City Council — April 7, 2026

Are there

any items for agenda review?

Yes

Madam Mayor item 1D2 is being postponed to a future meeting this is the presentation of an honorary resolution to the 2026 City Volunteer of the Year he is unable to join us this evening

thank you we wish him the best

I move that all resolutions and ordinances presented tonight be read in title only, and all further reading be waived.

Second.

Call for the vote.

The motion passes unanimously.

Thank you. If any member of the City Council may have a conflict of interest or any reason why that member must abstain from consideration of any matter on this agenda he or she should so declare at this time Seeing none, we may

move on.

debris which allowed access for temporary utility repairs and restoring all utilities to our residents. At no point did he hesitate, only focused on finishing the task at hand. For his efforts, we thank Gamaliel Duran for outstanding work and are honored to award him the April Employee of the Month. Congratulations, Gamaliel.

And he has some friends and co-workers right back there celebrating with him so thank you all for being here This is very, very well-deserved. Thank you for all you do. That tree trunk was huge! Yeah pretty big yeah I don't know if we have a fireplace that that'll fit in. That was pretty good size but thank you for all you do and that was a wonderful like you said a trifecta to have to deal with all three of those different utilities at the same time so thank you for doing a great job for you and your team and we really really appreciate you would you like to say

anything?

Come on. Well,

I'd just like to thank my crew because I wouldn't be able to be so efficient if we didn't adapt to each other the way we do and To my boss who has given me this opportunity to work here Thank you very much

Madam Mayor and members of the City Council, next on the agenda is item 1D5. Proclamation declaring April 2026 as Earthquake Preparedness Month in Simi Valley and Emergency Services Manager Eileen Connors is presenting this item and accepting the proclamation are Tech Reserve David Fisher and Disaster Service Worker Volunteers Ed Baker and Phil Ancrum.

As we move through April, our attention shifts to earthquake preparedness, a crucial aspect of safety in earthquake-prone regions such as California. In recognition of Earthquake Preparedness Month, the City of Simi Valley, due to 2026 Earthquake Preparedness Month Proclamation, encourages residents to leverage technology for timely alerts and refresh emergency plans and supplies to keep themselves and their families safe during an earthquake or other emergency.

We invite you to take action and get prepared before shaking begins by taking the following steps. Download the My Shake app to have earthquake information at your fingertips, register for VC Alert to receive time-sensitive emergency notifications by text, phone or email, and those are good for all emergencies. Sign up for our next Community Emergency Response CERT Team training to learn basic disaster response skills.

Each of these actions contributes to the preparedness and resiliency of our communities. Thank you!

Thank you. How many of you have a go bag ready for when it hits? If you've taken CERT, you really learn how to do that so and then after CERT you go to DSW. So anyone that wants to volunteer or sign up please do so like Gina said earlier sign up and do something about it. But we just really wanted to say thank you for our emergency preparedness our DSW workers When I took cert and then did DSW for a short time, you have to think about it. We don't have enough first responders in our community to help everybody so you have to help yourselves first and then help your neighbors. So that's what's great about DSW. Who knows how to read a Thomas Guide? You still know how to do those things? Yeah. So I know I'm aging myself but my dad taught me how to do one of those.

We really want to thank each and every one of you for your volunteerism, all the time and effort you put in. I mean, you're doing a great job here. We're so proud of you. And your whole program is just awesome. So would you like to say a few words?

I would just like to say that volunteering is a real privilege, and to do it in my town that I'm so proud of. And I have a great team of people that I get to work with and it makes volunteering a lot of fun. If you want to know more about our program we will be at the upcoming street fair. We'll have a booth there and you can come by and we can talk to you about certain disaster preparedness and joining our team. Thank you very much.

So good evening. As you all know, we are having some technical difficulties with our handheld mics so we're using the podium mic but we're also having some technical difficulties with our voting system as well as potentially our timer on our podium mic. So this evening the council will be doing a voice vote for all action items so be prepared for that. We haven't been able to display the vote and just for sake of transparency I want to ensure that the community and the residents in the chamber see what the council is voting and who is voting how And then

Thank you. Madam Clerk, you may proceed.

Madam Mayor and members of the City Council next on the agenda is item two public statements on appointments special presentations and informational reports we have two speakers this evening. The first speaker is Sarah Wilczewski.

Good evening Madam Mayor, members of the City Council. My name is Sarah Wilczewski and I would like to point out once again how difficult it is to make an informed comment before the presentation has even happened. And I would like to read a statement from a friend who cannot be here tonight. There have now been 37 people abducted by ICE from Simi Valley. I want to continue my conversation from February 23rd about Flock Cameras with you.

Flock is not a trustworthy company. In December 2025 and again in February 2026, Flock updated the items and conditions of its subscription service contracts. Much the same that your cable company updates its terms and conditions, your continued use of the system implies your consent. There were 147 changes under the new terms and conditions. SVPD can search SvFlock database for 30 days but now Flock has a perpetual irrevocable worldwide royalty-free license.

They deleted FLOC does not own and shall not sell customer data. They deleted the entire section restricting Simi Valley data use for training, no more removing personal details, separate storage or restrictions on sharing with third parties. Since last fall there has been a growing conversation about FLOC with its U.S. FLOC within the U.S., often driven by people inspecting FLOC search audit logs.

FLOCs response has been to limit information available in audit logs. When I spoke to you in February, I noted that the encrypted user ID file field has not been replaced with asterisks. The camera count field was gone and the reason field had shown an alarming increasing trend of being blank. Since then, the number of blank reasons has gone down from 43% to 15%.

But it's not zero as it was in November and December. The number of cameras queried field has also been replaced. Block cameras use the Android B operating system. This OS has been unsupported since 2021. There are 51 security findings for Flock filed with the National Vulnerability Database, 22 of which are flagged as common vulnerabilities and exposures. Flock has acknowledged them. The response has been that exploration requires physical access and intimate knowledge of the hardware is nonsense since a video showing how to do a 30-second hack allowing a complete takeover and control of a Flock camera is available.

I'm sorry your time is now up. Thank you.

According to the SVPD Flock Transparency Portal, the data that is owned by Simi Valley California PD and is never sold to third parties. This data is prohibited to be used in immigration enforcement amongst other things. I can't help but notice that under the organization's granted access to the SVPD data section, there are over a hundred organizations agencies and or entities listed there including Ventura County Sheriff's Office.

I want to know what exactly is the process that SVPD and you as the City Council implements to guarantee that these agencies are not willing to give data to immigration enforcement? As we know, Sheriff Jim Cryhoff explicitly communicated that they work with ICE and willingly provide information to them. I don't know about anyone else but that doesn't seem to guarantee any privacy or transparency from SVPD.

Did someone actually go through every one of these agencies' policies regarding flock cameras? Or was it a lazy copy-and-paste? What happens when FLOC or other LPR companies change or delete or add to their terms and conditions? How will the city, and specifically SVPD, guarantee full transparency to the public? Who's in charge of guaranteeing these transparency protocols? A lot of questions. No answers.

Any steps going forward with FLOC and SVPD should take into account constituent input and there should be full transparency to the public on any changes. And I know that whatever we're going to be seeing presentation will probably just be read verbatim. So, I actually want to know the answers to those questions.

Thank you.

Madam Mayor, that was the last speaker for this item. Madam Mayor and members of City Council next on the agenda is Item 3A1 Appointment to the Community Projects Grant Review and Deputy Environmental Services Director Cynthia McCullough is presenting this item.

Good evening again. The City Council created the Community Projects Grant Review Committee to review applications and provide funding recommendations to the City Council on the distribution of grant funding of up to $150,000. The review committee is comprised of seven representatives from each of the four neighborhood councils, the Youth Council, the Council on Aging and the community at large.

During their regular March meetings, each advisory board nominated a representative and the recruitment for the community at large member position began on February 2nd and ended on February 16th. Councilmember Judge and Councilmember Rhodes conducted interviews on March 10th and nominated one representative. A total of seven nominees are being recommended to serve on the review committee with terms commencing immediately and concluding when the City Council awards fiscal year 26-27 funding.

A few of the nominees are present this evening, and as I call your name please come forward. Representing NC1 Paul Chandler, representing NC2 Gail Sutton, representing Neighborhood Council 3 Steve Busco, representing NC4 Deanna Block Representing the Council on Aging, David Lewis. Representing the Youth Council, Aman Sardreeth and representing the community at large, Nadia Karpansky.

It is recommended that the City Council approve and the Mayor appoint these seven nominees to the Community Projects Grant Review Committee. This concludes the report and staff is available to respond to questions.

I don't think we have any questions. We appreciate the process and I know we need to make a motion. Thank you for those of you who are willing to serve on this difficult, it gets harder and harder every year just so you know. In fact, I think we need to argue that it's time to raise the amount that we give out but that's a whole other question. We appreciate your efforts and so I would like to nominate or that we approve the seven nominees for the Grants Selection Committee.

Second.

The motion passes unanimously. Madam Mayor and members of the City Council, next on the agenda is item 3A2. Selection of two city council members to conduct Americans with Disabilities Act ADA Paratransit Advisory Committee interviews. And Deputy Public Works Director of Transit Ben Gonzalez is here to present this item.

Good evening, Mayor Cavanaugh and council members. The Americans with Disability Act Paratransit Advisory Committee is comprised of seven members appointed by the City Council including five-member status and two alternate status. The committee advises the city on issues such as service availability, service policy, accessibility associated with transportation for persons with disabilities Four member positions and one alternate position on the committee will become open when terms expire on May 30th, 2026.

Five applications were received during the recruitment process. It is requested that City Council select two council members to interview and nominate two applicants to the ADA Paratransit Advisory Committee. This concludes the report and available for any questions you may have.

Thank you. Is there any interest? I don't know if my speaker part is working, so if anyone said they wanted to speak. OK, Council Member Aiella.

I have done it before. I'm on that committee, so I don' t mind doing it again.

Mayor

Pro Tem Litster I'm happy to nominate a gentleman if you'd like to. I know that Joseph and I did it last year, it was actually very rewarding opportunity to select people just because they're such outstanding candidates and care about our community transportation but so I would be happy to do it unless you gentlemen would like the opportunity? Either one no okay.

I'd like to nominate Councilmember Ayala and Mayor Pro Tem Litzter to serve on this board ADA Transit Selection Committee. Second

Call for the vote.

The motion passes unanimously Madam Mayor and members of City Council next on the agenda is item 3B1 informational report by Youth Employment Services Board Chair Anthony Angelini

Welcome Mr. Angelini

Good evening Mayor Kavanaugh, members of City Council and our great city staff. My name is Anthony Angelini thank you for the opportunity to be here this evening I'd like to start with a quote from President Franklin Roosevelt who said we cannot always build the future for our youth but we can always build our youth for the future And as the chair of the Youth Employment Service Advisory Board or the YES, yes.

I have the honor of presenting our annual informational report and I hope to show how our board works hard to build up the youth for the future. The Youth Employment Service Advisory Board was established in 1982 same year Thriller came out It is comprised of 15 members and up to three alternates that include representatives of government agencies, schools, employers and community members at large to discuss employment issues that relate to youth.

Simi Valley is one of the few cities in the region that offers this type of service to prepare our young people for the jobs of the 21st century. I did look this up before I got here and no Thousand Oaks does not have a Youth Employment Service. So, scoreboard. Our board's continued focus has been on workforce development of youth, connecting them with various career pathways as well as promoting the hiring of teens and young adults as they start climbing the economic ladder.

The following represent a few programs held to accomplish these goals. Annually, YES co-hosts a summer workshop series at the Simi Valley Public Library that last year included the following seminars. The Entrepreneurism and College Scholarships Workshop covered self-employment options for teens, workplace ethics and safety, and various scholarship opportunities and how to effectively use your employment experience when applying for scholarships. The workshop also featured teen speakers who had started their own businesses and scholarship advisors. Councilman Rhodes don't worry the kids were not starting coffee business so you have no competition there.

The Mastering Interview and Soft Skills Workshop covered appropriate interview attire, basics of confident communication, common interview questions and how to answer them, and the follow-up process. Soft skills often requested by employers such as reliability, professionalism, and problem solving were also discussed. I've been told all of my skills are soft.

YES also hosted a new workshop at the Simi Valley High School during summer school in an effort to meet the students where they're at. The topic of this workforce was financial literacy, one of our most requested and popular workshops. We appreciate our partnership and collaboration with Erica Ayala of JPMorgan Chase who helped lead those sessions. Erica rocks!

YES had a booth at the Simi Valley City Expo section of the Chamber of Commerce's Street Fair. I think I saw all of you there, yeah. YES advisory board members had the opportunity to interact with hundreds of community members, promote our programs, provide interview skills, workbooks and hand out YES branded tote bags, pens and construction hats I was asked kindly not to wear one of the construction hats tonight to the council chambers.

In November, YES hosted its eighth annual volunteer fair at the Simi Valley Public Library for community members of all ages. This free event was designed to connect local nonprofits with potential volunteers. 25 nonprofit organizations attended to provide information and offer opportunities and the Youth Council partnered with YES to host several volunteer projects on site.

Our major program is teaching essential interview skills workshops. In February, over 1,000 local sophomore students received training on things like work permits and labor laws, application completion, digital first impressions, follow-up procedures, networking basics, the interview process, common questions, resume writing, workplace workplace ethics, and best practices on leaving a job.

Each participant also received a comprehensive up-to-date Supplemental Interview Skills Workshop Handbook. The first YES Job & Career Fair was held in 1987, same year that the Simpsons debuted. Since then almost 27,000 youth have been served. Our 38th annual event was held Saturday March 21st from 10 a.m to 1 p.m and to better align with employer hiring schedules the job and career fair was held a month earlier than is typical but for the fifth year in a row in true library takeover fashion the event was held at the Simi Valley Public Library We thank our partners and sponsors, including the Simi Valley Public Library, the Simi Valley Chamber of Commerce.

I have to say that again. The Simi Valley Family YMCA and the Rotary Club of Simi Sunrise. Never heard of it. This free event featured practice interviews, on-site interviews with employers, exposure to career options, internship and volunteer opportunities, assistance with completing job applications, workstations to submit online job applications, help writing resumes and a financial literacy workshop hosted by JPMorgan Chase.

New this year, the job and career fair also featured the Ventura County Workforce Development mobile bus called Workforce on Wheels. Thank you.

It's called Wow.

Yeah. I thought you were just impressed with it. Also free professional headshot photography was offered courtesy of Vander Jordan and a partnership with the YMCA to provide free interview and business attire to attendees as part of their annual prom closet. I was very excited about that, I see that as someone that wears a suit every day, I see that as a very valuable partnership and I'd like it to be called Suit Up Simi Valley in the future.

This year 28 employers and organizations participated in the job fair along with almost 400 teen and adult job seekers that attended Looking ahead, YES is currently working with the Chamber of Commerce to host a new workshop for employers focused on what employers need to know about work permits and the benefits of hiring youth. Much of what the YES Board accomplishes would not be possible without key collaborators with the Chamber of Commerce the local business community, the Simi Valley Unified School District, the Rotary Clubs and numerous community volunteers.

Our call to action so to speak is to encourage more local employers to hire youth whether paid or unpaid interns to provide critical opportunities for youth to build job skills, to offer job shadow experiences, to provide youth exposure to various career opportunities and to help get involved by participating in the job and career fair. This results in a robust and skilled labor force, which results in a healthy talent pool for businesses to hire from, which results in more economic investment in Simi Valley.

Thank you all for continuing to support the work of the Youth Employment Service Advisory Board and the Youth Employment Service Program. We invite each of you to come and witness the work that the board does by attending our events or joining us at our regular board meetings at 815 on the third Wednesday of every month, August through June in the City Hall community room.

Thank you for your time and I'd be happy to answer any questions that you may have about our YES program. Thanks again.

Thank you. Any questions from the dais? Council Member Rhodes

Thank you Madam Mayor and thank you for the presentation Mr. Angelini. This committee has a special place in my heart it was the first committee that I joined as a civic community. I've of course been part of Rotary, but this was a place where I grew as much as those who were trying to get the skills for interviewing and I want to elaborate a little bit on the interview skills workshops and they're taken to each of the high schools and that each of the students from grade 10th grade come through and speakers from many different vocations take part in giving pieces of the presentation to the students, and it is fascinating to watch.

You can see who is ready to work and include in, and it's so incredibly valuable to them. And the workbook that has evolved over time that they get to leave with is pretty incredible. Coffee by the way, is an outstanding vocation and I encourage anyone to get in it. And then just a note maybe Mr. Angelini if you ever watched The Youth Council give a report They're really, really good.

But thank you for the report. Appreciate it.

Thank you. Mayor Pro Tem

Litster Thank you Mr. Angelini, very informative and I want you to know you certainly got the memo on dressing for success. You've got the look. Actually I saw him jogging this morning on the corner. He was not! I just want you know he knows how to clean up. I just want to be very clear. I did see him going to work... anyway not attired like this but well done Anthony

They didn't believe me when I said I saw the Mayor Pro Tem

jogging. Anyway, that's another story but yes he was doing an ISOM. So I just want to say thank you for hosting the volunteer fair. There is such a need for volunteerism and ironically volunteering actually can lead to employment but I know I've had several people who were unaware and made a big difference by showing up to collect volunteers so thank you. I do have a question Do we have any placement statistics? Do we know, do we have a sense of youth that have actually received employment based on some of the job fairs or is it just anecdotal is fine I'm just curious.

It's not something that we specifically track, although we do do exit surveys at the job fair. So we do track how many had interviews, how many applications were submitted and I know anecdotally just the week after the job fair had a young woman reach out to me to schedule some more interview practice. They gave her my contact information there at the job fair and she responded additional practice with interviews And so we scheduled a time and then when I sent her, it was going to be online. So when I sent her the Zoom link to do it a couple days later she immediately called me and said oh I'm so sorry I need to cancel. I actually got a job. And I said well who did you end up working for? And she said Crunch Fitness. I met them at the job fair.

I talked to them they gave me an interview and I got hired. At least anecdotally it's working.

Wonderful. And I will add anecdotally, I have a son who when this is a couple of years ago but who was in need of employment and and I showed up and I said wait a minute my son should be here. I called him immediately went home he grabbed his resume came back and it was it absolutely was a job that he picked up there that really sent him on a trajectory to what he wants to do. So thank you. I do appreciate Anthony what you're doing and the entire board so please send our thanks Thank you, Councilmember Ayala.

Thank you just three things first Anthony Angelini is the new chair and he's doing a great job so I think this is the first time he's presenting to us and I think it's a great he's a great addition because he has the partnership with the chamber we're able and connections So in those committee meetings were really able to build upon those relationships to make things happen. The second thing is a Mr Fowler talked about the exit surveys, and when we're in those committee meetings one of the things I really appreciate that we do is you guys give You tell us about the feedback that the students provide, and we really do take that into account to develop the programs even better going forward. And so they had some really great recommendations for the interviews that we did at the high schools that we can incorporate now for next year so we really do listen to them and take that into account.

And then Mr Fowler talked about he just alluded to one thing that I was going to mention which is Outside of these events for any student who is wants some additional interview help or they're going to have an interview or something like that. They can contact Ryan Fowler throughout the entire year, and he will take the time to schedule time with them so even though we do these events throughout the year if you have a student that just needs help during that week or the following week to get ready, we do have a service for that. So he always mentions that to them but I just wanted to reinforce that you are the service that you provide so thanks to both of you.

Thank you City Manager Argybright.

Thank you Madam Mayor. I also just wanted to respond to Mayor Pro Tem Lister in terms of anecdotal success stories I actually got my first job from the Youth Employment Service Job Fair back in 1995. So, um, I don't know what premiered that year Mr. Angelini but, so yeah, so I got my first job through the Youth Employment Service Job Fair at Countrywide which no longer exists but and then I was actually in my first job at the city was YES coordinator and our former City Manager Mike Siddell that was his first responsibility at the city as well.

Well thank you both and it is a I enjoy going to that and seeing the students talking to the potential employers and learning how to do interviews and such but it's just, you can read the excitement in the room. It's really really nice and I got two little rubber duckies so it was a overall good visit but no you guys do a great job thank you very much for all you do thanks Mr. Angelini

Madam Mayor and members of the City Council, next on the agenda is Item 3C.1 Presentation on Flock Data by Sgt. Patrick Zajac.

Welcome Sergeant and Chief.

We are here to provide a flock LPR update I hope to not go verbatim, I kind of do have a go by But this presentation, just so everybody knows is over the course of the last few council meetings different questions have come up. So this presentation hopefully answers I had like three pages of questions. Some of the ones I heard in the audience today are new but the presentation covers that three pages of questions that we did have.

I'm lucky from Flock to have Lily with us today and obviously Chief Shorts. Lily's gonna be very instrumental if there's any specific data related questions that what Flock does with the data she can help out with that And that's the wrong button. So here's an update and we want to start with where we're at, where we are, and where we're going so here's where we're at in late 2023 early 2024.

We had 23 flock LPR cameras installed in Simi Valley primarily covering the ingress points into the city So my day job is property crime sergeant. So when we were doing this, we talked to a lot of the different administration, the different investigative units and patrol officers and patrol alike. And we were looking to combat crime in specific suspects that were coming into Simi Valley to commit crime.

So we focused on the ingress points whereas if someone's coming from out of town into town to commit crime, we would have a fighting chance to get some type of investigative leads So we started with 23 approved council cameras. In late 2024, six additional flock LPR cameras were obtained through the Ventura County Sheriff's Department Organized Retail Theft Grant.

The sheriff's department maintains these six cameras. We have access to them, they maintain them. These are primarily as you see organized retail theft. These around those type of shopping centers that can kind of help combat that problem I did see a question come up about us having 26 cameras. The answer to that is those three FalconFlex cameras add to ours, that's our 26 so we have control of those FalconFlex cameras. FalconFlex cameras mean absolutely nothing to anybody here so let me explain. So what those are, those are hotspot type cameras whereas if we're having problems in a certain area we can rapidly deploy those cameras to assist For instance, we've used that at the north end of Yosemite and the Texas track when we were having some residential burglary problems.

So they were kind of force multipliers for us and they call them flex because we can put them up whenever we need to in different hotspots. So that's the 26 cameras that we do have that the city of Simi Valley controls. The other six, we don't actually control that. That's a sheriff's department but we do have access to that. And it should be of note, we've been using Vigilant LPR data since 2015. So this isn't new technology. In 2015 we actually had the LPR Vigilant systems on top of patrol cars so it was capturing plates as it was driving around town. We don't have those anymore but we still do have Vigilant accounts and oftentimes like tow truck drivers, repo drivers have these systems where they're capturing plates too and investigatively we can use some of this data to help us in our cases.

So it's not new technology. 23 in the ground cameras is new technology as of 2023. So additionally, there's a question about HOAs and private companies installing Flock LPR cameras? Some do. And if they're willing to share we can have access to that. Currently there's a lot of HOAs in Simi Valley. Only one HOA is sharing with us. I wish there were more because it just helps us investigatively but we have one HOA sharing with us We also have Home Depot, they have their own cameras. They share with us so we get data from their cameras.

Lowe's is another company that shares with us. They have their own cameras. Anything you see at Home Depot and Lowes, we did not install those are their cameras. So what our Flock LPR captures, this is very important. It's pictures only kind of think of a like a trail cam it's taking still shot photos they do have other cameras that you can buy that have video as well we didn't buy those those cost more and you have to obviously a lot for more we didn't ask for those we didn't buy those ours are taking pictures only there's no sound no video and there's no facial rec and here's a couple pictures of what it looks like Probably going to eat lunch or to a donut shop right there. And there's our beautiful bear cat.

So on occasion, these are primarily designed to capture the rear plate. Sometimes the camera they cover 2.5 lanes usually is what they say. Sometimes they'll catch the front plate on another side of traffic. I've yet to see anything that we don't have facial rec technology that we use in our department but I've never seen anything that would work that would even be able to do that But it's primarily to capture a rear plate of these vehicles as they pass by these, by taking photos.

So there was another question about how has police worked on before this? So here we go from limited leads to data-driven investigations. I'm jealous that when I was the detective during my time, I did not have this technology because I would've loved it. There was a time that we had call boxes, there was a time that we didn't have MDTs. There was a time that we didn't have this beautiful drone program. Thank you very much for that.

There was a time that we didn't have DNA cases that were solving out. So there's a time we didn't have this. So the key is making sure that this is congruent with the city and the police department values, that if we roll it out with the proper efficacy, it can help us do our job better, is what we're looking to do. And to speak about their drones because I helped with the drone team as well The drones actually had using technology, so this does kind of fit this presentation.