City Council - Regular Meeting

That looks better. Hi, good evening. Just want to call the meeting to order for the auction city council for Tuesday, February 3rd, 2026. Madam clerk, may we have the roll call and posting of the agenda, please? Uh, Councilwoman Basula here. Councilwoman Perez, here. Uh, Councilwoman Rodriguez, present. Councilman Star, here. Mayor Promptan here, Mayor MacArthur here. The agenda for this meeting was posted in the kiosk at city hall, the Oxner public library, the city administrative offices, and on the city's website on Thursday, January 20th, and the amended agenda on Wednesday, January 28th. Thank you.

Thank you. Prior to close session, we will take public comments on the close session agenda. Can the city attorney please provide a statement prior to close session, please? Thank you, mayor. The city council will recess to a close session pursuant to government code section 54956.9 subdivision D1 to confer with its attorneys. The matters being discussed are Marquez versus City of Oxnard and Gold versus City of Oxnard. The city council will also recess to a close session pursuant to government code section 54956.9 subdivision D4 based on existing facts and circumstances to decide whether to initiate litigation in one potential case.

Thank you, Mr. Fischer. Madam clerk, do we have any speakers for public comments on the close session items? Uh, excuse me, mayor and council members. We do not have any public speakers for close session in person or virtually for um close session. Thank you. Thank you, Madam Clerk. We will recess and FIPM. We will begin with an appointment item followed by the regular council meeting. Thank you.

Good evening everyone. The city council had just emerged from close session. We'll ask our city attorney, Mr. Fischer, for any announcements to make. Thank you, Mr. Fischer. Thank you, mayor. Uh there are no actions to report out of close session. However, the council took up items C1 and C2. And after the um open session business is completed, we will reconvene to close session to take on item C3. Thank you, Mr. Fischer. We will now move to the next item on the agenda. This is an appointment item. This is from the city manager's department. the subject u entails the department workshop. Mr. Mayor, we're going to invert the order

to start at with it. Okay. Then we will start with uh I don't see that. Mr. We'll start with you. Go ahead, sir. Are we all set?

Yes. Good evening, mayor, mayor prom, council members. Rob Rubin, CIO for city of Oxnard. Today, I'd like to walk through a um presentation for it. Uh Diego, if we can bring that up. There we go. Okay, let's switch to the next slide here. So, this deck may look a little familiar. I borrowed it from our HR organization who I thought did a terrific job and I thought that their their colors on their slides and the layout of the template were useful. So rather than reinvent something, I stole it from them with their permission. But I just wanted to give the shout out that uh this was not original. But hopefully some of the content is

in education we say we adapted it, Mr. Rubin.

Fair. That sounds better, doesn't it? But mine's be more honest. All right. So by the numbers uh we also support uh all 1875 Oxnard employees whether they're full-time or part-time. Um we have three divisions in IT and those divisions are and we'll go through in more detail what what they do but they are business engagement solutions delivery and infrastructure and cyber security. and we have a total of uh 39 IT staff positions of which 32 are currently filled. So we'll go to the next slide. Our overall priorities uh for those of you who heard me speak in um close session is that our number one by far is defend the city. So we are uh primarily looking to make sure that we put all the safeguards in place to make sure that we are as un as well protected as we possibly can be for cyber attack and also including for defending the city would be what we call keeping the lights on. So making sure all the city's networks and production systems and software are running and running properly. Um, our second or I would say our second priority in the list of priorities is what we call organizational or departmental alignment. So, this is meeting with department heads on a regular basis and understanding what's most important to them and make sure that we are aligned to their highest priorities. And I'll get into a little bit more detail what that looks like and how we do that. Um, and this is under the strategic priorities of of the city for organizational effectiveness. So I'd like to drop in and talk a little bit about the first division which is the business engagement division. This name is something that I borrowed from uh or adapted from adapted or

adopted adapted from uh my life in the private sector. So business engagement is a discipline of three main functions within it. One of them is what we call business relationship management. Second is project and portfolio management and then business analysis and process improvement. And let me tell you a little bit about those. But overall the the goal of the business engagement division is to maximize the value of the city's technology investments by aligning the departmental partnerships with the discipline project delivery and process optimization. So it's a bunch of big words but what it really means is that we need to stay connected with our customers and in our case for it as an internal uh organization our customers are these the departments and staff across the city as our primary customers. So we need to stay aligned with them and so the way we do that is we meet with the department heads on a regular basis in addition to all the project work that we do with them. We meet with them at a strategic level where we look at all the systems that that are their systems and how those systems have been running since the last time we met. So part of that overall goal was to keep the lights on. So, we have a what I would call a confession where we talk to each of the department heads individually and their staff and we go through and look at what system broke since the last time we met and what did what happened, what are we doing about it and how are we going to prevent that from going forward. So, we we try to always start those kinds of sessions with what went wrong and then let's go to what's going right. But our philosophy in the IT organization and it's my personal one is run with bad news, walk with good news. So um accountability and transparency are are primary importance and to build the trust uh for our departments. That's that's how we do business. Um project

management and portfolio management. Project management is our delivery arm. How do we deliver the projects that the city needs? And the portfolio management is how do we prioritize everybody's work and the main priority prioritization mechanism we use again is is what we would call a force rank. So each of the department heads when we meet with them we look at all their all their stuff all their projects and we have them tell us this is the most important this is number two this is number three and then we align our resources to their highest priority needs to ensure that we stay aligned. So we meet with them regularly to make sure that we're not coming out of alignment. Sounds simple, but a lot of organizations don't do that and you end up with it doing its own thing or people not getting the most important stuff done. So that's how we address that business analysis and process improvement group. These are the folks that meet on a more detailed level, get the requirements for the project, come up with ideas for how to make processes better um and look for better outcomes and and work with the customers also our customers for uh testing the um the changes that we've made or the systems that we've implemented. The second arm is the solution delivery division. This is frequently referred to as software or applications team. uh we use a fancier term because it's more fun um but delivering the solutions. So this has got three main groups. It's got the GIS group that's the team that does all the mapping and the asset management of the various city assets that are mapped then uh in the systems and producing the maps that the city and and the citizens use. Uh we have the applications development and support team. So this is how we either build or buy or decide which systems to buy if we're going to if we're going to buy them and then install them and get them integrated with our with the rest of the city

systems. And then the data management and analytics is a fairly new arm um of the solution delivery. And that group their intent is to do a a more formalized data management and making data into information so that it's actionable so that so that we can use it to make good decisions. Couple of fun facts. Oh, did I you know what? There we go. That's that that I just talked about. So sorry I got to get better. I'm doing it here and not there. Couple of fun facts about the solutions delivery division. Um for GIS, we have we map over,200 miles of roads. Um the GIS team handles over 800 different 800 service requests or tickets that were able to close in last year. So these are service requests or incidents. Um, and then we have 700, sorry, 676 maps supported by the GIS team, including over a thousand unique map layers. The applications development support, fun fact, is there's over 350 applications that are in use across the city. So, that's a lot to keep track of. Um, and for data management and analytics, we have over 450 distinct databases across the city. The next and last of the three groups, infrastructure and and cyber security division. So, this has three groups to it as well. Um, service desk. So, these are folks you call when you have a problem. They get cell phone set up, they get computers set up, they help get accounts set up. Um, and if you have a problem, that's the number you call and they're kind of our first line of defense for solving problems. The next group is the infrastructure and network engineering. So these are the this is the team that keeps all the buildings and all the different systems connected. Um so that's all the hardware

and the cloud infrastructure um for where we keep all of our data and our systems. And the last one is the cyber security team which is the team that I highlight frequently but it's that's a team but the cyber security is a mindset that we use across all of it. So it's not just the team that reviews software for is it safe or looks at monitoring dashboards to see like are we getting a cyber attacks or anything like that. Um it's also a mindset across this across the IT department. And then a couple of fun facts about that. Uh on the service desk side we have 1100 or over 1100 uh end devices. So PCs, laptops, we have 1,300 mobile devices and there's 23 uh city buildings that have networking and and related infrastructure. We have more city buildings than that, but those are the ones that are internetworked. On the uh infrastructure and network engineering side, there's over 300 servers and 200 network devices. And for cyber security, we average about 25,000 cyber attacks a month. So, good thing we have some pretty good defenses in place. Wanted to hit on just a couple of recent accomplishments and then I'll close out. Um, on the infrastructure side, that team is focused ex in a very large part on making enhancements for our cyber security. As I talked about a bunch of times, uh we also are undergoing a large-scale program called infrastructure modernization where we look at a number of older systems in the city and are making sure that we're swapping them out for uh new and supported systems. Um we have a PC refresh cycle that every year we uh change out approximately 20% of the city's PCs on a five-year cycle. We talked a little bit about that a few months back when we talked about um the

hardware and and the vendors that we use for hardware. Um but we do that to make sure that we're using current and currently supported equipment. So that again from a cyber perspective that helps make sure that we've got um wellprotected equipment. Uh we've also rolled out MS Office to everybody this year. Um and we've also implemented a network operations center. So this is a real-time 247 monitoring um system that is looking for any not only the cyber issues. We already had that but then this network operation center is the the arm that monitors if a server is running out of space or if it's CPU is running high or things that we that are unexpected before a problem happens we're trying to anticipate them um early. And then last on the application side, uh a few examples. I'll give you many more when we get to the budget uh later in the year uh and we sort of review the highlights for the year, but working in conjunction with the police department to implement the paragrin data integration and operations platform. Um finance, working with credit card processing fees and implementing that. Back to the police for um upgrades to their 911 dispatch and record management system. fire department implemented uh we implemented a document management system with fire department. Um we assisted the police department with the drones as first responders and we've made a number of GIS systems and applications and database upgrades and that's what I have for you tonight. If you have any questions thank you Mr. Rubin. much appreciated on the overview for the work that your department does and all your teams. I

just want to uh thank you for the um posturing that the uh IT department has done for cyber security. I think that that's uh one of the weakest points in security is the human factor in that. And um even with my comfort level and things technology related, I know I've I've even had to reach out to you sometimes with is this a legitimate email or I got this text message and it seems suspicious, but I want to make sure this didn't really come from our team. And so I just want to give my thanks to you and and the folks who work with you on that because it's it's helpful to have folks in the in the know who are able to guide us in this. And again there's uh you know 1,200 1300 other people who rely on you. I recognize that. So I know it's not a small charge.

My pleasure. Thank you. Thank you Mayor Pro. Any other comments or questions? Go ahead Mr. Pearl. Yes. Um on your page 50 slide the cyber security along with mayor prom uh we get approximately 25,000 25,000 cyber attacks per month. That's to me that's staggering. Can you determine if it's pretty much the same people continually or is it random?

You know, our protection defenses see that and it's common for any website or any externally facing organization to have high cyber attacks. Most of those are pretty easy to to defend. So, we don't bother trying to figure out who it is because it's just like a fly. You just swat it away. Um, so most most of those kind of things we really don't need to know who it was because it's coming in in such a way that it's it just clearly breaks it violates a rule that gets sort of defended right at the borders. So yeah, we would only really be examining detailed attacks if they were if they were getting a little further, but we're our our outer defenses right now have been working really well. So, we haven't really need to get very thorough in examining where these things are coming from.

Thank you. At 25,000, you kind of need to let the system do its deal, right? Thank you very much. Thank you. Any other questions or comments? Appreciate the the presentation. Thank you very much. My pleasure. Thank you. Thank you.

City attorney, you going up next? Yep. Okay. Mayor, Mayor Prom, members of the council. I'm Steve Fischer, city attorney, presenting on the city attorney's office for you this early evening. So, if we could bring the slide up. Thank you. So our office is staffed with eight attorneys and support staff. We provide legal counsel to the entire city organization and uh like to divide what we do into three major categories. The transactional, open meetings and records and litigation. And I'd like to bring up Assistant City Attorney El McCarron to talk about the transactional category.

Good evening, council members. Assistant City Attorney Elle McCarron, and I'm going to go over to our next slide here. So, this slide um goes over basically our six general categories of the transactional work that we do. And so you can see on there the the categories, contract review, ethics advice, day-to-day legal support, everything that you would expect from essentially a general counsel. And then following up, we're going to get in depth on some of our contract and legislative work that we do for the city. So the city attorney's office, we create the citywide contract templates, the um professional service agreements, the on calls, the general service, the fleet maintenance agreements. um public projects, design, build agreements, amendments. You guys have all seen them coming to council for your approval. We also um engage with support staff, city departments, and other agencies and third party vendors to create a series of what I call oneoff agreements. And these would be your sewer use agreements, cell tower agreements, inter agency agreements, development agreements, and franchise agreements as well as uh utility agreements. We also prepare, draft, and assist departments in um preparing and uh excuse me here, ordinances and resolutions. And in 2025, we assisted and drafted 20 ordinances and we completed 75 resolutions. For 2026, we have about 21 ordinances in the queue. So, you'll be seeing a lot more of those over the next year. And ordinances require a lot of thought and care. We have to interface with the public. We have to look at what other agencies are doing. We have to make sure that we're within the confines of the law. and we have to get buyin from all

of our departments that will be having to abide by or enforce these ordinances. Um, next we review every single agenda item that comes to you guys at council and committee. We are one of four departments in the city that review everything and we are looking for legal compliance with the Brown Act and making sure that everything that should be there is there and we do that in conjunction with the city manager of finance and the city clerk. Um, last but not least, we draft lots of legal advice, lots of opinions. We interpret city code, state code, and we assist um with a lot of public requests, complaints, demands, you name it. Um we are there. Like Rob, we also are a general counsel for a city of 1,800 employees, give or take. We serve 33 different client departments. And within those departments, they're broken down even further into many divisions. So, we've got quite a bit of work um coming through our office. And now I'm going to go ahead and turn it over to my colleague Jason. Good evening, mayor, mayor prom, members of the council, assistant city attorney Jason Zaragoza. Um, so as El said, I'll be talking about our uh compliance with uh our open meetings laws as well as the California public records act. So we provide advice on Brown Act related issues. As you know, that is our open meetings law that requires uh public posting of our agendas as well as uh the opportunity for the public to participate in uh these discussions uh with issues that come before you. Um so we not only provide Brown Act advice to the city council but also to all of our citizen advisory groups in the city, right? So everything from our parks and rec commission to our arts commission um

to the committees that you all have as well and our planning commission. Um, in addition to your kind of day-to-day uh, Brown Act compliance issues that we address, we also provide training to our various KAGs as well on the Brown Act. Um, but as we like to say, the Brown Act is a floor, not a ceiling. So, it provides minimum state requirements for compliance uh, with state law. The city council in 2019 adopted the sunshine ordinance that requires our agendas to be posted 12 days in advance of a meeting, 7 days in advance of committee meetings as well as the meetings of other policy bodies, so your CAGS etc. Um, and then we also have measure M adopted by the voters in 2020. So we provide compliance with that as well. Um, in addition to uh Brown Act related issues, as L briefly uh stated, we also provide conflict of interest advice to our public officials, whether it's compliance with government code section 1090, so you cannot be financially interested on both either both sides of a contract. Um, common law conflicts of interest as well as political reform act issues. Um, and we seek advice or assist you all with seeking advice from the FPPC, the Fair Political Practices Commission when necessary. In addition to that, uh we provide compliance uh advice with the California Public Records Act, which is the California's equivalent to FOYA, um the federal law on the disclosure of records. Um we are required as a public agency to make public records available to members of the public upon request either for inspection or providing the records and the statute lays out um you know there is a timing as temporal aspect to that as well. Um, in 2025, we assisted with processing 1,210 California Public Records Act requests. Um, that does not mean that there were just 110 uh 1,210 items. Many of these requests contain multiple subp parts, right? So, one request might really seek

10 different record series, 12 different record series or whatever. Um, we switched to the next request California Public Records Act portal last year. um that allows members of the public to log onto a website, submit a California public records act request um and then uh our public records advocate seeks those records from various departments. They come back uh to us eventually for review for potential exemptions because the California public records act contains many exemptions as you can imagine confidential information or communications between uh our attorney's office and our our clients. Um medical information, utility billing information, there's a number of exemptions under the act. So, it's it's necessary for us to review many of those requests. Um, and we don't have uh that much data for this year, but I can tell you from January of last year, we had received 63 California Public Records Act requests. In January of this year alone, we received 121 public records Act requests. And we assist with compliance and review of each of those items. And with that, I'll kick it back over to L. Now, I'd like to talk to you about the other category that we handle, and that's litigation. And so, we do have a limited in-house um litigation capacity. We are currently in the process of building that up with our two new deputy hires. So, we do have a lot more um staff and attorney level um staff that is um experienced in litigation. So, we're very excited about that. And so right now um we have processed, this is looking back for 2025, we've processed 123 subpoenas. We have approximately 21 active litigation mander uh matters that are being handled by the city attorney's office um or in conjunction with special and outside counsel. And those um run

the gamut from RITs, contract disputes, eminent domain um grant uh sorry groundwater and water rights just to name a few of those categories. In 2025, the office handled 11 employment related matters, arbitrations per board um matters. And then we are currently overseeing outside counsel um on 38 separate public liability cases. And that's about it for litigation. Thank you. Good evening, mayor, mayor prom, members of council, uh deputy city attorney Andrew Gonzalez. Um uh in addition to the information that El provided, uh the city attorney's office helps city departments to prepare for administrative hearings and also represents uh city departments in administrative hearings. Uh the city attorney's office has been involved with 33 administrative citation hearings in fiscal year 2024 2025. As an example of a just cause eviction ordinance administrative hearing in July 2025, the city red tagged the property due to an electrical fire, hoarding conditions, and multiple people not providing a termination notice. As a result of that, uh valid just cause uh reason was required. Uh here specifically, a 60-day notice um and relocation assistance um should have been provided. Uh because of this uh the city issued citations for violations of the just cause eviction ordinance. The property owner as a result appealed the citation and the case uh proceeded to an administrative hearing. The hearing officer upheld all of the violations, determined the displace um uh the individual qualified uh for no fault termination and ruled that the tenants are entitled to $5,000 relocation

assistance. Uh the relocation payment was paid to tenants and the case was closed. This just shows an example of um the importance of administrative hearings and our office uh assisting uh here uh the housing department for this specific situation. Gun violence restraining orders are also known as GBRRO's. The city attorney's office works with the Oxarn Police Department to obtain gun violence restraining orders when appropriate to help uh protect residents of Oxnard. Uh GBRRO is a complicated process that a limited number of individuals including law enforcement officers can file which requires clear and convincing evidence to obtain. A GBRRO is a court-ordered designated um temporary restraining order that prevents someone who is considered a danger to themselves or uh to others from having firearms or ammunitions. A GBRO can last from one year to 5 years. There also uh is the option of renewing a gun violence restraining order uh if the individual shows that they're a danger to themselves or others within the time period of the order. In partnership with the Oxary Police Department, the city attorney's office has filed 23 gun violence restraining orders in fiscal year 2024 2025. An example of a gun violence restraining order uh is shown by on October 20th, 2025, I appeared for the Oxarn Police Department at a gun violence restraining order hearing against respondent uh who called 911 claiming that there was someone inside of his residence armed with a firearm, causing respondent to arm himself with a loaded firearm. Three of respondents roommates were at the residence at the time of this incident. A total of nine officers, including two sergeants, initially responded and found no such person inside the resident armed with a firearm. Officers observed respondent to show signs and symptoms of

being under the influence of a controlled substance and later located a small plastic container with a white powder-like substance residue suspected to be cocaine at the residence inside of a gun safe that respondent agreed to let the officers inspect. The judge then granted my five-year gun violence restraining order um that expires on October 20th, 2030 given that the respondent displayed paranoia, erratic behaviors, and objective signs of being under the influence of a controlled substance when he claimed that uh there was someone inside of his residence armed with a firearm causing him to arm himself with a loaded firearm, posing a danger to both himself and all of his roommates at the residence. Additionally, the Oxnard Police Department issued citations for violations of Oxnard City Code section 7-320 and 7-320A. Um, Oxnard uh city council approved these October 1st, 2019. The city attorney's office has bimonthly meetings with the Oxnard Police Department and various Oxnard service providers such as OneTop with the goal that the chronic offenders receive services before even thinking of filing a misdemeanor complaint. In partnership with the Oxnard Police Department, the city attorney's office files misdemeanor complaints for chronic offenders of these sections. The goal here um of filing these complaints is not punitive. Uh it is so the defendant receives services. Uh, one option to provide services through filing a misdemeanor uh, complaint is judicial diversion. If a judge orders judicial diversion, the defendant will be given a period of time, typically about 6 months uh, to continuously attend services uh, that are agreed upon at the hearing such as housing services at which time if they successfully follow the the judicial diversion terms, the case will be dismissed at that point. In fiscal year 2024 to 2025, the city attorney's office

has filed six new quality of life cases, resolved four successful judicial diversion cases, and has 14 pending quality of life cases that were previously filed. Sometimes these individuals um don't show up at court, so it goes out to warrant. Um in addition to that, uh there is code enforcement warrants during fiscal year 2024 to 2025. The city attorney's office has filed four inspection warrants and one abatement warrant. Additionally, one new inspection warrant was filed um at the very end of December.

That concludes our presentation. And as you can see, the city's attorney's office covers a lot of ground in different areas, not just what you see with you and I interacting during your meetings or your committee meetings with with the other attorneys that staff that those meetings. Uh, lots of other work going on and would be happy to entertain any questions. Thank you, Mr. Fischer. Are there any questions or comments? Go ahead, Council Member Primo.

I'd like to thank each and every one of you that made a presentation here. Um, as a council member, and I'm sure the rest of my council members get the same information, there are certain individuals, some elected in this community, that continually complain about the public records not getting what they want. And I appreciate the individual that does that work. Why was a decision made to bring someone on board to specifically handle public records requests?

Well, it was largely volumedriven. And maybe uh Jason, you can chime in as well, but the the amount of the records requests, how they've grown over the past few years, and frankly lately, uh becoming more and more complex with the advent of artificial intelligence, helping people in making those requests, and sometimes making them as complicated as as they can get.

Okay. Thank you. Um this and I do appreciate the the difference in discrepancy January 25, January 26, double numbers. Um with respect to the other issue that came up about gun violence, is there an opportunity you could put restraining orders? Is there an opportunity when somebody has the mental there's something's wrong to confine them to a site

for a period of time? It it well so the gun violence restraining order specifically prohibits the individual from having either a firearm and a firearm and or ammunitions. So here it depends on the circumstances to to receive that um restraining order they need to be a significant danger to themselves and or others. So in the scenario that you provided if there was a scenario where an individual was saying that they were going to harm themselves we could move forward with a restraining order so that they could not move forward with that. they would they would be prevented from having firearms from one year to five years.

Yeah. So that's the purpose of the GBRRO. I think what you're referring to is something that the DA's office would address um with incarceration or or a commitment of somebody for some mental uh mental health services. That's not what our office addresses. Okay. With respect to the gun restraining order, do we have the ability as auxard to go into an address and see if there is guns there like probation department? Um, after we received the restraining order or the facts leading up to the restraining order that there is a restraining order against the person from having a gun. Do we have the ability to go into the home, find out if there is a gun?

So, no. Um, no. Unless uh details come out where uh the police department is informed that they have a firearm, what happens once you get the gun violence restraining order, it goes into a kled system, which is nationwide uh to alert uh any officer uh this individual should not have firearms. Uh in addition to that, if we know that they have a registered firearm, they need to provide that uh information to the court at the time of the hearing.

Okay. Thank you. And my last question is page 40 of the the thing. And again, appreciate your responses. I am aware of a residential in Cababrio neighborhood that has an issue with hoarding problem, but the individual has gotten senior services protection from the county. How does it work when we have a problem site address and all of a sudden they have protection from the county for senior services? Whose authority rises to the top? Well, so for at least uh the purposes of going in with an inspection, are you going towards the the warrant portion? Forcing them to clean forcing them to clean up.

Um well, so we could not force them to clean up with an inspection warrant first. We need to go forward with an inspection warrant, receive details based off that inspection warrant if they are in violation from any section of our code. Um and if that ends up being the case, we can go forward separately with an abatement warrant. I think that's that's what you're getting at, I believe. Yeah. So that that is an option. Okay. Thank you very much. Again, thank you all from the attorney's office. I appreciate the work the city attorney's office is doing. Thank you.

Just a quick question, Mr. Gonzalez, and I think Council PLO um alluded to it as well. um if somebody is worried regarding gun violence restraining orders. If somebody is concerned about an individual's um current mental state or mental health um or their just general demeanor or even a person who's concerned about themselves, how do they initiate that process? Who do they contact? Is it Oxard PD or how how does someone start that process if they're concerned about someone who has access to firearms? From the city's perspective, we would have to go through the Oxford Police Department because there there is a small list of individuals that can move forward with a gun violence restraining order. One of them um is a law enforcement officer, but if you're asking separate from the city, there there is a laundry list of other individuals that can move forward, but the city's doing it. It has to go through the police department first.

Okay. Thank you. And so, um just wanted that for the public. If someone is concerned about somebody's um current state and they know that person has access to firearms, you know who it sounds like they should contact the police department to express that concern and that can they can evaluate that potential process. Is that right? Yes, that's correct. Okay. Thank you. Thank you, Mayor. Thank you, Mayor Port. Any other questions or comments? Okay. Thank you everyone from the city attorney's office. Thank you very much for this wonderful presentation. Um Alex, I'll turn it over to you next.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor. So, we did get u a bit of a late start. The city manager's department presentation takes an hour, but if I sit here, I'll get through it in 15 minutes. How's that?

Diego, can you bring up the slides, please? So, as a reminder, we've been conducting these series of departmental workshops, and we still have a few more to do uh to uh inform the the council and the public and and reinform of the essence of what our departments do. So, these are not meant to be uh detailed whatsoever. They're much too brief for that. So um like the majority of cities in California, we operate uh as a general law city under the council manager form of government. Almost all cities in California operate uh under these rules. So uh the our part of the ORC chart you can see here um we have uh one city manager, two assistant city managers and a deputy city manager. and we oversee almost all of the city's departments. Uh we have a city treasurer and a city clerk that um while the individuals are elected, uh the city manager is responsible for the staff um as part of the administration. So, I'm going I'm going to pause here and just give everyone a sense of all the work that's that happens and as you've been listening to these various workshops and all the departments. So, look at the um the departments we have here. housing, community development, police, human resources, finance in IT, public works, fire, cultural and community services. What does that say?

Communications

and disaster preparedness. I need more new glasses. So the just the um the amount of work every day on a daily basis in the city probably 10,000 actions whether it's a paper transaction an electronic one uh in-person um interaction with a member of the public uh business meetings what have you so many things happen on a daily basis to keep this city this town running um every day 24/7. And if you think about it, in other segments of of the community, a lot of these of these departments are their entire their entire lines of businesses on their own, whether it's a law firm, an engineering firm, a planning firm, an HR firm, a tech firm, an IT firm, and what have you. So the amount and the the the um diversity of the work that we perform for this city is pretty pretty extraordinary. And that all needs to be coordinated and they all have to collaborate. They all for the most part um have to share the same resources in order to get what they need to get done accomplished for this community. Um, and with with regard to our staff, the amount of training and experience and education and knowledge and wisdom they have is enormous uh when you add it all together. Um, so just I want you all to appreciate how much that happens. Um, but on day on a day-to-day basis, many of you and and many of us just focus on the issues of the of that

day. But remember in the background all this happens all the time. It's pretty it's pretty an amazing body of work that is collected into one organization. So what do we do? We oversee day-to-day. We do our best to implement uh the city council's policies and this is again all these workshops are designed to lead up to later the spring when we will be asking you to update the city council's priorities for the community. Of course, we manage the budget. Um, there is community business outreach. There there's a series of things we do working with our various partners both in the private sector and uh other institutions in the public sector. Couple things I want to highlight here in terms of um our responsibility over all the departments. Um is leadership that that is for any organization leadership is the most important thing more more so than technical expertise more so than education more so than training more so than everything. It's it's the the the rise and fall of any organization of any size comes down to leadership. And then my favorite area, landmine detection. And this is natural in an organization of this age. You're always going to find out uncover problems from the past uh some recent and some decades ago. And when you do, you simply have to address it head on. We also do the uh communications and marketing uh a series of community events, legislative services, neighborhood services, and a whole lot of project management. There's a whole list here. Uh as we stated in the video,

uh please look at this uh if you're interested, and you can um look at the the PowerPoint one slide at a time or in the video you can actually press pause. There's just a lot happening across the city. Many of these things um our office needs to coordinate uh and some of it is is interesting and a lot of fun. Uh some of it is uh quite boring but necessary. Uh but we have to do it all. Um this is interesting. I think most local governments have the same thing but that's the progression of our website. Um, so you can see most recently it's it's up to-date and modern like most cities. Um, but as you can see not long ago it looks like uh the original Craigslist. Crowded, cluttered, difficult to navigate. Uh, but making making progress. Um, there is actually new um, state law that has more demands on how our websites uh, need to interact for the public. So, we're going to get on top of those new requirements for this year. Um, increasing our traction on social media uh as much as we all love social media. It's a tool, so we try our best to use it as pragmatically as we can. Um, lots of highlights uh about what our office has been able to accomplish over the years. Again, just view this, hit pause. Um, many more uh some highlights of some of the large grants that we have received over the years to to add to the our local resources to provide programs and services for the community. Again, just so many to go into. Um, very proud of a lot of this work. Uh I hope

people will take the time to look at this to get a a bigger picture of everything that we do as a city here. And then of course we have a lot of challenges um um recently and ahead of us in the video. I actually tried playing that um that thinking music from Jeopardy, but it didn't record. Somehow the the YouTube gods knew uh not to play that music. So again, this is online. Um, please take your time and go through this. There's a lot. There's a lot. And these are just the highlights and that is to say there's there's always much much more. Um, and that's it. That was a fast one hour presentation. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. W. Any questions or comments? Madam Cler, do we have any public speakers on any of the appointment items? Um, mayor and council members, we do not have any public speakers for the appointment item in person or virtually. Thank you. Thank you, Madam Clerk.

Good evening, everyone. It's at this time that I want to call the meeting to order for the auctioner city council for Tuesday, February 3rd, 2026. Madam Clerk, may we have the roll call in posting of the agenda, please? Uh, council member Palo here. Councilwoman Perez here. Councilwoman Rodriguez present. Councilman Star here. Mayor Prompteran here. Councilwoman Basua here. Mayor MacArthur here. The agenda for this meeting was posted in the kiosk at city hall, the Oxar public library, the city administrative offices, and on the city's website on Thursday, January 22nd, and the amended agenda on Wednesday, January 28th. Thank you. Thank you, Madam Clerk.

Mayor, go ahead. Council member point of personal privilege. Is there a way to turn up the temperature a little bit? I'll turn it I'll turn I mean I'm seeing lots of other people here just freezing and I'm one of them as well. Yeah. Yeah. I I might take you up. I'll make that quick fix. Thank you. It's at this this time we're going to go to the pledge of allegiance and followed by a moment of silence. We'll take a moment of silence for today. We had the funeral services for our former commander um Scott Erand and council member. I know you mentioned another gentleman I think that passed as well. Bill Cherry.

Bill Terry. We'll take a moment of silence for Mr. Bill Terry um as well. And also we had another loss for from our police department. We'll take a moment of of silence for her as well. and I'll turn over for to you as well, Mayor Pertton, if you want to introduce the young lady. Yes, thank you, mayor. Uh we have Vanessa Via from the Boys and Girls Club of Greater Oxnard in Port Wayne who will be leading us in the pledge of allegiance tonight, followed by moment of silence, and then she will tell us a little bit about her journey. So, I'll turn it over to Messa.

Okay. Right hand over your heart, please. Repeat after me. I pledge of 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. May you may sit back down or was my former high school teacher was a longtime educator and also worked at the Austin Police Department as a second career. Then we just recently lost Miss Pamela Thornton also uh a longtime police employee tragically died from a medical condition recently and today we buried our commander uh Aaron uh Scott Aaron as well. as we here as I say we've been hit hard and also miss Mr. Terry as well. So we'll take a moment of silence for for them. Thank you.

Thank you everyone. Thank you.

Apologize Vanessa. We'll turn over to you. Thank you.

Okay. Hello everyone. My name is Vanessa Via. I am a member of the HHS Boys and Girls Club Teen Center. I am 18 years old and a member of the and a senior at Options for Youth Charter High School. I have been attending the Teen Center for over three years. And growing up, my parents divorced when I was just three. So, I grew up in two separate households and both my parents had to juggle multiple full-time jobs while raising my sister and I. My mom had us on the weekdays and she regularly worked the graveyard shift and would be incredibly tired during the day. Even then, she still made the effort to take my sister and I to museums, plays, and incredible road trips. My dad then had us on the weekends. He would also find the time to take us to the park even though he worked. My favorite part was playing tag. Even though they were great parents, it frustrated me that we couldn't just get along and be a united family. While other kids celebrated birthdays and Christmas with their whole families, my home was split in two. They told me it was amazing that I got to celebrate twice. But in reality, it was exhausting. I had to pretend that it didn't bother me that my family disliked each other so much. I had to pre pretend their hurtful words meant nothing. But it always did. I would hide my discomfort by cracking jokes and trying my best to make my family laugh. As I got older, I became more vocal about what I liked and disliked with the help of jokes. The older I got, the more difficult it was to fight and hide my depression and anxiety. Since I was getting older, my family just thought I was being a moody teenager. But in reality, I hated myself and I was angry. I remember my aunt would ask if I was okay when I would go quiet with when we were with family. She always stood up for me when someone would upset me and she taught me that

speaking up is the best thing to do for yourself and for others who don't have a voice. She helped me become that per the person I am today by carving a path for me. Anywhere she went, I was with her. We were very alike. So much so people assume we were mother and daughter. I loved how close we were. In 2019, I noticed a change in her. She was losing her vibrancy and at the same time, I was struggling to overcome the sadness that polluted my entire body. I was so confused when she started speaking the way I was thinking. May 7th, 2020. My mom came home sobbing that day. She was apologizing profusely to me. I was terrified because my mom never cried. The night before at 1000 p.m., my aunt had committed suicide. She told me my aunt's sister found her in the guest room with a gun in her hand. My heart broke. I didn't know she was doing that badly. And from that day forward, my depression just spiraled more out of control. After her funeral, I began to have nightmares. And they were so vivid and intense. I would wake up sobbing and covered in sweat. I dreaded having to sleep. To escape them, I wouldn't sleep endless nights, but that caused my anxiety to just worsen. My entire life began to deteriorate. I neglected school, my family, and myself. I didn't eat, nor did I leave my bed. My loneliness made me form hurtful habits to cope. My dad's side of my family would try to cheer me up, but they were also dealing with the grief of losing my aunt. It was hard for all of us. That was how I lived for a few years. But my mom never gave up. While searching for something to spark me back to life, she discovered the Boys and

Girls Club of Oxnard and Portimi. It was April 19th when I begged her not to take me. But I unknowingly began a new chapter in my life. And it is something I am internally grateful for. On my very first day, I was so anxious and terrified, but I also met my best friend, Ethan, as well as all the Boys and Girls Club staff. I felt myself slowly come back to life. I was making jokes again and connecting with everyone at the teen center. I felt my confidence gradually being restored. I can now work with others, make new friends, and participate in the programs. Opportunities open to me I never thought were possible. I filmed and volunteered for the ga for the gala, attended and was part of the Rose Parade, not once but twice, and I even became kindness ambassador of the year. I also won the 2025 Youth of the Year, which be which gave me a $10,000 college scholarship. I got to go to Sacramento to advocate for the Boys and Girls Club alongside my peers. I gave my speech and told my story at events just like this one. Although many opportunities were provided to me, I also wanted to make sure to give back to my community. In our kindness club, we hosted the kindness popup restaurant, which to this day I remember as one of my favorite days of giving back. My peers and I provided over a 100 meals for our community. I am forever grateful to not just the Boys and Girls Club, but also my mom who pushed me to do something new. And my teen center has taught me the importance of authenticity, empathy, kindness, and community. I don't even want to imagine where I would be if I never became a member. I want to take a moment to thank everyone at the Boys and Girls Club Teen Center, Lena, Alexis, Oscar, and even some of the members who helped me fight

against my depression in their own unique ways. And for that, I will forever be in their debt. I hope other youth and teens take the time to explore your nearest Boys and Girls Club because it is more than just an afterchool program. It is a lifechanging and a place that fosters growth, creativity, a sense of belonging and shared community. I want to thank all of you and our city council for allowing me to share my story today. Thank you. Thank you so much, Vanessa, for sharing and just an incredible journey and um it's always for me a reminder of the many young people out there who are facing so much and still stay resilient and find the people and the places and the programs that are offered through our community to help them through that. And I'm so grateful that you found that through Boys and Girls Club and through other family members and friends as well. And this is uh just this is just this point. Imagine the many many more things that you will do. So thank you so much. Um I'm wondering if you want to introduce the folks who are here with you this evening

today. Well, uh we have one of our CEOs, Aaron. We have Alexis. You know, just accompanying me to be here. So I don't I'm not here by myself. That's all right.

Yeah. They're really important people in our Boys and Girls Club and they help it run. Yeah. So, and before I turn it back to you, mayor, for the certificate, I'll just share, and I know that um the Boys and Girls Club staff are well aware of this, and I always appreciate the times we get to dialogue and collaborate on items, but uh when it comes to resiliency for young people, uh when young people have someone who genuinely cares for them and has a caring relationship, they have opportunities for meaningful participation and someone who has high expectations of them. The presence of those three things can just have help a young person overcome almost anything that they face regardless of background, home environment, community uh challenges, um personal history. Those three things from adults, especially multiple adults in your life and peers help you to be able to be able to withstand almost anything that's facing it. Sounds like that's what you've received and so thank you again for sharing that. So I'll turn over to the mayor who has something for you.

Yeah, Vanessa, I have a certificate. I I'm just very thankful to the Boys and Girls Club um for the profound impact they have on young people and certainly you're a model of resiliency, Vanessa. Um and I'm I'm just excited to see what your life ends up becoming. So, I've got a a certificate uh for you if you want to come up here and you're welcome to bring whoever you you'd like to come up here for some photographs. Yeah. And to recognize you formally. Thank you. Thank you so much.

for this next um item. This is the proclamation uh for Black History Month. If I can have the organizations that are present here to exceed to receive a proclamation. If you can just come up. Um this is a a time that is reserved. You know, look, I'm just so proud and honored to be here as the mayor of Oxnard proclaiming February as Black History Month. This is a time that we set aside to recognize as a community the profound contributions, the profound impact, and how significant they've been from our black community in shaping the history of our nation and our community. So, I'm just I'm just honored to present the various organizations with this proclamation. And February is a time that we can set aside to inform the rest of our community about the tremendous achievements that our black community has made. How you doing? Nice to see you. I'm doing good. That's too bad.

Nice to see you again, ma'am. How are you? Yeah. Hello, my friend. How are you? Vince, how you doing? Good. Hello, sir. Good to see you. How are you? Thank you. Hey. Yeah. Yeah.

Got it. I think we have all the organizations up here. Yeah, I know. I think we we're kind of please. Yeah. Yeah. Come on up. Yeah. We'll squeeze in here.

Yeah. Scoot on in, Michelle. Yeah. I'm just going to make some brief remarks and I'll hand it over to some of you if you if you you're certainly welcome to speak. Um I'm just honored to be here as the mayor of the city of Oxnard in this particular time. We we certainly know the um the pressures that our country is in in our community with the activity that we've seen in our nation. But to me to be able to sit here as I was signing the proclamations, it's I'm just honored to proclaim here in this city um February being Black History Month. It's a time that has been set aside to recognize the significant and profound contributions that our African-American community has made in shaping this nation and shaping our community. uh often time their history has not been told the way it should have been. Uh and I'm just so glad um that back President Ford I think early on back in 1926 then Harvard educated Woodson was the one that pushed for the black history to be recognized and it was formally recognized in 1976 by President Gerald Ford at the time here in the United States and in Canada. And here in our community, we certainly know the impact that our black community has made. So this is a time to really honor the history, the achievements of our black community from scientists, politicians, educators, and local leaders and the significance that they have made in shaping our community and our nation. So it really is my honor to present this proclamation proclaiming February is Black History Month. And February was, you know, it's not well, it's my birthday, too, in February, but I know I know it's the smallest month. Um, and I was at a comedy show and and they were talking about one of the black comedians. why February was being the shortest month. Uh so I did some

research and learned that February is because of Abraham Lincoln and also Frederick Douglas and that was why February was was selected as Black History Month. But thank you for allowing me to make this remarks and I will pass the mic over to any one of you that wants to to speak. You're right next to me if

Good evening. I am Sonia Akanti. the president of the local chapter of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Zicappa Omega Chapter, and it is a great honor and humility that I accept this Black History Month proclamation on behalf of our organization. This recognition is more than just a document. It's a living testament to the struggles, triumphs, and contributions of African-Americans throughout our nation's history. Black History Month was, as you said before, introduced a hundred years ago uh by historian and author Dr. Carter G. Woodson to recognize Black History as a week. So now we have a month. Um it reminds us that um reminds us of courage of those who came before us, the leaders, the visionaries, the and everyday individuals who paved the way for justice, equality, and opportunity. From the resilience of Harriet Tubman to the leadership of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and the countless unsung heroes in our neighborhoods, uh their legacies continue to guide and inspire us. So on behalf of our community, um this proclamation is also a call to action. It urges us to continue learning, uplifting, supporting one another so that the stories and contributions of black Americans are never forgotten nor confined to a single month but celebrated throughout the year. We have a same 365. On behalf of the community, I also want to give sincere thanks to the mayor to the um city of Oxnard for this meaningful recognition. Together, let us honor the past, embrace the present, and build a more inclusive and equitable future. Thank you.

Want to Here we go. Just want to say thank you to the city of Oxnard, to the city council, and to all the residents. Um, to me this is even deeper than uh what has been said. In other words, this shows that Oxnard includes us all together as one people. It's not necessarily Black History Month, but it's history. And so I see this as that. And on behalf of organizations that we all represent up here, we thank you for this honor. And I see this as an opportunity for us to continue to grow to develop synergy between all of our cultures and races. And that it's not again just, you know, you over there and us over there, but it's all of us together forging ahead to do something. And I just see a wonderful future for us in Oxnard. Hi, I'm Lisha White, uh the current president of the Ventura County Alumni Chapter of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority Incorporated. And I echo everything that has already been said, but you touched on something, mayor, when you said there's a lot of unsung heroes. And I'd be remissed if I didn't mention that our chapter has been serving Venture County for 45 years. and uh we're extremely proud of that and we want to continue to leave that indelible footprint within our community. So we serve this community and we're proud to be a part of a collection of or other organizations that do the same of like-mindedness. So on behalf of our organization and the ones represented on this stage and those that aren't, we also humbly accept this proclamation. Thank you. Hi, my name is Angela Landers. I'm the

one of the co-chairs along with uh Julia Dixon uh for Junth. And I want to thank the city of Oxnard for their support. I also want to make mention of our Juneenth celebration. Our 35th anniversary is going to be June 20th, 2026 and it's on a Saturday and we are looking for the community to join us in celebrating freedom. Um it's so much so relevant and um more so um during this time. So again, we appreciate the community's support, the mayor and uh the council, and we look forward to seeing our citizens of Ventura County um help us celebrate uh Junth. So again, June 20th, 2026. And I appreciate all our organizations up here uh representing the African-American community. So, thank you.

Anybody else want to say something? Okay. Yes, absolutely. I just want to announce on February 28th, we will hold the 40th African-American speech expo. It will be held at Thood Marshall High School at 100 p.m. Michelle, they're they're telling me to give it to you. Thank you everybody so much for this honor. Uh we appreciate it. We invite you to um join us in our upcoming celebrations uh this Saturday at the Museum of Ventur County. Uh there's an event, I think it's called Paint My History,

Paint My Story. Um there is also, as mentioned, the uh 20th Centurion Club uh WTON ball, annual WTO ball at the end of this month, Junth on June 20th. And um there will be a couple of elections this year too. So um yeah, don't forget to show up for those. June 2nd, November 3rd. And then if since I have the mic, I'm going to give a plug for the county clerk and recorders special Valentine's Day event next Saturday. Valentine's Day besides elections, we're also mostly known for weddings. And Valentine's Day is the busiest wedding day of the year. uh but it's on a Saturday and we figured let's open for a couple of hours so that we can uh provide that service for the community. It's an affordable wedding option just $60 and you get a beautiful ceremony. Uh but it is going to be one one group ceremony. So everybody's going to come in and we'll just marry them all at the same time. So thank you. I've got the proclamations up here if you haven't received one yet.

And then if you just screen, we'll take a photo. Anybody? Anybody else?

Yeah, they're all originals. All original. Anybody? We have three more. Any other missing one? Okay. Yeah. Yeah, these are all original. Well, I've got I've got two more. Yeah.

Who's this?

Okay. If you can lift the proclamations a little bit. Yeah. Cover your face. Here we go. And ready. No blinking on three. One, two, three. No blinking on three. One, two, three. Got it. One more.

Thank you. Thank you very much. Why don't you proceed partnership with Safe Families and Canadians? So, we're going to call um we're going to call up folks to receive the parent leadership month uh proclamation. So, the organization representatives from partnership for safe families and communities. And they're going to receive this proclamation um listed on February 2026. Parent leadership is an essential and effective means of strengthening families and preventing child abuse and neglect. And parent leadership is successfully achieved when parents receive support and training and shared responsibility, expertise, and leadership in the planning, implementation, oversight, and evaluation of policies, practices, and programs that affect families and communities. And whereas parents anonymous, Inc. was created, the National Parent Leadership Month celebration in February to recognize this extraordinary courage and tenacity of parents who have reached out to make improvements in their families and communities. And the city of Oxard recognizes the vital importance of parenting of partnering with parents and

assisting assist public systems and private organizations, policy makers and other key stakeholders to implement parent leadership strategies effectively. Whereas Ventura County parent voices has provided invaluable work in the community with the partnerships for safe families and communities. And whereas Ventura Countyy's parents white voices partners with the coastal tri counties and child abuse prevention councils to bring regional alignment that has been recognized by united parents interface human agencies kids and families together first five and my cop. Now therefore our mayor Lu MacArthur of the city of Oxnard does proclaim the month of February as parent leadership month. Let's give it up for big round of applause. Thank you so much. It is such an honor and we are very humbled to stand before you. Thank you, mayor, city officials, community members, and parents. Parents are at the center of leadership in our community. These are individuals who have dedicated their lives and their time to helping other families navigate our systems, navigate when times can be difficult, all families go through adversity. But our parent leaders have learned that they're going to take their rain and turn it into rainbows. They may have clouds, but they always have sunshine after. And they help other parents navigate our systems. This proclamation is more than just an award. It's a recognition that the city of Oxnard and Ventur County as a whole values the voices of parents with lived experiences and diverse ways that we've walked through our journeys and how we can help each other. When we listen to the voice of parents, our communities get stronger. And it's important that the parents who raise the children who become our citizens are united, standing strong, and helping each other to be safe, peaceful, and healthy. Thank you so much on behalf of the partnership for safe families and communities and our parent leader team.

Would you like to Leah? Would you like to say anything? Okay. All right. Thank you very much. I don't know where this picture.

Okay, there you go. Thank you very much. We will now move to uh the next item on the agenda. This is for public comments for items not on the agenda. And we have four speakers here. Madam clerk, do we have any online?

Um, mayor and council members, we do not have any um virtual speakers um for items not on the agenda. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you, Madam Clerk. We'll start with Mr. Pinto, followed by by Sarah, Pastor Greg Renan, and Larry Stein. Thank you, Dan.

Mayor, uh, council members, city manager and staff, Dan Penedo, Rio Lindo, uh, resident, not representing, uh, Rio Lindo today, just a a resident. Uh, the houses in North Axar, known as College Park, were built in the early 1950s. The streets are named after Ivy League colleges. When the houses were built, the land was in unincorporated Ventura County property. Later, the track was annexed by the city of Oxnard. During its early years, the traffic through the main thoroughfare comprising of St. Mary's Princeton Avenue, St. St. Mary's Drive, Princeton Avenue, Real Lindo Drive, Snow Avenue, and Gonzalez Road. The traffic was minimal. Uh, new housing developments were established in North O East Oxnard which have led to increased traffic on Gonzalez Road and Oxnard Boulevard. As the result of this increase, motorists have resorted to using Kalis Park Streets as a shortcut and uh to and from Gonzalez uh road and vineyard uh avenue. The speed at which they travel has led several has led to several accidents. In response to these accidents, Rio Lindo residents express their safety concerns to the city officials. In response, the city public installed double yellow lines which have helped. Uh pursuing further measures, residents along the thoroughare requested speed humps. In response to that request, the city of Oxnner completed the installation of speed humps on January 28, 26, 2026 along St. Mary's. I want to thank the city um the Oxnar public works department and the inst installation

crew for the work in installing the greatly needed safety devices. Uh I have sent photos to the Oxnar public works uh department officials and to the city manager. Uh most of all I want to thank the installation crew members Alex Alexander Hernandez, Eric Ortega, Federrico Melendez, John Bayz, Marco Tapia, and Santiago Padilla. You know, um quite too often we come up here to complain and request that the city do things for us, but very seldom do people come up here and thank you. So, I'm doing that not uh representing um a real Lindo, but as a resident, a real Lindo. uh and I spoke to several individuals there and they convey their um thank you uh uh to me. So I'm conveying theirs to to you also. I want you to consider uh uh installing

Thank you, Mr. Almanor also. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Pero. Thank you, Sarah. Thank you.

Good evening, Mayor MacArthur and city council and city staff. I am going to keep this brief. I just wanted to update you guys on the statistics for the kidnappings of undocumented people in the 805 area code. We have had 1,571 kidnappings in Ventura County, 834 and in Oxnard, 144. Uh these numbers are not necessarily where they are residents of but where they have been kidnapped from and um they keep growing. So thank you. Thank you Sarah. Pastor Greg Renan,

mayor, uh, council members, um, we had an an incident at our church, uh, a few weeks ago where, uh, someone came in and they were in a mental health crisis. And fortunately, um, I've had a little bit of training in that and then a lot of life experience being in prison for 10 years, um, having to deal with with people. And so, we got through that. But then I I started thinking and and even hearing Sarah when she talked and and I'm going to say some things, but I think it's really important for some of you in in leadership. Uh, we all have a right to protest. We all have a right to use language. We also though have a right to worship and when they collide leadership's going to be important because I being blunt like people have a right to stand up say what they want to do. That's freedom of speech. You do not have freedom of consequence. And we are starting to live in a world where we're telling people say what you want to say because you have that right. But you also have to understand people have the right to disagree. People have the right to assemble. And I am telling you I have the right as a pastor in our church to to believe that in my exercising my right that does not give you the right to express your views to where conflict becomes whatever. We have to learn how to get along to resolve and to do conflict without whoever agitates the most wins. That's not what this country ever was founded on.

And right now we live in a world where most of us don't like the way things are being done. The way to resolve those is not by agitating more. It's by protesting smart. It's by worshiping smart. It's by living smart. I believe with all my heart that we've got to figure out how to help one another, not hurt one another. And as leaders, some of you are going to have to do things that you may not personally agree with, but that protect the rights of others. And right now, we're living in a world where, you know, if I want to protest and shut down a street, that's okay. Forget all the people that are driving who have nothing to do with it. But it's okay to do that because I'm expressing my right. Well, people have a right to drive. People have a right to travel. People have a right to shop. And we've got to figure out how to protect the rights of all of our citizens, not a few. Thank you.

Thank you, Pastor Mr. Larry Stein. Good evening, Mr. Mayor. Good evening,

members of staff, public. My name is Larry Stein. I live in Ox. I've lived in Oxide since 1988. Last Wednesday, I attended in person a parks and recreation CAG meeting. And there's a presentation by staff on completion dates of projects. Staff handed out present handed out material to the TAG members but not make available to to the public those documents. I've requested those documents and have not received them. These documents were the uh preliminary suggestions for the capital improvement project for parks and recreation. I'm sure there are over 100 projects in there. The public has a right to review these documents to make comments as to what they think are good projects, not bad projects or projects that deserve that deserve attention. The fact that staff refuse to make these documents available speaks of uh credibility of staff making an open and transparent government. I request I be able to see these documents because we're not posted on the agenda. The agenda was not available to be the agenda was downloaded but there's no link to a PDF for those documents. Again, this is the open transparent government that we live in. Thank you very much.

Thank you, Mr. Stein. Madam clerk, are there any other speakers? Uh, mayor and council members, that concludes our speakers in person and virtually for items not on the agenda. Thank you. Thank you, Madam Clerk. The next item on the agenda is item H. This is the report from our city manager, Alex Mun. Go ahead, Mr. One.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Just a couple of quick things this week. Diego, can you bring up the deck? Okay. Well, it's that time again. This is what you call a good problem to have. Uh we are experiencing another weed super bloom. This is due to many, many days of good grain this winter. Again, it's a good problem to have. Uh we will be chasing down the weeds around the city as fast as we can. So uh we say be vigilant and let us know by utilizing the 311 app, but also be patient. Um we can only get to so much at a time. It's still fun uh how people pile into their cars to drive to the hills to see weeds on the hills, but they complain about the ones in town. But this is again a good problem to have because that means we had good rain this year. Next uh this is our finance department and they have recently received another certificate of achievement for excellence in financial reporting presented by the government finance officers association. Uh look at that group. What an exciting group of people and led by their fearless leader El Matador. There he is. Is he here?

Oh well he's watching. Okay. And then uh two more quick things. We had an interesting committee meeting this past week about the whistleblower program that uh came up. Uh some interesting discussion came up. So we will that's actually going to be on the agenda I think at the next council meeting. So we'll address um come full circle with that conversation. And then just one random uh fact uh related to Black History Month. Recently, Denise Graves uh retired. And if you don't know who she is, she is um one of the if not the most prominent African-American opera singers of um our current generation and she recently retired. So, I regret not ever having the opportunity to see her live, but you can see plenty of her performances online. That's it. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Wayne. We'll now move to reports from our city council members. Um we'll start to my left with councilwoman Perez if you have anything to report.

Thank you, mayor. Um just a recap and report of all the activities that have been um that are continued to be working that I'm continuing to work on. Um as well as some of the updates on some of the meetings I've had. Um, I've had the opportunity to meet with staff to discuss um, crossrock improvements at Hox Elementary. I know there's quite a bit of a need there in terms of lighting and wanting to just make sure that um, there are safe access points for not just the children there, but also the the community overall. Um, similarly, I participated in the last South Winds meeting and had the opportunity to speak with community members directly about some of the updates and areas of improvement. There is going to be a community meeting that is happening in South Winds scheduled. Um I believe we're we're looking to modify the dates because um there's many we want to just be mindful of the workers there and particularly they oftent times are available on Sunday. So more details to follow. Um we initially had the date scheduled for Saturday but based off of some of the feedback there from community and wanting to make sure there's enough participation and community input about some of the improvements that are coming there. We're looking to modify our schedule um for an upcoming Sunday, perhaps at the end of February. So, we'll definitely um outreach that out to the community um once the dates in once the date and location is solidified. Um I also wanted to thank council member Pllo. I was unable to attend the Blackstock neighborhood council meeting. Um I was at another commitment um with the city um leading a meeting there and could not um be present. And so a lot of the feedback that came out of that really just appreciate um the support there. Um

in light of MLK, I had the um opportunity to speak at the MLK event hosted by our CCS team and really highlighted the power of interracial solidarity, especially with some of the impacts that we're seeing right now in our community. um and the importance of really um having a unified front in in making sure we acknowledge the safety and protection of of all of our community members here. Um I also wanted to share that I spoke at the World Wetlands Day and also participated in the cleanup at Ormon on Perkins and wanted to thank our um community leaders including coastal keepers, city corps and all of the volunteers that continuously show up. It's more than just a world wetlands cleanup. I know they are frequently having events throughout the year and um really couldn't do it without them. I know it took a a group of of community members who um you know took it upon themselves to continue to protect um and and preserve a lot of the natural landscape in our community. Um, as a part of some of the updates I shared in my last report, um, one of my biggest commitments is to have conversations um, with a lot of our school points of contacts. Um, a lot of our young people that are navigating through um, city hall or family members that are navigating through city hall are oftent times in our school systems. And so, um, I have a couple of meetings scheduled with additional, um, administrators and principles in my district. And out of that, um, I was invited to participate in Elm School's elementary spelling bee and also got to serve as a judge and really excited to see two students advance to the Oxnard School District um, spelling bee. This Saturday, we are

going to be having a cleanup at Cardi Park at 8:00 a.m. So, if anybody's interested in coming out and um participating, we'll definitely be there. Our staff will be there. Unfortunately, I won't be able to be there in person because I'm going to be traveling for work, but um definitely wanted to take the time to um share with the public to come out and volunteer. and I share all of these updates just as a form of transparency on a lot of the things that are happening outside of just our meetings here. And um and I'll hand it back to you, Mayor. Thank you, Councilwoman. Uh Council Member Pillo,

I'd like to thank the members of the public that spoke tonight. Um I had the opportunity with the mayor to attend a very solemn funeral service for former commander for the Oxnard Police Department. a tremendous event, extremely impacting the um things that have been happening. I the mayors of the cities of a the mayors of the cities of Ventura County elect various individuals to serve on organizations and u I'm fortunate that I was elected to be the representative for the cities on LFCO and I was elected to be the alternate representative for the Fox Canyon organization. Uh coming up there is a u five neighborhood council meetings. One at River Park, February 11th, 6 o'clock at Rio Vista. Cababrio neighborhood February 11th, same date, 6:30 at Emily Richen. Via Marina, February 12th, 6:30 Christine Mclliff School, Rose Park, February 12th, 7:00 Rose Avenue School, and February 19th, C View One Monsoria School. All of these meetings are public. If you look on the city's website, you can find these. There are some tremendous presentations at some of these meetings, you can go and you can learn something. At a recent presentation of the Wilson Neighborhood Council, there was an issue that came up having to do with waste and how the waste is handled and some of the ramifications that the city of Oxnard is under because of the state mandates with respect to trash. It was a warm, heated discussion. the city staff did a great job in making the presentation. I was grateful that I was there along with Mayor Pro Tim. Um there's an opportunity for people to learn more than just watching a city council meeting. You can get out sometimes, you know, we work and things, but if there's something that you find on that agenda, get a weekly packet. You can subscribe to it. It's free. City

doesn't sell your website address, your email address, but you can get the information and you can learn something straight from the horse's mouth. There's no threeminut time limit. Thank you very much, Mayor. That's all I got. Thank you, council member. Mayor Protown.

Thank you, Mayor. Um, councilwoman, I was actually in the spelling bee when I was in fourth grade and I placed third. uh you don't get a trophy or a ribbon or anything for third, but I will never forget how to spell the word trombone after that. So, um, I have a couple of quick updates here and, uh, Councilwoman Perez had mentioned it as well that, uh, we had our first official meeting with the Voices of Oxnard Youth on January 21st and that was the convening of the group and really doing some brainstorming on what those young people see as issues that uh, they face in 2026 um, in the city of Oxnard. And from there, we will look at different ways that they would like to try and highlight or address some of those issues that are brought up. And there's also a um a city effort that uh they wanted to take on that I invite the public to stay tuned on because it'll be uh a really great addition I think to how we recognize the city of Oxnard. Um, I also later that week ended up getting the flu that's going around and I encourage people to remember to rest and get a lot of fluids. I am someone who is always going and I just it wiped me out and so because of that I had to miss the South Bank Neighborhood Council meeting. Um, but I appreciate that they had the meeting and there was a number of uh important items including the fire department being there and so just want to thank them for holding that and I apologize I was unable to attend. Plus, that night I had to figure out how do I go to South Bank and go to Rio Lindo's neighborhood council meeting in the same night, but there I didn't go to either of them. So, I guess that's that's how that worked out. As council member Pllo mentioned, I also attended the Wilson neighborhood council meeting. I just want to give a congratulations to their new executive board. They had an election meeting and had a number of new people come on board uh on that executive um executive function to be able to help plan out and guide what's happening within that neighborhood

council. And um councelor Prelo also mentioned that next week on February 11th, River Park will have their neighborhood council meeting. I just want to share that um some good news. The fountain at Central Park in River Park is once again operational and if folks want to go check it out, they can see that it is uh working and being tested and uh in in operation. Uh the fence is still around it temporarily while some trenching and uh some uh Edison um last items have to be buttoned up, but the fence will come down as I understand by the end of this week and then folks can take a look at that uh once again functional um addition and amenity in River Park. And my last item here um earlier this evening we had two really important u ceremonial items and the um parent leadership as Dr. Van Antanorp had mentioned uh very important because there are many parents out there especially in communities like Oxnard who face a number of challenges and hardships throughout their young adulthood and and adulthood let alone the layer of having to raise kids, navigate um paying for housing, uh go to work, sometimes multiple jobs and that lived experience uh can lead to leadership when given the the right opportunities and I just want to acknowledge that. But the other thing too here is around uh Black History Month and what the mayor had mentioned and the speakers had mentioned absolutely correct that the history that uh the African-American community has contributed to this nation, this community, communities all across the United States and around the world um must be highlighted and recognized. But we have to not only continue to recognize and honor that, but I personally believe we have to remember to call out and resist active efforts

that are looking to erase that history or change that history of the many contributions that black people have contributed to this nation and communities all across. And so, um, I hope that folks will continue to not only honor, recognize that, but also push back and resist the efforts that are actively happening now to erase that or change that history. So, um, I just wanted to take a moment to recognize that. And thank you for the extra time, mayor. Thank you, Mayor Bart. Absolutely. Councilwoman,

thank you. Um, I I just want to take the opportunity to thank our public works team um on their communication this morning. woke up to a main water line break on Pleasant Valley and Squires and noticed it right away at 6:00 in the morning when the water pressure was non-existent. Um, but as soon as I looked at my email, there was notice from the city and just the communication at that time in the morning is just amazing. So, I want to make sure that, you know, we go ahead and um we had one of our speakers say today, we always talk about the negative, but we never talk about the positive. And we're doing really good things, great things here, and our staff is to be commended. So, thank you.

Thank you, Councilwoman. Council member.

Yes. Since our last meeting, uh I attended a couple neighborhood council meetings, Riolindo and L Colonia. And as has been noted already, there'll be the Rose Park Hamburg Council will be taking place on the on the 12th of February. I'll be in attendance there. Um, couple things happening kind of service related, I'd say. U gentleman by the name of uh Colin Brazzo was asking if I could write a letter recommendation for him so that he could become an officer either in the army or the Air Force, which is what his dream is. He's very patriotic man who has always dreamed of being uh in the military. So I I wrote that letter and I hope that uh it hope it get hope it works. Uh bringing up I want to thank the speakers today. U I I I do hope somebody can from staff can talk to uh Mr. Stein and find out what it is that he's looking for as far as the CIP projects. uh if these are public records, which I assume they are, I think he should be able to see them. So, I'm hoping that we'll be uh that will be given to him for uh quickly. Um I've had a complaint uh from I think several of us had the same complaint from uh Mr. Castillo, Edward Castillo. Uh he was uh this was the the day we had protesters at uh Five Points and he was trapped in his vehicle at Five Points and he was very upset that he felt that uh we didn't do enough to protect the public. Uh I I I think people have certainly absolutely have a right to protest and we should defend that. But I think we also need to recognize that we shouldn't protest in a way that actually interferes with people's rights. So I do

not know what Oxar PD's rules of engagement are when protesters are are violating the law. I assume it's a very complex situation because you want to kind of like not fan the flames, but at the same time uh we need to figure out a way to defend the rights of of others who are directly impacted by that. if if they're setting off fireworks in the middle of the street and they're blocking traffic. Um, lastly, I I I do have a request uh regarding how we handle dog barking incidents in this uh city. I' I've I'm aware of of one situation where neighbors two neighbors of a dog of an incessant docking barking dog. I've complained to the city and it seems like I haven't heard if there's been any action as a result of that. And I I think that you know that's it's been you know I think we need to take it a little more seriously. I noticed I know that police have competing re you know competing demands on their time but you know at some point when you've got a dog barking incident which is going on for months and months and months at some point I think it really needs to be addressed. So I'm hoping that we can make some progress in that area and if if we need to revise our ordinances in any sort of way we should look at that. But from what I can see today um under our existing ordinance u there's a particular procedure that we need to follow where we have a hearing officer and basically we you have to tell the the person who whose dog is having an issue. Um there there's a process but I I'm I'm concerned that we don't even follow the existing process. So I'm hoping that staff can look into that. Thank you. Thank you, council member. Thank you,

councilwoman.

Yes. I think uh my three main updates are I attended the Wilson neighborhood council and I appreciate the other two council members who were also there, Mayor Prom and Council Member Pereel. Um there was an excellent presentation by environmental resource department and like um Mr. Pillo shared there was a a lot a very rich conversation about um just properly sorting our trash and uh I hope that the the representative who was there from environmental resources could go and do the same presentation in other areas as well because it was very informative for me and many people in the room. They also established an ad hoc committee to work with city staff and code enforcement for Christmas tree lane. So, I look forward to progress over the next few months uh to have a more favorable Christmas tree lane experience for all. I also attended the Kamala Neighborhood Council and um there was great conversations uh about uh just water and where we're getting, you know, our water as a city and um the chair is doing an excellent job there trying to get more people getting civically involved, civically engaged. Um, last but not least, I want to remind folks that I'm going to have my office hours at the library, um, 11 to 1:00 p.m. at the Oxard Public Library on A Street. So, feel free to come and talk to your council woman, District 4. And, um, I know that I've had different community members ask about an update on our our water issue for the main uh, the water main that was broken. I believe the last I heard was Thursday. There should be uh, the the road should be back in operation. Um, Pleasant Valley. I forgot the cross street, but um yes. So um yes, uh feel free to reach out to us and we'll give as many updates as we have. So thank you. Or if somebody can speak to that, that'd be great.

Yeah. Thank you, Councilwoman. I will just close uh with, you know, I always stay very busy. I've got um I'm very accessible, so I deal with um engaging with a lot of our community members in my office quite readily and assisting them where I can on various issues. So, I I continue that practice. But just some of the major highlights for me, um several members of staff, including um our city manager, Mr. Wyn, attended with me where I was recognized by the West West Ventura County Business Alliance. I was given the uh chair award of excellence for my commitment for working with small businesses and bringing small businesses businesses into our city. Uh you may see me often times at ribbon cutings, but it's not just showing up for a ribbon cutting. It's everything that leads to that. It's enticing businesses to come to our city to invest in our city and then helping them uh with their permit process so they can open up timely recognizing that they make tremendous contributions and investments to try to open up a business in our city. So I'm grateful for that and I'm grateful for the um our city staff and being digent um and progressive in trying to get these businesses open timely. And so I was recognized for my efforts uh with that and also for you know working with the Wester County Business Alliance as well as well as with the lodging association. We were successful in bringing in KC current is the Kansas City Current uh girls pro team that is staying at the Stbridge Hotel right now and they're infusing about $200,000 just in hotel fees. I mean hotel costs. uh this is one of the the times for the hotel industry where they it's the lowest u it's the season and so we're just so glad that uh Casey Kern is here decided to have their training session here members of that team they've got I think three girls that play in the US national team so it's great to have them here recognizing how big we are as a soccer community not

only here in the city but for the entire region and if you drive through there you'll see that the field has never looked better um and they're telling me they invested about $90,000 and on their end, not not us, on their end to try to rehabilitate that field. So, uh, if you drive through through there on Vineyard, you'll see looks it looks beautiful. Um, and now we just have to maintain that for the Dallas Cowboys that will come during the summer. So, I'm really proud that we were able to get them here. And then I'm continuing with my efforts to beautify this city. As uh you'll see out here when you drive out or walk out, you'll see the beautifully trimmed palms and uh trees and as well as the landscape that is being uh put in right now at the Ox Police Department here at city hall in front of the library just makes this city look beautiful. And I'm glad to to see that in engaging with other private businesses, they're also participating in beautifying our city. You'll see that St. John's Hospital has now trimmed their palms as well. So I think collaboratively we can all contribute to make our city look that much that much better. Um I was uh I worked with the Mexican consulates officer to bring Lucha Libra here at the uh at the Elks Lodge which I think is great. Uh it supports the Mexican tradition. It brings in tourism as well and it's a great entertainment for a local community. So I'm glad to see that we were able to to get them uh here. Also, I made various uh presentation of our at some of our local high schools uh engaging with young students about what's happening here in our city and city government as well as what's happening in the state and nationally. So, I'm always um I'm always excited to to go and speak in in in these classrooms. I also spoke at the uh at the Chamber of Commerce uh business um to the business group and to their community for for their leadership program here at at council chambers. also met and attended a conference for the coalition for family harmony. Uh they're here in RC in the north end and learn more about what they're doing. Uh they used to be formerly the coalition

to end domestic violence. So I know the important work that they do. Uh also was able to participate with food share. Food share is expanding uh to accommodate the the needs of our city and our in our region. Um they're investing about $50 million to expand to be able to have more refrigeration and just a bigger warehouse. and it's going to happen right here in our city. Um, so they're going to break ground here in 2026 and hopefully aim to be uh for that project be completed in 2028. And also I just got word as you know I'm very big on bringing more and more activities to our city festivals etc. Uh met with the organizer for the ceviche festival that uh has been historically held in Ventura. Uh he and I just spoke this morning. We've been working with the harbor trying to get that festival here and so we secured a date and the location will be at the harbor and that'll happen in August. So that's great for us. U it it just to just constantly have our city be a hub of activities for entertainment uh for our community members also to bring in tourism so everyone can see what a beautiful city we have. Um and the last I know we talked about it here. I just you look I just want to praise our police chief. Um, this gentleman has endured so much here recently. We talk about the federal activity that's been occurring here in our city and and the response by his police department to address that very delicately with protesters and also ensuring protecting our community and and navigating the very delicate balance um to not collaborate with eyes but also the responsibility to protect our community and having to shoulder the amount of just deaths that we had in our police department starting from Sergeant Joe Bentley. uh who tragically passed away. Um as a matter of fact, Commander Scott Iron was supposed to spearhead uh that funeral and here he died uh during training in

Orange County and this police chief has had to shoulder that. And then Miss Bleti, uh, a longtime educator here in our city. Uh, she was my teacher at Channel High School when I was a junior, uh, there. And then she took on a second career working initially as a volunteer, then a police department employee for 19 years. And here she died. And then a sudden death of our community service officer, Pamela Thornton. uh she was here not too long ago negotiating u as a steward for SEIU and and trying to push for that contract as a longtime city employee and this police chief has had to endure all of that having to be a UC at USC medical center having to speak this morning at the funeral and it's just a lot for an executive leader to take on so we should like really praise him for the efforts that he is doing and all that he has to shoulder um certainly he has to take care of himself uh so I just want to tell you what a remarkable job he's doing. Um, and we should just recognize that. Um, sometimes silence is doesn't say a whole lot, but I I know that he's taken on a lot and he's leading this police department in the right way. So, I just want to just highlight that his efforts. Um, and I I'll conclude with that. And I think we do have one speaker on on this item, Mr. Andress. Come on up.

A couple of things. First, I wanted to let our uh ever questionable city manager know that the difference between weeds growing in the hills and weeds growing in the city. In the hills, we go to see them because they're beautiful and part of our ecosystem. In the city, when they grow up between cracks in the pavement and in fields like Campus Park, Excuse me. Address the mayor, please. That's how you're supposed to address the mayor. Mr. I can address whoever I'd like. No. Yeah, I can.

I'm not going to. uh like Campus Park, which is now about four to five feet high with weeds. It's very different than going to the hills to see the beautiful weeds and flowers that grow there. Thank you, Erin, for bringing up the dog barking issue. This This is me. This is my complaint. When we moved here almost six years ago, the dog barking was already in place. My partner who died in 2023 suffered from pulmonary fibrosis. And every night that he went to bed, he was afraid that he was not going to be able to sleep because he was afraid he wouldn't wake up because he would stop breathing. That dog would bark oftentimes all night long. All night long. I started filing complaints with this city in December of 2021. I've sent five to six videos of this dog barking incessantly for hours at a time. I don't send hours of video, but I send you cl glimpses of this dog going on and on and on. Just the other night, the dog was out there for five hours barking. I don't know how it has a voice after all this time. I have sent complaint after complaint after complaint to this city. As of October 21st, I received an email from Rocky Marquez, Fermine Hernandez, Corbin Hayes, Jose Silva, Dale McCalpine, and Jason Bonitz, all copied on it, including all of you on the city council about this ongoing dog barking issue. In that email, they say, I say, still happening, barking all the time. And Ferine writes back and says, complaint received. We will address the issue. It's still not addressed. The dog is still barking. I know this isn't an issue of people getting out and protesting in the streets. It's not that important. But it's it's invading my peace and quiet in my home. I cannot live peaceibly when this dog barks for hours and hours at a

time. And don't get me wrong, I love dogs. I'm a big dog lover. But I cannot fathom why this city and this chief sits and lets this dog continue to bark and doesn't send somebody out to take care of it. What is going on? And why do you all there all of you except for Aaron sit there and allow it to happen? None of you are intervening. None of you. Thank you, Erin. Thanks, Mr. Andrew. Mr. understand. I don't know if you want to speak on this item or was it on the keg item that's coming up? Okay, sounds good. Madam clerk, are there any other speakers?

Um, mayor and council members, that concludes our speakers. Thank you, Madam Clerk. Where are we?

Yeah. Okay, sounds good. Thank you for bearing with me. I just turned the wrong page. Uh, next item is from the city clerk department. Subject is the appointment of myself, the mayor, to the regional defense partnership. The recommendation is that the mayor with the approval of my colleagues at city council appoint me to represent the city of Oxnard on the regional defense partnership otherwise known as RDP. Uh this item did not originate in committee. Do any council members have any questions of staff on on this item? May no. Okay. Any public comment? Oh yes.

I I just want to thank you for taking that on. it's been really hard for me to attend any of their meetings. So, um you'll get to go to DC if that's what you wish to do with the group and um if you've never been to the Pentagon, that's a great experience. So, um thank you. Thank you, Council Council Pasu.

Just to share with the public, I've already been attending um these meetings. I know there's another one coming up this this Friday as well. And so I have readily engaged with the base and and the captain uh and and others involved including Supervisor Kelly Long as well and and so I I I'm certainly very enthusiastic and motivated to be part of this this program. And I know it's been a challenge for you, Councilwoman Basua, because of your day job and everything else. So I'd be happy to take this on. So mayor, I I read the report and it was at the request of Miss Basua. Um I'd like to move the recommended action. Actually, the ch mayor has to move it. Oh, you have to move it then I'll second. Thank you. I'll move it. You second. Wonderful. Mayor discussion. Yeah.

Yeah. I I just would like to ask a little bit more about the uh this entity. My understanding is I think it was formed years ago when they were talking about, you know, base closures and that sort of thing and how to combat that. But I'm I was curious that out outside of that issue, what what does this actual regional defense partnership do and how how do how do we benefit from that? Just one, go ahead.

So the the regional defense is you're right, it was formed in order to try to protect the base from closing. We no longer have that issue. Um but there are issues within inside the base that this group advocates for. Um and they have monthly meetings where different partners from the base report to the group and then they they do have an exe executive director that is paid. Um that executive director um looks at everything, puts together a plan for lobbying. We do have a lobby. The group has a lobby um company in DC that lobbies for, you know, what it is that the group wants to lobby for. And there's an annual trip to DC um to meet with um military personnel

in regards to, you know, whatever the concerns are within that year. Have you found this to be a worthwhile uh organization? Do you think do you feel like a lot gets accomplished? That's a loaded question. It was meant to be.

That that's that's really a loaded question. It's, you know, it's um there is great information coming from the group as far as the economy and the services. Um but we as civilians have little to no power. Um, all we can do is just like anything else is lobby for what we think is right. Um, but I' I've learned by being there that, you know, um, we're not military experts. The military is there to protect our national interest. And we might think that, for example, electricity is very important, but in their eyes, buying that missile is more important. So whatever you know is going on locally, there's national issues that are more important to you know and there security issues. So sometimes those

those do take president over whatever it is that what's going on here. It and what what I've seen myself if I can just add and I know the city manager also can chime in here but what I've seen myself which I think is a value is the networking that's going on. the the base is the biggest employer here in Ventura County and one of the things for example is they're coming into our city uh and they're going to meet with our local vendors, local businesses because there's a lot of contracts the base gives out and so I see there's a tremendous benefit for us here locally. Go ahead, Mr. Wood.

Sure, I can add to that. So first of all their their primary objective um has been successful for this community because on the brack list around around the country in the world that there were bases that were closed. So from that perspective and and I can only imagine I can't speak for them of course but I can only imagine if you're looking at through their lens that's always a cloud hanging over. Um, but I I've recently met with the the current director who who um I I believe he's filling in until they go and seek a more long-term director to replace the prior director.

So, there are, as Councilwoman Bassou states, there are macro issues about the base that in many ways are beyond us. But as the mayor brings up, uh there are a lot of people that um besides for being a part of this regional community, there are lots of people who also live here in Oxnard. And there are many many uh different lines of business at the base that are civilian-based. So, one of the discussions we're we've been trying to have with them is when they are looking to hire civilians, can they focus on Oxnard College rather than fly over straight to Morark College, which is what they've been doing? And understandably um when when we discuss how many of the people who work at the base live in Oxnard, my follow-up question is well how many of those people were hired from Oxnard and that's a much a much larger gap. So we are making an effort to go through this civilian group to realign how they create recruit especially civilians how they recruit civilians and how they can provide the training and I know the port is also getting involved through their logistics program. So, we want to offer training for our residents uh coming out of our school system to have a fair opportunity to to have a shot at um many of the very very good civilian jobs at the base. again uh they for for very valid reasons they've always flown over us to go to more park college and other colleges and universities and places to recruit people who do who end up possibly living

right here in Oxnard. So there's there's a a very um I have an optimistic outlook about helping with the the realignment so that they're tapping into local talent and our residents can benefit. Yeah. Thank you. And just to add, I was just looking at my notes from and I misspoke. It's not on Friday, it's on Thursdays.

Yeah. Uh it's every Thursday of the month. So I'll be going this Thursday. From my notes from last month's meeting, uh the the presentation included the economic impact and they contribute to the region uh 4 bill600 million and they employ 24,000 employees, most of them coming from Oxnard. Active duty is only 4,621. So the active duty number is very very small. the majority who make up the those employer in the military base are civilians and most are here from this city. So this I think there's tremendous value in networking. As I mentioned, one of the conversations we had is to bring an event here to the OPAC where they will uh engage with local vendors, local businesses to try to uh let them know about the various contracts that are available inside the base because often times a lot of these vendors come from outside this this area in this region when a lot of the providers, a lot of vendors are right here that may just not know about these business opportunities. Yeah, mayor. Uh u council member PL and I attended a presentation by uh Chancellor Mlennon I think is his last name who's you know with the Ventur County Community College District and uh Dr. Mc Mlennon spoke extensively about how they're working with the base trying to match the education that's being given to students with the skills that are are are required there and it sounds like they've made a lot of good progress there. So I would definitely encourage people to reach out to the community college district if that's something that uh you know if this is something they have in mind for their future.

Absolutely. And the uh the chancellor is part of part of this uh this program. I saw him there uh several times. Go ahead, Mayor Port.

Thank you, Mayor. Thank you for highlighting those um numbers. I had them here on my screen as well. and um 24,000 employees among the uh bases and um many civilian and contractor jobs and as was mentioned generates $4.6 6 billion annually to the regional economy. And having all those things in consideration, um I also uh for a time did serve on the uh regional defense partnership um prior to Councilwoman Bassua and um I appreciate the questions that uh council member Star brought up uh because these are questions that have lingered with me since my time there and when I was asked to be reassigned and Councilwoman Basua was able to um be assigned to it as well or to be appointed. And since that time, um, you know, I I appreciate the the discussions and the um the intent behind what the the group is doing in uh trying to bolster the community benefiting in some way from the presence of the naval bases. Um, as our city manager mentioned, um, I personally believe that, uh, there needs to be some more intentional efforts to show how the city of Oxnard benefits and how the residents of Oxnard benefit from the existence of this partnership. And so, I have no doubt that you will represent us well if appointed, mayor. Uh, at this point, um, I would like to see what the RDP group is going to do to step up their efforts to have Oxnard residents benefit from the the positive outputs that they say that the bases are

giving and to the region. Um, so until that time, I'm not going to support this item only out of um my desire to see more come from those efforts. Uh, how are how is Oxnard and its residents going to benefit and I appreciate you stepping into the role and I'm sure you'll represent us well. But that's my stance this evening for this item. Thank you. I appreciate Proman understood. Thank you. Um, I move the item second by uh, councilwoman. Is there further discussion? If not, call for the I'll second your motion. Thank you. Okay. All right. So, I think we've got enough support here now, Madam Clerk, if I can call for the vote.

Uh, Councilwoman Pettis, no. Um, Councilwoman Rodriguez, yes. Council member Star, yes. Mayor Prompteran, no. Councilwoman Basua, yes. Council member Palo. Yes. Uh, Mayor MacArthur. Yes. And the motion carries 5 to two. Thank you. Thank you, Madam Clerk.

We'll move to the next item on the agenda. This is item I2 from the city clerk. Appointment of members to serve on the city's citizens advisory group. The recommendation is that the mayor with the approval with the approval of city council appoint Brian Landers to the measure O citizens oversight committee as an atlarge member and also appoint Anna Maria Van Hovind to the mobile home park rent review board as an atlarge member. This item did not originate committee. Uh do any council members have any uh questions of staff on this recommendation?

If there are no questions and no public speakers, I'll move the recommended action. Mr. S, do you want to speak on this item or the you Okay, then. Uh, come on up. Mr. Stein,

Mr. Mayor. Yes, sir.

Uh, members of city council, staff, I was asked by a member one KAG, the parks and recreation KAG to apply for that position back in July. I submitted an application and for those who weren't at the meeting two weeks ago with the mayor, the mayor was told me that he'd been re he' been informed that I might not pass the background the background check. Now, this is even before my application even been approved. And so, one direction the staff tell the mayor that it may not pass a background check. I I do have a temper. I've been known to raise my voice on more than one occasion and I recognize that. But this is the park and recreational KAG. I've been asked again by the chairman of the KAG to be a member of this. I've known two three members of the KAG and went to the meeting last week and saw the staff report that it was not made made a a cop was not made available to members of the public who attended the meeting. Again, that speaks of the attitude staff has towards members who the staff may not like. And that gives me an impression that I'm left with and like to share that impression that's not favorable of Senate members of staff who somebody told you, Mr. Mayor, that that I may not qualify with passing a background check. There's no reason why I may not pass a background check. I submit a public record request ask what would be what would cause somebody not pass a background check. I was told there's no criteria to pass a background check. So even when one had a criminal violent background that would not exclude somebody from passing a background check because there's no criteria in place to pass a background check. So I would suggest that the criteria to pass a background check may be codified. So that information does prevent ones can

measure that information so it becomes objective and not subjective because I think serving on CAD and be denied serving on a keg should be objective and not subjective. Thank you very much for your time. Thank you Mr. Stein clerk. Are there any other speakers on this item in person or virtual? Excuse me, mayor and council members. That concludes our speakers um on this item in person and virtually. Thank you. Council member Star.

Yeah, mayor. I guess maybe I need some clarification because I was under the understanding that the background check was only for checking for criminal uh history. We may have had one incident many many years ago where somebody uh where we disappoint people and we didn't know what their background was. So I guess my my question is is is my understanding incorrect that it's it's is it actually far is it more than just a criminal background check or is there something else? I I can address that. Mayor MacArthur and members of council. So,

um maybe just a a a step back because the background check is a little further down the road. I think we're we're all aware that um just because you submit an application, we're far away from the background check. The applica subject needs to be um nominated by one of you on the disag. And then part of that um kind of screening and onboarding process would be uh that the aforementioned background check. It it involves a live scan. So you you basically take your fingerprints and it gets submitted to the DOJ and then results are come back and it's it's relatively surface level background. It's not a comprehensive background check. Nothing even remotely close to what you have to do like if you're going to be a first responder or something like that. So, it's basically just like a a a check of your criminal history. There's nothing more to it than that. And I I if I could I'm sorry, just a quick point of order only Larry is a very good friend of mine and he has said it twice, but I believe he has received the information that he keeps saying that he hasn't received. I think he's received it twice in the last 24 hours via email. So, I will check with him to confirm that. Thank you.

Okay. Thanks, Mr. Saligard. Thank you for that question, Council Star. Any other questions? If not, we've got a motion on the table. Is there a second? Thank you, Councilwoman Press. If there's no discussion, Madam Clerk, I call for the vote. Um, Councilwoman Rodriguez, I. Councilman Star, yes. Mayor Prompter, yes. Councilwoman Basua, yes. Council member Palo, yes. Um, Councilwoman Pettis, yes. And Mayor MacArthur, yes. And this motion carries seven to zero. Thank you. Thank you. The next item on the agenda is the review of the information consent agenda.

Do council members have any uh consent items they wish to to discuss? Wonderful. I move we approve the consent agenda items. Wonderful. Madam clerk, are there any speakers on the consent agenda item? Um, mayor and council members, we do not have any public speakers in person or virtually for the information and consent agenda. Thank you. Thank you. Call for the vote. Uh, Councilman Star. Yes. Star. Star. It's okay. It's still Yes. Um, Mayor Prompteran. Yes. Councilwoman Basua. Yes. Council member Palo. Yes. Councilwoman Bettis,

yes. Councilwoman Rodriguez, I. Mayor MacArthur, yes. And this motion carries seven to zero. Thank you.

Thank you. The next item in the agenda is item N1. This is from the housing department. Subject, a resolution establishing administrative regulations regarding the fair rate of return petition regulations to implement the city's rent stabilization ordinance. The recommended action is that the city council review and approve the proposed resolution establishing administrative regulations to implement the provisions of the rent stabilization ordinance regarding fair rate of return petition regulation. The community services public safety and housing economic development committee approved this 30 back on January 13, 2026 to approve the staff recommendation with modifications and to forward the item uh for the full uh council approval. And I see that director Brenda Lopez just came in and she's here to answer any questions we may have of staff on this particular item. Before we begin, coun um may madam clerk, are there any speakers on this this item?

U mayor and council members. Yes, we have um three speakers. Thank you. Sorry about that. We'll start with the speaker if that's okay. Carla Lopez followed by Maria Navaro and Don Dazzo. Carla Lopez, are you here?

A translator. Okay. If I can have one of the interpreters come up, please to to assist. And madam clerk, we have a a microphone here should you need it. Oh, yes.

And here's the if Aaron needs to see it. Good evening. Um, council members and mayor Lopez. I'm Carla Godz Lopez.

I live in the apartments at 541 where I've lived at for the last three years. my uh history with the owners of the apartments of 541 delmare with the owner from 2023 to Mr. Interpreter. Are you able to give her the the mic and then you can talk into the other one so she can be heard on YouTube? Yeah, because folks are watching on YouTube as well.

Go ahead, Miss Lopez. I'm going to explain what never happened.

What never happened. We never signed anything with the previous owners.

That's when we were paying $1378 in rent. But this amount was raised $284 more than 4%. four to five month credit to pay less in rent,

which is not true. we did to resolve the issue was to file a complaint with the housing department of the city of Oxnard about the increase above 4% and we requested a meeting with the city to uh explain what was happening with this illegal increase. But uh so far we haven't had that meeting and we haven't uh been provided with dates possible dates to have that meeting. Therefore, uh we could not uh start the process uh to uh reduce the rent increase. For your information, there's a new owner and this owner provided us with a contract in January of 2026. The new owner went door to door to every apartment asking how much we were paying in rent.

And uh he said that he would uh see if he would uh raise the rent because uh the apartments were had been very poorly uh upkept. So I have the following questions. Does the city have a record of the

liability cases? Okay. The um previous owner and manager didn't uh fix all the remediations that uh said by the code. Then the new owner uh in December of 20 uh 25 uh hasn't resolved yet uh the rent increases and the complaints that have been filed for not enforcing the code. And uh on top of that uh we uh suffer regulations for the complaints that we've filed with the code enforcement. We've been

we've been fighting for two years to be heard. And what are you going to do uh to uh review this kind of petitions? And so that this uh the owners don't take advantage of this regulation when they buy the apartments in the conditions uh that uh 541 Delmare are in. and then they file a petition because they suffer losses.

Thank you for your time.

Thank you Lopez Maria Navaro. All right. Good evening um mayors, city council members, staff, members of the public. My name is Maria Navaro um and I am a policy advocate for costs. At the last committee meeting, I talked about long-lasting impacts. Uh this rent increase petition and regulation could sorry could potential have potential impacts. Um and because of these cause opposes the proposed regulation today this position may seem unexpected given cause's participation in the process so far and I take responsibility for that. When this process began our work was framed around the context of Marina Vista which was a 45% r increase and an act of God. At that time there was a shared understanding that the fairy return petition would move would move forward because it is part of the ordinance. I began from the assumption um and participated in shaping the regulation on behalf of causes adult committee. However, in prepare preparation for and following the housing committee meeting two weeks ago, both the adult committee and tenant members began to question the regulation itself. This concern is not about how the regulation or process is structured but about the necessity of the regulation and how it would be implemented and applied if adopted. Tenants have raised important questions. These questions are not necessarily a questions of process. How does this

work? It's not that the what they're asking for is why how is a 4% annual increase not sufficient? Why should a process exist that allows rent increases when tenants continue to live with unresolved maintenance issues? And you just heard Carla Lopez who gave you an example of that, right? Her building um was a case with code compliance. Um that still is being resolved, right? And in that case, would the new owner be allowed to potentially use the rent increased petition even though he inherited the problem property with those problems um and with potential pending code of compliance cases? How uh when repairs are not made? Um, how can it still be fair that uh rent still increases yearbyear, amounting to 12% since 2022 to now, and utility bills continue to rise? Why is there no comparable process for tenants who seek rent a decrease when their economic position is compromised? These are the questions that the community wants answers to. And it's not again a question of like how do we get to this point? How do we file a petition? How do we respond is

why? Thank you. Thanks so much, Maria. Thank you, Don. Dazzo.

Good evening, Mayor and Council members. I'm Don Dazzo and I'm speaking on behalf of Ventura County uh Coastal Association of Realtors. First off, we would like to thank the council and city staff for recognizing that stakeholders add real value to this process. In particular, we want to acknowledge Ela Marshall um whose leadership and responsiveness were key throughout this this effort. We appreciate the collaboration and the opportunity to work alongside of them and the stakeholders. For most landlords in the city, a rental home isn't a line item in a corporate portfolio. It is a a significant personal and civic responsibility. While a 10% cap might sound like a simple solution, it misses critical realities of housing providers. The city's 4% annual rent cap aims to provide stability for tenants, but constitutional law also recognizes that property owners must be allowed a fair and reasonable return to keep housing safe, functional, and viable. We must clarify that fair return mechanisms are not a loophole for profit. It is a vital tool for cost recovery. It ensures that when an owner invests capital improvements, essential maintenance, or major repairs, they have a clear legal path to recoup those specific costs. Incorporating an absolute rent increase cap can expose the city significantly to legal risk and potential litigation. And there's been California court uh courts have established clear precedents for this. The process is rigorous. This involves submitting independent financial records and verified data. We are talking about

deep dives into operating expenses, property taxes, costs of utilities. Furthermore, any capital improvements or rehabil rehabilitation works are crit scrutinized to ensure that any requested increase is truly essential and not arbitrary. An owner needs to prove they are operating at a loss or have uh undue financial burden. Transparency is also built into this petition as well. Tenants are notified immediately allowing them ample time to ensure that their voices are part of the record. We must also acknowledge that uh recent refinements that staff has made as of January 2026 introduce protections for low to moderate income households through the severe economic hardship claims. This creates a balanced policy for both homeowners and tenants. We urge the council to support this petition as written. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Rosel. Mad clerk, any other speakers in person or online? Um, mayor and council members, that concludes our speakers in person and virtually for this item. Thank you.

Thank you. Uh, any comments or questions uh for staff? Councilwoman Perez, go ahead. I kind of wanted to just st share my um standpoint for the public on the item that this item that came before committee and I think that that's the benefit of committee is the opportunity to give community the input and um space to give recommendation, share input before it comes to the council. And when making the decision in that committee meeting, the rationale that I had at that time was the economic hardship component. Um, and after having further discussions about, you know, not just what we're we're called to do as representatives, but also understanding the diversity of needs that are out there in community. And one thing that I've had the opportunity to spend a bit more time on from the last committee to now is really understanding what does this economic hardship appeal process look like. I know some speakers have talked about that this isn't a a logistical process or a concern, but rather for me it's also raised some questions around who has access to be able to apply for an economic hardship appeal. um in looking at some of the documents here and I'll reference later in my future comments as well. There are specific items um in our staff report and I'll allude to the page numbers there that talk about how people can submit an economic hardship appeal. And I wanted to just thank staff for meeting with me today right before this meeting um to kind of talk through what are some of the barriers when either one going into

an officer hearing um what is what is the accessibility to that and I know that a lot of these opportunities are one over Zoom um thinking about the pandemic and and the digital gaps that have happened that have come out of the pandemic Not everybody has one access to quality internet um digital literacy skills and that's just a part of some of the the challenges that I hear from community on the level of accessibility for even an economic hardship um petition to even be submitted. And so really wanted to kind of raise that point. Um and as we look deeper, it's not just the video conferencing. Um it's the emails that are sent and and I think that there's so many different processes. I know when it comes to resources, there are going to be some folks that tap into resources and some folks that may not. But I also want to be mindful of the of the current population, especially, you know, who we serve. um not everybody has access to these kinds of opportunities. So wanting to raise that that concern one, but to also bring it back to the executive summary of the of the background in in section two on 102, it says rent stabil stabilized jurisdictions must provide an opportunity for a landlord to receive a fair return on their property. The petition allows for landlords to request a rent increase that is above the city of Oxnard's rent limit of 4% should they provide sufficient documentation and prove that the standard increase of 4% would not allow them to receive a reasonable return on their on their property. While a petition may be submitted allow annually once a petition has been approved, rents are considered aligned to provide a fair rate of return. Accordingly, any subsequent petition

would require the landlord to demonstrate a substantial change in operating expenses sufficient to establish that a 4% would not yield a fair rate of return. And I think there's a lot of conversation around liability. Um, and I know we're going to have opportunity to kind of deliberate here, but I also want to put the opportunity back out to the community to also say that even of even the city has liability. I mean, there were there were public comments made tonight around um buildings that are still not up to par or, you know, experiences where you go into a building and there's mold and there's rat infestation. And I'm not saying that this is a universal experience from all landlords perspectives, but I do want to acknowledge that currently we still see uninhabitable living conditions. particularly, this is something that if um that I can resonate with the most because it impacts my district the most. And so really wanting to kind of uplift that there is still a lot of work to do um regarding ensuring that these living conditions that um these property owners um have still yet to make any improvements on some of these processes. And I know there is a process through code compliance and all these different levers, but I really wanted to just kind of uplift that and share that with the team here on kind of the rationale initially why I voted yes. It was really because of the economic hardship, but I think um as we further discuss tonight, I'll kind of share some insight on some additional thoughts that I have about this agenda item.

Thank you, Councilwoman. Any other comments or questions? Go ahead. May prom. Thank you. Just a couple quick questions here. Uh I don't know if um our housing staff or city attorney's office would be willing to just briefly discuss a landlord's right to a fair return and um where that falls in the California constitution.

Thank you. Council member Tran um El McCarron, assistant city attorney. So, I would like to direct the council to civil code section 1947.15 where it specifically says in there that landlords are entitled to a fair rate of return that would be in excess of any rent control. So, um that is put in place by any jurisdiction and that it notes that that is a um United States Constitution and California Constitution protected um right. So even though we don't have any regulations in place right now, every landlord in the city subject to rent control has the right to seek a fair rate of return petition and we don't have any guardrails. We don't have any requirements and we don't have the severe economic hardship appeal. And what happens there is we have our hearing officer who then goes in blind and makes not makes up regulations. They're well verssed in this, but goes by what has been done in other jurisdictions and throughout the history of rent stabilization going back maybe 40 years or so of case law and these code sections um to come up with a rate an appropriate rate of return. Um if the landlord doesn't like that, he gets to go over to superior court, take a writ, and what happens is the court doesn't have any framework to look at in terms of what we require in order for a um landlord to get a fair rate of return. So these are really a necessary component and they explain the process, the guidelines, the guard rails um underneath the uh um underneath the rights given to them in the civil code section that I just quoted.

Does that answer your question?

It does. Thank you. and um having had conversations um with uh members from cause and uh being able to send this information ahead of time to housing, I'm wondering if we can answer a quick question around the um something that Councilwoman Perez alluded to as well where if a landlord does a petition and is successful in getting to uh do a rent increase more than the 4% because they show their work and have all of these required forms and documents that are submitted and it's approved. Um what keeps them from just perpetually doing that annually every year to um be able to say well now this year um you know I my expenses are far outweighing what I can raise beyond 4%. I know they have to start over but how do we what are the guard rails in place for that? Um yeah, I I can take that one. Um so here the the petition process is extensive and requires a substantial documentation including the landlord's financial data um that includes income verse their expenses to demonstrate that the landlord is operating and facing um undue financial hardship. A successful petition uh uh request results in a one-time uh rent increase. In the following year, the landlord is again subject to 4% annual rent increase limit. While a petition may be submitted annually, uh once a petition has been approved, rents are considered aligned to provide a fair rate of return. So here, any kind of subsequent uh petition would require the landlord to demonstrate a substantial change in operating expenses sufficient to establish that the 4% increase would not yield a fair and reasonable return on the property. So although they technically could file another one after if they were in in your hypothetical

successful, the chances of them doing it the very next year are are are very slim.

So when you say that they're now aligned with the the um costs, if I were a landlord and I were to be able to show my work like, hey, I need to raise rent 6% this year. And if I go through all that process, I do everything correctly and properly and that's granted and rents raise 6%. Now the following year, if I were to say, well, now I need to raise it another 6%, I can I think the the message there is, well, hold up. How is it that you were able to raise your rent to get you to a point where you are getting a fair return? How now the following year, the subsequent year now, how are you behind again? Is that what we're saying here? I'll go ahead and take that one. Um, ba basically what it would be is in that instance, I mean, we can't prevent somebody from filing these petitions year after year, but it's going to be, as Andrew already said, it's going to be very difficult for them to meet that threshold to go up and above the 4%. More than likely, that would be denied at the um at the administrative hearing level unless there's some big swing in their um in their costs. But what's important is they have to actually incur these costs. So in there, some people might be thinking, oh well, this is stuff that they need for the future, but they actually have to show that they've incurred substantial costs. And if they're doing this year-over-year, we're going to have to take a hard look at it. And there is a California Supreme Court case that says while a landlord may have been granted a 12% increase in one year and he requested another bigger increase in immediately the following year because he had the ability to increase by I think it was it was either four or 6% in that particular case. It didn't um prevent him from um it didn't prevent him from using his property, getting a fair rate of return, and it didn't amount to inverse con condemnation or a taking because he his due process rights

were protected by the annual allowable increases. So that's something that we can't say would would never happen, but there's plenty of guard rails in place. And if that issue is taken up on a RIT, this office is definitely well prepared to defend um our hearing officer's decision to hold the rent at the appropriate level. Thank you. And I have two last questions here, mayor. Um, I'm wondering if someone can speak to the included operating expenses that are allowed to be factored into the application or into this process and what are some of the excluded operating expenses and then I have one last question after this one.

Good evening. Brenda Lopez, director for the housing department. The included expenses, I'll just um summarize them quickly. They are on our agenda page 122 part of exhibit D. Um but these include for included would be your fair radar return petition application fee, annual program fee, license fees, real property taxes, utility cost, insurance, normal repair and maintenance expenses which shall include but not be limited to painting, normal cleaning, fumigation, landscaping, repair standard services um including electrical, plumbing, c carpentry, furnished appliances, drapes, carpets and furniture. Owner performed labor like other labor should be included only to the extent that it is charged at fair market value for such labor. Cost of repairs um the need for which was not caused by ordinary wear and tear and was not caused by deferred maintenance. Allowable legal expenses and management expenses including necessary and reasonable advertising, accounting and other managerial expenses. allowable legal expenses and management expenses uh which are presumed to be 6% of the gross income. And then it goes on on allowable legal and management expenses in excess of 8% of gross income. There are presumed to be unreasonable and should not uh be allowed unless it is established that such expenses are reasonable and do not exceed those ordinarily charged by commercial management firms. Attorney fees and cost incurred in connection with successful good faith attempts to recover rents owing and successful good faith unlawful retainer actions that are not in violation of applicable law to the extent that such fees and costs cannot be recovered from tenants. Building improvements, major repairs, replacement and maintenance unless such costs are compensated by insurance proceeds. These cost should not uh be included in the entirety at a given sear's expense but should be advertised as provided and then it goes into regulation 1.05 and the expenses for

experts and city review allow under the rent stabilization ordinance 2723b and actually paid by the owner. Um now what is excluded? Maintenance and repair work which resulted from the intentional deferral of other repairs or work which deferral caused significant deterioration of the building of its amenities and individual units. Avoidable and unnecessary expenses since the base year. Mortgage interest and principal payments and other payments are not contractually necessary, such as double payments or any payment that results from financing that is unreasonable or that was or that was unnecessary for the acquisition of the property at the fair market value. Fees other than the fees expressly authorized in section 1.026A 1026A of this subdivision, any penalties and interest awarded for violation of the rent civilization ordinance or any other law and legal fees not expressly allowed under paragraph 102 section 6AI of this subdivision and depreciation of the property. So all of those are excluded expenses.

Thank you. And my last question comes similar to that. Um, when we look at capital improvements to a property like a roof replacement, um, foundation replacement, painting, uh, things that are tens of thousands of dollars, if not hundreds of thousands of dollars in some properties, can you explain the amortization and how that's factored into this? Yes, I'm going to ask our attorney to help me on that question.

Thank you. I I just briefly wanted to highlight that all of the sections um that Brenda went over are are inside of the regulation, specifically pages 122 and 123 regarding both the included expenses and excluded expenses. And to your um question regarding the armaturization that starts on page 127 and it goes through um various capital improvement costs that are based off of uh armaturization schedules um that other jurisdictions have used for similar types of um uh uh uh things. And

so to answer your question further, like if they have a $45,000 roof job, you're not going to see your rent increase to cover that full $45,000 in the following year. It'll be amvertised over the appropriate amount of years as listed in the table. So spread out over like 10 years, for example. Yes. Yes. Great. Thank you. Those are my questions. Mayor, thank you. Thank you. Any other comments? Council member Star, go ahead. Yeah, Miss McCarron, what would be the consequences of us not adopting this recommendation legally?

So, basically, we don't have any guard rails on what would be the included expenses versus the excluded um expenses. It would be left to the petitioner to provide any type of documentation that they want because we we request specific things in here. So, what you're going to have is incomplete applications. um the staff here that reviews these before they go on to the hearing officer is going to have to interface a lot back and forth requesting certain documents. At some point, even if they don't get the full thing, they may just have to pass it on to the administrative hearing officer for a a review and a determination. And from there, the officer will then look maybe to other jurisdictions or other type of regulations based on their training and experience to determine whether or not they have sufficient information in front of them. And they could be looking at any and all types of documents. And we don't have any um any exclusions that would help safeguard um a massive increase, especially for some of our um residents here who fall under federal poverty lines. So, so this does give us a very good framework as to how these petitions should proceed essentially because right now if we don't pass this there aren't any regulations and that doesn't serve the resident or the landlord.

Just briefly to add to that um for instance the the um hardship appeal without these regulations that wouldn't exist at all as it currently stands because there are no regulations. That's not something that anyone could move forward with without these. I I guess they would only be able to go to court at that point, I guess. Right. We didn't Could you say that? Yeah, I guess in the absence of this basically they would just go to court, I guess, to get their the writ that they're seeking. Is that what would happen?

Uh the the residents could try to do that. more in my experience dealing with the population here that would be very difficult for them to get any type of relief from a petition that's too high that they can't afford.

I I have a question about the the process. So I I watched the uh committee meeting uh and noted that since 2022 there's been seven fair rate of return petitions submitted. Uh two of which have had hearings. Uh two I think are pending and three were just simply abandoned and not sure what all the reasons were for that. But I guess my question is, has any landlord, rent, has any property owner ever successfully navigated this to get an exception from the 4% rule? Is has is there been anybody who's been able to achieve that?

I think it's on. Hi, I'm Ala Marshall. I'm with the supervisor for the program. So yes, we have had the two successful ones have been higher than 4%. I'm sorry. Two what? The two successful and it's actually three. So I we went through and reviewed. So it's eight uh petitions that we've had since 2022. And so three have successfully moved on. So one had like a partial unit. One was approved. It was like a duplex. Um that was higher than the 4%. They all vary. They're case by case. So they're all individual, but the three that went forward did go higher than 4%. So they were looking to exceed that. That's correct.

And and I have a question about the amortization concept here.

So if I've got an asset that uh I'm building here, you or rather let me re rephrase that. If I have an expenditure I'm making and this and the expected life of this expenditure is let's say 20 years. Uh let's say I I invest $100,000 20-year life. Is the way it's designed is that am I only getting back what I put in over the 20 years or is there any rate of return on this investment that one makes to to do this improvement to the property? How how does how's the amortization impact how much as a a rental a property owner can actually charge?

I I I'm not quite sure I I follow your question and and I preface this with saying I'm an attorney, not an accountant, so I'm going to I'm going to try my my best here. But what we're looking at is is we're not necessarily concerned with the interest rate that they're getting or the amount of money that they're going to make on this new roof that's that's going to obviously um increase the value of their home. We're looking at it from a perspective of their asset is is now worth a a little bit more um and the tenant is probably having to um subject to a rental increase that is that is in excess of 4%. So, we're not necessarily looking at the landlord's return or increase on their value. We're looking at what is sustainable in terms of a rent increase for the particular tenant so that they're not displaced and they could continue to um pay their rent and live there and not be and not lose their home essentially due to a monster increase.

So, so is there any concept here of what actually a fair rate of return is for a property? When I think of an investment, I'm thinking what my yield is. If I'm buying stocks, if I'm buying property, whatever it might be. Uh is there what is a reasonable rate of return for capital invested? Is that is that something that goes into the equation here or is that irrelevant?

Well, that's where you look at all of the expenses and then you look at what the CPI has done for the current year versus the base year rent. And if your CPI is is trending up, is your um income your your operating income, is that trending up as well? And so if they are in line, technically when you have your 4% rent cap and if you're out of fair rate, whatever that might be, it's it's different for every single property in the city, then you may not fall into this petition. You may not get a higher increase. Now, if you're looking at your um at the CPI is going up and your your um in your income, your operating income is going down, you're going to, you know, see a widening of the two. And then if you throw in some big ticket expenses, you definitely are going to be under what would be your fair rate of return. And I think it's important to note that fair rate of return does not all does not equal fair market value. So, we're looking at at two different concepts here because if you were to take a rent controlled um duplex at $1,200 to a fair market value of of $3,200, that would be an astronomical increase that more than likely would displace the residents in there. So you have to look at slowly bumping that up to the point where they get a fair rate of return and there's just lots of case law all over the place as to what is fair for a particular city type of property and the tenants that are there and the income levels around and what the operating and um the operating expenses are the capital improvements and um and what it was at its base year. So, so I'm I'm kind of thinking this and I'm putting an investor hat on and I'm saying to myself, okay, let's say I've got various alternatives I can put my money in. I don't have to put my money into housing. I mean, I can invest in a

30-year risk-free Treasury bond and get almost 5%. If if the way we're measuring this reasonable rate of return is something too low, then people are not going to want to invest in properties. It's much better to invest in something with liquidity, whether it be a treasury bond or or even stocks for that matter. And so my my concern is if we're not measuring rate of return based on what the alternatives are that the investors have that what we're doing is we're actually destroying our rental market because why would somebody invest here if they can get a higher return elsewhere? I mean there are other local that have less restrictive rent control. There are other opportunities for people to deploy their money. People can put money into commercial real estate instead, which doesn't have any limits on how much rents can go up and you can pres you can actually make a a reasonable rate of return. I'm just wondering is there any concern at all about you know the future rental stock uh given given this? Um there is concern about the the future rental stock and that's why we do allow for the fair rate of return hearings and that's why it's in the civil code as well. But the the larger problem here is we don't want to have a population of people that can no longer afford to live here and then become homeless. And it's a it's a cyclic and systemic problem. So there's no good balance where the landlords get everything that they want at the expense of the tenants. This is a it's a balancing act and if somebody wants to put their money elsewhere, they're more than welcome to. And I think the city manager had a comment as well.

Well, just to say that it's not that simplistic, but I would agree that people who have the ability to make an investment certainly have a freedom of choice. People who invest in real estate in certain geographical areas do it for a variety of reasons. Now also understand the the reason we propose this is to ensure that there is a process to evaluate if what their request is is appropriate. But I also want to point out the distinction when a landlord makes an investment in a property sometimes those investments are required. They're not they're not always and actually not usually just to make it prettier. You've got to fix a toilet. You got to fix the pipes. You got to fix the electrical. And sometimes when the when it wears down, you've got to fix a leaky roof. That's not to make anyone's life better. It's to make the property habitable. So there's a also a distinction there to keep in mind with regard to will it destroy the rental market? Absolutely not. We're not the first city to approach this and we won't be the last. And I've said it before, there are plenty of big of big cities in California specifically that have many of these rules and regulations and processes and they've gained rental units during the same time. So, let's focus on what's proposed here. Thank you.

I think Thanks, Mr. Win. Um,

I I think I think maybe what we're not keeping in mind here is that people don't have to be in the rental business. I mean, you have single family homes where if somebody, for example, is moving from the area and he's making a decision, do I sell the house or do I rent it, I can tell you that if if I'm in those shoes, I'm if if I'm worried that I may not be able to get my money out, I'm I'm much more likely to sell that house than I am to rent it out. And the problem with that is that you make less rental units available. And when you have less rental units available, what ends up happening in the long run is that you see rents skyrocket because the you have a limited supply. And that's actually what we've observed here in Ventura County over the years. We've seen rental rates go up quite a bit. And that's because we limit the supply uh whether through rent control or through soore or or what have you. Uh I I guess I'm just I I I just don't see where this is really helping people. I think we're I really think we're hurting people in the end. But but but may may all just make you know I can argue this as an economist why why this is a bad idea but I I think there's also a moral issue here as well. I mean, I I am I'm a renter, so I guess in theory, I'm a beneficiary of these rules, but I don't think that I have a moral claim to live in my current house if someone else is willing to pay that

property owner more for that same spot. I don't see why I'm entitled to live there if the owner of the property says, "You know what, Aaron, there's someone else willing to pay more." And you know, I think that I'm going to go with that. Mayor, if I may, we have tenant protections that would um protect you in those situations as a renter, Council Member Star, including relocation uh if you there was through no fault of your own, you were evicted so they could rent to someone at a higher rate. So, just as a little additional component there, council PL, go ahead.

Yes, Mr. Star, the councils before you got on this one, they made a decision to do this and this is what we have. Um, I understand your point of view. Um, I do understand that there's a possibility we could use rental thing, but I also understand if there wasn't something like this, there would be a lot of people exactly as staff said, the next step is the street and a decision was made by a previous council that this is the angle we're going on.

And then staff just wanted to interject and provide clarification. So, there are exemptions to the rent stabilization ordinance, and I think there's often common misperceptions of what applies and what doesn't. And the majority of single family homes, they fall underneath what's considered separate and alienable by title if it's owned by a proper owner, if they're corporations or they're LLC's. It varies, but typically most single family homes are owned by the owner or they're rented out. And so, all of those would be exempt from rent control. So, the scenario that you mentioned, would it pertain to us unless the owner was a corporation or an LLC or if they legally subdivided the house or had multiple units on the property and basically turned it into a multi-unit, then that's when it does fall underneath it. But, as it stands right now, so I just thought I'd share that as well. And then one specific thing is we have rent stabilization in the city. And so, it's based off of the state's tenant protections act, which passed in 2019. um that assembly bill became two um specific civil codes with the state. And so the city in order to be able to enforce those protections adopted something more restrictive. So right now what we're sort of discussing more is the right of fair return. So there is already rent stabilization. It's now allowing the landowners the opportunity, which is a constitutional um both from the United States Constitution and California State Constitution, um the right to appeal if they would want to go higher than 4%. And it gives them that avenue to do so. So, I just thought I'd share that.

Thank you for offering that. You know, one of the things that back on the January 13th committee, um it was lengthy, but one of the things that we called or we asked of our staff is to engage collaboratively with cause with our realtors um with Barbara Mach Ortiz and others so that we can have key stakeholders participate in this process. And I very purposefully on the January 13th meeting made it a workshop allowing back and forth discussions, deep robust discussions to try to inform the decisions. And I think we reached consensus on most items. And where we didn't, where we differ, I think Barbara and others understood the risk adverse positions that we were taking on as a city and some of the emerging issues that hindered the effectiveness of rent stabilization. And so I think we ultimately agreed at that committee that we did not have a process for processing fair rate of return petitions, which ultimately benefited uh both the renters and and landlords. And so we needed these guard rails in place. We needed a process. And I think that is ultimately what we walked away with. Not to uh say that we were concretely set on that, but we had the option to later return and modified and if we needed to, but that's what I I thought we walked away with um where cause was involved in this process. But I have had subsequent conversations with cause and they indicated that the discussions was the discussion was very technical and members of the community um maybe did not fully understand what was being discussed because it is very technical and it is confusing. Um, I was glad to see Barbara here, a staunch supporter of renters, but you know, we did vote uh with that committee uh 30 to approve it after having robust discussions on it, going

line item by line item, amendments and revisions to agree uh that this was the best case scenario to essentially have a process for processing um the fair rate of return petitions which we needed because absent that we don't have anything uh and we can't provide the guidance necessary. Um so I just wanted to to restate that. Um Councilwoman, did you have something or Abs? Absolutely. Um Councilwoman Bula,

thank you for the time. Um I you I was part of the council when we first did this and I was you know I I pushed you know Councilman Pllo, you were present. And I um this is something really that I believe Oxar needed. Um and no one thing is perfect at all. Not one thing. And I really appreciate staff's time, the partnership um with the realators cause Barbara. Um but I'm not happy with this. Um and I'm not happy with it. It's not because it it's it's not going to be perfect. I I get that. It's not going to be perfect. I haven't had the time um to really discuss this with staff and um there are there are issues that will happen. There are things that will be beyond our control. Just like when we first started this process, if you recall, we went ahead, we put a 4% cap and then the landlords got, you know, creative and now we're going to charge you for water. and that's how we're going to get you. And now we're going to charge you for that parking stall and we're going to take your parking and that's how we're going to get you. Um, we have great landlords, but we also have slum lords. And those slum lords, um, I've dealt with um, and I just I I just see a lot of things that we might be able to tighten up. Um, and I my first question is when a landlord comes in with the petition to get this reviewed, do we have a legal right to put a cap on that?

There's no authority for a cap. There's um there's only one city in the state that has imposed a cap on the fair rate of return petitions. That's Pasadena. It's at 15%. There's a lot of case law that says limiting certain increases anywhere between 4 and 12% is unconstitutional. And Andrew has spoke with staff from Pasadena and I'll pass along to him. Um, yeah, I spoke recently with uh the city attorney's office in Pasadena and they explained to me that although they passed this um 15% cap on the fair rate of return, um it only recently was implemented and they've only had a handful of cases within the past couple months. Um so here, you know, the the the concern with having a a cap is uh the possible takings claims. Um, so it it would be prudent to uh watch uh how that kind of pans out, especially given that they just started doing this and there has not been very many cases um that have happened uh very recently. They said within the past couple months

and the way we'll see it is is if they get a fair rate of return and the hearing officer says you should really be entitled to 17% or 20% but we're going to cap you at 15. It'll be interesting to see what a court does with that particular um fact situation as to whether or not that the cap is constitutional or not. So, we can definitely our recommendation is to take a wait and see approach and see what happens with Pasadena and get these in now so we don't worry about um having our regulations and our ordinance um under attack.

Thank you. And if I just want to I'm sorry, Council Mor. I didn't see you. Go ahead. Yeah. No. Um, no problem.

I um when when we when we have these petitions come, I would like before we start the petition, I would I we we have um within the housing authority inspectors. We know what a um if if you do this for a long time, you can walk into a building and you know if the landlord has owned this property for 30 years and it's a generational thing and we know if there's been zero capital improvements um within a building. We know that if you are doing this correct and um you as a landlord have a 10-year CIP on the books, you know when your roof is due, you know if your laundry need to be redone, you you know um your turnover rate, you know whether or not you're going to invest and you're going to add a new kitchen. But what I see in the properties that um some of these landlords that are greedy is that's not what what it is. It's a landlord that is generational, doesn't put any money into their units now is going to have this is going to come forward and is going to say, "Well, I'm gonna I just did 20% 30%, you know, and now I deserve this." Well, wait a minute. you also haven't taken any pride in making sure that your property is maintained. So I re before I I think landlords have every single right to come and ask for their fair return on their property. But I think before we go through that process, we need to go out and we need to do an inspection and we need to determine whether or not that landlord has a right to ask for this before we even start before we

even give them the opportunity to send all this paperwork in. Um, go ahead. So, I I can speak to that. The the deferred maintenance is not allowed within um uh the formula for you to move forward with a fair rate of return. Right. Um, additionally, just to some of your points in in addition to all of this, this does not impede, you know, moving forward with a code compliance case as well.

No. And I and I totally understand that. But what I'm trying to do is I'm trying to alleviate, you know, a few steps. I'm trying to get an inspection in a staff inspection where they've determined that the landlord can move forward with this. Um, and you know, in regards to um code complaints, I mean, we know what those are. We we have, you know, maintenance. They they do a code complaint. The landlord takes forever. they don't do it. I mean, we've seen it. Um, but what I'm looking is for something a little bit more stringent um there. And landlords should not be afraid to have their units inspected if they're good landlords. They should never be afraid. So, it's the slum landlords that don't want you to go in and see that the sink is, you know, leaking or carpets haven't been replaced in 30 years. um because we that's that's kind of what we're dealing with right now. So I I would like to see this to be a little bit more tight. Um Councilwoman, if I can just ask the attorney a question to make sure we're on the same page. The expense has to be actually incurred before they can request a fair rate of return, not a planned improvement.

Correct. Yes. So, Councilwoman Basua, in that case, would that be that they would need an inspection prior to ever making an investment on their property and then an inspection after they make?

No, it would be once they want. And the reason I I'm saying this is because we also have those landlords that they go ahead and they install a countertop, but they installed it with five different shades of color because that's what they picked up at Home Depot on the clearance rack. And we've all seen it. I mean, or they go to the clearance rack and whatever is leftover paint, that's what they use to paint their units. There's no pride in these properties. So, I would literally would I need to I cannot support this tonight. The way it's written, I need I need it take I need a little bit more work on this. Councilwoman Bassu, if I can speak to that, and I understand your concerns, and I think if we were to have all of these hurdles in front of their ability to even file a petition for fair rate of return, we would run a foul of civil code 1947.15, specifically section two, that says we have to have a streamline administrative administrative um procedure process for them to at least get their facts in front of somebody to deter determine if they're eligible. Um, our housing department has a pretty good screening system in terms of the documentation that needs to come in um and can deny the petitions right then and there. There's also some other um for some of these slum lords. I believe we we have a a program that some of these people are in and if they're in that program, they're not going to be eligible for this type of um rent increase until they bring their property into compliance. So, we definitely encourage all of the residents out there to please contact code division, council members, city attorney's office so that we can make sure that um the property there in is code compliant or at least it's marked as not compliant so that they can't take

advantage of this. But there's enough guard rails here to where somebody that is is falling into the categories that you're talking about, it would be very difficult for them to get a major increase.

I I just want to say I do appreciate staff's work. I appreciate e everybody and their um this is a lot. I I get it. It's not going to be perfect. I just believe we can do better and um I I I cannot support this the way it's written. I I just can't. Um so I I I would love it to for it to come back get back in the room um and and really talk about it. Um, but if and that's just my opinion, you know. Um, sure. Okay. So, I I will leave it at that. Thank you, Councilwoman. And if it's okay, Councilwoman Rodriguez, we'll go to Councilwoman Perez and then to you.

I think I had a clarifying question to what some of her statements. I'm sorry, I don't mean to interject, but I think what would be helpful to me is if you feel so strongly about um your concerns, what specific section needs to be fine-tuned? because I know that there was a lot of work done in the section of what qualifies for the petition. Is that the se I think it was 07. I I believe that the what qualifies is great. What disqualifies then is also written well. But there is more work. There's just to me I'm going to put my landlord hat. I'm going to take this and I'm going to tear it apart. So, I I I I can't support this.

Can Can I just offer just a bit of clarity really quick? I I just want to make sure that everyone um I'm completely clear that um here rent control was already passed. So, irregardless of what happens tonight, tomorrow a landlord can move forward with a fair rate of return. This is just regulations to put guard rails on. So, if if for whatever reason this doesn't move forward, um it's it's we still can move forward with a fair rate of return. It just causes so much more potential, you know, um takings claims because there's no guardrails whatsoever.

So, my my my specific clarification was um and so what I understand is there's been workshops, there's been all parties from different stakeholder groups and folks have had the opportunity to share feedback. I'm not disagreeing with what my colleagues are saying. I want to hear you all loud and clear. But it is there any value to approve something and then get feedback a year from now because a lot of this work has been happening for years and you've been at the table longer than I have. So what specifically because I see the hardship appeal piece regulation 1.07 07. I think there was a lot of work and word smithing, but I what I do appreciate is the dos and don'ts and I think if there's specific concerns about those and tightening that up, I think that's the conversation for edits to to be had.

So I I will speak to the hardship. It's not going to happen. Our right now in the political arena that we're at, they're not going to come forward. It's not going to happen. And so we are writing So we are writing a regulation that is a false hope. They're not going to come that it's to know the community. To write something is to know the community. That's not it's not going to work. Um is it going to be perfect? Absolutely not. And I greatly appreciate the work that's been done. I greatly greatly do. I just cannot support this tonight. Thank you. Council Councilwoman Councilwoman Perez.

Yeah. I I just want to kind of also offer some insight. I mean, having talked to community, I've I mean, I've seen firsthand what these conditions are. And again, as council member Bassua, not every landlord, it's not a universal issue, but this is an issue that directly impacts my district, and I just can't turn a blind eye to that. Um, as we've heard tonight, I mean, ultimately, this is for corporations and LLC's. I mean this isn't the mom and pops of the world. Um and I think you know when you think about the mission of creating a business um there is an investment piece. Um but there is that requirement to ensure that the services or the property that's being inhabited is in living conditions. And I just don't think we're there yet. We're not there yet. I haven't seen a track record, at least in my district, um, where property managers have have made these repairs. And again, I can't speak for for the others that are across outside of my district. I mean, we're looking at just South Oxnard particularly. This is just an estimated range of 24 to $2,800 a month in rent. a $100, whether it's a $100 one-time increase, that does have an impact on famil family's pockets, whether it's food, having to decide um how they're going to spend now save up for an additional $100 each month. um I think is in this time right now, especially with the cost of living already being so high. Um I definitely see that um we're just not yet at that point where I and I agree with staff. I think that we definitely need to have guard rails in place. Um I'm a big believer of having a procedure in place. I just think I won't forget what the

long-term impacts are and I just can't support something where I think this will have long-term implications on tenants and tenants right now in our community already facing um a lot of different layers con considering the cost of living and it's again not just a a problem here in Oxnard but I think even for day-to-day folks um it's hard for people to already um navigate any um you know a potential increase um when I I think it's definitely on the the landlord to do the right thing and make some improvements um if that is the business that they have entered and want to support this community.

Thank you council. Council member Pa go ahead.

I appreciate the discussion back and forth. I appreciate the work that staff has put in this. I sat on the committee the vote was three to zero in support. Um, I want to remind those that didn't get a chance to see the committee, one of the main advocates for changes was Barbara Mri Orortiz. She had seven things she wanted changed at the very end. She didn't get what she wanted, but she still supported the proposal as it would put guard rails in a system that didn't have them. Very much sounding similar to what Mr. Andrew mentioned, the city attorney. And I just wanted to share that with you. Um, I know there's no perfect solution, but um, I hold McCree Ortiz on these types of things in high regard.

And then I I didn't want to interject. I'm not sure council wanted to speak, but right now we have two pending fairm petitions. There's going to be nothing um, in regards to them and it's going to impact at least 10 families. They're two apartment complexes. So since there's no guard rails, it can go up to whatever the hearing officer decides for rent increases. So I'm just sharing that with everyone here present. And then additionally, I did want to share that typically tenants are able to provide documentation at these hearings. And so they provide images, they provide videos, um they're also able to give their testimony at that hearing as well and be able to demonstrate. And so the hearing officer in making a decision takes all of that information into consideration. Um, and obviously if they're able to demonstrate, you know, there's mushrooms in the building or there's other things that are happening and I' I've seen it in our community, so I know what you're speaking with, uh, council member Basa, they will process all of that and then we also get code involved too because it should be something that should be repaired for that habitability. So I I wanted to share with that and I know um, Deputy City Attorney Mr. Gonzalez had something else to share as well. Yeah, just just briefly, um, Councilwoman Perez, um, you had brought up, um, the the mom and pop um, uh, landlords here. I I just wanted to make certain that council was aware um, inside of our regulations, we do have a section specifically dealing with Vega petitions, and that's when the base year is disproportionately low for uh, listed reasons. This is on page 121. Um uh some of the listed reasons are there existed between the tenant and the owner a family relationship or close friendship. The rent had not been increased for several years prior to the base date while rent in the community generally was increased. The tenant or tenants performed services for their owner. There was low maintenance of the property by the owner in exchange for low rent increases or no rent increases or there existed an other special circumstance which affected the level

outside of the market factors. And I just want to highlight this because those exceptions are in there um specifically for situations dealing with I believe what you were getting at

and I I want to just kind of add on to the Vega petition. I know it's complicated in a lot of these terminology. It's you know it's hard for most people to digest. Um even staff itself you know it takes time. It's it's we do it every day. So it's different than you know someone else that's not as familiar. But an example of like a Vega petition is we've had landlords come into the office and the tenants are on board. It's maybe a 5% increase, a little bit higher, 6% increase. There's certain things that have been done and updated. The tenants are fine with it. The landlord's fine with it, but I still stand and I say underneath our current ordinance, it's capped at 4%. The only way, you know, to move further would be through the fairm petition process. And so there are scenarios that do arise. And so this does provide for that avenue through that Vega petition. And those are typically for small landlords. the majority have like four or your four or less units. Some just have one. It varies. Each one's on a case by case basis, but I just did want to share that with with council.

Thank you very much. What um what I heard at committee myself was I mean I just think it's it's unfair to have our staff try to hear these cases without any any guidelines whatsoever. And so they need some direction is what I'm hearing. And that's what we had discussed at at at committee at length. Um because to send them out I think it it opens up our city to litigation. There's no consistency in the process. There is no process and I think that's what we are really struggling with. I heard u Maria Navaro um then we may need to refine some areas but I I think we need a starting point. Any any further comments? Go ahead. Councilwoman,

I just I had a clarifying question because in one of the public comments that was shared earlier, somebody shared a concern about not entering an agreement that the other party claimed they had agreed to. And I'm not sure if that falls under the Vega petition or not, but how would we verify that there was an agreement for lower rent in exchange of like me keeping up with my landscape, let's say, at a home or whatnot? How would we verify something like that? Well, I'll I'll take that one. So, basically, if they're in there and they're saying, "We had this agreement, we're going to want to see the written document." And I think any hearing officer that's looking at this is not going to take the word of a landlord saying, "Oh, no, you agreed to this." When there's nothing in writing, um, no evidence of it. So, you would take it on face value and give it the weight that it should be given, which is probably zero in terms of your burden of proof. So, what I'm hearing from you is we would need written agreements. And I think that's the educational piece when folks are renting. Um, you know, if if it's a larger unit versus, you know, just my word is my bond. Uh, and this is what we agreed to pay for rent. Um there's so many different rental agreements and different variations that I could see why some of the folks who are concerned with what we're about to vote on uh would say folks didn't understand what was happening in the workshop or wait we needed more time to uh be educated on how all of this works. But something even as simple as written agreement is not something that every landlord and tenant have which sounds uh very interesting or it sounds farfetched but it's it actually happens a lot. M Miss Lopez, would it um just hearing the comments here from the public, is this something that we can bring back to committee and workshop it again and and just address some of the concerns that Councilwoman Basu brought maybe the concerns that uh Councilwoman Perez

brought up and also Miss Navaro and Ken. Is that something we can do and then bring it right back? Go ahead. Mr. Mayor, I had to clarify before she answers that question. There was a concern about two current petitions in the queue. Is there a timeline and you know I there's everything's so timesensitive that if if that timeline is um a concern I would really like to have that um acknowledged before we uh postpone any conversations. Thank you. Councilwoman Ashley. Did you want to speak for Miss Golden?

I was going to offer what we talked about at committee. This is not perfect. We all compromised including the city as we went through this of weighing risk and coming back all sides and I know you're not hearing from the realer side as much but there was a lot of compromise there as well. Um what we offered at the committee and what I'll offer again tonight is to put something in place and have a report back period for us because every time we go through one of these processes we learn something. Every time a new city adopts a new regulation, we learn something. And we've seen that for the four years that this is nearly four years that this has been in place. So since 2022, luckily, we've had consistent staff with Alba and we have learned a lot. We've had consistent staff with Andrew and we've learned a lot. But every time we're able to process one of these, we do better. And so I think having a regulation in place, not just for these two pending that we have, but for the next ones that may come, it helps us. And we also then are on kind of the radar of other cities to share information more easily to go through this, but we've said it often tonight and we said it often at committee with or without this regulation. Fair rate of returns are going to happen,

right? And that's why they're in process. That's why we reported seven and Alba went back and has now the eight that are there. So just from committee to now there's eight total. So that that was our ask is allow it. It's not perfect. I don't know the right solution to the deferred maintenance, which really seems to be an underlining issue that we're trying to address through a process that's a little bit different than what it's intended to be. Then for that, um, happy to look at other regulations for inspections. It's not hard to bring something back.

Um, but you kind of want what's that standard that you're being measured against to bring it back and that this would provide for that. And so I offer that again as a a report back period and changes. And I think that you've seen I mean I I have our timeline of meeting with um with the group March 25th, April 10th, April 17th, April 18th, May 27th, May 28th, July 17th, August 26th, September 3rd, September 18th, September 19th, October 20th, December 1st. We're not afraid to talk to any of these people. We welcome that opportunity. We're available. We're getting the feedback continually. Those are all the edits that came from the community. We want to hear that. We want to make it better. We want to support both sides and still protect the city.

Thank you, Miss Golden. Would Councilwoman Bass, would you or Council Perez be open to the idea if one of us makes a motion to adopt this tonight as is with the addition that it come back to us in exactly 3 months with just a full report of just the workings of it. And at that point we can workshop it again with uh with cause and representatives of cause with uh with other state stakeholders all the key stakeholders the realtors exa etc are in our staff to just bring it back I'm sorry six months I'm sorry thank you six months would that would would you be open to something like that I

I think and I I guess I I need to explain myself a little bit further and I'm I'm not happy with um what are we doing for those tenants that are going to help them get through the process with the landlord of their hearing for the fair market return. What are we doing? What are we doing to help? Because, you know, um the reason we brought rent control, rent stabilization was because we needed to help the community, right? We have we had an issue. We had to help the community. I just I I think it's it's written it's written well, but I just I just feel that we as a city have a right and a we have an obligation to protect those. And I think we we've we've heard it from cause they it it was just too convoluted, too many things happening. What is our process once that landlord brings a petition? Because they are entitled to I'm not discouraging that. I I I not at all. What is what is our process to ensure that that tenant is given every single of information that they're going to need in order to say this isn't right or this is right? What are we doing? Are we doing anything? And if I can just add one more thing before you answer, Miss Lopez, another concern that was brought up is when we involve our renters, the concern is filling out those forms and the questions that are being asked and then our the protection of that information, particularly what's happening in this country with our uh federal agents and the the chance that some of that information could be shared with others. So there's a lot of uncertainty. There's a lot of concern as to what is being asked and and if there's an opportunity potentially not to ask certain questions that may be

injurious to the privacy of the tenants.

Thank you. Um I'll try to recall the points that I was going to cover. I first want to start off with I am here to house families. Um I come from the housing authority side of us which we help low to very lowincome families. Um, so I'm asking a lot when I say trust me that I would be looking at yes balancing the landlords. I need supply of housing, affordable housing in the community, but also the needs of the community that I serve. I I know firsthand my community. I wouldn't be pushing aggressively if I felt that we had something in place where I could do my job. I feel that if we don't pass this item tonight, um the simplest way I can put it is it's already there. There's already petitions and I have nothing, no resources, no tools to be able to safeguard and look out. I'm looking out for my landlords as well, but my tenants, if I have nothing that tells me this is definitely excluded, this is included. Um if you I mean the details, we actually now put time frames. We put who's getting the notice, when are they getting it, when is it posted, when when is it a complete application. All of this is coming from our experience on the rise that we've seen with very high increases in rent and our community struggling and you know having a voice to come forward and ask for help. Um, so I would also instead of three months, if I may, I will recommend at least six months so that I actually have something tangible to come and and provide. Um, this when we first came forward, we came in with four different regulations. We only passed three of the four. Why? because we knew that we needed to make some amendments, make some updates because we had already been um carrying out our program since 2022 and we saw that we needed to make improvements. So I

believe that should speak to our commitment that we will come back and we will say actually now that we have the applications we have something in process we processed applications this is what we're finding and yes we are committed to coming back communicating if we believe any updates or improvements need to be made to this fair rate return um petition process but I do agree we need to have something in place right now it's still going to go through and there's nothing in place to the point of how do we make sure that our clients or tenants are getting their notices that they're getting assistance? Well, right now there is no clarity and that's exactly what we're trying to put in there. You have to file within this time frame. This is what has to be received. As far as our community, our staff is there. We we do not require our families to make an appointment. We will take the phone calls. I will take the welcomeins. Um if we cannot help them on the spot, we will take the information. We'll circle back with the families. You've heard us. We work with cause, we work with Barbara, we work with Sierra LA Housing Rights Center and we might be on opposite ends, but we are here to do everything we can to yes make sure everything's being followed, but also that our tenants are being heard. As far as what's going on in our community, I agree. Um, I run a also public housing authority program. And I think the best solution I can think of is outreach, uh, community awareness. That's something that staff and I have discussed about going out to the community and talking about these ordinances and simplifying what does this mean? What are your rights? Where can you get help? Um and saying we are here to help. Um exactly something that I heard about how do they know what form? How do they know where to fill it out? We have translation services as well. If we if it's in a language that dialect that we cannot assist in it, we have professionals that can you know we can bring in to help. So overall my response would be that this is a good starting point. We can come

back give you feedback on how it's going. But without a process um we will also have nothing to protect the very same people we are saying we're trying to protect. Uh because I will have nothing to say no landlord that does not that is just not just that is deferred maintenance that you failed to take care of over the years and now you want to bump up 20%. I will have nothing. So yes, they can they'll produce their documentation and I won't have anything to point to and say nope, this is what our ordinance reads. Um so I think my answer would be we need something. I agree come back and report but without anything this is still going to move forward.

Thank you. And we'll just go to council member star then then the mayor prom. Right. So

I I'm I'm recognized if I can just talk. I I I'm I'm inclined to support the recommendation, not because I like what we have. I mean, to me, this is only going to define a due process. If it were up to me, we wouldn't have rank controls or price controls of any kind. There's 4,000 years of history showing that price controls do not work. They just destroy markets. But what's offered to us today is I guess the least is the lesser of two evils if you will for me it's the least bad option. So, you know, given that, even though I think I've made myself pretty clear where I stand on rent control from an economic standpoint and a moral standpoint, for the question that's in front of us today to create a process that people can rely upon and know what the ground rules are, I think that's better than what we have now. So for that reason I I'll be voting in favor of this proposal but only for that reason.

Thank you Council Member Star. Um Miss Golden and we'll go to Mayor Pro. I just felt that staff didn't clearly address Councilwoman Basua and quite frankly Councilwoman Perez's question on how the tenants are involved and with a few of our cases. If I can just have Andrew speak to how he's seen the tenants be able to be involved in legal representation or not. that the help there which is what drove some of where we are clearly we're not there yet but I think just hearing the accessibility currently or how that has worked may give some comfort again it's it's not perfect but Andrew if you can talk about that

yeah um so here just like the landlords the the tenants also can be represented obviously not not by the city but they they can have their own representation uh for one of the cases as Barbara mentioned she she had moved for representation for one of the fair rate of return um cases that have happened in the past. The the other thing that I wanted to highlight too um and then any other questions please let me know is as the ordinance currently stands now even without these regulations a fair return petition shall be decided within 60 calendar days of the date that the application has been deemed complete. So regardless of having these regulations or not for the ones the for the um cases that housing had mentioned depending on when those were um provided to them it needs to move forward in 60 days.

Thank you Andrew.

So if I may say something Andrew um Barbara Mach Ortiz is an angel. She does all this some of the almost all of this for free. She doesn't charge much. I I don't know of any other attorney that are going to be able to assist at the level that Barbara does. So when I'm asking what are we as a city doing to ensure that they have what they need still hasn't really been answered for me. That's why I can't approve this. I it it's it's well written. I if if I can get that question answered I I will move forward. I will vote yes tonight. But I don't see what we're doing in order to prepare our residents to challenge if there's a challenge. I I just don't see what we're doing. Councilwoman Bassu, if I can answer that and then I'll I'll leave the the factual parts to housing staff right now. There's no protections for the tenants. There's no economic hardship appeal. there's there's nothing. They can try to go to superior court on by themselves and that's going to be just about impossible. It's a non-starter. Now, here we're establishing a framework that gives them the tools and assistance from staff and we don't quite know how that's going to work. We're going to have a few bumps in the road and a few and a few kinks to to work out in terms of getting the forms and taking the appointments and at some point probably even filling out forms for them and making sure that they've got everything in and potentially granting some extensions. But this is a process where we haven't done it yet. We haven't had the opportunity and we don't have the framework. But we, the city attorney's office and our housing staff are going to try very hard to make sure that the tenants get what they have if they're going to file a hardship appeal.

Right. And I think if if you recall what I said, that's the one area I'm not happy with. That's that's that's exactly what I'm not happy with. They're not going to take it. So I just I I want to make sure I'm heard on that that that hardship. They're not going to take it. Um, I think it's I think the thought process was great, but I I when I'm out at the community and that was the biggest biggest thing, you know, especially again, I'm going to say it again in this political arena, they're not going to do it. So, um, I'm going to leave it at that. Mr. Mayor, if I may, because

I hear Councilwoman Bassua's primary concern and I appreciate that this is not easy. Um, and it's certainly not simplistic. So, part of our job as a local government is to do our best to treat everybody the same. And that's not always easy, but that includes in this instance, not just tenants, but also landlords. Now, going to reality, regardless of everything else that's happening in this country, there are always a handful of bad landlords and there are always a handful of bad tenants. We know that. That's just ordinary reality. But with these extraordinary circumstances over the last year and certainly well into this year, we can understand why the playing field is is so unlevel right now. So, I think one thing we might be able to do, Councilwoman Basila, to satisfy your concern is as a part of this, let us invest in providing actual workshops for tenants, but we have to also provide workshops for landlords. So let us invest in setting up some formal bilingual workshops if that would help you feel better about advocate not well we wouldn't be advocating but we would advocate for them to get all the knowledge they need again for landlords as well. So, I think that's that's a that's not an unrealistic thing to invest in when you're implementing something that's new to

this community. Thank you, Alex, for that. Council, was it okay we go to Mayor Prom, please? So, go ahead. Mayor Pro, did you have a response, Councilwoman, or you want to think about that a little bit? I'm going to think about Okay. Okay. I'm going to think about it.

Okay. Well, I just want to ask because at this point, um, I've heard the discussion and I appreciate, uh, the points that have been made and the concerns have been brought up. Um, hearing what, uh, Miss Lopez and M. Marshall and our city attorneys have said, um, I'm willing at this point to, um, move that we approve the proposed resolution establishing administrative regulations to implement the provisions of the rent stabilization ordinance regarding fair rate of return petition regulation. That's the recommendation on the staff report. I would like to add that um in at least six months that we um document how the process is working if it were approved by council tonight. And I'm willing to give you a little bit of extra time, Miss Lopez, where let's do at least 6 months and let's plan for a report back to council in quarter two of next fiscal year.

So that is my recommendation or excuse me, that's my motion. That is my motion. I'll second that. Any further discussion? Go ahead, Council Perez.

I appreciate the the importance of highlighting that there are guard rails that are needed and hearing how it impacts landlords and tenants. But if we want to be very clear, historically, we're in a time where we recognize that the playing field has never been leveled. And I think not to speak for a specific individual, but I will say go back and reference a comment that was made um at the last committee meeting. And I think based off of I don't want to move away from this notion in the staff report that there wasn't cons that there was consensus. But in terms of the conversations that I've had directly with constituents in my district, there's no guard rails in place for them. Um, and so I I still think that there is a big gap between who benefits here and again with all with all the policy. I know we as as city government have to think about guard rails and and procedure. Um, but again, I think that this still I mean with an increase I mean the 10% that's listed here really want to distinguish between the rent cap and the 10% but there's a reason why we have a rent cap and I know that there are two separate things. Um, and this gives a landlord the ability to petition. Um but still I I I don't think that this levels the playing field even for our tenants who are who are still um you know negatively impacted in our community and understand that there's a gap in in that desire there. So I'll be voting now.

Thank you Councilwoman. Any other discussion comments? Go ahead.

Thank you. Appreciate the members of the community who came out here tonight. appreciate cause reaching out directly and then I appreciate all the work staff has put into this. What I appreciate most in watching the um committee meeting as well was the um the phased approach that was taken as well as the um collaborative approach that was taken with the realtors association with uh cause and other community members and with Miss Mach Ortiz and with staff. Uh to me that speaks volumes in the amount of energy and goodwill that was put towards this and I don't believe that we reached consensus. I think that we reached compromise and this isn't perfect and I don't think it's meant to be perfect at this point. The way I see it is that um statewide we have a a rent stabilization or rent control and I'm looking at it and as of August 1st of 2025 it was 5% plus CPI which was 3% and so that would allow for a maximum increase of 8%. That's double what is allowed in the city of Oxnard at 4%. And I was also involved along with my colleagues in those discussions back when it was 5% then it was 2% and then it was 4%. And um I I want to point out that the absence of our local ordinance and the absence of the state law means that the market would charge whatever the market will bear. And um I said every single time we had a hearing about rent stabilization, I said this will not lower rent, but we can at least try to stabilize and slow it down as far as increase goes for the people who live here now. And I hope people remember that the intention and the mechanism was never to lower people's rent. There are other factors that hopefully will stabilize rent and be able to keep it at

something that is attainable to the um workingclass people and the skill sets that people have in Oxard. Now, it's a whole other conversation though, but the point I want to make is that those guardrails are in place at the state level and within our ordinance for rent stabilization for this here. As was mentioned, there are no guard rails and I see this as the collaborative compromise that every all the parties came up with all the stakeholders. This is a way to ensure that the um obligation the city has in the fair rate of return process is met. It's something that the realtors association has agreed to and been part of the conversation on and it also has components that continue to protect tenants and give them opportunities to be part of this process. So, while it's not perfect, as was mentioned, I'm very pleased with how we got to where we are now, and I'm willing to give it a chance and at least put those guard rails in place so that the things I just talked about are there to help protect tenants, to help protect um landlords, and to be able to protect the city as well in meeting our obligations. So, that's why I made the motion and I appreciate that staff's willing to come back and uh give us an update if council passes this tonight. So, those are my comments. Mayor, appreciate the time on that.

Thank you, Councilman Rodriguez. Just one last clarifying question based on um comments that I heard. There's still the ability to submit the petition, right? That so that currently is in place. So, this doesn't stop or withhold anybody from submitting a petition. Okay. Yes, you can still submit the petition. Yeah. Okay. Thank you.

Thank you. And I'm just going to add these comments too. I appreciate um the collaborative efforts and I'm hearing the concern from members of cause and Maria and and others. Um I will support this item. Um but I would certainly urge um our staff to uh come back to us in six months with uh with a report and if we need to workshop it to be open to that and then also to ensure that there is some protections for the forms that the tenants uh have to fill out if any and also to see if there's a way to involve them as well should a landlord come and and make a petition and show receipts etc. maybe build a mechanism in there where we can much like the council woman uh mentioned Basua about involving tenants essentially maybe verifying with them directly if they're making a contention that they put in a new countertop or new carpet uh involving the tenant essentially having him or her verify yeah in fact they put a new carpet not only in the living room but in fact throughout the houses as the landlord is um is asserting um just so that there is some tenant participation back and forth validating what it is that the landlord is is submitting and protecting their information. Uh that's the only ask I have. If there is no further comment or discussion just quick

Oh, yes. Go ahead. Quick clarification, mayor. Um uh just to clarify for my motion. I know you mentioned six months right now. I stated that as well, but I said at least 6 months with the report to come to us in quarter two, which would be towards the end of this calendar year. So that way they have if they need that extra room or there's some um petitions in the queue that those can be uh addressed as well. Yeah, that's fine. Yeah. Thank you. Question. Is that quarter two of the next of the fiscal year or quarter two of the calendar year? That is what I stated in the as the next fiscal year. So thank you. Was that November, December, October, November, December? Yeah. Thank you.

Any other questions or comments, Madam Clerk? Any any other speakers we haven't called on? Um, mayor and council members, no, there is no additional speakers in person or virtually. Okay, I call for the vote. Uh, councilwoman Basua, no. Council member Palo, yes. Um, Councilwoman Bettz, no. Councilwoman Rodriguez, I Councilman Star, yes. Mayor Promteran, yes. Mayor MacArthur, yes. And this motion carries 5 to two. Thank you.

Thank you. Thank you everyone. Next we will move to item N2. This is from the housing department. Subject lease agreement with theatro de lasicas. Recommendation that city council one authorize the mayor to execute a lease agreement with Datro de Lasitas for the use of property owned by the city of Oxer located at 321 West 6th Street for a term of three years with two one-year options to extend the agreement at the discretion of the city manager for a total of five years at an annual fee of $1 and quarterly rent up to $2,970 of their quarterly gross revenues. in excess of $10,560. And two, authorize the mayor to forgive pass through rent to the city in the amount of $15,690 for the uh pass through rent through January 2026, plus a daily pro uh reach through February 2026. The Community Services Public Safety and Housing Economic Development Committee approved this item 2 to1 on January 13, 2026. to approve the staff recommendation with amendments and to forward the item to council. Our housing director, Brenda Lopez, is here to answer any questions staff may have of her. Are there any questions of staff on on this particular item? Council member Start, I see you. Go ahead. I

I guess what I'm trying to understand is this is that there was a lease that was executed. It was beginning December of 2024 and we've received no rent on this for 14 months. So, they've accumulated this balance. So, I guess what I'm trying to understand is what were we doing to pursue this rental income that we were entitled to during this 14-month period, especially since they defaulted the very first month.

Good evening. Brenda Lopez, director for the housing department. Um, thank you for the question. My understanding is that the current tenant was u making improvements in exchange for rent credits. Um, as far as I'm concerned, I I don't know how to answer that question. What I can share is that um when I was assigned to this role, we started looking at all of our agreements, looking at our ledgers, and in this case, a conversation was had with the tenant on, you know, what's going on with your rent payments. Um to me, it sounded like a misunderstanding on when rent payments were going to start. Um so when we started the dialogue of okay this is what was approved by our council this is what's owed um when can we expect payment that started the conversations of their financial situation for the fiscal year and um the request for consideration of of waving the past rent

I I I guess I'm not buying into the confusion argument. I mean, basically I, you know, when you sign a a lease, the terms are pretty well defined. You don't get to say later on, well, I didn't understand the lease, so therefore I'm not paying you. Uh, so from my standpoint, I I it feels like I I feel like we dropped the ball here. uh in that you know we we should have basically you know if necessary take them to court at that time to to get them to start paying the rent but I I would have I would have started an eviction process if I wasn't being paid for after month after month after month and we weren't doing anything to collect it. I just I don't understand that. I can speak to it looks from what I gathered it looks like the outstanding balance after the last staff report was about 1,800. So, uh to your point could have probably made in two payments. Again, I cannot speak to um a process that I was not involved in, but the process now is that all of our agreements have to be set up through our financial system where we are queuing our invoicing. So, let's just say I wasn't here and the assigned project manager wasn't here. Our finance team would see that there's an outstanding debt that is occurring and would be able to follow up on payment. At least on my end, that's what we've done to make sure that this doesn't occur where there's more than one staff member involved and there's a cross balance between departments on collection of any agreements or rent payments.

Thank you, Miss Lopez. Any other questions? If not, we'll go to our public speakers. We have Anna Van Hovind, followed by Saul Esco. Good evening, Mayor MacArthur and members of the city council and city staff. I am Anna Van Hovven. I am the executive director of Tatu Las. I've been the executive director for about six months now. And I'm not going to be here. I'm not going to give you a speech about how Datro is does has an impact in the community. You already know that. You have our stats. You have the report. I am asking for help. I took uh Council Member Perell's comments to heart. And although we are the torch has been has been passed down to me and my artistic director and my marketing director, we just became a team in November. um we don't have any ties to major businesses, donors, um or industry partners. We don't know any rich people and but we're ready to meet them. And frankly, I've only met maybe two of you. So, I mean, yeah, most of you don't know who I am. So, yeah. No, this is this landed in my lap and I'm grateful for it. We do come with baggage and we are asking for forgiveness. Um, but frankly, I'm just I'm gonna ask for your guidance and your trust and that the new leadership of Tatro is ready to take this to the next level. And yeah, I know it's not an easy decision. I know there are there could be ramifications. There could be some backlash from people. Um, but it really is in your hands and we hope that you give Dadro a second chance, especially now with um a new new leadership. Um, so thank you.

Thank you, Anna. So, do you need an interpreter? Okay. Good evening, members of the council

and uh Mayor MacArthur. I belong to the theater from 20 2022. This is a community theater. It's not a commercial theater.

There's not one member from the theater that lives out of this.

Our job is through volunteers. And our job is for a sector of the community. for a sector of the community.

They speak a language that connects through the roots and speak about their all of them. Through the through that language, we could express our emotions and our feelings. in a cosmo vision that you would not be able to transmit through any other language.

The fact that a project like the theater of the Americas, it's inside a property of the city to the ones it's good for them. speaks well from that city and their principles

and this is why I'm here to support the proposal from Mayor MacArthur. Thank you very much. Thank you. Saul Juliana A Costa followed by Heather L.

Hi, good evening, mayor, city council, and community members. Uh, I am Juliana Costa and I'm the artistic director of The Las Americas and I will quickly like to invite you to The Las Americas on February 7th where we will have a tier de on February 4th. We um we do which is tomorrow we begin the children's school program and on February 14th we have a very intimate concert amore audio. Now with that in mind uh the las amas belongs to every single person in here. We are a nonprofit community theater which means it's operated by members of the community mainly for the members of this community. And I wanted to give an example of that. It's not just our, you know, theater that the ones that work there. About a week ago, uh, we have a small garden right outside our door and someone cleaned it up, like weeded it out. And I asked everyone who did this and everybody said it was none of us. So, it was obvious that it was just someone that's around the community. And to me, that it just means so much that they value us and they know that we're there and and they know that all of us are art. Las Americas. So, uh, we are a nonprofit organization and we do survive off of your support and the support of the community. And as you know, we are the only Spanish language theater in the county. And I don't have to tell you what that means to me matters, why that matters now to our people, to our community, and to our country at this moment. I hope to see all of you at Tier and the Amort audio concert and all of our future events. Thank you.

Thank you, Juliana. Heather and Heather, you'll be followed by Margaret Cortezy.

Um, good evening, Mayor MacArthur and council members of the city of Oxnard. My name is Heather Lon. I am employed locally at a civil rights nonprofit law firm and volunteer as a community advocate with various local grassroots organizations. Outside of these roles, I am a friend too and an actress at the de las amas. I am here today as a community advocate and a friend of the deas amas. The demas is a unique and special place nestled in the heart of Oxern. It is the only bilingual theater in Ventura County. It is a place where people from all walks of life and representations of our beloved community can go to enjoy a show safely, whether it be a play, a musical performance, or any other event meant for the Oxarn community and beyond. I have had attorney friends from Los Angeles see my debut in Alicia's Miracle, a play about pesticides and its negative effects on the Oxorn community and in Sonito Sencia, a play about the immigrant experience and how that experience differs across social economic backgrounds. Both plays were performed in English and Spanish respectively. My friends along with others were able to enjoy the performances due to the subtitles and props provided by the staff at the de las amas. many of who do the labor for free and for the love of the community and the arts. I ask the mayor to please renew the lease with the agreement with the lasas at 321 West 6th Street at the recommended annual fee of $1 and to forgive pasture rent. As you heard most of the actor, all of us, we do it for for free. Low attendance in the past year has been due to the increasing presence of mass federal agents in the community making many of many of us including community members feel unsafe rather than protected. That was happy to provide monthly reports to the city of the events that are taking place and we hope to see council members and the mayor after events. Thank you.

Thank you very much Heather. Thank you Margaret.

Followed by Mateo Esco. Uh good evening members of the Oxnard City Council, mayor, good evening, staff, friends. I'm Margaret Klese. I'm uh one of the founders of Theatro Las Americas. We started in '92, so we've been going for a long time. Uh some of the problems with financing in the past years. Uh I have to take the responsibility for that. I've never been very good at it, but we tried to pay our bills most of the time. We made some very good deals with the city when we moved into the current space, which was a disaster. When we went in there, it was really a mess. And uh with the support of uh Pablo Gonzalez, Pav Pablo Garcia, who is one of our supporters, we went in there and spiffed it up. And if you've not been there, please do come and check it out. It's a it's a humble little place. We we want to keep doing this. And so I just want to express my um gratitude to you all uh uh the city uh council, the staff uh for your support over the years and your continued support. We know you love us and but we also know we have to work on contracts and uh living up to our responsibility to pay our way as much as we can. So I just want to thank you. That's my main message. Thank you.

Thank you, Miss Cortez. Thank you, Madam Clerk. Does that conclude the uh the speakers? I'm sorry. We have Mateo coming up. Mateo. Sorry. Anybody online, Madam Clerk? Um, mayor and council members, no, we do not have any virtual speakers for this item. Thank you. Thank you. Go ahead, Mateo.

All right. Good evening, uh, Mayor MacArthur and council members of the city of Oxnard. My name is Matosco. I am currently a student at the University of Cal State Channel Islands. I've actually been working to make both Diatro and this university to both be able to be community partners together. Um, I think that's been very important. And I'm also working for a theater company in Santa Barbara called Boxill's Theater Company. And I mention all this because none of this would have happened if it wasn't after or during joining the lasas where I met a lot of amazing people. Uh very special people. It's been my second home for me and my family. My dad earlier and my mother Ara Coyaso who is currently leading the Amorio concert for February 14th as well. So we've been involved together at this theater. Uh I've been able to have a lot of opportunities as an actor and as a sound and light technician. Datro gave me that opportunity as well. And some names to mention Anna Van Hovind who I spoke with a lot to bring CSUI as a community partner and Juliana Costa for uh helping me and my parents to bring us into theatro. Same thing with Margaret Cortez when she was um when she was at the theater. And I just wanted to mention that I really hope the theater continues on uh with the lease agreement uh forgive past uh rent dues because for me it's been my second home and I know it has been for many people both as audience members, volunteer workers, tech people or as actors and I hope many people also the same age as me can

discover this theater who I hear many people who say oh I've never heard about this theater right across the street and they see And it's a whole new world. Bilingual theater with many shows. I'm currently an actor as well in one show called uh Manifest Destin. And it's nothing but friends and family. And um that's all I wanted to say. Thank you. Thank you very much, Mattel. Thank you. Go ahead, Miss Golden. Was that the end of the public speakers? I think I heard. Yes. But actually, we're just going to take a quick motion to go past 10 o'clock. Second. Thank you, Madam Clerk. Call for the vote. Uh, Councilwoman Rodriguez, I. Councilman Star, yes. Councilwoman Basua, yes. Council member Palo,

yes. Mayor Prompteran, yes. Councilwoman Perez, yes. Mayor MacArthur, yes. And this motion carries 7 to zero to extend past 10. Thank you. Thank you, Miss Golden.

Just wanted to add a little bit more because I kind of put Brenda in a bad spot there to answer that. She wasn't the director and she she didn't know about this. She came from the public housing side. So the two staff people that were assigned to this left, one left in December of 2024 and one left in February of 2025. So at that time that the person left, that's when the two just under 2000 was due shortly there after that. Then the assistant director left in July. Brenda was appointed interim sometime in February. Um so it was discovered and then we started active negotiations with Tiatro at that time. So it wasn't that any side was just ignoring it. It just passed from person to person to person during the negotiations. So the the bigger pass due is really over this last year as well. And we partially went into those negotiations in good faith knowing that it's coming due and it's coming to the council one way or another and there's a decision made. So we didn't start eviction proceedings. They have been a good partner at that initial lease. and Margaret um alluded to this, but they put in over $35,000 of improvements into that to that building. So, we knew that they were a good partner in that they were affected by CO they they kept operating. That's when they came back for the other lease agreement and this year they have been heavily impacted for ICE with ICE raids. Their volunteers, some of their shows canled. So, all these discussions were going on and we just heard too, I didn't know this part, but they also had a change in leadership on their side. So nothing was just sitting being completely ignored. Conversations would happen, documentation submitted, we would review it, ask more questions, and it evolved to this. And it evolved to a different staff recommendation as well. This tiered approach that's in there, trying to figure out what is the right, you know, we've really worked hard to not have no rent in city buildings. We really worked hard to get back to market

value and a lot of analysis was done on this of in this case does it make sense? We've got a vacant building otherwise we have property maintenance issues. We have potential redevelopment of that block. So there was a lot of discussions with both Tatro as well as amongst the staff and the change over there. So first Brenda, I apologize to you that I didn't bail you out there with some of that history of answering the question and then just providing that overall context of what has happened along the way. nothing was malicious on their side or our side or malfeasis. And there's also the the good part of our reporting system and our computer system that these go in and they flag you of hey, you're not getting payment on this and discussions were happening just with various people that are no longer here and Brenda picked it up and her her teammate Jasmine picked it up and carried this over the finish line to what we have tonight.

Council member S, go ahead. I I have a question. How how much do we think this building could be rented for right now if we had somebody willing to pay market value? It what would that run about, do you think?

Well, in the staff report, it speaks to the $150 a square foot for triple net lease. The reality is we also aren't looking to get into a very long-term lease from the city perspective because that site, as explained in the staff report and discussed with the staff recommendation, is a redevelopment site for us. We've already surplused a lot of the property in that site. We are a majority property owner and the one of the other adjacent property owners on that block is also putting their buildings on the market. That's been discussed with Yatro as well. finding a a replacement lease for a very short term that doesn't then you know bring up other relocation and tenant protection not from the residential side but still on the commercial side was a consideration with this but as stated in the staff report $150 square foot um month for a triple net lease.

Okay. So it's about like three grand a month roughly. It's about 2,000 square feet or something like that. Close to that. Brenda, do you have the square footage on the property? I don't see that handling the

1,980. All right. So about 2,00 So so about $3,000 per month would be the the market rate. So what we're really talking about here is giving a subsidy of about $3,000 a month. Um Okay. All right. Okay. That's that's my question for now. I'll help others later.

Thank you. I, you know, I'm prepared to support this item for all the reasons uh stated by Miss Golden, also for the what the arts do for our community, uh the cultural enrichment, the economic revitalization to our downtown, the creative expression that happens in a in a theater. Everyone that um belongs to that theater participates in it. that completely volunteers, not to mention the expenses that we incur having to protect uh a vacant place, including security, including police, calls for service. Um, so I think um for all those reasons, I I I'm ready to support this item as is. Go ahead, Councilwoman.

Um, Americas I've known and respected for a very very long time. um at least since 2012, I've known of a lot of great performances they put together. Um so it's it's no disrespect. My concern is we work with other nonprofits who use city buildings and if they default on their payments, I'm concerned that in the future we would have this conversation with other groups because research is showing the trends that one out of every two nonprofits is going to go up in the next few years based on a lot of um changes and grants. I want to support the Das Americas because I am impressed by a lot of good work. I've seen I've been to free events um the first Thursdays uh when they've done like improv and I know that through the Oxard Medic Club we've also donated to Tetrolas Americas, right? Um not too long ago we bought a projector. So I truly believe I don't know where the miscommunication happened or why they wouldn't have asked for a grant for rent from Mandy Club um versus a projector. My concern is um like when we wave rent instead of my my recommendation would be um having the um do a fundraiser or something and pay back that rent because there has to be some accountability and if the community is as committed as I think they would be then I think that they could raise the $1,800. Um it's no disrespect to the work that happens. It's no disrespect to um the legacy that they have had. Um, I remember the when it used to be over um with what is now Wagon Wheel Development um back in the day and at Oxnard College and uh so I I know the power of the organization and um coming from the nonprofit world, I know just how important it is for folks to like rally and fundra should this be important enough. And I know that they've done a lot of free performances all the time. um I being one who has participated and

benefited would have gladly donated x amount of dollars. Um, so I just I'm concerned about our fiduciary responsibilities and um, considering other nonprofit partners that we have. Um, you know, if we create this precedent, then it's going to be hard. Um, and again, no disrespect for for the work and the arts and the community that I love and it's in District 4. So again, it sounds so contradictory, but I'm just sharing with you all like my thought process and um and the need for sunskin in the game, too. You know, not to say that a clean slate wouldn't be nice, but it there there has to be some type of commitment. And also, I would love to hear what's going to be different moving forward, right? Um I know it's a volunteer ran organization. Is anybody stepping up to write grants? Is anybody stepping up to? I mean, a lot of other nonprofits are going to be struggling right now and we're going to have a lot more conversations with folks about their needs, even those who seem robust right now.

Thank you, Councilwoman. Council member Star, go ahead. If you have first, please. So, just for clarification, uh, looking at the staff report, can we have clarification from staff on what the past due rent in front of us is? What's being asked to be, um, forgiven? Yes, that's correct. The 1830 is for the balance that was passed due from the original term which ended in November of 2024. And then from December of 2024 and we calculate through January of this year, um the total will be 13,860. So it's a grand total of 15690. Yeah.

Which Thank you, Miss Lopez. Um, and I just wanted that clarification just because it is a significant amount, but I see exactly where you're coming from, councilwoman. So, appreciate the comments on that. Um, but I just wanted to ask that clarifying question. Thank you. Thank you. There's also um, Miss Lopez, if you can speak on the there's a built-in uh, quarterly rent up to 2,970 of their quarterly gross revenues that is in excess of 10,516. Correct.

That is correct. So what we were proposing was to um twofold. So obviously we've been speaking about encouraging the fundraising activities but also that we the housing department u monitor the financials for uh thero and be monitoring the thresholds to see when they're making a profit if you will and activate the rent of the 99. It would come up to 990 per month but that is correct that we will be monitoring that they start making a profit. So we start collecting um rent. Um that's kind of what we fear to do some sort of a tiered proposal. Um and I do want to just reiterate that that's a a great point about if you do it for one you know one organization you are also opening uh opportunity for other organizations. Something just I want to reemphasize here is that this area we are looking at opportunities for largescale development. Um, that is true. Another nonprofit might be in that situation, but at this point, commercial leases for less than three most uh desirable five years are not um just out there in most businesses once they start their business and need to relocate, etc. It takes time. So, the likelihood that we will be able to get um a tenant quickly and that they will be okay with having to sign a very short lease also makes it difficult to rent this property. Um, not even speaking to the the arts here, but also the fact that if the we don't have a tenant, they were looking at the maintenance. So, they are responsible like in other leases, but they're responsible for maintaining the building, repairing it, um, you know, monitoring for us. So, we also want to keep that in mind. Um, if the property is vacant, we demo, we need at least close to $200,000 to do that. So, just something to keep in mind.

Council member, we'll go to Councilwoman before you. Thank you for clarifying that because um are those um repairs and inkind donations being tracked as contributions as I'm assuming we're asking for you know monetary payment versus the inkind or is that in the agreement? Well, I read the agreement. Um are we are we keeping track of that and and is that credit that they're getting for they're it is part of their agreement that they would be continue to be responsible and for those expenses and the way we'll be tracking them is asking for their financials for them to report to us. Um and of course to again we see the property but um we also expect it to be maintained um by them otherwise we would take action.

So you're telling me that the reason why this is so unique is because we have plans to develop that area. So it's not necessarily something we could do for any other nonprofit organization. Correct. That is a big driving factor for us looking at commercial from the commercial perspective. Thank you.

Thank you Mr. Council Member Star. Thank you. I I would really like to see this organization succeed. I mean, I I have many of you don't know this, but I used to be involved in community theater in Semi Valley. I was I served on the Semi Valley Cultural Arts Center Foundation. I was the treasurer. Um, we had to sell tickets and we had to seek the support of donors. We had to hustle. And I just I kind of look at the numbers here. I just haven't seen that here. So, I mean, I'm looking at the the old form 9990s, which is the tax returns that you file as a not for profofit. And I saw that from like years 2018, maybe 23 grand of revenues total. Uh 2022 was 16 grand. 2023 was only seven grand. So I I I think that the work is not being done to really raise the money. I mean, it's the other issue I have. I may I don't know if staff is aware of this, but you know, I I I looked them up on the Department of Justice with the State Attorney General's office, which you have to file an annual RRF-1 form, and there's been times where the organization has been suspended. Basically, uh, the latest notice I see on the website there is from April of 2024. It's it's a probation violation and potential revocation for failing to form to failing to file form IRS 9990. I I I think that there's a lot of work that needs to be done. You you need the administrative work. You need the behindthe-scenes work to make this done.

You need people that are willing to raise money. It's it's it's not it's not enough just to be artistic in this business. You've got to sell tickets. You got to ask for donations. Otherwise, even if we gave you something for free, you wouldn't succeed. And I don't want you to not succeed. So, I I guess where where I'm coming from is I I I'm really uncomfortable with just forgiving uh rents that are due to us. You know, I I can understand maybe there's some sort of deal we can make based on the short time period that maybe this can be actually reasonably used by somebody else. But, you know, I I can't accept zero. I mean, maybe maybe if it was maybe it was maybe if it was a couple thousand dollars a month, that would make sense to me because normally I'd expect $3,000 to be the value, but not zero. And and I I still wanted us to get paid what they agreed to pay us.

Yeah.

Thank you, Council Member. from just that, I I think our our city staff um really took a deep dive into trying to find the best um agreement they could recognizing all the variables involved and what it would cost us to have it vacant as well and because of uniqueness of where that the author is located. One of the things I did ask in committee and I think Anna accepted is the reporting and providing updates to this council on their activities including what aggressive actions they're doing to do more performances um trying to recruit donors and and what other activities they're doing to try to be sustainable uh here in downtown. But I'm confident that the work that has been done done thus far by staff, I think this is the very best um given the the conditions and uniqueness of this location that we're going to to be able to uh to obtain.

Yes. Go ahead. Go ahead, Mr. Thank you.

Um I appreciate the comments. I appreciate the public speakers. Unfortunately, you don't have as many as you had at the committee meeting. And um I look back and I think the one mistake that I did make when I made for for the record I voted no on this in the committee. The one major mistake I voted I stuck to my guns too hard with respect to at least a minimum rent and the and the staff report identifies it. During discussion I'm reading specifically from the committee outcome. I made a motion during the discussion of the item, committee member parole made the first motion, which did not receive a second factual to charge $300 a month during the first year, $600 during the second year, and $900 the third year. Although Tiatra's president, Mr. Juan Gonzalez, responded that capping the rent at $600 a month may work, the council committee did not pursue the concept further. to share with my council members. If you didn't hear all of my comments, you're doing yourself a disservice to find out about me. I served on this council when there were a lot of things that had come to light. And um I don't like losing money and I don't like giving it away unless I want to give my own money away. Giving the public's money away is an entirely different thing. I'm accountable to over 200,000 people, not just my district. And I do, having a public school education, know there's a difference between subsidy, charity, gift, and loan. And I will use an example that has never gotten out of my craw. Craw mean it's stuck in the back and it won't go away. The downtown theater. The downtown theater is a multi-deade loan and the

downtown theater has never paid its payment. Each year, the city of Oxnard coughs up over a million dollars to make that payment because the downtown theater doesn't make any money. But it's a deal that the city got into and they can't get out of it. To the credit of Mr. Martin Jones. He exposed it and the judge made the comment. As I recall, you can't unring a bell. It's a sad day. When I got on this council, I found out several other things. Sad day. But when this came, I did receive comment from members of the public, one in particular in the room, and their concerns were very valid. My concerns also since when do you not have to pay the rent? I have enough people that call and leave messages on my phone. They want us to do away with all rent for apartments, want us to do away with all mortgage payments. I'm like, how how is this going to work? Where's the common sense? Well, you give away things in other parts of the city. In having a good conversation with city staff, it did pan out. This building is in an area where it has brought improvement to that block, but it's not going to be on the hook for multi-year rent. This particular site sets a precedent for a lot of other properties that the city has with respect to if they see what's happening here, what will the other tenants the city of Oxnard have asked for? The past do rent. I recall Leolce Vita in the Heritage Square and I recall the fiasco that was and the embarrassment. I did everything I could to get that stopped and I lost. Lesson learned on

this one. I tried the same thing. I dug in my heels too hard. Possibly the other committee members, Council Member Perez and Mayor MacArthur would have supported if I would have backed off the $900. Maybe the president would have gone 300 bucks the first month and first year and 600 the second year. Maybe. Never know. I didn't back off. That's on me. And I feel I screwed up. Plain English. Screwed up. But the debt that is owed, our city has waved debts in the past. this agents, this organization of which I have attended these things in the past, and I don't speak Spanish, so straight up I got to tell you the ones that I attended was part English and part Spanish sometime in the past at a different locations, sat next to Carmen RmIrez. Um, I could see waving the past due rent, but I can't see letting it slide for a dollar a year. This is like, wait a minute, we have over 500 nonprofits in this city. We have less than 500 people in the room. But if you each have a nonprofit and you find out that I gave the person sitting in that empty chair a deal for a dollar a year, wouldn't common sense tell you that you'd want to get the same thing? If I was in your shoes, I'd want the same thing. That's why I'm looking at at least the $300. At least the $300. They got to pay something. And I do understand the fact that ICE, the fact COVID, the fact that things have happened, the fact that there's been tremendous amount of cash improvement in the building. It's the sharpest building on the block,

but it's still a difference in my public school education. subsidy, charity, gift, loan. If we're going to wipe the books clean with past debt, okay. But going forward, I don't want to walk into the same pit, and I don't want to send the same message down the road because shortly after this, we dealt with an issue with the pack. That's a bigger boogeyman in my mind. and the committee's taken an action and I think it would be beneficial for the city. But on this one here, I need to stick to my guns. I hope somebody would suggest that we at least get something more than a dollar. I thought to myself, well, we could double the rent.

Doubling a dollar rent a year, it's I can't even get a cup of senior coffee at McDonald's for $2. Um, there's got to be something. And the fact that there is, in the word of some people in business, a nut to crack, you have to make so much money to keep the place open. There might be an incentive to hustle up donors. There might be an incentive to make people pay a ticket, even if it's a minimum 50 cents. I sat on the pack board years ago, sat next to former mayor Lopez's wife, very nice lady, and there was tremendous giving away of tickets. And I said, "How are we going to keep doing this? We're losing a million dollars a year on the pack." And the former general manager of the city, Mr. Nihoff ended up making an agreement, got the two city councilman's off that board, myself and Carmen RmIrez. And then when Mr. Nihoff abandoned the city and we bring another general manager in sitting right here, and he made us look at the books, there had to be decisions made. It took a long time to get where we are right now. I don't want to leave this if I got hit by a truck when I walked out that door. I don't want to leave this seat that I'm sitting in empty for somebody to come in representing this district and face the music I faced when I found out how financially messed up the city had been allowed to get into. It's wrong. That's my opinion. I don't know what the rest of the council feels. I disagree that the dollar a year is a good deal. I can agree you wave the bass the past rent. But if I don't learn from past mistakes,

what does that make me? I get told I cuss too much already, so I'm not going to say. But

if this is an issue where we just keep repeating, when do we stop? How much do we have to give away? Who do we pick as a winner and a loser? I've given you a couple of examples where tremendous organizations got picked as winners and losers at the price of not just South Oxnard, East Oxnard, West Oxnard, North Oxnard. And for the most part, looking at the faces in the room, there's probably no more than five people that know what I'm talking about about how many millions the city of Oxnard has lost. We can't go back and unring the bell. It was totally legal. It wasn't smart. I don't want to be part of not smart again.

If I'd have been on that council at that time and I was unaware of what was going on, I might have done the same thing. But I wasn't. When I found out, I was ticked off. And when I got on the council, as time went on and lolita came up, I fought like cats and dogs and I went down in flames. I think I fought like cats and dogs. And this is the committee. I lost. And I can accept that because if you can't, you're a damn fool. But I think that we can do better than a dollar a year and waving the debt. That's my opinion. Mr. Mayor, I I have a point of clarification. It's not just a in the proposed contract. It's a dollar a year plus quarterly payments if they make money. So if they don't make money, then it would be zero.

Correct. Got it. Thank you. Thank you, Mayor Porto. Go ahead.

Thank you, Mayor. Um, hearing the conversations here and looking at the staff report and the proposed agreement, um, I'm wondering if there's, uh, an area for compromise here. Looking back at the committee meeting for this, uh, it was stated by the board president that, um, there's within the realm of possibility that $600 a month would be somewhat feasible. Uh, I don't know if that's given their current business plan or their projections, but that was stated. And I'm wondering if there's a space to to lean on that where if the agreement instead were to be um $600 a month with $485 or excuse me, $435.83 of that for 36 months going towards the past due rent and the rest going towards rent. Then once the past due rent is paid off, then that $600 will continue and that will be their rent moving forward. I'm wondering if something along those lines would be um entertained by the council or or the board president or the executive director. Um, I'm just really looking at what was stated by Councilwoman Rodriguez and Councelor Plloello as far as forgiving past due rent versus uh a dollar um for the the lease um and see if there's something in the middle there where we can have them continue operations but also work towards paying off what they did agree to um owe to the city. Uh but that's just something I want to throw out there. I appreciate Alex, were you going to say something?

Council member Star is next. I'll go when it's time.

Thank you. So I I don't feel like we have to collect the old debt because reality is that I don't think you can get blood out of a turnup and they obviously don't have the money to do it. So whatever we're going to do here needs to be on a forward basis. figure out how to make this work. Uh for me, uh I I have a couple things. Number one, I an absolute requirement for me is that they need to get current with the state of California on their public disclosure filings and tax returns because otherwise you're you're going to be suspended and revoked anyway. So, you need to get I mean, the last one that I see is from 2023 was filed with the attorney general's office. So 2024 hasn't been done yet. 2025, I assume, has also not been done yet. So you got to get current with that. I I'm open to something less than market because of the strange circumstances we have here. I'm I don't know if I'd go down as low as $600. So I I mean I could I mean maybe maybe 1,200 or something like that. G given given that they haven't paid us and I think they should have known that we weren't giving them something for free. I I I can't cut them so much slack to say that hey they can do it for a dollar a year or 300 a month or even 600 a month but you know 1,200. Yeah, I I I can do it for 1,200 but they're going to have to hustle. You got to sell tickets. You got to ask for money. The number one reason why people will give you money is because you asked them to give it to you and you're not asking them. It's it's not possible for you have these sore financial numbers if if you're really asking people for money. So that that's that's that's

where I'm coming from. Get current with your filings. I'd be open for $1,200 a month for three three years. That's what I'd be okay with. we can forgive what hasn't been paid because the reality is they don't have the money anyway. I'd like to address the thing about the long term.

We were told by realers nobody would rent unless it was 5 years and if it's not 5 years nobody would touch it. Now, we didn't have any negotiation with somebody that was willing to go two years or three, but we were told by realators that were apparently respectable and telling us their truth of five years. And the other part is if nobody does rent it, we end up with blighted building, which in the staff report, I forget, $167,000 to knock it down. We're right there. We're, you know, we got somebody in the building if they can use it and keep it going for a period of time. But my concern is not for just a dollar a year.

Yeah. So, I I think we're on the same page, Council Member Pearl, as far as this goes. I I think that something can be worked out with them. Um, but are would you be okay, Council Member Prell, with the idea of right off the balance, get current with your filings, $1,200 a month for three years. It's a lot less than the $3,000 per month market rate if we were willing to do a fiveyear lease. 1,200 sounds reasonable given the short term.

It's It sounds reasonable. what I've come to learn about this nonprofit. I can't squeeze blood out of a Turner. Right. It's not going to So, they can't pay the thousands and I don't have anybody else knocking on the door to take it over. Yeah. Except the homeless that have set the garbage cans on fire and deface the buildings next to it, which are a real problem in that specific block. Yeah. May I ask a few questions? Go ahead, Councilwoman. Then we'll go to Alex. Go ahead.

Yeah. So I I kind of um I I did see part of the um committee meeting on this um and I also share a a few of your you know concerns. Um so the first thing is I I do believe that the astound outstanding debt should be forgiven. A um staff has had no control over that. there was turnover. Um, new management. Correct.

Um, I the the only time I've been to the was when Carmen Ramirez invited me when I first got elected. So, um, that has been my only time there. Um, what I'm concerned about is it is the it's it's the $1, but I do have a few questions if I may ask the executive director. Um, if that's okay. I I just want to verify there is nobody that is making any money out of this. It's all volunteer work.

Yeah. All volunteer. I volunteer. Juliana volunteers. So volunteers. If there's extra money, we get a little stipen, but if not, then there's not much. So a lot of it is volunteer. We don't pay the actors. We are constantly paying bills because of things that we have to do or contractors that we have to get. um in I came in and I wrote a grant right away. We got a $20,000 grant that came in. So, we're really got glad about that. We're ramping up our donations. Uh we're trying to find donors. So, looking through past of past that donors, all their files and their computer files. They've been looking and gathering all of the people that have donated to them and now we're looking to do a a fundraising campaign.

So, let me ask Yeah. So, let me ask you this. Yeah. Are your volunteers, including yourself, employed on a full-time basis? Wait, am am I employed on a full-time basis? Yes, but not not here with the nonprofit at other I'm trying to determine, you know, um as a nonprofit um where your income is coming from. Do you have the ability to write grants and make this successful or is it only like on a part-time basis and you really don't have the time to put into it? Yeah. So I don't Yeah. So I right now I I have a baby at home. So that's my that's what I do until 4:30 and then when I can head over to that. So yeah I don't pay for dayare.

So that's kind of so until from 4:30 till whenever I get to write grants I get to reply to emails and everything. And so Saul and Juliana, they have full-time jobs and they do this basically in the after. And yeah, there's no one full-time that's doing it, you know, for 8 from 9 to 5. And and you said you came on as the executive director in November. No, in uh July. In July.

And in November uh got an artistic director. Uh so it was been around. So now we have uh me as executive director who can focus on grant writing and fundraising and anything that has to do with making sure that we have the money and then we have Juliana who's going to do artistic directing making sure that we have events paid events so we can sell tickets and everything and then S who does all of the marketing and everything so we can get our stuff out and that came together in November and we're actually really excited.

Got it. So, so my con, so my my concern is is that um we've got a tons of nonprofits here in the city and they could all use space, right? But the theatro I know has had a long history here and I really want it to be successful,

but I also agree with some of my colleagues that we should be collecting rent because then we we can't be hypocrites about this. We do it for one, we do it for all. And his and Councilman Pllo is right. History says that this is not good. You know, we've had our we've had concerns in the past. And I don't think that we should continue down that road. But I also knowing this would like to get that through a sixmonth reprieve to see where the executive director within six months whether or not she sees a vision for the organization to be sustainable um and be able to pay rent um just because they they have a history here. It's a rich history and I and I and I want to really really um continue that

but also want to make sure that there is enough interest within the organization to make it successful. Yes. Actually, if I may, I'm sorry to interrupt you, but one of my first the first meeting we had was I I asked them to have more board members or bylaw state that we can have up to 17 board members and I said to my board, we can have 17 board members because with their contributions and their dues, that's the rent. Mhm.

I mean, that's the that's just and then the rest is how we how the organization can survive. And so then I've been trying to work with my board to get more board members and just open those channels of communication between uh a board and staff now and to work harder. And so the the commitment is there. I think it's just been bad timing with whatever was going on prior to now us coming in and trying to figure that out. Um, and yeah, and trying to make connections and networking and getting to know people and meeting with the county people and everything. So, I think it has I see where you're coming from and I get it. There has to be an accountability. Um, it's just Yeah, I'm willing to take that responsibility, but yeah, I mean, at the end of the day, it really is up to you guys. I mean, I I I think I would like to propose that we do forgive the rent, that we allow for a six-month period for the executive director, her board to really come together and come back and with the understanding that within six months, the rent is going to be due. And if that's not due, that they make plans to vacate the building. because I think it's really important that at least I send a message out that all our nonprofits are important. We want you to be successful and I I want to plan for that to continue. I just um

I've been here for seven years and I've seen what the past has done and we're going down that road again. So, um but I I want to want to see if my colleagues would be open to that. forgiving the rent, allowing them six months of no rent to allow them to get their board together and see and see where they're at. They can, you know, either start paying rent or we can have staff come back to us and say it's not happening. Thank you. Thank Alex, we'll go to you then, Councilwoman Perez.

Is that okay? So, I want to try to wrap this around its own context because there's a lot a a lot of things have been said tonight and I think everything I've heard makes absolute sense even though it doesn't all jive. Uh, I wanted to let you know I did not like the outcome of this, but I understand the broader context. So it it isn't just as as narrow as we have this building, we have a lease, you owe us rent because there's a broader context of that building, the condition it was in, the renovations they've made, what the space is today. We put that on the the the commercial market tomorrow, no one's going to want to rent, right? And there's a broader context not just to that building but to the overall downtown. So keep that in mind. The issue of having yet another vacant property that we have to take care of is actually much more expensive. The issue of the forgiving the back rent um while no one likes it, the truth of the matter is we unfortunately have to write off bad uncollectible debt every once in a while. We have various bills that people run out of town and don't pay us for this that and the other and it goes to collections and after a certain amount of time we just have to write it off. So this amount is really not going to it's not the end of the world. Recall that they entered this property four months before COVID. That's right.

So there was no way they were going to have an opportunity the the 18 months after that. No chance. And now you look at this last year, people aren't going to work. They're not sending their kids to school. They're not coming to the theater. So that it's just a reality. Another thing is this is a community theater.

In this town, there are community theaters in LA, New York City, and San Francisco that struggle. In Oxnard, it's it's very very difficult. Uh, but I didn't like the outcome of this because on its face it's wrong. I think there should be rent paid. I think we should understand the broader context that whatever deal we strike up, it's actually a lot less expensive than us having our building vacant on that block. I guarantee you whatever if if we go the other route, we're going to spend a lot more money,

right?

And I I think it should it should be a glide path um lease. So for example, 300 in year 1, 600 in year 2, 900 year three, they should take care of all their their um administrative business. They don't need to report back to us. The lease should be written in a way with if the council wants to to try to help them survive the re the lease should be written away if given the history you miss one month of rent that's it we don't need to I don't need to see their refresh 990s that's on them I don't need them to come back here and tell us well here's our fundraising no we don't need to know any of that you can determine on a on a on a realistic uh three-year lease with a glide path so that they can step into it. Um I think that's not unreasonable, but I certainly don't think um a dollar a year is reasonable.

Thank you. Thanks, Alex. Just going to recognize the council woman and we'll go this way. Go ahead, Councilman Perez.

Thank you. And I think in light of the 990 portion, especially as nonprofits, right? I mean a lot of times philanthropic and I know there's a conversation about these relationships um not yet being established and the interest in like developing relationships with donors and whatnot. But a lot of times when applying to grant applications they do require a copy of your financials and they oftentimes make decisions based off of what what financials people have. I mean, having worked on many grants, have seen numerous rejections from organizations that just were so um they haven't updated their financials for several years. And that was a red flag for many of the the grant readers and and um you know, reviewing committee. And so definitely do want to uplift and encourage I know it was mentioned in in the committee meeting to have a monthly update on on activities and events. And I think they do a great job with their social media and kind of amplifying events. I think it's more so um to be able to apply for grants and um to look at other dollars. There are it is going to be that requirement. And if we're talking about future rent and things of that nature, um definitely I think it is important for something like that to be brought on on a report basis with how they are doing with grants similar to what we've done with other nonprofits where they send us in the mail, you know, a copy of their expense or their um how many grants they've received, the number of funding that they've received from those grants. And I think it just kind of helps give the level of transparency and puts it in the in the books as well for other nonprofits um who are who may be questioning and saying, "Hey, well, why didn't I get this opportunity as well?" And maybe that might help kind of alleviate um some of those concerns is when those um

documents are updated that um we we are notified as the city um or as council um with that update. we have our records updated. This is the number of grants we've been applying to. This is where we've been successful. This is the number of grants that we've been declined for. Um because I think in other conversations there is already that narrow pocket of funding and a lot of nonprofits are just trying to make it right now with you know funding going away and you know only a certain number of organizations being eligible for these grants. So yeah, that's my my piece of Thank you, Councilwoman. Um, we'll go to you, Erin, and then Councilwoman Rodriguez.

So, I'm I'm liking the city manager's proposal, which sounds very similar to what Bert Pllo proposed in the committee meeting. Um, I guess I don't have to see their financial statements all the time, and I don't know if I want staff to have to invest all that time to to do that. So, it's just we're talking about such small dollars here that I'm concerned that staff will be spending more time on the review than the value of the rent that we're we're receiving. So, I I I could live with, you know, this escalating rent over three years. Um, which sounds, like I said, identical what Bert PL proposed. So, I'd be happy to make that motion whenever that you're willing to entertain it. What would that escalation look like moneywise? Like

so so starting but I mean do we have do are we going to have staff go back and negotiate that with the or we just going to set it? You're doing that here. We can set it. I I'm saying I'm saying it right now. Basically I don't want zero rent for the first six months. I I want let's do $300 a month for the first 12 months, $600 a month for the next 12 months, $900 a month for the following 12 months. Council, go ahead.

Okay. I had a a few thoughts. Do we have any other nonprofits at city buildings that pay $1 a year? So I know once upon a time when future leaders was in the old Oxarn high school $1 a year was I don't know where that standard came from. It's just consideration. We don't I don't know comprehensively. I know the more recent ones that we've done like we have Catalyst Preschool we have raised the rents up to a more market rate. Um the commun soul um building that's what I was just wondering if Brenda knew for the ones that you manage. Do you know of any that are only at a dollar? Not for only a dollar. No, not that.

But I don't have a historic like a a database to pull from to tell you that.

Okay. Just because at some once upon a time that was not uncommon that a nonprofit in one of our buildings would be paying a dollar a year. Um I I I I'm not trying to make money off of this struggling volunteer-based nonprofit organization, but like I said, there does have to be some accountability and is no disrespect to the great work they do. For me, it's more about the vibrancy of that space in downtown Oxnard and um the maintenance of of of a building. Um it does change a lot for me knowing that um this can't be long term because you know the situation happen stance maybe but um of the future development. So so for me I I would be okay with a a a sliding or a scale. I don't know how realistic you know 369 would be or 200 400 600. I'm not trying to lowball anything, but um I just think some skin in the game is is is good. And even then, in a 30-day month, that's 10 bucks a day and we probably have more than 10 people using that space. And also, I don't know if my colleagues have seen the building. It's not in the best of shape. So, uh it's a tiny little box which they make home and no disrespect to the nonprofit trying to make it work.

Thank you. Go ahead, Council Member St. So, so mayor, I guess, let's let me make a motion. So motion is that we forgive the existing debt and that stat I'm sorry what I'm sorry I just want to make sure we notice um the uh mayor just for the record we did take public comments and we did say that um public comments um we didn't have any additional speakers in person or virtually um we do have a person who u raised their hand um virtually after We close that if it Yeah, we we'll let the council member take we'll take that call.

Let me make Let me make the motion. Basically, it's what the city manager is proposing, which is we'll forgive the debt and we'll have a three-year lease agreement where the first year it's $300 per month, second year $600 per month, third year $900 per month. That would be my motion. I I would go ahead. I would just caution. I have no facts that I was being told on truths, but it sounded as if the president he couldn't they couldn't they couldn't swing 900 bucks. Well, maybe not today, but if they've got two years to figure out how to get their act together,

that's why I think sliding it up makes sense. And you you could be 100% right. And I know um and thinking on this now uh somebody told me after the meeting, why didn't you ask what other nonprofits do? Because people that sit on boards of nonprofits, it's not uncommon for each board member to be obligated to bring in X amount of money or buy the seat with so much cash. It's like an annual membership. you want to be on a board and I don't know if they could do that or not, but um I just want to share that about the $900. Great. But my motion, Do you want to second my motion? So So I made I made a motion.

Motion 369. Yeah. Forgive the debt. 300 per month for the first year, 600 second year, 900 the third year. Is that something you'd be willing to second? Before we we have a second, I was curious, council member Star, if I know you mentioned you didn't want to have a record of filing financials and whatnot, but perhaps maybe adding to your motion if we could at least get an update when the when the filings have been completed and submitted and accepted. I'd be fine with that. Let's let's just call that a a friendly amendment because we haven't had a second yet. So, let's also include the requirement that they keep us informed as to their filings. So, hopefully they'll get up to date real fast.

I'm sorry to interrupt. So, I did want to share that I can't speak for their staff for the staff, but their 20 I asked the same question because the 990s get posted online. Their 2023 filing, they got an extension um to November 15, 2024. I was provided a copy. It's been filed. And then they also asked for an extension on their 2024 9990s um to November 17th, 2025. So as we were writing staff reports, they did provide me that copy. Um so at least I did want to put for the record that they provided those 29. But did they file for the did they file the 2024 return by November of 2025? Did that happen?

November 17th, 2025 and they gave me a cop. So that has been filed. Correct. That is what Datro has provided us. But the 2025 to your point, we're pending for them to give us that. Yeah. 2025, they they've got time. Yeah. It's an extension. But but your your position is that they're current today. They handed us the 2024990. Correct. I'm sorry. What? They did provide us a copy of 2024990. Okay.

Council member Perez, do you still want that added to the motion or are you satisfied with what was just said? I think it's fine, but I it would be great maybe not to have like a formalized maybe update. If you want to just reach out to me directly and just kind of share more and um yeah, share that update. Okay. So, do you want to second my motion then or because we're otherwise we're just kind of sitting here. Okay. Before we go to discussion, I I'd like to take that caller that's been waiting. Madam clerk, if we can put that caller through. Um virtual caller, if you can press star six to unmute and you'll have three minutes starting now.

Hello everyone. Uh this is Manuel Herrera, Citizens for Better Option. Um look, this this definitely is a tough one and um you know, I appreciate you guys trying to do everything you can. Um, but I in in hearing everything, here's my two cents for whatever it's worth. So, um, you know, based on the information that I'm hearing to me the and and hopefully I have my figures right here, but it seems like Eliatro has spent already like $35,000 in repairs to the building there. So, to me, that should easily cover their past due amount. So, to me, that should be a no-brainer. A no-brainer. You can just call it even um is is how I'm looking at that. Uh there's been comments made about, hey, if you guys help them out, well, there's 500 nonprofits, you know, you can't help them all. Uh and I agree. However, every situation is different. So, you can't use a cookie cutter formula for everybody. You got to you got to, you know, be specific to each non nonprofit and you got to take their situation at hand and deal with it, you know, individually and not group it all as nope, we got to do the same for each and every one of them. You can't it doesn't it it it doesn't work that way and it shouldn't work that way. Um, as far as the staggered rent, um, is that 300 a month for the first year or 300 for the first year? You know, 300 for one year and then 600 for the next year or is it per month? Um, I was a little confused about that. Um, and um,

as as far as what I believe the rent should be is them just taking care of the building, them just keeping it up to date. I mean, cuz how much would it cost the city every month to, you know, do the maintenance on that? Well, kind of like how you guys were talking about this earlier in your other uh agenda item where landlords will raise or lower the rent as long as the uh tenant takes care of the building. So, you know, you can do that here. You can say, "Hey, look, you guys take care of the building and even give specifications. you need to do this and this and this every month to take care of the building in lie of rent, you know, and uh like uh Councilwoman Rodriguez was saying, it it's not unheard of or it wasn't unheard of for a dollar a year. I mean, we're supposed to be helping our nonprofits. I mean, really, come on. Let's do what we can. Help them with grants. Help them any way we can. And in this situation, you know, uh, yeah, let's let's charge them a dollar a year or even if it's 300 a year.

Thank you, Mr. We're out of time. I appreciate you calling in. Thank you.

Correct. The statement that the speaker made, page 145, second paragraph. Um, as part of the initial lease, section 4.4.1 4.1 authorizes up to $35,000 in rent credit to cover costs incurred by incurred by Tatro for permanent improvements of the building. In addition to being responsible for permanent tenant improvements on the building, Theatro covers the cost of ongoing maintenance and operational stability. The term of the lease expired November 20, 2022 and converted to a month-to-month. It isn't a wash. If we wash $35,000 in rent for what they were given, they've already used that. And Manuel's just a little incorrect on that one.

Thank you,

Mr. Mayor. I know there's a motion a motion on the table and a second and I just I wanted to offer this and I'm not pushing to lower what we're proposing but um if in the earlier workshop more than $600 a month for a year was not realistic because looking at their financials there's usually made 5,000 wait I'm sorry $14,000 2025 I believe um I mean just just some of their budget is not huge I would like to encourage us to Right. Um, but maybe as an alternative, it could be like $200 a month for the first year, 400 and 600 because again, I'm not trying to make money off of an empty building. Like they are bringing vibrance vibrancy into that space and I want to appreciate that, but I'm not opposed to what's being proposed.

Yeah. You making an amendment to I know he wants to we can vote the initial motion down and come back. Sure. Sure. Um, yeah. I'd like to I'd like to propose the amendment because I just want to be realistic of what we're working with because originally the proposal was five years and we're giving potentially three. Um well let's let's take the vote on on your initial vote. I mean initial motion hold on she wants to make an amendment. So is your amendment just so I'm clear is instead of 300 600 900 you want 200 400 600. Is that your proposal? Correct. Vote on you basically vote on the amendment first and if it prevails then you vote on the amended motion. If it doesn't pass, then my original motion would be up.

Well, that was my motion or my amendment to the Yeah, I'll second that amendment. Okay. With the information with Yes. With the monthly updates and just the letter to all of us council members would be helpful. Just these are the updates. Yeah. Is that part of your amendment? Yeah. With the motion that um Pettis had which we originally had instead of trying to change the amounts instead of 300 200. So, the original motion's intact. You're just swapping dollar figures, right? Potentially. Yes. Correct. Okay. Thank you. Go ahead.

All right. Um, so we're going to vote on this amendment in just a moment. Um, I I I've been taking all this in. I also was introduced to Theatro through Carmen RmIrez and meeting with Margaret Corteza um in person when she was uh still there and it was just coming out of COVID and I knew of them but to see the very grassroots work that they've done um I think they're important considerations to have for uh what we're posing here and in my head hearing all of this I'm looking at this as this is a landlord tenant relationship And um they're not an operator for us similar to what the what Sterling or the um OPAC does. They are a tenant in a building that we own and we are the landlord. Um they've done a number of things for tenant improvements and those have been documented and credited. Uh the request here on the main motion was to forgive the past due rent. I'm fine with that. Um, I'm trying to be mindful here though of what what is uh realistic and fair for this group given that it's all volunteer, given that um they've had a history of uh level of success as demonstrated through what's been submitted to us. And I I don't want to uh as has been stated by two council members try and squeeze blood from a turnup here. uh you're providing some very important um opportunities for young people and residents in the city that's not readily available through any other means. And we had the Boys and Girls Club here earlier as somebody uh coming from there representing that organization. She

shared what that organization had done for her. and organizations like this, I can't look at an ROI for you all on um you know, how much profit you're going to make and what it's going to bring back to us and you're going to meet our rent obligations and everything because you could also be providing for any person, any young person or adult even through your programming the things like we saw earlier this evening at the pledge of allegiance and those are um invaluable and so I just try to Keep those things in mind. And I want to throw out there as well the need for reviewing financial documents and and all that. Again, this is a tenant landlord relationship. Um I don't feel that for my personal opinion, I don't think I need to micromanage the tenant to show me all of your income and your receipts, your expenditures. If you can make rent, you can make rent. Uh the added layer is that you're doing a good social a social good for our community and offering something that could be the one opportunity that some person in Oxnard needs that they find and it changes their life. So, I'm weighing those as well. And that's why I supported the um amendment by Councilwoman Rodriguez because if at the previous meeting the board president said $600 did seem attainable, then I think that that would be something that we can look at there that just seems more fair and attainable for you all. So, and last question for the city attorney's office in this decision we're making here tonight. Would any of the council members up here be prohibited from joining that board if they chose to volunteer and do so if they want to see all the financials and give that direction and help to steer this organization in a positive direction? Is that uh prohibited because there's a

um decision we're making here tonight and this financial an agreement we're entering. So to be clear, nobody's on the board right now. Correct. Okay. We'll look at that and we'll get back to you. Okay. I just want to throw out there to my colleagues that they said they were looking for board members. And if you are allowed to join after saying determining what their lease agreement is going to be, um, and you want to see all their financials, you want to be in the the weeds with that and help them get to their vision, that may be an opportunity. So, I'm just throwing that out there. Go ahead.

Debate on the amendment. I'm I'm going to speak against the amendment to use the lower numbers. Um, I believe that with effort that this is not a real high burden to come up with $300 per month for the first year and then 600 the second and 900 the third. I've served on boards and I remember what we had was a was a a give or get. We called it a give or get program. Basically, you were on the hook for coming up with five grand. And if you didn't raise it by selling tickets or getting donations, you were writing a check for the difference. And that really gets you motivated because you're going, "Heck, I'm going to have to raise the money because otherwise I'm the one that has to fork it over." So, I I think that, you know, and as far as like the Boys and Girls Club, they do a great job. They they're out there. They are fundraising. We've the organiz the the Gene Oz Foundation I think gives like 100 grand a year to them just because they do such great work. Um I'm confident that if you put your mind to it, I think you guys can do it. But I think I'm doing you a disservice if I make it too low. If I make it so low, you're not going to get out of bed and do the hard work. That's just the reality of life. So, I'd like to stick to the original motion. So, I'm I'm going to urge that you vote down the amendment and vote the main motion.

I'll just add one more thing. Um I'm going to vote against the amendment. I I'm comfortable with what what's been negotiated thus far. I think to have the quarterly rent up to $2,970 in excess of gross revenue of $10,560. I think that's something that I mean, look, they provide a vital service. And I mean giving an alternative they could very likely say look we'll just vacate and we certainly know will cost us a lot more money. It's not like I think we have nonprofits just battling to get in there. It's a very unique um space and there's a lot of positivity that comes out of what the the demetic what they do for us is a community theater. Um I think we so I would stick to the recommended um the recommend the recommendation by by staff because I think this is something they've already negotiated. is something that is doable for them. I think to present them with these alternatives, it's not something they may be able to support given their their financials and I think we have a built-in system in here that assures some money coming in which is an excess of what is being recommended should they be profitable. It sounds like with this new CEO, she's aggressive. She understands the challenges that the uh that the is facing and she's going to be aggressive in it. Um and I've I so I I I'll get behind that. So, so, so mayor, uh, should can I call the can we call the question on the amendment?

Sure. I'm sorry. I was confused by your remarks, uh, mayor. Sure. You mentioned that you were supporting staff's recommendation because the motion at hand that was second was not staff's recommendation. It was a three-year possibility of 369. I just want to make sure I know what I'm voting on. Right. Well, I think right now what's on the table is is your amendment amendment. Yes. Okay. So, you voted or you're inclined or you're debating against the amendment, correct? Because it's it's too low and you think it's doable, right? Correct.

Okay. Um I I'd like to debate in favor of the amendment only because I see in like their profit and loss documents that, you know, they're recycling and making $2127. You know, like this this is a this is a grassroots organization and I don't think it's fair to compare to like the Boys and Girls Club. It's a national organization and it has all these chapters and you know 100 plus years of legacy which again it's just a debate but something to consider and they have Denzel Washington. Oh among others yeah

counc I just want to share with everybody I intend to vote for both the amendment and the original and the reason is it's a hell of a lot better than what the original thing was. Thank you. Go ahead. Thank you. And just my last statement on this debate for the amendment here. Um, council member, I believe you sit on the foundation for the Gene House Foundation, right? On the board. I'm on the board of advisors. So, so let's not call me a board member.

Okay. Well, I only bring that up because um you've made a a really u important statement that has to resonate with all nonprofits hopefully with the folks in the room that you have to ask. So, um Gene Hos Foundation has been incredibly generous with the Boys and Girls Club as mentioned and other uh community based organizations in the region. And so, folks, all you got to do is ask. So, hang out till after the meeting, I guess. Okay. We we do require that form 9990s be up to date though. Got it. Got it. Okay. Are we ready for the vote on your amendment? We can do that. Yeah. Madam court. I'm sorry. Can can you Yes.

Your amendment. So it's 200, 400, 600. So the amendment is to take the original motion which was for 300, 600, and 900 per month plus the paperwork. Right. And the amendment right now is to change that to 200, 400, and 600. So right now, you're just voting on the amendment to 246 instead of 300, 600, 900. Okay, Madam Cler, call for the vote. Um, Councilwoman Bettis, yes. Councilwoman Rodriguez, hi. Um, Council Member Star, no. Mayor Promter, yes. Councilwoman Basua,

yes. Council member Palo, yes. Mayor MacArthur, no. Um, this motion carries 5 to2. Thank you. Okay. So, Mayor, right now what we have is we have the motion as amended. Uh, so you can either have further debate or if people are just ready, you can come to a vote on this item, vote yes or no. If we vote no, we're at square one. So, I guess I guess if there's no objection, I would call the question. Y I just want to confirm that it would be for a three-year um extension of the lease, not a fiveyear. Correct. Correct. All three draw three years.

Correct. Yeah. As of right now, I think we she's trying to clarify is there are two one-year extension options within there and the motion just makes it at a three-year with no extensions. That's what you're correct. as of right now. If if further extensions would be considered, that'd be discussed in three years. Okay. So, state attorney, what are we voting on now? You're voting on the vote the motion as amended as just amended moments ago. Okay. Madam clerk, we're going to call for for the vote. Excuse me. Council member Palo, yes. Councilwoman Bettis, yes. Councilwoman Rodriguez, I. Councilwoman Star, yes.

Mayor Promteran, yes. Councilwoman Basua, yes. Mayor MacArthur, yes. And this motion carries 7 to zero. Thank you. Thank you. Okay. Thank you, Miss Lopez. Thank you. Thank you, Madam Clerk. Just to to be sure, we did forgive the loan, right? Or we did forgive the debt. Okay. Uh the motion was to forgive forgive the debt. Yeah. Thank you everyone for being here from Tetrochis and for bearing with us through this discussion.

The next item on the agenda is item N3. This is from the public works department. The subject introduction of cross connection control and backflow prevention ordinance. The recommendation is that the city council introduce and wave first reading of the proposed ordinance entitled an ordinance of the city council of the city of Oxford amending articles four of chapters 22 of the city code in its entirety pertaining to the regulation of cross connection and backflow standards. The public works and transportation committee approved this item 30 back on January 27th, 2026 with an amendment ordinance. And our public works director, Michael Wolf, is here to answer any questions we may have. And do we have we do have one u public um comment?

We'll start with Ronald Reco, please. Thank. Good evening, Mayor MacArthur, Mayor Prom Toron, and members of the city council. My name is Ronald Arjo, and I'm speaking as an auxer municipal utilities rate payer. First, I want to thank the members of the public works and transportation committee, of which this item was considered first. I did not expect a substantive discussion after my comments and I thank them for considering nearly all portions of my original request for potentially amending the municipal ordinance and/or a change in city communication policies. For the remainder of the council, I'll summarize the comments that I had made previously. For many years, our household has received a cross connection and backflow compliance notice in November. Often the notice arrives more than a week after the letter date. Once received, it typically takes at least a week just to reach a qualified testing company, and scheduling can take up to two additional weeks, especially due to the Thanksgiving holidays. Despite following up promptly, we have still been assessed a late fee at least once in the past 5 years. If we happen to be on vacation when a notice arrives, the process becomes a stressful rush to schedule testing and ensure results are sent to the city before the 30-day deadline. The reason for this public comment actually started about 11 years ago. My mother was just a few months into taking care of my father, may he rest in peace, who had recently gotten sick. In the middle of stressing about medical issues, we had gotten the notice for backflow testing and was such a pain to contact schedule tests and have the company report the testing within what was only 15 business days after getting the notice. It was one of many stressors that I felt that I could not provide a solution living halfway across the country at that time. And I promised myself if there was ever an opportunity to say something about this so that it'd be slightly less stressful for my family

and others, I would do so. And so I am. The staff mentioned that the notices were not a problem for the public. But then we had talked to others about theirs. and some had a similar situation about feeling too rushed to complete all the steps in the time remaining of the 30-day testing period. I am not suggesting to remove testing as I also want water to be safe. I wouldn't necessarily mind having even more testing if that was what the city deemed would make it safer, but just give some of us a couple more days breathing room to get everything in order to comply with the regulations. I'm respectfully asking the city council and the staff to consider and incorporate the likely USPS delays in the backflow testing notice specifically and just in general all times sensitive communications by sending communications to residents just a couple of business days earlier than what they have currently planned in their SOPs. Thank you for your time.

Thank you, Ron. Cart, do you have any questions? I guess my first question is um do we have any idea how many people are fined for late compliance? I I know that very few requests were made for fines to be waved. I remember seeing that during the committee meeting, but I don't remember any mention of how many people have actually been fined and assessed. Uh good evening, Mayor, Mayor Potam, Council Members, Michael Wolf, director of public works. I I'll have Chris Payeyton who's behind me um talk about some of the numbers he's able to provide some of that information with the draw out of a system that is not very user friendly. So we'll see what Chris was able to provide.

I was fined last year. Ah so so while Chris F Chris is looking for that let me let me talk a little bit about what was discussed at the committee and in this process so we certainly can change our internal uh standard operating procedure to send those notifications out a little further in advance because that's not actually written in the ordinance that that part how far in advance we actually send the notice the original notice the annual notice is not dictated in the ordinance we have been using a roughly a 30-day process um for identifying when the notice goes out then mailing the notice and and and Mr. Rahu is correct that that could get shrunken down depending on how long it takes the post office to do. So we certainly can extend that back such that it's even two weeks uh more than what we typically do. So that's internal to our processes and and not necessarily and not written in the ordinance. And so I want to make sure that's clear that that's not dictated in here. What's dictated in here is potentially what happens if there's a failed uh process or failed testing and that's what's dictated in the ordinance. Um the other thing I would mention is that these are annual reports. So there's nothing stopping them from scheduling that right now for November. Meaning this is not a surprise for people. This they have this notification every year. They don't have to wait for the notification to do the the setting up of of the testing. They don't have to wait for us to notify them. Uh, so I I would say that this shouldn't be a surprise to people who's lived in her home for for multiple years because it comes out every year.

What are you saying, Alex? You had no excuse. I I So I I would like to add um it does come every year. I do schedule it. It does get done. It's just the particular company I use because the city sends a very long list of potential uh inspectors or whatever they are. Um, they did it on time. They just failed to send it to the city on time. So, it's okay. I now I have a credit for next year. Yeah. With the company. Chris.

Good evening, council. Chris Payton, water division manager. I'll put this down like we're not in an MBA uh conference. Um, so as far as late notices, um, so I just in preparation for this, I pulled our last 12-month period. Um, within that 12 months, we we had sent out 11,62 test notices. Um, out of those, we did get 7,215 late notices that had to be sent. Um, those aren't necessarily um, for different accounts. some accounts were a first late notice, a second late notice. Um, but it is often um we also have usually on our average late per month is about 385 devices that are late per month.

Thank you, Chris. Mayor Por I'm sorry. Go ahead. Okay. So, I I can see that's an issue of timing here. Um, but it sounds like you're willing to change that procedure so that maybe they've got 45 days instead of 30 so they can get things together. Is that what I'm hearing?

It's a process internal to the water division. So, we certainly can make that change. And again, it's not that is not set in the ordinance. So, if we decide that that 30 days is is is not enough for us to start that annual notification process, then we can back that up a couple weeks. Yeah, I think 45 days would be fine. Uh, so if you're if you're committed to doing that, I don't have any objection to the ordinance. Yes. Go ahead, Mayor Porto.

Thank you. And I uh appreciate that because the um speaker, Mr. Wjo did come to committee and um raise those concerns and uh if that's an internal process we could do. It sounds like it would probably be appreciated uh by all of the residents who and commercial customers who need who get this notification and have to make arrangements for the inspection etc. Um and I'll liken it to my business tax certificate that I get annually from um from billing and licensing. And I feel like I get plenty of notice on that. Even though I know in my head that it's coming up, it still is important to get that physical reminder in the in the mail. I put it up on my bulletin board and that's just what works for me. And I know there was another speaker um who had mentioned his own business tax certificate similar to what Mr. Wjo said saying, "Wow, you know, you need to send it out earlier. I didn't have enough time." And I thought, "Well, I feel like that's plenty of time." And I think it's just kind of two different mindsets there. So in this case, if we do give it an extra cushion of time for uh customers, I'm sure it would help. And the last point I want to make is the change in postmarking in within the postal service as well where that's kind of more on our end where it might help us to put it out a little bit earlier too because then we have the postmark and it'll probably come out, you know, a day or two later, whatever it ends up being when it's processed by the USPS versus um what they had previously. So anyways, that's that's just my comments on that. I appreciate uh the willingness to have that internal discussion on on giving a little bit more notice on that.

Yeah, that'll just be for the annual notice, not the the dictated notices that are in the ordinance, meaning the first violation and things like that. Correct. Thank you, Ron. Just to clarify, was 45 days acceptable? Is that

real? Mayor MacArthur. Um, yes, that's more than I was suggesting. Um, since I'm here, my point, um, I'm going to state is that we know it comes every year. The problem is is that the backflow testing company doesn't want to schedule it until we get the testing notice. And so, that's the only reason why that there's that stress. Um, maybe it's changed in the last 10 years, but 10 years ago, we tried to do it in advance after we got that stressor. um but they wouldn't allow us to. And so we're on pins and needles waiting for that notice to then schedule that. And then yes, they did um uh send the notice uh or the testing late. In the last couple years, I don't know when we had that late fee. We didn't get the credit. Unfortunately, we just ate it. Um 10 years ago, I didn't know who to go to. Um obviously, I'm a little bit more um knowledgeable about city government. Thank you very much for that extended um comments. Appreciate it.

I appreciate it, Ron. Thanks for asking the question. Yep, absolutely. I um so um just to kind of reiterate on that. Um so currently we are doing about 30 days notice, a little bit more sometimes, but like Mr. Wolf was saying, that is an internal discussion that we can absolutely have. Um and to um the speaker's point, the testers cannot do the testing until they receive the notice because within the notice is also the testing report. So he is correct on that.

Okay. So I think I mean I'm I'm certainly supportive of the way it's presented here. I think if it's just an internal control if we can just um 45 days I think is what was recommended. Council member Star u the speaker Ron uh is supportive of that. I think that benefits all of us as a community. So, we can just absolutely do that. Thank you. Okay. I I just want to move staff's recommendation and hopefully come to a vote soon. I'll second. Okay. Madam Clerk, are there any speakers on this item? Um, mayor and council members, we do not have any um speakers in person or virtually for this item. Thank you. Thank you. There are no comments to call for the vote. Uh, Councilwoman Pettis, yes. Councilwoman Rodriguez, I.

Councilman Star, yes. Mayor Promteran. Yes. Councilwoman Basua. Council member Palo. Mayor MacArthur. Yes. Miss Motion carries seven to zero. Thank you. Thank you very much. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. I just want to clarify the $16 credit on my account isn't with the city. It's with the company that failed to send in the paperwork. It's a $16 credit on my account with them, not the city. I paid the city.

Thank you. The next item on the agenda is item N4 from HR subject resolution approving the ratified tenative agreement with International Association of Firefighters Local 1684. The recommendations that the city council adopt a resolution approving the tenative agreement with the International Association of Firefighters Local 1684. This item did not originate in committee. Our HR director, Steve Nvu, is here to answer any questions we may have of him. Madam Cler, are there any speakers on this item? Uh, mayor and council members, we do not have any public speakers in person or virtually for this item. Thank you.

Thank you. We'll open up for for questions or comments. Go ahead, Cumber. just uh I want to say thank you uh for leading with the budget methodology approach uh because that to me is the um that that's the highlight right there. This is what really is the extra money coming out of our checking account because we make this decision. So we're looking at a cumulative impact of about $7.8 million over three years and then I guess ongoing three and a half million dollars per year thereafter. So, but thank you very much for putting that in there that way. Thank you, Council Member Star. Any other question or comments? If not, what's the pleasure of council on this item? I'll move the recommended action.

I'll second. So, I I I would like to make a statement about that. If you're ready for debate on this,

first of all, I want to say you did a good job. I thought you you know, given given the hand you're being dealt with, um I I think what you came up with was very good. Uh, I'm going to vote no, not because of anything you did, but I'm going to be voting no because I don't think we can afford this. Um, we we know we're trying to wean ourselves off measure O. The money isn't there, and I feel like that increasing our uh our monthly nut, if you will, is going to be u put a lot of financial pressure on us down the road. So given that, I'll I'll be voting no. I'm not saying that the employees don't deserve it. I'm just simply saying I don't think we can afford it.

Thank you, Council Member Star. Any other questions or comments before I call for the vote? Okay. Uh Councilwoman Rodriguez, hi. Councilman Star, no. Mayor Prompter, yes. Um Councilwoman Basua, yes. Council member Pllo, yes. Councilwoman Bettis, yes. Mayor MacArthur. Madam clerk, was there one speaker that we missed? No, there were no virtual speakers. Okay, got it. Yes. Um, thank you. And this motion carries six to one. Thank you. Thank you. Does anyone have any future net item? No, but mayor, I think we need to go back into close session at this time, right? Oh, yeah. That's right. That's right. We were Don't get too happy there. Yeah. Sorry. Yes. All right. So,

yeah. Reconvening in the close session. Okay. to take up item C3. Thank you. Thank you. Take some vitamin

Hi everyone. We just emerged from close session. I'm going to ask our city attorney, Mr. Fischer, to make any announcements.

Thank you, mayor. On item C3 of the close session agenda, the city council by a unanimous vote has directed the city attorney to join an amicus curi brief to be filed in Newsome v. Trump regarding the district court's grant of plaintiff's motion for preliminary injunction in joining defendants from deploying California National Guard members in Los Angeles and directing them to return control to Governor Nuome. Thank you, Mr. Fischer. Are there any other um agenda items for future agenda items? No, see that there is no uh business on the agenda and and without objection, we are ajourned. Thank you everyone.