Remarks by Aaron Starr
85 remarks on the record, newest first · Page 2 of 4
“Just a question about the distinction between EMT and a paramedic. What can a paramedic do that an EMT cannot do?”
“COUNCILMEMBER STARR. THANK YOU. I APPRECIATE THE FACT THAT WE'RE CONTRACTING OUT TO SAVE MONEY AND TO EXPAND WHAT WE CAN DO. My question is, I know we have five full-time employees in the Public Works tree crew, and I'm wondering might it be less expensive to expand upon the use of this outside service provider instead of using city employees? In other words, for the same amount of money, could we trim more trees by using this firm as opposed to doing it in-house?”
“Somewhat. So would it be fair to say that the type of work that the employees are doing that it's more cost effective for us to have employees do that rather than contracting out what they're doing today.”
“Would you see any advantage to having, say, more employees instead of the five we have now?”
“Thank you. That information is very helpful for me. Thank you.”
“Mayor, I move the recommended actions. Okay.”
“Yeah, I just want some clarification. So you had 27 exited permanent housing out of 216. I just don't know where you get the 25% from because that seems.”
“I was wondering if you could define for me chronically homeless as opposed to acutely homeless I suppose. What makes somebody chronically homeless?”
“So somebody has to be disabled in order to be considered chronically homeless, or am I misunderstanding that?”
“Who won the basketball tournament? I haven't found it.”
“Thank you, Carolina. Mayor, we also have some virtual speakers you may want to recognize at some point. Thank you.”
“I attended the employee recognition ceremony where we inducted seven new police officers. It was really a wonderful event. I was there with Councilmember Perillo, and I got to watch our, I guess our outgoing chief of police run the show there. He did a great job, and I'm sure that he'll definitely be missed, so I want to congratulate him on his upcoming retirement. I attended the La Colonia Neighborhood Council meeting, and I also attended with Cast Member Perez the Multicultural Festival Opening Ceremonies, and, you know, was very impressed with the entire event. I think we've got some…”
“Mayor, I just, if it's not out of order, I just want to say that I am, Really really pleased with all the work you do as an ambassador for our city I think you shine a really bright light on our city and in the most favorable way and I just want to encourage you to just keep doing that I think that's I think I think you were you were you were made at so please Keep up your good work on that. Thank you.”
“So, Monica, your organization does wonderful work. I serve on the Board of Advisors for the Gene Haas Foundation, and we regularly give you six-digit checks, I think, every year. And one of the reasons why we give money to your organization is because we look at the finances of the public reports, and we see what percentage of overhead there is versus the values that you're providing. And it's been historically very low. And that's a good thing. So that means that more of the money actually is used to reach the people that need to be served. So I just wanted to compliment you and take this…”
“Thank you. Well, it's been mentioned a couple times already about National Night Out on August 4th. I really want to encourage you to attend. It's a great opportunity to meet your neighbors and a very collegial environment. Often, I know, for example, in Rose Park, they have food and that sort of thing. And other places have started to do potlucks. And I think that's a great development. And it's just an opportunity to meet each other and just collaborate and just bring people closer together. On August 7th, there's a mural restoration celebration over at Colonial Park for the, I think it's…”
“Okay. Thank you. I do like the fact that this ordinance easy measured in that a fine can be waived if the person takes a class after the citation is issued. So I really appreciate that we're not really focusing on the money aspect. We're focusing on the safety aspect. As I looked through the ordinance, I did see where there was a fine specified for minors. I think it was $25, but I didn't see anything that cited what the fine would be in general. So I might have missed that, or maybe it's addressed by state law.”
“Got it. So that was referenced in a different section of the code. Got it. I do have a question concerning the exemptions that I see on page 376. So I understand having this not apply to somebody who is physically disabled. That makes sense to me. What I don't understand is the second one that says, not with saying any other provision of this article or any other section of this code, city and public agency personnel may operate a motorized vehicle conveyance or other vehicles at any place in the city in the performance of their official duties. And I guess my thought about that, just at…”
“So would this be limited only to officers, or are there others that this could apply to, do you think?”
“All right, I appreciate that. I'm always hesitant to wind to putting a rule on everybody else that we don't put on ourselves. So I appreciate you addressing that.”
“Thank you. So, yeah, several other questions. But given what I've just heard, I think that it might be appropriate to change the language to simply give the exemption to law enforcement only if there's some reason that comes up in the future where we need to, have somebody else have this exemption. Let's bring it back at that point. But I don't want to have a situation where the way it's written, it looks like it's any city employee. And these days, it's hard to argue whether someone's doing something in the performance of their duties or not. A question I have, a separate question I have is…”
“I guess my question is, as state law changes, can you imagine a situation where We wouldn't need an ordinance like this because state law addresses speed limits up and down the state. We don't have our own separate law ordinance here just for speed limits, I don't think. I'd like to know your thoughts on that.”
“What I've seen in state legislation at times is sometimes they'll put in a sunset provision into the law in order to make sure that somebody's going to have to look at it because otherwise it's going to expire. I was wondering if perhaps a sunset in two years would make sense and that way we know that we got to look at this again at least two years from now. Okay. And then I have a question on, I assume the answer is yes, but will Oxnard PD be tracking violations of this ordinance and reporting back to council? And if so, would it be annually or periodically or what would that be?”
“Do you have the infrastructure in place to actually track that and measure it and spit it out? Or do you need extra software programming to make that possible?”
“Thank you, Mayor. That's all my questions. Thank you.”
“So thank you for that clarification. I guess then I would say that I don't really want a situation where this is only applicable to a phase and period. I think that, you know, There's instances where you go to traffic school for various violations, even though you've been driving for many, many years. It just seems that given the nature of this infraction that I just don't see why we couldn't on an ongoing basis allow people to, at least at the first time they do it, be able to get the fine waived if they take the class. Regarding the number of days, though, 14 is short, and I agree with…”