City Council - Regular Meeting

meeting of the Camrio City Council, Sanitary District, and Library Board to order on April 22nd, 2026. Will the clerk please call the role? Council member Santangelo, here. Vice Mayor Martinez Bravo, here. Council member Trembley, I'm sorry, Council Member Kildy here. Please note that Council Member Trembley is absent. Mayor Tennyson here. And let the record reflect that Council Member Trembbley will be here shortly. With that, we will go to close session. And Madame City attorney, if you would make that announcement.

Thank you. And I just also want to clarify for the record that we did have the special meeting. So, you're also opening the special meeting as well. And so on the special meeting we have one close session which is conference with real property negotiator uh related to the property at 200 Flynn Road. Uh in addition on the regular close session we have three other items. Uh the first one is existing litigation pursuant to 54956.9D1 which is the OPV coalition both versus Fox Canyon groundwater management. Uh we have a second real property matter related to the property at 2222 Ventura Boulevard. And the last item is an anticipated litigation matter subject to government code section 54956.9D2 one potential case. And if there's any reportable action I will make that report.

Thank you ma'am. And with that will we we will recess to close session.

will reconvene the Cameo City Council meeting, Cameo Sanitary District and CLB for April 22nd, 2026. Let the record reflect that all council members are present. And I'm going to ask council member Susan Santangelo to lead us in the pledge of allegiance. Please stand. Hand over heart. Ready. Begin.

I pledge algiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for it stands. One nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all. Thank you, Council Member Santangelo. And we will move on to the approval of the agenda. Are there any changes to the agenda? Hearing none, we will move forward. I'm going to call on Mandy, our director of library services for the city of Camaro to talk about the career online high school graduates that we're going to honor this evening.

Um, thank you, Mayor Tennyson. Um, I before I introduce the graduates, I want to give some background about this amazing program. Since July 2023, Camrio Public Library has been an active participant in the Career Online High School program offered by the California State Library. Career Online High School enables California adults to earn a high school diploma free of charge through our adult literacy center. The library has 13 active students in the program and we are proud to announce five new graduates who have received career certificates in the fields of office management, manufacturing, commercial driving and general career preparedness. And today we are fortunate to have three of our graduates here with us. I'm going to ask them to stand when I call your name. Ilas Akuna um recently received from Career Online High School who focused his studies on introduction to manufacturing. Ilas pursued a high school diploma because it would give him better opportunities with his job and will help him with his everyday life. He plans on going to university next. So, thank you. Our second graduate, Lori Lang, focused her studies on commercial driving, and we're really proud of Lori. Already she has taken some college courses and has earned college credits. Our third graduate, Cynthia Noriega, focused her studies on office management. She en enrolled in career online high school that she could so she can find better job opportunities. As she began to work toward her diploma, it motivated her to continue her education. She will soon earn her AA by fall 2027 with a focus on addictive disorders. We have two additional graduates that were not able to attend this presentation, but I would like to briefly announce who they are. Hi Shang focused her studies on general career

preparedness. She is a new resident in Camaro and pursued a high school diploma so that she can find employment and Christina Lopez graduated with a focus on office management. She pursued this program because she wanted to apply for jobs with higher salaries and better benefits. In addition, she wanted to be a good role model for her family. Um, we are just so proud of all of our students who have prioritized their education while also maintaining their full-time jobs as well as their busy family responsibilities. Uh, most people who have enrolled in this program have heard of this through word of mouth. Um, I encourage any adult who is interested in obtaining a high school diploma to come by the library's adult literacy center and enroll. It takes about 11 months to complete the program. And that concludes my presentation. Uh, thank you, Mayor David Tennyson, for the opportunity to speak about Career Online High School.

Thank you, Mandy. And I'm going to ask you and the three graduates present to meet me up in front of the city seal right over here. Okay, I want you over there so I don't feel so short. Okay, stand right here. Now I feel better.

I, you know, I have this height issue with a daughter two inches taller than me and a brother like 18 in taller than me. So now I feel good. Thank you for standing beside me. Uh, number one, I am proud of your accomplishment. I know what education means. I know what it means to pursue it while you're working, raising a family. I went through a trajectory like that and you should be proud of yourselves for your accomplishment. I'm glad our library offers this opportunity to just about anybody that wants it. Now, I'm going to put you on the spot. I'm going to hand you each the mic. And the question is, what did you get from this program? How has it benefited from you? And you have about 12 seconds and then I grab you off the mic.

Okay. Well, first of all, I want to um My name is Lori Lang and um I'm a graduate this year and I just appreciate the fact that we had this opportunity to get my diploma and I thank you for that. And I feel great. You should feel great. Elias. Elas. Elas. Yeah, I said it. Elias. Elas. What has this meant to you as it was important because it's helped me to be more improved with people help me on my job to communicate with my supervisor and all the people around me. So it be good.

Good. Congratulations. Your name? First of all, my name is Cynthia and I just want to thank the, you know, Camrio Library for giving me the opportunity to get my high school diploma. Um, I just wanted to show my kids, you know, it's never too late uh to pursue, you know, what you're what you want to do and actually is helping me going be going to college and finishing up my A. So, thank you.

You hand them out and let's get a picture. Once again, um, ladies and gentlemen, please recognize the outstanding achievement of these three individuals, plus the two that couldn't come with us. Education is a lifelong journey, and they're proving that to us. Fellow council members, I'm going to start with Council Member Susan Santangelo. Thank you. I just want to say congratulations. I know um it takes a lot of hard work to go back to school and to finish the things off. So good for you. Congratulations and thanks for taking opportunity that we have at the library. Vice Mayor,

congratulations and thank you so much for taking this step forward. I know in many of what was mentioned, you talked about being a role model for your loved ones and the reality is you're also being a role model for so many people in our community, people who are watching right now who are going to be motivated to be in your steps. So, thank you for being that leader and we really appreciate you. Thank you, Mr. Kild D.

Um, just congratulations. Um, it's going to be beneficial to you folks, uh, not only economically, but I think emotionally uh, and socially as well. And it's really important for all of you to talk this program up because there's nothing like a graduate that has been in the program to talk about the benefits of this. And like you said, it is never too late for any kind of education. And I know when you work and when you're raising a family, how difficult that can be, but give yourselves a pat on the back. Job well done. Congratulations, Mr. Trembley.

Uh ditto to uh what all of my fellow colleagues have said and especially Council Member Santangelo. Uh congratulations and and great work. Mandy, how many graduate classes have you dealt with? Our second one. What are your impressions of the people you've seen come through this and what you hope from it?

I I want to echo I think council member Kild is right. I think I would love you know no one it's such it seems like it's you can't do it and so if you you guys did it and our last class did it and I hope that next year we have another bigger great graduation class. So, please tell your friends, anyone in the audience, if you know someone who doesn't who's looking to get their high school diploma, we could do it in under a year and it's for free. So, please come see us.

Thank you. Now, open up your certificates because we'll have a photo op. Get closer together like we like each other. Another round of applause for these people that have shown perseverance and tenacity. Congratulations. Nice. And next, unless the city clerk calls me out, we'll go to speakers on any item not on the agenda.

There are now five speakers uh requesting to speak. If you'd like to speak but haven't submitted your name, please see the clerk uh staff and in the foyer. Each speaker is limited to three minutes. The city council will receive general public comment for an initial period of 20 minutes. Speakers who sign up during the initial 20 minute public comment period but are not heard within that time will be given an opportunity to speak following the completion of action on all other agenda items. Your time will be displayed in with the video on the displays. When your time is up, the microphone will be muted and we will move on to the next speaker. When I call your name, please come up to the podium and state your name. The first speaker is Spencer Richie followed by Diane Winthreb. Welcome, Spencer.

Hello. Hello. Um All right. Hi. Hi. Um I'm Spencer Richie. Um and the topic of my public comment today will be um once again shimmy um the city's still quite appalling and disappointing treatment of you know how ICE is treating Camarans and other people in Camaro. Um, I don't know what really there is more to say besides, um, I do not like that, you know, the city is, um, it's still letting letting the VCSO, you know, protect ICE vehicles and pick up its targets directly from our jails. I do not like that. Um, Cortez Circle is, you know, still a pit of horrors. Um, and I also really do not like my taxes being used to keep funding the flock all per cameras in our town, which by the way, we've known for, you know, weeks now that, you know, no matter what we sign that promises that, you know, what they capture stays within our state. In reality, all the flock all per camera images taken here um can be seen by the law enforcement agencies across the country, including ICE. So, I'm just not happy about that. And so, all and so, you know, to that effect, um here are the most recent numbers as of 11:00 a.m. on Monday, April 20th. Um, so far ICE

has kidnapped um 1,879 people from the entire 805 area code. So, Ventura County, Santa Barbara County, St. Louis Abyispo County, um 95 people from Ventura County, and 476 people from Camaro. So that's a that's that's a lot of people that you know city councils like yours who refuse to do anything meaningful whatsoever against the ice plague are you know just letting get you know scooped up and sent who knows where by you know masked thugs who by the way are not basically The ruling was like something a judge ruled against that new law that mandates they show their identification. So do better please. Have a nice day.

Thank you Spencer.

Diane Winthre followed by Evan Trafickin. Welcome Diane. My name is Diane Wro. I live in um Camaro Parks and there's trees behind my house behind the wall and I've been asking them for a long time the police trim the trees are hitting they're hitting my house. Could you speak a little closer to the microphone? Sorry, you can bend it down. You don't have to. There's trees behind my house and I'm asking um the managers that police trim the trees and they refuse to do it. I got pictures if you want to see them. Well, we can't see them. But where do you live again? I I live in Camaro Mobile Parks and that's phase 13.

Okay. Well, we'll ask city staff to look into this. Okay. Thank you. You're welcome. Thank you, Diane. Evan Traphan, followed by Addie Fox. Welcome, Evan.

Thank you. Uh before we begin, uh I would like to thank the city council for the opportunity to speak today and on behalf of the teen civic engagement club. Uh we are very appreciative for the city of Camaro's acknowledgement of public opinion and uh receptiveness. My name is Evan Trafocin. I'm a Rancho Kana sophomore and I'm a current active member in the teen civic engagement club at the Camaro Library. Uh recently over the past few weeks, me and some other members have been discussing the idea of a youth advisory committee or youth uh council which would be comprised of a potential mentor from the city government and a number of elected teen youth leaders who would be able to work with the city and also represent teens across Camaro. uh for potential activities could include conducting surveys or finding out interests of teens and bringing those up to the council. Uh I believe this would be a very effective way to give teens experience and leadership opportunities and also engage teens with the community more than ever. And uh thank you very much.

Thank you. I just have to point out real quick that I had an opportunity to appear before this group of young students and I asked them to rate my presentation after about an hour and a half, hour and 45 minutes of dialogue and only one person was courageous enough and honest enough to give me a three out of five because I talked too much about myself. So, thanks for that Evan. I've tried to learn from it. I appreciate that input and I look forward to seeing you in the future. So, please reach out to Mandy and she works very closely with the rest of city staff and obviously that was one of the goals of this council two years ago and I think it's come to fruition with bright promising young people like you. So, keep moving forward. Thank you for showing up tonight. Thank you,

Addie. Excuse me, Addie Fox. Followed by Sunny Big.

Welcome, Addie. I cannot see this. Hold up. Good evening. Glasses.

Good evening, members of the council. Um, believe it or not, I'm also appearing on the the side on the behalf of the teen civic engagement club and I am also proposing the idea of the youth advisory committee. Um, I know in days past there was also a youth advisory committee and many may remember what the committee accomplished. It gave young people a seat at the table, a real voice in the decisions that shaped the city. And the results spoke for themselves. The skate park for teens the teens advocated for didn't just create a place to ride. It created a place to belong. It gave our youth somewhere to go, something to do, and a sense of ownership over their community. But beyond tangible projects, the youth advisory committee did something even more important. It introduced a generation of young people to civic life. It showed them that politics isn't something that happens to them. It's something they can participate in, shape, and lead. Since the committee was disbanded, that pipeline has gone quiet. We have a generation of young people such as those who participate in the teen civic engagement club at the library who are capable, passionate, and eager to contribute. And we are not giving them the opportunity to do so. I'm asking the city to change that. Let's bring our youth advisory committee back. Let's invest in our youth the way we did in the past. Let's give the next generation the same chance to leave their mark on the city.

Thank you very much. Well said. Sunny Bignami. What was the name? Sunny. Yes. Welcome, Sunny. Hi, Mayor. How are you? I'm well.

Hello, everybody. Good afternoon. Good evening. So, my name is Sunonny Byami. I am a longtime Cameo, former Cameo resident. I've been here to see a lot of changes that the city has undergone. Um, specifically its growth. Uh I am now a real estate professional and with that I've had the opportunity to meet many people from you know all walks of life, many backgrounds. I am here to show my support and to stand in solidarity for my request along with many others to please pass RSO, the rent stabilization ordinance. Sunny, I'm going to stop you now because this is for items not on the agenda and that will be on the agenda shortly after this.

I appreciate that. Thank you, Madame Clerk. There are no more speakers.

Thank you very much. We will move on to the library activity updates by Mandy. Good evening, Mayor David Tennyson, library trustees. I am honored to be here today in time for National Library Week, which is celebrated from April 19th to 25th. The theme this year is find your joy. And at Camaro Public Library, we find joy every day with our dedicated library staff members, our connection to library patrons, and the many services and programs that we offer. As you saw moments earlier, we celebrated Library Joy with our incredible career online high school graduates. And now, with an accredited high school diploma in hand, their future is going to be brighter. I have another library joy announcement which is our newly formed teen civic engagement club led by our teen librarian Naomi Wolfrey. The teen civic engagement club was created last October and they meet twice a month. The idea of the teen civic engagement club is to engage youth regarding issues that concern them and develop future leaders which is outlined in the city strategic plan and council goals and objectives. When we met with the teens last fall for a focus group, the teens identified a few goals for the club this year. And these goals include one, learning about their local government, two, meeting the mayor, and three, attend and speak at a city council meeting so they can be involved. In 2026, the teen civic engagement club hosted nine meetings and we met with city staff leaders in various departments such as community relations, public works, economic development, and community development. These learning opportunities provided our teen civic engagement club with how their lo local government works. The teen civic engagement club had the opportunity to fulfill their second goal and meet with Mayor David Tennyson and

library board president and council member Susan T Santangelo. On March 31st, 17s used dialeride to take a field trip from the library to city chambers here and they met with city clerk staff. Staff provided a tour of city hall and created a mock city agenda. And afterwards, teens had the opportunity to practice talking on a microphone to prepare teens for public comment at a future city council meeting. And they just did that. So the teen civic engagement club will continue until the end of June and our next steps will be to plan for engagement next year. We've asked assistant city manager Carmen Nichols to meet with us next month for vision planning. And in addition, we invited HR director Wendy Levy who will share information about the city's internship program if they want to pursue that in college. That concludes my presentation and I'm happy to address any questions.

Great. Any questions from council? One quick question, Mandy. Is there anything other else special that's gone on at the library in the last few weeks? We had this guest speaker um for story time last week. We actually had two special library storytime readers and you know I think they're going to be my backup. So yes, we we I think Mayor David Tennyson, Vice Mayor Dr. Martinez Bravo, you did an excellent job celebrating National Library Week and doing our story times. I'm going to call you if one of us gets sick. So be prepared. All right. We'll be there for you. Sick or not sick, we'll be there.

Yeah, we'll be there for you. and anybody else in the audience that wants to take advantage of that. There is nothing more special than reading to a group of preschoolers and just a little bit beyond preschool to share the joy of reading and the joy of learning through reading and the joy of travel through reading. So, I'd encourage you to look at the library website and if there's opportunities for volunteerism, I'm sure Mandy would consider all of you people coming in and being guest readers for these preschoolers and a little bit older than preschoolers. Thank you, Mandy. Thank you so much.

Normally, we don't encourage audience participation. We did it for our graduates, but if you could keep your applause or your negative comments quiet, that way everybody feels free to get up and speak when it's their turn. Next up, we have our report from Chandler Asset Management, Mr. Mark Yuribbei, our finance director.

Yes. Thank you, Mr. Mayor, members of the city council. Uh just for benefit of the public, we are currently as a city working on the budget for next fiscal year beginning July 1. And the city's investment adviser, Chandler Asset Management, provides a quarterly economic update to the city's finance committee. And each year around this time, we asked Chandler to present an economic report to the full city council to provide some context for the economic conditions that may impact the revenue and expenditure projections that are going into the city's budget development process. Um, so now I'd like to introduce Jason Schmidt, co-chief investment officer with Chandler Asset Management to present that economic report.

Good evening everyone and council and mayor. Um, so we're going to talk a little bit about the economy today. Sure, I can and uh, you know, look at some of the highlights. So just if you look at the economy today in 2025, uh, GDP grew at 2.1%. Uh if we look at 2026, the consensus is for of similar growth at 2.2%. Uh one of the big thing big risks that's out there today is the conflict that's going on in the Middle East which has essentially driven oil prices higher. I'll show you a little bit more information on that. And uh with that, there is an expectation that inflation also may move higher over that same period of time. With that in mind, thinking about interest rates in the Federal Reserve, the Federal Open Market Committee or the FOMC held rates steady at 3 and a half to 3.75 at the March meeting. Chances are through out of 2026, they're likely to hold them at that same level. There was an expectation potentially at the beginning of the year that they may actually move rates lower. that has since dissipated given some of the uh higher energy prices and what that may do uh to the overall uh economy. Looking at the labor market, uh definitely rebounded in March. We added 178,000 jobs. The unemployment rate is relatively low at 4.3%. So, I'd say that the labor market today is pretty much holding steady. The big one that's an outlier out there is really inflation. And CPI is uh stands for the consumer price index. That's a broad measure of prices. And so for the for the month of March, it jumped.9%. And on a year-over-year basis, it's 3.3%. And so I would say that that is probably what the markets are focused on today and what most economists are focused on today relative to one of the risks there is that we will get higher levels of inflation. The other piece of that is looking at the other financial markets.

Not that the city would ever buy stocks, but looking at the S&P 500 as potentially their barometer of what's going on in the overall economy. And we're now seeing the S&P 500 hit a record high. Uh this was only a few days ago. And also we continue to see strong corporate profits in the first quarter. This is looking at energy markets. So on the left hand side is really looking at oil prices. I look at two sets of oil prices. One is Brent. So, think of that as the global uh oil price. And then one is WTI or West Texas intermediate crude. And what you can see there, look at both of those lines that was actually trending downward until we had the conflict start in the Middle East. And now both of those numbers were at this point in time, this is as of March 31st, above a hundred. Uh we're seeing it kind of bounce around close to 100 today. Uh $100 per barrel. But the one thing is that we don't necessarily consume oil. What do we consume? Gasoline, diesel, things like that. That's what the other graph is really showing. And so you can see the dash line down there is really the gasoline price. And then you can see that green line there is actually the diesel price. Why do we put diesel in there? If you think about the trucks and things like that that are really delivering the goods and services that we need, what do a lot of them burn? They're burning diesel fuel. So that's why that makes a very important component of that. This is what economists are looking at as far as looking at the overall uh inflation rate and what potentially could drive that higher. And of course that has an impact on interest rates and it also has impact on uh looking at uh what the Federal Reserve also may do uh with the federal funds rate. Looking at inflation left hand side is the CPI. So you can see the headline there is in the green the dash line there is in the core. What do I mean by four? by core is economists a lot of

times like to look at the inflation rate except or excluding food and energy and so they'd like to look at the core rate but what you can see is that they've diverged that core rate of course excluding food and energy is kept relatively uh flat there and what you saw is that big jump that we had in the month of March because we had such a large increase in energy prices on the other side this is the Federal Reserve's preferred measure which is the personal consumption expenditures again the headline number is in the green, that dash line is that of the core number and that orange is that flat line. That's where the Federal Reserve's target is. Notice that they're above their target. And so that is probably going to prevent them from uh decreasing interest rates at least until later this year. Looking at the employment, so you can see here the non-farm payrolls, the green line there is the month-over-month, and then that dash line is a three-month moving average. It just shows you that employment is relatively strong right now. I would say that we have a pretty good employment market. The unemployment rate on the other side, the green line there is the one you should focus on. That is the headline unemployment rate has been migrating up a little bit here more recently. And then we have the dash line being the underemployment rate, which is essentially those folks that might be working part-time that would like to be working full-time. Uh so I would say that the the labor market is pretty normal right now. we haven't seen a whole lot of um you know weakness there and so that is definitely something to think about as the economy started off on very good footing uh before the conflict started. These are survey based measures. These are the folks that are buying the nuts and bolts uh that are basically building our desks, building the goods and also providing those services. Anything above 50 is an expanding uh sector. Anything below 50 is contracting. The green line there is manufacturing. So you can see that's above 50 and then you can also see that dash line which is the services side. You can also see that's above 50. So definitely what we've seen more recently

is that the economy continues to roll on is basically being very resilient. Uh we'll have to see kind of what happens as we make our way throughout the year. This is looking at GDP. This is looking at the last four quarters in 2025. So the table on the uh left hand side there shows you those quarter quarter changes. If you look at the graph, you can see the green line there are the quarter-over-quarter changes and that maroon line there is that year-over-year change. Notice it's around that 2% mark is what we've been looking at. That's what the forecast is, but remember the forecast is is definitely susceptible to change depending upon what's happening uh in the economy. Let's look at some of the local data. And so we did here is we looked at a table and in that table you can see there different factors. We have the United States, California, Ventura County, Riverside County, Orange County, and Los Angeles County. Uh, looking at some of those different numbers looking at population growth. Uh, one of the other things that we really looked at is looking at median household income and also looking at that five-year average there. And so, your median household income has been growing about a half a percent there. If you go below that, looking at your unemployment rate, uh, here in Ventura County, uh, 4.7% definitely doing better than Riverside and also from the state of California's perspective, Orange County really being, uh, one of those places that has has had and continues to have a very low unemployment rate. Looking towards the bottom there, looking at CPI or consumer price indices, looking at the US and California, and looking at Ventura County, 3.4% 4% that did increase on a year-over-year year-over-year basis by4%. And then finally, looking at the very bottom there, uh you can see the medium home prices there. California of course is some of the highest home prices that we have. If you look at uh from the United States relative to just California in general and also the other counties there, you definitely see a very high uh home price there. Notice

that they've kind of leveled out there and some of them are even at a negative level on a year-over-year basis. And also they don't spend much time in the market these days too. If you look at that, every number there is below 20 and also below the national average at the same time. This is looking at bond yields. Left hand side, the dotted line there is the two-year Treasury note. The dash line is the 5-year. And that dark green line is the 10-year Treasury note. Notice if you go all the way to the right hand side of that graph in that time series that more recently interest rates have risen. That's because you have inflation expectation that's really finding its way into the market. What I will point out on the left hand side is that green line that is really looking at the US Treasury curve, the yield curve. The bottom there are the terms. On the left hand side are the yields. What I really want you to focus on is we have what we call a normally shaped yield curve today where shorter term rates are lower than longerterm rates all the way out the yield curve. This was somewhat surprising. We didn't think that we'd see this until later this year, but really some of those higher inflation expectations have driven some of the longerterm rates higher. And with that, that concludes my presentation. I can answer any questions that you may have.

Thank you, Jason. And I believe Mr. Kild and Miss Santangelo sit on the investment committees. So, I will ask you if you have any questions for Jason.

Um, always look forward to you being here. and you do, in my opinion, you do a great job for our city. Um, can you just shed a little bit of light on our investments and how our investments are are doing in today's economy? They're doing exactly what they're expected to do. Remember, our primary tenants for your investment portfolio are safety, liquidity, and finally, return and yield. The investments are safe, they're liquid, and basically if you needed to raise any cash out of that portfolio, you'd be able to do that by either letting securities mature off or potentially even selling those securities, and you would receive a very fair prices for those securities. In fact, more recently, we've seen the portfolio actually go up. So, when we looked at the portfolio more recently, you saw the total return, meaning that uh the the value of the portfolio continues to go higher. A, it earns interest and B, as we have interest rates relative at these levels, we actually purchase some investments at some much higher uh rate levels than there are today.

Thank you. I appreciate you being here as as always. Council member Santangelo. Jason, thank you so much for being here. Um, I like sitting on the investment and finance committees because I really enjoy your presentations and I always learn so much from you. So, thank you for being here tonight so that you can share all your information with um our community. We have so many people here tonight. It was perfect. Um but I don't have any questions for you. Just thank you. Great. No questions, but thank you as always. Thank you. No questions. Thank you very much, Jason. Thank you very much.

Next, we will go on to council comments, and I'm going to exercise the mayor's prerogative. Normally I go last, but this time I'm going to go first so that the vice mayor can't steal all of my thunder. But I'm going to introduce something that she will then steal my thunder from. Vice Mayor and I had an opportunity this morning to attend the National Crime Victims Week celebration that's hosted annually by the district attorney's office. Um a touching tribute to crime victims in Ventura County. today especially touching for me because it impacted an early experience I had as a sheriff's deputy in Thousand Oaks in 1980. A call of a deceased female victim in the north parking lot of Westlake High School and that deceased female victim went known as Jane Doe. She was five months pregnant. Jane Doe for 45 years. Eventually through new technology which didn't exist in 1980 uh they were a able to identify DNA from a suspect and the suspect ended up getting arrested and was tried for two Jane Doe homicides one in Ventura County and one in Kern County and was convicted on both counts even with no known victim. We had a human body and a human body but no names and was sentenced to two sentences of life imprisonment without possibility of parole. The sad thing is family members had no idea what happened to their loved ones and eventually maybe two three months ago through this new

technology and the public DNA database they were able to identify both victims. And two months ago, the sheriff of Ventura County and the district attorney attorney had a press conference out at the Thousand Oak station, the East Valley Sheriff's Station. And the family members, the siblings of our Jane Doe were present for this. And so after 45 years, the siblings got closure. They knew what happened to their sister. They knew what happened to her. And the sad thing is um the brother of our victim very emotionally said mom wondered until the last day of her life, the last breath of her life what happened to her little girl. And being a person of faith, I think he knows they were reunited before we knew her name. But we now know her name. So today, the Ventura County Sheriff's Office cold case unit was honored by the district attorney for National Crime Victims Week celebration. The Ventura County prosecutors that prosecuted this case, which was really unusual, having a case prosecuted from two counties without a known named victim. And what they looked at was trying to humanize these victims even though nobody knew who they were. and then the eventual identification who these victims were so that their loved ones could finally have peace and bring them home to let them rest in peace. And I was especially touched um by today's ceremony. It was impressive. They also granted an award for resiliency and they had the family members, the surviving family members of our Jane Doe and I'll let Vice Mayor Marta Martinez Bravo say her name. she'll say it much better than me. Um, but the family members were

present today and got the resiliency award from the district attorney's office because they never lost hope. They always wondered. They always worried, but now they have closure. They know where their loved one is. Now, on a happier note, we also got the opportunity to present certificates of recognition on behalf of the city council. And this is always a fun part of the job. We visited a senior facility, a residential home in Camaro, and were able to honor Ruth and Phyllis. Now, I'm not sure if Phyllis deserved to be honored. She was only 87. She was a youngster. Ruth turns a hundred, 100 years old on Saturday. And these two ladies were so touched that Vice Mayor Martinez Bravo and I showed up and they were just absolutely um happy and brilliant and engaging. And I remember going home and telling my wife and she said, "How were they?" And I said, "Well, the hundred-year-old was really sharp and a lot younger than the 87year-old." And I know what it feels like to be old because vice mayor always points out that her dad's younger than me. But I think the vice mayor has something to share on on this today. So, it's your turn, Marta.

Oh, thank you. Would you like to me to just start with council communications? Sure. Okay.

Uh, thank you, mayor. So, April 2nd, I did attend the library story time for National uh Library Week, which we talked about, and engaging with toddlers and preschoolers was really fun. Your granddaughter was present at at my event, too. Uh, April 13th, I attended the public safety and emergency preparedness committee meeting with uh, council member Kildy. And then April uh, 13th, I also attended the West Ventura County Business Alliance Business Advocacy Committee. Uh, I provided a briefformational report on the city's rent stabilization ordinance, which is in process today, and invited any input from the business alliance as well. as we always uh welcome diverse perspectives. Uh and then April 15th, I attended the local appointments and uh intergovernmental committee with Mayor Tennyson. And on April 16th, I attended the uh Sheriff Reyhoff's breakfast. And as many of you may know, the county of Ventura is the safest, largest city in Ventura County. And that could not be possible without of course the work of our sheriffs and our entire law enforcement throughout the county of Ventura, but also to the trust that has been built and uh there's always of course room for for improvement, but that's also uh due to to you to every single one of you uh who participate in that. Um, another interesting data point that was mentioned from uh, Sheriff Fryhoff's breakfast was that there is this nonprofit group called the Disability Rights California. And what they uh, they go around and inspect um, and here they inspected the the jails. Um they checked the programming for incarcerated people, uh access to exercise and recreation, mental health care, medical

care, uh discipline housing, and administrative separation housing. And they found the Ventura County jails to be substantially uh in compliance with all federal and state laws. So that was really good news to hear that um especially coming from that nonprofit. April 16th, I attended the economic development collaborative meeting. And April 20th, I attended a traffic concerns community meeting at Camaro High School uh with uh some constituents, residents who live around the high school, and also Oxnard Unified High School District staff, including Dr. McCoy, Principal Peek, Mr. Urias, and OUHSD trustee Dr. Maria Estrada, our chief of police, Eric Tennyson, and our assistant uh city manager, Carmen Nichols, uh were also there and participated. And so we listened to the concerns that were were brought forward by the residents and discuss next steps and listen to uh some potential solutions. Uh April 22nd, as mentioned, I attended the National Crime Victims Rights Week ceremony. Um, and it was the event was uh put on by the district attorney's office from Eric Nazareno in memory of Maricella Rocha Para. And I did have the the the honor to share some time with the family members with the sisters who were there. And one sister mentioned she was very young when this happened. Marisella had stepped out to buy a birthday cake and she said she felt it in her gut that she wasn't going to come back, that something bad had really happened. And she said when she was gone, one of the things that she really missed about her was she missed her gardinho. And ginho is not necessarily a word that we can translate that directly translates, but it's it's a combination of care and love. And so

she said she really really missed that. and I I offered um my continued prayers for the family. As you can imagine, after 45 years, um there is some peace that has been brought. Um at the same time, there's just still so much trauma and loss for this young woman in the family. On April 22nd, I attended the 100th birthday of uh Ruth and then the 86th of of Phyllis and that was really fun. uh April 22nd today. Also, I attended uh the second annual fair housing forum. It's a fair housing um equity forum put on by the city of Ventura and also by the uh hosted by the Ventura County Coastal Association of Realtors. Um I I couldn't stay there for the entire it was uh like a half day event. I could have stayed there for the entire thing, but I was able to attend a couple of their sessions. And one important uh data point that I really learned and that was it it was very interesting was that five to 10 years ago, there was a real crisis around uh US veterans who were experiencing homelessness. And there was a true concerted effort especially here in in the state of California to attend to that need. And because of that um now uh veterans have not only a place to to live and stay uh but they have many options which is really wonderful. Uh but unfortunately one of the increases that we have that they have also seen is an increase in uh seniors who are experiencing homelessness. And so that was really concerning to hear. Uh right after the forum I reached out to deputy Jason

Havvela who leads our project hope team here in the city of Camrio and uh you know I I explained what what I had heard and wanted to get his feedback as to what he is seeing here in the city as well and he said 100%. That's exactly the the trend that we are seeing. So, it's it's very concerning and I'm hoping that we continue to uh look into solutions to to attend to this. Um, and that is actually all that I have. Thank you, Council Member Santangelo.

Thank you, Mayor. On April 11th, I attended the Boys and Girls Club fundraising gayla. Um, it was a great event. Um, it's such an important organization for our community. I was really happy to take part of that and to see everybody there. On April 15th, I attended the policy committee. On April, oh, I forgot. On April 14th, I had a meeting with Keith Freighus, who's the director of airports, also with council member Trembley. And April 16th, the CPA executive meeting. Um, April 22nd, investment that was earlier today in the investment and finance committee. Also earlier today, I had the CPA finance committee. And that's all I have.

Thank you, Mr. Trembley.

Thanks, Mayor. As far as meetings attended, I also went to the Camrio Boys and Girls Club dinner, which is a a wonderful annual fundraising dinner. Uh, in fact, uh, a young woman uh, who was at the dinner spoke. She's been named, I believe it was youth of the region, the entire geographic region. She's from Camaro and she's really an outstanding uh young lady. So that was it was nice to see. On April 13th, um the California Association of Sanitation Agencies, we have an education foundation. I had a meeting with that and then a um a meeting with Metroink's um uh internal auditor on April 14th. the transportation and uh infrastructure committee with the mayor. On April 15th, the policy committee meeting with council member Santangelo. I forgot about that meeting we had with with director Freighus of the county airports, too. So, thanks for reminding me, Susan. On April 16th, Sheriff Fryhoff's uh the Ventura County Sheriff's Foundation breakfast. On the 17th, uh the finance committee for CASSA and also the liaison committee with the Pleasant Valley Recreation and Park District regarding the multi-use gymnasium project. On April 21, uh monthly meeting at Leisure Village and on today, uh two meetings, one uh a board statewide board meeting for California Association of Sanitation Agencies and then uh late until late this afternoon. In fact, I arrived at 4:47 p.m. I was late, but I was at the Fox Canyon Groundwater Management Authority meeting um for that board of directors. That's it. Thanks.

Thank you, Council Member Kell D.

Uh thank you, Mayor. Um meetings attended. I also attended the April 11th Boys and Girls Club event. As was said, April 13th, the public safety and emergency prayers committee uh also attended April 16th. the Sheriff Fryoff's kind of state of the of the uh region uh if you will. uh today with uh council member uh Santangelo. I attended the investment and finance uh committee meeting and on April 14th I actually attended uh the economic uh state of the kind of the region and there's an economist named Mark Schneep who was there and I've heard him for uh several years here and it was put on by the taxpayers association and um he stated that uh and I'll I'm going to quote him here that Camrio was out hitting its weight and what that means for a city of our size that we're doing quite well and is very impressed with the uh industrial uh that we have and online uh the commercial that we have and and uh that and hopefully that all of this will create some highpaying jobs. So, uh, not going unnoticed what this council and what previous councils have, uh, tried to do as far as the, uh, economy, uh, of our city here. Uh, so with that, I believe that's all I have tonight. Thank you for the time.

Thank you. Um, Evan, I'm not going to follow your advice. I'm going to talk a little bit too much more. Uh, I've had five meetings with constituents over the last three and a half weeks and a common common topic that's been brought up has been the automatic license plate readers. And um there's a misconception that the only agency in Ventur County that's doing the right thing is the Oxnard Police Department because they ended their contract with Flock. um they think that Oxnard was the leading agency to set the tone for the rest of it. We have a commander that's our police chief that's a lot more humble than the mayor. Um they share the same last name, but they're separated by decades. Uh doesn't claim credit for it. One of the things I want people to understand is oftentimes during public comments on non-aggendaized items, we don't react or interact with the people speaking because the Brown Act requires us to pretty much keep our mouth shut unless it's an agendaized item. So, we had several meetings in a row where people talked about their concerns with the automatic license plate reader. It was through the efforts and and this is hard for me to stick up for him. This it was through the efforts of Commander Eric Tennyson that the audits were done to find out if there were issues with all of our data being uploaded to the cloud and whether or not it was as secure as it should have been. He came to the city council twice in the last two years to get initial permission for us to fund the flock cameras and then follow up to get additional flock cameras. And he put his reputation on the line. And he listened to everybody

that was coming here and said, "You know what? My word's important to me. It's the way I was raised. I need to look into this." So he is the one that started the audit process that every other law enforcement agency in Ventura County then did on their own. He is the one that discovered the breach. He is the one that came up with the resolution and worked with the sheriff and the sheriff's executive staff to come up with how we're going to deal with flock and the data going forward. So what's happened instead of yearly audits or every six months audits, the sheriff's department is auditing the data on flock every single day. And this started with our commander and I think he deserves credit for it instead of consternation or condemnation for how he's handled this. Um, I also, having had a long career in law enforcement, just want to share really quickly, every one of you that drives a car in California is required to have a front license plate and a rear license plate. And when you're on a public street or in a parking lot open to the public, there is zero expectation of privacy. We could put 400 deputy sheriffs on the street just sitting there running every single license plate. That is not inf an infringement upon your constitutional rights. You're on a public rideway, a public roadway and a parking lot open to the public. There is no expectation of privacy. The ALPRS, and I've done a lot of independent research on them, capture static data. Period. And in the last six months, as a result of the ALPRS in Camaro, we have had two I mean there's a lot of other examples I'm sure our

commander could give. We have had two significant crimes, two homicides that in my day in law enforcement would probably still be investigated. two homicides in Camaro that have been solved within hours because of automatic license plate readers because people are driving on public roadways or in public parking lots open to the public. So, I'll get off my soap box. ALPRs, if used properly and audited like we are now doing or like the sheriff's department and our local police department are doing, are a good and useful tool. I wish I had them when I was a young deputy in 1980 because Jane Doe may not have gone unidentified for 45 years, leaving her family members in that sad, depressive state of wondering what ever happened to her. So, I've said my piece. Thank you very much. Now, we will go on to the consent agenda. Any public? Yes, ma'am.

Right. Right before that, if I just may. Um, you may I think. Yes. Hold on. It's a it's a po Go ahead. No. Uh, so it has come to my attention that all of the handicap parkings have been taken and that there are some people who parked very far away. So if you need any type of support or help, um, we can help get you there safely. I've informed our chief of police and he's aware and he can help with any of that. That'll be it. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Yes, sir. I'm remiss I missed one meeting along with council member Trembley. did attend the ad hoc Pleasanton Valley Recreation and Park District meeting for the record. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Kild. Now, Madame Clerk, any public comments on the consent agenda? There are no public comments. Hearing no public comments, any questions from council? Seeing none, we will entertain a motion. I can move consent. We have a mo motion and a second. City clerk. Council member Santangelo. Yes. Vice Mayor Bra, excuse me, Martinez Bravo, yes. Council member Kildy, yes. Council member Trembley, yes. Mayor Tennyson, yes. That passes unanimously.

Thank you. We will now move on to item T, the draft fiscal year 2627 community development block grant program annual action plan. And I'm going to say Bradley, but I'm sure he's going to introduce our our director of community development and planning.

Good evening, mayor and members of the city council. Uh, correct. I'm your director of community development, uh, Bradley Calbertt. Uh, each year the city of Camaro receives an allocation for the United States Department of Housing and Urban Development for our community development uh, block program. Um, as part of that, we have to develop an action plan and how we are going to use that funding. Uh, so I'd like to do is introduce Erin Lei. She's from uh Veronica Tamman Associates and she's going to go over how we're going to utilize those funds this coming year. Thank you. Go ahead.

Good evening, Mayor Tennyson and city council members. I'm with Veronica Tamman Associates. The item before you tonight is tonight is the approval of the 2026 2027 annual action plan which as Bradley said is required by the Department of H of Urban Development to receive community development block grant funds. outlines how those funds will be used in the upcoming year. In your packet is the action plan and in your agenda report is a listing of how the funds are planned to be used. These activities include social service programs which provide food services, emergency rental assistance, senior services, and homeless services. Housing related programs include residential rehabilitation and acquisition of affordable housing. when the action plan was developed, HUD had not yet uh released the annual allocation numbers. So, the action plan was built based on estimated numbers from last year's action plan. HUD has since announced the actual allocations and the city will receive a little over $800 more than last year, which equals a2% increase. The specific amounts in the action plan were revised for the contingency plan which is an appendix to the action plan itself. That concludes my presentation. I am here for questions.

Comments from questions from council. Any questions? Hearing none. Madame clerk, any public comments on this item? No public comments. Hearing none. Council discussion. I'll move the suggested item. Second. We have a motion in a second. City clerk. Council member Santangelo. Yes. Vice Mayor Martinez Bravo. Yes. Council member Kildy. Yes. Council member Trembley. Yes. Mayor Tennyson. Yes. That passes unanimously.

Thank you. Next, we will go on to item U, adoption of the Camrio Oldtown Strategic Plan. And we have Mr. George Winkler, economic and business development manager. Okay. Good evening, mayor and council. Tonight, I'm presenting the Camaro Oldtown strategic plan. Um, this plan is intended to serve as an aspirational framework for how the city may strengthen Oldtown over time. It is meant to help organize priority priorities uh clarify where future action may be appropriate and position the city to respond more strategically as opportunities arise. So Oldtown is the historic heart of Camaro. It is a front door for residents, visitors, entrepreneurs, and community life. It calls for a place-based strategy because it does not function like a single owner shopping center which manages tenant mix, marketing, maintenance, and reinvestment strategy. It is made up of many private parcels, but the public experience is still shaped in important ways by city- managed streets, sidewalks, lighting, landscaping, and parking. The city's uh 2018 economic development strategic plan already pointed toward revitalization, placemaking, hospitality, entertainment, and district identity. Community outreach to create this plan reinforced that direction through more than 700 survey responses, a town hall, direct stakeholder input, and mobile data analysis. Changes in the operating context, including AB2097, make access, wayfinding, and long-term parking strategy more important than they were before. This slide helps to show why Oldtown requires a coordinated framework. You can see there are multiple owner parcels along Ventur Boulevard, but it also contains public-f facing assets and

long-term opportunity sites that matter to Oldtown's future. That includes the broader public facing areas like Dizdar Park, the former courthouse, the Pleasant Valley School District site, and those may shape long-term access and redevelopment opportunities. It also shows why AB2097 matters here. Within a half mile of major transit, parking minimums are reduced, which makes coordinated access, wayfinding, and public parking strategy more important for Oldtown over time. So, what council is considering tonight is not final approval of every future action. Rather, it is an aspirational framework that may guide future city decision-making and implementation. The plan is intended to help sequence near-term priorities and longerterm opportunities and to connect actions to readiness, funding, pathways, triggers, and measures. At the same time, it does not automatically appropriate funds, approve acquisitions or procurement, or commit the city to carrying out every item exactly as written. Future actions would still return through the appropriate public process whenever council consideration is required. So, the plan is uh organized around four strategic goals. The first is to strengthen public spaces and district maintenance so Oldtown feels cared for, functional, and welcoming. The second is to increase economic energy and storefront activation by improving the business environment and protecting active frontage. The third is to build a clear identity and destination experience through arts, branding, programming and activation. And the fourth is to organize for catalytic readiness and long-term delivery, especially around the PVSD site, courthouse coordination, and future district improvement tools. Together, these goals are intended to provide a structure for how Oldtown may evolve in a more coordinated and intentional way over time. Goal one focuses on public conditions that shape day-to-day experience in

Oldtown. The actions here include a clear cleanliness standard for trash, grease, and visible upkeep. Continued lighting maintenance and upgrades, stronger wayfinding and park one's clarity so visitors can find parking and move through the district more easily. ongoing district maintenance and landscape stewardship and better bike access. The idea here is to support steady visible improvements that help Oldtown feel more cared for, more usable, and more inviting over time. Goal two focuses on the conditions that can support a stronger business environment. The plan identifies a Ventur Boulevard frontage mix strategy to help keep uh prime storefronts active and customerf facing a restaurant and small B business res read readiness um efforts to make it easier for the right tenants to open the future possibility of timed frontage parking when broader redevelopment conditions support it and a managed parklet framework. Taken together, these actions are intended to help Oldtown function as a stronger commercial district over time by supporting the kinds of uses and conditions that contribute to walkability, customer activity, and district energy. Goal three focuses on making Oldtown more recognizable, memorable, and active as a place. That includes a sound policy so Dizdar Park and special events can operate more predictably. a public art framework, cultural district work that helps organize arts identity and partnerships, decorative lighting opportunities, Dizdar Park activation, and a broader branding and style guide strategy to create a more consistent Oldtown identity. The goal is intended to support a unified district identity that feels more more coherent and more visible over time while also creating space for partnerships, programming, and broader community participation. Goal four focuses on larger opportunity

sites and long-term readiness for the PVSD site. The plan is intended to help the state the city stay organized and responsive about around um excuse me materials due diligence procurement readiness and later council decision points as the surplus process advances for the courthouse property. The plan supports coordination within a broader redevelopment and site planning framework rather than treating it as a standalone long-term solution. And for the future PBID, the plan preserves that option as a possible tool for enhanced services and district support, but only if meaningful property owner support develops and a later engineering study is warranted. So this goal is really about preparing the city to respond thoughtfully and strategically to catalytic opportunities, not presuming immediate implementation. By the end of the plan period, success would ideally look like an old town that feels cleaner, brighter, and better maintained, where visitors can find their way and stay longer. Where Ventura Boulevard supports a stronger mix of active uses. where Dar Park has a more dependable rhythm of activity and where Oldtown has a clearer identity and stronger long-term positioning. We can measure those things through a mobility analytics sales tax and by whether Oldtown increasingly feels more functional, more active, and better positioned for future opportunity. The recommendation tonight is to find the item exempt under SQUA, receive the strategic action plan, adopt it as an aspirational framework for future Oldtown decision-making and implementation, and direct staff to return through the applicable public process as appropriate for future implementation actions uh that require council consideration or approval. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Winkler. Questions from council? Seeing none on this side, Mr. Kill D. I don't have a question. I just have a comment at the appropriate time. All right. After public comments, Mr. Tremble, you okay? All right. Uh, Madame Clerk, any public comments on this item? There are three speakers. The first speaker is Spencer Richie, followed by Jeff Walker. Welcome again, Spencer. Hello, Mayor Tennyson.

Hi.

All right. Um, hold on. Okay. Um, hold on. Itchy. Okay. So once again, um I'm Spencer Richie and um so my big concern about this Camrio Oldtown strategic action plan here is that I'm pretty sure I I remember it was either going to like I one of the the community like planning meetings or whatever about specifically this or it was during one of the sessions of this year's Lost Persona community academy that I was in this year um where um one of the people involved with this actually outright told us that he used AI and pretty heavily in coming up with a plan for this. So that that you know that makes it that definitely makes me relieved that this is not the final plan. Because you know AI looks all right at a first glance but the big issue with AI is that it unlike a human it lacks critical thinking. It lacks the ability to creatively and critically utilize you know the required ed like education training etc that is necessary to create things and implement things like the Camrio Oldtown strategic action plan because basically what an AI does AIs do not think. AIS literally just scrape data from stuff actual humans made and it basically predicts answers based on those patterns it picks up.

So we do not want that to have a final say in something as major as the Camrio Oldtown strategic action plan. So I really do hope that you know you're having humans going through this before it actually gets implemented. And honestly I I when I was going through it earlier I never picked up that you know that you know AI was used in making this plan. So that's just dishonest on the city's part. Um and then um so yeah I don't like AI for good reason. Um, Oldtown deserves better. All of Camaro deserves better than, you know, having being planned by AI. Um, and then also what destination experience if, you know, you're still allowing, you know, ICE to kidnap people and stuff. Thank you. Have an amazing.

Thank you, Spencer. Mr. Walker, Thank you, Mayor Tennyson. Uh, you know, as a Oldtown business owner and resident and an advocate for Oldtown for 20 years, thank you. This plan is great. Um, I think it touches on about any everything I've probably mentioned over the last 20 years, and I urge you to receive and adopt it tonight. Um, the couple things that really stood out to me was u uh and and Mr. Winkler mentioned it that the city has a role as a shopping center owner to maintain the common areas and uh you know most tenants in a in a shopping center can go to their landlord and say pave that parking lot, maintain that landscape. We don't have that ability in Oldtown. We can we can tell all you but obviously it goes through a process to to make everything happen. Um that's a key role and obviously it's a public private pro partnership to make that happen and I'd look forward to participating that any way I can. Um the the report mentions the importance and the emergence of the nighttime economy. Um we we have a pretty strong daytime economy down there. Um the nighttime economy is emerging and there's things that we need down there like lighting and safe passages and you know nice walkways down there to to help that happen. Um the the PBID I was a part of organizing that the first time we tried it here. Um I hope we have the support of the council to get that through. I I think we can hit that 30% mark of support to get the engineering study done. Um look forward to um you know getting that process started. Um it checks so many economic development boxes. You know it's it's the revitalization of a business district. It's placemaking. It's local business vitality. It's tourism. It's

events. It's visible stewardship of the district. Um, and I like the approach. It's get the basics right and then show visible progress and it takes small wins. You know, one thing that we've done in Oldtown, we created the Cameo Heritage Walk and I encourage you to go to the cameo heritagewalk.org to see what that is. That wasn't easy that we we create a website, we created stickers and we put them on the sidewalk for heritage days and it and it still gets we have QR codes and we still get hits on that. Uh and we could track it. We can see how many people scan a QR code to see um you know what information is provided for each stop. So really good there. Small wins are important there. There are some challenges. I love the parklet program that can't be obviously expanded through Oldtown. My building is going to be 110 years old in June and for 90 years it had front-end parking. For the last 20 it hasn't because we wanted to increase traffic input through that area. So, um you know hopefully we can find a equitable means to address that. But um I think that this is well done and thanks for the the hard work of the staff to put that together and please accept it and implement it. Thank you.

Thank you. The last speaker is Andy Connley. Mr. Connley.

Hello, Mayor Tennyson. Uh, fellow city council members. Uh thank you so much to the city staff for putting this uh really comp comprehensive plan together and doing it in coordination with uh the members here of uh of the city of Camaro where as mentioned during this uh presentation uh just really taken the time to send out the surveys having town hall meetings really taking a lot of that feedback and it's really evident uh that all that was put together thoughtfully uh between the the consultants that were hired and the city staff. So, just I want to really shout out and just thank you for amount of time that was put into this and a lot of thought that was put into this because Oldtown is unique. Oldtown is a jewel here in Camaro and it's it is unique as well with having the multiple owners and and just the way that is managed. And so really does need to have that intentionality behind it. And so this plan does provide those guiding principles that will help with the future of Oldtown. This plan will benefit the residents of Camrio, the visitors to Camrio, as well as the students down at Cal State Chen Islands, and that'll really help make this an attractive spot to come and to learn and to um be part of this community. So as the chamber of commerce here for uh Camrio Oxnard and Port Wayne, we are always in favor of plans which will help with the economic vitality of our community while keeping what makes it special or even enhancing it. And we're also willing and able to help come alongside and support where needed. And this is including uh helping with education or outreach uh with the pebbed and what that would mean for uh the business owners and the property owners in Oldtown. So for all those reasons that I've listed uh we as the Chamber of Commerce

are overwhelmingly in support of this plan and we respectfully urge you uh to adopt this plan as well. So thank you very much. Thank you Mr. Connley. Clerk that's it. Okay, council discussion and I believe Mr. Kild had a comment.

Just a comment. Um, we started working on this about 25 years ago. And George, I have a suggestion um to get some pictures about before and where we are now. And we can't really get a picture where we hope to go too much, but I think it'd be really, you know, picture sometimes tells a thousand different stories. And I think it'd be kind of neat. Um, the suggestion is is to put where we were back in the '9s and where we are today. I think you'll find it to be startling. I certainly did. Council comments, Council Member Santangelo.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Um, I too think that this is a really welldone plan. Um, I spent a lot of time reading it and I appreciate all the work that's gone into it. Um, I think it's comprehensive. Um, I'm really pleased that it took multiple stakeholder inputs to help develop it. It wasn't something that city staff just cranked out. Um, this was really done with input. It's forward thinking and thoughtful and I think it's really open to future opportunities um in terms of a possible pid that's been discussed in terms of what's happening with the um PVSD property. So, um, I think it's a really well done plan and I'm really happy to support it tonight. Thank you,

Vice Mayor.

Uh, thank you. So, Ditto and Ditto and Ditto 2 was al was also said by um business alliance, by Mr. Walker, by the letter that we got from visit Camaro. This is really an exciting uh time and I know uh there's still a lot of work to be done but one of the things that I think we do really well and this is someone who is fairly new to city council is that we have a plan for everything and so having this plan is definitely um the first step and I'm more than happy to support it. It's definitely going to be a revital revitalization for all our businesses. It's so important to support local and I I there are two places where I'm you'll typically find me. It's either Oldtown or the Camrio outlets. So, love my town and love going there. Happy to support it.

Thank you, Mr. Trembley.

There we go. Thanks, Mr. Mayor. Uh it's an excellent plan. It was prepared in a in a transparent public process through workshops. Um, I'm very supportive of its adoption. Um, we're on a roll, I think, particularly given now the opening of Dizdar Park and that project. Uh, and this is a natural to go along with it. It's well done, George. Thank you. And thank you to uh everybody uh who was involved in its preparation and all the members of the public who participated in the workshops. So, I think we're ready to go. And being a person of few words, I will just say ditto, ditto, ditto, ditto, and ditto. Um, is there a motion?

I'll move it. We have a motion. Do we have a second? I'll second. We have a motion in a second. Madame clerk. Council member Santangelo. Yes. Vice Mayor Martinez Bravo. Yes. Council member Kildy, yes. Council member Trembley, yes. Mayor Tennyson, yes. That passes unanimously. Thank you. We are going to now before the next item and I thank you for your patience take about a 10-minute recess for the benefit of council members that may have to take a quick break. We will come back as soon as we can. We'll be right back.

keep our public on time.

We are back in session. Thank you for allowing us a quick break for whatever we needed a quick quick break for. We are now now going to move on to what I'm certain just about everybody's here for and that's item V, the mobile home land rent stabilization ordinance. And James Fowler, our manager of housing, is going to lead us off. Go ahead, James.

Thank you so much. To give a little bit of background here, um residents began cons uh sharing their concerns um most recently in March of 2025. Um thereafter in May, uh the council established an ad hoc committee to consider the issue. Um, moving on to 2026 and March of uh March 25th, um, the council uh requested the ad hoc committee kind of revise the ordinance further when it was last looked at and then the the ad hoc committee did so at the April 8th meeting.

Uh, and finally, the urgency ordinance um expired April 20th of 2026. So to just go through the revisions to the ordinance versus what was considered last time. Um uh vacancy control was increased from a maximum of 6% to 8% and a key point upon re-entrren of an existing mobile home to a new tenant. Um so if a new coach was moved into the park that would not apply and it could go to market rate. Um, additionally, there would not be any sort of vacancy adjustment. So, no rent increase for transfers to certain immediate family members as defined. Um, and there was some inclusion of uh initial anniversary date language for that first year. Um, to prevent uh issues related to if maybe if a kind of the the rolling nature of rent increases as they stand right now. uh kind of to give allowance to get everyone on the same date for future rent increases. So, this is a graph showing kind of a comparison of um what different I'm sorry it's a little hard to see up there, but um different vacancy controls would look like. So, that blue line, the top line um is a 10% scenario. So if at 3 years in or four years in um someone moved out um and there was a 10% adjustment what would it look like later on in um 2036? Uh similarly 8% is the orange line, 6% is the gray line. Um and then the yellow is the baseline if if someone didn't move in that time and it was just the CPI if that was the only rent increases that's what it would look like. Um, and

that's a a an assumption of 3.47% which has kind of been the historical average for the last 10 years. Um, so in looking at those uh the three sort of moveout scenarios, it's about a $60 difference for every like 2% difference if that makes sense. So between the 10, the eight, and the six um at that at that final mark looked at it's about a $60 difference over seven years. Um, important to note at the committee. So, last last time the council had asked us to uh consider the city of Thousand Oaks ordinance, especially as it relates to vacancy control. Um, Thousand Oaks has uh uses the 10% number. And so, that was what was presented at committee. Um, the committee after discussion and in considering kind of the difference in rents between Thousand Oaks and Camaro did think the 8% number was appropriate. It's was still higher than the the 6% number that was considered last time. Um but still provided some more protection to the residents versus the 10% number. Staff's recommendation is to find the uh ordinance exempt from SQA and to introduce the ordinance or take other actions related to the ordinance. That concludes my presentation.

Thank you, James. Questions from councel? Mr. Trembley, Mr. Kild D question. No questions. Madame clerk, public comments. There are 17 speakers. The first speaker is Susette Marrian, followed by Laura Rivera. And before you all speak, you're entitled to your three minutes. But if previous speakers have said what you want to say, practice what we do as a council or we'd still be on the last agenda item and just say ditto. I agree with them.

Go ahead, ma'am.

Good afternoon, good evening, uh, mayor and council members. Um, I've been here. My name is Susette Maro King. a living lamp lighter Camaro community and I'm here tonight because many of us here know that this ordinance is not about politics, it's survival. Um, people often hear the words mobile home and then they think that we're just renters, but as you know, we're homeowners. Some of us are still paying the houses. Uh so there's a mortgage on the houses and some of us are blessed that we were able to buy the homes. Uh but we did so by putting our life savings in other cases it's the retirements of our family members. We are taxpayers. We maintain our homes and we represent here 400 plus investors in this community because in each of the homes there's not only one person that is paying taxes and it has invested in these houses but it's basically families complete families different generations going into into uh investing in these homes. Um, but at the same time, we are homeowners, but we're not landowners. So, this gets us in a very v vulnerable position. Unlike any traditional renter, we can't simply pack up our, you know, things and go because the rent becomes unaffordable. Moving a manufactured home is very costly, tens of thousands to be able to do so. And if it can even move can be can be moved depending on on the the state of the house. And that leaves us in a very in a twilight zone that I call it which

gets us trapped in into a situation where we either pay the rent uh uh on the demands of the of the owners or you know or we lose risking we we risk losing our homes that we have worked all our lives to get and that is happening right now and it's something that um by Mayor Marta Bravo mentioned regarding the seniors and homelessness and that's just one part of the equation but um I urge you to please uh take action in this ordinance to please pass it today. Uh we need your help. We are at risk and we are just here asking for help here from you that are the ones that are able to do something for the community members here in Camaro that we we need you and please please help us to press it today. Thank you.

Thank you Laura Rivera followed by Melinda Marinant. Thank you. Thank you.

Good evening, mayor and council members. I am Laura Rivera. I am speaking on behalf of IPG. I'm the vice president for Camaro and Lamplighter. We respectfully urge the city to reject the proposed rent control ordinance and instead allow us to continue honoring the long-term lease agreements already in place. These leases are benefiting residents today. Approximately 71% of Camaro states residents and 91% of Lamplighter Camaro residents have chosen long-term leases that provide clear, predictable rent increases over time. The structure offers residents certainty and transparency while allowing the community to remain financially stable and well-maintained. We believe this approach represents a balanced solution, one that protects residents from unexpected increases while ensuring the ongoing viability and quality of the parks. If the city does decide to move forward with a rent control ordinance, we strongly encourage the inclusion of full vacancy deontrol. This is a widely adopted policy in other jurisdictions and essentially is maintaining the long-term financial health of the community. It allows for reasonable rent adjustments upon the sale of a mobile home, helping ensure that the property can continue to be properly operated and maintained. We appreciate your time. Thank you.

Thank you. Melinda Marinant followed by Chris Hill.

Welcome.

Good evening, mayor and council members. My name is Melina Mamonte. I'm the regional manager for Investment Property Group. I also oversee Camaro and Lamplighter. Ditto with what must Rivera said um the structure has proven to be balanced and effective. It supports housing stability while also allowing us to meet the rising costs associated with maintaining the property infrastructure and services expected by residents. We believe it is important to preserve systems that are already working well. It provides transparency in regards to the long-term leases so residents are able to know and have the forthcoming information regarding what those increases are going to be. So we do believe that it is important to continue with something that is already working and we do appreciate and thank you for your time and consideration.

Thank you

Chris Hill followed by Spencer Richie. Good evening, mayor and city council members. My name is Chris Hill. I'm the area manager for Lamplator Camrio, Camrio Mobile Estates and for Investment Property Group. As the community manager for Lamplader Camrio, I've been there for eight years. We represent 45% of the 497 homes that this rent stabilization ordinance is going to be affected. Of those 45%, 91% of my residents are on long-term leases. I don't know that they realize this, but our long-term leases provide protection from them that is better than your rent stabilization ordinances. Our rent increases are clearly stated by CPI based rent increases. They protect our residents from more than one rent increase annually and provide protection from capital improvement, property tax, and insurance passroughs, which this ordinance does not do. From an operational standpoint, the agreements also allow the park to maintain its net upbringing and income, ensuring that we can continue to properly manage and maintain the community. This includes upkeep, infrastructure, and overall quality of living conditions. Lamplighter Camryo is a strong example of how structured long-term agreements can successfully balance the needs of the residents with the responsibilities of property management. We encourage thoughtful consideration of how existing successful frameworks like this can continue to serve the community effectively and how passing this ordinance would basically reverse all of the benefits of the long-term leases already in place. To reiterate, 45% of the homes involved in this ordinance are under leases with terms and conditions that are more beneficial to them than the rent

stabilization ordinance that is on the table tonight. Thank you. Thank you, Spencer Richie, followed by Jared Gonzalez. Welcome Spencer.

Hello. Hello again. We meet we meet for the third time tonight. Okay. Um Okay. So I again third time, third and probably final time. I am Spencer Richie and I am talk I am speaking here in favor of the um hold on the exact term for the ordinance is is the mobile park land rent stabilization that ordinance um or you know the RSO the rent stabilization ordinance for short. Um because again basically what I think I said last time when I spoke and wrote here about this RSO these people who are currently living in K Mario's mobile home mobile home parks um the mobile home parks have been basically the last refuge from gentrification. and spiraling prices here in Camaro. And you know these families and people living in these mobile home parks here, these Camarans, they've they have they have like clawed their way into, you know, in some in a lot of their cases property through the the home itself and like other stuff to, you know, be able to live and stay in Camaro as you know, as you know, workingass and lower income people. And that's incred like you know not only is it obviously the humane thing to do to and put to implement you know at minimum a rent stabilization ordinance in order to not you know price these people out of the one place that

they've been able to attain living in in Camaro. But um also Camar Rio H like its core from what I've I I've you know I'm a local history buff and from what I've picked up Camaro's core has you know contrary to you know a lot of official historical accounts saying that you know the the large landowner families like the Camaros were like the historical core of Camaro. No, it's the like it's the working people, the regular working people that you know have you know way outnumbered the you know the people that are commonly cited as you know cameo's historical core and yeah they you know they are the way more the heart and soul to see than a lot of people willing to you know from speaking through official channels are willing to admit. And so you have I demand you you pass this RSO to preserve that to preserve our city's welfare. Thank you. Knight.

Thank you.

Jared Gonzalez followed by Maria Ramirez. Good evening, Mayor, Vice Mayor, and Council members. My name is Jared Gonzalez and I'm with the Western Manufactured Housing Communities Association or WMA for short. Uh we represent mobile home park owners throughout California. Although WMA opposes rent control ordinance, we've heard the council's direction and it seems that this rent control is coming. But like a doctor who diagnoses a patient and then writes a prescription, the diagnosis matters now less matters less. And getting the dosage right is what matters. A prescription that's too restrictive doesn't heal the patient. It creates new problems. Tonight, we're asking the council to ensure the dosage is calibrated to the real world conditions these park owners face. The current ordinance draft sets a floor at 2% and a ceiling at 6% for annual rent increases. We understand the intent, but the formula is missing a critical variable, the actual cost. CPI is a useful benchmark, but it was never designed to capture the specific costs pressuring mobile home park operators. Insurance premiums have surged, utility costs have climbed, and labor and maintenance costs have risen sharply. CPI doesn't see any of that. It measures what a consumer pays at the grocery store, at the gas pump, not what it costs to run, ensure, maintain a mobile home park community. So, we're asking the council to amend the ordinance to allow annual increases that include a 3% floor and an 8% ceiling. There is a second provision we urge council to include. Full vacancyd control, the ability to reset rent to market rate when a mobile home park is sold and a new resident moves in. The best way to understand why this matters,

just imagine a river with a dam. The dam is rent control. It holds back the flow. Over the years, the water level behind the dam rises higher and higher as costs accumulate and market rents move upward. If the dam has no spillway, pressure builds until a structure is at risk. Vacancy deontrol is that spillway. It allows a controlled natural release at a specific predictable moment when a home is voluntarily sold. The current tenant chooses to sell. The new buyer who knows the rent before signing enters voluntarily, eyes wide open. This is not a hardship for anyone. Without vacancy de control, rent control becomes a permanent ceiling with no release valve. We've heard the council's direction at the last meeting. We're here to ask that you get the dosage right, please. Camo Camrial Park owners have been good stewards of these communities. They're only asking for what is fair, functional, and financially grounded in reality. Thank you very much. Thank you.

Maria Ramirez, followed by Ariel Bedell,

Maria,

Ariel, Bedell. Thank you, Mayor Tennyson, council members. My name is Ariel Bedell and I am an attorney that represent park owners. I speak today on behalf of Investment Property Group, the owner of two of the mobile home parks within the city. With regards to this proposed ordinance, we did send a written letter that requests the city to not move this ordinance forward. The letter also provides specific comments and concerns with this proposed ordinance. The ordinance is simply unnecessary as each of these three rental mobile home parks tend to do annual increases that really mirror CPI for the two IPG parks. As you heard tonight, there are long-term leases that are in place today. They provide clarity and consistency for these residents. This ordinance would eliminate that clarity and consistency in those term long-term leases. Additionally, the park owners have provided red lines and comments to the city regarding the proposed ordinance, most of which were dismissed in full without any further input or meeting with the park owners. Many of the comments provided by the park owners come from their experience in jurisdictions across the state that have local rent control ordinances. All but one comment regarding the annual increases um the one-time catch-up provision were dismissed in full. Additionally, the park owners did provide an alternative less restrictive less ownorous by the city's standpoint option of a memorandum of understanding also an option that was dismissed. A rent control ordinance especially one that arbitrarily caps increases on turnover sales when really the market can handle that as well. and an ordinance which does not allow for reasonable pass through of expenses without the requirement of an extensive application process will result in park

owners having to file for petitions for an NOI increase net operating increase over time. This will increase both the city's costs and your involvement in this process moving forward. The owners of these parks are familiar with the NOA application process and that are done across the state and have experience in successfully filing those applications. The proposed ordinance seeks to append and interfere with the longstanding long-term leases that are in place and the existing landlord tenant relationship. The proposed ordinance is many respects is put forward based on incorrect information such as resale values of the mobile homes in these parks. Again, we ask that the city not adopt this ordinance or if you are going to push it forward, go back to the table, get input from the park owners to understand some of the better corrections that can be made. Thank you for your time.

Thank you, Mike Cerillo, followed by Jordan Blake. Welcome.

Good evening, uh, Mr. Mayor, members of the city council. Uh, my name is Mike Cerillo. I'm the president of Star Management, the managing agent for Kasad Norte, the third, uh, mobile home park in the city, uh, is investorowned. Um, we would urge the council to not move forward with this ordinance this evening. As previously mentioned, we feel that there are some issues that are still unresolved and need more attention to be fair to both sides. Um to point out, um just an error in the staff report, um it makes me question the data gathering process. The staff report from March 25th quoted Casa Don Norte's resale rents at 1500. Our resale rents ver uh range from 1183 to 1361 depending on the space size and we have three categories. So that's you know a blatant error that is you know makes me question the the data gathering in general. We would if the council decides to move forward on this we would urge that the cap on the CPI increases be increased uh to 8% at least. Um 6% is just not enough. Uh with regard to the uh vacancy deontrol issue uh once again 88 8% is just not enough for sustainability the we advocate that the we have full vacancy de control in the immediate case of casadon norte we have um homes we've uh we've homes sold have sold the past 24 months $144,000 average Um, we've got four homes listed for sale right now.

180,000, 26,000, 279,000, and 310,000. Um, with a $243,000 average. We are uh have healthy sales in the in the park and our resale rents are not uh impacting anything or impacting this the sales. Um, we would urge that you adopt full vacancy deontrol. Additionally, the maintenance of net operating income uh increase provision or the the the fair rent approach, the fair return approach is cumbersome, expensive, time consuming and overburdensome for everybody involved. We would urge the council to consider a simpler process that is available in some of the other ordinances throughout the state like uh like Golita, Chula Vista, um Santa Barbara where you consider a line item pass through to cover verified expense increases in things like property taxes, insurance, government assessments, etc. that will be an easier process to pass through and that would

line item. Thank you very much. Thank you Jordan Blake followed by Craig Walker. Oh, hi. Good evening. Hi. Thank you very much for uh

taking the time to do all the, you know, research and to, you know, bring such attention to this matter. Uh, one thing I will say is that is the last person that spoke the the the property manager of Star Management, um, where he said the space rents, I actually called myself and I was told the space rent was 1,200 for a single wide and 1,500 for a double wide. So, I don't know. I know he's the manager, but that's what, you know, they're telling uh people if they want to purchase uh in their park. Um, as far as what IPG, you know, it seems like there's many people that are speaking for them. I have looked at many of the leases and it they're way above the the CPI, so I don't know what they mean that that this ordinance will be worse than what they already have. That's completely untrue. Um, and uh, you know, clearly that I would say IPG's properties are the highest in Camaro, you know, lamp lighter and Camaro mobile estate. And you know, we need to protect the senior community that prides itself on looking after the elderly and the seniors. And one item that was brought up tonight was the senior homelessness issue. If this rent control and vacancy rate ordinance is not passed, that will most definitely increase the homelessness problem. And the s the senior community is greatly affected by not having a rent control ordinance and vacancy rate in Cambrio's mobile home parks. You know, the rents are like the highest as you know. They're higher than Los Angeles, Thousand Oaks, Oxnard. I mean, you can go on and on. What senior can afford on a fixed income 21, you know, 260 a month at Camaro Mobile estates or lamp lighter is 275. You know, properties just don't sell. Um and uh they're the they're just you know the thing is is that we pay the land owners gain the equity by the pace the space

rent being paid by the homeowner but the homeowner loses equity without a vacancy rate and when the the space rent is increased it dramatically uh affects the sales. I mean you can see it in the comp the comps and you know new buyers cannot just afford the rents especially being on a fixed or you know income or retired. So, please consider a lower vacancy rate lower than Thousand Oaks and Los Angeles City because Camaro Mobile Home Park rents are already double the rents in Thousand Oaks and Los Angeles City. A low vacancy rate can preserve a homeowner's equity. And just to say that, you know, mobile homes aren't mobile. Before 1976, which most of these parks are older, you it's against the law to move them. It's just cost prohibitive. It's not done. You can't insure them when they're moved from the original site. So, you know, just, you know, please pass this ordinance tonight, you know, so more people will not be homeless. You know, that this has been stressing the senior community out and we really hope that you pass this ordinance.

Thank you, Craig Walker followed by Diana Bradley.

Welcome, sir. Can you reach that lower mic? I think so. It'll bend towards you a little bit. Should we take that mic? We can bring you a mic. Hold on. Just I think I got it. You got it. Yeah. If you get close to the shorter one. We heard you.

Okay. Uh Craig Walker here and I'm a resident of the uh uh Camaro Mole Estates. Uh I'm concerned as a uh Vietnam veteran and a retiree on a fixed income of any red increase that might come my way. I was kind of amused by the the uh analogy of um the uh reservoir. And it seems like at one point the reservoir was filling and they dug diversion tunnels to give every resident a bath uh um by charging them extras for the services that are supposed to be rendered. Um, so that is one concern. The other is the treatment of veterans. Um, I've been disabled for about 15 years and I'm not able to walk. Um, so I park this scooter, which is the only transportation I have of getting around Camaro in my by my walkway. and my ability to move is so bad that I need a second four-wheel mobility scooter, uh, mobility walker to get from the bottom of my steps to a car. Now, those were parked off the walkway on a brick area that I had uh, put in for that the purpose of these devices. I got a note recently saying that my barbecue in the front yard had to go. And of course, I didn't have a barbecue in the front

yard. I had scooters. And when I talked to the manager about the the fact that we were talking about scooters, which were a necessity, she said, "Well, they have to go, too. Without these, I'm really in a jam." So considering uh veterans needs uh when you make consideration about raising property rents uh would be greatly appreciated. And again I am with the other people who were on fixed incomes um and struggling to make their rents. My wife died 6 months ago and I'm a single where we had two incomes. I have one income to support myself. Thank you. Thank you Diana Bradley followed by Edward Blumentock.

Welcome ma'am. Hello again, um, mayor and council members. Um, I'm here today to see the Camaro mobile home rent stabilization ordinance finally passed. The redline changes that you made to the draft ordinance, especially increasing the vacancy control percentage from 6% to 8% will hopefully be enough to satisfy you that the landowners will be getting the income they want. I'm disappointed that you put the income of the land owners over the safe harbor and livelihood of seniors and lowincome tenants. However, it is what it is. The remaining particulars of this ordinance will definitely help the mobile home owners. Uh, as a note, the Ventura County Parks limit vacancy increases to 15% once every four years, which if you know math, equals less than 4% per year. And Ventura City Parks do not allow any increase to a new tenant. We're asking you to pass this ordinance. Controlling vacancy increases was a priority for the mobile home owners. Homeowners need monthly rent stabilization as well to protect our seniors living on fixed income. We as mobile homeowners and tenants respectfully ask the city council to finally pass this rent stabilization ordinance. Thank you.

Thank you. Edward Blumentotock, followed by Lynn Cororm.

Hello, I'm Evan Blumentock. Uh, I've addressed this party this this body before and I'm I'm pleased to do it again. Thank you for taking up this ordinance. Uh, it shows that you care about the people in the city. Um, I'm not going to repeat what's been said. I was a big dittos to everybody who talked about um retired people with fixed incomes at looking at the loss of their home. I would um I noticed that IPC uh is fighting this um and it interested me to look it up and IPC is is we're headquartered in Utah. So the money that we pay goes out of state and for them to continue to raise our rents uh is good business for them doesn't do much for us. So I'd like to close with asking everybody who's here in favor of the rent stabilization order.

Sir, we don't do that. You have to address the council, not the audience. So don't ask for audience participation. Thank you. Thank you. Well, I'm in favor of it. I know you are. Thank you. Lynn Cororm followed by Sunny Begnami.

Use either mic, ma'am. They're both working. Pardon? I said you can use either microphone. This is just fine. Thanks.

Okay. Welcome. Um, good evening council members. Um, I my name is Len Cororum and I live at Kaza Del Norte. Um, I'm here to to give you a um a perspective of my personal experience. Um, our rent our our um space rents will increase July 1 by 4.2%. And that means my bill, monthly bill will be $1,337. Um, or in in essence, it's $53.88 more than I have been paying monthly. Uh, and that $54 is essentially a healthy grocery bill. And I also want to um point out that the the management company for Kazidel Norte was able to well so Southern California Gas took over the billing for our gas bill bill bills and that uh that allows that frees up Star Management's efforts at billing us. We They don't have to bill us for gas. Uh and that's I think um a staff savings, but it's I don't think that they reflected that in in our rent increases. Anyway, thank you very much. Bye.

Thank you, ma'am.

Sunonny Big Nami followed by Blanca O. Hi, mayor, vice mayor, council members. So, I'm here today for the people. You know, my boss didn't send me. I'm not, you know, an employee of a landlord or their attorney. I'm here for the people. We have 55 and up citizens that are just trying to live. Camerio Mobile Estates, for example, they want to charge over $2,000 regardless of the lot size, regardless of the home, whether it's a one bed, one bath, three bed, two bath. They want to charge over $2,000 a month for people that, as others have mentioned, are on fixed income, social security, they're to them, 50 bucks makes a difference. You just heard it from the people yourself. I'm not here for profit. I'm here for the people because people just want to live. There are people that have have dreams of becoming homeowners and they don't even qualify with the park. So, I don't want to sound like a broken record, but there's a lot of power here in this room and I ask you please just advocate for the people. Do give people a chance just to live a good quality life. Thank you.

Thank you. Blanca O followed by DVO Brown. Welcome.

Hello. Good evening. I submitted a public comment already and I was just going to attend, but last minute my daughter joined and I'm glad she's here to witness um our community come together. And as I'm sitting here, I'm thinking what a great opportunity to have another lesson about empathy. Um I personally am not a resident of a mobile home, but I am a Camero resident. And when I hear their stories, um, my reaction is empathy. And I would hope that each and every one of you also can deeply empathize with your residents here, your constituents um, concerned about about their housing. I also attended the last meeting and I found it ironic. Um that meeting began with a presentation from 211 and they provided you guys um statistics and data about um who in Camryo reaches out to 211 for support and they shared with each um all of us that the number one 211 call is is housing and members of this community h experiencing a housing crisis. And I found it so starked that that presentation was followed by your community members then also sharing with you directly their experience and their fears of also their housing. Um I do want to just close with this. I worked at call center for almost two decades and what people will share with you over the phone is um things that they would never say to you to your face and having had worked with the telecommunication companies um those of the community who had landlines still were often elderly customers and when they would call in um they would be in literal tears with me

crying that they can't afford their bill and share with me stories that still um carry with me today and stories of not being able to buy their food and um are eating their cat food for example to to get by. And so when a woman up here shared that $54 is the difference between a healthy meal um that should not be taken lightly. and when you have uh veterans coming up here sharing their their stories and um that should not be taken lightly and so please pass this uh resolution. Thank you. Thank you DVO Brown followed by David Gilbertson.

Welcome.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Um, vice mayor, city council, um, you know, I had a bunch of stuff that I was going to say, but I'm just probably not going to say it. I think it was all said so well, so at the suggestion of our fine mayor, Ditto a lot. Okay. So, um, we don't think it's a bad thing for property owners to come in here and to our city. I mean, and, uh, an exact profit for owning a piece of property. That's that's how money's made in this country, a lot of other different ways, too. So, we think it's okay. And I've explained to many of my friends who are constituents and and members of the newly formed Camaro Homeowners Alliance for Municipal Progress, Champ, um we've banded together and created an organization um because we think that um there's a little bit of strength in numbers and um but I have told them, you know, we're going to pay more for rent every year. There's inflation. Everything's going up. We have to keep paying more for everything. And one of the the letters I wrote was, you know, cars used to be 3,000 when we were younger and now they're 30,000 and more. That's because of inflation. We're going to have to pay more. And so we do, but how much more is is a big difference. And and whether it's making profit or profitering, there's that's a term that needs to be defined perhaps just a little bit. But um but I would suggest to you that that there are certainly two different views of that word propheteering right now um in this room. Um but one thing I do uh one concern that I heard from this the the council within the last couple of meetings was making this a defendable ordinance making this ordinance

defendable. And I agree, I concur that that's a really really strong principle that we should hold up to. That's a that's a concern that we should definitely address. I did a little research and I found that um that mobile homeowners investment is got it's got a little precedent. As a matter of fact, um mobile homeowners investment is a recognized and legitimate purpose of an ordinance. in Carson mobile home park owners association versus city of Carson 1983. The California Supreme Court noted that the purchase of a mobile home involves a substantial investment and its relocation is expensive and difficult and also upheld Carson's ordinance because the homeowner's equity and stability was considered in the ordinance. So, we're not putting ourselves up um with some added exposure because you're taking care of us. Okay? you're actually reinforcing the stability of the ordinance by taking care of us because once again, like I said last time, um what's fair is fair and there's there's two sides to this and so let's be fair to both sides if we can. Thanks again for your time.

Thank you. The last speaker is David Gilbertson.

And prior to Mr. Gilbertson. If anybody else wishes to speak, please see the city clerk staff out in the lobby and get your speaker card in before Mr. Gilbertson's finished. Go ahead, sir. Good evening, mayor, city council members. Um, thank you though for your service, your public service, and I thank the staff for theirs. and I appreciate that you're providing this comment time uh to hear from residents and business owners. I appreciate the council's attention to affordable housing. I really though value and can look at the staff report as being unbiased and I thank director Calbertt and the community development staff for their detailed report to the council as well as the public. There are some key points that struck me. Camaro mobile home park land residents are generally land rents are generally higher than parks in surrounding communities with rent stabilization ordinances. Camaro mobile home estates and lampliner have the highest average land rents for the parks analyzed. Lamplighter is my neighbor. The data shows Camaro rental mobile home parks have higher rents than other parks countywide. Jurisdictions in the county with RSOs have on average lower movein and in place rents than jurisdictions without ordinances. You've heard from uh some of your mobile home renters. Many mobile home residents

who are senior citizens, obviously they're usually living on fixed incomes. As a senior, I too experienced the financial challenges of continually raising costs and this the experience of the uh scarcity of mobile home or any home affordable housing here in Camaro. That is an issue I know you're paying attention to. Seniors living on fixed incomes as well as lowincome residents are being financially crushed under the weight of our current economy. This ordinance is one small measure of relief. And to my fellow veteran, I too am a Vietnam veteran and I appreciate Ventur County's attention to veteran services. I hope the council will do so as well. In addition, the ordinance supports the city council strategic plan, goal, and objective 2.3, community enrichment. I urge council members to support the ordinance and vote yes. Thank you. Thank you,

Mayor. We have one more speaker, Gloria Probert. All right, for the rest of you, it's going going gone after this speaker. Welcome, ma'am. Thank you. First off, they don't represent 500 people because they didn't pull the mic down a little bit if you would for some of us. Thank you.

They haven't really talk to the lease holders who are going to be screwed by this ordinance because you will be higher than what we are paying now. And yes, I am a senior citizen on a limited income who lost my husband. Therefore, I am one income and working two jobs. But still, it is cheaper than anywhere else I can go. And it will hurt the lease holders if you pass this. Thank you, Madame Clerk. Is that it? That is it.

Thank you. We will move on to council discussion and I'm going to open it up to the two members of the ad hoc committee first and allow them to go first. Council member Santangelo.

Thank you. Um I wasn't prepared to go first. Um I'm going to keep my thoughts short and to the point. Um, from the onset of this discussion, um, when it came to us, um, as a council and in our discussions, um, on the committee, I've been concerned with the loss of equity. Um, and I realize that this is a it's a unique living situation that you own your home, but you play still play lease. Um, and so I understand that how that loss of equity is so important. um controlling rent in increases is one way we prevent that loss of equity. The other way is through vacancy control. Um I'm concerned that when a homeowner decides to sell their home that that equity matters and that's when that equity matters the most. In fact, it may be the most important time. Um lack of vacancy control may undermine the intent of rent stabilization. And so for those reasons, um Dr. Martinez Bravo and I discussed it and we really felt that we should compromise to get this across the finish line. And so we went from the 6% up to 8%. Um, and that's that's how the ordinance is written now. And so that's where I stand.

Thank you, Vice Mayor.

Uh, thank you, Council Member Santangelo. So, um, when I was a little girl, I'll start with a story. I feel like Father Patrick had our mess, but I'll start with a story. Uh, when I was a little girl, uh, I I was a daughter of a farm worker. And so, we had very limited access to luxury or even to essential items. Um, I do remember there were times where you we had one pair of shoes and they were your school shoes and they were your Sunday shoes for church and they were your shoes and when my shoes would get holes in them. I remember getting my uh foot and putting it on a cardboard um and tracing it and and trying to use that um to slip it in into my shoes so that my shoes can last longer. along the way as I went on to uh through school and um I you know I did the best that I could. I did well in school and there were people that invested in me and because of that I was able to go on to college to go on to UC Irvine and graduate from college and then graduate school after that. and my husband had a very similar upbringing. Um, and while both him and I and our family, we are in a very different uh financial class now, the reality is that I will never forget where I came from. And I wanted to thank every single one of you who shared your opinions, who shared uh your lived experiences. Um it can

feel very vulnerable and even at times shameful to uh experience poverty. um whether it's at the level um of extreme poverty or even just struggling as many people are right now, especially many uh who are on fixed incomes right here in this room. And so I thank you for your patience. Um part of being on this council is being able to work with others regardless of our political affiliations. and it is to center the well-being of our community and of our residents. And so to the medicine and the prescription analogy that I heard um and as someone who is married now to a Kaiser physician, uh one thing that I often hear is that prevention is actually the best medicine. And so in my view, passing this RSO serves as a preventive measure to protect the well-being of our residents. Uh I'd like to just highlight the importance of adopting this uh mobile home rent stabilization ordinance. Um building on the work that was completed by our ad hoc committee and with the help of our extraordinary staff. Um, I know you staff worked above and beyond um these last couple of months to to get it right. I believe that our recommendation is thoughtful and incorporated the uh input from the last meeting. I'm just one of five and so I want to be mindful that the reality is in order to get this passed we do need the the majority. Um the the new ordinance as mentioned does propose a cap of up to 8% on rent increases um upon the rrenal of an

existing mobile home. And as mentioned, this this was modeled after the Thousand Oaks um one, but deliberately we wanted to to for it to be lower than the 10% cap because the reality is that our residents in Camrio are facing a very different reality given that quite frankly uh we are the outliers in in the county of Ventura. And so for that piece, I believe that vacancy control for rerentals of existing mobile homes is critical and it is especially uh something that I feel very strongly about. At the same time, the committee worked to ensure fairness for uh park owners along the process. I always felt that we were fair and listening to both sides, bringing both groups in and and listening to what they had to say. And so we did find it reasonable that when a new mobile home is brought into a park that space rent can be set at a market rate. Um so I think that that reflects a true change in the tenency and and maintains incentives and reinvestment for uh for the park owners as well. Uh we also included the important exemption with when it's transferred within the family, the rental recap would um not apply. Um and then additionally we refined the language around the anniversary date uh to better reflect the council's direction as well. Uh the policy I believe is not about limiting fair returns but it's about preventing excessive spikes that can displace long-term residents uh many of whom are seniors or are on fixed incomes as what was stated here. uh mobile home residents as many you know of you know we you often just can't easily relocate making them especially vulnerable um to

these sudden increases. Uh one thing that that was mentioned at the last meeting was how often we talked about a fair rate of return in our agenda report. And so we often talk about ensuring a fair rate of return for park owners, which this ordinance does provide. But data also shows that many of our residents who have invested their savings and built investments in their home are not seeing that invest are now seeing that investment eroded and their livelihoods are strained by these high rents. So they too deserve a fair outcome. I do believe it is our responsibility to protect the well-being of our community members and at the end of the day our motto right behind us states las persona sonud and the people are the city. So when appropriate, I would feel confident in moving the recommendations stated on the staff report and I'd be happy to uh move forward with a proposed U mobile home ordinance um which is again measured data informed and it truly reflects more of our values and the needs of our Camrio residents.

Thank you, Vice Mayor. Mr. K. Thank you, mayor. Um, I had a bunch of uh comments to read, but I'm not going to read them. And but I am going to say that all my years that I've been up here, I've tried, haven't always succeeded, but I've always tried to be reasonable. And in this particular case, it's being reasonable to park owners and it's being reasonable to renters. And the last meeting I had several questions to ask and there's a a reason for that and that is because we had our subcommittee. We're not allowed to really talk to our subcommittee. We do our business in public up here. So all three of us, I can't speak for anybody else myself did not have an opportunity to ask the questions that I felt needed to be asked. It's a little bit messy when we do that, but hopefully I always say it's kind of like making sausage, a little message, but the end result hopefully tastes pretty good. So, what I am going to say is reasonable. I think using the CPI of 2 to 6% is reasonable. I think following the TTO ordinance that we attempted to do is reasonable. I think looking out for the property owner's rate of return and what that should be is reasonable. I think looking out for the renters and trying to give them something that they may be able to help them is a reasonable request here. Um, if you look at rents, we all know that it's very very challenging uh with the

rents. I'm a renter, too. I I rent commercial space. Uh, we've rented commercial space for several decades. So, um, I know a little bit about that. Fortunately, I do um own my house. I don't have to rent. I'm very fortunate with that. But I do rent my business. I'm very uh cognizant of that. Um I think that our subcommittee has done a very good job and our our uh staff has done a very good job in a very touchy uh subject here trying to be fair to everybody. Um, I do think it's also important that our uh city attorney made uh an opportunity in this ordinance if it does uh pass that we can and future councils will be able to make minor uh modifications to this as as seen. Um, so here we are. And um, these redline versions, I don't know if anybody else has been able to see them, but it touched all the bases that I was uh, concerned about. And what's been said before, um, I can support it as submitted.

Mr. Trembley.

Thanks, Mr. Mayor. So, first of all, thank you to all of the speakers. Uh thank you to everyone who has been here and has worked through this process. I really want to compliment uh the ad hoc committee and city staff for all of your your efforts on on revisions uh to the draft ordinance following the the March 26 council meeting. In my view, a mobile home uh rent stabilization ordinance is appropriate to protect mobile homeowners. Uh in contrast with theou suggested by park owners, I think an RSO is appropriate uh in our circumstances. Uh Susan and Marta and and staff, I think you have threaded the needle on this uh to meet the concerns expressed on March 26th. I think you've done an excellent job. So the result in my view is very similar to council member Kild's in fact it's the same. I think it's a compromise RSO approach which I think fairly balances uh the interests of mobile homeowners and park owners and I can support its adoption and thank you to the ad hoc committee.

Thank you Mr. Trembley. I uh think that the work that the vice mayor and council member Santangelo along with city staff did was remarkable. I thought so at our last meeting and as I explained to the people in attendance, I know you hope for a resolution that evening and as Mr. Kild likes to always bring up making sausage and that's what local governments like sometimes. So, we had to go back and make the casing a little stronger. Um I think uh the vice mayor said that she and council member Santangelo thought that the 8% was a good compromise and that's the model of local government because if you remember in March there were a couple saying 10% the original ordinance was six. I think meeting in the middle is absolutely perfect. As one of my former favorite presidents always said, there is no such thing as a 100% perfect ordinance. If you get 80% or 70% of what you're hoping for, you call that a success. So, I think tonight's success when the vote occurs will be nobody's 100% happy, but everybody's a little bit happy. And that's what I'm hoping for. So now, Vice Mayor, I know you want to make a motion.

I am happy to make a motion to pass uh staff's recommendations one, two, and three. And I think council member Santangelo wants to say something. I would like to just clarify that. No motion on three. It's just items one and two. One, and two. Correct. Yes. I will second one and two. So, Madame Clerk, we have a motion and a second. Roll call vote, please. Council member Santangelo. Yes. Vice Mayor Martinez, Bravo, yes. Council member Kildy, yes. Council member Trembley, yes. Mayor Tennyson, yes. That passes unanimously.

We don't do that. You can do it out there. Um, with that, Madam Speaker, did we have any other speaker cards from the earlier session? No, sir. Okay. Madame city attorney, will you provide us with a close session report? Uh, yes. We did conduct close session on four items earlier today, but there was no report. We're still meeting, folks. We are going to break that thing.