City Council — September 2, 2026

Good evening, I'd like to call to order this regular meeting of the Santa Paula City Council. This Wednesday September 2nd 630 p.m.. Here in the council chambers would like to have Invocation by Kay Wilson Bolton if you could stand if you if you're able to

Hello everyone. Thank you for this opportunity to come here and bless you and to pray for you. I've written my prayer because if I don't, I ramble so it's not that I can't Do it by myself So I'll be praying in the Christian tradition Gracious God my prayer and blessing this evening is made to you Who is slow to anger and abounding in grace? Thank you for showing us how to love everyone always I'm grateful. You are not impressed with fancy words when I come With these petitions you look on the heart of the one who is speaking and who prays on behalf of others I ask specific blessings tonight for courage and wisdom for our council members, each city staff member and advisor, all of our first responders and department personnel.

Dear Lord, you created many people so there would be no one lonely among us. Help us to slip in beside them and fill their needs. The numbers seem endless here and around the world. Guard our hearts against the never-ending bad and sorrowful news that is enough to make us cry every day. You know that we are entering a political season where disparate views will clash.

They may be accompanied by harsh statements and sharp words. Help us to remember that they will distance us and limit communication. Help us to love others the way you do as we go about the business of government and participation in the process. You see, each of us is delightfully different with talents that lead to opportunities. Help us to praise the efforts of others and minimize the attention on failures.

God help us to be a blessing to others. You said we are to do two great things that are hard. Love you and love our neighbors. That equals everyone always. Our report card on grace will be on how we treat each other. We acknowledge that grace is the greatest theology. Grant our leaders extraordinary wisdom matched by endless grace, the ability to love justice, do mercy and walk humbly and I pray in Jesus name amen.

So as a reminder, if you need Spanish translation we have the equipment right here. And also if you would remember to silence your phones or put them on or turn them off thank you. Next, city clerk would you perform a roll call? Of course.

All council present thank you.

Thank You Monica Cabrillo do we have a closed session report

Yes, we do. This evening Council recessed into closed session under Item 5A in the special meeting agenda public employee appointment pursuant to government code 54957B1 and 4 for title interim city attorney. All members of the council were present. And by a vote of 5-0, the City Council appointed Callan Martz as the interim city attorney. This concludes my report.

Well thank you very much and welcome to our newest city attorney which means that unfortunately

I'm here to discuss a possible compromise or changes for the Santa Paula recreational vehicle parking and storage ordinance. Basically, currently it's pretty restrictive. It doesn't allow people to park except for maybe two days for allowing loading and unloading your vehicle. And if everybody in Santa Paula, and there's quite a few I bet you there's over 100 maybe almost 200 people that are currently have either boats or jet skis or RVs in their driveway. And if they have to find other places for locations and I think I did some research they're probably around $200 a month and they may not be able accommodate all locally They may have to sell them. So I thought maybe I would propose a change, a modification that could be a compromise that would allow the initial intent of it which is probably to keep people from storing old vehicles on the front yard and stuff like that and still maintain their RVs on the property.

There's basically three parts to the thing, section A, B and C. And currently I'm going to mainly address section A if I can read it to you. Basically what it says right now, it says no recreational vehicle or any trailer used for towing or parking such vehicle is permitted to be parking in any front yard including any driveway or portion of a driveway within a front yard in any zone district for a period of 48 hours.

So this is my current proposal for changing it, recommendation. Any recreational vehicle or trailer used for touring or parking such vehicle is permitted to be parked in a front yard including any driveway or portion of the driveway within the front yard in any zone district subject to the following restrictions. I'm going to recommend some restrictions that hopefully will allow Sort of a compromise between the current, no parking at all to maybe allow the vehicle to be on the driveway.

The first one is maximum of one vehicle so you can only have one recreation vehicle and maybe a trailer was a boat or jet skis or class ABC motor home something like that 10 trailer. You can only have 1. The second requirement is that the recreational vehicle must have a current license. It must be licensed through the DMV and in working order so you can kind of drive it off the property at any time, it can't be on blocks or things like that. It has to be a valid vehicle that is licensed.

And the last one was just some safety things I put in here that if the recreational vehicle must have a minimum setback from the curb to ensure no interference with pedestrians or handicapped access on sidewalks, or obstructed sight lines of drivers on front and side street. So the vehicle has to be far enough into your driveway, it can't block pedestrian travel or handicapped access. Some of the driveways have skirts on them and you can't block that.

And if you're in a corner lot then you can't block somebody side aligned to the ongoing traffic so you have to be far enough in the driveway and the same in the front.

Your three minutes are up, could you wind it down quickly?

What's that?

Your three minutes are up. Could you wind it down very quickly?

Okay yeah the only other thing I added was that these restrictions would be subordinate to covenants or CCR restrictions for homeowners because that basically means that those would basically take precedence over this So if the City Council, I sent this information to Ms. Tiffany Crosswhite and she forwarded it to a working group. Hopefully they can make some considerations to change this to allow people to do that. Thank you. Thank you

Mr. DeJamar.

Tiffany Clark? Mr. Mayor, just for the public's benefit in case you weren't at the last meeting Jack there is going to be a workshop that we'll be planning on this Topic and so welcome the public's input and ideas probably around October. Oh yeah, I know the public will be an integral part of that. Just have to show up. We'll we'll be sure to do some postings

Good evening. Thank you, Mr. Mayor and City Council. I'm Tiffany Orr. I am the vice president of the 400 Craig Drive Mobile Home Association. We wanted to thank you guys for the meeting last week. It was a lot of good information given out but we do want to ask The only way that we could protect the affordability of housing is to place a moratorium on the rent increase applications in the city.

And we're asking you guys to adopt the necessary amendments to do that. It's important, we have an honor that is Reluctant and he's ready. He's waiting for February to be able to put in another application And I want to thank you Mr.. Chavez for asking about the moratorium Also, the one thing that I wanted to say was we got our rent statements yesterday and as I said at the meeting last week The half percent it is still on our rent so this is now five months of Overcharging 167 units in our mobile home park, so I just wanted to bring that to the attention again too. I don't see Mr.. Mason here today But I wanted to bring that to the attention that it is now five months of them over charging and they have been told by a city By the residents that they're over charging us, so thank you again

You're very welcome. I see the City Manager writing some notes, you're going to follow up on that 5% increase? Half percent, I'm sorry. That apparently was going on for five months. Alright thank you Ms. Soarer. Do we have any more public comments either in the building or on Zoom online? We are allowed to have input from outside?

Yes, we do not have anyone online for a public comment.

Next we move on to presentations, 7A Emergency Preparedness Month Proclamation. If we would have our emergency service coordinator Kate Watkins please come up to the podium? Kate I don't know if you had something you needed to present or do you want me to read the proclamation first then?

Will you please read that first?

Of course.

Thank you.

So what I would like to do is read the proclamation, a proclamation of the City Council of the city of Santa Paula declaring September as Emergency Preparedness Month. The City Council of the city of Santa Paula declares as follows whereas National Preparedness Month is recognized each September to raise awareness about the importance of preparing for disasters and emergencies and to encourage individuals families businesses and communities to take proactive steps to protect lives and property and Whereas the safety and security of our community depend on residents being informed, proactive and prepared for sudden disruptions to our infrastructure, essential services and daily lives. And whereas the City of Santa Paula faces a variety of hazards including severe flooding Potential dam failure, fast-moving wildfires and sudden destructive earthquakes that may threaten lives, homes, businesses, infrastructure and natural resources.

And whereas emergency preparedness is a shared responsibility requiring coordinated planning and cooperation among local government, emergency responders, schools, businesses, community organizations and individual households Whereas residents are encouraged to take concrete steps to prepare for emergencies, including registering for local emergency alert notifications. Maintaining emergency supplies and kits. Establishing household evacuation and communication plans. Securing heavy household items. Maintaining defensible space around homes. And making appropriate plans for children, older adults, individuals with disabilities and household pets. And whereas the Federal Emergency Management Agency, FEMA, promotes National Preparedness Month each September and encourages individuals and communities to take action to prepare for disasters.

And the City of Santa Paula recognizes that individual preparedness strengthens our collective ability to respond to and recover from emergencies. And now therefore I, Carlos Suarez, Mayor of the City of Santa Paula Do hereby proclaim September 2026 as Emergency Preparedness Month and urge all residents, businesses, organizations, and community partners to take meaningful steps to protect themselves, their families, homes, and property from local hazards. Thus strengthening the resilience of our entire community passed and adopted by the City Council of the City of Santa Paula on the second day of September 2026. Carlos Suarez, Mayor.

Kate, thank you for what you do for this city. If you have some words you'd like to state?

Thank you, Mayor. I want to thank you and City Council for taking the time today to recognize September as Emergency Preparedness Month. It is the collective responsibility of each and every one of us to begin preparing for ourselves and for our community, and we can't do that alone. So I want to thank you for recognizing this month. There are plenty of resources out there for our community members, and I would like to encourage everybody during this month to pay attention to our social media accounts, to go on to both our city website and then readyventuracounty.gov for additional resources. We host free community emergency response team or CERT courses that I highly encourage the community to sign up for if they're interested in learning more about emergency preparedness.

We actually have a Spanish course coming up in October that we're currently taking signups for. I will also be at cruise night for anyone who wants to come by and get resources we have resources in English and Spanish, and we're also doing a little giveaway from the month of September for free emergency kit so I highly encourage Anyone who's interested to stop by to learn more, ask questions as we will be better prepared if each and every one of us take the opportunity to learn and begin making our own emergency preparedness plans for our family. So thank you for your time. I greatly appreciate you acknowledging September as Emergency Preparedness Month.

Thank you. Comments or questions from council?

Hi. Where can people sign up for the Spanish workshop you mentioned, or if there's an English one happening

at the same

time?

So there currently is not an English course happening at the same time. Our next English class will be in the spring of 2027, but the link is on our website for the Spanish course so it's a free six week course that anyone 18 and over can sign up for. Highly encourage go to our website spcity.org slash emergency and you can see and find additional information and resources about the time location and all of that.

Thank you. You're welcome.

Anyone else? All right, seeing none thank you Ms. Watkins we'd like to take a picture with you of the proclamation.

Thank you for everything you do.

Okay, we'd like to

Unfortunately, I was unable to attend the meeting last week on the mobile home ordinance.

The rent

control? The rent control ordinance. My youngest had an accident at cheer practice. She got hit in the head during their stunts and so I was in the emergency room with her but I'm glad to hear that it all went well

Thank you. Council Member Chavez?

Yes, thank you Mr Mayor. I will provide my written report at the end of the month but I do want to highlight a few things. I do want to highlight a few things. First and foremost, you probably picked up the Santa Paula Times and saw a spread on the Lady Raiders softball team, girls' softball team that won the Super Bowl so we're looking forward to recognizing them in the future. I do want to congratulate the girls, Juliana Bravero, Lexi, Jaylene, Miranda, Yosie, Athena, Veronica, Avi, Jessie, Brooklyn, Charisma, and also for their coaches for making this possible For their leadership and support, Eric Veloz who served as the head coach. We had Cesar Preciado who was his defense coach. We had Jorge Romero who was the general manager and Kimmy Veloz who was a team mom and videographer.

This is a really big deal for these girls to win the Super Bowl for the flag football and put again our city another opportunity showcasing our local athletes. The second thing I wanted to mention was at the last council meeting, the mayor was not here but I did mention and made a statement after coming back from the Board of Supervisors that day requesting that the city take action and form an ad hoc committee. So I will ask the mayor to let the community know because I made that public statement in terms of your response. That would be very helpful.

And the third thing is we want to thank Cal Energy and Limoneira for their leadership, hard work and generosity in getting the symbol of pride that we see on South Mountain. So you know that is not Santa Paula. That is not our land. The city has no authority over that so it's really about People, companies in this case trying to make that possible. So yesterday we had several of us attended the reception where they unveiled the process that it takes to really make that possible so again to Cliff and Olivia all the Cal Energy folks and Limoneira especially for their financing and support in making that happen I do want to ask that we ask the mayor that we recognize this achievement at a future meeting.

And again, this is something we see every day doesn't always happen and so the fact that it came together just showcases what our community is all about. Labor Day, again it's Monday and we invite everyone to come out. We are the only city in the entire county that has a Labor Day parade and we take pride in our city and our working families so we invite you to be part of that. I believe it starts at 10 am? Yes. If I'm not mistaken people start lighting up pretty early on and it's just a great day to be grateful and show our pride for Santa Paula, our neighbors and our community. Thank you Mr. Mayor.

Thank you Councilmember Chavez. I'll address the ad hoc committee in a moment.

Thank you, Mayor. Since our last council meeting I attended on the 24th of August a farm workers monument meeting trying to raise funds to restore and I've joined the committee and have promised to help do fundraising on that. They have a brick program and we'll be looking for other opportunities in order Shore up some of the damage, natural damage that has happened with time to the monument.

And attended with most of the council, the mobile home special council meeting regarding discussion of the ordinance and the issue. On the 26th I attended the VCTA, the Taxpayers Association breakfast in Camarillo because their presentation was on the finances of the hospital. And so that was very revealing to understand the history of what's been going on and what's led to the problems that they have now, and how it affects us in our own future healthcare in the valley.

On the 27th I attended the combined city and chamber event with the business roundtable as I'm a small business owner on Main Street myself, so I attend for that reason as well. On the 28th, I attended a meeting with City Manager and the Mayor and Director Mason discussing the hospital issue which I believe the mayor will address. And then yesterday went to the Santa Paula Watch event to celebrate and watch the reveal of the big SP.

They are 125 feet tall, those letters are. It's pretty amazing people to understand just how big those letters are but it was almost overshadowed by the fact that I have also learned that this week that the restrooms are being delivered this week for Teague Park and that's almost bigger for me than the SP on the Hill almost so I'm very excited about that too. That's my report thanks.

Thank you Vice Mayor Croswell

Yes, I also stopped by the event to celebrate the repainting of the SP that is so iconic and we very much miss it when it starts to fade. So grateful that it's back. Just a couple of things. I'll have more to report at the next meeting but at our Clean Power Alliance Executive Committee meeting, we learned that there's a couple of programs that if they're passed by the executive board or by the full board tomorrow at the meeting There'll be some increased program for EV charging and cooling at multifamily sites. And so I'll share some more details on those if they pass the board, but to assist owners of multifamily units to be able to install EV charging and cooling. So more to come on that.

We learned at our executive committee meeting for the Southern California Association of Governments this afternoon that our SB1087, which we were co-sponsors of is on the governor's desk and we're waiting to find out if it gets a signature or no signature. Or if it passes for lack of action. So we're anxiously waiting to see what happens with that. Just a couple of things. If it were to pass what it'll do is there's a plan So that is because it seems like Um, and then a couple of exciting programs that I learned about at the Ventura County Regional Energy Alliance. The name is going to be changing to something else. That's what it has been called. I can't remember what the new name is gonna be yet.

But the funding sources that they started with have changed. And so the mission is going to be changing and one of the areas of focus is going to be on resilience because there's funding and grants that you can get for that, but more on that as we go. But we learned about a couple of grant programs that I wanted to share at the 3c-ren.org on their website backslash for residents. You can find out about getting Some grant incentives to install heat pumps or other energy saving projects. So if you're a resident in Ventura County, you can go and find out what programs you might be eligible for. They also have some multifamily and commercial offerings.

And then there's a 3C beach program and they're looking for 109 participants at our meeting, they had 20 to participate in a home health monitoring study and those individuals that are chosen to participate will You have to agree to have them install air quality monitoring. Well first you have to have gas appliances and you have to be wanting to change out at least one of those And then if you are, they'll choose some area of the house to monitor the air quality. And then what they'll do is they would then pay for the changing of that appliance at the end of the year and then you would have another nine months to a year that they would monitor to see what kind of an air quality difference, if any, that made. So it's a research study if anyone's interested in participating.

They get $500 just for participating plus the grant funding to help with the changing out of the appliance. So if you're interested in that program, the website is I think it's 3C beach dot something. But if you search for 3C Beach Ventura County, you can find the program or you can contact me and I can send you the direct link to the website. I think that's all I have. Thank you.

All right, thank you. Council Member Chavez, thank you very much for always recognizing our youth and other people that do great things in the city. Yeah certainly the Lady Raiders deserve the recognition and I had the opportunity to speak with one of the young ladies in bonds that morning when they were going to go compete and she was just so ecstatic about going to go and compete and competing and then realizing that they actually came out on top was very Very great. So thank you and that goes for every council member to hear or see something in our community, definitely bring it up for recognition and again in the community sometimes we don't hear or see the great things that our people do so please bring that to our attention. I was gone at the last meeting so I have a little bit lengthy report so I'll try to be brief.

I think we all went to the tour of Fire Station 29 which I believe will be opening in the next 30-60 days maybe? So that's Fire Station 29 here on 10th Street. On August 6, I went to the PBID meeting at the Glen Tavern. I attended with Council Member Cornejo the Blue Room Committee at the Casa de Mecano. That was on the 7th at 11 a.m., and they're doing some restoration efforts at the Farm Workers Monument We attended a meeting on, Council Member Cornejo and I attended a meeting on August 24th where they're doing steps to protect it during this heavy rain season but also fundraising to restore the part that's eroded away.

Thank you Ms. Orr for inviting us and attending the rent control meeting at the community center. I'm sure there's a lot more to come after that. And regarding the, Council Member Cornejo discussed a little bit about us going to meeting here at City Hall on the hospital. And after that meeting, or actually before that meeting as Councilmember Chavez said he advocated for an ad hoc committee. An ad hoc committee can be formed with two councilmembers to address a certain problem or issue and that committee is formed until either the problem is resolved or reaches a point where it can't continue.

I started to draft a letter informing Latino Town Hall and other entities That we were going to form an ad hoc committee, but then at the advice of our attorney We need to be careful forming an ad hoc committee when we already have a blue ribbon Blue Ribbon Committee meeting that we don't intermingle the same council members because unit then you'd have a brown Brown Act violation so We understand that Fillmore is forming an ad-hoc committee and in this discussion. We had the other day with City Manager and James Mason and Leslie Cornado and I The suggestion was made to form a Santa Clara Valley coalition and to try to combine our efforts with Fillmore, who's one of our biggest stakeholders. And of course, Piru and everyone else, to form a coalition to again join our forces and try to get the county to reverse this decision to just give us the minimum.

As you know, the Blue Ribbon Committee has existed for a long time. But those meetings that Council Member Cornejo and I attended it was really geared towards giving us the eventual bad news because every time we'd meet they would say how dire the situation was financially and I think we saw the writing on the wall. And as much as other people tried and advocated there were so many people that showed up at the Board of Supervisors meeting and probably their attendance and urging kept the County Supervisor from going to The third option, so at least they gave us two but let's continue to try for option number one a mini hospital. And with that I also agree that the Santa Paula looks great and I understand I think that this time it was painted versus they did some kind of coating last time so hopefully it'll last a lot longer and that was La Minera and Cal Energy.

So again a big round applause for them for making Santa Paula stand out. And that's all I've got City Manager's report

Thank you Mr. Mayor, members of the council I was also at the watch party yesterday we are preparing some thank-you letters but it might be nice to actually have both organizations come to Council they put in tens of thousands of dollars to do this this is not just a quick and easy volunteer effort As Councilwoman Cornejo pointed out. I too was at the special council meeting last week on mobile home rent control, more to come on that. Last Wednesday we held an orientation for our council candidates there's seven Residents of Santa Paula who are running for three different seats this coming November and so we have the opportunity to talk a little bit about local government and what the process over the next few months looks like.

We also had an internal emergency operation meeting that Ms. Watkins guided us through as we're working on kind of refining and updating our emergency operation plan, and I just wanted to mention that tonight because a good bit of our discussions were also really about preparations for El Nino because we all understand that there may be significant impacts this winter.

And then of course was also involved with the hospital discussion and we'll have more to report on that hopefully sometime soon. I also want to thank Councilmember Chavez for bringing up the lady raiders, I didn't know they existed, I didn't even know that This was such a big deal in communicating with the coach. We were hoping that they would be here for recognition in front of the council, which I know they're excited about at your next meeting. However as it turns out they're going to be at the SoFi Stadium in a competition So, which is pretty cool in and of itself. So they are excited about coming to the council at the first meeting in October. Maybe there'll be another championship to celebrate at that time.

That's all I have for

you. All right thank you Mr. Singer. We move on to number 10 consent calendar. The item is 10A California Office of Emergency Services designation of applicants agent resolution Is any council member interested in discussion or pulling this item or discussing it?

I would move approval of the consent calendar.

All right, moved for approval of the consent calendar Item 10A by Vice Mayor Crosswhite seconded by Council Member Chavez. Any further discussion? All right seeing none everybody agree say yes.

Yes.

Anyone opposed say no. All right thank you that motion carries we now go on to public hearing and this is going to be item number 11

Mr. Mayor, this is not a typical public hearing so if you'd like I can start explaining the process

for

Proposition 218. Proposition 218 hearing. That type of hearing is required whenever a rate increase related to property use is proposed, and tonight we are considering a solid waste rate increase to implement the Athens amendment to their franchise agreement that was approved by Council in June. This is being done out of an abundance of caution. And so I will just briefly explain the process notice was sent to There will be a public hearing held.

And during that time, anybody's entitled to come up and speak and voice their support or opposition to the rate increase this verbal comment does not count towards The what is called a protest vote. If there is majority protest vote, which has been mailed ahead of time to our city clerk and there's found to be a majority there then no rate increase may occur. However if there's less than the majority protests, then the City Council is authorized to approve of the increase. The proposed increase is for 1% permanent increase for the next three years.

And the specific rates were sent out to the public through mail notice, a copy of which is attached to the staff report. It was sent in both English and Spanish. And after I direct the city clerk to tabulate the votes, then we will proceed to announce a finding whether a majority protest exists. After the city clerk announces that finding then council will be able to adopt the attached resolution that will approve the maximum permitted service charges for solid waste collection fees.

And I do have one correction to make. It does not change the, it does not require a re-noticing. There is in page 21 of your packet there is Under the fee types late payment. It's one, two, three, four, four rows down under commercial multifamily roll off and residential rate. The last two columns that should not say five cents both should say 5%. And that correction will be made in the Spanish version as well.

So if I could have the city clerk tabulate a majority protest votes?

Thank you, City Attorney. I have done a tabulation of all of the protest letters that have been received in my office as the city clerk. I received a total of 42 letters before this meeting and I have received zero during this public hearing or before the closing when you're ready to close this. So I have a total of 42 letters.

Out and what is that percentage of total property owners? Less than majority vote.

It was a minimum threshold, I guess.

There was over 6100 letters that had gone out so this does not meet the percentage would need to make any other decision.

So there's a finding that there is no majority protest established. So Council may now vote on a resolution if somebody wants to make that motion.

We don't need to follow any of the other declaration conflicts or any of those? No. Okay, I do have one public speaker card and that is Lupe Velasco. She wants to speak on item 11A. Oh yeah.

Good evening, my name is Lupe Velasco and this is my friend. We both came to speak about the increase on the trash and I respectfully ask you to take into consideration the hardship on On people if you allow any increase on the trash service, it's possible. You don't know what hardship is like We struggle with the cost of food, gasoline increase on all utilities. Please respect those who cannot afford more expenses and don't increase the trash bill if you can do that for us please.

Thank you.

All right thank you very much. So we don't have to do any of the other items. We just can go to any discussion?

No, we can conclude the public comment.

OK. So we're concluding the public comment. Is there any others online? Ms. Lashaw.

No, we have no other public speakers.

All right. Vice Mayor?

Is there any presentation for this item? No. It's just this report. All right. A couple of questions here.

We do have Athens representatives here this evening.

And

I don't know if this is for staff or for Athens, but just as a reminder because this is the what approximately how much is 1% For a month on the average bill? I know that we have that at one point.

Ronnie would you mind answering

it was on the old

presentation Good evening, Mayor Juarez, members of the City Council. My name is Rondi Guthrie. I'm Vice President of Government Affairs for Athens Services. That range depending on your service level was roughly 32 cents to 47 cents a month over the full three years so you know 40 cents a month or so for residents.

And then can you explain...I'm glad that we were able to fix the 5% and it didn't become a problem. I saw that on the thing and I was like Okay, wait. It looked like 5 cents but a minimum of $5 and it was a little unclear so I'm glad that we were able to fix that. But then I had a question because the contract talks about just having people be able to set Christmas trees out on the curb but then this says that that's a 40 something dollar charge. So can you explain why the contract says That we'd be able to just set trees out on the curb. But then the rate sheet actually says that there's a charge for that.