City Council - Regular Meeting

Good evening. Just want to call the meeting order for the Oxar City Council for Tuesday, March 3rd, 2026. Madam Clerk, may we have a roll call in posting of the agenda, please? Uh, council member Palo here. Councilwoman Pettis here. Councilwoman Rodriguez present. Councilman Star here. Mayor Prompteran here. Mayor MacArthur here. The agenda for this meeting was posted in the kiosk at city hall, the Oxer Public Library, the city administrative offices, and on the city's website on Thursday, February 19th. Thank you. Thank you, Madam Clerk. The next item on the agenda is a close session item. Um, city chair, do we have any announcements to make?

Yes, 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 Lopez versus City of Oxnard and Blanchard versus City of Oxnard. Thank you, Mr. Fisher. Madam Clerk, are there any public speakers for this item? Um, mayor and council members, we do not have any public speakers in person or virtually for close session items. Thank you. Thank you very much. At this time, we'll break for the close session item and we'll return at 5:30 for an appointment item. Thank you.

You want another box, Alex? Yeah. Yeah. So, I'll leave some out for the audience and then I'll bring her a box. Set it over here somewhere. Well, to get that exposure, but once they see me on the agenda, they don't show up. But I'll bring you another box.

I want to know what page you're on. only.

How are you? Good. Good to see you. Okay, we're back on the record. Um the city council has just emerged from close session. I'll ask our council um our city attorney, Mr. Fischer, to make an announcements. Thank you. Thank you, mayor. There are no actions to report out of close session this evening. Thank you, Mr. Fischer. The next item on the agenda is an appointment item. This is the presentation of the 2025 state of the region report published by the Ventura County Civic Alliance. This evening we have uh David Marone who will make the presentation. Welcome David. Thank you for being here. Hello, sir.

Thank you, Mayor MacArthur, members of the council, staff, and the overflowing members of the audience here. Thank you very much for doing that. That's how it sounds in my head. Yeah. Uh, good evening. I am David Marion with Ventur County Civic Alliance. Before I begin, I would like to also acknowledge that the chair of the Ventur County Civic Alliance is with us. Uh, Selena Zacharias, uh, who is a longtime resident of Oxnard. She's also the Oxnard Harbor Commissioner and a member of RDP and, uh, pleased to have her with us today. So, if we could bring up the PowerPoint, I can get started. And there we go. So, we cannot go around the county and share this report with all of uh the residents without the generosity of our larger sponsors. These are a few of them. Ventura County Community Foundation, the community colleges of Ventura County, California Resources, the county of Ventura, Lemana, Channel Islands, the Port of Wimi, that's where Selena's harbor commissioner, and of course, the Ventura County Office of Education. The inside back cover has the full list of all of our sponsors. So, some highlights from the report. We publish this every two years. This is the ninth one overall. All of our sources are listed beginning on page 113. If you or staff want to dig into something, we'll show you all of those websites. For the audience at home, you can read this online or download it at www.civicalliance.org. And also just a point of information, Ventura County Civic Alliance is a neutral, unbiased nonprofit 501c3. We're focused on quality of life here in Ventura County. So I'll start off with agriculture. Lot to cover tonight. Uh the top 10 crops, we show this every two years, and you can see that strawberries

continue to dominate over $700 million in Ventura County. Avocados comes up second at about 139 million. Avocados is interesting because it's a cyclical crop. It's up one year and down the other, but strawberries continue to dominate. U and then you can see some of the others that are listed here in Ventur County. Now, the overall size of our agricultural, excuse me, economy is about $2 billion. And it's been that way for many, many years. Uh it hasn't been able to get above that. And you can see that the diagonal line there is the percentage of the overall Ventura County economy. So at one time, agriculture made up about four and a half% of our economy, but now it has dropped to about 3.3%. Uh obviously farming in Ventura County is very challenging. There's three big issues, labor, of course, water, and then also these uh insects with the viruses that can just decimate our crops. So it is a very challenging profession. Now this one here shows about employment and earnings. About 24,000 25,000 people work in the a economy. And oftentimes I don't think young people realize there are some very good jobs in the a economy working in some of the packing houses, the automation, doing the marketing, a lot of other things. Mission produce here in Ventura County in Oxnard, Lemana and others. There's quite a lot of opportunities. You can see that the wages have risen. That's the green bar. But the blue bar is inflation adjusted and those have stayed pretty much the same. Actually declined a little bit. So we are paying well but it is a inflation uh focus. Okay. Next up is community engagement. So here's one that's not so great news

for Oxnard. Uh the amount that is spent by the city of Oxnard's library system is the lowest in the county. Um and also the number of people that visit your library per capita. So Oxnard certainly the largest city but per capita very low usage of the library system. Thousand Oaks and Camaro tend to have the highest amounts. Now one qualifier. So this isn't the amount of money the city gives the library. It's the total amount spent by a library. Some of these other library systems have very robust friends of the library that fund raise for them and that money then can be spent. So, it's not a reflection just on the budget. It's a reflection on all of the money that comes into the libraries.

You Oh, feel free to interrupt. Yes, just a quick thing. Um, I wanted to wait till the very end for questions. Uh, Mr. Marin, can you go back to the previous slide? I know we want to highlight the Oxnard items here, but I'm just curious if we have any information about the um change between fiscal year 2223 and 2324 for Camrio Library. You mean when it went from uh part of the public system to the private um I forget the name of the company that took over the management, but is that what you're referring to? Well, I just see the um just visually the drop

why it why it jumped. Um no, I don't know. I think they went to the private organization that runs, you may remember that they pulled out of the Ventura County Library System and they went independent. Uh but I think it was before 2223. Uh so that may have just been a year of um perhaps it was a donation or some other thing. But good good question to catch me on that one. I don't know.

Uh politically blue are Democrats, red are Republicans, green are no party preference. We're looking back about 25 years here. We can see that Democrats have slowly risen in the amount of registration. Uh the Republicans have lost quite a bit and that has come at the expense of no party preference. So it isn't as important as it was 25 years ago to register with a party because we have open primaries now. People aren't so uh affiliated with a particular party, but no party preference has certainly grown. Now that's the overall county. This is it by city. Um, of all the cities, Oxnard and Ohigh have the highest percentage of Democratic registration. In fact, Oxnard and Ohigh have a majority. Um, and Ohigh is so small, I really have to say Oxar dominates in that category. See Valley is the only city that has a plurality of Republicans. Now, this is voter registration, not voter turnout. As you all know, your elected officials, it's getting these people to actually vote. But you can see how no party preference, interestingly, is about consistent across all of the cities. Even though we see the registration between the two parties vary, that no party preference is still pretty consistent. We've added some new data in this year's report. The nonprofit sector, we're breaking out as far as categories, so you can see just how much money is both revenue and assets by various categories. You can see education is very large. That could be Cal Lutheran money. At the very bottom, you see health and hospitals. That's uh community memorial uh dominates in those areas. So even though community memorial is a seems like a for-profit business, they are a nonprofit. So they have tons of revenue and tons of expenses. We break out the largest nonprofits here by both assets and revenue. This one is assets. So you can see that community

memorial is just doing great up there as far as total assets. Uh Gene Hos foundation related to the Gene Hos company here in Oxnard. Uh very much has a lot of assets there and you could see some others and in your report itself it goes on a little bit more as far as how some of these nonprofits have accumulated money. Uh certainly organizations to uh that should be around for a while. And I'd like to share this slide. We're looking at nonprofits here and this is employment. I think a lot of times some of the audiences I speak to don't realize that we have almost 11,000 people in Ventura County working in the nonprofit sector. It is a huge safety net and some of these organ and these are nonos uh this excludes the hospitals. These are the everyday nonprofits like Community Action here in Oxnard and Food Share and all the others and they translate to over half a billion dollars of wages. So an important part of our community. We also added a new slide here regarding the creative economy. So there was data out there that we were able to access to show and Oxnard. I think More Park has a big operation with studios. There's a lot of different types. So whether somebody is a graphic arts designer, they're a performance like you have your your uh Oxnard Performing Arts Center and other places. The blue in these uh in this screen is W2 employees. So somebody is a hired graphic designer. They're working for ABC graphic design in Oxnard, let's say. The green are the contractors. And so you can see certain industries. If you have a child who's thinking about going into fashion, for example, probably want to get them to uh go for a a W2 job because that pays much better than the self-employed. So, you can see some interesting data in these charts. Moving on to the economy, uh there's several charts that look like

this one, the service providing, there's also goods producing and also government. So goods producing is the manufacturing, the agriculture, oil drilling, service providing are these jobs that we see here like financial activities and IT uh hospitality, education. Many many years ago, goods producing was where our economy was built. But over the years in Ventura County, the state and somewhat the nation, service providing jobs are the ascendant type of industry that's happening as manufacturing moved offshore became highly automated. So on the top half of these charts, it shows the number of jobs. On the bottom, it shows you the salaries. So if you look on the top and oops okay so if you look at let's say financial activities we can see that there's been a decline in the number of people working in these in this industry but this is an industry that has increasing amounts of pay over 112,000 a year similar as the IT sector sector, very high paying, but we're losing jobs. Where we're seeing a growth in jobs is more like leisure and hospitality, but that doesn't pay very well. So, this is the imbalance that's throughout the county as far as trying to not just have jobs, but to have highpaying jobs. So, whatever we can do to attract more of these financial service companies, you may recall we had a big Bank of America operation in Sme Valley. Farmers was out there countrywide. All of those companies have left. So that's why we see the decline in that particular industry. Our gross county product, if you have earlier reports and you look at this report, you'll notice that the lines are

completely different. And that's because we readjust this report every two years to make the city managers happy. No, that's not why. What we do is we readjust it because of inflation. So this is showing that back in about 2008 before the or six before the grand the great recession we actually were doing pretty well about 70 plus billion dollars uh for our overall economy but after the great recession we took a real hit and we've never really come back. We popped up a little bit the last year, but if you look at the actual percentages down here for the growth, it's been anemic. And the concern that I would share is that this is when we've had pretty good growth in the overall state and national economies. So, if we get hit with another recession, it's going to hurt here in Ventura County because we haven't been able to go back up. So, much like the nation, but yes, we uh need to bring in more industry, more jobs. This chart's a little hard to process on the screen, but what we're trying to show is how expensive it is to live here. The blue lines represent average income for various job. And so you can see at the top you have things like health care support, maybe you make $20 an hour. Uh you move down to management and legal, you get into a much higher salary range. And then we contrast that with just how expensive it is for let's say a single adult. They need to make about $29 an hour to survive here in Ventura County. So those first set of jobs don't even work for them. They have to find a job that's more in the middle of this chart. And if you have children now, you're moving further and further to the right. And a lot of that is the cost of child care, of course, and we can talk more about that later, but it's an interesting chart to just see how much of a struggle it is for people here

in Ventura County. Good news, taxable sales. Um, we have the various cities here. Uh, Oxnard way at the top, you have that amazing number up there, over um5 billion dollars. Just amazing. I'm sorry, I'm mispronouncing it. It's a Amazon, not amazing. That's your Amazon number. Uh, which is obviously uh very much desired by all the other cities and I'm sure something will happen there at some point. But, uh, great news for Oxnard. Now, on the tourism side, Oxart's been steady, growing, and um you can see the other West County cities have the highest percentage of tourism dollars. Ohigh is off the charts, and that's because of the Ohigh Valley in uh they just get so much from their hotel bed tax because their hotel rates are so high. And it's very fortunate Oxnard isn't in that situation because that city depends on Ohigh Valley Inn. If the Ohigh Valley Inn closes for several months, that's a huge hit. Knoxart is a very diverse income base, so you're not too worried about that. Portoini uh continues to be just a very strong economic engine here and right on your shores. And I bring this up because I know a lot of your city residents work at the port. And so you can see the overall income has continued to grow. And uh one interesting thing just to look at it, you probably see it on your screens, but the number of autos that are shipped in and out of o the uh port of Wimi went from about 280,000, it's now up to over 400,000. I mean, every day in your in the Oxnard plane, over a thousand cars are coming or going. It's just quite an achievement for the port and quite a lot of economic activity. Naval Base, Ventura County. It is very hard to find data. As I mentioned, Selena is on RDP. I'm sure maybe one or two of you are as well. Uh, and it is hard to find data, but we did find a

reliable source to give us some indication of the amount of spending that happens out at the base and the amount of people that are associated with the base, both active duty, civilian, uh, type of thing. So, some more information for everybody on that. Education. This is the important chart as far as declining enrollments. So, city of Oxnard is no different. The green line is K through is high school. The blue line is K through 8. And we have a little thing up here in the upper left corner. 50 years ago, the population in Ventura County was about half of what it is today. So, we've doubled in 50 years. But when you look at the number of students, we went from about 107,000 to about 122,000. We are not having enough children in Ventura County. This is your school districts here. Ocean View lost a little. So the top line is 202122 and it goes down to the more recent years. You can see Oxnard Elementary has lost about 10% of their enrollment over the last four years. Oxnard Union High School uh has had a big decline and Rio Elementary has held their own, but I don't think we're going to see a new high school built in Ventura County for couple of decades. Now, I'm often asked, well, isn't this because everybody is homeschooling now. So, we put this in here as well. The private schools, you can see that private schools have also declined. So, it's not private school enrollment, it is just the lack of babies. Test scores are in here. It's a hard chart to look at, but there's a lot of fantastic data showing how every school in the county is doing on these scores for English and math. It's our wonderful writer, Tony Basada. Biasadi explains all of that.

Mayor, yes, sir. Um, I really appreciate the fact that you have the data for the school and the education here, but this chart is an eye-opening chart for residents in this city and other throughout the county, but really appreciate that this has been included. It's important to the citizens of this community and the county to understand and it's also important to understand there's two governments. There's the civic government and the educational government and there's tax bases different things because it is still amazing to me how many people think the city of Oxnard is responsible for the education in the city of Oxnard. Thank you very much for including this.

Thank you. This chart is showing the number of students that met or exceeded the standard. And there's only one high school in Ventura County that 100% of the students met the standard for English. No schools in Ventura County met 100% for math. So it is a eye openening. It's it was jarring when we put it together.

David, I got a question on the that previous slide we were just looking at. I noticed Oxnard Union 9 grades 9 through 12. I I don't see Del Soul on there. We had to start at 20%, but I'm not sure if they had the data. Um, but it should be if if the data was there. I don't know if it's truly there because they don't have all four years enrolled yet. And this is looking at I think third, fifth, eighth, and juniors. So, the way the data is pulled together, I think that's why Del Soul might be missing. Okay. So, yeah, D Soul only has, I guess, freshman and sophomores right now. And I guess next year, this is our first year. They have juniors. Yeah, thank you for bringing that up.

So, next Okay, so next year it'll show up.

Community colleges have mostly come back. Oxnard College is there in the green as far as the number of students. So, good work for the community colleges. But our uh four-year university, Channel Islands, is the top line there. You can see that their enrollment has plunged mostly COVID in the pandemic, but uh from what I understand the numbers will be better coming up. Uh and I may have overlooked mentioning that Selena also is the government relations person for Channel Islands University. I love to show this chart because it shows the value of education. The longer you stay in school, the better your career earnings. So, if somebody graduates high school, I'll use a female, she would get about $34,000 as far as her average annual income with a high school degree, but if she was able to stay in and get a bachelor's degree, you can see that number is double. Um, so, and if they go on to get graduates, so if somebody is debating is college really worth it, this chart says yes, it is. And it's really worth the student loans if you have to even do that. Now, there's a great inequity between the males and the females, but either way, it's education pays off. Housing starts have come back a little bit in Ventura County. Um, but we're still not building enough. Average home prices. The blue line is the prices countywide. The green is inflation adjusted, which is interesting to many people because inflation adjusted, our housing prices really haven't gone up at all in the last 20 years. Uh, but you have to buy your home with inflation dollars and that's much more expensive. Apartment rents continue to be the challenge for our young people trying to get a job after college or high school and then you have to pay for like 2900 2600 here in Oxnard. Uh, it's just staggering as far as how expensive it is. So young people go and they move to Filillmore where the apartments are cheaper, but then they're on the road

all day driving to get to their jobs in Oxar or Santa Apollo. So, it all adds up. Very complicated, as you all know. Uh, good news, we're continuing to add solar energy in Ventura County. So, not quite the size of one of the generating stations, but we're getting pretty close to what we've added. And good news for Oxnard as far as the amount of water used per capita. Uh, you are the second lowest in the county. And that makes sense because your yards for homes are a little smaller. You have the coastal breeze. Some of these uh eastern cities have a much higher um or dryness. So they're using a lot more water for landscaping. This is the chart that also I think is really shocking to many is our birth rate. So the peak in 1990

we were showing about uh 18 or 19 births per thousand residents. Um, and here we are in 2023 and that number has dropped to 10.2. So almost half of the birth rate that we used to have in Ventura County. And you can say, well, that's because of the high price of housing. I think a lot of it is also young people waiting longer to have children and young people deciding let's only have two kids instead of three or four like our parents may have had. Um this chart is similar to the state and the nation but Ventura County is worse than the state. We have had a precipitous decline in that birth rate which means obviously we have a lower uh number of students going to our schools and that means our average age is continuing to creep up. Good news fentanyl that's declined. A lot of that is nlloxxone as far as the emergencies. We've added cancer rates here in Ventura County. Um we have four different charts in the book, but this one is all cancers. Surprisingly, what we did was we ranked the top 25 or 30 uh counties and Ventura is near the top as far as the number of uh cancer rates. So this is incidence which is different than prevalence. Incidence is the number of people that come down with a disease in a particular time frame usually one year. So, how often does do people get it? You could think about if uh bus loads of people moved in and they already had breast cancer, that wouldn't change incidents because they had already had it. Prevalence is the one we often think about. It was just how many people have it in general regardless of when they got it. So, the state measures it by incidence. And we have um uh leukemia and breast cancer and prostate cancer.

Surprisingly, Ventura County is often near the top and I don't know why is that you'll see many of them are coastal counties. St. Louis Abyspo, Santa Cruz, Santa Barbara. Is it related to being near the ocean? Is it related to we have better doctors and so we detect it faster? There's a lot of questions. I don't have an answer on that one. Public safety, Ventura County continues to be the safest large county in the state. It's been this way in several of our reports. Um, as a former uh, police officer, Mr. MacArthur, I'm sure that I take a lot of pride in seeing these kind of numbers. In the city of Oxnard, the violent crimes have gone down a little bit. The most recent year, they did have a surge back in 2023. Uh, but you can see the numbers for all the cities. And we also show the property crime rates. Ventura has typically been the leader as far as the most property crimes. Uh, this one's interesting to see a jump in juvenile crime. I'm not sure what's driving that. Uh, these are arrests, so you could say, well, maybe there's better policing, but the surprising thing is how many girls are also now committing juvenile crimes. I don't know what's causing that at all. Social services, we have uh great nonprofits. food share continues to deliver quite a few uh meals. That's about 7.2 million pounds of meals, which isn't quite it's really pounds. And they use a metric of 1.25 pounds equals one meal. So, it's not quite 7 million meals, but it's pretty close. Um, and you can see their their numbers across the board, but every city has people that are food that are hungry. Homeless counts by city. I'm sure you've se

Oxard's had some great progress there in the declining number of homeless in the city and the percentage of workers who are working at home started with Zoom and the pandemic. uh and these are measuring the five different counties. But even after the pandemic ended, we still see more people working from home. So that continues to rise. And I'll just wrap up with well transit writership Gold Coast has done a great job recovering from the pandemic. We can see they're the blue bars. So they've come back to pretty much prepandemic numbers. And I do want to take a moment to talk about populations. Uh so this one, these are not in the book. When we did the report, there was a government shutdown and we couldn't get census data for these numbers, but I can share it with the city manager's office if you're interested. Uh highlights though, Oxnard is the youngest city. You have a greater percentage of stu of young people living in Oxnard than any other city. You also have the lowest percentage of people over 65 living in your city. So you did have population declines 20209,23. Here's what the county overall looks like. So the green is total residents. Blue is the number of people younger than 18. So 0 to 17. And you can see the purple line is showing the median age of the county. So we keep getting older because we're having less children. Here's how Oxnard looks at by comparison. So Ventura County had an average of 39.6 in 2024. Oxart is much lower, 34.4. So you've been below the county's numbers and that makes sense, right? The previous slide I showed that you had the highest percentage of young people. So whatever you're doing to attract young people is working. Um what's interesting though,

when you look at your population here in Oxnard, you can see about 206,000 and that declined a little bit to about 200,000. So you lost about 6,000 total residents, but almost all of that, 57,000 down to 51,000 was young people. So it's not like we're losing young people, but they're turning from 16 to 17, then they become 18, 19, 20. So they're aging out and we're not refreshing that list of young people with birth rate. City of Camaro, similar numbers. They they are a very old city. uh they had a little bit of an increase. Uh Filillmore is one of the only cities that had any growth in the number of young people. Um so obviously it's a less expensive but some fascinating data and then you can see how their median age has declined a bit. More part sort of same story. They lost about 6,000 um as far as resident or I'm sorry they lost about a thousand residents but 500 of those were young people and Ohigh is the oldest city. You can see that at one point in 2022 they had an average age of over 50 in the city of Ohigh. Uh very few apartments available. They don't do much construction. It's hard to attract young people. So they've lost a lot there. Poor Wayne. Um, Santa Paula has had some growth in their uh, total population, but a decline in the number of young people. So, it's across the board that we're just not having enough babies. And part of that is child care. $15,000 a year for a toddler in child care. Uh, and I would advocate this in all the cities advocating for businesses and the cities to work together to figure out how to provide more child care services. Um,

can the cities reduce regulations, make it easier for when somebody wants to establish a family uh, child care center, maybe take five, eight kids? It's a lot of work, especially for newcomers. So, first five and EDC are working on programs to do that. Can employers offer better opportunities for young people, maybe a little bit longer uh or flexible hours? uh could we work with industry to say, you know, it'd be just amazing if we could open a child care center over there on Del Nordde Road where all the businesses are, so people didn't have to drop off their kids maybe in Ventura and come back to go to work, that type of thing. So, I will stop there. Thank you for allowing me to go a couple of minutes over. Um, very thankful for the opportunity. If you have questions, I'm happy to take them.

Yeah. Councilwoman Perez, go ahead. First, I'd like to just thank you for the presentation. I think some of the data is a bit alarming. um especially as you kind of highlighted this this theme of the city of Oxnard, you know, having an increased number of young people in our community and then we point to the layered issues that I think oftent times are, as mentioned, pretty layered and have to do with perhaps the cost of building, um the abundance or the lack of housing in our community and just really reflecting on the numbers that were shared tonight. um particularly the numbers of the cost to buy a home across the county being $975,000 um to you know more localized here the cost of rent being $2591 to be able to live here in the city of Oxnard and considering we have such a large population of young people living in this area I definitely resonate with the notion that many of this generation is finding it very difficult for home ownership, but also to even live in the city that many of them have grown up and have had families that have lived here for generations. And so, I think it's just really telling to see even the comparison of the various industries that are are in our community and what the wages are and the the salaries that point to it. And so I'm hoping that this is an opportunity for a collaborative partnership to look at ways in which uplift our our young our youth generation in terms of upward mobility opportunities but also paying wages that are far beyond just the average which I think in looking across the sectors it it seems to be about $50,000 a year. Um and even just thinking about

that um and considering the cost of living whether it's home ownership or renting um that in itself I think creates this um you know some of the experiences that I think I come across often in my district where you see multiple generations living in one household to be able to be to be able to make ends meet. And so I'm hoping that this is an opportunity from the economic standpoint of partnerships and employers in our community to look at the cost of living and if wages are actually um sustainable because I know that there are in addition to our four-year education pathways, there are other economic opportunities um that people can get into right away that'll pay them a livable wage. And so I think when we're talking about declining birth rates or population size, it it's no surprise when looking at some of the numbers in terms of what it costs to own and and to stay local um near family. I think the one thing the other thing I wanted to also point out with was the um incarceration rates for young people in our community and would be curious to know what the age ranges are. I know I've I've had the opportunity to tour the the youth facility here in the city of Oxnard and know that there are young people in there as young as 13 years old and know that, you know, cognitively, neurologically at 13 years old. Decision making is a big part. And I'm sure there are so many different partnerships and nonprofits and organizations out there that could really ensure that our young people know that there's a community here to support them if they don't get that at home or that there are resources to ensure that um there are other outlets outside of the incarceration system for them to go into like job

pathways, mentorship, skills training, and other social emotional capacities that allow them to thrive instead of um you know creating this trajectory of incarceration that therefore you know sparks the increase of homelessness or other issues that we see um far too present here in the city of Oxnard. And so really kind of wanted to share that and really appreciate the the data and the overall analysis of the county and those are my comments. Thank you.

Thank you. And to your point as far as the economic, I applaud the city of Oxnar for doing the studies looking at how you can work with the Oxnar College because you seem to get that we have to have a highly educated workforce to attract those highpaying jobs and I think that I know the city is doing some analysis there. So that's very welcome.

Yeah. If I can just make a comment, Miss Mar, and I really appreciate the comprehensive report that has been uh that has been done and and to what you just stated, I know that our city leadership is working closely with the college with the major employers here in this region, specifically recognizing that many are from Ouxer, us being the the biggest city in the region, and also the challenge that we have in working with our educational parts. I think we've got some great educators. One of them is here tonight, Miss Alma Romero, the one of the principles over at Delo High School. And I think we all are committed to enhancing our workforce here, start certainly with the young people. Um, we have some challenges, but we certainly are committed to that. So, thank you for for this comprehensive report that puts us in the right direction. Thank you.

Thank you. And as a person who was born and raised in Oxnard, I'm always very proud to come here and speak.

Oh, thank you, M. Mer. Yes. We'll go to Council Member Pllo first and then Council Member Start. Number one, um, thank you very much. Um, for the rest of the council, this gentleman's mother was a Oxnard city council member. The, um, concern, one of the issues that I have, and I hope we can, you put this in a future item that you have and you bring forward with respect to the young people and the birth rates and the various things and the amount of people here and the educational thing. Can they break it down? How close to the poverty level each age group? We have seniors that are single senior women going into homeless group. Youth that can't afford rents coming out with educations. The level of skills that they can get or they don't have because they didn't get them. either they were not available or they didn't um they didn't succeed in acquiring those skills to present to the council any anywhere in the city in the county of Ventura because there has to be something where we have bright young people that have the skill sets just as you said you got to have the skills to get the job that the job will pay for you to live in the community that you want to live in because it's not inexpensive to live here but if you can't provide the skill set an employer is not going to give you enough money to live here just because you can't provide the skill set to them. It's a matter of what do you have to offer and what are we trying to do? The city of Oxnard working with the UCLA study and pointing out and highlighting some things that the uh some of the schools don't appreciate. Um, I really appreciate the fact that you had that educational thing on there and I can tell you whether it's the east, south, north, or west part of the county, when you go to places, neighborhood councils, which I have been to, whether there are affluent or not affluent neighborhoods, there is a tremendous amount of non knowledgeable

people that think the city of Oxnard is responsible for providing everything from the streets to the trash to the educational quality that comes out of the school and uh I'm really grateful that you put that in there and those are my comments. Again, thank you very much for coming. It's always great to hear you make a great presentation. Thank you. Appreciate it. Thank you, Council Member. Council member Star.

Yeah, I I'd like to echo uh it was a it's a great report you have there. I think a lot of uh a lot of work went into that. I I I have a maybe a thought on something that maybe we could add in the future. it it'd be nice to see what the national trends are compared to where we are. So, I don't know whether we're just mirroring what's happening all over the country or or if we're kind of an outlier in some cases. Uh uh regarding the uh the lack of children, I know one of the things that we have today thankfully is we have a lot of economic opportunities for women that we didn't have many years ago and it results in at least delayed child birth. uh and probably fewer of them. Uh it'd be great to see a stat if that's available of what the average age of a firsttime mother is over time. I I suspect that what we'll find is that that average age probably goes up simply and that that's often because of you know economic opportunities competing for for their time and attention,

right? And that's actually a worldwide trend. The more educated women are, the less children that they have because, as you said, they have more economic opportunities. Yeah. Opportunity costs. Absolutely. Yeah. Thank Thank you. Great suggestions. Any other comments or questions? If not, we'll go to our city manager. Go ahead, Mayor. Great. Thank you. Also, I'll echo the um comprehensiveness and the um just the amount of data and the quality of it. So, thank you so much. I just have a couple items here. You don't have to bring the slides back up, but um on slide 36 where it was the gross county product

um if if we have this level of detail, I'd be interested in hearing it, you know, as a follow-up. But I I noticed on the graph that from 2005 um to uh the following there was a 10 it went from 5% to 10% I believe. I should I have it here in front of me. I should look 36. Thank you. So on the line graph while we're discussing this can we have 36 come back up for people at home that are watching the cover.

Well appreciate that since this is not a measure M presentation we're allowed to show people what we're looking at here so they have context. So uh while they're bringing that up Mr. Marin you'll see that um you know we had 2003 was 6.4% 4% 2004 9.5 these increases are these representative in totality of all the sectors the economic sectors in um Ventura County yes it's the overall gross I can't think of what's excluded so and it is the same across all the years so let's just say they left out um flower growing it would be consistent across so we make the data match for all the years

okay and the only reason I bring that up is 2004 to 2005 is a significant decrease followed by significant increase uh 9.5% to 5% to 10.9%. And it just caught my attention because I thought wow what happened 04 to05 and then 05 to06 uh and then we know what happened in 07 after that but I'm just wondering if um if there was ability to follow up later with us about which specific sectors may be factoring the most into those jumps. I'd be interested in hearing that. I can make assumptions on it, but uh given the the time frame there, but I I would just be interested in that for my own.

Any council member, the city manager knows how to get a hold of me. If you would like me to talk with you a little bit about anything, feel free to reach out. Um, what's interesting, we talk about housing affordability and there's a chart in here and you look at like maybe 15% of our population could afford to buy a home but if you look at 2012 that was the last peak and 50% of the people could afford to buy a home. So what has happened in these years you know that has made everything less construction perhaps you know other things. So what happened? We were going gang busters. We were, if you look at the housing starts, we were building. So there was a lot of activity and then that great recession that happened with the financial collapse and all of those things. That's what put us into that tail spin. We lost countrywide. We lost Bank of America. So jobs left people a lot of defaults and mortgages where people lost their homes. And then yes, I mean, as you point out, Councilman Tran, they're just slowly trying to come back. you know, but bringing in Amazon is certainly a plus. Bringing in other industry, keeping and I we often talk about bringing in industry, but we also need to talk about retaining. So, Ventura has the trade desk. They should be working on them 24/7. you know, Camaro has the Misner Corporation. You have Hos uh and Proctor Gamble, you know, are we doing enough to recognize our stalwart uh corporations that are here and recognizing the value they bring so that they don't think about leaving?

Yes, thank you for that. And I'll just add that um absolutely retaining what we have now. uh having good private public partnerships with them uh looking at how all of us serve the community in our respective ways. In addition to that, when we talk about bringing in new industry, new business, I'm a firm believer that we have to bring in the right kind of business, the right kind of industry that matches the uh skill sets and the abilities uh and education levels of those who live here now. And we can certainly um bring in um industries and and and opportunities that uh challenge folks who are here now, but we can't bring in like a biotech firm into uh the city of Oxard and think this is going to be a great addition to the people who live here now because I wouldn't qualify for those jobs. I don't know how many who live here would. And if there aren't enough, they will bring folks from elsewhere either to commute into Oxnard and then leave when they go home at night or they will move to Oxnard and um oftentimes into areas where we have current residents who will be priced out of being able to continue to live there and we need to avoid that as much as uh possible avoided it all together. So anyhow um that's it. My last two comments here u we don't have to go to the side like I mentioned. In fact, Diego, you can bring the slides down. I don't need to reference them visually anymore, but for the water usage and we were the lowest on there. Um, I will say that uh we all did our part in the last massive drought and I think that uh we've continued to do so. I think we got used to that and probably um a lot of people went to uh turf free landscaping in their yards. I know the city's done that as well and uh I think we've we've done a great job of that. And so just massive props to my fellow Oxnard residents for not only doing that when the time needed us to do that, but that we've continued that um after the fact. And then the last thing here, and I think this goes to what we're discussing

here about opportunities for young people and jobs and what's offered to them. Um I've very I've been very open about I was not a great high school student, so I didn't have or I didn't know what opportunities I had after I graduated high school, after just barely graduating high school. And I could have gone to work, could have gone to Oxnard College, or I could have gone to work at the port and I actually had a family member there who was willing to get me a job driving the cars off the boat and then eventually testing their electronics and could have built a great career for that, I'm sure. Um, I chose to go to Oxnard College and that put me on a trajectory to where I am now and higher education, working in the education sector. Um, and I'm very thankful for it. But I think about all the young people who have who are in a similar situation where they're at that crossroads of adulthood and not knowing where to go or what to do or even what opportunities are out there and how can we best highlight those as a city as the private sector in our education uh sector so people have some sense of the pathways versus just kind of aimlessly like I could have done say well I'll just go work in retail at the Goodwill for however long I can then I'll move on to this then I'll move on to this so anyways thank you again for the report very eye opening

right and I hope you will use your role to be a role model you are in a way an avatar for what some of these young people are looking for can I really do it you're uh success case I hope that story gets told more thank you Mr. Mayor city manager

yes uh three quick things so one thank you Mr. Marin and the civic alliance. This is a tremendous report. It's it's incredibly useful for us um and it will be for the next two years and even beyond that. Now, I think three of you have asked him because remember this is a nonprofit organization. Uh I think three of you tonight have asked him to crunch more data. So, I'm just going to deal with this now because I'll get grief for it later. So if you look at the last six pages, you'll find that the city of Oxnard hasn't taken out an ad here. So we've not supported it. So uh the items you brought up, if they should agree to do it, I think it's only fair if we also make a contribution to the report next time around

because you've just given him more work to do without any funding. I know how that goes. Appreciate. And then finally, I want to say, Mr. Marin, you closed very very um uh heavily with a with a important emphasis on the birth rate. I do appreciate all the information. Uh I just think next time we should just start playing Marvin Gay in the background and make it more effective. But thank you very much. Thank you. Appreciate that. We're going to miss Council Pel and then you counciloman. Go ahead council. I I think

I just have like a clarifying question and um as other folks were speaking because I have yet to read the entire report. Thank you for the presentation. On page 37 when we're looking at the different industries and what the living wages are, I see that there's comparison of like living wages with two adults but one is working. Living wages with two adults and one child and one is working. And I I'm just trying to understand why only one would be working and not both adults or or or I'm trying to understand why only one income was being represented.

Right? So this data comes from the uh United States census type of thing as far as how they break out their categories. But in if we think back to what we've read about say the 40s and 50s that old stereotype was, you know, dad goes off to work, mom stays home. even if there were no kids, there was very few job opportunities. So, I think what this is sort of trying to show is that you may have a couple and one is staying home and not necessarily working type of thing. I don't know how prevalent that is anymore because certainly in Oxnard, you really need both people to work. So, if I'm understanding correctly, when we started collecting the data, it was with the framework of one single income. Um, and it just we keep collecting data that way is what I'm hearing from you.

That's what I'm guessing, but I'm not sure. And then um the other question I have was about the gap in um in pay uh based on gender. These are same type of work, similar roles. There's still the the 86.7 cents to a dollar that a woman makes 76 86.7 cents to each dollar that a man makes. Correct. Because I know I've had this conversation with a lot of people and they're like, "Well, the gap is not there." And

yes, you're exactly right. A lot of people will say, "Oh, but that's because, you know, she doesn't have the same training or or she got pregnant. It's so that." But they're trying to equalize the data. This also comes from the US Census American Community Survey as far as trying to say equal types of jobs, women just are always are paid less. And we break it out by sector so that you can see that in the nonprofit sector, there's pretty close to equity equality there. But in some of these other, including government, it's not always the same. And some of the reasons that are always given is that there's that bias that the hiring manager sees the man and feels like, well, you got to support your whole family, so we'll give you a little better wage. If you're the woman, you already have a man who is bringing in the money. So, there's a lot of bias that's talked about in the academic circles regarding how wages are given and adjusted because it's always those ranges, but yes, entry- level women might get the lower end than a man. Thank you for sharing that just because I wanted to make sure that it's the same type of work, the same uh expectations uh yet the gender is the only difference that creates that or that explains that gap right now. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Go ahead, council member.

Mr. Mayor, thank you for the cander and your response to the question that council member Rodriguez just asked, but I would also like to share this separate item. When we're talking about uh biotech or green jobs, high-tech energy jobs, high-tech industry, technology, whatever it is, this city has a history of those businesses coming here and sharing with us. If the employers are not here, they'd have to bring people from the outside into the area because the people from the outside will not move here because of the reviews of the local schools compared to where they are before. That is a big thing and that's another reason I'm appreciative that the educational stuff is there. That is something people don't like to face the music but that's facts. People will not move here because of some of the situations with the educational system locally.

Right. And I've also heard anecdotally maybe but that an employer let's say that has an operation in Fresno that wants to move here. Their employees say we can't afford to live there. And so if you're selling your home in Iowa or Kansas and you're thinking about buying a home here in Oxnard for this new opportunity and so even if the employer is not moving but our local businesses have challenges just attracting people to come here uh because of the high cost of housing. So yeah many layers. Yeah. Thank you Mr. Mayor. Council member

Yeah. One question. What was the cost of this report all all in just kind of give an idea. I mean there's a lot of time that went into it as well, but what type of dollars were did you guys have to spend to produce this?

I don't have all the dog, but I mean the printing's expensive, the graphic design by Mustang Marketing, that's a cost. We have our editors and our writer. Uh, a lot of the data is collected by the Civic Alliance and our volunteer team and all that, but it takes hundreds of hours type of thing. So, I appreciate you acknowledging just what an effort it is. And like I say, we just couldn't do it without the generosity of our sponsors who are willing to be listed here and shown on our website and other places. But uh we've been doing this since about 2002 and since 2013, it's every two years. And uh much like the city manager said, people are asking me like three months later, when's the next one going to be available or why don't you do it every year? You know, but it's just too much of a lift. But uh it has become very much a core thing. We're grateful that that reputation. We're also grateful that the city manager was one of our presenters at our rollout event back in November as well. So,

thank you, C. Go ahead. With the the thought about the cost under donations and something that was mentioned earlier, is there a consensus on the council that we u consider strongly consider making funds available to this in the future? Do we need to make that as a motion? I don't think this I I don't think that's on the agenda. just give a consent, you know, understanding on the council. You can't do that here. It's not on the agenda. But first of all, it there's going to be a very small amount. So, don't worry about it. No, there's a first and a second. Can we have a vote?

Well, I want I just want to make sure that the council has an understanding of what we're being presented with and an opportunity to take a position. may not be with a vote, but with an opinion because uh sometimes people change their mind later on when there's other things that come up. The closer you are to the fire, the warmer the decision. Yeah, I appreciate the presentation, Mr. Mayor. Thank you. It was wonderful. I I know I was at the when you had the state of the region, I was there and so thank you for putting the panel together. Was it was very good. Thank you.

Thank you, madam clerk, are there any public comments on Mr. Mayor's presentation? Um, mayor and council members, we do not have any public speakers in person or virtually for this appointment item. Thank you. Thank you very much. And at this point, I'm just going to hit the gamble. I don't want to alarm anybody. Okay. I'm just going to call the meeting to order. Good evening, everyone. Just want to call the meeting to order uh for the Auxard City Council and the Ouxard Housing Authority for Tuesday, March 3rd, 2026. Madame Clerk, may we have a roll call in posting of the agenda, please? Uh Commissioner Andrad here. Councilwoman Commissioner Basua here.

Council member Commissioner Palo here. Councilwoman Commissioner Bettis here. Councilwoman Commissioner Rodriguez present. Councilman Commissioner Star here. Mayor Prom Vice Chair Theran here. Um Mayor Chair MacArthur here.

The agenda for this meeting was posted in the kiosk at city hall. the Oxford Public Library, the city administrative offices, and on the city's website on Thursday, February 19th, um, 2026. And then I also have an announcement. Um, pursuant to government code section 54952.3, each member of the housing board of comm commissioners present will receive $50 pay for convening this meeting with the exception of Commissioner Star, who has declined to receive compensation. Thank you. Thank you very much. And the next item is going to be the pledge of allegiance which is going to be we're going to be led by our student today is Ernesto Reyes Vasquez. He is an English learner who plays basketball. He is part of the EL leadership in the group that sets up volunteer work at the Wilson Center. He also started basketball support group during lunch. and he's just an absolutely great representative for students at Delo High School who have learned English as a second language and he has big roles and big goals in mind. So Ernest if you can lead us in the pledge of allegiance and we'll also take a moment of silence just for everything that's going around the world with the various conflicts. I think Erness if you can lead us. Mary,

can we take a moment of silence for the service members that have lost, but also in our thoughts, anybody in uniform and serving this country, but alone any civilians that are suffering and being, you know, lives are taken in this conflict. It's not just an American issue. This is a big deal. And um no matter what, wars, if you're form or against them, civilians pay the biggest price in wars. Thank you, Council Member. Absolutely. Thank you, Nas. can lead us in the pledge. Put your hands over your heart. Ready? Begin.

I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands,

one nation over God, indivisible, justice for all. Thank you everyone. You may be seated and thank you Ernest. I opened it up for you. We're so proud of you. Thank you um Mr. Romeo for for this recommendation. Go ahead. The floor is all yoursel.

It's nice to be here. Thanks for the opportunity. So I'm born in Ventura, but I'm I'm raised in Masatlantino where I where my family is and where I live the most of my all my life until I decide to get my diploma from for high school here in Oxner. And thanks to all my effort, I'm being able to graduate from high school and study robotics for my future. So, I'm currently the president of ELD leadership club where our goal is to help ELD students developing their skills for social and leadership so they can achieve their future goals. And also we have a partnership with Wilson senior center where we are helping them to understand technology or with the activities that that they have and so so that the students can can earn the community service hours and and strength the responsibility and commitment to the community. Thank you.

That's that's wonder. So, who did you bring here today? I see you got Miss M Miss Rometo's here supporting you. Anybody else that we should recognize?

Uh, Miss Casillas. Karina Casillas, my Spanish teacher. I will I wouldn't be here if it wasn't for her. I want to recognize her and thank her. We have a we have a certificate for you if you want to if you want to come on up. That's wonderful.

You guys want to get Okay,

thank you for It's almost full and then we go to overext. We're just talking u about how great the Delo High School soccer team is doing and they're

Mr. Romero's telling me they're playing in the uh they're 00 right now, right? U for the they're in the the state tournament. So, we'll see how they do. Okay, keep us posted. All right. I would just like to make a statement. the young man the young man and he mentioned the Wilson Senior Center and helping the seniors that is a very big deal as a senior myself I can tell you there's a lot of things with electronics and communications that people have a hard time and they wonder how young kids can pick it up and sometimes it's embarrassing probably to ask your kids or your grandkids I think it's a tremendous thing that you're doing by helping people at the senior center I want to thank you very much yeah go ahead may

and thank you if I can just add one more thing to this that I appreciate you taking the time to be here. And I also want to recognize the fact that, you know, as you mentioned, you are one of the ELD leadership students and um English is not your first language and it's something you had to work very hard to develop. The fact that you came up here and spoke in front of us, spoke in front of cameras, in front of the entire city. Um, there are people who has been speaking English their entire life who could not do that and you did it in a language that is not your first language and did so amazingly and so just I hope you're very proud of yourself. Did a great job. Thank you for representing well. Yeah.

Thanks, M. I know you got to get to the state playoffs. So, we're all rooting for for the Jaguars. Remarkable what they're doing. Thank you. We'll move to the next item on the agenda. This is for public comments for items not on the agenda. Madam clerk, are there any speakers for this item? Wonderful. Thank you.

We have Janette followed by Pastor Greg Renan. Sorry. Um, I have copies for you guys so I can help explain what their names. Here you go. Anybody got

I'm ready to Okay, that's fine. Or should I start with any?

Okay, I will start. Um, so moving forward from what happened after 520 of 22. Um, as I was escorted off of Pacifica High School campus after I reported to Oxnard Police Department with Chief Whitney and Officer Garcia and they advised me to go to the Ventura County District Attorney's Office and to report what I have information. And I did that. And then on 62 of 22, um, after reporting to human resources superintendent Thomas McCoy and measures on high school campuses of having random breathalyzer testing since bus drivers at Oxnard Union High School District have random breathalyze um testers um conducted for the bus drivers um and also med medical dete I mean metal detectors um and in fear of safety if there's ever a another shooting on campus um I had addressed that and then moving forward on 622 22. Um, between the channels of channel 2 and 34, um, news media informs me that Thomas McCoy, superintendent of Oxnard Union High School District, asked news media

not to speak to me in regards to my matter. And also on top of that, Karen Sher, you're running for sum superintendent. out of my 110 emails that I had emailed you with this matter because you were on the board of trustees of Oxnard Union High School District, you don't have my vote and you were aware of the situation and what was going on and nothing was done. So, I come to you mayor in support and I wanted to change. Um, what happened to my godson, what happened to other students that were being hospitalized and taken to St. John's. Unacceptable. When I went to work, I never went to work drunk. I never was under the influence of a narcotic or any kind of drugs. And I would feel the safety of the students are first. And one thing that I want to add is being Latina in my community.

Thanks, Janette. I apologize. We're out of time. Thank you, Pastor Greg. Ryan, you're up next. Thank you, Janette. Thank you.

Thank you. Good evening, mayor and council members. It's uh kind of refreshing that we're not as crowded tonight with speakers, but at the same time, it's a little depressing. Um, uh, Councilman Pillo mentioned that there's an awful lot going on in the world right now. And I think it it's very easy as a person of faith to have certain ingrained responses to what's going on. Um but it's really important that all of us try to try to be human and understanding of what is happening because if we make the whole world our enemy we'll be the whole world's enemy and I'm not here trying to articulate in favor or in opposition to what's being done But I am saying that as human beings we need to figure out how to speak in a way that invites peace and not conflict. Um, and that's difficult especially, you know, tonight, I don't know if all of you politicians would know, it's primary night. Uh, in Texas and in other places, and those of you who pay attention in Texas, the language that is used is about hate. It's about race. It's ugly. And yet I saw this young man Ernesto and I hope all of you caught how straight he

stood and how proper he stood. So I took a moment to ask him. I said you want you thinking about the military and he had a smile to say yes. So for all of us who have a premonition to let our first words be an opposition or defiance or criticism of our country, you need to know the difference between criticizing a leader and those who follow. And it is important for you all to be a unifier at this time, not a divor. because I hope that Oxnard can be an example of what community means. And it's not community based on religion or gender or ethnicity. It's a community based on heart and love for one another. So, thank you.

Thanks, Pastor Ryan. Madam Clerk, are there any speakers of virtual or in person? Um, mayor and council members, we do not have any additional speakers um virtually or in person. Thank you, madam clerk. We'll move to the next item on the agenda. This is from the city clerk. This is the appointment of a member to serve on the city's parks, recreation, and community services commission. The recommendation is that the mayor with the approval of the city council appoint Mayor, did you skip over an item? Did I? Yeah. Oh, sorry. I did. That was actually No, I was I wanted We appreciate the enthusiasm.

Yes. Thank you. I'm just moving right along. Thank you. I go to item H. This is a report of our city manager. Um, go ahead, Eric.

Great. Thank you, Eric Storigard, assistant city manager. Um, thank you, mayor, members of council. Two quick things. This time of year, um, Diego, if you can bring that slide up. This time of year brings at least two things for our community. One, we just want to remind everybody that this Saturday, we uh, for a lack of better terms, lose an hour. So, um, we make sure you move your clocks forward or I guess you would be late to anything you were planning on doing on Sunday morning, late or early, but nonetheless, the we spring forward on Sunday morning. And then, um, as we do each year, we have our spring float tour. And I'm pretty sure we have a special guest coming in. Um, hopefully they're watching from where they are. uh because I certainly didn't uh prompt them to come in. So, I will talk for just a couple more seconds and if if I don't see a large furry object uh turn the corner, perhaps we will we will uh move on. Nope, it's not Michael Wolf.

And all right, there we go. So, we have representatives for our from our uh CCS department and a special guest here to talk a little bit about our spring float tour. Great timing. All right. Thank you, folks. I'll wait for our bunny to get up here a little bit.

All right. Well, good evening, Mr. Mayor, Mayor Prom, council members. Um, I am happy to be speaking to you this evening. Excuse me. Uh, regarding two exciting spring events being brought to you by our cultural and community services department. Bunny, can you go uh start hopping along? Our second annual spring float tours will kick off on March 18th and run through March 26th. Uh just like our Halloween and Santa floats, the spring tour uh the spring float tour will feature festive decor and be making stops this year for potential photo opportunities with the spring bunny and will feature lots of laughs and smiles. Uh be sure to check out a Oxnardrec on Facebook and Instagram for float updates and float nights. Uh follow along on our Glimpse app to track where the buddy goes. And as you can see, we have the schedule up there. Um, all of our neighborhoods that we're hitting. Um, I think the only nights that were not on tour are March 22nd and 23rd. So, um, catch us out there. It's going to be a really great time. But I did want to bring up if you missed the, uh, Spring Bunny during the float tours this year, don't worry. Uh the spring bunny will also be out uh and out and about taking photos at our third annual accessible extravaganza over at College Park. Um that's from uh 10:00 a.m. to 100 p.m. on Saturday, March 28th. Uh this is an adaptive egg hunt event specifically designed uh to provide an accessible and memorable

spring experience uh for children, young adults of all ages and abilities. So, come check out the egg hunt, uh, craft area, yard games, and of course the city core train as well. Um, pre-registration is required for that event. Um, so if you'd like to check it out, please register at www.oxnardrec.org. Um, thank you so much for your time this evening and uh, let's have an excellent spring, folks. I do have uh, some flyers u for both events. Um, I could leave here for folks to come up and grab. Thank you very much. Yeah, thank you.

Thank you, folks. That was very good. That's it. Thank you, Eric, very much. Go ahead, Mayor Port. Just to confirm, uh, the eggs that we received from Hoppy, are we allowed to open them or do we have to wait? too late. Oh, okay. We uh Madam Cler, are there any um public speakers waiting or anything?

Um mayor and council members, we do not have any public speakers for um uh the appointment of um Rodrigo Saragosa um in person or virtually. Yeah. And I apologize. That was my mistake for jumping out. But it we'll go to the next item on the agenda. This is um report from city council members. Um we will start with our our commission. Mr. Anda, do you have anything you'd like to report? No. Thank you. Councilwoman Perez.

Thank you, Mayor. Um just a quick couple of updates. Um since our last meeting, uh myself and Mayor Prom had the opportunity to go to the community schools meeting at Blackstock Junior High School. O wanted to thank um the principal and staff there for the invitation. It was really a good opportunity to connect with families and understand um some of the data um components of of where they are in terms of test scores and how we can best support. I also wanted to thank Kathleen and her team. They held the community meeting or helped spearhead that at the South Oxnard Center um to seek input from the community around the South Oxnard Connect project. Um, so wanted to thank her team for that. I also wanted to thank our team for um, coming out for another event. So shortly after that, about two days later, we had another community input meeting for the South Winds Park last Saturday and really appreciated all the staff time um, that was put into those sessions. Um, as a part of that, in preparation for the Saturday's event that we had regarding the input for Southwinds Park, I also wanted to take the moment to thank the Southwinds Neighborhood Council for joining me that Friday, the night before, knocking on doors and getting the word out to just let folks know that we'd be there. And we're really excited to hear their input on some of the um, projects and ideas that will be coming to that area. Um wanted to also thank council member um Rodriguez. I know in her work capacity um she launched the national trio day celebration with Doloresa um really highlighting first generation voices and collective power and um it was just really inspiring to be there even as a unelected myself hearing um from the panelists of speakers and just

toa herself on you know um the importance of organizing and um you know just the the direction that we need to continue to go into as a community. Um, I also had the opportunity to meet with the principal at Suniss Elementary to discuss neighborhood concerns and I'm excited to be joining their read across America tomorrow. Um, and looking forward to all the other um, reading opportunities that will be happening throughout the district. And lastly, I just wanted to thank Supervisor Lopez's staffer, Vivana. we had the opportunity to meet to really discuss potential ways that we can partner and uplifted conversations regarding District 6 and um back to you mayor. Thank you.

Thank you, Councilwoman. Council member Pllo, go ahead.

Thank you very much, Mayor. um in sharing um the last since our last meeting, I had the opportunity and I want to publicly thank uh council member Tran, excuse me, Mayor Pertam Tran. Um, I attended an East Village neighborhood event that had to do with the issue of the neighborhood input for the potential cost to recover some of the issues that are going on in that neighborhood with respect to lighting and things that have happened in the past and the fact that materials do not live forever and we have to address it. And the other part of that equation is there's no free lunch. Somehow it has to be paid for. U apparently Mr. Tran and the neighborhood council put the thing together. Um, Councilman Star was there. I was there. Public works staff Anthony Miller and Michael Wolf were there. Answered questions. I thought it was a well done meeting and it's great to see that type of an event. I had the opportunity to attend the Fox Canyon Groundwater meeting, also the Mandalay Beach Homeowners Association meeting when again at that meeting, it's a neighborhood meeting of the homeowners, but at the very beginning of the presentation, they have an opportunity for the city of Oxnard to make some uh input and take questions. You had the city manager, the public works director, the special districts director, and the city engineer, Mr. Kelzer, M Mr. Kesler, Miller, Wolf, and Newin were there. All answered questions. Did a good job in my opinion. I also had the opportunity to attend the um celebration of life for Mr. Bill Terry. I want to thank the Oxner police commander that spoke. It was terrifically impressive to hear the story from when he was a youth and the things that Mr. Terry did for the tremendous amounts of kids. I had no knowledge about that. If Mr. If the commander had not shared that,

Miguel had not shared that, I would have been a loss. I was extremely impressed that former Assemblyman Mr. Pedro Nabo took time to come down to this event and acknowledge the actions that Mr. Terry had with respect to the LG plant that was going to come in from the Australian company at the beach. I was grateful to see our former mayor, Mr. Tim Flynn there and I was fortunate to be one member of council that attended that event. Um it's a tremendous loss to our community, but it was also a terrific opportunity to learn something about a man's life coming from Louisiana, going to the Bay Area, growing up, the input and the impact he had on tremendous amounts of people's lives. The other thing I want to thank the city of Oxnard for finishing the work on Neptune's net, the um information in the presentation that we just had from the nonprofit is a big input and I hope that more people will take the time to go on and watch this look at the website and take a good look at the information that's presented about the educational systems not in just Oxart but the entire county of Ventura. Thank you very much.

Thank you council member Mayor Prom.

Thank you mayor. I have a couple of updates since our last meeting. Um, sure feels like a lot to happen in just two weeks, but uh, time flies, I guess. As uh, Councilwoman Bettz had mentioned, we had the community schools meeting with, um, Blackstock uh, middle school, and that was a a great meeting. It was a large turnout. The cafeteria is nearly full, and they also had mariachi and band, and it was just it was great. I love that they um offered all of that to recognize the time that families and students are putting in to be there and learn about what the um agenda items were for that meeting. I also attended the Fremont Academy uh groundbreaking, Fremont, formerly known as Fremont Intermediate and Fremont Middle School for those who may have gone there when it was under those names. uh they broke ground on the new uh buildings that they'll be building for that school here that are slated for the 2829 school year. And um they will do as they've done with other campuses in Oxnard School District where they will construct the new school, the students will transition to the new buildings and then the former campus will be demolished and that will become the open space for uh for the school site. So good luck to them and thank you for the invite and it was a great turnout and most of the audience was students which was great to see and even though um many of those students will not attend the new campus they were uh excited there was one who kept yelling like excitedly for everybody who was introduced when they were introducing the dignitaries which is great. I think he was genuinely excited to see all those people there. So, um I also attended a youth right to rise presentation at New Progressive Missionary Baptist Church. I know the mayor attended as well. Uh these are young people who are working with um

attorney Vanessa Frank and through her Mariposa uh nonprofit and they are learning about all of these ins and outs of constitutional rights and law and many of them um may already have a sense for wanting to go into the law profession and so I um appreciated the invite and they did a great job in talking about constitutional rights. I also attended the workforce on wheels ribbon cutting. It was pouring rain and uh that was they still held it and um I appreciated that they did because that um particular program uh because it's mobile will likely go out rain or shine as well. But it will be offering a number of um job training skills and opportunities for people who uh would like to go through that program through workforce development. And I was happy to learn out that same day that um our recreation department, our cultural community services department has already worked with them to go to the South Oxart Center once a month to bring their mobile unit there to the South Oxart Center to offer those services for residents. So, um you can contact Culture Community Services if you'd like to find out more about that. I attended the Oxnard Tennis Center grand reopening with all the new courts, including some pickle ball courts and new tennis courts. And um I just I really appreciate the work that went into that. I see our public works director is here and I'll give thanks to all the work and planning that went into that as well. And um thank you Mr. Kesler for any role you had in that too. But I remember touring that as a um parks and rec commissioner and I want to say it was 2018 maybe we toured and saw the condition then and um there was just a lot of work that had to go into having that come to fruition and it was great to see all the people who came out. A lot of uh people who are currently members but a lot of people who are former members of the tennis center came

back for the reopening. So uh it was just great to see. And last couple items here, I also attended the National Trio Day U celebration and great job to Councilwoman Rodriguez for mcceing that. She's a natural. If you haven't had a chance to see her lead a discussion um and it was just truly an honor to be able to be in that space with everybody who was there and the Lores weta and be able to hear from her directly and even have some questions and answers from the students in the audience and that was it was very powerful. So, thank you for those who who worked to put that together. Thank you to our staff for attending the Realel Vaia Career Fair last week. Uh, I saw we had folks from recreation, Oxnard Fire, and Oxard PD. And it was a successful event put together by their counseling department. And it was just great to see all of the students get to be exposed to all of these different possible career opportunities in private and public sector uh jobs. And last thing, Council Member PLO mentioned, LMD43 meeting. Uh, I do appreciate all the work that went into that and I know I said it last time, but I do want to formally thank those who helped directly to let their community know about that meeting and to ensure that they had the opportunity to hear the information and be informed on this subject. So, I'd like to thank Alexis Schmidt, uh, Ron Arjo, Joe Garcia, HOA President Martin Perez, uh, Heather Schmidt, and the neighborhood watch group. Uh they all volunteered their time along with me to deliver flyers. Um some of us did door knocking. I did I knocked on every door I went to to speak to people about it and let them know and answer questions that we could at that time. And especially thanks to uh Anthony Miller and Mr. Wolf for being there as well to present and answer any questions. And the meeting was recorded. We have our communication staff working on the video now to ensure that it's accessibility through captions to ensure everybody can hear everything and

that'll go up. So hopefully those who couldn't make it will be able to view the late the video later. And I had committed that night that I would if we were going to send it back to the community that I would help ensure that the community had the opportunity to be there and I'm glad I was able to do that and work with these community members to do so as well. Thank you, Mayor. That's my updates.

Thank you, Mayor Porcham. Councilwoman Bassul. Thank Thank you, mayor. I just want to take the opportunity to also thank Kathleen um and her team with um all the work they did on the auctionard connect team. I know that I saw some recreation um staff members there. It was a very well attended event. Um probably one of the biggest amount of participation that I've seen in South Barkard in a very very long time. I mean, I guess with the exclusion of the um the October Fest kind of Halloween thing that happened with children, but um I was very very um glad to see a lot of participation on the south end um because that's not usually something that we get. Um so I just want to make sure that I commend that team for all their hard work. Thank you,

Council Member. Yeah, I attended the some neighborhood council meetings since the last meeting like the West Village and L Colonia. U want to thank Morgan Kesler for being at the L Colonia uh neighborhood council. He gave a really good presentation on how public works works and just how priorities are set. And I think uh I think he helped uh basically create a better understanding of how of how that process works. So, I'm grateful he did that. Uh, as mentioned earlier, the two of my colleagues and I attended the landscape maintenance district 43 green belt lighting discussion and I thought it was worthwhile. I I didn't see too many people attend, but uh I thought that we got some good information that day. I uh I'd like to thank my my colleague, Councilwoman Basua, for uh alerting me to a need at uh Del Soul High School uh regarding the girls soccer Jaguars. And as a result, uh I got to uh help with that and spoke with uh the counselor there, David Ramos, I believe his name is. And I actually ended up attending um a pep rally uh at at the high school, which is just really surreal. I haven't been on a high school in over 40 years. So, just kind of strange to be uh there rooting uh rooting our Jaguars and uh wishing them the best uh when they as as they compete the next day at the Coachella Valley. So, I think we should all be very proud of them. I hope that we can bring them in at some point so that we can acknowledge their their great achievements. Uh they're it's a new it's

a relatively new team given that the school is only I guess been here for like three years now and all of almost all the uh participants in the girls soccer are I think they're almost all freshman and sophomores. I don't even think there's any juniors in there. So, they may have another two years ahead of them where they're going to be working together as a team and getting better. And to think that they've done so well right out the gate is just super impressive. And I have no doubt that they're going to do uh even better uh next year and the year after because no one's no one no one no one's graduating from that team yet. Uh upcoming uh events, I've got the East Village Neighborhood Council meeting and the East Side and I'll be attending the East Side Little League opening ceremony where hopefully they won't ask me to try and throw a softball across the plate because I'm sure I'd make an I'd embarrass myself. Um but that's all I have to report today. Mayor,

thank you. Counciloman Stark, Councilwoman Rodriguez, go ahead.

Yes. I think my two main reports are um me having attended the Ventura County Animal Shelter Commission. Um what was that? February 19th. And just keep your eyes open because in March we're going to be having a discussion most likely at OPAC, but there was no date set. They said late March um about the overcapacity and continued overflow um of animals. So basically the overcrowding and public safety. They also had launched in October um mobile clinic and they were or we were discussing the possibility of maybe having the mobile clinic come to like food distributions or different sites where a lot of people are coming to a specific location. Um maybe there could be an announcement and so that's an initiative that will be rolled out. So there's no specific date right now. I also have my meeting tomorrow with the um Gold Coast Transit District. So, uh, at the last meeting that I made an announcement, I had shared that there's a proposal for changing routes in South Oxnard specifically, um, routes 10 and 11, 1 and six, I believe. And so, the intent is for us to, um, shave down the wait time for folks going from like North Oxnard to South Oxnard and, you know, better connections. And um I just wanted to share not only were there listening campaigns and town halls about those routes at the Southard Library, but if folks have any questions or concerns, then um reaching out to me would be a good a good opportunity for us to bubble up any concerns that may happen, especially as it turns in on J Street. I know there's a lot of congestion in that in that area. So, um those were my two um announcements. Yes, thank you for the council members and any other community members that attended National Trio Day. Um, yeah, folks didn't realize that Dolores Werta would be the speaker, so it was a nice treat for folks. Thanks.

Thank you, Councilwoman. Mayor Portim, you have something additional to add?

Yes. Thank you for the quick additional moment on this. I failed to uh do a request for a future agenda item. Um, I'm hoping that in the future we can recognize um our Oxnard Police Explorers who I recently learned um at the Rio Deva career fair where they were represented that they went to a national competition in Las Vegas and brought brought back three trophies and um scored third place overall like nationally as police explorers. And so, um, I think there's some opportunity there to recognize those young people and the adults who work with them on this. And so, just wanted to put that out there for a future agenda item. Thank you, Mayor.

Appreciate. Thank you, Mayor Prom. CO, did you have anything to add? Sure. Council member Pel just asked me to make some announcements on some uh meetings coming up. Just the neighborhood council.

Yep. We've got East Village Neighborhood Council meeting coming up on Monday, March 9th at 6:30 p.m. We also have the Rio Lindo Neighborhood Council election meeting that's coming up on Thursday, March 19th and that's at 7 p.m. And we have Blackstock South Neighborhood Council meeting that's coming up on Wednesday, March 25th at 6:15 p.m. Thank you, Council Prel. Thank you. And and just for me, my my closing remarks, I attended some some of the similar events that my my colleagues here attended. Um but I've been very active in meeting with businesses um helping them along to bring businesses here to our city. I think businesses bring um economic vitality uh social and physical infrastructures to our city. They drive economic growth and they shift the character of our city which I think is absolutely uh important and and set us up for long long-term prosperity which I think is is very very important and you all will agree with that and also I meet a lot with with students um and helping them as well as well as our various sports teams that are active here uh in our city because much like I think when David presented here on the state of the region the investment in our young people is critically important for us here in our city and I'm committed to doing just just that. And also just for for closing uh some of you may have seen on social media um at the Hulks Lodge um worked with them to bring uh Carmelo. He is a well-known u chef his family is Armichok has been doing caras for 100 years. And the reason I mentioned that is uh there was thousands of people. I would probably venture to say probably 4,000 people um between Saturday and Sunday that lined up to purchase uh his uh his food. Um and so that um to me that was so important because that goes along with what I'm I'm trying to do is make this city that much more vibrant and catering to our

community here. And true to his word um his phrase is uh you have money you eat. If you don't have money you eat. That's fine. So there are many people that were in line that uh just simply lined up, didn't have money to pay, and they still walked away with two, three pounds of of meat that he was cooking. So I thought that was something that was good and impactful here to have in our city. Uh and with that, we'll end that that agenda item. Thank you. We'll now move to uh the city clerk item. This is the appointment of a member to serve on our city's park uh parks, recreation, and community services commission. The recommendation is that the mayor with the approval of the city council appoint Rodrigo Zerosa to the parks, recreation, community services commission to represent district 6. This item did not originate committee. And our city clerk, Miss Lopez, is here to answer any questions we may have. Thank you, Madam Clerk.

And we do have a virtual speaker that's joining us. Um, when you're ready, madam clerk, if you can put him on.

Um, virtual speaker. Um, excuse me. Please press star six to unmute. And you have three minutes starting now. Hi, I was actually calling on the prior item, but there's a delay. So, anyway, I just wanted to bring to your attention the Ventura County mock trial competition that took place this last weekend. I'm wondering if any of you know how your Oxnard schools uh did. I didn't hear you any of you mention it. Thank you. Thank you very much for your for your call. Madam clerk, are there any other speakers?

Mayor, that concludes our speakers in person virtually for this item. Thank you. Thank you, Madam Clerk. What What is the uh what is the recommendation or is there any support on appointing Rodrigo Zerosa to? I think he'll be making the motion. Yeah, I thank you. Well, I certainly make the motion to appoint Mr. Zerosa as the district 6. Uh I'll I'll second it. Thank you. Council member Star, is there any uh comment or discussion? If not, I'll call for the vote.

Um mayor, um and council members, um tonight, um we are um voting um we have a new voting system. So, if you'll just give me a minute and then we'll project everything so that the public can see how everybody is voting. Thank you. Thank you. Um, mayor. Um, we do have, um, so let me go ahead and, um, open the voting.

Want to try it again? Yeah. Okay, if everybody can go ahead and cast your vote. And so this is a new um voting device. So um green is for yes, red is for no, and if you're abstaining um that would be the rep the yellow button.

Um thank you um council members. Um, so this motion passes seven to zero. Thank you. Thank you, Madam Clerk. We will now move to the consent agenda. Do any council members have any consent agendums they they wish to discuss?

Great. Now, what's the what's the u the pledge of the consent? I think council member star, do you have one, council member? Uhuh. Okay, go ahead. L3. Okay. Mayor, I'm not seeing or hearing any additional items being pulled from the consent calendar. So, if we can, I'd like to go ahead and move the balance of the other items. I think we have some housing items, too. Is that correct, Madam Clerk? Um, that is correct. And we'll take a separate motion for that. Okay. So, I'll move the non-housing items first for us to vote on. And I'll second. Mayor, may I pretend? I assume that L4 you don't want to vote on because it's a receive and file.

I I'll include in my motion if we want, but it's fine. I think we can go without saying on that one. Thank you. Madam clerk, are there any speakers on um uh mayor and council members? We do not have any public speakers for the information and consent agenda.

Thank you. Call for the vote. And then if the council members can go ahead and cast their vote, please. Thank you. And the motion passes 7 to zero.

And mayor, I'll go ahead and motion for the um housing housing authority items as well. I will go ahead and second that. Madam Cler, call for the vote when you're ready. Um mayor, I'll just need 30 seconds to add the commissioner to this voting. Um, he he has Oh, I will get him one. Council me, which item did you pull? Which item did you pull?

Three. Um, thank you mayor and council members for your patience. Um, stop. Okay, if you can go ahead and cast your vote, please. Um, thank you. And this motion for um item L2 and L4. L4 is just a receipt and file, but we've included it. Um um the motion carries 8 to zero. Thank you.

Thank you, Madam Clerk. We will now move to the item um pulled for discussion by council member Eron Star. This is L3. This is from the finance department. The subject entails monthly investment report for the period ending January 31st, 2026. The recommendation is that the city council receive and file the monthly investment report. This is an information item only. This item did not originate in committee. And we have our CFO, Javier Chgoy Lasso, here to answer any questions. We'll start with you, Council Member Star.

Thank you. U so we have cash of about 22 million almost and I'm wondering is it is it still the case that we're not earning any interest on this balance or uh are we?

Good evening, mayor, city council members. Javier Chago, chief financial officer with the city of Oxnar. H the cash that you see there it's uh not making any interest. Uh that's the 14 million that we have in the general account balance is what it helps our regular operations and the 7 million for the successor agency that cannot be invested. It's just separate because if we were investing any money we will have to give that money uh to away because that's the basically the proceeds from the successor agency. So those monies are specifically uh separate. They're part of the same contract with the city, but we cannot dispose and invest those monies the same way as the monies that we have in the general account.

So So the 7 million uh you're not able to invest that has to be idle in cash. Yeah. But the 14 million almost roughly 15 million for the general account. at at one point you were talking about uh perhaps having a um some type of investment where it could be like overnight investing and I I remember first requesting this back on July 1 and and I requested again on September 2nd at the time at the September 2nd meeting you mentioned that we should expect something to come to council in a couple weeks with a proposal. I was just wondering what ever happened to that.

I want to remind the council uh that the the authority to open and close bank accounts is with the city treasurer and right now we're in a we open a request for proposal for banking services that we are evaluating at this moment. Okay. And and when do you think that we might be able to see a proposal? We are evaluating the proposals right now. They're pretty extensive. Uh so probably uh I would I don't want to commit to a date until we have a closer look at the proposal. We just closed the the the proposals last last week. Okay. Thank you so much.

Thank you, Council Member Star. Any other comments or questions by any council member? If not, this is only a receiving file item. Thank you, Mr. Chago. Thank you. And uh Commissioner um Andrea, you you can be excused at this time if you'd like to leave. Thank you. The next item on the agenda is item N1. This is from the city manager department. The subject wooden gateway sweepstakes program. The recommendation is that the city council authorize the p purchasing agent to donate five surplus wooden gateway signs in accordance with the wooden gateway sweep states program guidelines. This item did not originate in committee and Mr. W and Samantha Shapiro are here to answer any questions we may have. Madam clerk, are there any public speakers on this particular item? Um, mayor and council members, we do not have any public speakers in person or virtually for um, this report. Thank you.

Thank you. Any council members have any questions of staff on this item? Start. No questions. I just wanted to make the motion. We are on the one side. I'd like to make a comment.

Yes, sir. Go ahead. I'm grateful that we're taking this action that there is no perception that somebody because somebody knows somebody that works for the city or as an elected official gets something that the rest of the population of Oxnard doesn't have an equal shot at getting. As one council member who was aware that in the past history, various things happened in this city. And I can tell you for one, a very simple thing when it used to be that you would walk during a campaign season, you would see old street signs in people's backyards because somebody knew somebody and they were able to get them. I'm very grateful that our management is taking this process. There's no freebies, no free lunch, and we're doing it above board. Anybody has an opportunity to apply and everybody has an opportunity to look at the item on the agenda. As one councilman, I'm grateful for that. And if I can just add, I know um Mayor Port wants to make a comment, then we'll go to Alex as well. This is something that is very important to me. Um when I heard the gateway signs were coming down, this is a treasure. Um and I'm I'm so glad that we had these this conversation with our city leadership to make these signs available to uh the public. Uh I myself am going to uh put in uh to procure one of these signs on behalf of the city. Uh, so that we're going to think about place a public place that we can and I know Mr. Wolf is here probably thinking we don't want to take another another project down, but if we're able to procure one of these signs as part of the sweep stakes, maybe put it in a public place that we can showcase and put a plaque that will say that these gateway signs or this particular gateway sign, you know, uh, was placed in X location between 1980 and and 2025. I'm hopeful that um an entity out there that meets this requirement will put in to procure one of these items, one of these signs and and beautifully display it for the public to see a sign that has been in

place in our city for the last was since the 1980s. Uh so I'm very very thankful to Samantha, our city executive leadership team for putting this together and making it to where it's available much like council Paris Ples said, it's available to anyone. Uh, as long as they meet these requirements, we're wishing to participate in the sweep stakes. Uh, Mayor Pan, go ahead and we'll go to Alex after that.

Yes. Thank you. Thank you, Mayor. Um, I have a a quick comment on this, but there I see we have some members of the public here tonight. Just wondering out of context for me, do you know what we're talking about here? You can just say yes, no. Like, do you understand what the item is in front of us? No, because we didn't have a presentation for y'all to see, right? You had to on your own time. You would have had to go see it online or come into the city and watch it. Well, when you drive into the city, so this is for everybody now, including the folks in the room. Uh when you drive into the city from Oxnard Boulevard and you're coming from the 101, you go under the uh railroad bridge there. And just as you're coming to a vineyard, on the right hand side, just before Carl's Jr., there was a large sign that said city of Oxnard. a large wooden sign with the old logo. Um there was one on the 101 uh under the large sign for the auto center. There's one uh Pleasant Valley Road, I believe. Um so you know which ones I'm talking about. So uh as was mentioned, those have been taken down because we have new um gateways coming in. But there is certainly history and uh nostalgia attached to these signs. And so uh what's in front of us now is to have it so that uh individuals or entities who would like to take these in and either restore them or keep them in the shape they're in to for public display, they need to put them up if they own a business or some publicly accessible area where people can see them and remember Oxnard and what it was uh when these signs were around. So that's that's what we have in front of us. Um, so my comments, I appreciate that uh there was some context put in this with the size and the weight of these signs. Like intellectually I knew they were big when you're driving by them, but I mean they're like 10 ft by 6 feet, 12x 6. They weigh 300 lb, 250 lb. I mean these

are massive. And even the small one is 7 by3 and 100 lb. And so um that was really cool to see. But I also appreciate that we're doing this so that uh those uh public or private partners who want to put in for this who would like to display these for the public to enjoy in the future um that they have the ability to um put their name in the in the hat for that. I will close by saying that wagon wheel um you will see that the old sign from the wagon wheel is there and I truly believe that there's a a special place in our residents hearts for nostalgia and the things they saw for many years growing up in Oxnard. So I appreciate that we're doing this. And actually one quick question just to make sure we're in the clear on this. uh when the mayor said that, you know, we might put in one for one for the city, would it be uh would it be appropriate to say we're going to retain one for the city versus putting the city in there? Because I think in the um the documents I read, it said that no council member, no city staff could win one. Is that correct?

Right. So, I can clarify that. So, the mayor's um going to put in an uh for the draw on behalf of the city. So, it's the same chances and odds. I I do want to thank the mayor for caring about the community's history and posterity. If I had my drug, there was No, I'm kidding. I care about that, too. I was going to joke about putting it in recycling, but no. So, I if I may ask you if could you put in for number two? That's the one I have my eyes on. Yes. Yeah. The the nicest one.

It's the It's the only one I don't see termites. So, thank you very much. But seriously, thank you for caring about the history and and maintaining that history, not just for nostalgia, but for the posterity of this community going forward. Uh many many years from now, there'll be a people who will get to see this and have no idea uh where they ever were, but it's it's a it's a great physical presence of our history. So, thank you. I appreciate Thank you very much for that. Thank you. We have a motion and a second. Uh there's no Oh yes, go ahead. Clo.

I would just request if we could have the city manager or staff underneath the discussion so that we have as we've had the mayor prom ask if the people are here and by nodding their heads they didn't know to read the agenda and look at the pictures they can understand exactly how this will be awarded. the requirements on the exact the front page first three paragraph last three paragraphs on the front page explain how it's going to be awarded the requirements because there are requirements the raffle aspect of it and how this will take place the opening and closing of this there will be people that watch this video after tonight that may want to be and it doesn't say that in the presentation that we're talking out. I think it would be wise on our part to do that and if you want I'll read it.

Uh go ahead. I'd also recommend people read the report too. Yeah. That's a big deal. So if staff can do it or however you want to do it, but I think it needs to get out there. Go ahead, C.

Okay. Go ahead. Okay. Discussion. The city of Oxnard will host a sweep stakes to donate five old wooden gateway signs to Oxnard-based entities who can display the signs in a location with high visibility and is open or accessible to the public and who can maintain and care for the signs. Eligible applicants are invited to submit an entry by the program deadline to participate in the sweep stakes. The raffle is open to businesses, organizations, or individuals located in the city of Oxnard who are at least 18 years of age at the time of entry who meet the eligibility requirements and who agree to the terms and conditions outlined in the program guidelines as defined in attachment two. The sweep stakes will accept entries beginning Thursday, March 5th at 9:00 a.m. and ending Thursday, March 26th at 6 p.m. Winners will be selected randomly from all eligible entries received during the promotion period and will be selected by the purchasing manager utilizing the online program called Wheel of Names random name picker. Winners will be notified during the city council meeting April 7th to enter the raffle. Eligible participants must submit a completed entry form online at oxnard.govgateway sweepstakes. The full program guidelines, terms, and conditions are available online in attachment 2. Thank you very much.

Thank you. And thank you, Diego, for putting the photos up there so people see what we're talking about. So, we have a motion by council member Stard. Just need a second. Did you like a comment? I think we had a second from Did you second it, council member? I don't think it's been second. I'll second it. I had one more thing if that's Did you have something, Councilwoman? I was I was just going to second.

Oh, okay. Uh so along the lines for this, anyone who is watching this who is interested, um the Oxar Union High School District still has some high schools that have wood shops and I would just throw out there perhaps that's an opportunity to uh partner with our local school district on um restoring some of these and getting some skills in the in the process. And so just wanted to throw that out there for folks for consideration if they're thinking about throwing their name in the hat here. And just for context, I thank all of you for helping me with that because um we we have a measure measure M that if you didn't look at the staff report, didn't get to watch the video ahead of time, and you come here just to see the meeting, you may or may not get context for what we're talking about, and I want you to have all the information about what we're doing. Typically, I may ask for a quick explanation. Council Po Pllo gave a great explanation by reading the actual report itself. But I just want to let you know um that was a great example of sometimes people who come in who are great members of the public and want to be here and engaged um may not get all the information they need just because we have a roadblock sometimes. So that's my opinion. Thank you. Thank you mayor.

Thank you mayor prom. Madam cler we have a first and a second. Um mayor just for the record. So um we have a motion by council member star and a second by mayor prom. Thank you. Okay, council members, please vote.

Thank you. And the motion carries 7 to zero. Thank you.

Thank you, Madam Clerk. The next item on the agenda is item N2 from the housing department subject exclusive negotiation agreement between the city of Axnard and Dynamic Real Estate Partners LLC. recommendation that the city council authorize the mayor to execute an exclusive negotiation agreement with Dynamic Real Estate Partners LLC regarding an undeveloped site located between the US 101 Freeway and River Park Boulevard west of East Vineyard Avenue and River Park Boulevard intersection. That's where the property is located. This item did not originate in committee and I see that our housing director, Miss Brenda Lopez, is here to answer any questions staff may have on this particular item. Before discussion, we'll take any public comment on this item. Madam clerk,

um, mayor and council members, there are no public speakers in person or virtually um, for this item. Thank you. Thank you. Any questions or comments of Miss Lopez on this item? I'll I'll move the recommended action. Mayor, thank you. Thank you, Counciloman Perez. Um, call for the vote, Madam Clerk.

Um, okay. Um, council members, if you can go ahead and cast your vote. Thank you. Thank you. And this motion carries 7 to zero. Thank you.

Thank you. Thank you, Miss Lopez. The next item on on the agenda is item N3 from public works. The subject, ratify an emergency order and approve a public project agreement with Toro Enterprises for two emergency repairs on a water main 800 East Pleasant Valley Road in an amount not to exceed 260,000. The recommendation is that the city council review and ratify the following. Number one, the director of public works emergency order to dispense with public bidding requirements pursuant to public contract code section 22050 to make emergency repairs to the city's water distribution system. Two, authorize the city manager to execute an emergency public project agreement with Total Enterprises for a total amount not to exceed 260,000 for two emergency repairs on a water man near 800 East Plus Valley Road. And three, the director of public works declaration of the termination of the emergency order to dispense with public bidding requirements pursuant to public contract code section 22050 to make emergency repairs to the city's water distribution system. This item did not originate in committee. Our public works director, Michael Wolf, is here to answer any questions we may have of staff on this particular item.

Mr. Mayor, if I may, I have an announcement I'd like to make for this. So, good evening, Mayor, Mayor Pro Tim, council members, Michael Wolf, director of public works.

Uh, staff is not recommending any changes to tonight's staff report, but we have some new information that we wanted to present since the the agenda or the staff report was written and the agenda was posted. Um, as mentioned, uh, there is a declaration allowed by either the city manager or myself to declare emergencies to identify, um, necessary repairs, public projects. Um, and that declaration then requires us to come back to council and get that ratified as soon as possible. So that as soon as possible ratification is sometime competing with the information that we get from our contractor in terms of cost. Uh so this type of work, as you can imagine, especially when we're talking about underground piping systems, is more of an exploratory work. They're not going they're not coming and saying it's going to cost $10 without actually knowing what they're doing. Um typically these are done with some of our uh time and material type um processes rather than a firm fix process. So as those costs come trickling into the contractor after the work is done, that's when we start to see the total. We do get an estimate from the contractor typically before the work gets started, but as you can imagine, the person or the company that's delivering asphalt to the contractor when they're out there doesn't have the invoice with them as they're coming. Uh when they go and rent shoring, they don't have the shoring invoice as it comes to to the site. So, all that information does trickle into the contractor. Um so again after posting the agenda we did get some information from Toro who's the contractor that that we're that we used is that our original estimate of 260,000 is not going to be sufficient enough. So we are recommending that that gets approved tonight at the staff report as written with the understanding that we're currently at $263,000 with the information we have today. We're still waiting for one more piece of information from the contractor which

happens to be shoring. Um and then like we do with our typical projects where we have changes or amendments, we'll be bringing that back to council for consideration. Um we think it's going to be, you know, somewhere between 263 and maybe 283 somewhere in that range um depending on how much the shoring is. So recommending to approve as tonight, but re recognize that we'll be back uh as soon as possible with um the updated cost. Thank you.

Thank you for that clarification, Mr. Wolf. Council Po, go ahead. A question for the city attorney and with respect to the recommendation and the wording of our public works director. This is legitimate with this legal action we could take based on what's been requested. Well, he's asking you to take the action that's on the agenda and just letting you know that they'll be back for a sub a subsequent adjustment to the final amount once that information is is ascertained.

Thank you. And I and I see our public works attorney nodding her head back there also. So, thank you. The second question, just so that the public and some people who may call in and go, "Wait a minute, you're spending more than what you said, is there a definition that we could have for the term emergency order?" So, I'm looking through this thing and I and I'm I'm not seeing I I think I have a pretty good idea, but do we have to have a legal definition in case somebody calls and and says, "Wait a minute, you guys are as some of our keyboard warriors or tend to do."

No, there's no standard legal definition for this particular instance. It's whatever the public dire the public works director, city manager or yourself determines is necessary in order to safeguard public health safety life. And obviously a large sinkhole in gushing water would clearly fall within an emergency definition if there was one that can hold um this exact situation into its certain definition. Does that answer your question? Yes, thank you. And um the last two things I know that we've had um a tremendous amount of work done in the city with Toro with this is a good construction company. We have good relationship and good quality work. That is correct. And they actually came out on a on a phone call. So phone call a good partner in this

and the last I think you said the other cost that we may not know is shoring and shoring is required because of human safety working construction. my understanding plates are put down so there's no cave-ins on individuals that are working. So, it's a safety. It's a necessary safety, right? There's an OSHA requirement for a certain excavation depth, but there's also just some general um common sense. Sometimes when shoring is is ordered by the by the on-site superintendent, but there also is a certain depth over a certain depth, you have to have shoring by by ocean. Those are all my questions. Thank you very much for answering them. Thank you, C. And I totally support this. Thank you.

I'll second that. And I just quick comment mayor mayor and council members um before we take a motion there are no just for the record there are no public comments in person or virtually for this item. Thank you madam mayor proch go ahead with your question. Thank you. Excuse me. I have questions actually for the public works director. Um I know it's mentioned in the staff report but um would you be willing to just share quickly um the age of the infrastructure that we're talking about here? Uh just approximately when these cast iron pipes were uh installed. um in the 1960s. So 1964, give or take. We have that information in our GIS. We're able to look that up. So

So they they predate my mom, it sounds like. So um All right. Thank you for that. And I don't know if you or Mr. Payton I got a bigger laugh out of that than I thought. Okay. It just means some of us need our pipes replaced now. I don't know if you or Mr. Payton can answer this one. uh just approximately what would be the expected lifespan of this particular type of cast iron pipe.

So I I actually looked that up and before uh this meeting just to make sure I had it. Typically it's anywhere between 50 and 100 years. It there's a lot that goes into this though. I I want to recognize that, you know, we're not talking about something that that gets uh washed and polished every day. We're talking about something that's underneath the ground inside uh dirt. uh get lots of um

pressure on it from different vehicles depending on how deep it is. And so and then I think what some folks won't recognize is the amount of pressure water has in the pipes and and when you have u you know like a hit fire hydrant nearby, how much how much water h it's water hammer is the is the technical term for it. Uh may jolt those pipes underneath the ground. So, a lot a lot of it has to do with those kinds of things as well as the age of the pipe. Um, cast iron pipe um is one of the ones that typically has a little more reaction with with soil sometimes depending on if you have um soil that has different types of um makeup to it in terms of its chemistry. We have I think about 10% or 9% of our total underground piping is is cast iron pipe. the majority of it's either PVC or or um um ACP. So, we don't have a lot of this, but when when it does break, this typically is is where it breaks.

Appreciate that. And my last question followed by a comment on this is um the the first break happened in early February. I think it was February 4th. I had the I had the report up. I should have left it up here. Okay. So, February um February 3rd, right? And then there was a second main break 5 days later. Uh I know that there was some um thoughts shared with the council on um how that could happen and the proximity of those two. But can you share a little bit about what you had shared uh with the council regarding when there's a ma main break pressure changes and then these things happen that further down the line that there's potential for another break when you have piping of the same age.

Right. So the first pipe was actually a linear break um and quite a long linear break. So, you know, that releases a lot of u pressure and can jolt those pipes. Um, and if maybe we had a pinhole leak uh that was started a while back, that may um accelerate that. So, uh Chris can probably talk a lot better at this than I can, but I have seen where you have a mainline break of that nature that results in sort of subsequent breaks that are nearby depending on if you have cast iron pipe or PVC or ACP. But I would say that that is not not uncommon. Meaning it it can happen um and sometimes does um in close proximity. It it doesn't usually result from like the actual construction work. It usually results from the release of that pressure um at such a um fast speed. So

okay. Yeah. Thank you for that. And I I only asked that last question because um I think there were some assumptions made by um some individuals that well this is just a sign of our infrastructure just crumbling before our very eyes or the city has not invested in their infrastructure. And I I'm happy to point folks to oxnard.gov/pros and you can see the many capital projects and many infrastructure projects the city has in process as as we speak. And um I know that there are a number of neighborhoods where you've already replaced old cast iron piping. Uh Colonia was one of them just a couple years ago where we had the piping replaced all throughout the neighborhood. Uh but these are not things where we can just say, "Okay, you know what? In 2026, let's just do all the cast iron pipe this year. Let's get it all done." Just logistically that's not even possible. Not even just talking about finances here. Um, so I appreciate all the work that went into this, but it is a reminder that um, we do have older infrastructure and we are working on that as time goes on here and um, really trying to to address this in ways that are going to serve the community well. So, thank you Mr. Wolf and thank you Mr. Payton for all of your work on this and thank you to the folks at Toro who jumped in and uh, it sounds like we may have this coming back come back to us in the future. So, um, glad I got all my questions out at this point. Right. Thank you, Mayor. Guess what we start?

Yeah. I'm just more curiosity than anything else. How vulnerable vulnerable are these pipes to seismic activity? I'm thinking about the Northridge quake in '94. I have no idea how that impacted piping in LA, but is there is that is that something that ever causes you concern? Well, earthquakes in general cause me sleepless nights, but yeah. Um I would say are you talking about specifically cast iron pipe or just in general underground infrastructure? Uh address both if that'd be okay.

So depending on the type of earthquake, the type of um um whether it's you know more vertical versus horizontal in terms of its movement um could could tend to lead to different distresses in pipe piping system. Now recognize that a lot of our pipes are buried underground inside, you know, that they have a a compacted back fill associated with them. They're they they have a compression, if you will, from from what's around it that that may um you know, be different than if the pipe was exposed and going into a building where, you know, the building may sway differently than than the pipe. And so, you know, there's a lot of things that go into that. I would say, you know, it's hit and miss just based on the type of earthquake that you have, the magnitude, and then the movement, whether it's more vertical or horizontal.

Go ahead, Council Member. I'd just like to thank Mr. Payeyton for the staff report. Appreciate the staff report. Thank you, Mr. Wolf. Madam Cler, call for the vote.

Okay. Hey, uh, mayor and council members, if you can go ahead and, um, cast your vote.

Um, thank you. And the motion carries 7 to zero. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Wolf. Yeah, this is there. There will be a quiz about cast iron pipe at the next meeting. There will be our earliest meeting ever. Wow. Yeah, I'm I'm gonna get my black belt and keyboard waring soon. So, if you all want to come to the ceremony. There being no further business on the agenda and without objection, we journed. Thank you everyone. Did Alex item come back?