City Council — August 10, 2026

Good evening, I'd like to call this meeting to order. Mr. City Attorney are there any reports from closed session?

Thank you Madam Mayor nothing to report out of closed session.

have Mayor Cavanagh and Councilmember Ayala serve on that committee.

Second.

Call for the vote.

The motion passes unanimously.

Thank you, before we start our next presentation I was going to allow the girls if they would like to leave they don't have to stay parents. I know they're excited getting ready for school right? So congratulations again Thank you, Madam Clerk.

Thank you. Madam Mayor and members of the City Council next on the agenda is item 3C1 presentation of the 2025 State of the Region by David Marin.

I know you do a wonderful presentation but I think they are done for the evening

I'm proud to be here in Deer County. And we release this report every two years and go around the city council members, get rid of that echo.

You had this problem earlier so you're going to see what someone can do.

Should I wait?

Yeah if you like just listen in. It's

bad enough to hear one of them say that too. All right. Is that OK? Yes, now you're

good. Sounding

better? OK, good. We cannot produce this report without the generosity of our sponsors. Here's a few of our larger sponsors, the Ventura County Community Foundation, Community Colleges of Ventura County. It was working a moment ago. Okay, maybe that works. And that concludes my remarks. Thank you all very much. Okay so California Resources, County of Ventura, Channel Islands University, La Minera the Port and also the Ventura County Office of Education. So we're grateful to them and all of our sponsors. So the State of the Region Report is published every two years. We are 501c3 neutral unbiased. We are focused on sustaining the quality of life and I would like to acknowledge our former board president, Samantha Arkbright who has served us very well for many years.

The report's available to those in the audience or others who want to download it for free. It's at civicalliance.org and we list all of our sources starting on page 113. So I want to start off with some of the numbers about population. This is not actually in the report when we were producing this, the federal government was on one of those breaks where we couldn't get census data due to funding. County of Ventura so the purple line is the median age you can see right away that we are getting older Population about nine years ago was 847,000. We've declined by 10,000 people in just those few years but interestingly if you look at this blue that's the 0 to 18 population so that declined almost 20,000 so all of our loss has been in the young people so it's wonderful to see those young girls here today we need a lot more of them Here is the numbers for Simi Valley.

You are older in Simi Valley than the county at large, your average age is now at 41.9. Your population has pretty much held even you lost about a thousand people the last seven years but your zero to 18 year olds declined about 3,800 during that time. Much like most of our cities we're seeing a decline in the young people only Fillmore has actually had an increase So that's a very big challenge, I'll talk more about that. Here are some highlights though from other sections of the report. Agriculture, the strawberries remain top crop $700 million. Agriculture is about a 2.1 billion dollar industry. It used to be 4-5% of Ventura County's economy but it's shrunk a little to 3.3%.

Community engagement, your elected officials. I'd like to share stats about the state of registration in Ventura County. Green is no party preference, red is Republican and blue are Democrats. So you can see that the Democrat number has grown a little bit over the last 20 years but the big growth has been in no party preference people who just remain independent and that's mostly come at the expense of Republicans countywide But when you look at the numbers by city, it's a different story. Several cities have a majority of Democrats, most of them have a plurality and Simi Valley is the only one that has a plurality of Republicans but keep in mind this is registration not voter turnout as you are all aware it's really who actually shows up to vote and Republicans tend to vote more than Democrats I'd like to share this about nonprofits, and there's a lot of good data in the report.

And you don't have to read it from one end to the other. You can jump around. There's just a lot of great data. But we have over 11,000 people are working in the nonprofit sector generating over $500 million worth of wages, and that was back in 2024. So very important keeping our whole county and community together. This is a tough one to read, but just to explain how it works when you read it later. The bottom is showing the average wage in these industries so we can see that financial activities pays about $112,000 The top half is showing the number of people working in those sectors.

And what we see, other than an education, is that we are losing workers in the higher-paying industries but we're growing workers or staying at least level in the lower paying industries. So this is, of course, the challenge for you, the county and all the cities, is how can we attract higher paying jobs? How can we retain those companies that are paying better. Obviously leisure and hospitality, it's a great place to start but as an example Simi Valley I think you lost Farmers Bank of America over the years and it would be wonderful to see them come back someday.

This is the Gross County product, very similar to the national. We redo this chart every two years so those of you who have our older books it looks completely different because we restated every year for the inflation adjustment but going up to about 2009 you may remember the Great Recession. We were doing really well great recession hit And we staggered for a while, we lost ground most every year. And then we plateaued and we've really had anemic growth since then. We've only had one year 2021 where we had over 3% growth. And this is why the rest of the state in the nation has been sort of not on steroids but surging along. Ventura County has not been able to match those other areas.

Taxable sales, Simi Valley holding its own at about $2 billion. Most of the cities have seen a decline except for Oxnard and that of course is the Amazon effect so I know you're all working to figure out how to get some of that money. Tourism, this is great news. I'm sure most of this or much of it is from the Reagan Library bringing in over $2 million of transient occupancy tax.

Ojai just really crushes it you might say and that is the Ojai Valley Inn with their high room rates and all that but Oxnard coastal cities do pretty well, the outlet malls. It's tough I think for Simi Valley to be a mecca for tourism but you are doing well and it's growing Education, I know that you do not manage education but show you some highlights. I talked earlier about the decline in the number of youth 0 to 18 this is where it starts to manifest itself so the blue line on top is the K through 8 grades Green line is the high school years and we are right here at about 2025. You can see we've had a slow decline over the years for the K-8, and we're projecting a continued decline over the years but here's something that'll stagger you a little bit.

50 years ago the population of Ventura County was 420 20 or 50 years later, we doubled. So we've grown from 420 to 840 but the number of students in that time only went from 107 to 122 barely increased by 15% while the rest of the population doubled so we need more children And here's how it shows up in some of our school districts. Conejo Valley has lost, so the purple is 2021, blue is 24. You can see the decline there. Moorpark Unified really losing a little ground. Simi Valley Unified also losing ground. I'm often asked isn't this because of homeschooling and private schools? But the answer is no, it's because of a decline in the birth rate. Because even the private schools are seeing the decline.

Test scores, there's a lot of information in here. I won't slow you down or I won't slow down with that but if you're the commentary written by Tony Biasatti is very helpful to understand the range of achievement and lack of that. Community colleges more parks doing very well they're the blue other schools are about holding their own. I like to share this because the educational attainment for those in the audience and on the dais The value of education if your child or grandchild wants to stay in school, it pays off in a huge amount over the course of their lifetime. The average male graduating high school can look forward to about $46,000 of annual income but if they stay in school and get a bachelor's degree That will double and that's what they can expect to earn year after year after year.

So when you do the math, it is a huge amount of extra money that somebody can make with more degree if they are motivated to be in school. And I would say it pays for these student loans. It's a worthwhile investment. in the appropriate industries. Housing, we're coming back a little bit of growth not high. Simi Valley sort of right in the middle as far as the median home prices $890,000 in 2025 and it's a little bit more than it was the year before. Apartment rents make up one of the highest costs for our young people this is what starting to make it hard for us to have more children because our young people can't afford to live here and then they are Thank you very much.

I'll move along for other things. Solar, great news there. Beautiful place to live Ventura County that's unbeatable. This is the chart that really shows the decline in the birth rate so we are showing the number of births per thousand residents and we were doing really well back around 1990s and the 80s averaging in the high teens number of births and that's just cratered over the years down to 9.9 and 10.2, so young people have three things going on one is it's expensive so they leave the area we lose that they stay here but they put off having children instead of having in their early 20s they're waiting till their late 20s or maybe their 30s and then the third thing is they're deciding to have less children so we may have all grown up with three or four kids as our next-door neighbor and that But now we're seeing families of only one child or two.

And what's driving that is besides the cost of housing, it's the cost of childcare. It costs $15,000 a year to put your infant in childcare. It's even more if that child is a toddler. I'm advocating to every city, and hopefully the city managers when you're all together can solve this wrinkle. But if we can bring down the cost of childcare just somewhat, subsidize it other ways then that can be a magnet for employers. It could be a magnet for young people because we are in a battle to keep our young people and not have them move to Riverside, to San Bernardino. We need to attract them and attract them from other areas. So when you see childcare A place like Amgen provides childcare, but they still charge their employees the full rate. But imagine the beauty of being able to drop off your kid near your work if we could open up childcare centers that were close to employment centers so instead of having to get up in Simi Valley drive to Moorpark to drop off your child and then come back to work here at City Hall or somewhere else if we can bring childcare closer, if we can make it more affordable I think that is one way to help bring down to keep our young people here and attract them This is new in the report.

We've added cancer rates, we're looking at the top 15 to 20 counties across the state. We broke it out for three cancers leukemia breast cancer and prostate. And this is the overall of those these numbers are age adjusted and gender adjusted and the fascinating thing is that Ventura County ranks fairly high in the amount of the incidence of cancer. Don't know why that is, it's often pointed out that several of these other counties are coastal counties. I'm not sure if that has any relationship. Some people tell me well maybe we have better doctors so we're detecting it but I don't know if that's actually true or wishful thinking. So a lot of good data and the report there's the breast cancer one.

Public safety, Ventura County continues to be one of the safest counties in the state. Actually the safest and I'll just move right along here, Madam Mayor. Simi Valley still 2.1 million pounds of food distributed in 2024. Transportation there's a lot of statistics but I'll end up with this one Even though the pandemic is over and people are going back to work, we're still seeing an increase in the number of people that are working from home. And that continues to match all of the other counties nearby.

I'll stop again. This is available to the public at civicalliance.org. I have a handful if anybody wants to hit me up outside, I'll share a few as well and of course you have some here for your staff. One final announcement, the Civic Alliance will be hosting a conference called The Future of the Region. It will be on September 14th in Camarillo and we will have a guest speaker talking about these demographic issues And I think it'd be fascinating. I know that you'll all be on our mailing list and hope you can attend if there's any questions, I'm happy to answer them. But thank you all for your time.

Thank you for your presentation. Are there any questions? Council Member Rhodes.

I just wanted to say thank you. This resource sits on my desk, and if it could come out every year that would be better. I know that's a burden. It's absolutely packed full of actionable data. And so thank you for putting it together, and the overview while is extremely fast, I know I have a copy I can dig in and really get the data. So thank you. Yes, thank you sir.

Thank you for your presentation. Anyone else? No, that means you did a great job. Thank you David we always appreciate it.

Madam Mayor and members of the City Council, next on the agenda is Item 4, Public Statements. If you are participating by phone and wish to provide public comment please raise your hand by pressing star 9. While waiting to be recognized please remain on the line and listen to the instructions. Agenda item number four is a time allotted for public statements from individuals who have submitted speaker cards as well as those participating by phone.

During the agenda item four, City Council will hear public statements from the first ten persons who have submitted speaker cards after the first ten persons have spoken subsequent persons who have submitted speaker cards will be called to speak during agenda item number six which is a continuation of agenda item number four Gender items 4 and 6 are designated for public statements on all matters except for public hearings, appointments and informational reports.

Speakers will be called in the order in which a card was received and will have up to three minutes to address the City Council. Speakers participating by phone will be recognized after all in-person speakers have been called. When the clerk recognizes you, you will be prompted to press star six to unmute your phone before addressing the City Council and we'll have up to three minutes to speak. The mayor will notify you when you have 30 seconds remaining.

Persons addressing the City Council are requested to state their name and community residence for the record. Madam Mayor unless you have any comments we can begin public statements.

Please proceed.

Madam Mayor we do have 11 speaker cards would you like me to call them all during?

Yes let's go ahead thank you

I will call three names so you know who you follow. Ben Davis, Dale Steinick and Michael Shaw.

Good evening Mayor, Councilmembers and City staff. My name is Ben Davis, President of Picola Tiny Homes here in Simi Valley. Thank you for your time tonight. This is the 10th time I've stood here at this podium to talk about our housing crisis and tonight I'm glad to bring some good news but first a hard fact You heard David and his whole entire presentation. And to add to that, as of 2023, 51% of adults ages 18 to 24 are still living in their parental home, hence the no child. Not because they want to be there but because the housing math doesn't work for them yet. And when they look for a way out here's what they run into. A foundation bill ADU in our area costs between $200,000 and $500,000 And takes a year to year and a half longer to build than a movable tiny home.

As well as the average house in Simi Valley is $890,000 now. That's the gap for our young people and honestly a lot of our seniors too are stuck in which is exactly why what happened since I last stood here matters so much. So Council Member Ayala you asked for this issue to be placed on a future agenda and Council Member Lister you seconded that motion. I want to thank you both Publicly and sincerely, you didn't just sit through nine speeches. You acted on them. You put your names in this in public on the record and moved it from a hallway conversation to an actual agenda item and that is the kind of leadership this issue has been waiting for and I will not forget it so thank you I would like to also extend a formal invitation to Mayor Cavanagh and any other Simi Valley residents or anyone who wants to come see.

Please, come see a movable tiny home for yourself, come tour our facility, walk through unit and see exactly what we've been asking this council to consider. I think it will make the case better than any speech I could give from this podium. So thank you Councilmember Ayala and Councilmember Lister and thank you Simi Valley for getting us this close.

Thank you.

Hello Mayor and City Council. My name is Dale Steinick, owner of Ultimate Locations and author of my house is a great location I have an ongoing list of homes and businesses that I've listed for filming these places are ready for filming Restaurants, Big Z Restaurant, Ozen Sushi's, a bar, PCS Bar and Grill, Tattoo Parlor, Vellum Studios, Hair Salon, Fringe on the 5th, Samaritan Center, Laundromat, Simi Suds.

Recreational facilities, the bunker a clubhouse which is an indoor has indoor golf screens. Laser tag extreme indoor laser tag D-bat indoor batting cages private homes that I have a private home that has a golf putting green a soccer practice field and pickleball plus 100 paved and unpaved spaces and a clear view of the mountains and hills north of the property. I have a ranch, a 15-acre ranch that has 50 plus unpaved parking spaces, 20 paved parking spaces in view of Simi Valley and a 3,000 square foot home. The homes range, and I have about 20 of them at this point. It's an ongoing list from 1,500 square feet to 7,000 plus square feet To the production companies, Park Pictures, Heather, call me. The Lincoln Lawyer, Richard DePetre, call me.

David Park, The Falling, call me. Gilbert Perez, call me on Malo. Nick Chandler, you have my number. Taylor Sheridan Group, Michael Dunitz. Gloria Sanchez, which is Will Farrell's group. The Hawk. Derek Alvarado. You know me. Call me. Ian Bogart. Alison Cox. Kyle Hollinger. Brian Love. Patrick Pardot. You guys call me. Jason Strickland, producer. Kelly Harris. I know you have my number. With all these people come to Simi Valley. Try us out! Work here.

Because we have the shops, we have the stores, we have the homes for all your productions. I have probably minimum of five of everything. Call me. If you hear this and you're not on my list, and you are a property owner or business owner, I'm easy to find. Call me get on my list so you can be part of this filming that we want here in Simi Valley. Thank you.

Thank you. Any questions? Oh, you can't take questions? Not now.

Good evening, you all. I missed your last meeting. Your knucklehead buddy here went and thought it'd be a good idea to take a labor job for six weeks. Instead of saying stand shoulder to shoulder, I was shovel to shovel with a lot of the people you'll hear me advocate for. I tell ya, I don't think it was such a great idea but I did meet a lotta great people and wonderful stories and it just solidified the efforts I make when I talk to you guys about The things that are going on that people can't come up and talk to you about.

And part of that is going back to the Michael Robinson incident, and I was so affected by that I brought you all books on what we were gonna do about now The last time I was here, I said racism in our city schools. Well it's that beating took place at the Regal. It isn't just our city schools and no offense you guys but you know, I don't think any one of you have experienced a bad racial happening to you So the reason I keep harping about it is, I'm hoping maybe we can put a commission together. We can look into it a little deeper because our City Council's silence is insulting to all those young brave kids that came up here and testified. And those weren't made-up stories, those were real life stories and I think it behooves us to pay attention to it and give it the serious concentration we should.

So with that, I'll use my last little bit of my one minute left where I got to start ragging on waste management again. I was reading in the Times, there were three sites that were approved to take the waste that came from that city that burned and they had to evacuate the whole city and we were one of those three sites. Now, I don't know how you check but I'd surely like to know did any of that rotten material make it out to our landfill according to the LA Times it did?

And now we're the brunt of every time there's some toxic stuff to get rid of, let's send it to Simi. So I think it's uncool. I hope it didn't go there. We'll talk more later about their expansion that's coming up and they're raising our rates which I'm not in favor of. Okay thanks for listening you guys. Talk to you later.

Thank you

The next three speakers James McGillis, Anthony Thompson and Anthony Eason.

Madam Mayor members of the City Council and staff I'm James McGillis a resident of Simi Valley at their most recent meeting the Tree Advisory Board also known as the Planning Commission approved the construction of 58 new single-family homes near the northern end of Cochran Street to facilitate the construction the tree advisory board also sanctioned the destruction of five native oak trees for the future construction site. As you know, the City's Hillside Preservation Ordinance bans construction on any slope of 20% or greater. Through a loophole big enough for a Mack truck, the developers can grade entire hillsides down to less than 20% and build whatever fits on the property. Prior to approval one tree advisory board member expressed his appreciation that the developer did not request a density bonus for this development.

He never mentioned the majestic oak tree at the top of that hillside which was soon to be destroyed for all time. The only reason the developer did not request a density bonus is that they could not cram even one more residential lot onto the project site. In fact, the footprint is so full there will be no sidewalks in the new neighborhood. I have a new hobby. I travel to all the future development sites in the city and photograph native trees slated for destruction. For instance, I went to Oak Road and found the city's heritage oak still standing After 350 years, it appeared indifferent to its imminent demise. I have a suggestion for both the Tree Advisory Board and the City Council. Every time you sanction the destruction of a native oak tree, you should post a sign nearby.

It would state the time and place of the public wake and final tree-hugging ceremony at the site prior to the chainsaws going to work. Then young and old alike could bid their heritage and what remains of the natural environment here in Simi Valley a sad but fond farewell Have you driven up Tapo Canyon Road to Lost Canyons Road lately? Without so much of it as a whimper, oak trees up to two feet in diameter have been felled chopped up and carted away. At the intersection of the two roads there used to be a natural area surrounded and shaded by native oaks Now look at it, looks like a strip mine. It may be time to repeal the Hillside Protection Ordinance and the Mature Tree Preservation Ordinance. Instead we should have a new ordinance that requires at least one oak tree be sacrificed for every acre of new development.

That way, if no oak trees are available on the proposed site, the developer could be required to select an oak tree at some other location in the city and personally cut it down using a City-approved chainsaw. If you listen outside at night I'm sure you will hear the owls all over this valley calling out for their failed and lost habitat. Thank you.

Good evening, I'm Anthony Thompson. I'm a resident and a business owner here open for business closed for bureaucracy. That's what residents expect when they report a problem. And that's what our city should deliver first. I want to recognize what speed of enterprise is and what works. Ryan Ventrella, George Goodwin and the streets maintenance team deserve credit for responsiveness. A concerned resident flagged down the street maintenance crew about an issue on the northbound side of Sequoia right before the 118 freeway and it was addressed within 24 hours. That's service that's excellent service and the kind of urgency we should expect citywide The issue, the condition of our street signs affects the public's perception of Simi Valley especially along gateway corridors such as First Street leading up to the mall.

If you get off First Street go towards the mall every sign is whitewashed and bleached so you can't read it. The other thing, down Royal Avenue I had the privilege to take when the Hummingbird Ranch nest was up for sale. One of the primary owners of the Hard Rock Casino, we went down Royal and he couldn't read what street they're on. I was showing him the Wood Ranch area.

The condition our street signs affects the public's perceptions And I have documented from 17 different videos where of the different pictures were residents sent to me and in preference and also in. The fairness to the city asked the residents and said, you know there's a website. Go put your complaints on there because the city can't see everything that's on the street so it's up to us as residents to identify those all as well but we shouldn't rely solely on the residents to discover and report predictable infrastructure failures. So a practical solution I came with, I'm in the sign business and these failures are predictable. A sign replacement strategy should be based on orientation as expected for replacements For example, south and west facing signs generally needs replacement in seven to nine years because it's always facing the sun, always getting the UV rays.

East-facing generally takes about eight to 10 years and north-facing can add 12 years or more. It all depends on the DOT requirements and the sheeting that's used. I recommend the city establish a proactive replacement schedule by sign category, location, orientation, and the condition. The reflective sheeting usually last is the least expensive replacement of the sign. The most expensive and the most predictive model is the road closures and traffic control that's needed, public works labor and equipment, man lifts and vehicle deployment.

And the replacement of substrates such as aluminum galvanized steel those are all the lower costs so I would say a strategic remove or replace system to preserve usable I have a request involving public hearing notices this evening.

Public hearing notices are essential tools for community engagement and government transparency. Notices alert citizens about government activities, proposed projects or changes that may affect their community. Notices provide an opportunity for residents to voice their opinions and concerns regarding proposed developments or changes. They invite community members to participate in the decision-making process, ensuring that diverse perspectives are considered. They help ensure transparency which fosters trust and encourages civic engagement.

I believe the city is currently meeting its legal obligation by publishing notices in the Ventura County Star. My request involves the addition of a notice published in another paper as well, the Simi Valley Acorn. California Government Code Title 7 Chapter 2.7 Section 65090 Paragraph C states quote In addition to the notice required by this section, a local agency may give notice of the hearing in any other manner it deems necessary or desirable.

Although not being necessary, I believe it would be desirable. This could inform more residents of these hearings and encourage more public participation in local government that could provide City Council as well as the Planning Commission with additional perspectives to consider prior to making decisions at these hearings. I don't know if the City Council needs to do anything other than instruct a city manager that you would like this additional notice published as well. I believe the additional costs to the city would be minimal and be outweighed by public benefit.

It is my understanding that the Ventura County Star has a circulation somewhere in the vicinity of 12,500 in Simi Valley As of April 2024, the Simi Valley acorn had a print circulation in Simi Valley of 34,257. I'm not totally sure of the Ventura County star number but I believe the circulation of the acorn to certainly be greater than that of the Ventura County star in Simi Valley.

This would allow more notice reaching more residents and hopefully more public participation as well. Thank you for your consideration.

Thank You Mr. Eason

The next three speakers, Frank Tomlinson, Kate O'Brien and Travis Foster.

I brought a little something that we made up so you guys could see a little bit of what we're imagining with what we do with the sign program at Vets and Valor. I hope it gives you a little perspective, a little context to what we're thinking about making it a community event, making it veteran-centric to the newly separated veterans that are coming out of the military honoring them and just making it a day that they were able to connect and be a part of the larger community. Maybe find a home, a place where they're able to work, where veterans are appreciated and hired.

We have all of those connections and we continue to make more every day. I did want to read this. This is actually because I thought that this was ironic. This was actually posted in the Simi Valley Community Forum last week A gentleman, single dad of four veteran who had been employed yet homeless since December. Today finally signed a lease for an apartment however I'm moving with no furniture. I don't see us having enough for some time but hopefully gradually save up Save up or getting donations over time. Does anyone have any sleeping bags, an air mattress they're willing to donate? These are the kinds of people that this effort that we would hope to you be able to use and access our larger community and the veterans that are out there that are on social media I mean this is probably a little bit more of an anomaly to be honest with you with veterans that are out there But it's hard trying to find them in the community.