City Council - Regular Meeting

Okay, welcome everyone to the Tuesday, August 18th City Council Special Meeting. Roll call please, Mr. Montgomery.

Mayor Gilman. Here. Mayor Pro Tem Meng.

Here.

Council Member Rule.

Here.

Council Member Whitman. Yes. And Council Member Lange.

I'm here.

Council Member Lange is participating remotely. And Council Member Lange, could you please confirm that you are the only adult over the age of 18 in the room?

Yes, that is correct.

Okay, and then all council action tonight will be taken with a roll call for teleconference participation.

Thank you. And would you lead us in the pledge, please? Of course. Thank you.

Welcome all.

Ready, begin.

I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America, and to the republic for which it stands, one nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.

including the approval of the agenda? Mr. Montgomery, shall we do a roll call on approval of the agenda? Correct. Any changes? My only proposal is that from the listing of numbers one and two, we're going to switch that order. OK. And no objections? So I move that we approve the agenda.

Thank you very much. Roll call. Yes, thanks. Council Member Rule.

Yes.

Council Member Whitman. Yeah. Council Member Lange.

Yes.

Mayor Pro Tem Meng. Yes. Mayor Gilman. Yes, thank you. Thanks for the roll.

And I have one public comment card from Clay Creasy.

Mayor and City Council members, I'm speaking tonight on the issue of the review of the city manager's performance. I don't normally read my comments, but tonight I'm going to just make sure I don't get anything wrong here. So I apologize for the lack of emotion in my talk here. On May 19th, the Finance and Budget Committee reviewed the draft 26-27 budget. It included a calculation of the general fund reserve ratio that was not consistent with either how it was done in the prior year or how the policy resolution called for it to be done. At that meeting, I pointed this out and requested that the calculation be put back to be consistent with the approved policy. In a follow-up May 21 email to Finance Director Cho with a copy to City Manager Harvey, I listed several changes that I recommended to the draft budget, starting with a correction of the general fund reserve ratio calculation. Mr. Harvey responded to Ms. Cho regarding my email, a copy of which I am supplying to you today via Weston, from which you can draw your own conclusions. When the final budget was presented to the City Council on June 23rd, it contained the faulty calculation of the reserve ratio. I pointed this out during public comments at that meeting, stating my strong opinion that it was not proper to make a unilateral change to a calculation that was specifically described in the City Council's General Fund Reserve Policy Resolution. Surprisingly, Mr. Harvey pretended he was unaware of this issue. In response to Councilwoman Rule's specific question about the calculation change, he stated, I can have Brenda help me with this one. I don't necessarily understand what Clay is getting at with that because we haven't made any change, any type of change or deliberate shift that I'm aware of. It's always been based on, unless there's something I'm forgetting, we have not made any change. Ms. Cho, is there something that I am aware of that I am not aware of or forgetting? After a bland response from Ms. Cho, Mr. Harvey concluded his comment by saying, we will meet with him and we'll hear him out and we'll come back to you. In the seven weeks since then, Mr. Harvey has not met with me. So in summary, he voluntarily changed the calculation. He claimed in front of you that he didn't know what I was talking about, despite clear video and evidence to the contrary. He threw his finance director under the bus, and then he failed to follow through with his promise to meet with me. In my opinion, cooking the books and not telling the truth are both sins. But asking your accountant to lie for you in a public meeting is a mortal sin because that's how hostile work environments get started. We used to have a saying at my work, and it went, if you condone it, you own it. I would strongly advise you to not condone it. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Kesey. Mr. Steingold, did you want to make a public comment before we go into closed session? Okay. Do you have anybody online? No raised hands, ma'am. Then we will go into closed session. Thank you.

One-two check.

All right. Thank you for waiting for us, everyone. We're out of the closed session. City attorneys, report out of the closed session, please.

All right, the report out from the closed session on the city manager's performance evaluation is that the city council has directed the city attorney to work with the HR director to prepare a contract with JMSD Strategies LLC for the city manager's 360 performance review. And for the other closed session on Rule B OHI, we have no reportable action yet, but hopefully soon.

Thank you for that so moving on to the discussion if the Council will indulge i'd like to switch the order of these two, so that we can have the information regarding the new communication tower ahead of the goals and tactics since we have some folks here any objections to that. Rachel do you object to that.

nope i'm good with it is that a good enough we need a motion yeah okay i agree well pardon uh we that was declared in the approval of the in the the approval of the agenda correct but then i'm switching i'm switching three and four so that's an amendment to that i had that marked that we can always over motion right okay yes got it

So you're good? Or should we do a vote?

Let's do a vote. We have a remote council member. We should do every action by roll call. Let's do a vote.

So I'll move to change the order of three and four. Need a second, please. Second. Thank you.

Roll call. Council member Rule. Yes. Council member Lang.

Yes.

Mayor Pro Tem Meng.

Yes.

Mayor Gilman. Yes. Council member Whitman.

Yes. Thank you very much. So we'll go on to item number four first.

OK, Mayor, give us a moment. I'm going to ask Mr. Seibert to come on up. Thank you. Yes. We're going to give a very brief staff report from the community development director with some commentary from the city attorney. And then we're going to turn it over to Chief Cleary and his team. And the chief has a presentation he'd like to give as well. So Mr. Seibert, you want to start things off this evening for us?

Good evening, Council. My name is Lucas Seibert, Community Development Director here for the City of Ojai. The item we have before you tonight is informational regarding the new communication tower proposed or currently under construction at the fire station number 21, located at 1201 East Ojai Avenue. You've got a lot of information within the staff report as well as some attachments. What I'm going to really kind of do is just identify how did we as the city become aware of it? And then what is our process typically for these wireless facilities? The zoning, height limitations, those types of pieces just to kind of set the table from a discussion standpoint. And I think Bethany is going to talk a little bit about the legal stuff. And then we've got Nick here to kind of go through the overall project. So how did we as a city become aware of it? Really, it's kind of an interesting scenario. Last Monday, we received a phone call from a subcontractor saying, hey, we want to do inspection for the foundation. And they identified the address, and then I immediately had staff coming to me saying, what is this that's going on? So that raised a lot of red flags. We started reaching out to fire department, trying to understand what was going on. Typically with wireless telecommunications facilities, we have two different applications required for it. One is a DRP, or design review permit, and then the second is a conditional use permit. Now, in this particular zone, which is the PL, there isn't a height limitation. Which means that it would require both a DRP and a CUP. The CUP would then govern the height of a wireless telecommunications facility if it was new and not within the jurisdiction of the county. What that means is that the height limitation isn't a 60 foot or an 80 foot. It really kind of is determined through the planning commission review as well as this body from a review and determination standpoint. The site is zoned PL, so public quasi public land and I think that's pretty much it in terms of setting the table from a land use perspective. I'll let Bethany kind of speak through the legal stuff because there is some interesting nuances as well.

So the additional thing to note with respect to this project is that under California law, there is a principle that whenever a public agency is constructing or building a project, um that is required for the public agency's operations um and they are building that project within the the jurisdiction of another governmental agency so like in this case for example you have the ventura county fire department building a cell tower located within the corporate limits of the city there are certain exemptions that apply to both the local building code so basically instead of have being subject to the city's building code authority and building permit authority process they can they can fall under the county's building permit process but additionally they are exempt from the city's zoning requirements and other general plan and similar types of requirements And so as part of that, the county would only be required to comply with its own zoning requirements for the project on county land, so long as it's for the county's operations. And so in this case, we did look into whether the project had followed the applicable requirements for the county's process. And so when you look at the county zoning code, with respect to cellular facilities and communications towers they actually include an exemption in their code for county projects so they they complied with the county permitting and zoning requirements they complied with the county building permit requirements and so there's actually not a role for the city in in regulating this particular project even though it's located within the city of ohio which is a bit different than if we were dealing with a private telecom provider.

Thank you. Chief, do you want to? Oh, sorry. No. Chief, come on up and we can queue up your PowerPoint if that's okay.

See if this thing works. I wrote down my words because I just wanted to make sure we capture everything good. So I'm going to look down and look up at the same time. But Nick Cleary, Ventura County Fire Division Chief. I'm your city appointed fire representative. Good evening, Mayor, council members, city staff, and the community members that are here. Thank you for the opportunity to provide some background and context regarding the radio tower upgrade at Fire Station 21. With me, I have our Deputy Fire Chief, Chuck Berry, our Facilities Manager, Dave Kirby, and our IT Manager, Sean Steele. and they'll be available to answer any questions after we go through the PowerPoint. First, I want to directly acknowledge an area where the fire district fell short. We did not provide the city with adequate advanced communication regarding the timing, scope, construction, and visual impact of this project. This was a failure on our part, and I take responsibility for ensuring we improve that process moving forward.

And I honestly do take this personally.

We value our relationship with the city of Ojai. A project intended to improve public safety should not create unnecessary concern because we failed to adequately communicate what was occurring and why. It's also important to explain why this project is necessary and how it supports the city's own goals and priorities. And I wrote down five of them. Three of them I think this really meets, and then five of them I think we broke, and what you guys are trying to improve on. And so goal number two, wildfire safety and risk mitigation. Reliable communications are fundamental to wildfire response. During a rapidly developing wildfire, firefighters, law enforcement, dispatchers, and our emergency responders depend on radio communications to coordinate evacuations, deploy resources, maintain accountability, and protect the community. Ojai's location and wildfire exposure makes resilient emergency communications particularly important. And that's goal number two. Goal number four, infrastructure maintenance and improvement. Our existing radio system is approaching the end of its service life. Rather than waiting for the system to fail or become obsolete, Ventura County is proactively investing in infrastructure necessary to support the next generation of emergency communication. Goal number five, public safety. Ultimately, this project is about public safety. When someone calls 911, the community expects emergency responders to have reliable communications that's capable and must work not only during normal daily operations, but also during wildfires, earthquakes, severe weather, major incidents, and other emergencies where communication systems are under greatest demand. And then the biggest one, goal number nine, communications and relationships. This is an area where the city's goals also highlight where the fire district did not meet the standard we expect of ourselves on this project. The city has also made progress towards strengthening communications and community engagement, including addressing its events and public information functions, providing opportunities such as town halls for direct engagement with the community. We should have been better partner in this effort. The fire district's communication regarding Fire Station 21's project did not provide the city, its elected officials, the community with sufficient lead time to understand what was being constructed, why it is necessary, what it would look like, and how it supported the broader regional public

safety system.

While the operational need for the tower remains important, the need for the project does not excuse the communication gap. Good partnerships require communication before a project becomes visible to the community, not after questions and concerns arise. Going forward, I will take responsibility to work more closely with our facility staff and our partner agencies to ensure projects that may affect the city or its residents are communicated early. This includes providing clearer project descriptions, anticipated timelines, potential community impacts, sufficient lead time for city staff and elected officials to communicate this with the residents. Technology continues to evolve and our emergency communications infrastructure must evolve with it. Replacing an aging system before it reaches failure allows us to remain proactive, innovative, and prepared rather than proactive. Station 21's tower is one component of our large regional investment intended to improve reliability, interoperability, and resilience for agencies that serve Ojai and the surrounding communities. There are really two lessons from this project. First, we need modern and reliable infrastructure to protect our firefighters, emergency responders, and the public. And this is the biggest one. Second, we need strong communication and relationship with the communities we serve. One should never come at the expense of the other. We can build the right infrastructure while we also do a better job communicating why it is needed, what the community should expect, and how it ultimately supports their safety. We appreciate the city's partnership. We recognize our communication fell short, and we are committed to doing better moving forward.

Thank you, Chief.

So with that, I'm going to try to use this thing and not point anybody. But basically, this is just a short slide thing. It's going to show. I'll have our subject matter experts come up, and we're going to talk about the communication. Okay. infrastructure build out along the whole county. And I won't give you some pictures of the current tower and what one of the towers looked like that we recently did. It's gonna be .

Thank you. Good evening. Good evening all. Thank you for the opportunity to speak. I'm gonna have a few notes here on my phone that I'm gonna reference. So if I'm looking down, that's what I'm doing. So as Chief said, this project, it's really infrastructure. There's really no new technology or telecommunications on this piece of the project. We're replacing an end of useful service life tower with a industry standard tower. It's going to set us up for improved reliability and stronger signal reception. And then it will give us flexibility for implementation of future technologies as they become available. And future could be decades of time. It's not necessarily... We currently do not have any plans to add any new technology. This project will move the existing antennas that are on the roof tower onto the new tower. That is our main goal, to support data communications, station alerting, so when we're dispatched, we get alerted quickly and we catch the full dispatch without interruption. And then, of course, the network for the station, station business, computer network. I'll be available for questions if needed. Thank you.

Yeah. Just what is the two-tone alert signal reception? What is that?

That is the tone alert is our, on this specific station, it's our backup alerting. So when we get a call in the area and the fire department is dispatched, right now it happens over IP, over a network, a data network. It's much faster, much, much faster. The backup and the old way of doing it was through radio communication, which is tones, sounds, and then followed by some voice commands. So it does take a little longer to do the two-tone alerting, but it is extremely important that we have that. One thing I really wanted to mention is from an IT and telecom perspective, and I think really for the department, We build our systems for the worst day. We don't build our systems for the best day. And this is part of the worst day. We have to go to backup. We have a strong backup system ready.

Thank you.

Thank you.

And then we have two more slides. I'll bring Dave Kirby up to kind of talk about that Station 21 now. That's what the tower looks like on the roof. And then we have another slide. But this is Station 57 in Thomas. This tower was done recently, and that's what the new tower looks like. This is off Lewis Road.

Thank you for having me today. I appreciate the opportunity. So my role with the fire department is the facilities manager. So my group is the one that's responsible for design, permitting, construction all the way through, and then communication with our IT group, making sure that we're meeting their needs for our communication network. And so I just want to echo the statements made by Chief Cleary, which is it was something that we fell short on communicating with the city. Not only that, but my group fell short speaking with him and making sure that he could come here to present those opportunities. So we've already spoken internally. We're on the track of making improvements amongst all of our representatives in different cities. But this project is one that these towers are typically constructed as part of larger, much larger projects and like new stations or we've done some grant funded federal ones as well. But as Sean had mentioned, it's basically for the infrastructure purposes that we're ready for that worst day. The existing tower that's on the facility now will be removed at the completion of this project. And on the screen now, you see this is at Fire Station 57 in Somis. I chose this picture because it's very similar to Fire Station 21. It's also representative of what you'd maybe see from the street when you drive right in front of the Ojai Station 21. So we have our tower in the back, and as you can see, the antenna on this one has been removed as well. So this would be similar to what you'd be seeing at the completion of construction. I'm here as well if there's any more questions that come up, but I'll pass it back to Chief Cleary. Thank you. Thank you.

all right so thank you guys i mean really sorry take this personally that this miscommunication occurred um but i think in the end we all learn from mistakes right that's how we get better and i think our processes within the fire department will get better for notifications whether it's with cities or unincorporated or the board of supervisors but we fell short in this one and we wanted to be able to give you an opportunity to see what the tower looked like and and tell you guys we made a mistake and we're sorry about that thank you

we're all striving to be better communicators i'll speak for myself um any questions no yeah thank you for stepping up and you know admitting to what you did and wanting to make it better and to take the time to go through our goals and tactics and pick through what you hit and what you missed truly appreciate it so thank you for that

Yeah, I do have a question. I think I know the answer. But, you know, just out of an abundance of caution. I'm assuming this tower is only taking on your government function communications, there isn't going to be any type of a private or, you know, commercial piggybacking on your tower.

I assume that was true, but I just thought I had to ask. I think the only thing I've seen that might go in our tower sometimes is Ventura County Office of Emergency Services will put those alert cameras on there. And so we have ability to move those and look at stuff. I know they've been looking at other towers that are higher. We just put one at Fire Station 27 in Fillmore. So in the future, with their grant funding on cameras, that could be an option. But yeah, no commercial.

And it's 100%.

So it's 100% government function.

And so I also will just... that you could have taken a much more flippant attitude about communications with us because i'm convinced from the reporting we got i did a little bit of my own reading to verify we have nothing to say about your installation of that tower it but it but it certainly is helpful to have the communication for our planning purposes so i i appreciate you uh recognizing and acknowledging that we're gonna be good at communication

I also very much enjoy the relationship with you personally and the fire department and um and also our sheriff so I feel like it's all growing in the right direction thank you for that anything else yeah I'll add one more thing yes please just to piggyback on what everyone else said thank you so much for for coming to talk to us for admitting that there's better communication that could have happened to think that's something that we're all working on as a city And also, I just want to thank you for the great job you're doing to protect our community. Advancements like this, while they might be alarming in some ways, we ultimately know that your intention is to protect us and to continue to find ways to be prepared in the event of an emergency. So I appreciate that.

Thank you.

Thank you, guys. Have a good night.

I had no public comment cards for that item, but was there anybody online that wished to speak? Let's double check, Mayor.

Okay, thank you. We have Zoom participants, but no raised hands.

Okay, was there anybody out there that wanted to speak on this issue? Okay, thank you for coming. Thanks, appreciate it. Feel free to stay or go, your choice. Okay, we'll move on to item number, well, now three, City Council Goals and Tactics Progress Update.

Great, thank you, Mayor, and we're going to, thank you, Mr. Seifert, we're going to load the PowerPoint. Okay. And I'm going to, first of all, start by thanking Norma for putting all this together. Mm-hm. Great job. Norma's going to walk through the PowerPoint presentation. I might have some colored commentary along the way. Mm-hm. And then we'll take your questions and go out for public comment. i want to call out what i think some of you already have in front of you norma has made sure you had a jumbotron print out of the tactics so everybody can see and follow along but we we do also have them i believe electronically if we need to bring them up on the screen that's just fine just tell us if you want us to do so thank you sir we'll wait wait until we finish the presentation no we're not doing separate screens you know what i mean make sense okay so yeah we're going to walk through the presentation if during the council discussion the council wants that on the screen we'll bring it up but first we have a presentation yep so mr vantes please

Thank you, Mr. Harvey. So today we will give you a high-level overview of the goals and tactics, what we've completed, what is actually underway, and what we're preparing to bring back to council. So we have made significant progress, and you will see that. Next slide, please. So here is a dashboard. Really, it's just showing what we've completed and what we have ongoing or in progress and not started. And over the course of the presentation, we will go more in depth as to what we have completed and in progress and ongoing. Really, it's 73% is in progress, which means we will bring back some of these items back to council for direction completed. We brought those already back and ongoing are things like for housing that we are currently working on, but there's just different projects that we're bringing back.

Let me just jump in. You may recall as we were on the journey to put these goals and tactics together, there were certainly a number of other projects and initiatives that we were working on that rolled up into your goals. We gave them away as freebies, as you may recall, some of them. So I'll give you a for instance under climate resiliency we had already signed a contract with climate tech for the citywide energy efficiency project and we did not put that down as a goal but it certainly our tactic excuse me it certainly aligns with your goals and tactics it's just not included here because it was already underway and we wanted to give you room for other items thank you perfect so next slide

So this first one in affordable housing, it's really showcasing what we have in progress and what's ongoing. That ongoing item, which is the workforce housing is just exploring the different options. That's why it's ongoing. The other ones are in progress because we will bring those back in concept review in the next coming months. And also the development of the ad hoc committee has been established. So we're working on those items also. Next slide. And for wildfire safety and risk management. So here, all of them or two of them are in progress. One hasn't started because and that's the micro grids and undergrounding. So that is that requires more in-depth work, which we haven't started. But the Fire Safe Council partnership is in progress and we're making great headway with different partnerships or workshops that they have already done for the community. and then the warning systems this one is a huge deal we're waiting for appropriation from the federal government which will earmark that one million dollars hopefully we'll hear from that from in the fall of this year and that's really just the sirens and message boards and just creating a multi-modal system for the community so that we can be better prepared during emergencies Next slide. So arts, culture, and recreation. All of these are in progress, and we will be bringing concept reviews for Bike Path to Soul Park. We will be bringing back the Kent Hall dais behind the dais of all of you all for concept reviews. But the biggest one is really the Arts Grant Program, which has been our second year in really funding $100,000 and really showcasing to the community what a great benefit the Arts Grant Program is and how we can really partner with local artists. And then the TOT nonprofit support, that is also on our working agenda, which we will bring back as a concept review so you all can see the different options that we can provide with that for nonprofit support with the TOT money. Next slide. Infrastructure, maintenance, and improvements. So this also will be a lot of concept reviews and really bringing back what, like the paving, right? That is definitely something that was one of our top tiers for these goals and tactics. And we will be bringing that back as soon as we have more information from Public Works to be able to bring that in, seeing how we can really speed up that timeline. Alternative materials is also something that Public Works is working on and really, so in the next coming months, again, we'll bring that back. And parking strategy, that's something that we will bring back seeing what is really feasible for the community and what we can do with our parking situation so that will also be a parking um a future agenda item and for the bike trail that's the most exciting because we are in preliminary discussions with the county seeing what we can actually do to connect all the way to soul park and seeing what things we can partner with them and what we can do with our current funding and maybe looking at grant opportunities also. Next slide. public safety so this is a great one traffic safety commission or public safety commission what convened its first meeting they're working on the speed hump policy they created an ad hoc which they will be meeting i believe next week on august 24th um so those were The commission was established. The speed home policy is in progress. And the citywide speed study was completed earlier this year or last year to really jumpstart the traffic or public safety commission. Next slide. so diversifying the economy and tourism management this is also an exciting one because the economic action plan is currently underway which will give us really an action plan that the city can work towards actually achieving it's not just something that will sit on a shelf somewhere it'll be an actionable item that we can work with the council on once it is finished and the the contractor did meet with the council members the community business owners and things of the sort so they have they are currently working on it and they are including the business incubator model in their research so they'll also bring back what what the options are for that So in the next coming months, we will also hear about that. And then revenue options. So that was one of the tactics. And it was sales tax, second home tax, and just really exploring the tax concept. So that's also on the working agenda for September that we will bring back with different options and ways that we can really look at what our options are. Next slide. Climate resiliency. As Mr. Harvey stated, we do have climate tech, but this is adding really to that. It's habitat restoration, rewilding. We will be bringing back the options. Energy efficient construction, which is also something community development is also working on, creating these workshops for the community and really provide these incentive concepts for the community and homeowners in the city. and then again alternative paving this is something public works will is working on to explore and seeing what the options are for us and really the cost associated with those

Next slide.

Financial stability. So these are all in progress and at different stages, right? The most exciting is that the reserve surplus policy is going to go to the finance and budget committee September 23rd of this. So next month it'll go for review and then it'll come to council. after their review then the interactive budget reporting tool that is also going to be a concept that we bring back to council as finance is currently working on the research for that budget software And then the sheriff's contract. That's also something that we briefly discussed when we did bring back the contract services concept review that we brought back in July. So this is something that we will bring back in a more in-depth form later this year so that we can see what our current options are and what we currently are paying for. Next slide. then communications and relationships so we do have one that we haven't started which is the community survey and i think that is at the end we can also discuss how we can either continue this concept or move it in a different direction but we haven't started that one and the website evaluation it and city manager's office are currently currently working on with our current provider and what that would look like if we were to update the website. So we would also bring that back so you all can work on with us to try to improve the website. And then the bi-monthly town halls. Next week is the first one that we will be holding for the public safety, to discuss public safety and immigration with Councilmember Rule and Sheriff Ryhoff. So that's next Wednesday at 6 p.m. here. And the PIO and events manager. Currently I'm filling the PIO position and the special events is currently being managed by Christy Rivera, the Parks and Recreation Manager. And that's all of our goals. Next slide. We are here. This is really stating where we are, right? So we have all of these things coming later this summer or even in the fall. And that's just really giving you a quick snapshot of what's coming next. Next slide. And that's it. But going back to the survey, I think that that is something that we can either discuss and work on after November so that we then put something out in January or we can discuss a whole new tactic. Right. And then also something that Mr. Harvey and a few of us spoke about was really maybe focusing on in the next couple months some real items that we can actually achieve before November so that we can actually make some progress and complete those goals for this current council.

Thank you, Norm. I just wanted to add in, I think the goals that the council selected are terrific. They helped ground us and move us in a unified direction. Depending on who comes back after the election, that council, if it's the same people, if it's different people, could elect to continue those goals with the same tactics, new tactics. So who knows? But they are good goals in that they cover a lot of different areas that seem to have a lot of concentric circles amongst all of you, and we appreciate that. And we hope that little things like the agenda reports having an item to align it to a goal. I appreciated the fire chief this evening using that in his discussion as well because it's our default. What should we be working on? Well, the council goals, of course. That's what we should be working on. So tonight, in your discussion, if there were a couple of tactics that were particularly important that you'd like to see some progress on before November, we would appreciate that input. And thank you for your time.

comments that i would like to do so let me know let me just ask no let's do questions we'll do a couple of public company have any questions first okay any questions for staff before i go forward yes i do rachel oh good either rachel goes first rachel um i just had one quick question uh so on the wildfire uh

wildfire safety and risk mitigation. I noticed on the spreadsheet it mentions pursue partner agreements to reduce fuel and hazardous debris, but I didn't see an update about that. And so I was wondering, in your presentation, Norma, and so I was wondering if there is any update on that progress.

we've started discussions with the fire chief and we need to complete that effort the the headline is when we really started to dive into it and this is with the fire chief the public works director and myself the chief um kind of definitely pointed out some of the partnerships that we would need to achieve in order to really make some meaningful effort in the area because the Fuel reduction certainly could take place within the city limits, and that could be helpful, but the bigger risk is the outer line areas and the threat to the city, and so we need to continue that discussion. The chief had lots of good ideas on how to do that, but it's a bigger, longer project.

There's smaller examples too, such as the Green Coalition and the crew, even just on this property, right? So we did authorize that. But then there's others where the Fire State Council does have goats going clear, but it's often in the unincorporated area. So it's not in the city because we don't have those kinds of fields. But yeah, so there is stuff. I guess there are items that could be included in an update on this just so we can at least tally that. That's what I think your question was about.

yeah absolutely I just wanted to make sure that was happening because when I saw it saying in progress and didn't hear an update about it I was just making sure that didn't fall through the cracks because it's really important thank you that's all yeah a question I have a couple questions so let's just take that issue as an example so if a council person

has ideas either from a community member or from their own thought processes about how to tweak one of our tactics. or even maybe take a new direction, a similar but new direction. What's the right process for doing that? Do we have to come back with a five-person meeting or? I don't know.

I would want to sit down with you and hear about it because I think it depends on, these were put together with the best of intentions, right? But they were put together with committee. And so you can kind of see that when you read them sometimes. They sound like a bunch of people talking. And that doesn't always translate into something that's easy to implement. We could streamline that. I would very much like to hear your input because I think we could tune some of them up. And depending on what it was, yeah, I would probably want to come back to the council ultimately and say, hey, this is from council member so-and-so. This is why we're doing this.

So process-wise, have a conversation with you. and then you'll decide how to move forward, if at all.

Yeah, I mean, I think that a lot of these, it's going to be minor things. We all live through those discussions, and I know what the intention were on most of these. We would welcome that.

I also have a question. Let's just take the bike trail agreement. My understanding is that there's kind of two components to that. One is the trail from the western boundary to Whispering Oaks.

Yes.

And then there's a goal of whispering out to Soul Park.

And then there's a third component, which has made it a little trickier, which is the Ojai Valley Inn has a project where it would be a lot easier if the city was in control of the bike path for them to be able to get that project reviewed and approved. And so it's kind of this other and then the fourth part of it Deals with maintenance costs and trying to give them that's our get the county to and it's they're not being Difficult, but we didn't we need like a rough order of magnitude of okay. What what's the anticipated spend? What do we come back to the council and say if you want to do this?

Here's what you're in for on the long Okay, and then my understanding is on the On the Whispering Oaks to Soul Park end, we're not looking at doing Whispering Oaks out in Portland. We're looking as the most likely solution to go through Soul Park. Well, there have been excuse me, the golf course.

That's one.

I think we need to see the we're looking at options.

Yeah, we need we've thrown several options out there, including going to oh, I haven't you can believe that. So there have been several discussed.

Well, so I mean, and that's part of that's kind of at the heart of my question. So as negotiations are taking place, you know, a, you know, a direction is potentially forming. then how and when does it come back to us to say potentially, well, maybe we shouldn't.

We're not that far in negotiation, so we need to really come back to you with just a concept review. Here's all the things that have been discussed. Give us the direction and tell us where we should. All we've done so far is basically outline all the things that we need to address.

I think maybe we ought to have some There's some items that I think are going to move forward naturally. There's some items that are going to potentially have a lot of variability, and some of those maybe hear more about in your weekly reports. Not saying you do it every week, but because I'm very interested in how some of these things are going. I'm interested in knowing what the negotiation process is.

Yeah, and I would say we're not negotiating. I would say all we've done so far is we've done – I would call it exploratory.

Yeah.

Like let's talk about the potential available options, not saying that we're picking any of these because we don't have any direct. Right. That's how we've approached it.

But as you explained to me, the golf course has – the massive bridge over the river, which is, no, it's great, except for you're potentially running the bike trail through golf balls.

That's where it seems to me that item, for example, it would be great to see, here's three paths that are being proposed. Here's the roughest cost of those three paths. Here's the pros and the cons. So if the work can be that you haven't gone down a road, which I don't think you are, but you're presenting here as much as we know, educated guests, then I'd be happy to make that one of the next things we come back with.

It's super exciting to me. And I have to say that I've been pushing a little bit for I think going through the golf course is possible, having lived next to a golf course with trails.

This kind of sounds like discussion to me. It is, it is.

Like deeply discussion. But I think the question was at what point does the council respond?

Which I think is fine, because there's a lot of process questions here.

Is that all your questions for now, Mr. Whitman?

I have a question. Well, I've got, yes. Okay. I have no understanding of what's happening with the big business incubation concept. I'm interested in that. But maybe that's an item for discussion.

I think so. I mean, we've asked HDL Econ Solutions to explore this as part of their economic action plan. We haven't done a whole lot of work in this area, truthfully.

There are some independent, but this is where we could actually work with the Chamber to say they have made some inroads and say, oh, it would be great to get a presentation on that.

The Chamber has done some work in this area, too.

That's true. That's right. Yes.

We have some private efforts in town.

And there are some cities that have done innovation programs. That's right. Ventura and so my last question on the bi-monthly town halls I'm assuming that means we're kind of have a general goal of doing about six of these a year

that was what we we started off with I just wanted to make you know so bimonthly I'm always thinking about is that twice a month it's better to say every other month that depends on you know who's on the council and and if they want to do that really so I don't think that there's a required and or you know

just we it's not I would clarify just slightly so the one that is coming up is interesting and it's but I would say it's not the first one because you could say the tree workshop ordinance workshop was one and then also the permanent supportive housing program was another so if they they have been there but it'd be nice to bring those continue to bring those forward Yeah, public comments? Oh yeah, any questions?

Yeah, so there's a lot of these that I don't understand the process or where in the process we actually are. And I think that they're at different phases. So it might be that there's a junction where it's possible to go down one of three paths, or it might be that it's still in the middle of formation. is there a way to get a better sense of that I know that it you know there is in process but I think that they're sort of the different phases so at some point to get a real sense of where in the phase we are would be great we could provide more detailed notes maybe following this like a status notes or something like that and so for instance you know discussions held on this date and you know Yeah, I mean, I think having feedback in that way, whether it's just a blurb or a note when you do have a meeting or a discussion about this that moves it forward.

You bet. In the budget review, we had the cell with the arrow on the cell that you could highlight to get the text block. Now i'm i'm not interested in creating a ton of work, but if it was easy to say oh just you're doing a progress update that you can go on the website, or we can get the report that would be awesome.

Sure, and then I just have one comment it's nothing but it, let me see on the number nine communications and relationships. With the events and PIO position, I know every time I bring up anything about employees, I'm reminded that that's not my lane, stay in my lane, that employees are under use. So I just think it's kind of a little funny that if these are council's goals and tactics that we don't have anything to do with employees, that two employees are listed. Just my two cents.

Sure. yeah um i think the way i looked at this was you know council wanted these functions to be addressed right make sure we have somebody who's serving if i remember at the time i was kind of the default cio and that didn't always work terrific um and so uh that was one concern and then the other was we didn't really have anybody who really was the go-to person for for events and but i get i i appreciate i appreciate your comment i do i do but we you know we're going to blur sometimes obviously and we i you know as you need functions filled we want to respond sure yeah yeah and then number nine the communication

like you need to they're signaling that you need to turn your mic oh i'm sorry okay well i think that we're going to discuss that'll be one of the discussion items right now i think okay yeah all right sounds good after public after public comments correct okay sounds good yeah we'd love to talk about that one yeah okay okay all right i have two cards larry steingold please and then renee roth

Good evening. Larry Steingold, for myself only. Thank you, Ben Harvey, Norma, and everybody for all the grants and hard work you've done on all the updates, the tactics, the goals. These are good things. My concern is we're always looking for new revenue, and we've got to pay for all these things. But we never mention expenses. We never mention controls. We never mention financial stability, discipline. It's nice to keep asking for money. We know we're going to need more money. It goes up every year 2%, 3%, 4%, 5%. We've got to find new money, whether it's from a sales tax, which I hope doesn't go through because that hits everybody. The property tax, the primary home, second home tax is an easy one. Why? Because quite honestly, they don't vote. And that's the truth. So they're the low hanging fruit. The question is, how much money do we need to get from them on a continual basis? Because according to Skagg, there's about 8.9% vacancy. That was in 2021. Maybe there's 300 homes. If you need a million dollars a year, it's $3,300. If the goal is to raise money, then you go that way. If the goal from a lot of people's view is to bring more families into Ojai, then quite honestly, the fees have to be a lot higher because three, four, five grand a year is not gonna be enough to drive anybody to sell there, if that's the goal. But if the goal is to raise money, then do it, but not a sales tax, because then you have to start looking at the TOT, and nobody wants to do that, and we don't want more hotels and more expensive restaurants and more expensive retail, because that's what happens when we lose control of our expenses. We need more income, and that brings more people, which now means more room nights. So we don't want to be forced to into doing things we don't want to do. So please control our spending somehow. Keep track of it. Have discipline. We know there's a lot of mandates, a lot of state-required issues, a lot of pension funds. All this stuff is fixed. It's all baked in. But it's the variable. I just don't want to be forced to have to give up my week because I love my week. You love the week. Monday through Friday is great. weekends that's the way it is we're a tourist city and that pays for the week so please let's try to keep our expenses in check so we're not forced to develop badly thank you mr stengold renee roth please this is a new

Wow, how fancy. Okay, Renee Roth, City of Ojai. Good evening, members of the council. I haven't been here for a while. Are we ready for summer to be over? I know I am. I'm really sick of this heat. Okay, so first of all, this Monday and Tuesday of this week, the Ojai Valley Fire Safe Council holds a two-day class. on wildfire resistant construction and landscaping the second one that they've run and i attended the first one in may uh and it was very well attended the one that was done this this week was very well attended as well and council remember rule was there And I want to say thank you, Council Member Rule, for attending the Fire Safe Council event. I can't tell you how much I learned. It was a two-fold day. It was amazing.

Great.

There was a lot to be learned. And I just dropped in to see if, so anyway. So my question is, where were the rest of you? Sorry, I just have to ask it. Where were the rest of you? Where were you? But also, I do want to thank Nick Cleary for his comment. I wish I had had a chance to say him earlier instead of in my three minutes, because I only have a minute and a half left. But I think the idea that we need better communication, we need more communication, there are slips and slides and we're not, the failure to communicate and reliable communication is really important and it takes you to be the leader. in that effort. It takes you to be the leader in that effort. So a question came up at the event about paying for wire mesh screening on vents. Good idea as far as it goes. But the honest answer from the front of the room was screening vents does stop embers getting into a vent, but it does nothing about the vegetation against the house. the pine needles in the gutter, or the plants under the eave that catch those embers in fire in the first place. So please don't think about just doing one thing, and that's the quick fix, and that's going to save us. Please, please, you've got the fire safe council on a contract. Ask them, ask them, go to them and say, what is the highest and best use of your next contract money? Because we do know that about a third of the money in their original proposal was knocked out. And that was basically, and Rachel, I want to thank you for bringing up fire safety tonight as one of your goals. And you're the person that kept the fire safe contract in action with the Fire Safe Council. Thank you very much.

I can very briefly say that the sage on the stage, when asked about the question of venting, he said venting is great, but what you also need to do, you absolutely must clean the vegetation, pine needles, anything with oil. He said otherwise that will, but those two things together are very, very strong. So anyway, we can talk about that. It was very interesting.

Thank you.

Anybody online, Mr. Montgomery?

No, Mayor.

Okay. Well, there's the item of the community survey I know that wanted to be discussed. I have one other item I was hoping to discuss, but let's talk about the survey first.

Just real simply put, I think the survey's a great idea. The timing of it is best, I think, right after the council is seated, wherever the council is. to launch it right then and there, because then we'd get the results quickly, like have the survey out for 30 days or so, and come immediately back to council and say, all right, council, whoever the council is, these are the prior council's goals. Would you like to continue these? Would you like to modify these? Here's the results of the survey. Here's what the community is saying. And use that to help make that determination.

But you would prepare it in the meantime?

so that it could be launched then i mean i would i would want to bring this i would probably want that to be one of the very first items that come back to the new council okay because we don't want to assume that yeah fair enough and and you know it could be that the new council says this yep this is great so the new council creates it and then right and the new council could very well be just the same people who are sitting yeah of course i mean it sounds reasonable yeah not a complicated thing it's just it's really just a timing thing and and they could also decide not to do it yes they could you know and that's fair too because some council members you know at that point may say you know i just finished a campaign i heard from everybody i know what they wanted yeah i don't need to do a survey right right so we can decide that i guess later yeah i mean so i would put that you know the second meeting in well i guess we don't have a second thing in november first meeting in december okay

Does anybody have any thoughts on that?

No, I bring it up when it's relevant. I had a question about another issue. I wanted to just check in on the economic action plan, and if we had a timeline on that, I guess what I understood was that, I can't remember his name, but he's spoken to all council members, is that correct?

Barry and Ruth have spoken with everybody. They've also, I think where they are now is they're trying to get to all the stakeholders that were identified by council members. So I need to follow up and find out exactly where they are, but that's where they last were when I checked in.

Yeah, so I would – well, I mean, who knows who's going to be back in December, but I'd like to move forward with that. Sure. To try to give them a timeline and to work on that. That would be great. Yeah. And figure out where and if that is part of – and a required part of the general plan, you know, where we are with that and –

Related, not related, there's going to be a blurb this week in the weekly about the status of the general plan and the various elements for all you to digest.

Okay, that would be helpful because I forgot. Thank you very much.

Right, right, right. But I think it can help inform that effort greatly, and so we're happy to talk to Barry and see. We'll put that in the weekly also, where are you at and what's next. Yeah, exactly.

I was going to comment on that one also. Sure. My recollection is that I brought this up and asked that we have a general plan element that was actually not, the concept wasn't an economic action plan, the concept was addressing the feasibility or best methods of Making oh, hi more livable for its residents in the face of a onslaught of. And and now, you know, that was my goal and I keep watching the label of the plan. Heading more and more towards it's like we're trying to figure out how to generate business, which goes in a different direction.

Well, your desire, and I've got Mr. Seibert somewhere. I think he's either on.

Can I add to this, Councilman Whitman? Because this, you and I, this is partly... Part of the reason why we're doing an economic action plan to begin with is so that our revenue isn't so weighted on tourism. So one of the purposes that I understood that we were bringing this forward and why I am very committed to it is because to see if if we did if we did want to have more balance with tourism if we did want to have more revenue coming in for the residents here then how could we open up those revenue streams and what would that look like so the tourism management plan that you were proposing that goes along with the general plan and the economic action plan both have the same purpose they both have the same end And one of the reasons why the Economic Action Plan included so many surveys and so many questions about tourism is for that purpose. to look at where are the opportunities with business and with opening up new revenue sources with incubators or things like that. But really, the purpose, the intention is exactly aligned with what you proposed.

So thank you for that. And I'm probably just going to keep Reminding everybody that my goal is that we figure out if we can make Ojai more livable for its residents. I appreciate what you're saying. Makes sense to me. And I'll keep that in mind.

Could I just jump in? Because we do have Lucas online. Mr. Montgomery, he says you need to elevate him. I guess he's just a participant.

While you're doing that, a goal, it seems to me, that's embedded in this is job creation that is not tourism-focused. So it's not service industry in any way. So it's more professional jobs so that residents can not have to leave the valley for high-enough-paying work. So that's what I see in the economic diversification plan.

Now, I'm not saying build 10-story anything. And I'll also add that... know maybe 20 years ago the city council decided to create the bryant you know industrial air kit it was kind of the label for it and um what didn't happen after they did that or you know maybe they tried i don't know but you know there there wasn't a lot of uh emphasis put on now we have this area, let's attract the businesses that pay more than service industry rates. And so I support the idea that we figure out how to attract those businesses and those jobs.

Just a suggestion. I think Council Member Whitman, you might have found your particular town hall. Because there are a lot of stakeholders, and there are a lot of ideas. Anyway, that occurred to me that that seems to be a particular interest of yours.

No one wants to hear me talk about this.

Well, you can just have people come up. But I agree. I think that's absolutely the point here, and whether or not it's bringing what it's actually going to bring in. I have a different vision, but it's not about tourism. It's really about a regenerative Ojai and making an economy out of that, kind of like a green economy, only it's a regenerative economy that takes money from TOT and stuff and puts it back into the community workers who do the work that makes Ojai a safer, fire-resilient type of place so that you have a virtual kind of- It could be a multi-subject. So I have a plan for that, which I'm happy to share.

Yep, thanks. Did we get Lucas?

He's having some technical difficulties, but I think your input has not been lost and it is in the general plan process. And so I'm going to make sure that this week's update has some.

So, the item that I wanted to bring up to you, and by my reckoning. I'm going to say that it falls under. Affordable housing, arts, culture, recreation, and then also communication relationships and that is. We saw that. The property downtown pivoted, they're not going to have the bond as we all know. We, you know, they are still pursuing possibilities of. A workforce housing project there, if any of you were at the meeting, watched it, heard about it. So, what I would. Love to hear from you and here's just a couple of ways where we might do this is to engage back in with the dialogue. With to have a conversation around. The historic preservation of the front what to do to keep it community focused in the general property. It could be piecemeal. So I think there's a lot of really interesting things to talk about there. They're open to that. So two ideas, maybe there's more. One is we can revive the two and two. That's great. We could also have a public workshop where their board is here with us and we say, throwing it out there, to be determined by somebody like, OUSD, what are the needs that you are having, let's say, for staff, retaining and attracting staff? We understand what your needs are, your financial needs. here's what our interests are what do we want to maintain at that property so i think it's a great opportunity to have the public conversation either two and two and then public or public right away and and see what could be done with that property that meets all of our goals

Yeah, I have lots of ideas. Probably not the time to discuss those, but I think that... You mean today? Yeah. Oh, yeah, yeah, great, great. Yeah, I did, you know... it wasn't completely lost on me that we had scheduled a joint meeting and then the school board announces you know what they're gonna do again without like you know talking to us about what we might be able to do so you're you're i'm taking from you you think they're ready for a conversation i'm almost willing to have a conversation yeah yeah so i think we again we can make more progress with a couple of people and then bring it forward or

The public conversation is fine, too.

At least that could I don't think we ever dissolve the 2 plus 2.

No, we, we'd have to go back and see was it related. If it was only related to the workforce housing. It could expand because there's other issues, for example, as we all know. The historic upkeep is an issue right now that's come forward. But another is, just throwing it out there, if there were lease possibilities that the city became interested in for our interests, then that's not just workforce housing.

So if I may, I think we're going to veer beyond the scope of the goals and tactics. So I would recommend that we bring that back as a future agenda item for discussion. That's really what I'm asking for. I think so.

Okay. And then we can decide what form we would like it to take.

And then I had just one other question. I wrote down, jotted down some things, uh, as they were coming across. So, um, you know, one was micro grid and undergrounding. And, um, I wrote down undergrounding because I think I have a general understanding of micro grid issue, but, um, I'm not saying this is the forum but I think I need a better understanding of what's being you know talked about and considered concerning undergrounding and you know basically same comment wrote down TOT nonprofit support which I'm not certain what that item meant so I'm interested you know, where that is. I mean, we did talk at one point in time about trying to generate a policy as to the TOT with respect to the initiative language.

I can remind you what that was. It's the idea, the concept that It's in concert a bit with the reserve policy, but if we were similar to what the council had done in the past, where the council would be solicited by a nonprofit for donations, if you recall that. So, if you built a fund that was related. That let's say pulled from the directly so. Symbolically, you see of the tourists are funding this thing we're putting up with tourism in its way, but. It all goes towards nonprofits applying. But the development of the idea was something like. There could be a needs assessment that could occur. and you could have something like the ventura county community foundation could vet the applications but you'd have this rolling annual process similar to what the city had done in the past those are all just ideas but that's what that item is is it's a it's so it's kind of a concept review absolutely concept review at this point and there's only been the only the beginning conversations with consultants who say oh if you were interested in needs assessment which like the women's fund is also doing that you could piggyback on what they're doing

Yeah, and just jumping back to the undergrounding, so we could, what probably should happen is we should just bring back an informational item on what's involved with undergrounding, the expenses and the mechanisms available and what Edison has done in this area, all that stuff.

Yeah, I...

uh know that i didn't vote for each and every one of our goals but i understand them to be our city council goals and i just want to know what the heck it is that my goals are doing i get it just to piggyback on what you just said i would love to see again it's not a high priority because it's an enormous project but what's another city similar to our circumstance as much as possible how does the micro grid work there something that we've been talking about for a couple of years that even without a lot of concept review but if we just had almost a summary presentation here's the city of blah blah blah here's the process here's how long it took that would be interesting to see just anecdotally I drove to Carlsbad New Mexico which is basically

all the way to Texas, and there is so much development of solar. That whole area, you know, you get 300 days of sunshine a year, but there is so much development of that. We get a ton of sunshine here, so I'm interested in what's feasible.

And it could be about, I mean, again, this would be fun to bring a concept review forward to understand how would the county be a partner.

Just a couple thoughts. Lucas is back on us if he wanted to go back to talk about the general plan and the tourism management. Mr. Seibert, can you hear us?

I can hear you.

Okay, thank you. Thanks very much for jumping back in. So you probably, I don't know if you heard the discussion or not, but talking about tourism management and the general plan and trying to have an element that really kind of tries to understand the impacts that that has on our residents and ways to manage that I know that you're putting together some information that we're going to share with the council this week and in the weekly update, but can you give a little preview as to where that particular element and that interest is? Is that okay?

Yeah. I mean, Lisa wise and consulting is putting together some, some really good information. Um, we have a meeting scheduled for not this Wednesday, but next Wednesday to really kind of dive into where they're at, um, in terms of their progress. And I'm excited to dive into that with them as well. They're also providing us with some information as it relates to the survey and the results of the survey and how that's helping to influence and inform the direction that this is going to go. And then in addition to that, there's the gap analysis that we were going to do that helps to kind of to Councilmember Whitman's point, understand what pieces help for those individuals to understand what it takes or what's going to need to be done from a goals and tactics standpoint to help the community versus helping the tourist community that comes in on a temporary basis. Cause it's interesting when, when I was first talking to Lisa wise, they're like, Oh, there's all these, these tourist based businesses that would be, um, amazing. And I'm like, that's not what we're looking at here. You guys let's pivot. And so it, it took some conversations to get them to the point where now we're looking at what are those, those pieces that help to, to, um, to help the community that's here. And I heard five days a week and you guys are here seven days a week, but really, um, that influence for those individuals that are here year-round. So anyway, that's the economic piece. There's other pieces, but yeah, I'll do an update. I'm in the middle of it right now.

Can I ask a question about that? Sure. Because I think I was under the false impression that I recall bringing Lisa Wise on board. I was kind of you know, very interested in hearing what she would have to say, because I read about her firm. And then, you know, it seemed I was under the impression we shifted gears to this other firm that we've all met with recently.

They're complementary. We still have Lisa Weiss, and we also have HDL Econ Solutions. So they're both working on... So the economic action plan is more of a near-term thing. Here are things you can do immediately to help your economy in the ways that each council member... That's why we've had each one of you be part of that, just to express the concerns. So that's what they're trying to do. Versus the general plan, which is more, we're updating your constitution for the city,

yeah i know you understand okay thank you any other things you want to bring up yes um

So I guess I will look at arts, culture, and recreation funding. And I particularly put recreation funding in there to think about parks. And it comes to my attention that we should really be thinking about dog parks, because there aren't any in OHA. I mean, you can go to Seoul, but you have to drive there. And it causes a lot of tension between Folks who don't want dogs off leash at parks and people who know their dogs need to be off leash So there's so many reasons why dog parks in Ojai make perfect sense So I would like to bring forth some sort of I mean, I've got I've got ideas about it You know that the city has land there's unused land we could have little dog parks for the people who have really small dogs and they just could walk their dogs to the small parklets and sit on the benches and have some social time. And then there's people with big dogs that really need to throw it. So there's the back part of Sarzodi that's not being used right now, that big track area. And where the tree just went down, you could have like a real dog park there. you know, until the master plan for Osozote. So I think that there are, you know, we're really just talking about fences, you know, putting up fences and a bench. That's really all a dog park is. And I think it would be great for the community. I think it would be great for the dogs. And I think it would lessen some tension around existing parks. So I'd like to think about that when we're talking about, I guess it would be, The second one, arts, culture, and recreation funding.

If I might suggest, the OUSD concept review, I didn't come up with this idea. Somebody else did, but I love it. That could be a potential off-leash dog park.

Yeah, it certainly could. And the thing about it is that these dog parks don't need to be permanent. Really, you're talking about a fence. You might have to re-sod and all that kind of stuff, no doubt. But you're basically talking about a fence and a bench. It is something that I've been thinking about. And perhaps some shade, you know, and it would be great for all our elderly folks that walk their little dogs, you know, and they can go sit and talk, which I know they love to do. And there are places all over Ojai that could be little parklets. So I would like to. So I think that one would also then be like a future agenda item that we would bring back.

Very good. I shall leave it at that.

Yeah, thank you.

But I think where we could really use your help, Council, is, you know, I've heard, so I've heard, it looks like there's interest in the bike path and the options there. Sounds like maybe, sounds like this, the OUSD workforce housing thing might have some people that want to bring that back.

And don't say workforce housing, just say the OUSD downtown property. So think about it in a grander way.

sure yep uh let's just call it oust yeah campus reimagination yes downtown campus yeah i would also like to bring forward uh just uh wildfire safety and risk mitigation with debris clearance and seeing what we can do on city properties to to move forward with an RFP or expedite that process.

And I'll add, this isn't on, it isn't listed as a priority, but I will say that I have gotten, on the issue of wildfire safety, I've gotten large number of calls about people who want to have a very clear plan information strategy for the concept that some people are going to evacuate whether somebody tells you to shelter in place or not and we need to do a better job potentially of communicating with the public that, you know, kind of like, I mean, I grew up in local schools, so they got you kind of conditioned that if there's an earthquake, you jump up and you get in the threshold of the door, you know, or you get under your desk or whatever, but I think people are looking for that there's a wildfire and then like step-by-step instructions about We're working on the communication component of it with the scoreboards, and that could be one component of it. Radio stations to tune to and the idea that somebody is designing you from point A to whatever year point B is.

Just to say, it's the number one priority of the disaster committee and also the public safety committee is taking it up. So exactly those things you just said is the first item of businesses. communication around what would be there's not one evacuation plan there can't be as right they will say but how do we further how do we get our communication plan with oes completely publicized that's what needs to be worked out right yep and both chiefs have that on their their radio and that is coming to the public yeah and i and i and i'm i'm hearing a lot of public

You know, a little bit of angst over, I don't think I know enough about what's going to happen. I agree with that.

The other thing that's coming in this area, and the police chief is heading up this effort, is we're going to do a community drill. And it might be a very small scale effort. you know, sample of a disaster. Like, for instance, it might be something as simple as like a chemical spill on a highway. But just to get people in the mode of, okay, it's an emergency. How do I find information about it? What do I do? And again, the public would be invited to participate in this. So that's like a fall thing that we're trying to activate.

move forward and if I if I could interject also this is this is something that actually Randy Coggins spoke about at our last meeting in public comments and and so the I just want to thank the fire safe council and all the the public that our safety can everyone who's working on these efforts because I know that there's a lot that's being done and it's happening so fast that we don't always get updates or we don't always have you know consolidation of all that's happening but I just want to acknowledge that some of this is being done and appreciate the efforts it may be that another communication like we had in the outlook before maybe that's warranted with a little more information or changes of the website to make people aware of it

The thing that got brought up at the disaster committee was. You have the community wildfire plan, but it's gigantic, you know, so you want to say. How, if something's happening, what just pops to the front of the website, you know, or. How do you know which what's the radio station or VC alert or all that kind of stuff? So you want all that really public and public facing, but then also what if nobody's looking at their. communication they're not looking at their phone or their computer that's where the sirens would come in to say go look at those or you have fire safe communities and you have people going there so that's it's all in the works but it's it doesn't placate the person that says just show me the plan i need to know what to do It's not black and white like that.

But then I think we explained to them why we can't give them 100% of the details. That's right. But, you know, there are, yeah, so there are like, you know,

there are options that are going to kick in and and here's where you find out which options are in play for that end day not to say not to say evacuation is not the way to go but what the i believe it's september 2nd but there's a whole um open house at summit school about the resiliency center there so that's the answer for me on this is all of the above it's clearing and promulgating communications like that and what a resiliency center would be if you can't leave and

This sounds like another town hall.

Yeah, another town hall. And we just had, there was not a town hall, but the Fire and Safe Council did some fire insurance. Absolutely.

I'm not negating anything that the Fire and Safe Council did. No, of course, of course. Town hall after town hall. I'm just saying, now maybe it's time for a city-sponsored one.

Maybe so. But anything else before we part? Any other things you would like to bring forward for the staff to think? Ben, you were going down the list. You heard OUSD concept review. I have six items now.

Read back what you got, please. And they're not in any particular order. Fuel reduction within city limits, OUSD downtown campus, dog park, evacuation plan, bike path, undergrounding.

Okay.

Did I miss anything? I mean, I know there's plenty.

That's plenty.

Okay.

Okay. Oh, that sounds really good. Okay, that's our last item. And we will adjourn. Thank you. Thanks.