City Council - Regular Meeting

Thank you.

Good evening, everyone. I'd like to call the meeting to order for the Oxnard City Council for Tuesday, September 1st, 2026. Madam Clerk, may we have the roll call and posting of the agenda, please?

Council Member Perala?

Here.

Councilwoman Perez? Here. Councilman Starr?

Here.

Mayor Pro Tempteran?

Here.

Mayor MacArthur?

Here.

The agenda for this meeting was posted in the kiosk at City Hall, the Oxford Public Library, the City Administrative Offices, and on the City's website on Thursday, August 20th. Thank you.

Thank you, Madam Clerk. Prior to closed session, we will take public comments on the closed session agenda. Will the City Attorney please provide a statement prior to closed session?

Yes, the City Council will recess to a closed session pursuant to Government Code Section 54956.9D1 to confer with its attorneys. The matter being discussed is City of Oxnard versus Titan Global Holdings LLC.

Thank you, Mr. Rossell. Madam Clerk, do we have any speakers or public comments for the closed session item?

Mayor, Mayor Pro Tem and Council Members, we do not have any public speakers in person or virtually for closed session. Thank you.

Thank you. The City Council will now recess to the closed session and reconvene for an appointment item that's scheduled for 5.30. Thank you. Good evening, everyone. The city council has just emerged from closed session, and I'll ask our city attorney, Mr. Ken Rosell, for any announcements to make. Thank you, Mr. Rosell.

Yes, there's nothing to report at this time.

Thank you. The next item on the agenda is item D1. This is an appointment item that was scheduled for 530. The subject entails Ventura County Transportation Commission's update. otherwise known as VCTC, the recommendation is that the City Council receive and file an informational update regarding the US 101 Improvement Program, HOV, and express bus lanes. Tonight's presentation will be provided by staff from the Ventura County Transportation Commission, and we are pleased to welcome, I saw her earlier, Amanda Fagan, Director of Planning and Sustainability, who will provide an update. Welcome, Ms. Fagan, thank you. You may proceed with your presentation, go ahead.

Yeah, good evening, Mayor and Council Members, Morgan Kessler, City Engineer. I just wanted to introduce Ms. Amanda Fagan from the VCTC, and she has a a presentation and sort of an update on their environmental document for their 101 project.

Thank you, sir. Welcome, Amanda. Thank you.

GOOD EVENING, THANK YOU MAYOR GOOD EVENING, THANK YOU MAYOR GOOD EVENING, THANK YOU MAYOR MACARTHUR AND THANK YOU MACARTHUR AND THANK YOU MACARTHUR AND THANK YOU MORGAN FOR THE INTRODUCTION. MORGAN FOR THE INTRODUCTION. MORGAN FOR THE INTRODUCTION. THANK YOU TO THE WHOLE CITY THANK YOU TO THE WHOLE CITY THANK YOU TO THE WHOLE CITY COUNCIL AND THE CITY MANAGER COUNCIL AND THE CITY MANAGER COUNCIL AND THE CITY MANAGER FOR GIVING US THIS TIME TO SHARE FOR GIVING US THIS TIME TO SHARE FOR GIVING US THIS TIME TO SHARE WITH YOU AN UPDATE ON WHAT IS WITH YOU AN UPDATE ON WHAT IS WITH YOU AN UPDATE ON WHAT IS ARGUABLY THE MOST OR CERTAINLY ARGUABLY THE MOST OR CERTAINLY AGAIN, MY NAME IS AMANDA FAGAN. I SERVE AS THE DIRECTOR OF PLANNING AND SUSTAINABILITY FOR THE VENTURA COUNTY TRANSPORTATION COMMISSION OR VCTC. VCTC IS THE REGIONAL TRANSPORTATION PLANNING AGENCY SERVING VENTURA COUNTY, RESPONSIBLE FOR PLANNING, PROGRAMMING, AND PROVIDING TRANSPORTATION SERVICES COUNTYWIDE. The U.S. 101 improvement project is approaching a very important milestone, and I am pleased to share with you an update and some information about an important public circulation for the environmental document. So I will briefly provide some background on the project, talk about alternatives analysis, an introduction to vehicle miles traveled, funding, the project schedule, and next steps. The US 101 Improvement Program is a partnership between VCTC, Caltrans, the cities of Thousand Oaks, Camarillo, Oxnard, and Ventura, and the County of Ventura. By a show of hands in the audience and on the dais, how many of you used the 101 today? Or how about at least this week? US 101 is the major coastal route that connects the northern, central, and southern parts of the state. The 101 connects Ventura County to our neighboring counties of Los Angeles and Santa Barbara and serves as both regional connection and main street, connecting our communities with one another and serving as a critical link in a resilient transportation system. Over half of Ventura County's jobs and residents are located within the three-mile corridor along US 101. The study area for the US 101 improvement project extends from Moore Park Road in Thousand Oaks through the cities of Camarillo and Oxnard to State Route 33 in the city of Ventura. This section of the freeway has been referred to as Main Street, Ventura County. US 101 has been identified as the highway network's greatest area of need, with aging infrastructure, no continuous alternate routes, peak period speeds forecast to drop, and travel times to increase, and constraining person and goods movement. While several options for travel within the corridor exist, including single occupant vehicle travel on the freeway, transit and rail, Providing an additional option of an HOV lane would enable travelers to opt out of congestion, which is listed as a key action in Caltrans Climate Action Plan for Transportation Infrastructure. Oops. In collaboration with Caltrans and our local partners, BCTC has taken a regional multimodal approach to finding solutions to congestion on the 101 and to planning for the future of our transportation system, actively engaging local stakeholders and the public at each step of the way. beginning with the comprehensive transportation plan and the Caltrans project study report in 2013, then the project approval and environmental document phase beginning in 2016 with a cooperative agreement and followed by a consultant contract in 2018 to initiate the environmental study. VCTC also undertook the 101 Communities Connected Multimodal Corridor Study, which evaluated options for enhancing modes of travel beyond the freeway and completed a freight corridor study to better understand how goods move throughout the county. VCTC also collaborated with the Ventura Council of Governments with support from a regional early action planning grant from the Southern California Association of Governments to develop the Ventura County VMT adaptive mitigation program, which established VMT methodology and mitigation tools tailored to Ventura County and its unique land use context and transportation system. Within the project area, US 101 existing conditions chiefly consist of three general purpose lanes or regular lanes in each direction. Auxiliary lanes are located in certain locations, mainly in Thousand Oaks, with no existing high occupancy vehicle or carpool lanes. The defined purpose of the US 101 improvement project is to improve traffic conditions by improving trip reliability, achieving regional HOV connectivity, supporting regional prosperity, and improving efficiency of the public transit system. The overarching project need is to improve trip reliability and traffic operations. Initially a list of alternatives was developed through the Caltrans project study report which was completed in 2013 as well as project development team recommendations and from public input received during the public scoping process. Alternatives were analyzed and narrowed down to a final set of alternatives to be studied in greater detail during the environmental process. Alternatives evaluated ranged from the no-build scenario to several high occupancy vehicle lane configurations, a reversible lane, an elevated transit way, general purpose lane, and a combination of lane configurations. Alternatives were compared against the project purpose and need and to traffic engineering and environmental criteria. These criteria were recommended by the Project Development Team, or PDT, which is made up of representatives from VCTC, Caltrans, the County of Ventura, and the four corridor cities, including Oxnard. When compared to the recommended criteria, some of the alternatives were found to result in higher levels of environmental and property impacts for little or no improvement in freeway and local roadway operations compared to the other alternatives. Those alternatives that performed better were selected to be included in the final set of alternatives to be studied in greater detail in the environmental document. Three alternatives were ultimately approved by the project development team for further study. A no-build alternative, one HOV and express bus lane with auxiliary lanes, and one HOV express bus lane with auxiliary lanes and design variations. I'll describe each of these alternatives briefly in more detail. First, the no-build alternative is used as a baseline against which the other alternatives can be measured. Alternative two adds an HOV lane for carpools, vanpools, and express bus service in each direction on US 101 from approximately Moorpark Road in Thousand Oaks to near California Street in Ventura. Alternative two would also include adding an auxiliary lane between certain on and off ramps where they would improve the flow of traffic on the freeway. One of the unique features of Alternative 2 is that both northbound and southbound, the design would use the existing inside lane between Vineyard and Victoria to provide a standard width HOV lane in this section without widening the Santa Clara River Bridge. Alternative three would be similar to alternative two, providing an HOV lane on US 101 from Moorpark Road to near California Street, and includes design variations on the Conejo grade and certain other locations to improve operations. Unlike alternative two in the segment between Vineyard and Victoria, this alternative would maintain the existing number of general-purpose lanes across the Santa Clara River Bridge by restriping the left shoulder and the HOV and inside general-purpose lanes to be more narrow, requiring no widening of the bridge. So one important factor considered in the analysis is vehicle miles traveled, or VMT. And I apologize for using that acronym a few times before really giving you a definition of what it means. But as I previously mentioned, the US 101 improvement project began in mid-2018. Under Senate Bill 743, beginning on July 1, 2020, agencies analyzing transportation impacts of new projects must now look at a metric known as vehicle miles traveled or VMT instead of what we're more used to and that's level of service or LOS. The estimated VMT for this project is based on model runs from the Ventura County transportation model that were conducted for the project. The project is estimated to generate an increase of 0.7% more VMT compared to the no-build scenario. The project thus includes a suite of mitigation strategies to offset the induced demand created by freeway capacity that includes bicycle and pedestrian improvements, transit enhancements and investments in affordable workforce housing in high transit areas. VCTC's policy for many years, since 2013, has been that the US 101 project is to be the top priority for allocation of surface transportation block grant, or STBG, and surface transportation improvement program, or STIP, funds. We also continue to seek state and federal grants to fund the remainder of project costs. Potential early action projects will also be determined based on cost effectiveness to provide the highest benefits with the least costs. At this time, we are approaching the public circulation phase of the project, which will be followed by the selection of the preferred alternative and development of the early action phasing strategy, then a final environmental impact report and environmental assessment, as well as final project report, all completed and adopted by the end of 2027. Public circulation of the draft environmental document is anticipated to occur at the end of this month, beginning on September 30th, 2026, and we will be holding public hearings throughout the month of November. Public hearings will be held in each of the corridor cities. Since the submission deadline for this slide presentation, some of the dates on this slide have changed. The Thousand Oaks public hearing will still be held on November 4th, but the Oxnard public hearing will be held on Thursday, November 12th. We've also scheduled a virtual public hearing to be held on Saturday, November 14th. All of these dates and times will be available on our website and shared through our social media and other channels. Public circulation is scheduled to occur from September 30th through December 7th, 2026. Comments will be due by midnight on December 7th and can be submitted to Caltrans District 7. Once the draft environmental document has been released for public review, it will be made available on our project website, which is ourfuture101.org. And notices will be shared in the newspaper and through social media and other channels. We will also be notifying through sending a postcard to all residents and businesses within one mile of the 101 corridor. So about 75,000 of our friends and neighbors will soon be receiving notice of this project as well. So once again, I appreciate your time and your interest in this project, which we think is an important piece of the future of Ventura County's transportation system. Tonight is intended simply as a preview in advance of the upcoming public circulation process, with more to come in the coming months. So again, thank you so much for your time.

Thank you, Amanda, for that wonderful presentation. It's exciting that this is happening during our lifetime to see these significant enhancement to our commute on the 101 for all of our benefit. Thank you for that. Are there any questions or comments from my colleagues? Go ahead, Mayor Pro Tem.

Thank you, Mayor. Thank you for the presentation and the information. I'm wondering if you can give us some more details about the funding sources that are either currently programmed or being sought for the HOV project.

SURE. AS I MENTIONED, THE TRANSPORTATION COMMISSION HAS BEEN PROGRAMMING AND PRIORITIZING BOTH THE SURFACE TRANSPORTATION BLOCK GRANT OR STBG FUNDING AS WELL AS SURFACE TRANSPORTATION IMPROVEMENT PROGRAM OR STIP FUNDING. funds that come to our county based on statewide sales taxes that are dedicated to transportation, as well as taxes on diesel fuel, for example. We've basically been setting funding aside like a piggy bank since 2013, and we've assembled about $215 million, which we believe is enough for a pretty significant first phase of construction. And that funding has been programmed for 2031, which may seem like a long time from now, but really in the transportation world is basically tomorrow. So we're finishing up the environmental and then we'll be able to move on to prioritizing and constructing a first phase. We will have to do more work to assemble the remaining funding through state and federal grants as well as continued allocation of our various funding sources toward this project.

Okay, and thank you for that. I'm wondering with the the hov projects are there other peripheral or parallel cip projects that would happen along with that especially those adjacent to the 101 or those that may be within city limits but would need to be i don't know the term but i'll say off-site improvements

Yes. So the environmental document does look at where the HOV project would have impacts within the cities. So whether that's widening bridges over the freeway, for example. Another place that you might see direct impacts within the cities in terms of projects that would be supported through the 101 project would be through the VMT mitigation suite of projects. And the project will dedicate $240 million toward projects that offset VMT, so active transportation improvements, as I mentioned, affordable housing investments, all the sort of tools that we have that can help to reduce VMT. And those would need to be partnerships with the corridor cities.

OK, thank you. I guess my last question, question and a half here, going along that line of thought, is when it comes to these funding sources and the big piggy bank and the plans that we have in place, Do we know how or is it too early to tell how that funding would be prioritized along the 101 corridor? Because in my lifetime, I know we've had the massive widening of the 101 from here at the formerly Ventura Road exit to Johnson Drive, and then also the widening at the Rice Avenue interchange. Even though that's happened in my lifetime, I know that there's, we could look at where population growth is, we could look at where population density is. I'm just wondering how Oxnard can look at this and where those priorities might lie.

So at this point, we are clearing the whole project through the environmental process. So once we have that completed final environmental document that's been through the public circulation and public review and it's been adopted by VCTC and Caltrans, We will then determine where the initial phases will be constructed. That will be based on where we can have the greatest improvement to traffic conditions and reliability throughout the corridor. for the amount of money that we have available. And so it really is a highly complex calculus by the traffic engineers to figure out where we can have those biggest benefits for the available funding. OUR COMMISSION DID, WITH THE SUPPORT OF OUR CONSULTANT TEAM, LOOK AT SOME OPTIONS FOR AN INITIAL PHASE FOR KIND OF PROGRAMMING PURPOSES AND HAS IDENTIFIED A SEGMENT THAT WOULD INCLUDE ALL OF OXNARD, AT LEAST IN THE INITIAL PHASES. SO THOSE DECISIONS, AGAIN, ARE MADE BY, THEY'RE INFORMED BY THE TECHNICAL ANALYSIS WITH INPUT FROM THE PROJECT DEVELOPMENT TEAM, WHICH OF COURSE INCLUDES OXNARD, AND FINAL DECISIONS MADE BY OUR COMMISSION, THE FULL 17 MEMBER COMMISSION. SO IN TERMS OF OXNARD INFLUENCING THOSE DECISIONS, IT WOULD BE THROUGH THE PDT AND THROUGH THE COMMISSION'S DECISION MAKING.

Thank you for that. And we'll certainly encourage our residents to be involved. I believe the mayor sits on VCTC. Am I right on that, Mayor? Okay. And then I know Councilman Rodriguez does an amazing job with Gold Coast and is always giving us updates. And I know there's a lot of interlocking pieces to that. And this is my last half question. I referenced, I see, or I saw in the presentation reference to multimodal projects that are included in the 240 plus million. And I'll just throw out there that I believe I'm happy to see that bike and pedestrian projects along the 101 and interconnectivity is included on there. Within the city of Oxnard, I have asked for improvements to our biking infrastructure, which our public works team is doing an amazing job on seeing how we can continue those efforts. It's not lost on me that if I wanted or anybody wanted to ride a bike from Oxnard to Camarillo, your options to do so safely with reliability are limited. And so if we look at bike and pedestrian projects that interconnect our cities, if we're gonna be doing this kind of higher level work here on the 101, I hope that remains part of the conversation because I think we're at a good crossroads as a society here with, microtransit where folks have a lot more range than they did and they don't have to use their legs so much anymore if they choose not to with the electric options they have. So anyway, those are my questions. So thank you very much and thank you, Mayor.

Thank you. Thank you, Mayor Pro Tem. Any other questions or comments? Again, thanks for the wonderful presentation, Amanda. Thank you very much.

Thank you so much. Absolutely. Thank you.

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

Thank you, Madam Clerk. This was only a receiving file item, so no action is necessary. At this time, don't be surprised. I'm just going to hit the... Oh, thank you so much.

Just to formally call the meeting to order.

Good evening, everyone. I'd like to call the meeting to order for the Ochsner City Council for Tuesday, September 1st, 2026. Madam Clerk, may we have the roll call and posting of the agenda, please?

Council member Perala here councilwoman Pettis here councilwoman Rodriguez present councilman star here mayor pro tempter on here councilwoman Basuah here mayor MacArthur Here the agenda for this meeting was posted in the kiosk at City Hall the Oxford Public Library the city Administrative offices and on the city's website on Thursday August 20th. Thank you.

Thank you madam clerk. I The next item is the Pledge of Allegiance. We're going to be led by Jaden Cortez, followed by a moment of silence. I'd like to take a moment of silence for Adelio Martinez, who died here a couple weeks ago. Adelio and his brother owned Mars Farms. They started growing berries, blueberries, raspberries, avocados, lemons, vital plants here to our region. The brothers started growing since 1995. They grow for Driscoll's. And they're significant. They're significant growers. And the gentleman, Adelio, has a second grade education and built a multi-million dollar business, realized the American dream and died of an aneurysm here at 60 years of age. It's a tremendous loss to the ag community I was at. Waterloo Church earlier today, and standing room only to the testament of the lives that he touched, and just a humble man. Raised a great family, and hearing from his daughter speak of the impact he had on her, it was the kind of comments any father would like to receive from their daughter. So if we can just take a moment.

Mayor, can we also include the hundreds that have been killed in the tragedy in the Himalayas, I hope?

Absolutely, yeah. And we can take a moment of silence for anyone else. Thank you. Thank you, Jayden, for leading us on the Pledge of Allegiance. Whenever you're ready.

If we could take a moment to remove caps. Place your right hand over your heart. Ready? Begin. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. May all be seated. Thank you.

Thank you, Jayden.

Good evening, everybody. My name is Jayden Cortez. I'm from Oxnard, California, and I'm with a mentor group named Mando. My family migrated from Mexico to Lompoc, California, Eventually, my grandparents bought a home in Oxnard, and that became the place where my story began. Growing up, I was surrounded by my loving family. I loved living with my mom and grandparents. My biological father left when my mom was still pregnant, but shortly after I was born, my mom married. He became the father of my brothers and sisters, but he also was a good father to me and a good role model to my family. I went to Roe Del Mar Elementary School, and I loved it. I still remember my favorite teacher, Ms. Arriola. After school, I was involved in sports, and on the weekends, my family and I would spend time at the beautiful beaches here in Oxnard. For a while, life felt simple. Then when I was eight years old, several pivotal moments began changing my life. My mom divorced a man who had been a father figure to me. Around the same time, I began building a relationship with my biological father and I loved him, but that relation was short lived because he passed away that same year. My grandparents also divorced that year and out of anger, my grandmother kicked out my mom, her new boyfriend and her four children out of the house. Suddenly everything changed. We moved into an apartment and poverty became something I could no longer ignore. By the time I was 11 or 10, I was already surrounded by the gang members who were living in the same hallways as me. Little by little, they introduced me to the streets. They told me stories about their lives and their experiences. Sometimes they would even let me take a drink from their bottle. But something important happened. They didn't want me to become a gang member. Even though they were involved in the streets themselves, some of them encouraged me to find a different way to cope, and I did. I found my escape through riding fixier bicycles out with my friends. For a while, riding gave me a sense of freedom. It gave me something to look forward to. And people surrounded myself who shared the same passion. But the temptations of the streets never disappeared. It was always creeping closer and closer. Eventually, my bike was stolen. Around the same time, I had been expelled from Earl Mesa High School. And I was sent to Gateway for my freshman year. My family was also transitioning from our apartment into a Section 8 home off of Terrace Avenue. And I became the only man of the house at 14. Everything was changing fast as ever. Then I landed at Channel Islands High School. Many of my friends that I had grown up riding bikes with were slowly becoming involved with crews and gangs. One by one, I watched my friends change. And because of everything I had already been exposed to, I fit into the environment immediately. I became involved with graffiti crews. Then I was introduced to violence. And then I was hit with a bullet in my lower leg. And eventually, at 15 years old, during my sophomore year, I landed in juvenile hall for the first time. At this point, I thought my entire life I had it all figured out. I thought I knew exactly where my future was going. Then one day when I was in juvenile hall, I met a mentor named Marcos Aviles and he walked through the door. I don't know if he realized it at the time, but his words changed the direction of my entire life. Reading books and his words, him sharing his experiences with me. And for the first time, I started looking at myself differently. I started asking myself what I could become if I use my intelligence for something positive instead of something only used as street smart. Marcos helped me begin healing parts of my life that I had overlooked for most of my life. When I got out of juvenile hall, I decided to trust the plan that he had in front of me. And from there, my life started to change. I graduated high school. I enrolled into college. I moved back with my grandmother and began to build the relationship that was lost when I was eight. I bought my first car. But most importantly, I began building a new vision for myself. Today I'm not looking for a past as something to define me. I'm looking for something that taught me. I'm looking at it now like if it's something that taught me. I know what it feels like to grow up in poverty, and I know what it's like to lose people. I know what it's like to be surrounded by violence and feel like the streets are the only path available, but also know that one person can change the direction of my entire life. Marcos did that for me. And now I want to do the same for other people. Everything I'm looking forward to now was about healing, growing, and building myself so that I could eventually help and heal and build my community. Because I don't want the story to end with what happened to me. I want my story to be about what I'm choosing to build for my future and my safe community for the youth around me. Thank you all for your time and attention.

Thank you, Jayden, for allowing us to see the things you went through. It takes a lot of courage to come up here in front of all these people and say that. And just looking out into the audience, I see Ms. Ramos, I see Ms. Tatum, so many educators that are here who can attest that having the right intervention, the right role model, the right guidance, young people like yourself can succeed and overcome the barriers that you're confronted with through no choice of your own. So thank you so much and Council Member Perez, thank you for recommending such a wonderful student to come up here. Go ahead.

Yeah, and if I may, I just wanted to share and thank Marcos Azual, Executive Director of Mando. Mando stands for Mentors Against Negative Decisions Outreach. And I think that the importance of mentorship and connecting City Hall to the experiences of young people is so important. And it's really a full circle moment being up here and also seeing one of my old previous counselors who kind of planted the seed in me as well, Robert Chabato. And I think that these kinds of leaders in our community, including Marcos, are the ones that are planting seeds in our community to make sure that we are continuing to invest in young people and you're not just the future, you're the present moment and really looking forward to your successes and all of the opportunities that you have created because I know your story resonates with so many young people's stories here in Oxnard and Many of our young people continue to pave the way for others, and so I just wanted to really take the moment to acknowledge those in the room and Marcos and Mando and all of the work that you continue to do to ensure that South Oxnard youth have a place to go, a safe place, and a place for them to tap into their opportunities and their gifts. Thank you.

Thank you, Councilwoman.

Yes, sir.

Go ahead.

Congratulations. The rest of your life is a long time. It's going to be a trip for you to find out what you make of it, and you have all the opportunities in the world the rest of your life. Time, the most important thing you got. Don't waste it. Good luck. Thank you.

Thank you. Jen, is there anyone here you want to recognize before you come up here? They can come up with you. Oh, absolutely. Yes, Councilwoman, go ahead.

Thank you. I, first of all, want to congratulate you. YOU ARE DEFINITELY SOMEBODY THAT WHEN I TAKE A LOOK AT YOU, I'M IMPRESSED BY WHO YOU HAVE BECOME, BUT MOST IMPORTANTLY, ALL THE PEOPLE THAT HAVE BEEN IN YOUR LIFE THAT HAVE INFLUENCED YOU. COUNCILMEMBER PEREZ COULDN'T HAVE SAID IT BEST. YOU KNOW, YOUR STORY RESONATES, AND IT'S PART OF WHO WE ARE HERE IN OXNARD, AND A LOT OF TIMES WE GET really involved with the politics. I'm calling them politics because that's what they are. And it's people like you that really at least A, bring me some hope that what we do here up on the dais is just more than just politics. It's assisting our families, our youth. And I think that that's what we really need to get down to. We need to continue the good work to assist you, your mentors. And I would like to meet Marcos. I've never, is Marcos here? Could you stand up for a second? I, as somebody that was born in Oxnard, lived in La Colonia, living with South Oxnard, thank you. You are making such an impact for our youth. And you are the kind of leaders that we in Ochsner need. And I just cannot thank you enough. His story is just, you know, I don't even have the words. I get kind of choked up because it reminds me of why I sit here. And you both are the reason why I do that. And I cannot thank you enough. for your commitment to the youth and to, I just, if there's anything ever, something that I can do, please don't hesitate, you know, to call. I am just so proud right now to be part of this community, especially with leaders and young adults like you both.

Thank you, Ed. You know, this is, you know, I really want to show appreciation and gratitude for everybody that sits in your positions because You know, it's not just about him coming up here to speak, but it's him also recognizing that, you know, the value of his story and his life. But how many people are actually in support of him that, you know, normally a youth in his position wouldn't recognize is there. And so, you know, these words, I think, you know, it's an opportunity for him to go back tonight and reflect and realize, like, wow. You know, I've been through trauma and I've been through all these different things. Yet here I am and people see the best version of myself standing up here, not the definition of what my past was that people often see. So I really want to thank everybody for giving us this opportunity. Ms. Perez, for giving us this opportunity to come and for you to have him have this platform to speak for himself and show the true power and value behind his own testimony. So thank you.

No, thank you, and you guys are really the heroes. You know, what we do here does not compare to the work that you do on the ground, and I really commend you for that, and I think we just need to stand up and just, you know, make sure that we do everything we can.

Thank you.

I know we have a meeting, but ditto. We have a meeting, but ditto. We're really excited. Thank you. Thank you.

Mark, or if you want to come up, Jaden, if you want to come up, we have a certificate we want to present you with.

Is it okay if we have the guys? Everybody, come up. And Mr. Tomato. You can come up.

Thank you. Thank you.

Jaden, this is on behalf of myself and the entire city council. Just know, I think, much like Councilwoman Basu and certainly the way it was stated by Councilwoman Perez, is you have an entire community that's here supportive of you. And, you know, your past is not going to define you. It's what you do from this moment forward. And you've got a great, great support system that we're so proud of you and everybody else who's interested in your life. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you, Jaden, Marco, Robert. Thank you. The next item on the agenda is a ceremonial item. This evening, we will make a presentation of a proclamation designating the month of October 2026 as Down Syndrome Awareness Month. I'd like to call up Tammy Marquez and Juana Quintal to accept the proclamation. Anybody else who you have with you? And I'm just gonna read the proclamation that we put together. It's so important to recognize the Down Syndrome Awareness Month in October to bring awareness about Down Syndrome, to challenge stereotypes and the barriers, and also to highlight their abilities and their accomplishments. I think many of us likely have family members with either Down Syndrome or other special needs. So for us as a community, it's really an honor for us to bring recognition to the Down Syndrome and to draw awareness and for all the people that are doing some fabulous work. Whereas approximately one in every 700 children are born with Down syndrome representing an estimated 6,000 births per year in the United States. And whereas there are over 400,000 individuals living with Down syndrome in the United States. And whereas while research and early intervention have resulted in dramatic improvements in the lifespan and potential of those who are affected, additional research is needed into the causes and treatment of Down syndrome. And whereas possessing a wide range of abilities, people with Down syndrome are active participants in educational, occupational, social, and recreational circles of our communities, and whereas individuals with Down syndrome should have equal opportunity to achieve the universally desired goals of self-fulfillment, pride in their achievements, inclusion in their community, and reaching their fullest potential, and whereas quality education programs, a stimulating home and environment, good healthcare, and positive support from family, friends, and the community enable people with Down syndrome to live to lead fulfilling and productive lives. Now, therefore, I, Luis MacArthur, the proud mayor of this city of Oxnard, do hereby proclaim the month of October 2026 as Down Syndrome Awareness Month. Thank you.

Who wants to start?

Good afternoon. My name is Juana. My name is Camila Quintal.

My name is Tammy Marquez.

So I just want to say what we all want to say. Thank you so much for this proclamation and for recognizing Down syndrome today. It's very meaningful to us all that and to so many families in our community. People with Down syndrome bring so much joy and love and strength to our lives and they deserve every opportunity to learn to grow to work and to be included. We are all grateful for everyone who helps create a community where people with Down syndrome are seen for their abilities and celebrated for who they are. And thank you for helping spread awareness, acceptance, and inclusion. It truly means a lot to all of us.

I want to say thank you.

This Saturday we're having a

Down syndrome walk. There's lots of stuff that you can do. If you want to participate, you can. Thank you so much for coming.

Thank you so much. Thank you.

Thank you.

We have one additional recognition, and this is for Mr. Loretto Terrell and the entire Channel Islands High School band. Yeah. Yeah, come on up, Loretto. No history, yeah. Thank you so much. Thank you, Mr. Terrell. Thank you so much. Oh, my pleasure. Hi there. Hi there. Hi. Thank you so much for making it. Thank you so much for making it. Thank you. Thank you. Nice to see you again. Thank you so much. Yeah.

Yeah. Keep going. Keep going.

Thank you so much.

There's plenty of space. Yeah, we'll make it work.

As they're squeezing in, I'm just going to read the commendation that we crafted for Mr. Loretto and the entire Chandler High School band. As you know, Ms. Ramos, too, if you want to come up here at some point, Mary Ann, this instructor here, this band director, and the Chandler High School band are such a vital part of our community. They are so active and so readily participating in various festivals that we have, from the veterans to other community engagements beyond just the high school rallies. And I leaned on Mr. Terrell to support the vision that I have to celebrate America 250 today. in downtown Oxnard without any hesitation, without any compensation. He and the parents and all the students agreed to come and celebrate with us and to offer a beautiful performance that really made the occasion so significant. So this is a combination that we crafted for the band. Whereas the City Council of the City of Oxnard wishes to sincerely and truly thank the Channels High School Band and Band Director Loretta Terrell for their valued participation in the event held on July 3rd at Plaza Park, which celebrated America 250, Stars, Stripes, and Sounds. Their performance greatly enriched the cultural spirit of the occasion, whereas the Channellens High School band, Raider Marching Band, affectionately known as the Tsunami of Sound, is an active part of the visual and performing arts department at Channellens High School here in Oxnard and where I went to school. The child's high school band ensembles, including marching band grades 9 through 12, jazz, symphony, guitar, regularly participate in local festivals, parades, and regional band reviews beyond just high school rallies. Their involvement in the America 250 event played a key role in supporting My vision of hosting a major celebration in downtown Oxnard to mark this milestone showcasing the city's rich heritage through vibrant music that they provided, cultural displays, and culinary delights, whereas their valuable contributions were instrumental in making the July 30th Event America 250 celebration a wonderful success. Now therefore, the entire City Council of the City of Oxnard is so proud to present a certificate of accommodation to Mr. Terrell and to the Chenault High School band and extends their best wishes for continued success in all future endeavors. And thank you to all the parents who are so actively involved in supporting their students. Thank you.

Check, one, two.

Yeah. Well, it's been a long journey from the start of every school year. And we're so grateful for many things. This is a community to learn and to grow. And as a community, Mayor McArthur really leads us in showing how it's done. So thank you, Mayor. And thank you, council people. And thank you, Oxnard. I also have to thank our parents. Booster parents, please give us all a wave. This year marks another big year for us as we face our challenges. And like last year, we overcome those challenges with great vigor. And part of that vigor and the rigor that goes academically and such, a lot goes to our principal who is right in front of us. I wish you would come up and join us in a moment. Principal Ramos, give us a wave. You can see that we have many of our students here. They are very hardworking students. I was just with them about an hour ago, kind of yelling at them, coaching them on how to do music better. And they took it, and I gave more, and they took it. And then when rehearsal's done, they will take their WFC candy bars and sell those. And then after that, they'll prepare for the next fundraiser. What I'm getting at is... one of our great challenges, funding. And I do have to say, between the students and the parents and the community at large, we all make it happen for the students. One of the people that have been with us for a long time is going to start our next fundraiser, and that is a butter bread pastry fundraiser. And so I'd like for her to give us a wave Johanna. And she has been with us for about 16 years without a break. And so we go to her every year and she helps us do a fundraiser. And there are several other businesses around the community that I wish they could all be here and kind of be recognized with us. But I'm glad to have Johanna with us from Easy Dough. and her butter bread pastries, of which she elected to bring us all, not just us, but everybody here, a little sample, if you care, once you get a chance. And I guess I better sum this up, everybody. There's so much to be thankful for, but I guess this shows what kind of a community it takes to give our students the best, because they deserve the best. Thank you.

You know, I'm just so proud of our community. Ms. Ramos, come on up. It goes to show you how cohesive, how united we are. And this is a testament to the leadership that we have here from our city, from the leaders at the school district, like Ms. Ramos, the educators, and the supportive parents. We all understand that the biggest investment we have are our young people that will lead us to our next generation. So thank you, everyone. Thank you, all of you. Thank you so much. Thank you, Ms. Ramos. I don't know if you want to say anything. No?

Okay. Yeah, absolutely. Go ahead. I have been the incredibly fortunate principal of this great school for the last six years. There is no other school in the Oxnard Union High School District or even Ventura County that I would even consider being the principal of. These students are amazing. They work hard. They're humble. They're full of integrity and talent. And truly, when Mr. Terrell talks about, he tells them this, he tells them that, this isn't the only activity they do. They do a lot of other activities. They participate in so many things across our system at Channel Islands, but across the city as well. So I'm really honored to be here. And I'm so thankful to you and the city council for honoring our amazing students. So thank you. Thank you so much.

And as I look out, I see Ms. Saldana is out there, a former counselor. I see Peter Martinez is there, an educator as well. So we're just full of educators here in this community. Thank you, everyone. If we can just get together and take a quick photo, yeah? Okay.

Amen. Thank you. Thank you.

We'll continue. Thank you again so much for bearing with us as we do these presentations that I think are so important to celebrate all the great things that are happening in our community. We'll move to the next item in the agenda, and this is item G. This is for public comments for items that are not on the agenda this evening, and also for non-action items. Looks like we have about 10 speakers here in person. And maybe some virtual speakers. We'll start with Mario Riley. Mario.

Thank you very much. I want to publicly congratulate Councilman Starr for overcoming this bombastic recall effort. So thank you, Aaron. The other thing is I hope that I would like you to order the city manager to stop using Manny Herrera as an unofficial spokesman for the city. It's obvious he's caustic and I don't think the city manager has had any other candidate for that. And I think in November, there's going to be a lot of positive changes to the makeup of the council and I think that the city manager should start updating his resume because he's going to need it after November. So thank you very much. And, um, I mentioned people are watching. People were looking to see how you treat people, especially post-culinary and stop. He's done nothing wrong. No malfeasance, nothing criminal. And I think it's really a waste of time and money for the efforts that they've tried to make against Philip Molina. And of course other decisions that this council has been making, and it's not representing the city. They're not doing anything except not even checking infrastructure before developments are being finalized. So please, I ask you to take care of that order for the city manager to stop using Herrera, who's that far away from being sued for defamation of character. In any case, I want to thank you all for the opportunity to share what we need to share. But in our district of Rio Lindo, we're concerned about our neighborhood. And that's what our efforts are about, to keep people that care and aren't on any vendettas, stuff like that. Thank you very much.

Thank you, Mr. Riley.

Mayor, I'd just like to say that when they have people that make accusations and make false claims with no facts and evidence, it's significant. It's significant, and I do hope that people are watching. I do hope they are watching.

We'll go to our next speaker. This is Ms. Daisy Tatum. Ms. Tatum? Followed by Lupe Reyes.

Okay. Which way did you? Oh, here? Okay. Oh, okay. Here we go. No? No? OK. OK. OK, to the mayor, MacArthur, and city council members, I don't know if you know this or not, but Oxnard has a jewel. That jewel is the Carnegie. I have kept exchange students from all over the world for over 20 years. And as they return to visit Oxnard with their families, they all want to see the Carnegie. When we go, it is closed. I don't know what to tell them. Museums are closed around the world for restoration, for bringing in new exhibits, and renovations. But the Carnegie has been closed a long, long time. The Carnegie is a historical landmark and its image has represented our city since 1907. In 1971, The building was designated Ventura County Landmark number 13 and was placed on the National Register of Historic Places. What has happened over the years is well documented and the city has invested heavily into refurbishment of the building. It has served many functions and only became an art museum in 1987. Okay. The Carnegie is closed, but have any of you walked by to see the deterioration of the outside of the building? We keep up our city parks. We keep up other city buildings, and we keep them clean and good repair. Why can't the Carnegie be painted, refreshed, and so on the outside it looks as good as it should until it's going to be opened? When you walk by the Carnegie, you can smell the stench of urine where the entrance used to be of the Children's Museum. The paint is peeling, there are dark spots under the eaves, and the wood chips have turned an ash gray. We have a jewel in our city that needs to sparkle and shine for the other people to see from around the world. That's it.

Ms. Reyes, followed by Trudy Owens.

Well, good evening, Mayor and council members. My name is Lupe Reyes, and I'm here tonight as a member of Save Oxnard's Art Committee. As a lifelong resident and educator, I'm advocating for the restoration and reopening of the Oxnard Carnegie Museum. The building is a cornerstone of our downtown's cultural identity. While we understand the complexities involved with the current state of neglect regarding this historical landmark, this is unacceptable to our community. THE CARNEGIE IS AN ESSENTIAL EDUCATIONAL RESOURCE. LOCAL SCHOOLS AND A 2024 UCLA PAVING THE PATHWAYS FOR OXNARD'S FUTURE EMPHASIZE ACCESS TO SUCH INSTITUTIONS IS VITAL FOR YOUTH CIVIC ENGAGEMENT. Despite being a quality of life priority twice in the city's current and previous five-year priorities, the building sits shuttered and deteriorating. We are seeing offensive graffiti painted on the buildings. The exterior, the paint is peeling, the dying landscape, trash, drugs, and even more alarming, a report of mold affecting fragile basketry and wooden artifacts inside. The visible neglect sends a message that our history is unimportant, making the site a target for possible further vandalism. So I have three questions in regard to the progress in the repatriating the artifacts. So in regard to tribal consultations, since the remains are confirmed to be Chumash origin, has anyone contacted the Santa Ynez Chumash Tribal Historical Preservation Office or the local elders? in regard to the NAGPRA compliance. In regard to the Cogstone Research Management Report, have they come back to complete their study? And is there a report that can be given to the community? In regard to the preservation and the mold, what steps have been taken to remediate the mold that was reported in August of 2025 by the Cogstone Research? We want to prevent permanent loss of artifacts in our community's public art collection. So we agree with the Mayor Pro Tem where he said that this is a complicated but we, a complicated process, but we can do this in parallel. And I and the other SORC members agree. Restoring the Carnegie will bring students, as we saw today, the band, the young man with Mando, and then also even with the students that came with special needs. You know, they need the Carnegie. But the Restoring, thank you.

Thank you, Lupe, for understanding. Thank you. Trudy?

Will that work? Is that good? Good evening, honorable mayor, members of the city council, and city manager. My name is Trudy Owens, and I am here tonight to report a severe ongoing enforcement failure by our code compliance and planning division that is threatening my safety, my privacy, and my property value. Since September of 2025, nearly a year ago, I've been trapped in a bureaucratic loop trying to get the city to enforce its own laws at 5049 Taramar Way. The owners of the showers installed an unpermitted elevated deck alongside an eight by 20 by five foot swim spa. This massive deck completely fills the city's mandatory three foot setback. Because the deck is elevated when my neighbors stand on it, they are eight to 10 feet tall. Their groins literally clear the top level of the dividing fence. They look directly down into my backyard, my living space, and my yard from less than 10 feet away. My privacy has been completely erased. Furthermore, the structure height and lack of permitted engineering create an immediate falling hazard, and this proximity aggressively agitates my dog, creating a severe liability and safety risk. City inspectors viewed the property on 12-325 and 427-26 and they explicitly did not approve the permit because the structures violate standards and were omitted from their applications. I have filed a formal complaint and have spoken repeatedly with John Miguel Dalby in Planning Division and have emailed correspondence with Andrew Dixon as the Code Compliance Manager. Yet absolutely no formal compliance violations or orders to remove the structures have been served. I cannot peacefully enjoy my home. I cannot sell my home because this unmitigated city violation represents a major mandatory disclosure that destroys my home's marketability. The fix is clear. The unpermitted decking and the stairs encroaching on the setback must be removed and a standard ladder or stairs at the other end may be placed at the far end away from my home. I'm asking the city manager and the council to order the community development department to stop passing the buck issued a formal noncompliance violation, and immediately enforced Oxnard's zoning laws. Thank you very much.

Thank you, Ms. Owens. We'll look into it. Thank you. Mr. Ray Blattell? Madam Clerk, are there any virtual speakers holding?

Yes, Mayor. We have three virtual speakers. We'll take a virtual speaker. Maybe after Mr. Blattell. Okay.

Thank you.

Thank you, Ray.

First of all, I'd like to take you back to a council meeting in June of this year where I mentioned that our LMD assessment had tripled for the next fiscal year. There was discussion in this meeting relative to how the city was so concerned that they want our neighborhood looking pristine. Thus, an extremely high assessment was necessary. At this meeting, I also shared some photos of a median strip on Bahia, which is adjacent to my LMD. recall that this median had overgrown weeds and trash, a complete eyesore. I pointed out that the city must not care that much about the looks as they have certainly not taken care of their responsibility. Tonight I again share with you additional photos of the same median taken in late July and late August of this year. Notice that there's no change, still overgrown with weeds and trash, an eyesore. Now let me direct you to a portion of an email that I received from Mr. Wolf on 30 June of this year. Quote, it is my understanding that you plan to speak tonight about the landscape on Bahia Drive using the attached photos. The irrigation to the median comes from a private property, Topper's Shopping Center. In the past, the city has not been responsible for routine maintenance for the median landscape and or trash debris. There is already an active code enforcement case through the community development department for the private property owner responsible for the irrigation on the median since someone has recently used the city's 311 app to report the issue. Please let me know if you have reported this via the 311 app to avoid any duplication, end of quote. First of all, the owner of the Topper Shopping Center is not aware that the median is his responsibility. I spoke with him. His name is Vin Jonker. He stated that if the city can show him that the median is indeed his property, that he would certainly take care of it. After I had spoken to Mr. Jonker, I emailed Mr. Wolf and requested that he research city records to ascertain who actually owns the median or has the responsibility, the city or the shopping center owner. I received no response from Mr. Wolf. Secondly, if there was already a 311 report in June of this year regarding this medium, as mentioned in Mr. Wolf's email, why hasn't the medium been cleaned up? It's already September. Although I had only recently for three consecutive months taken pictures of the median, this median has been in this condition way many, many months. I know that city must be aware of this condition because not two weeks ago, the city crew was out there freshly painting the curb yellow. You can see that on the photos I just gave you there. So how much longer is it going to take to clear the slightly mess? It seems when it comes to maintenance, where it's my LMD money paying for it, it gets done right away, no problem. But when the city has to pay for it, you best be very patient. It may get done, it may not. Either clean it up or prove to Mr. Jonker that the medium belongs to the shopping center. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Blatow. Thank you. Madam Clerk, can we go to the next virtual speaker?

Virtual speaker, if you can press star six to unmute and you have three minutes starting now.

Thank you. Good evening, Mr. Mayor. Good evening. Mr. Starr attended the 2026 Libertarian National Convention held from May 21st to May 25th, 2026. It was at this meeting where he proudly announced he and his wife had recruited three candidates to run for Oxnard City Council who would help them implement our agenda. Now, he wasn't speaking before our neighborhood council here in Oxnard. This comment was intended for his audience of like-minded libertarians. In this case... Our agenda has nothing to do with the residents of Oxnard and everything to do with installing Mr. Starr's vision of a libertarian paradise right here in Oxnard. Mr. Starr operates under the dangerous delusion that money possesses a First Amendment right to free speech. Anyone with a modicum of common sense knows this is an absolute absurdity. Regardless of flawed Supreme Court precedents, Money is not speech, money is power. Allowing unchecked financial influence into our political arena does not protect free expression. Instead, it subverts democracy entirely by ensuring that only the exceptionally wealthy and powerful have a megaphone, effectively silencing regular working class residents. Campaign donations to the Star Slate as of 6-30-26 from their Forms 460 reveal that the challengers have in District 1, $54,629. In District 2, $45,135. District 5, $44,159. Out of 80 donors, many of whom donated the maximum $595 to each of the three candidates mentioned previously, 33 had Oxnard addresses and 47 were from outside of Oxnard. That means they donated $1,785 each to influence Oxnard elections. We all know this is a corruption of local politics. I urge you this November, please say no to outside money and local council races. Enough is enough. Thank you for your time.

Madam Clerk, we'll go to the next virtual speaker, please.

Virtual speaker, if you can press star six to unmute, and you have three minutes starting now.

Yes. Good afternoon, Council. This is Eduardo Huerta. The reason I'm calling is I actually had a chance to meet with Roxana Trujillo, who is the Director of Outdoor Studio, and she was talking to me a little bit about today's Council meeting in reference to the Carnegie Art Museum. We're not the only city that actually has a Carnegie Museum, and I believe this past year, the City of Hanford, I'm not sure if you guys have time to look it up, but the City of Hanford just recently remodeled their Carnegie Museum. About 15 individuals, including those with financial generosity, you know, helped for year fundraising, campaigning, and put the money together to actually raise funds and remodeling the center. I know that The outdoor studio has put a lot of out-of-pocket costs to paint, you know, obviously to maintain the building, but I think that the upgrades would be well needed, especially since a lot of the communities are hosting art walks. I know that outdoor studio has a lot of students that are great and artistic. They're great in their art and expressing themselves. And so I think it's pretty important that we concentrate on that. I mean, a lot of... Landowners and Hanford pitched in to contributing, especially long-term families who've been in the city of Hanford since the 1900s. One of the comments was that it helps community get excited about those who have come before us and helps us appreciate the variety of cultures in Ventura County. So those are some aspects to kind of look into as far as how much we want to invest in this building. Another thing too, I heard a little bit about definition of character. I think it's really time that our council takes really serious this upcoming election. A lot of things were at risk. It seems that a lot of us really don't take our community and our residents serious. A lot of support has come from Sacramento enough for us to kind of avoid the BS and really get serious about bringing the support systems for our youth. Our youth is not a billboard. and especially our families, our migrant families on our billboards, the families that are really struggling. And Carmen Ramirez really made an effort to support all her friends, organizations, agencies in bringing her district up ahead nationally. So I think that we need to concentrate on these little nonprofits that really need support. Roxanne has done really great in our community, and I think the Carnegie Art Museum really needs that support. It needs to be touched up a little bit. And if you guys want to look into the Centennial, look up Carnegie Art Museum. You guys will kind of see what the community did together. And like I said, community involvement is always good, especially since there's a lot of connection between political affiliation outside our city. The Carnegie Art Museum are national monuments. And so I think it's just very important that we consider helping and supporting Outdoor Studio and Roxanne in maintaining this facility. Thank you.

Thank you, Eduardo. We'll go to the next virtual speaker.

Virtual speaker, if you can press star six to unmute and you have three minutes starting now.

Hello, this is Barbara Macri-Ortiz. Mayor McCarthy Mayor Pro Tem Teran and council members. Over the past few weeks I had the privilege of walking neighborhoods in Rose Park Colonia the Paseos and the Royal Duke mobile home park. I visited with many district 3 residents and voters and I listened to their concerns. They shared with me some of the issues they face every day. Can you hear me.

Yes.

Okay, good. Yeah, go ahead, Barbara. Some remembered Aaron Starr visiting them before he was elected a couple of years ago. He made promises and asked for their vote, and some remember putting their trust in his words through their vote. He made a lot of promises but never came back after the election. And now, two years later, they are not happy that he has not kept his word and instead continues to vote against their interests. We have a representative government. Our representatives are supposed to represent the best interests of their constituents. Councilman Starr has not only not supported the wants and needs of the community he represents but he consistently votes votes against their interests. The community is not happy with his performance nor do they have honest representation on the council because their council member has not been honest with them. We know that you may be able to lie to the people some of the time, but you can't lie to the people all of the time. Councilman Starr, your days are numbered because your libertarian agenda is not welcome in our community. We put the interests of our people first in our community. Your libertarian agenda is not welcome in District 3 or anywhere in our community of Oxnard because We are a city with a generous heart and a humble soul. We care for our people. They are not an instrument for Councilman Starr or anyone else to use for their own personal agenda. Thank you.

Thank you. We'll now go to an in-person speaker, Jared Gambon, followed by Manuel Herrera. Hi, Jarek.

Hi, good evening. My name is Jarek Gambon. I'm a resident, and I run JG Vision Media here in Oxnard. I documented the Jose Hernandez mural unveiling at the South Oxnard Branch Library and the La Colonia mural. Between the two, that work has reached about 80,000 people. Over the past month, close to 40% of everyone who views my work right here is right here in Oxnard, and the top five cities are almost all Ventura County. I wanted the council to hear that because Oxnard's public art is reaching far more people than the block it sits on. The staff who make these projects happen should know their work is landing. Thank you.

Thank you, Jarek. Thank you very much. Mr. Herrera?

A few months ago, I stood right here in this room to announce the recall attempt of Aaron Starr. I came in person because I wanted to look him dead in the eye when he heard the news. But coincidentally, a man who never misses a meeting, not even when his own father passed, didn't show up that day. He was too afraid to face the reality of a recall, and we suspect someone up there tipped him off. Well, I'm back once again in person. So here I am to announce that the recall signature threshold for the recall was not met. Now, you would hope a recall attempt would serve as a wake-up call. You'd hope a politician would reevaluate his tactics and start helping his constituents instead of himself. But like every arrogant politician before him, Aaron Starr doubled down. His new goal? To kick out three of his fellow council members and replace them with three hand-picked, libertarian-funded puppets. John Baric, Lizanne Nunez, and Noemi Korpis. So why didn't we hit the signature mark? Some of the signatures were not allowed because of simple mistakes like writing Ox instead of Oxnard. And if a volunteer gatherer made one small error in their paperwork, the entire packet was thrown out. But let me tell you, nine out of ten residents we asked gladly signed the petition. Unfortunately, District 3 residents didn't have access to unlimited, deep-pocketed libertarian funds like Aaron Starr when he ran his own failed recall a few years ago. He had to pay outsiders to bus in and gather signatures because he couldn't find local volunteers. Our effort was a true grassroots movement. No one was paid. So yes, the recall failed due to technicalities and experience and lack of cash. But it succeeded in one massive way. It completely exposed who Aaron Starr really is and who he actually represents. Starr doesn't give a damn about Oxnard. He isn't even from here. And despite his massive salary, he doesn't even own a home here. What roots does he have here? Aaron Starr cares about exactly two things, himself and the Libertarian Party's agenda to turn Oxnard into their own personal playground. The fight to run Aaron Starr out of office and eventually out of town does not stop today. It will not end until he and his wife Alicia are gone. Those are my comments.

Thank you, Mr. Herrera. We'll go to Robert Garcia. Followed by Lindy Levine.

Good evening. Good evening. My name is Roberto Garcia, and I handed out some leadership, some information, city manager and everyone here. When I take your time, that's gonna be very specific information. I'd like to bring to attention a very bad situation located across the Mexican theater, Teatro. between Cielito Lindo behind Thomas Cafe and the restaurant. That particular place or particular parking lot has been neglected for years, years, years. In my opinion, I've been here for 50 years. This is an opportunity for you and us to work together and bring this special location into a more vibrant, more pleasant, more friendly area. I have talked to the owners around the block there. They all agree that this place needs to be upgraded. Instead of spending money on the alleys where it's just traffic, why don't we turn this parking lot into multiple use parking where we can have it for special events, lights, music, entertainment, fine foods, You see? So that's my proposal. I'm willing to share the cost to you and the government if you're willing to work with us.

Thank you for your time.

Thank you, Mr. Garcia. Thank you. Mr. Levine? Lindy? Is Lindy here? Yeah. Okay. We'll go to Dr. DeGeneres.

Good afternoon, Mr. Mayor, to the council members. BETTER? GOOD AFTERNOON. THANK YOU FOR LETTING ME HAVE A MOMENT TO SPEAK TO YOU. I WAS HERE SEVERAL MONTHS AGO WITH AN OFFER TO HAVE YOU ALL MEET WITH ME TO SEE HOW WE CAN CONTINUE TO PARTNER AND WORK TOGETHER IN ORDER TO IMPROVE OUR STUDENTS' EDUCATION, OUR COMMUNITY FOR THE BETTER, AND I WANT TO THANK THOSE OF YOU, MOST OF YOU RESPONDED TO MY E-MAIL AND TOOK THE TIME FOR US TO MEET AND TO HAVE CONVERSATIONS, AND I LOOK FORWARD to continuing that conversation. I recently had a conversation with our mayor and are looking forward to more opportunities to work together in order to support our community. Usually, as people come to meetings where public speaking is because we have something to say or we want to have something improved, and I'm here for the opposite reason. I WANT TO THANK YOU WITH DEEPEST GRATITUDE ON BEHALF OF THE OXNARD SCHOOL DISTRICT FOR YOUR PARTNERSHIP AND COLLABORATION WITH US. AS YOU KNOW, WE HAVE FACED A DIFFICULT SITUATION THIS YEAR AND WE HAD TO VERY SUDDENLY CLOSE DOWN ONE OF OUR SCHOOLS AND RELOCATE AN ENTIRE SCHOOL COMMUNITY, WHICH CLEARLY COMES A SCHOOL COMMUNITY FOR OUR FAMILIES IS MORE THAN JUST A SPACE. It is truly a second home for our students, it is a second home for our staff, and it is a very emotional and difficult situation to work through. But when we needed support and our staff called your staff, you did not hesitate in providing us the support. I thank you very much for giving us the opportunity to use the Colonial Gym facility to be a place for our families to come together before school and after school so that our families feel that there's a safe place where we can keep our kids as the year progresses. Right now, during the heat, and we're anticipating possibly during the rain, and the use of that facility has been incredibly helpful to us. So thank you for not questioning us, for not putting up any barriers, and for opening up the opportunity for us to do that. We are deeply grateful for that. In addition to that, it was not just the facility. but on the first day when our families came to drop off their kids and to deal with the uncertainty that we had to deal with, we had our staff there, but we're so pleasantly surprised that we had so many of your staff there to lend a hand, to lend support, and to let comfort to our families. There are many, and I don't have all of the names, but I'd like to, in particular, Terrell, Jesse, Pam, and Renee, for just absolutely putting out the forces and getting the people out there to support us. That support has been incredibly meaningful to us and shows us that we truly are a community. And I look so forward to be able to continue that collaboration in a variety of different ways. So thank you very much for supporting us, for supporting our families, and for making this very difficult moment just a little bit easier for us. So thank you.

Thank you, Dr. DeGioia. Thank you very much.

Mayor, I have a question. Go ahead, Council Member. Dr. DeGeneres did invite the entire council.

Yeah.

And I did take the opportunity to go and see her. By a show of hands, how many council members met with her? Thank you very much.

Thank you.

Thank you, Dr. DeGeneres, again, for those kind comments. Thank you.

Mayor, this is the Speaker of Congress. For Florida? Yes, and seven people want to donate their time to her. Okay. So she's asking for that one.

Alicia Purcell. And Alicia is asking, according to our city clerk, for 10 minutes. And it sounds like Doug Portello, Phil Molina, Damian, Sylvia Robles. There's a number of them. Naomi Ontiveros, Karen Guevara and Larry Guevara, and Ron Vizansky.

Yielding their time to her As has been in mayor may I ask this question clarification if you can ask the city attorney How does this work and how many minutes they asked for 10? What if they'd asked for half an hour? What if they'd ask for six? What is the rule and the policy in the city of Austin? Can you please ask the city attorney to straighten that out for us?

Sure.

Mr. Mayor, if I heard correctly, you read off a list of eight or nine? Yes. Is that correct? Yes. That is a fair trade, but you are the presiding officer, so that is your ruling. That is clearly a reasonable one, and under Robert's rules of order, it would take a majority of the council to overrule your ruling.

I think it's appropriate to allow the ten minutes, Ms. Parcell. We've done that in the past for others. If that's okay, you'll have ten minutes. Go ahead.

Thank you for asking, Mayor.

Absolutely.

Thank you.

Thank you. I think I'll be a little bit shorter than that. But standing here with me today and others in the audience are people who oppose the recall effort. and who want their voices to be heard on the City Council. Erin and I want to publicly thank them and many others for their moral support. We have a shared desire to see their tax money used more wisely rather than constantly demanding they pay more taxes. Many residents of this city struggle financially, but the City Council as a whole keeps making life less affordable. Yesterday was the deadline for submitting signatures by those attempting to qualify recall, Mr. Starr. They needed 3,456 valid signatures, which means if they had validity rate in the normal range of about 75%, They would have needed to submit about 4,600 signatures to have enough valid ones. Yesterday, they submitted only 1,585 signatures, which is only about a third of what they would have needed. That's not enough to qualify a recall election, obviously. Today, one of the recall ringleaders, Manuel Herrera, continues to claim that they submitted over 2,000 signatures, and the 1,585 figure excludes incomplete entries, but That is false. Manual was not present to know what was or wasn't counted. Erin and I observed the count, though, not in a way that we could see who signed. For the first attempted signer who didn't include a signature, the clerk did say, because it was obviously invalid, she wasn't going to count it, but then she saw there were quite a few others with incomplete information, and rather than spending the time to sort those all out, she did tell the person who submitted the signatures that she would include them, and they were included. in the count, even though they were not going to be valid. So in other words, it maximized their tally. It didn't reduce them. She didn't exclude any pages for flaws on the circulator's affidavit, though manual claims she did. So at most, there was one incomplete signature that was not included in the total. Apparently the recall proponents have some difficulty counting. Because the unvalidated signatures were fewer than the number of valid signatures needed it would just be a waste of city resources to pay the county to determine how many of them were valid. By contrast, when we successfully qualified a recall in 2017 we submitted over 16,800 signatures for each It is interesting to see those who were unable to collect a much smaller number of signatures attempt to spin the failure of the effort as though instead of losing a checkers game, they actually won a 3D chess game of some sort. But I understand that after all the noise they made, they feel a need to say something. This effort was defeated by voters in District 3 who refused to sign votes. while there were a handful of District 3 residents working on the effort, but it also included lots of people outside the district, including not limited to Barbara Macri-Ortiz, who is a vendor of the city, according to online records, at least two council members sitting on the dais, Manuel Herrera, who is threatening to try to recall Aaron before he was ever sworn into office, other city insiders, including some people that Mr. Starr himself appointed to positions on city committees, though his critics falsely claim that he's a guy that can't work with anybody who disagrees with him. That's not true. This effort was never about any sort of wrongdoing by Mr. Starr. It was about revenge from political insiders, because Aaron Starr is not a rubber stamp. Let's recap some of the lies that they told to try to convince people to sign the recall petitions. This effort started with a big lie by the city manager's office trying to influence public sentiment. When Mr. Starr rightfully pointed out that the council is being misled about a whistleblower report, your city manager attacked the messenger and falsely told the council and the public that the report had no merit. Even though he possessed GPS data showing that it did have merit, then he demanded Mr. Starr be held accountable for And what do you know, a few days later the recall effort started. But it wasn't until months later, at the July 28th Finance and Governance meeting, when the second half of the same whistleblower report was addressed, that they admitted that, quote, appropriate corrective action was taken with the employee, end quote. So if the report had no merit, there wouldn't have been any corrective action to take, right? During the recall attempt, the city manager used other council agenda items to make more personal attacks on Mr. Starr. Some of the recall petitioners were falsely telling residents that we secretly live in Simi Valley in a house we own there. Anyone can go check property records of the county and see we don't own a house there. I can't even remember the last time we visited Simi Valley. Residents were told that if Mr. Starr stays on the council, bears and coyotes will take over the city. That was my favorite. They lied about the litigation history, something which voters knew about before they elected him, and many voters appreciate his willingness to stand up for them even if it requires going to court. They accused me of engaging in intimidation tactics because I sat in my car and observed from a distance public events and public places. And then they followed my car so they could take a picture of it to use in their accusations. So I apparently missed out on the irony there. We never physically interfered with their efforts to collect signatures. In contrast, in 2017, when we qualified a recall, Carmen Ramirez and her friends would come in teams to where our petitioners were. They would physically interfere. They sometimes disturbed the peace until the police were called. I have video of one of these people screaming in the face of one of our petitioners. I have video of Ms. Ramirez approaching our petitioner's table, disrupting his conversations with potential signers. I have a video of Dan and Barbara Pinedo up in the personal space of one of our petitioners to yell at her. We didn't physically interfere. We're different that way. Beyond the lies, there were the tactics. Mr. Herrera attempted to hijack a developers meeting in Colonia to try to make people mad at Mr. Starr for circumstances that didn't involve Mr. Starr in any way. They attempted to appeal to racial bias to get people to sign. Several of their videos told people our home address. Now, I know my address is not that hard to find, but when you include our address in videos that are full of personal vitriol, it inspires bad people to do bad things. We found three nails or screws in our driveway during this effort, which could have put our lives at risk if we drove on a freeway with a punctured tire. The first one was just a few days after their first video that included our home address. When I mentioned the first instance here one night, Mr. Turan apparently thought that if I didn't have video of it, I must be lying. So he sent me this rather unseemly email describing in a public record exactly where my security camera is at my house and what kind it is. There are many city residents who want a council member who will support a citywide ordinance against camping on public property, who will support refunding residents' illegal fees and the utility rates, who will question no big contracts, who will complain when the city reimburses expenses to vendors who didn't even submit receipts. who will demand a functional permit system and more. But Mr. Starr is the only one who will do any of these things, and other people deserve their voices to be represented as well. There are many city residents who are disappointed, and those of you on the dais who just criticize him for doing his job by asking questions during council meetings, and they're disappointed in general results for all the taxes and fees they pay. So to wrap up, again, I just want to thank our many supporters. We do appreciate you more than you know, and we will continue to stand up for you. Thank you for joining me tonight.

Thank you, Ms. Purcell. Thank you. Mr. Andrews, you're next.

Well, Alicia said almost everything that I wanted to say. And I don't like to speak on the fly, so I just took some quick notes here. So forgive me while I go through them, because I don't want to repeat what she said. People like Barbara Macri Ortiz and Manny Herrera come to this council, and they say things like, District 3 doesn't want this. Well, Barbara Macri-Ortiz does not speak for everybody in District 3. You know, I sit here and I watch some of you, like Bert Parello, who criticized Mr. Riley after he did his public speech today, trying to take that away from him. Yet, when the callers call in and have something negative to say about Aaron Starr, he's totally silent. He doesn't say a word about it. What is that about, Bert? Why would you take down Robert, Mr. Riley's, speech and make a big deal about it after he spoke during the public comment. It's not your turn to comment. But then when somebody calls in about Aaron, you're totally silent. It's ridiculous. You're ridiculous. If many wanted a recall. He should have been more careful about how they got the signatures. All those errors that he was trying to make fun of. I mean, come on. It's not that hard to get signatures and make sure they're correct on a piece of paper. So don't listen to Manny. I mean, why are you guys even giving Manny credence over this stuff? He comes in. It's clear that the vendetta existed from the beginning. It's like parking lot Gabe now. and his video surveillance fetish that he seems to have, doing California public record requests to try to take down our city treasurer, Phil Molina. This is getting out of hand. And then not only does he do this, he takes it upon himself to stand at a meeting and grandstand and say, look what I found. Look what I found about the treasurer, instead of handing it over to the city manager to handle. In any other job, that would be insubordination of an employee, taking it upon himself to reprimand another person in the job. Insubordination. None of the three candidates coming up are libertarians. These people calling in who want to take this campaign down and stop this city from getting three fresh new people to take out these three stick-in-the-muds who do absolutely nothing in this city. I've only been here for five years. I haven't seen them do anything. Not a single thing. Not a single thing. And Gabby Basu is getting all these, oh, I'm getting this, you know, support from these unions and these groups. They're just blindly doing it. She doesn't do anything. She sits here and does her homework from Port Hueneme. Come on. Let's make Oxnard better. Thanks. Thanks, Mr. Andrews. I heard Roselle laughing while people were talking.

Thanks, Mr. Andrews. Madam Clerk, does that conclude the in-person and virtual speakers?

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

Thank you, Madam Clerk. The next item on the agenda is the report of the City Manager. Mr. Nguyen.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor.

So we have two items tonight that I will be calling the fire chief up in a moment to share. But I want to run a couple of responses with regard to the Carnegie. So first of all, there was a public presentation with an update about the Carnegie several months ago. So that's available online. And that should answer most of your questions about the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act. And of course, in that discussion, we shared that we had indeed began the process of contacting the Chumash. So we're actually in the formal process now. Can it run as a parallel process? Not yet. And if you want to read the NAGPRA rules, you'll understand why at this phase they dictate all the terms. And one of the problems and challenges we face is the artifacts are not all in one place within the collection. They're spread throughout. So that's number one. Number two, I want to reiterate, because I know this keeps coming up, a professionally run museum would have dealt with this over the last more than 30 years. This city is more than 30 decades out of compliance and negligent on this issue. So we have to take it seriously and we're going to follow the rules by the book. But we are able to, we are making progress. And the key issue right now are the ancestors, which are the human remains. So that's the number one priority for the Chumash. However, there are many, many, many more artifacts in that collection that should have never been taken in that have been identified as belonging to other nations and tribes and even other countries. So there's some period of time once we list all the information on the NAGPRA website, we have to provide some time in the event that anyone representing any of those groups wants to make a claim. So it's going to take a little time, but after being negligent and out of compliance for more than three decades, I think a little more time, a little more patience is proper. But having said all that, I think we will be able to have a public policy discussion again about the future of the Carnegie building, if not towards the end of this year, perhaps in the very early spring.

Thank you.

Now, we have two events, the September 11 event and the Suicide Awareness Month. So I'd like Fire Chief Hamilton to come share information about those.

Good evening, Mayor, Mayor Pro Tem, members of Council. A couple of items that I wanted to highlight for you all, and I appreciate the City Manager giving me a few minutes. First of all, That seems unbelievable to me, but it'll be the 25th anniversary this year of the tragic events of September 11th, 2001. As we've done every year since 2001, we will be having a small ceremony in front of each of our fire stations. All of the fire stations in the county will be doing the same thing. So everyone here is invited. Members of the public are invited to attend. It's a short ceremony, but it's a small way to pay tribute to the events of that day. So I just wanted to pass that on. Next, I wanted to highlight Council Member, excuse me, Mayor Pro Tem Turan and myself both share a passion for suicide prevention, as I'm sure many others here do. But September is Suicide Prevention Awareness Month, and so I just wanted to highlight a when it comes to suicide prevention. So first of all, they've really simplified the phone number. If you ever need assistance, call or text 988. There is another. You can text TALK to 741741. It's a fantastic resource to be able to get help. If you have a friend or loved one in crisis, you can call 988. I have done that for folks in the past as well, where you can essentially set up a three-way phone call. So that's a great resource that's available to the community. One of the other things that I always feel like I need to highlight when it comes to suicide is access to lethal means. Firearms are incredibly lethal when it comes to suicide attempts. In the work of suicide prevention, what we're trying to do is... create time and distance between somebody having a crisis and the access to lethal means. And the most critical of those items is firearms when it comes down to it. And so this is nothing to do with the Second Amendment. This is much more about responsible gun ownership. And so responsible gun ownership looks like this. Storing firearms... unloaded and locked storing the ammunition separate from those firearms having a conversation about potentially removing firearms from a household if somebody is having an emotional crisis but ensuring the key in the combination is inaccessible if if there is firearms in the house but You know, it's a sad reality, but research shows that simply by having a firearm in your home, it's three times more likely to die by suicide. And I think that speaks to... Excuse me. Speaks to the lethality of... of firearms as the choice of your lethal means. The other thing I really wanted to highlight for folks is if you have a loved one that's in crisis or you're concerned about them, there are some resources up there. The American Foundation for Suicide Prevention does some fantastic work. I'll tell you though, one of the best things you can do is if you're worried about somebody, ask the question. ask them if they're thinking about suicide. But there are additional resources there. I can tell you that asking that question from personal experience, I've asked it of many firefighters over my career, but when I had to ask my 13-year-old son that question, it was a very different question. So for parents out there that are maybe worried about teens... There's resources up there. And then finally, if you've lost a loved one to suicide, there's some really great support systems out there. So, Mr. City Manager, I appreciate the time tonight. Thank you.

Thank you, Chief. I really appreciate you discussing this. I know you and I have been to a number of suicides in our career, and that's something very, very difficult. So thank you for bringing this up and for your work as well as the Mayor Pro Tem's work on this subject. Thank you. If you don't have anything else, Alex, we'll go to our council members.

I'd just like to say something before my councilman comments. I really appreciate the city manager bringing people up to speed on the artifacts. It's a big deal. People don't remember that. The second is tremendous information about suicide. Having had a friend who lost a friend and how it affects the family and the last item, thank you for doing that.

And a look at those... THOSE SENTIMENTS AS WELL. I REALLY APPRECIATE THE UPDATE ON THE CARNEGIE FOR OUR COMMUNITY. MANY OF US UP HERE ARE VERY FUN OF THE ARTS AND WE CERTAINLY WANT TO EXPEDITE THE OPENING OF THE CARNEGIE SO THANK YOU FOR THAT UPDATE AND FOR MAKING THAT A PRIORITY FOR OUR CITY. THANK YOU. COUNCILWOMAN PEREZ, GO AHEAD.

THANK YOU, MAYOR. JUST AN OVERVIEW OF MY REPORT FOR THE MONTH OF AUGUST. I DID WANT TO ANNOUNCE THAT BLACK STOCK JUNIOR HIGH IN PARTNERSHIP with the city will now have a crossing guard at Blackstock Junior High. That was a conversation that came out of numerous meetings with their school site council, parents, families, and just want to thank staff for all of their commitment to ensuring that we have a strong partnership there and making sure students are safe, as well as our traffic team for doing some of those assessments and getting that data. to help inform some of the decisions there. During my time in August, I also had the opportunity to participate in another ride-along, specifically in South Oxnard with FIRE, and I wanted to thank Brad Craig for taking me out there. I know we had to respond to a crisis over at Oxnard College rapidly, so I just appreciate all of the work that goes on behind the scenes. Later that night, I also attended the National Night Out at Johnson Creek Park. On August 7th, Supervisor Lopez's team and I also did a graffiti abatement along the J Street Canal. One of the groups that was here tonight, it was actually one of my first opportunities. I had never been fishing before, but they had invited me to join them on a fishing trip to really get exposed to their youth opportunities. So I wanted to thank Kevin over at Real Guppies and Mando again for inviting me. They provide alternative opportunities to youth. And even as a council member myself, having fished for the first time, it was really awesome. I also had the opportunity to join Supervisor Lopez and Corporal Bergen from the City of Oxnard Police Department at a house meeting with Cal Gisler neighborhood folks, talking a lot about issues regarding the neighborhood and making sure that we have that cross collaboration between what's happening at the city and at the county level. I also attended my reoccurring air pollution meeting for the month of August, attended the Bryce Canyon Neighborhood Council. Housing staff was also there to provide information about their work, so I wanted to appreciate Alba and her team. We are also preparing to launch our second cohort for the Voices of Oxnard Youth Program and really excited to do that alongside Mayor Pro Tem Gabe Turan. And the last thing I wanted to mention is I know I don't want to take too much shine from Council Member Basu. I know she's going to talk a lot about the South Oxnard mural unveiling. And I know I mentioned the last part, but I know we had a special meeting coming up So the neighborhood council chairs and I will be rescheduling our time to meet sometime at the end of the month or beginning of October, and that is my report.

Six fish. Thank you, Councilwoman. Thank you, Councilmember.

Thank you very much. I've had a request from former mayor former bigger pardon former councilman Oscar magical For a proclamation for the Santa Clara high school in a Santa Clara elementary There 125 year like to have it I'm requesting if we can have it in October so and I'm also Requesting if we can have a student from one of the schools speak the Pledge of Allegiance on that time I'm making it a formal request the second request that I have sorry are you gonna attend church I

Pardon are you gonna attend church?

I just want to make sure I'm there.

I found out that none of us did well I'm just I'm just asking because I want to make sure I'm there.

It's not a church.

It's gonna be here No for the proclamation

Just and my time is being eaten up here I just want to feel that you know I was not a fan of Santa Clara high schools They were a major opponent when I went to high school to Rio Mesa, but they have done a tremendous a lot in the school and There's a lot of people that have come through that system that Totally support it and they've been a longtime member of the community. I thank you for the comments the second part that I'd like to formally request In closed session, on occasion, we have a council member that works on an iPad and a computer electronically. And I'm wondering, just how much electronics can we use in closed session? Can I use my phone? Can I be taping closed session? Can I be calling somebody from outside of closed session? I'd like that formal request. It goes to a committee or it goes to council. The other things I have to give credit to the people that spoke. today at public comment. But I want to share with some council members because they may not recall this. They may not have been paying attention, except for Mr. Starr. In 2017, Mr. Starr did recall councils, but he was unsuccessful. At the tune, I think it was a half a million dollars he cost the city of Oxnard. And the part that was humorous to me was he threatened to recall the entire council. but he only recalled four, because he couldn't tell the difference between the number four and the number five. And when the first reading was four were in support, but the final reading, all five were in support. So Councilmember Ramirez, Flynn, Madrigal and myself were recalled, and Brian McDonald was not. It has always been kind of humorous to me. But the other part, to credit Mr. Herrera, he did use a tremendous amount of paid political signature gatherers. So I think that's just a little information that's helpful. The other part that I'd like to address, 9.30 this morning, I get an email from Mr. Molina. And Mr. Molina's email is giving financial advice. And he's questioning, which he consistently does, I would say on a daily basis, if not just to me, other council members. Because this particular email went to Alicia Purcell, Lewis MacArthur, Gabe Turan, Steve Nouveau, Javier the Treasurer, the Chief Financial Officer Martha Guillen, and Julian Sill. But it identifies Alicia Purcell, Esquire, Honorary Deputy City Treasurer. My question, and I hope I can get a clarification on this. When we have the same person, I believe that's the same person that's married to Mr. Starr, Miss Alicia Purcell, Esquire, identified as Honorary Deputy City Treasurer by Mr. Molina, And she is the same person doing legal work for people that are suing the city of Oxnard. When is Mr. Starr allowed to go into closed session when there's any litigation coming up? Because it would seem any financial warranty or reward that she would receive would benefit Mr. Starr. And there's something called a conflict of interest. And in the past, Mr. Molina was snagged, caught, However, I'd like to believe caught by the Bank of America when he tried to make Miss Alicia Purcell, council member Starr's wife, the deputy city treasurer. And the Bank of America caught him in doing an illegal act. But nothing happened. And those are my requests, Mayor. And I have one last one. Since you've been the mayor, You don't do a very good job of controlling the crowd. And when the crowd starts applauding, you lose control. And if I was in the seat, I'd be in the same spot. I'd lose control. You've got to do a better job, in my opinion.

Thank you. Go ahead, Mayor Portillo.

Thank you, Mayor. So just some quick Neighborhood Council updates for September. So September 3rd, which is this Thursday, Rio Lindo Neighborhood Council meeting at 7 p.m. And then September 14th, East Village at 6.30 p.m. September 24th, Fremont South at 6.30 p.m. For the Fremont South one, since there's not a school within that neighborhood, they'll be meeting at the Police Activities League meeting room that they have there. And that'll be their second meeting if you're from the neighborhood and you missed the first one. They've been inactive for a while, and so they have a new executive board. And congratulations to all of them. And thank you to Tom McGee for stepping in to be the elected chair for that neighborhood. So you can check those three neighborhood council meetings out. During the legislative recess in the month of August, I held my annual in-person community conversations events. Done them every summer since coming into office. I always look forward to it. They're really great discussions, and I appreciate folks coming out. There's one in the audience now who came out. We had a really great conversation with her residents as well from Orchard Park. Thank you, Ms. Velzi. And it's just great to be out and have just fluid conversation. I interact with many of these people anyways during the neighborhood council, but additional people tend to come for these ones. And I want to thank especially the El Rio West neighborhood who have not been able to meet for some time as a neighborhood council. And that was a really great conversation we're going to have in that setting at Vineyards Park. And thank you to Councilwoman Rodriguez for holding those throughout the year, because I visited some of yours and got some ideas on how to engage folks in different conversation pieces. So thank you. As was mentioned by the group, I had a couple notes I'd been taking during August on agenda requests I wanted to make. But it sounds like the Carnegie we have pretty robust direction. Is that, Mr. City Manager, are we gonna do the Carnegie? I don't have to make a request on that then?

Yes.

Okay, all right. I'll let that one go. I also have another agenda request though. Since serving on the continuum of care with the County of Ventura and the other partners, I appreciate this council giving me that opportunity. I've learned a lot more about the granular operations of homelessness, excuse me, the homelessness operations within the County of Ventura and the partner agencies who are working to address it, including our city. And from that, I'm wondering, Mr. City Manager, if we can request a homelessness outcomes appointment item in the near future. I really think that the public would benefit from hearing about what is actually happening in the city of Oxnard by way of programming and some of the outcomes we're seeing from that. And more long term, it would be great if the continuum of care may come and we can have our other partner agencies there be able to speak to the bigger picture. But I think in the immediate future, perhaps our housing department And those who work within that, even our HLO team with PD, maybe we could share with the public some of the outcomes that we have, some of the tangibles. And last thing is thank you, Chief Hamilton, for mentioning Suicide Prevention Awareness Month in September. For those who don't know, my cup that I have here, it actually is magnetic, and I can switch out different things. And so I do have the suicide prevention and the crisis access line there. But as the chief had mentioned, the 988 phone number is available to any landline, any cell phone. You could also text it from a cell phone. And you will be connected with a live person. And as the chief mentioned, too, you want to create time and distance from someone's thoughts and their access to means. to end their life. And oftentimes just talking with someone and being an open ear is all that a person needs in that moment. And then they can connect to someone who is able to help them with those next steps and develop tools and be able to help understand what they can do for themselves if and when those feelings come back and those thoughts come back in the future. Please share that with folks, 988. That's all you got to remember, three numbers, like 911, 411, right, 311. So thank you very much, Chief, for highlighting that. It's very important to me as well, professionally and personally. And those are my comments. Thank you, Mayor.

Thank you, Mayor Pro Tem. Councilwoman Basuwa.

Thank you, Mayor. It was a busy August for me. Also, I had the opportunity to attend National Night Out at the Pleasant Valley Estates Park. I also met with the Nature Conservancy and got an update on Ormond Beach and all the progress that they're making there. And I also attended the Pell Boxing event. It was amazing. And I want to congratulate Recreation and the amazing work that they do. And like Councilmember Perez said, regarding the South Oxnard block party for those of you that attended it was an amazing amazing event with many many residents and I could not be more proud to be part of this district and all the great work from the city of Oxnard got an opportunity to meet NASA astronaut Jose Hernandez and it was just it was just amazing I cannot brag about that enough and I also want to give a thanks to Greenway Farms. Greenway Farms is a manufacturing, they manufacture lettuce, carrots, and they are in District 5. They contacted me and they said that they had a community, they wanted to do a community event, and that their staff HAD SAID THEY WANTED TO GIVE BACKPACKS TO RAMONA SCHOOL. AND I WAS LIKE, WOW, AMAZING. THEY COLLECTED ALL THESE BACKPACKS IN-HOUSE AND THEY CONTACTED THE SCHOOL DISTRICT AND BECAUSE OF THE CLOSURE OF RAMONA, THEY MOVED IT TO JUANITA. AMAZING EVENT. AND THESE ARE THE KIND OF BUSINESSES THAT I WANT TO MAKE SURE THAT WE ACKNOWLEDGE. Because not only are they providing opportunity for their employers to do this, that's what they chose. They chose that school. So I really want to make sure that I acknowledge that also. And I want to acknowledge some of the comments. And sometimes I sit here and I'm thinking, OK, Gabby, just don't say anything. It's not worth it. It's not like you. you know, are going to change people's minds or anything. But I also see myself as a role model. And a role model to my daughter. My daughter is 21 years old. And I want to make sure that I tell her that just because she's a woman and somebody comes at you, you have every single right to fight back. And we just don't sit here and not say anything because as women, If she talks back, oh, my gosh, she's a, you know, oh, my gosh, she must be on her. No. I, as I stand here, I'm a strong woman, so I want to address something. I don't sit here and do my homework for Port Hueneme. So if you want to come up to the dais, up to the end, make a public comment and start talking, about what I'm doing here, you better have proof. Because I would assume that the only person that really knows is my colleague to the left. And there's not much you can see, because I can't see much. And you talk about not having any accomplishments. I can talk about accomplishments from 2018 to 2022, and I will admit it's been slow, you know, and I'm not going to blame anybody for that, but we've done a lot. Off the top of my head, 2018, we were able to keep station two, firefighter station open, We've done playgrounds. We've done new bathrooms. We had Campus Park, which was a project that has been on the calendar for many, many, many, many years. And we're not done. Just to name a few off the top of my head, let's see. It's just there's been many, many, many accomplishments. And for somebody to say, you do nothing, You know, that's just hearsay. And I'm just sick and tired of the lies. You want to come and say stuff, make sure they're true, because you just become a liar. And with that being said, if Diego can go ahead and show the picture that I provided to you. This picture here is back from 2021. And this is a picture that Sarah Monique Limon at the time presented Oxnard with a $5 million check. It's now Supervisor Lopez, myself. Oh, and look how happy Carmen Ramirez was. at the acceptance of that. She was our county supervisor. It's a shame that people use her now and just use her name for bad. It's really a shame. But the reason I wanted to show this, I wanted to remind the community, and there's Burt Parello, Mayor Pro Tem, This was a very exciting time for our community. We had an opportunity to bring something great to Oxnard, and it was taken away from us through litigation, costing taxpayer dollars. You want to talk about wasteful taxpayer dollars? Here is a great example. So with that being said, and because I know my community, And I think we've mostly all have heard it and we have all have had people say what's happening with the aquatic center, what's going on. I want to bring this back to us and to focus on why we're here and to focus on why it is so important that we invest in our community. Today we heard a young adult in the south of Oxnard that has changed his life around because of programs. This is the core of our foundation. This is what we do. I understand right now it's not an appropriate time. Bonds are just not something that we should look at at this time. I'm also, believe it or not, conservative when it comes to that. But I would like to ask our city manager and staff to reach out to the Y. I want to talk and I want them to bring back a report on how we can partner, if at all possible, to bring this to our residents. It's not a promise, you know, I just want talks to begin. And I would like to direct, and if Alex, if you can come and get this from me, I want to make sure that we can contact the why they are amazing with their programs. And we can start that talk about, you know, you talk about, you know, good and bad. We need to move forward and do what we were elected to do. And we were not elected to fight. We were not elected to, you know, go out and find people to replace us. That is not what we were elected to do. So with that being said, Alex, I will leave this folder here for you. And if I can please direct staff to start the process of having those talks. Thank you.

Council Member Basu, I support that. And Mayor, I want you to know I support that action. I hope that we take care of it.

Thank you. Thank you, Council Member Basu. Thank you. Council Member Starr, go ahead.

Thank you.

I attended several National Night Out events last month in East Village and Rose Park and a joint event put on by West Village in the La Colonia neighborhood. I attended the celebration of historical images of La Colonia mural restoration. And I attended the Fisherman Wharf's demolition ceremony. I'm really looking forward to what that development is going to look like when they're done. attended the community hearing at the Colonia gym on the Sunkist housing project so I can hear about the concerns that people have and I do want to say that I thought Jeff pangoli Did a really really good job of of running that I thought he had a very calming influence I Thought he really rose up and did a great job.

I

I attended the International PAL Boxing Tournament, and I'm very impressed with Trail Harrison. I'm impressed with all the volunteers that work with that, including folks who are on the police department, physicians that were volunteering there just in case. And I learned that boxing actually, the way that it's regulated, it's safer than football or soccer. And that was news to me. I thought, well, that's interesting. I always thought of boxing as being much more dangerous. But having watched it and how it was conducted, I think that, you know, I have a different point of view now. I attended the La Colonia Neighborhood Council meeting. I heard from the school districts. I think she was the assistant superintendent of facilities talking about the temporary closure of Ramona School. By the way, that school was built in 1940 and it was rebuilt from scratch in 1997. Has about or had about 500 some odd students there. One thing that was mentioned to me was by one of the neighborhood people was teachers have been complaining about mold there for a decade. And the school district did not remediate it. And it was exposing teachers and students. Now, given the water intrusion that took place and its damage, I'm being told that this was a defect of the construction of the school. But I suspect that there was also a lot of deferred maintenance. I know they're trying to determine whether the school can be repaired or if they need to replace the school together. But I do see this as a cautionary tale for us. Hopefully our city's top brass are on top of this when it comes to city-owned properties. I know we have issues with mold at the Carnegie. I just don't know if there's any issues with any other buildings. But I hope we're on top of that because I don't want to put our employees or anybody else at risk for their health. I attended a court hearing where my wife argued her first case in Ventura County on behalf of her client, Doug Portillo, seeking to modify a ballot question that was worded in a way that was in violation of state law due to it being argumentative, partial, biased, and misleading. And she won that case against an attorney with decades of experience in election law. I know City Hall was not happy with that. Obviously, I didn't participate in any closed session on it because I have to recuse myself. But apparently, City Hall felt that we should immediately appeal to a higher court. I'm happy to report that the appellate court declined to hear the case. And now the voters will have a neutrally worded, accurate ballot question that will plainly ask whether Oxnard's voters want to permanently extend the half percent sales tax. I said during the meeting when this was placed on the ballot that I didn't want us to be putting our thumb on the scale. I thought that what we were doing was dishonest, and apparently the courts thought so too. Lastly I attended the signature submission by recall proponents to seeking to observe the count I'd like to commend the employees recruited by the city clerk to verify the count they check their figure multiple figures multiple times The count was verification was professionally handled, and I thank staff for their work, and that's all I have to report today Thank you, guess what we're start.

Thank you. Okay, that's one very good

Yes, I actually enjoyed my August research. I'm just teasing. I don't think I have as many events to report about, but I did attend National Night Out. And thank you to folks who put that together at Wilson Park. It was a great event. I saw fire. I saw police. I saw motorcycles. I took a peek of the canine as well. So it was a great night for community members to come out together. Just as a reminder, this is the first Saturday of the month. I will be hosting my Saturday sessions at the library. And just, you know, as a plug to the rec department, I actually got to go to yoga on Monday nights at the library. So they have yoga para todos on Wednesdays and yoga at the library, which I thought was very clever and a very great opportunity to just connect with self. AND JUST GROUND YOURSELF. I ALSO HAVE MY MEETING TOMORROW WITH GOLD COAST TRANSIT DISTRICT. SO I'LL REPORT BACK ON THAT NEXT WEEK, NEXT TIME WE HAVE OUR MEETING. I AM MEETING WITH STAKEHOLDERS FROM CHRISTMAS TREE LANE. WE'RE SCHEDULED TO HAVE A MEETING TOMORROW FOR TALKING ABOUT THE STREET VENDORS AND THE PLAN FOR CHRISTMAS TREE LANE. SO ERIC WILL BE JOINING ME AND JUST A CORE GROUP OF FOLKS FOR NOW. I also joined last Saturday for the Doya. They had a conversation about a possible pocket park or something along the lines I know we had some communication from other stakeholders to see what we can do for that downtown improvement but the current consideration our conversations at hand are that space right there by Meta and 6th Street. So we definitely invite community to participate in those conversations. Last but not least, because folks, we're talking about suicide prevention, I think the last four years or so, through my involvement with the All-Star Monday Club, we've volunteered at the suicide prevention walk that's free to the community, but it's also a fundraising opportunity just to create awareness and a lot of community resources come together. That's happening this upcoming October 17th, Saturday, which is in Ventura at Promenade Park, in case anybody's interested in creating awareness for that cause. 9 a.m., again, in Ventura. And last but not least, you know, just the natural disasters we've been seeing throughout the world, earthquakes, mudslides, and so much more. I just want to remind folks about emergency preparedness. I was looking, you know, right now in my gadget for the information, but I have seen some social media posts from the city of Oxnard just reminding folks about emergency preparedness and just being ready either with a go bag or a plan or something. So I just urge community to really consider what is the right plan for you and your family and to reach out because there's a lot of resources and free resources, opportunity information, and I think the plan has to begin with us at home. So just a note. Thanks.

Thank you, Councilwoman. And I'll just wrap up. I pride myself on being an ambassador for our city and just trying to always stay positive and uplift our city. I attended the Sustaining the Seas Summit with our maritime partners. I partook in the celebration of the Panorama Apartments grand opening. I attended the Cal State President's Convocation. As you know, I worked hard to bring the Ceviche Festival to Oxford for Ventura and attended that, and it was a great success. We had that at the harbor. Also, I attended the cornhole competition over at the Ventura Fairgrounds. They invited me to go out there and also speak with some of the managers of our hotels at that event. evidently is the biggest in the world for cornhole, but it really filled up a lot of our hotels because you had people from all over this country and from outside the country participate in this cornhole competition. So it was great to see things like that happening here because it boosts our local economy. Also, just always take my kids. I want them to... To really be involved with me and in our city. I went to Lowe's and took them out there with me Mr. Beast inspired toy kids and so Lowe's is participating with that so I took them out to see that one of the things that I enjoy the most in this role is Welcoming new employees into our city which we do every other week and it gives me an opportunity to really connect with the new employees as new members of our team and just let them know what our city's priorities are and I share with them my own background having worked for this city for 35 years coming in as a student worker and spending my whole career with the Oxnard Police Department. So everything I have I have because the city provided for me and so I'm able to share those testaments with them and that's one of the things I really enjoy in this role. Also, I know Councilwoman Basuah talked about various organizations really put together school supplies backpacks and I think that's incredible that we do that as a city. McDonald's did that, Team Nissan did that, and others did that as well for our most vulnerable, supporting those efforts and I joined them as well. As you know, every week I go out there and meet with various businesses just to introduce myself to see how I can be of service. I did that with Glovis and that was just a great interaction. They're looking to expand down in the south end of our city. So that's led to having really good deep discussions with our city executive leadership team about that. And also worked with a new coin laundry that opened up right across from Vallarta down in the south end. And I really pushed the owner there to make sure that if he was going to invest, to really invest in the best equipment he could afford to make sure that it provided a good presentation and just overall good service and good equipment for customers. the most vulnerable that reside in that part of town. And he did just that. And so myself and Supervisor Lopez were out there celebrating with him. And I know that Councilwoman Perez, she fell ill otherwise she would have joined us there as well. and just continue to meet with various constituents about issues that happen. I meet with them weekly. I also want to thank, I know members of our, I know the chief is not here, but I did extend my praise to him and the police department. The shooting that happened over five guys at the collection and how quickly an apprehension was made of a 16-year-old teen that is alleged to have committed that shooting that hurt another community member. And also, some of you may follow me on social media. I'm very big on youth sports, and so I've attended various youth programs in celebration for the events that they've had. And also, I just want to invite the community. Lastly, I had a good conversation with Lime, our local radio station here in town, and they're leading the efforts for Fiestas Patras. It's going to happen on September 13th. here at downtown Oxnard. They're going to do the celebration starting on Saturday, but the big one's on Sunday, as well as on the 15th. And so I'll be present for those events. And also, Radar Laser is partnering with Oxnard College, so they'll be doing a celebration there as well. Thanks for pushing that, Alex. And I think it's good that we're taking those efforts. And I appreciate the comments by various members of our community, particularly the update that we have on the Carnegie. And maybe next time, Alex, you and I can just walk over and take a look at the conditions of the Carnegie outside and see how we can enhance that area. And that's all I have. But I appreciate everyone's participation here. Thank you. Yes. Go ahead.

Thank you for a moment. Yes, sir. I forgot as I'm looking at the photographs, I did attend the South Oxnard Library where the astronaut was. It was a tremendous event. I could not get over the number of people. And I will share this with all the council members. I wish I'd have seen people from the north end of town. This is something you should have gone to see. Hopefully the individual can come back. But I want to address a comment that was made. They were talking about a school that's been shut down, Ramona School, because of mold and water intrusion. And our public works department takes care of the facilities we got. And a simple one is just looking at the gutters. And when you see weeds growing out of the gutters, like you can right now at the Juan Soria School, you could actually pick a bouquet of flowers. That water, when the gutters don't work right, the water can get underneath the building and get into the walls and create another problem like remote schools. But our Public Works Department, when it's noted to them, they take care of the problem. That's the difference of two types of governments, the public government and the school government. I wanted to share that. Thank you. You can see it if you go down Fifth Street tonight.

Thank you, Council Member Perlow. And just to circle back, I know Dr. Jenna left, but I had a good conversation with her about the closure of Ramona School. And I really did appreciate that our REC department and our executive leadership team really worked with her, as she mentioned here. And I did ask her, please come back and share those comments with us. And so I'm glad that she did just that. And we're strengthening those relationships with our school community. And that's all I have. Does anybody else have any comments? If not, we'll just go to the next item on the agenda. Okay. Thank you. The next item is from the city clerk. This is, the subject entails League of Cities, California City's annual conference, 2026 voting delegate, as well as an alternate and a resolution. The recommendation is that the city council designate myself as a voting delegate and a voting alternate to the League of California City's ANNUAL CONFERENCE AND DISCUSS THE CITY'S POSITION ON THE LEAK'S RESOLUTION REGARDING ESTABLISHING A WORKING GROUP TO EVALUATE A STATE CONSTITUTIONAL AMENDMENT OR OTHER INITIATIVES TO RESTORE LOCAL HOUSING AND LAND USE AUTHORITY. THIS ITEM DID NOT ORIGINATE A COMMITTEE AND LULY LOPEZ CAN SPEAK MORE ABOUT THIS ITEM. DO ANY COUNCIL MEMBERS HAVE ANY QUESTIONS OF STEPH ON THIS PARTICULAR ITEM?

MAYOR, IF THERE ARE NO QUESTIONS, I'LL MOVE THE RECOMMENDED ACTION.

I will second.

Thank you, Council Member Basu. Madam Clerk, are there any public speakers on this item?

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

Thank you. Since I'll be representing the city at this year's annual meeting, we're being asked to discuss this resolution, determine the city's position on the proposal to create a working group to consider a state constitutional amendment or other initiatives that would ensure final local authority over housing and land use decisions. We have a motion and a second. Madam Clerk, can we call for the vote?

Mayor, Mayor Pro Tem and Council Members, if you can go ahead and cast your vote, please. Thank you. This motion carries 7 to 0. Thank you.

Thank you. The next item in the agenda is item J. This is review of the info consent agenda. Do any council members have any consent agendas they wish to discuss?

Mayor Pro Tem, I do have a correction on the information and consent agenda. This would be regarding information and consent agenda L2. This is the approval of the city council minutes. On page 111 of the July 30th minutes, it should be noted that Mayor Pro Tem Theron recused himself and he was not absent as it's listed. Thank you.

Thank you, Madam Clerk, for the clarification. Any council members wish to pull an item for discussion?

Council Member Stone, go ahead.

L5. L5, okay. Any others?

Mayor, if there are no additional consent items being pulled for discussion, I don't know if we have any comments, but I'm willing to make a motion for the balance of the eight consent items with the corrections as noted by the clerk.

I will second that motion.

I'd like to note that issue number three is just a receiving file.

I'll still include it in my motion, Madam Clerk.

Correct. Madam Clerk, any public speakers?

Mayor mayor pro tem and council members there are no requests to speak on the information and consent agenda in person or virtually Thank you, and if I can go ahead and have you Cast your vote please and this would be for info consent one through four Thank you in this motion carries seven to zero, thank you we'll now go to L5

As Council Member Stowell wants this for further discussion, this is from the Public Works Department. The subject is Agreement 32700102 with Rich and Famous Inc., DBA Big Green Cleaning Company for Custodial Services. The recommendations of the City Council approve and authorize the Mayor to execute an agreement with Rich and Famous Inc. DBAB Green Cleaning Company for a five-year agreement which includes options to extend for a total not to exceed amount of $825,000 for custodial services for Public Works Utilities Division locations. This item is a continuation of an item previously brought to the City Council back on

June 1st 2026 and we'll go to you cast member sir Thank you So when I look at the staff report on PDF page 207 the letter of termination where they wrote this was this was the letter from CCS facility services that was Resigning basically And they wrote we sincerely regret the circumstances that have led to this termination and appreciate the state's professionalism and collaborative Approach and resolving this matter has been our privilege to work with the city of Oxnard And we remain committed to delivering the highest standard of service through August 30th 2026 I was just wondering do we have any insight as to the circumstances that brought about their decision to to terminate

Yes, good evening mayor council members members of the public loose Ortega from the public works wastewater division Quick answer no We don't we were actually gearing up As it's mentioned here. It was two days before the contract was was due to start and I The contractor unfortunately gave us a 60-day notice of termination as allowed per contract terms. Normally it's the other way around. If the city decides not to move forward with a contractor service provider for any reason, we can pull out. It's rare to see this happen. We were set to start. We had staff ready. Walkthroughs had been done at all three locations. It was a shock to us and fortunately city staff, the purchasing department and the public works department were able to quickly switch gears and work together to award the secondary low bid. Timing was not ideal either because August was a dark period.

We were not able to Bring this item sooner, so this is the first council meeting we weekend, but no I Do not want to speculate why they didn't tell you yeah, they but they did not tell us okay, so on I know on page 143 In the agreement it says service provider may terminate this agreement at any time during the term of the agreement by giving the city 60 calendar days written notice and And I'm wondering, is this a provision that might be worth revisiting to see whether we should revise this language in the future? Because the way I see it is we had an agreement where we'd only have to pay $738,000 a year. It's now going to be $825,000 a year. And that's, to me, I think that this vendor basically deprived us of the deal that we made, and they were able to exit with that 60-day clause. I'm wondering, maybe, just go on, Ms. McCarron.

Oh, McCarron, Assistant City Attorney. Thank you so much for that question. That is our standard language, and we tend to get better solicitation results and better services when we allow a service provider to terminate without cause. the city previously a long time ago has had contracts with no termination provisions or unclear termination provisions and it causes a substantial amount of problems in terms of service continuity our ability to get somebody else in there so this is the standard that we've had for quite some time it has worked well and in this particular situation we don't know why But they're obviously not able to render services. So I think it would be not beneficial to the city to hold them to a contract that they may not be able to perform under. So this is standard. We use it in all of our general service and professional service contracts across the city. And it's for this exact purpose where they are not able to render services for one reason or another. So we release them from the contract.

Right. I understand that. While we can't demand specific performance for something like this, it does seem to me at least that we were economically damaged. And I don't know if there's anything that can be done about that in the future. Maybe this is just a trade-off, and that's just the way things are. But I do feel like we took a little bit of a haircut here because of that.

Potentially but to litigate this would be an absolute loser the way I see this having done lots of these there's Technically no damage or nominal damage to the city at this point.

All right. Thank you.

That's that's all my questions my question Does Councilman star feel that we would be able to recover whatever litigation costs would be I You think that would be wise business?

So you can have a provision, a liquidated damages provision in a contract.

Let me finish. You asked me a question.

Please do. Where that's relatively easy to enforce. I've seen that with hotel contracts, for example, where if you don't meet certain commitments, then there's a liquidation clause. So that avoids even going to court. But, you know, there is the argument that we're less likely to get as many bidders if they feel like they can't exit so easily. So it is a tradeoff. And maybe it's the best tradeoff we can do here. But I thought it was least worth asking the question since, you know, the difference between $738,000 a year and $825,000 a year for five years, it adds up.

Do you have a suggestion for tightening it up? I know you have suggestions on a lot of things. I'm curious.

Well, I am not an attorney, nor do I pretend to be one. But we do have a termination clause. We could have a different termination clause, or we could have some sort of maybe damages clause if they exit and we have to go to the next highest bidder. But it is a trade-off, and maybe the best decision is status quo, and we continue to do what we're doing. But I felt like

It's my responsibility as a council member to ask the question And I am one who really believes in asking questions because the answers sometimes are not great But you as a member of the Finance and Governance Committee you have a recommendation to take it to your committee to think make things better I think that would be beneficial to the city.

I don't have a recommendation here mostly I'm asking questions to find out how this worked. Okay. Thank you.

Thank you very much

Thank you. I think Council Member Starr answered his own question, actually, because what came to mind for me is previous conversations where we had questions around the bidding process and, well, why do we have so few bidders or why aren't there more bidders? And I think if we, there is certainly a balancing act there of having provisions within our agreements and the scope of work that is going to be attractive to the market that's out there that will be bidding on these types of agreements on these contracts and these jobs. And so if we put a termination clause in there or provisions that may be less than desirable for someone who may have things that come up. I could see why someone may forego bidding when they might have done so otherwise with a little bit more standard language. But my question I was gonna ask prior to this conversation here was if we go through the bidding process and we have a vendor who is the lowest responsive bidder to that process, From the time that that happens and that's revealed and that firm is chosen, up until the agreement signed or even a little beyond with this termination clause, at any time there when the bid is chosen, do they have the opportunity to pull out and say, you know, actually, we are not going to be able to provide this after all, or we've had to change it hard as a business, and then we would be left with the next lowest bidder or whatever our protocol would be?

Yes, they absolutely have the right to withdraw their bid under the public contract code. And that's for a general service, a professional service, a trade service, as well as your public projects, which have substantially more requirements in terms of the period between bid opening and award and execution So everybody has the right to withdraw or say we can't do this prior to award They also have the ability under our contracts to terminate for whatever reason it cuts down on litigation it cuts down on service interruptions and it cuts down on just creating bad blood with vendors in the area and

THANK YOU. THOSE ARE THE RIGHT QUESTIONS, THOSE ARE THE RIGHT QUESTIONS, MAYOR.

MAYOR. I JUST WANT TO ADD TO THIS I JUST WANT TO ADD TO THIS CONVERSATION AS SOMEBODY THAT CONVERSATION AS SOMEBODY THAT HAS A BIT OF EXPERIENCE WITH HAS A BIT OF EXPERIENCE WITH THIS. THIS. THE MORE COMPLEX THAT WE MAKE THE MORE COMPLEX THAT WE MAKE OUR CONTRACTS, THE LESS BIDDERS OUR CONTRACTS, THE LESS BIDDERS WE WILL GET. WE WILL GET. THEY DO NOT WANT TO BE TIED TO THEY DO NOT WANT TO BE TIED TO THIS. THIS. DOING WHAT COUNCIL MEMBER STAR DOING WHAT COUNCIL MEMBER STAR IS JUST UNREALISTIC. IS JUST UNREALISTIC. IT COULD HAPPEN AND THEN YOU IT COULD HAPPEN AND THEN YOU BIDS THAT ARE NOT, THAT ARE A, ARE GOING TO RISE BECAUSE NOW THE COST IS GOING TO GO UP. AND IT'S JUST NOT A GOOD BUSINESS PRACTICE ESPECIALLY FOR A CITY. SO I JUST WANTED TO MAKE SURE THAT I PUT MY TWO CENTS IN. I'LL HAVE DIRECTOR WOLF CHIME IN AND HE CAN PROBABLY GIVE US MORE OF HIS KNOWLEDGE.

YEAH, GOOD EVENING MAYOR AND COUNCIL MEMBERS, MICHAEL WOLF, DIRECTOR OF PUBLIC WORK. A couple of things were addressed, and I think Council Member Starr answered part of the question about, you know, kind of should we or should we not, and what that leads to, and Councilwoman Basu, you are absolutely correct. I have actually said this up here multiple times about the more complex you make a bidding process, whether for professional services, whether for general services, whether for public projects, that typically means dollars. The uncertainty that a bidder has is an uncertainty that they reflect in dollars. And so with the help of Elle, since she's been here, we have actually made several changes to our contract languages so that we are seeing more bidders, we are seeing less issues with enforcement in terms of contract requirements, and so There is a pros and cons conversation to have about liquidated damages, but I would say that that typically means that prices go up because the contractor is not going to want to potentially leave himself open for losing money on these. And I think that Luis wanted to share something else with us. Yes, thank you, Michael.

Again, when looking at this item and looking at the two agreements, right, you can see that, yes, there is a dollar amount. We're going from, you know, what was one lower figure over five years to now a higher figure over five years. However, there is a silver lining. If you look at our previous spending from the previous years, we were spending about in the 220, yeah, You could say about $215,000, $220,000 per year, whereas now for the next few years, we're going to be spending around $150,000, $160,000. So even though this is slightly higher than the contract that was terminated, we are spending less than the previous few fiscal years.

Thank you for that. Thank you. Any other questions? Go ahead.

We're talking about these business stuff. The attorney. A bidders bond, what is a bidders bond?

A bidder's bond is a bond or a surety, like a little mini cash insurance policy that they take out for public projects. They're typically only seen in the construction agreements or like a very large maintenance agreement, things that are over 35,000. This isn't something that we would require a bid that actually statutorily requires a bid bond. It's not something that we've ever required a bond of any type on, a bid bond, a labor and performance bond, et cetera. Those are very expensive and some of these smaller custodial companies just would not be able to afford the cost of those.

Thank you for the explanation.

Thank you.

Madam Clerk, do we still have that virtual speaker? Want to speak on item L5?

Mayor, Mayor Pro Tem and Council Members, no, we don't have that virtual speaker anymore.

Thank you. Mayor, if there's nobody else that wants to speak, I'd like to move the recommended action. Second.

Thank you.

Madam Clerk, call for the vote.

Mayor and council members, if you can go ahead and cast your vote.

Thank you.

Thank you, and this motion carries seven to zero. Thank you.

Thank you, Madam Clerk. The next item on the agenda is item N1 from the Public Works Department, Subject Park Bench and Tree Donation Program. Recommendations that the City Council approve the City of Oxnard Park Bench and Tree Donation Program. Public Works and Transportation Committee approved this item 3-0 back on July 14th, 2026. And Michael Wolff, Public Works Director is here and his staff to answer any questions we may have. We'll start with, any questions? Yes, go ahead, Council Member.

Yes, thank you. We received a public comment on this and on page 210, The very first item that is redlined is the word group, and I'm based on the public comment that we received from a group of individuals that want to donate a bench, and they're the last graduating class of Oxnard High School at the old site. I'd like the consideration of the council, what do they think? I think it's a good idea, but I'm open to hearing what you think. What would be a negative to have a group listed?

That's my question. Mr. Wolf.

Yeah, good evening again. So when we were having this discussion before, I think it was at the committee, and I know that Steve probably has a lot of good insight into this. There's a slippery slope to this conversation in terms of group. I mean, there's a lot of good intentions out there. But then now we have to make some sort of decisions, discretionary decisions about well, what's a good group and what's maybe not so good group. I mean, those same conversations can happen with individuals, but I think the recommendation that we have put forward is to try to take some of that discretionary process out and not open the door to, now we have to think about entertaining applications from groups that we don't agree with all the time. Now, as a Wyoming High School graduate, I disagree with Oxnard. HIGH SCHOOL, HAVING A BENCH SOMEWHERE BUT THAT WILL TAKE MY PERSONAL PREFERENCE OUT OF THIS. OBVIOUSLY THAT'S A JOKE. BUT I THINK YOU CAN SEE WHERE WE START TO HAVE THIS CONVERSATION ABOUT WHAT'S A GOOD GROUP AND WHAT'S NOT A GOOD GROUP. SO THAT'S WHY WE EXCLUDED IT. I THINK STEVE WOULD AGREE WITH THAT. HE'S HAD SOME HISTORY WITH SOME OF THESE IN OTHER PLACES AS HE'S WORKED.

I can understand that. We could have somebody who wants the American Nazi Party or the Ku Klux Klan or something. Yeah, that's okay. I withdraw my request. I sympathize with these people that have made it, but your point is taken. Thank you. I withdraw my question.

Thank you. Any other questions or comments?

I just think that it was a wise decision, I think, to eliminate groups. I mean, what would we do if, for example, someone wanted to buy, a donor recognition for, let's say, the people working at ICE. Would we be really happy about that? Probably not. So having it just limited to individuals, especially if they're local, that makes a lot of sense to me.

Yeah, thank you.

I could just add this. Mr. Alduff's family, he's deceased. His family's been asking for something for a long time. And they're very grateful that this is going to be coming forward.

Mayor, Mayor Pro Tem, that's the only speaker we have.

Thank you. Okay. Mr. Fernandez.

Good evening, Mr. Mayor and members of the Council. I'm a member of the Parks and Rec Commission, not necessarily standing here on their behalf, but I think we're all in unison on this, is that it was a a very arduous process in a way because it could go any way. It's like an octopus with a bunch of legs going out in different directions. I want to thank Mr. Howlett for originally giving our subcommittee or our ad hoc committee, which I was a member of along with Chair Wycombe, numerous different examples from different cities to evaluate and see how they work. And these ran the gamut between ones that were multiple pages long, very complex, and some that were very skimpy and hardly had any information in them at all that we think would have come up to questions or concerns or whatever. So we went through the process. We came up with the original versions that then went through the process of the blender of back and forth and all of that. And we're very happy with what's come out of it. I do want to say one thing that seems to have been added here to the point where it's at right now, which was a mechanism for putting in brass plaques. We talked about that extensively. The reason that we didn't include brass plaques or bronze, et cetera, was just for a concern over vandalism, theft, stuff like that, which we all experience as kind of a problem and so the idea that we came up with was to try to minimize that possibility by doing things like laser etched marble or just some other type of material that wouldn't necessarily have a marketplace in the in the theft world. So other than that I think we're really good to go and we hope you're happy with it and we're also very happy that has a mechanism in it for things that aren't exactly written in paper on the mechanism, that it could go back to further study with different members of staff so that, you know, if it's a little odd situation, it still can get worked out. So thank you.

Thank you very much. I do appreciate the consideration to add the concrete. placement of the plaque in this proposal. Any other questions or comments? Yes, go ahead, Mayor Pro Tem.

Thank you. I just want to thank everybody for all the work that went into this. Commissioner, thank you for your work on the ad hoc committee. And I know it's been something that you and the chair have been working on for some time and Mr. Howlett. And I did have a conversation with Mr. Howlett this afternoon for the exact same question that Council Member Perrello brought up. And so it makes perfect sense to me. And I'll stop talking now. I just wanted to take a moment to... just kind of growled at myself and maybe add this to the discussion as well. This is a really great opportunity for the community to show appreciation and memorialize a person or a, you know, something that's important because thinking through this item over when the agenda was published, you know, 12 days ago at the school that my children attend and it's the same school I attended when I was in elementary school as well. There's a plaque there for a young girl who sadly 20 years ago this year I realized was sadly tragically killed when she was run over walking to school and she was actually one of my neighbors and when I go to visit the school and it's nice in the front to see that plaque and remember that, that means something to the people, to her family, to her friends, her classmates, to people who remember her in that school, even though 20 years later, the principal's gone, maybe most of the staff are gone, they've moved on, that's still there to memorialize her. And even beyond that, at McKenna School, there's a tree with a plaque on it that was from a classmate of my wife's when she was in elementary school of a young girl who passed away, sadly, I want to say was maybe in first grade or second grade, very young. And they had planted a tree and have a plaque in her honor. And even when they rebuilt the school, they still kept that there. And so I just wanted to ground it in saying that these things mean things to people. And whether it's to recognize a person's efforts or what happened in our city, these are really going to be adding a very personal touch and a really important touch to our community. So I want to thank everybody who put the work into this because it does humanize people. And thank you, Mr. Hallett, for all the guidelines and everything you provided, all the technicals for these folks. We have it in front of us and we can vote on it. And if there's nothing else, I'll make the motion for this item.

I'll second it no. Thank you for the public comment Yes, thank you.

Yes at this point. We'd have debate if we want it so I just wanted to point out that I think this is a great idea and It actually all started when I got an email from Eliza Lutter I think is how she bounced her last name and she wanted to commemorate her Her now deceased husband at the at the park there with the bench I do remember making inquiries with Steve Howlett and Michael Wolff and I'm very happy to see that it's gotten to the point where this has become a reality so that she can finally be able to Put something in the memory of her husband. So thank you for that.

Thank you There are no speakers call for the vote Thank You mayor Mayor Pro Tem and council members if you can go ahead and cast your vote Thank you, and the motion carries 7 to 0. Thank you.

Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Gonzalez. The next item on the agenda is item N2. This is from the Public Works Department. This is the five-year capital improvement program for fiscal years 2027 through 2031. The recommendation that the City Council approve, one, the final five-year capital improvement program for fiscal years 2027 through 2031, and two, a project budget appropriation of $1,083,733.37 from the Lease Revenue Bond Fund 314, as well as the corresponding Capital Outlay Fund 301, Transfers in the appropriations in the same amount as noted in the financial impact section of the arterial street resurfacing project C2205. And three, a project budget appropriation of 200,000 from the mobility development impact fee fund, 350 sub fund 8040, and the corresponding capital outlay fund 301. Transfers in and appropriations in the same amount is noted in the financial impact section for the new at-grade bus stop, boarding and new bus stops C2762. and four, a project budget appropriation transfer of $7,415 from existing project Southwinds Park Bench and Trash Enclosures Project C2330 to the Southwinds Neighborhood Park Improvement Project C2725 in the 2006 TAP HERO SW Ormond Fund 315 and the corresponding Capital Outlay Fund 301 transfers and APPROPRIATIONS IN THE SAME AMOUNT AS NOTED IN THE FINANCIAL IMPACT SECTION IN FIBER PROJECT BUDGET UNAPPROPRIATION IN THE AMOUNT OF 600,000 FROM THE WASTEWATER OPERATING FUND 611 CONSISTENT OF 500,000 FROM THE WASTEWATER OWTP DIGESTER IMPROVEMENT PROJECT C2408 AND 100,000 FROM THE WASTEWATER WRF COUGHAN IMPROVEMENT PROJECT C2 737 AND THE CORRESPONDING wastewater capital fund 612 transfers and unappropriations in the same amount as noted in the financial impact section This item is a continuation of an item previously approved by City Council back on May 19th 2026 and director Michael Wolff is here to answer any council member questions we may have of him so we'll start with any clarifying questions we have of director Wolff if not madam clerk are there any public speakers for this item

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

I was just going to say motion to approve on my end. Thank you.

I'll second. Wonderful. Madam Clerk, if there's no discussion, call for the vote.

Well, I just I just wanted to make a quick comment and I just want to thank you for compiling You know this has been quite the process for folks who really bubble up the needs when there's so many competing needs and and I just think that I really appreciate the report and I really appreciate you all like listening to a balance of both needs and wants. So thank you for your hard work, and I'm ready to vote after that.

Thank you. Yes, go ahead, Mayor Portillo.

Just real quickly, I know there's a lot of work that goes into this, definitely not lost on me, and so thank you to both of you and all of your team and all of the folks who have a hand in this, and I know there's a lot that goes into it each time we update it. But my one thing I wanted to say is kudos to whoever the person is that decides on the cover photo each time because there's always great shots of Oxnard. They give me ideas about backgrounds for videos and stuff. So thank you. Give them my thanks and appreciation. Thanks.

Thank you.

I'd like to thank council member Rodriguez for the comments you made because it is needs and wants Also the funds that we have available and measure e is going to be a big deal on the ballot coming up Going forward this council who's ever up here Thank you for your comment Mayor mayor pro tem and council members if you can go ahead and cast your vote

Thank you. And this motion carries 7 to 0. Thank you. Thank you, Madam Clerk.

The next item on the agenda is item N3 from the Public Works Department, subject ratify an emergency order for sewer collection system repairs at Hemlock Street and Patterson Road. The recommendation that the City Council review and ratify the following. Number one, the director of public works emergency order to dispense with public bidding requirements pursuant to public contract code. section 22050 to make emergency repairs to the city's sewer collection system to authorize the city manager to enter into any contracts required to abate the emergency conditions necessitating emergency repairs to the city's sewer collection system on Hemlock Street and Patterson Road and three authorize the city manager to enter into any contracts over $220,000 that may be required to abate the emergency. This item did not originate in committee and Director Michael Wolff is here to answer any council member questions we may have. We'll start with any clarifying questions. Council Member Perlow, go ahead.

Thank you, Mayor. This is a tremendous item. It took some part of my district. Just a few questions. Number one, I understand the deal, emergency contract and emergency. Sewers are not sexy items until something goes wrong and it comes up on the street. Then the neighborhoods get really excited and public works go to town. City manager gets whatever we need to do. And as the mayor has read it out, it's important. It's a health, a serious health issue. With respect to as the report indicates soil was sucked into the sewer and then put into the lift pump station Can we get a little how that works or this manhole? collapses without getting in too much detail, but Again, this is one of the things that before I got on this council unintended extreme DEFERRED MAINTENANCE WAS A BIG ISSUE, AND THIS IS ONE OF THE THINGS, IT'S NOT THAT CASE, BUT THE THINGS THAT YOU DON'T SEE THAT ARE UNDERGROUND ARE EXTREMELY IMPORTANT, EXPENSIVE, AND SIGNIFICANT IN THE CITY OF OXNARD.

AND I DON'T WANT TO BOOK, BUT JUST... YEAH, I'LL HAVE JEN HOUSER TALK ABOUT THE TECHNICAL COMPONENTS. I JUST WANTED TO RETIRED SOMETHING YOU SAID, TWO THINGS YOU SAID, I AGREE SEWERS ARE NOT SEXY, THAT'S AN IMPORTANT THING.

And Jan might disagree.

And Jan will disagree with that. But I think the important thing there, the same context of thought is there's a lot of things on the ground, a lot of things that happen in the background that I think most people don't recognize. And those things are as important as the things you see above ground. And so Jan will talk about the issue that occurred. But I think that's an important piece If you could look underneath the street and see everything that's in there, you would be amazed at how much stuff is in there.

Thanks, Michael. Good evening, Mayor, Mayor Pro Tem. Guess who left? There's Mayor Pro Tem. Good evening. And council members. I'll just briefly explain kind of what happened as quickly and as basically as I can. So this was kind of a pesky area where we had this failure. So a manhole had corroded down near the bottom of the manhole and water or soil and rocks were being washed into the sewer over a long period of time. We never saw a failure on the surface in this case. The only reason we knew about it was the soil finally clogged the pipe, blocked the pipe, and it backed up the sewers and then raw sewage came out of the manholes upstream of that. So that caused us then obviously to Pumped down and to dig up and there was a huge void when we did dig it up But this manhole happened to be in a sidewalk. It wasn't in the roadway It was in the sidewalk, but it was just upstream of our largest our largest Sanitary lift station what we call this station 29 which gets about pumps about a third of the city's wastewater flow So it's a very large station. So it happened just before that what we call the wet well and There's three other large sewers going into the wet well, and it had filled with rocks and debris that has to be cleaned out as part of it. We got some of it cleaned out as part of the project, and there's going to be some ongoing work after that. So hopefully that answers some of your questions. I can report, fortunately, that substantial completion was achieved last week. We're just doing some minor cleanup stuff. We have striping of the road. The road's been repaved. Everything's back open. Sidewalks have been repaved. New manholes have been installed. So a lot of work. And we got our cost estimate, our first estimated cost estimate, just at the end of the day today, about five o'clock. And we're real close to what's in the report, so.

Thank you. And I appreciate the notice that you gave council. The council received on this. And I happened to go there and I saw total reconstruction doing tremendous work. Thank you. Thank you.

If there's no other questions or comments, I move the .

We have a public speaker online, I think.

Mayor, we do have a virtual speaker. Thank you for that, Councillor Starr. Go ahead. I'm sorry. The virtual speaker went away.

Oh. Okay. Should we? I can talk for a moment to see if they raise their hand again, but if they're hearing me.

So, I'm sorry, virtual speaker, if you still wish to speak on this item, please.

Star nine. Or Jan answered the question.

Yeah, do star nine to raise your hand.

Okay, if they've disconnected, Mayor, I'm willing to move the recommended action.

Okay. I moved it. Maybe a second.

Oh, I will second. Yes, my apologies.

Thank you, Mayor Pro Tem. Madam Clerk, if there's no other questions or comments, call for the vote.

Mayor, Mayor Pro Tem, and Council Members, if you can go ahead and cast your vote. Thank you. And this motion carries 7 to 0. Thank you.

Thank you. There be no further business on the agenda. And if there's no objection, we are adjourned. Thank you, everyone.