City Council - Special Meeting

Welcome to the Tuesday, June 2nd, 2026 City Council Special Meeting. Roll call, please, Mr. Montgomery.

Yes, Mayor.

Thank you.

Mayor Gilman. Here. Mayor Pro Tem Meng.

Here.

Council Member Rule.

Here.

Council Member Lang. Here. Council Member Whitman.

Here. Thank you. And would you lead us in the pledge, please? Of course. Mr. Montgomery, thank you.

Welcome to the community, Honorable Council. Ready to begin. Aye.

and happy election day also. Any changes to the agenda? Wonderful, yep, second, all good. And we'll go forward with our first discussion, community aquatics program implement, oh, I have no public comment cards, anybody online? I know it's special, but we'll just touch it.

Let's double check, Mayor. No, we have zero attendees online right now. Thank you.

Okay, so our first item is Community Aquatics Program Implementation and Adoption of Resolution Amending the Salary Schedule to Update the Salary for Lifeguard Classifications. Thank you.

Hello again. Hi. Thank you for having me tonight. I did provide a PowerPoint as well. This is an item that was brought to you. Ooh. Previously so there has been a few changes I did Speak about this with my Parks and Recreation Commission changed a few thing regarding hours and Also spoke at the Ojai Unified School District board meeting and they also had the same Information

Of course, I'm sorry.

OK, so here we begin. The summary, City of Ojai is implementing a community aquatics program at Nordhoff High School in response to City Council direction from February 24th. The presentation addresses four key items, which would be adopting a lifeguard salary amendment, $25 per hour, that would be effective June 3rd, if approved. Approving a $5 per person entry fee, along with $5,000 allocated for income qualified waivers. We would be establishing the program operating hours including the weekday and weekend sessions and receiving the completed facilities use agreement with the Ohio Unified School District. Estimated first year costs $62,200 with revenue from admission fees helping to offset the expenses. This program satisfies long-standing community demand for public aquatic access in the Ohio Valley. So at the February 24th, city council directed staff to return with an updated aquatics program information. Council requested lifeguard salary data, pool entry fees, scholarship recommendations, program hours, and a finalized OUSD agreement. On May 7th, the Parks and Recreation Commission provided feedback that is incorporated into this report. On May 13th, Ohio Unified School District Board requested later program hours to better support community use. This presentation fulfills all elements of Council's February 24th direction and incorporates feedback from the Parks and Recreation Commission and OUSD. So these are the four action items. I already spoke about Let's see so lifeguard salary amendment We did do market analysis. We were under market So the recommended rate is $25 per hour. This would be effective June 3rd This positions the city competitively in the local labor market and Why a flat rate? It reflects consistent physical demands, mental vigilance, and shared safety responsibilities across all lifeguard positions, supports internal equity, and reduces potential morale concerns. Item two, entry fees. We do have standard entry open swim, $5 per person and two years and under free. We will also have, if approved, income qualified reduced rate fee of $2 per person. The proposed operating schedule has been changed slightly due to the feedback I received. Monday through Friday during school breaks would be 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. Sundays, we change to a later time of 2 p.m. to 6, and Saturdays are right now for YMCA. They do have sessions still going on, so this could be an option. Just don't know about set times because they do have six-week sessions.

Do you mind if I pause on that? So on the Saturday optional, the Y is there all day doing their swim lessons on Saturday?

No, they're there about three to four hours on Saturday.

And then when it says varying with the YMCA, you're suggesting we could possibly have our lifeguards come in when they're done. Is that what that proposal means? Yes, or before. Or before.

Yeah.

Okay.

The facilities use agreement. City staff and OUSD collaborated to develop a mutually beneficial agreement. Agreement was reviewed by city attorney. Completed agreement is attached to a gender report for council reference. OUSD covers core operational costs, utilities, maintenance, and required permits. The city will be responsible for facility daily operational duties and staffing, hiring, compensating lifeguards for the community program. So here are your options. Take no action, provide alternative direction, or of course you can approve all four. Next steps if approved. If approved, resolution amending the salary schedule takes effect June 3rd. The $5 entry fee and $5,000 waiver fund is authorized. Program hours approved for daily open swim operations with the option to adjust due to community demand. OUSD facilities use agreement is received and filed. Staff launches the program once the lifeguard recruitment is fulfilled and monitors attendance and the entry fee revenue. The progress update provided to council after initial summer break operating period.

Thank you. A couple questions?

Yeah.

So if we were to approve tonight, when would it actually start?

So we do have two certified lifeguards now. Okay. We are still in process of interviewing. We do have a few people we'd like to move forward with, but that process isn't finished yet. So I would say maybe third week in June.

Okay. And then my other question is, do we know what the polo hours are already?

Right now the polo hours are 345 to 545. Every day?

Mm-hmm. Not counting the weekend days? not the weekend so 3 45 to what day what do you think 5 45 5 45 and then they do have a few little breaks in between um and they'll be there a few days a week and then full five days and then and i'm almost done um now i saw in the agreement there's that we're monitoring attendance right so we'll be counting how many people are going there oh yeah okay so then i guess one one question is um it would be easy i suppose for you to give us a report after you do open after a few weeks even to say anytime yeah here's how many people are going here's the request for an alteration or an augmentation of the hours and we can respond correct yeah i was also thinking of having a qr code yeah at the front door on a piece of paper where people can go on and make comments or if they have any concerns so

and payment you said last time can be taken electronically or cash or whatever at the door okay and then in the future if we continue this we could do memberships or do it through activenet different options

Other questions?

I do. Yeah. I was wondering, I think it would be helpful if we had a calendar in place where we could look at when OUSD is using it when we have permission to be there. Another thing, like how far in advance, say if Nordhoff says, okay, we're going to have a water polo tournament, how much notice do they have to give us to say the pool isn't going to be available from this day to that day?

Are you talking about summer? Mm-hmm. There won't be any tournaments during summer. So during the summer right now, we can use the pool at any time that they're not using it. So we can make that decision.

Yeah, so when you say 345 to 545, it could be morning 2-3 if we wanted, and then 6 o'clock on if we wanted to.

It could. The only problem with that right now would be staffing. Because it would have to be a whole other section.

But I interrupted you.

Continue.

All right. I was curious, too, what is the cost for liability insurance?

We have that certificate already provided.

So it's not additional to have?

No. something.

Okay, and then let me see. So down the road, like a family pass or discount that will be in the works. And then my other question is there like an age limit because summertime parents work and you know, Joey come with his nanny who's 17 if you have parental permission or what are the rules for that 14 and under need to have an adult with them?

i'm sorry under 14. you said under 14. under 14. yeah okay um i think that's all that i have i have some questions um so you talked about the how we're staffing up and we got two people signed on but you said you've got want applicants who are in the interview qualification stage.

Yes, that we'd like to move forward with.

Have we figured out how many staff we think we need to have in order to, how many lifeguards we need to have in order to run the program?

Well, if the pool is full, at full capacity, we would need three lifeguards.

What is considered full capacity?

I think it was 120.

So I think maybe to restate the question a different way, that would be what we would need on deck. On deck. So you're going to play that out, and you're going to have a, it's just like bus drivers in a way. You're going to need to have some backup that you can call on if they're not there. So I would say probably three times that.

Yeah. So we're thinking we need nine lifeguards. Potentially. Potentially.

We're not going to wait to get nine.

No.

Right. We won't wait. Okay. So on that topic, one of the things that was discussed at length at the parks and rec meeting was the idea if we want to attract lifeguards, then we need to give them an eight hours. that the expectation, and there were some people involved in that discussion, but the expectation is that you weren't going to get as many people interested in a four-hour job as you would. I'm not sure we get an eight-hour block of time with the 345 to 545. Can you give staff a... a two hour lunch break.

So the thing with lifeguards is you have to be very attentive. So they do 15-minute intervals of moving around the pool, changing stations. Through my research, and I believe through HR's research on doing this flat rate fee, we did not see an eight-hour shift for a lifeguard. And I actually interviewed somebody today, and I asked her what her regular times were, and she's never heard of eight hours either for one person. So that's kind of why, you know, I did a shorter shift as well.

And our longest shift for a lifeguard is going to be four hours at this point? I guess it's up to you guys. Unless, that's the way it's kind of presented to us.

Well, and the reason why I did that as well is because it would be a full five-hour shift for staff, which does not require a lunch. So they would have 30 minutes to come and prepare, four hour shift, and then 30 minutes to close down. So that's what I thought, and that was proposed in all of this. But we can add, we can change it up however you'd like. But this would just be to get started now.

Okay, and then the lifeguard staff would be doing all of the requirements of opening and closing in terms of Safety checks and checking the pH.

Yeah.

Yeah, we've got checklists yeah, and then shutting down and making sure that Properties secure.

Yeah, and I was also proposing having an office coordinator inside of the office to take the payments, but I'm also thinking just have them be a lifeguard as well and so that they can also, you know, be inside and be in the air-conditioned and have a full rotation of the pool just in case something happens and they need to take over. So that's another thing as well.

I'm looking at Lake Casitas' jobs, and they do seem like they're all part-time.

Yeah.

I'm seeing that as our competition. Our lifeguard competition. Mm-hmm. Yeah, please.

So is there going to be anyone from OUSD on site when the pool is open? No? No. So this would just be the lifeguards? So the lifeguards have a lot of responsibility for?

Well, they do have a pool manager, which we would have contact with who lives in the city. Great. And he would be available to be called at any time.

OK.

Thank you.

They also do have a backup person as well.

Other questions? Mr. Miley, please come up. You wanted to speak on this issue. Is that correct? This is number one.

Mayor, we have one more card from Larry.

Wonderful.

Of course we do.

Hello. A couple of questions first. The 345 to the 545, is that being run by the school district? They hired the lifeguard. They have their own lifeguard.

No, that's their practice. Water polo practice. Water polo. Oh, okay. Yeah.

I didn't hear, did I miss something about the summer hour? I didn't hear anything about summer hour.

This is summer. We're talking about summer, right?

OK. I participated in the May Recreation Commission meeting. I am pleased to see the proposed hours of the Aquatic Center community use adjusted towards the warmer times of the day, especially during, I'm assuming, summertime. During the Commission discussion, it was noted that community use and, quote, demand will be recorded for adjustment of schedules to meet community needs. I like that a lot. I also read that efforts to create purchase options for families and multiple time prices will be created in the next few months. That's great. And I saw a chart showing hourly wages for lifeguards in surrounding cities. And you came up with $25 an hour. I think that's great. And I think a young person would be happy to earn $125 for five hours. If I were younger, I would do that. This continues to be a significant and key programming plan by our rec department to bring an aquatic center facility to our valley community. I urge your council members to support this new beginning.

Thank you, Mr. Miley. Did I misspeak about something that you were putting out? No, I was just going to tell him.

I didn't know if he heard that they extended the hours.

Oh, thank you. Okay.

And Mayor, I shouldn't mention, I'm sorry, it wasn't said so far. We do have one of our commissioners here in the audience, and I don't know if she wants to speak, but she certainly... Did you want to speak?

Okay. If you have something that you would like to also venture, please do. Okay, if something occurs to you. Mr. Stengel, please come up.

Yeah, and I would just say...

Oh, great. Yep.

Thank you. Thank you for getting involved in the pool. As our city elected for our city residents, it's great. The fact that we're looking to carry the water for the other 22,000 residents at the same price is not correct. They should be paying more so that they can demand from the county that the county step up and contribute. Because there's no reason why we should be spending our dollars for non-city residents. It's not right. And that's something that we have to do something with because this is our city dollars and not the district's dollars. So it would behoove you to request from the county that they contribute. Because if there's a lot of demand, are we going to now spend $100,000 a year, $200,000 a year to cover more and more hours and the county isn't stepping up? Are we supposed to carry the county water, all the non-city residents? Their water, no pun intended. But I mean, it's just that the border stops at the city. At some point, we have to stop carrying other people's issues, their money. The county says, hey, good job. Keep it up, city. Enough already. because this thing is just going to be very expensive, which is fine. If city residents get discounts, they get some freebies, whatever, because that's what our city dollars go for. We shouldn't be providing a free ride for non-city residents. So thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Stengel. Elena Daly, please.

Hi. Hi.

My name is Alana Daly. Alana, sorry. And I live at 1001 Grandview. I'm assuming this is for a public open, not for a specific subject.

This is for the pool.

Yeah. I would like to speak on something, but apparently I once again missed my opportunity. That's okay.

Reach out to me separately, or you can also email the council directly.

No, I'll probably just write a letter to the editor. Okay. I'm really, you know, the misuse of funds and the misappropriation of funds has me ongoingly concerned about the choices that city council continues to make and it's not reflective of those of us who live here. And I guess I just need to get here a little earlier. There was a major accident over in front of the Vons, a motorcycle and a car. Somebody must have tried to turn left off of the main road into Vons. Just as an FYI.

Because it's a special meeting. Right. We don't take like general comments. You have to come to one of our regular meetings. Which is next week.

Okay. Then I'll make comments by then. Please do. Then my neighbor can come with me because it's between the two of us.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thanks. And then I see it's Madeline, but I can't read the last name. Hi. Hi.

Hi, my name is Madeline Alcorta. I'm a city of Ohio resident and avid swimmer. I just wanted to say I'm super duper excited to have access to a beautiful aquatic facility. Both my children go to Nordhoff. It's been amazing to watch OUSD using the bond money to bring in the new tennis courts. My son plays tennis, my daughter swims. So we're just super duper excited to have these facilities available to the general public without having to go private. We can't go, afford to go private. I've never lived in a town before that didn't have a public aquatic center. with hours for community swim and lap swim, so that's been kind of strange, and I'm just really glad that the city and OUSD are working together to bring this to the community, and then I wanted to know, I haven't heard anybody say if there would be dedicated lap swim lanes, because while I'm excited for my kids to be able to go swimming with their friends during the warm hours of the summer day, I would also like to swim some laps, and is that something that's built into the program, if it's okay to ask?

please go ahead so yes that is what i was proposing the lap and open swim after speaking with the athletic director it might be a little harder than i thought because polo takes out the lanes and when we were first touring the facility they had the lanes in because it was you know swim time So it might be a little more difficult depending on staff time and if they're going to allow us to use their lanes in and out. So that's something I do have to figure out. But there is a huge portion of the deep end that is available for lap swim. So it would just be inserting the lanes. That might be a little difficult, but yeah.

Do I still have time left?

Go ahead.

Yes. So for a parent who has kids who would be using it as community pool, would I be able to rely on, be able to go with all my stuff to swim laps while they're, like that's available, even though they're not gonna have the lane separators? For sure. Okay, great. Thank you so much for putting this together, working so hard on this. We're just very, very excited to have you get in the water. Thank you. Thanks.

That's all the cards I have. Anybody online? No, Mayor. Nobody on lock. All right, discussion, yeah.

Yeah, I have one clarifying question. I'm still a little confused about Saturday. So the polo folks are only, I'm sorry, the polo folks are only, I'm sorry, I had it written down. 345 to 545. 345 to 545, and that includes on Saturday, but yet we don't really have time. Not Saturday. Monday through Friday. Monday through Friday and Sunday. No, just Monday through Friday.

Okay, so, but we don't have hours.

And also, 545 on Saturday. around the YMCA program.

Sorry, they have their six week lessons. So we're going to be in between. And I don't have a final time on that yet.

Okay, so that's okay. Thank you. But we will be looking for Saturday. So we should I ask a question?

What time is the why scheduled be done on their calendar? Like when would they be leaving?

They would be done at the end of summer.

Oh, sorry. When they're doing their lessons on a Sunday. What time during the day? What time are they in and what time are they out? Because it eliminates a half hour at the beginning if it's already set up. And if you come in right at the end of that, you can hand over versus having it set up again, which is another gained half hour time. So it would be interesting to look at Sunday hours to see how efficient it is.

So Saturday hours for YMCA right now, it's somewhere in between 11 and 4. Okay.

Okay, so their chunk is 11 to 4.

Okay. Yeah, only Saturday.

So if we could back-to-back that, though, we could get another half hour of time for everyone because you don't have to get set up. I mean just something I just you know to maximize our so instead of five to seven you're saying 430 or whatever to seven yeah because if you have their lifeguards there and your lifeguards are there and then you transition you you have it fully covered and you're not losing any time okay thanks Well, you guys have covered much of what we have talked about. Yeah, say more.

Say what we didn't cover.

Christy incorporated it. I think there was a robust amount of discussion about a relationship beyond just a facilities agreement with the school district so that we have organized how we're going to communicate in a timely fashion and kind of a procedural approach to it so that there's a real understanding of when they're gonna need it and when we're gonna need it with a kind of, you know, some kind of, you know. So, I mean, I think that summer is special because we know that the one thing that they're using it for is polo and it's very standard. But as we are, if we're gonna do more later, I figure we should just start the discussion with what we're gonna want as a relationship throughout all of the relationship instead of kind of just starting. I mean, I know we're going for speed, but I don't want to get caught up in making it more confusing as we go forward if there's more to do during the school year. So anyway, I just think that that is still something that's important to have kind of codified somehow in some kind of relationship. But other than that, we also talked about other things you could do next year. I mean, we would love to have the aquatics program we used to have, which was we did our own lessons all during the week, all different types. They were sold out every year. They were very popular. But that will take a whole year to build up to. Because staffing I mean that that doesn't happen overnight and you need even more staffing than we would need just to run an open swim So but so we discussed that it's actually back on our agenda for Thursday because I you know There may be more that we send as recommendations to you guys after our Thursday meeting because our last one was just a discussion So we didn't we just had an open discussion, but we you know I think we were bringing it back to talk about it again and then we are formalizing a an aquatics ad hoc committee so we'll have two representatives and We have one commissioner who is well versed in this in her day job and has a lot to bring to running large aquatic facilities and programming. So I'm kind of volunteering her right now, but I'm hoping she'll be open to it because she would be absolutely excellent and will bring a lot of just tried and true. She knows. So any questions for me specifically?

I look forward to getting the recommendations because I think the idea of codifying a process by which conversations happen and changes happen, I think that makes- Make it smoother. Make it smoother makes a whole bunch of sense. It can fall into the idea of a calendar as well. Yeah, the calendar, yeah. As this gets updated, then everyone has a place to go as well as what the process is to make those decisions. I think it's really important.

I do too. Yeah. Good. Yeah, so we'll have another robust discussion with some recommendations probably at the end of that. And then the ad hoc committee will inform so they can start meeting hopefully with staff, you know, wherever there can be help and, you know, advisory role. And then as far as summer, you talked a little bit about, and this is just me talking, not when we talk to the commission, about having, you know, data. How quickly will we decide to reassess? It's all gonna depend on staffing, but I guess my next question is, are we continuing to try and hire as many people as we can? So do we have a goal for what we would like as a minimum when we can get them? Is it nine or?

Mm-hmm.

Okay.

Yes.

So two sets of three so that you have backup for everybody. Okay.

Can we poach YMCA? Just an idea. I'm going to jump in here.

I'm going to say that we're not going to wait until we get nine. I think that, you know. It's not, it's not ideal to, right. But let's say we had four or five, I would feel comfortable starting with that number. I don't feel comfortable with three. Four or five, okay.

Potentially, I don't know, I don't know what kind of outreach we've done if we've really connected with, you know, people that are entrenched in, you know, an aquatics program already who might be able to send folks our way.

And observationally and through a family, my niece works three different lifeguarding jobs during the summer, but she's a go-getter. She works every day of the week for different organizations. So I know that there's possibility of overlap, and I kind of feel like if we get the word out, because we're paying more than anybody else, we might be able to get more people for more four-hour shifts. Because no matter what they work there, they can still work for you guys if we can manage the schedule.

Every student interaction that I've had, like the student council, we brought it up and students said, I'm applying. So I don't know if they have, but definitely we're trying to get the word out.

And it's lovely to get pre-trained people.

Oh, for sure, for sure. Thank you. Thank you. Thanks for all your work. Very excited about this. Appreciate it. Yep, very cool. I just had a quick thought.

Would it be possible, like if it's OUSB kids, summer school credits,

That's up to the school, but we can suggest it.

You can ask them if they'd rather money. Yeah, they'd be like, show me the money, both. I don't know. Any other questions?

So just a question. If, let's say, we only have three lifeguards signed up, can we... limit the number of people that we let in so that it's fine to have two and then we get the one person in reserve to it'll be like a concert a lot of people just lined up outside and you know yeah i hope that's not the case no i think i think we'll get more yeah did you have other comments i yeah um i think i've said this a couple of times but i view this as a temporary holding place. I agree with everything that Mr. Steingold said, and I don't often say that. But I think that the program has to be sustainable, and I don't see it being sustainable if the city is taking care of you know, resident needs plus three times that, which is the, you know, we're one fourth of the population of the valley. I did write to Matt LaVere today as I was going through the agenda, thought, you know, county needs to be involved in this. And the thing that we didn't address is that we're still looking to have this Lane 4 consultancy come back to us and talk to us about programs and models in other communities where they've got school, government, and non-profits all involved in making a working program. I agree 100% with what Sage said about the idea that Our aspiration should be that we're going to have a really robust program. I've been in town for like six years. I can't tell you how much over the years there's been this great... demand, aching for a good community pool. We used to swim in, the old Nordhoff pool was kind of a disaster, but I swam in it for years. One additional idea that I picked around just as something to talk about, but Steve Bennett, when he was our supervisor, was recommending that we have a valley-wide recreation district. And what that would mean is that there would be an agency that could receive a small tax amount from every resident of the valley in order to finance the program, and then it wouldn't be you know that would give us the potential to break even on our operations and you know I guess the last thing is that I'm just guessing from the numbers that if we that if we charged what it cost to operate you know per person we'd be pricing people out of their swim, and that $5 seems to be kind of a common threshold that people are willing to pay. Those are my comments.

I'm just going to reiterate that, yeah, I kind of agree with most of what's been said. I would like to move forward with some sort of family plan, because if you have a certain number of kids, then it becomes expensive. It's like you can't just jaunt out to the pool. So we can... as we go down the road, think about family memberships, especially for Ojai City residents, I think would be really good. It's possible to raise money. I think the county should kick in, for sure, and I think we should sort of push that. This seems to me to be completely reasonable. for the county, and it's not an undoable amount for them. So it's not millions and millions and millions. So I think we should do that as well. But I do want to keep the price down. I want to make it, I mean, it's a community resource, and the city should fund that.

I move that we adopt the salary schedule as proposed the entry fee the 5000 allocation for the fun reduce fee waiver the hours as proposed and a receiving and file the receive the agreement with usd.

Yeah, I agree. I'd like to add to what Councilmember rules had about, you know, the idea that you bring back a family program. I think Most pools also have a monthly membership, and I think that'd be a good idea to at least look at it and make propositions.

I'm happy to add that to say, and that we, in the near future, investigate a family plan and a monthly plan. Okay? Second, please, someone? Any more discussion? Roll call, please.

Yes, Mayor. Council Member Whitman. Yes. Mayor Pro Tem Meng. Yes. Council Member Rule. Yes. Mayor Gilman. Yes. Council Member Lange.

Yes.

Cool.

We got a pool.

We're going to have a pool. All right. Item number two, request for proposal for Zarzody Park Playground Reconstruction.

Yes. It's me tonight. So this was brought forward through our last commission meeting. It has been on the table for quite a while. So I am hoping that we could just review, provide input for a draft request. for proposals for the planning and design of the Sarasote Park playground reconstruction project. And hopefully direct staff to proceed with issuing a request for proposals for the planning and design for the playground reconstruction project. Earlier this year, the city launched an online community survey and mail-in option through the Ojai Outlook newsletter to gather public input regarding Sarasote Park playground reconstruction. Community survey was taken Parks and Recreation Commission for review prior to launch and was returned to the commission at the conclusion of the survey input period for results review. Survey results are attached to the agenda report. Listed below are primary survey results. Everyone wanted addition of shade structure covering the greater playground area, addition of climbing wall structures, slides, play opportunities for a wider age range, they would like the removal of sand and then removal of direct sunlight hot surfaces. I guess that was one big problem over there. Survey results also express support for inclusion or addition of a water element However, city staff is not recommending that a water element be included as part of this current project. Instead, city staff requests additional time to explore the options and funding opportunities to add a water element in the future. Initial research suggested that the cost of a water element may exceed or require a significant portion of the current available project budget due to the excavation and plumbing required to support addition of water elements.

So you're just suggesting that that would come separately?

Yeah, it would come separately. So hopefully you had a chance to look over the results. And we do have the $750 state grant that is still available to us. I did speak with somebody at the California State Parks office today. and let them know I was bringing this to council. She's very excited. I've been working with her for quite a while, so she is going to be waiting for my phone call tomorrow to let her know what was decided. And there is an option to file for an extension in the fall if we do need it, just depending, you know, how quickly we can get this started.

So the question I have is, I see the survey results. That's really great to see. And so the request for proposal would be something like, here's what we want to do. Here's what is there. What are your ideas? That open ended. And here's our budget. Okay, interesting.

Yeah, and then we can provide any input from what you have to say as well.

Yeah, what I was going to add is that the way I would recommend structure the request for proposals We keep it fairly open-ended, except to the extent that we've identified the different elements of the project and the expected location in the park of the project. And then we get proposals from qualified firms that could be some combination of landscape architects or other public planners who do this kind of work. or engineering firms or all of the above who who have experience in this area who will provide a proposal for the city to consider and then as kind of a second phase of the solicitation process we would select either a vendor or contractor to install and actually place the equipment at the

Thank you.

One more comment that I received from State Parks today. As recommended to include in the RFP, if the selected planner could develop and submit a detailed build and implementation schedule, that would be included for timeline purposes.

If the extension was not requested, what's the deadline?

If the extension was not requested, then the deadline would be June 30th, 2027, which is still doable. We can actually work all the way up until then. In March, we would, let's see, I have that too. In March, we would write a letter and request advance payment. Outlining the circumstances and the timeline and the estimated payment schedule I was also told that there has never been a denial of an extension before So it seems that we might be in pretty good Odds for that

Yeah. Yes. I have a question. So for the request for proposals, that will be drafted by city staff. And so at what point does the Park and Rec Commission come into probably maybe drafting the proposal, maybe not, but reviewing? So I think we should set out a process for that.

If Council wants to direct us to draft a proposal and to take it back to Parks and Recreation, that's fine.

Yeah, I mean, I think that they put a lot of work in this, and I know they have a playground ad hoc committee.

I think that, you know, sorry to step on you. I think that would just work in concert with our belief that an extension is entirely likely, and that's a very thoughtful process. You've done a survey, and that's fine. I think that I really believe that we'll be granted an extension. I don't know that we'll need it, but just it would be nice just that way we get feedback. We could even go to Parks and Recreation. We could come back again.

Yeah, we could also just ask for an extension immediately. Well, we can't until the fall. Okay. Well, whenever, you know, we could just say let's not even get to the deadline date. But we're here tonight.

Sorry, step on you again. We're here tonight to get your feedback on how you want this to work, and if you want it to come back and forth a few times, that's fine. We're open to whatever you want to do.

Yeah, I would feel comfortable having the Park and Rec Commission feedback at every phase that is reasonable to do, and I'm sure that they would move things as quickly as... Yeah, please come up. Yeah, please.

Sure. Sure.

We did do a walkthrough, like, how long ago was that? Three months ago, maybe, at the Playground, because just to look at the site with Lindy and staff in her office and myself as part of the Playground Committee. And I think one of the takeaways I had was that Playgrounds are an interesting project where you often can hire... either through RFP or RFP someone who will do planning design and installation it's just it's a it's a different kind of you know project because often the people you're hiring are the people who make the equipment and they and they can do all of those pieces and it's a pretty simple above the ground you go down a little bit but it's just not a really really complex kind of you know I mean it can be I mean, it could be Libby Park. But that's not what we're looking at doing this time. We're looking at a very active playground. And one of the things that we put in the survey was how important is a theme? And people don't care. So I think really what I mean from our goals are we live in Ojai. I mean, it's not in the center of town. We're looking for the most bang for our buck for activities and excitement for the kids on the things we're doing. So I guess my comment on that is would the RFP, RFQ, I don't, and I, this is not my world exactly, but I'm hoping we can move fast on that if what we're looking for is someone who'll help us with the planning, the design, and the installation. Because the sooner we get that done, if that's the kind of project we're doing, the specificity, which is, I can't say that word, of the proposal is mostly gonna be what you're talking about. It's gonna be, here's the space, here are the things we know we want, and then you just start from there, because if we're hiring them for the planning and the design, hopefully they will guide us through the next steps of that process. And I was the steering committee chair for the Libby, so I have been through parts of this before, and it's a really fun process. And I hope once we get that done, we can maybe have at least one point where we can get the community in to see what some of the options are. Not open the whole thing up, but just some engagement with what people like.

Have a party.

Walk the space. If I could jump in, you could structure, sorry to step on you, you could structure the RFP such that you have some options presented in each area. Were they responding? And yes, to answer your other question. Like stages in the whole thing. Right. You could identify certain components where it can provide options for the following type of feature, right? And then that could get discussed at Parks and Recreation. However you want to do it.

That's nice. Are we thinking that, I mean, I assume that there are one-stop shops that do the whole kit and caboodle.

Yeah. The one limitation we will have with respect to that is that under the public contract code, there are some limitations on a city's ability, because this would be considered a public works project. There are some limitations on the city's ability to issue a single contract to a single firm or contractor, what they call like a design build, type scenario for projects that have an estimated cost of less than a million dollars. So if we're looking at the $750,000 grant as kind of being our budget for the project, we would have to solicit the planning design part of it separately from the installation or construction. But I agree completely with the commissioner that these projects are a little unique in that you don't necessarily have, depending on the playground features that are being installed, you may not have the kind of heavy civil construction that you would have on normal public works projects. And quite frankly, purchasing the equipment may actually end up being one of the biggest cost components of actually installing, constructing the playground, and the installation maybe is a much smaller piece of it. So I think one of the things that I would like to see as we put together the RFP would also be some recommendations from the consultants on how that process might work most effectively and efficiently. And I think that if we, another thing I would want to include in the scope of work the RFP would be that, or RFQ, our code calls it an RFP, but it's basically a qualifications-based solicitation, would be that we also have them provide, or at least have the option to have them provide oversight during construction. So if they provide us with a plan, I think it makes sense to have them remain on and provide services and oversight during construction. I think we can look at some different ways that that will play out. That is one, just the price tag is one limitation that we will have.

So if it's a million or over, then you can do it.

Then we can do design building.

And I don't know that we have hard numbers. And we have the $750,000, which I really hope we will leverage with certain community organizations to have more, so.

Yeah, that sounds great. Good idea. I mean, yeah.

Especially when we start seeing some of the options, then we can see if we need to spend more or something like that.

And it is kind of, yeah, we have organizations that are willing to do this for us. Yeah. Yeah, great. The other thing, too, with playgrounds is it's pick and choose. I mean, you kind of have this grid. There's this much space. I mean, the design is click. I mean, there's some of these things you can even get yourself to do it yourself, where you can just click the pieces onto a grid. So I think that will help us understand if we want to spend more, too. I don't even know what we can get for $750,000, honestly, which sounds like a whole lot of money, but I don't know. Because we're really doing kind of two different playgrounds. They'll be integrated, but there's different age levels that we're addressing.

Thank you.

And one other thing I would note about the scope of services, I think we also have the opportunity as part of the planning and design phase to request, even though we might not implement a water feature as part of the first phase of construction, we can include, you know, recommendations or, you know, proposals for what a water element might look like, as part of that design, so that we're looking at holistic.

Why not, but but it wouldn't be part of the grant, right?

It could be. I mean, it is eligible for funding.

We just don't. We believe, and I'm sure you might, having done plumbing projects, that number adds up very quickly.

Yeah, the construction installation of the water feature is probably not covered by the plan.

That's going to add a significant price tag. We want to do it, and we want to come back separately. We can certainly do this part, but I think it's going to add to the price tag significantly.

Yeah, the complexity difference between these two is like... I also just wanted to share as part of our discussion was the reason we were hoping to move as quickly as we can is a concern for the state budget. I mean, if you read that, it says at any time they can take these money back if budgetary changes happen. I hear that it has never happened, but I feel like we're entering into a phase where let's get started so that that doesn't happen. We agree. That was one of our discussions at our committee.

100%. So I have a question. I'm gathering from everything that's been said that the city does not have a financial outlay in order to engage in and complete this project. The scope of what we're looking at right now is entirely encompassed by the grant. Is that right?

That's what we're hoping for. That's what we're going to ask for.

Okay. Wouldn't it be that if we got a proposal that was exceeding the grant amount that we would have to decide either trim back or whatever?

Yeah, that's, I was thinking that as well. But, you know, a lot of grants have obligations for the grantee that they have to do. Like they have to raise so much money themselves or whatever. There's no strings attached to this other than satisfy the conditions of the grant and it's taken care of.

Yeah, it'll definitely be a process. They've got a full packet and we'll have to notify them every step of the way. And they're really committed to work with us for this project.

Is it true that it has to be done in phases, like three phases? Is that part of the...

I don't know about three phases, no. There's just checklists and things you have to submit and how much percentage has been done at a certain point.

I think what the council member may be referring to is that in the grant agreement itself, it does make reference to Basically, there was an element of the funding that was for, I think, gym roof replacements. And then it just described a phase one and phase two of the playground. But I would need to probably look at the grant application information, which we will do. Perfect. Thank you. I appreciate that.

Yeah.

The history on this is Luis Gomez, who used to work here. He instigated all this, worked with Steve Bennett, and got it through Bennett's office. So it wasn't part of a regular granting process where we did a big application. This money came to us through a very different channel. So I think it's unique in that I think the obligations and the constrictions on it are very minimal.

Oh, great. Thank you for that.

There are some roof repairs that go into this project. No?

Not that I know of. Not that I'm aware of.

This is part of the due diligence that we will do. This was before Christy and I were in these roles, and what it was initially envisioned to be used for is not necessarily what it's being used for here. But with that said, Christy has had these discussions with the department, has informed them what we intend to use this for, and it's been a very receptive response. We would just want to make sure that, look, here's the direction that we're headed. This is what we intend to do. The language of the agreement speaks to this. We might need to have an amendment or some type of revision. But we've been very upfront with them as to what we're using this for and why.

And then I'm just curious if the application, could that be shared? I don't have to see if I'd like to share it with the commission to see what that entails and maybe that could put some of the pieces together.

So the guidelines could be shared, but there's no official application as Sage stated as well.

I'd love to move forward with authorizing you to execute the RFP. Is that a second?

All right. Could we just speak to that briefly? Because what I heard is that I think what the council asked us to do is to draft an RFP with some options for the various features and then asking the Parks and Recreation Commission to review it. Would you like it to come back to you or do you like it just based upon their input to go out?

I would ask for that, too. The commission reviewing and coming forward.

Very good. Just wanted to make sure. No, thanks for, I forgot. And, Wes, if you could please capture that in the motion. And you're good with that.

Okay.

Thanks.

Ready for roll call, Mayor?

Yes, please.

Council Member Rule. Yes. Mayor Gilman. Yep. Mayor Pro Tem May.

Yes.

Council Member Lange.

Yes.

Council Member Wood. Yes.

Wonderful. Thank you all.

Thank you everyone. Thank you.

Good job. And now we will adjourn to our closed session. Thank you so much, Christie. Thanks. Thanks all.

Our report out from closed session is that the city council directed staff to return with a or include a three and a half percent cost of living adjustment for all positions except for the city manager's position as part of the fiscal year 2627 budget and also provided direction regarding updates to the city's employee handbook and And I should note, we didn't separately discuss the city manager, but that was not part of the topic or the discussion tonight.

Thank you. Okay, with that, we're adjourned. Thanks.