody of resources that are available for information.

There's a new one so we really wanted to highlight that but VC alert and VC emergency I know we've really tried to get the word out on those in recent years. I think a lot of people have signed up for those there's also readyventuracounty.gov But the new one that is just being released is Aware California, which can be found at aware.ca.gov and my understanding is our Ventura County Fire Department across the county is really kind of moving to putting a lot of information on AWARE And so that's going to be a new key one.

There had been like third party applications and things that were pretty good and pretty reliable, but this is now going to be the official public safety app. So we had a lot of people on our team sign up for this recently and there's already significant amount of notifications and things on there. And then for some of these weather conditions that we're seeing, we remind everybody to check official sources for weather forecasts and warnings because you do see misinformation. Some people seem to try to scare people but I know we had gotten an alert I think by Wednesday that there is no impact expected from the Hurricane warning and then we saw that some people were still posting things which seem to try to scare people but having an official source like weather.gov is a good thing to bookmark so you can check during emergencies And as I said earlier, the key is really just getting preparedness in mind and always trying to take steps to prepare and building those things into your plans.

Just thinking about being prepared every once in a while isn't really... It doesn't really get you there. So we remind everybody to take steps, a step at a time and every September National Preparedness Month kind of check your checklists and your go bags and make sure you have accurate websites and things to get information from. I will just close with yeah, we've had people ask are we concerned about the potential of the Super El Nino and the answer is yes. And what we would tell everybody you know is get prepared now and we're also working on trying to get prepared now Because the last Super El Nino, there were impacts to things like our infrastructure and things which just something like the pier is not built to withstand those types of conditions.

So we're trying to do the steps we need to do but we also want to remind everybody to start preparing because Right now it's still early being forecasted but most people seem to agree that they think it will be impactful this year. So we want to get prepared now and our Public Works Department has really taken a lot of the effort of creating the sandbags and distributing those sandbags so those are still available and people may want to get prepared and get some of those ahead of time as well in our public works yard, so And with that that's all we have for preparedness month

Thank you. Can we have. Yes okay so let's start of the Lopez been

around or not supposed to we're not supposed. To talk to public comments but since we're talking about this I want to direct my questions to you would it be okay to just to provide a the city you know our maintenance upkeep plan and Just a quick, you know, maybe public works can brief the city on the state of our drainage going out, our outflow. I think it would be good just so the residents can see what's been done.

Yeah, so like a future presentation related to drainage work. If the council would like that we could do a presentation on something like that I can note that for example our teams went out and checked all the flood channels last week ahead of the hurricane warning That's something we typically do for each storm. But if the council could request a presentation on that.

Yeah, like let's talk about the areas that were flooded and things that we can do, any upkeep we can get in those areas as well. That's all I got. Thanks.

So regarding that, to follow that, two of the issues that came up during the flooding were not our own. They were the pump station in Oxnard and then the channel for the county. Have any of those agencies, have you been involved in conversations regarding those items? Since they were a problem the last time it flooded

Yeah, I think we've had several follow-up conversations with various agencies. Just to reiterate the Channel Islands drainage and well some of the other drainages as well are actually county I think you may recall because you were the mayor at the time of that incident that we had been told that the county drainage team would come do a presentation explaining You know, what things that were done and things like that following the event.

They ended up having a lot of staff turnover so that never happened with that group but we've had some meetings where we still initiated meetings to try to have the county to make sure that the county is aware of our concern. So we've had several meetings along those lines

And we were waiting on a report to

actually. Yeah, there was supposed to be a report and then they were going to come present it at council and that ultimately did not happen.

And just a comment my husband was part of the rescue when the first El Nino came in he remembers the water being waist deep in houses so if it's gonna be worse than that then

I think I recall us, council being briefed about the pump being replaced and the mechanism on how it got put out of service. And I think I even recall the photographs that were shown of us. No but we had a conversation that Brian spoke to, is that correct?

I don't recall it was three years ago, but we had done some follow-up presentations on some of the items we had authority over. But there were some that the county was supposed to come back and present on as well.

Did you have any comments? I had a comment and question. I was in fact going to ask during agenda review to agendize A discussion on what we can expect to happen with this upcoming El Nino. We hear it's going to be a super El Nino, but is it gonna be super rain or is it gonna be super drought? We don't really know, but I think we need to be prepared either way. And I appreciate the presentation that you did here tonight, James is very helpful.

But I think this talks about what the public should do. I think to keep our public reassured that the city's doing everything they can do, I would like to hear that presentation on our flood channels, what's being done, where people get sandbags and even how to place sandbags And FYI, the Friends of the Library and our county library are going to be hosting on October 10th a community presentation on El Nino preparedness. So I think that, and the city's gonna be helping, Public Works will be helping with that so I think it's a good partnership and a good opportunity to get our residents better prepared.

So more to come on that.

Great thank you.

And Mayor, we had one public comment regarding this presentation. OK. Mr. Martin Sanchez, you can go ahead and provide your public comment regarding the presentation.

What I've heard is great. However, you have to consider that no matter how much the homeowners prepare. It's going to overwhelm us if the main thing, the pump's not working During the last time it flooded, I was personally out there and I noticed the big pump wasn't working. Only the four-inch one for the nuisance water. That's why I brought the issue about additional power. Why wasn't it working?

I know that they have to cycle through it because they're not 100% cycled. And that's why they usually have two or three pumps so there's a complete cycle, because they may be 33% cycle, 60% cycle but they accumulate and there's at least one large pump working. A four-inch pump is not going to do anything. Keep in mind that Scott Street is the lowest spot and it's the outflow for all the watershed that comes from J Street Pleasant Valley Road, Ventura and Hueneme Road. All the water heads there.

All the water has to be handled by that pump into the creek. And if the pump's not working how much no matter what you prepare I had sandbags all the way around my house.

Thank you so much.

And I think while you were preparing to speak, the council asked for an item to discuss city preparations. To answer your question for a future meeting.

One last thing if I may make one more comment?

Ten seconds.

Okay. Ten seconds. I've lived in this area since the early 60s. I remember when there was nothing here it was flood plain. It was wetland. We took it over. We had to have some of the consequences, but at that time the watershed was still existing. Now with all the buildings, the watershed is gone so it has to go somewhere.

Yes thank you so much.

So then the item that you're referring to would have to be a separate agendized item. It can't be discussed on this agenda by state law? Yes yes and we've discussed over the years but we can schedule a future one.

Yeah someone's going to get back to you. Thank you So we are going to will now recess from the City Council meeting and call to order the Housing Authority regular meeting. The time is now 7 o 8 Madam Clerk, please take roll.

Member Goma?

Here.

Member Lopez?

Here.

Member Perez? Here Vice Chair Hernandez? Here Chair McQueen-Lejeune? Here I'll let the record reflect that member Brown is absent

Great, we will now hear public comments not pertaining to items on the agenda. Comments will be limited to three minutes if you are participating via zoom please use the raise hand feature this process will be the same for the agenda items madam clerk are there any public comments?

No public comments

Great. We'll now move to the Housing Authority Consent Calendar. Madam Clerk, are there any public comments? Oh I did that already.

No public comments for the consent calendar.

Perfect thank you. Okay so these items in the consent calendar will be approved in one motion unless an authority member would like to request to remove an item from the agenda. Any items to be removed?

I'd like to pull Item 3.

Item 3? Anyone else? If not, is there a motion and a second for items one and two?

Move to approve items one and two.

Second. Can we get a roll call please?

All in favor?

Aye.

All opposed? Hearing none, motion passes unanimously.

Great. Council Member Lopez you can go ahead and talk about

this. There's in the disbursements, there is a catch-all vendor account. And it's 9999. And it's all Willowbrook. Is that like a catch-all account number?

Can you say what page you're on so we can take a look at where you are?

Three. Starts at three-ish. I have the disbursement sheet.

So you look at the vendor numbers? What

page was that, did you say?

It just starts number three on the disbursement sheet for the housing.

OK. It'll say like Willowbrook and they're like five nines. Is that a catch-all number? Because what I noticed in the other disbursements, they're all nines as well for other things.

Yeah, which column? I see numbers ending in 5247. They're vendor numbers.

It's on page 27 of 74. And it's the vendor number to the left.

Okay, yeah I believe those are if there isn't so these are all all these credits that show or like refunds and so I think it's if it's not a vendor with with a vendor number but a like a refund to a customer then they're all categorized as nine nine nine nine nine

Okay just want to make sure that's what I thought it was.

Yeah, I'll let everybody know if there's some other meaning to it but I don't believe so.

Okay

okay can I get a motion and a second for item number three?

Second. All in favor? Aye. All opposed? Hearing none, motion passes unanimously.

Okay so are there any members any authority members have any reports or comments to make this time no go ahead

I received a letter from a resident of Mar Vista and I forwarded the letter to city manager to send over to Housing Inc. and I was hoping that we could be Presented in the future with how the voucher program is administered Because I don't have any knowledge of how it's administered. I just know that we do have a voucher program And I'm kind of vague on how it works, so Maybe in the future we could

What I'll do, I think the answer sort of depends. And I think the first question is if it's an HHI duty and responsibility so I have forwarded it to HHI to ask for their input on it. If it's not then it would still be a City Council responsibility so then we could have a future item on that but I forwarded it earlier today so I don't know the answer to that yet.

Thank you.

Any other comments? Okay,

No public comments for City Council consent.

Okay so these items will be approved in one motion unless a council member would like to pull an item are there any items that you would like to request to be pulled from the consent calendar

I have item four Item four. And item six. And six,

okay anyone else?

I was going to ask for item five to be pulled just a quick question and also six.

Okay great anyone else? Okay so can we can I get a motion and a second for items one through three?

Move to approve items 1 2 3

Great. Madam Clerk, please make a roll call. All in favor? Aye.

All opposed? Hearing none motion passes unanimously.

Great thank you. Councilmember Lopez do you have any what do you have for number four?

Yeah so I was looking at the conflict of interest for the biannual review and adoption on page 1 of 15 there's a modification to position title all the way at the bottom the Confidential Analyst Disclosure Category 5-9. But when you read the resolution, it states that the disclosures are 1 and 2 on page 5 of 15. So I just wanted to make sure that we annotated this right

Yeah, I would say the staff report that shows five and nine is incorrect. That's a typo and I'm guessing that was probably the prior categories And that one in two are where the intended changes so The idea being that Similar to the senior planner position that was also created, but the management analyst and the senior planner work on very similar projects including with developers and things like that. And so the highest levels of disclosure category level one and two would be appropriate for those.