City Council — January 21, 2026

Thank you. Good evening everyone, I'd like to call to order the regular meeting of the Santa Paula City Council this Wednesday January 21st 2026 here at 630 p.m. at the city hall 970 East Ventura Street We'll start first with invocation if we could please if you're able to stand and I believe we have Deacon Al Galin

That's great

Heavenly Creator, we are gathered here to thank you and humbly ask for your blessing for our community. Guide us by your wisdom and the grace given to us by the Holy Spirit so that we may be unified in our desires and plans for the betterment of our community. We thank you for your guidance as we celebrate our city's 100th anniversary and our country's 250th anniversary.

These accomplishments were not easy, but with your guidance and justice has prevailed. Martin Luther King said yet we know that injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere. And with these guidance let your compass lead us to the goodwill of our elected officials here in our city and our country. We thank you for all the gifts that you have showered on us and that they will inspire us to inspire others.

And we remind ourselves that we must never go weary of doing what is right, and to see with our eyes, hear with our ears, and understand with our hearts. Amen.

Thank you.

And Mr Mayor, I would like to say one more thing if I may. I'd like to thank you for inviting the Ministerial Association to come and open the meetings with prayer. I think that's remarkable and also as a reminder of the 250 anniversary as a gift from me to every one of you has a little flag like this That just a reminder that this is 250 years of which is the remarkable occurrence and they're just as a reminder from us to you.

Madam Clerk, could we have a roll call please?

All present

Thank you. City Attorney Monica Castillo do we have a closed session report?

Yes Mayor, this evening council are assessed in a closed session under the item 4A that is in your special meeting agenda. Conference with legal counsel anticipated litigation significant exposure to litigation pursuant to government code section 54956.9 D2 and E1 for one potential case there were no reportable actions taken. This concludes my report.

Thank you very much and Madam Clerk do we have any general public comment

No, Mayor. I've received no cards for that.

Okay. I see we have several for item 10G, George. We move on to the first sort of business which is presentations. Tonight I believe we have several of our water division employees in the audience and I'd like to say that for those who don't know many years ago The Water Company had its own company here in town and about 30 years ago this city basically absorbed the employees And you've done a great service over the years, as have your predecessors. We are going to recognize two of our employees that have 30 years of service, 30 years with the city.

So in a minute I'll name them but for the division itself so that when you go back to your office we have a nice plaque here. Let me read it for you. So City of Santa Paula, 30 years, or Santa Paula, City of Santa Paula Water, 30 years owned and operated 1996 to 2026. This plaque is presented to the City of Santa Paula Water Department for honoring 30 years of excellence in service, an appreciation of three decades of service, your enduring dedication, exceptional teamwork, and unwavering commitment to the residents of Santa Paula. Your service has made a lasting impact on our community and exemplifies pride in public service.

On behalf of the city council and the senior manager, we thank you. If you could- I also have two recognition awards but is there a spokesperson from Water Company that would like to speak? Or we can take all of you one at a time? Would you like to say a few words about the water division?

Well, I'm never short for words so thank you Mr. Mayor. Just pleased to have the opportunity as city manager to be here at such a significant milestone and I applaud not only the men who serve our And it is only men in that department, so I can say that. But applaud their efforts but the commitment that they've made to keep our community and our drinking supply available safe and secure has been really, I think a signature of this community. And it's because of their hard work that that's happened. I know the superintendent is out of town today, so he couldn't be here.

And most of the guys are a little shy at the microphone, but maybe they can come up and join you for a presentation of the plaque along with the recognition for both Tim Martinez and Joe Dugas for 30 years of employment. And hopefully a few more.

Well, you know I used to work for the city and I had the honor of working with those two employees. They're still here and I'm gone but thank you very much for your 30 years service. I'd like to read the two recognition certificates one is certificate of recognition in honor of 30 years of dedicated service and commitment to the City of Santa Paula Joe Dugas And same thing, certificate of recognition in honor of 30 years of dedicated service and commitment to the city of Santa Paula. Tim Martinez.

Tim Martinez also used to be a reserve police officer for a time so he knows about volunteerism. Could I get both of you to come up and just say a few words about your experience with 30 years of service? If you don't want to that's fine. All right how about Tim? He'll come up.

I'd like to say thank you to the council. I've done 30 years with the city, I had 13 years with Santa Paula Waterworks before I came to the city. Joe had another 8 years with Santa Paula Waterworks before we came over. Oh, they can probably hear me but it's been a journey. We have come from In a sense to say from the ground, we have accomplished a lot in the last 30 years. And I think before I leave, I'm getting ready.

I think we have a long way to go but I think we're getting there little by little and thank you and thank you my fellow employees.

Well

Joe if he

would come up I would like to give you both your certificates and then after that I'd like the entire council to come up and thank you for your service and we'll take a picture together

Timmy, same thing. Known you a long time and I thank you

for your 30 years back at school.

Would

the council join me? Would you two accept the plaque on behalf of The Water Company?

And Mayor, while the council's getting up there I'll just point out that Nick Lane was the one that designed the 30 year logo and got the sweatshirts for everyone. So kudos to him. Thank

you. And you can't leave after this or we'll lose our audience.

Thank you.

OK, so we didn't lose all our audience. Thank you for hanging with us here. Next 7B we have finance department report and this is going to be presented by Fabian Castillon, accountant.

Good evening Mayor and City Council. My name is Fabian Castellon I'm an accountant with the Finance Department Today, I will be presenting the department activity report for the past four months for the period of September 25 to December 2025 Beginning with monthly activity for accounts receivable. Accounts receivables responsible for preparing invoices and receiving refunds for various payments to the city, for items such as transient occupant tax, rent for city-owned properties, billing for COBRA and retiree health. I'm sorry, forgot that's the slide. Billing for COBRA and retiree health and special events and permits.

Next our licensing department which is currently heavily focused on business licensing The busiest time of the year for licensing is from November to December due to the thousands of renewal notices specific to business licensing being printed and mailed. The 2026 period began on July 1st, 2026. Licenses will be deemed delinquent as of February 10th, 2026. The department is also responsible for the monthly renewal and issuance of dog licenses.

Staff is currently focusing on processing these applications payments answering questions and issuing of licenses. Next is our accounts payable department. Accounts payable is responsible for processing the disbursements to cover financial commitments of the city In the four-month period, they have processed over 4,000 invoices totaling $10.4 million. Some of our biggest expenses in this time frame include $2.1 million in payroll related expenses such as retirement, taxes, benefits etc., a $600,000 contribution to affordable housing through The Spirit of Santa Paula, $400,000 in legal costs 1.6 million for utilities and sewer operating costs, and 1.3 million for professional services including work done relating to capital improvement projects And they are also responsible for reconciling the monthly warrants and check register that is presented to council For our purchasing department They have processed over 75 new purchase orders and have continued to provide support to various departments with regard to bid requirements responses etc In utility billing, our Utility Billing Department continues to work with residents on creating payment arrangements for delinquent accounts.

Working with customers to prevent shutoffs whenever possible. The amount of notices sent as well as the amount of physical shut offs conducted remains consistent across the period neither increasing nor decreasing substantially from month-to-month In payroll, payroll continues to train new staff on the time entry process. Payroll also has handled multiple retroactive calculations for pay increases in the period as well as the calculation and issuance of the MOU bonus payments that occurred in November and they've successfully processed quarterly reports related to state and federal reporting Sorry about that.

We do have a few staffing changes, we have one new employee who just started Ricardo Peralta as our new customer service representative. He started in January 2026. We do have one vacancy right now as the accounting specialist that is going to be filled come February 2026 And there is an interim change in duties. At the moment, our accountant Wendy Morris is currently cross-training and business licensing to help cover the position until the new accounting specialist begins.

And since she's no longer doing purchasing, our assistant finance director Beatriz Jimenez is currently handling purchasing related requests with a goal of streamlining the process – streamlining and standardizing the process. Other activities and achievements are TDA and street audits have been completed for the 24-25 fiscal year. Substantial progress has also been made on the 24- 25 regular audit year end process.

Staff has assisted with providing the data necessary for the water and sewer rate study so we can get that rolling, and our user fee study changes were submitted and approved so now it's just pending the updated fee schedule that finance will prepare. And with that, I'd like to conclude the presentation and ask if the council has any questions for our department.

Thank you, Mr. Castellon. Questions from council?

Go

ahead, Councilmember.

Thank you. Well, congratulations. You made it.

Thank you.

Great job on your presentation. Today, I'm always concerned about where we're at with the shutoffs. You said we're kind of people that are delinquent on their water bills. Do you know how many people are in that zone of risk?

So I spoke to Daniel today and he said the amount of shutoff notices is pretty level. It's around, I believe he said 400 to 450 every time he mails them out but the shutoffs has been pretty much consistent in terms of like less than a variance of 10.

Good, thank you for that information. No problem.

Thank you. Anyone else? I have a follow-up question to that under the utility billing it says staff continues to work with residents on utility payments and providing available assistance to avoid shofts when possible. Can you elaborate on that and if not I know that Finance Director Chrissy Ramirez is in the room what does that really entail providing available assistance?

Yes, so we primarily try to get customers that are delinquent on a payment arrangement so that we can avoid shut off if possible. But with payment arrangements they still do need to maintain a certain level I believe it's they cannot be more than 60 days past due. Sorry I have used to do usually but it's kind of fading. 60 days past due, so we try to help in regards to what will be a manageable payment that will get you back on track to paying everything that you owe and not get shut off. But also they still have to stay within the parameters and what it is that we can provide as a city.

Okay, so basically it's working with them to be able to make the payments but there is no funding available?

No not at the moment. I believe the assistance through LEWOP has ended.

Okay well thank you very much for your presentation. You did a great job.

Thank you.

Next we move on to item 7C Police Department Operational Overview and Independent Audit. Chief Aguilar

Good evening Mayor, Vice-Mayor, Council Members. Mr. City Manager, Madam City Attorney and Madam City Clerk and our viewing audience here tonight I'm here to provide a independent audit operational overview for the Police Department And as this audit is a part of our overall support to the commitment of Santa Paula PD. As my time has started here, I've focused on the philosophy of our organization becoming an enhanced professional organization to become a trusted public safety partner in our community and to improve community engagement. And we still are working on those all those facets of our organization I'm here to share the results of an independent audit tonight.

I'm here to acknowledge failures and outline corrective actions that are underway, and I'm here to also answer questions you may have for transparency. Tonight's department performance history covers the investigations unit We are here to address the issues of the investigations unit, improve performance, accountability to the community and of course essential transparency.

We have had a collaborative assessment with the district attorney's office here in the county There were concerns that were identified by the district attorney's office and they came to us and we worked together on this audit. This is not the current operation, but it is those of past and prior leadership of the chiefs here at Santa Paula Police Department.

We own and I own the need for the audit The concerns I saw in my immediate action were to rectify this situation. This audit was initiated by myself and the city and the police department. The timeline of this audit ranges from year 2020, excuse me 2017 to year 2023. I'm here to convey to you tonight the breadth and depth of this audit citing some examples of cases that are within the audit regarding felony assault cases.

We examined training, supervision, staffing and case management. The audit has included interviews and best practice comparisons. After review and assessment of cases between our agency and the district attorney's office, it was determined an independent review was absolutely necessary. Our concerns are purposeful for the audit itself The background regarding the circumstances of the audit, there was a scope and methodology.

It identifies significant findings and also review of department systems. In the findings we found that there were failures that were systemic and unacceptable. There was an overall failing and lack of leadership and supervision during that period of time And I'm here as the chief of police to own the mistakes and concerns of the department. Investigations did not meet professional standards.

There were gaps in supervision and accountability, and there was training in case tracking deficiencies. Again these issues predated current leadership and administration. And we have a commitment to the Santa Paula Police Department and most importantly to our community, to residents, to raise the bar for the police department operations like we've been working on.

I'm going to briefly go over recommendations that were provided by the audit, the independent review. There are 10 recommendations and I am here to report tonight on the progress of those recommendations that were addressed. Recommendation number one The department advertised for and hire personnel with specific areas of expertise to help them to investigate crimes.

And I'm here to report tonight that in response, in our progress to this we have hired several lateral entry police officers one of which had an extensive investigative experience who is now working in assigned to detectives Overall, we have hired 11 lateral entry police officers since December of 2023 that has added to our investigative experience. And out of those 11, four officers had various levels including significant investigative experience.

Recommendation number two, the department might consider outsourcing work which requires specific expertise We utilize this in the review of cases that were in the audit. Detectives from law enforcement agencies from throughout Ventura County worked with us, they supported Santa Paula in reviewing investigations, making recommendations and carrying out operations with us related to our investigations.

Professional alternatives for number three to existing models of service should be considered to improve community safety and restore a professional and accepted approach to investigating crime. Our model of service has changed. We have changed to our detective bureau, we now have three detectives and one detective sergeant. Prior to that there were two detectives and one detective sergeant In the upcoming months, shortly we are going to add another detective to the Detective Bureau.

In preparing information for this audit, a poll of state law enforcement agencies similar in size to our police department and population of our city normally staffed two detectives and one detective sergeant. Recommendation number four, a more direct less complicated approach would be to contract a neighboring agency for police services. As you know in November of 2023 we evaluated this.

Our police sworn staffing was sustained and we hired enough staffing to increase our levels to almost maximum staffing for our officers. The reality is today with not just our agency but other law enforcement agencies across the country, longevity and experience are difficult to sustain. And that's because for all these agencies due to increased scrutiny large numbers of experienced officers retiring. That is currently going on and we share the same struggles and challenges in getting qualified candidates to not only test, but it's a smaller group of candidates now and it's 100 make it through a background. But when we get a reduced number of candidates, it just makes our challenge that much more to try and find those to get hired to the job.

To be clear very few are interested in a highly scrutinized profession where accountability is completely magnified these days. Recommendation number five Hire an administrative manager or supervisor to ensure training compliance, work with other departments to develop training and handle other internal demands that are crucial for providing public safety. And our progress on that has been our administrative sergeant position was vacated for salary savings and budget considerations.

And we have opened a recruitment for an administrative analyst and that position is currently pending on hiring somebody so we are close to hiring that new staff member. Recommendation number six, the department must develop an operations manual for the division. And I'm happy to say on our progress that prior to the audit in our work here with my administrators, my commanders, an operations manual for the investigation division was drafted and it was completed before the audit was finished.

In addition, the department training plan was drafted and was also completed before the audit was finished. Recommendation number seven, identify and develop personnel who can be an asset to the investigative division. For our progress, prior to the audit detectives patrol officers received investigations related training provided by the District Attorney's Office.

We also had mandatory training essential training and scenario policy training at patrol briefings and that occurs every shift. In addition we have supervisory training with all bureaus civilian and sworn those are continuing to be conducted Every quarter we have supervisor meetings with both our sworn and civilian staff to work on issues, to work out problems and to cover training.

I will share with you that in our hiring processes, we have only had one officer leave after 2023, and that officer left due to commuting hardships to get here to come to work every day. Recommendation number 8, while testing is both reasonable and good management to get people in positions the present situation requires decisive leadership to fill these spots.

And our progress is prior to the audit adjustments were made in leadership positions upon my arrival a shift in leadership style has taken place We've recognized the need for leadership development and hiring of more experienced officers. For example, all of our sergeants have been entered through the Supervisory Leadership Institute which is an eight month leadership program so they can better lead the department as we move forward.

In addition, an adopted city's strategic goal is to add more police officer allocations in the next budget cycle or in additional budget cycles. Recommendation number nine, the department's history of personal issues demands clear resolution. Conduct staffing study and follow those recommendations. Our progress has been a comprehensive job classification study was conducted in November of 2024 and it was implemented.

The 2025 strategic plan was developed with our city council and our department heads. And there is specific metric was established for increased public safety by adding additional police officer allocations in budget cycles in the future. In recommendation number 10, the auditor was told that our Mark 43 computer-aided dispatch and new records management system upgrade would not be installed and running until September 25.

Our progress for this was we had a team that worked with the Mark 43 implementation team, and that upgrade was fully implemented and launched July 16th of 2025, so months earlier than was predicted. These include new interfaces that will help case management notations, computer equipment upgrades in our dispatch center for efficiency for response times and investigation information.

And our new laptops for all of our patrol vehicles were installed so that all of our officers can participate in case management as they take their reports as well in addition to detectives. Moving forward, recommendations have been addressed, have been met or they could be in continuing progress and development depending on what the goals are for some of the recommendations.

I've prepared an independent review statement and audit report. The independent review statement I have prepared, and the audit report are both available at our police department website and homepage at www.santapaulapd.org Again that's www.santapaulapd.org We anticipate future updates on our Investigations Bureau progress in June of this year I want to tell you tonight, in my experience working major crimes as an investigator previous years that we care about victims and victims matter.

Our police department is committed to operational practices that protect and serve the public and ensure justice We will continue implementing audit recommendations. We are here to maintain transparency with the community and to you, our city council. We will develop a plan to keep the community and the city council updated on our progress. And we will continue to rebuild trust through consistent and effective performance. With that I'll address any comments or questions you may have tonight.

Thank you, Chief. First of all I want to thank you for your candor and your willingness to as you say own it because you are the chief and the department is run under you so thank you for that and the fact that you took it upon yourself to investigate it before you were mandated. It is item number 7C and before I open it up to the council we don't have any I don't have any speaker cards, but I encourage anybody in the public that heard this presentation to step forward and ask any questions that you have of the chief or of this council.

Well, I don't think you've answered everyone's Council Member Chavez.

Thank you for your candor today, very sensitive subject. Can you explain to the public how these deficiencies came about and how they were identified?

Yes, thank you Councilmember Chavez. There was a case that came to the district attorney's office from analysis of evidence and when they returned a query to us about the case they realized that the case was still open and it was not completed That prompted meetings and review of cases going back in time to see if there were any other cases that were not complete or were not followed through. And we did find working together with the district attorney's office in a collaborative effort, District Attorney Eric Nazarenko, his Bureau of Investigations Chief Scott Whitney for working together with us to get to the bottom of it, prioritize and look at investigations that need to be completed.

And during that time we all, the district attorney's office investigators and our department continued investigation on those cases to their end to determine and get cases presented to district attorney for filing And all the way through either sentencing of the defendants or if the case could not be proved beyond a reasonable doubt, the case was not filed for charges.

It looks like you made significant improvements when these deficiencies were identified. We're always wanting to prevent situations in the future from happening and it looks like you've outlined How you're going to ensure those measures are in place. I do think it's important to acknowledge that the district attorneys work on this because there is an oversight, they caught something, they reported it and we were quickly, you were quickly with them to try to come up with some solutions to address these deficiencies so thank you for your honesty and candor and for the department's work on this and I appreciate that.

Thank you, Council Member Chavez. Thank you, Council Member Chavez. Vice Mayor Crosswright?

I should turn on my mic first. Can you tell us a little bit about how you've implemented oversight or what the process looks like so that going forward you'll know that the processes that you now have in place are being followed?

Yes, so with new records management system we have a the first thing is we have a more robust and accountable case management system. So that's number one. Number two as far as oversight we have supervision and when we talk about supervision we talk about what are the capabilities or what Qualifications is that supervisor, for example in the detective bureau have. Are we sending them to supervisory school? Are we sending them to homicide school? Are we sending them to core investigative school? Are we sending into leadership training?

All those things add up to how oversight is much better managed and And in addition to that, we have our administrative commander assigned to that bureau as well for even increased oversight over the supervisor in that bureau. To make sure that all facets of investigations are being addressed, audited on an ongoing basis so you can continue the path forward to providing solid thorough case work and presentation for cases at the district attorney's office for prosecution.

Thank you.

Thanks, Vice Mayor. Thank you, Vice Mayor.

Council Member Canelo?

Maybe it's more of a comment than a question, but just to bring the public up to speed a bit when this was brought to our attention last year. This has been ongoing. It's not been a last minute kind of thing and the council took it extremely seriously as did staff and we've recognized that as soon as some of these deficiencies were identified and brought to our attention It was not that we were trying to. Spin it or make it sound better it was fully at the insistence of Council and staff And systems to make sure that in the future that we function better, to better serve our city. So I just want to assure because this is probably new news to a lot of people that this has been something that's been ongoing. We're all very aware, we've been receiving reports about all the progress and the work being done to improve systems.

I just commend all the work that was done and I also appreciate very much. That everyone was very anxious and willing to collaborate with the district attorney so that it wasn't an adversarial type of situation. It was no, there are deficiencies or some systems that need improving. We will work together to make sure that we are still working together as agencies and the city with the county for the betterment of our whole community. So again, it's more of a statement than anything but maybe an explanation a little bit The process as well for this year is how we've been involved. Thanks.

Thank you, Council Member Cornelia.

I'll ask a question first and then I'll say something Chief in your perspective what are the most important safeguards now in place that give us confidence that these issues won't be repeated?

It comes out of three main areas, training, supervision and accountability. We have to give our staff appropriate training so they have the advanced skill set to go the extra mile to be thorough It comes down to supervision and oversight and accountability for those that violate policy, for those that can't do the job or are deficient in the job. We've been here to take action with our employees, corrective behavior whatever it takes to make them successful. That's what we're going to do.

That's what we've been doing and will continue to do that.

Thank you. And I just want to add to what Councilmember Cornejo said We all took it very seriously when it was presented to us, and not just as a councilwoman but as a mom and community member. I want to make sure that everyone who is just hearing about this for the first time or not, that they understand that as a council we expect the work to continue like Chief has talked about. It's very important that our community members understand We want our police department to be a place that people can come and report a crime to, that they feel confident that they're going to be protected. And that justice will do its job in whatever the case is and whatever it is that they're reporting.

So I hope to continue with the transparency that you're sharing tonight as a department and as a council. We owe it to our community and we owe it to victims of any crime that experience something That no one should. And I hope for updates or as a council we can agendize the item and bring back any other work that we're doing, collaboration whether it's the district attorney's office or on our own as a police department or a city to continue to honor victims and the process that should take place for whatever crime it is that they're reporting.

Thank you.

Thank you Council Member

Rodanellis. Thank you, anyone else? Well Chief the members of the public hearing this for the first time we want to assure them that they're going to come in and get the best service they can so with that in mind somebody might ask themselves are the people the employees that made these mistakes are they still serving in these positions or have they moved on retired and do you have new personnel in place?

They are currently not serving in these positions, and new staff has moved in that is experienced and has gained experience as the days go by with their skill set and completing the work.

Thank you. And one final note on that is we have a very young department with a lot of new officers but some with a lot of experience, and I really like the idea that you're bringing in personnel with experience and getting them on board to help with investigations. And I would certainly think that you're going to not just limit your investigator, like a sexual assault investigator to one person but maybe cross-train others so they share the wealth and the knowledge and experience.

Thank you, Mayor. And I just have one last comment. Our department cares. Our employees care. My commanders are here. I have civilian staff in the audience tonight. I know I have my staff who are not able to be here. They're watching this stream tonight. They care. They burden the weight as I do of these kind of shortcomings And we're on the right path, we've turned the corner.

The leadership in the past has not been adequate and we're here to be the change and transition for much better outcomes as the years go by. And I assure you that I'm committed as long as I am here to continue that path of positivity, thoroughness and solid work to represent and sustain the trust of our community. So I thank all of you tonight for your time.

Sorry, I just want to say one more thing. Sure. I want to thank the staff at all levels, civilian staff or sworn staff for all the work that they put in to rectify the problems once they were identified The specific things that were brought to us are not very easy things to one, report as a victim but also to handle. No one wants to talk about those things but they happen and so I wanna thank everyone in the department that put in the work to make the changes happen so that moving forward we better serve our community and we honor those victims as they come through.

And second, to touch on the accountability piece that you brought up Chief, I hope that the accountability is addressed in the same way no matter what the person's position is. If someone were to make a mistake, I understand that no one is perfect but These sensitive case, all cases have sensitivity that needs to be addressed. But making sure that accountability is even and equal for everyone clear across the board no matter what position they hold so that we can keep the transparency and the honor to the cases and the victims that come through that we should as a police department and as a city.

Thank you.

Yeah, I just want to thank you chief and your staff and some of them are here tonight. Um, I know that this process has not been easy. I know that getting up here and talking about what you've learned and what you're doing to fix it isn't easy. And so I do want to thank you all for being here tonight and forgiving the presentation. You could have just put out a written statement um, and not come in and face it directly. And so I very much appreciate That effort and I know that they're sure that there will continue to be questions And I know that you'll continue to keep us updated we live in times when it's really really extra important that our community can trust our local department and public safety personnel, and so I Thank you for doing this first step.

I'm in a not in acknowledging that you found Some things that needed improving and that you're taking those steps to make sure that there's accountability and the things are implemented. And that things are investigated properly and process properly, and we have the right processes in place. So I do really want to make sure your department knows that we all appreciate that they're working really hard to correct anything that was found that was not quite up As a council, I know that we have supported this department wanting it to become the best that it can be. And I think that we are...I'm happy to see that it looks like we're making progress in that direction so thank you.

Thank You Vice Mayor. Thank you Vice Mayor Anyone else? Go ahead.

Just to reiterate our thanks, my thanks for all the work being done. For not fighting it but getting to the bottom of past issues that had to be resolved and putting systems in place. But almost most importantly I appreciate the transparency again because it is hard It is hard to admit some past failures that need to be corrected but we could only benefit by talking about it, being honest about it and moving forward.

We couldn't be transparent about it or open I should say public about it better to say through the process as you're going through an audit. You don't want to interfere with that until it's been done properly so that we could find the issues and address them But I for one am very proud of our department and want them only to be better and better, and fully support them. And I know that this community really cares about their police and does have trust in them but anything we can do to make it better for everyone.

Of course, that's where we're headed. That's our intent and I appreciate all the work. Thank you

Thank you, Council Member Cordenillo.

Anyone else? Chief, well you've heard from all of us so I would like to say I believe on behalf of the entire City Council we thank the men and women of the Santa Paula Police Department for everything they do what they've overcome and what they're going to overcome and with your leadership and your two commanders will get through this together. Thank You chief.

Okay, moving on to the consent calendar we have items 10A through 10G. Oh I'm sorry my apologies, I jumped ahead. City Council reports can we start with Councillor Marnelis?

I don't think I have anything to report since the last meeting. I was sick, that's it.

Well thank you, I'm curious to hear some of the things we did and I know you were there.

Oh, just kidding. See I always forget. I attended the swearing in for Senator Monique Limon and Santa Barbara along with most of you all. It was a wonderful event we were surprised to have Kamala Harris come out and do the swearing-in that was pretty awesome there was A great Vanda that played right outside of the gym, which was fantastic to walk out to. It was nice to see a lot of the people that were there that I hadn't seen in awhile.

We got to take pictures, see other elected officials from Ventura County. The drive was nice. It was just overall wonderful to see Monique in that new position and I'm glad that I was able to make it and be a part of that.

Well thank you. Council Member Chavez, I know you normally submit your report. Is there anything that comes to mind or time-sensitive you'd like to say?

As a member of the Ventura County Air Pollution Control Board, I was reappointed to the South Central Coast Basin White Council, where I serve as Vice Chair. I was appointed to the League of California Cities Policy Committee on Community Services and heading to Sacramento tomorrow for our first meeting of 2026. And I attended the start of the Martin Luther King Day at Plaza Park in Oxnard last... actually this Monday.

That's it.

Very good. Congratulations. Council Member Canejo?

Thank you, Mayor. Just a couple of things to mention. Made me perhaps forgetting some of the others but anyway. Did attend the VCOG bi-monthly meeting representing Santa Paula and also a separate Ventura Regional Broadband Initiative I represent Santa Paula on an ad hoc committee, which is a lot of initials and a lot of things to try and follow. But what we're working on right now is trying to get a policy countywide for what they call micro-trenching, which would enable doing cable for broadband. And micro-trenching is trenching between the The road and the gutter along that seam, and it's just a couple inches wide and about six inches deep which allows to put the cable along existing streets instead of tearing up streets everywhere. And so they're trying to get a policy put together for the entire county so that we can present that to providers so that we have uniform standards and uniform practices to make it easier Get some of those actually put in.

And I do have a business card from Brian Chong, City of Moorpark who is happy to help our new deputy city manager in putting together policy for our city so I will get that to her because he's a great help and she won't have to do as much to get it together I appreciate that the mayor appointed me to the senior advisory committee as the liaison and attended that first meeting.

And also, I believe it was in December but after the last meeting I attended we did go...I did go to the Ventura County Air Pollution Control District Advisory Committee which is different from the one that the council member Chavez is on so those are those are the main things thanks.