City Council - Regular Meeting

We're ready.

Good evening. Just want to call the meeting to order for the Oxnard City Council for Thursday, July 30th, 2026. Madam Clerk, may we have the roll call on posting of the agenda, please?

Councilwoman Basuwa? Here. Councilmember Peralo?

Here.

Councilwoman Perez? Here. Mayor Pro Temptera?

Here.

Mayor MacArthur?

Here.

The agenda for this meeting was posted in the kiosk at City Hall, the Ochsner Public Library, the City Administrative Offices, and on the City's website on Thursday, July 16th. Thank you.

Thank you. Prior to closed session, I'll ask our City Attorney, Mr. Fisher, to provide a statement prior to closed session. We will also take public comments on the closed session agenda. Thank you.

Thank you, Mayor. The City Council will recess to a closed session pursuant to Government Code section 54956.9, subdivision D1. To confer with its attorneys, the matter being discussed is Douglas Partello versus Lourdes Lopez, et al. The city council will also recess to a closed session pursuant to government code section 54956.9 subdivision D4 based on existing facts and circumstances to decide whether to initiate litigation in one potential case. And the city council will also recess to a closed session pursuant to government code section 54956.9 subdivision D2 based on existing facts and circumstances. There is significant exposure to litigation against the city in one potential case regarding the ballot arguments, ballot labels, and other ballot materials related to November 2026 ballot measure E. Thank you, Mr. Fisher.

Madam Clerk, are there any public speakers or comments for this item?

Mayor, Mayor Pro Tem, and Council Members, yes, we have one speaker, Alicia Purcell. Ms. Purcell?

All right, we gotta speak over the air here. The reason Aaron's not participating in the first item is pretty obvious. Based on current circumstances, and I'm trying to read tea leaves here, it does seem likely that during closed session tonight, the city attorney's office will ask the council to authorize litigation related to the ballot arguments filed in opposition to the measure of sales tax extension. If that is the case, They may be asking you to approve an expenditure of city funds to sue, as real parties in interest, three people who intend to be candidates running against the three incumbents who are up for election in November. Now, that's an election season headline there, I think. The city attorney's office has vaguely informed Mr. Starr that whatever items two and three are about, They are circumstances which would create the appearance of possible impropriety because Mr. Starr's objectivity might reasonably be questioned, and so he should recuse himself. But under the same rationale, if that's the subject, and you're asked to spend public funds to sue your challengers in the November election, then three of you that are up for election in November are also in circumstances in which your objectivity might reasonably be questioned and you should recuse yourselves from such a decision. It applies both ways. So beyond the question of who ought to participate, the city as an entity does not have standing. You can only make decisions for the city as an entity. If you're offered some novel theory to try to circumvent that, some of the possible options I can imagine might put those who are voting for it at risk of being personally liable for a gift of public funds. So there's reason for concern all around here. Just remember the city attorney's office represents the city as an entity, not you as individuals. And they're not your personal attorneys, nor am I, obviously. So if something novel is proposed, you might be wise to get independent legal advice about it. We don't believe there is good cause, good basis for a lawsuit because we've agreed to all the city clerk's recommendations related to any mistakes on the filings. And We're willing to use acceptable alternatives to try to avoid unnecessary litigation. We've done that here, so we don't think anything should happen. Thank you very much.

Mayor. Thank you. Mayor, will you ask the speaker, is she speaking as a private citizen or legal representation for any of the parties in the lawsuits? To clarify that so we get her on the record. A little bit of background noise.

I'm just going to ask our city attorney for some direction. I'm just unsure whether we can ask the speaker for that clarity. I'll defer to you, Mr. Fisher.

Well, that is one of the reasons that Councilman Starr is not here, I believe, is because of his spouse's involvement in the matters that are listed on the agenda.

Is it appropriate for me to ask her whether she's speaking much to what Councilman Perillo mentioned? Is she speaking as a private person or is she speaking on behalf of moving Oxnard forward?

You can ask.

Ms. Purcell?

As an officer of Moving Oxnard Forward, I did sign the ballot arguments that are apparently at issue. And if I were here providing legal representation for a third party, I would need to state that before I started. So if I don't say that, then I'm speaking for myself, or in this case, myself as a signer of the ballot arguments.

Thank you.

Yeah, go ahead, Mayor Portem.

Just another quick clarifying question. Did you submit those documents to the clerk, Ms. Purcell? I thought I, it's a little noisy in here. I thought I heard you say that there was a vaguely worded communication and communications back and forth with the clerk. Did you say you submitted those for the record tonight?

Yes, the ballot arguments were submitted to the clerk. The vague communications I spoke of were emails.

Did you say you submitted those to the clerk for tonight for the public to see? I thought I heard that. I'm sorry if I'm incorrect on that.

No, we, no. You did not? Those have not been submitted to the clerk, but the clerk received the ballot arguments at the date they were to be filed.

Oh, that was the other part of the question was the communication you referenced back and forth with the clerk, were those submitted tonight?

I have not submitted anything in writing for this meeting tonight.

My apologies. I thought I heard it, but it was a little noisy.

It is hard to hear in here with all the air, and I'm trying to speak right into the mic, but I get it. It's hard to hear in here.

Thank you. Just wanted the public to know if they could see those or not. Thanks. Thank you, Mayor.

Thank you. Madam Clerk, does that conclude the speakers for the closed session item?

Mayor, Mayor Pro Tem and Council Members, yes, that concludes our speakers in person and virtually for closed session. Thank you.

Thank you. The City Council will now recess to closed session and reconvene back here at 530. Thank you. Good evening, everyone. The City Council has just emerged from closed session, and I'm gonna ask Mr. Fisher, our city attorney, if there are any statements or announcements to make.

Thank you, Mayor. regarding item c3 on the closed session agenda The City Council by a vote of six to zero with all members present Voting in favor and council member councilman star absent has directed the city attorney to defend An action brought by Any action that is brought regarding the ballot arguments, ballot labels, and other ballot materials related to November 2026 ballot measure E. Thank you, Mr. Fisher.

Thank you, Mr. Fisher. The next item on the agenda is item D1. This is an appointment item that was scheduled for 5.30. Please forgive us for the delay. This evening's presentation is a live presentation by FoodShare and we're certainly pleased to welcome CEO Monica White. Hi Monica. And who will be delivering tonight's presentation. Thanks Miss White.

for joining us. Wonderful. Thank you so much. I hope you all can hear me. Certainly can. Well, thank you, council members. It's nice to see all of you again. I'm here tonight to give you an update on the state of hunger in Ventura County, as well as in the city of Oxnard, and give you an update on our project of building our new food bank. And I believe we have a presentation because I'm big on pictures. Pictures say a thousand words, right? He's working to put that up. Perfect. All right, and I believe, here we go. So just as a reminder, FoodShare started back in 1978 as a volunteer run organization that we collected food directly from our wonderful ag community that you can see here our volunteers racing in front of the tractors to be able to collect the food before it was tilled over. The first year FoodShare's team collected 34,000 pounds of food. This last year we distributed 23 million pounds of food. So we have definitely grown and we're excited to be able to share with you what the future is going to look like with food share. As a reminder as well of how food share works, we receive our food from a variety of different sources. Some of it is purchased, about $2.5 million on an annual basis. We collect from all of the retail outlets throughout the county. We get the government commodities through the farm bill. And we also have gleaning. We have volunteers who go in people's backyards to be able to glean Ojai pixies, avocados, oranges, and everything else. And then we also have food drives over 500 a year to be able to have our neighbors help us to be able to feed their neighbors in need. All of that comes into the food bank for Ventura County and we provide that to our network. Our network is 200 nonprofits throughout Ventura County who are getting food from us from all those sources at no cost whatsoever. They in turn are helping to be able to feed are 250,000 individuals. So looking very high level about hunger in Ventura County. I mentioned this 250,000. As you can see, we had a huge spike during COVID. It went up to 271,000 individuals. That's an unduplicated number, meaning one in four in Ventura County needed food assistance from FoodShare last year. And we really, really believed, bless our hearts, that the need was going to go down after COVID. But that long tail is taking a very long time to recover. With the cost of increased food, gas, everything has gone up. It's been very difficult for our neighbors to be able to make ends meet. And how can they do that? They go to a food share pantry to be able to get fresh food for their neighbors, for their families. One of the key points on this one is the retail value, that 23 million pounds of food that we distribute. If we were to go to Vons and to be able to purchase all of that, it would cost us $65 million. Our annual budget is only $10 million. So that donated food from all those different sources is incredibly important to us. DIVING A LITTLE DEEPER INTO THE CITY OF OXNARD, LAST YEAR WE DISTRIBUTED 8.2 MILLION POUNDS RIGHT HERE IN THE CITY. THAT, WHEN YOU PUT THAT INTO MEALS, IT'S ALMOST 7 MILLION MEALS. 130,000 INDIVIDUALS, AGAIN, THIS IS AN UNDUPLICATED NUMBER THAT WERE SERVED FROM THE CITY. AS YOU KNOW YOUR TOTAL POPULATION, THAT IS ABOUT 65% OF THE POPULATION IS NEEDING FOOD ASSISTANCE. We're honored to be able to serve all of those neighbors. We work with 63 different pantry partners, agencies, organizations who are helping to get that food out, 24 different retail partners. And again, that retail value, if we had to go purchase it is 20, that's a 26 million pounds, $26 million, I apologize. These are some of our partners that right here in Oxnard from St. Anthony's Church, Grace Bible Church, Oxnard Community, Salvation Army. As you can see, there are many of them and we're proud to be able to work with them and get that food to them at no cost. We also have an app so people can find food. And we have found this is the number one way that people are finding food is they can go on and they can find what is available or what's open within five miles, 10 miles, 15 miles of them right now. We have found that our partners are using this as well because instead of saying, hey, call FoodShare, you can get food there, they can open up the app and find somewhere that is open for someone in need. Some of the pictures of what we have been working on, some of our programs on getting that food out. As you know, we have a weekly distribution at College Park. We so appreciate the partnership of the city to allow us to be able to do this. We started this during COVID and it is still going on. Every Wednesday, nearly a thousand cars are coming through every single week. It's about 1,400 boxes, 70 volunteers. I believe many of you have been out there helping us distribute those boxes and we cannot thank you enough. We have found that this is a very appreciated drive-through distribution with everything that is going on. Our neighbors like to be a little more in control and being in their cars and being able to go should they need. We have not had that need, knock on wood, but they're appreciative of this and they continue to show up. We also have kitchen-free bags for our unhoused population. Anybody that does not have access to a kitchen can use a kitchen-free bag because nothing in there requires a refrigerator or a stove top. We even put pop tops cans in there and utensils. Our farm workers, we have a specific farm worker program. So the food that we purchase, some of that $2.5 million goes towards farm worker boxes. And we are buying the food that they have specifically requested. Masa, oil, hominy, fideo. and of course produce. And we have found that some of our farm workers can't make it to our distribution, even when we extended the time at the drive-through. So we are going to the fields and working with farm worker agencies that are able to be able to get those farm workers food, produce, and sometimes even feminine hygiene products. OUR SENIORS. SO WE DO HAVE ANOTHER GOVERNMENT PROGRAM. WE'RE FEEDING OUR SENIORS 3500 EVERY SINGLE MONTH. THEY GET A BOX THAT'S PROVIDED THROUGH THE STATE. AND THE FOOD IS GOOD FOR THEM. IT'S LOW SODIUM, HIGH PROTEIN, AND VERY APPRECIATED BECAUSE THEY ALSO GET ANOTHER BOX OF PRODUCE. WE HAVE KIDS PROGRAMS. WE HAVE TITLE I SCHOOLS. WE HAVE KIDS KITCHENS. WE HAVE NUTRITION EDUCATION. But the need continues. And so the bad news is that we're feeding more people. The good news is we're feeding more people. But how we are going to address the need going forward is that we are building, as you know, a brand new food bank. So our land that we have purchased four years ago, 12 acres at 1425 Mariner Drive, is well on its way. You can see here a picture of a rendering of what that's going to look like. We have turned in our drawings and our construction drawings to the planning department and we are awaiting feedback on that very patiently. But we're very excited to be able to move forward with this. One of the good news is that we have launched a community campaign to be able to help us reach the last part of our fundraising. I think my here it is. So the total project is 50 million and we have raised 45. Actually, this is even outdated. Forty five point five million. The last four and a half million. We're asking the communities for their support and the paver program. So the pavers are going to be engraved and that anyone is available, anyone is welcome to be able to purchase a paver and be part of our foundation and helping us pave the way to the future. Thank you so much for all of your support. We're very excited to be able to stay here in Oxnard and build our brand new facility and be able to better serve our neighbors for generations to come. Thank you so much for the opportunity. If you have any questions, I'd be happy to answer them.

Wonderful. Thank you, Ms. White. Any questions from any council members? Go ahead, Michaela.

First, I just want to start off by thanking you for the presentation. I think the data is really important for folks to be aware of. I mean, 64.60% of our city's population is being served through a variety of capacities. 45,000 farm workers of Ventura County, and I'm sure the number here in the city of Oxnard is very prominent. And oftentimes I hear from community members that they can't afford the crop that they pick. And so just want to thank you for those opportunities. And I know you also share data on what folks in the community often have to choose from, whether it's healthcare, rent, over food sometimes. And so I just appreciate that lens because the data speaks more to what stories and experiences folks are navigating in our community. And I wonder if you can share a little bit more just for the public, specifically your circle of love opportunity at Southwinds Park. I'd love to hear more about that.

And I'm understanding that's one of our pantry partners. Is that correct? So 200 pantry partners throughout Ventura County, and I can't speak exactly to that pantry, but I can definitely share that all of our pantries are on a tiered basis because we know how many people each of our pantries are serving. They're all in the same system called Pantry Track. And when people come into the pantry, they're only asked three things, their name, their address, and how many people are in their household so we know how much food to give them. And so that data all comes together, and that's where we get that 254,000. But it's also very important because it shows us that pantry, how much food do they need on a weekly basis, on a monthly basis? And so we can either tier them up should they have additional people that are coming through, or we can tier them down if the good news is they're feeding less people. Unfortunately, most of the time is we're tiering them up to the next level. And so when they do come to shop or we deliver directly to them at no charge, that they're able to take the appropriate amount for the number of people that they're serving. We can't do the work we do without our network. It is absolutely incredibly important to us.

Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Any other comments?

Yes.

Go ahead, Council Member Starr.

So, Monica, your organization does wonderful work. I serve on the Board of Advisors for the Gene Haas Foundation, and we regularly give you six-digit checks, I think, every year. And one of the reasons why we give money to your organization is because we look at the finances of the public reports, and we see what percentage of overhead there is versus the values that you're providing. And it's been historically very low. And that's a good thing. So that means that more of the money actually is used to reach the people that need to be served. So I just wanted to compliment you and take this opportunity to do so.

Well, thank you, Council Member Starr, and I would like to be able to say for everybody that 93 cents of every dollar goes towards programs and services. I like to say we run lean and nice. We're not mean. So we're able to really stretch our donor dollars because we get so much donated food, but we're also very, very good stewards of our donor dollars, and especially for the new building, too.

Thank you. Thank you. Go ahead, Council Member Perillo. Councilwoman, go ahead.

Yes. So Monica, thank you so much for your presentation. You were really succinct and to the point, so we thank you for that. I have been involved with FoodShare, I know, through the Oxnard Monday Club because our ladies love volunteering there. So I'd like for you to speak a little bit about folks who might want to sign up on your app or just register to volunteer and how they could do so. The other comment I have is that through Oxnard College, Research shows that throughout the state of California, about 52% of college students are food insecure and housing insecure. And there's such great needs. And of course, the default partner has been food share. So thank you for that. It's been years we've had a collaboration. We're one of the 200 pantries that get to distribute to our students. So really appreciative of that. If you could speak to the volunteerism, then that would be helpful.

And thank you for Council Member Rodriguez for saying that because I forgot to talk about our volunteers. We have a staff of 40, but we have 4,500 volunteers on an annual basis. And they're providing 45,000 hours And so we couldn't do, they pack boxes, they pick up food, they're distributing food. They're out at College Park helping to put them actually in the cars. So that is very, very important. And thank you to the Oxnard Monday Club. We appreciate that. And you talked about, And so if people want to volunteer, they can go on our website, and it's very easy to be able to sign up. We have many different types of opportunities to be able to help us. Produce packing is our newest and most exciting one. You actually get to see all the produce that is donated, all the produce that is purchased, and we're putting them into individual boxes that are going out to College Park and also going to our senior program. All of that is on our website. We can use two hours of your time. We can use 500 hours of your time. All of it is very important.

Thank you very much. I appreciate that.

Thank you, Councilwoman. I just want to certainly, you know, I volunteered before Ms. White, and I was there at your food share event when you talked about the new facility coming here in the city of Oxford. And I just want to commend, I see some of your staff out here, the leadership you can see in your presentation, just the passion behind how you lead FoodShare. So I just want to commend you and praise you for that effort. As many of you know, I come from a policing background, working with the most vulnerable in our community, and I oftentimes have referred them to food shares and to the various pantries that exist in our city. And we can see that in your presentation that we're the biggest consumers in the city of those vital services. And one of the things that I remember is just the increased purchasing power that you allow our lowest income earners in our city to have by having the ability to pick up food from the pantries They can stretch their budget dollars just that much more for a family, provide other benefits that they need to use their money for. So I'm just thrilled that FoodShare is here providing for our most vulnerable and the fact that you're looking to, we're going to expand and it's going to happen right here in our city. So for that, I'm very proud it's happening here in our city. So thank you.

Oh, thank you. And more produce that we can get out, that's the most requested item. I mean, it's expensive. And being able to build our new facility and be able to accept more produce, that is huge. Currently, it's 37% of our total poundage. If we can get that up 50%, maybe something like that, it's a win for everyone.

And thank you for your adjustment. I know you talked about the cultural sensitivity, but being able to offer like masa and other things that are vital products to this community. So thank you for that.

We pride ourselves on listening to our neighbors because it's all about them.

Thank you so much. Any other comments or questions? Thank you so much. Thank you so much, Ms. White, for this wonderful presentation. Thank you.

Mayor and Mayor Pro Tem and Council Members, just for the record, there are no requests to speak in person or virtually for this item. Thank you.

Thank you very much. I'll call the meeting to order, then we'll give you five minutes. Okay. Good evening, everyone. Just want to call the meeting to order for the Oxnard City Council for Thursday, July 30th, 2026. Madam Clerk, may we have the roll call and posting of the agenda, please?

Council Member Peralo?

Here.

Councilwoman Perez? Here. Councilwoman Rodriguez? Present. Councilman Starr?

Here.

Mayor Pro Tempteran?

Here.

Councilwoman Basuah? Here. Mayor McArthur?

Here.

The agenda for this meeting was posted in the kiosk at City Hall, the Oxnard Public Library, the City Administrative Offices, and on the City's website on Thursday, July 16th. Thank you.

Thank you. Before we get to the Pledge of Allegiance, Assistant City Manager, did you want to make an announcement?

I did, and I apologize for being Captain Obvious for everybody, but we've obviously had a pretty major HVAC issue this week that cascaded into a major power outage in the building. So a couple of things. I want to acknowledge the staff that have been working for the last couple of days on a variety of issues. They've been working real hard on that. Appreciate the flexibility of all the council members, particularly on Tuesday night when we had to move our committee's over the library. You guys were all very flexible and adaptable. And then to our community members that are here, we appreciate you being here. We apologize that it's probably not the greatest environment this evening, but we're going to power through. And I would encourage everybody, when you have the opportunity at a microphone, to get real close to the microphone because our Zoom and our YouTube capabilities are really good at picking up that background noise behind you. So we appreciate all of your understanding, your flexibility Thank you, Mayor.

Thank you, Mr. Sunstegard. The next item is the Pledge of Allegiance. And for this, I'll turn this over to Councilwoman Rodriguez.

Yes, I wanted to call forward Natalia Cervantes. She's a student. I think she's coming into the hall. She is a student at Oxford Middle College and has been involved with, oh, here she come. Here they come. Has been involved with the Lak'ech Cultural Center for a long time. So I know that her family has participated in family leadership conferences and much more with future leaders when I was involved then. But I am very proud of this young woman. how much she has grown up and grown. So I'm gonna call her up to the podium to lead us in the Pledge of Allegiance, Natalia Cervantes.

So. We're just waiting I think for a few more to come in.

I think we have a whole. That was all part of the Pledge of Allegiance. I think that is a presentation happening regardless. All right. So when we do the Pledge of Allegiance, Natalia will lead us through that.

Please stand for the Pledge of Allegiance.

And remove your hats if you're going to do the Pledge of Allegiance, please.

Put your right hand over your heart. I pledge of allegiance to the flag of the United States of America, and to the republic for which she stands, one nation, over God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.

Thank you.

Okay, and were you prepared to share a little bit about your journey and being involved in Nilakic?

Yes.

I think they had a special presentation happening anyway.

What's going to happen next, yeah. Thank you so much, Natalia. Thank you. And thank you, Dr. G. And whenever you're ready, Natalia, go ahead.

My name is Natalia Cervantes. I am 16 years old and a Mexican-American first-generation college student. I am currently a rising junior at Oxnard Middle College High School on the route to obtain two associate's degrees in sociology by the end of my senior year. For the last 10 years, I have been a part of the Inlakech Cultural Arts Center under the guidance of my wonderful mentor, Dr. Javier Gomez. Through my entire youth, since I was about six years old, Mr. G, now Dr. G, has helped me flourish and grow under his guidance. Through his courageous actions as a role model and his wise words, I have been able to become the person I am now, pursuing my education and helping me grow academically, emotionally, and musically. Through my peers standing beside me and Mr. G and Dr. G behind me, I have the courage to stand before you guys and speak about my experience at the Enlaquech Center. The Enlaquech Cultural Arts Center serves the entire Ventura County, helping youth and people throughout the county take pride in their culture through our mariachi music and our flocorico dancing. In the seventh grade, I joined an organization called Future Leaders of America. At first, I joined because of my older sister. I went to the camp simply because I felt I was obligated to. However, through the camp, I felt a revelation where I felt inspired the same way Dr. G inspires me, the way the peers beside me inspire me to be a better person every day. Through the camp, I was inspired to come back every year as a volunteer, as well as I went from a regular delegate at FLAMAS to now my second year going into the youth council at the Oxnard FLAMA, where we are currently running the campaign, A through G for All, to align the high school requirements to the A through G requirements. In my freshman year, I joined a medical internship called Westminster Free Clinic, where we provide a free medical service to people in the community, majorly Hispanics. We accept any patients, regardless of insurance, and any information is not disclosed to the public. We have real doctors come in and serve the patients, where we as interns conduct the interviews and the logistical paperwork. At around November, December of last year, I joined the Oxnard Police Explorer Program as an explorer crew. This summer I went through a rigorous four week academy that is meant to mirror the six month police academy with advisors and tactical officers being my staff. I graduated with the rest of my class with nine of us, six from the Oxnard Police Explorer Post and three from the Port Hueneme Explorer Post. I am now an explorer of the Oxnard Police Program and I'm able to go on details. Some details I have gone to are notably the Strawberry Festival, the Hueneme Beach Festival, and currently the Cowboys Camp held here at Oxnard. We majorly do traffic control for these events. Now as an explorer, I'm able to go on ride-alongs with an officer, being on patrol in their car. I have been able to do all of this volunteer work due to the influence of the Inlakech Cultural Arts Center. Had I not been able to get out there and get out of my comfort zone through this program, I would not be the person I am now. Thank you for giving me the time today to share my story.

Hermoso cariño, hermoso cariño, que Dios te ha mandado a ser destinado para ti.

Precioso regalo, precioso regalo,

I am like a child with a bouquet of flowers in my hand.

Hermoso cariño, que Dios te ha mandado nomás ahí.

Hermoso cariño,

I'm like a child with a new woman and I love you. I can't cry and I want to cry.

I have your love, I want to be killed no more. We're going to do one more.

So it works out.

is Thank you. Thank you.

Por aquí, si eres linda y soberana, te saludo desde aquí. Quedó un casco acá, sus lindas flores, con vista a escala, nido de amores. Con sus cascos acá, sus lindas flores, con vista a escala, nido de amores.

¶¶

Todos somos de Estrella y el de Puente del Tirán Soy de pueblito chiquito, se llama Juanacatlán Todos somos de Estrella y el de Puente del Tirán Soy de pueblito chiquito, se llama Juanacatlán Los almas de acá, tú eres mi sueño Días recente que no te olvido Viva Jalisco, tierra de amores Niñas, mujeres, como las flores

¶.

We do have one more song if you wanna hear it. Again, I'm Dr. Javier Gomez and I thank the city of Oxnard for welcoming me into this city. I came to Oxnard actually 53 and a half years ago to come as a teacher, to teach for the Oxnard School District But I was inspired by a great man that inspired me to believe that the future of any community, the future of our society is what we do with our youth. How we inspire them, how we empower them, how we get them to realize their full potential, to realize their dreams. In the future behind me are the great leaders of tomorrow. These are the people who are going to represent our city, our state. In the midst of one in my group, you heard just one young lady who has tremendous potential. All these young ladies and young men in here have great potential for greatness. One of them, in my sleep, I see her. standing in the state capitol litigating for the state, fighting for the good cause to represent our state as one of our state attorneys. I want to say her name because I want you to see what the future holds in our community. And I'm blessed by the fact that the dreams do become reality. And it only happens when there's kind and giving people. We have existed as a free program to our community. I've been challenged by people who say, why don't you do it? Why don't you charge? You know, Mr. Gomez, you can make some money with, you know, like $50 an hour or half an hour and you'll be rich. Even my father and many of our leaders in our community said, oh, you've got to charge, Dr. Gomez. I said, you know, I can't. The day that I do that is when I'm gone. I believe very strongly that our children need to have an opportunity, regardless of who they are, if they're from a rich family or a poor family. And with that mission in our sense, With that in place, over the years that I've been running the center, I found people with corazón, hearts. And the building where we practice is a gift to me from a parent who said, this is for you, Mr. Gomez, for our children. The maestros who come, and right behind me, I want to introduce him. His name is Mauricio Guion, who is an inspiring teacher. He's getting his credentials and everything in order, but he's a very gifted maestro in mariachi music, and he has helped me fine-tune the kids to the next level. I can only take them to a certain level. The next level is to bring in the masters, the real skilled people. And so... I want you to see him. This is Mauricio Guion, and if the Oxnard School District can fire somebody, this is one of the great ones that we want to keep, okay? And again, like I said, all of my maestros who have been part of our center from En Paz Descanse Don Chava, born and raised here in Oxnard, was one of our maestros who taught, and he did it for free. Mauricio does it for free. And every so often when extra money comes into our center, we give it out to our maestros and we help them out. And then we have Maestra Teresa who's been with me for the past 35 years. Mauricio has been with me, I guess I would say maybe 20 years too. And so they've been with me. But the center accepts students from the age of two years old until I have to bury you. That means that I take elders who come back to come and sing. So Mr. Perel, if you want to come and join us and sing a song, we invite you. We invite everybody. We welcome everyone in our community. Whoever wants to join us is there. And now I want to present to you the future state attorney for the state of California, who's going to sing to you one of the most beautiful songs. Okay, we have one? We have one song, please?

Go ahead, Mr. G. Go ahead.

Okay, all right. Thank you.

Mariachi Girl, go ahead. Is that the Mariachi Girl?

Yes, this is Mariachi Girl.

Small arms

Amé la vida solamente una vez y nada más. Una vez nada más en mi vuelito brilló la esperanza La esperanza que alumbra el camino de mi soledad Una vez nada más Se entrega el alma Con la dulce y total Renunciación Y cuando ese milagro revisa El prodigio de amanecer Hay campanas de fiestas que cantan en el corazón

¶¶

You belong to my heart now and forever. And our love hadn't started not long ago. We were gathering stars, one million guitars, played our love songs. When I said I love you Every beat of my heart said it too Was a moment like this Do you remember? And your eyes threw a kiss when they met mine. Now we own all the stars and a million guitars are still playing. Darling, you are the song you'll always belong to my heart.

Thank you. Thank you so very much. I couldn't stop taking photos and videos up here. I'll tell you, this is the best start of a council meeting I've ever had, and I just wanted to memorialize it, so thank you, boys and girls. Thank you, Dr. G. And at this point, I want to bring up Natalia Cervantes and her family. Natalia, we have a beautiful certificate up here for you, if you want to come up with your family.

And if I may, I just have to say that when I reached out to Natalia to do the Pledge of Allegiance, I didn't realize that was going to receive a certificate today. So that was very timely. The concert was just a cherry on top. So thank you very much. If her family can come up here, because it definitely takes a village, I think. Believe it or not, she claims to be shy. She claims to be shy, but I'm very, very proud of her because even though she had to take a breath and ground herself, she had her village with her, and there's just a lot of professional and personal development happening.

Amen.

Thank you so much. And now we're going to, you know, we have a number of presentations. We're going to start with you, Dr. G, and the students from . We have a beautiful certificate for you. And this is just before we start calling up the various groups that are here. in our council chambers. Several months back, I envisioned doing a celebration of America 250, and I wanted to highlight the uniqueness of our heritage here in the city of Oxnard, the incredible diversity that exists. As you can see here, represented here in this council chamber from Dr. G and the students of . We have Tlaxcala with their large feathers back there. We have Polynesian dancers that are here. We have various members of our Filipino community. We have Sadie, an African-American vocalist and artist who's also here. And that's what the July 3rd event meant. I partnered with the Downtowners Foundation. I think Matt and Gary may be here. and realizing this beautiful event for our community and celebrating what America 250 means for all of us in this beautiful city of Oxnard. And I certainly couldn't have done it if not for all the various performers that without hesitation, their willingness to give of their time to come out and put on this free event for our entire community, coupled with the great support of our city the recreation department that joined me in creating a beautiful kid's corner for all of our community members to enjoy. Also Ralph Casillas who helped me put up a very vibrant classic car show for the classic, for the car enthusiasts to come out and enjoy. So we try to really target every member of our community to come out and give them something to come out and celebrate in our downtown and our beautiful, vibrant downtown. So I'm going to start with you, Dr. G, and your students from Ilaquech. If you'd like to come up here, and we have this beautiful presentation. Yeah, if you can just walk around, we'll fit.

Walk up to the front.

Thank you.

I'm going to briefly read the certificate that we've crafted for Dr. G and the students of Enla Ketch, whereas the City Council of the City of Oxnard wishes to express its sincere appreciation to Dr. Javier Gomez, and the students of En La Quech for their significant cultural contribution and performance at the event held on July 3rd at Plaza Park in commemoration of America 250 Star Striped Sounds in celebration. Whereas the En La Quech Cultural Arts Center, Lucha Inc. performed mariachi music and folklórico dance rooted in regional Mexican traditions representing a prominent aspect of the culture within the city of Oxnard, their performance contributed to my vision of hosting a grand celebration in downtown Oxnard to mark the America 250 milestone, highlighting the city's unique heritage through remarkable cultural displays, vibrant music, and culinary offerings, whereas their contributions played a vital role in marking or making the July 3rd America 250 celebration a considerable success, and now therefore the City Council of the City of Oxnard PRESENTS A CERTIFICATE OF ACCOMMODATION TO DR. GOMEZ AND THE STUDENTS OF INLOCATION EXTENDS HIS BEST WISHES. AND WITNESS THEREOF, I, LOUIS MCCARTHY, THE PROUD MAYOR OF THE CITY OF OXFORD, ON BEHALF OF THIS ENTIRE CITY COUNCIL, HAVE HEREONTOO SET MY HAND AND CAUSE THE GREAT SEAL OF THE CITY OF OXFORD TO BE AFFECTED ON THIS THIRD DAY OF JULY, 2026.

HE GAVE ME THE MIC, SO SIT BACK AND RELAX. We'll take the picture first. Well, for the past 53 years that we've been in existence, providing the kind of service that we do, for me, the greatest honor that I have and that is to thank the families, the parents who bring their children and entrust their children with us as maestros to cultivate and nurture them and give them a sense of dignity to have them discover who they are and to realize what their potential could be. And I'm so grateful that the Enrique Center has a very cohesive, hardworking group of parents who have made costumes for our folklorico dancing programs. And we have introduced new dancers into our community, the Los Bailes de Michoacan in particular. Thanks to Nati, believe it or not, when she had her quince. She's from Michoacan and we ended up having the dancers that represented that region. So I'm really grateful to all our parents who give to a maestro their sons, their innocent little children to be cultivated and to be guided in such a way to give them hope and for them to realize that they have value. My doctorate that I received from the University of Channel Islands is an honorary doctorate degree because people have felt that the work that the Yenliket Center has done has really uplifted and preserved our cultural heritage and passed it on to our community. I'm a very strong believer that if we know who we are and what we are, just like the great man that inspired me, to believe that children are their future. And they will one day take over everything that we do. They will be the next mayor. You know, I'm just waiting for Gabby to become the next mayor for the city of Oxnard. Maybe later or not. Not that we're kicking out Art, I mean, Luis. But we need, again, the future depends. And Micaela. But again, you know, the hope of tomorrow is our children. And so as a maestro, I am indebted to all my parents from 53 years ago to the present and to the people who inspired me. Because when we dream, it can become reality. And this is a representation of the reality that was shared with me by a great man. and great woman, and that was Dolores Huerta and Cesar Chavez, people that inspired me to have hope and also to believe very strongly that there are people in our community who care about our children. And so for all of those of you who have money and don't know what to do with it, you know, there's a lot of really positive programs in our community that we need to invest in. in soccer, in baseball, and Los Matachines, and our Filipino community, and our black community. We need to invest in all of those communities so that we can enrich our society. Our community is made of all of us as immigrants coming to this country to make a better life for ourselves and for our children and our city, who has the logo. the city that cares, this is where we start. We start with the arts to empower them. So I challenge our city council to look to the future to support our artists who are out there in our community really doing work that is important. Prevention is the most positive thing to do in life. Incarceration costs more money than prevention. So the power of tomorrow.

Thank you so much, Dr. G. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you so much for those inspiring words. Thank you, everyone.

Thank you.

This next certificate of commendation is for the Color Guard from Naval Base Ventura County. And as the Color Guard is making their way up here, I'm just going to read you their certificate. Whereas the City Council of the City of Oxnard wishes to express its appreciation to the Color Guard from Naval Base Ventura County for their significant contribution at the event held on July 3rd at Plaza Park in commemoration of America 250, Stars, Stripes, and Sounds. whereas the color guard displayed the national flag with formal precision and dynamic choreography to inaugurate the America 250 event, fostering community pride. Their professionalism and precise synchronization contributed to my vision of hosting an exemplary celebration in downtown Oxnard to commemorate the America 250 milestone. This event highlighted the city's unique military heritage and diversity through culturally significant displays of vibrant music, culinary offerings, and cultural dances, whereas their contributions were instrumental in ensuring the success of the July 3rd event, America 250 Celebration. The City Council of the City of Oxford presents a certificate of commendation to the Color Guard from Naval Base Ventura County and extends its sincere appreciation, congratulations, and best wishes. In witness thereof, I, Luis MacArthur, the Premier of the City of Oxford, on behalf of the entire City Council, have hereunto set my hand and cause the great seal of the City of Oxford to be affixed this July 3rd, 2026.

Hello, I am 82 . This is BU2 Lawrence. This is A.E. Watts and A.M. Dumont. Again, thank you for having us. It was a great honor to come out and watch everyone, the whole community, get together. And we're very grateful for us to be able to do events like this. So thank you. Thank you.

Sure, the next group we wanna honor is Sisters Friends Forever. Do we have the group here? Yay, representative. Sisters Friends Forever. So the Sisters Friends Forever Dance showcased Filipino cultural heritage and celebrated the diverse backgrounds within the city of Oxnard. Their participation aligned with Mayor Luis A. MacArthur's vision of hosting the grand celebration in downtown Oxnard to mark America's 250th milestone, emphasizing the city's unique heritage through cultural displays, vibrant music, and culinary offerings. So thank you so much for joining us in that celebration and for being here tonight. Thank you so much. Do you want to introduce yourselves? Hello. Anyway, we're from

St. John's, and our group called Sister Friends Forever, we started more than 10 years ago, and it's just a normal group of friends banding, and then until we decided to participate in any event, the Oxnard community, whatever is the event, like the one that last Independence Day, July 3, and then some, also we also perform on some of the Filipino events so we're just trying to participate cooperate and help the community here at oxnard and my name is mira and this is one of our jesse actually were more than 10 but whoever's available so we'll try it ourselves to help thank you well salamat that's all i know

Oh, I'm okay. I'll be up there. One more here.

One, two.

Thank you.

So up next, we would like to invite the Pinay friends to please come and join us as well. Pinay? OK. So the Pinay friends presented traditional dances that showcase Filipino heritage during the America 250 Festival, thereby celebrating the diverse backgrounds within the city of Oxnard. Their involvement significantly supported Mayor Louise MacArthur's vision for hosting grand celebration in downtown Oxnard to mark the 250th anniversary for America, emphasizing the city's unique heritage through cultural displays. Their contribution played a critical role in ensuring the success of the July 3rd, America's 250th anniversary. So thank you for sharing your cultural displays Vibrant music and culinary offerings.

Good afternoon, everyone, or good evening. There were actually five of us who performed, but the other three are not here today because they're either out of the country or out of town for their summer vacation. And we were, I was a nurse at St. John's Regional Medical Center, and the other four are still active. And it was an honor to have been invited and to represent the Filipino community, although we did perform, if you remember, we performed a hula number, but still we are proud of what we had done. practiced among ourselves and it is with great appreciation that that effort was recognized.

This next one is for Leon of Ventura County. Whereas the city council wishes to express its heartfelt appreciation to Leoneon Association of Ventura Keone, a nonprofit organization based here in Oxnard dedicated to community and cultural engagement for their participation in the July 3rd event at Plaza Park. Leoneon showcased traditional Filipino dances during the festival, highlighting the diverse background within the city of Oxnard, and their involvement was significant. Charlene is also picking up the other certificate. This is for the Filipino American Council of Ventura County, where the city council wishes to extend its sincere appreciation to the Filipino American Council of Ventura County, an organization dedicated to celebrating and preserving Filipino culture, history, and community programs based in Oxnard. The Filipino American Council of Ventura County demonstrated commendable cultural engagement through traditional Filipino dances during the America 250 celebration, highlighting the diverse and unique heritage that exists here within the city of Oxnard.

Just real quick. We had to combine those because La Union isn't present tonight, but on behalf of La Union and the Filipino American Council, we just want to thank the city of Oxnard and Mayor MacArthur for the opportunity and the platform for us to showcase our dance and our culture with the community. A little bit about the council is we are the umbrella organization for 12 other Filipino organizations. La Union is one of them. ICAC, who will be coming up next, is another one that falls under our umbrella. and we are just here to just be a voice for the Filipino community and be part of the community. Forthcoming, though, we are excited to announce that we are having our Filipino Fiestas at College Park in Oxnard on October 4th in celebration of Filipino American History Month, so be looking out for that, and we hope that you guys will also join our celebration and be part of the action, so thank you.

Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

I was just telling Charlene, I'm so glad that they're having it here in our city of Oxnard in the south. And thank you, Charlene, for bringing it back to our city. Next, we have the International Culture Association of California. The Cultural Association. Association of California, otherwise known as ICAC, is a dedicated nonprofit organization based here in Oxnard committed to community service, unity, and cultural events for their valued participation in the event held on July 3rd at Plaza Park. We're bestowing this certificate for you. ICAC. whose objectives include fostering connections among individuals of diverse backgrounds, regardless of race, gender, or religion, gracefully performed cultural dances during the America 250 Festival, highlighting the city's rich diversity. Thank you so much.

Oh, we certainly appreciate this gesture. ICOC, International Cultural, has been very active with Oxnard since 2002. And in fact, just history-wise, 2008 is when ICOC was recognized as the organization of the year. So thank you, thank you very much for this recognition.

The next one is for Use Your Gift. UIG. UIG is a faith-based liturgical dance ministry and training group based in Oxnard that emphasizes worship, praise, and dance. Their participation was highly valued in the event held on July 3rd. UIG's performance at Oxnard's Plaza Park during the America 250 Festival, where UYG integrated multiple styles, such as hip-hop, modern, and ballet, served as a physical expression of devotion, highlighting the diverse heritage that exists here within the city of Oxnard. Thank you so much, UYG.

Hello, everyone. So, Use Your GIF is near and dear to my heart. I've been dancing in church and in the community since I was five years old. I started with ballet, tap, and jazz. And just wanted to create something as I got older that I can teach to our next generation and pass the torch. And also be able to allow them to... Use Their Gift, that's kind of where the name came from is I feel like God blessed me with something and I want the other kids who have been blessed with that same gift to use it and use it for his glory and use it for his good. So it's been so great to be able to create Use Your Gift. It's been around since 2018. It is free to the community. It's for low-income and underserved families. So if you guys are interested, please let me know. But it's such a great tool to be able to have children come out. We have lots of fun team bonding experiences and just really teaching the kids how to use their bodies for good and to praise him and to also teach them leadership skills.

She is also, we're so lucky to have her. She's an employee here with the city of Oxnard, works for our rec department. Thank you.

That's okay.

Hello. Okay. Up next, we'd like to bring a very talented singer, Sade Champagne, to please come up here, who has always blessed us with her beautiful voice. Yes. Yes. Thank you.

Thank you so much for this award, Mayor McArthur, and everyone here. I love being from the 805. I grew up here. I graduated from Pacifica High School, the first full graduating class at Pacifica. And since then, from 2000, and even before I graduated in 2005, I have been dedicating my life over the past two decades to empowering kids and young women and families in our community through suicide prevention efforts, drug and alcohol abuse prevention efforts, bullying prevention and more. And I love when I can use my gifts and talents to not only express myself, but to empower and encourage others. So being a part of our 250 year celebration was a great blessing to me and I will continue the work in helping thousands upon thousands of people in our community and around the world to keep living, to keep loving, to believe in themselves and to know that it doesn't matter where we start or where we come from, it matters who we are today and where we're headed and great things are to come. So thank you all so much for having me.

Thank you so much today. And I heard that Prince is your favorite artist, is that? Number one, yeah. He's one of my favorites as well. Yeah, I think the best concert I ever saw was Prince. Thank you so much, Ms. Champagne. Thank you. Next we have Kealoha and Company. If they're here, yeah. As they're making their way up here, I'll just take a couple inserts from their certificate. This is a sincere appreciation of the Kealoha and Company and Expressions of the Pacific, a dynamic Polynesian dance and cultural performance group. Kealohan Company and Expressions of the Pacific, supported by local cultural leaders, presented Hawaiian and Polynesian dance music in interactive line dancing, demonstrating commendable cultural engagement through traditional Hawaiian and Polynesian art forms during the America 250 Festival that we held here in downtown. Thank you so much.

These are leis. I am not gonna put them on you for the reason is once they're on you, you cannot take them off. Traditionally, when you receive a lei, you cannot take the lei off till after I'm gone. So I'm going to let you pass them out. And to my fellow Filipinos, I am Filipino. And I do teach Filipino dance also. And as for giving, I teach for free. But I teach in Santa Paula or Ventura. I came to Oxnard in 1966, and I grew up here. Got married and moved out. Sorry. I know, I know. I am one of the first Filipino queens of Ventura County. That shows how old I am. over 70 years, so yeah. Thank you very much for this. I was so grateful when Sunina called me, and I'm like, oh my gosh, yes, because I grew up in Oxnard. I went to Blackstock Junior High, and I bet I graduated before you, and I went to Wainimi High School. So thank you very much.

Thank you. Thank you. Thank you for having us.

Thank you.

This next recognition is for Margarito and his group. They're from Tlaxcala, Mexico.

Thank you. This is in sincere appreciation of the Tlaxcala group that is here in Oxnard for their exemplary performance showcasing traditional Mexican regional folk dance and cultural heritage during the event on July 3rd at Plaza Park in commemoration of America 250. The Tlaxcala group presents or presented at the festival vibrant traditional costumes as you see here. live music and ceremonial footwork rooted in the indigenous and colonial history of Tlaxcala, Mexico, demonstrating commendable cultural engagement through traditional performances such as the huejes, carnival steps, and other art forms at the America 250 Festival. Thank you very much.

thank you

Here we go.

Muy buenas tardes, Luis, y a tu equipo. Muy agradecidos por todas las invitaciones que nos han dado por parte también de tu grupo de trabajo y todo eso. Unas palabras que te queríamos decir. Gracias por darnos el tiempo de la agenda que tú tienes. Y orgullosos y felices por el reconocimiento que nos has dado. Y a mi equipo. Hace algunos meses apenas era un proyecto que pensamos que era... Poco largo, pero pues eso ha dado frutos y todo eso. Y pues agradecerles a parte de todos ellos con todo su trabajo que nos han prestado y que todo esto está dando frutos. Y pues orgulloso de todo lo que le hemos logrado hasta ahorita y queremos que nos sigas invitando y estar contigo en todo esto. Y pues nosotros somos la Camada Unión que representamos a Tlaxcala. Todas las raíces de allá nos las traemos acá. And we are participating with the invitations that Luis makes us. And we are at your service when you invite us. We are here to support you in that. And thank you very much to all my team. This recognition is for everyone, not just for me. For all the guys. We are many of those who formed this great team. But we are proud of the roots that we bring. And thank you again, Luis. And we will continue when you invite us. We are here to serve you.

I just want to say thank you again, Mr. MacArthur and all your team for giving us this opportunity to bring up, to show Oxnard are part of our culture and but the most important is the opportunity you give us through the dance through You know all these event invitations to the you know, what you have planned to also pass our roots to our kids who like miss dr. G said are the future of our society and they're the ones who We'll definitely keep on with what we started and we're very very honored to be part of all this and we appreciate you and thank you again for this certificate that you're passing to us today and like my partner says it's It belongs to everybody, to all the team, not only to one person, but this is to the effort that you guys have put into all this work. And Mr. MacArthur was mentioning right now, look at this, look what we have become. It was definitely a project that It was a little hard to start, but then it's many of us now, and hopefully it keeps growing, and hopefully we keep being part of your events, and hopefully we keep passing this on to not only our kids, but to many who would like to join this beautiful team, this beautiful dance, full in tradition. So thank you again. God bless. God bless everyone. Thank you.

Thank you. Thank you.

Thank you everyone for bearing with us. We have two more. And this is for the Oxnard Downtowners Foundation. As Matt Wycombe is making his way up, just wanna read some inserts from this commendation. The city council expresses its sincere appreciation to the Oxnard Downtowners Foundation a group composed of downtown merchants and volunteers dedicated to fostering a healthy and vibrant downtown area. Special acknowledgements are given to Matt Wycombe and Gary Blum for their significant contribution and for their unwavering collaboration with the mayor's office to organize the July 30 event at Plaza Park in commemoration of America 250. Whereas the mission of the Oxnard Downtowners association is to support and contribute to the creation of a successful and revitalized downtown Oxnard. And their involvement was absolutely key to realize this beautiful event that happened here in the heart of our city. So sincerely, thank you, Matt.

Thank you so much.

I'm just looking at the chair. of the Port Hueneme Harbor Commissioners, Mr. Jason Hodge. Just want to acknowledge. I see Leticia's here too. And Miguel is here as well. Miguel Rodriguez is here from the Port of Hueneme. And as Chair Hodge is making his way up here, just want to read you some inserts from this commendation. The City Council of the City of Oxnard wishes to express its appreciation to the Port of Wainimi for its significant contribution to the event that we held on July 3rd here in the heart of our city. The Port of Wainimi serves as a regional economic driver, providing an uncongested shipping alternative and specializing as a leading environmentally sustainable gateway for fresh produce and automobiles. thereby supporting thousands of local jobs, both directly and indirectly, and is nationally recognized as a leader in environmental sustainability. The Port of Hueneme is sincerely committed to supporting local youth sports, which it considers vital because it funds essential equipment, reduces costs for families and barriers, promotes healthy habits, and fosters community trust. The port allocated $17,000 is what the port gave. $17,000 in direct funding. It's absolutely significant. And when I hear the chair speak or the other commissioners, and when you realize how strong the port is here to our entire region, most of those employed by the port come right here from the city of Oxford for good paying jobs. They bring in close to $2.4 billion into our economy here regionally. So they're just a powerhouse. And we are so, we should be so happy to have the Port of Wainimi here in our jurisdiction. And so 17 in total, seven teams, each received $2,500. Thanks to the Port of Wainimi, because when they do well, our community does well. So thank you so much, Chair. Thank you.

Thank you, sir. I'm Jason Hodge, president of the Port of Wainimi Oxnard Harbor Commission. We believe that a rising tide lifts all boats. We succeed along with the city. The city succeeds along with us. It is an honor for us to be able to participate in events like this and to be out in the community because at the end of the day, it's your port. So thank you very much, Mr. Mayor. And I do have to say. He was blowing up the bouncy house during the event. That's how much he was involved in the event. So I want to thank him for doing it. And I have to point out that Celina Zacharias, one of my fellow commissioners, did the run of show that day and did a fantastic job. So I want to make sure I honor her too.

The chair was mentioning he's used to giving them, now he's receiving it on his end. But thank you so much. And as the chair mentioned, there are key people that I will recognize later, like the Chattanooga High School Band, Selena Zacarias, Ralph Casillas, AMR, and many others who also contributed to making this event successful. We're gonna recognize him at a future event. And the last commendation we have, this is for Peggy Rivera. And as the family, and this is a commendation after death. Peggy died about a month back. I joined the family in a Celebration of Life event that happened here at Casa Lopez. And as the family's making their way up, I'm just gonna read the commendation that I crafted with the help of her family. Peggy Rivera was born in February 2nd, 1950 in Tracy, California, and resided in Oxnard for 72 years. and whereas Peggy attended schools in Oxnard, beginning her primary education at Guadalupe Catholic Church, followed by Driffel School, Hadar Junior High School, and ultimately graduating from Oxnard High School. Her graduating class was the first to hold a commencement ceremony at the Oxnard Performing Arts and Convention Center, otherwise referred to as the PAC. After completing high school, she enrolled at Oxnard College. Peggy was the mother of five children and was employed for many years by the County of Ventura, retiring from the collections department. Whereas Peggy Rivera demonstrated a strong commitment to assisting the homeless population in Oxnard, she became actively involved in Oxnard's Commission on Homelessness, serving as chair for 14 years. In this capacity, She led the advisory group responsible for providing policy recommendations, evaluating local services, and liaisoning with city officials to address homelessness. And whereas as chair of the Homeless Commission, Peggy successfully raised $120,000 to fund a winter warming shelter in Oxnard. supported the rescue mission, and contributed to providing meals, clothing, and other family resources, such as housing placement and temporary financial assistance for bills, food, and medicine. And whereas Peggy continued to dedicate her efforts to assisting individuals experiencing homelessness, even after stepping down from the commission by connecting them with local organizations, volunteering her time, and donating to community programs and resources, She also supported many families through the immigration application process. Whereas Peggy had a passion for making salsa, focusing on the use of fresh ingredients, adjusting spice levels and sharing her homemade bread batches with family and friends, she was encouraged by her community to enter her salsa in the Oxnard Salsa Festival where she actually won first place twice in the medium hot salsa category. She also took first place at the Ventura County Fair for best salsa overall. That's a big accomplishment. Whereas following her victories, she sold her salsa online at street fairs and festivals and at a natural food market in Northern California, which received an offer from a major distributor to purchase her recipe. Peggy believed that making exceptional salsa was an art involving balance, creativity, tradition, and a lot of love. Whereas Peggy donated a portion of her salsa sales to FoodShare, as we heard from them earlier today in their presentation, and other programs supporting the homeless, On her deathbed, she insisted to her family to continue producing her salsa recipe and that a portion of the proceeds be allocated to programs aiding the homeless population in the city of Oxnard. Now, therefore, I, Luis MacArthur, the proud mayor of the city of Oxnard, on behalf of the Oxnard City Council, hereby present this after this certificate of commendation to Peggy Rivera in recognition of her dedicated service, her compassion, and the lasting contributions she has made to the entire Oxnard community. And we extend our heartfelt appreciation to her family with honor and remembrance for her remarkable legacy. In witness thereof, I have here unto set my hand and cause the great seal of our beautiful city of Oxnard to be affixed on this 30th day of July, 2026.

Good evening. Mayor McArthur, city council members, and members of the community.

Yeah.

Oh, that's right.

On behalf of our family, thank you for honoring our beloved mother with this commendation. We are deeply grateful that her life's work is being recognized by the city she loves so dearly. Our mother dedicated her life to serving the unhoused and uplifting the Oxnard community with compassion, dignity, and unwavering kindness. She believed that every person deserved to be seen, heard, and treated with respect, and she lived those values every single day. While we miss her dearly, more than words can express, it brings us great comfort to know that her legacy of service continues to inspire others. Thank you for recognizing not only what she did, the love and humanity she shared with this community. From the bottom of our hearts, thank you for ensuring that our mother's legacy will always be a part of the city of Oxnard. We are truly thankful and honored.

Would you like to introduce the family that's here?

Angelina Ramirez, I'm her daughter. Christina Bersiaga, daughter.

Lorraine Yoro, daughter.

Anthony Ramirez, son. Olivia, her granddaughter. Sophia, her granddaughter.

Alyssa Bersiaga, also her granddaughter. Brianna Bersiaga, I'm her granddaughter.

Alex Bersiaga, junior. My name is Alex.

Some of you may know me. I'm J.R. Yarrow. I'm her first son-in-law, so. Her husband, great. Thank you.

He's also one of our Bass City employees here, right here. And if it's okay, we'll take a picture, a group picture. Thank you city staff and thank you members of the audience for your patience and bearing with us. I personally think highlighting the great people of our city is so important and having them come to our city hall, their city hall, to me is incredibly important for strengthening our community and to let our community know that we work for them. So thank you for bearing with us. Yes, go ahead council member, absolutely.

I appreciate all the groups who were honoured here, and I will share I did work with Ms. Peggy Rivera. She was tenacious in what she believed in. But I want to make a statement. We had four members of the military. Those four members volunteered to serve this country and are put in harm's way by the leadership of this nation. Ladies and gentlemen, your votes count. We have one member of the city staff just back from a rotation in his service. The leadership of the country can play with people's lives. In my opinion, when you see a person in military uniform, thank them for their service. If they're at a hamburger joint or something, buy them a hamburger. You never know where they're gonna go, and people are dying right now in the name of this country. I disagree with actions being going on, but this is as far as I can go. Thank you.

Thank you, Council Member Perlow. And again, thank you everyone. Those that are here, I hope you get an opportunity to see with what we celebrate here today and recognize these various groups, the beautiful heritage of our city and how vibrant our city really is. We will now move to the next item on the agenda. And I hope everyone can hear me okay. This is item G, this is for public comments for items not on the agenda and also for non-action items. And we have at least a couple in-person speakers on this item. We'll start with Julia Martinez, followed by Tara.

Come on, I'm scared.

When do I start?

Oh, I start now?

Good evening, Mayor, Mayor Pro Tem, and City Council. My name is Julia Martinez, and I'm a member of the City of Oxnard Cultural Arts Team. I would like to formally invite everyone to join us at our exciting community celebrations. First, we have the Colonia Mural Restoration Celebration on Friday, August 7th from 4 to 7 p.m. at Colonia Park. We would also love to have you join us on Saturday, August 22nd, from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. at the South Oxnard Branch Library, located at 4300 Savers Road, for our ribbon cutting and mural unveiling. After each ceremony, we'll continue the celebration with the community block party featuring activities and interactive experiences for all ages. My team and I are incredibly excited for everyone to see and enjoy the hard work, creativity, and dedication that went into bringing these murals to life. We'd also like to extend our sincere gratitude to the city council, city staff, library staff, Shine after school program, city core youth, local artists, Judy Suzuki, and Horacio Martinez, and all the community members who supported these projects. Your encouragement and involvement played an important role in making these murals possible, and we truly appreciate your support. We hope to see you there. Thank you.

Thank you. That was very good. Thank you. Tara?

I'm just a little bit taller. And a little bit louder. All right. So good evening, Mayor McArthur and the rest of city council. Thank you so much for this opportunity to present my public comment today. I just want to start by saying this was a beautiful celebration and I actually really enjoyed being a part of it as United Water Conservation District. My name is Tara Mullaly and I'm here on behalf of that agency today. And I just kind of want to start with it's super easy to forget that Santa Felicia Dam even exists. It's way past Santa Paula. It's way past Fillmore. You keep going, Piru, right? And then you go up the lake, and that's where the Santa Felicia Dam is. But if it failed today, Oxnard would know about it before the end of this meeting. And I'm not saying that as a scare tactic. It's just the reason that state regulators and federal regulators have indicated that it's a high hazard dam It's not because it's not maintained. It's the number of people and community members below that dam I'm sure by now many of you have heard that we have a 350 million dollar bond on the ballot measure this November 3rd For voters within our service area and that includes the city of Oxnard This measure would fund our capital program, including the Santa Felicia Dam Safety Improvement Project, which would prevent the very outcome I just described. We presented our project at length at your March 17th City Council meeting, so I won't belabor it, and I only have three minutes, except to say that the urgency hasn't changed since we last stood in front of you. The dam has held water since the 1950s. Bringing it up to current seismic standards is not a discretionary upgrade. It's the difference between a dam that protects the communities downstream and one that threatens them. The capital program also includes two other priority projects. The Freeman Diversion Improvement Project is a court ordered fish passage project. The Freeman Diversion also serves another purpose. It's how water reaches groundwater basins Oxnard relies on. So falling out of compliance with a court order isn't just a legal risk, but a supply one. The Ebbwater project will protect the groundwater basin Oxnard is built on from seawater intrusion. Protecting it now is considerably cheaper than trying to fix it once the damage is done. And we're currently developing this project in collaboration with the US Navy at Naval Base Ventura County, which we just saw earlier tonight at Point Magoo, the most critical location to stop this seawater intrusion in its tracks. I'll be candid. $350 million is a significant ask for voters. United Water Conservation District's board did not arrive at that number lightly, and we've worked to be transparent about what every dollar funds. For the average homeowner, this measure comes out to be about $121 a year on their property tax bill, or roughly $10 a month to protect the dam for property owners. The water supply in this community, this city depends on. What I'm asking here today and what I'm here today is to make sure that all of the information that you need and is provided to you readily available and we want to make sure we're here for any questions that the council might have. Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you, Tara. Thank you very much. J.R. Ruiz.

Good afternoon, Council. I'm back here on my agenda. I want to personally congratulate Louis McArthur. I think he's done above and beyond his duty, and he's done a lot of good things for the community. And I think that I want to commend him on his 250th anniversary celebration and the car show. And that's kind of gone along with my agenda, that we do more stuff for the people. I kind of left Oxnard because I hated it. I've been pretty successful. I have some of the biggest properties in town, but I just didn't like it here. Because there was nothing to do here but go Walmart and go to church on Sunday. And I think the council should lean more towards that direction. Let's do stuff for the people now. I brought this up to you guys before. Let's do more bike paths. Let's do stuff for the community to interact. The day we die, all we take is our memories. We're not going to take nothing else. So I'm kind of having a little pride now coming back to Oxford. I see that they've done some buildings for the homeless and They've done stuff for the community. And I'm starting to say, you know, it's not that bad of a city as I thought it was. I'm glad that you guys are modern and more open to work with the community. And I want you guys to keep working on that. I just would also ask to work on more bike lanes and maybe a program for all these new scooters and e-skates. It's becoming pretty dangerous for the kids out there. I actually have ridden motorcycles for 10 years, and I kind of won't ride right now because it's too crazy. But I think that when I pushed on that, I used to as a kid, and we need to make it more clear for the kids and maybe give them a little training. And also a big thing that I kind of want to work with the city is a lot of the RVers at the end of town, I have an idea of a program that would push them in the right direction that when I come back in about three months, because I'm leaving again for a couple months, I'd be willing to help the city kind of at least present to you guys, and maybe we can work on that. BUT I WANT TO CONGRATULATE EVERYBODY AND HOPEFULLY WE CAN HAVE MORE STUFF FOR THE COMMUNITY OTHER THAN GO TO WORK AND GO TO CHURCH AND GO TO WALMART BECAUSE IT REALLY DOES MAKE IT A BETTER COMMUNITY WHEN WE SEE PEOPLE LIKE YOU THAT DO CARE AND INTERACT, INTERACTION WITH THE PEOPLE IS VERY IMPORTANT FOR EVERYBODY. THANK YOU VERY MUCH. YOU GUYS HAVE A NICE DAY.

THANK YOU, JR, FOR YOUR COMMENTS. THANK YOU. YES, GO AHEAD.

JUST A QUICK THING FOR MR. LUIS. That's a nice agenda. We do have an introduction of an e-bike ordinance and electronic conveyances in the way that it's referenced in the item. And part of that is regulating of e-bikes and other similar vehicles. So if he wants to stick around for that, we'll have that shortly after info consent.

Thank you, Mayor Pro Tem.

Madam Clerk, any virtual speakers? Yes, we'll go to the virtual speaker. Virtual speaker, if you can press star six to unmute and you have three minutes starting now.

Hi this is Deirdre Frank. I'm going to bring up again how much I appreciate the ceremonial items that are presented to showcase the contributions from different groups that contribute to the beneficial aspects of our city. I do have a problem with the fact that it took an hour and a half I do have a problem with the fact that you're using a building, you're using city staff time. They're there for civic items, meaning they're there for passing motions, budgets, listening to citizens' concerns about items on your agenda. They're there to discuss policy. And I, again, am going to strongly recommend that you have a quarterly, because you have so many, annual would just take up probably a day and a half, have a quarterly ceremony at the OPAC where you can advertise it, you can have sponsors for it, and have the families there, their organizational membership there, their leadership there, and have... a three-hour presentation with an intermission to give these awards and these recognitions. Because as or since most of these recognitions tonight were as a result of the ceremony for July 3rd, perhaps those recognitions should have been given either at the beginning of the event to appreciate the presenters who were there or at the end of that event. But to take up city council time, I really don't think it's appropriate. And there are alternatives that you can do that I think would be better. United Water. I only have one question. What happens if the bond does not pass? Where have you been for all these years that this dam has been a problem or has been deteriorating? I'd like to know the process on how we got to the place where we need this bond. And you gave us the monthly amount, but you didn't give us the yearly, how long the term of this bond is. And my understanding is it's a long bond. So $120 a month or whatever the number was that she said, that's not the whole answer. So I'd like to know what the consequence is if this bond does not pass.

Thank you. Mayor, we'll move on to the next virtual speaker. Virtual speaker, if you can press star six to unmute, and you have three minutes starting now.

Can you guys hear me?

If you can speak a little louder, please.

Sure, one moment, please. Can you hear me better?

Yes, please proceed.

Okay, thank you. Good evening, Mayor MacArthur, Mayor Pro Tem Turan, and council members. First, I want to say I'm actually kind of happy to see Mayor MacArthur acknowledging the arts and other people other than sports because we did see a lot of... acknowledgments for school sports and that's not a bad thing but you know there are other things going on in the city like sports and education stuff that also need recognition and i was happy to see some of that tonight and i hope to see more um now what i'm really calling for is to remind districts one two and five that aaron starr thinks you're all stupid he went to a libertarian uh CONFERENCE AND HE TOLD HIS FELLOW LIBERTARIANS, IF YOU ARE LOOKING TO RUN FOR GOVERNMENT, COME TO ME BECAUSE I KNOW EXACTLY WHAT TO SAY. SO IF DISTRICT 1, 2, AND 5, IF JOHN BARICK, LAZANE NANAS, OR NOEMI CORPUZ COMES TO YOUR DOOR AND THEY WANT TO TALK TO YOU, PLEASE KEEP IN MIND THAT THEY MAY BE MISLEADING OR JUST LYING IN THEIR COMMENTS BECAUSE ERIN STAR HAS been telling them exactly what to say, what things that you want to hear so they can get your vote. And once they're up on that dais, they're going to do the exact opposite, just the way Aaron Starr has done. Thank you very much. Those are my comments.

Thank you. Thank you for your comments. Madam Clerk, does that conclude the speakers for this item?

Mayor Pro Tem and council members, yes, that concludes our speakers in person and virtually for items not on the agenda. Thank you.

Thank you. The next item is item H. This is a report of the city manager. Sonsagard.

Thank you, Mayor McArthur. Dago, if you can pull up two slides, we'll make this very quick. Just wanted to bring your attention to two community events coming up soon. This Tuesday is our annual National Night Out. For those not familiar with National Night Out, a great opportunity for families to get out, enjoy this great weather we're having, interact with city officials. Police and fire will be around at the different events. We have 12 different neighborhoods that have organized night out events. So you can see the schedule there on the screen. And we look forward to seeing you on Tuesday. Next slide, Diego. And I wanted to bring your attention to a disaster preparedness event that's coming up in September, Saturday, September 26th at College Park down on South Rose. It's called Prep in the Park. And we'll have police and fire and all kinds of different disaster preparedness stuff out there. They have an earthquake simulator. I hope it's the only time you ever experience that. something like that. But tons of different stuff out there. You can get free stuff and learn how to do CPR, fire extinguishers, stuff like that. So that's Saturday, September 26th at College Park from 11 o'clock to four o'clock. Thank you, Mayor.

Thank you, Mr. Suncigard. The next item on the agenda is item I. This is the report of council members. Councilwoman Perez, we'll start with you. If you have anything to report.

Yes, thank you, Mayor, for the recognition. My report's going to be a little bit long, but I'll try to keep it pretty quick. Last Friday, we wrapped up the Youth Academy. It was great to see the cohort there give their presentations, and I also just wanted to take a moment to thank Mayor Pro Tem. as well for leading and helping with this opportunity. Looking forward to the next cohort for the Voices of Oxnard Youth. Last week I also attended Southwind's backpack distribution, so I want to thank all the partners here in the audience who made that possible. Alongside my colleagues here, I also joined the John Zaragoza Oxnard Transit ribbon-cutting ceremony. Yesterday, I had the opportunity to attend or give welcoming remarks for the South Oxnard Connect meeting over at the South Oxnard Center. I also attended the elected mixer. and the closing of the black carbon project led by Seafrog, the Port of Wainimi, and many other partners there. I also just wanted to share that I know a few council meetings back, we've heard a lot of concerns regarding health and safety, specifically in the south end of Oxnard regarding tenant rights. And so I just wanted to inform the public that we've been in regular communication with many of the tenants there to ensure that we are solving for a lot of the issues that they're facing. I also had the opportunity to schedule our next meeting with all neighborhood council chairs and reps in District 6. That'll take place on Wednesday, August 26th, that's 6 p.m. On Friday, August 7th, so just to bring it a bit closer, there will also be a graffiti abatement happening along the water canals in South Oxnard in partnership with Supervisor Lopez. Bryce Canyon, North and South, will be meeting at EO Green Junior High on August 20th at 6 p.m. And... I just wanted to also close out my report by stating that this morning as I was on my way to work, I noticed that many of the street sweeping that takes place in Cal Gisler neighborhood every Thursdays, I believe, or every other Thursday was happening. And I just want to encourage the public to, you know, as we think about maintaining South Oxnard and keeping it clean that for the short window of time I know parking is a big issue and a concern that comes to my table often but if we can just ensure that our cars are moved so that we can clean our streets and I know as I've spent some time navigating all neighborhoods in my district one of the biggest things that I've mentioned early on is that we see a lot of dumping so I just want to encourage community members if you see dumping in the alleyway whether it's mattresses sofas any other dumping that happens please use the 3-1-1 app that is the app that I use and it's very successful so I also just want to take the moment to thank our environmental resources team for going out there and picking up the dumping in a in a frequent manner and that is my report Thank You councilwoman cast my parole

Thank you, Mayor. I'd like to piggyback on Council Member Perez's comment. When people have large items that they want to get rid of, the City of Oxnard has a program. You can call in and they will pick up a large item for you if you make an appointment up to a number of times per year. And I can tell you, no matter where it is in the City of Oxnard, the area that gets pounded in my area is on Patterson between Teal Club and Doris. refrigerators, sofas, furniture, and it's picked up the next day and somebody comes back. Ladies and gentlemen, this is not coming from people outside your neighborhood. This is coming from our own residents. Please use 311. But take advantage of what the free opportunities are so we don't have to spend money to pick up the stuff that people are leaving. With the comment earlier about United Water, both public comment and the presentation. They're both good. But I need to inform you, our city of Oxnard did a tremendous job in getting a well that was running artesian probably two years it's outside the city of oxnard the public works department development services and the city attorney's office got the property owner to stop it it's tremendous issue water is a big issue hopefully there's no flood but floods are a possibility as much as droughts are with respect to things going on in the city of oxnard the Feedback that I get from different neighborhoods that have taken the advantage of doing a ride along with the police department is amazing. It's like they went to Disneyland and they got a ride along with the police department. They saw stuff. They're telling their friends and neighbors about it. It's an opportunity that if you get a chance, ask for it, you'll be surprised. That's all I have, Mayor.

Thank you, Council Member. Mayor Portem.

Thank you, Mayor. I want to thank all the speakers who spoke tonight and thank you Mayor for recognizing all of those who contributed in some way to the 250th celebration we had and it was very impactful to see how much work and community came together for that. I also want to thank our facilities crew and our public works folks for your work on this room. I know that this is out of the ordinary, but imagine if the work that they had to do wasn't in place, just where would we be at the library? Would we be able to have tonight's meeting? And so just thank you, Mr. Wolf, and thank you to the facilities team and everyone who was involved in that. And I'll just share, you may remember, I was in Visalia last week, that's why I joined virtually, so this isn't too bad. I think it was 1.05 when I was there, so. So just some quick announcements. River Park is going to have their next neighborhood council meeting on August the 8th at 10 a.m. at the Central Park Gazebo. And the public's invited to attend, but especially those who live in the River Park community. And then I also had the fortune to attend the ribbon cutting for the John C. Zaragoza Oxnard Transit Center. And thank you to Mayor Zaragoza and to his family and all of his contacts and all of our city staff, county staff, and community members who came out to mark the occasion. It was a really, really great event. And I was honored to be able to be there for a moment in history. And thank you, Councilwoman Perez, as well, for your work with the Youth Academy. We did have our closing ceremony last Friday with the second cohort. They did an amazing job presenting on all of their focus areas that they had. And I just want to thank all of our staff and our departments who contributed over the six-week course to give them an overview of what this course what their work is and how the city operates and how it interacts with them in everyday life, whether they recognize it or not. And so it was just a really great cohort again, and I just appreciate everybody's work on that. I also attended the Fremont South Neighborhood Council meeting this past Monday. And it was their first meeting in quite some time. And they had an election because their previous chair moved out of the area. And so they have a new chair, a new secretary, and a returning vice chair, and returning treasurer, as well as three new members at large. So congratulations to the new executive board. And I'm looking forward to continuing to work with that neighborhood and the executive board on their priority areas. and Mr. Sonsigartary announced next Tuesday, August 4th is National Night Out. Throughout the month of August, I'll have my annual community conversations events that I hold each summer. I'll be throughout the district, and so keep an eye on the city's social media and on the website, as well as my own outlets for the dates and locations. It'll be all throughout District 2, and I invite everybody to join for some conversations and some really good discussion. And last thing, I wasn't going to, I didn't even think to mention this, but Councilwoman Perez and Councilor Perrello kind of peeked my ears on this. So I am taking my daughter to summer camp each day at Lopez Academy over in the Bartolo neighborhood. And I've been dropping her off and picking her up and noticed across the street from the front of the school, there was a stop sign with graffiti on the back of the stop sign. So just... Picking her up, I reported on 311 and didn't think much of it. The next day when I went for pickup, the two staff in the front who are watching the gate, they asked me, excuse me, are you responsible for, and I was like, okay, here it comes. What is it? But they said, are you responsible for that stop sign? And it took me a second to think about what they meant. They said, oh, you mean the graffiti? I said, yeah. And I said, oh, yeah, I reported on 311. And they said, wow, that's so great. It's been there for so long, and we are glad it got cleaned up. And I said, oh, no, yeah, that's fine. I told them about the app. Well, today I went to pick up, and one of the staff said, I reported a mattress that's been in my alley for a long time, and it was gone the next day. So thank you so much. So it was great to hear the 311 story. She said, I'm going to tell everybody about 311. And so thank you to our public works, our IT folks, everybody who contributes to that. It certainly has some really great engagement and some opportunities for the community to participate in keeping our community what we want it to be. So those are my comments. Thank you, Mayor.

Wonderful. Thank you, Mayor Portem. We'll go to Councilman Basuwa.

Thank you, Mayor. I want to give special thanks to Lailuna Local 585 for their invitation to join them at the Taste of the Fair. It was a fun event. Also, I want to thank Unidos 805 for the invitation to be a speaker at their summer party event at Oxnard College. So thank you very much for them. It was a civic education. and conversation to help build a stronger community. I attended the Oxnard Connect yesterday, but I couldn't stay for the entire thing. I want to thank the staff. It was very well attended, so thank you for that. I had an opportunity to stop by the Heritage Square to meet the elected officials, and I want to announce, have a special announcement. I want to, first of all, make sure that I invite everybody to come out to the block party at the South in South Oxnard Library on August 22nd. We heard from our city staff about that, but we do have a special guest coming, and we are very, very excited about that. We have Dr. Jose Hernandez, who if you know, he is an astronaut. He is actually, he heard about the mural, contacted city staff just to say thank you, and through that collaboration and with staff taking the lead, He has volunteered his time to come out to our lovely community and be a special guest. So very excited to be able to have him be part of the community. So I'm looking forward to that block party, and I hope everybody can make it.

That's wonderful. That's wonderful news. That's fantastic. He's here in our council chambers. We have a nice... photo of him up here. And I watch his special Netflix. It's wonderful to have him here in our city. Council Member?

Thank you. Well, it's been mentioned a couple times already about National Night Out on August 4th. I really want to encourage you to attend. It's a great opportunity to meet your neighbors and a very collegial environment. Often, I know, for example, in Rose Park, they have food and that sort of thing. And other places have started to do potlucks. And I think that's a great development. And it's just an opportunity to meet each other and just collaborate and just bring people closer together. On August 7th, there's a mural restoration celebration over at Colonial Park for the, I think it's the celebration of historical images of La Colonia, mural restoration. On the 15th of August, there's going to be the Fisherman's Wharf Demolition Ceremony, and hopefully we'll get some real progress there. I know for a long time that's had... areas had so much potential, and now maybe we'll have an opportunity to actually realize that potential and make a much, much better area. I want to echo the comments earlier about the 311 app. I think it's one of the best things that our city offers. It's a great way for the community to call in what their issues are, and it's logged into basically a ticket. So we have to keep track of it and make sure that it ultimately gets resolved. So I think it's just a great way that we interact with each other. And I guess lastly, I'm listening to Deirdre Frank's comments, and I think that Perhaps there's some merit to the idea of having a quarterly event at the pack so that we can kind of combine all our celebrations at once and I know that our rules here say that I guess we have like we're limited to like five minutes per per Ceremonial item, but I know we always almost always seem to go way past that So maybe maybe this would be a good thing to consider. So I'm hoping that we'll think about that maybe consider that approach and Maybe maybe that'll work. Maybe it won't work, but I like us to look at that and that's all I have today.

Thank you Thank You customer star councilwoman Yes, thank you so much.

I know there's a few events that I participated in that have already been shared like the renaming of the transit ceremony the Transit Center so John C Saragossa Transit Center, thank you all for for joining that that was a very warm felt celebration. I also attended the Meet the Electeds Mixer that happened yesterday at Heritage Square. But I really want to give a shout out to the Meet Up Clean Up team because last Saturday was so hot. But they were all out there, had the best attitude, and folks just rolled up their sleeves. And thank you to all the volunteers that came out. And special thanks, a shout out to the young people. I think they're part of, I know it's part of City Corps. They have a youth group, so I don't want to butcher the name. I want to call it Spark. Please feel free to correct me. I just wanted to announce to folks that I will be hosting my office hours this Saturday, but instead of 11 to 1, I'm going to be there from 2 to 4 p.m. because we have the Cowboys opening ceremony earlier in the day. So I'll be coming right after that. So if you want to talk to your councilwoman one-on-one from 2 to 4 p.m., we'll be there. Last but not least, again, a dittle about everything 3-1-1. I... I think that every time I've seen some graffiti, it's been removed within 24 hours. And that's impressive, right? Like if you consider everything throughout the city. But a special shout out to our public works department because I've been seeing some of like the roots and trees that keep lifting and just having our streets. There's been some sidewalks. Repavement. Specifically, I'm talking about between 7th and 9th Street. There's like a senior apartments right next door. It's, you know, just a concern about folks just rolling and hurting themselves. So I'm really, really proud to see how much has been moving in that area. And I want to thank the Public Works Department for their good work in that. So again, Shout out to Media Plena, Public Works, and congratulations to the Moose Lodge who just celebrated the 70th anniversary. I went to their celebration, and it's just seven decades of community building and celebration, a service organization here in our community. So thank you.

Thank you, Councilwoman. And I'll just wrap up with I stay really busy in my office meeting and then driving out to meet with various constituents in our city anywhere from driving out to meet them at their house regarding parking issues, alley concerns, hazards in our city. And our city staff has been extremely responsive in addressing these highlighted concerns from members of our community. Also really proud that We're going to have the Ceviche Festival. It's going to happen here at the harbor this Saturday at 1 o'clock to 6 p.m. The Ceviche Festival has traditionally been held in Ventura, but as you know, I really work hard to try to bring festivals and making our city very vibrant and see it I want our people that come to visit our city to see how I see it. I think it's a very beautiful city with beautiful people, and it's some thrill that the Ceviche Fest was going to happen here in Oxnard for the first time. And much to the Filipino community, so happy that they're bringing the fiestas back to Oxnard. And it's going to happen in the south end of Oxnard, which I think helps enhance that part of our city and again brings people together to enhance and strengthen community relationships. I've also been diligently meeting with business owners, always promoting them, always trying to advocate to make sure that They open on time, considering that many of our local entrepreneurs spend their life savings, their family money, to open a business here in our city. So if they're successful, then we're all successful. I've made multiple appearances on radios, always trying to showcase the best of our city with our community. And lastly, just going to be a keynote speaker with two different organizations. So I'm looking forward to that again to promote our city in the best light possible. And with that, I'll conclude my report. Yes, Council Member, go ahead.

I'd just like to add, the Dallas Cowboys camp has opened up and I appreciate the fact that the city of Oxnard is doing their best to prevent over impacting neighborhoods with parking. And for the residents and the drivers, be careful when you're driving around. A lot of little kids.

Thank you for mentioning that. You'll see, I think we all collaboratively did a beautiful job, our city staff maintaining our center medians, our green spaces, and you'll see the flags that are on Vineyard Avenue showcasing that we're home to the summer training camp of the Dallas Cowboys. So it's a beautiful collaboration with the Lodging Association, our city, the Cowboy staff, our police department, providing protection services in conjunction with the Dallas Cowboys and their staff. And so it's a beautiful time. Many of us will be there this Saturday for the opening day celebration. So we will have an opportunity to again just participate in the opening day ceremony. So hope to see many of our community members out there. Thank you, Council Member Perrella. So next we will move to item J. On our agenda this is the review of the info consent. And before I proceed, I will turn this over to our city clerk for an announcement.

Thank you, Mayor. Mayor, Mayor Pro Tem and Council Members, tonight we are requesting that item I-5... L-5. Thank you. The grant application to the Urban Greening Grant Program, staff is requesting that this item be removed from the agenda. Thank you. Thank you, Madam Clerk.

Thank you, Madam Clerk. Do any council members wish to remove an item from the consent agenda for further review and discussion? Council Member Perrella, go ahead.

With the number of written comments that we got on six with respect to the contract for the seawalls, I think it would be wise to have somebody come up and just give a brief overlay of what's going on. I'm not asking to pull it, but we haven't gotten that many written comments on things quite some time.

Okay, we will pull item L6, which is from the Public Works Department for further discussion. Any other items from the consent agenda? No? Okay. What's the pleasure of council on the other items, L through one through nine, with the exception of L5 that Madam Clerk has pulled, and item L6, which we will pull for discussion?

Mayor, I'll move that we approve the balance of the consent items.

Second thank you.

Thank you councilman Perez Madam clerk are there any public speakers?

Mayor mayor pro tem and council members there are no requests to speak in person or virtually for the information and consent agenda Thank you.

Thank you. Mr.. Fisher.

Thank you madam clerk call for the vote Mayor mayor pro tem and council members if you can go ahead and cast your vote I Thank you, and this motion carries seven to zero. Thank you.

Thank you, Madam Clerk. We'll go to item L6, which Councilmember Perrello wished to further have a discussion on. This is from the Public Works Department. The subject entails approve additional contract funds for additive bid item one for the Mandalay Bay seawalls, which is West Hemlock Street seawall repairs project. Specification number of Public Works 24-129. The recommendation is that the City Council approve and authorize additional contract contingency funding for the execution of alternative bid item number one in the amount of $232,000. TO AGREEMENT 326-00126 WITH GEO HEAVY CONSTRUCTION FOR A NEW NOT TO EXCEED CONTRACT VALUE AMOUNT OF 2,664,001. THIS ITEM JUST AS A REMINDER DID NOT ORIGINATE IN COMMITTEE AS THIS IS A CAPITAL IMPROVEMENT PROJECT SPECIFICALLY LISTED IN THE CITY'S CAPITAL IMPROVEMENT PROGRAM BUDGET WHICH WAS PREVIOUSLY APPROVED BY THE CITY COUNCIL AND DIRECTOR MIKE WOLF IS HERE TO ANSWER ANY QUESTIONS. Just remember a parallel you just want an overview of l6 is that what you're looking for yes?

Just a brief explanation Why this item is on the agenda this way and what the project is is briefly without violating any measure M or anything else?

Thank you There we go all right good evening mayor and council members Michael Wolff director of public works I So this is a request for additional funding for an active capital improvement project. Back in September of last year, if council remembers, we brought an award of contract for seawall repairs. It was mostly for the walls themselves. And when we bid that project out, we also had an additive bid item for foundation repairs in the same location. At the time that we recommended award and then contract for council to consider, we did not have the regulatory permits in place for the foundation repair work, so we did not recommend awarding the additive bid item at the time. We have since secured, Mr. K.J. May, who's sitting here to the left, has secured those permits from the permitting agency, and so we Because it was part of the original bid process, we are recommending to go ahead and move forward with that additive bid item. The benefit here is that in order for the current repair work to be going. There had to be removal of docks and decks and things like that and gangways. And so having this contractor do this additive bid work allows for less disruption of the public and continuing to make repairs to the seawalls in a timely and efficient manner.

And if you could just address, there may be a lot of people who don't understand what the title change has to do with in these projects.

So we are dealing with a very unique construction timeline and constraints. Most of you may be aware that at certain times of the day, most of the seawall is below sea level. And when we're making repairs and when the contractor is making repairs to the seawall itself, typically has to wait for different tidal events to occur, low tide to occur. And so there's some very small windows of time for this work to be done. And the type of work obviously takes preparation. Some of it's making sure you have the right adhesion to certain elements of the seawall. So for anybody who's trying to glue stuff underwater or stick tape underwater, that doesn't usually work. So the idea here is that there's a very, very narrow window of time for some of this work to be done. And so we take advantage of that. even if it's at 4 a.m. in the morning. So I apologize for some of the noise that we make, but obviously for long-term continuity of the walls, this is a necessary repairs.

Thank you very much. And I can share with the council, the residents are extremely thrilled for the work that's going. They're very supportive. There were concerns that because of the times that the work would be done because of the tides, my understanding is nobody's complaining. They're thrilled that it's going forward. And we've gotten a lot of support letters on this item. So I'd move this recommendation if there's no other comments.

I'll second it.

I'll second. Oh, sorry.

That's okay. Thank you, Director Wolff, for that. That's going to enhance our city. Madam Clerk, we'll call for the vote.

Mayor, Mayor Pro Tem, and Council Members, we do have a virtual speaker on this item. Virtual speaker, if you can press star six to unmute, and you have three minutes starting now.

Hi, I just wanted to let you know that residents are watching. And do support this item. This is Debbie Mitchell from the HLA. And the tides to a lot of people, extending the work on this has been, you know, extremely extensive for the amount of time that it's taken to do this. And we really appreciate the city of Oxnard and how they've worked with us on communication and understanding. So moving this project forward really does get us closer to understanding the economic impact of all of the work that has to happen harbor-wide in our development. So please approve and thank you for your consideration.

Thank you for your comments. Thank you very much for calling in.

Mayor, Mayor Pro Tem, and Council Members, this concludes our speakers on item L6. If you can go ahead and cast your vote, please. Thank you, and this motion carries seven to zero. Thank you.

Thank you, Madam Clerk. The next item on the agenda is item N1, This is from the city attorney's office. Subject, ordinance regulating e-bikes. Recommendation that the city council approve and introduce by title only. And wait for the reading of an ordinance titled Ordinance of the City of Oxnard, California adding an article to chapter seven of the city code regarding the regulation of the operation of motorized wheeled conveyances, e-bikes, and similar devices. The Community Services, Public Safety, Housing, and Economic Development Committee approved this item back on July 14 with a vote of 3-0. And members of the City Attorney's Office, including Deputy City Attorney Andrew Gonzalez, And L. McCarran are here to answer any questions we may have. We'll start with any council member questions of staff for clarification. Go ahead.

Mayor, if we could, I'd like to have Deputy City Attorney Andrew Gonzalez provide just a brief explanation of the item before you, as well as, I guess, well, I'll leave it to Andrew to describe What's happened with the ordinance after the committee meeting?

Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Fisher. Go ahead, Andrew.

Thank you. Good evening, Mayor, Council Members, Andrew Gonzalez, Deputy City Attorney. Before we proceed with an overview of the e-bike ordinance, I would like to bring to your attention an administrative edit to the ordinance. The City Attorney's Office has provided a red line of the edit for your review. On page 10 of the ordinance appearing in section 3-401 paragraph E, the city attorney's office has added language to allow for local e-bike safety courses as approved by the city manager in addition to the CHP online e-bike safety course. The ordinance edit will allow the city to utilize additional e-bike safety courses INCLUDED IN PERSON COURSES AND ADDITIONAL SAFETY COURSES ARE DEVELOPED AND OFFERED AT FUTURE DATES. HERE THE CITY ATTORNEY'S OFFICE IS REQUESTING THAT THE COUNCIL APPROVE THE ORDINANCE WITH THESE ADMINISTRATIVE MODIFICATIONS DISCUSSED HERE AND WAIVE THE FIRST READING OF THE MODIFIED ORDINANCE. ADDITIONALLY I HAVE SOME BACKGROUND THAT I WOULD LIKE TO GO OVER. For background, the city has received complaints regarding unsaved e-bike behavior. Currently, the city does not have any regulations within the city code pertaining to use and operation of e-bikes and other motorized wheel conveyances. As such, staff from the city attorney's office, Oxnard Police Department, and Public Works have worked together on the proposed e-bike ordinance. HERE WE LOOKED AT DATA THROUGHOUT THE COUNTY SPECIFICALLY FROM THE SHERIFF'S DEPARTMENT WHICH IS INCLUDED IN THE PRESENTATION BECAUSE THEY'RE SEPARATE ORGANIZATIONS AND THEY PROVIDE CONTRACT SERVICES TO CITIES WITH SEPARATE E-BIKE AND TRAFFIC COLLISIONS. The data is showing that there is an increase, not just in the county, but across the state of e-bike fatalities for the rider and pedestrians and accidents in general. Additionally, although it is not reflected in the presentation, there are now statistics from a recent University of San Diego medical school study that uses statistics from the California Highway Patrol's statewide integrated traffic record system to examine collisions involving e-bikes, separate from traditional bicycles from the years 2018 to 2024 with a total number of 4,034 collisions involving e-bikes and found that the injuries on e-bikes occurred on younger riders and riders more likely to ride at unsafe speeds. The whole goal of this ordinance is to educate parents and the youth because there are so many different types of e-devices and it's difficult to keep up. The proposed ordinance also implements an e-bike safety program, which is mandatory for minors that are cited under the proposed ordinance with, again, the goal of education here. THIS ORDINANCE WILL BE FULLY ENFORCED 12 MONTHS AFTER THE ORDINANCE TAKES EFFECT. SIX MONTHS OF THE INITIAL PERIOD WILL BE FOR EDUCATION PURPOSES. THE GOAL FOR THIS EDUCATION PERIOD IS NO CITATIONS ARE FINE WILL BE ISSUED BECAUSE AGAIN IT'S EDUCATION IS THE GOAL. THAT'S GOING TO BE FOLLOWED BY A SIX-MONTH PHASE-IN PERIOD. Here, citations with fines to e-bike ordinance violators are going to be issued by the police department. Fines will be waived if violators attend the e-bike safety course that we've discussed and submit proof of course completion to the Oxnard Police Department within 14 days of citation. Full enforcement of the e-bike ordinance will begin October 1st, 2027. And to be clear, there's no moratorium under this section for vehicle code violations. The education phasing periods are only for Oxnard City code violations.

Go to Councilwoman Perez, go ahead.

Thank you so much for providing that overview. I wonder, because I know you highlighted a little bit about the different classifications, one through three, and the speed limits, right, for each of these. Do you mind kind of walking through class one through B, if it's appropriate at this time?

Yeah, I'd be happy to. Thank you for that question. So there are three classes. One is class one, which are bikes with a max assisted speed of 20 miles per hour. They must be pedaled to operate. A class two is a bike with a max assisted speed of 20 miles per hour, which can be operated by throttle or pedal. And then there's a class three, which is a bike with a max assisted speed of 28 miles per hour, which must be pedaled to operate.

And it looks like out of all classes, class one through three, helmets are required of all ages. And the reason why I pointed out wanting you to uplift the different classes is just to provide that awareness to the public, especially for parents. As you mentioned, that level of education. Since I know many young people often go through their loved ones or their guardians to purchase many of these e-bikes, I think it's important for them to be aware of the speeds and just the level of safety that's needed for that awareness piece. So thank you.

So to clarify for the helmets, helmets are required for anyone under the age of 18 for class one and two. And for class three, you need to be 16 to be able to ride a class three. And for class three, helmets are required for everyone that drives a class three.

Great. Thank you. I appreciate that clarification.

Thank you. Any other questions or comments? Go ahead, Damir Portoum.

Thank you. And thank you, Mr. Gonzalez. I see for this addendum that we have a red line. The e-bike safety education program required pursuant to subsection B and C as approved by the city manager, a local e-bike safety course or the California Highway Patrol online e-bike safety course. For the online version, I know from the staff report and the committee meeting that there's no cost for that. But I'm wondering if you can share a little bit about if you have any information about what TYPES OF THINGS, THE COURSES, WHETHER IT BE THE CITY MANAGER APPROVED ONE OR THE CHP ONE, WHAT THEY TEND TO GO OVER.

YES, I'M GOING TO DEFER TO THE RECREATION DEPARTMENT TO ANSWER THAT QUESTION. THANK YOU. THANK YOU.

GO AHEAD.

GOOD EVENING, MAYOR McARTHUR. THANK YOU FOR THE QUESTION. So the education piece is actually one that we would be creating for the Culture and Community Services Department, along with our police traffic unit. And so there's curriculum that they already have in place for youth education. and we would be adapting it to include information also for e-bikes. Are you wanting to know, Mayor Pro Tem, the specific topics that we're... Yeah, just a broad overview about some of the topics that are covered through the curriculum. Okay. And so we've discussed covering rules of the road, e-bike classifications, as already described by Mr. Gonzalez, required safety equipment, safe riding skills, reckless and dangerous writing, local ordinances, including this one, legal and civic consequences, battery safety, parent engagement, and then youth center engagement. And so plugging in youth to our local youth center programs. And with the parent engagement for our local bike education course, we would require parent participation and attendance as well.

Great. Thank you for that overview. Much appreciated. When the time comes, Mayor, I have some additional points or requests I'm going to pose to this council with maybe some finer points put on this or some other modifications. And we'll see if that lands anywhere. But I will just end this portion by saying that I believe that an online safety course for this type of activity. I don't feel that that's gonna be a fully meaningful or appropriate approach. And that's not to say that the CHP hasn't done a great job of developing a really good program, but I truly feel that for our young people in our community, the tactile hands-on being there, seeing and interacting with an instructor about the rules of the road, why they're there, what that means, why you should and have to wear a helmet at a certain age, but why any age should wear a helmet those types of things as well as Conduct on the road as I believe there's some things that are going to be baked into that I just think that in person is probably going to be More well suited for that in my opinion, so when the time comes I'm going to ask for some modifications.

Thank you mayor Thank you mayor for two more there any questions or comments Go ahead councilman. We're sorry. Yes.

Okay. Thank you. I do like the fact that this ordinance easy measured in that a fine can be waived if the person takes a class after the citation is issued. So I really appreciate that we're not really focusing on the money aspect. We're focusing on the safety aspect. As I looked through the ordinance, I did see where there was a fine specified for minors. I think it was $25, but I didn't see anything that cited what the fine would be in general. So I might have missed that, or maybe it's addressed by state law.

So to answer that question, it directs to Oxnard City Code section 3-401 subsection C. And for the first violation, it would be $100 within a year. Got it. The second violation would be $200. And the third and subsequent violations would be $500.

Got it. So that was referenced in a different section of the code. Got it. I do have a question concerning the exemptions that I see on page 376. So I understand having this not apply to somebody who is physically disabled. That makes sense to me. What I don't understand is the second one that says, not with saying any other provision of this article or any other section of this code, city and public agency personnel may operate a motorized vehicle conveyance or other vehicles at any place in the city in the performance of their official duties. And I guess my thought about that, just at first blush, maybe you could help me through this, is I If it's an issue of safety for people in general, I don't know why that wouldn't apply to people who work for the city. I can kind of understand if there's like a law enforcement aspect, I can see an exemption for that, but I don't understand why any person who happens to be an employee who's using this should somehow be exempt from the rules.

And again, I'd like to highlight, to answer that question, that it's for performance of their official duties. So to your point, it would be in the case of an officer that requires that.

So would this be limited only to officers, or are there others that this could apply to, do you think?

As it currently is written, it is citywide because it's in performance of the duties. But one example to demonstrate your question is the police department.

All right, I appreciate that. I'm always hesitant to wind to putting a rule on everybody else that we don't put on ourselves. So I appreciate you addressing that.

I'm sorry, can I just clarify? So what would be an example of somebody needing to use an e-bike for the performance of their jobs if they're not a police officer or if they're not doing law enforcement? I think it's a different way of framing the question, but I just want to understand why wouldn't we just...

you know directly say uh... law enforcement would be exempt from this from this ordinance and the performance of their duties of course who else would use it sorry thank you no no problem and that's a good question and when we craft this we craft it as broad as possible because we do have a code compliance department uh... we do have it's very small right now but at some point it could be expanded and those code compliance officers would be there to assist PD on certain things. You also have park staff. Nobody right now, we don't have a huge e-bike or motorized wheeled conveyance fleet in the city. But if that were to happen at some point in the future, if they are witnessing a crime or seeing something or have to follow or take a look at something closer on their motorized wheeled conveyance, they can go into an area that otherwise is prohibited from riding. children through zipping through a park obviously our city employees and city staff law enforcement or otherwise are going to use extreme caution when riding on places that everybody else isn't and it can only be in pursuit of what their actual duty is and obviously if there's going to be any misuse of that that would be dealt with through our human resource department

Thank you for sharing that. Good. I guess when we start, then we'll go to Mayor Proctor.

Thank you. So, yeah, several other questions. But given what I've just heard, I think that it might be appropriate to change the language to simply give the exemption to law enforcement only if there's some reason that comes up in the future where we need to, have somebody else have this exemption. Let's bring it back at that point. But I don't want to have a situation where the way it's written, it looks like it's any city employee. And these days, it's hard to argue whether someone's doing something in the performance of their duties or not. A question I have, a separate question I have is that given that state law is really in flux right now on this subject, does this seem likely to you that state law will broadly address this issue to the point where it's completely occupying the field of regulation here and that an ordinance here would no longer even be appropriate because state law addresses it?

There are various state laws that we have mentioned inside of the PowerPoint that we're currently keeping an eye on, but they are not state law currently. So as of right now, this ordinance as proposed would provide additional tools to the police department to be able to go after individuals that don't otherwise fall under current state law.

I guess my question is, as state law changes, can you imagine a situation where We wouldn't need an ordinance like this because state law addresses speed limits up and down the state. We don't have our own separate law ordinance here just for speed limits, I don't think. I'd like to know your thoughts on that.

One of the reasons for the phase-in and roll-in period for it being a 12-month period before it goes into effect is for us to be able to see how laws change. So there is a possibility that, you know, as the program advances, we come back for even modifications to other sections, depending on what happens with those bills.

Okay. So I guess I have a...

Sorry, Council Member Starr, if I could. There's about five or six bills. Can you hear me? There's about five or six bills that are in front of the state, and they're going in and out of committees right now. But something that's important to note in several of those bills is to allow cities and local agencies greater authority to regulate e-bikes. Now, there's a massive pilot study down in San Diego that's going to serve as the basis for state law at some point. That's a five-year study. So we're looking at several years here before we have a comprehensive e-bike safety regulations at the state level. So we are among a growing number of cities that are coming together to put really a system in place to educate parents and keep our kids safe And so this is really needed at this point because the state, what they're doing now is there's a few little bandages that are going on, but there's really nothing that addresses the types, the helmets, the requirements, who can ride them, and whether or not these things should be banned for kids under 16 in totality. So this is our attempt to help protect our kids here in Oxnard.

What I've seen in state legislation at times is sometimes they'll put in a sunset provision into the law in order to make sure that somebody's going to have to look at it because otherwise it's going to expire. I was wondering if perhaps a sunset in two years would make sense and that way we know that we got to look at this again at least two years from now. Okay. And then I have a question on, I assume the answer is yes, but will Oxnard PD be tracking violations of this ordinance and reporting back to council? And if so, would it be annually or periodically or what would that be?

That is my understanding, but I'm going to defer to the police department for specifics there. Thank you.

Thank you, Sergeant Shuntz. Go ahead.

Mr. Mayor, Council. We are going to track every citation that we issue because if it's a city ordinance violation, we're going to be involved in the diversion to make this not a financial matter or any type of other traffic or criminal matter for that juvenile or even adult. So We are still trying to catch up, just like the state is. For example, our crash reports are done on a state forum. There's no tracking of e-bikes on that crash forum. But this citation's a little bit easier for us to track. So our goal is to absolutely track each citation we issue.

Do you have the infrastructure in place to actually track that and measure it and spit it out? Or do you need extra software programming to make that possible?

So city ordinance violations are written on a city citation, and we turn those into records. Those are scanned into our records management system. They're not going anywhere, and we can easily keep track of those.

Thank you, Mayor. That's all my questions. Thank you.

Thank you. Mayor Pro Tem, go ahead.

Thank you. Just to add to the question about the job duties, I would imagine, and you can correct me if I'm wrong on this, I don't think we have anyone from HR here tonight, but... As of now, I don't think there's anyone who is on staff who, besides the police department, maybe code, who utilizes the analog version of this riding a bike as a part of their job duties. So just kind of going from that, if in the future there is some classification that needs to use such one of these devices in the course of their duties, It seems to me that they would be bound to our city policies when operating them while they're on the clock and operating on their duties. They'd be bound to, and we would be bound to, Cal OSHA and OSHA requirements for job safety if they're utilizing such a device. Does that sound about right?

That is my understanding. My understanding is also that the police department and code compliance, as of right now, are the only departments that I can foresee using these types of bikes.

Okay.

Thank you.

I appreciate Ms. McCarran's explanation about very intentionally crafting this policy to keep it broad. Just some follow-up questions. I know there's some discussion about offering an in-person session, and I get it. There's some young people that learn, or people just in general learn better in person versus doing a virtual class. Is there going to, I would imagine we would incur some costs as a city to be able to offer an in-person class, and would that then be passed on to a young person being the recipient of a citation?

Good.

Yeah, my understanding is there also would be no charge for the in-person class.

Wonderful, thank you. And another follow-up question too is just wondering how you landed on the 14 days to be able to show proof to the police department versus, just seems to me personally, a very small window to be able to show proof that they've taken this online course or whether an in-person course as opposed to staying with, for example, the parking citations, the general practice is about 21 days versus a moving citation, the general practice is 30 to 60 days. How do we land on 14 days for a young person to be able to prove that they've taken that course, as opposed to maybe 21 days or 30 days, giving them a longer window?

So to answer that question, Mayor, I reviewed various different ordinances, and the 14 days was a common time frame to be able to submit similar types of education certification.

Thank you. And just one other question. I noticed here that the first citation indicates that the city attorney is authorized not to file the citation or may otherwise dismiss it or waive any fines and penalties related to the citation. Is that a discretionary action that we're allowing the city attorney to take or is that a shall do it on the first citation?

So it is discretionary at the first citation, but again, taking into account that there has been this 12 month rollout period. So one of the reasons we wanted to build in that discretion is because if there is an individual that isn't taking advantage of the education portion and keeps on doing this, that's something we wanna take into account.

I appreciate that. That makes sense. I appreciate it. Thank you. Any other? Yes. Do we have any speakers? Madam Clerk for this item?

Mayor, Mayor Pro Tem and Council Members, yes, we have a virtual speaker. Virtual speaker, if you can press star six to unmute and you have three minutes starting now.

Hi, it's Deirdre Frank. I'm calling again. I spoke at the committee meeting about this issue. I've had several, several, you know, I'm the personal injury lawyer. I've had so many cases involving e-bikes. And I appreciate the city's efforts to educate the young people riding the e-bike. The young people riding the e-bike wouldn't be able to be riding the e-bike but for their parents. If you're going to have any kind of police enforcement, you have to also, in addition to giving them education, you have to require proof of insurance. Okay? They're killing people. They're running over people. I just had an e-bike pedestrian case come in to me last week. The e-bike is not covered by insurance. So this is something, just like you have to register a car and show proof of insurance, If you're going to go so far as to require education and waving, fine. You need to have something like that. I also don't think these bikes should be available to riders under the age of 16. Just like driver's permits, we should follow those kinds of regulations. These are dangerous vehicles when they're not operated correctly, and I'll also tell you You're not even talking about criminal liability. You know, parents are now being held criminally liable for providing these to their kids, just like guns, just like the father who was sentenced to, what, 15 years for giving his kid the gun for, you know, the school shooting. So there's a lot more beyond that. And a 2027 deadline is too remote. I don't know why we can't speed that up. If you're going to follow this educational model for your enforcement, or not enforcement, but your educational provisions for these kids, they already, come on, they already know that these e-bikes are gang surrogate motorcycles. So, We can all talk about in La La Land that this is going to be a good thing. But the reality is they're out there on the streets creating havoc. You need to impose fines. You need to take the bike. You need to restrict the rider's age. You need to impose civil code already imposes civil liability, as you know. And there's criminal liability. So you need to be talking about that, too. As it as the. What do I want to say as the? Prevention in education for parents. To understand that there's going to be a thank you for your time. Thank you, Madam Clerk.

Does that conclude the speakers for this item? Not good, I guess we're probably glad.

Thank you very much. This was heavily discussed in the committee, and I'd like to bring back a couple of things. But just as we've gone back and forth, we're going to have helmet rules and regulations. Is there anything in the helmet rule and regulations that requires it to be attached? I see a lot of people writing them with the strings dangling down, which does nobody any good. Is there a requirement that it is attached?

There is a requirement that it's properly fastened, so it needs to be actually on.

That answers the question. The second part is on page three and number four and eight, it talks about certain areas of the city which will be, can or cannot be determined. What and who will decide those areas and how will that impact the protection for the riders?

That can and cannot be determined for the speed limits, is that what you're getting at? Yes. Yes, so I would defer to Public Works for the specific speed limit questions.

Because I can see that at the very least, we're talking about there's not going to be a financial impact if we start making paints or we start putting signs. Nothing's free. There will be a financial impact. But how will the determination be made where it goes? Is it based on the most accidents or the most youthful riders or... And I will share with the council, the people that have scared the hell out of me most are definitely over 21, and they're going the wrong way, going too fast, and blowing through stop signs. But that's just a personal observation.

So good evening again. Michael Wolff, Director of Public Works. So let's maybe split these into sort of two categories. We're talking about the public right-of-way or the streets. That's all under vehicle code sections. Those are all either state requirements, vehicle code requirements. So from a speed limit standpoint from any other violations, that's all code related, right? So the places that we would be looking at from a setting of a speed limit that's different and apart from what's in the vehicle code or the state code is mostly where we have multipurpose, you know, trails or sidewalks or places, sidewalks when I mean like recreational components. So think of the I'll call it a boardwalk, but the boardwalk in front of Olokoi Beach Park that separates the beach from the park. Think about Seabridge area. Think about those places that are public spaces that you see interactions between pedestrians and potentially folks that are on these motorized vehicles. So those are the locations that we will be looking at from a setting of a speed limit standpoint where we want to keep the speeds down because of... conflict points because of capacity issues, narrowing of walkways in multipurpose areas. So those are the places that we'll be looking at for identifying a different speed limit than what's associated in the state law, the vehicle code.

Thank you. If I can carry just a little bit more. I think I understood you mentioned boardwalks or pathways or walking like Seabridge. Will these be allowed in parks, on walking trails, on grass lawns? There was a resident in District 1 that was very adamant with her views, and I thought she would call in, but she didn't.

Yeah, so there's quite a bit of places that It's precluded from operating, and one of them is parks. So there's specifically subsection 21 of section 3-394.

OK, thank you. With respect to at the very beginning of the program, we talked about other wheeled devices. How do we handle unicycle, the single wheel? How do we handle the skateboard? How do we handle the scooter? Are we going to come back with different rules for them? Or are they actually concreted into this thing that they're all covered?

Yes. So to answer that question, they are covered under subsection K under definitions for 3-392, specifically under motorized wheeled conveyances. There is a list that I'd be happy to go over that includes motor driven cycles. Here you had stated specifically a unicycle. And that's included under the definition for motorized wheeled conveyances. And then there's a separate section to your point that I'll list out right now that specifically states that those motorized wheeled conveyances are not allowed.

Let me just quickly find that I think just for the city if you can identify them being it's a public meeting It'll be a tape because there's somebody's gonna get really upset that somebody's telling them they can't use certain things in certain places I think it would be helpful for the city.

So if you have the time I identify the motorized wheeled conveyances Oh, I'd be happy to So again, this is subsection K. Motorized wheel conveyances is the general term that includes all of the following. Any electric bicycle or e-bike of any class, e-scooter, e-motorcycle, motorized board, motor-driven cycle, moped or motorized bicycle, electric unicycles, one-wheeled hoverboards, motorized scooter, electric or combustible motorized skateboard, scooter, dirt bike, mini bike, mini motor bike, motor driven cycle, mini motorcycle, go cart, go ped, moped, pocket bike, all terrain vehicle, quad runner, dune buggy, any similar electric or combustible motorized wheeled conveyance or any other type of wheeled conveyance that is powered by a motor.

Thank you very much. My last question, I believe, is when it's sort of identified there will not be a financial impact, when we hear these discussions going on and what will be expected, how do we verify that there may not be a financial impact?

There will not be a financial impact to the city for this program? To the city.

There will be. Once we figure out how we're going to implement this, there will be a cost. And we're happy to report back what those will be. Okay, thank you.

That's all my questions.

Go ahead, Mayor Pro Tem.

And I already got a chance to speak. I'll let Councilwoman Perez.

I'm sorry. Go ahead.

Yeah, I just have a clarifying question. And maybe this is a question for OPD. I know here it says 14 days of receipt of a citation that they'll be required to take the mandatory education program. But is that 14 days? I know they'll get a citation in person. But is the 14 days starting after they received it through mail? Or how does that work?

It will be when they receive the citation, which will normally be in hand, so that day. These typically aren't mailed. They're in-person citations.

So currently for what we're dealing with in the same situation, but for the vehicle code, juveniles or adults riding these things are getting infraction citations. They are going to court usually within... 30 days like Mayor McArthur talked about. For the youth, there's already a program called Start Smart. They're able to sign up if the judge or commissioner allows it, which she does, at least for the first offense. That offender will then schedule a training course with one of many agencies, including Oxnard PD, Sheriff's Department, Ventura PD for Start Smart. We only host them when we get enough students. So we usually do it quarterly. To answer some of the other questions about costs, we actually have a grant through the Office of Traffic Safety, which helps us pay for those officers to teach those classes in person. But maybe the 14 days could be, hey, they're signing up. Because we're going to have to be flexible. We're not going to put on a big show for one student. We would like to have at least a handful, if that makes sense.

Great. And just to clarify really quick, so they won't be getting a copy of their citation via mail?

I apologize. Everybody gets a copy of their citation. Generally, when we deal with youth violators, we often, it's the best practice is to have a parent or guardian respond to the location, the scene, or if they happen to go to the police station, respond there and to hand deliver that to the guardian or parent. Sometimes if it's a 16 or 17-year-old maybe going to work or something, we're going to trust that they're going to pass that information along, but they will get a copy of that notice.

Okay, yeah, and maybe if the group is open, just reconsidering the window of time, just considering, yeah, perfect.

And that's what I raised as well, because I think you need some clarity, because if we approve the in-person, if the in-person is not, because this is completely, It says violators must complete the mandatory education program and submit proof to OPD within 14 days. Maybe it should be cleaned up to where they can submit to take a course, whether in person or online, within that 14-day window. And then I don't know what the terminology can look like or craft it to where they have x amount of time then to formally complete the course. Go ahead, Mayor Portilla.

Thank you, Mayor. And that's exactly what I had in my notes. Thank you for the floor. So for the in-person training course, just going through what we have here, I'm wondering if it might be useful to have that they submit proof of course enrollment within 14 days of the citation, and then submit a completion of the course within x number of time window. And I just ballparked 90 days, because if I were to, in my notes, I was thinking, just as you said, Sergeant Jens, we certainly want to have a good sized group to be able to participate each offering of the educational program. Perhaps it's six times a year every other month. So if it was like a 90 days completion, 14 days enrollment, that would be enough time for them to enroll in the next one if they just happen to miss one that happened and still be within that window. and a little bit more flexibility on that, too, with it being 90 days. But that's just me ballparking that. But that would be my ask of this council, if they'd be open to that change for staff to have it be proof of course enrollment in 14 days and then proof of completion within what I think our staff thinks would be a reasonable amount of time for that. So that's my first request there. My next is regarding the red line version we have of the ordinance. If the council would be willing to hear me out on this, and if I get support, great. If not, we'll hear folks out. The way it reads now is, as approved by the city manager, a local e-bike safety course or the CHP online e-bicycle safety course. I would ask that we just strike out the CHP online course, because given the option, we may have some people who go with the online course but may benefit or need the in-person course, just as we've been talking about here. If we're saying that we want to offer this course and we want to have a good amount of attendance with each offering, if some people get the option to do it online, and I believe that may not be a great option for some folks, I would be more inclined to just offer the in-person only. Excuse me. Did you have something, Ms. McCarron?

We wanted to at least keep the CHP program since that is the only online program that's available. And it would be something that someone from out of the area could take if they're visiting from Northern California out of state. If you want, we could definitely look at mandating in person for people that are local. But normally, that's going to be something they're going to have to go through and get approval. to use that online program because we understand your concerns and that the preference is in person for everybody, especially the children.

Would it be appropriate and allowable to say or the CHP online course with some type of criteria or eligible circumstances, something along those lines?

Absolutely. If you want, we could start it for out-of-state violators. And then if you want, you could, if somebody's in Northern California, they can come down if they've got 90 days to sign up and attend.

And I would imagine Visit Oxnard would love if we had them come back and stay here again in order to take the in-person course. All right. So my last notes here, that's kind of my thoughts on the in-person offering. I I also feel the in-person education course shouldn't just be open to those who are trying to defer a citation, but rather a standing offering that happens that parents or youth can voluntarily go into if they'd like to learn bicycle safety or e-bike safety. And that may be a way that we're filling that class on a more regular basis as well. If there's scheduled offerings X number of times a year, always on the same Saturday, same Thursday evening, whatever it ends up being. If we accept those who maybe just want to proactively attend to get the information and they'll know the rules of the road, they'll continue, that would be another great offering. So it's not meant to be punitive, but it's truly a community offering for those who would like to attend or send their youth to it. And then my last point here is about helmets. And for Sergeant Jens, I believe in previous discussions, we did land on our Office of Traffic Safety grant offering more helmets. Is that correct?

So my understanding from speaking with staff is that we can build that moving forward.

OK. And as far as the helmets, so for Sergeant Jens, our OTS grant did have for more helmets, correct?

It did. They provided funding for 100 elements starting October 1st.

OK. And as time goes on, I hope that we can continue to replenish that through this grant. because I truly don't want any young person in this city to not wear a helmet just for the lack of being able to purchase a helmet. And like we did in the past with the free clubs, if you had a Honda Accord, which I qualified for that and got a free club out of it back then, I feel like anyone who is in need of a helmet should be able to get one through that opportunity. And lastly, the adults, I've said this before, I think our adults Really also need to be included in the enforcement part of this and the education part as well as far as a campaign that is gonna be done over the next year if this is approved by council. Because as a community, I believe we're still able to be proactive about this. I have the fortune of being able to go to schools throughout the county as part of my day job. And I will tell you, when I go to neighboring communities, especially in East County, just looking at the bike racks in those communities, lots of e-bikes, lots of e-scooters. But if you go to our local schools and look at their bike racks, mostly the traditional bikes with a couple e-scooters here and there. And so I think the price of these average devices are probably still a little out of the price range of our average Oxnard family. So we can still be proactive about this versus what other communities are facing now. All right, those are my comments. Thank you for the extended time, Mayor.

Thank you, Mayor Portem. Councilwoman Rodriguez, go ahead.

Oh, I was just going to give my two cents. I really love the spirit of what's being proposed in terms of having the classes happen in person, but I just want to make sure that they're still accessible. And for a working person who maybe is juggling life, I don't want to burden folks with having to show up to a class in person when they have the option in 2026 to still do the same learning online in the middle of the night, right? Some of us are up all night just trying to gain the learning, especially if we're trying to be constructive in the educational piece. So those were my two cents. I respect and I totally agree with the spirit of the intent, but I also don't want to burden folks with more. In terms of the window of time, I do agree the 14 days might be a little short. I think... 90 days might be out of sight, out of mind. So I'm not sure what the sweet spot is, but I would support an extension of time. Not sure how much time. The other feedback I wanted to say about the ordinance sunset, I don't agree with two years. If we wanted to do a sunset because we want to keep a pulse on it, I would probably lean more towards four years, five years, just to let the dust settle and see that we learn our lessons. I feel like I blinked, and it's almost two years that I've been in this seat. So there's some recurring. You know, themes or topics, audit reports and things that come up for us in terms of our schedule and council. So I would really like to learn the lessons after a certain period of time. And I think two years might be a little ambitious if we want to consider what we want to adapt. But I do think that we should keep an eye on it as legislation changes. I'm really, really excited that Oxnard is making this possible. Ordinance to protect its its citizens I feel like there's been a lot of accidents lately that could be prevented both pedestrians and folks on bikes And it's really heartbreaking to see somebody lose their life over something That could be prevented if we slow down a little Thanks.

Thank you before I go to council member star. I just I just want to add to as I initially Stated I don't support. I'm very supportive of this item his identity committee The 14 days is too short. I would align with Councilmember Perez. I think minimally 21 to 30 days to submit proof. I do appreciate Mayor Pro Tem's in-person. I think there's a lot of value to that, but I think in 2026 we need to provide our young people with alternatives as well as families to be able to do it better. online, also recognizing that the most recent census report indicated that nearly 10% of our household student officers don't have broadband internet. And I get it, though. They've got access to iPads from schools. They can go to a library or a cafe to get internet service. But I think I would be more supportive Minimally 21 to 30 days to submit that they've enrolled in some sort of program, given the alternative as well to do online or in person. That's dependent on the choices that someone may have. And also because what Ms. McMorrin said, there's a lot of out-of-towners that come in, visitors that come in. and to our town, so we need to make that available to them so they can stay in compliance as well, giving them that opportunity. Taking advantage of the CHP offers that training, given that as an option. And then that's where I stand on it.

Mayor, I did want to highlight just one point The 14-day period that's been referenced, that is just for the phase-in period. So once that over, that 14-day period is not also applicable to after the ordinance goes into effect, this same kind of class where it would be at the discretion of the city attorney's office to see how we proceed. That 14 days doesn't apply to that period.

Mayor, if I can, that 14-day period in this, in the six, that 14-day period, after the initial six-month hold. That is so that they can get their fines waived, because the goal here is to educate whoever gets a violation. They take the course. They return that to us as quickly as possible. And then they will get their fines waived during that phase-in period. And after, I think the second phase-in period ends September 30th of 2027, then it will proceed through normal infraction rules as Sergeant Jen said earlier. So that will only be in place from, I believe, April to September of 2027. Thank you.

Go ahead, Council Member Stern.

So thank you for that clarification. I guess then I would say that I don't really want a situation where this is only applicable to a phase and period. I think that, you know, There's instances where you go to traffic school for various violations, even though you've been driving for many, many years. It just seems that given the nature of this infraction that I just don't see why we couldn't on an ongoing basis allow people to, at least at the first time they do it, be able to get the fine waived if they take the class. Regarding the number of days, though, 14 is short, and I agree with that, that it is too short. As far as the idea that we'd give people 14 days to, let's say, enroll in a class and then so many days afterwards to actually take the class, my concern about that approach is it seems like that would be pretty administratively burdensome for the police department because they're going to have to be tracking, you know, okay, who's actually said they've signed up for a class, who actually did sign up for a class, who actually took the class. I think I'd be more comfortable with an approach of let's just decide on a number of days that we're all comfortable with. to get it done and to present evidence to the police department that the education requirement has been fulfilled. I don't know what that period should be. I don't know if that should be 45 days. I don't know if it should be 90 days. But I think having a two-step process would make that pretty burdensome on the police department to actually administer that.

Thank you, Council Member. Ambassador, go ahead.

Thank you, thank you. I appreciate the dialogue. I actually see it a little bit different than my colleagues. As I sit here, I'm thinking to myself, A, this is a new regulation coming down, so there does need to be a phasing period because it's new to our citizens. It's not like we have red lights regulation where our kids are six, seven, eight years old. They're driving in the car. They know a red means stop. So, you know, they... We... For those of us that have kids, we are kind of, as they're born, we're kind of training them on what traffic regulations are. This is new. There needs to be a phase-in period. And I'm talking, I guess, on a perspective as a mom. I agree, 14 days. I want my child to get that done as an adult. I want to get it done. It's new. It's fresh. It needs to stay in their heads. Now, I'm an advocate of, you know, if we need to bring it back, then we bring it back. But to make it very lenient and then have to tighten it up, is not what I would want. And that's just, as I'm thinking this through, as I'm thinking of consequences, I mean, regulations are done and set forth in order to protect the citizens that are here at the city. So my thought process is a little bit different. My thought process is, hey, my child broke the rules. He's 16. He's 17. He's got nothing better than to get that class done. Otherwise, I'm going to have to pay a fine. So that's where my perspective is at. If we want to go, I respect those. You guys want to do 30 days. I don't think we should go above 30 days. I'm OK with that. To me, it's just something that I see the intent of staff. I support that. I want to make sure that we educate our community. We've all seen what happens with these e-bikes when we're out in the community. It needs to be enforced. I appreciate all the effort that has come forth. So those are my comments.

Thank you, Councilwoman. City Manager, go ahead. Alex, go ahead.

Yes, thank you. If I can just follow on with what Councilwoman was talking about in terms of the newness of this, the nuance about what's new, and put it back into a little bit of a broader perspective. I do want to thank Mayor Pro Tem Turan for bringing this forward. We know there are existing rules of the road, literally existing rules of the road. What's new here is this particular technology. And every time there's a new technology like this that gains rapid mass adoption, regulators at the local or state or federal level just simply need to catch up. And that's what we are doing here. We are not the first community in California to grapple with the local ordinance, and we are certainly not the last after tonight. This is just rolling across the state. With regard to state law, where there you have real influence is actually on the manufacturing side, to establish regulations that determine how these things can be manufactured and what the speed is and the power and the whatever else, engineering. So that's coming. And at some point, that will merge with the local rules about behavior and safety and use. But we can certainly turn to the state and let them lead on the manufacturing side because we don't have that authority. Anyone here remember Unsafe at Any Speed? Unsafe at Any Speed. I think that was the book.

Yeah, I do.

Right? Early adoption of automobiles. Fabulous, beautiful designs. Very cool. Turns out, you're really unsafe just parked in the driveway or parked on the side of the road. And it took a long time for regulators to start figuring out how to set rules literally for the manufacturing of automobiles to make them safer. So it's the same thing we're going through now. And it isn't easy because we don't get to go to like one manufacturer like Schwinn Bicycle and say, hey, you got to do this, this, and this. These things are being manufactured all over the world and sold online as well as being sold at Costco. So all these things will catch up. Now with regard to the question about what other staff may use it, we don't know because there's another aspect And I've heard Mayor Pro Tem Teron talk about this. This technology also will provide for a very inexpensive, clean energy, non-polluting form of transportation for working people. But that may apply to some of our staff as we receive more and more EV mandates from the state about our vehicles. So there may come a day where some of our staff may be using some electric scooter version something. We don't know yet. But I would bet that that's coming. So that'll make sense. The caller, Ms. Frank, who talked about people need to be informed about insurance, we can incorporate that into our class. I think that's just simple informational, go find out, you need to go find out. I think that's a good thing. And then with regard to Mayor Pro Tem's recommendation that we should just have a regular course that people can enroll in if they want to be proactive and have, especially so that their kids learn safe ways to ride these vehicles and that anyone who gets a violation or a citation, then they have to take that course. I think there's nothing wrong with that. You can take certain driver's classes now in addition to what the state requires if you choose. So I think that makes sense. On the number of days, I think, Mr. Mayor, I think you mentioned that this established days already at one of your early comments. Maybe it's just easier to be consistent with those numbers rather than make up our own numbers. So maybe if you can repeat those, that might just be easier for everyone. And yes, again, there'll be some cost to this. We'll figure it out and happy to report back. But just keep in mind, we are not the only community struggling with this. Many have done it before tonight and many will be doing it after tonight. At some point, it'll all catch up and state law will make everything a little bit more smooth. Again, especially on the manufacturing side, but right now, this is the time for us to take this on to get a little bit ahead of it. I think Mayor Pro Tem is correct. It hasn't been a major issue here because of the cost at this point, but it will become more and more and more prolific throughout the state, including in Oxnard. So I think this is the right time and this is a great discussion you're having, but I think we're really close. from everything I've heard. Thank you.

Thank you, Alex, very much. Councilwoman Perez, go ahead.

Yeah, I agree. I think getting ahead of it is very important. I think I just have one more clarifying question. And I know that we're going to crank out the nuts and bolts of what this educational course would look like, whether it's in person. And I'm just curious, because I anticipate, and maybe this is feedback that we can here again in the future. But for the courses that would be in person, I'm just curious if there's anything to consider when it comes to merging both folks that are above 18 and those that are under the age of 18. And to clarify, I'm supportive of having both opportunities available for adults and those that are under the age of 18.

So I was recently looking at our last few rosters for Start Smart. That's really only what I have to compare to. And every roster that I looked at had parents attending. And the court doesn't require it. The court requires the parent to attend the court case in front of the commissioner. But that commissioner doesn't require the parent to attend that class. But we do it in person, and the parents come. At least half of our students have a parent, usually. Um, we we've also during COVID we're doing this. We did it online. Uh, we had a curriculum. Uh, we didn't stop because we didn't stop for any reason. We offered it online. Now we offer it at the library or at the police station, wherever we find room. It's it, we, we could do it more often just to have like, you're like, we're talking about, um, more buy-in for the education before you even get a ticket. That's, that's totally fine. It's, It's very simple. Like I said, we already have a curriculum for what we teach. And we're just going to modify that to include more e-bike, electric scooter. There's so many type of devices out there. It's overwhelming. But we'll figure it out.

That's good. Thank you, Sergeant Jentz. Was that a test one? Olympia, go ahead.

Olympia Culture and Community Services. I wanted to clarify that the ordinance It does say for the first offense, they're able to take the education class. And so it would be for all ages. We would not be separating minors.

I know that there was just discussion about having an in-person opportunity, and that's where I was considering the merging of both age groups. Yeah.

So for the class that we would be hosting? Right. That education class, it would be open to all violators for their, to meet that requirement, regardless of age.

Okay. Yeah, I just wanted to make sure there wasn't going to be any issues with having folks above 18 and those that are under the age of 18 together in one space.

Go ahead.

MR. GONZALES, WERE YOU GOING TO SAY SOMETHING IN RESPONSE TO? WE'LL GO TO MAYOR PORTUNE. GO AHEAD.

THANK YOU. I WAS GOING TO SAY SOMETHING ABOUT THE DAYS, BUT REAL QUICKLY ABOUT COUNCILWOMAN PEREZ'S POINT. LOOKING THROUGH THE ORDINANCE, DID IT NOT SAY THAT IT WAS FOR MINORS WHO WERE RECEIVED THEIR FIRST TIME VIOLATION THAT THEY WOULD GET THE COURSE? I DON'T BELIEVE THAT THE INTENTION WAS FOR THOSE 18 AND OVER TO BE MIXED IN WITH MINORS FOR THE EDUCATION COURSE. IS THAT CORRECT?

Yes, it would be minors and their parents.

And their parents. Okay. Just making sure we're not having a 45-year-old adult who received a citation hanging out with 16-year-olds for the education course so they could waive their 45-year-old citation. They can do it online. They can do it online, yeah.

Or, I mean, what would be the difference between this and like a traffic school, right, for a young 16-year-old getting a movie citation and he or she attends traffic school coupled with an adult offender, right? There is no, no differences. Would that be right?

Um, yeah, but, uh, mayor, you were correct to council member or for mayor pro tem trends points though. Um, the ordinance does specifically speak to minors and their parents. And again, here it has to deal with, um, if it's during the, uh, phase in portion dealing specifically with if they get their violation and or if there's a confiscation of the e-bike.

Thank you. So what I was going to mention just about the days, I appreciate the mayor's expertise on what citations typically look at. And I know Sergeant Jens probably knows that off the top of his head and our commander probably too. But if it is aligned with what other infractions might typically have, I think that's fair. My only my only concern about the window is that if it's If it's a window with which to show they enroll in a course versus when they complete it, my way of thinking on that was, If we have a short window by which they have to show proof of completion, that also dictates the frequency by which we must offer an in-person course if that's what we're going to have them doing. And I don't know if staff foresees that there would be enough demand or citations or voluntary participation for a monthly course. But in my head, if we had proof of completion within 45 days, that's a pretty quick window by which to get it done if it's offered monthly. And I also don't want our staff to have a certain month where there's one participant there because we have it so frequently that you get a bunch one month and one or two the following month. And so that's why in my head earlier I was thinking every other month six times a year might be fair, but then our window has to accompany that as well to complement that. So those are my statements on that, Mayor.

And I would just follow up. I don't know if Sergeant Jens, you can speak to that as to maybe the frequency that would be reasonable to offer in-person classes and that can be aligned with the policy decision that we implement here tonight.

Yeah, I think just like Mayor Pro Tem just mentioned, it really depends on how many citations are issued and how often we need to get a group of students together. It's almost hard to put a hard date on it. And we don't do that in Start Smart. We wait till they come to us. And there's court every day. And the commissioner may have a Start Smart recipient or may not. May not have one for weeks. So we just wait till they come to us. We give them their certificate. They take it back to the commissioner. And they get their case dismissed. We could either just have specific dates every other month or quarterly, or we can have it where we wait for students to enroll.

A quarterly, yeah. I'm sorry, Council Member, so go ahead and then we'll let Alex.

Yeah, I guess from my perspective,

Were you going to say something, Alex? Go ahead.

Yes, just following up on this point very quickly. Okay. I think maybe it's more reasonable at this point if you establish the minimum timeframe for the young person and or their guardian family to enroll and that they have to enroll in the next available class. And that timing will be fungible for now until we learn from experience how frequent that will be. So set the requirement for enrolling in the next offered class. And then based on that is when they have to show that they've taken the class. Because I think there's one scenario where, because I think everybody here was young at some point. So you do things that your parents didn't know you've done. And they may have weekend jobs. So it may not be so convenient for them to go right away. They may need to schedule some time. So they may need to wait till the next class after. So I think we should provide that flexibility. So minimum number of days to enroll in the available class for your family. And then after that, then there's some time where you have to show that you've done it. We can work that out. We can have that reveal itself in the working. of the program.

Thank you, Alex. Council Member Stone, go ahead.

I guess as you think about that, keep in mind you will have situations where somebody's been cited, but the class is literally the next day. So we probably need some sort of reasonable timeline for it shouldn't be the very next class if the class is tomorrow. Maybe it's like the very next class that's at least X number of days. away. But I guess my question is about as far as an in-person class goes, it seems to me it only makes sense to even develop such a class if we're committing ourselves to offering it beyond this first 12-month period. So if we're going to, because let's face it, it's expensive to create a class from scratch and develop the curriculum. I think that I'm fine with it, just as long as the idea is that the class would be pretty much a permanent option for first-time offenders, just like I said before, just like traffic school would be for many folks. So that's what I would suggest, if that makes sense.

Thank you for that. And I think along those lines, if you have the option to do it online, then you can do that anytime without waiting.

I do have a question about process here. So as far as what's happening right now, and it sounds like we're just simply, as a group here, kind of giving direction to staff, and then staff would be coming back with, let's call it a more perfect ordinance. And then at that point, that would be like a first reading at that point? Is that how this will work?

What we proposed earlier was a small administrative change. It's not substantive. And I think to the degree, we can even make a small administrative change to the 14-day period. Because looking at this, it should really be, they should turn in their proof of completion 14 days after they take the class. So they're not scrambling to get the class. But the second you have your completion, you got to get it over to the police department to submit it, to have your fine waived. That's very similar to when you take traffic school and then you have a number of days in which to submit your, I forget what the form is, over to the DMV and the court. So we could make that change to Section B where it says within 14 days of the completion of your mandatory education program.

I think it goes beyond that, though, because if we're talking about making this a permanent option, otherwise why bother creating an in-person class? This is just in the . Let me finish. If it's going to be a permanent option, I think we need to come back with a change to the ordinance to make that clear. Because right now, it's really clear that there's only this phase-in period where the education option to get the fine waived is even possible. I really want to resist any public perception that we're doing this for some revenue reasons by making sure that we always have a class for first-time offenders, whether it's in person or whether it's online. As long as that's available for first-time offenders, then I don't think we can give people the image that were just kind of like grabbing for their wallets. If this is really about safety, and if education, at least for the first defense, is appropriate, let's go down that road. I think we should come back with the ordinance with those changes. I don't think it's just an administrative cross out a line and replace one number with another.

Thank you. If I can offer, I still believe the 14 days is quite short, given that there could be a number of holidays in between those two weeks. The police departments typically or generally open only, I don't know, eight to five during working hours. I think that's who they're going to submit the proof to. So that really confines when a young prisoner or his or her parents can take them to the police station. I personally would be more comfortable if we align with a 30-day window to submit And that would align with a court case, for example, typically 30 days to submit proof that they've attended whatever course or one wants to get their certificate.

Mayor, just so we're clear, you would like it to read submit proof of completion within 30 days of taking the course?

Correct. I think that's a reasonable time in my personal opinion. Councilmember Perrello, go ahead.

Yes. The first part of the thing was helmets. When an individual buys it, I don't know it's going to be a young kid going to buy one. It's going to be mom and dad, uncle and aunt, grandpa and grandma, whoever. There must be an expectation, at least in my mind, that they would also get a helmet. But if there isn't an expectation, the person that sells them the scooter, is the person going to tell them what the rules are in the city of Oxnard? You got to have a helmet? Because I don't want to be providing kids with helmets, not because I don't want them to be safe, but because the people that are responsible to have gotten them a helmet didn't get it. Yeah, I don't think that's... How do the parents find out that the kid's supposed to have a helmet? I think common sense sometimes is taken for granted. Too many people have it. It's a big deal, and I don't know what the price of the helmet is, but if, as the mayor of Pro Tem wanted 100, or there is 100, I mean, we can go through a city of 200,000 people, we can go through a lot of helmets real quick.

Yeah, I don't think there's a, I know it doesn't exist, where you can go to Costco and buy a an e-bike for your son or daughter or it's a Christmas gift for someone and there isn't a requirement that stipulates you must buy a helmet or accompany this e-bike.

And I'm wondering how does the parent find out about the requirements with respect to speed or anything else other than walking in and the kid wants one because his buddy or girlfriend or somebody's got one. I want one too. and the holidays are coming up and the prices are going down.

I would just imagine it's like anything else. You buy an item, you read the description and recommendations from the manufacturer, and you make a sound decision whether or not you want to procure that for your son or daughter or relative, and you just make a decision at that point. Any other comments or questions? Any other guidance?

Mayor, I'd just like to make a quick little announcement. The public comment portion of this item has closed, and we've had a virtual speaker with their hands raised. So I just want to make sure that the virtual speaker is aware that the public testimony portion has closed on this item. Thank you.

Thank you, Madam Clerk. Does that provide enough clarity to, I don't know if we're prepared to adopt this item now, or is this something after we make some of these corrections and adjustments? Is that reasonable to just provide a direction, or what are you looking for at this particular time?

It is up to the council what you would like to do with this. Of course, we would prefer to make two small administrative amendments. to the ordinance tonight, but if you want us to bring this back, we can do that as well.

So if the council has clarity on the changes that it wants to make and we can get a clear statement of what those changes are, then we can work that into the introduction of the ordinance so we don't have to come back at a subsequent meeting to reintroduce the ordinance.

Thank you. What is the pleasure of council on this item?

Before we get to that, just a quick question regarding to Councilor Perrello's point that he just made. Do we have other instances where particular sellers of a product are required to provide some type of information to those who purchase that product? I seem to recall when I was searching through the ordinance, there was some some reference to what can and can't be sold by sellers within the city. But, you know, if there's a simple thing like you must provide this pamphlet or something, I mean, I don't, I see our city manager shaking his head no, and Mr. Gonzales coming up here. Just thinking out loud on that to Council Member Pirillo's point about informing those who are purchasing these products.

To your question, Mayor Pro Tem, there's no... statute or law that would allow us to move forward in that manner. However, that is one of the reasons for the rollout education period. The education period would be a proper time to inform just the public in general. Helmets are required under state law.

Thank you. With that, Mayor, I'm willing to move what we have here. With the modifications we've discussed as a council here, and I appreciated your numbers you brought up, would you mind repeating them?

Yes. Instead of 14 days, I would offer 30 days, 30 calendar days to submit... proof that the individual is taking and completed a mandatory education program, whether it's through, much like it's listed up here, an approved course by the city manager or the California Highway Patrol online e-bike safety course, et cetera. That would be my adjustment.

So I guess the answer to our city attorney's question, so what I've heard is Several things brought up by various members of this body Specifying the classes of employees that are exempt. So maybe that's code enforcement and law enforcement a sunset provision maybe it's four years extending the number of days to, I guess, 30, we're saying, and offering the class option as a way to waive the fine on a permanent go-forward basis, not just during this short window of time. That's what I've heard, and maybe there's others that I missed, but those are the big ones that I heard that I think maybe we can all get...

Agreement on and I just want to correct what I said. I know I mentioned calendar days, but it's they consistent with the court It's actually 30 business days. Okay. Okay, forgive me for that.

So just to clarify my motion It is the timetable that the mayor has outlined. I don't see any need to include in my motion Modification of the employee exemption. I think we talked about a how certainly the inference is that it would be those who utilize bikes in some fashion now, which would be our public safety through PD and code. That would leave us some flexibility in this timeframe if there was some innovation or something that happens with a certain classification that now uses these that we're already good. We don't have to come back and modify. So I wouldn't include that in my motion. As far as the sunset, what was the timeframe you had thought about Councilwoman?

Well, I was just thinking that two years would not be enough. I said five, just because I feel like two years has gone like that. And I want to give folks the opportunity to let the dust settle, learn our lessons, and really make real recommendations. So I just think an ordinance, we have so many administrative things coming back to the table on an annual basis and whatnot. I would really like this program to have an opportunity to learn.

Would it be helpful if we had a revisit versus a sunset to coincide with the end of the pilot program in San Diego and Marin County?

I would recommend that because this is a safety ordinance. I'm not sure why you would ever want a sunset one. There's a possibility that state law may supersede this anyway, which is then that's automatic. But I think calling for a specific report back and revisiting of it, I think that makes sense. And I would agree no less than five years.

And I believe 2030 is when those two counties, those pilot counties are gonna go back to the legislature. Does that sound about right, city attorney staff? Yes, that's my understanding. Okay, so then my motion would be the, let me bring this back up, excuse me. So approve the end, introduce by title only, and wait for the reading of the ordinance, and then including the time frame the mayor has mentioned of the 30 business days, and then reviewing, revisiting this ordinance upon the ending of the pilot programs that the state has implemented in San Diego and Marin counties. That's when this council, if not sooner, can revisit, but at least at that time. And that's my motion.

I'm sorry, Mayor Pro Tem, did you also want to include no employee exemption?

No, I wanted to leave the employee as written in the proposed ordinance.

And the portion that we had provided to council regarding the in-person education program as well?

Yeah.

Yes, correct.

The administrative one here where it says or, this way?

Either or? The red line version?

Yes, the or is fine as long as we're clear, as if everybody is in agreeance that the or is upon review. You know, if criteria or circumstances permits, we can do the online version for folks.

If I can add to that, I think it can be highly encouraged and that's why you would need the approval of, you know, the city manager or somebody designated to that. So do every effort, but we also want to make sure that it's accessible if need be.

So just to be clear, with the OR, does a person who receives a citation have the option independently to do an online course or do an in-person course that is being offered through our police department? Is that what I'm understanding?

It's at the discretion of the city manager. So the in-person class or the CHP, as determined by the city manager, So basically, if we don't have our in-person course up and running quickly here, then they will be diverted to the CHP course. And when the in-person course is up and running, which my understanding is it'll be fairly quickly, then they will all be routed to that. And if we have an out-of-state or really out-of-county person, they can then request the online course.

So if if somebody does second mayor the mayor pro tems motion I would like to make an amendment at that time or if we can say that no motions actually made yet because none's been seconded I'd like to add still add on to that The permanent ability to get a fine wave for first-time offenders by attending a class And mayor pro tem I'll second your motion I

Second second questions questions well With the amendment just for clarity.

I'm sorry Are you seconding with with my addition or you or not?

With mayor pertains mayor pertains okay, so at that point.

I guess I need to make a motion to amend right So my motion to amend to change it so that a class will be offered on a permanent basis for first-time offenders not just only during this transition period that would be my proposed amendment if someone wants to second that yes I would second that okay you would second that the amendment amendment first time but I have a question

Respect to the mayor Pro Tem asking the question is there any other business that requires us to inform the buyer of? Obligations I could be wrong, but it seems to me the last time I bought a water heater There's a requirement by a local source on the water heater you got to comply with the city rules Can somebody in the staff tell me if I'm right or wrong? The water heaters Isn't there a requirement a local seller of a water heater in the city of Oxnard has to tell the purchaser of the local requirements in the city of Oxnard?

Is that state legislation, Mr. Councilman?

And I'm bringing that up because the mayor implied that there is nothing else in the city that does that with respect to my question earlier if a bicycle seller is going to require to tell the buyer. And if I'm wrong, I'll admit it publicly right now.

So my understanding is, because I recently had to get a water heater, is when you buy a water heater, where you buy it from, they don't have to tell you any of that. It's just when you go to hire a plumber to install it is where that person has to abide by our local codes and get the permit. So that's my understanding. I don't know if the city attorney's office has a different take on that.

Is there somebody from development services or a system manager or public works attorney? knows the answer to that?

I'm sorry, I don't have an answer to you right off the top of my head in terms of water heaters. But can you repeat that in terms of what you'd like to see for e-bikes?

And I beg your pardon?

Councilman Perillo, can you just restate it for Jeff? He didn't hear the question where he was sitting. He might be able to answer your question if you can restate it one more time.

State it one more time. Okay a purchaser of a water heater in the city of Oxnard for many say Home Depot Lowe's I don't push Home Depot because they gave money to the city recently Is there a requirement that they inform the purchaser of the water heater? That if it's installed in Oxnard there are rules required about the insulation such as earthquake straps, etc, etc Thank you for that question.

Jeff McGillie community development director of There's no legal requirement for them to explain to you the code requirements that go along with the device you're purchasing. So they will sell a lot of the requirements like straps in the same vicinity of the water heaters, and you can ask a salesperson what they might know, but they're not necessarily trained in all the codes. They might give you some good advice, but the best advice is to call your local building department.

Okay, thank you very much, and I stand corrected.

Thank you. So, Mayor, I guess at this point in time, unless there's further debate on the amendment, maybe we can vote on the amendment so that the motion on the floor at that point would be Mayor Pro Tem's motion as amended if it should be adopted. And then we'd still have opportunities to make further amendments if that's what we want to do. Just trying to bring back Robert's rules of order back into this. Yeah.

I DID WANT TO POINT OUT JUST BRIEFLY, COUNCILMAN STARR, TO YOUR PREVIOUS POINT REGARDING FIRST-TIME VIOLATIONS AND THE EDUCATION PROGRAM, UNDER SECTION 3-401, SUBSECTION E, SUBSECTION 2, IT DOES ALLOW PARTICIPATION HERE IN THE E-BIKE SAFETY PROGRAM BY A MINOR AND THEIR PARENT OR LEAGUER GUARDIAN FOR THE FIRST-TIME VIOLATION Of a provision of this article and there is where I referenced earlier where it's at the discretion of the city attorney's office to Dismiss the citation waive fines or penalties or not file the citation at all.

I Guess I would say then I wouldn't want this to be at the discretion of somebody I just simply wanted to be an ordinary course of business people are violating the ordinance for the first time in their lives and Maybe they just became 18 years of age or something like that. I think we need to make it so that this is something that's just standard procedure rather than trying to get somebody's blessing for in this particular case, let's allow it.

And your point is well taken, Councilman Starr, and we would like to see the discretionary portion left in there. That's very common, especially at the prosecutor's office, because we may run into instances where we have a very egregious first-time offense. So, thank you.

Thank you. And Mr. Gonzalez, I'm just, forgive me, I'm just still seeking some clarity on the administrative addition that was added. Are we talking about an approved course by our city manager's department to then be offered by the police department? And then, so I'm just, so is it approved course by the city manager's office or is it So that's one, but if a violator is cited, does he or she have the option to do an in-person course if it's offered, and if they choose not to for whatever reason, can that person take an online course if they want to without any formal approval, just take it, and then submit proof that they've completed that online course, which then satisfies, within 30 days, submit that certificate of completion. Is that my understanding?

Yes, Mayor, and the reason it's written that way is in the interim of making that in-person course, we want to allow the electronic online course in the interim.

No, but are we saying then that a violator, once we have an in-person course, does not have the option to take an online course? I mean, are we eliminating that option altogether if we're offering an in-person course? Is that my understanding?

We wanted to keep that for, as we stated earlier, if there's individuals that are out of the state that wouldn't be able to come and attend in person.

Right, but my understanding is correct that we, by default, are making the in-person course mandatory if someone is... Receives a citation absent these other circumstances where they're either from out of town Visiting etc.

I'm just that so that doesn't understand It's mandatory in person unless they show that they are out of town to meet some sort of circumstances Yeah, that's correct and then we did leave a little bit of flexibility in there for the city managers discretion because there's new types of courses being developed all the time and there's nonprofits in the area and and then through Superior Court, and there will be other, and then our Parks or Recreation Department is going to develop one as well. So it's whatever is available at the time in person. That's where everybody will go to, and if for some reason they can't get to that one, they're out of state, whatnot, they can take the... mandatory class online, or they can do what a lot of other out-of-state violators do and do nothing and leave the citation for another day.

Just a follow-up question I don't have. I'm just wondering if there is any empirical data or any research that really supports in-person versus taking an online course as to why we are heavily pushing for an in-person versus giving somebody an opportunity to take an online course. I'm just wondering what the research shows out there as to what is pushing us to go by default in in-person court versus just outright allowing an offender who's 16, 17 years old. I'm just thinking that person that's working or that parent to just simply take an online course, much like we allow young people to take online courses in college, in school, et cetera, versus why are we pushing for an in-person as almost a mandatory?

Oh, yes.

Go ahead, Mayor.

Mayor, if I may, I believe I stated as part of my motion on this portion about it for the online versus in-person that there can be circumstances and discretion in someone who says that, not just from living out of the area geographically, but as Councilwoman Rodriguez said, someone who is working or going to school or whatever the case is, and they're a minor, and they just need to... I think about Councilwoman... Rodriguez herself, just when she would find time to do something like this. So I think that that discretion should be built in.

But I'm just wondering why they have to make that appeal versus who better knows their circumstance other than the individual versus they can just sign up for an online course.

My part to that, my response to that, Mayor, is that any of us could learn CPR online. We could watch a video for CPR, but you actually have to do it in person, not only to get certified, but to truly understand what is involved in the movements for that. And just pedagogy, learning in general for young people, when it's tactile as well as visual, as well as auditory, they have all of those learning styles met in an in-person that is gonna land much, better for them, just like when we look at how virtual learning was during the pandemic versus in-person learning. So that's my reasoning for us really having the in-person offering and being not, I don't wanna use the word default, but being the main instructional pathway with discretion or allowance for the online version for certain circumstances.

Council Member Stone, go ahead.

Yeah, I just wanna bring back the discussion to the amendment that's on the floor. Getting back to 3-401, is it 4E2, where it says, participation in successful completion of the e-bike safety program by a minor and their parent or legal guardian for a first-time violation of the provision of this article will result in one of the following actions. The city attorney is authorized... not to file the citation, may dismiss the citation, or waive any fines and penalties related to the citation. If instead, if instead it could read as follows, I think it would be, it would accomplish what I think I'd like to accomplish, which is if it were to say participation in successful completion of the e-bike safety program by a minor and their parent or legal guardian for first time violation of the provision of this article will result in the dismissal of the citation and a waiver of any fines and penalties related to the citation. By using that language, I'm trying to codify this as best I can here. I know we've been kind of like floating ideas. But that would be the language I would suggest in order to make sure that this is always an opportunity in the future. So if it's in order, I guess I would If there's no objection, I'd like to see that. That would be my amendment.

Can you repeat it? I'm sorry. After, will result in, and can you repeat that?

So basically, the first two lines will remain as is all the way through the words, will result in. And then the replacement language for the rest of that sentence would be the dismissal of the citation and a waiver of any fines and penalties related to the citation. And that way we're not leaving it up to somebody's discretion as to whether someone's going to be able to take a class to waive the fine.

Was that the second that you second that motion? Okay.

And just a question regarding that for Council Member Starr. Does your motion include what Ms. McCarran mentioned as far as Are you saying that you would like to remove the discretion that she had referenced earlier as far as, like, a first-time egregious offence? Correct.

Correct. Because, you know, if someone is an egregious offender once, they're going to be an egregious offender in the future. And at that point, you nail them. But for the very first time, there's very few that are going to be so egregious that it would shock us. I say let's just make sure that we don't have an abuse of discretion by not allowing somebody to take this class. I think by codifying it the way that I'm codifying it, I think it makes it so that we're not going to have an abuse of discretion issue ever. And if there is any sort of egregious violation, there's probably other rules they're violating at the same time. Maybe they're going beyond the speed limit. for the entire street. There's definitely opportunities to have multiple citations on the same citation for something that's egregious. So that's why I think that the language I propose would address, I think, your issues and hopefully clarity to staff as far as what would need to be changed here.

Okay, thank you. The mayor stepped away, and just for the record, when the mayor and I were speaking earlier, I apologize, Council Member Starr was during a part of your comment, he was asking if we should motion to go past 10. I feel like we can at least finish this item before that time, and then we can entertain that. Okay. So, all right, are there any other comments regarding Council Member Starr's amended motion that's on the table? Okay. Seeing and hearing none, Madam Clerk, we'll take the vote on the amendment that Council Member Starr has put forward and Councilor Perrello has seconded.

Thank you, Mayor Pro Tem and Council Members. If you can go ahead and cast your vote. Okay, this motion carries four to two. Thank you.

Okay, thank you very much. So the motion carries, the amendment of having the educational program continue in perpetuity past the phase-in period, and that also would remove the discretion as was talked about earlier. So now as the mayor rejoins us, we come back to the main motion, which now has the amendment attached to it. And do you want to take it from here, Mayor?

No, go ahead. I'll let you finish this one. Yeah, go ahead.

All right, so we have the motion on the table with the amendments going through. So do we have any comments from council members on the motion on the table?

Is the motion, was that your amended motion?

So the amendment that I recommended was adopted by this body. So now we have a motion as amended. We have Mayor Pro Tem's motion as amended. I think what would be helpful, because some of this seemed more like they're concepts, not actually codifications, it would be helpful if somebody could state back, I don't know whether it would be the city attorney can do that, or the city clerk, but I assume the city attorney would be able to state back, this is what is currently covered by this motion as amended, so we're very clear what we're voting on.

So I'm going to just go through the three changes that we have here, and you guys let me know if this is what you wanted. So the first one is to the, it's section E, and we will be adding, as approved by the city manager, a local e-bicycle safety course. Okay. The second one. is in Section 2, or E2, will result in the dismissal of the citation or waiver of any fines and penalties related to the citation.

It's and, and a waiver. It's and, not or.

And?

Yeah.

Oh.

Thank you.

I didn't, I'm sorry, I didn't read the beginning of it. I've got that in there for you. Okay, thank you. And then the last one is going to be 3-402B, where you have to submit proof of completion to the Oxnard Police Department within 30 business days of completing the course, or the mandatory education program.

Thank you, Ms. McCarron. Just to your first point about the in-person, excuse me, approved by the city manager a local e-bike safety course. I believe that, and y'all can correct me if I'm wrong on this, we did allow the OAR CHP online safety course conditions or circumstances considered. Is that included in your notes there as well?

No, I'm sorry, it was not. Would you like that in there?

I believe that's what we landed on. I see head nods, yes? Okay. Okay, with that correction, I do believe that reflects my motion and then the amendment that just went through. So would you like to hand it over?

So I'm sorry, just to add more to the madness. So we were highly encouraging the in-person participation, but also having the option for the CHP.

Correct.

Thank you.

I just want to add, just to be clear, to Councilwoman Rodriguez's statement, we encourage someone to take in in-person course, correct? But they can take an online course without any approval, without having to go to, I just wanna make sure I understand this correctly, without having to appeal to a city manager or somebody to be able to take an online course, right? Do they have the option to take an in-person? It's highly encouraged because it's being offered, or you can take an online course to satisfy the completion certificate. Is that?

You know, I'm not sure if that's clear. My understanding is that from Mayor Pro Tem's amendment is that it'd have to be certain circumstances were present for them to be able to request the online. Sorry, for them to be able to request. There would have to be certain circumstances present for a violator to request the online course. And that would be one of the three discussed.

That was the intent of my motion, Mayor.

Yes, I agree.

I have a question with the motion now as amended. So today, as proposed, we have this 30 business day rule during this transition phase and period, but we don't have the equivalent language for after the transition period. So, you know, I'm sure staff could come back and put that language in there so that it doesn't, otherwise you're leaving it open ended after the phase-in period, there's no limit to the time when somebody could take a class, and I think there ought to be a limit

Excuse me, Mayor, I'd make a motion we extend the meeting past 10 o'clock, because we're going to make it. Thank you, sir. I know Mayor Pro Tem thinks we're not going to. We tried, yeah. I second. We're going 10 o'clock, and I've got to tell you, and this is interesting, but as long as I served on this council, this is the worst example of making sausage I've ever experienced. Okay.

Well, we have a first and a second. Madam Clerk, are there any speakers?

This motion is to extend past 10. Yes, ma'am. So, Councilwoman Rodriguez? Yes. Aye. Council Member Perala. Council Member Starr.

Yes.

Mayor Pro Tempteran. Yes. Councilwoman Perez. Yes. Mayor MacArthur. Yes. And this motion carries six to zero. Thank you.

Thank you.

Six to one.

I think you have the floor, Council Member Starr. Go ahead.

I think we've made a few modifications here that do change the way the ordinance works a little bit. So now that we're allowing the education program to wipe out your first-time offense, it's no longer at the discretion of the city attorney. Like if they send it in six, eight months, it might be prudent to put something in similar to what's in the phase-in program. Would submit proof of completion within 30 days of the course is that something that?

You could write up and bring it back to the council so we have our our final language I know you're eager to adopt something tonight, but I just it's hard for me to imagine that I would think you'd want to take a little bit of time to make sure that Everything works together that there doesn't create conflicts in the language

So and I think we're working here in two small sections. And your point is well taken. And this will probably necessitate a whole new motion. But to add in the additional 30-day language in Section E2, it would come right after the end of the proposed language by Council Member Starr upon receipt of or upon, you have to submit your proof of completion within 30 days of attendance and completion of the course.

Okay, that makes sense.

So it would be basically the identical language that was discussed.

So you would just simply append it to the end of that sentence in E2, right?

Correct, yes.

I think that makes sense to me.

As the maker of the motion, I'm fine with that.

Okay.

So if there's no objection, I guess we have a motion as amended that's ready to be voted on. I just have a quick statement, Mayor.

As a last point here, if we approve this ordinance to better regulate e-bikes and wheel conveyances, I just want to point out that it's also incumbent on us to continue to improve biking facilities and infrastructure for those who are going to be utilizing them, especially if we're at a crossroads as a community and as a society to use these microtransit options for people. And our public works director is here, and I give him and his team credit for, if you go around, you'll see all of the restriping, the more green, the more sharrows. But as we go forward, I hope we can keep that in mind. That was one of the priorities that six of the seven of us who participate in the priorities agreed to in addressing the biking infrastructure when we do paving or when we do road work. So I just wanted to make that statement that we're not just putting this all on the residents and the users. We as a city, it is incumbent on us to make it safe and accessible to people to ride these things, but ride them in a safe and legal way. Thank you.

If I can just make a comment, I really appreciate the deep and robust discussion we had here as a council, and certainly thank you, Mayor Pro Tem, for having the initiative to bring this before us and having given direction to staff to lead in getting this initiative implemented and getting ahead of it. So that takes leadership. So thank you for making that happen. And I think this is really good. Madam Clerk, I call for the vote if there's no further discussion.

Mayor, Mayor Pro Tem and Council Members, if you can go ahead and cast your vote. Thank you. And this motion carries seven to zero. Thank you. We would have made, we would have made it, yeah.

So Mayor Bertram, you should have voted no on that motion then, yeah.

But the deal is there's a levy that protects District 1 and District 2 that's significant, so I don't want to fool around with 10 o'clock, Mayor Bertram.

So we will go to the next item on the agenda. This is item N2, and Mayor Pro Tem, go ahead on your recusal.

Yes, thank you. Similar to other agreements with the County of Ventura, in this case, the Ventura County Watershed Protection District, just out of an abundance of caution because of my day job and professional relationship with the County of Ventura, I'll be recusing myself just due to the potential for a remote interest in this. So thank you.

So N2 entails, first this is from the Community Development Department. Subject funding agreement with the Ventura County Watershed Protection District for the Santa Clara River Levee 3 project. The recommendation that the city council want to adopt a resolution authorizing the city manager or designee to execute a funding agreement. A8626 with the County of Ventura Watershed Protection District. in an amount now to exceed $2,356,779.24 for the Santa Clara River Levee III construction project consisting of A, one million from the California Department of Water Resources, DWR, grant 460015992, And B, 1,356,779.24 net from Defco, Oxnard Vineyard, Oxnard Avenue LLC developers fair share contribution. And two, to authorize the city manager or designee to execute and approve the necessary budget appropriations. for the use of the developer's fair share contribution and grant funds to transfer to the Ventura County Watershed Protection District for the SCR3 construction project subject to the contingencies outlined above. This item did not originate in committee. Under the Ventura County Watershed Protection District Manager, Mr. Girard. Kapsusik has a five minute presentation. Welcome, Mr. Kapsusik, thank you. Thank you. I shall let you set it there, Council Member Starr.

Where is the pointer?

Diego, if you can bring up the presentation, thank you.

Before you start, I just want to mention that Mr. Kamusik, I think you were actually the person that introduced the ordinance back in 1973 or something like that to have a separately elected mayor. Is my memory correct on that?

Yes.

Okay. I should know your name correctly.

I just remember my reading. I go, oh, yeah, I know that guy's name. Thank you for that.

Good evening, Mayor MacArthur and Mayor Pro Tem Turan and members of the Oxnard City Council and Oxnard City staff. So today, yes, sir.

Thank you.

So today I am going to report Very good news. And in reporting that good news, hopefully we will have a second piece of good news upon your council's favorable consideration of the item before us. So let me start by saying that with respect to this project, Diego, could you advance to the next slide, please? The bottom one? Or the arrow to the right? OK, very well. So effectively, the mission and vision of the Watershed Protection District is at a watershed-wide scale to deal with flood protection challenges for homes, properties, public infrastructure in the most creative, sustainable, affordable, and environmentally sensitive manner. And that is a large mission, and it takes many different incarnations of projects. In this instance, the SCR3 levy IF YOU LOOK AT HIGHWAY 101 ACROSSING THE BRIDGE FROM BASICALLY SOUTHWEST ALL THE WAY TO JUST PAST VICTORIA AVENUE, THAT IS THE AREA THAT WE CALL THE SOUTHERN SCR3 LEVY SYSTEM. HOWEVER, AT THE TIME WE NAMED IT, IT WASN'T ENTIRELY A SYSTEM BECAUSE IT HAD COMPONENTS, SOME OF WHICH WERE ENGINEERED LEVEES BY THE WATERSHED PROTECTION DISTRICT BASICALLY AT THE SOUTHERN END ALONG VICTORIA ROAD. some of which was stream bank protection by various entities who managed various different landfills in that area, including the city, including a private landfill operator, and ultimately Ventura Regional Sanitation District. And then a gap in protection from basically where Ventura Avenue curves to the UPRR Railroad and then to Highway 101. So in order to ensure certification, even though Watershed Protection District didn't have all of that area in its portfolio, we stepped up in partnership with the city when the post-Katrina FEMA mapping called us all to evaluate could we continue to have flood protection to meet the 1% annual chance flood. And so that's what this project is a manifestation of. We've taken the discomfort a continuous system that had elements that would not be certifiable either individually or without conjoining together, engineered it, designed it in order to be certifiable, executable in a construction contract process, and as soon as possible. And I will hasten to say that this is the 18th year of that journey. So it's taken a long time to get to this point, but we're ready to cross the finish line. So basically, I'll just run quickly. We basically talk about areas as reaches, which are just sections or segments of, in this case, the river tied to engineering stations. This next slide points out very quickly there were a number of challenges. Think of it as if you build a new home. It's one thing. But if you're remodeling an existing one, it always takes more time consuming, more expensive, more challenges to overcome. And that's precisely what happened here, particularly in the gap area between the curve of Ventura Road and the UPR Railroad. And you'll see that manifested in a second. So the initial piece of this was construction of an up-armored levee to cause what's called freeboard, provide additional height in protection. I'm sorry. heightened protection from a flood, a 1% flood. That project, which was the longest segment that we had to up-armor and build, was completed in 2018 for approximately $6 million, of which we secured a $5.4 million grant from the Department of Water Resources under the local levy assistance program. So that was phase one. Then we had to move. to the more difficult problem of securing the flood protection in the gap area. Again, in the gap area, it's essentially the area where Ventura Road curves and all the way up to UPR. Now what you're seeing in these colored areas are habitats of endangered or threatened species. So this was a big challenge in coming up with a design project that would meet the state and California, excuse me, the California and federal Clean Water and Environmental Protection Acts, which we have to comply with as a public agency, especially since we're asking for state and federal grant funding. But even if we didn't, we would have to do that. The problem with essentially extending the levee past Ventura Road into the river to the 101 is the regulatory permitting agencies would never have approved it. Absolutely never. But even the remote chance that they would have, we would have to expand an additional 30% to 50% of the construction costs to do the work that we're doing now for mitigation. And that was unaffordable, unattainable, and unachievable. So we had to come up with a new design. And that's what we did. We effectively, from the curve in Ventura Road to basically where you see that floodgate, we had to install what's called sheet piles. 60-foot reinforced metal, not pounded in there, but wiggled in down to a significant amount of depth to provide scour protection from the hydraulic forces of the river in a flood. At this point, the river has 225,000 cubic feet per second. That's intense hydraulic force and can scour. So that's what the sheet pile does. But then we had to connect that via a floodgate across the high point of Ventura Road to flood walls on the higher elevation behind the walls of the property owners in that area. So we had to create this hybrid system, which effectively will contain and keep that 1% annual chance flood from causing problems for the homes behind it. Given the number of homes and the valuation of the homes, this project ranked extremely high in something called the benefit-cost ratio. And that is, we get more in benefit than the cost of expending it, so therefore that's why we get the grant money. But it took time and effort to do that. You've, I think, all driven by it. You've seen the completion. This is taking a photo that you've already seen yourself, but from the floodgate looking southwest, and then a similar one along the line looking northwest. And so we're very close. We're about 90% complete with the construction. We will anticipate resuming the remaining flood wall construction on the sheet piles on the riverside. on September 15th, potentially a little earlier, if we have three consecutive days that the Least Bell's Vireo, which are the endangered species, are not nesting, and we'd be able to get there early. And then we will make hay out of the roughly four months we have before the climate or the meteorological models show Super El Nino arrives in vengeance in December. So we have to make hay in this month period of time from our start point to that point, and we're going to do it as best we can. Ultimately, the floodgate is the first in Ventura County, but it's not the first in the nation. It's a proven technology. It's been used extensively in Texas, Louisiana, in hurricanes. In fact, the Houston Cancer Center Hospital installed this in their underground garage, which had their power stations, and so they had to continue to operate during a hurricane, and the gates secured the area. So we're not testing a new technology. It just happens to be the first instance in Ventura County that it's been installed. But so has Wagon Wheel in its road as it's gone along. So it's part of this project as well. But it is not a public project, it is a wagon wheel development project along that line, and it's also being coordinated. So, Diego, if you can try to push the animation button, you'll see how the floodgate will operate. There you go. Push down on that with your foot. This is Kyle, by the way. Kyle and Paco.

Nice to meet you. As a matter of fact, my intent...

So as you can see, essentially as the water rises, the default operating mechanism is it rises itself to secure the area. And the same is true for the smaller floodgate in Wagon Wheel, right? However, we do have the ability to telemetrically to program it, should there be a problem of it not default operation, or manually to do so. And this will require close coordination between ourselves the city of Oxnard in terms of road closure and the public works and so we will be moving now as we complete this project to those kinds of operational discussions to ensure that we collaborate as we have for the 18 year period to get to this point to ensure that the operation of this operates as designed and provides the protection. And so with that, just overarching here. So what you're looking at here is roughly just shy of $36 million construction costs for both phases. As I indicated, even though phase one was the longest reach, it was the less expensive because it was easier and we didn't have the design challenges that we had in the shorter gap area that had to be conducted and engineered for. Roughly 64, almost 2 thirds of it is essentially All of our Zone 2 property tax money, Watershed Protection District, as an entity who existed before Prop 13 was passed, has a small fractional piece of the 1% ad valorem tax. That's our structural revenue. It was augmented by grants, three of them, two from FEMA and one from DWR. And then we appreciate, acknowledge, appreciate, and welcome the efforts of our City of Oxnard partners hand-in-hand working to try to find plus-up funding to the tune of the $2.3 million from the two sources identified today. And I would say that probably in this room, I think Ashley and I and Councilman Perrello have been at this the longest, but I want to commend Ashley for the vision she demonstrated in her role in community planning at the time of the DEVCO project to secure contribution. the fair contribution, which is the 1.376 million or 5.6 million number in the points. So thank you. It's paid off because it's helped you help us and ultimately together helping the people who were impacted.

I have a question on this particular slide that you're on right now.

Yes.

So is the $2.4 million that we're being asked to vote on today, is that a phase one cost or is that a phase two cost?