Good. How are you?
Good evening everyone. We'll go ahead
and call our meeting to order. Welcome
back to my colleagues. I hope you all
had a great um summer recess. So at this
time, roll call please. Mr. Clerk.
>> Council member Mongon
>> here. Council member Compost
>> is here. Council member Schumacher
>> here.
Council member Duran
>> here.
>> Council member Mcrenolds
>> here.
>> Deputy Mayor Halter
>> here.
>> Mayor Dr. Sanchez Palasios
>> here.
>> Seven members present. We do have a
quorum.
>> Thank you. Council member Compost, will
you please lead us in the pledge of
allegiance?
» Please stand if you're able to.
I pledge allegiance to the flag of the
United States of America and to the
republic for it stands. One nation under
God, indivisible, with liberty and
justice for all.
» Thank you for that.
At this time, we'll go ahead and um
welcome our special presentations and
announcements. I know we have a special
presentation by United Water
Conservation District. Do we have Tara
here?
» Maybe not.
» Will you check out there?
Hi, Tara.
>> Hi. [laughter]
>> Sorry, I was waiting outside.
>> That's okay. You
>> can catch your breath. It's all
[clears throat] good.
>> I love I love catching my breath. And
thank you so much, Mayor Sanchez.
[sighs]
Palasios.
So, let's talk about something else that
kind of takes my breath away. We'll
start with our bond measure, which is
called water supply conservation and the
water quality bond measure, also known
as measure D. [gasps]
» You're okay.
>> Yeah. All right. [sighs]
So,
it's um going to be on November 3rd. And
is there a clicker?
>> Next slide.
Uh just to give you a little bit of our
service area which includes half of
Ventura County or half of Ventura, the
city of Ventura, roughly
all of Midtown. So, I just really wanted
to highlight that you are in our service
area for this particular bond measure.
We cover 33 335 square miles and
observed Ventura County for about a 100
years and we have done this before and
back in 1953. Unfortunately, Ventura was
actually outside of our limits at that
time, but you guys have grown quite a
bit probably due to some of that water.
Next slide.
Some of our sustainability and projects
include the Santa Fleia dam safety
improvement project which I will go into
more detail, the Freeman diversion
expansion and conveyance system upgrade
and then the extraction area and
brackish water treatment plan which are
these three things.
Next slide.
So those three things are not
inexpensive
and they're not optional. They've been
demanded upon us by regulatory agencies
including the department of safety of
dams and fk for our dam, our nymphs
biological opinion for the Freeman
diversion improvement project and the
extraction marrier and brackish water
treatment project which is part of our
sigma requirements.
Next slide.
The Santa Fle dam safety improvement
project is up at Lake Pyu. I don't know
if you guys have heard of that, but if
you have, it's just down the 126.
Thank you.
What a great clerk.
Oh, that was much better. Thank you. So,
237 people live downstream of that dam.
Some of which live in Ventura County or
V city of Ventura, of which I am one.
So, I actually live in Ventura. I really
live it there by the way. Great city.
[laughter] Um and what it does is it uh
Lake Pyro protects water supplies
including wildfire suppression,
groundwater recharge and of course the
recreation of the lake itself. What we
need to do is move that intake from the
western side because right now it runs
through the dam which means that if it
fails, it fails pretty catastrophically
and we need to move it through the
bedrock of the mount on the other side.
It's critical that we do this work
otherwise we may lose operation of the
dam or we uh we may have to drain the
lake. So those are kind of some options
of if we don't move forward with this
project. And the project is $314
million. So it's not an inexpensive one
to do.
The next slide please. The Freeman
diversion improvement project is a NY's
biological opinion oper uh started
project and then we have to continue it
because of a court order that we're
currently under. So we're looking at
rather than
um abandoning our Freeman diversion
moving forward with our improved anal
project which is with the conveyance
system upgrade looking at about 104
million. Next slide.
Finally, we have our extraction barrier
and brackish water treatment project,
which will create a seawater intrusion
barrier at Point Magoo, which is where a
lot of the seawater intrusion for the
entire Oxnard plane is based. And that's
looking at $51 million for phase one.
Next slide.
These projects together total $469
million. We have secured grant funding
for about 31.5 of that million. We also
have a WIA loan that we've secured for
83, which leaves us with that $354
million gap, which is why we have a $350
million bond.
And just as a reminder, if authorized by
voters, we don't have to get $350
million. We are still seeking grants
every moment of every day. We're
definitely looking under every couch
cushion. Next slide.
How it would work very, very quickly.
The election is on November 3rd. It
requires twothirds of a vote to pass and
the bond measure total is 350 million.
As I stated earlier, it would be issued
over three years is what we're looking
at right now. So, we get all of that
money up front. It works like a mortgage
where we have to pay it back in property
taxes. The projects that would be built
are from our capital program and the tax
would mean roughly $24 per $100,000 of
valuation for each home on property
taxes. This is not a new fee. This would
be part of property tax which would mean
approximately $10121
per average per year for the average
home. We looked at about a $51,000
home which is currently the average in
Ventura County.
Next slide.
And because we care about cost and
accountability, I'm going to repeat
those numbers again and in a really easy
way for people to understand. So $24 per
$100,000 of assessed value. average
homeowner $121 a year, which is about
$10 a month. As a reminder, renters
don't pay property tax directly, so it's
not a direct tax to them. The tax would
begin in fiscal year of 2028 and would
end in fiscal year of 207. And because
also accountability is important as you
guys understand as council members,
these would be legally restricted to
voter approved capital projects. They
cannot be used for salaries, operations,
or administrative costs, and annual
independent audits would be required
under California law. The board of
directors would retain full oversight of
the issuance and spending as we do every
single time. And of course, our board
meetings are open to the public. We
would also have regular reporting on
public progress and budget, which we've
been doing all throughout with our water
sustainability summit. But then we would
also be increasing our community
outreach as we have been to ensure that
people are aware of these projects and
aware of what they mean. And finally, we
have the United Water Bond Project under
California Water Code and that's
currently on our website. Speaking of
next slide,
you can find out more information by
attending one of our community meetings.
Those dates will be posted shortly. They
will run through September and October.
We'll be doing them all up and down the
entire 126 corridor. You can read the
bond report online which I just
mentioned. I brought handouts with me
today in case anyone needs a handout to
remind them of this important
information. You're more than welcome to
visit unitedwater.org/bond
for more direct bond information. And
then you can email us directly at
info@unitedwwater.org and that goes
directly to me. Any other questions? Is
that's the next slide.
I tried to keep it quick. I was told we
had five [laughter] minutes.
>> Thank you so much for your presentation.
I don't see any questions from
colleagues. So,
>> fabulous. Thank you for being here.
>> Thank you so much for the opportunity to
present this important information. We
just wanted to make sure things were
clear and understood.
>> Thank you.
» Okay, moving on on our agenda, we go to
our close session report. Mr. City
Attorney,
>> mayor, the council took up all three uh
items on it close session agenda and
there was no reportable action.
Great. Thank you.
On to our city council communications.
Do I have any colleagues with
announcements? Deputy Mayor Halter.
>> Uh thank you, Madam Mayor. Um as well,
I'm glad happy to be back. Uh seems like
we've been gone a long time. Uh I so
long that I actually forgot my phone in
my office, so I don't have my notes with
me, but [laughter] but part for the
course. Uh so instead I'll just say that
a lot of the meetings are all starting
up again across the board. I know there
is the housing subcommittee on Wednesday
at 3 o'clock here at city hall. I know
that there's um uh uh our ad hoc
committee for Main Street moves. We have
five or six meetings scheduled and
that's all listed as well on the city's
website. And uh I know that Land Trust
has a fantastic uh filming event uh that
goes on. It's a wild forget the exact
name wild and natural probably.
>> What is it called you guys?
scenic.
>> Okay. Wild and scenic. Okay. And the
date is
Anyways, it's on my notes on my phone.
So, I'll skip all that and just tell you
that I had a really great time getting
caught up on a lot of things in my life,
getting a chance to see so many
constituents. And I did take a week or
so to go up uh to Northern California.
Uh saw a family reunion, about 160 of my
family members from one side of the
family. I went into San Francisco and
saw my old girlfriend from high school
and her husband and went to the
Prescidio. If you hadn't been to
Prescidio, it's unbelievable what
they've done to that place. It's really
probably my favorite part of that city
now. And also um got a chance to go to a
wedding, spend some time in the
redwoods, uh Felton up in Felton, they
light up the redwoods at night and put
some color on these redwoods and it
makes the redwoods even more majestic.
So, it was very action-packed, a lot of
fun, and a lot of work month off. I do
want to mention though that I would like
to close tonight's meeting in honor of
somebody that you probably all know
about, and I think a lot of you have
become just as endeared to this uh this
being as I have, and that's Jackie, the Eagle.
I want to mention that um as you know her name was Jackie and
she was one of the beautiful bald eagles
of Big Bear Lake who along with her
longtime partner Shadow allowed millions
of us into her life through the Big Bear
Eagle camera. For years I was one of
those people. And I think what endeared
Jackie to so many of us was that in a
world that can sometimes feel too hurry,
too divided, and filled with so much
contrived chaos, Jackie was something
wonderful and real. There were no
politics in the nest, no arguments, no
deadlines, just the rhythm of nature and
magnificent eagle. Sitting patiently
through snowstorms, protecting her eggs,
feeding her babies, soaring over Big
Bear Lake, and sharing a remarkable
partnership with Shadow. We watched
Jackie experience triumph and heartbreak
loss. We watched her endure brittle win
brutal winters
and begin again. And we watched Jackie
and Shadow demonstrate in their own wild
ways something very human, loyalty,
courage, resilience, patience, and the
extraordinary commitment required to
care for those you love. Jackie died
this month at the age of 14 years old.
in the remarkable outpouring of grief
from people around the world tells us
that she became much more than just
simply a bird people watched on a
camera. She became a reminder. A
reminder that beauty still exists around
us every day. That nature operates on a
timetable very different from ours. That
resilience sometimes simply means
getting back into your nest and trying
again. And that caring for another
living thing may be among the most
meaningful things any of us can ever do.
For me, Jackie represented something
else as well. The very best of the
American West. Wild, beautiful,
independent, courageous, and free. So,
tonight from our little corner of
California here in Ventura, I would
simply like to say that you thank you,
Jackie, for allowing us into your world.
Thank you for the quiet moments of peace
you gave so many of us. Thank you for
reminding us that sometimes if we stop
all the noise long enough and simply
look up, there is still an extraordinary
amount of beauty in this world. May you
forever soar over the mountains you call
home. Good night, Jackie. I want to
mention that our own uh Ohigh Rapture
Center tried bringing her back to health
after three weeks. It was a major
struggle and she did end up passing away
about a week and a half ago. So, I want
to uh conclude tonight's meeting in
honor of Jackie. Thank you for that,
Council Member Schumacher.
» Thank you, Mayor.
Um, so [clears throat] when I uh before
I got elected, I participated in a
community academy through the police
department. And I was so inspired that
one of the things that I talked about in
my campaign is to do a larger city uh
community academy. And that is exactly
two years later. Um, we are actually
doing that this year in the fall. Um,
I'm happy to partner with uh the mayor
as well as the city manager and um all
the staff members that are doing this
amazing program. Um, the community
academy um is really just trying to make
sure that we have a pipeline of more
active um participants really opening
the house of the city um in our
departments, our facilities, and our
staff. Uh it is an eight-week course and
we're doing it every other year. And I'm
so happy to to say that uh we had we
have 30 spots for our participants for
our inaugural class or our inaugural
cohort. Um and we received about 60
applicants. So, we're doing our due
diligence to uh look through all of the
applicants, and we're going to be doing
some interviews this week to make sure
that we have a really strong, very
diverse um uh first group of of of uh
citizens or residents that are going to
be participating in our first cohort.
Um, and one of the things that's going
to start in September throughout
November, and I think uh it's going to
be an eight-week um program. And the
beautiful part about this is I'm talking
to my colleagues now is that each one of
you surprise will be representing each
week to introduce uh yourselves to some
people that may not know who you are. Uh
so the great thing is is that um every
week uh this cohort is going to meet new
council or or the the current council
members because we're all going to be in
your district. Um we want to highlight
the operations of the water department.
We want to highlight the police
department. We want to highlight practic
I mean the city hall of how beautiful it
is and um there are young people that
have applied which is fantastic. We have
retired people that are on the the list
as well and it's just a gamut um of of a
very diverse group of people. So I'm
very thankful to the city manager and
the staff for making this you know the
vision that I had and and tr really
truly making this into something uh to
come to fruition. And um I think we're
going to be announcing the final group
uh by the end of August, if not earlier.
So um thank you again and um I look
forward to seeing the the first group.
>> Thank you, Council Member Mcrenolds.
>> Thank you, Madam Mayor. Uh two quick
announcements. The economic development
committee will be meeting this Thursday
uh here at city hall at 3:30. So
everybody's invited to attend uh that,
get updates on the latest economic
development news. And then I just wanted
to welcome uh all of the students back
uh to the school. Uh Ventura Unified
started last Wednesday. Uh my youngest
son started his senior year of high
school, so excited about that and uh
just wanted to welcome everybody back as
we close out the summer. Thank you.
>> Thank you, Council Member Compos.
» Thank you. Um thank you, Mr. Mc Reynolds
for taking my line about the schools
welcoming back, but keep in mind there's
a lot of activities with coming back to
school. So, a lot of the schools are
going to be having weekend fairs to make
sure the kids and families all know
what's going on in that school year for
their school and parent nights will
start beginning soon. So, come to those
events. Um also the um
tomorrow the housing and homeless
subcommittee meets tomorrow afternoon
and on Monday the first meeting of the
main street move subcommittee will take
place.
» Thank you. And I have a just a few
announcements as well. Um throughout the
break uh happily attended several um
ribbon cutings. Um, one of a few of
those which included um the residents in
grand opening the new hotel off of where
the um off the 101 near Seawward. Um
also attended the uh renovation
reopening ribbon cutting of the um palm
at Buenavventura Assisted Living and
Memory Care as well as the Tifa
chocolate and gelato ribbon cutting um
in downtown. Uh so those were exciting
uh ribbon cutings to attend. um seeing
how how much our community is continuing
to evolve and grow um which is really
great to see. Um coming up, the Merido
Foundation will be also be having their
ribbon cutting this Friday. And then
lastly, I want to ensure and welcome
everyone to the state of the city. Um
that will be coming up September 9th
here at city hall. We'll be outside. Um,
but I wanted to let you all know that
starting at 4:00, we're going to have
local school and local group
performances as well as pop-up
informationational tables. We'll do the
touch a truck again. I'm sure we're
going to have our um PD K9's um out
there and the state of the city address
will start at 5:00. So, you all are
invited and I hope to see you there. and
also want to welcome back students and
just kind of let remind folks like
council member Compost did is that
there's a lot of pedestrians out there
now. So, let's make sure we're paying
attention as we're driving. So, that
concludes my comments. Um, we'll move on
to our city manager communications.
>> Thank you, Madame Mayor, and thank you
for mentioning the state of the city.
We're excited about that. I will also
add that the uh city will be doing a
second presentation on the state of the
city with the chamber of commerce. It is
a ticketed breakfast at the Crown Plaza.
That will be on the morning of September
17th.
Uh we have upcom upcoming street
maintenance starting later this month.
The city will begin slurry seal
maintenance on several major streets
including Thompson Boulevard, San Hon
Road, Main Street, Telephone Road,
Telegraph Road, and Kimell Road. Slurry
Seal is a protective treatment that
helps preserve pavement and can extend
the life of a street by six to eight
years. Work will continue through early
December and will include temporary lane
closures and some nighttime work.
Residents and businesses in affected
areas will receive mailed postcards with
additional information and project
details will also be available on the
city's website.
Our waterfront project notice of
availability and this is the old parking
structure uh site next to the Crown
Plaza on Harbor Boulevard. The notice of
availability period closed on August
3rd. No responses were received to
either the surplus land act notice or
the open space notice. Staff has
submitted the final surplus land act
disposition packet to the state and
anticipates receiving a determination by
midepptember.
Once that process is complete, staff
will work with the council's economic
development subcommittee to create a
community engagement process and
identify the next steps before returning
to the full city council.
Our venttor youth basketball Association
is accepting registration. Uh opens on
Tuesday, August 25th at noon. This is
for players in grades 2 through 8.
Participants will need to register for a
mandatory skills assessment with dates
on September 16, 19, 23, and 26. We are
also looking for volunteer coaches and
paid referees for the upcoming season.
So there's lots of opportunities
available. Registration, skills
assessment, and volunteer and employment
information are all available on the
city's website. And lastly, we'll have
meetings of the city council on August
25th, followed by September 15th. And
that concludes my remarks, mayor. Thank
you.
>> Thank you. We'll move on to public
communications. Um, this is the portion
of the meeting where we have members of
the public to speak on city related
items that are not listed on tonight's
agenda. Under the Brown Act, the city
council cannot discuss or take action on
items raised during this time. And to
help ensure an orderly and and inclusive
process, all speakers must submit their
request to speak at this time. If you
are joining us remotely, please make
sure that you use the raised hand
feature in Zoom. Public communications
is limited to a maximum of 20 speakers
with priority given to in-person
participants. And as a reminder, um I
encourage you to be respectful, um and
encourage you to use the American Sign
Language Applause by gently twisting
your wrists to show um support and um
yeah, support for the for the speakers.
Um at this point, u Mr. City Clerk, do
we have any public comments?
>> Thank you, Mayor. We have 14 speaker
cards for general public comment.
>> Thank you. And because there are more
than 10, um, each speaker will get two
minutes.
I will go ahead and open the public
comment now and you can call the first
speaker. Our first speaker is Dr. Lisa
Klein, followed by Michelle Rosen Bloom.
Hi, good evening. I'm Dr. Lisa Klene and
my work and the trust my patients place
in me revolves around confidentiality
and privacy. That's why protecting
personal information is so important to
me. In 1996, Congress enacted the HIPPA
compliance act establishing federal
standards to protect the privacy and
security of certain health information.
Flock Safety, that's the name of the
company and the manufacturer of the
Flock cameras, raise serious concerns
about privacy, collection, sharing, and
accessibility of personal data. These
systems can expose information about our
private lives and potentially make that
information available.
There's 23 flock cameras in Ventura, 19
in Oxnard, and none in Ohio. The Oxnard
um police chief Bonitez has raised
serious concerns and since February all
flock cameras in Oxnard have been
suspended.
He stated that these cameras were giving
outofstate agencies access to our
information in our community. He's
indicated that this raises concerns
under California law and that he's
convinced that the flock safety has not
adequately rectified these issues. This
is a quote from him. These cameras erode
our public trust and technology is not
the only issue. I implore this community
to follow by example of Chief Bonitez by
doing the right thing. protect our
community, protect our privacy, protect
the public's trust, and most
importantly, let's have a robust
conversation in these chambers before we
allow this techn technology to further
embed our community.
>> Michelle Rosenlum, followed by Henry
Mattisich.
» Uh, good evening, council. Michelle
Rosenlum. Uh I here am to to encourage
you all to put flock on a future agenda.
Uh I think it's really important that we
have this talk about such a powerful
technology that has crept up on us. Uh
it was approved on the consent calendar
many years ago before AI has reached the
level that it has now. I've been doing a
lot of discussion around town and uh
education needs to happen with the
public. A lot of people think that these
are the same cameras that are just red
light cameras. They are not. Um I
haven't gotten the public data yet from
here at the city. But at the county
level, I have I just received 38
documents on flock and a whole audit on
a month-to-month how many searches are
going on. not just out of state, there
was the breach, which is super
concerning and I think violated our care
resolution, by the way. Um, but whether
or not that was addressed, I am seeing
that 7,000 searches a day are happening
from outside counties into Ventura
County. That's including Riverside with
Sheriff Chad Biano and a lot of other
cities. Some of them have been sued by
Bont because they have been improperly
sending that data to other states
breaking California law. So what we're
doing is not just it's not about whether
or not we trust Ventura PD. This data is
going all over the state to every police
station. You're asking us to trust every
police station in the state of
California. There's a lot of issues
around this that we cannot fit within 2
minutes. I've emailed all of you some uh
information and I can send some more. Uh
Chief Dicki has offered to have
conversation about it as well and I'm
happy to take him up on that. But this
to me is a bigger issue than the city
and I hope I urge you all to add this to
a future agenda. Thank you for your
time.
>> Henry followed by Lynn Arnne Brown.
The fourth amendment endows the right of
the people to be secure in their
persons, houses, papers, and effects
against unreasonable searches and
seizures shall not be violated. This
June, the Supreme Court ruled 6 to3 in
Chatry v. US that police sweeping
location data without a warrant is a
search under the fourth amendment and
therefore a violation of these rights.
This applies directly to automatic
license plate readers, just like the
flot cameras we have all over the city.
Every time a car passes a Flock camera,
it is logged whether the driver is a
suspect or an 18-year-old on his way to
a city council meeting. And Flock goes
further than just your license plate.
They have something that they call
vehicle fingerprint technology. It's a
system designed to track your car by
color, dents, and bumper stickers. And
it's the exact kind of draget
surveillance that the Supreme Court just
ruled on. The city's invoices show what
we pay to run it. Roughly $130,000 a
year as Flock keeps hiking up the price
tag on constitutional violations. If you
thought it couldn't get worse, I'm
sorry. Part of a contract with Flock is
the fact that all of the data collected
by a system gets collected into Flock's
nationwide database, one that any law
enforcement agency can pull from. This
system allowed Texas cops to utilize
80,000 cameras to track a woman who
crossed state lines for an abortion
without a permit. There have been
thousands of reports of ICE being able
to racially profile people across state
lines from the comfort of their mom's
basement. An executive of Flock was even
caught watching a community cent's kids
gymnastics and swimming classes for
hours on end. This is a corporation
without accountability. And the
sorry, the [snorts] three cameras in the
Lowe's parking lot and the camera aimed
at the VHS bus stop make me sick due to
the reports of the accountability within
this corporation. Stop giving a private
corporation with private interests
hundreds of thousands of dollars along
with our fourth amendment rights that
could be used making real public safety
with ambulance relief, affordable
housing, and smooth and safe roads. Make public safety by serving the
least among us in love, not by adding
them to a shady public surveillance
database. Thank you,
>> Lynn Arnell Brown, followed by Philip
Fields.
» Good evening. You know, I represent
Satakoy for Sensible Development. We
oppose the 16 pump gas station. Miss
Arnell, sorry. Can you bring down the
mics? Thank you.
>> Thank you. Uh, we oppose the 16 pump gas
station project at the corner of Wells
and Darling called Satakoy East Village.
I stood here over two months ago asking
for a moratorum on the current and
proposed gas station and drive-through
restaurants in the city of Ventura for
the health of the residents in the city.
At the very least, I ask that healthy
setbacks be established. I've heard only
crickets. It's also come to my attention
that Ventur's current development map
development projects map has maintained
a huge discrepancy for the Satakoy East
Village project. It does not mention a
gas station in the description for this
project. This gas station is the sole
reason why the developer wants to build
at that site. This gas station is the
sole reason why the city's east end
water wells are at risk.
That's Ventur's drinking water for
thousands of people. Um
how could [clears throat] this part of
the project be left out of that
description? Is this map legally binding
or is itformational for state and local
officials and citizens? I don't know.
But somebody needs to talk to the
planning department about that. But due
to that error, we believe this gas
station project must be included in a
moratorum. Please do better. Thank you.
Next speaker is Philip Fields, followed
by Casey Rodriguez.
The Ventura Council wants the public to
trust you.
But that is almost impossible when you
look at the deceitful way the community
development staff treats you and the
public.
Example, the Sarcoy development.
the descriptions on every meeting notice
and in the planning website itself is a
deceit
because the primary development there's
a huge gas station not a dog park not
100 housing units a gas station however
at no time does the description mention
a gas station the word gas station
doesn't even appear anywhere in the
description thus the staff is committing
fraud thought and deceit lying
deliberately hiding the purpose of that
development being pushed into a
historically disadvantaged neighborhood.
At this time when we face catastrophic
climate change due to gas and oil and
road surfaces there in our air, our
lungs, our lives.
We need a council we can trust to make
the right decisions. The back stops with
you council and with you city manager.
Don't expect us to trust you or vote for
you when you deceive us. And if you
don't see the receipt, then take control
of your city manager and his assistant.
They have deceived you.
must fire this deceivers.
The
deflocking is nationwide. We need to
deflock
and stop all contracts on data centers.
That is evil. They're coming after us.
Pauses,
hysteria, macartism. We've seen it
before. It's coming back. So, we got to
stop the data centers.
>> Thank you. Next speaker is Casey
Rodriguez, followed by Kevin Daly.
» [clears throat]
>> Haku. Haku. Hello everybody. Wow. It
must be campaign time cuz there's a lot
of new faces in the crowd.
One so new in this space that they were
told sit here so they can see you.
As a resident of district 6, I would
like to remind I speak for myself
tonight. As a resident of district 6 and
one who has been involved in city and
state government policies government for
years, it is an issue to not see running
candidates in these spaces before. How
generine is your dedication to the city,
to the people? I drive by my
neighborhood and I see your face and
first initial of your first name on
signs, but I don't see anything about
community safety.
All I see is you selling yourself in my
view.
If I do vote for a council member, it
will need to be someone who I've seen
committed to this city and absolutely my
district before now. one whom I can put
my full trust in knowing that they will
protect the people. That is why I
withdrew being a true generant leader
thinking of the people first.
Today I saw flock cameras help
shoplifting
doesn't surprise me. Like the police
sheriffs they weren't created to protect
the people but capitalism. It goes
against our rights and the only thing
saving the people are the people. Please
put flock cameras on future agenda. And
thank you Michelle Wenlum for once again
for your courageous call out.
>> Kevin Daly followed by Amber Thompson.
» Fellow city council members and fellow
citizens of Ventura. My name is Kevin
Dailyaly. I am running for city council
in district 6. These are some of the
important issues that are facing the
city of Venture. We have roads,
infrastructure, affordable housing,
unhoused people, and new homes and where
to put the new homes. The biggest issue
facing my area is the roads and
infrastructure. When I talk to people in
the community, they always mention the
roads and the condition of the roads. I
talked to my city council member uh Jim
Duran several years ago about the
condition of the road on my street in
the Montavo area and he said send
pictures in with the areas that need
work and we will send a crew out and
patch them. I did that four times and
received no response. I tried making
phone calls. I sent emails in. No
response. It's been years and years
since my my street in the area that I
live in has had any work on it. In my
campaign for city council, my biggest
issue is the roads and infrastructure.
The people have spoken. When you go
around, that's the most important issue
to them. I have been a resident of the
Montavo area in district 6 since 1984.
I want to give the people in district 6
and Montavo a voice that they have
lacked a lot.
I want to help with issues of
infrastructure. I want to make sure that
the roads are repaired and replaced.
When the city uh annexed the Montavo
area, they promised to put sidewalks in.
That was not done by the city. So, the
city needs to do that. Thank you,
>> Amber Thompson, followed by Kristen
Kesler.
>> Again, please hold your applause so that
we can make sure everyone feels
included. Thank you.
» Good evening, Mayor Sanchez Palasios,
Deputy Mayor Halter, Council members,
and city staff. My name is Amber
Thompson. I'm a Ventura resident and the
community's co-author of the city's care
policy resolution 2025-47.
I'm here tonight to remind you the care
policy exists to prevent local
government from becoming an instrument
for targeting immigrants, LGBTQ plus
people, or those seeking reproductive
health care. Adopted June 26, 2025, the
care policy prohibits city resources
from assisting immigration enforcement
except as Senate Bill 54 permits. It
also affirms Senate Bill 107 and AB
1242, the protections for gender
affirming care and reproductive health
care. Yet, Ventur's taxpayer funded
flock system created searchable vehicle
data through 23 cameras. The city
acknowledges that a vendor- enabled
feature allowed two outofstate agencies
to query Ventur's system without
authorization between March and
September of 2025 and that it can't
determine whether the vehicle data was
returned. The record does not show that
those queries involved immigration or
healthcare enforcement. But if Ventura
cannot determine whether data is
returned, it also cannot credibly
guarantee that the care policy's
protections
occurred in this network. Council, we
cannot outsource civil rights to a third
party vendor. Logistically, please be
aware the flock contract renews on
December 18th. It requires 30 days
notice to cancel, which means a pathway
forward must be settled by November
18th. and the choice to renew the
contract will become a care
accountability decision. Council members
Campos and Schumacher, you carried the
care policy forward. Tonight, I ask you
to jointly place this contract on an
agenda long before that deadline, to
publish the audit and performance data,
to make a motion to refuse renewal of
the contract, to remove every flock
camera in the city, and to enact a
moratorum and an ordinance prohibiting
all AI enabled mass surveillance in the
future. Thank you,
>> Kristen Kesler, followed by Elizabeth
Egert.
» Hi, good evening. Uh, first I'd like to
thank Council Member Halter for your
eulogy on um Jackie. That was very
lovely. Um, I also want to say that I
support a moratorum on gas stations in
the um in the city and I agree with Miss
Arnell Brown that the the process on
being transparent with the Satcoy
development has has not been up to par.
Thank you,
» Elizabeth Eggert.
» Followed by Theres.
Good afternoon. I am here to speak um to
request that the situation with the
flock cameras be put on a future agenda
uh with this council. And that's the end
of my comment. Thank you.
>> Next speaker is Theres followed by
Adrian.
» Hi city council people. This is I'm
Teresa. I'm a longtime resident and I
take the bus to the mall a lot and
there's so much crime going on at the
mall bus stop. They like fights and
drugs and drinking
and people doing messing messing around
in the bathroom and there's so many
homeless people there. We need like a
cop or security guard there like at all
times because if breaks out a lot and
the homeless people like live at the bus
stop, we need someone to tell them
you're not taking a bus. Can you please
leave? And they they even outside of the mall uh the 24-hour
fitness and we need to get rid of them
and find a place for them to go to
besides hang out the bus stop all day
making it making the bus stop look
really bad and terrible for people going
on the bus and off the bus.
We need we need tougher law for the
because by time the cops come
the everybody's gone. Everybody took off
on the bus or they split. We need
somebody to enforce the law though and
people can feel safe going on the bus or
waiting for the bus
for the young and the old.
Thank you.
>> Next speaker is Adrian followed by
Sawyer Cameron.
No PowerPoint today. [snorts]
I'm asking you to place three items on
the next agenda. an ordinance against
data centers, flock camera systems, and
I also asked for an emergency moratorium
on gas stations and drive-throughs for
any project currently shown on the city
development map, no matter what stage in
the approval process. Ultimately,
barring the hire of an expert
consultant, there should be a minimum
setback of 500 ft from sensitive usage
of housing and schools for these
projects and and all the new ones that
come after. Many of you up there have
seen a PowerPoint regarding the proposed
Darling and Wells project in Satakoy
called How to Hide a Gas Station. Its
focus was on the set of drawings that
accompanied the proposal, but I would
say that the city is complicit in hiding
it as well. As of 10:48 this morning
when I took the screenshot, the city's
development map made no mention of a gas
station at this project. One might call
this lack of public notice mere
incompetence, but perhaps danger to
humans in but because of the danger to
humans inherent in such uses, I would
like to call it something else,
administrative malpractice.
At the very least, it exposes in 2026
community development leadership
stunning lack of curiosity as to whether
gas stations and drive-throughs should
continue to be held to the same low
standards as storefrs like yoga shops
and art galleries. If you do not pass a
moratorum that allowed this project and
you allow this project to somehow
continue in its current form without an
expert opinion as to whether it's safe
or not for those living in the proposed
adjacent housing, I would be happy to
upgrade that terminology to something
more accurately describing the real
world consequences of deliberately
allowing exposure to carcinogens with no
minimum safety level. How about
administration administrative
manslaughter?
Thank you.
>> Next speaker is Sawyer Cameron followed
by Wayne Morgan.
» Hi, my name is Sawyer Cameron, a local
student journalist. I'm here on the
matter of flock safety. This year alone,
Ventura has paid $71,000 for this
system. Since 2021, starting with a
trial camera for $25,000,
Ventura has paid $200,000 for these
cameras that we don't even own. These
are all leased cameras. And what did
that $200,000 buy? A system that broke
California law. Our state's license
plate data law bar sharing with
outofstate and federal agencies. Flock
allowed Flock allowed this to happen.
VPD found this out on February 23rd of
this year. Our county sheriff shut off
national sharing in 2023 and has still
got hit with 364,000
queries every single month since. Thank
you,
>> Wayne Morgan. Followed by our final
speaker, Becca Reynolds.
Hello, my name is Wayne Morgan. I
recently saw a poll uh done by uh Clean
Technica that asked registered voters uh
what their top priorities were in the
upcoming midterm elections. Uh the top
three were cost of living, the economy,
uh healthcare. Uh in other polls I saw
uh immigration was also high on the
list. The thing is climate change
affects the cost of living, the economy,
uh health and immigration.
Every day in the news, we see the
effects of climate change, flooding,
droughts, wildfires,
even groups of sharks roaming waters
that were very rare otherwise.
Uh take the farmers for instance. I
watched a few uh farm journals reports
uh that aired on local TVs in like
Nebraska
and
their cattle are dying because of the
heat. They're losing hundreds of pounds
in weight. And because of the droughts
and the floods, hay
is the cost of hay is really high now.
And ranchers are having to cull their
herds because the cost of hay and also
the uh the heat. So these are
economic
effects that we're seeing from climate
change. And I'm telling you, it's not
going to get any better. So, I would
like to see more planning at all levels
of government to transition to a more
sustainable future.
Oh, and by the way, I saw another poll,
couple of polls actually, uh, that
stated that young voters rank climate
change either number one or number two.
Thank you.
>> And our final speaker is Becca Reynolds.
Becca, you should be able to unmute
yourself.
Thank you. Can you hear me?
>> We can. Yes.
>> Thank you so much. Good evening, Mayor,
Dr. Sanchez, Palasios, and council
members. I'm here today to share an
exciting update regarding local
collaborative watershed management
efforts. My name is Beck Reynolds. I was
born and raised in the city of Ventura.
I'm also the new regional programs
coordinator for the Ventura County
Resource Conservation District. In this
role, I serve as the watershed
coordinator for the Ventura River
Wershed Council. The watershed council
for those who are unfamiliar with it is
an open network that has brought
together agencies, water providers, land
managers, community organizations,
agricultural interests, and residents
since 2006. The council exists to
strengthen communication and
collaboration among these diverse
partners so we can better address the
complex cross-jurisdictional challenges
facing our wershed. For the last decade,
the council has been guided by an
outstanding watershed management plan,
which the council created in 2015 to
establish goals, objectives, and
priority actions. This history of
collaboration and coordinated management
helped position the Ventura River
wershed to become one of just five pilot
wersheds selected statewide for the
California Department of Water Resources
new wershed resilience program which
builds on local relationships and
collaborative regional planning while
placing greater emphasis on climate
vulnerability adaptation wershed scale
collaboration and equity and inclusion.
Since 2024, the watershed council and
our broader network of partners has
participated in creating this new
watershed resilience plan. And I'm
pleased to share that the plan is now
complete and has been approved by our
council. The plan can be found on
venturershed.org.
The wershed resilience plan complements
and strengthen stren excuse me
strengthens the 2015 wershed management
plan by providing comprehensive
watershed scale framework for
understanding climate risks and
identifying opportunities for action. It
also provides an even stronger
foundation for the council and its
partners to pursue funding for projects
that can provide multiple benefits
across the wershed. Thank you to the
city and staff for your participation
and I welcome everyone to engage with
our council.
>> Thank you, mayor. That concludes public
comment.
>> Thank you and thank you to all the
speakers tonight. Um we'll go ahead and
move on to actually before moving on,
Mr. City Manager, do you have any
comments in regards to public comments
today?
>> Uh thanks thank you mayor. Just a a few
comments on some of the items the
speakers addressed. Uh there was a lot
of conversation about flock cameras. Um
the city does employ that uh tool
throughout the community as a public
safety measure. the police chief gave a
presentation to the council on March uh
9th uh with a an update on law
enforcement matters in the community and
there's a lot of conversation in that
presentation on flock safety on the data
uh concerns that some of the speakers
mentioned was addressed by the chief
then um that information is available in
the video archive if some of the
speakers would like to listen to that
again it was March 9th um 2026 should
the council desire to hear more
information from the police department
on that matter. Um certainly a future
agenda items um request will we'd be
happy to come forward with another um
presentation with additional
information. Uh wanted to make a note
that the planning map online is updated.
Uh the Wells and Darling project does
show a an eight pump gasoline station uh
as part of the proposed plans. Uh and
then also the speaker who mentioned the
crime concerns at the transportation
center was addressed by Chief Dicki. So
that concludes my comments. Thank you.
>> Thank you for that.
Now we'll go ahead and move on to our
consent items. There are nine consent
items on tonight's agenda for
consideration. Um before we proceed, I
know uh Deputy Mayor Halter, you wanted
to say a few words?
>> Great. Thank you, Madam Mayor. Uh yeah,
I'd just like to speak on item number
two on the consent calendar agenda, the
second reading of the ordinance
pertaining to housing element project
19. I'm going to recuse myself due to
conflict of interest. I own a
residential rental property, a triplex
with the address 1188 and 1190 Bavista
Street and 137 North Hemlock Street, as
well as a commercial property at 2235
North Ventura Avenue. These properties
are located within or near the area
affected by the proposed ordinance.
Since this is a consent calendar item
that is not being pulled, uh I intend to
remain uh on the dis as allowed by FPPC
regulations, but I would ask that the
city clerk note my recusal in the
minutes. Thank you.
>> Thank you for that. So, at this time, um
if there are any items to be pulled or
no votes to be noted or there any
questions? Council member Schumacher.
>> Mayor, I have a comment on four.
>> Okay. Council member Mangon,
>> comments on three.
» Anyone else?
Okay. If not, um let's go ahead with
comments on three and then we'll go to
comments on four.
>> Thank you, Madam Mayor. Uh I just wanted
to give kudos to this council, but more
importantly to staff for creating and
administering this program. It's in
consent. Most people don't read consent.
Um, but I think it's important to
highlight some uh some of the uh
specifics with this consent item. So, we
had 229,000
remaining in HUD funds that this council
approved for staff to create this rental
assist emergency rental assistance
program. Um, there was 73 households,
190 individ individuals who were kept
housed or received this rental
assistance. 75% of those served are ex
are considered extremely lowincome
households. Um six or 68% of those
served fall into the vulnerable C
categories meaning they have chronic
illness, they're seniors, youth with
health risk uh or they are at most at
risk of being homeless. Uh there was
fraud fraud controls in place. This is
constantly an issue that people are
concerned with public funds. Um there
was 37 attempted f fraudulent
applications that were caught before any
funds were distributed through this
program. So kudos to staff for that as
well. And um but you know there's 301
increase to receive this emergency
rental assistance program. We used all
229,000
and we were able to help only 73
households which I think is a massive
impact. But I I think it just goes to
show um really the concerns we have in
this community with some people uh
living paycheck to paycheck and maybe
not even being able to pay their rent.
So again, thanks to staff for creating
and uh administering this program.
Thanks.
>> Thank you for that. Um Council Member
Schumacher, item four.
>> Thank you, Mayor. Um I just wanted to
also uh thank the staff for this very uh
intentional
um uh uh effort. Ivor Davis, Mr. Ivor
Davis was uh as many of you all know was
named many knew him as an the unofficial
mayor of Ventura. I met him once um at a
at the um the museum and this man has
just lived an extraordinary life. So, I
just wanted to say thank you for really
considering and and and making sure that
we have this unnamed alley named after
Mr. Ivor Davis because that is such a a
way to honor him his contributions to
the city. So, I appreciate that.
[laughter]
>> Thank you for that. Um, seeing no other
questions, comments, or items being
pulled, we'll go ahead and take any
public comment on close um consent agend
agenda items.
>> Thank you, mayor. We have one speaker on
consent items, Philip Fields on items 3,
4, 8, and 9.
[clears throat]
It's a sadness to see that the
chair diamond
of that department has decimated its own
staff.
We have lost an experienced worker,
housing worker, Leona,
and it's never ending the nightmare.
The back stops with you, city manager.
You're going to have to answer for the
wrongs that Diamond is doing. the
community, the unhoused community,
families of low income that they're
desperate for resources
and diamond and your other assistance
have made sure that
this is not trickling down to them.
So I do not know if you live in the moon
or on planet earth but we would like to
see concrete corrective actions before
too little too late.
uh the the [snorts] need for more
resources
and the most important thing is for this
housing problems.
A lawyer that helps these
unfortunate
people
to voice for their rights, their housing
rights that has never been provided by
our city.
We've come short.
We haven't taken action.
And this administration
has begun and it's about to end its
term. And I see no action.
When will you guys take action? You want
to gain our trust, but you got to show
us you're worthy of that trust. You got
to show us actions.
With actions there comes change. There
comes a hope for these lowincome
families, these unhoused families,
people that don't have the resources for
x or yz reasons of life
and uh if you don't act
as our mayor talks about housing run on
housing and has not delivered but
evictions.
She's only delivered evictions of
veterans,
gay people,
Latino people that they've come to this
city hall and she just brushed them
aside
by her one vote. It cost them their
housing
living conditions.
What can we tell to those children that
find themselves with their families
unhoused? Thank you.
>> What can you tell them?
>> That concludes public comment on consent
items.
>> Okay. Thank you. Um so with that, we'll
go ahead and uh
take up consent items
if anybody wants to
>> move to approve consent calendar.
>> Second.
>> Thank you. So we'll go ahead and vote on
that um with Deputy Mayor Halter's
recusal on that on that item.
>> Okay. You can enter your vote now while
recording that recusal on item two.
All votes have been entered, seven eyes,
and the motion carries.
Thank you. We'll go ahead and move on to
our public hearing items. Item number 10
is the ordinance to amend municipal code
for Victoria Avenue corridor plan and
development code amendments, banking and
financial services drive-thru uses.
We'll go ahead and confirm all the
noticing requirements, Mr. City Clerk.
>> Thank you, Mayor. Yes, this item has
been adequately noticed.
>> Great. Thank you. I'll go ahead and open
the public hearing and then invite staff
to make their presentation.
» Good evening. Thank you, Mayor Council.
Um Rachel Diamond, community development
director. Um I have with me AJ
Burnernhard, senior planner, who is
going to make a presentation about um
our first of two items related to
amendments to the Victoria Avenue
Development Code.
» Good evening, council members. Uh the
first item before you is an amendment to
the Victoria Avenue development code and
is specifically tailored towards banking
and financial services and related
drive-thru uses.
I'll start with a quick project
description. This is a council initiated
zoning code amendment. It's specifically
targeted at banking and financial
services uses. And under the proposed
amendment, it would allow for the
occupancy of existing legally
established drive-through uses. It would
remove the use permit requirement
and it would ensure that uh banking and
financial services uses occupying
legally established drive-through uses
aren't required to comply with the
current drive-through regulations that
are in place within the development
code.
A bit of background and history on the
proposed amendments.
Drive-throughs were prohibited when the
corridor code was adopted in 2009 with
the intention to support a more walkable
and pedestrianoriented corridor. The
regulations were amended in 2021 to
allow drive-through uses in certain
areas subject to prescriptive
development standards.
However, since the adoption of the code
in 2020 in 2009 and the related
amendments in 2021, several
drive-through facilities have since been
vacated, and the current regulations
limit their reuse and/or require
additional permitting and site upgrades
for them to be usable once again. The
proposed amendment before you responds
to council discussion at the June 11,
2026 economic development subcommittee
meeting and is supported by the city's
economic development division.
For some context, I've identified a
number of banking and financial services
uses with drive-through facilities that
have vacated the corridor since the code
was adopted in 2009. This includes City
National Bank at 1220 South Victoria
Avenue. A photo of that bank is on the
right hand side of the screen. The site
was recently acquired by American
Riviera Bank, who plans to open their
first Ventura branch in the near future.
Second is Washington Mutual at 1860
South Victoria Avenue. This was
repurposed as a cannabis dispensary.
Third is First Bank at 5808 Telephone
Road. The bank relocated to the Ventura
Gateway Center down the street and the
current space including the drivethru
facility sits vacant. The final one is
the Union Bank at 789 South Victoria
Avenue. Their space was split into two
units, half of which was leased to
Berkshire Hathaway and the remaining
half, including the drive-through
facility, still sits vacant today.
Staff reviewed the proposed amendment
and felt that the amendments before you
support attraction and retention
specifically pertaining to banking and
financial services uses by facilitating
the reuse of existing legally
established drive-through facilities. It
also ensures that the existing
drive-through facility regulations re uh
remain in place for all other uses. A
site of the now vacant First Bank is on
the screen to your right.
Staff took the proposed amendments to
the planning commission on July 22nd of
2026 and the commission voted 4 zero to
recommend city council's adoption of the
proposed amendments. They found that the
amendments were clear, strategic, and
narrowly tailored and they supported
commercial investment and adaptive reuse
within the Victoria Avenue corridor.
Following that hearing, staff made one
clerical change that did not impact the
planning commission's recommendation.
The recommendation supports the city
council's strategic priority of economic
vitality and development.
In conclusion, staff recommends that the
city council conducts a public hearing,
introduces and approves the first
reading of the ordinance, sets a second
reading and adoption of the ordinance at
a forthcoming city council meeting, and
find that the ordinance is exempt from
the California Environmental Quality Act
pursuant to the Common Sense Exemption.
With that, I'd be happy to answer any
questions.
Thank you,
colleagues. Any questions at this time?
Um, Council Member Schumacher.
» Thank you, Mayor. Hold on one second.
Finishing my notes. Thank you, staff,
for your presentation. I just have a
couple questions in regards to um Can
you go to slides three, please?
you had said that um there needed to or
uh drive-throughs were abandoned because
of certain additional permitting and
upgrades. Can you describe those
upgrades?
>> Yeah, I'm not saying that the facilities
were abandoned because of the
development standards being in place.
However, the development standards were
in place when existing facilities were along the corridor. However, since
that code adopted, the four banks on the
following screen vacated the corridor
and now we're left with a position where
there's drive-through facilities that
are more difficult to use because of the
development standards in place today.
>> So, what upgrades are we talking about?
Can you give me an example? Yeah,
there's specific requirements related to
queuing, stacking, uh drive-through, uh
length, uh so on and so forth,
oftentimes of which the current
drive-through facilities might not be
able to be or comply with those more
prescriptive uh regulations that are in
place today.
>> Is there any any of those upgrades that
um inhibit any type of ADA regulations?
» I'm not aware of any off the top of my
head.
And then can you go to slide four?
You had said that the Washington Mutual
turned into a cannabis shop.
>> Correct.
>> Um so this wouldn't be included in the
or this amendment wouldn't include them,
right?
>> That drive-through facility still
remains. So theoretically, the cannabis
shop could vacate that space and if a
bank decided to release that space and
that drive-through facility was still in
place, then they could repurpose that
facility for their use.
>> Currently, it wouldn't because they're
not a bank. Correct.
>> This amendment allows for any
drive-through facility to be repurposed
for a banking and financial services
use.
>> That's what I was.
>> Okay. Thank you.
>> Thank you. Any other questions? If not,
I'll go ahead and um take any public
comment at this time.
>> Thank you, mayor. There's three speakers
on item 10. Our first speaker is
Michelle Martinich, followed by Philip
Fields and Stephanie Caldwell. Michelle
and speakers will have three minutes.
>> Thank you.
>> Hi, my name is Michelle Martinich. I'm
the chief financial officer at American
Riviera Bank. With us today also is Jeff
Divine who is our president and CEO. I
first want to say thank you to AJ. He's
done a lot of research on this. Thank
you to Doug for returning our phone
call. And thank you to everybody else
who's involved with this project who's
looked at it because it is extremely
narrow. Um, so we appreciate that. Um,
we are I don't know if you know American
Riviera Bank. We were formed 20 years
ago and we are based out of Santa
Barbara. We are still based out of Santa
Barbara. We have gone up to St. Louis
Abyispo back in 2018. And so our
farthest north branch is Pasa Robas and
then we have eight branches. Uh,
Pasiroas uh, working our way all the way
to Monaceto. And we are really excited
to come to Ventura. One of the things we
believe in is being involved in our
community. We have an employee who works
in our Monaceto branch who is very
excited that we're opening a Ventura
branch because it's much closer to her
home. So, one of the things too, if
you're not familiar, is when we develop
our properties, they're unique to the
communities. It is not at all like
walking into a cookie cutter Chase or
Bank of America. Every single one of our
branches is unique and it's beautiful.
And believe it or not, people like to
come into the bank. So, um I know at
planning they said nobody goes into a
bank. um their dogs come in to get dog
biscuits, them and their kids come in to
get treats, and our employees know who
you are. So, um it's really a hometown
feel. So, we're very excited to do that.
All that being said, the drive-thru is
very important for ADA reasons. Um
whether somebody has a permanent need or
a temporary need, if it's a hot day like
today and you just don't want to get out
of your car, the drive-thru is a great
option. If you have sleeping children in
the backseat of your car, this
drive-thru is a lifesaver. um if you're
temporarily unable to get around really
well or permanently, it is it is a
lifesaver. So, our intention is to have
only use two lanes. There's three lanes
there now. One would be a drive up open
during business hours. Um it's going to
serve more complicated transactions. The
other one is going to be used as a drive
up ATM. This is a huge safety factor.
It's Friday night. It's 7:00 at night.
Maybe it's 10:00 at night. I'm headed
out. I don't want to get out and stand
in front of there. I don't want to be
doing my transaction where I'm exposed
and it's unsafe. So having the
opportunity to drive up and do my ATM
transaction in the safety of my car is
extremely important. Um and we want to
make sure we can do that too. So for us
it's serving our customers, serving the
community of Ventura and keeping
everybody safe and keeping our banking
accessible. So thank you again. Um we
appreciate it. Thanks a lot.
>> Next speaker is Philip Fields followed
by Stephanie Caldwell.
Let's take Stephanie Caldwell.
» Good evening, council. Welcome back. Uh
my name is Stephanie Caldwell. I'm the
president CEO of the Ventura Chamber of
Commerce and I am here in full support
of this item. Um, American Riviera Bank
approached the chamber months ago
talking about the fact that they were
looking to expand in either Ventur in
Ventur County. Uh, and at the time they
were looking at either Ventura or
Oxnard. And I worked very closely with
the economic development team to make
sure that they did not skip over Ventura
and go straight to Oxnard. So we are
thrilled that their first foray into
Ventura County is right here in Ventura.
And it's it's this type of um policy
that makes a lot of sense to look at
again uh because it is going to benefit
economic development. And so I just am
in full support of this and also just
want to again thank American Riviera
Bank for their investment in Ventura and
we're looking forward to a very very
long and um productive partnership with
them here in Ventura. Thank you.
>> Okay. Uh final speaker, Philip Fields.
Last chance.
All right. I don't see him. Mayor, that
concludes public comment on item 10.
>> Great. Thank you for that. Um I'll go
ahead and bring it back to council for
any um final questions before closing
the public hearing.
Okay, seeing no questions or final
comments, I'll go ahead and close the
priv hearing. Um and I will need a
motion on this item.
Council member Durant.
>> First of all, I want to say thank you to
staff. I want to say thank you for the
economic subcommittee. I want to say
thank you to our economic development
department, everybody involved for
putting this together. Thank you,
Stephanie, for your involvement with
that as well. Um, what this is what
we're talking about. Um, rethinking
things to make sure that we could get
business so we can make sure we take
care of businesses. And I just really
appreciate everybody's effort. So, I
would move to uh approve staff's
recommendation.
>> I was like to second that.
>> Thank you. I do see some names popping
up. Um Council Member Mcynolds and then
C Deputy Mayor Halter.
>> Yeah, I I just wanted to thank Michelle
for uh making the investment in Ventura.
So, thank you very much,
>> Deputy Mayor Halter. I also just want to
one uh thank staff uh thank the chamber
for being a part of this in the
community and knowing that this is about
economic vitality and doing the things
that really suit the needs of our
citizens today and the f future. Knowing
that uh for people that have mobility
issues or they're taking care of young
kids or perhaps even um disabled, you
know, that it's a great alternative.
It's not like we're parked in front of
fast food or some other amenities where
the cars line up. It's usually a pretty
quick and convenient thing. I want to
thank American Riviera Bank for choosing
Ventura. You chose right. This is a city
that's on the move and is really going
to create a great future for all of us,
especially the next generation. So,
thanks for being a part of that and I
hope that the motion passes and um I was
very honored to be able to work with you
and to make sure we got this to council
as quickly as possible.
» Okay. Um seeing all those are the
comments. Um, there's a motion and a
second. We can go ahead and vote on the
item, please.
>> Okay. You can enter your vote now on
item 10.
>> All votes have now been entered.
10 eyes. Uh, excuse me, seven eyes. And
the motion carries.
>> Woo. Three new council members.
[laughter]
>> Thank you.
We'll go ahead and move on to item
number 11. Um, the ordinance to amend
municipal code for Victoria Avenue
corridor plan and development code to
allow general retail uses up to 140,000
square ft as a permitted use in the T5.3
zone. And at this time, I'll go ahead
and let staff do their presentation.
>> Thank you, mayor, deputy mayor, council
members, u members of the community,
those of you watching at home. U Rachel
Diamond, community development director.
Um, once again, I'll turn it over to AJ
Burnernhard, senior planner, who will
talk about our second amendment to the
Victoria Avenue development code. This
time, um, specifically about retail
uses.
>> And let me officially open the hearing.
[laughter]
Now you can present. Thank you.
>> I'll start with the project description.
Again, this is a council initiated
zoning code amendment. The amendment
would uh specifically target the urban
center zone or T5.3 zone in our Victoria
Avenue corridor plan and development
code. And the amendment would allow for
general retail uses up to 140,000 square
ft.
A bit of background and history on the
proposed amendment. Uh general retail
uses under our current code are limited
or capped at 100,000 square feet. This
is the only location specific retail
size cap in the city today.
The limit was established during a time
when the former Kmart Shopping Center at
1739 South Victoria Avenue was being
redeveloped and the limit was
incorporated in the original code
adopted in 2009.
The amendment before you was initiated
by city council as a future city uh as a
future agenda item on April 28th of 2026
and it passed with a 4-2 vote. While
that original request was to remove the
cap in its entirety, staff is
recommending a 140,000 foot cap to
balance the council's direction with the
intent of the original retail size
limitation established for the corridor.
To give you some context, there are
three primary sites that have the T5.3
zone boundary. This includes the
Victoria Avenue Center, which includes
the anchor tenants of Walmart and Trader
Joe's, the Montalo Square Shopping
Center, which includes the anchor
tenants of Ralph's and LA Fitness, and
the Island View Apartments, which are
just south of the Montalo Square
Shopping Center.
For some additional context, we've
identified a number of uh large large
format retailers on the left side of the
screen and the typical store sizes on
the right side of the screen. I'll allow
you a moment to review the information.
Staff analyzed the proposed amendments
and found that the uh amendments were uh
specifically tailored to general retail
uses and prescriptive only to the T5.3
zone. We felt that the amendments were
consistent with the corridor plans
principles and policies, specifically
those supporting economic development
efforts. Relatedly, there's no changes
to the uh development standards which
include requirements related to building
form or pedestrian oriented design
requirements and we felt that that
140,000 foot cap maintained a limitation
on some of the larger format retail
stores.
staff took the proposed amendments
before the planning commission on July
22nd and the planning commission voted
3-1 to recommend rejection of the
proposed ordinance. Specifically, they
found it was inconsistent with the
long-term vision for the Victoria Avenue
corridor plan and the related emphasis
on mixeduse neighborhoods serving
commercial and smaller format retail
uses. Second, they expressed a need for
additional public engagement and
expressed some concerns about traffic
impacts.
Following that meeting, staff met with
our e economic development team who've
provided the following considerations.
First, Victoria Corridor residents spent
an estimated $3.7 million at five Oxnard
superstores. These include two uh two
Oxnard Walmarts, Costco, Sam's Club, and
Target. Relatedly, Victoria Corridor
residents spend $13.4 million on grocery
and general merchandise outside of
Ventura. These stats demonstrate an
opportunity to capture that spending
outside of the city into the city of
Ventura.
Relatedly, there's a relatively low
vacancy rate along the Victoria corridor
when compared to the citywide vacancy
rate and even countywide vacancy rate.
This demonstrates it's difficult to
capture that market when there's
restrictions in place um related to
making retail expansion a bit more
difficult.
Next, economic development staff
estimates that there's an uh up to
$82,000 in anticipated new annual sales
tax revenue that could be generated from
a 20 to 40,000t retail store being added
to the Victoria Avenue corridor.
In conclusion, there's more shopping
choices closer to home means that we can
keep money local and with more
competition in the market, this can mean
better prices for the residents.
Staff also met with our public works
transportation division. We confirmed
that there was no recent quarter-wide
traffic analysis and that traffic
analyses would continue to be evaluated
on a projectby project basis.
The recommendations in the report
support city council strategic priority
of economic vitality and development.
And it's in conclusion it's staff's
recommendation that the city council
conduct a public hearing, introduce and
approve the first reading of our
ordinance, set the second reading and
adoption of the ordinance at a future
city council meeting, and find that the
proposed ordinance is exempt from SQA
pursuant to the common sense exemption.
With that, I'd be happy to answer any
questions.
>> Thank you for that presentation. Um, any
comments from my colleagues? Council
member Compost. Um,
>> I had a question on slide six.
Bullet point three
says no changes to development standards
building form.
It's on
no changes to development standards
building form or pedestrianoriented
design requirements.
What does that mean about
pedestrianoriented design requirements?
Yeah, within the Victoria Avenue
corridor code, it breaks down the zoning
designations into three transct
districts. And those transct districts
have very prescriptive requirements as
to how the buildings are designed,
placed on the site, parked, so on and so
forth. The proposed amendments before
you don't change any of those uh
requirements. Rather, they only change
the use table where we would allow for a
larger format retail store. So when
that's when that store goes in, are is
the parking lot going to be corrected so
it's more pedestrian friendly?
>> That would be part of staff's analysis.
>> Okay. Thank you,
>> Deputy Mayor Halter.
>> Great. Thank you, Madam Mayor. Thank
you, staff, for the presentation. Um
just um uh I know uh this whole issue
for me is all about leakage out of our
city and what sales where people are
driving to and uh the uh revenue stream
that's not present and the inconvenience
that people uh go through just to go to
where they want to go and shop. So look
at that. But then uh this this chart's
intriguing. Uh I didn't realize once it
gets over about 100,000 square feet. I
didn't realize which stores what the
average store size was. So, I'm curious.
A lot of the stores that you immediately
think of that would want to be in
Ventura that um this might apply to uh
are actually larger than what we're
recommending tonight. So, is there a
certain type of store that we're
thinking is it more of a a grocery store
type thing that would fit the 140,000
versus say 160,000?
Thanks for the question. I mean there um
the reality is that looking at the
existing spaces that are there today,
140,000 would accommodate expansion of
some of our existing uses into adjacent
um spaces, but it wouldn't allow for um
you know the creation of a new building
over 140,000 which kind of tends to roll
into like the mega big box size spaces.
So this still while a much larger size
for retail use still keeps us in a the
smaller version of a big box retail.
>> And one final question, thank you for
that. And that's kind of what I I was
thinking uh where we're going is um but
for instance like at Costco um I'm not
really a shopper but the few times I go
there I see a lot of people I know and
um so I'm curious do we have any idea
what the statistics are the number how
much of the sales in Oxnard are actually
to Ventura residents.
>> We can try to get that number from you.
We have our member uh representative
with economic development in the back
and I can ping her and see if uh we can
get
>> they know by chance. I think that's
available, but I can't remember what
that number was.
>> Yeah, we'll try to get it for you. Okay.
Thank you.
>> Thank you, Council Member Mcrenolds.
>> Thank you, Madam Mayor. Uh, just one
question. The Kmart closed in January of
2008. Uh, in that 19 almost 19 years,
have we had anybody uh apply to tenant
the that vacant space?
>> Space is currently occupied by Walmart.
in order to comply with the cap. I think
their stores just under 100,000 square
feet. Um there is a portion I think it's
in the 20 to 30,000 foot range that's
remained vacant since uh Walmart's
occupancy of that space.
>> So that 30,000 ft in the last 19 years
have we had anybody apply to take that
30,000
>> relying on my past experience. I was
actually a retail broker for quite some
time. my understanding that there was
some potential deals on the table, but
due to the challenges with retail
leasing, the related restrictions that
come with signing a tenant like Walmart
to the space, uh, and and other other
challenges related to permitting, no
deals ever come to fruition.
>> So, it's just been vacant for 19 years.
>> Correct.
>> Thank you.
Seeing no other comments from
my colleagues, I'll go ahead and um
invite any public comment if we have any
on this item.
>> Thank you, mayor. We have three speakers
on this item. Our first uh speaker is
Kristen Kesler, followed by Philip
Fields and Stephanie Caldwell.
» Hi, good evening. Um, this happens to be
my neighborhood. I live right behind the
Montal Square Shopping Center um near
the Island View Apartments. Um, this
does not make sense to me for a variety
of reasons. one. Um, thank goodness that
the ordinance would not permit a Costco
there. Um, but what would go there? Um,
I what could go there? A Home Depot. Is that really that necessary? Another
Target. We We have two already. A
Lowe's. We already have one um in
Ventura by the mall. Um, the other
concern I have is traffic. that
intersection right now is really gnarly.
Um if you try to cross Victoria,
um it can be uh dangerous. So, uh I'm
not comfortable with potentially even
more traffic at this intersection. I
feel like we cannot always make things
more pedestrian friendly. I realize that
doesn't work in every case, but I feel
like if if this were to pass, we would
really be going um in the opposite
direction. And so I um I would urge you
not to um vote to change this. Thank
you.
>> Next speaker is Philip Fields,
>> followed by Stephanie Caldwell.
My concerns are similar to the previous
speaker.
Indeed, one of the problems is safety
and traffic.
When it's uh the grid, heavy traffic,
then it's very dangerous for a class of
disabled, for example,
and uh for mothers with baby carriages,
etc.
And uh I would urge you excitedly to listen
to the previous speaker. She's very
clear about it. Um I support that and
you can make a difference as a council
in order to make that a reality and
listening
to a real person. That's letting you
know what the real problem is.
And please do not just
hear a sound and then forget the sound.
Her place are very clear
and that's reflective of most of the
community. Uh please do that when you
decide to cast your vote
because at this time your vote is what
you're going to be known for. Not your
flowery words, your vote.
And if you cast against most of the
community,
you can be sure you're not going to come
back to the council.
But if you listen to the plea of the
most of the community
uh we love you to come back.
So it is you who decides that
and then uh the the Victoria one uh
indeed it's very difficult
uh
for whatever reason for good or for bad
the increase of traffic
it's reflective on our health
has consequence on our health, our
lifestyle,
our lives and that of the vulnerable
children too. And it is you who must
have that wisdom,
not me. Because I'm not casting a vote.
It is you, each one of you with your
vote who's going to make a difference in
the lives of those children, in the
lives of those mothers,
in the level of stress of the community
because it's the community who's coming
to you at this
critical time to ask you a solution, to
ask you to be wise when you cast that
vote.
>> Thank you. And our next speaker is
Stephanie Caldwell.
Good evening again. Speaking of the
mothers and children, imagine if the
mothers and children of the Montalvo
area and the rest of Ventura didn't have
to drive into Oxnard to do the type of
shopping that they could do right on the
Victoria corridor. When we talk about
economic development, this is exactly
the type of policy once again that we're
talking about. making it possible for
business to consider Ventura and to grow
in Ventura and expand in Ventura rather
than having to leave Ventura and go to
another city.
A few short weeks ago, you all took a
vote not to put an additional sales tax
on the ballot. We, the chamber,
supported that vote significantly
because we believe that we need to grow
our revenues naturally and this is how
you do that. You saw the presentation up
to $82,000
I believe in additional potential sales
tax revenue for one of these locations.
I would actually dovetail on what coun
uh deputy mayor Halter said. Why have
the cap at all? We don't know what we
don't know. And when someone comes into
the city of Ventura, having the least
amount of barriers possible for them to
be able to consider our city is the best
option for them. Once the barriers are
already there and there's another
community that doesn't have that same
barrier, they are skipping right over
us. We call that getting fired before we
get hired. So doing things that make us
attractive for these businesses. Let's
just say this is the Walmart shopping
center. Yes, traffic is bad right now,
but part of this could be traffic
improvements. Part of this could be
reimagining that flow in that parking
lot. And again, you know, when costs are
going up, gas is at an all-time high,
groceries never came down the way they
were promised to with this
administration, everyone's looking to
stretch their dollar a little farther.
Giving our Ventur residents that option
so they don't have to get on the freeway
and go somewhere else. Please, I support
this. I urge you to support it as well.
Thank you.
>> Thank you, mayor. That concludes public
comment on item 11.
>> Thank you. So, I'll go ahead and um
bring it back to council for any final
questions.
>> Uh mayor, apologies. One more speaker
card was submitted, Casey Rodriguez.
>> Okay.
» I just wanted to add my voice along with
my neighbor who actually live in
district 6. I would oppose this
u making any changes except for the fact
if we were to allow Walmart to become a
super Walmart. Thank you.
That conclude con concludes public
comment on item 11.
>> Thank you.
I'll go ahead and bring it back to
council for final questions before
closing the public hearing.
Uh Council Member Mcrenolds followed by
Council Member Compos.
>> Uh thank you, Madame Mayor. Uh so I had
a question regarding the the traffic
comments that were brought up. So, if
the proposal is to expand, uh, are they
required to make, uh, improvements
regarding traffic or I guess that's an
is that an analysis that the community
development staff would then require.
>> They're just uh expanding into the
vacant space. It would be like leasing a
space. The use would be permitted by,
right? There would be no additional
traffic analysis. The shopping center
already supports that largest format
store. um and they would be able to
occupy the space.
>> Thank you.
» There. Yeah, [laughter]
there we go. Uh Council Member Compost
followed by Council Member Duran.
>> Yes. I would like to know if there can
be a a stipulation or a requirement on I
don't know if it would go to the new
business or to the property owner or if
it's the city's responsibility,
but that parking lot is not ADA
friendly. There aren't sidewalks from
the stores out to the street or across
the parking lot. So, if I go there and
come off the bus and into Walmart, when
I leave Walmart and try to return and
cross the street back to the bus, I have
cars coming at me from all directions
because I'm in a wheelchair with no
sidewalks. Same for women with young
children. So, I think there needs to be
some
something that we can do to require
ADA upgrades in those kind of
situations.
Is that possible?
>> It's certainly something we can look at.
We'd have to look at I mean obviously
there's a number of different scenarios
if um a business is just expanding into
their neighboring uh the neighboring um
space there and let's say not doing very
much except punching a door. Um there's
limited triggers for um ADA upgrades.
There are some um and as they start to
do more and more it starts triggering
more improvements. So, if you're
building a new building, for example,
that's kind of the opposite end of that
spectrum, you're going to end up with
complete ADA compliance, right? If you
start re- um paving the parking lot, for
example, you're going to need to have
ADA parking spaces in the correct
locations and that sort of thing. So, it
really just depends. Um, I' I'd have to
defer to our city attorney on ways that
we could further trigger ADA
requirements beyond what ADA itself
requires and what the California
Building Code requires
um, and how we could potentially wrap
that in. So, I don't
have an exact answer for you for how we
could facilitate that. It sounds like
you're most interested in sidewalks to
the right of way and ADA access in that
way for pedestrians. Is that accurate?
>> Yes. Pedestrian access in total, but the
ADA could be used, but I know I've seen
women walking three kids in the parking
lot and cars come dangerously close to a
child. We have to think about who's
responsible there and
what we can do to make it safer.
>> Yeah, it's an interesting question just
thinking about obviously there's kind of
the sidewalk access to the street is one
piece, but once you're in a parking lot
um and you know I think we've all
experienced this where you park your car
kind of in the the sea of parking spaces
um and you're just walking in the travel
aisle to actually get to um to the front
door. Um that's not an atypical
situation where people are having to
travel kind of mid um mid drive aisle
because we don't have um actual
pedestrian access from every parking
space to um the front door of a building
or any accessible space. So that one is
a little bit more challenging. Um and
we've seen that with a lot of projects
where we've tried to help people kind of
move pedestrians to the front door
through a sea of parking. Um, so that
one is kind of a much larger discussion
about our parking lot standards and
having, you know, close proximity to
access. That's not something that we
have in place today. Um, and goes a
little bit beyond ADA, actually. Um, so
I'm I'm sorry to think out loud here. I
just want to try to help figure out how
we can get there. I don't know if the um
city attorney has thoughts on kind of
further triggers to ADA requirements or
if there's the ability to do that or
not.
and Council Member Compos, I think on a
project by project basis, I mean, we can
work with staff and I think what's in
front of you is just expanding the
zoning, but I think the the idea of what
we can do from an ADA standpoint is
something we can definitely work with
staff um as things come up or
anticipating as applications come up.
This is not this is just a zone change,
just adding um square footage. So, this
isn't property specific, but it is uh as
things do come up, we can certainly work
with staff.
>> And I I think it would behoove us to
look at safety issues
in all of our parking lots like that,
all the commercial parking lots that
don't have sidewalks between the rows of
cars to get to and from the store create
a big safety issue. And it's something
along the way we could look at. I
appreciate your thinking out loud on
that. Thank you.
>> Yeah. And I think, you know, one of the
this is absolutely and not to punt this
to later, but this is absolutely
something that we can look in much
greater detail in as we work on an
update to our municipal code,
specifically the zoning ordinance as a
followup to the general plan adoption.
Um, so looking at ways to improve
safety, access are all things that we
can take a look at and try to
incorporate into that new set of
regulations. That being said, that's a
few years away from completion.
>> Thank you.
Council Member Duran,
followed by Deputy Mayor Halter.
>> Thank you, Madam Mayor. Uh, just a quick
question to be clear. Um, are there any
other areas in the entire city that has
a cap for retail?
>> No.
>> So, this is the only area in all of the
city and I'm guessing that we went for
140. Um, so we added the the 40,000
because of the size of the building
that's there.
>> Correct. Okay. Thank you,
>> Deputy Mayor Halter, followed by Council
Member Mangon.
>> Um, I believe that this is true. It may
be validated or not. Is uh I know as
long as we're looking at reuse of an
existing building and you're not doing
improvements other than some basic TDIs,
is [snorts] there much teeth that we
have as a city to encourage the type of
improvements that we've been hearing
about that we all know we need?
I think in our project reviews, it's the
scope of the project kind of triggers
the level of upgrades that we apply to
the improvements. So, if you're starting
to touch the parking lot and we kind of
bring in the ADA triggers and look at
the park parking lot and its totality.
If you're touching the landscaping, we
kind of reopen the landscape pallet. Um,
anytime we have the the opportunity to
do a design review or kind of look at
the shopping center holistically, it
provides an opportunity to refresh and
apply those standards. In my opinion,
this ordinance really allows for
investment in the corridor that could
trigger those timing mechanisms to to
facilitate future upgrades of the
center. Whereas under the current
standards, it's been vacant for 19 years
and we haven't seen those um those
improvements made. Knowing how costly it
is to open up a business, not mention a
retail outlet of some type, the most
cost effective thing that somebody can
do to open up is nothing. Basically,
rent the space and put something in it.
Is that not correct?
because then nothing gets triggered. You
don't touch the landscape. You don't
touch the parking lot. You use an
existing building. It doesn't get us any
further ahead. I'm not recommending
that. But that's what my experience has
been. You know, a lot of the retail
redevelopment that we see citywide,
right, are based upon retailers trying
to maximize their profits. And in order
to do so, it requires shifts to the way
that the store is oriented, the way the
parking lot's oriented, how they
maximize the outdoor sales area, so on
and so forth. So, change in retail
market conditions theoretically should
trigger upgrades sitewide um in order to
monetize and maximize profits long term.
>> I would agree. Um vacancy rate, do we
have an idea? I think you mentioned it.
The vacancy rate on Victoria, I
>> think it was 3.6%.
>> Okay. And that's by square footage
calculated by square footage or by
>> uh I don't have the I don't have the the details.
>> Okay. Um, and regardless of what size
somebody wants to turn a building into
or parcel into, the review that would go
on would be inclusive of number of
parking spaces versus num amount of
square foot of retail space available if
I remember right. Correct.
>> Correct. Okay. So, there's going to be a
natural limit when we take those and
drop it into AI or whatever we want to
do and calculate. There's going to be a
natural maximum of what you can do. This
isn't the same as uh building density
issues that we have with housing. This
is there's no such thing when it comes
to commercial
where we have to do what the state says
we have to do.
>> Yeah. The the state housing law
obviously supersedes a lot of our zoning
ordinances in unique ways. Those state
laws don't have similar provisions to my
knowledge for commercial or industrial
redevelopment. So it's a true analysis
of what the impact is in the number of
parking spaces versus the square footage
of building and you would come out
naturally with a mathematical solution
that is the maximum you could do on any
parcel
>> without taking it through a warrant
exception or variance approach. Yeah.
>> You and to do that you would have to
make sure you have it supported the
public because the public can object to warrants and conditions.
>> Correct. Dan, you open it up to city
review where we may trigger uh
additional improvements in order to
offset the impacts of the the proposed
variance request.
>> Okay. [clears throat] Thank you.
>> I do have a response to your question
about the Oxnard Costco.
>> Yeah. Yeah.
>> Uh it looks like there was um 1,900
Victoria area residents that equated to
13,100 visits and $1.873 million in
spending.
>> Great. Thank you for that.
Thank you, Council Member Mangon,
followed by Council Member Mcrenolds.
>> Thank you, Madam Mayor. Couple
questions. So, the limit was established
during the redevelopment of the former
Kmart site. Do you know why?
>> Yeah. Well, Walmart was going in there
and wanted to do a larger store.
>> Okay. It was a pretty contentious issue
at the time, I recall. So, it's probably
like a concession. Maybe we're going to
add we're going to let Walmart move in,
but we're going to add a limitation was
probably what happened. Um the T5.3 that
essentially covers three parcels in the
corridor. Correct.
>> Three main sites that are
>> three main sites. Sorry I said parcels
but
>> yeah it's multiple parcels multiple
ownership interests multiple APMs but
three sites for the lay person's
understanding.
>> And the Walmart building is the only one
on any of those three sites with the
current capacity to expand beyond
100,000 square feet or are there others?
Yeah. I mean the only alternative to
that would be um redevelopment of sites
>> without redevelopment expansion within
the current uh you know footprint.
>> Yeah. This is the only example of the
ability to move within a current
footprint. Everything else is um has
tenants. Yeah.
>> Sure.
>> Thank you, Council Member Mcrenolds.
>> Thank you, Madam Mayor. Uh I have a
question for Mr. Eberling. So, uh, so
I'm going to let He didn't even know he
was going to get called.
And
so, uh, my question is going back to
slide eight regarding the sales tax. Uh,
so the staff is providing a range of
35,000 to 88 8200 $82,000
of potential new sales tax revenue. If I
split the difference, let's call it
$60,000. How many potholes do I get
filled?
Uh Charlie Ebling, public works
director. Thank you for the question.
Council member Mcrenolds, for that
dollar amount, I would say we get about
2500 to 3,000, maybe 3,500 part u
potholes filled.
>> Thank you very much.
>> Yep.
>> You took my question. I'm kidding.
[laughter]
Great question. Um I had just a
wanted to make I guess a point of
clarification too. So um having heard
the concerns of some of the speakers um
this isn't automatically saying that
there will be an expansion. It's merely
giving us an option that it could expand
and this is these are the projects that
maybe could happen. Right.
>> That's correct.
>> Okay. Just want to make sure because
we're not approving anything right now.
We're just saying we want an extra tool
in the box.
Um, okay. Any other questions from
colleagues?
Nope. If not, um, I'll go ahead then and
close the public hearing and council, we
may enter into deliberations. Um,
council member Duran.
>> Yeah, I thank you very much, Madame
Mayor. I appreciate it. And uh you know,
I've been looking at this for a long
time and I live in the Victoria area and
I am um Deputy Mayor Halter, one of
those that go to Costco and spend all
kinds. I'm not surprised at that number
because it feels like I spend that much
just when I go. Um but you know,
living here my whole life and seeing
that for 19 years empty when it used to
be thriving down there, right? Right. It
used to be there was there was pizza
parlor and all kinds of we were talking
about that today or yesterday. Um and so
I I'm actually um I'm I'm in support of
this because it just makes a lot of
sense. We're not getting the tax revenue
that we need. People are going to
another city. Um we have an empty
building. Um and and you know, I will
tell you that I go in that parking lot
all the time. I'm in I'm in Walmart all
the time. My my wife's in Trader Joe's
all the times. And I don't know how much
time you spend in the parking lot
itself, but they've done a good job in that parking lot. I It's pretty good.
I know the Trader Joe's sites gets busy
sometimes because you don't have direct
access necessarily in that area, but
where Walmart is, it's it's great. I
think the issue is this. When we talk
about um pedestrian friendly, let's get
the food vendors off the streets. We're
going to be pedestrian a lot more
pedestrian friendly in my opinion. But
other than that, I I'm in complete
support. Um, if you don't have any
others, I'd like to make a motion to
approve uh staff's recommendation.
>> Thank you. And Deputy Mayor Halter, did
you have a comment or did you want to
support the
>> I have a comment.
>> Okay.
Uh, I'd like to first say Victoria
is an interesting um boulevard at inner
city because it
most of the traffic is because it's the bypass. It's going from 126
westbound to 101 southbound. And I
believe what should have happened years
ago is that bypass should have actually
happened. And instead we have our main
financial center, our main business
center. Uh although I'd love to see it
also in downtown in the future. I'd like
to say that that's really our business
center. [laughter] Um but there is with
the county there and so forth. It really
is where most the jobs are at. and and
um I don't necessarily want to
uh reduce the traffic impact on that
street by not filling the buildings and
leaving things unoccupied uh on that
street and that's exactly what's
happening is so uh I still think someday
it will happen somebody will have the
courage and hopefully it can start any
day where you push CALR in the state to
plan for and build a bypass because
otherwise Victoria will always be
impacted. No matter what size store we
have, it's just if there's any other
need for someone to drive someplace on
that boulevard, we're going to add more
cars to that boulevard. So, I I I look
at traffic. I look at all the things I
have to weigh as a council member to
make the best decision I can. And I look
at the traffic, the impact, and the
viability of reuse of some of those
buildings that
really to some extent have outlived
their life. Uh and then we look at the
convenience and the fact that instead of
driving uh out of our city, it's bad
enough that most of our workforce drives
out of our city every day and creating
more traffic on the freeways. Um we
don't necessarily want to lose those tax
dollars, too, on top of the workers and
the employers that have already gone to
other cities around us. And we lose the tax revenue. I have to look at the
economic vitality. And I look at the
places that are thriving. Okay. I look
at when I go places and the the the
story that came to mind for me that
probably still won't fit the 140 square
feet by 140,000 but is phenomenal and I
think represents the future is something
called Italy. If anybody's ever been to
Italy, it is unbelievable. It is it's
really a quality that every single one
of us, no matter what economic level
you're at, can really enjoy the beauty,
the ambiance, the what it provides. And
even the buildings are beautiful. It's
not like the it's we're not talking
about just putting up warehouses. You
know, the days of that are long gone. I
do want to say as a as a exterior design
build contractor, okay, [laughter]
so I had to qualify that a little bit is
uh I will say it's very frustrating that
the fight we had to get one hardware
store and I'll name it because there's
only one really other than some of the
small ones, Lowe's here. I tell people
all the time as a contractor, I could
get 50% of any all the product I need to
do any job I'm I'm hired to do, I always
have to go to Home Depot for the other
50%.
And so the things we preclude and the
decisions we make have unintended
consequences. So I rather believe in the
process and review of what that's uh
what will go on that site and actually
have no barriers and leave it up to our
system to say what will fit on that
parcel and how are you going to make it
fit the ambiance and the quality that
our our design standards will say we
have to do um and have and fix the
impact on traffic that it might have as
well as on parking. there would be a
natural limitation to that. I don't
really like the artificial limitations
because we end up with things being half
done. Okay. Trying to be nice. So, uh
anyway, so I I would be seconding the
motion, but I really think we shouldn't
have any barrier.
>> Thank you. Um Council Member Schumacher.
>> Thank you, Mayor. Um so I I am generally
supportive of the um of the motion as
well. The only thing that uh brings me
to concern and I just want to make sure
that our my colleagues are are very much
aware um the planning commission asked
us or voted for us to reject this and um
I want to make sure that we are
conscious of that. Um and given some of
the concerns it brings me to make sure
that we bring light to that those
discussions as well. There are some, you
know, we are going against the long-term
vision of the Victoria Avenue corridor
plan and that is a represent and the
representative, my gosh, the
representative of that area is uh
council member Duran. And so we look to
you to ensure that you know you are um
essentially advocating for what your
constituents had asked for regarding
this long-term vision because those
people were part of developing that
plan. Um on top of that too and I just
want to make sure that we have a
discussion on this is um you know along
with that plan we that area is supposed
to be mixed use. It's supposed to be an
area in which we have more smaller
format retail within that corridor. And
so if we're consciously aware of that
and also understanding that on the other
side of this argument that times are
changing sales um as uh our um uh CEO of
the chamber had mentioned you know um a
lot of things are h the federal
government has really kind of put us in
a bind in in where we want to make sure
that we take care of our own city in
regards to the sales tax that we are
able to generate um when we bring more
businesses here. So these are the type
of discussions that I just don't want us
to just kind of over uh you know just
kind of uh uh overlook. I want to make
sure that those those are things that we
are considering um given that we have
some concerns from the community that
live in that area. Thank you.
>> Thank you for those comments. Um so at
this time we do have a motion and a
second.
>> Yeah. Uh, Council Member, Deputy Mayor
Halter seconded. So, any other comments?
If not, I'll go ahead and call for a
vote.
And Mr. City Manager, after the vote,
did you want to
Hey, we're waiting for one more vote to
be entered.
All votes have now been entered.
Six eyes's, one no. Council member
Compost, no. And the measure carries.
>> Thank you, Mr. City Manager.
>> Uh, thank you, Madam Mayor. I would just
like to point out to uh to the council,
to the members of the public, uh this is
Miss Diamond's last uh meeting in these
chambers. She uh has been a prominent uh
fixture in local leadership for a little
over three years with the city. Um we've
benefited uh terribly from her humor,
her uh high energy levels, her um
intellect. Uh she's led the community
development department uh to a far
better place than what it was when she
found it. Some terrific hires. Um she's
accepted a position with the city of
Glendale. So, we curse them a lot, but
we thank uh Miss Diamond for her service
and everything that she's given and uh
you know, getting our general plan
across the finish line. I'm cementing a
really strong team that is going to be
able to to pick up the mantle uh in her
absence and move that department
forward. So, Rachel, thank you so much.
[applause]
>> Thank you.
Um
[laughter]
thank you. I I also wanted to say thank
you, Miss Diamond, for um the leadership
you've held here at the city and for
helping um our community thrive. Really
appreciate the uh long hours that you
have put in. I know that it's not easy
and um most of the time uh folks are
chasing after you for not a good reason.
Um, but I'm I'm happy to hear that for
you, at least you've um been able to
transition um to something hopefully
that's better for you and really just
want to congratulate you and thank you
for the work that you've done here.
>> Thank you so much. I really just want to
thank Bill and Carlen, all the council
members, the staff has been incredible.
This is truly a bittersweet um goodbye.
It's been one of the highlights of my
professional career to work in Ventura.
It's truly uh an amazing place to work.
It's an amazing place to be and that's
it. It's it's really been so special.
So, I just appreciate um you know all of
Bill's confidence and um and the team is
super incredible and you're left with an
amazing team that can um you know truly
do the work and does the work every day.
So, again, I just want to thank them so
much and really the staff throughout the
city who's been incredible. Um and to
all of you, good luck. Thank you.
Deputy Mayor, would you like to say a
few words?
>> Say a couple of things. Yeah. Only
because um uh I've had the honor of
working closely uh uh understanding uh and seeing how we compare to other
cities around us and so forth. And I got
to tell you is uh I've been doing what I
do for 32 years and it's been tough.
I've seen 30 or 40 different
municipalities that I work in and seeing
the differences and bringing Ventura
forward in uh a more palatable way for
business who want to do business here.
Uh you've made a lot of progress here.
You really have. I want to thank you for
that. Uh there's still a lot we need to
do, but we're primed for getting there.
And I believe Sunday because of the
efforts and all the energy you put into
it. this will be that model city that
people look at and say, "Hey, we're
going to protect what we love and we're
going to make sure that people want to
invest here, but do so in a way that
represents our values as Venturans." So,
I want to thank you for the sacrifices.
I know that you live down south, the
sacrifices and meet be here at a very
challenging time and to overcome a lot
of uh things that we had to overcome um
as we change staff here and and thanks
for being a part of it and I hope you
stay in contact. So, thanks.
>> Thank you.
I think we can let you go now.
[laughter]
Thank you. Okay, moving on to our public
hearing items. Um, item number 12 is the
ordinance amending sections 16.210.070
and 16.215.030
030 of the municipal code to support
changing of time limits in city-owned
parking lots, allowing for paid parking
in city-owned parking lots, and
establishing a new downtown employee
parking permit program.
We'll go ahead and confirm the noticing
requirements for this item.
>> Thank you, Mayor. Yes, this item has
been adequately noticed.
>> Thank you. I'll go ahead and open the
public hearing and invite staff to do
their presentation.
Uh, good evening, mayor and members of
city council. I am Charlie Ebling, the
public works director. Tonight, we will
give a short presentation on mun
municipal code updates for parking. I
have with me Alec Roberts, assistant
public works director, and Jeff Hford,
principal transportation engineer. I
will now turn it over to Mr. hereford to
give the presentation and we will be
happy to answer any questions you have
afterwards.
>> Thank you, Charlie. So, [clears throat]
before we get into the uh the three
municipal code changes uh and updates, I
wanted to uh review some recent
improvements to our downtown on street
parking meters. Uh we have replaced the
older paybyspace meters with the new
paybyplate technology. Uh users now
enter their license plate number rather
than a parking space number into the new
meters. Uh, with the new meters, we also
implemented the 90 minute free parking
program. Customers who park for 90
minutes or less receive that time at no
cost. If they stay longer than the 90
minutes, they pay for their entire stay,
including the first 90 minutes. The item
before council tonight is a series of
parking municipal code changes and
updates. staff is proposing uh these
municipal code updates that will give
the city greater flexibility to manage
our off- streetet parking resources by
modifying parking lot time limits. Uh
provide the authority needed for
potential future off- streetet paid
parking and also to establish the
framework for an employee parking permit
program.
Uh the first proposed change is to
municipal code section 16210.070 070
which regulates uh city-owned parking
lots. The proposed amendment would
authorize the public works director or
designate to establish and modify those
time limits administratively.
This gives staff greater flexibility to
respond to changing parking demand and
operational needs. It also avoids having
to return to council for a municipal
code amendment each time a parking time
limit needs to be adjusted. Changes
would still be communicated to the
public through appropriate signage and
notification.
Uh and finally, the amendment adds a
definition of a city parking lot to
clarify which off- streetet parking
facilities are covered by this section
of the municipal code.
Uh the next proposed change is also to
municipal code section 16210.070
and addresses the city's authority to
charge for parking in city-owned off-
streetet parking lots. The municipal
code currently provides clear authority
for paid parking on downtown streets,
but it does not provide the same clear
authority for city-owned parking lots.
The proposed amendment addresses that by
allowing the city council by resolution
to establish fees for parking in
city-owned lots and other off- streetet
facilities. The ordinance does not
implement off- streetet paid parking
within the downtown core. It simply
establishes the legal framework that
would allow council to consider off-
streetet paid parking in the future.
Before paid parking could be expanded
into the downtown city-owned lots, the
city would also need approval of an
administrative coastal development
permit. Once that process is complete,
staff would return to council with the
proposed implementation schedule,
parking rates, operating policies,
financial projections, and any other
actions needed before the program could
move forward. The action tonight
provides the authority and flexibility
for a future program. While the decision
on whether, when, and how off- streetet
paid parking in the downtown is
implemented remains with city council.
The next proposed amendment is to
municipal code section 16215.030
and establishes the downtown employee
parking permit program. The goal of this
program is to provide eligible downtown
employees with an affordable long-term
parking option and help move employee
parking into locations that are better
suited for longer stays. Under the
program, employees would be able to
purchase a permit for $35 per month with
permits issued and renewed quarterly.
The permit would allow employees to park
beyond the posted 4hour time limit in
designated city-owned downtown parking
lots. The proposed $35 monthly fee is
not intended to provide full cost
recovery. The cost of service analysis
prepared by Clear Source estimates the
city's cost to [clears throat] issue and
administer a permit at approximately
$88.
Compared with the proposed $35 permit
fee, this represents approximately 40%
cost recovery.
staff believes the proposed $35 fee
provides an appropriate balance that
allows the city to recover a portion of
the program's administrative cost while
recognizing the importance of working
with our downtown businesses and
employees to provide an affordable
long-term parking option. The intent of
the program is uh not primarily to
generate revenue, but to provide a
parking management tool that supports
the downtown workforce and helps better
manage our available parking supply.
Permit holders would also be able to use
designated employee spaces on the upper
level of the downtown parking structure.
We plan to initially designate
approximately 20 spaces in the
structure. Staff will monitor
utilization and can adjust the number or
location of designated spac spaces as
demand warrants. The permits would uh
only be valid in designated off-
streetet locations and would not be
valid for on street parking. Initially,
permits would be issued as hang tags
with the intent to transition to a
license plate-based virtual permit as
the city's parking enforcement
technology advances.
An administrative coastal development
permit is also required before we can
implement the employee permit program.
Once the coastal development permit is
approved, staff will begin outreach to
downtown businesses and employees and
open the permit enrollment process. As
the program gets underway, staff will
continue to monitor permit demand,
parking utilization, parking cost,
program costs, and feedback from
businesses and employees. Based on that
experience, we can uh we can evaluate
whether future adjustments to the permit
fee, number of permits, or designated
parking locations are appropriate.
Uh civic engagement will be important
part of successfully rolling out the
downtown employee parking permit
program. Prior to prior to
implementation, staff will work closely
with downtown stakeholders [snorts]
to communicate directly with downtown
businesses and employees. Our outreach
will focus on explaining uh eligibility,
where the permits can be used, the cost
of the permit, and how employees can
enroll in the program. As the program
launches, staff will also be available
to provide one-on-one assistance to
businesses and employees to help with
the application process, answer
questions, and address any issues that
come up. Our outreach will continue
after implementation. Staff will gather
feedback from businesses and employees
and monitor permit participation and
parking utilization and make any
necessary modifications needed.
Uh the recommendations for this item
supports the uh strategic priority of
infrastructure and economic vitality and
development and the focus area of
continue to maintain and improve the
conditions of roads, water, storm
drains, parks, municipal facilities and
main street moves infrastructure.
Uh so the recommendations before council
tonight is A through D on the next two
slides which is to conduct a public
hearing introduce and wave the first
reading of an ordinance amending Sanborn
of Ventur Municipal Code section
16210.070
and 16215.030
adopt a resolution establishing a
downtown employee employee parking
permit fee and find that adopting the
ordinance and resolution is exempt from
the California Environmental Quality
Act.
And with that, we're available for any
questions that you may have. Thank you.
>> Thank you for your presentation. Um,
Council Member Duran, I have you on
quue.
>> Thank you, Madame Mayor, and thank you
very much, staff, for your um for your
report tonight. A couple of quick
questions. Um, so if I read this
correctly, if they stay beyond 90
minutes, then they pay uh there really
is no free parking for 90 minutes. Is
that correct? Do they stay for?
>> Correct. The the current program um as
we went to council in I believe it was
April was to similar to the Ventura
Harbor uh was the first 90 minutes is
free as long as you stay for 90 minutes
or less. Once you go over that 90
minutes, then you pay for the first 90
minutes.
>> So you stay longer than 90 minutes.
There is no free 90 minutes.
>> Correct.
» Okay.
I don't know. It just okay does it just
doesn't sound right. Um it just it
doesn't sound right to me. Uh the other
question I have for you is how many
businesses and employees uh were
surveyed before setting the $35 fee?
>> We uh in the fall we had a a pretty
robust uh downtown employee parking
permit survey. So we didn't survey the
fee necessarily, but what we got out of
that was that employees were having
issues with the recently converted lots
over the four hours. And so in order to
um work with the business community and
the employees, we are working with this
employee permit program to allow
employees to obtain the permit if they
would like to park in lots that are four
hours and they could stay all day. One
of the things from the surveys was that
people were coming out midshift to have
to move their cars um in order to uh
stay close to their work. They could
always park in in lots outside of the
area where we have longer eight hour all
day parking.
I guess my concern with that is if
you're making minimum wage and you're
paying $420 a year in parking, that's
kind of a substantial amount, you know.
So, and if you said you haven't served
any employers or employees, I um I know
the $35 isn't recouping all the costs. I
think you said I think the report's at
88 bucks or something like that. Um but
still, that's a big hit for people that
are making low income. And I'm just
curious, how many downtown employees are
expected to want permits and do we have
enough spaces?
>> We That's a great question. Um I asked
I'm thinking these are going to be
mostly service employees that come later
in the day. Um we do have lots of
businesses that start early in the
morning and a lot of those employees and
I know several of them come in in the
morning and there's plenty of space
spaces for them to to park in the eight
hour lots. I really think it's going to
be the the the restaurants, the movie
theater, those types of businesses that
will be interested in this permit. Um I
estimated around 60. Um there's 240
spaces in the downtown core with
fourhour lots. Um I also looked at in
talking to economic development um over
um I think it was a two-month span we
had 800 um individual parking um transa
not transactions but people that came in
that were able to identify they were parkers of those 800 there's
about three 30% of businesses downtown
according to the survey that are
serviceorientated
so I took that got 240 and then took
about 25% % of those people wanting a
permit. So that's how I ended up with
60. So that's that's the number that we
went with as far as what we think we're
going to be having, but it could be
more, it could be less. Um, and just
talking to people that I know downtown.
Some people may not be interested in
this. There's people that are just that
already have their parking spot, they
know where to go, they have the all day.
Um, so it's going to be interesting to
see how many people do and we will
adjust the program ne as needed.
>> Okay. Thank you so much.
Thank you, Council Member Compos.
>> So, Mr. Herford, I know that the parking
issue has been something you've been
working on for years. I I'm sure it's
like having a child that's stuck in the
terrible twos for 26 years. But these
questions are important because we've
been emailed by a lot of business owners
and a lot of employees who are very
concerned about this issue. Partly, as
council member Duran said, they're on
minimum wage income and they don't see
being able to continue paying their rent
and feeding their own children and
paying $35 for parking. So, some of the
business owners said to me on July 10th,
they were told in an email or in written
form
that
the business parking survey that was
done will be incorporated while
developing the program directly with
interested stakeholders.
None of them feel like they've had good
outreach. the the interested
stakeholders.
So, a lot of their emails are asking to
delay the
um the coastal permit until you have
some kind of engagement with them so
that they can understand how they can
best keep their employees
working for them while doing this
parking.
>> Sure.
>> My So, this permit is I I see this
permit as sort of an interim permit. The
real permit is going to come if we
expand paid parking. If we expand paid
parking in those lots, this permit will
be it's going to be a big discussion
about what the cost is because that'll
also allow uh um employees to not pay
the not pay the parking fee by hour. So,
that's going to be the ultimate permit.
This permit here is just to allow people
that that want to have the choice to to
park in an eight hour park in a four-h
hour lot all day. That's the only thing
this permit does. And
>> so for employees that make enough money,
they can have a permit. The others
can't.
>> They'll have to park in peripheral
>> and they're doing that now. I mean,
right now, people are juggling that,
finding parking spaces. This is
something that could be helpful for
those people that do want to pay for
that permit.
>> Okay. Thank you for that. Also, I know
that it wasn't a key thing in the
agenda, but you did mention it at the
beginning of the presentation, the
90minute parking.
I I was the one who suggested that we go
beyond 60 to 90 minutes. The reason for
that is because of the layout of Main
Street, 90 minutes will generally allow
someone to go do some shopping and get a
meal, but no one has any control about
how slow a kitchen is or how bad the
weight staff is on a certain day. So
giving people the idea that they have 90
minutes free and then taking it away is
not a good way for us to operate. I
think we can just raise the fee after 90
minutes if we're trying to recover more
money. Go from a dollar an hour to a$150
an hour or whatever we have to do. But
let everybody have the 90 minutes free.
I would hope that you will consider that
in the midst of preparing your your
coastal permit.
» Thank you, Deputy Mayor Halter.
>> Thank you, Madam Mayor, and thank you,
staff. Um, let's see. Uh, going along
the same lines, I know that we enacted
the 90 minutes free already. Have we had
any complaints about how about that
program?
>> The only um Thank you for the question.
I haven't directly received other than
just the comments about why can't the
first 90 minutes be free free. Um the
one thing I have heard is people not and
we have this on our signs is not
realizing they have to actually register
their vehicle even if they think they're
going to be here for half an hour.
People still customers still need to go
in and put their license plate in
because that's the only way we can
enforce. So, I think there's been a
little confusion with that potentially,
but on our signs, we do say when you
arrive, enter your license plate. Um, so
there could be some education component
to that.
>> And, uh, I sit on the DVP as a
representative from council. And, uh, it
was a big concern. I think they reached
out to you if I'm not mistaken. Um, a
big concern, a big discussion that, uh,
would it happened to be the first day
that we implemented the new meters and
so it was already in force. But the
question uh that I really couldn't
answer is exactly what uh council member
Compost said is that instead of
backcharging for that 90 minutes, why
didn't we just consider doing a$125 or
something for the hours there
thereafter? Um because it really does it
doesn't look real honest.
You know, I know the intent is but it
just doesn't appear that way.
So is it what was the thought process in
doing it that way?
>> Well, the actually the um that the idea
of the 60 minute free was brought by
PAC, the parking advisory committee.
>> Oh,
>> so that was brought by PAC and so in
April I brought that to council and the
motion at PAC was to do it how the
harbor does it where just like the
harbor they have the same scheme but
they just do 60 minutes where um if you
stay beyond 60 minutes you pay for the
first 60 minutes. And so I think to be
consistent with that and using that that
idea that was brought forward from PAC
to staff and then that was brought to
council.
>> And so uh tonight though this is about
allowing for employee parking permit at
$35 for the existing meters that exist.
It's not about agreeing to expand paid
parking at this point in time.
>> Correct. This is just setting up the the
it's three-fold. It's um to allow the
public works director or designate to
make time limit changes um in our
downtown lots to clarify that also to
set the framework up if council chooses
to expand paid parking to allow for
that. It's not expanding paid parking at
this point. And then it's also to set
the framework for the employee parking
permit program.
>> And one final question is that uh we've
had many discussions about paid parking.
how much we're on street off street in
city-owned parking lots and uh I think
part of the equation I I have heard the
same thing when people they feel they
didn't uh give input to this uh parking
fee parking permit um but I'm wondering
I think part of the equation is really
about how far away would an employee
have to park
um uh in looking at the future what we
might charge out there uh for them to
get free parking.
>> The the current vision of the expansion
of paid parking has been shared with
council was only to do the expansion in
the downtown core. So basically from
Poli down to uh Santa Clara and then
[clears throat] from uh Fur over to uh
Palm those those lots in there. So it's
about and the and the existing downtown
parking structure
>> and the streets in that area as well.
some meters
>> uh not not to expand just we would keep
the existing on street paid parking
spaces not expand that um and it equals
about a thousand new parking spaces that
would be paid five about 500 in the
existing downtown structure and then 500
in those surface lots
>> so if you're a business employee
somewhere along Main Street and you want
in free parking the way what we've
already we discussed but we're going to
discuss again before we expand it uh if
we choose to do so is uh they have to
walk beyond Santa Clara Street to get to
free parking.
>> That's correct.
>> Okay. All right. Those are all my
questions right now. Thanks.
>> Thank you, Council Member Mcrenolds,
followed by Council Member Schumacher.
>> Thank you, Madam Mayor. Uh, so
regarding the 90 minutes, I still think
we're doing it backwards. It should be
first 90 minutes you pay and the second
90 minutes is free so that we encourage
people to stay downtown. So, I just want
to put that out that I think we're doing
it backwards, but uh can we go to slide
five because I want to focus in on the
uh employee
parking. So, so my first question
is why does it cost $88 to do the fully
uh burden cost recovery? The 88 was um
based on what we worked with Clear
Source on developing a fee. And so we
estimated staff time. Um and we had a
our parking
we had two staff that would be working
on this on this program. And so there
was a a combined fee hourly fee for
those two employees of $132
um times 40 minutes basically. And so
that's how we came up with the 88 $88.
So, and then so it's and how many
parking spaces are we reserving for
employees? Potentially,
>> the only the only spots that would be
reserved for for these permits would be
20 spaces initially in the in the
parking structure. The other spaces in
the in the surface lots, they would just
be they would remain regular timelmited
parking spaces. Now, if you had a
permit, you would be able to stay in a
4-hour lot for eight hours. How many of
those 4hour permits do you think we're
we would sell?
>> I'm estimating about 60, but
>> plus the 20 or just total of 60?
>> 60 total permits is what I'm thinking
we're going to end up sending out.
>> So 60 total permits at $88
a month multiplied by 12 months. So this
program will cost $64,000 to administer
annually is the
>> that's the estimate. Yes.
>> Okay. And that also include well there's
also in there that we didn't include it
but there's also enforcement that's
going to be in there. So but yes that is
the estimate we came up with. Okay. So
then if we do 60 permits at $35
uh times 12. So we're we're doing
$25,000.
So I buy one of those permits.
What do I get
for being part of this $25,000? So, let
me give you a real world scenario. I
work at CineArk.
The last showing of Spider-Man starts
tonight at 10:30 and it goes for two and
a half hours. So, at 1:00 a.m. I'm
walking out of CineArk. What do I get
for my $35?
>> So, and that's a great example that we
have. I've actually talked to the movie
theater. A lot of their employees park
right behind the theater behind BFA.
Now, that lot was an eight eight hour
lot and when we converted that to 4
hour, that disrupted a lot of the
employees there. So, they mid break or
during their break, they come out and
move their car around just to avoid a
ticket. And so, now with this hang,
we're going to start with hang tags.
They will be able to park in that 4-hour
lot and and they would have a permit so
they wouldn't have to be moving their
vehicle mid shift. Their vehicle, they
would be able to stay there for the
their full shift.
>> So, I I get that. I understand what you
just said, but now I'm paying for
something that I was even if I was
willing to move my car midshift
on it. So now I'm paying for something.
Am I getting anything? What's what's my
value ad? What's the bang for my buck?
Am I getting security? Am I getting the
parking structure clean? Like what are
we doing with this $25,000
besides filling out permit?
>> Well, yeah. I mean, it's also
enforcement and they also are gaining
the ability to stay in that lot without
having to move their car. So, they are
avoiding a potential ticket.
>> So, so but basically they can avoid that
ticket by just moving their car mid
shift. I I just
>> they don't have to they and they do not
have to get the permit. If they want to
continue doing that, they can still do
that.
» I guess we're not incentivizing them to do that. Why wouldn't they just
continue to do what they're doing today?
I I just I'm questioning what's the
value at to the employee? I mean, is it
additional security? Is it, you know, I
get the uh I clean, you know, we're
going to clean out the uh parking
structure, the top 20, you know, when I
walk in. I don't have to smell urine
when I walk into the stairwell. I mean,
what what is the value ad? I guess
>> the the money will go into the parking
authority. Um and so there will be
additional money there for additional
programs which could include cleaning
sidewalk security, those types of
things. I I don't think you said that
though. I think you said we're going to
spend 25,000 just to we're actually
going to spend $60,000
to administer the program. So, we're not
even recovering costs. I don't think
we're we're adding any value. I guess
that's that's where I struggle. If
you're a downtown employee and I'm going
to start charging you for something that
you already have for free. I I just
don't get why why aren't we increasing
security? Why aren't we increasing
cleanliness? I mean, uh, I I just don't
Why don't I just do midshift back and
forth?
>> Uh, Council Member Mcrenolds, the way I
see it is, and hopefully I answer your
question, is that the value that the
employees receiving is
very simple is that they would normally
park for four hours, move their car,
maybe find another lot or on street, but
probably have another four hours to have
to deal with their car. The value is
they don't with this permit they pay $35
to not have to pay not have to move that
car. They can stay there for eight
hours. That's that's the value to the
employee. And the challenge is is how
many people will want to do that. Is
that enough value to pay that amount of
money? Um and uh some people may say
that's great value. I don't want to have
to move my car. other people may not
want see that as a value and they're
happy to move their car and they can do
the uh 4hour shuffle as it's sometimes
called.
>> Um that that's one one part of I think
what you're driving at. But the other
part is what do we what are we doing the
25,000 the revenue that we receive for issuing these permits that will go
into the parking authority and what it
pays for is mostly our staff time. And I
think one of the big things that is
important to recognize with any permit
program is there's a significant amount
of staff time. You have to work with the
public. We may even have at some point
as the as these permit pro programs
expand, we may actually need more
employees because these are very time
consuming to administer to work with the
public put the permits out that kind of
thing. So, I think that's where the
$25,000 goes to is trying to be cost
recoverable in portion, maybe 40% of
what it costs us to admin administer the
program. I I guess at the end of the
day, my my final concern is to Council
Member Duran's comment is if you're a
minimum wage employee,
I just don't see you getting one of
these permits. I mean, I think your
managers, your your assistant managers,
you know, maybe they're going to spend
the $420 so they don't have to do the
midship shuffle, but if you're making
minimum wage, I think, you know, I just
I don't think we're solving an answer
yet, you know.
>> And I agree and that is the council's
discretion actually to
>> um actually set a different fee if
you're if you as a group so desire. And
also as we move to implement this in the
future, remember tonight's agenda item
is to make the municipal code changes uh
and allow us to get to applying for a
coastal development permit that then
after that we go through the uh idea of
imple implementing these various uh
programs, expanded paid parking,
employee paid parking, and at that time
the city council can make a a policy
decision on what you think the the
actual dollar amount should be. We're
proposing this today so we can get to
the coastal commission.
>> I have two other questions, but my time
is up, so I'm going to let I'll come
back. Yeah, thank you.
>> Yeah, I'll come back to you. Thank you.
Um, council member Schumacher, followed
by council member Mangon.
>> Thank you, mayor. Um, thank you, staff,
for your presentation. Just very quick
questions and kind of falls along with
uh the council members who already asked
these just um additionally
um
so just to be clear, this is an optin.
Um, it's not required for everybody.
These are just, you know, reserve spots.
Is that just to confirm?
>> Correct.
>> Okay.
>> Yes.
>> Okay. And you're estimating that it's
not for everybody. It's only for like 60
people who work during the high traffic
times. And you're estimating that is
usually during the weekend and also
during the night time.
>> Correct.
>> Okay. I I recommend that you work with
the communications team to make sure
that that is very clear and very
explicit. Um and then uh so uh should
this pass? Uh on the second part of this
was it explored that um what about you
know I go to certain places and there's
always like these um you know validation
like was there any um exploration on
because here's what I here's what I'm
concerned about. I let's just say
someone parks at, you know, the the
parking spot um and they get the 90
minutes for free and then they don't
even shop downtown. They, you know, go
wherever they need to go and then just
come back in the 90 minutes. What I'm
trying to do is make sure the people are
actually helping the businesses
downtown. So, was that explored that,
you know, we have validation for the
certain places that are in the in the
downtown area?
We we have validations at the beach
structure and it's a challenge and so in
order to implement a validation program
downtown it's it's a it's a very
complicated system in order to work with
floor our parking meters. There is a way
to do it with our park mobile system
that um we can hand out codes that is
possible. It's
>> and we we have explored that. In fact,
we we made available several um I think
a couple hundred codes for Park Mobile
just for people to test it out.
>> Yeah. Um so those types of programs we
can support and do to do an overall um
validation system very complicated to do
and that's why I think the 90 minutes or
60 minutes free came up is it's it's an
easier way to manage that type of
>> I mean I think we can do both right
where we can certainly have I mean a
movie isn't like an hour and a half
movies is like two hours three hours if
you're watching a Zack a Zack Snider
movie it's like just make sure that like
we are emphasizing spend time there and
don't rush I mean That's essentially why
we're building it out, right? So, um I
guess that's where I'm and I'm also
having some concerns about this employee
parking. I feel like the direction went
in a totally kind of crazy way and and
what I was hoping for is that um you
know
what I feel like I was hoping for us to
be able to incentivize people wanting to
work um and also invest in businesses in
downtown. Not
now this is how it's coming across
friends. uh it's coming across that
we're punishing these business
businesses and we're punishing the
workforce and so that is not the
direction that I want to go with. I want
to make sure that people want to, you
know, essentially be part of downtown
and what we're trying to build out
there. So, um uh maybe more exploration
in regards to um making it free in in a
way that's more of a like a tiered
approach. Um I don't know all the
details of parking for God's sakes. I'm
not in that industry, but um this is not
what I was hoping for. So, thank you.
>> Thank you, Council Member Mangon,
followed by Council Member Comp.
>> Thank you, Madam Mayor. Thank you for
your presentation. Thank my colleagues.
They asked a lot of the questions I had
written down. I'd like to talk briefly
about the
council kind of piggyback on council
member Compost's comments. There's a lot
of confusion around what we're even
discussing right now. Um tons of emails,
several phone calls just today or the
last 48 hours. Um, is it safe to say
this is essentially a pilot program for
when we implement expanded paid parking?
>> Uh, council member Mang,
in a way that in a way, yes. But I think
what we really want to focus on tonight
is that what we're what we've brought
forward is municipal code changes that
enable these things. So tonight we're
really looking to just enable all these
great ideas. Without this step, we we're
back to step one or zero. So uh and and
we want to get going on things like
getting the coastal development permits
because those can take uh six months to
a year or longer sometimes. So it
depends on, you know, now we're
depending on a third party outside
agency to that we have to work with to
be able to get a permit to be able to
implement any of these programs. So, I
think I think we want to make sure we
understand what we're doing tonight,
which is enabling the programs. Um, and
then we also want to make sure that the
I'm sure, as you're aware, the council
has full discretion over this and can
direct staff to um uh implement in
different ways or to come back with some
alternatives uh when we get to the
implementation phase. That'd be great.
Um, and meanwhile, we are working with
our comm's team uh with this already.
So, I think we're trying to do those
public outreach things. Um, clearly we
want to step it up um as we've seen, but
at the same time tonight, what we really
want to focus on is um that we want to
enable this and then we'll get to those
implementation steps uh in the future.
>> Okay. Thank you. I like you saying
you're going to be working with the
comm's team. I've spoken the last couple
days with some of the most active
business owners downtown um who others
call on to get advice or direction and
they're confused. They've been really
confused about this whole implementing
this whole new system. Everything from
uh you know, secondary to what we're
discussing tonight, but you know, the the the new system, the check-in
process, how it's it's kind of mandatory
regardless of your time spent downtown,
you need to check in. That's not really
understood. uh the 90 minutes free
that's not really understood by the
general public. I think there's a lot we
can work on. Um and I think that's
really going to come down to um just
talking to the business owners down
there and getting the comm's team down
there to find out directly what the
issues are. Um and uh I'm certainly you
know we we've all heard them in the last
couple days. But um there yeah there's a
lot of there's a lot of problems and
it's it's to me it's it's not a good
first step because this is the f this is
kind of the first step when the
stakeholders downtown are really
confused with what's going on. So um
that's why I'm kind of like hesitant
with this process. It's not the kind of
the work that you guys are doing. So I
want to avoid that at all cost moving
forward.
C
>> can I just um Sure. We did u as far as
outreach we you know we do the
transportation division does a bike
valet at 4th of July. We had the new
meters downtown for the fourth for
anyone attending fourth of July. So we
had that and then we followed up with
two other farmer market um outreach with
the same meter there. So the last the three weeks leading up to um us
releasing these new meters um we had
active downtown
um uh communication. I felt and so I
felt like there was good understanding.
I think it is there's still going to be
a learning curve, but I don't want to
minimize that we didn't go out and talk
to the public because that is something
we take pride in and we were out there
for three weekends doing that just
before the release.
>> No. Yeah, understood. Yeah, I was not
implying that.
>> But I and I would say point well taken
as we as we move forward. We're getting
the coastal development permit. We're
working through
>> uh uh bringing items back to the city
council for implementation. During those
time periods, we can certainly and we
will be doing a lot more public
outreach. So, I think we're just at the
beginning stage. We're doing these
municipal code updates to enable things
and uh clearly what we've seen in point
well taken is that we can continue to
really improve how we're doing our
public outreach.
>> Thank you.
Council Member Compos.
Fourth of July and Sergio and Joseph did
a wonderful job of engaging with the
public. And at the farmers market, they
were doing a very good job of engaging
with the public. The emails that we've
been receiving and the phone calls that
we've been receiving are from business
owners who don't feel like they've had
the engagement and they're the
stakeholders that they believe were
referred to in the July 10th email that
they're the ones who were supposed to be
reached out to and feel like they were
not. it it's a very bad time for some of
us because in six days we have the first
Main Street moves meeting and we don't
want that all tied up with parking. So
it's very important that we find a way
to have proper communication with the
business owners and input from them.
Another thing is um I believe when
council member or deputy mayor Halter
was questioning you responded that the
lots from Santa Clara north are the ones
that you've set a time limit in but
there's a lot on south of Santa Clara
between Santa Clara and Thompson that
has a 4hour time limit.
>> There is. Yes.
>> So does that not fit into that space? I
was I was um in response to council
member Halter's question, I thought I
was referring to where we were looking
at doing the expansion of paid parking
and that's where I was setting those
boundaries. But yes, to acknowledge you,
yes, there are four or four hour and
eight hour lots south of Santa Clara.
>> So, are there enough eight hour spaces
for all the employees who cannot afford
permits?
>> Uh
I I believe there is. Yes. I mean, as
long as people are willing to walk a
little bit, yes, there are free parking
spaces and on the weekends, um,
employees can park up here in city hall.
There's plenty of space up here on the
weekends where it fills up a little bit
on the weekends.
>> Um, so my final question
[snorts] for me to vote on this and say
yes, let's change the code. I want to
know that you're going to do outreach
before the coastal commission makes a
decision.
It maybe you can do the proc start the
process and get it turned in, but reach
out to all of the businesses and get
your input and then promise me you'll
come back to this body. You won't just
make a decision before we've heard back
and understand what you're doing.
Thank you. Um, Council Member Mcrenolds.
>> Thank you, Madame Mayor. Uh, so my first
question is, uh, two parts. What does
Ventura Harbor do for their employees?
And what does downtown Santa Barbara do
for their employees?
>> I I do downtown Santa Barbara. Um, we
did a a peer review of other cities that
do permits. We looked at St. Louis,
Santa Barbara, and Pismo. And each of
them do have a permit program. Varying
costs. I mean, Santa Barbara, theirs
were depending on what kind you can have
different tiers of of how long you're
able to park and what lots you can go
into. And their permit is up to I think
$280 a month. Um, and so all the way
down to I think the minimum was 120,
something like that. Pismo Beach was $35
a year. Um, and then St. Louis was $60 a
month, but it allowed employees to park
in their their garage. Um, and then I
think it was another additional fee if
you wanted to park on street in certain
designated spots on street.
>> What about the
>> downtown harbor? I'm not sure what they
do for their employees. That's a good
question. I um I don't know if they have
a permit for their employees. I'm not
sure. I think they they put them in
other they have lots designated for
employees that's outside of the core
area. And so they have those designated
employee lots is what I think is what
they do.
>> Okay. And so I just want to do some
quick simple math.
So you're telling me that this program
cost $63,360
a year to administer 88 $88 multiplied
by 60 employees potentially. So we're
raising $5,280 a month. 12 months we're
raising $63,360.
We're going to subsidize this. So, we're
going to charge 88 uh we're going to
charge $2,100
is what we're going to earn and we're
going to get $25,200.
So, we're charging everybody $420
annually to have this
>> correct, but we are subsidizing it as
the city $636.
So, it's costing us more than double
what we're collecting. I I just don't
understand what we are trying to achieve
by having this program.
We're we're literally
sub we're not even paying ourselves for this. I mean, we'd be better off to
not do anything and we would save $636
a per person.
I I guess I I don't understand why why
would we do that?
Council member McDonald Reynolds, I
guess I'll add that it was brought up
that when the lots changed to 4-hour
limits, we started hearing the public
and business owners
say that they were having trouble with
employees parking in that time. So, this
is really brought forth out of listening
to our stakeholders downtown and hearing
that they were having issues and they
were struggling to find parking that
they their employees can stay in. Um,
but it's just a consideration and same
with the amount $35.
That was something that was uh discussed
with staff, but is by no means you guys
would have free reign to to adjust that
if you want full cost recovery or to
change that. It is really something that
was brought forth out of a need that we
are hearing from the public.
>> But I I guess my question is if we did
nothing,
we would save $38,000 a year.
>> Correct. Yeah. that based on the
estimates and yes and that would be an
option for council here tonight.
>> Okay, thank you.
>> Thank you for those questions. Um I
think I'm uh yeah same puzzled. Um is it
fair to say that um then what you're
bringing before us is kind of a
placeholder so that you can go to the
coastal commission?
>> Correct. We have had discussions with
the coastal commission and we're having
ongoing discussions with them and this
is part of it um that we set the
framework for a a permit program and
that is written into our um the
information we have provided uh to the
coastal commission and we've also worked
are working with them on the expansion
to allow that um program as well.
>> And you need to have a placeholder in
order to be able to
>> correct
>> bring this forward. Um so
shortly after presenting this or
bringing this to the coastal commission
then that's when you would engage
business owners to talk about the fee
for employee parking.
>> Yeah. I mean what we'll continue to work
with and clearly I'm getting direction
to work with business owners now and so
we can do that now as we start as we
continue to work with uh coastal
commission on this.
>> Okay. And and mayor, as I might jump in,
um, council member Compos, I think, was
expressed a concern and direction that,
uh, that we start to engage the business
community now, not wait till we're at
the end of our process with the coastal
commission. And we we can do that,
>> right? Yeah. Because I I think it feels
backwards um to the business owners and
community out there. And so I just want
to make sure that while I understand
that you have to have something to take
to the coastal commission, um it just
feels like that was done without the
input that they were hoping to give.
>> I mean I think you know again going back
to the employee survey we did in the
fall, the biggest thing we heard was the
struggles they were having with
four-hour lots, right?
>> And so this was in response to that. As
far as a fee, it's really tough to talk
about a fee. No one's going to want to
pay a fee. And so
that that's going to be a discussion
that we can have. But
>> yeah,
>> ultimately I believe it's going to be up
to council what that fee would be,
>> right? And but but I I think the Yeah, I understand that. It's just the the
lack of conversation about the fee is
what I think is kind of gotten people um
upset about it and and just kind of not
really understanding the process because
we said one thing and we actually did
something else. And so I think that's
just kind of where um I think people are
coming from and we want to make sure
that that's understood um by by your
team as well. Um for me going back to
the 90 minutes um I'm I was also
confused about that because um when it
came to council I think we the intention
was for us to make sure that there were
90 minutes free. um if at the 91st
minute we're charging you retroactively
that regressively that doesn't make
sense. Um I've I've gone to other cities
with other you know parking paid parking
and it I don't think it works that way.
So um I'm just I would like to see us do
90 minutes free and then start charging
on the 91st minute. That's what I want
to see.
Um, and then
yeah, I think those were my my points.
Um, but I really appreciate the
information and and the work that's been
done this far. I just I think we need to
clean up some some of the work and um
make sure that people understand um
where we're heading with this. And and
again reiterating that the $35 fee is
not a permanent fee. That that can
change. that will change if that's not
what people want so that folks don't
feel like we're forcing them to a fee
that they didn't agree to.
If I might add that when we we look back
at the council direction originally on
the 90 minutes um and in that discussion
we found uh in review of the council
meeting that it was very briefly
mentioned that we modeled this after the harbor and so I understand that we
went from a 60-minute to a 90-minute but
there was also that just quirk that we
found that we're modeling it after the
harbor. So we took our direction and and
did that. Um, we can, again, this is
within the city council's discretion.
>> Um, we certainly can, um, modify the
90-minute free in the way council
directs.
>> And I just want to keep reiterating
though for the for this evening, we want
to make sure we do these municipal
changes to enable these things and also
just make sure that we're on a good
legal foundation for when we move
forward with any any uh uh fees that any
of the fees we want to charge for any
off streetet parking.
>> Yeah. And I can understand that. I mean,
I I think we we have many conversations
up here that later on we're like, "Wait,
what happened?"
>> Um, but, uh, I I think those are some
things that really need to be looked at
and and changed and pivot so that we can
gain the public's trust on this.
>> Absolutely. If I could add one more
thing, mayor, that tonight we' be
bringing forth the change that would
allow, you know, council to the council
has come back to council to allow the
off- streetet paid parking to be
expanded. doesn't make any changes to
that. But for regarding the employee
permit program, it would allow staff
pending a coastal development approval
that we would be allowed to roll out
this program. So, we could come back and
change it and modify it and we we'd be
happy to that we will definitely engage
the stakeholders downtown and get their
feedback. I think it says in the staff
report that we'll, you know, continue
stakeholder outreach, but it would allow
us to roll out the program for the
permits. It would not allow us to expand
paid parking without coming back for
prior approval. Just want to clarify
that.
>> Thank you for that.
>> Did you have um Council Member Compos, I
have your name still on the queue. Did
you have comments?
>> Just commenting on that. I think that
because of the questions and problems of
public trust right now regarding the
permits, I think this council would
prefer you bring it back to us, not just
roll it out.
>> Okay. Thank you,
>> council member. As the public works
director, I we will bring this back to
you before we roll it out.
>> Thank you.
>> Absolutely,
>> Mr. City Attorney.
>> Mayor, I just would make the point that
the employee parking could um and I
understand where the council's going on
that, but the first aspect of the
parking lots um we would really uh
benefit from having uh that portion of
the ordinance read. if the council is
inclined to um move that portion but not
the employee parking, I can sort of talk
the council through a motion there. The
second point I just wanted to make was
I've heard some of the council members
concerns about the hours of parking and
I believe the code actually um the
council adopted an ordinance that
provides the traffic engineers set the hours. So I think uh there's been
some general uh general direction from
individual individual council members,
but the uh how that that divying is is
not on the agenda. So that's not fair
game for a motion. So I think the
traffic engineer can receive the
information and proceed accordingly. But
also as to if the council isn't inclined
to move with the staff recommendation,
we'd suggest uh going with the parking
lot ordinance and I can walk a parking
lot portion of the ordinance. I can walk
the council through that if needed.
Okay, appreciate that. Thank you. I'm
going to go ahead and take public
comment at this time on this item. Do we
have speakers?
>> Thank you, mayor. We have six speakers
on item 12. Our first speaker is Melissa
Bates Wilder, followed by Spencer Norn.
>> Hi, I'm Melissa Bates Wilder. I am the
owner of Blue Crush. We're a co-work
nursery school in downtown. We serve 48
families every single day and 10
teachers. parking for my teachers that
make $50,000 a year. I would not make
them park pay for it, but it would cost
me $4,200
a year, which is one month's rent for my
building. It's also two months worth of
daycare for a family. So, just thinking
about me as a business owner, those are
things that I'm not going to be able to
afford. Um, and I'm coming to you with
some questions. And before I get the
questions, I want to give you a little
background. I was at the Riviera Ridge
School in Santa Barbara as their
director of innovation. We needed 150
parking spots for 13 days when we had
school events. And we priced it out. It
was going to be $3 million. We were
raising $18 million for the school. And
I said to everyone, hey, that's 16% of
our budget. Let's do a costbenefit
analysis on other things we can do. So,
we went to people in the city and we
found out we could rent 150 parking
spots for $10 a day for 13 days. That
cost us about 20,000. But then we would
need to run a shuttle on those days.
Those 13 days at 5 hours, $25 an hour,
three drivers, that was another around
5,000. So, we could raise $3 million for
a parking structure or we could pay
$25,000 a year using parking in our
other city and running shuttles. And I
figured out for the school it would take
us 120 years for that to equal each
other. Right? By in 120 years we no
longer need that parking structure. Cars are on the way out.
Pedestrian cities are on the way in as
well as shared used vehicles and cars.
So I think I have three questions for
city council. Do you need paid parking
Monday through Friday 8 to 5? Don't we
want to encourage people to come
downtown during those hours? How does
paying
help that? And have we done an analysis
of how many spots are actually available
on the weekends when it's difficult to
park? Have you thought about other
parking areas that you could use
shuttles from like Ventura High School,
the mall, the college, the government
center? And if we're on that like
thinking, why don't we just increase the
bus lines? The bus lines number six that
comes from Midtown runs every 20 to 30
minutes when Ohigh runs every 60
minutes. Those are the only two that
come into downtown. Everything else
stops at the mall. You could increase
bus line 11 and 21 and get them to come
into downtown at staggered starts of
every 8 to 10 minutes like Barcelona or
MIT or Cambridge where Harvard is and
people use the bus every single day.
Then we don't have to worry about
downtown parking pit permits that I
can't afford, my staff can't afford, and
minimum wage workers can't afford.
Instead, we increase the buses. We get
people downtown and we start thinking of
downtown as a destination. Thank you,
Spencer Norin, followed by Philip
Fields.
» Right on. Thank you, Michael. Good to
see you, council. It's been a little bit
of while here. Hope you enjoyed your
summer break. Good to be in chamber
staff at the Ventura Police Department
here somewhere. And also translation in
the back. appreciate you translate my
words in Spanish. I've been a kind of a
advocate against extended paid parking
downtown and across our city. And when
reading this agenda item, I think I
would ask you as a council to separate
the three topics. I'm seeing paid
parking. I'm also seeing being allowed
to charge for parking and then also
employee. I think it's three different
topics. Have we seen the discussion go
through tonight? And I like council
member Compo's recommendation of curbing
these topics and coming back and talking
about them individually. Um I just think
there's differences with all of them.
We've heard the council members talk
about them. So as far as parking goes
downtown, I'm still not in favor of it
because we've heard of the lack of
communication with business owners and
other um ways we can approve. So bring
it back through different ways and
discussions and deny staff
recommendation. Thank you.
Philip Fields followed by Casey
Rodriguez.
If Ventura City
was made only by employees,
it be an ideal employee city.
But the [clears throat] world doesn't
move around only the employees.
It moves around
the people,
the diverse block of people,
the taxpayers.
They're the ones that put your bill,
your money, your wages. They're the ones
that are [clears throat]
carrying the brunt of the economic
daytoday work in the red. No, in the
black.
And that's the one you got to serve.
You're here to serve the people. You're
not here to serve the bureaucrats. I'm
sorry to say this.
If I was a bureaucrat, it would make no
difference. You don't serve the
employees.
You serve the people. That's why you're
there sitting there in the dice
in the das.
And if you don't listen to the people
and you try to have a tyranny of
employees where you're lied, you're
cheated, you're colluded, you're
deceived,
and where does the back stop? The city
manager. What the hell are you doing,
sir? You're not running a circus.
You should be running a city.
And here your employees, they deceive
the council. They deceive us. This is a
c a boss of circus.
Please do your job. City manager and
council.
Do what you must do, but don't let the
bureaucrats run over you, deceiving you,
manipulating you, and in the end they
collute the developer and the the
employee.
What's this? It's time to look for
drastic solutions.
Serve the people.
If you cannot serve the people, then
what are you doing there in the dasis?
Serve the people. We the people.
So
we want to see actions. We want to see
results.
I take the bus day and night.
I stopped driving my hybrid since the
1990s because of climate concerns. You
can do the same.
You certainly can.
So, let's do it. What are you waiting
for? Give us the solution. Serve the
people with the people and for the
people and of the people.
>> Thank you.
» Next speaker is Casey Rodriguez,
followed by Debbie Fox.
Once again, my own opinion. I oppose
this item.
I don't think people understand how many
people living here are already living on
a very tight budget.
We really need to think of those people.
They say $35. I don't think they
understand
the pressure of having to either pay for
gas in our car to buy our medication to
go grocery shopping.
And the last thing anybody needs to do
is worry about a ridiculous parking fee.
especially those who are working very
limited hours as it is.
People should have the right to park
downtown for free and enjoy downtown how
they choose. Whether it's enjoying the
beach, hiking the trails, enjoying the
great museums, art to supporting a
business with the money they will save
for not paying a parking fee if this is
about supporting downtown businesses.
However, we must stop thinking of how to
grab every single dollar from the
people. That's what it seems like this
whole night has been about. How to get
more and more money. Why are we not
talking about what we can do for the
people, the ways that we can come up and
serve the people instead of always
talking about another dollar
and how the people feel they are truly
invited in this city to come downtown
and enjoy how they choose. With the
mentions of the harbor since the parking
fee has started, I personally have seen
their parking lot emptier. Seeing this,
I think it is safe to say the businesses
there are being negatively affected.
Furthering free parking downtown will
create an issue for many people with
mobility issues, whether they are
elderly or disabled.
We can't just assume everybody has
healthy bodies and have the ability to
just walk a couple extra blocks. As a
former Ark employee, I know how many
participants enjoy coming downtown
rather going to the movies, thrifting,
or having a lunch at the park or beach.
For many of them, their ark outings are
the only outings they will adventure on
during the week. Please don't make it
more difficult.
at some as some posts saying their
opinion of Main Street being empty. This
parking fee will keep more people away.
Are we thinking of those who are paying
to live here or are we thinking of out
in the town tourists? As we mentioned
about Main Street moves when the final
uh survey for the final vote of closing,
I asked for a shuttle for those who are
disabled and elderly so they can have
access to enjoy downtown. There's more
that we can say, but I think you get the
vibe from everyone here. It's a no.
>> Debbie Fox, followed by Lynn Arnell
Brown.
» Hi.
Super interesting. Okay, [clears throat]
first of all, the 90 minutes free that's
like offering financing and then when
you get to the like if financing for
free for 6 months and when you get to 6
months in one day you're whacked with
33% interest for that whole time. That's
what 90 minutes free and then getting to
91. So that's my opinion on that. The
survey you asked if they didn't want to
move their car. Of course they're going
to not want to move their car. You
didn't ask them if they wanted to pay.
If they were willing to pay. How much
are you willing to pay to not move your
car?
Employees would rather move their car
midshift than pay for this.
They're being paid. They're not clocking
out. The employers are paying for that.
And then the employees are going to move
their car. One solution is to take the lots that are a problem and split
them like you've split the parking
structure. That's a free solution. At
the other hand, I loved what Bill said
where we are spending $64,000
to make $25,000.
What business world are you guys living
in? I'm so happy to hear that you guys
are saying, "No, we shouldn't do this."
No, let's talk to the stakeholders, see
how many people are interested, and then
we'll approve this. Because let me tell
you, I found out about this meeting this
morning and it spread and people had no
idea. They had no idea. No one could
plan. No one knows about this.
Oh, how much are the parking permits for
city employees? What are they paying?
And to Bill's point, providing some
value, the parking structure, most of
it's half empty most of the time, except
those key times. And so, no one parks on
the roof in the sun. Everyone's parking
in the shade. So, we're providing value
by asking them to go and park in the
sun.
Uh, what are we going to do with the
money that we get? Well, the parking
authority used to be I was on the
parking authority and it used to be
making money and then what happened is
that we closed Main Street. We lost the
most profitable meters and so now we're
deeply in the in the red. So what's
happening to that 25,000 which is really
negative 38,000 is it's going into that
black hole
at a time. This is the pre-written part.
At a time when downtown businesses are
facing economic challenges, the city
should be looking for ways to support
them. We should be reducing barriers to
doing business downtown, not creating
new ones.
Please vote no until you've done a
thorough
talking to the business owners.
>> Thank you.
Next speaker is Lynn Arnell Brown,
followed by our final speaker, Nirvana.
» Hello again. I wasn't even planning on
talking about this until I heard uh the
bureaucratic cost of employee permits
boggles my mind. Did anybody just think
of finding out how many employees work
in each of the businesses? do an honor
system asking those business owners, how
many permits would you need? And then
just print out a decal that can be put
on their windshield that lasts a year.
Nobody would be out $88 a month permit.
Don't even worry about permits. Do an
honor system. Maybe that's simplistic,
but it sure seems cheaper. And I thought
the city needed to save money, not spend
it. And as far as the 90minute parking,
if it's free, it should be free. There
should not be any retroactive payment.
Thank you.
>> And our final speaker is Nirvana.
Greetings, mayor, council members.
Um, I have a couple of questions.
The first one is, does this include
the the the park public parking at Santa
Clara and Palm and does it include
the the the parking lot at Figuroa and
Palm outside of the tavern?
That's a question.
Don't have an answer. These are all
public parking spaces, public lots.
Okay, that that's my question to you
guys because I don't think that the peop
that that the patrons at the tavern
would appreciate having to pay to go,
you know, to park outside their
place of eery and and where they drink
or whatever.
And um
also I'd like to talk about the
residents that live on Main Street and
around Main Street.
How about let's get some permits for
them?
And I'm talking to everybody. I'm
talking the entire city council
and these guys, too,
because I know people that live on Main
Street that can't find parking. They
have to go park way away from their
where they live. And I know one woman
personally
that lives around uh Oak and Main
Street, right off Main Street, I think
between Oak and Paulie
or I mean Maine and Paulie. She had to
completely get rid of her car because
she couldn't find parking.
So, I I would suggest if we're going to
give permits to people for parking,
let's give it to the residents in the
downtown area, let's create
some residential parking permits for
these residents that live in the
downtown area.
Thank you,
mayor. That concludes public comment on
item 12.
>> Thank you, and thank you to everyone who
spoke tonight on this item. Um, I'll
bring it back to council for final
questions um before closing the public
hearing.
>> Any additional [clears throat] questions
from my colleagues?
>> Council member Mc Reynolds, followed by
Council Member Durant.
>> Um, one of the public speakers brought
up the idea of uh a parking pass for
residents. You know, I'm just picking a
number like $100 a year, $200 a year,
whatever. Is that something that we
could consider where it just resolves?
>> We we currently we do have a residential
parking permit program in a downtown. If
you live on a street where there's
>> No, no. I'm talking about like me on the
east end. Oh,
>> I just I want to come downtown every
Wednesday for dinner and I just want to
buy a not I don't want to deal with the
you know, can I just reg pre-register my
vehicle
and just park?
>> Sure, that is definitely an option to
do. We can bring something forward like
that as a residential citywide uh
parking permit program. Yes, we can do
something like that.
>> Yeah. Thank you.
>> Thank you, Council Member Durant.
>> Thank you, Madam Mayor. So, based on
what we've discussed already and all the
questions that we've asked tonight,
where where are we? What exactly do you
need from us? because it doesn't sound
like um the um employee parking is is a
I mean I [clears throat] I personally
when we didn't ask any of the other
businesses would they pay I I think does
it make sense? Um so so is that are we
are you just going to bring that back?
Is that something you could do?
If if I may, Council Member Duran, um I
might have a question for the city
attorney on the best way to go about
that if council was to exclude um
recommendation C tonight on the to adopt
a resolution establishing a downtown
employee parking permit fee, but move
forward with recommendation B
establishing the ordinance. staff could
move forward to coastal commission
establish the framework but it could not
be implemented because there'd be no fee
by resolution from council.
So that would be an option if you choose
to establish the framework start the
coastal commission process and require
staff to come back after further
outreach has has occurred um and and
more thought has been put into this then
that would be a way to go about it.
>> Okay. So, so the plan is possibly to
have an employee parking fee. Is that
what that So, that's still the plan.
>> So, so I think what uh uh Mr. Roberts
was saying to not adopt the fee?
>> Not adopt that. Okay.
>> Just just approve the municipal code
changes to allow it and then we could
come back.
>> Awesome.
>> With some more information on that.
>> And so when you say you're going to come
back for some more with some more
information, you're going to do a a
study. You're going to ask business
owners and employees. I would further
add to that, council member Duran, that
again that we would come back to the
city council for uh implementation
direction direction from the city
council to direct the program that would
include what the fee would be. In the
meantime, as I've committed to council
member Compost, that we would do public
outreach, including reaching out as much
as we can with the business owners.
>> I public out public outreach is awesome.
>> Yeah. But public outreach is not
necessarily what we're looking for.
business owners and
employees. I I it does public is
>> I said public outreach, but I meant
specifically more with the business
owners.
>> Right.
>> What point? Well taken.
>> Okay. Okay. Thank you.
>> Thank you, Council Member Mcyns,
followed by Council Member Schumacher.
>> So, I I have a little bit of an issue if
we're not taking a fee forward on the
employee program. So, we're going to
tell the Coastal Commission. I I feel
like well, let me back. I feel like
there's an opportunity for a bait and
switch here. So, we know the fully
burdened cost is $88 a month.
We're going to but we're going to not
say that and then we're going to say
we're going to take it to 35, but then
in the back of our mind, we always know
that it should be $88. You know, why
wouldn't we want the Coastal Commission
to weigh in on the fully burdened fee
versus the subsidy?
like Council Member Mc Reynolds, that is
a possibility. That could be a direction
from the city council. Uh might make
more sense with the um coastal
commission and they get the full fee,
the $88, and then um that would not
preclude us from charging less later at
your direction, at your policy that you
would make on what we would ultimately
charge for a employee permit.
>> Yeah, I'm still choking on the fact that
we would spend
64,000 to make 25. So that still doesn't
quite make sense to me, but I I just as
we we're just debating this, that's
where I'm at. Thank you.
>> Thank you for those comments. Um,
Council Member Schumacher, followed by
Deputy Mayor Halter.
>> Thank you, Mayor. I um
I'm just not This is a question for for
you all, too. Um, well, maybe not. I I I
don't feel comfortable moving forward
with this at all. Um, I just don't think
that it's it's packaged well and this
ordinance is missing the most important
really crucial part of it and that is
the the public's voice. And so I don't
necessarily know I know we're not at
deliberations and I was going to ask a
question but I just wanted to make sure
that that that comment was out there. Um
because honestly if there's something if
we're going to piece this out but you
all presented it as a whole the whole
thing just doesn't seem right to me. Um,
so I guess I lost my question in that
comment, but I I just can't I can't I
can't support this.
>> If you get the question back, I can come
back to you, [laughter] Deputy Mayor
Halter.
>> Great. Thank you. Um, okay. So again,
tonight it's really about looking at
municipal code and and uh allowing a
path forward in the future that may
consider expanding parking and may
consider having an employee parking fee.
Um it's not saying we're going to do it.
just gives us a tool as we move
forward whether it's now or five years
from now that it broadens the municipal
code. Right.
>> That's correct. And also the time limit
changes
>> and the
>> the time limit it allows our public
works director or designate to change
time limit changes in parking lots.
>> Okay. Yes. Okay. Uh and would th those
ch those time limit changes happen with
council approval would they just happen?
>> They would with this municipal code
change um the it would not it would be
administratively. So if we felt a lot
needed to go from 4 hour to eight hour
or eight hour to four hour, then we can
make that change um administratively,
but it [clears throat] could also be at
council's direction as well. So it does
for both.
>> I just want to make sure that it's with
some input on what those changes might
want to be. Okay. And now you're talking
about um about um making time changes
and then we're also allowing the
potential for paid parking to expand.
um and we're allowing for the potential
to have uh employee um permits. It's not
saying we're going to do any of those.
It just broadens the ability to do
whatever the future be holds. And I
assume all that I don't imagine whether
it's this council or the next council or
the one after that that anybody would
make a decision without having the input
from the business owners and the
employees, especially the public. But I
think I have that right. So it's it's
really about municipal go because right
now if we said yes if everyone was in
agreement and say yeah let's go ahead
and do this parking permit and do that
it's still going to take what the
coastal commission I don't think they do
anything less than a year year and a
half right I mean you're talking getting
something in in place so it could be a
tool that we could use right and I think
it would take like a year or so wouldn't
it
>> correct yes
>> yeah so nothing can happen without that
so it's just a starting point it's put
it's filling your toolbox with things to
discuss when that time's appropriate.
And I would agree with council member Mc
Reynolds that I would share with the
coastal commission what the true costs
would be. Uh and then it's it's kind of
out there that whether again this
whatever council it is that makes that
decision with the support of the public
um that we're not automatically assuming
we're going to subsidize the program.
You know, that's what I'll do. That's
how I'm looking at it.
>> Council member Duran. Um, thank you,
Madam Mayor. By, by the way, I want to
let you know I use the uh the app for
parking and I absolutely love it. I
think it's awesome. So, it wasn't all
bad tonight. So, thank you. I do want to
know what authority does council lose
tonight, like if if we were to approve
any of this, um what parking decisions
can staff make without bringing it back
to us?
>> The the only thing that it would um
allow administratively is the time limit
changes.
>> Okay. which
on spaces we do 24-minute zones, we do
red curb. So those are the kind of
things and also inside parking lots.
>> So this is a clarification. So we have
done those historically. Yeah.
>> Now
>> big changes where we're if we do change
a hu a lot to four hour this that would
be something that we would inform
council on.
>> Perfect.
>> But this this really allows us to do
some of the smaller stuff that we've
done historically and really clarifies
that.
>> Thank you. Thanks so much. Thank you
madam mayor. Thank you. Um, if there
aren't any other questions from
colleagues, I'll go ahead and close the
hearing now. Um, and we'll enter council
deliberations. So, if anybody wants to
start that or make a motion, I am here
for it.
Council member Mangon.
>> Thank you, Madam Mayor. I have to agree
with my colleague, Council Member
Schumacher. I think I feel like we're
starting off with a process that's
confusing. It's unpopular. There's
really no guarantee that any business
owner or employee is going to even
participate to get us through a process
so we can eventually expand paid
parking, which is even more unpopular
concept. So, uh, for that reason, I I
just can't I can't support it at this
time.
>> Council member Schumacher,
>> I just want to um add to what I had
stated. Um, you know, our target really
is to help the businesses in downtown.
That's we're not here to make money from
the parking. It's really to assist in
assuring that the, you know, there's
enough traffic flow so there's more
customers to be able to pump more money
into the businesses downtown. That's the
focus, right? for us to be able to have
challenges that um increases the access
for our workforce and the residents and
the people trying to do that. It just
makes it just doesn't make any sense. So
I I understand that you all want
something for us to move forward and but
then you know I I have lost confidence
if you're bringing something that's not
fully formed and to me when you bring
something to this council it has to also
be in in my mind um with the with the
support of the community and if you
haven't done the work in trying to make
sure that you're hearing the voices from
the community. Um, then that's something
that really we should really look into
how we're doing our process because what
we're trying to do is we're mo we're
trying to motivate the right behavior.
And if we're trying to motivate that
people don't want to come to downtown,
this is the way that we do it. We want
to motivate the right behavior to ensure
that people stay longer. People want to
make sure that they spend money in
downtown and that we create something
downtown that is successful.
This is not it. And I'm I'm sorry. I
mean, I think um you know, there's still
a lot more work that this needs to be
fleshed out alongside with what we
really want to make sure to have is that
public voices.
» Thank you, Council Member Mcrenolds. It
was on anymore.
>> Okay. Um Deputy Mayor Halter, followed
by Council Member Duran.
>> Great. Thank you. Okay. Uh this has been
a long uh I mean I think I've been on
council six years and we've been
discussing parking downtown for the
entire six years and and before. Uh this
is not a new topic. This is something
that has been circulated through
downtown and across the city for many
years. And uh still yet tonight it's not
about making paid parking expanded
beyond where it's at now. It's really
not about even um employee parking
permits. It's about giving a tool to
future councils or this one probably
future to make changes in the parking
arrangement because it's really not and
it's not about revenue generation. It's
about managing parking
because I remember the days you don't
want me to go there but I remember days
where all of us had our employees
parking right on Main Street. That's
what we did. and then they were switch
and park across the street during, you
know, half shift, you know, whatever
they needed to do. So anyway, so I look
at this and I think, you know, whether
it's halfbaked or not, it's it's the
fact that we have to consider the tools
to create the most vibrant downtown
possible. We all want that same goal. We
all want people to be encouraged to come
to downtown. And I just don't see how
limiting the tools that
um you know that are available to us to
create the most vibrant downtown
uh helps us get there. It's not like
we're sitting here tonight saying we're
going to expand paid parking. It's just
giving us that option and it's giving us
that option with the vote uh of the
council uh and thus elected officials
listening to the public and what we see
happening out there. I think from an
economic standpoint, we're in I know as
a small business, I feel we're in a very
precarious situation right now because
while Wall Street, I think, is
absolutely betrayed, small businesses,
the backbone of this country. Um the
fact is is that small businesses are
hurting right now. The economy is not as
good as people think it is by watching
Wall Street make more and more billions
of dollars. So, it's a really strange
situation that's going on. And so it's
really something where we need to work
together on what how we use these tools.
But waiting another year or two years or
five years to get the approval to create
the tools, I don't think is the answer.
I think the answer is to to approve a
municipal code change that allows for
these tools to be available when and if
we choose to make those decisions. and
making sure that decision has to come
back to council for a decision whether
it's changing the hours, whether it's
inc having a employee permit or whether
it is uh expanding parking and then
we'll make that decision together as a
community. That's how I see it.
>> Thank you, Council Member Durant.
>> Thank you, Madam Mayor. And
um Deputy Mayor Halter, I I I totally
understand what you're saying.
Absolutely. I think um one of the things
we really have to look at though, do we
want to spend time? Do we want to spend
time and money uh doing a a survey on
something we already know nobody wants
to do? You know what I mean? Like we we
there's not one employee that's going to
want us, oh yeah, I'll do that. As far
as I know. As far as I know. And I don't
know how many business owners are going
to say, well, I want to pay for my
employees. just cuz I mean we our
downtown isn't isn't doing as great as
they could right now, right? For
whatever reason. Um so I would just say
I don't even know if we should put that
on the table at all. I mean I it just
doesn't make sense to me. I really
appreciate your comment about why don't
you just issue everybody a permit that
works down there that works down there
and then they get an opportunity to park
wherever they want. I that's something
that probably needs to to get worked
out. But um I hear what you're saying,
council member or um Deputy Mayor
Halter. I hear what you're saying in
regards to we do need we do need to move
forward in order to be able to do future
stuff. I get it. I just think we need to
take the employee permit thing maybe off
the table
because I just don't does it make sense
to spend our resources on that. My
thoughts.
>> Thank you, Council Member Mcrenolds.
» Thank you, Madam Mayor. Uh, can we go to
slide three?
And I think we should just understand
the three items in front of us tonight.
Go back one more. There we go. Okay.
What does this change do? Like, break it
down for me like I'm a fifth grader.
>> Go ahead.
What [clears throat] What does the uh
Sorry, I thought we were um What do
these three actions do? So, the
>> Let's just This one
>> the the city lot. This bas this allows
administratively to uh for the the
director of public works or designate to
change uh time limits in parking lots.
And
>> so tell me what happens if we don't do
this.
>> Then anytime we want to change a a time
in a parking lot, we'd have to come to
city council
>> and what's and and what's the pros and
cons?
>> Uh I think the the flexibility for us to
do that. Um it also theoretically if we
um wanted to make maybe someone comes to
us that has needs a 24minute uh parking
zone or something like that, those kind
of changes as well. Um it just allows us
more flexibility to make those changes.
>> Okay. Do you believe this is uh this change solely is a pro or con for
the business community?
>> I think um and this also does expand
into outside of downtown. It also
>> just the business community in general
>> and sometimes the business community
wants us to change those. For example,
in the Midtown, um we had uh RVs parking
in the lots. We had criminal activity
and so we were able to go to a 4-hour
lot there.
>> Okay.
>> So again, do you believe that this
benefits the business community? This
change only this change, yes or no?
>> Yes.
>> Okay. Can we go to the next slide?
» What does this do? So, this allows the
uh the city count this allows us to
charge for parking in uh city- owned
parking lots and we this just sets up
the framework for it. And when I say we,
I mean city council. This would be a
city council authorized
um situation later. This just sets up
the framework for that. And it also
helps us with our um coastal development
permit.
>> Okay. And so I think you I wrote it
down. No one wants to pay a fee. So, but
so that this falls under that category.
>> So, this allows the potential to charge
a fee,
>> correct?
>> That we are not charging today.
>> Correct.
>> That we don't have authority to charge.
>> Correct. In the downtown. Correct.
>> Got it. Okay. And then the next one,
what does this do?
>> This set this sets the framework for the
employee parking permit program as well.
um and allows us to issue uh hang tags
for employees that choose to u
participate in this program so that they
u may use that hang tag to park in a
4-hour lot and stay for eight hours or
more.
>> Okay,
>> last question. uh is the 90 minutes uh
with the regressive back to minute one.
Uh if you go to 91 minutes, how is that
resolved in this?
>> That's not in any of these three
municipal codes. That would be a change
that can be made. Um
could be council directed. I don't know
if it could be directed at this
>> direct question to the city attorney
then. That's not on the table tonight
based on the item before us.
Sorry, the what question is not on the
table?
>> The 90 minutes, the regressive.
>> It's not on the table for the council.
Correct.
>> We cannot discuss that.
>> It's not subject for a vote. I think
that I the council can be informed, but
it wouldn't be the subject of a motion.
>> Okay. Thank you very much.
» Okay. Thank you for those questions um
and comments. Um I don't see any other
uh comments from colleagues at this
time. I do need a motion um for this
item.
Council member Mcrenolds,
>> uh could we do a straw vote in terms of
the three items and see where council is
and take each one up individually?
>> Mayor, I think by show of hands, not
secret ballot, but by show of hands, I
think you could definitely do that.
>> Okay.
>> Is that something you'd be open to?
>> Yeah, I'm I'm open to that. That's fine.
So, if I So, my if we go back to slide
three,
understanding what staff said in terms
of giving staff the ability to set
parking hours in parking lots, is this
council in favor, you know, with a straw
vote? Yes or no would be my my question.
>> Can I just have a clarifying question?
>> I mean, yeah.
>> In regards to the time limit, is that
Sorry. Okay. Okay. Um, in regards to the
time limit, does that mean the hours or
does that mean the 90 minutes?
>> It would refer to the hours. Typically,
our lots are either all day or 4 hour.
>> Okay.
>> I think the city attorney clarified that
we can't talk about the
>> talk about the 90 minutes.
>> Or add it to the motion.
>> So, are we in favor of bringing this
forward? And mayor, to be clear, this is
just sort of a straw poll. The clerk
won't be taking a role on these.
>> Okay. Thank you,
>> Deputy Mayor.
>> Yeah. I just want to say is that just to
be clear that um my my straw vote is uh related to creating the toolbox
>> and and not knowing how what the economy
would be like when and if these changes
are going to be made whether it's a year
or two years from now or five years from
now. I'm just my vote is about is all
about creating that toolbox.
>> Right. And my understanding is this only
is regarding time limits in parking
lots. So there's no
>> it's literally what's on the screen
right now. Okay. So, do we need thumb?
Do you are you taking
>> thumbs up? Looks like unanimous thumbs
up.
>> So, then let's go to
>> on these items.
>> Slide four. Yeah.
» Okay. So, this modifies so that we can
start charging parking in the parking
lots. So, obviously based on the number
of hours, everything like that would
change here. But this is an actual
economic,
>> you know, who's in favor of making this
forward
>> to the council or to the coastal
commission, I guess. So, just for
clarity, when you decide you want to
change, uh, you bring that back to us,
correct?
>> For sure. Yes. This would definitely
come back to council if we were to
expand paid parking.
» Okay.
>> Do we have any
So, four, three.
>> Okay. And then the last one is the
employee uh parking program.
» Again, this would just create the
framework. doesn't set a set set it up
uh on it. And so I guess my question to
the colleagues is are we in favor of
this?
>> Right.
>> So, okay,
Mayor, I and I don't know if Council
Member Mcfrenolds is done. When he's
done, I might be able to try to read a
motion together for you.
>> Yes, that would be great.
>> I think that's that's
>> that's the intent.
>> Yes. [laughter]
Thanks, M. So, and and just to be clear,
these were just some slides. There was a
staff recommendation in the staff
report. So, I want to track that um and
sort of just explain how that's going to
be modified for the clerks of the
council also um because we are re doing
first reading of an ordinance. So, I
need to be uh be clear what we're doing
here. So, first thing is is that there
are just to sort of set the table for
the council. There are two code sections
that staff proposed amending. One was
employee parking, one was not. One was
relating to parking lots, one was
relating to employee parking. So the
employee parking portion, I understand
it, mayor, for council member McMill's
motion is not going to be uh part of the
ordinance. That's completely separate
from the parking lot section. So that's
first point. Uh second point is the
employee parking permit fee uh was going
to be proposed to be established by
resolution. If employee parking is not
on the table, I presume there's no need
to establish the fee. Um, the other
thing just to make clear to the council,
the uh parking lots that still would
have to go through uh the administrative
coastal development permit. So even
though it's a a slim down ordinance, uh
staff would still need to um do the
ACDP. So just to be clear for the
council. So what um the recommendation
would now be um if I understand council
member Mcrenold's motion is conduct
first reading of the ordinance only as
to 16.210.0.
070 of the municipal code, not
16.215.030
of the municipal code. So basically that
would be the ordinance
that's presented but deleting
section two and then the remainder of
the ordinance um would be uh given first
reading.
No resolution and with the sequel
finding in the staff recommendation.
>> That sounds about right.
Okay.
>> Do you want to go
>> to Mayor's
Apologize? Uh to Deputy Mayor Halter's
point, I still think we need to continue
refining the employee permit program, do
the engagement, do all of that. You
know, I think to Council Member
Compost's point, as the Main Street
Moves Committee starts meeting, this is
not something that they're going to be
taking up. this is something that would
continue on but you know so it's
direction to staff to continue refining
this employee uh program and then
secondarily for future consideration I
think we'd like to see the the 90minute
parking uh item brought back to us uh on
it so and I don't know if anybody else
has
>> would that include pack on some level
>> I I apologize I didn't I didn't hear you
>> uh your recommendation would that
include or the engagement Would that
include PAC as well? The parking
authority?
>> Oh, yeah. Absolutely. Yeah, the parking.
Yes. Yeah, we we have that commission
for a reason and
>> we absolutely want them to provide input
and uh direction to us.
>> Okay. Thank you. Uh Council Member
Duran,
>> thank you. Just for clarity on your
motion, um on your recommendations for
that motion. So when you said um bring
back employee parking
if we bring it back as is or if they
study as is it makes no sense. You said
that. So right so completely.
>> Okay.
>> Thank you.
>> Deputy Mayor Halter.
>> Great. Thank you. Uh I just um I'm
liking the direction that we're going. I
just want to make sure though that I got
to say it because the part that I'm very
uncomfortable with is that uh given the
last 40 years and the fact that on
average it takes 12 to 20 years to get
any project approved in this city, this
may work. All right, just know that not
doing it today and waiting a year or
waiting two years, you're adding a year
to two years to any time period before
you could do anything. So uh we've
entered a cycle in the world in the
state in our city where things will
happen quicker whether we like it or
not. The state is forcing that on us
because of the problems that we created
by taking 12 and 20 years to get
projects approved. So if we decide we
see projects happen, buildings uh
change, uh people investing, and we
bring jobs back to our city, we may want
these tools and we may want them fast.
If you want to wait the years it's going
to take to get these things approved,
then let's limit the toolbox. You know,
I think it's full hearty quite frankly,
but I am liking the fact that about 80%
of what I would do, I think it's looking
like we might approve.
>> Thank you. Um, Council Member Durant.
>> So, I'm in agreement with with your
motion, but I just have a question in
regards to bringing back uh this to
Javon. If uh to bring this 90day thing
back, doesn't that have to be 90
minutes? Sorry. in in 90 days. Bring it
back. Uh, doesn't this have to be a um
an addition to agenda item at the end of
our meeting? Do we have to do that or
can we request them to bring that back?
>> You can do that right here as part of
the motion.
>> Then I second.
>> Okay. And and just so for the council, I
just want to ask council member
Mcrenolds just to be clear. So, it's the
refined motion minus the employee
parking. What uh what I'd read into the
record direct staff to continue uh
refining the employee parking program
and then direct staff to bring back the
90minute uh parking program to and
through the parking advisory committee
to the council.
>> I I guess I'd really just want everybody
to piggyback on council member
Schumacher's comments in terms of the
community
>> parking authority.
>> The Yeah. Well, not only the parking
authority, but the outreach to the the
community and everything like that. I
think council member Schumacher brought
up a lot of really good points. So,
>> community meaning business.
>> Yeah, exactly.
>> Folks in downtown.
>> Mayor, uh, Council Member Compost.
>> Yes. I think that critical to the
employee parking is not just community
engagement, but engagement with the
business owners and employees that needs
to be included into this to get my vote.
And so, mayor, I just so for council
member Reynolds, so just for staff and
for the for the record, what is the the
direction to staff on bringing back the
90minute program? So, parking advisory
committee to and through the council and
then what else specifically? Uh, so the
clerk has it in there.
I would recommend we get this on as
quickly as as possible only because it
just deceptive the 93 minutes and I
think we really need to we need to move
as quickly as possible. Yeah.
>> Yes.
>> Council member Duran may ask a
clarification.
If your direction is to bring it back as
soon as possible, do you still want it
to go to the parking advisory committee
or are you talking about bringing it
back as soon as possible, meaning it
would bypass them for their opinion?
>> Well, I mean, I guess we should go
through the proper process. So, you
know, as soon as you can through that
process.
>> Yeah. Thank you for asking that
question.
>> Yeah.
>> Okay. So, if we are clear on what we're
voting on, um, does anyone need any
repetition of what we're voting on? If
not, I'll go ahead and call for the vote
because we do have a motion in a second.
» Thank you, mayor. You can go ahead and
enter your vote now on item number 12.
All votes have been entered.
Seven eyes and the motion carries.
>> Thank you. And thank you staff really
for the work and the flexibility and our
my colleagues as well. Thank you for the
motion. Um at this point, does anybody
need a break? Yes. Okay, we're going to
go ahead and take a um 10-minut break.
Oh.
if I could have my colleagues come back.
If I can get all of my colleagues back,
that'd be great.
So we can resume our meeting. Thank you
everyone.
» That was a much needed break.
Okay, we'll go ahead and move on to our
formal items. Item number 13
is to amend the compensation of the city
manager's employment agreement and adopt
a revised salary resolution for
unrepresented employees.
The city council met in close session in
July to discuss the city manager's job
performance. Following that discussion,
Deputy Mayor Halter and I were
designated by the city council to
negotiate any potential modifications to
the city manager's employment agreement.
We received input from the entire city
council regarding a potential
compensation increase and subsequently
met with the city manager in accordance
with government code section 54953C3
which requires the legislative body to
provide an oral summary of recommended
executive compensation prior to taking
action. I will now summarize the
proposed modifications.
First amend section 5.8 A.1
D of the city manager's employment
agreement to provide a 3% merit increase
increasing the city manager's annual
base pay from 311,818
with 21 to 321,72.75
effective August 29th of 2026.
Second, adopt a revised resolution, also
effective August 29, 2026, increasing
the city manager's classification pay
range by 3% to maintain the pay
differentials between the city manager
and subordinate classifications.
That concludes the required oral summary
of the proposed compensation changes.
I'll now invite any comments or
questions from my city council
colleagues.
If there aren't any, I'll go ahead um
and take any public comment on this
item. Mr. City Clerk.
>> Thank you, Mayor. No public comment
received on item number 13.
>> Thank you. I will now then go ahead and
entertain a motion and a second for this
item.
» Move to approve recommendation.
>> Second.
>> Thank you. So, Mr. City clerk, can we
please call a vote?
>> You can enter your vote now on item
number 13.
» Waiting for one more vote to be entered.
All votes have now been entered.
>> No public comment.
>> Thank you.
>> Uh seven eyes and the motion carries.
Mayor, there were no speaker cards
submitted for item 13.
>> Thank you. office.
» So, moving on to formal items number 14,
the arts and culture policy framework,
arts and culture definitions and grant
program redesign.
I'll go ahead um and invite staff for a
presentation on this item.
the problem.
» Mr. City attorney, mayor, I think the um
speaker's out of order and there's a if
he [clears throat] wants to pull a
comment card on an agenda item. uh the
city clerk is where you can pull the
comment card and otherwise the speakers
um are otherwise supposed to not disrupt
uh the meeting and I think um the member
of the public has been disrupting the
meeting from uh proceeding.
>> Thank you.
» Mr. Fields, can you please you're out of
order. Thank you.
We'll go ahead and um have staff
presentation on this item. Item number
14, the arts and culture policy
framework.
>> Good evening, mayor and city council.
For the record, I'm Emily Fox, assistant
parks and recreation director. Joining
me this evening is recreation manager
Rebecca Ellis, as well as David Pletner
Saunders with the cultural planning
group consultant team.
To start with some background, this
project grew out of two key city council
actions. In February 2025, council
adopted its strategic priorities which
identified the development of arts and
cultural policies under the economic
develop vitality and development
priority. Later that year, council
adopted the 2050 general plan, which
includes a dedicated arts and culture
element. Building on that direction, in
January 2026, council approved an
agreement with the cultural planning
group to lead this project. The project
formally launched this past March with
community and stakeholder engagement,
background research, and a review of
peer cities, which resulted in the
development of a needs assessment, as
well as the three items before you this
evening. an arts and culture policy
framework, communitydriven definitions
of arts and culture, and a redesign of
our city grant programs.
Before turning the presentation over to
the consultant team, we wanted to
highlight the most valuable part of the
process, the community engagement.
Since March, we've conducted two rounds
of engagement, hearing from hundreds of
residents through the survey, community
meetings, and conversations in both
English and Spanish. We also engaged
with a broad cross-section of Ventura,
including residents, artists, cultural
organizations, community groups,
nonprofits, the Chumash working group,
and many other stakeholders. The three
items before you tonight were shaped and
refined by this collective input, and
we're excited to move from planning into
implementation.
With that, I'll turn the presentation
over to David. Thank you, Emily. And
good evening, mayor, deputy mayor, and
council members.
Moving on to the arts and culture policy
framework. This is a standalone
five-year policy framework. It does not
amend or update the general plan.
Instead, it uses the adopted goals and
policies from the general plan, arts and
culture element as its foundation, and
it brings them together with new
policies developed through the needs
assessment and community engagement
Emily just described for you. For
alignment and and consistency, the
framework is organized around the
general plan's five existing arts and
culture goals, creating one focused
document to guide the city's arts and
culture priorities for the next five
years.
Because the general plan policies have
already been adopted, tonight we'll
focus on the new policies developed
through this project. Next slide,
please.
Across the five goals, the framework
adds new policies that respond directly
to priorities and gaps identified
through the needs assessment and in
community engagement.
These include establishing shared
definitions of arts and culture,
and ongoing engagement with the Chum
Mash community, strengthening
stewardship of the city's public art
collection, expanding arts access across
neighborhoods and for youth, and
supporting the implementation through
the redesign of the uh redesigned grant
program and appropriate professional
staff capacity.
A significant area of focus is
strengthening the connection between
arts, culture, and economic development.
New policies explore creative districts,
cultural corridors, and entertainment
zones. Recognize Ventura's music and
night life as part of the creative
economy, and formalize coordination
between parks and recreation and
economic development.
The framework also expands cultural
tourism to focus on experiences that
encourage overnight stays and generate
greater economic return.
Progress is already underway in this
area with a recent approval of a new
position within economic development
focused on leveraging arts and culture
as an economic driver.
Together, these new policies build on
the general plan and provide more
specific direction to advance arts and
culture over the next five years. Next
slide. Thank you. So, developing shared
communitydriven definitions of arts and
culture was an important part of this
project.
While informed by state, national, and
international models, the definitions
were ultimately shaped by what we heard
from the Ventura community.
One of the clearest themes was that
culture is broader than history and
heritage. It encompasses the identities,
traditions, practices, values,
histories, and expressions that shape
community identity and belonging,
recognizing both heritage and
contemporary community life.
This can include everything from chum
mash traditions and surf heritage to
LGBTQIA
plus and neurodeivergent cultures as
well as communities connected through
shared identities and lived experiences.
Arts and arts, excuse me, arts are one
of the ways culture is created,
expressed and shared through visual and
performing arts, literary arts, folk and
traditional arts, and digital and media
arts.
The Pura Aanita uh mural on this slide
illustrates that relationship. Created
by more than 50 local artists, it
depicts former Chumash villages, Avenue
days, surf and low rider culture.
mariachi, balccorlorico, and more. Using
art to celebrate the traditions,
experiences, and identity of the avenue.
Ultimately, these definitions reflect
how Ventura sees arts and culture and
provide a clearer, more inclusive
foundation for the grant program and the
city's work going forward.
And next slide, please.
The city currently
Oh,
okay. Just having a little consult on
the script. The current the city
currently administers two separate grant
programs. The cultural funding grant
program established in 1993 supports
nonprofit arts and cultural
organizations while the community
partnerships grant program established
in 1998
supports nonprofits addressing social,
environmental, and community needs like
homelessness, workforce development, and
senior services.
Historically, the programs have operated
independently with different grant
cycles, application processes, and
requirements.
The redesign is grounded in community
engagement, industry best practices, and
a desire to broaden the reach of city
funding and create more opportunities to
participate. Can we move to the next
slide, please?
Yep. Okay, great. The result is four
grant categories, each providing a clear
funding pathway for different types of
applicants and different types of
community work. Category 1 provides
operating support for established
Ventura based arts organizations,
continuing the city's longstanding
support while providing greater
flexibility for organizational
sustainability
because eligible organizations must be
based in Ventura. This investment also
strengthens the city's cultural
infrastructure.
Category 2 provides project funding for
arts, cultural, and community serving
organizations, broadening access to
organizations that make meaningful
contributions to Ventura's cultural
life, regardless of whether arts and
culture are their primary mission. This
creates opportunities to support a wider
range of arts and cultural projects that
reflect and serve the community.
Category 3 creates a new opportunity
specifically for individual artists
living or creating work in Ventura,
filling an important gap in a city with
a strong community of individual
artists. And category 4 continues the
community partnership programs support
for community wellness, including
health, homelessness, workforce
development, environmental stewardship,
and services for vulnerable populations.
Together, the four categories preserve
core areas of city support while
expanding access and creating clearer
funding opportunities.
Consolidating the programs also create
greater consistency and simplicity with
a common grant cycle, standardized
guidelines, and a more streamline,
transparent, and equitable process
across all four categories. And now I'll
pass the torch to my friend and
colleague, Rebecca.
>> Thank you, David. [snorts]
Council's approval tonight will allow us
to move this work into implementation.
Following approval, staff will finalize
and publish the arts and culture policy
framework along with a five-year
implementation plan identifying priority
actions, timelines, and responsible
parties. We'll also begin incorporating
the adopted definitions of arts and
culture into city policies, programs,
and grant guidelines.
Approval tonight will also keep the
community impact grant program on
schedule. Staff can then finalize the
grant guidelines, application materials,
and scoring rubrics and launch the first
grant cycle this fall with funding
distributed at the start of the calendar
year.
Together, these actions provide a clear
path forward for moving this work
forward and advancing arts and culture
in Ventura over the next five years.
The recommendations in this staff report
support the economic vitality and
development's focus area of identify and
adopt arts policies and cultural
policies as well as the climate change
and environmental stewardship's focus
area of public input, community
engagement, and accountability. Next
slide, please.
The three actions in front of you this
evening are A approve the proposed arts
and culture policy framework, B approve
the proposed definitions of arts and
culture for use in city policies,
programs, and grant making. And C
approve the proposed redesign and
consolidation of the cultural funding
grant program and community partnerships
grant program into a single community
impact grant program, including the
proposed funding categories and eligible
applicants for each category. This
concludes our presentation. We're happy
to answer any questions you may have.
>> Thank you for your presentation, staff.
At this time, I'll go ahead and invite
my colleagues for if you have any
questions on this item.
Council member Schumacher.
Thank you, Mayor. Thank you, staff, for
your presentation. um
in your outreach, community outreach,
who who did you um go to, who were you
all working with
in the community?
>> So, I can share that we worked not only
with our arts organizations, our
cultural organizations, our community
partnerships organizations. We also held
community meetings and invited the
entire community to attend. We had
pop-up events across Ventura. So at Bell
Arts Factory, at Kellogg Park, at West
Park Community Center, at Bronco Vista
Center, at uh Ventura Community Park, we
had a survey. Uh we did stakeholder
meetings. So, we really were looking for
a broad cross-section of the community,
not only our arts and cultural
organizations, um, but your residents
who participate, enjoy, and and, uh, are
interested in weighing in on the
definitions, the policy framework, as
well as the grant program.
>> Beautiful. And were were any of those
events or meetings held in Spanish, too?
>> [clears throat]
>> We did have a uh virtual meeting that
was available in Spanish and then all of
the materials that we had available on
the website uh were also in Spanish as
well.
>> Were you all facilitating those
meetings?
>> Unfortunately, we were not. Uh but on
the consulting team uh with the cultural
planning group, they had a Spanish
representative and then we also had city
employees who spoke Spanish. So for
instance at uh West Park, we had a
community member who spoke Spanish. So
any community members that came up and
were more comfortable speaking Spanish,
uh, we were able to have those
conversations with them.
>> Great. Percentage-wise, how many like
Spanish speakers do you think you got to
participate in these community outreach?
>> I don't have an actual percentage. Um,
we did have quite a few community
members who spoke Spanish, who chose to
engage with us in English, but I would
say probably about 5 to 10% who who
spoke in Spanish. the remainder who
spoke in English but who also spoke
Spanish. Um, we really worked with our
community groups to make the connections
with our Spanish-speaking community too,
knowing that would be a comfort area.
>> Were I I'm just um curious where is it
you all were the ones facilitating these
events or was it um just other people?
>> So, it was a combination. it was the
consultant team who came out um to do
the more focused stakeholder engagement
as well as the community meetings and
then uh we had a staff team that went
out and and did those meetings. So
myself, Rebecca, uh our arts and culture
team, we also had community uh rep or we
had representatives from each of the
facilities that we uh held the
engagement at. So again, there was a
friendly face and individuals that the
community might feel more comfortable
speaking with and sharing their input.
>> Great. I'm going to hit some some uh
trigger points because we are talking
about culture. Yeah. And you just need
to look at this council here. We're
pretty diverse in the way that we we
approach and uh culture starts in
representation. And so the reason why
I'm asking who was facilitating those
meetings is because people are more
comfortable in participating if they see
themselves in the people who's asking
about culture. Um and so I think uh we
would have seen a bit more I I believe
in in increasing the participants um
that feel a little bit more um
[clears throat] comfortable in the
people the language and the environment
that that they recognize and feel um
that they can be open to in sharing what
they want to see in art form. Um, and
then just it help me understand um what
specifically
um because I think what um and I have a
minute left. I think what I would have
liked help me understand why uh on
category two um we're back to arts and
culture and not really focused just on
culture.
» Yeah. Excuse me one second. I'm just
getting to that place in the in the
materials.
So,
yeah, thank you. Um,
we were we were really looking to
reassess the program within the
framework of the goals from the general
plan
and from what we heard in community
engagement. And an important part of
that was broadening access and who
participates in the funding program.
So uh the first category obviously is
serving the arts organizations and
particularly those that have been
longstanding
stalwarts um organizations serving the
community for a long period of time.
This category two was intended to really
extend an invitation to a much broader
range of applicants. certainly arts and
cultural organizations that are that are
doing, you know, arts and cultural
projects. They're not um kind of major
larger organizations in the community.
So, it's it's saying you you can belong
in this category.
Also, we wanted to make um
explicit that organizations that aren't
incorporated, that are using a fiscal
receiver, organizations that are not
arts and cultural organizations, but
that use arts and culture as part of the
program serving the community that they
had a place in this framework.
>> Sure. So, Mr. I'm going to end with this
comment and then I'm going to allow my
colleagues to join in the conversation
and I'll come back to my the rest of my
questions. But, Mr. Plentress I think
the reason why we wanted at least for me
wanted a focus on culture is because
that is what's happening um when you
combine it with and there are several
other categories that have art
organizations individual artists and
even the community wellness progs but if
we have the reason why is because we
wanted a lot more people to show their
culture that's part of Ventura and I
think that's what was missing where we
wanted to have more Chumash artwork,
Filipino artwork or or in a in a way
that shows the diversity. Again, look at
this council. We are absolutely Ventura
and that's how we wanted to see it in
the art form. You erase that and the art
form becomes exactly the status quo.
Thank you.
>> Thank you, Deputy Mayor Halter.
>> Great. Thank you, Madam Mayor, and thank
you, staff. Let's see. A couple things.
first is um when it comes to Ventura's
cultural identity um you listed some of
the identity but there's many that
weren't included and I'm not quite sure
how we looked at that how we picked and
choose because there's things like the
agricultural and ranching history um
there's a lot of long-standing
traditions and organizations that have
been a part of Ventura for 150 years um
and there's a lot of um uh existing
organizations that really define the
current day uh arts organization. So it
seems like we probably unintentionally
excluded some of a a fairly large part
of what a lot of us consider our culture
uh from that description. What's your
comment on that?
>> And if I can clarify the way the
definition is written um there are a
handful of examples but it's inclusive
of all cultures. What we found in this
project is uh the community is on the
same page as council. Um actually the
same page as staff too. An inclusive
diverse definition. So low writer
culture, surf culture, um Filipino
culture, chum mash culture, Chinese
culture. To list every single culture,
you run the risk of leaving someone out.
So the definition really was intended to
show that inclusivity. What we found is
uh because culture can be challenging
for folks to wrap their brain around
because everyone has a different kind of
viewpoint of it, we added some of those
examples to try and make it more
accessible. Um but again, that was our
intent. And to speak to the um making
sure that we had representation when we
did our community outreach, we actually
were very intentional about the staff
members that we had at each of our
locations to make sure that for our
seniors, for our um individuals with
disabilities, uh for our Latino
community that they were able to see, um
themselves represented represented in
the individuals that were seeking input.
Obviously, we didn't have representation
at every single event. Um, but that
really was something we looked at
because we wanted folk we wanted the
community to feel comfortable sharing
their input.
>> Um, I I I I see it. That's great. But I
think I would add about 10 more
categories underneath that, maybe bullet
points so people understand the the
breadth and knowledge. And when I look
at um uh the four categories, um,
I'm not quite sure the reasoning of
including the social services in the
four categories. Why not keep that
separate?
So part of why we did the consolidation
is we found at least over the last seven
years, organizations sometimes are
confused on the different grant programs
and opportunities. So our intent was to
bring them together so that
organizations knew this is when the city
is releasing our community impact
grants. here are the different
opportunities that are available and
then they all have the same uh
application roll out deadline uh and and
so that we can talk them through the
process of which category may fit best
for their organization.
>> I tend to think I look at it from uh a
funding standpoint and I think there's
funders who would be confused by that.
uh the National Endowment for the Arts
particular would say um I thought this
was about commitment to the arts and
they would have to really dive in and
try to understand the logic but just I
don't want to preclude potential funding
from coming to the city. So that's one
concern and then uh back in the 90s we
uh uh very con uh there's reasons why we
declared the downtown the cultural
center for the city, the cultural arts
district. And how do you see that
playing into this framework? because I
didn't see any type of weight waiting if
people are doing things that are
economically beneficial to the city in
relation to the cultural district that
is we all know is one of the uh
generators economic generators for the
city. Um how do it it seemed like that
was overlooked.
Would you like
uh the cultural district is absolutely
an important development and and my
understanding is that um the district
will reapply to the California Arts
Council for designation at the next
opportunity.
Um it's treated in the uh arts and
culture policy framework
and is will absolutely be a part of the
implementation framework that will come
next. How do we look at our economic
benefits of the grant money, limited
grant money that we have um without
waiting how they contributed to one of
our major economic generators that was
caused almost entirely by the cultural
arts.
>> So what I can share is there are six
goals when it comes to the arts and
culture grant program and those goals
were pulled specifically from the arts
and culture element of the 2050 general
plan. So the adopted goals um one of
them is connected towards economic
vitality and tourism. [music] Any grant
applicant under the arts and culture
categories has to identify where their
project where their organization aligns
with one of those six goals. We didn't
weight any of the six uh as a higher
priority than the other. But that
absolutely would be one of the areas
that when applicants submit their
project request or their operating
support request, they could share in the
application process that not only did
they meet say the goal of creating more
access to arts and culture, but also
that their event or activity is an
economic diver that contributes to
economic vitality.
>> Thank you. I'll come back with my other
questions after everyone has a chance.
>> Thank you. Um, Council Member Compos.
» Thank you, Mayor. So, did you visit the
museum and look at the the cultural
history of Ventura while you were doing
this?
>> Yes, I have seen that those exhibits.
Yes.
>> Not just the specific exhibit, but in
the library. There's a lot of historical
documentation of what really was our
cultural arts district. going back a
hundred years, we had an opera house, we
had a symphony, and
later in the I think 1980s and early
90s, we established a cultural arts
district, which probably now should
expand all the way up to where Rubicon
is on Laurel Street and around the
avenue and to Dubber Street where Art
City sits. There's three or four other
art studios right there at Art City.
There's art studios up the avenue as far
as Ramona. There's teaching programs for
children in that area. They should all
be part of this cultural district
and which can be the economic basis of
tourism of art and culture tourism. So,
I think we need to really make sure
that's well written into what our
program is. I think that's what council
member or deputy mayor was reaching for.
And I can share that those locations you
mentioned are part of the cultural
district. It actually was included in
the grant application uh that was worked
on by the city and some of our arts and
culture organizations to the state. Um
it went all the way up the avenue to the
Rubicon and down towards uh the wave.
>> It it needs to go way past the wave
really.
>> Thank you.
Um, I don't see any other
colleagues with questions, so I'm going
to go ahead and um go to public comment
on this item.
>> Thank you, mayor. We have 14 speakers on
item number 14. Our first speaker is
Laura Mullen, followed by Karen Kitell.
Speakers will have three minutes.
» Hi, thank you so much for hearing me and
for considering this incredibly
important framework. I honor the work
that's been done on this and applaud the
fact of the focus. It is so clear. I
want to second uh Councilwoman Campos's
comments. Ventura is a city of the arts
and culture. It's going to be an arts
and culture destination. That's really
clear. I'm just standing up quickly for
those people who maybe haven't applied
for grants just to talk about the joy
and the beauty and the importance of
applying for grants. You are opening a
space for competition that will improve
the arts in this city because people
will have a framework through which to
see their own work and their own
ambitions in relationship to the
community.
And that is a form of lucid dreaming
that will pay off in the future.
I have a a question about a particular
aspect of this which is the fact that
people are only allowed to apply in one
category. I'm standing up to say I'm
sorry that's the case. I think that
there should be more flexibility
so that you allow people to find out who
they are and what they do best through
the opportunity to make the application.
And I thank you as well for the
conversation you've already been having
about this matter with the excellent
questions that have been posed. Thank
you for listening.
>> Karen Kitell followed by Casey
Rodriguez.
Good evening, Madame Mayor, city council
members. My name is Karen Kitell. I am
the chair of the Arts and Culture
Commission.
I'm volunteering with six other experts.
They're all here but one tonight to
advise you on matters affecting
Ventura's creative community. Our work
has been dense and intense
since 2025
when you named arts and culture as one
of the focus areas under your strategic
priority, economic vitality and
development.
I'm so happy to update you. So much has
been achieved and we can finally see
the other side. It's near.
At our commission meeting last Thursday,
we voted in support of the guidelines
proposed by the cultural planning group
to restructure the cultural grant
program
more effectively balancing community
needs with available funding as well as
articulating this communitydriven
definition of arts and culture.
In addition to following the community
in this process, the proposed plan is
also informed by the National Endowment
for the Arts and the California Arts
Council. As Ventura's cultural
infrastructure continues to grow, it is
smart and strategic to be in alignment
with state and national standards.
We can always do more. We will keep
doing more,
but this is a great start. There was
massive community outreach response and
the resulting dialogue has resulted in a
tool we can be proud of. We support the
staff report tonight and ask you to vote
in favor of the work done by the
cultural planning group. Thank you for
listening, for your leadership, and for
this great investment in the arts and
culture of Ventura. Thank you so much,
Casey Rodriguez, followed by Maryanne
Parra.
Haku Haku. Once again, I am speaking
only for myself.
Throughout Ventura County, I have been
entrusted to advocate for culture and
equitable representation in many spaces.
And it is a responsibility I take
fullheartedly
at this moment. I do not support what we
are presented with.
We must courageously support fun
culture. I am tired of elitist folks
just wanting to highlight art. And yes,
I am the one that will always stand for
culture.
The majority of our citizens express
that culture is important. In fact,
cultural events scurred as the highest
priority on the citywide survey.
That's why I request setting aside
20,000 from category 1 for a specific
culture grant with an emphasis on
projects and events that elevate
Ventura's
ethnic historical silence voices that
have been silenced for too long. It is
time that we move upward and share our
culture proudly
and place an additional emphasis on
culture representation on all grant
categories through a culture equity
points boost of 15%
for projects focused on culture
education including indigenous
engagement
and are providing programming that
serves and or is led by historically
undeserved communities.
We are no longer being silenced.
We have a community that supports us.
Now we need the resources to share
educate
ensuring that this education is led by
members of their highlighted culture and
not culturally appropriated by elitists.
It is our stories to share proudly.
We can assure by doing this Ventura will
reach the general plan vision of making
Ventura even more inclusive where all
voices are heard and celebrated. I am
also asking for an objective scoring
rubric. Lastly, I remind the council
that our official land acknowledgement
ends with, "May we continue learning
together." I encourage the council to
honor that statement pro by providing
funds from the overall budget to the
working shoe mash group for sharing
educating requires resources without
having to apply for a grant. Many of us
have volunteered countless hours for
years decades. Even though we are
grateful for the opportunities, our work
holds immense values and needs to be
honored. Thank you. Maryanne Par
followed by Brian Schumacher.
Hello, my name is Maryanne. I kind of
feel the same way. I feel like merging
arts and culture together is not really
representative of culture because arts
can most definitely represent culture
but it doesn't always represent culture.
It's very different when you talk about
you know 100 years ago having an opera
house and other things. This is a
culture that came and got integrated
into the space. It was once all true
mash territory for thousands of years.
Like we know that we have [sighs] we
have x-rays of the ground. We have
mitochondrial evidence. We have a lot of
science that backs this history. You
know the shoe masher here. The Spanish
came in. They eventually got tired gave
it to gave it to Mexico and we know that
the Mexican-American war then happened.
So a lot of this we understand is shared
space. Even China alley, right? It's a
very small depiction of what was here
for a very long time and it's kind of
painful to talk about [laughter]
surf culture because that's something
that was relatively taken from our
brothers and sisters in Hawaii and also
the kumier right the kuruk the yra all
these people that were canoe cultures
and have been riding the waves for
thousands of years as the chumash were
the first to mo which is the canoe craft
and our relative uh Fernando uh Labrado
Kitap which you can find in the museum
here. If it wasn't for his knowledge and
him teaching Harrington here, near
Shushalop, which is near the ocean here,
the the village site, how to rebuild the
tamole the traditional way, we wouldn't
have that information today. And
culture, I think, is often widely merged
into a lot of subcategories that don't
actually represent culture, which is you
can have a degree, you can read these
books, but it's never going to give you
that experience as a shoe woman living
in their culture. It's just very
different. Um, so I think there needs to
be some changes to this. I would really
like a separate culture grant. And I
also think if artists are able to apply
and have no LLC or don't need anything
do all do all these groups, can they not
have a 501c3 and maybe have a fiscal
sponsor making it more inclusive to
other groups? Now the re main reason I
asked that for somebody like us who we
chose today to officially create our
nonprofit to be registered with the
state because my parents have been doing
it for 50 years. I picked up the last
four years as doing it as just a
grassroots because our end goal was to
never to make money off of this but to
protect sacred sites to share the
history and the information in its true
form. I'm not a performer. I don't want
to be performing dances and different
things for the public all the time.
That's it reminds me of the times when
they had Indians in circuses just like
they had people in zoos. Like so I I
really think this needs a restructure
and to talk about it more because it it
feels like it's watering down culture.
Thank you.
>> Brian Schumacher followed by Sienna
Marie Sesma.
Hello. Good evening. Uh, Mayor Dr.
Sanchez Palasios, council members, uh,
staff. My name is Brian Schumacher and I
am advocacy and community impact manager
for Autism Society of Ventura County.
Thank you so much for the opportunity to
comment on the arts, culture, and
community grants program review. After
years of work on this process, we are
very pleased with the semi-final result.
We are grateful for all the work and
resources that the city has invested in
this process. ASVC shared with you all a
few suggestions over the weekend and I'd
like to briefly emphasize a couple of
important points. First of all, please
preserve the one application per
organization rule. This is one of the
most important equity safeguards in the
proposed process. Without it, larger and
more established organizations will
receive a disproportionate share of
limited grant funding. Keeping one
application per organization helps
ensure helps ensure smaller
organizations and historically
underrepresented communities have a fair
chance to access these limited public
funds.
Second, we respectfully ask the city to
provide ADA and disability access
training for all grant review panelists.
ADA compliance is required for grant
projects, but without training, grant
readers will not be able to verify
compliance as part of their scoring.
Additionally, we hope the city council
will discuss how we can ensure cultural
equity throughout all grant programs.
ASVC sent a couple of slight amendments
that would help to ensure the cultural
goals within the general plan are met throughout this grant program.
We support honoring the input of the
indigenous communities who are here to
give comment. Thank you for your time
and for working toward a grant process
that is fair, transparent, accessible,
and inclusive of the full Ventura
community. Thank you,
>> Sienna Marie Sesma, followed by Donna
Granada.
» Greetings, Madame Mayor and esteemed
council members. My name is Sienna Marie
Sesma, the vice chair of the Arts and
Culture Commission. It contin It
continues to be a pleasure to work with
staff and council in shaping and
nurturing creative growth and well-being
in Ventura.
staff and the commission chair have
presented their recommendations. Now, as
a private citizen working in Ventura's
creative sector for over 25 years, I'd
also like to present mine.
And I want to start to say tonight by
simply saying thank you. Thank you very
much for over the last several years,
I've had the opportunity to be part of
many conversations about the future of
arts and culture in Ventura. We've
advocated, asked questions, listened,
and sometimes challenged deeply each
other, and continued to push for a
greater investment in the creative and
culturally diverse community that makes
Ventura such a great place.
When the decision was made to bring in
the cultural planning group, I'll admit
I had a bit of skepticism. I wondered
what consultants coming into our
community could really tell us about
Ventura and the people who are creative
here, who create here, and who represent
the cultural diversity that we stand
for. But they did the work. They showed
up. They listened. They reached out to
artists, organizations, commissions,
community members, and stakeholders
throughout Ventura. the depth of their
community engagement along with staff
report. It actually really impressed me
and I believe the recommendations before
you tonight reflect that work. Are we
finished? Absolutely not. We are just
warming up. Arts and culture is an
evolving ecosystem and there will always
be a lot of work to be done, more voices
to be heard and more opportunities to So
explore and to make changes. But I
believe we have something here that
gives us a strong foundation to build
upon. This opens the doors for all
cultural groups to be considered. The
applications can be filed by any
eligible persons and groups. I'm excited
about where we're headed and I
appreciate the council's investment in
arts and culture, the work our city
staff, my fellow commissioners, and
everyone in our community who
participated in this process tonight. I
encourage you to support the staff
recommendation and allow us to make this
important next step forward. Thank you
for your leadership, for listening to
our creative and cultural community, and
for continuing to invest in the alts,
arts and culture of Ventura. Thank you.
Oo Granada, followed by Scott Miles.
» Good evening, honorable mayor and fellow
council members. My name is Donna
Granada and I'm the founder and
executive director of Focus on the
Master's Arts Archive and Library
located in Ventura. FOTM has been
serving our community with quality arts
education for over 32 years.
Thank you to the council and city city
staff for recognizing the importance of
the arts in Ventura. Their proposed
redesign and expansion of the art and
cultural grant program is a meaningful
investment in our city's cultural
strength, economic vitality, and quality
of life.
Because this vote will shape the grant
program for the next five years, I urge
you to adopt the staff recommendation
with one practical amendment. Allow
organizations to apply in more than one
category. This amendment would preserve
accountability while ensuring that
different types of eligible work are
evaluated and appropriately in in the
appropriate category. State and national
best practices should be considered and
incorporated into the proposed
framework. Grant programs administered
by the California Arts Council, National
Endowment of the Arts, National
Endowments for the Humanities provide
proven professional models, including
the ability for organizations to apply
in more than one category. Under the
current framework, an organization with
strong community outreach or educational
programming must choose between general
operating support and program grants,
even when both directly serve the
Ventura residents. Allowing applicants
in more than one category would help
direct program funds to public-f facing
activities while still recognizing the
operation support needed to deliver
those services. responsibly.
I respectfully ask you to support the
staff recommendation and include this
amendment so that the grant pro program
can deliver the greatest possible
benefit to Ventura over the next five
years. Thank you.
>> Next speaker is Scott Miles followed by
Ashley Pope.
» Hello. Thank you for the opportunity to
speak. I'm Scott Miles, member of the
Focus on the Masters board of directors.
Firstly, I want to thank the city for
its support of arts and culture and
particularly its support of focus on the
masters over the years. City's support
for focus has been critical to the
growth of the organization over the past
30 plus years. Council's the council's
recent focus on strengthening the arts
and culture landscape is admirable. The
increased total funding for grants is a
great thing. A very good grant program
redesign proposal, which we've heard
tonight, has been developed. However, I
urge the council to amend the program
structure to allow organizations the
ability to apply in more than one grant
category.
operations and programming work hand in
hand to deliver arts and culture
activities for the benefit of the entire
Ventura community. Program activities
cannot happen without the support of an
organization's operations. I hope the
council will adopt a grant funding
structure that allows for applications
in more than one grant category. Arts
and culture organizations need funding
support that maintains arts education
and outreach and expands community
engagement. Thank you again for your
support of the arts and culture in our
Ventura community.
Ashley Pope followed by Philip Fields.
Good evening, Mayor and Council.
I know most of you. My name is Ashley
Pope and I'm here today as the president
of Autism Society of Ventura County.
ASPC has been working on this process
for I think about three years which is a
really long time. And while the journey
to get here has at times been deeply
painful and very stressful, the
semifinal product is one that we are
very proud of. According to IRS records,
there are over 1,200 nonprofit
organizations operating in Ventura,
including 130 arts and culture
organizations and over 290 social
service organizations. These
organizations all serve different people
within the city of Ventura. Allowing one
organization to qualify for more than
one grant when the total allocation is
$340,000
would be selling the city short. We can
and must do better. We ask that you
please leave the application process,
one per organization, until we have a
few cycles of accessible, inclusive, and
equitable cycles behind us. Let's see
how many people these funds can reach
and ensure they aren't allocated in a
way that unintentionally benefits a
small segment of the community rather
than the community at large. As this
portion of the project wraps up, we want
to thank recreation manager Rebecca
Ellis and assistant director Emily Fox.
They have served as extraordinary
listeners and peacemakers and have
represented the city with
professionalism. We hope you will ensure
that the parks and recck team has the
resources they require to execute the
grant process with the same care and
attention they have executed this
restructuring.
We look forward to continuing to stay
engaged in the process and we truly do
thank you for this investment.
>> Next speaker is Philip Fields
followed by Spencer Norin.
We all go to the university, but how
much good does it do the university that
has a corporate name here and there
and you go to any school and there we
go. We're indoctrinated.
And we repeat, we talk of dead art,
past art,
but the whole mother comes to race
and class
and wealth,
love and hate,
and duality.
Silicon Valley, a culture of hate
where Zionism, Nazism
is flourishing throughout the world,
where Trump rules,
the next JD Bans, the next Jarvis.
What do they have in common? They have a
Yamaka.
And a yamaka,
you take it from the Jewish faith to the
Christian faith to Zionist faith. A
yarmaka, a pope with a yamaka.
You can look with any glass. There it
is. The culture,
a culture of race, class, wealth,
hedgemony.
Which one rules? The dominant.
What's the dominant? The plantation
economy.
We're going back to the plantation
economy.
And so a culture is there is destroyed
by the next culture and the next culture
and they built over a [snorts] temple,
another temple, and they call it holy.
And they call of a they talk of a god a
god that doesn't come doesn't talk
doesn't do anything for him by himself.
It's just the extra credit of what you
imagine he must be doing or his
followers say you got to believe it. You
got to see it with the faith.
But God doesn't speak. And Jesus doesn't
exist and he doesn't speak. The only one
that exists while we wait the kingdom of
God, it's us
as we are.
Some are blue eyes, green eyes, brown
eyes, you name it.
All there is for culture, it's us.
We are the living culture for good or
for bad.
Unfortunately, in our midst is collusion
or retaliation,
exclusivism,
but we got to look for equality, love
and sharing and reciprocity.
>> Next speaker is Spencer Norn, followed
by Nirvonica.
» Thank you, Mr. McDonald. Staff, uh,
council, mayor, VPD, translation.
I'll kind of admit this one kind of got
over my head a little bit about from
going to the committee a few years ago
to bringing it to staff to hiring
consultants.
So I thought about kind of culture a lot
and I want to thank Maryanne and Casey
for talking about recognition of the
ultimate greatest stewards of land
history is the Chumash culture on our
California coast. That's definitely
proven and identified by how they
steward the land over everybody else in
better capacity.
But if you look at what we know and in
reference culture from definition, let's
say off the phone or
just from the internet for fun
reference, everybody calls chat GPT,
right, Michael? Culture is the shared
way of life of a group of people, the
beliefs, the traditions, the customs,
the behaviors, the values, the language,
food, music, art, religion, and social
practices that are learned and passed
from one generation to another.
And this is where I think we all have
equality and people can stay to listen
about culture when they want to speak
when it's important and not listen when
they don't think it's important. But I
think it's important that you have to be
from somewhere for a while to
understand. And so you don't have to
raise your hand. But how many people are
speaking about culture wrote this
document are actually from Ventura, born
and raised in Ventura, had family
members born and raised in Ventura,
buried in Ventura. I think that has
merit to what's been said here and who
inputs this into this document.
So that's just my kind of spin on what I
thought culture and how arts played into
that. I think it's definitely a sub I
agree with how art is part of culture.
They're definitely not equal. They
shouldn't be even in the same category.
And since I am a man of recreation and
sport, I believe that this community has
always been part of that. especially
when it comes to wave riding, being in
the ocean, living a lifestyle of nature,
of hunting, of fishing, of preserving,
and using the land. And a lot of that
came for me and my family in the game of
baseball, actually. And I think that
this document for culture should have
the game of baseball. The first team was
actually formed here in 1873,
over 150 years ago. We've had famous
players throughout time that I'll leave
their names out for recreation and time,
but there was a part of the document I
really enjoyed. It was new AC 310
interdep departmental coordination. And
I would love to see formalization for
culture happen through recreation when
it comes to like our boxing program at
West Park, which has lost steam the last
few years. Maybe it's the motivation for
soccer in uh the the um the camp on in
Satakoy. I think there's areas that we
could support opportunity for grants and
culture through recreation to identify
what venture is about. Thank you.
>> And our final speaker is Nirvonica.
>> Mayor, could we take a vote to move
beyond 10 p.m., please?
>> Oh, yes. Thanks for that reminder.
Anybody want to make a motion to move
past 10?
>> I'll make a motion to move past 10.
>> Thank you. making a motion.
>> Thank you.
>> So, we have a motion and a second.
>> You just have to extend the meeting real
quick.
>> Give them one second.
>> Okay, you can enter your vote now.
» Thank you.
>> All votes have been entered.
» Six eyes's, one no from Deputy Mayor
Halter. And the motion carries.
Uh you can go ahead now. They just
needed to extend the meeting.
Whenever you're ready,
I'd like to start off by saying peace
and love to everyone and everything
everywhere.
And I'd like to start off by talking
about culture because there have been
people that have told me that I have no
culture because of the color of my skin.
Well, I'd like to tell you guys a little
bit about my culture
because I'm a direct descendant of Luke.
[sighs]
You know the Luke in the Bible, the the
book of Luke, I'm a direct descendant
and it's been passed down through the
generations through my family.
So, I've got culture, too.
And uh
I didn't bring my harmonica with me
tonight, so I'm stuck playing the
world's smallest harmonica tonight.
And uh
I'm going to put it in a song. I'm gonna
write it right now.
[music]
I approve
of the [music] arts and policy
framework. [singing]
» [music]
>> and the arts and concert culture
definitions [music] and grant program
redesign.
We need arts [music and singing] and
culture
in Ventura.
[music]
We want [singing and music] art and
culture and ventura right now.
[music]
We want art [singing] and culture and
ventura right now.
[music]
We want [singing]
art and culture and venture [music]
right now. [singing]
Thank you,
mayor. That concludes public comment.
>> Thank you to all the um speakers
tonight. I'll go ahead and bring it back
to council
um for additional questions and
deliberation. A motion is required on
this item.
I have uh Council Member Compost.
Thank you, Mayor. Nirvana is a hard act
to follow.
I want to mention when we started this
process, we spoke about economic
development
and cultural tourism. [clears throat]
And reading through this, I didn't see a
lot of focus there.
I wonder if you could develop some kind
of
break down a mini grant or something for
people who are
serving the downtown businesses
and in a way that brings tourism to town
there. There should be some way to
incorporate them into what we're doing.
I also want to support the comments from
Casey Rodriguez and Maryanne Parra.
There there needs to be
I remember when we did the land
acknowledgement, the Schumash land
acknowledgement and we were here to vote
on it and many Schumash people came and
spoke and one thing that most of them
had in common was don't do this if it's
performative.
Don't do it if you're just going to read
it before a meeting or slap it on the
wall. Be proactive. And this is an
opportunity for us to be proactive and
do what they asked, which is do
something separate for the shoe match.
So I would recommend, however, we craft
this at the end that that be included.
Thank you.
>> Thank you, Council Member Schumacher.
>> Thank you, Mayor. Um, and I want to echo
that, too. Uh just for category 2, I
think just reading through the staff
report, um my question really is and and
I just need some clarification. The
focus of the arts and culture category
is to I'm reading it here. Support the
established cultural info in
infrastructure and arts organizations.
Yes.
>> Yes. And for clarity in that category,
uh organizations can submit for an arts
project, a cultural project or a
cultural arts project where uh culture
is expressed through the arts. So it
doesn't have there does not have to be
arts connected in that grant category.
>> Great. Then I want I mean I can I can
support that only if it gets renamed
because I do not want arts and culture.
I want I want it to be the arts. I mean
I'm sorry. I want it to be the cultural
arts projects. So that way culture is in
front and people understand that this is
not just you know just another category
that they can apply for where they can
tack on on a you know at the last minute
or even just a sec at the last um not
even at the forefront of their minds.
The focus really is is to uplift um and
I love what what it says here is that to
align the arts and culture with economic
development and cultural tourism to
ensure that we are expanding um
here recognize and elevate Chumash
cultural heritage and indigenousled
programming. So that is what I think
needs to be lifted up. when you add on
the arts first and then culture becomes
an afterthought.
I would like to have that to be um uh
just renamed to cultural arts projects.
[clears throat]
» And for clarity, uh council member
Schumacher, if we say cultural arts
projects, it tends to mean that it must
be culture represented through the arts.
>> Correct. Let me just correct myself.
Let's just say cultural projects.
Thank you. Were those your comments,
Miss Council member Shimoker? Are you
done?
>> Yes.
>> Okay. Just making sure.
>> Um, council member Mangon.
>> Thank you, Madam Mayor. Thank you for
your presentation and all the the work
you guys have done with this. I have
some questions based on uh the public
comment. So, only category one is
allowed to apply for operational
support. Can you tell me why that is and
how do we track those expenses? Is there
any reporting requirements for that? Can
you can you speak to a little bit?
>> Do you want to talk about the reporting
requirements?
>> I'll speak to the reporting. So, for
every grant applicant, they're required
to to submit an itemized budget where
the proposed funding would go. So, when
it comes to operating support, uh those
organizations would provide that budget.
So if they're requesting 20,000, they
share specifically where it goes. We
check that as a staff team to ensure
that their eligible expenses. Once the
application process is completed and
funding awards um have been uh given,
then if the funding requested is not the
same as the funding uh awarded, then we
have the organization go back and revise
that budget. But again, uh the specific
amount and then there is a final report
due at the end of the grant cycle where
they um provide an update on the funding
that was spent as well as the outcomes
of their project or the activities that
they completed.
>> Okay, awesome. Thank you for that. And
um based on another public comment,
applicant compliance requirements
um the requirement number two is comply
with ADA and applicable
non-discrimination laws. How do we
ensure compliance with that? Is there
like there was training was mentioned.
Is there a handout checklist? H how is
that even done?
» So each organization has different ADA
compliance. Um they have to attest to
the fact that yes, they are compliant
with with ADA rules and regulations. Uh
we provide so so in that sense we don't
go to every single organization to to
ensure compliance. However, um we do uh
have an area available when it comes to
our grant programming. If a community
member or someone shares that an event
they attended that was funded through
grant funding didn't have ADA
compliance, they can share that with
staff and we will go out and uh
investigate. Connected to training, we
do we will be providing training to all
of our grant panelists. So there'll be
four separate grant panels. Each panel
has different eligibility requirements
based on the grant, but we'll be going
through um ADA requirements so that
everyone looking at the grant
applications is looking through a lens
of equity, inclusion, and access.
>> Okay, that's good news. Thank you for
that. And um why aren't how was it
determined that cultural events would
not be eligible for funding just
organizations?
>> So cultural events are typically hosted
by organizations. So those organizations
would be eligible.
>> Okay,
that's it for now. Thank you.
>> Thank you. to kind of follow up on uh
Council Member Mangon's question in
regards to the um I guess vetting of the
applications. Um
how many or in the past or how do you
consider uh applications that are
applying for funding for operational
costs versus a project? Um, I just I I
want to make sure that we're not
supplementing an organization's
operational cost or budget versus uh
budget for separate um events or
projects.
>> Sure. Well, one of the things we heard
in the stakeholder engagement process
was that basic operating
uh expenses were the hardest to fundra
for. And this is true around the
country. Organizations need a reliable
source of operating funds just to pay
the insurance, pay basic staff costs,
administration. So the intent was to use
that category, category one, to provide
that kind of support for organizations
that have already established themselves
and shown that they have the ability to
raise other funds. Um and again I think
this was responding to the needs that we
heard from the stakeholders themselves.
>> Okay. So you you'll have a process as to
how to not have an organization heavily
rely on some of this funding for their
operation. No cost.
>> Yes. Um as Emily said, there are certain
allowable expenses and certain uh
ineligible expenses. So that will be
part of the application screening
process and I'm sure the applicants
these organizations will be paying very
careful attention to how to color within
the lines.
>> Okay. And then um also touching on the
one application per organization
um can you tell me what's the downfall
of having two
um two applications per organization if
there is any or what? Yes, this is a
judgment call and we've talked about
this as a staff and consultant team. Um,
a a lot of this is that we have limited
dollars. I mean it it's wonderful that
council increased the the allocation
from 90,000 to 200,000 and as you know
uh from the staff report staff shifted
10,000 from the community partnerships
grants over to uh the arts and culture
side um as a part of this redesign but
we're still dealing with a a total pool
of funding available for arts and
cultural uses of $210,000
And
if you allow organizations uh as Donna
Granada said in her comments, if you
accept the argument that they're they're
eligible to apply in two categories and
they're allowed to do so in other
grant-making agencies, why can't they do
it here? It's a reasonable argument.
The problem is that with a limited pool
of dollars, this means there's less
money available for newer applications,
smaller, less capable uh nonprofit
organizations
and the culture side of things.
>> Okay, thank you. Those are my questions
for now. Um, Deputy Mayor Halter.
>> Great. Thank you. Just a couple
questions to follow up on that though is
that um applying for more than one uh
grant is different than being able to be
awarded more than one grant. If you if
you're not able to be awarded more than
one grant, uh then your comment would be
true. But if you're simply an
organization that you qualify on many
fronts and you want to make sure that
you have a chance of winning something,
okay, on a grant basis, I don't see why
we would preclude people from applying
for more than one grant as long as they
may only be awarded one.
>> Yes. And and certainly in some uh some
grant making agencies that we're aware
of, that has been the rule. If you get
two awards, you have to choose. It does
in introduce an element of
administrative difficulty because the
panels are needing to make recommended
awards and if they don't know if that
award's going to be accepted or not, it
just
introduces another element of
complexity.
>> Um the thank you for that. Um I could
see that. Uh I also the the part that's
[music] missing for me is looking at uh
how we're actually scoring uh applicants
because the reason why that becomes very
important is because to me it's a
there's a glaring hole between
connecting all the good work that we're
doing and the our great assets with the
cultural uh arts part of our community.
um we're not connecting the dots to
those those tremendous assets and trying
to reap the greatest amount of economic
benefit for the city. And I think the
only way you could do that now would be
uh how you score different applicants.
And uh like for instance, as I mentioned
with the downtown cultural district, we
have a fantastic asset that's 30 years
in the making that has come a long way.
How do we ignore ignore the fact that
this is an asset that is leading to
tremendous benefits for the city and yet
it it it's not being perceived that way
and it's not being taken in
consideration uh for getting awards.
Yeah, I I think that's [clears throat] a
great point and one of the I think
outcomes of applying for the California
Arts Council designation as a cultural
district will require that there be uh
an organization that manages the
cultural district. And in that case,
there would then be a body that could
receive support potentially
uh from the funding program or could
receive an allocation, you know, from
the city in another form. Um right now
it feels like the the avenue to support
the vitality of uh the cultural district
>> Yeah. is for those that are providing
activation and programming in the
district to apply for funding.
>> It's an incomplete answer to your
question, but it it's it's what we have
>> because unless you weigh it that these
are organizations that are established
and have been successful at bringing in
more economic benefit and and they're
weighted that way when they're reviewed
as an applicant that they're in the
cultural district. I don't see how that
benefits the cultural district. I just
don't,
>> you know.
>> So, you're you're arguing in favor of um
ad advantaging applicants who are
programming downtown or demonstrating
economic vitality.
>> There's no reason why no reason for us
declaring downtown or cultural district
um if we're going to ignore it. There
really isn't, you know. And then um the
other thing is there's a lot of cultures
in this community and I know our hearts
go out to cultures where there where
we're misperceived whether it's LG LGBTQ
or uh our Jewish uh history. Um um but
there's also you can't ignore the
culture created by our agriculture and
um you know by the ranching that's gone
on and it really doesn't matter. It's
exciting and a beautiful rich part of
our history that we have thousands of
years of history. Uh but to say that um
the history that's happened in the last
hundred years or 150 years is not
important. So, we're not going to even
list it on this. I I think it's turning
off a certain part of our population
here. And we I I would personally like
to see I I know the power of cultural
arts as a lot of you do in getting
people to recognize the benefits of
having so much diversity and richness in
our community, but it doesn't help when
we ignore uh the obvious cultures that
have been so present in the last 150
years. And I think we should be listing
those. I really do. And so anyways,
otherwise, uh, I think you guys have
done a great job and overall, I think
you've done a great job. I just think
there's some holes there that's going to
make it challenging as we move forward.
>> Thank you. I have, uh, staff number two.
Did you want to
>> say anything? Um,
>> I actually was able to clarify early.
Thank you.
>> Okay. Just making sure I don't skip that
over. Um, council member McReynolds.
>> Thank you, Madam Mayor. Uh, can we bring
up slide three
and then if I could ask the chair of the
arts and culture and vice chair to come
forward.
So, in terms of the slide that's up on
us, obviously there's the two meetings
that the arts and culture commission
had. I'm sure both of you were part of
that. In [clears throat] terms of the
other the outreach, the popups, uh what
was the involvement of the arts and
culture commission in terms of the other
items listed here? Uh and were you
personally part of any?
>> Um we were not formally
>> part of that. We were invited we were we
were allowed to um attend as individuals
as observers but we had no formal input
or leadership in those meetings. What
was your opinion of those meetings? I
guess I mean as as
>> I did go to about a half a dozen.
>> I thought they were extremely open,
mostly well attended. Um
lots and lots of repeated information,
extended invitations for additional
meetings. They were very communicative.
I thought
>> Vice Chair, do you have any
>> Yes, I do. I spent more most of my time
encouraging people to go people who come
up later and have an opinion about the
process after the process has been done.
So I spent a lot of time on social and
reaching outreach to the organizations
that I have connections with or contacts
with and just encouraging people to
participate since we couldn't speak and
we couldn't participate in any formal.
>> So but you did you did have the two
meetings uh and then the arts and
culture commission is making a
recommendation that the council adopt
this as
uh presented.
>> Yes, if I may elaborate on that. Um
we've been involved and contacted by the
consultant team all along and
while all of us, you've only heard from
one desenter, all of us had different
parts that were we favored and some
things that we felt were left out. But
we did have a 6 to1 um vote to
enthusiastically support this because we
do respect the depth and breadth of the
work done and in spite of some of the
comments that have taken place here. Um
it's my opinion that there are more
doors, more portals introduced into the
city funding through this proposed new
structure. Um, it's it's addressed and I
and potentially solved some of the
problems we've had in the last couple
funding cycles where organizations that
were not primarily
arts and culture providers now have
access to much greater funding and um so
yes, we had a very um
good session of conversations about it
and it was a a 61 vote. Yes.
>> Thank you.
>> So those are my questions. Thank you.
>> Yeah. Oh, yeah. I do have one more thing
to add to what um Karen said is that it
is a competitive application process.
It's a process, an application that's
open to all to apply. If they're
eligible, they get get they get to be a
part of the process and that it is a
competitive process. It's not an
allowance. And I think that that's
something that really needs to be clear
that everybody can apply if they're
eligible. And I think that there's a lot
more opportunity. And I think it's
amazing how much more we've opened the
door today. So, thank you.
>> And Miss Rodriguez, were you the one to
center?
>> I was.
>> Would you mind coming?
» So,
>> she did abstain.
>> Well, she's um what she's referring.
Yes.
>> Okay. So in terms of your abstension,
>> uh is that based solely on your comments
in terms of the the cultural component?
>> Yes.
>> So setting that one aspect aside, are
you in generally in favor? I mean you
>> Yes. And like I would agree with these
guys, they did a lot of large community
outport. We did that survey online. I
also reached out to the nonprofits and
individuals that I knew to take the
survey and to come. So yeah,
>> but being who I am as you guys know that
strongly advocates for culture that was
the only
>> Okay, last question. So if the you had
mentioned $20,000 for uh culture was as
a separate C I believe from category one
to would would that sway your vote to
support the the what we see before us
today? I believe the arts and culture
like Mr. Shamarker was saying it should
just be culture culture projects.
>> That was my
>> with that
>> and yeah I would be in agreement. I just
want to make sure that we're giving
respectful
highlighting to art and culture. Not
trying to combine either one but you
know they're both similar and in a lot
of ways and a lot of ways are not
because culture is not always producing
something. culture is also sharing,
educating,
involvement in other ways other than
just trying to produce like an artist
does.
>> Thank you. Okay, I'm well out of my
wheelhouse in terms of arts and culture.
Uh, so we have I I see two other arts
and culture commissioners. Maybe there's
more. Do I want to give you an
opportunity? I'm really relying on your
expertise to inform my decision. Is
there anything else that you would like
to add? I just want to give you the
opportunity. I'm not making you
uh Yeah. But I am relying on your
expertise. So if you want to you want to
share it, [laughter] I'm more than
willing to hear it.
[clears throat] Again, I'm not trying to
force you.
>> Why not?
>> Yeah.
>> Hi, I'm Diane Karnitzki and I'm a member
of the commission. I just wanted to
thank everyone, staff and David and his
team for the work that was involved. It
was an extensive process. I came in last
summer on the commission. So, I missed
the initial part of everything that was
going on, but I was definitely part of
the process going forward and watching
some of the community outreach and
seeing the responses from people. And
certainly I don't think any of the
people that were coming to these open
meetings were pressured in any way or
felt anything about it because they
basically got stickers to put on the
chart of the things that they felt were
most important to the community. So it
was more anonymous in certain ways
because no one would really know whose
sticker was who. And I think it's a very
complex procedure that we went through
and the actual grant program because it
may not be a perfect program the way it
is, but it does provide a structure for
us moving forward and I really feel that is why I went ahead and approved
moving this forward as well. Thank you.
» Yeah, I'm losing my voice.
you can use the microphone.
>> Rafael,
as you know, I've been teaching for a
long time in Santa Barbara City College,
like 30 something years. I don't know.
So, uh, and I live in Santa Barbara for
many years, and I saw something pretty
close to this happening that didn't
happen. And I think what I I apologize
[clears throat] for the the voice,
>> but what I find exciting about the
process is to see the level of
commitment that the city council as well
as the people is in front of me have put
into this. I went to a lot of the
meetings. I've been recently added to
the city council, no city council, the
art commission. And um I'm just excited
to see that this is actually happening.
And I know it has a lot of flaws. There
are things that you can change and tweak
and here and there but for me it's
actually a very good step ahead and
sometimes we don't do it because we find
a lot of problems in between but I think
this is a very good opportunity to move
Ventura uh in the right direction. So
that's why I support it. I think it's uh
I appreciate all the work that they have
been putting in this.
>> Thank you. [clears throat] So, uh, on
behalf of the city council, I want to
thank all of you for your service on the
arts and culture commission. So, it
really is a gap in who I am, and I I
thank you very much for your expertise.
>> Thank you.
>> Yes. Thank you. Uh, Council Member
Compost, did you still
>> I just have one other question. Um, I
think Deputy Mayor Halter mentioned
scoring.
um how are you going to ensure that the
scoring of each of these programs is has
no bias? How are you going to protect
the process?
So for each of the uh grant categories,
we'll have a published uh rubric and the
rubric aligns with the application and
the different narrative questions and
supplementals reply or um uh required.
So with the scoring rubric, it breaks it
down into one to five uh point system
for all of the different categories that
are scored. And then with each within
each of those scores, it shares the how
you get to that score. So if it meets uh
these items, it receives score one,
score two. The way we do the um review
process is the initial review is done by
the review panel after we've gone
through the training. So talking about
access um equity, making sure that uh
anyone who is reviewing it has to sign
the that they are going to to not
discriminate and that they're going to
look at them um all equally. But there
is a initial individual review process
that the panelists do. So they do that
in their own home. They review and they
score. They send those scores back to
staff and we review the scoring sheets
to see if there are any anomalies. um
we'll reach out to the panelists to see,
you know, if there's a discrepancy
between one category is a five and then
the other panelist scored at a 10. Um so
we'll talk through those before we come
to the in-person review meeting where
the scores are all merged and averaged
and then as a group the panelists talk
through each of the applications and
come up with the final um scoring and
then the award allocations. There is a
staff liaison uh monitoring each of
those review panels and if there's ever
a point where it's felt that there's a
panelist who is skewing the vote or is
sharing information that um makes it
either sharing information outside of
the application or that makes it an
process that seems like it's not um fair
and equitable. then staff would
intervene uh and we would likely uh
revise the redo the the panel review
process or remove that panelist and
continue forward with the remaining
panelists.
>> Thank you for that explanation. It's
very thorough. I appreciate you.
>> Thank you, Council Member Schumacher.
>> Thank you. Um, first I just want to
thank you for all of the hard work this
uh, you know, looking at slide three, it
just really shows how much how dedicated
you all were to including the public's
uh, voices and their input and thank you
to the arts um, commission. Thank you
for all the work that you have done and
I know most of you and the um, and
absolute expertise and I want to echo
what um, council member Mcrenolds had
said. I do not want to belabor this
because we have two other appointments.
So, I would like to move uh ahead with
staff's recommendation um with the
amendment that the category 2 is going
to be um renamed to cultural projects.
Second,
>> I just had a question um in regards
because I know several council members
touched upon the um historical aspect of
the A.
>> Uh how are you going to address that?
» So, it's encompassed in the definition
of culture. It's just not a specific
call out, but in the arts and culture
policy framework and then in all of the
additional work we do when we're sharing
the definitions, when we're providing
examples, we can absolutely make sure
it's included in the arts and culture
element of the 2050 general plan. It
does specifically reference agriculture.
It me it also references, you know,
rancho culture, etc. So we'll make sure
that kind of the broad cultural groups
that we have in the city are referenced
and and see themselves not only in the
documents but also in our web material.
>> Okay. Thank you for that. And I also
echo um what you've heard from from
council members here. Thank you for all
the hard work. Commissioners, thank you
as well for your volunteerism and your
time that you've put into this as well.
Um I think we're here because of you
guys. So really appreciate it. Um,
Council Member Duran, followed by
Council Member Mangon.
>> Yeah, thank you very much, Madame Mayor.
I I appreciate the tremendous amount of
work that staff, the commission,
consultant, and the art organization and
community have put into this. And not to
throw a wrench in anything, but I don't
and I don't really want to start over,
but I do want to make sure that we have
it right before we adopt a policy that
could guide Ventura for years. Um,
first, I want to make sure that we're
telling the complete story of Ventura. I
appreciate the recognition of Schumash
heritage, multicultural communities,
coastal and working-class identity and independent creatives. I I I
appreciate that. But Ventur also has a
rich cultural and ranching. I I agree
with uh our deputy mayor and um the
ranching history and the long-standing
tradition of music, theater, music
festivals, visual arts, and established
cultural cultural organizations. And I
just had a phone call just a couple days
ago. Um, and these are quote his his
words, not mine. Uh, what's going on
with our black culture? Where is our
black? We don't see it in the museums.
We don't what where are we? Okay. So, I
just want to share that these these
histories don't compete with each other.
Obviously, they're they're adding one
part of interest story um to another.
It's not removing one or it's just
adding it together. Secondly, I have a
question about the existing cultural
district. If we already have this asset,
then why wouldn't we first look to at
strengthening it, expanding it were
appropriate and actively promoting its
cultural tourism, economic development
tool tool before studying additional
districts.
I I And then finally, I have a concern
with the grant structure itself. Um,
we're we're talking about $340,000 of
public funding. Equity and accessibility
obviously matters, but creating
opportunities for smaller and
historically un unrepresented
organizations matters as well, but so do
outcomes. Those absolutely matter. So,
how many people are being served? What
are what is the programming that's
created? Does it bring people to
Ventura? Does it support our businesses?
Does it generate tourism and economic
activity? And can the organization
demonstrate that? And can it deliver
that? Would you would you agree um
Deputy Mayor Halter that that's kind of
an important part?
>> I'm sorry. I was thinking of
>> uh the the part of what you're saying.
>> Yeah. Economic develop uh vitality.
>> Exactly. Yeah. I I'm I'm particularly
concerned about
>> requiring organizations to choose
between operating support and project
funding. Those serve two different
purposes. Operating support helps
sustain an organization. project funding
produces the concerts and the festivals
and the e uh exhibitions and um
performances and events and directly
benefit the public. I understand the
concern that allowing two grants could
result in few organizations receiving
too much of the available funding. I get
that that's legitimate and we should
protect against that. But rather than
prohibiting a second application, could
we allow one operating application and
one project application, score them
independently, establish a reasonable
combined cap and make clear that
receiving one does not guarantee
receiving the other. I things to think
about. We could also consider two two
awards uh broader pool. I I just think
there's more to think about in all of
this. I would also like to see the
scoring rubric. um if economic
development and cultural tourism are
priorities, I want to know how much they
actually count to determining who
receives the dollars. And so I I'm not
looking for to delay this process
unnecessarily. I just want to make sure
that we get it right. And so if we can
address those issues tonight, then
awesome. If not, I' I'd rather give a
little bit more time um so we can answer
these questions and maybe
noodle it a little more to so we get
some of these answers. my my
recommendation.
>> Thank you, Council Member Mangon.
>> Thank you, Madam Mayor. Um, yeah, I just
wanted one last comment on, you know, to
date applicants have been limited to one
category per cycle. I understand that
the comments made by uh, Deputy Mayor
and also Council Member Duran, but the
majority of this funding is received by
a small group of organizations, the vast
majority of funding. So, I I have real
concern with potentially granting them
an up to an additional $20,000 the same
organizations.
Um, uh, that that concerns me. So, uh,
it's it would be really important to me
to keep to that one category limitation.
I think that's really important and I
agree with staff's reasoning behind
that.
>> Thank you, Deputy Mayor Halter. Followed
by um, Council Member Mcrenolds.
Overall, I agree with a lot of what my
colleagues are saying and all the good
work that you've done. Okay. Uh it's largely there. Uh the exceptions I
have that I would uh love to see it um
if this was approved yet pending
reviewing um uh how we're going to be
scoring to influence economic vitality
in the cultural district and seeing how that's going to be scored. Um
because I think right now I'm just it's
a hope and a prayer that we're going to
do something that's going to benefit the
cultural district. Um and uh then the
definition the cultural arts uh I think
I I would personally feel better when we
leave here tonight that at least that
definition comes back to council for us
to at least see how you've included all
the things that we just discussed. And
um let's see. Uh, one other thing is I
think part of it that I don't see yet,
but it could be part of the scoring too,
is um partnering uh with uh groups that
maybe aren't in whether they're art
groups or cultural groups, groups that
are anywhere in our city and partnering
with those groups uh whether it's in the
cultural district or elsewhere, but uh
to create a bigger um showcase of who we
are as a city and what our culture is in
the creative community, you know. Um, I
don't I did I didn't hear the word
partnership come up at all and that's
really important to me. Um, but
definitely uh if we approve something
tonight then I would want to still see
the definition come back and how we're
going to score it and make sure we
benefit the cultural district with these
efforts.
>> Thank you. Council member Mc Reynolds
followed by Council Member Schumacher.
>> Thank you, Madam Mayor. Uh, was there a
second to Council Member Schumacher's
motion?
>> I believe there was. Council member
Compos. Okay. So,
I I'm I'm ready to take the vote on it.
And and in terms of the concerns raised
by Council Member Duran and Deputy Mayor
Halter, we have an economic development
subcommittee. If they want to refer the
scoring matrix or something like that to
that committee to have that discussion
so we can move on. I I would be okay
with that. I I'm more we we heard from
every member of our cultural uh arts and
culture commission. They're ready to
move forward as presented. I'm ready to
move forward as presented, but if you
want to move, you know, and I'm I'm
ready to vote on it as presented, but if
you want to bring it to the Arts and
Culture Commission, I'm sorry, if you
want to bring it to the Economic
Development Subcommittee maybe for some
consideration, I'd be open to that, but
otherwise, I'm ready to vote.
>> Thank you, Council Member Schumacher.
>> Very quickly, and I I am too, uh,
Council Member Mcynolds. Thank you for
that. Um, and I agree with you. I think
it it needs to move forward and then,
you know, do its due diligence of
wherever it goes. And we have to be
careful of not overstepping our roles.
We are the ones that provide our vision,
our direction, but we cannot be in the
weeds of looking at um you know certain
um you know uh scorecards so that way we
dictate exactly where it needs. No,
that's not our role. Our role is to let
staff do their work. our role is to tell
them this is what we're looking for and we allow staff to be able to do the logistics. We cannot be um you know
doing their jobs as well and because
that is that is not what council is here
for.
>> Uh Deputy Mayor Halter,
>> I'm afraid there's a misunderstanding
because the reality is if it was
included in this plan on how uh the
cultural arts plan because this is
something that's going to last for five
years. Okay. So if it doesn't include
something that benefits the assets that
we have created over the last 30 to 50
plus years, then we're really missing
the boat. Okay? And I do not see any
type of weighing. I don't care about the
scorecard. I don't care. I totally leave
that up to what uh staff and the co uh
cultural commission wants to do. Um, but
then I want it written in there somehow
that it will be it will include uh how
we benefit the cultural district and the
in the great assets that have been
created that have defined the culture uh
the culture of this community for many
decades. Otherwise, we're completely
ignoring the assets that we have and um
under the guise of trying to help the
fledgling and new arts groups that will
continue to rise up. I hope that uh and
gain support and education
uh being involved with all the all the
groups that are so successful today.
Okay. So, that's what I'm getting at.
So, as is the motion, I can't support it
without something being included that uh
to to address those two things. I don't
care how you how it's written. It could
go back to the economic development
committee, but I think to walk out of
this room without that, it's going to be
a big mistake. So maybe we can include
that as part of the motion. I don't
know. Something to think about before I
move on to the next um council member.
>> That would be my recommendation.
I don't think it's needed.
>> Thank you, Madam Mayor. Um and I just
want to clarify too uh council member
Schumacher. I I don't think it we're
trying to um I don't think we're trying
to micromanage this thing, but usually
when we get grants that we approve or
how they rate them and stuff, we we see how they do it. That's all we're
asking. We didn't we didn't get to see
it in that that was the the concern I
had.
>> Thank you. Um Miss Fox, do you want to
chime in?
>> Yes, if I may. Um connected to tonight's
motion, the intent was to be able to set
kind of the policy and the overarching
direction. We've taken notes on
everything that's been shared. So, when
it comes to the guidelines, when it
comes to uh the meetings we have with
eligible applicants, those are the
things that we can make sure that we
reinforce and encourage. One of the
goals um in the arts and culture grant
program or the cultural arts arts and
culture grant categories making sure we
specify it's all is specifically align
arts and culture with economic
development and cultural tourism. So I
think there's also the opportunity to
share when we talk about cultural
tourism um about where cultural tourism
occurs in Ventura reinforcing the
cultural district as well. So we really
have appreciated all the input and
everything shared this evening and we'll
ensure that within the policy document
in our implementation when we work with
the economic development division and
when we finalize the scoring rubrics as
well as the guidelines that we'll ensure
they get incorporated.
Thank you. Council member Compost, did
you still have a comment?
>> I'd like to call the question.
>> Thank you. So we have a motion and a
second.
Thank you, mayor. Could I just have a
point of clarification on the second
piece of it for the category 2? So, the
motion was to approve the staff
recommendation and to rename category 2
>> to culture projects Thank you. Thank
you.
Okay, you can go ahead and enter your
vote now.
All votes have been entered.
» Seven eyes and the motion carries.
>> Thank you. Thank you, staff. Again,
really appreciate it. Please hold your
applause. Please hold your applause.
Thank you.
We'll move on quickly to our formal item
number 15. Um the construction contract
with AMG and Associates, Inc.
Professional Services Agreement
PW26-1221
with Kitro Corporation for Construction
Management and Inspection Services and
Professional Services Agreement
PW26-1227
with RRM Design Group for engineering
services during construction for interim
fire station number 7. And we have um
a staff presentation
» whenever you are ready
like midnight.
You okay?
>> You can go ahead.
Uh good evening again, mayor, members of
city council. Uh I am Charlie Ebling,
the public works public works director.
Uh tonight we will give a short
presentation recommending the award of a
construction contract for fire station
7. I have with me uh Chris McDonald, our
fire chief, and Greg Nudson, our
principal civil engineer. I will now
turn it over to Mr. Nudson uh to give
the presentation and we will be happy to
answer any questions you have at the
end.
» Good evening, honorable mayor and
council. We're before you tonight to
discuss the interim fire station number
seven project, including project bids
and authorization of a construction
contract.
The proposed project is located on a
2.92 acre city-owned parcel on
Alessandro Drive at Seawward Avenue.
The site is located adjacent to the
Peront neighborhood and close to the
Ventura Harbor, Midtown and downtown
areas. Approximately 1.5 acres of the
site would be programmed for the new
intram fire station number seven and
approximately 1 acre would remain for
the fire training center.
The Alesandro property operated as a
water conditioning facility from the
1950s to the 1970s and has been used as
the city's fire training center since
the 1980s.
In December of 2023,
city council approved the addition of
the interim fire station number seven
project to the capital improvement
program.
Abandoned water infrastructure removal
was completed in December of 2024 and
city council approved the purchase of
three modular buildings that would be
deployed for the interim fire station in
January and May of 2025.
The scope of work in the contract
proposed for council award and
authorization this evening includes site
clearing and demolition of 1.5 acres of
existing paved and landscaped areas.
The mitigation of liquefaction and
localized flooding by excavating the
site 8 to 10 feet below existing grade
using aggregate and soil as engineered
fill and elevating the site by up to six
feet.
Construct site utility infrastructure.
construct concrete building foundations
for each building and coord coordinating
with the building vendors for the
delivery and installation of the
buildings that have been purchased.
Following building installation,
concrete aprons, pavement, curbs, and
retaining walls would be constructed.
Bio retention basin and perimeter
fencing would also be constructed.
And then the upfit of the interior of
the apparatus bay with electrical, fire
sprinklers, plumbing and mechanical
systems would occur on site. And upfit
of the apparatus bay and the modular
living quarters with data
communications, fire alarm and digital
dispatch would be occurring to complete
the project.
will require the removal of
15 trees to complete the grading and
site improvements and the proposed tree
replanting ratio is 3:1. Canopy [snorts]
concerns limit the feasibility of
on-site tree replacement. Trees tree
replanting would be within council
district 7 at sites determined by the
parks and recreation department.
On June 25th, 2025, staff received and
opened two bids. The lowest responsible
and responsive bid was submitted by AMG
and Associates Incorporated of Santa
Clarita and is $6.5 million.
This is 10% above the engineers's
estimate of $5.9 million. The low bid is
consistent with current construction
market conditions.
Proposed cost and funding for the
recommendation are summarized in the
tables included on this slide. We have a
construction bid of $6.5 million, a
construction contingency of $987,000.
Construction management $684,000.
Engineering services during construction
$95,000
and public art $25,000 totaling for $8.3
million.
These costs are proposed to be provided
through the following fund sources.
General capital improvement 1.5 million
and measure O $6.8 million.
Following the award and authorization
tonight, notice to proceed would be
issued in the fall and the project would
require 13 to 15 months to complete.
Occupancy is anticipated in the winter
of 2027.
The recommendation supports the city
council's strategic priority of public
safety to ensure that life, property,
and the environment are protected and
safeguarded
with an emphasis on emergency
preparedness to respond to both natural
and man-made disasters or any other type
of emergency situations.
And on the screen are the
recommendations.
We recommend to wave minor bidder
regularities, authorize a city manager
to execute the subject construction
agreement with the lowest responsive and
responsible bidder AMG and Associates in
their low bid amount of $6,586,128.
Authorize the city manager or designate
to execute future amendments to subject
construction contract up to a total
maximum contingency of $987,919.
authorized the city manager designignate
to execute professional services
agreement with Kitell Corporation for
construction management inspection
services in the amount of $622,47.
Authorize the city manager to execute
future amendments to professional
services agreement with Kitell
Corporation to a maximum contingency of
$62,25.
Authorize the city manager or designate
to execute professional services
agreement with RM Design Group for
engineering services during construction
in the amount of $86,710.
Authorize the city manager or designate
to execute future amendments to
professional services agreement with RM
Design Group to a maximum contingency of
$8,671
and authorize the finance department to
increase appropriations as necessary in
the measure O fund.
This concludes our presentation tonight.
We're available for any questions you
have.
>> Thank you, uh, Council Member
Schemacher.
» Thank you, Mayor. Thank you, staff, for
your presentation. Mr. Nudson, um, I
understand that the the cost is $8.3
million. So, help me understand the on
your staff report it says 12.9. Is that
just estimated?
The presentation before you tonight
shows the costs of the recommendations
being made tonight and what what council
is obligating in tonight's actions. Um
the estimate in the staff report
includes uh previous costs for things
such as the building, the site
demolition and engineering services,
architectural services and such.
>> Okay. Thank you. And then Mr.
Um,
Chief McDonald, this goes to you. Um,
remind us one more time the need as to
why we want um or we are looking to
build this out in that area.
>> Yeah, so the opening of fire station 7
will allow us to better serve the pure
pont harbor areas. Um the harbor area
specifically in the river haven area
that's identified as some of our longest
response times on average. Um, fire
station 7 has been, you know, 30 years
in the making basically at that location
to to serve those people better.
>> When you say the longest, can you tell
me like an estimated time frame?
>> Our our target response times are, you
know, in the five minute range, but uh
down there we're looking at sometimes
seven and eight minutes
>> from station two, station five, and
that's just travel distance and the
layout of the city makes that pretty
difficult.
>> Thank you.
Deputy Mayor Halter, followed
by Council Member Mc Reynolds.
>> Great. Thank you. Um, just to see where
we're at today is do we do we have
working drawings already then and do we
have a permit already?
>> As of right now, we have working
drawings that have been uh advertised
for bids and the bids bids were based
upon those drawings. Okay.
>> They've been approved by the city
engineer. We are in the process of
finaling our building and safety permits
and our grading permit. There's some
minor details and correction items that
still remain to achieve those. We have
also need to um complete uh house state
housing community development permitting
for the modular units and that's one of
the conditions on our building and
safety permit locally.
>> Okay. And uh two things because I was
here when we approved that site and
initially the 7 million that we thought
it was going to cost. So, it went it's
almost doubled since that point in time.
Uh, and initially it was looked at as a
temporary location. I don't think that's
how we're looking at it anymore.
Correct.
>> It's it's an interimm fire station, but
the location so far is the best one that
we've identified that's available to us
to put a station. in the future that
could change,
>> but right now that seem that's still the
best location that
>> I would say over the last few years that
it's becoming clearer and clearer.
>> Yes.
>> So, but I just want to point that out.
There's some morphing that goes on, but
it's kind of part of the process and
it's kind of how the world is. It's very
dynamic, but I just want to make sure
you're in the process already because I
love the idea that's going to be done by
winter 2027. That's fantastic.
>> Thank you, Council Member Mc Reynolds.
>> Uh, thank you. I want to stay on some of
uh Deputy Mayor Halter's comments in
terms of
this this idea of an intram station. I
believe in December uh of 24 this was a
$5 million project and a a full fire
station would have been $20 million. So
now we're at a $13 million project on
it. Like why didn't we go with just a
fire station?
I don't know if I can answer that
entirely, but uh I mean the the cost the
overall cost for a permanent fire
station at that location as you put was
20 million then it's probably more than
that now. Um so the interim fire station
was was what we came up with to uh
[clears throat]
basically get that part of our city
served until such time that funding is
available that we can build a permanent
station. And like I said, that that
seems to be the location that that we're
going to go with unless something else
comes our way.
>> So, we're going to take a $13 million in
fire station and get rid of it.
>> The portion of it that is the apparatus
bay, the metal the metal building that
houses the apparatus, the intent is for
that to stay indefinitely. The modular
buildings would come out and then the
long-term plan would be to build a
permanent fire station at that location.
And what is the current life cycle of
the modular buildings?
» Council member Mcrenolds, the life cycle
of the modular buildings is probably in
the order of 20 to 25 years and then
they they could be rehabilitated at that
time, but that's kind of our expectation
of life cycle out of those that type of
construction. So,
why are we calling it intram fire
station 7 if we're talking about a
20-year structure?
>> Because it is not a permanent facility.
It is intended to be replaced by a
permanent facility in the future that
would fully meet the fire department's
needs,
>> which we believe is this location.
>> At this point in time, the fire
department does believe that this is the
appropriate location for that station in
that neighborhood, and it's a site
that's available
Okay. Thank you.
>> Thank you. Seeing no other um comments
from my colleagues, I'll go ahead and
recognize any public comments on this
item.
>> Uh thank you, Mayor. We have two
speakers on this item. Our first
speaker, Spencer Norin, followed by
Philip Fields.
» Thank you, Mr. McDonald, Mayor Council,
VPD translation.
Um I think Mr. Mcrenolds is spot on here
about investing this much money. I
support fire department have very loudly
for 10 plus years.
But to put an intern, I keep thinking
about the golf course at Alus Park and
how we've been paying for those rental
facilities there forever with no
movement forward. My main one thought is
about quality of life for firefighters
working that fire station and fire
station. Is the modular
amenities going to be subpar to what
other stations are accommodations?
[snorts]
They could be better because our fire
stations are old, but we get into like
quality of life. I know we've had some
PTSD
um situations about work times, work
overloads. I just don't want to set up a
situation where a fire station becomes
intern and it becomes more of a
detriment to a place. People don't want
to work for the next however long it's
going to be, 20 years. So, thank you for
considering that. Um, I think I had one
more comment real fast. There was last
time we were talking about the highlight
was like EV charging stations if I
remember in this parking lot and we were
talking about permanent facilities
there. So, I guess my one note is I say
we scratch this idea and we go all in
permanent station right away and just
fight the buck for that. Oh, I know my
idea. Sorry.
Um 15 trees removed, 3 to one placement
puts in about 45 trees somewhere in
district 7. I didn't see the funding for
the tree replacements. I think we just
funded $250,000
for trees this last year and the
estimated cost was somewhere around
$1,200 per tree. If I'm wrong, 12-500,
that would put it around 45 to $50,000
in replacement trees. Where would that
money come from? Would it come from
budget in this project or would that be
put on parks and wreck? Also, I didn't
see the removal of the trees in this
breakdown as well. And I hope that
wouldn't go on the burden of parks and
wreck through our contract with WCA and
that the funding for the 45 trees
wouldn't come out of future tree funding
projects as the 250 is allotted for next
year. I hope it can be earmarked within
this project possibly under measure O.
Thank you.
>> And our final speaker is Philip Fields.
» The facts. The facts. Nothing more than
the facts
must lead us in our reasoning.
I supported many ways the fire
department, but in all these years they
don't even have an a vehicle to evacuate
the whole class of disabled people that
are on wheelchairs.
By case law, you cannot separate a
disabled person from the wheelchair.
It's part of his or her body.
My experience was the previous
evacuation
at the fair grounds that didn't work.
So if the fire advanced, we would have
been burned alive
and this an ongoing problem. Now we're
talking about entering station.
How is money infinite? Does the council
have infinite money to keep forking out,
throwing out money here and there and
everything's just fine?
I think there's a wrong assumption
and a wrong presumption that money will
never be in short in shortage.
To me, that seems to be irresponsible.
You guys are failing your fiduciary duty
in the council as well as
in the different departments
that are involved with this financing.
Uh whenever I ask how are you going to
do about replacing so and so tree of
this diameter and this age and rings?
Oh, it'll be something equivalent. But
tell me, yes or no? Will it be the same
maturity of tree? Oh, we trust our
arburies.
I'm sorry. Science doesn't work that
way. You got to prove it. You got to replicate, etc., And you're not doing that. So
you're having incompetent
chiefs of heads of departments,
incompetent uh fiduciary
act,
you're not responding to it and uh you
hear a sound comes the right ear, it
goes out the left ear and you just go
on. You don't even bother to answer the
questions, neither to the council or to
the people, the sovereign.
I suffered arson. And this goddamn,
forgive my expression,
the fire department
had like over a dozen and they did
nothing about it.
>> That's how incompetent they are.
>> That concludes public comment.
>> Thank you. I'll bring it back to council
for any um final deliberations. A motion
is required. Council member McReynolds.
>> Thank you. [clears throat] Uh I just
wanted to answer one of the speakers uh
questions. There is $34,000. There's a
line item for $34,000 for trees in the
budget and there's another $26,000
for public art. So I just that is in the
budget. So thank you.
>> Thank you, Council Member Durant.
>> Uh thank you, Madam Mayor. I know that
we have talked about this for a long
time since we've been on council and um
we were concerned that it was temporary.
I the whole thing, but I will tell you
one of the reasons that I wasn't real in
favor of this fire station was because
of the way some things were being
operated in the fire department and we
made some amazing changes and uh guys
are being cared for now. the people that
are in the fight. I I have to tell you,
I know that if we're talking three
minutes to save a life, it's not like we
don't have the money put aside. We got
measure money. It's pl we've been we've
been talking about this for a long time.
You know, unfortunately, it's not
considered a permanent, but it is um I
think a necessity for us in our city.
And so, I I support this uh 100%. And
so, I would like to make a motion to
approve staff's recommendation.
>> Second.
>> Thank you. So, with a motion and a
second, I have um Council Member Mc
Reynolds. Do you have comments?
>> Yeah, just just really quick. I mean, I
I've
I'm going to support the motion. I I
just this this concept of intram on a
20-year facility just it's not realistic. you know, uh I think
the speaker's point, you know, we've
been living out of uh at the the golf
courses, you know, in facilities for 20
years that we had to replace the interim
facilities with new interim facilities.
You know, I really challenge this
council to figure out how we're actually
going to build a permanent fire station,
you know, to support the community, to
support the fire department um on it.
Um, I I just we are spending $13 million
on an intram facility and it is a
difficult pill to swallow. Thank you.
>> Thank you for those comments. Um,
council member Schumacher.
>> Thank you. We absolutely can do that um
had we passed the sales tax um so that
way we can be able to support the fire department and also other uh parts
of the city. Um but at this point I
think um good is enough for us and then
we'll get better along the way.
Thank you. And with a motion on the
floor and a second, I'll call for the
vote, please.
» You can enter your vote now on item
number 15.
All votes have been entered,
seven eyes, and the motion carries.
>> Thank you, staff, for your presentation.
And I'm moving on to our final formal
item, item number 16, which is a Ventura
waterpure program and membrane
bioreactor ultraviolet light
disinfection project updates and third
amendment to the construction manager at
risk contract 2025-070
with PCL construction inc for
preconstruction services for the
advanced water purification facility.
It is. And thank you staff. Um,
>> all right.
>> For your presentation.
>> Okay. Good evening, Dr. Mayor San or
Mayor Dr. Sanchez Palasios and Deputy
Mayor Halter and council members. Um,
I'm Gina Dorington. I'm the general
manager for Ventura Water and with me is
Linda Samsky, the Ventura Water Pure
Program Director. And um as you stated,
we are here to give you a quarterly
update on the Ventur Water Pure program
and the membrane bioreactor project with
a uh uh consideration for a third
amendment with our construction manager
at risk on the advanced purification
facility. Um and I will hand it over to
Linda to uh give us an update.
>> Thank you. Good evening, Madame Mayor
and council members.
Um it hasn't been quite a quarter since
we were here. We were here um at the end
of May to give you an update, but we do
have some exciting um information to
show you. Some really great pictures.
So, we wanted to do an update along with
um the other recommendation we have on
the third um third amendment for the
advanced water purification facility.
So, I'll go ahead and get started. Um
membrane bioreactor. Um really we've
made a lot of progress on this um
project since the last time we were
here. Um we have completed a number of
portions of the construction. Um last
time we were here we were talking about
um deep soil mixing. Um basically mixing
cement into the soil. Since then we've
completed the mass excavation and you
can see that in the top picture. So we
now have a big hole at the site and
we're starting to fill it up. So um we
have um started adding some rebar, some
piping into the bottom of the hole here.
So, um that is in progress at the
moment. Um on the bottom picture, um
last time we were here, we were showing
you digging some foundations. So, we
have actually poured the concrete for
our new wash down and storage areas.
These are portions that were relocated
from um the the main site for the MBR.
Um, our next steps really are working on
our feed pump station and we actually
will be installing a tower crane um, in
kind of the center of that that large
excavation. Um, that'll help us with the
construction for the rest of the project
and we'll be able to reach all sections
of construction with just that one
crane.
So um just briefly we have spent 14% of
the total project costs and 5% of the
construction costs. I think last time we
had also talked about um an oil line
that we were asking to uh actually use
contingency on. Um I do not have the
total cost for that yet. Um we just
finished the last piece which is the
removal of the the hazardous material
the oil oil line itself. So, we should
have those final costs, but we have been
tracking and u we still expect that that
should be under the $500,000 that we had
asked for.
So, I'll move on to the Ventura water
pure project. I'm not going to
concentrate on this slide at all other
than to say that there are three
projects that make up the Ventura water
pure project. The outfall, the advanced
water purification facility, AWPF, and
then the wells projects.
So, the outfall project, um, last time
we were here, we were still waiting for
our surge tank to be installed. Um, in
the top picture, you can see that it's
kind of that white cylinder on um, right
in front of the building. Um, all of the
other infrastructure is actually inside
of that building. Um the bottom picture
that we have, I just wanted to put this
up here. This is actually the um the
place where we take all of our samples
and do all of our testing so that we can
confirm that we are meeting our national
pollution and elimination discharge
system permit for discharging water to
the ocean. So we take samples here um
and we actually get other readings here
that we report to the regional board.
So it helps with our compliance. So,
right now we still are um doing some
operational testing and fine-tuning um
of of the outfall pump station. Um we
should be granting substantial
completion probably in September. There
are a couple of warranty issues that are
holding up that substantial completion,
but for the most part, we are running
and discharging to the ocean. Um to
date, we've spent 88% of the total
project costs. That includes also the
onshore and offshore pipelines that have
been complete for a while and 80% 87% of
the construction costs. Um to date we've
spent about $3 million of the $10
million of contingency that was granted
to these projects.
Um for the injection and monitoring well
projects, we have hit a milestone for
this also. We received the basis of
design report and we are now moving on
to the 30% design for both the injection
well site itself and the pipeline that
will transfer the water from the
advanced water purification facility to
that injection well site. So on the top
it's a a similar picture that we had
seen the last time. This is just a
little bit more detail of the pipeline.
Um on the bottom we actually have a
schematic of what the injection well
site is going to look like now and we'll
be building on that as we move forward
in design. Um we are also preparing the
well drilling construction um bid
because we can drill these wells um and
we need to do that first.
So our next steps um basically are like
I said the 30% design. Um we also
anticipate that we will be able to
occupy the injection well site at the
beginning of September and start doing
some work on the site itself.
Um so to date um we have spent about 2%
of the um the total project costs that
we have for this project and and not
under construction with anything yet.
So, quickly we'll move on to the
advanced water purification plant. Um, I
want to run through this very quickly
because we want to spend a little bit
more time on the third amendment. Um, I
think we saw the last time we were here
that same rendering that is on the top
right. Um, the bottom is actually the a
picture of the advanced water
purification site that was taken maybe
about a week ago or so. You'll notice
that there's a lot of dirt that's
showing up on the site. that is actually
coming from the membrane bioreactor
project. So that big hole that we dug,
all that dirt is now over here on that
site. So in case I'm sure the public is
interested in what's going on because
there's a big pile of dirt there now. So
that that's how that's how it's ended up
there. So, um we have been, as we stated
in the staff report, um working on the
60% guaranteed maximum price, which we
did receive in May. Um right before
council break, um we came back and
informed council that we did want to use
the contingency that was set aside in
that pre-construction contract to be
able to u move forward with some value
engineering um ideas that we had. So, we
have continued to kind of move forward
on some of those. Um, right now we're
also working on the coastal development
permit. Um, and hopefully that will
actually be going to um for its um
completion in October.
So, want to talk just a little bit more
about um the recommendation for a third
amendment for the pre-construction
contract. So while we have been going
through and working with our our owner's
advisor, the the contractor and the
designer on that 60% guaranteed maximum
price that was proposed. Um we have
actually ma moved forward and completed
the 90% design. So um one of the things
that we are looking at is moving
actually asking the contractor to repric
based on the 90% design
and that would be moving forward from
the proposal that we got on 60% the
amount of money that was set aside to
actually do that if we had awarded a
construction contract. So $421,000
is the estimate to move forward with a
repric of the guaranteed maximum price
for the 90% design. And I think we've shown you the the item on the left
before where we actually decrease the
amount of uncertainty as we move through
the projects and we are now kind of at
the end of that detailed design. So we
are in decreasing that range of
uncertainty and we feel like that would
actually be a benefit to this project.
We would be able to bring you a more
certain price if we were to do this. So
we did did write down some of the
advantages that we see for this. Um
again better certainty of design. There
are things now that are defined that
were not defined at the 60%. Um, two of
the big big pieces are the electrical
and also the rebar that the rebar design
for the concrete. So those are are two
big things that are less that are more
defined, less uncertain. Um, that
certainty leads to less contingency or
allowances that the contractor needs to
actually have in there to cover what
he's not sure about.
um with the 90% we actually have the
ability to go out and bid some of these
items. So we will have certainty on some
of these costs and so things like the
electrical we are now able to bid
because it is better defined.
Um it also will provide us some more
time to explore some of these other
value uh engineering ideas that we have.
So th those would be the advantages that
we see to doing this.
So um recom um for strategic priorities
um the recommendations that we have this
evening support the council strategic
priorities of infrastructure, climate
change and public safety.
Um our recommendations this evening, one
is to receive the update and no action
is actually required on that. And then
the second would be to authorize the
city manager or designate to execute the
third amendment for the construction
manager at risk contract. And that would
be for the $421,000
um or yeah, $421,000
to actually uh prepare the guaranteed
maximum price based on the 90% design.
And I did want to point out that we did
take this item to water commission um
last Monday and they did recommend um
moving forward with this.
And with that, well, happy to take any
questions that you have.
>> Thank you. Any questions from
colleagues?
>> Council member Mcrenolds.
>> Thank you, Madam Mayor. Uh, so did we
get a bid back on the 60%.
>> We actually did get a proposal and we
have reviewed it and it has kind of led
us to this point where we we believe
that pricing 90% and pursuing some value
engineering ideas is is the proper thing
to do.
>> And and I I don't disagree. I mean, I
think you're looking at trying to derisk
the the construction drawings, you know,
so you're going to get better bids,
everything like that. I completely
understand, but like how much like why
are we doing this? What how much
overbudget were we?
>> So, we were we're looking at about a 17%
increase
>> from and then what is if we go to 90%.
What are we expecting
is that
>> so we we expect that there is probably
some amount um from bidding that we will
get back and we're looking at cutting
down on contingencies.
I think we're hoping that we can reduce
that maybe to 10 to 15%.
So we're
>> of the of the increase or the
contingency
>> of the increase. So we are anticipating
there will be an increase in the price.
Our goal is to reduce that as much as
possible.
>> So we're expecting a 17% increase.
You're thinking we can get that down to
a 2% increase.
>> No, to a 10 to 15%.
>> 10 to 15. So we would save 2%.
>> Yeah.
>> Potentially by going from the 60 to the
90.
>> Yeah. I I should point out that there
are some things that we didn't have in
the 60% that um are requirements for the
project. So there are increases baked
into the cake for additional parking
that we need to put in that was never in
our original estimate. That is a coastal
commission condition. Um there are some
conditions that were part of our
um coastal development plan amendment.
Um that being solar and EV parking that
are extra costs. Um there are some
changes to storm water that we need to
make that are extra costs that we're not
going to be able to eliminate. So those
are now part of, you know, what we're
going to try and mitigate with some of
these other ideas.
>> So staying on the 2%
>> potential, but we're looking at
inflation at plus 3%.
Does it make sense to just go with the
you know
>> I I think that we feel that we are
better servicing the community and
council and making sure that there is no
way for us to reduce costs further. We
feel like it's it's an exercise that we
need to do.
>> So I mean essentially so you're saying
you believe we're going to have cost
savings that outpace inflation.
>> That's correct.
Okay. Okay. And then have we shared that
bid? Is that a publicly available or
>> It is actually public avail. Well, we
have not actually shared it yet.
>> Okay. Thank you.
>> Thank you. Seeing no other questions
from colleagues, um do we have any
public comments on this item?
>> Thank you, mayor. We have three speakers
on item 16. Our first speaker is Bert
Handy, followed by Philip Fields and
Spencer Norin.
Good evening, council staff, Mr.
Arlington, Misski.
Couple questions I had. You say that
information is publicly available. Where
would it be publicly available? I
haven't been able to find that at all
anywhere. Um, and you say 17%.
What is that based on?
What cost is that based on? You could do
some math on and figure it out. Say 17%.
It could be 250 million. It could be 500
million. We don't know. So, as a
citizen, I believe we should be entitled
to know what that number is instead of
having to possibly file a public records
request to find out what the cost is.
Um, do these costs include phase 1B?
I don't believe they do. That's part of
the project we're talking about.
You're talking about 1,800
acre feet a year for phase 1A. According
to the comprehensive water resources
report, we're going to 5,400 acre feet
when we complete phase 1B.
Why is that included? And if it's not,
why isn't that cost included in this
total project cost? That is something
that should be there.
How much more cost is it going to be to
increase the cost of infrastructure?
What I mean by that is we currently have
a pipeline that's capable of handling 3
million gallons a day. I believe it is
going up to Bailey, but it's going to
have to be increased.
Is that cost part of the pure water
project or is that another cost that
we're going to have to add on top of it
to comply with what we're going to be
able to send and use within our system?
I don't believe that number is there
either. So there's a lot of costs here
that are actually part of the pure water
project that are not really being talked
about in this cost that we have right
now of the unknown amount with a 17%
increase over the costs. That is
concerning to me because as a citizen I
believe that information should be made
available to us. And another thing
that's very upsetting to me
is the procedure that this council uses
in scheduling when all the events come
out. Venture water is at the end of
every council meeting. Why? Because it
begins with W. Why isn't this rotated to
the beginning of the meeting once in a
while so the public can hear what's
going on instead of having what you got
for a crowd out here almost every time
Ventura Water comes in to talk about it.
Is that really being fair to the public?
No, it's not. We're spending,
according to you guys, the most money
that we'll ever spend on a project, but
it's being buried at the end of the
night every time we talk about it. Thank
you.
>> Next speaker is Philip Fields, followed
by Spencer Norn and our final speaker,
Nirvonica.
You, the council,
are acting irresponsibly.
You're throwing out over a billion
dollars on a useless, expensive,
ineffective
technological approach that you label
under different parts.
Sometimes you label as bioreactor
filter, etc., etc.
There are other alternatives
and you're not asking those questions.
What alternatives are those that are
cheaper and efficient to break forever
chemicals,
the PFAS
and this stuff
sucks.
They're incompetent.
They're stupid. Forgive my frankness.
They are failing their fiduciary duty.
They're playing with money from the
people, money that's not theirs.
And you see, attorney, you should be
looking for these alternatives.
Deliberate negligence, it's grants for
criminal prosecution.
You went to law school. You certainly
know that those severies
here it's multiple failure. The
alternatives to fix this are for example
combining specific fungi such as
arbascular
microisal
fungi like riso fagos irregularities
with wetlands plants like yellow flack
irises
can reduce
between 17 to 28%.
These are cheaper, efficient
alternatives.
A Doug,
he's the doctor in chemistry. Why is he
using his expertise?
And Schumacher, you're expert in public
health. Why aren't you using your
expertise? Ah, forgive me. You're just a
PIO.
You're not in your field.
So here we have the experts. They're not
doing their job.
You went to school. So what for did you
get a degree?
[clears throat] Why aren't you fixing
it?
And that
these fungi stimulate beneficial
microbial activity that helps break down
this persisting compounds to the PFAS.
And you look at me like a stupid
when it's you who should be fixing these
problems. You as headsets of department
and you as
>> Thank you
>> committees.
>> Spencer Norn.
» Thank you Michael. Mayor Council BPD
translation. I wanted to make just kind
of one ironic note I believe from this
project and the location of a Levis Park
and Harbor
going back to our intern
golf course
facilities at a Levis Park. Remember,
Levis Park was changed and the
construction was changed. Probably not
in accordance with the situation with
the golf course being changed in the
early 2000s and this project coming
around maybe in the mid 2000s, but where
the clubhouse used to be is where the
water purification facility is now
going. So, just seen a little bit of
irony that the golf course was changed
over 20 years ago and we haven't updated
the clubhouse and opposed to the
trailers, but now we're looking to
invest this much money in the project on
the same location. So, my hope would be
can we possibly fund the new clubhouse
where Leas Park is
before we fund this. Just a thought.
Thank you.
>> And our final speaker is Nirvana.
I I don't know. I haven't studied
what
a U
membrane bioreactor is.
I need to do some research on that. or
an ultraviolet light disinfection
machine is.
But I do I can tell you one thing I've
done some studying on as far as our
water is concerned.
I've studied
wireless systems
like our phones
and like the wireless meters you put on
our pipes going into our houses.
They create they cause cancer.
Men that carry cell phones in their
pockets very often have testicular
cancer.
Women
that carry cell phones in their bras and
in their purses because their purses are
up here like this. Women
get breast cancer from these things. and
women and people that holds these things
up to their head get brain cancer. I've
known people that have died from it.
So, when you when you put these wireless
[snorts]
uh water meters on our pipes, you're
radiating
the w because it completely surrounds
the pipe. Okay? It completely surrounds
the pipe going into our homes, our gyms,
our restaurants,
and it's radiating the water that's
going into our homes and everything.
Okay, I think that needs it needs to
stop. And I don't know what
a membrane bioreactor is,
but it doesn't sound good to me.
So, I have to
say
uh until I do some more research on
these things, I'm opposed to it 100%.
And uh I don't have a song for that
right now, but uh anyway,
um I just wanted to make make that
point. Thank you. And thank you for uh
all for giving me the freedom of
expression that I got get here. I I want
to thank all of you for giving me that.
Thank you, mayor, and council members.
>> Thank you.
>> That concludes public comment on item
16.
>> Thank you. I'll bring it back to council
for deliberation and uh action is
required on this item. Um council member
Mc Reynolds, followed by council member
Mangon.
>> Uh thank you, Madame Mayor. Uh Mr.
Storington, I want to thank you. Uh I do
enjoy your updates. Uh I think they're
well presented uh on it. Uh per one of
the public speakers. Um I just want to
make sure that we're including the whole
project uh as part of that. Uh is that the entire project in the update
that you're providing?
>> Yeah, I'll have Linda answer what we're
covering right now.
So to answer um one of one of the public
comments um these the costs that we are
talking about do not include phase 1B.
>> Um those costs are actually in the
capital improvement program. So they are
budgeted and part of what we um what we
had put forward for rates back in
December. So we're not capturing it
right here, but it is planned. in future
updates, if you can just make sure it's
the whole project, that would be
appreciated.
>> Sure. Yeah.
>> Okay. And uh unless there's another
comment, um I I'll make a motion to move
staff's recommendation.
>> Second.
>> Thank you. I do have a couple of council
members with um questions or comments.
Council member Mangon and then follow up
Schumacher.
>> So to follow up with some of the
comments, so we're you you stated, Miss
Samansky, that we're looking at a 17%
increase. So, to what dollar amount,
» council member manganese, I um I'm
hesitant to give you a dollar amount
because that's something that you're
going to we're going to glob on to and
it's we know that we can get that dollar
amount
reduced by moving further along in the
process on that cone of uncertainty. um
it's not a price that that we want to
focus on because it's not a real cost
right now. We're going to redefine the
uh 90% design and the cost of the 90%
design. So the 60% design is not um it's
not a valid cost. It's a it's a proposed
it was a proposed cost, but it's not
going to be what the cost is to
construct the project.
>> Understood. But we're still potentially
looking at 10 to 15% increase on that
number that we don't know.
>> It is it is true. The the costs that we
looked at um back in December when we
talked about rates um that cost has gone
up for the advanced purification
facility. Uh the cost of building has
continued to rise as we move forward in
this process.
>> Understood. But I think that's the
question and I think that should be
answered publicly is we're talking about
percentages and numbers. The staff, you
know, the presentations are actually
make it more confusing for the public.
The to me it seems like a something that
should be answered. We're looking at
we're trying to be transparent here with
the public. You're asking the council to
approve increases incrementally. You're
stating that we're trying to to reduce
17 potentially 17% increase in costs,
but no one knows what that number is.
» So, the cost that we had included in the
rates study and approved rates for was
192 million for a total project cost.
>> Okay. Thank you.
And one last comment. So I think
one um statement that Mr. Handy made and I'll agree with it whole
wholeheartedly. In 2024 I was I made
public comments several times about h
not having waterpure items on consent.
There was one um meeting in particular.
It was like $19 million in in water pure
and MBR um expenditures approved and
consent. And I was like, what is
happening here? I think he's right that
we're we're talking about a project here
that's going to impact every single
rateayer in the city of Mura and we're
talking about it at 11:30 at night when
no one's paying attention. So, I think
we can do better. I don't think Miss
Dorington and Miss Samansky need two
hours like we did to talk about $340,000
in arts and culture spending. That's
what we spent over two hours talking
about that. They are very prepared. They
can do their presentation in 30 minutes.
I think they should be at the beginning
of the meeting or towards the beginning.
I think uh just in uh just to speak
towards like the transparency we were
constantly talking about we want to
improve on. I think that's uh something
that we we could do in the future.
>> Thank you for that. And if I may just
kind of chime in on that. Um our agendas
are alphabetical order and that's why
this and we always have the discretion
to move things around. So keep that in
mind too. Like if we want to move
something up, just let me know. But
yeah, not putting it very at the very
end on purpose. No,
>> I'm not saying it's intentional. I'm not I'm not trying to imply that,
but you know, I think we can do better.
And you're you're right. I can email you
and the city clerk and say, "Why are we
doing this prior to the meeting?" You
know, I'm not placing blame on anybody,
but
>> No, no problem. Just wanted to make sure
that
>> that was understood. Um, Council Member
Schumacher, followed by Council Member
Compost.
>> Thank you, Mayor, and thank you, Council
Member Mangonic. I had the same question
and concern. I thank you for the
commenter to be able to put that um in
our consciousness and uh yeah moving
forward I think we we should move it up.
I think it it definitely yields more
attention specifically to get uh more
people to pay attention and help us with
uh their comments specifically because
the comments that we've heard today
wasn't very helpful. Um, and I want to
thank the two of you for all the work
that you've done. Um, because uh, and
you know, this is a difficult and
thankless job and the name calling is
completely inappropriate. Uh, so in no
way do you are ever described as stupid.
I think the stupidity comes from those
that can't derive or justify any salient
points. So with that, I want to thank
you both for all the work that you've
done for this project. and I second um
or if it hasn't already been seconded by
um council member Duran and I I want to
move this along. Thank you.
>> Thank you. I do have council member
Compos with comments.
» I don't think your mic is on.
>> Sorry.
>> Thank you.
>> The item that you said was publicly
available.
>> Can you email the link to that to Mr.
handy
so we don't have to go through the
public record action.
>> Sure, we can we can do that.
>> Thank you.
And um thank you staff as
well for your work and dedication on
this item. With that, we have a motion
and a second. If we can call the vote.
>> You can enter your vote now on item 16.
All votes have been entered.
Seven eyes and the motion carries.
>> Thank you. Moving on to our items for
future agendas. Um this is the time on
our agenda for items for future agendas.
Um this section allows council members
to request future agenda items. Policy
considerations must be submitted jointly
by two council members. And um just a
reminder, discussion should be limited
to whether staff should return with a
future item, not the substance of the
policy. And I'll go ahead and um start
off real quick and then I everybody had
ideas over the long break. So that's
great. Um, for a future agenda item, I'd
like staff to bring back information on
what a potential moratorum on gas
stations or fueling infrastructure could
look like um, in the city and also
provide an overview of what setback or
separation requirements we currently
have in the city, if any, um,
particularly in relation to residential
areas and other sensitive areas.
>> I'll second that.
>> Thank you.
And if we can vote on that real quick.
» Okay, you can enter your vote now to
direct staff to return with an
information item on a potential
moratorium on gas stations.
» Seven eyes and the motion carries.
>> Thank you. Um I have council member
Mcrenolds followed by council member
Schumacher followed by council member
compos.
Uh thank you, Madame Mayor. Uh I wanted
to bring the flock item forward. Um I
think there's been a lot of community
outreach regarding that. Uh I want to
give the uh police department a fair
opportunity to address that. Uh I think
there's probably number of concerns from
the my my colleagues also uh on it. So I
don't know if there's any additional
items. Uh I just wanted to bring it
forward for consideration. I know the
last time when the uh chief made the
presentation in March, there was going
to be an audit that the IT folks were doing. I think there'd be an
opportunity to bring that if that audit
is complete to bring that forward. And
then, you know, in terms of the the
safety and of the flock cameras and
such. So, uh I don't know if any of my
colleagues have additional items
potentially.
>> Yeah, I would support that. I have a
question maybe. Um, so I I've heard in
terms of um the federal government can
come and put cameras without us knowing
and if that's the case, can that be
addressed when it comes back to council
with information on that?
» That that's correct. There there are
other law enforcement organizations,
state and federal, uh, that potentially
could install cameras within the city
limits, even the county. Okay.
>> So, we can certainly have that.
>> So, that could just be included in that
asformational.
» Okay. So, we have a second. Thank you.
>> Okay. You can enter your vote on
directing staff to return with an
information item regarding the soft
safety of cameras.
Seven eyes. The motion carries.
Go ahead, council.
>> Um, thank you, mayor. Uh, so we had
asked, uh, the staff to come back about
street vending and, um, I have been
working in Santa Barbara County in my
capacity as one of the executives for
the health department. Um, and I would
like to make sure that um, I bring some
of those best practices for a regional
approach rather than for us to um, just
try to do things in a silo. So, we would
I would like to see if uh, the mayor
would entertain us having an ad hoc
committee to work with the staff so that
way we're a bit more involved in um, in
what ordinance comes to this body. So, I
would like to be involved as much as
possible so I can share those best
practices and I welcome the mayor to to
determine who else would be part of
that.
>> Thank you.
And Mr. City attorney, do we have to
determine that now?
>> No.
>> Um, mayor, the uh council, uh, that
could be part of the motion or it could
just be part of the motion. Could be the
mayor could select the ad hoc committee
members. Either way,
>> so we'll have that the that I'll select
the council members at the ad hoc and
move from there. Okay.
>> Is there a second on that?
>> Second.
» No mic needed. [laughter]
>> Okay. You can go ahead and enter your
vote now.
>> And mayor, [clears throat] for
clarification, you said you would make
those appointments after.
>> Okay.
All eyes. Motion carries.
>> Thank you,
>> Council Member Compulse.
So, I would like to move or uh bring a
citywide
ban on data centers in the city of
Ventura
citywide. And I would like to ask uh
that that be dealt with by the city
attorney staff.
Mayor, I think we can um and maybe just
for Council Member Comos, it may be uh a
little easier to come back sort of in a
two-step approach where we come back
with information on sort of what uh ban
might look like and we'd have to work
with community development staff to kind
of understand um the existing rules and
what that might look like and then when
we come back with an information item,
the council could direct um what we
might prepare um and come back with if
it's so inclined.
>> Thank could I have a question. Could we
um as council
would we be able to write a letter
opposing data centers because it's not
technically our jurisdiction, right?
It's the uh fairgrounds.
>> I guess if we're talking about the one
of the fairgrounds, my understanding is
that that's within the city's
jurisdiction. It's a question of sort of
what zoning uh rights we would have, but
it's at least within city limits. Um I I
uh um if it were something different
than a moratorum citywide if it were to
explore what we could do pertaining to
the uh proposal at the uh county
fairgrounds. Um if that's the request I
mean that's something different but if
that's something more
>> if we could do both
>> I think I mean we can come back I think
with an exposition on both um options
with the county pertaining to the the
fairgrounds and then separately uh what
uh citywide ban uh what that might look
like and then the council can so direct
us from there.
>> Okay. Thank you.
>> And I I can support that.
>> Thank you.
Okay. So, we have a
motion in a second.
>> Okay. You can enter your vote now.
» Waiting on one more vote to be entered.
All votes have now been entered.
Seven eyes and the motion carries.
>> Okay. Thank you. Um, moving on to our
second part of public communications.
Do we have any additional public
comments?
>> Uh, we do. We have uh Bert Handy.
Bert, you have three minutes.
» Good evening, council. I couldn't make
it earlier tonight, so it's sort of
nice. Um, in regards to your flock
issued situation, I agree with the city
manager in regards to finding out if
there are other agencies that are
putting them in the city, and it would
be nice to know that. Um, I also agree
with the agreement tonight to have the
chief come back and explain
where they are in the city, what they
are using the information for, how long
they're keeping the information, and
what are they doing with the information
that they are getting. Are they giving
it to other agencies?
How are they using the information that
they're gathering from the flock
cameras? I believe that's really
important with all the current
conversation that's going on about block
cameras. In regards to the fairgrounds,
they have a meeting next Tuesday and
there was a meeting tonight at Topa to
talk about the shall we say the centers
and they are very very adverse to it and
they don't want it around. So, that is
something that's going to be coming up
next Tuesday at the uh Ventura County
Board of Directors meeting if anybody's
interested. Um,
and the other what was the other thing
that we came up today that we voted on?
What was the other thing, Mike?
That the last thing here.
Okay. Anyway, my mind's sort of going
off because I I think about all these
things, but thank you for your time and
enjoy your evening.
>> Thank you.
>> Our next speaker, Spencer Norin. Spencer
Norin. Going once, going twice.
Our final speaker is Nirvonica. Nirvana.
>> Going once.
>> Going twice. Nirvana, you're up. And
that concludes public comment. Mayor,
after Nirvana,
>> thank you.
Can you uh put the slide up
>> and give me my three seconds back?
>> Okay. Whenever you're ready. Okay. I
want everybody to look at this video.
Can you put it back up?
Keep it up.
Okay. I want everybody to look at this
video.
This is Zack Kimble and Spencer Noran
there. Okay. Okay. And Zach Kimble ran a website on uh Instagram called Cleanup
Ventura.
And on and if you look at him right now,
he's given the sign of Moolok.
This is I love you. This is devil horns.
And this is the sign of Moolok. And I'm
like like my father Luke. I write books
and I wrote a book called The Sign of
Moolok.
Okay. [clears throat]
It's not a good thing. And what who Molo
is is the god of human sacrifice.
And um
I've already pointed out that Zach
Kimbell's a liar. I've already proved it
by going back and looking at previous
public comments, him coming in here and
lying. Well,
Spencer Noran told me he didn't know
Zack Kimble. didn't know anything about
Cleanup Ventura, which is untrue also.
Okay. Now, these guys come in here and
they talk about integrity.
But I want to tell you something right
now. I've got more integrity in my pinky
fingers,
in my pinky finger, than these guys got
in their whole entire bodies.
Okay?
And how can you allow people to come in
here and lie
to get their way?
That's not integrity
at all.
And I've been threatened by these guys,
too, with violence. These guys are
tough. These guys are tough guys when
they're picking on
elderly
senior citizens and disabled people.
There are city council members that he's
threatened to. And I was I was having a
conversation with Alex Mangane and got
rudely interrupted
by Spencer Norin. He just comes right up
and interrupts the conversation I was
having with him. Is that appropriate? I
don't think so. Well,
what goeth around? [panting and sighs]
What goes around [singing] comes right
back around to bite you in the booty.
It's rock dog la.
Rock dog philosophy.
» Thank you. I think that's all I got time
for, but
>> thank you.
everyone for giving me freedom
of expression.
>> That concludes public comment. Thank you
so much. Um, we have reached our uh
ending of our meeting. Uh, tonight we
will be adjourning in memory of Jackie
the bald eagle.
>> Thank you. Um, our next regular meeting
will be Tuesday, August 25th. Um, thank
you everyone for hanging in there with
us and good to have you here. Good
night. Meeting adjourned.