GENERAL MEETING MINUTES

FEBRUARY 15, 2024

VIA ZOOM

Call to Order by President Sara Ostrander at 7:04 p.m.

Sara summarized the rules of the group.

Police Report: Watch Cmdr. Edward Caliento substituted for Cmdr. Ryan Weeks, who had another engagement. Summary of the police report: A shooting in Saticoy is being investigated—two people engaged in a quick gun battle, no one shot. A stabbing in a residence due to an argument. Burglaries – window smashes in businesses, perpetrator unable to get past the gate. Commercial burglary, $4k tools stolen out of an apartment complex storage. Advised to keep serial numbers of high end tools, as they may be recovered when stolen. Acts of vandalism in domestic violence incidents. Don’t leave valuables in cars. One car window smashed and hood bent. Four arrests for possession of small amounts of narcotics. Extortion/blackmail handled by SVU. Fraud offenses – credit card. One online purchase of a car that was paid for and never delivered. Robbery— buying/selling Facebook online. An arrest was made for brass knuckles. When buying or selling, meet in PD parking lot during the day. License plate stolen—immediately report it to PD and DMV.

Oversized vehicle ordinance going into effect soon: 6am-6pm no street parking. Purpose is not to create a traffic hazard or nuisance in a neighborhood.

Adela T – confirmed that legitimate visitors to a neighborhood cannot park oversized vehicle on street. Could get a permit for up to 72 hours in one spot.

John K. – Downtown area along harbor/fairgrounds, tagging seems to have increase. Any enforcement? Uptick? No. Report to graffiti hotline or police. They will paint over it. If it’s gang tagging they will investigate and make an arrest, go after the tagger financially.

Marathon Feb 25, avoid downtown, traffic will be bad.

Minutes of Last Meeting: posted on the website

Treasurer’s Report: Dorothy unable to log on, so Sara reported a balance of $1,833.28. We received $100 monthly donation from Grocery Outlet. Please support them, a locally owned business.

Recognition of Attendees: Bill Ayub, City Manager, Bill McReynolds, council member 5^th Dist.

Community Council Board member.

Announcements:

District 4 Council Member — Jeanette Sanchez-Palacios: absent

District 5 Council Member — Bill McReynolds: January 26^th, announcement that the X-games will return to Ventura, rebranded as X Games Ventura. June 28-30. On March 7^th, from 6-8 Wildfire Council (?) meeting; We received a grant to help with the homeless situation, with $96k earmarked for youth ages 18-24. There are grants available: $140k for community organizations. Applications due by 2/27. Meeting last Tues for audit result: clean, unmodified opinion from auditors. Will be adopting budget before 6/30 deadline.

Sat. goal-setting session. 1/23 meeting regarding paid parking downtown — no decision was made; the issue was tabled. Ventura Water project discussed. Councilman McReynolds put vehicle permit info in the chat.

Bill Ayub, City Manager: Two new dept heads have been appointed — Stacey Zarazua, a 22-year employee of City Parks and Rec, a Ventura resident. Community development director—Rachel Diamond. She has been serving as interim director, and has served as Director and former City Manager in Compton, and the Planning department with Santa Monica, W. Hollywood, and State of CO. in community development. Two more candidates are going through final hiring process and will be announced later.

1. McReynolds asked about potholes – a big problem due to rain. The City is working on it. They have done so much work that the local manufacturer ran out of asphalt and had to pause. A map on City’s website shows thousands of potholes being addressed.

Sara asked about Mainstreet Move: how can citizens let the city know how we feel about it. what’s the future?

Ayub: They have been working under council’s direction (Mission to Fir closure). Part of the long term solution involves specific requirements so the area will be better to look at and in ADA compliance, etc. Regarding long term closure – permitting and analysis is required by State. Opponents have filed letters threatening legal action. The council has directed the staff to move forward with analysis and planning of permanent closure of that part of the street. There is disagreement between property owners in the area regarding how to resolve it.

Sara: How can individuals make their feelings known?

Ayub: The City Council is receptive. Come to council meetings and speak, or speak remotely through Webex. Write letters, emails. They all become public record, available to the community. He wants to know how we feel.

1. McReynolds – 2/27 meeting will be on design guidelines.

Dean: Parks and rec did not get the equity grant to renovate the tennis courts and add pickleball courts. Does the city have plans to help us address this issue?

Ayub: in the process of crafting projects for next fiscal year, which starts 7/1. It could be put into the budget. They will take it into consideration. Write a letter to the council with your opinion.

Sara: announcements – Gold Coast Transit survey on fare adjustments is up for comment. Council meetings set for 2/27, 3/4, 3/19, 3/26. Transportation commission survey up until 2/20.

She has been contacted by the Saticoy Advisory Council, who are interested in working with us on issues of mutual interest.

La Quinta Inn has been purchased and is being converted into units to help address homelessness in Ventura.

Marina Porter: She is chair of the Downtown Parking Advisory Committee. For people unhappy about paid parking, she suggests people go to their meetings on the 3^rd Thursdays from 3-4 in the afternoon. They hear what people are saying and want to help the entire community understand that paid parking isn’t a punishment.

Atlas School is now k-8. The board has voted to change the bell schedule. Next school year, to align with other middle schools, banking? day will be Friday. Effective August, Friday afternoon pickups will be from 12:15. Other days 2:25.

Sara:

Community center: we need a gathering place on the East side.

EVCC is committed to working with the city and PD on illegal fireworks.

Grocery store on the East side still needed.

New Business: J. Palacios encourage us to think about what we want on the East side. She put Sara in touch with the West Side Community Council, as they composed a vision statement in 2020, as well as other documents pertinent to us—a Saticoy & Wells Development plan and a …Wells/Darling development plan. Sara asked for volunteers to work on the vision we would like for the East side. She would like senior citizen services.

Marina: Is there an opportunity to do have microtransit here, and not just the west side. People could be picked up at a central location and get to west side without having to drive downtown.

Sheila: we need to get more East Side people involved—how?

Adela: asked for talking points and contacts that could be sent through her email list, and also through the Chamber of Commerce.

Michelle: what do we do for outreach, other than talk to neighbors one-on-one?

Sara – leaves brochures at restaurants, etc. will put it online so it can be printed out and handed to neighbors.

Katherine: recruit people to knock on doors. Her group was successful in getting 1000 sigs on petition. 

Guest Speakers:

Paul Copley – Ranked Choice Voting Coalition: regional coordinator for Ventura County, 11 year resident of VC.

Governments on all levels are dealing with many problems. Lots of infighting and gridlock in communities. There is much more agreement than polling suggests. To get back to working together, we need to address the problem at the root: elections.

Our elections currently don’t require a majority winner. Our system is Plurality: the person who gets the most votes wins. This becomes a problem when there are more than two candidates in a race. With each additional candidate, the threshold for winning goes down. This means an unpopular candidate or issue can win.

In the City of Ventura’s last election, the winners of four seats won with less than a majority. We want competitive elections, diversity among candidates, competition for ideas to get most support among voters. We also want someone chosen by the majority of the community.

This is accomplished by ranked choice voting: 1. voters fill out a ranked ballot, 2. instant runoff election.

Runoffs produce consensus winners if nobody gets a majority. Currently, we use delayed runoff elections, which are expensive and take a lot of time, and can lose the interest of voters.

Paul showed slides that explained the benefits of RCV:

Reduces vote splitting

Gives voters more choice

More representative outcomes

Discourages negative campaigning

Increases participation among voters

Lowers the barriers to entry and wins for women and candidates of color

RCV is getting more widely used around the country. It is used in red states as well as blue. Non-partisan reform. Producing consensus winners.

Some obstacles: need more awareness in the public. Education is important to spread awareness.

Incumbents tend to resist change in how things are run.

Vetoed 3 times in the past in CA. with governors (including Gavin Newsom) saying it’s too complicated and people won’t understand it.

Sign up for the monthly newsletter, and help spread the word.

3/9 – attend meetup of RCV supporters at Transmission Brewing/Toppers Pizza. VC Vote launched (voter reform project)

Katherine complimented Paul.

Norene: agreed with Katherine.

Katherine – Executive director of Fenced Dog Movement – venturadogparks@gmail.com

Hundreds of people are interested in working on the issues. First goal is fenced dog parks. So much building, not enough place for dogs to exercise. 30,000 dogs in Ventura. 54% of households have a dog. With 6000 apartments now empty, there will be many more dogs as they are rented. Camino Real is the only dog park in the city. Second goal – off leash dogs is a major concern. Need an acre-acre and a half of fenced doc parks.

Fenced dog park Benefits: increase tourism. Reduces dog bites. Enhances community pride. Science show that dog parks reduces crime in a 10 block area. People talk to each other in fenced dog parks and become friends. Rentability of apartments increase. Fewer vet bills when dogs exercise. Increases property values. Reduces euthanasia and surrendering of dogs to the pound.

Next goal — 100% enforcement of off-leash dogs. Can’t go on trails or beaches or in parks without off-leash dogs threatening and attacking them. Marina Park had an occasion of guns drawn over an argument among dog owners regarding off-leash dogs. This affects little children in parks, as well as seniors (35% of population) and others.

1. McReynolds has been good at listening. The first fenced dog park will be on the East End.

Write to the city council and make your views known.

Marina: thanked Katherine and agreed.

Michelle: agreed and shared her experience today, her child could not use the playground due to fear of a large off-leash dog.

Community Discussion: ran out of time for further comment.

Next Meeting: March 20, 2024

Adjournment at 9:00

Respectfully submitted by Sheila Lowe, EVCC Secretary